הדטה סנטר החדש של בנק ישראל נחנך בתחילת חודש אוקטובר בהשתתפות נגיד בנק ישראל סטנלי פישר.

מיזוג האוויר בחוות השרתים של בנק ישראל מבוסס על מערכות קירור שורה CoolLoop של Knurr-Emerson. אלו יחידות המבוססות על קירור מים( KW 30 כ”א ) וממוקמות בין ארונות השרתים. שם המותג הוא coolloop אך השם הגנרי של יחידות אלו הוא DECS אם כי יש כאלו שקוראים להם InRow או Inline.

לטעמי בחירת בנק ישראל במערכות Coolloop של חברת   Knurr-Emerson מדגישה את המודעות הגוברת של ארגונים בישראל לחשיבות תכנון וניהול יעיל של חדרי מחשב, תוך מתן דגש על טכנולוגיות “ירוקות” שמביאות לחיסכון משמעותי בהוצאות התפעול. אחד המאפיינים של פרויקטים מסוג זה הוא השימוש במערכות מיזוג אוויר מתקדמות המבוססות על ארונות קירור מים .

טכנולוגיה זו של קירור ממוקד שהצגנו לשוק הישראלי ב 2004, הופכת יותר ויותר לפתרון הנבחר. זאת בשל היכולת לקלוט ולקרר בקלות ארונות מחשוב מתקדם בעל הספקים גבוהים תוך חיסכון משמעותי בחשמל ובשטח רצפה ותוך שיפור שרידות החדר .

בנוסף למערכות מיזוג האוויר הפנימיות, הותקנו בפרויקט זה ארונות שרתים עם מחשבה לעתיד ( למשקל נשיאה של 1500 ק”ג וחירור אופטימאלי של דלתות ל   83%  ראו פוסט בנושא best practices לבחירת ארון שרתים ) , ארונות תקשורת של Panduit המיועדים לניהול כבילה מתקדם ומומלצים על ידי סיסקו, מערכות KVM של  Raritan וכן פסי שקעים חכמים ( PDU ) עם תוכנות ניהול מתקדמות המאפשרות בקרה על צריכת החשמל בזמן אמיתי .

בשל האיסור לצלם באתר, התמונה המופיעה מעלה היא להמחשה בלבד ולקוחה מאתר אחר בישראל בסדר גודל דומה.

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.

-Garrison Keillor

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
-Seneca

Define Luck.

For some, Luck is…

• A Shell game – a set up for people to lose their money
• The Hand of the Unmoved Mover (God)
• Hard to come by
• From the devil
• Your favorite definition….

I have struggled with each of these definitions, having lived through various times in my life and career when each of them has made more sense than the others.

For Eileen C. Shapiro and Howard H. Stevenson, the authors of Make Your Own Luck, Luck is a strictly a matter of taking smarter risks in business. Every action you take is a bet. “Good Luck” occurs when you predict and bet on a winning result using the Smart Gambler’s Credo:

Smart Gambler’s Credo

They contend that Luck depends on a “Gambler’s Dozen” of 12 skills that help improve your Predictive Intelligence: or your ability to pick the right action that brings you the results you want.

Whether or not you buy into their “Gambler’s Dozen,” you have to admit that the idea of pinning Luck down to decisions under your control is a highly appealing one.

Using real-life examples, they walk readers through their OOPA! process: Orient, Organize, Predict and Act to demonstrate how each the 12 skills will improve your ability to make better bets.

I liked the book because it:

1. Changed my perception of Luck
   The book made me view Luck as something that can be managed, rather than some Random Force that impacts my life for good or ill. Luck is all a matter of good risk management, they seem to say.  Just identify what you want, evaluate the situation you’re in, look at future trends and make decisions based on facts.
2. Created a process to walk through
   And I have to admit that I have a weakness for anything that even hints of a process. OOPA! for goodness sake reminds me of Plan Do Study and Act (PDSA). I hate acronyms, but acronyms that remind you how to think critically about your decisions are OK by me.
3. Recommended ways to improve my decision-making skills
   The authors provide tips on:
   - Making Jump Bets: or should you make a radical shift in your life or career now?
   - Domino Effects: identifying the follow-on decisions that you will be locked into as a result of your decision

Buying into the authors’ definition of Luck is not essential to enjoying and benefiting from the book’s advice.  Improving your decision-making skills in these precarious times is important enough to warrant a quick read through of this book. Do you know of other books that provide advice on how to improve decision-making?  Leave me a comment or send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.

Duck on a Log

Don’t take no for an answer. Take it for a question. Make the word “no” mean this question: ‘Can’t you be more creative than that?’
- Steve Chandler

When I ended my post 5 things Every PM Should Know Before Leaving Home, I knew the list was extremely short. It was also a very personal list. I hope they were helpful to you, but they were the things I needed to know before I left home for work.

Life has a way of squeezing you until something comes out. Sometimes you learn something in the process. Following are 5 more things a PM should know before leaving home. Given another couple of weeks in October, I’m sure I could come up with more, but I promise to leave it at 5.

5 More Things that Every Project Manager should know:

1. Your Own Best Practices
   Last month, Kevin Eikenberry wrote a post on knowing what values you pledge your allegiance to. Essentially, he wrote that when you live in a way that’s connected to your values, you will be happier and more successful. This is good advice for project management as well.

   Most project managers have their own best practices, or lessons that have been burnt into their hides from less than optimal experiences. Understanding what those are will make you less likely to be moved by circumstances or “strange attractors” on your projects. You’ll make decisions based on your own values or best practices.

   If you’re a brand new project manager, the PMBOK can be a place to find tools to start your own toolbox of best practices. If you’re worried that you don’t have enough experience, be patient. Being a project manager will bring you life lessons.

2. How to Read the Atmosphere
   In Japanese, the phrase 空気読めない (or kuuki yomenai – not able to read the atmosphere) is used to describe people who act or say the wrong things. For some people, reading the atmosphere comes to them as easily as swimming seems to come to baby seals. For others, it is something that must be worked at every day.

   When trying to introduce change (which can be part of your job as a project manager) knowing how to read the atmosphere can be the difference between getting agreement and walking away from a meeting feeling frustrated.For those who are challenged in reading the atmosphere, as I am, sometimes the best advice is listen to what’s being said before you speak.

   Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? 
Can you remain unmoving til the right answer arises by itself?
   - Tao Te Ching
   

3. How to Laugh at Yourself
   Do you have a tendency to fall into routines that you follow religiously? Do you become irritated when things don’t fall into place the way they “should”? It’s at times like these that I’ve found laughter to be particularly useful in shaking off the self-righteous pose I assume at those times.

   Laughter also helps me view the situation more constructively. If these flaws resemble you, it will help to find your funny bone underneath your irritation. Without a sense of humor, you will be miserable.

4. How to Learn from the Unexpected
   Sometimes right after you find out that the way ‘you’ve always done it’ won’t work here, you realize that you’re stuck. That’s the signal that it’s time to learn.

   Situations that show up unexpectedly can be things that you devoutly wish did not exist. This is when learning to step around the strong emotion (hate, anger, fear) so that you can learn from the mess can be very useful. Or you can sit in the strong emotion and stay stuck. Your choice.

5. How to be Flexible
   Now if you’ve managed to read the atmosphere, learn from a difficult situation and laugh at yourself, you may find that to get work done, you have to adjust your approach. The strength that brought you this far may be the weakness that will cripple you if you fail to be flexible.

   If you have to use a new tool, approach or method, do it graciously. Hanging on to what ‘worked’ before makes you look foolish and you miss out on an opportunity to learn. Everything in moderation, remember? Unless someone’s asking you to do something unethical (which I know you would never do because of the PMI Code of Conduct), give the new idea a shot. The world won’t end. Your view of what works may change, but that’s all good. Growth is the goal.

This is another short list. In your opinion, what things should a Project Manager know about themselves? Leave me a comment or send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.

בעת יישום שינויים ותוספות ( MAC -Modifications, Additions, Changes )  בחדרי מחשב, המכשלה העיקרית היא תשתית החשמל.  בישראל, בה מרבית חדרי המחשב נבנו טלאי על טלאי, זו מכשלה רצינית שמונעת ממנהל חדר המחשב את האפשרות להגיב במהירות לצרכי הארגון.

בביקורי האחרון בארה"ב אהבתי לראות את הסדר והגמישות התפעולית שמקנים להם פסי צבירה מודולאריים. כל כך אהבתי שיצרתי קשר מיידי עם החברה ( Starline ) ואנו מייצגים אותה בארץ בתחום חדרי המחשב.

זו מערכת המאפשרת חלוקת חשמל באופן מודולארי, בטיחותי וגמיש מאוד לכל ארונות השרתים. זו מערכת שניתנת להרכבה קלה מלמעלה או מתחת לרצפה הצפה. מאפשרת יתירות בצורה קלה מאוד ושינויים ניתנים לביצוע במהירות ובקלות גם על ידי עובדים שאינם חשמלאים.

בניגוד לחיבורי חשמל point to point, במערכת זו ניתן בעת שינוי או מעבר חדר , לפרק ולחבר מחדש בתצורה אחרת, כך שההשקעה נשמרת לאורך שנים.  כמו כן ניתן ליישם high density בקלות יחסית.

מערכות אלו מותקנות בחדרי המחשב של יבמ, סיסקו וסאן.

ראו סרט הדגמה. אשמח לקבל תגובות!

It’s the third week of the month again..
This week’s Bug on Windshield links are related to: Personal Effectiveness, Project Management, and Fun.

Personal Effectiveness:

• The Smart Way to Influence Your Boss
• The Art of Changing Easily and Gracefully
• How to Set Goals When you Have No Idea What You Want
• Leading from Your Values

Project Management:

• How to Keep Your Temper at Work (And Everywhere Else)
• 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
• 21 Ways to Excel at Project Management
• How do I get my 60 PDUs for PMP Re-certification?

Fun

• Cool Trailer from the 2009 Computer Animation Festival
• More from the Animation Festival – I love Animation and Graphics!
• Moment of Beauty: Ice Jellies
• The Ultimate Top 25 Chuck Norris “The Programmer” Jokes
• And Finally, A Project Manager’s Feed

That’s it for this month.  Leave me a comment, send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.

PMI-GLC offers 3 seminars in the month of November to build mastery in project management and leadership.  These seminars are focused on the topics that today’s project manager is faced with. 

Each seminar is offered after work from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM EST on Wednesdays.  Each seminar gives you 3 PDUs. You may choose to register for 1 seminar or all of them based on your requirements. 

Seminars will be offered at ESD, 20700 Civic Center Drive, Suite 450, Southfield, MI 48076. 

1. Strategic Planning and Project Management  (11/04/2009)

• Analyze the relationship between portfolio management, program management, and project management and the achievement of organizational strategic goals and objectives
• Explore the linkages between portfolio management, program management and organizational governance
• Discuss some project failures and successes to determine if a common thread exists that may lead to an understanding of the reasons behind failure vs. success
• Recognize the reasons for success and failure of projects and apply lessons learned

2. Dealing with Difficult People (11/11/2009)

• Identify various difficult personality types
• Understand the personal motivators and reasons for specific difficult personality types
• Understand the impact to yourself and your organization for specific personality types
• Learn best practices on dealing with several key difficult personality types
• Team exercise on dealing with difficult people

3. Agile Project  Management (11/18/2009)

• Recognize and explain what “Agile Project Management” is and know when to use it
• Know how to align roles, structures and processes to be in sync with Agile PM concepts
• Effectively identify risk management issues involving Agile PM
• Integrate Agile PM with Program and Portfolio Management Strategies. Strengthen Project Management knowledge and its relationship with organizational strategy

Member Fees: $85.00 for 1 seminar;  $150.00 for 2 seminars; and $185.00 for 3 seminars

Non-Member Fees: $105.00 for 1 seminar; $185.00 for 2 seminar; and $235.00 for 3 seminar

You can register for seminars here.

 On Friday the 8th I presented a repeat of the 1/2 day Seminar on the 5 Secrets to Leading a Project Dream Team.  This is the same seminar I spoke to in Hunstville , AL on the 6th.

The guest speaker for this seminar was Dr. Robert Rovinsky, Director of IT Enterprise Services in the Office of the CIO, FAA

Dr Rovinsky is a terrific person for this type of seminar.  FAA was on the GAO High Risk List for a long time and Dr Rovinsky was a major part of the fixing that situation by implementing program management standards (including EVM) on the FAA.  He presented a lot of information about what they were doing wrong and what they are now doing properly.

