Elizabeth Harrin's Blog, page 31

How to Become a Project Manager in 2023: 3 Ways to Get A Job (with examples)

The projects that you read about in the media are often high profile, with budgets in the multi-millions or even billions. They all seem to be led by highly experienced project managers who have the confidence and skills to deal with the complex sociopolitical environments of their projects, international and virtual teams and other factors that make their work particularly challenging.

When faced with that view of projects, you might wonder how people ever got started. But all those high-profile leaders got started in the same way that you can: managing smaller initiatives, practicing their core skills and learning through training and on the job.

That’s how to become a project manager in a nutshell, but in this article I’ll explain three routes to entering the profession and share the stories from 5 people who chose project management as their career.

Table of ContentsHigher EducationHow to get into project management without a degree option 1: ApprenticeshipsHow to get into project management without a degree option 2: Direct EntryCertifications to boost your chances of securing a roleCertification options for more experienced rolesProject management skills required for your first jobHow to get into project management with no experience: Project Coordinator JobsMoving sideways into project managementGaining experience to become a project managerTip: Join a professional associationHow they did it: 5 project managers share their stories of getting a jobEmma Seaton-SmithMayte Mata-SiveraDonna UnittElise StevensFrances Place

If you talk to project managers or read through the interviews in my book, Project Manager, you’ll realize that there are as many ways to start a project management career in the field as there are people. However, there are three common ways of entering the job market in a project management role:

Through higher educationThrough an apprenticeshipThrough direct entry.Higher Education

There are lots of undergraduate degrees and postgraduate certificates and degrees with a project management concentration. Further education is generally what people think of first when they consider how to become a project manager.

Whether you opt for a module of project management within a degree in a different discipline, or take one with a high proportion of project management, is up to you and will depend on the direction you see your career taking.

Here are my thoughts on whether or not you need a degree.

A project management individual module is definitely worth considering because even if you don’t end up in a ‘full’ project management role, you can guarantee that most jobs these days will require you to be able to plan and organize your own work and possibly the work of other people as well.

Majoring in project management or taking a combined degree program could also give you a professional qualification (or the background and education required to be able to sit the exam for a professional qualification).

That’s a way to round out your education so it’s worth considering if your chosen degree course will count in any way towards industry qualifications.

How to get into project management without a degree option 1: Apprenticeships

An apprentice is an employee whose company receives funding to train them and to put them through professional assessments. It’s on the job training with support for structured learning too, and it’s a great way to get into project management with little previous practical experience.

There are two English apprenticeship schemes that also give you the APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ):

The Level 4 Associate Project Manager Apprenticeship The Level 6 Project Manager Integrated Degree Apprenticeship (which will also see you qualifying with a BA/BSc Project Management degree).

Over your time as an apprentice, you’ll develop the skills and behaviors required to succeed in the job, and these are assessed during a presentation and discussion-format interview at the end of your apprenticeship.

The Higher Apprenticeship in Project Management at level 4 is available within Scotland and Wales. This also includes a professional qualification, the EAL Level 4 Diploma in Project Management which equates to IPMA Level D.

Don’t discount an apprenticeship – it’s a solid way to gain experience at a large organization and get a certification at the same time.

Don’t discount an apprenticeship – it’s a solid way to gain experience at a large organization and get a certification at the same time.

How to get into project management without a degree option 2: Direct EntryYou can’t walk into managing a multi-million pound project, but there are plenty of entry level jobs that will give you the experience you need to work up to that.

Look for jobs advertised as project coordinators, project office assistants or junior or trainee project management roles within technical functions. These are all involved in the discipline of managing projects, and with some experience you’ll be able to move into managing larger projects by yourself.

This is the route I took. I simply applied for jobs and found one at an entry level that needed skills I could already demonstrate through my previous work experience.

Certifications to boost your chances of securing a role

There are a number of project management certification schemes run by professional bodies like PMI and APM. It’s important to review the available certifications and choose one that employers in your industry and country value. Check a few project management job descriptions to see what employers are looking for.

The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®) is a good entry level certification if you have limited project management experience, and PRINCE2® Foundation is another formal training option you can take without any practical experience. APM also has entry level certifications.

Most of these you can do as an online course with an exam.

Certification options for more experienced roles

As you move on through your project management career, you’ll be looking at something more robust that evidences your experience, like the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification or PMQ.

As you develop further through your career, for example becoming a program manager or leading complex projects, you can take additional certifications that fit the job you are in.

Project management skills required for your first job

Project managers use a huge range of skills including:

Time management: being able to schedule the work on the Gantt chart or other type of schedule and also managing your personal time effectively to get stuff doneOrganizational skills: being organized, methodical and never dropping the ball!Technical skills: these are the skills you’ll learn on a project management course like risk management, how to create a project budget, stakeholder engagement and moreSoft skills: this is a bucket category for everything to do with working with others, from leadership to engaging the project team, conflict resolution, negotiating and influencingCommunication skills: presenting information, written and verbal – you’ll use these on a daily basisInformation technology skills: you’ll need to be able to use collaboration tools, a project management tool (don’t worry about learning a particular one before you get a job as there are SO MANY), scheduling software and all the normal Office applications for spreadsheets, documents, file management and email.

