PMP®:CAPM® - Pioneers - Lets add face to names

History of the world is made by people. People stay here for a brief period of time. Some people leave their names behind. Probably the oldest of them all is Adam as in Adam's apple. 

There are many terms which include the names of people who were associated with that either in a positive or negative way. 

English words named after people are called Eponyms. The famous examples are 

Boycott (after Charles Boycott)

Sandwich(after John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who invented it)

Decibel(after Alexander Graham bell)

In Project Management too, there are many terms which have names in them. We use those terms but we don't care to know how they looked like. Those are the pioneers of the field who gave their life time for the betterment of  the art (or science).  

Let us see (pun intended) few of the pioneers of the Project Management who contributed to the different knowledge areas.

PMP®:CAPM® - Versus - The Opposites

The world is filled with opposites. There is a balance between such opposites as depicted by the yin yang symbol of the Chinese.

Few of the opposites we observe in the world are as follows.
Light and dark
Fire and water 
Expanding and contracting
Sun and Moon
Sun rise and Sun set

Sometimes people who are together may have opposite view points.I once wrote the below joke.
A man says to his friend,"I don't believe in astrology"
His friend responds by saying, "You may be like that as per your zodiac"

Let us see some of the opposites in the Project Management.

PMP®:CAPM® Terms - Other names

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet".

The above line is from Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. 

Many of us have have more than one name. Names given by parents,family members,friends,colleagues etc. Though our names belong to us, they are used a lot by others. 

Names are important to us as they give identity,they show love, they show friendship (Nick names).  

Of course names are important for any PMP® or CAPM® aspirants also. Not only the names of the concepts,diagrams,tools,inputs,outputs,methodologies etc., the knowledge of the other names of them will be helpful. You may expect questions based on the other names. 

Consider a sample question given below.

Which of the following is not used for analyzing the causes of problems. 

A.Cause and Effect Diagram

B.Fishbone Diagram

C.Ishikawa Diagram

D.Control Chart

The answer is D.Control Chart. Fishbone Diagram and Ishikawa Diagram are other names of Cause and Effect Diagram. 

PMP®:CAPM® - Knowledge Area and Process Group mapping chart and a Game

As per PMBOK® there are 10 Project Management Knowledge Areas. Each of the 10 Knowledge Areas has set of Processes. There are 49 Processes. These 49 Processes can be mapped to the 5 Process Groups based on the time period when these Processes are performed. 

As part of the PMP®/CAPM® classroom training, we provide 4 pages of laminated sheets consisting 3 pages of Formulae and 1 page of the Knowledge Area / Process Group mapping sheet. 

Using this sheet you can view the Processes of each Knowledge Area horizontally and the Processes of each Process Group vertically. 

The reason these pages are laminated is, as these sheets will be used frequently by the PMP®/CAPM® participants. A laminated sheet will be easy to hold and refer the contents comfortably than a paper. 

During training we involve the participants in a game which will help them familiarize with the Knowledge Areas/Process Group and the 49 Processes.

The participants will be given a set of 49 bits of paper each having one Process name printed on it. 

The objective of the game is to recreate the Knowledge Area/Process Group mapping chart on the table without any help. 

Of course the participants will make mistakes. Mistakes are golden opportunities for learning, we shouldn't miss them. As per the quote "If you're not making mistakes,then you're not doing anything", mistakes are common when we do anything new.

The common mistakes by the participants are as follows.

1. Mapping "Manage Quality" process to Monitoring & Controlling Process Group.

2. Mapping "Identify Risks" to Initiation Process Group

Once the mapping is done by the participants as a group, we ask them to evaluate their mapping with the help of the Knowledge Area/Process Group mapping chart.

We provide the following tips during the mapping process i.e. which words indicate which process.

1. Activity - Schedule Management

2. Plan - Planning Process Group

3. Manage - Execution Process Group

4. Control - Control Process Group. (Validate Scope is the only exception)

5. Close - Closing Process Group

6. Team - Resource Management
7.  Project Work - Integration Management 

PMP®:CAPM® - Mind maps - Inputs,Tools and Techniques,Output (ITTO)

A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank landscape page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those.

VC4U PMP/CAPM Training includes interactive mind maps for the  Inputs,Tools and Techniques,Output (ITTO) for each knowledge area. 

"A picture is worth a thousand words!" . Pictures add clarity to knowledge. How about a picture with which you can interact?. Isn't that cool?

Refer to a sample Scope Management animated gif below.As you click on the Process the Inputs,Tools and Techniques and Outputs unfold. As you click on them the picture reveals the list of the Inputs, Tools and Techniques or Outputs depending on what you clicked. 

They are different view points are whether one should memorize the ITTO, as there may be only couple of questions about them. Whether one 'memorizes' or not, one should 'know' the ITTO, the knowledge of which will help in answering even the situational questions. VC4U Interactive mind maps will serve as a learning tool first, then as an evaluation tool. 

These interactive mind maps are available as part of our Online training materials. We provide the  Online training materials at free of cost for our Classroom/Online Live (Skype) training participants.