I loved his presentation.  First, he didn’t pull any punches.  For instance he mentioned the problem with the executives attitude and how the FAA brought in new executives (many from commercial companies) and started running the FAA programs like a business.  To my point of getting management buy-in he said you need to have •Easy Access to Data •Executive Training •Demonstrated Success in order to get the executive buy-in.

Second, he spoke to the fact that there was not enough internal expertise so they brought in a couple of major EVM consultants to help design and document processes and train everyone.

Third, he spoke to standardizing on processes and tools.  In other words the idea of  •Connecting Program Controls across the Organization •Standardize and Roll out Process •Continuous Improvement to support the user adoption.

In the lessons learned part of his presentation he said, •Better that Your Organization stays off the (HIgh Risk) List! •Pay attention to the reasons given and actions recommended •Make real changes, then justify them to yourself first •Be prepared for Program Manager’s denial, anger, bargaining and depression as well as skepticism •Agencies need three champions at three levels •It is not necessary (for all variances) to be green – variances are good.

This was a great meeting.  There were 10 to 1 contractors over federal agencies but there were a few agency representatives there.  There were product presentations as well as case studies to support the concepts presented.

On Thursday, September 24, I attended the Project Management Institute Southern Ontario Chapter (PMI-SOC) Monthly Meeting at the Hyatt Regency Toronto Hotel.  As a Project Management Professional (PMP), I must acquire 60 PDUs (Professional Development Units) every 3 years to sustain my PMP accreditation.  One PDU is approximately equivalent to one hour of Project Management content in the form of sanctioned training or events.  The monthly meetings are a great way of not only acquiring a portion of your PDUs, but provide a great forum for networking with peers.

On this special night, we were all privileged to have Warren Evans as our keynote speaker.  Warren Evans is a Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame inductee.  By applying his business experience and “trends blending” analysis, Warren has an uncanny knack at making accurate social and economical forecasts.  Warren is also Chair of the Board of Governors of Laura’s Hope, a global research fund accelerating clinical trials for treatments for Huntington’s Disease.  As such, the PMI-SOC made a charitable contribution on our behalf to Laura’s Hope.

Warren presented us with a tailored presentation called “The Future and What To Do About It” based on his “Where in the World Is the World Going” – Future Trends and Management Strategies presentation.

A Look at Where in the World the World is Going
This future trends presentation combines demographics, psychographics, corporate restructuring, technology, and globalization trends to dispel common myths about the future.  This presentation appeals to a wide variety of audiences, and has recently received high ratings at investment, travel industry, payroll, safety engineering and hospital association events.

All your plans will unfold against a backdrop of the major trends we see swirling around us. Recognizing opportunity, and leapfrogging the competitive pack, depends on understanding what is driving the macro-trends under the surface, and how they will interact with each other to impact your organization.

Economists analyze statistics; demographers do ages; techno-guru’s deliver the next ‘Oh Wow!’ thing. The reality is that these things are not happening in isolation. Evans’ work looks at how they are interacting with each other, to deliver fresh analysis and practical insights.

Warren Evans is a trends analyst and strategy consultant. His blue-chip client list runs from American Express through Microsoft and McDonalds to Zurich Insurance, and spans more than 20 countries on six continents. He brings to the platform a unique combination of genuine expertise and powerful delivery. His compelling information, practical ideas, upbeat approach and irreverent sense of humor have won him rave reviews around the world.

Warren Evans is available for bookings via prospeakers.com, formerly known as the Professional Speakers’ Bureau Inc.  You can view Warren Evans’s sample video here.

My Thoughts Enclosed…Rb

Overview

Warren’s presentation comprised mostly of major trends that he is currently following.  He has more detailed presentations were he delves deeper into key topics such as:

Personality is the Brand
How demographics and broadband are changing the realities of branding, and what leaders need to be doing to get ahead of the curve.

Hollywood Days and Cyber Knights
How psychographics and technology are changing the future of work, and re-shaping the recruiting wars.

The Next Service Revolution: It Started Last Thursday
How customer intelligence is setting new standards, and what you need to do to seize advantage and drive market share.

Three Generations; One Urgent Issue
How the corporate restructurings of the last decade have now created a different, and critical, priority for knowledge management.

Success Tomorrow
Why ‘character counts,’ ‘simplicity gets hot,’ and ‘risk reduction rules.’

For our purposes, the goal for the night was to look at the big picture from 30,000 feet and to get our collective noses out of the daily print of our focused tasks.  We would be looking at markets, businesses, and the world at large.  Warren Evans accurately predicted the 2005 “House of Cards” the befell our global economy.  Warren predicts that the recession will end quickly (relative term) and that Canada will emerge as a much stronger country especially compared to our neighbors to the south.

The Future and What to do About it.

Warren makes it very clear that there are two kinds of futurists:

• Those who don’t know
• Those who know…they don’t know

Warren states that he is firmly in the later camp.  Warren seeks to provide guidance through awareness about what is likely to happen.  He makes no qualms about the fact that he is not Omnipotent.

The process of predicting the future is to collect as much accurate and untainted information as possible and to appropriately perform trend analysis against the raw data.  This is no small feat, but one that is made much easier when you are willing to expand your awareness outside of your existing silos.  This is a fundamental tenet of Enterprise 2.0 in that the knowledge and collaboration that is accessible outside of your organization is exponentially larger than what is accessible within its established barriers.  It is with this mindset and global interactions that Warren performs “trends blending” to unbias conventional wisdom from future predictions.  The foundation of demographics based on you acting at 50 the way your father acted at 50 is fundamentally wrong.  As Warren outlines, ” this is not our parents future.”  The growing up experience of a child born in 1948 vs. 1968 vs. 1988 is fundamentally different.

Warren states that in this day and age, more people from more backgrounds in more locations are doing more stuff than in the history of human kind.   However, instead of fostering this creativity, the modern media is focusing exclusively on the negatives of our modern existence (e.g. Global Conflict, Nuclear Terrorism, Health Reform, Global Warming, Retirement Bankruptcy).  It is easy to forget that humans, let alone teens, may not have the context to deal with the amount of content their developing brain now has ready access to.  As such, there is a lot of angst being leveled at this emerging society as opposed to letting them spread their wings in this new Renaissance.

