Prince2 Practioner

[Alf W]

I've always liked the irony that you can be accredited as a 'Practitioner' by passing a theory exam.

Like most accreditations these things are only of any use to keep certain training companies in business. Up there with MBAs and BCS membership in my view. Pointless.

[TykeMerc]

I've always liked the irony that you can be accredited as a 'Practitioner' by passing a theory exam.

True, it's fairly absurd.

Like most accreditations these things are only of any use to keep certain training companies in business. Up there with MBAs and BCS membership in my view. Pointless.

Not quite pointless, but at least 95% about a tick in the box for CV purposes.
There were a couple of things I learned while studying for the exam which I hadn't thought through as a practical PM. It did teach me to pay closer attention to the Business Case and formally think about product based planning, that's about it.

[malvolio]

Agreed, you can always learn something. It does grate, though, that I've delivered various multi-million pound programmes and still get asked if I'm qualified... I learned the original PRINCE back in the 80s as part of a career development programme, so never actually got an accreditation. Really can't be bothered to try and get one now, especially since you can pass it without ever having delivered anything.

As for building the income of the training companies - nobody will ever persuade me you need three layers of exam passes costing around £6k to get an ITIL Managers certificate under v3...

[TykeMerc]

As for building the income of the training companies - nobody will ever persuade me you need three layers of exam passes costing around £6k to get an ITIL Managers certificate under v3...

Indeed, I've considered doing ITIL certs, but I'm damned if I'm going to shell out that much. I've done enough Service Delivery over the years it wouldn't hurt to have the cert and to pick up the bits that I'm bound to have missed.

[Francko]

Single biggest risk to any project, and frustration to all working on such projects are wannabe PM's and / or someone bull******* about their 'experience'.

Unfortunately the most of them were technical people who would be out of the job now because of higher competition. I blame the .com bubble.

[Naaarwich]

When I sat my Foundation exam most of the candidates finished early and all passed. When we sat the Practitioner exam not one of us even had time to open the 'Managing Successful Projects' manual let alone leave early.

I did notice that the two candidates with the highest Foundation scores were the ones who had no experience in project management and had virtually no people skills - I'm sure they're running projects in the civil service right now - budget and time-scales blown and the only thing they're likely to deliver are well written Exception Reports.

[original PM]

PRINCE2

The art of writing reports about why all of your projects fail.

[cojak]

Agreed, you can always learn something. It does grate, though, that I've delivered various multi-million pound programmes and still get asked if I'm qualified... I learned the original PRINCE back in the 80s as part of a career development programme, so never actually got an accreditation. Really can't be bothered to try and get one now, especially since you can pass it without ever having delivered anything.

As for building the income of the training companies - nobody will ever persuade me you need three layers of exam passes costing around £6k to get an ITIL Managers certificate under v3...

That's why I did the last of the v2 Manager's Certificate -around the same time that you were saying to me that "I don't need the paper -I've got the experience".

It's called 'playing the game' Mal.

Don't be so proud next time I suggest something...

[George Parr]

That's why I did the last of the v2 Manager's Certificate -around the same time that you were saying to me that "I don't need the paper -I've got the experience".

It's called 'playing the game' Mal.

Don't be so proud next time I suggest something...

WSS

You need both. Exams are much harder to lie about than experience. Given the massively oversupplied market, clients will choose qualifications and experience, they'd be fools not to.

Yes, it does line the pockets of training providers but life isn't always fair.

[Svalbaard]

PRINCE2

The art of writing reports about why all of your projects fail.

What an utter pile of crap.