Portfolio Management Knowledge Areas, Process Groups & Processes

As mentioned in previous My Lessons Learned for (PfMP)® Exam blog post, I am sharing Portfolio Management Knowledge Areas, Process Groups & Processes for quick reference. 
You can download PDF version from my PfMP folder in box.net

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My Lessons Learned for (PfMP)® Exam

This post is for sharing my lessons learned while successfully obtaining Project Management Institute (PMI)’s most recent and coveted Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)® credential.

Journey To Obtain PfMP® Credential 

#1. Submitted PfMP® application on 06/16 and got a mail next day from PMI stating that my (PfMP)® application has been accepted and asked me to proceed to make the payment

---Will be sharing tips on filling PfMP application in a later post---

                                 

#2. Made the payment same day and immediately was notified that my application was selected for auditing

   

                                     

 #3. Got the audit package endorsed by one of my portfolio sponsor & supervisor (COO) and Fedex'ed it to PMI on 06/19. Package reached PMI on 06/24 and same day got the mail stating that i have cleared the audit process and moved to first evaluation, the Panel review

                               

#4. In the handbook it is stated that Panel review takes 10 working days and I was getting impatient as the days passed because it actually took more than 10 working days when finally got the mail on 07/11 stating that I have passed the first Panel review evaluation

                               

#5. Referred my PfMP notes, below reference materials and sample exam references and scheduled for taking the exam on 07/16 (exactly one month after applying), obtaining PfMP® credential. 

                               

Exam Tips
#1. Exam is 4 1/2 hours long so make sure you are mentally preparing yourself to sit for that long and devoting with full concentration. Even though this seems very obvious but professionals who have been managing portfolios would have empathy that in our professional daily life, which is packed with meetings, presentations, submitting/reviewing proposals, training & mentoring resources, one seldom gets an opportunity to sit in front of system for that long and not to mention answering bunch (read 170) of questions while concentrating on which answer(s) to eliminate as more often than not, more than one answer can be applicable. 

#2. One can answer some questions based on their practical Portfolio experience but since not all Portfolios are managed ideally the way it is described in the The Standard for Portfolio Management, its important to think from what is described in the The Standard for Portfolio Management while answering the questions in the exam  

#3. Its important to understand all process groups, knowledge areas, processes & their respective ITTOs (Input, Tools & Techniques and Outputs). Expect some direct questions and some indirect questions on ITTOs. 
---Will be sharing my Study Aid on ITTOs in a separate post---

#4. Expect few questions that are related to analyzing which Portfolio component to select or not to select (NPV, IRR, Weighted Ranking & Scoring, etc.) 

#5. Personally I did not get many questions from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) or The Standard for Program Management but understand from other's experiences that folks did see questions referred from the two standards. 

#6. As stated in #1 there are few questions for which more than one answer could be applicable so key is to eliminate the least applicable (or select the most applicable). In my case, answering first few questions made me feel uncomfortable as I was not 100% sure of which is most applicable answer so 'marked' the questions. After marking initial questions, I got into the mode and was able to answer subsequent questions with more ease. Having said that, I did continue marking questions and would have marked ~35% (~60) of my questions.  

#7. Personally I always recommend taking a break to rejuvenate, so after finishing answering 170 questions while marking ~60 of them, I took a break. It took me little less than 2 hours to finish answering 170 questions so i could afford a break. After the break, I went through all 'marked' questions and now could think more clearly. It helped me to change answers to almost ~10 questions and feeling more confident on the answers. This time I took more time to go over 'marked' questions and finally finished my exam in 3 hours time. 

#8. To keep things simple for me, I always rely on notes and tend to joggle down points so that I do not need to strain myself while trying to remember. So in the first 10 minutes, while tutorial was running, used scribbling pad provided to me in prometric center to joggle down all ITTOs mapped with processes & respective KA's

#9.  Its important to understand the difference between Strategic Plan, Portfolio Charter, Portfolio Roadmap, Portfolio Management Plan, Portfolio and Portfolio Process Assets. In practical we do use in our Portfolios all of them in some form but sometimes there are overlaps, so its important to understand how The Standard for Portfolio Management clearly segregates their respective inputs, contents and timing of updates. 

