j e s r u s h . c o m

[ Note: This is a continuation from Part 1 ]

• Use a braindump. A “braindump” is where you sit down and write key knowledge and formulas onto a sheet of scrap paper. You do this just before beginning an exam, so that the questions don’t twist your memory into a pretzel. A braindump is unbelievably critical on the PMP exam because the test writers love to rearrange simple formulas in complex ways. Remember back in algebra how you could rewrite the same equation ten different ways by moving X around, adding a value to both sides, using fractions, etc? The exam is a lot like that. So your braindump should include (at minimum) all those numerical formulas (earned value, etc) as well as anything that frequently trips you up. At the beginning of the exam, you are offered an optional 15 minute tutorial on the user interface. Take the tutorial (which only requires five minutes) and instead use the extra time to write your “braindump.”

• Do the little things. The exam no longer generates detailed score reports, instead it now shows only a very general area / competency report. But back when it showed actual scores, it was amazing to hear how many people passed the exam by the slimmest of margins. If they had gotten four or five additional questions wrong, they would have failed. Lesson: You need to nail the little things that can give you the slightest edge. Imagine if you failed the exam and wasted $400’s because you got two questions wrong? During the week leading up to the exam, make sure you:

Eat right. Three balanced meals (fruits! vegetables!) a day with an emphasis on brainfoods. Brainfoods are those foods which have been conclusively shown in (real) clinical studies to improve memory and recall. To summarize an ocean of research in one sentence, think protein (e.g. eggs) and omega-3 (e.g. tuna).

Exercise. Every day walk, run, bike, lift weights or do whatever you enjoy. Exercise improves blood flow and increases alertness.

Sleep. It’s really tempting to stay up late for extra study time. Don’t. That time is likely to be some of your least productive and you probably won’t have a chance to make up the slept debt before the exam.

Take off from work. Thinking you can skate by without using any of your vacation? Don’t. Again, imagine if you failed the exam because you were too hard headed to take two days off?

Drive ahead. If possible, visit the test center before test day so there aren’t any surprises. The last thing you need is to get lost, arrive late, or out of sorts.

Bring a snack. In your locker, you can store some caffeine, water, and something to eat just in case you get tired or hungry.

• DO buy the Project Management PrepCast. Remember back in part 1 when I talked about exposing yourself to the PMBOK through many different mediums instead of trying to straight up memorize it? One incredibly easy way to kick start that effort is with Cornelius Fitchner’s project management PrepCast. Basically Fitchner has broken down the PMBOK content into a series of nearly 100 twenty minute audio podcasts. The PrepCast isn’t detailed enough to work as one’s primary study guide, but it’s powerful when you follow up a topic from your (written) study guide by listening to the corresponding topic on the prepcast. It reinforces what you learned and it does so using another part of your brain (audible instead of reading/visual). This was a really effective one-two punch for me and I could study during my daily commute. At only fifty bucks it’s also a good value.

• Set a date. Last but not least, nothing quite motivates you to study as a date set in stone. My recommendation is that once you get approved to take the exam, go ahead and schedule it for 2-3 months out. If you near exam day and you still aren’t ready–you can always reschedule it for later. But most people will dig their heels into the dirt, rise to the occasion, and get it done. Good luck!

There are many facets to hiring technical folks, but one important area is the issue of how they stay on top of the new technologies which are coming out at a frightening pace. I used to ask a standard question: Give me an example from past work experience where you learned or discovered a new technology (new at the time) and used it for the organization’s benefit?

But after asking that question many times, I realized it was too narrow. People “accidentally” get exposed to new technologies all the time through friends, school, etc. Maybe they never sought out new technology and just “stumbled” on something. I needed to tease out the real proactive learners from these casual ones.

After some experimentation, I finally nailed it with an incredibly simple question which has been extremely effective over the past year: Technology is changing all the time. What periodicals do you actively read to stay on top of it?

A good technical person who stays on top of their field should be able to rattle off a number of periodicals or e-newsletters related to their expertise. For example a network engineer might mention Technet. A security expert might say Bugtraq or Mark Minasi’s newsletter. A more senior individual might even throw in some strategy, such as CIO Magazine. If their answer seems canned, you can pry further to validate it: Tell me about something you read in that periodical in the past three months?

