PgMP (Program Management Professional) Credential, Step 2 - The Exam

The Exam is the easiest part of all 3 steps of PgMP Credential process. This is a step where the only important stakeholder is you and other stakeholder might be the Test Centre. This is a step where your PgMP Credential is not dependant on the decision made by others.

Once you complete the application review process you will notified to schedule for your PgMP exam, which will have all the details required for registering for the exam. The Exam registration process is very similar to PMP, where you will find your nearest Prometric Centre and book a date and time depending on the availability.

As soon as you start with the PgMP exam, you will have 15 min tutorial to get you familiarize with the screen layout and the exam format. You may want to skip this step or you can complete this soon and jump into exam. After 15 min this will automatically move on to exam.

The exam will consist of 170 multiple choice questions and you will have 4 Hrs to complete it. Of the 170 questions, 20 are the pre-test questions, randomly placed throughout the exam. Although these questions do not count for you final score, since you will not know which ones, every question is important.

Almost 90% of the questions are scenario based, and each scenario will have 2-3 questions. Every scenario will be explaining a program with so many problems and the question will be based on that situation.

You need to be careful with the scenario during every question. When you click next, the entire screen goes blank and the next question will come on to the screen. I have faced a situation where first few lines of the scenario as were same but the later part was different. And because the entire screen refreshes, I was not able to notice that.

Below is the screen layout almost 90% of the exam.


Since most of the questions are scenario based it will be very difficult to map all of them to Standard for Program Management. I am not sure if we can really map them to the process explained in the standard, but what I have felt is, if I try doing that then my time was running out and I was always running behind the schedule.

Another key factor during the exam is Time. Although it might appear to be sufficient time, in reality it is not. Due to scenarios, which are lengthy it takes some time to understand the scenarios. So I suggest planning the time accordingly.

Once you complete the exam, your result will be notified in a minute and you will be rated in 6 Domains of the Program Management. The rating will range in "Less Proficient", "Moderately Proficient" and "Proficient". Although the passing factor is not known, the best way is to get Proficient in all the 6 domains.

Once you get the result that you have passed the exam, the best thing you can do is, celebrate (probably buy a drink) with all your friends and colleagues. And most importantly with your MRA raters. ;-)

To be continued …



Please post your comments to let me know your thoughts on this post and any other information that you need. If you are in the process of obtaining this credential and if you need any assistance/help/guidence, I am happy to do so.
To know more about me visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/gryasam

PgMP (Program Management Professional) - A New Credential from PMI

I am feeling very happy to see the overwhelming response to my recently completed PgMP Credential. There is a lot of enthusiasm about this credential and many people have approached me to find out the details about it. Hence I thought put down my experiences with this credential when they are fresh in my memory.

A Brief Introduction
PgMP (Program Management Professional) is a credential from PMI, which was launched on 1st Oct 2007. This is a level higher than PMP (Project Management Professional) and deals with the individual's experience of managing a program.

For more information visit
http://www.pmi.org/CareerDevelopment/Pages/FAQs_for_PgMP_credential.aspx
http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/PDF/PgPM_Checklist.pdf

The requirements for this credential are 4yrs (6000 Hrs) of Project Management AND 4 yrs (6000 Hrs) of Program Management Experience in last 15 years. Although the PM Education is not mandatory as it is for PMP, all the 12000 Hrs must be Non-overlapping experience and must be spanning across all the 6 domains of Program Management. The fee for the credential is USD1500 for a member and USD1800 for a non member.

For more information visit http://www.pmi.org/PDF/pdc_pgmphandbook.pdf



The Credential Process
It is an exhaustive process which consists of 3 steps.

Application Submission and Review
One might wonder why I am calling Submission as a process. But in my opinion it really is a major step in entire Credential process. In this step you are required to provide a load of data related to your experience, obviously because you have to provide the data of at least 8 years of experience. Here you will have to provide the description of program/project, its budget, your supervisor, why/how it is related to strategic direction of the organisation, how it will add significant benefits to the organisation etc…
Once you complete documenting your experience, you have to answer 8 questions where you explain your experience in handling different type of programs. These answers are key to prove your experience as a program manager.
Then you have to give 12 professional references who will be participating in the 3rd step.

After completing this massive exercise you will submit the application and it will go through a Completeness Review, during which I am not sure what they really look for. As stated by PMI, they will walk through the application and they will inform you if there is any incohherent information. After this review is finished, you will be notified to pay the credential fee i.e. $1500.

Though it is stated in the process that the application will be audited "If Selected", I have never heard of any application approved without an audit. I have read somewhere thatPMI is having special audit team for PgMP Credential. And every application that is submitted will go thru an audit. As part of audit I have heard many different cases of the documentation that needs to be provided. You might be asked to provide experience verification forms for any of your programs/projects and/or your education. They make calls to the contacts provided for verification. They can do anything to verify what you have mentioned in the application.

Once your audit is complete, your application will go through a review where a panel of program management experts will review your application to see how good you are at managing a program. As I understand this is the toughest process of all, where an unconfirmed news says that the Application rejection rate at this step is more than 65%.

Once your application is approved, you will notified by an email to proceed further with detail instructions.

Uuffff... Thank God… You have finished the difficult part, Step 1 of the Credential Process.

To be continued …

Please post your comments to let me know your thoughts on this post and any other information that you need. If you are in the process of obtaining this credential and if you need any assistance/help/guidence, I am happy to do so.

To know more about me visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/gryasam