My Journey towards achieving PgMP Credential

In this post I am sharing my journey towards achieving Project Management Institute (PMI)'s PgMP® Credential. Certification process for this credential had been an exhaustive process. Following is the complete process from inception to completion of getting PgMP® certified

1. Documentation of 6,000+ hours of Program Management experience

2. Documentation of 6,000+ hours of Project Management experience

3. Submission of my application online

4. Application reopened requesting to resubmit with some minor recommended changes

5. Re-Submission of the application

6. Acceptance of my background information & eligibility criteria

7. Application randomly selected for audit. Audit process then required getting all information in application signed by my supervisor (COO), sealed in an envelope with a signature on the seal (To avoid tampering)

8. Acceptance of audit forms

9. Application returned requesting more strategic answers on Program Management

10. Re-Submission of my application with more strategic and empirical data

11. Acceptance of application and qualifications (through a PMI panel review comprising of 3 PgMPs)

12. I scheduled and passed the 4 hour exam (covering all program phases, processes, and knowledge areas) and

13. Final phase was Multi-Rating Assessment (MRA) in which 12 people including 1 Supervisor, 4 Peers and 7 Direct Reports have to give a feedback 360 on your performance as Program Manager. Each of them is sent a web based questionnaire, which comprises of 71 multiple and 3 subjective (optional) questions. Multiple choice questions would have options including

1. Outstanding Strength

2. Strength

3. Competent

4. Needs work

5. Not competent

6. No basis to rate

This phase is open for 3 weeks. I had given 31 names including 5 Supervisors, 7 Peers and 19 Direct Reports.

One cannot take this phase lightly since there are folks who have failed in this phase too. People can fail when either the assessors do not fill MRA or they give a rating below 'Competent'. Note that the Supervisor names given in your Project Management Experience are automatically included in the Supervisor list. There are instances when the Supervisors being very old colleagues, could not be reached or out of touch. So in order to clear MRA, its important to keep following up with them.

And FINALLY on Oct 12th 2010 @ 7:45 AM PDT, i got the mail

From: PMI Customer Care

Subject: You have obtained the PgMP credential

Dear Sridhar Peddisetty,

Congratulations on obtaining the Program Management Professional (PgMP)® credential.

The certificate will be delivered to your preferred mailing address in our records within six to eight weeks. You may confirm or correct your address online at https://certification.pmi.org/.

Please visit our website at https://certification.pmi.org/ to download a document which you may use to verify that you have passed the three evaluations and to view the policies and procedures needed to maintain your credential.

Please contact us at PgMPSupport@pmi.org if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you,

PMI Customer Care

Why I choose to achieve PgMP Credential?

I was inspired to go for PgMP after finishing PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) credential in summer of 2008 but had to wait for couple of years before having the prerequisite 4 years of Program Management experience. In 2009, attended Advanced Project Management Certificate from Stanford (SCPM) to cover advanced topics in Project Management including

• Converting Strategy into Action

• Leadership for Strategic Execution

• Mastering the Project Portfolio

• Project Risk Management

• Leading Effective Teams

• Financial Mastery for Projects

Having personally experienced lot of value attaining these professional credentials, which helped me get better in project, program, resource, team, account and client relationship management. I could align the knowledge gained through these credentials to my day-day tasks including stakeholder management, benefit management and program governance. Eventually it helped get recognition at Organizational level, among peers and got promoted to a strategic profile, in which I am helping set up Agile based Global PMO.

What is PgMP Credential?

This post is for sharing information on Project Management Institute (PMI)’s very own Program Management Professional (PgMP) credential.

PgMP credential is for those who have been working as Program Managers or at higher levels including Program Directors, Portfolio Managers or Operations Managers. It is for those who have experienced overseeing the deliverables of multiple interrelated outputs aligned with a strategic outcome. PgMP credential adds value to the experience of managing multiple projects with interrelated dependencies and whose collective outcome is aligned with the Organizational strategy. For those interested to understand the difference between Program Management and Project Management, the difference is similar to that of being strategic Vs being tactical. Project Management is about delivering of the outputs and Program Management is about delivering of the outcomes. Former is more tactical (How) and later is more strategic (What & Why). Though Program Management can be both tactical as well as strategic at times but Project Management is mostly all tactical.

Earning PgMP credential helps one get international recognition as the professional with the knowledge, skills, tools & technique to apply program management aligning multiple projects to achieve the program goals. Recognition to manage centralized coordinated management of a program to achieve the program’s strategic objective and benefits.

PMI recognizes Program Manager to play more strategic role in an Organization. It is agreed upon that Programs have a higher level of complexity than projects, involve more and higher- level stakeholders, utilize more resources, have more conflict, and require more coordination. Credential helps you understand Program Governance, Benefits Management and Stakeholder Management at a Program level and how they are established and the respective processes measured, managed & maintained.

So PgMP credential, in my opinion, is right for all those who play more strategic role in their respective Organizations. Right for all those who manage a coordinated effort to deliver a strategic outcome and achieve an objective.