#10. My personal experience about PfMP® exam was that I found it easier than any of my previous exam. This was maybe because I now have a sense of understanding of what PMI recommends in terms of standards and how the layout of questions would be. 

Reference Materials
1. Pfmp® Handbook
2. The Standard for Portfolio Management, Third Edition
3. The Standard for Program Management, Third Edition
4. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition
5. PfMP Examination Content Outline
6. PfMP® Exam Practice Tests and Study Guide 
7. Managing Change In Organizations
8. Business Driven Project Portfolio Management: Conquering the Top 10 Risks
9. Mastering Project Portfolio Management
10. Managing Change in Organizations (PMI Article)
11. Portfolio Risk Management (PMI Article)
12. Agile Processes A Unifying Approach for the Future of Projects (PMI Article)
13. Do's and Don'ts for Portfolio Managers (PMI Article)
14. The Power of Portfolio Management (PMI Article) 
15. Strategic Portfolio Management Governance Financial Discipline
16. Unified Portfolio Management Model Paper
17. Use PfM to maximize IT spending
18. PfM keeps IT aligned with business strategy
19. Portfolio Kanban
20. Priority Systems Glossary 
21. Efficient Frontier 
22. Using project portfolio management to improve business value (IBM Article)
23. Project Selection and Portfolio Management
24. Enterprise Risk Management
25. Project Portfolio Risk Management 

Sample Exam References 
1. PfMP® Exam Practice Tests and Study Guide
2. http://www.pmoadvisory.com/live/pfmp_training/
3. http://www.cheat-test.com/Samples/PfMP-Exam.html  

What is Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)® Credential?

This post is for sharing information on Project Management Institute (PMI)’s most recent Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)SM credential.

PfMP® recognizes the advanced experience and skill of portfolio managers. The PfMP® credential Professional demonstrates proven ability in the coordinated management of one or more portfolios to achieve organizational objectives.

PfMP® credential holders are responsible for the execution of the portfolio management process, communication around portfolio progress, and recommendations for action. Where project and program managers are responsible for “doing work right,” this is an ideal credential if one is responsible for ensuring your organization is “doing the right work.”

Portfolio management is much more than simply managing multiple projects or programs. It is the management of the entire portfolio in a way that maximizes the impact of projects, programs, portfolios and operations to the overall success of the organization. Effective portfolio management aligns a company’s investments, people, and programs with its overall strategic objectives. It is a continual process that integrates business strategy with operational performance to synchronize resources, strategies, and schedules.

Earning PfMP® credential helps one get international recognition as the professional who demonstrates a proven ability to manage and align a portfolio of projects and programs to realize organizational strategy and objectives

PMI recognizes Portfolio Manager to play more strategic role in an Organization, helping translate an organization's business strategy into a portfolio of projects, programs and portfolios' benefits and results, which are delivered by project managers or program managers and their respective teams.

In summary, PfMP® credential, in my opinion, is right for all those who play a very strategic role in their respective Organizations including responsibilities that include but not limited to
• Balancing conflicting demands between programs and projects, allocates resources (e.g., people, funding) based on organizational priorities and capacity, and manages so as to achieve the benefits identified
• Aligning with organizational strategies by selecting the right portfolios, programs or projects, prioritizing the work and providing the needed resources
• Assist in the development of portfolio, program and project process standards and lead the adherence to the processes and standards.
• Responsible for communicating the organization''s ability to execute its prioritized strategic projects and strategic plan and who significantly interacts with cross-functional departments within the company and excellent communication and relationship management.
• Engaging the Review Board leadership team and other leadership teams in the organization to prioritize, select, and resource load strategic projects & programs.

