So, you've started the Project Management Professional (PMP) application process and
are preparing to take the PMP Exam. Great career move! The PMP Certification is a
highly sought after career demarcations in both prosperous and challenging economic
times. It is the recognition of "demonstrated knowledge and skill in leading and directing
project teams and in delivering project results within the constraints of schedule, budget
and resources." (Project Management Institute) Each candidate submits past project
management history in an application process, and then must pass a four-hour / 200-
question PMP exam.

Aside from the fact that you'll need 35 contact hours to sit for the exam, studying for
the PMP exam itself is a project unto itself. Just like most certification exams, you have
three basic ways of preparing for the exam: traditional classroom based training, online
courses and self study. But don't feel limited to just one. Many people who have passed
the exam have used a combination of these.

Option 1: Classroom Based Training requires the least amount of self discipline and
comes in a variety of flavors. Your local Project Management Institute (PMI) chapters
and PMI "Registered Education Providers" (REPs) offer workshops, boot camps and
classes specifically designed to teach not only what you must know, but how you will
be asked to demonstrate it. Make sure your teacher is a PMP; taking the exam is an
experience unto itself, and you want to know that your instructor has "been there/done
that." Classroom Based Training can account for all or part of your thirty-five (35) contact
hours required to sit for the PMP exam.

Option 2: Online courses are great for people on the go and are usually less expensive
than classroom based training because of the course provider's lower overhead. They
are usually much cheaper than instructor lead classroom courses. This option requires
a medium amount of self discipline in that you have the flexibility of studying within your
schedule. Online course usually offer a combination of webinars that you watch, web
pages that you read, and documents that you download to study.

Some have deadlines, and some do not, so though you have the freedom to complete
sections on your own you'll need a medium amount of self discipline to insure that you
finish within the time allowed by you or the requirements of the course itself. Like the
Classroom Based Training, online courses can account for all or part of your thirty-five
(35) contact hours required to sit for the PMP exam. If this is important in your plan, be
sure to confirm before you sign on the dotted line.

Option 3: Self Study is the least expensive and therefore the most common way that
people study for the PMP Exam and requires the most self discipline. The good things
about this method are that you'll save money and you to prepare on your own time. That
also means you'll need to be motivated.

The biggest road blocks you'll face using this method is that you'll have to create your
own lesson plan and schedule, and you'll have to evaluate and buy your own materials.
If you're dedicated and focused, this is a great way to prepare. Furthermore, self-study
cannot be counted towards the 35 contact hour requirement. You must use classroom or online training for that.

Regardless of which method of PMP Exam Prep you choose, most successful people
who pass the PMP exam supplement self-study preparation with at least a classroom
and/or an online course. With the advent of portable media players such as the iPod,
iPhone, Blackberry and Zune, many choose a combination of online training and self-
study: Downloadable videocast and/or podcast courses allowing you to take the material
with you and study anywhere and anytime. It's a very powerful, cost effective and goal
oriented solution.

About the author: Cornelius Fichtner, PMP is a noted PMP expert. He has helped over
10,000 students prepare for the PMP Exam with The Project Management PrepCast at
http://www.pm-prepcast.com and he guides PMI credential holders on earning PDUs
with The PDU Insider at http://www.pdu-insider.com

Promoting project metrics is one way to generate awareness about your project, support organizational change management, keep the larger organization informed, and ideally help reduce the number of interruptions to your daily schedule. Project promotion doesn't require a lot of effort except a few tacks and few pages of the weekly project metrics posted outside the team room or the sponsor's office.
Promoting project progress is critical to major programs and projects impacting the organization. During a recent program that implemented new human resource services across the company, the program team promoted project metrics by posting deliverables, status, scope and metric information in the main hallway for anyone to review. Project stakeholders, business customers and ancillary staff frequently asked questions about the scope, timing and progress of the program. By posting project metrics on the outside team room wall, a lot of questions were answered simply by walking past the team room wall and reviewing the program metrics. The metric promotion was so successful that PMO staff would consult the project wall to answer their high level questions instead of pursuing the project manager.

The Wall of Metrics

The specific metrics posted to the project wall are project specific and can be augmented to provide more background information as needed. The key is to promote meaningful project information to keep stakeholders informed using the same project reporting produced during project execution. The following examples are just a few ideas for a project metric wall:

These metrics are provided as thought starters. Depending on the sensitivity of the project, additional project metrics may include percentage of budget, time and scope completed. Quality management metrics, budget performance, outstanding issues, risk management aging, change requests and client satisfaction metrics can be added as the project progresses across the project lifecycle.

