The Project Management Institute PMI® Will Change the PMP® Exam Content in 2011

Have you been thinking about taking your PMP® exam? Congratulations on your foresight.  You probably already know that the PMP® exam is the most widely recognized Project Management Professional Certification world wide.  What you may not be aware of is that every 5-7 years, the PMP® exam changes. The Exam is scheduled to change again on August 31st, 2011.

Why is the test changing?  Essentially the Project Management Institute (PMI®) wants to ensure that their test does in fact test what project managers do in the “real world.”  As the needs of  businesses change year to year, and new areas of enterprise develop, the role of a project manager evolves.

Every 5-7 years PMI® conducts what they call a role delineation study.  Over 3000 PMP® credential holders from 97 countries provided guidance to PMI® as to their status and the changes they have experienced in the role of the PM.  The Role delineation study is part of what makes the PMP® certification so valuable to employers.  If one has passed the PMP® exam it provides an employer with certainty that their roject manager indeed possesses the skills required in the role of project manager.

What are the changes?

30 percent of the PMP® exam will change.  The manner in which one is tested will also be altered.  As Per PMI® Today December 2010:  “ Specifically, the Professional and Social Responsibility content area (Domain 6) will now be tested in every domain rather than as a separate domain on the examination.”

In the wake of recent corporate irresponsibility, it makes sense that there would be an increased emphasis on professional and social responsibility.  Consideration for this moral code should be a part of a project manager’s thought process within their decision making.  Essentially PMI®’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct should be considered a part of the daily role of a project manager.  Ethics and Professional Responsibility should be considered to have an important role in each phase of a project.

PMI® has released the new breakdown of test questions to be as follows:

Domain	Percentage of items on Test
Initiating the Project	13%
Planning the Project	24%
Executing the Project	30%
Monitoring and Controlling the Project	25%
Closing	8%

Remember there has been no change to the education and experience eligibility requirements to sit for the PMP® Exam.

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6 Key Benefits of Implementing a Project Risk Management Plan

Implementing a project risk management plan entails proactively identifying and managing the factors that could potentially hinder the successful completion of the project in any way. Monitoring project risks helps to ensure that you quickly recognize and respond to any risks that materialize into project issues.

More on the differences between project risks and project issues later.

Once a good baseline set of project risks have been properly identified, the roadmap to risk avoidance becomes much easier for a project manager to navigate. In some projects, there are some risks that are unavoidable due to the nature of the given project. Having a proper project risk management plan in place will allow the project manager to actively monitor the trigger event for such risks and to respond quickly because an action/response plan has already been formulated for those risks.

Proper risk management planning will require you to first have a clearly defined project scope and project task list or work breakdown structure built around your choice of project management methodology. You will want to incorporate a risk assessment component at each phase.

Proper risk management assessment and planning is an ongoing effort. Risk identification and impact assessment does not end until the project has completed administrative closure. A risk can materialize when you least expect it to and can easily catch the unaware project manager or project team off guard without an appropriate risk mitigation plan.

Depending on the size of the project, you may deem it necessary to assign either a dedicated risk officer to monitor the project risks or have risk monitoring as an additional role of one of the project members. Every risk and the mitigation process agreed on should be documented within the project’s risk management plan.

By having everything documented, as a project manager, you ensure that in the event you are pulled away onto anther project, you can quickly transition your risk management plan without missing a beat on the project.

There are several benefits derived from having a robust risk management plan and risk monitoring techniques when managing a project.

1. Increased performance and likelihood of delivering a project on time and within budget – By actively monitoring and identifying project risks, you will increase your ability to respond quickly with an already documented risk mitigation plan.
2. Systematic response – When you have a good project risk management framework, you are able to respond to a risk that does materialize calmly and systematically since you had already anticipated it and had already documented the possible mitigation steps or solutions beforehand. This will decrease the necessity for making unplanned decisions “on the fly.”
3. Confidence among stakeholders – Projects will usually involve a number of stakeholders which span across departments within an organization or between different institutions for large projects. When a project manager demonstrates consistent and effective monitoring of project risks, they build confidence among all stakeholders who will perceive that their interests are properly addressed. This builds credibility in the project manager’s capabilities.
4. Minimize external interference – One of the reasons why many projects fail is interference by stakeholders or persons that are not members of the core project team. This is likely to happen when people start to perceive risks that might affect them without anyone appearing to be addressing those risks adequately. Proper project risk management allows you to have a better control of the project while at the same time engaging external parties as and when required.
5. Save property and possibly life – Certain projects have a direct implication on human safety. One clear example is within construction projects. Not identifying project risks properly can lead to injury or even loss of life in these types of projects. When a risk assessment indicates the impact can be loss of life, it is more than simply advantageous to take risk management and planning very seriously, it is absolutely imperative.
6. Lessons learnt – A well documented project risk management plan and process is a great way to capture key points for use in future projects.

Proper risk management planning must be considered an integral part of any project and not just a “nice to do” when there is time. So often, risk management planning takes a back seat to simply trying to get the work done in today’s competitive and schedule constrained project environments.

Even though the cost of incorporating risk monitoring within the project management process may at times appear as an added administrative cost, the benefits in the long run are more than worthwhile.

There is a dichotomy in managing projects in relation to risk management. It is often said; “everything went smoothly, why did we have to spend so much time in risk management planning?” When in fact, the project went well, BECAUSE of the  risk management planning.”

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