When you consider the large scale growth of countries such as India and China (Did You Know Shift Happens?), the sheer number of 20-30 year olds rival anything since the Baby Boomer generation.  The youth, who successfully embrace their new environment, will be those who solve these global dilemmas and earn the rewards that go with the innovation.  It is thus terrifying to think that we are not accurately preparing our future leaders for the world that they will either lead or simply follow.  Warren thus recommends that we actively spend the time talking to our future leaders about modern headlines to provide them with a sense of context, horizon, and perspective.  That way as Warren puts it, when the teen fairy brings back their brains at the age of 23-24, they will be prepared to tackle these opportunities with zeal and not fear.  Until then, the conversation will go something like this.

Son: Everything is different now. You can’t understand. When you were my age you didn’t have the Internet.

Dad: No, we did not. We invented the Internet. Let me share some insight. This is why my hair is gray.

Warren states that a recession “takes from the timid and the scared and gives to the creative and the bold.” In 12 to 18 months, the picking order will be quite different from when we entered this economic downturn during the largest collaborative upturn of our society.  As the majority keep their nose to the grindstone and put in 110% in a culture of mounting stress, it is the 15% who choose to reconfigure and realign themselves who will likely lead the pack.

This is a fundamental belief of mine, which I have actively embraced since my unfortunate unemployment this January.  While my past peers are falling behind with their daily chores and mounting discontent, I have taken the opportunity to home school myself during this economic downturn.  Not only did I acquire my PMP certification, but I have made huge inroads into understanding the impact of the Social Web and Web 2.0, the opportunities of Enterprise 2.0, and the pressing need for context via the Semantic Web within Web 3.0.  While Warrens professes that “success is more about courage than capability”, I would add that understanding of your environment and its opportunities ensures you are not blindly leaping due in part to large gonads.

An Organization’s Personality

Warren outlines that the personality of the organization is quickly becoming its brand.  Every organization and every engaged employee has a unique and marketable personality.  The easiest way to define the true personality of an organization is to listen to how they talk about their suppliers and clientele.  Sadly numerous organizations have been hammering the personality out of their organization.

I still remember to this day being chastised heavily for forgetting to remove my stud earring on a Monday morning back when I was working for EDS in 1992.  It was bad enough that I had to crew cut my hair for the job while I still had hair to cut.  While I understand the rational, to this day, I fail to understand how EDS opted to put a passionate proponent of PC-based development in an office full of green screen technophobes.  By the time, my 3 year contract with EDS was over, there were numerous organizations itching to take on the opportunities that EDS failed to envision and they gladly recruited my services as a GroupWare innovator.

The demise of EDS and subsequent acquisition by HP tells the tale of what happens when you fail to engage your clients at a personal level or your staff’s innovative perspectives.  A corporation must match the personality of its target audience yet everyone is unique in their own way.  My departing words of wisdom at the time was that if your client is a GM factory worker who drinks a beer at lunch, you are not going to be accepted into the fold if you are the only person at the table not having a drink.  Seek to engage your customer at a personal level and you will understand their personal needs and thus your untapped opportunities.

This is all mostly due to the old mindset that you must be as bland as possible to market to wide audience.  The days of large to large engagement doesn’t work the same way anymore.  There is an emergence of accessible fringe markets and tailorable marketing and commercialization algorithms to meet their demands.  An organization is now capable of attracting a large following of liked minded clientele from the emerging global market space with the same ease as a local market.

We are re-entering an era of old where “your reputation rules and your character counts.”  Everyone is now a free agent and as such are demanding that our leadership do the same.  The old defined professions based on professional expertise and access to networks are being challenged.  This is especially true in a world and time where everyone can talk about anything to anyone at anytime.  We live in a world where expert content is globally accessible and networks are socially integrated into our modern environments.

Per Warren, in today’s market, you no longer own your brand.  The marketplace owns it.  You cannot control it, but you can participate in it.  Your ability to monitor and successfully engage in organizational dialogue will become the battlefield that will define the true organizational personality and thus its sustainability.  In this modern day of viral content dissemination, by the time the conversation has started it is almost too late to remedy the situation.  How an organization fosters their culture will define their position in the future.  Whether the actions and support mechanisms are in place for this cultural shift will outline its successful transition.  Whether the corporate personality understood inside is as evident outside will be the testament of an organization’s personality.

Recently, I posted an entry on the Canada’s Wonderland Facebook Fan page about my displeasure with past Halloween Haunts due to overcrowding and poor organizational oversight (notice the lack of a link to their site .  This was quickly replied to by a few fellow fans who were also dissatisfied with the evolution of this normally great evening.  The social moderator of the fan page opted to simply delete these posts as opposed to addressing the concerns of the social web fans that they were specifically targeting.  I addressed my displeasure on the fan page with the means of dealing with discontent.  Afterward, I was able to engage in a twitter dialogue with @TO_CANADA on the subject.  Both of us were absolutely amazed by the lack of awareness of Canada’s Wonderland’s use of Social Web tools.  We both agreed that the social web requires an equivalent cultural mindset when wielding its double edge sword.  Canada’s Wonderland was in essence one twitter post away from having this social web faux-pas distributed to 28,000 followers in the Toronto region.

To fully understand the hazards corporations face in this modern time, I bring you the story of Dave Carroll and United Airlines.

United Breaks Guitars

Sons of Maxwell’s Dave Carroll song United Breaks Guitars not only tells the tale of how United Airlines botched their handling of not only his $3500 guitar. But, also how they botched the handling of his claim with the company.  The YouTube release of United Breaks Guitars surpassed 3 Million views in a mere 10 days.  The viral outburst prompted a very public battle between Dave Carroll voicing the support of the disgruntled community and United Airlines voicing their bewilderment of the sudden awareness to the power of social media.

Full Story: http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story… – In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didnt deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.

General Growth

It’s the third week of the month again…

If you’re new here, the third week of every month, I pull together all the links that I’ve run into since last month that made me think or laugh.

This week’s Bug on a Windshield links are related to Personal Effectiveness, Career, Communication and a little Fun. I’m so tired of being serious all of the time. The Recession is killing our joy.