My journey towards attaining the PgMP Credential

This post is to share my journey towards attaining the Project Management Institute (PMI)'s Program Management Professional (PgMP) Credential. I will be sharing my experience in series of posts and will be listing them as follows

1. What is PgMP Credential?
2. Why I choose to achieve PgMP Credential?
3. My Journey towards achieving PgMP Credential
4. Sample questions & useful resources for PgMP Exam
5. My Lessons Learned for PgMP Panel Review
6. My Lessons Learned for PgMP Exam
7. My Lessons Learned for PgMP MRA
8. My Notes on PgMP exam
   
9. PgMP Exam Objectives
10. My Notes on PgMP (SPM V1)
11. My Notes on PMI's PMBOK V4

Advanced Project Management Certificate from Stanford (SCPM)

This post is for documenting my experience of Advanced Project Management Certificate from Stanford University. Stanford Certified Project Manager (SCPM) is a program designed by "The Stanford Center for Professional Development", Stanford University. Many of the folks after finishing their Project Management Professional (PMP) certification (offered by Project Management Institute) keep asking the question, What's next? I found my answer to that in SCPM. Taking this course provides me two immediate advantages

1. Getting a advanced project management certificate from the reputed Stanford University, which is recognized across the globe and needs no introduction in terms of its quality of education and backed by Professors, who are industry experienced and gurus in their respective fields.
2. Earning the Professional Development Units (PDUs) for maintaining my PMP certification. In order to adhere to PMP's Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) program, one needs to earn 60 PDUs in order to remain PMP certified.

For getting SCPM, one needs to finish 6 courses, 3 Required Courses & 3 Elective Courses. Completion of each course earns us 20 PDUs. So if one successfully completes SCPM, would earn total 120 PDUs. This course is recognized by PMI and is one of the ways to earn PDUs.

Let me explain the roadmap to getting Stanford Certified Project Manager (SCPM) certification.


1. Log on to http://scpd.stanford.edu/


2. Next step is a requirement to complete and submit your application form, which would then be processed and accepted. The intent of the process is to verify the prerequisite 3 years of Project Management experience. Its mentioned that it normally takes 3 - 7 working days to process and accept your form. I noticed that possibly if you are PMP certified then you have an edge and application gets processed faster. In my case, I got the approval within one working day.


3. You can finish the 3 required and 3 elective courses in any order but its highly recommeneded to finish "Converting Strategy into Action" & "Leadership for Strategic Execution" first.


4. The courses offered are Required Courses 

• Converting Strategy into Action
• Leadership for Strategic Execution
• Mastering the Project Portfolio 

and Elective Courses 

• Project Risk Management
• Leading Effective Teams
• Financial Mastery for Projects
• Designing the Organization for Execution
• Build Winning Stakeholder Commitments
• Managing Without Authority
• Managing Global Initiatives
• The Strategic PMO: Projects to Enterprise
• Leading Change from the Middle
• Mastering the Integrated Program

5. So among the list above, one needs to finish all 3 required courses and any of the 3 elective courses


6. One can do the course either by opting in campus or online. I opted for online. Each course online costs $950 and i planned on doing one course at a time.


7. Once fees is paid, you will be given access to online videos, materials. In order to finish the course one needs to pass a final exam. Pass percentage is 85% and the questions are designed such that one needs to go through the entire material and videos to be able to answer. This is a way to make sure that people are actually going through the course. One is allowed to print and keep the question paper while going the course and keep the answers as they finish. They can then submit the exam online. Last step to formally 
complete the course is to submit the Evaluation Form.


8. Your records will be updated in 3 - 7 working days and your certificate for the completed course and also with details on how to gain PDUs in PMI are mailed in 3 - 4 weeks.


9. You can also mail them requesting status update and they are very forthcoming in responding fast and favorably.


10. I finished the 3 required courses and 3 elective courses Project Risk Management, Leading Effective Teams & Financial Mastery for ProjectsI

In addition to what I mentioned above, below is an abstract from the mail that I received from "scpd-customerservice@stanford.edu"

1. Your mystanfordconnection profile will be updated within 10-15 business days; the course will move from the "enrolled" section to the "completed" section on the "my course records" page. A "P" grade reflects that you have passed the course.

2. A course completion certificate containing the Stanford seal and the relevant PMI ID number (to claim PDUs) will be generated and sent to the preferred address listed in your mystanfordconnection profile within 2-3 weeks.

3. If you elected and paid for the CEU/Letter Grade/Transcript this document will be processed by the Continuing Studies department within 3-4 weeks. Please note that according to federal guidelines, official transcripts must be sent to a home address. If your profile does not include a home address, your transcript will not be sent.

4. If this is your sixth and final course in the program, you are eligible to receive your Stanford Certified Project Manager Credential. Upon verification that you have successfully completed the curriculum requirements, your final credential will be sent to the preferred address listed in your mystanfordconnection on file. Please allow 2-3 weeks for receipt.

-->

5. In order to protect the integrity of the certificates and transcripts, no electronic form of course completion verification is available. If you require immediate proof of your course completion, a printout of your test score notification page is the best alternative.To answer the question regarding exams. You can take the exam for any of the classes as many times as needed to pass with 85% or better. We do not however give out the correct or incorrect answers to exam questions.

And for all those interested please find below the scanned copy of SCPM certification

Trip to India

These snaps are of our trip to India earlier this year. Snaps include places like Yanam, which is situated on the eastern coast of India, in the district of East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. Yanam was once a French colony and is presently a part of the Union Territory of Pondicherry. One of the high points of the visit included a boat ride. Snaps of various temples in Kakinada, which is a city , northeastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India.