The Project Management Podcast

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for PMP Exam Prep: Jim Coughenour, PMP Are you thinking about how to get PMP certified and wondering whether you should take a PMP boot camp, a PMP class, hire a PMP trainer, or whether to achieve this certification simply through PMP self-study? We have the answer for you in this interview with Jim Coughenour (https://www.linkedin.com/in/coughenourjim). Jim is an experienced PMP Trainer and he and I look at the benefits, disadvantages, cost and other factors that you should consider before deciding which way you want to go. But even if you have already decided that maybe a PMP bootcamp is for you, then I recommend that you should still listen to our discussion because I also ask him to share with us his tips on what you should and should not be including as part of your PMP preparation. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Coming Soon... Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Please subscribe to our Premium Podcast to receive a PDF transcript.

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by the PMP Exam Simulator: Niraj Kumar, PMP Leadership in project management is an important topic these days. And if you are like most project managers then you may have fallen into project management a bit by accident. And then, after you have successfully delivered a few projects, suddenly everyone tells you that you must improve your project management leadership skills. Effective project management, they say, depends a lot on your project leadership. And so once you realise that you have to transform into a project leader then leadership training will be part of your ongoing professional development, which is where our guest can help. Niraj Kumar (www.leadproje.com -- http://www.linkedin.com/in/thenirajkumar) is a leadership expert and proponent of self-growth through continuous learning. Together we explore his view on leadership, how these skill help you as a project manager, how they help you when dealing with senior executives, and as always we include a lot of tips on how you yourself can improve how you approach project management and leadership starting today. Leadership Checklist As part of this interview Niraj offers a free leadership checklist to all our listeners. Please click here to sign up and download your checklist... Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Coming Soon... Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Please subscribe to our Premium Podcast to receive a PDF transcript.

Cornelius says "welcome to episode 359" at the beginning of this audio even though this is in fact episode 360. Play Now: This episode is sponsored by the PMP Exam Simulator: Dr. Julie DeSot, PMP If you are preparing for your PMP Exam then you know that one of the most important activities is to take many PMP sample exams and answer as many PMP sample questions as you can. But as a general rule, it is not always easy to identify the correct PMP exam answers. Those who pass the PMP exam often report back that PMP answers are ambiguous, sometimes more than one looks right and sometimes you may even have to choose the one that is least wrong. So what are you to do? One solution is that you can work with a PMP Trainer who guides you and works with you on those pesky questions. And this is of course exactly why I have invited Dr. Julie DeSot (https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliedesot) for an interview. As a PMP coach she has helped many people successfully prepare for their PMP exam and get to the bottom of those questions. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Coming Soon... Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Please subscribe to our Premium Podcast to receive a PDF transcript.

