Interested in taking the PMP exam?

Bismillah.

I recently studied for and passed the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam, alhamdullilah. If you are interested in learning about leading project management practices, working towards the PMP certification maybe for you. 

In my opinion, the PMP gives two main benefits, it gives you an opportunity to review and learn about concepts within project management that you might not have formally encountered through your work experiences and it serves as a signal to employers who are looking for candidates with an understanding of project management methodology. Even if you are an entrepreneur and/or are not working in the project or portfolio management space, studying for the PMP will give you a useful perspective on various issues that should be considered when working in a team or project with varying customers/stakeholders. 

In regards to study tips, I suggest you read through the office PMBOK Guide and work through all the practice problems listed in Rita's guide on the pmp (2) listed below. Working through practice problems will be very important to cement the knowledge and will prepare you for the exam. Please read the benefits of practice problems/tests via the following NY times article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?_r=0

I used two main books as a reference for the exam:

1. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)-Fifth Edition

 http://www.amazon.com/Project-Management-Knowledge-PMBOK%C2%AE-ebook/dp/B00BR3P4IC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369672023&sr=1-1&keywords=A+Guide+to+the+Project+Management+Body+of+Knowledge

2.
4/11/13 update
Although I used 7th edition when I took the exam, it probably makes most sense to use the 8th Edition in preparing for your exam (8th edition is based on PMBOK 5th edition, which is currently the frame of reference for the PMP exam)

PMP Exam Prep, Eighth Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932735658/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d1_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1RK86GMZMA91N94GH9VY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

PMP Exam Prep, Seventh Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam

http://www.amazon.com/PMP-Exam-Prep-Seventh-Passing/dp/1932735410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369672073&sr=1-1&keywords=rita+project+management

In addition, I also did practice problems/exams from http://practice.pm-exam-simulator.com/.

Reach out if I can help-

Questions to ask when drafting a project (using Mircrosoft Project as your project management tool)

Bismillah.

Are you thinking about planning a project using Microsoft Project? I listed some notes on what information to gather in preparation to developing your Project Plan.

Determine your final deliverable and/or list of deliverables. The gathering requirements phase will be very important to planning and ultimately executing your project/goal.

1. What are your project’s work breakdown structures (i.e. tasks/work that need to be completed)?
2. Have you determined summary headers (group headers of logically related tasks (WBS))
3. What are the milestones (key events of a project such as a beginning or completion of a deliverable)
4. Who or what will be working or are needed to complete the project (Resources)?
5. What is our project’s availability (Calendars for the project/resource or task; need to know when the tasks, resources, projects are available)
6. Are there any deadlines?
7. How much time will each task take?
8. How are tasks dependent on each other (finish to start, start to start, start to finish); Per UMT workbook, generally, all tasks and milestones must have at least one predecessor and one successor
9. What are the fixed and variable costs of your resources? What is your project's budget?
10. How will you categorize your task types (fixed duration, fixed units, fixed work)?
11. Should you add contingency tasks to the plan?