Forward Momentum: Delivering Results

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

As you may have heard, PMI changed the exam on August 31, 2011 by 30%. This was driven by a change in the Role Delineation Study and was designed to make the exam better reflect the updated skills needed and used by project managers. If you started studying to take the PMP® exam using the 4^th edition of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and couldn’t take the exam before the change, what do you do?

First, don’t panic. Yes, the exam changed 30%. However, some of that is due to a classification adjustment of where different skills fall. Some of it is driven by how scores will be compiled and reported back. In other words, more of it is driven by administration and less of it due to content change from a practical perspective. That is good news, both for those who took the exam by August 30^th and for those taking the exam on or after August 31^st.

We have reached a point in the project management profession where it is sophisticated enough to be defined fairly well. Yes, we will tweak our standard to keep it current and relevant, but overall, the techniques we will use to successfully define and complete projects and to lead our teams are fairly well defined and will remain the same.  This is a compliment to the work that our profession has accomplished over the years and the work PMI has done to capture and document those best practices.

In my opinion, the biggest impact to those taking the exam immediately following the change on August 31^st is that for 4-6 weeks, your score will not be provided immediately. In my opinion, this is to allow time to collect exam results, verify that the exam is fair and test the new exam process. PMI will notify you when your results are available at pmi.org, probably around mid-October. There you will learn whether you passed or not. 

If you are planning to take the exam shortly after August 31, know in advance that you will not know your pass-fail status. If you are OK with that, great. If not, you may choose to wait to take the exam until mid-October.

In summary, don’t panic. If you were able to take the exam by August 30^th, great. If not, that’s fine too. The bigger change will come after the 5^th edition PMBOK® Guide is issued Dec 31, 2012. I strongly suggest that if you have begun studying under the 4^th edition PMBOK® Guide, that you take the exam before it reflects the 5^th edition PMBOK® Guide. While changes to the 5^th edition will not be as extensive as those made in the 4^th edition and while many (most) of the definitions, techniques and best practices you are studying now should remain intact with the 5^th edition, there will still be new names, terms, processes, etc. in the 5^th edition to learn. Together, the changes made in the 5^th edition will most likely be greater than the 30% change in the exam experienced on August 31, 2011. Therefore, if you have started studying, set a goal to take the exam under the 4^th edition PMBOK® Guide if at all possible.

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

We’re all familiar with setbacks or failure. If you don’t have any setbacks, then you’re not stretching yourself, are you? However, rather than putting the negative connotation that we tend to place on failing, let’s change our thoughts about it. There are some productive ways to approach setbacks to make them work for you.

In the book Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity, Josh Linkner says to think about failure as an experiment. Each experiment that fails leads that person or organization to the perfect solution. He refers to this as Failing Forward. His view is that business leaders need to be tolerant of risk-taking and setbacks, and thinking of setbacks as Failing Forward helps to create a more supportive environment.

Another view is offered by Martha Beck, author and life coach. In a television commercial slot, she suggested that we see problems as feedback to find a better way. This allows our problems to be productive rather than destructive. If you look at problems as a foundation of good ideas, they become interesting rather than oppressive. Is something on your project not working? Now that you know one way it doesn’t work, use the feedback to modify the process. If you don’t like your current job, use the feedback to find a better calling or a more appropriate career.

True professionals are always trying to do things better, a little at a time. This philosophy is echoed in an approach called kaizen, which focuses on taking baby steps to continuously improve. Looking at setbacks as feedback in our ongoing adventure at work may help us in our quest for continuous improvement.

What have you done to help your teams see setbacks as feedback? What have you done to help them use that feedback to move on to something better?