AOUINA HOUSSAM – PMI®-PMP, RMP®, SP®.

ASSALAMOU ALAYKOM
ALHAMDOULELLEH HAMDAN KATHIRAN TAYBAN MOUBARAKAN FIH…

Dear PMI SP Aspirants, I just passed the PMI-SP exam.

I thank all my family members who were supporting me to go through this credential …

I want to share with you my lessons learned and wish these lessons come in help to you.

Firstly, let’s talk about Materials:

a) Practice standard for Scheduling 2nd edition – downloadable from PMI ® site web.
b) PMBOK 5th edition - downloadable from PMI ® site web. (chapters are cited by importance)
1. Time Management – Chap 6
2. Scope Management – Chap 5
3. Risk Management – Chap 11
4. Communication Management – Chap 10
5. Stakeholder Management – Chap 13
6. Project Integration Management – Chap 4 (Especially Project Life Cycles)
7. HR Management – Chap 9
c) Scheduling professional exam outline - downloadable from PMI ® site web.
d) Scheduling professional handbook - downloadable from PMI ® site web.
e) Practice standard for Earned Value Management - downloadable from PMI ® site web.
f) Practice standard for Work break down structure - downloadable from PMI ® site web.
g) Construction Projects Scheduling and Control 3rd Edition By Saleh Mubarak ®

Secondly, coming to courses:

h) Udemy – HAYTHAM BARAKA

Thirdly, about Simulators

i) Udemy – HAYTHAM BARAKA
j) Several simulators outdated and available on the Net, but Do not rely on them.

Fourth point: study Plan in sequence:

k) a), a) again, c), e), f), h), a), b), i), g), a), c).
l) Every time you feel a gap, the Net is full of valuable information.
m) Just before seating for the exam: revise a) and c).

Fifth Point: aspirant’s profile, experience and study plan duration

 n) If you are experienced in dealing with schedules in your day to day job. You need just to
maintain PMI methodology and everything will be going well in duration between 1.5 to 2
months. Supposing at least 1 to 2 hours a day of serious preparation.
o) If you are less experienced in scheduling, but be sure to know what it is in real dimension, I
think this will take about 3 months to cover all gaps.
p) It is very helpful if you are already PMP and implementing the PMI ® methodology in you job.

Sixth point: specific Knowledge to understand before seating

q) Integrating risk in Scheduling – contingency and management reserves: how to implement
and How to use.
r) Managing Schedule changes relevant to scope, risks whether identified or not identified in
the risk register …
s) Sequence in developing the schedule, …, What to do first and What to do Next
t) Updating project Schedule and Baseline Schedule… which comes first depending on different
situations…
u) Sequence in schedule and project closure… when to record lessons learned…
v) Schedule issues and Best practices: constraint and lags effect…
w) When using Monte Carlo and when using PERT
x) Other simple definitions of critical paths, critical activities, data date, current date,
y) Mastering Schedule calculation and updating on a simple schedule network diagram …
z) Must know when Forensic schedule analysis can take place, and what to prepare …
aa) The scheduler roles VS the Project Manager role VS the team roles
bb) How to gather data to update the schedule …

Seventh point: My own experience

cc) Preparing for the exam takes about 3 serious months.
dd) We are six members in my family (I am the father of course), I get between 1 hour to 2 hours
a day for 5 days a week (I work 2 week ends/month)
ee) I dealt with scheduling for about 4 to 5 years (MS Project and Primavera). Following no
structured methodology compared to PMI’s one. This experience makes it easier to get PMI
approach especially when scheduling through Primavera P6.
ff) My advice: even if you consider you are a talented scheduler or planner, or fresh PMP, do
not take the exam for an easy one. IT IS A VERY STRUCTURED EXAM AND MINITIOUS ONE. It
does not mean it is very difficult, but is worth the credential value also.

I will be at the disposal of any one asking about the points above.