How I prepared and passed p3express
Hi all! My name is Artur and for more than three years I have been juggling the roles of Analyst and Project Manager. I was lucky to start in this position in one of the areas closest to me – translations, and then slowly but surely I made my way to the IT sector.
I haven’t been the most determined Padawan since high school, but as soon as I could find something that hooked me, I dived into it fast and deep enough. The first such target was English, followed by other foreign languages, and when it came to the professional sphere, modern frameworks and methodologies went into battle.
Motivation
To tell the truth, starting as a PMA, at first I led projects quite chaotically, a lot of things went wrong, colleagues kept poking me at my mistakes and more time was devoted to sealing up those holes from which the most water flowed.
Time passed, projects changed and with each new project I gained more experience. For the most part, the entire experience was directly related to fairly basic rational rules: “don’t be silent if you don’t know where to go”, “don’t lie about the result”, “try to be honest and straightforward”, etc. I managed to pick up something from the experience of colleagues, others taught me something (thank you!) and my knowledge and expertise were formed from this.
With the transition to larger projects and the simultaneous acquaintance with new teams, I had to adapt to the already set rhythm, study various books on the topic of Scrum, Agile, in order to stupidly keep up with others. Experience was also accumulated, which I tried to systematize and adapt in projects, but at some point an internal understanding arose that everything I had needed to be better systematized. I’m not the biggest fan of systems or some kind of rusty processes for the sake of processes, but still it was necessary to consolidate the gained experience somehow.
Colleagues were introduced to pmclub and at first I watched webinars on YouTube (thank you for them!), which turned out to be quite convenient to adapt in practice, later I got acquainted with p3express and 3 factors attracted me to it:
Fairly convenient and easy to understand framework
A chance to systematize my experience in the manner and rhythm I need
Certificate
If we talk about the p3express as a framework, it is based on a minimum of complex steps, and the emphasis is on transparency and ease of understanding the very process of maintaining a project from its launch to completion. It is adaptable enough for agile and waterfall, so p3express can be used by most project teams.
The framework has its pros and cons compared to the same PRINCE2 or PMBOK, but there is no point in comparing them, because all these practices can be compared with a tool in a broad sense. Its presence is only part of the success, since at the head of each project there will always be only Coordinator / Project / Manager who can skillfully apply the knowledge and experience gained in practice, bringing the project itself to the desired result.
Preparation for certification
A small digression: I was preparing for the certification itself along with the course from pmclub. Together with their theoretical material and a mountain of useful information, it was much easier to pass the exam.
So, on to the preparation!
p3express itself, namely its lecture component, did not cause any problems. I am a fan of self-study and therefore my preparatory work was reduced to the simplest and most basic rules:
Print lectures or theory (if possible) and always be sure to take notes by hand. So the memory actually works better.
Repeat the material in small grains day after day. This is rather boring and banal advice, which I ignored all 4 years of university, but it works.
Do your homework or go outside the course and try to pick up more than you have. Thanks to pmclub, the guys did this work for me and additional. It didn’t take long to find materials.
On average, I tried to allocate at least 3-5 hours a week for reviewing notes, completing the course, and doing dz. Sometimes I managed to do more, and at the end of the course it all came down to banal study of notes.
As soon as I realized that I needed practice, I went to do trial tests. After the fourth test passed by 100%, I realized that it makes no sense to continue further.
Having approached the stage when it was pointless to take trial tests, and studying the material became more boring than usual, I began to mentally prepare for the real exam.
Exam
A month after the purchase of the course, I decided to set myself a deadline for passing the exam: 30 days from the moment I started studying p3express.
Prior to submitting, I went through the following steps:
– Successfully postponed the exam for one week, because he was too afraid of failure and therefore increased his cramming;
– 3 days before the exam, I went through all the recommended materials for study
one) NUPP (Nearly Universal Principles of Projects)
2) Code of Ethics
3) All 33 steps p3express
4) Practice Test Answers
5) Project Simulator
– I re-read the articles of the guys who had already passed the test and shared their experience;
When it was clear that no more time could be taken, and the overheating from the preparation was close enough, I took a break for one day and proceeded to surrender the next morning.
During the exam, I acted as before:
Distanced himself from all possible irritants (deliveries, pets or annoying neighbors);
He laid out in front of him notes and training materials that he did during the course;
I took advantage of all the time given in the exam (do not overestimate your knowledge and it is better to go over your answers once again while there is time);
I refused to look at the time every second and returned to the timer every 20 minutes.
conclusions
The experience of passing and preparing for certification turned out to be very useful. Some processes in the work could be established thanks to the knowledge gained, and the presence of a certificate helped to find some inner peace.
Definitely, my preparation method may seem a little boring in appearance and everyone can optimize it in their own way, the main thing is not to be led by fear and at the same time not to overestimate your efforts, it is in this balance that success lies.