Personal Effectiveness

• Six Ways to Grow Daily
• Top 10 Podcasts for Growth
• Do You Have a System for Thinking?
• Ways to Change Your Thinking
• Series on Fear of Failure
• 47 Ways to Fine Tune Your Brain

Career

• 100 Places to get great Career Advice and Life Advice
• Networking for Project Managers
• Free PDU Resources from PM Student

Communication

• Communication Skills to Break Down the Barriers
• Made to Stick Resources – a Great Book – now a free resource page

Fun

• Your Life as Story
• Quote Series on Agile
• Motivation Quotes from the Art of Manliness (Trust me on this one)
• The Cat’s Piano. A breather from the ordinary
• Moment of Beauty from September: 4:44 Minutes of Tokyo
• A Game: Questionaut – a Bit of Wonder, a Lot of Questions
• A Game: Guest House: Can you escape from a space station?

That’s all I have for this week.  If you have a question or comment, post one here or send me a tweet.  My id is jgodfrey.

Seguindo a linha do Kind of Blue vou começar a postar mais oldies. Desconheço grande parte de tudo, em todos os géneros, do que foi publicado pré anos 90. Ando a tentar descobrir algumas coisitas e sempre que se mostrem do meu agrado vou passar a publicar aqui.

Hoje trago Elektriktus, um grupo com apenas um lançamento, na extinta PDU (label Italiana pioneira na redistribuíção das primeiras releases alemãs de música electrónica e experimental em Itália. O material provinha essencialmente da Ohr e da sub Kosmische Kuriere.

O album foi gravado em Itália, não sendo possível dizer se o grupo é de facto italiano ou não. Incluí 8 faixas de composições em sintetizadores, claramente influenciadas pelo krautrock. Comparável aos primeiros trabalhos do milanês Roberto Cacciapaglia.

* Há uns pequenos glitches na faixa 6. Não consegui arranjar outra versão…

Review:

Often overlooked due to its much more well-known symphonic cousins, the electronic artist known as Elektriktus was a virtual iconoclast in mid 70s Italy, perhaps only approached by Roberto Cacciapaglia at the time. Finding more in common with Conrad Schnitzler than Klaus Schulze, Electronic Mind Waves sends shimmering waves of synthesizer patterns forward through a journey that is plotted out by flying, kicking off the voyage in “Frequent Departure Flying at Day-Break.” Some interesting things begin happening when stand-up bass begins improvising on “First Wave.” However, while Schnitzler’s music was often formless, Elektriktus gets the sequencers going pretty early on, and there is usually a sense of patterning going on throughout. The synths often shimmer in the background, and as the album progresses, it seems to grow quieter and more meditative. While thematically Elektriktus seems to have set up a conceptual motion, the music seems to sort of meander by the end of the album. Overall, a good piece that, perhaps, lacks a bit of distinction. Mike McLatchey

@ Gnosis 2000

http://rapidshare.com/files/240848500/ElectronicMindWaves.rar
ou

http://rapidshare.com/files/12503377/elektriktus_electronic_mind_waves_1976.rar

Spider from Morton Arboretum Big Bug Walk

There is a Buddhist proverb that says when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. In my life, books play a similar role. Books that have languished on my shelves for years now have insights that I know I’ve read over before.

At the library, I find books buried in the middle of a shelf that speak to an issue I’ve been thinking about for weeks. Other books come to me as recommendations at just the right time.

This week, I read a book recommended by PM Network.

Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth and Innovation, written by Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir, is a book that I will add to my collection and I recommend that you pick up a copy too.

My Takeaways

I measure a book’s value by the number of pages I copy before returning it to the library. When I copied more than 10 pages, I realized that I absolutely needed to have this book in my library. There are many valuable insights that are in this book, but a few of my quick takeaways are:

1. We need to take another look at our success criteria for projects
   
   The authors understand that the triple constraint all too often fails to capture whether a project has been successful or not. While I’ve read books that propose alternative success criteria, I like the five sets of measures they suggest:

   a) Efficiency: Schedule, Budget, Yield

   b) Impact on Customer: Meeting requirements, Benefits, Customer satisfaction and loyalty, Brand name recognition

   c) Impact on Team: Team satisfaction, morale, skill development, growth, no burnout

   d) Business and direct success: Sales profits, Market share, ROI, ROE, service quality, cycle time, Organizational measures, regulatory approval

   e) Preparation for the future: New technology, new product line, new core competency, new organizational capability

   I’m sure we’ve all been on projects where everything seemed to turn out ok, but it didn’t quite have the all-around positive effect the customer or the organization expected. Tracking and managing these measures might give us a more comprehensive view of project success. The program or project manager may not be able to directly influence all of these measures, they can influence people who do own them.

2. We need to take a look at how we identify a management approach for a project
   
   After the past few months, I’ve become even more convinced that moderation in all things is best. While I tweet on the PMBOK, Reality always intrudes on its guidelines and best practices. And while Agile can be useful on some projects, it doesn’t fit every situation. So how do you best determine which approach to implement?

   Reinventing Project Management suggests that by using what they term a “diamond approach”: evaluating a project by looking at its complexity, technology, novelty (is it a derivative or breakthrough product) and pace (is it a time-critical versus ‘crisis’ project), the organization would make better decisions about which processes/ approaches to implement. This idea alone made me want to make this book a permanent part of my book collection.

3. We need to expand our thinking on risk management
   

   In an earlier post, I recommended using a risk taxonomy to surface unknown or unexpected risks. The authors of Reinventing Project Management suggest that using the “diamond approach” (Complexity, Technology, Novelty and Pace) as a taxonomy, project managers will find unexpected risks that they can then mitigate in their plans.

   The value of using their paradigm as a taxonomy could be significant: by looking at a project’s technology, for example, a project manager might see a customer introduction/ support risk associated with bleeding edge technology that might not be as significant on a platform that is slightly derivative.

   Learning from other project managers’ years of experience is always a smart decision. Why continue to fall into the same potholes that someone else has already figured out how to step around? I highly recommend this for your library. Have a book to recommend? Leave me a comment or send me a tweet. My id is jgodfrey.

Workbench Melee

Originally uploaded by flattop341

When you’re in Transition, the last thing you want to think about is self-development – your focus is finding that next opportunity.

While keeping your skill-set up to date is probably one of the best investments you could make with your time and money, the longer you are in Transition, the more you want to conserve your cash for necessities.