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by the PMP Exam Simulator: Fernando Remolina, PMP The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a powerful project management planning and controlling tool. It is the backbone to planning and managing scope on any project and - as you will hear in our interview - every ship repair project must have it. Fernando Remolina González (https://www.linkedin.com/in/remolinaf) is a project management professional and works for the Curacao Drydock Company in ship repair, engineering and ship conversion. In his many years of working in shipyard project management he realized that managing the scope is both central and vital and that the WBS is the tool to use. And his successful projects are the proof. So he set out to help others in his industry and wrote the article WBS for Ship Repair Projects. But here is the good news. First of all his article offers a fascinating look at shipbuilding project management and second, his review of how to apply and use a WBS can easily be applied to many other types of projects. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to Episode #358. This is The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com and I'm Cornelius Fichtner. Before we start, please don’t forget that we are a listener supported podcast. If you enjoy our interviews, then please visit www.pm-podcast.com/premium. Your subscription will help keep us going. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a powerful project management planning and controlling tool. It is the backbone to planning and managing scope on any project, and as you will hear in our interview, every ship repair project must have it. Are you PMP certified and want to earn 37 PDUs quickly and for less than $5 per hour? That’s no problem with the Agile Prepcast. It not only prepares you for your PMI-ACP Exam but also qualifies for a ton of PMP PDUs! Visit www.agileprepcast.com/pdu for the details. Fernando Remolina (https://www.linkedin.com/in/remolinaf) is a project management professional and works for the Curacao Drydock Company in ship repair, engineering and ship conversion. In his many years of working in shipyard project management, he realized that managing the scope is both central and vital and that the WBS is the tool to use, –and his successful projects are the proof. So he set out to help others in his industry and wrote the article “WBS for Ship Repair Projects”. But here is the good news: First of all his article offers a fascinating look at shipbuilding project management and second, his review of how to apply and use a WBS can easily be applied to many other types of projects and industries. So let’s cast off. Enjoy the interview.   Podcast Interview Female Voice: Project Management Podcast's feature interview: Today with Fernando Remolina, project manager at Curacao Drydock Company, project management author and public speaker. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello, Fernando! Welcome to the program! Fernando Remolina: Hi, Cornelius!  Thank you for inviting me to this interview.  For me, it’s a pleasure. Cornelius Fichtner: Wonderful! Before we get started, let me ask you a fun question because, it’s in the Caribbean, it’s just north of Venezuela. What is it like to live in a paradise? Or at least what many of us who live on a big continent think, “Curacao that has to be a paradise!” What is it like to live there? Fernando Remolina: Yeah. Well, Curacao is an island located in the Caribbean and it is part of the Netherlands Kingdom. Living here is like a never-ending vacation. The sun is always shining and in a few minutes of driving, you can get crystal clear water beaches and all kinds of restaurants. In general, Cornelius, it’s amazing. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay. We are now all officially jealous. Fernando Remolina: Yeah. Cor

Play Now: This is a brief interview with Rich Maltzman who is writing a new book together with his co-author Loredana Abramo. The book is tentatively titled "Bridging the PM Competency Gap" and will be out toward the end of 2016. The reason for such a short interview? Rich has a favor to ask and would like you to fill in a quick survey: Please click here and take the survey... It should take you no more than 5 minutes to complete. Rich will of course be back later in the year to present their findings and the book.

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by the PMP Exam Simulator: Dr Jim Young, PMP, FNZIM Today, I don’t have a full interview for you. I have something better. I have a free book on Project Risk Management for you: The free risk management eBook you are going to get is “Managing Murphy -- Essentials of project risk management”. It’s written by Dr Jim Young, PMP, FNZIM (http://www.skillpower.co.nz/) and it is intended to be applicable regardless of your preferred methodology and framework – so you can use the concepts presented no matter if you follow PMBOK®, PRINCE2 or Agile approaches. Click to view and download the PDF eBook now... If you use a podcast app to download and listen to our interviews, then the book has very likely already been downloaded by the app for you. It is a PDF document and you should see it as a separate episode of your subscription of The PM Podcast. If not, then please click on the download button above. PDU Tip You can claim 1 PDU in the "Technical Project Management" category for each hour that you spend reading this book. Please study the PMI CCRS Handbook and search for "reading" in the document to see how to claim your PDUs in detail. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Coming Soon... Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Please subscribe to our Premium Podcast to receive a PDF transcript.

Click to view and download the PDF eBook now... This free eBook "Managing Murphy - essentials of project risk management" was written by Dr Jim Young, PMP, FNZIM.

