SHOULD YOU TRY FOR A PMI CERTIFICATION?Wendy Barnhart Ross

http://www.linkedin.com/in/wendybarnhartross

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196960 countries280 chapters

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Certifications

PMP – Gold StandardPgMPPfMP – Portfolio Management CAPM – Certified AssociatePMI-PBAPMI-PBAPMI-ACP – Agile PMI-RMPPMI-SP

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4,500 hours experience

35 hours of project management education

~200 hours of studying

PMP – Prerequisites

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4,500 hours leading and directing projects as a Technical Communicator!?

EXAMPLENew hardware project documentation set • 13 months• 630 hours spread over the 5 PM process groups

• Initiating• Planning• Executing• Monitoring and Controlling• Closing

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4,500 hours as a Technical Communicator!?

Initiating (55 hours):• Gather historical data (legacy manuals)• Review lessons learned• Identify stakeholders• Identify basic requirements

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4,500 hours as a Technical Communicator!?

Planning (200 hours):• Determine detailed requirements• Create a list of activities• Estimate # of writers, # of hours/days per activity• Develop a schedule• Identify project risks

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4,500 hours as a Technical Communicator!?

Executing (200 hours):• Work the plan!• Manage time (yours, other writers)• Mentor others on the project• Manage stakeholder expectations• Mitigate and exploit risks

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4,500 hours as a Technical Communicator!?

Controlling (125 hours):• Control project costs• Control quality of documents• Manage review/approval of documents

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4,500 hours as a Technical Communicator!?

Closing (50 hours):• Release the documents (print/web/SAP/to sw team, etc.)• Archive those documents• Create lessons learned• Archive lessons learned and other documents

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4,500 hours as a Technical Communicator!?

630 hours NOT including the act of researching and writing the documents themselves, and while running other projects.

It does add up, but…

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4,500 hours as a Technical Communicator!?

Other job-related projects• Volunteer to manage a special project• Create, plan, deliver, evaluate co-worker training• Run a department project to improve a procedure

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4,500 hours as a Technical Communicator!?

Outside of work? Volunteer to manage projects in your favorite organization, such as…

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1 four-hour test!

=

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Instant PMP! (The system tells you on the spot whether you passed or failed.)

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Accolades from friends and family!

Oohs and ahhs from co-workers

3 more letters to squeeze into my LinkedIn heading

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The opportunity to:• meet new people• learn new things • represent the PMO in

project meetings and to executive management

• more accolades from friends and family!

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Lots of responsibility…

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Wendy Barnhart Rosshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/wendybarnhartross