Out of necessity, I’ve scrounged up a few on-line resources that can help you make the most of your cash and still get PDUs through training:

Completely Free Resources

1. Twitter: Twitter? I know, but following project managers or management experts who blog or tweet could give you leads toward other free webinars or conferences. Searching on hashtags could also uncover opportunities. Try searching on #pmot, #pmi, #pmiagile, #pm at Twitter Search (see the following example at: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=PMOT).
2. International Institute for Learning (IIL): the International Institute for Learning offers free webinars on project management, tools and practices.
3. Software Engineering Institute: SEI offers webinars hosted by SPIN (Software and Systems Process Improvement Network) on CMMI, risk management and other technical areas. I haven’t taken one of these webinars, but the list looks promising.
4. Gantthead: Gantthead offers videos on a number of trends, issues and topics of interest to project managers on their site at: http://www.gantthead.com/videos

Some Free…Some Not..All Good

1. American Management Association: AMA offers webcasts on a variety of topics, including leadership, management and project management.
2. InfoQ: InfoQ is a site for techies, but I like rooting around on it because they provide articles, interviews and conference presentations on a wide range of technical and management topics. Some of the conference presentations are PDU-worthy and most are free. As an example of what’s out there, look for Agile webinars at: http://www.infoq.com/agile/.
3. PMI (Project Management Institute) Special Interest Groups and Colleges: One of the many benefits of being a member of PMI is getting access to the resources offered by SIGs and Colleges. From my own experience, the Information Systems Special Interest Group (ISSIG) and the College of Scheduling (COS) offer webinars throughout the year. The only disadvantage to this resource is that you have to pay for membership to both PMI and the Special Interest Group or College to get access. Check out PMI and your SIG or College of choice. My recommendations: ISSIG or the College of Scheduling.
4. Software Best Practices Webinars: CAI (Computer Aid Incorporated) and the IT Metrics and Productivity Institute offer webinars that are free when they are live. Recorded webinars cost $29.99. I haven’t actually seen one of these, but the list looks interesting.

Stuff that won’t get you PDUs, but is interesting to follow:

Not that you have time to listen to things that are just “interesting,” but if you find yourself with a spare 15-minutes to an hour, check these two resources out:

1. Edgewise Podcasts: Just the other day, I listened to a 10-minute podcast from Marshall Goldsmith on Influencing Others. This might be a podcast worth following.
2. O’Reilly Webinars: O’Reilly media offers webinars on a variety of topics. Many of them are related to books they are publishing (obviously), but others are just interesting and might be of value to project managers. A few weeks ago I heard a webinar on making presentations that had great tips for presenting to virtual teams (You are a Natural Born (Visual) Storyteller) and a month earlier, I attended a presentation on leveraging Sharepoint for Project Management. Check them out at: http://oreilly.com/webcasts/.

These are a few of the resources I’ve able to find on-line. Does anyone know of other places to scrounge for PDUs? Let me know in the Comments or send me a Tweet. My id is jgodfrey.

I’m in the process of helping a group in the PMO make their submissions for PMI Professional Development Units (PDUs). All PMPs need 60 PDUs during a CCR cycle so don’t put it off until the last minute. In this case, they all participated in a workshop. If you want to collect PDUs, you’re going to need some kind of evidence. It might be a program agenda, copies of a publication, transcript, certificate, registration form… do I need to go on? This is actually for you in the event PMI audits you. In this case, participating in a workshop, the evidence is not required to actually complete the PDU request online.

Know your PMI ID #, Cert #, and Last Name on file with PMI.

Step 1: Log into the PMI homepage.
A Membership Status box will appear in the left navigation menu with the following data:
PMI ID No.:
Member Since:
Expires:

A Certification Status box will also appear in the left navigation menu with the following data:
PMP No.:
Earned:
Renewal Date

Within that Certification Status box, at the bottom, is a link titled “View PDUs”
[http://tel.occe.ou.edu/pmi/PMI_Member/PDUlogin.php3]

Step 2: Select the “View PDUs” link
Step 3: Enter your ID#, Cert#, and first four letters of your last name
Step 4: Select the “PMI PDU Self Report Form” radio button
Step 5: Select the “Login” button to continue
Step 6: Select the Activity you wish to claim (“2e” for participating in a workshop)
Step 7: Complete the entire form (know the knowledge area and process group)
Step 8: Select the “I Agree” checkbox and the “Continue” button
Step 9: Review for accuracy
Step 10: Select the “Submit” button

Go back and review your Online Transcript in a few days to verify your submission was successful
Repeat Steps 1, 2, and 3

At Step 4, select “PMI Transcript” radio button
Step 5: Select the “Login” button to continue to your Online Transcript

See, it’s not as hard as you thought!

Eligible Training hours

There’s a lot of confusion about the role of PDUs and the PMI exam eligibility requirements. The simple fact is PDUs are different to the hours of approved education needed to be eligible to sit for a PMI credential.

Approved education hours are accumulated by completing courses focused on the knowledge framework for the examination (basically the 9 knowledge areas of the PMBOK Guide for CAPM and PMP).  PMI requires the following:

• CAPM 23 Hrs of approved general project management education
• PMP 35 Hrs of approved general project management education
• PMI-SP 40 Hrs of approved education in the specialist area of project scheduling
• PgMP has no formal education requirements.

In the event of being audited, to prove to PMI your training is eligible you either need

• a certificate from a PMI approved Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) such as Mosaic
• or the course transcript showing the course covered the knowledge framework defined in the exam specification.

Eligible training hours are very specific, you can earn them by attending a classroom based course or participating in a web or email based course – it’s the course content that matters.  Eligible training does not have to be an exam preparation course, any combination of courses that cover the required knowledge framework count!

However, there is a significant difference between ‘eligible training’ and ‘effective training’.  Eligible training will allow you to apply for the examination.  To be reasonably sure of passing your examination specific preparation is essential (all PMI examinations have a fairly high failure rate). The purpose of a well structured exam prep course is to align your knowledge with the specific requirements of PMI’s mult-choice exam questions. For more on this see The Right Way, the Wrong Way and the PMI Way.

PDUs

PDUs are completely different – the requirements for PDUs are set out in the PMI Continuing Certification Requirements handbook (CCR). PDU stands for Professional Development Unit.