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam: Paul R. Williams, PMP It’s time. It’s time for strategic project management to be directly represented at the executive round table, in board meetings, and in the ‘C’-suite. It’s time for singular ownership and accountability for organizational strategic planning and execution. It’s time for dedicated focus on organizational resource planning, allocation and utilization. It’s time for focused attention regarding return on investment, earned value on execution, appropriate risk management and post-execution benefit capture. And finally, it’s time for single-sourced, unambiguous communication regarding strategic balance, allocation of resources and prioritization of the directives that constitute the portfolio of investments that the organization makes on its own behalf. What you have just read is the opening paragraph of the article It’s Time for Project Leadership To Have A Seat At The Executive Table written by Paul Williams (http://www.thinkforachange.com/aboutpaul). In it, he emphatically argues that project management is just as important as any of the other more traditional business departments such as marketing, finance or operations. In our interview, Paul and I review his general argument why project leadership needs a seat at the executive table, what the roles and responsibilities of our representative are, what skills he or she needs, and what you can do as part of your career planning to become that very person. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to Episode #355.  This is The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com and I'm Cornelius Fichtner. It's time! It's time for strategic project management to be directly represented at the executive round table in board meetings and in the C-Suite. It's time for singular ownership and accountability for organizational strategic planning and execution. It's time for dedicated focus on organizational resource planning, allocation and utilization. It's time for focused attention regarding return on investment, earned value on execution, appropriate risk management and post-execution benefit capture. And finally, it's time for single-sourced, unambiguous communication regarding strategic balance, allocation of resources and prioritization of the directives that constitute the portfolio of investments that the organization makes on its own behalf. What you have just heard is the opening paragraph of the article: "It's Time for Project Leadership to have a Seat at the Executive Table" written by Paul Williams. In it, he emphatically argues that project management is just as important as any of the other more traditional business departments such as marketing, finance or operations. Are you PMP certified and want to earn 37 PDUs quickly and for less than $6 per hour? That's no problem with The Agile PrepCast™. It not only prepares you for your PMI-ACP® Exam but also qualifies for a ton of PMP® PDUs. Visit www.agileprepcast.com/pdu for the details. In our interview, Paul and I review his general argument for why project leadership needs that seat at the executive table, what the roles and responsibilities of our representative are, what skills he or she needs and what you can do yourself as part of your career planning to become that very person. Why don’t you lead the way? Enjoy the interview. Podcast Interview Female Voice: The Project Management Podcast's feature interview: Today with Paul R. Williams, PMP, executive managing partner of Think For A Change LLC. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello, Paul! Welcome to The Project Management Podcast™! Paul Williams: Thank you! Thanks for having me, appreciate it! Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for being here. So our interview is based on your article "It's Time for Project

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam: David M. Kornaros, PMP, CSM Today you will be treated to another PMP exam success story. I proudly present to you David Kornaros (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkornaros) who is one of my successful PMP students. He has used The PM PrepCast, which is my PMP training videocast and also The PM Exam Simulator in his preparation. As always with these interviews, they are intended for those among you who are currently preparing for their PMP Exam because the in-depth knowledge that I can take from someone like David who has passed their PMP exam will help you understand how to prepare for PMP. This PMP exam lessons learned interview reviews David’s journey from start to finish, including many tips and tricks that he picked up along the way. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to Episode #354.  This is The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com and I'm Cornelius Fichtner. Before we start, please don't forget that we are a listener-supported podcast. If you enjoy your interviews then please visit www.pm-podcast.com/premium. Your subscription will help keep us going. Today, you will be treated to another PMP® exam success story. I proudly present to you David Kornaros who is one of my successful PMP students. He has used PM PrepCast™, which is my PMP training videocast and also the PM Exam Simulator™ in his preparation. As always with these interviews, they are intended for those among you who are currently preparing for their PMP® exam because the in-depth knowledge that I can take from someone like David who has passed the PMP® exam will help you understand how to prepare for your own PMP® exam. These PMP® Exam Lessons Learned interview reviews David's journey from start to finish including many tips and tricks that he picked up along the way. And now, here is what he has learned! Enjoy the interview. Podcast Interview Female Voice: The Project Management Podcast's feature interview: Today with David Kornaros, PMP, Business Informations Program Manager. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello, David and welcome! David Kornaros: Hi, Cornelius! How are you? Cornelius Fichtner: I'm very well, thank you. It's quite warm here in Southern California. David Kornaros: As it is in northern. Cornelius Fichtner: Well, Congratulations, on passing your PMP® exam! David Kornaros: Thank you very much, I appreciate it. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah, you did the impossible, okay. Let's me explain this for our listeners when you take the PMP® exam, you don’t just get passed or failed. PMI gives you a little bit more information. So the exam is divided up into the 5 domains --- Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing. And for each of those domains, you get a proficiency level. You are either proficient; you are moderately proficient and you are below proficient. And oftentimes when you read lessons learned, people say: "Oh I had 3 P's, three times proficient and 1 time MP, moderately proficient." But no, David goes and he's got 5 P's, he's got 5 'Proficients'. How did you do that? David Kornaros: It's a great question because honestly, I would have been perfectly satisfied with just passing. Because I had learned of the PMP certification and PMI just 6 months before I took the exam. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! David Kornaros: A friend of mine turned me on to it and I started researching it in the summer, July, August timeframe, realized I may have the necessary hours to become certified and I have an opportunity here to add a certification to my professional experience because I really didn’t want to invest 2 years of my life in an MBA. But I knew if I can give this a real go and invest he