Mind Mapping

Recently I attended Mind Maps Workshop by Koteshwar, which I found to be an excellent use of my time. My take away ’s were to help me think more strategically. Below is an example of representing my profile in a mind map format

Case Study: Scrum Followed Properly Versus Not

Note: My following article Case Study: Scrum Followed Properly Versus Not is originally published in Scrum Alliance 

Case Study: Scrum Followed Properly Versus Not

It is not the methodology or the tool that fails to deliver quality software but it is the people involved. I strongly believe in the opening statement and here am sharing a case study of when Scrum was followed properly versus when it was not followed properly. Before that let me share the essence of Scrum as documented in the 'Do Better Scrum', which is

Majority of the teams have a common knowledge on Scrum including the basics such as

but more often than not the essence of Scrum is overlooked by the teams, which fail to follow Scrum properly.

This case study is about two Engineering teams,  ‘Team A’ and ‘Team B’, both following Scrum but one team missing practicing the very essence of Scrum while the other team practicing it to the core. 

‘Team A’ believed it was delivering software using Scrum by having The Team, Scrum Master and a Product Owner. Team was having Scrum Artifacts including Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Scrum Ceremonies including Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum and a Sprint Cycle of 4 weeks. But still the team was struggling to deliver software incrementally, which was shippable and could be rolled out to production. To its advantage, ‘Team A’ was also collocated including having an onsite Product Owner and most of its stakeholders. But still results were not there in the form of regular delivery of most valuable features in production and more importantly, not very happy stakeholders. 

Project was then handed out to a virtual team, ‘Team B’. ‘Team B’ not only practices core Scrum principles but also believes in the essence of Scrum. ‘Team B’ being virtual could not have Daily Scrums because of time constraints but using collaboration tools, was able to effectively and efficiently share what they worked on previous working day, what was their plan for next working day and if there are any impediments. Team was able to communicate robustly with the Product Owner through collaboration tools on user stories, acceptance criteria, design of the new features and agree upon definition of done. ‘Team B’ did have weekly calls with stakeholders to sync up on the status of the sprint. Team was disciplined in defining their Sprint Release Cycle including defining the milestones like Sprint Planning Meeting, Code Freeze, Functional Testing, Integration Testing, Sprint Reviews, Stakeholder Sign off and Sprint Retrospectives, associated with their respective dates.

By sharing a transparent sprint release plan with dates & milestones and following the same meticulously, ‘Team B’ demonstrated following the essence of Scrum. As a result, ‘Team B’ not only delivered the project on schedule and with quality but also was able to refactor the code written by ‘Team A’, getting rid of most of the technical debt. 

So lets analyze a little more on what was the difference between both the teams. ‘Team A’ was less disciplined in ensuring visibility into the team’s progress and honestly communicating about progress and risks. Team struggled to organize itself around the work and failed in delivering the most valuable features regularly. As a result, ‘Team A’ was not able to receive valuable feedback from stakeholders and with no way to retrospect on its work, the team set itself up for failure. It was not a case of team not working hard enough but more a case of failure on its part to properly plan, set expectations and delivery frequently. As the team was committing itself for a 4 weeks sprint cycle, development team allowed itself some short term code wins by providing the features without paying attention to long term goals of insuring scalability, reliability, availability and maintainability of the feature. The QA team was brought in late into the sprint cycles and thus losing the advantage of having second opinion on the requirements early to find any gaps. By the time QA team found any requirements gap, development team would have moved ahead into middle of next sprint cycle.  Team also missed setting expectations with stakeholders on the timelines of signing off on the sprint items, thus not allowing them to provide timely feedbacks and missing the opportunity to improve on the delivered features.

In contrast, ‘Team B’ though virtual, was disciplined in planning well, setting expectations by being transparent & robustly communicating using collaboration tools and finally able to deliver most business valued features frequently.

I look forward to read your feedback on how properly your team follows the essence of Scrum.

References:

•  Do Better Scrum