But here is the best part: People who don’t stay atop their field absolutely punt this question. They’ve got nothing. One candidate told me that he reads the documentation which comes with the software used at his company. Another mentioned a four year old SQL book which she had read a year ago. Many others are surprisingly honest and simply tell you, “I don’t have time to read anything like that.”

This question is a deal-breaker for me. I count on my technical people for innovation, and their capacity for such is drastically reduced when they aren’t following the industry. This has quickly become one of my all time favorite interview questions.

PS–This reminds me of a great management practice: Assign technical periodicals to individuals on your staff, formally give them an hour or two every Friday to read them, and then have them present short “book reports” to the whole team on interesting findings. Most geeks love learning new stuff and get excited about new technology. This is an easy way to keep your team both happy and on the cutting edge.

I was on construx’s website the other day (Construx does software development best practices, seminars, consulting, etc.) and stumbled on a real nugget: Their career progression ladder for software project managers. For the life of me, I can’t re-find the page (perhaps it was pulled?), but fortunately I had saved the info to google notebook.

The ladder describes three “levels” of career progression and each level has three components: experiences (such as estimating a project), reading material, and training (mostly Construx seminars–which sound really good).

Given how much I love reading, it was (surprise!) the reading lists which really interested me:

Level 10

• Code Complete, Steve McConnell
• Rapid Development, Steve McConnell
• Software Project Survival Guide, Steve McConnell
• UML Distilled, Martin Fowler et all
• Mastering the Requirements Process, Robertson and Robertson
• Software Requirements, Karl Wiegers
• “Manager’s Handbook for Software Development”, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Level 11

• Principles of Software Engineering Management, Tom Gilb
• Mythical Man-Month, Fred Brooks
• Peopleware, Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister
• Measures for Excellence, Lawrence Putnam and Ware Myers
• The Art of Software Testing, Glenford Myers
• “Software Measurement Guidebook”, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Level 12

• Programming Pearls 2nd Ed, Jon Bentley
• Applying UML & Patterns 2nd Ed, Craig Larman
• Conceptual Blockbusting, James Adams
• Software Creativity, Robert Class
• Quality is Free, Philip Crosby
• The Deming Management Model, Mary Walton
• Managing the Software Process, Watts Humphrey
• Writing Effective Use Cases, Cockburn
• Exploring Requirements: Quality before Design, Gause and Weinberg
• Requirements Engineering, A Good Practice Guide, Sommerville and Sawyer

This is a killer list. The only thing missing is more coverage of risk management (!). But that omission aside, I’ve tackled about half of these and can attest to their value. Good stuff!

It’s been said that 70-90% of project management is communication. So I was very interested when Patty Azzarello turned me on to a little book about communicating ideas called, ‘Made to Stick,’ by Chip and Dan Heath. The interest was justified.

This is one of the five best business books I’ve ever read. The Heath brothers take you on a wild romp through urban legends, advertising, and the mind’s jungle to tease out why some ideas “stick” with you and others don’t. Why is it that we remember the bathtub-ice-kidney-heist after hearing it one time, but can’t name the auto manufacturer in that TV commercial we’ve seen four times?

Because, Chip and Dan argue, the kidney heist is simple, unexpected, concrete, and emotional… They spend about 200 pages exploring these and other aspects of “sticky” messages while tying in some some remarkable research from academia.

Most importantly, they step you through the process of making your own messages more sticky. If this sounds like a marketing book, don’t be fooled: You will quickly find yourself applying this concepts to all kinds of communications… with your team… with your superiors… with everyone.

I was stunned by how dramatically ‘Made to Stick‘ “stuck” with me and actually improved by ability to communicate. Insanely recommended.

There is a brillant podcast over at Cornelius Fitchner’s aptly titled ‘Project Management Podcast’ about the challenges of working with virtual project teams (i.e. when team members are scattered all over the world). In addition to all the usual difficulties in managing a project team, virtual teams add an additional layer of communication complication and other relational problems. But this week’s guest–Adrienne Keane of Cisco–has some incredibly good advice for handling these issues. She has organized them into six success factors:

• Foster effective communications
• Focus on building relationships and trust
• Establish team identity & key processes
• Conduct effective virtual meetings
• Recognize & reward team members
• Enable collaboration & communication with technology

This is not pop-management nonsense, Keane has some really good ideas on implementing those factors.  Listen to the full podcast for all the details.