As a starting point, you can only earn PDUs after you have passed your exam. Exam preparation courses cannot provide PDUs for the credential you are studying towards: you have to complete the course to be eligible to sit the exam and can only earn PDUs after you have passed the exam.

In limited circumstances the study for another credential may earn PDUs; if a person already holds a PMP credential and is undertaking a course of study for the PMI-SP credential, the hours of training for the PMI-SP would earn PDUs for her PMP but NOT for her PMI-SP.

The only way for a PMP to earn PDUs from a PMP exam prep course is to take a second PMP exam prep course after you have passed your PMP. As a training organisation we can see some merit in this ($$$$) but practically there is no point.

The other key difference is PDUs can be earned from a very wide range of activities including attending conferences, participating in webinars, being a volunteer and writing papers as well as attending training courses. Similarly for a training course to earn PDUs it only has to be relevant to your work and associated with project management (eg, an ITIL course). This covers a very much wider spectrum than the focussed training needed to to earn the hours needed to be eligible for a credential.

Click here for more on earning and recording PDUs

Summary

• Most activities that improve your capability as a professional will earn PDUs.
• Only focused training based on the exam specification counts towards the training hours needed to be eligible for a credential.
• You must accrue the eligible training before applying for the credential
• You can only start earning PDUs after you have passed the credential.

For more information see:

• Earning and Recording PDUs
• Overview of the PMI Credentials
• Mosaic’s Mentored Email™ exam preparation courses 

Below details the testing of an Baetech ATS-11 series (ATS18A-30) ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch). The networking rack houses some devices that contain only one power supply. The main focus of testing this unit was to provided failover power capabilities to our stacked network switch cluster (Cisco 3750G). A few options were out there for lower (Amps) but would not work for our implementation. Cisco Redundant Power System were also evaluated, but were limited in their abilities. From what I remember, 6 devices could be plugged in, but the RPS would only be able to power 3 of the 6 devices. This would mean we would have to use 2-3 of these units to actually be fully backed up.

230 VAC, 30 Amp ATS with RS232 access

ATS18A-30 Specifications

The power input (2) on this unit (to the floor) are NEMA L6-30P (twist lock) plugs. We already had APC vertical PDUs in our racks and wanted to be able to integrate them with the ATS solution. This model contains NEMA L6-30R (2 female sockets) that allowed the APC metered PDUs to be plugged directly in.

Testing information
Due to limited resources for testing, only a 6 amp load was placed on the ATS switch. The following devices were used:

Initial login to the ATS system.

ATS-11 Series
(C) 2003 by BayTech

F3.04
Option(s) Installed:
True RMS Current
Internal Temperature
True RMS Voltage

Unit ID: ATS18A-30
Input Power Source:  1
     Average Power:  10 Watts 

True RMS Voltage 1:   209.1 Volts
True RMS Voltage 2:   208.3 Volts
  True RMS Current:     0.0 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     0.1 Amps

Internal Temperature:  29.5 C

Type "Help" for a list of commands

Below lists the commands that can be used while the serial mode is set to console on the ATS unit.

ATS-11>help

Status    --ATS-11 Status
Config    --Enter configuration mode
Source n  --Select the input power source, n=1 or 2
Current   --Display True RMS Current
Clear     --Reset the maximum detected current
Temp      --Read current temperature
Voltage   --Display True RMS Voltage
Logout    --Logoff
Logoff    --Logoff
Exit      --Logoff

Password  --Changes the current user password
Whoami    --Displays the current user name
Unitid    --Displays the unit ID
Help      --This Command

Type "Help" for a list of commands

Information before attaching the devices

ATS-11>status
Input Power Source:  1
     Average Power:       6 Watts
True RMS Voltage 1:   209.1 Volts
True RMS Voltage 2:   208.3 Volts
  True RMS Current:     0.1 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     0.1 Amps

Internal Temperature:  29.5 C

After attaching devices

ATS-11>
Unit ID: ATS18A-30

Input Power Source:  1
     Average Power:    1101 Watts 

True RMS Voltage 1:   208.7 Volts
True RMS Voltage 2:   208.8 Volts
  True RMS Current:     5.9 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     6.0 Amps

Internal Temperature:  30.0 C

Start of testing

ATS-11>current

  True RMS Current:     5.7 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     6.0 Amps

Below shows that we are currently running on power source 1

ATS-11>status

Input Power Source:  1
     Average Power:    1034 Watts
True RMS Voltage 1:   208.8 Volts
True RMS Voltage 2:   208.9 Volts
  True RMS Current:     5.7 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     6.0 Amps

Internal Temperature:  30.0 C

After failover test of source 1, below shows that the unit was failed over to the second power leg. This was completely transparent to ALL devices.

ATS-11>status

Input Power Source:  2
     Average Power:    1014 Watts 

True RMS Voltage 1:     0.4 Volts
True RMS Voltage 2:   208.2 Volts
  True RMS Current:     5.7 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     6.0 Amps

Internal Temperature:  29.5 C

Power source 1 was reconnected. The unit continued to run on source 2. For testing, source 2 was failed. As shown below, the unit automatically failed back over to source 1.

ATS-11>status

Unit ID: ATS18A-30

Input Power Source:    1
     Average Power:    1032 Watts 

True RMS Voltage 1:   208.8 Volts
True RMS Voltage 2:     0.6 Volts
  True RMS Current:     5.7 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     6.0 Amps

Internal Temperature:  30.0 C

Details one more time of current Amps.

ATS-11>current

  True RMS Current:     5.6 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     6.0 Amps

This unit has the ability to manually failover the power source via the console. Below confirms this ability. The input power source is currently 1.

ATS-11 Series

(C) 2003 by BayTech

F3.04
Option(s) Installed:

True RMS Current
Internal Temperature
True RMS Voltage

Unit ID: ATS18A-30

Input Power Source:    1
     Average Power:    1027 Watts 

True RMS Voltage 1:   208.7 Volts
True RMS Voltage 2:   208.9 Volts 

  True RMS Current:     5.6 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     6.0 Amps

Internal Temperature:  30.0 C

Using the “source” command, the unit is manually failed over to the other power source.

