The PMBOK Guide in Practice: Applying the Principles to Your Projects

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this course about? This course allows you to apply the most relevant and practical principles of the PMBOK® Guide to the everyday activities needed to successfully manage projects in your organization. You learn to employ a core project management methodology that can be tailored to projects of all types and sizes. Throughout the course, you are immersed in a multimedia-enhanced case study, and gain practical experience applying the PMBOK® Guide best practices to projects. This is not an exam preparation course. What background do I need? Project management experience at the level of Course 296, Project Management: Skills for Success, or Course 340, Project Management for Software Development, is recommended. Prior achievement of PMP certification from the PMI is particularly relevant and beneficial. Do I need to have my PMP certification to take this course? No. PMP certification is not required to take this course. However, individuals with PMP certification may find it slightly easier to understand the PMBOK® Guide's view of project management and its project management terminology. Will this course help me prepare for my PMP exam? Absolutely. Course 915 offers a practical view of the PMBOK® Guide and enables you to apply the PMP approach to a simulated project. Taken in combination with Course 276, Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) Exam, you not only obtain the 35 contact hours of training required to sit for the PMP exam, but both courses reinforce your PMP knowledge in a more practical and relevant fashion, allowing you to use your study efforts back on the job. If you are interested in taking the PMI Program Management Professional (PgMP) certification exam, you should take Course 920, Preparing for the Program Management Professional (PgMP®) Exam. Is PMP certification important? Yes! Certification in project management skills is a growing expectation for successful project management careers in many organizations. PMP certification increases your credibility and demonstrates a thorough understanding of the project processes and best practices contained in the PMBOK® Guide. Knowing how to successfully apply a project management standard is every bit as important as being able to pass a certification exam. This course focuses on teaching you how to use this comprehensive methodology in a real project environment. Should I have taken Course 276 prior to enrolling into this course? Course 276, Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) Exam, or other exam preparation courses, is not a prerequisite for this course. However, this course is ideal when combined with Course 276 if you would like to thoroughly prepare for the PMP exam and be able to use your study efforts back on the job. Who will benefit from this course? If you are a certified PMP, this course offers you an opportunity to actually apply the project management approach in the PMBOK® Guide versus studying it in an academic, exam-preparation setting. If you are an experienced project manager or team leader with no PMBOK® Guide experience, you can experience the approach in practice and witness how it can be used to successfully and consistently manage a project. If you are involved in projects but do not manage them, this course gives you an introduction to the PMBOK® Guide and shows you how it can benefit you and your projects. Why should I use PMI's PMBOK® Guide on my project? Organizations seeking to improve their practices in managing projects consistently find structured methodologies to be quite beneficial. The PMBOK® Guide is an ANSI-standard approach, targeting successful project management across all project types. The PMBOK® Guide is used by numerous private sector and government organizations as the basis for their project management process, regardless of project size or type. Which edition of the PMBOK® Guide is used in the course? This course uses the third and current edition of the PMBOK® Guide. The formal title of the book is: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition. This is the latest and most recent release of the standard. Will I learn basic project management skills and tools on this course? No. This course does not teach basic or advanced project management skills and tool usage. Several project management and office productivity tools are used in the course to support the project work environment in the classroom. If I am applying the PMBOK® Guide approach to my current project(s), is there any value in also learning the PRINCE2™ method? Yes. The PMBOK® Guide and PRINCE2™ are both world class project management standards and are quite complimentary in their approaches to successfully implementing project management. The PMBOK® Guide contains exceptional breadth and depth relative to project management knowledge while PRINCE2™ maps out everything that you need for successful project delivery. How much time is spent on each topic? Content Hours Navigating the PMBOK® Guide 2.0 Initiating a project 1.5 Planning the project 3.0 Keeping the project on track 4.0 Closing the project 1.5 Tailoring the core methodology 2.5 A toolset for going forward 2.5 Times, including the workshops, are estimates; exact times may vary according to the needs of each class. How much time is spent in activities? You spend approximately 70 percent of class time in activities. This course is structured around a dynamic style of learning created by Learning Tree called RealityPlusTM-an immersive experience that engages you in authentic tasks within a simulated real-world context. Through media-rich case studies, role playing and computer-based activities, you are immersed throughout the course in an evolving scenario where the decisions you make affect the outcome of the simulation. The RealityPlus learning method is presented in a safe environment where you gain new skills and practice the most effective techniques to bring back to your job. At the end of your course, you are prepared to immediately and successfully apply these new skills within your organization! Will this course provide me with PDUs? Yes. For those who are currently PMP certified, completion of this course counts as 17 professional development units (60 units must be completed every three years to maintain certification). For more details, please see the Learning Tree PMI Registered Education Provider Q&A. How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses? Learning Tree offers a number of courses that will help you expand upon the knowledge gained in this course and further your skills in several key areas. Those courses include: 276, Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) Exam  920, Preparing for the Program Management Professional (PgMP®) Exam  296, Project Management: Skills for Success  340, Project Management for Software Development  290, Management Skills  284, Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving  286, Project Risk Management  346, Project Leadership: Building High-Performance Teams  299, Microsoft® Project: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

The PMI R.E.P. logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc. RealityPlus is a trademark of Learning Tree International.