Reply to: Project Management qualifications....

[ThomasSoerensen]

As a permie I may as well make the most of paid courses in company time......

What are thw respected project management ones to go for? Working in QA as part of governance I work closely with PM's, so, seems reasonable to get a qualification in that area....

Heard about ISEB project management Prince II.

We happen to use End2End - is there a recognised qual for this?

Will put me in much better stead for my planned return to the dark side in a couple of years.....

Is that new speak for gay?

[Tensai]

Experience requirement

Worth bearing in mind that you can be awarded PRINCE2 without experience, but the PMP qualification requires practical PM experience, 3 years if you have a degree, about 5 if you don't. You need to have referees etc. More details here.

HTH

[Papa Maji wa Maji]

Pm

bin using Prince2 for 8 yrs, find it OK
Come across several companies that use " their own" methodoligies but these invariably end up being an extraction of Prince or MSP

[RichardCranium]

The commute is not the best - however, I leave at 6am, get there for 7, and leave at 3pm, back home for 4:15-ish, so, not as bad as it seems. Just a case of remembering to get to bed early enough!

So.... Which one to go for? APM or Prince 2? There seems to be a case for both.... In Testing it is ISEB, all the way!

PRINCE2 is requested more often on Jobserve and more well known in the UK.

[Wilmslow]

Prince2 you can self study, but I wouldn't recommend it, the book isn't a good read. Doable for Foundation level if you get other resources on top of the expensive (and rather crap) OGC published Prince2 book.

APM while you can self study if you have a lot of time, there are multiple modules and it's more academically involved. You also need exam practice to stand a chance of not totally wasting your exam fees which aren't cheap.

I've taken a quick look at the End2End site and the methodology has obviously been distilled from a blend of Prince2 and APM, but that's hardly a surprise since all PM methodologies have so much in common for obvious reasons.

Commuting to Bradford or Leeds (depending which supermarket HQ you're working at) can't be much fun from South Manchester.

The commute is not the best - however, I leave at 6am, get there for 7, and leave at 3pm, back home for 4:15-ish, so, not as bad as it seems. Just a case of remembering to get to bed early enough!

So.... Which one to go for? APM or Prince 2? There seems to be a case for both.... In Testing it is ISEB, all the way!

[London75]

If you want End2End work, Royal London Group in Wilmslow use the methodology semi-religiously, not because it's good particularly but because it cost them a fortune! A CV to them direct at some point probably wouldn't hurt. They frequently get contractors.

[TykeMerc]

Prince2 you can self study, but I wouldn't recommend it, the book isn't a good read. Doable for Foundation level if you get other resources on top of the expensive (and rather crap) OGC published Prince2 book.

APM while you can self study if you have a lot of time, there are multiple modules and it's more academically involved. You also need exam practice to stand a chance of not totally wasting your exam fees which aren't cheap.

I've taken a quick look at the End2End site and the methodology has obviously been distilled from a blend of Prince2 and APM, but that's hardly a surprise since all PM methodologies have so much in common for obvious reasons.

Commuting to Bradford or Leeds (depending which supermarket HQ you're working at) can't be much fun from South Manchester.

[Wilmslow]

Spooky, I am no doubt sat upstairs from you right now Wilmslow (me being in Wilmslow at a company currently using End2End, and lets face it how many others would!)

I did Prince 2, go full hog and do the week long course, the 2 day is worth nothing.

I'm contracting now, up in Finance, left about a year ago! Give you any clues?

Wish I was working in Wilmslow - live there, but commuting to a well known supermarket in Yorkshire these days!! Would LOVE to be more local though....

Speaking to peeps at work, looks like APM is as close as I will get to E2E maye more so than Prince 2.

Are Prince 2 and APM both easy enough to self study? I am planning to get both, one as a course through work, the other as self study and sit the multi-guess myself. Which one is the best one for work to pay for??

[London75]

Spooky, I am no doubt sat upstairs from you right now Wilmslow (me being in Wilmslow at a company currently using End2End, and lets face it how many others would!)

I did Prince 2, go full hog and do the week long course, the 2 day is worth nothing.

I'm contracting now, up in Finance, left about a year ago! Give you any clues?

[Peter Loew]

Peter, do you have to be a full member or can you be an associate member to use MAPM?

Full member.

[TykeMerc]

Peter, do you have to be a full member or can you be an associate member to use MAPM?

Full Members (and Fellows obviously) only I believe.

[HermanDune]

I have PRINCE2 and am now able to put MAPM after my name simply by joining the APM. Appearances will take you places.

P

Peter, do you have to be a full member or can you be an associate member to use MAPM?

[ace00]

PMI professional, PMIP. Always makes me larf.
I'm still waiting for the Cisco Unified Networking Technology qualification. One fine day....

[Peter Loew]

At the end of the day the discussions over what qualification is better or more relevant to real life PM is irrelevant; agents and potential clients want to see them on your CV, so be it. PRINCE2, APM and PMI are the more popular.

I have PRINCE2 and am now able to put MAPM after my name simply by joining the APM. Appearances will take you places.

P

[Wilmslow]

Wilmslow odds are very high that End2end is a bespoked version of Prince2, that being said Prince2 is merely a methodology not a method and you're supposed to use the bits that you feel are appropriate to your specific project and bin the rest.
A Prince2 course will NOT teach you how to manage projects, it will teach you the names of the bits of the methodology, a bunch of buzzwords and assuming your trainer is any good some ways in which to apply the methodology to example project scenarios.

In reality most of the PM qualifications centre around unavoidably common concepts which any PM worth his salt will apply anyway no matter if he's attended 0 or 10 courses.

Yeah, very familiar with the worth his salt thing - excatly the same in testing - even the agents have the ISEB foundation these days, yet, it gives hirers a nice warm fuzzy feeling to know they have it.

Think I will put in a request for Prince 2 training. If nothing else, it is a couple of days out of the office!