Impact to Prospective Clients

Few multi-million dollar contracts are executed without due diligence, reviewing existing customer feedback and site visits. Metrics promotion can have a significant impact on the prospective client. During the HR services evaluation, the company visited two clients from prospective vendors. One vendor provided an excellent tour of the facility and spoke about project metrics. Another vendor provided a tour accompanied by performance metrics posted at every station. These metrics had not been assembled for the prospective customer; instead, they were used to manage day-to-day delivery. The metric producing vendor gained greater credibility with the assessment team because they openly shared their performance and managed to them rather than providing lip service.
Promoting project metrics creates a buzz around the project and helps keep everyone informed. If you're managing your project with metrics, publishing these metrics outside the team room shouldn't require any extraordinary effort. Metrics promotion is contagious, and soon you'll find the project sponsor and other key stakeholders will take the same metrics and share them with their organizations.
In the HR program, the business customer only posted one key metric outside the office door — the number of days left before the project launch. Despite all the other metrics, it summarized the one key metric that the business customer truly valued — delivery to the date promised.

As a project management office is established, change management, communication and marketing efforts are required to educate the larger organization about the PMO's purpose, functions and services. Implementing a PMO and marketing its services is an exercise in change management. Without a clear explanation of the benefits of the PMO, employees can become skeptical, even hostile, due to distorted perceptions of process bureaucracy. The following actions highlight key communication activities that should be taken to implement and market a PMO within an IT infrastructure management organization.

1. Develop a PMO Charter

Implementing a PMO is a project! As such, a project charter should be created to formally recognize the undertaking, and to document the PMO implementation goals, objectives, high-level scope and other key issues. Like any other project, PMO implementations have stakeholders and sponsors. Use the PMO charter as a deliverable within a PMO marketing plan and share it with others interested in the purpose and scope of the PMO. At Projects@Work, a sample charter outline can be found in the article  "3 Must-Haves for a New PMO." Often, individuals within an organization are reluctant to follow PMO requests primarily due to a lack of understanding about the PMO. The PMO charter helps communicate its purpose and obtain buy-in.

2. Identify Key Functions

While the project charter formally recognizes the PMO, a PMO scope document helps describe the functions and services provided by the PMO. Depending on the format of the charter, the key functions may be integrated into the charter as an appendix or referenced in a separate scope document. PMOs can provide a variety of functions based on need and their level in the organization. "The PMO: Form and Function" describes a variety of PMO functions.

3. Develop a PMO Handbook

Once the PMO identifies is scope and functions, the next step is to develop the PMO handbook. Much like a football team's playbook, a PMO handbook helps describe tactical steps and standards required to implement PMO functions. Within information technology organizations, system support teams often use a run book that describes how the computer system is supported and operated. The PMO handbook provides similar instruction on how PMO functions such as governance, performance management and project portfolio management are implemented. The PMO charter, scope document and handbook can be shared with other PMOs as a best practice to develop consistent processes across the enterprise.

4. Develop a PMO Road Show

Any change management effort requires frequent communication, and a PMO implementation is no exception. A PMO road show can describe the project charter and the PMO's key functions and benefits to the entire organization. The road show can also provide an overview of how governance, risk, issue and scope management were implemented. In addition, the presentation should address how to engage PMO support and describe future goals for the PMO. Once the road show is developed, it is time to "socialize" the presentation. You've spent a significant amount of time defining the PMO; now you need to share it.

5. Develop a Communication Plan

Just like any other project, a PMO implementation requires a communications plan. Identify key meetings where the PMO road show can be presented, from staff meetings to all-hands department meeting. And post the presentation on the organization website. One of my PMO mentors, Mike Hartwell, provided sound advice to "keep waving it in their noses."
Moving forward, invite stakeholders to the PMO's project portfolio review. Communicate the portfolio and individual project performance metrics. For projects with cross-organizational dependencies, sharing visibility into the portfolio will open up lines of communication and foster cooperation.

These are other actions a PMO can take to market itself in an organization lacking project management maturity. Your exact marketing plan will adjust depending on the PMO's type, scope and position within the organization's hierarchy. Remember: marketing your PMO is an ongoing project.

A PMO handbook is useful for organizations seeking a common set of steps to support project management processes. It can also quickly orient new project managers to the organization's project management expectations and helps align activities to standardized processes and tools. Here's an example to get you started.

If you're managing a PMO, how do you communicate the project management activities required to deliver PMO functions? The project management methodologies found in many organizations are specific to the project-level management processes and do not provide guidelines for program- or enterprise-level PMOs. Project managers understand the project management processes but may not understand how project management is executed throughout the organization. The following article describes an approach that aligns an organization's project management methodology to its organizational PMO functions.