ATS-11>source 2

Unit ID: ATS18A-30

Input Power Source:  2
     Average Power:     956 Watts 

True RMS Voltage 1:   209.6 Volts
True RMS Voltage 2:   208.1 Volts 

  True RMS Current:     5.7 Amps
  Maximum Detected:     6.0 Amps

Internal Temperature:  30.0 C

Results:

All testing was completed without error. None of the devices reported any power problems or errors. The following were monitored:
- Each server via the RSA logging interface
- Cisco catalyst logs
- PDU interface and logs
- Visual inspection to check for booting indicators

The ATS was failed over from power source 1 to 2 without issue. Next source 1 was brought back online, and source 2 was failed. The switch failed back to source 1. Source 2 was brought back up and source 1 was failed again. This was performed approximately 5 times for verification. Also, manual failover utilizing the ATS serial console was performed without issue.

Notes: So this really works. I was somewhat sceptical initially, but now I am ready to put it into production. This is a great option for providing redundant power paths for servers or networking equipment that only has one power supply. I know that the single power supply units are still not truly redundantly powered, but at least this gives that single power fed unit a better chance. In this implementation, the power sources are redundant pathed under the floor at the colocation. This would work great also for a small office. Just feed one PDU to commercial building power and the other to a UPS unit.

I just read a VERY helpful blog post about getting PMP PDUs for free. A software consultant in Atlanta detailed how he was able to get 64 PDUs without spending any money other than time and fuel to travel. Thank you Coding Unknowingly for taking the time to help others.

Check out the post.

Sim, mais do mesmo nesse início calmo – até demais – de mandato parlamentar e presidencial. Nada de novo para o Gevê desde o último post. Falando nisso o inútil Departamento Ambiental Gevense já vai caindo no esquecimento, e, sou obrigado a falar: projeto mesquinho e ridículo, mostrar serviço desse jeito não vai dar certo.

E pior, com um projeto pífio.

Sobre o Gevê mesmo, nos resta falar sobre a criação da ALC, a Aliança Liberal Cristã,  o nome remonta a ALD, partido que deu origem ao Tory, resultado da fusão do grupo conservador gevense na época – faz teeeempo. Não dou dois meses para a ALC, Tory e PDU organizarem outra fusão entre a direita assim como a que elegeu Leonardo Faccioni. A esquerda, em contrapartida está “don’t worry”, como já disse Bob Marley.

Ah, em breve novidades nesse blog. =)

I just finished reading Tom DeMarco’s book, Slack: Getting Past the Myth of Burnout, Busywork and the Myth of Total Efficiency.  In his chapter on Risk and Risk Management, he outlined a nine-point test that he used to determine whether an organization was practicing risk management.  I wanted to share the nine points and then ask a couple of questions.

His nine-point test:

1. Is there a published census of risks?  Does the list contain the major causal risks, not just the few outcome risks that we all fear?  Is the risk list visible to all who are working on the project?  Are there enough risks on the list to indicate careful risk analysis?
2. Is there a mechanism in place to elicit discovery of new risks?  Is it safe for all involved to signal a risk?
3. Are any of the risks on the list potentially fatal?  Risk management that concentrates only on risks that can be handled makes a mockery of the notion of risk management.  It’s the fatal ones that need your most careful attention.
4. Is each risk quantified as to probability and cost and schedule impact?
5. Does each risk have a transition indicator allocated to it to spot materialization?  Is each transition indicator being monitored?
6. Is there a single person responsible for risk management?  Where the attitude is that everybody is responsible for managing risks, nobody is responsible for it, since all those people have got Real Work on their plates
   [Side note: Up to this point, I was feeling pretty good about my previous place of work.  We were on point and fairly focused on mitigating risk.  We were making progress toward the final three indicators by using Monte Carlo simulation to forecast project completion and mitigate risk, but we weren’t there yet.]
7. Are there tasks on the work breakdown structure that might not have to be done at all?  The absence of such conditional tasks are a sure sign of no risk management at work.
8. Does the overall effort have both a schedule and a goal, where the schedule and the goal are markedly different?  If the schedule is the goal, there is no risk management at work.  The earliest date by which the work could conceivably be done makes an excellent goal, but an awful schedule.
9. Is there a significant probability of finishing well before the estimated date?  If there is not – if there is no reasonable probability of finishing 20 or 30 percent ahead of schedule – the schedule is a goal, not an estimate.

I  love reading about risk management, so finding his nine-point test was exciting and eye-opening at the same time.  Then I wondered how many organizations would actually meet this standard.

• My question to you is whether you know of any organizations that would meet Mr. DeMarco’s test of risk management?
• How did they communicate the schedule to the customer?
• How successful were their projects?

Last week, Raven of Raven’s Brain asked all of us: Why are YOU are a PMP?

I’m glad she asked because it gave me an opportunity to rethink a decision I made back in 2002. Was it worth the effort passing the test and remaining a member of PMI?

When I became a project manager, I welcomed the idea of a set of standards and a guide. Getting the certification seemed an obvious next step. Six years later, I know from working beside great mentors that having a PMP is not necessary, but I still think it was worth passing the exam and remaining a member of PMI.

My reasons?

1. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) framework gives you a toolbox of very effective tools. Under the theory that what I don’t remind myself of I will eventually forget, I have started reviewing the PMBOK Guide to keep the commonly used tools at the forefront of my mind. Wisdom is knowing what tool to use when, but not knowing which tools are effective is to be at a greater disadvantage.
2. I appreciate the support PMI provides through the Special Interest Groups and Colleges. I get additional training and access to the knowledge of experienced Project Managers across my industry. As a member of the Information Systems SIG, I have access to free webinars on a broad range of topics throughout the year. Similarly the College of Scheduling has provided access to Best Practice papers and free webinars. This is the main reason I remain a member of PMI, other than my own issue with being a member of an organization that I’m certified by.
3. I appreciate the formal recognition that project management is a profession with its own set of standards and Code of Ethics. The PMP is a reminder to me that I am at work to add value to the business and to take myself and my responsibilities seriously.
4. To keep the certification current, you need to continue to grow as a project manager by continuing your education. Each PMP is required to earn 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) every three years to keep their certification current. If my curiosity weren’t enough to keep me moving forward, the need to earn PDUs gives me additional motivation to continue to grow.

I think getting the PMP was worth the effort. What do you think?

Is getting the certification worth passing the test?