PMP Exam Changes: What’s New

The PMP exam changes are approaching early 2016. Below is a Question & Answer segment discussing these changes. Q:   Why is the PMI changing the PMP Exam?  A:    In general, PMI periodically updates their certification exams as a result of two things:  the Role Delineation Study (RDS) and the Examination Content Outline (ECO), which is based …

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, BRMP

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-PBA, BRMP is the Director of Project Management for Watermark Learning. Andrea is an experienced trainer, facilitator, speaker, and project manager, with over 25 years of business experience. Andrea oversees certification and skills development curriculum in project management, business analysis, and leadership. She has been a speaker at IIBA® and PMI® conferences and is an active volunteer. She enjoys practicing what she teaches and has a steady stream of projects that she manages. Andrea is highly committed to partnering with her clients through projects, consulting, and training, and seeks to make every engagement enjoyable as well as valuable.

PMI Certification Changes What You Need to Know

PMI Certification Changes: What You Need to Know

There is no grass growing under the feet of folks at PMI.  And that’s going to have most of us hopping this summer and into fall as we work to make sense of what’s happening in the PMI certification world and the implications for each of us. First, PMI recently completed the first Role Delineation …

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, BRMP

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-PBA, BRMP is the Director of Project Management for Watermark Learning. Andrea is an experienced trainer, facilitator, speaker, and project manager, with over 25 years of business experience. Andrea oversees certification and skills development curriculum in project management, business analysis, and leadership. She has been a speaker at IIBA® and PMI® conferences and is an active volunteer. She enjoys practicing what she teaches and has a steady stream of projects that she manages. Andrea is highly committed to partnering with her clients through projects, consulting, and training, and seeks to make every engagement enjoyable as well as valuable.

What's Wrong With Lessons Learned Sessions

What’s Wrong with Lessons Learned Sessions?

What’s wrong with lessons learned sessions done at the end of a project? If the sentiments of my project management training students are any indication, plenty. The complaints are many and varied: “They take too long and we don’t have time.” “At that point, the project is over so people don’t really care anymore.” “By …

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, BRMP

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-PBA, BRMP is the Director of Project Management for Watermark Learning. Andrea is an experienced trainer, facilitator, speaker, and project manager, with over 25 years of business experience. Andrea oversees certification and skills development curriculum in project management, business analysis, and leadership. She has been a speaker at IIBA® and PMI® conferences and is an active volunteer. She enjoys practicing what she teaches and has a steady stream of projects that she manages. Andrea is highly committed to partnering with her clients through projects, consulting, and training, and seeks to make every engagement enjoyable as well as valuable.

What the 2015 Trends Mean for Business Analysis and Project Management

What the 2015 Trends Mean For Business Analysis and Project Management

In January we wrote an article like we do every year about the upcoming trends in business analysis and project management: Distributed leadership Design Schizophrenic approach to certification Innovation and entrepreneurship Changing culture through Agile team training Balance in project governance Making Agile work for organizations In our latest article, featured on Project Times, we …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

The Entrepreneurial BA Practitioner Part 1

The Entrepreneurial BA Practitioner Part 1

What do Business Analysis and Entrepreneurship Have in Common? If you are a BA, you may be wondering about your career options. To be honest, we all do that, but I tend to hear about career concerns from business analysts more than anyone. Should we aspire to be project managers when we grow up? That …

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, was the founder of and is now a consultant for Watermark Learning. He is a successful entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience in product development, business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. As an internal entrepreneur, Rich led the development of several Watermark Learning online products as a business analyst and product owner. Rich is a frequent speaker at Business Analysis and Project Management national conferences and IIBA® and PMI® chapters around the world. He has contributed as a lead author to the BA Body of Knowledge version 2.0 and 3.0 and was a lead author on PMI’s Business Analysis Practice Guide. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis.

It's Conference Season 2014!

It’s Conference Season 2014!

Fall is coming up quickly, and that means it’s national conference season! We find national conferences to be a great way to improve your skills and to grow you network. These are valuable to both individual practitioners and organizations. Admittedly, getting approval and funding to attend can be a bit tricky. Hopefully we can help …

Vicki James, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA

Vicki develops and maintains Watermark's Business Analysis Training programs and is an instructor for in-person and online classes. James has 15 years’ experience in the public and private sectors as a project manager, business analyst, author, and independent industry consultant and trainer, where her clients included Microsoft Corporation. She also spent time in the public sector successfully delivering projects to support governmental operations. James is co-author of Strategies for Project Sponsorship and contributor to The Complete Project Manager. She is president of the IIBA Seattle Chapter, and past vice president of the PMI Olympia Chapter.

Is a Watermark Learning Certificate Program Right for You

Is a Watermark Learning Certificate Program Right for You?

Getting your business analysis or project management industry certification is a notable accomplishment for individuals and a benefit to organizations. For organizations it helps promote consistency on projects and shows that practitioners working in the organization have a level-set understanding of important concepts. For individuals, it can make a big difference towards advancing your career. …

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, was the founder of and is now a consultant for Watermark Learning. He is a successful entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience in product development, business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. As an internal entrepreneur, Rich led the development of several Watermark Learning online products as a business analyst and product owner. Rich is a frequent speaker at Business Analysis and Project Management national conferences and IIBA® and PMI® chapters around the world. He has contributed as a lead author to the BA Body of Knowledge version 2.0 and 3.0 and was a lead author on PMI’s Business Analysis Practice Guide. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis.

3 Take Aways from PMI’s Pulse of the Profession Requirements Management

3 Take Aways from PMI’s Pulse of the Profession: Requirements Management

A planned requirements approach is essential to a successful and smooth-running project.  Just like the project itself needs a project plan, the requirements process needs a requirements plan.  This necessity has been recognized most recently in PMI’s 2014 Pulse of the Profession: Requirements Management – A Core Competency for Project and Program Success. According to …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

My PMI-ACP Journey

My PMI-ACP Journey

This week I added PMI-ACP® to my signature after passing my PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) certification exam. According to PMI, there were 5,999 active PMI-ACP credential holders worldwide as of June 30, 2014, and the certification is becoming increasingly popular as agile skills remain in high demand in the project management industry. Applying for …

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, BRMP

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-PBA, BRMP is the Director of Project Management for Watermark Learning. Andrea is an experienced trainer, facilitator, speaker, and project manager, with over 25 years of business experience. Andrea oversees certification and skills development curriculum in project management, business analysis, and leadership. She has been a speaker at IIBA® and PMI® conferences and is an active volunteer. She enjoys practicing what she teaches and has a steady stream of projects that she manages. Andrea is highly committed to partnering with her clients through projects, consulting, and training, and seeks to make every engagement enjoyable as well as valuable.

PMI-ACP Training for Project Professionals

PMI-ACP Training for Project Professionals

Why PMI-ACP Training? Today’s businesses are as diverse as the people running them, but they all operate in today’s business environment which is always changing, fast-paced, and customer-driven. In that environment, traditional project management approaches are often too cumbersome to adapt fast-enough to evolving customer needs. For many organizations and project teams, agile offers a …

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, BRMP

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-PBA, BRMP is the Director of Project Management for Watermark Learning. Andrea is an experienced trainer, facilitator, speaker, and project manager, with over 25 years of business experience. Andrea oversees certification and skills development curriculum in project management, business analysis, and leadership. She has been a speaker at IIBA® and PMI® conferences and is an active volunteer. She enjoys practicing what she teaches and has a steady stream of projects that she manages. Andrea is highly committed to partnering with her clients through projects, consulting, and training, and seeks to make every engagement enjoyable as well as valuable.