I previously worked in an organization where project managers understood the concepts of initiate, plan, execute, control and close, and they followed a project management methodology to deliver projects. The project management methodology described issue, risk and change management processes, but each project manager used different tools to track the issues, risks and change requests. Project schedules lacked standardized milestones and project managers didn't consistently establish project baselines or track schedule variances.
By implementing a PMO handbook, we helped align project managers to the project management processes, and provided a standardized set of tools and tasks for the organization to follow.

Who is the intended audience?

Our PMO handbook was written by experienced project managers within the PMO and shared with novice project managers entering the organization. If your organization already has standardized templates that project managers follow, then a PMO handbook or similar process guide has likely been integrated into the project management process. The handbook is useful for organizations seeking a common set of steps to support project management processes. It also quickly orients new project managers to the organization's project management expectations and helps align to a standardized process.
Project management processes within an enterprise may vary by organization. Projects can be initiated, executed and controlled differently across business functions. In my example, the IT organization's software development teams and infrastructure management teams initiated and managed projects differently despite a common project management methodology. The activities described in the PMO handbook helped align project managers to a common set of tools and techniques to deliver the project management process.

How is it organized?

The PMO handbook was organized around the five-phase project lifecycle of Initiate, Plan, Execute, Control and Close. A sample table of contents includes:
PM 1.0 Initiate Project
__ Establish Project Control File
__ Identify Stakeholders
__ Initial Project Charter
__ Initial Project Charter Signoff
PM 2.0 Plan Project
__ Determine project team
__ Hold Project Kickoff Meeting
__ Create a project schedule
__ Determine Roles and Responsibilities
__ Establish the Communications Management Plan
__ Establish the Issues and Risk Management Plan
__ Establish Change Control Process
__ Establish weekly project status meetings
PM 3.0 Execute Project
__ Hold weekly status meetings
__ Report project status
__ Maintain the project schedule
__ Manage Project Information
PM 4.0 Control Project
__ Monitor and Control the Project
__ Conduct Reviews
PM 5.0 Close Project
__ Finalize Delivery
__ Conduct Lessons Learned
__ Update the Estimation Matrices
__ Close and Archive Records

Let's take a closer look at PMO 3.0, which describes the details of the Execute Project expectations.
__ Hold weekly status meetings. Conduct weekly project status meetings and upload the meeting minutes to the project repository:

__ Report project status (weekly). Update the project schedule. Project schedules are maintained in the project repository at: and need to be version controlled. Project plans must be updated weekly, at minimum, in order to update the weekly project status report and to perform earned value analysis (EVA).

__ Conduct EVA. At the end of each week, the project manager should generate the EVA metrics to determine the SPI and CPI and update the project portfolio tool. Please refer to the PMO website for instructions on how to apply EVA to your project.

__ Update the monthly project health scorecard. All medium and large category projects must complete the scorecard and submit to the PMO on a monthly basis. The scorecard is due on the 26th of each month and should be published to: . The scorecards will be reviewed with the portfolio manager during the weekly portfolio review.
__ Update the project portfolio tool. Enter your project's status in the portfolio management tool, distribute the project status report as outlined in the communication plan and include a link to your project's scorecard as an attachment in the portfolio management tool.

__ Support the weekly project portfolio review meeting. The portfolio review meeting occurs on Mondays from 11am to 12:30 pm. Please see the PMO manager to be added to the meeting distribution list. Be prepared to discuss your project's status at this meeting.

__ Maintain the project schedule. [Insert standard process on how to update the project schedule]

__ Manage project information. Save electronic approval emails and upload them into the project repository and update the original document with the signoff date. Maintain a copy of the .mpp and .pdf project schedule in the project repository. Upload important team project documents into the non-methodology docs folder in the project repository to control versions. (technical diagrams, email chain regarding a specific issue, etc.)

Expanding the PMO Handbook

In the first article of this series, "The PMO: Form and Function," several key PMO functions were identified. If you are managing a PMO, reviewing these functions and providing a PMO handbook to implement these functions consistently across the organization will help align project managers to the project management process. The table of contents above addresses aspects of performance, schedule and issue management. Expanding on all the PMO functions and providing a consistent direction on how they are implemented within an organization can improve the handbook.

This has been a glimpse into the tactical steps to implement a project management methodology. A methodology provides process descriptions but doesn't necessarily address the tools and techniques to execute the process consistently. Process descriptions are useful, although mature project management organizations follow standardized processes using common tools and techniques. The PMO handbook is one approach to adopt common tools and techniques and to help improve your organization's project management maturity.