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam: Joe Drammissi, MSPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM We spend most of our waking hours at work, yet for many among us the time spent there is unrewarding, unfulfilling, and often just unpleasant. If that sounds familiar, then we can help. Today we are going to be talking about Enlightened Project Management with Joe Drammissi, PMP (http://enlightenedpm.com/about). At first, this sounds like a method that comes straight out of a new age textbook, but it is in fact a worthwhile concept that helps us project managers not only make a positive difference, but also puts us at the leading edge of change. So keep on listening! In our interview, Joe and I talk about what enlightened project management is but then quickly talk about the traits that an enlightened project managers has. We review what such a PM strives to do, believes in and how she or he works with stakeholders. We close out the interview by learning how EPM is applied on a project manager's day-to-day work, and Joe gives us a technique that is easy to apply to get us started -- all based on his book 101 Tips for the Enlightened Project Manager. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to episode number 352. This is the Project Management Podcast at www.pm-podcast.com and I'm Cornelius Fichtner.  Thank you for stopping by and please don't forget that we are listener-supported podcast. If you enjoy our interviews, then please visit www.pm-podcast.com/premium. Your subscription will help to keep us going. We spend most of our waking hours at work. Yet for many among us, the time spent there is unrewarding, unfulfilling, and often just unpleasant. If that sounds familiar, then we can help. Today, we are going to be talking about Enlightened Project Management with Joe Drammissi. At first, this sounds like a method that comes straight out of a new age textbook, but it is in fact a worthwhile concept that helps us project managers not only make a positive difference, but also puts us at the leading edge of change. So keep on listening. If you are a project manager who wants to become PMP or PMI ACP certified, then the easiest way to do so is with our sister podcast, the PM PrepCast and the Agile PrepCast. And study for the exam by watching the in-depth exam prep video training from www.pmprepcast.com. In our interview, Joe and I talk about what enlightened project management is but then quickly talk about the traits that an enlightened project managers has. We review what such a PM strives to do, believes in and how she or he works with stakeholders. We close out the interview by learning how EPM is applied on a project manager's day-to-day work, and Joe gives us a technique that is easy to apply to get us started. As you will hear, Joe also wrote a book that contains 101 tips for the enlightened project manager. And we're giving two of those away. Please visit www.facebook.com/pmpodcast to participate. And now think about why you are a project manager and enjoy the interview. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner:  Hello, Joe. Welcome to the Project Management Podcast. Joe Drammissi:   Well, thank you, Cornelius. It's good to be here. Cornelius Fichtner:  It's a pleasure to have you. So would you please define enlightened for us. What do you mean by enlightened? Joe Drammissi:   Yes. By the way I'm using enlightened here is I guess if you were to look this up, you would find the definition for enlightened. To give someone greater knowledge or understanding of a subject or situation. And that's really how I'm looking at it. You could take other views. This is more the less spiritual view, more of the knowledge-oriented view here is the context I'm using it in. Cornelius Fichtner:  Okay. And then, how do you define or what is Enlightened Project Man