A project manager job is going to involve all of these and more, so focusing on building your transferable skills is a worthwhile activity if you want to land your dream role.

The good news is that you can get evidence of them to talk about in interview from your school work, college projects, volunteering or any kind of job and work experience because they are universally applicable.

Tip: Being proactive is probably the most important skill for a project manager. If you don’t know how to do something, you have to be able to Google it. You must be able to find out, pick up the phone, ask someone and get off your backside to get the work done.

How to get into project management with no experience: Project Coordinator Jobs

Project coordinator, or a role with a similar title that has the objective of assisting a project manager or team of project managers, is a very good entry-level position for people who want to become a successful project manager, even if you have no experience.

You could also look at roles with the title of Assistant Project Manager or Project Assistant.

Let’s look at that in a bit more detail as it’s a great first step.

The role

Working on larger projects in a support position to assist with whatever the project manager, wider team and senior management need.

This could range from being in charge of updating documentation, making travel plans, organizing meetings and taking minutes, calling team members to gather status reports, managing the project management software tools for the team, and anything else.

It’s a hugely varied job.

The projects

These will vary depending on your industry and the company and team you work within. You may be able to manage small projects on your own in this role, especially if they are initiatives the business does regularly, such as updating a system, where there is a defined project plan and the work is low risk.

Find junior project manager positions on Jooble’s website.

Watch out for…

Being a general dogsbody. There’s a lot of admin in project management and much of it can be offloaded on to the project coordinator. However, that shouldn’t mean you get all the horrible jobs.

A good employer will ensure that you have the opportunity to work-shadow experienced project managers and be exposed to different areas of the team to ensure you are growing your skills. A not-so-good employer could end up treating you as a glorified secretary. That’s not what project management is all about.

Tip: Ask about the project manager career path available at the company. Ideally, they’ll have a competence framework or career model that will clearly lay out what you need to do to move up the ranks and earn more money and get responsibility for larger projects.

Your next step after a coordinator role should be a junior project manager, or even a project manager.

Moving sideways into project management

Let’s say you already have professional experience. You can move sideways in your organization, or into another organization, to take on a project management role.

I’ve seen this with software developers. After becoming skilled at managing their own work and the work of their teams in a project setting, they move into an IT project management role and do very well at it.

You don’t need years of experience either. Just a little bit of experience in an operational or functional role will give you loads of stories and exposure to the world of projects – which is also good to see if you are a good fit for the job and if you would enjoy it.

Great project managers love the job as well as having the skills to do it, so that’s a huge factor in deciding if this career is for you.

Take a long look at your current job and see what aspects of project management are in there – then capitalize on those a much as you can until you secure a new role.

Great project managers love the job as well as having the skills to do it, so that’s a huge factor in deciding if this career is for you.

Gaining experience to become a project manager

If you know you want to become a project manager, you can start gaining experience now, even before you put yourself out there for jobs.

Build up your experience at home: if you are keen to learn the principles and tools, why not have a go with products like Microsoft Project, Trello or Asana to make a simple project plan for decorating a room or planning an overhaul in the garden, for example?

Similarly, you can also use project management approaches in your current role – even if that is nothing to do with project management. Look for opportunities to manage work in a structured way and use project management principles to support that.

These are good ways to build up something to talk about at interview and to show an employer that you are interested in project management as a career, while you work on securing a role.

Tip: Join a professional association

Join the professional association for project managers in your country and sign up to all the newsletters.

Read everything you can. Go to all the online webinars and meetups. It’s a great way of building a network and getting more exposure to what the world of project management is really like.

Plus, student and associate members often get discounts on membership, so check out what’s on offer.

How they did it: 5 project managers share their stories of getting a job

Reading about what you should do to break into project management isn’t the same as hearing real stories of people who took that leap and got that project management job.

Below, I share 5 stories from my book, Project Manager. Each project manager talks about their career journey and how they got into project management.

I hope that by reading how other people made their opportunities, you’ll be more easily able to see how to get into project management from where you are.

Emma Seaton-Smith

Emma moved into IT project management from a clinical background working as a radiographer. She explains how she made the transition into project management (UK).

Emma Seaton Smith

After my first degree in jewellery design, I researched the possibility of doing Graduate Entry Medicine, but I was excited by radiography and the visual element of beautiful images really attracted me. I wanted to combine these interests and apply them in a very practical profession.

I was a radiographer for nearly a decade. I wouldn’t use the cliché of ‘I fell into IT project management,’ but there was a gap in the needs of a changing business where I picked up the slack. The medical imaging company I worked for was bought and as a radiography manager there, I took on a key role in integrating our radiology imaging IT systems into the parent company. I also worked through each of the hospitals in the parent company to get them live with our imaging service.

When my role was made redundant, the parent company took me on in a project manager’s role. It was a job role I’d seen others doing and aspired to. I hadn’t realized how much my skills were valued, so I was thrilled when it was offered.

I completed the PRINCE2® qualification soon after I started my IT role. As a new project manager it helped me to become familiar with the elements of a project and formalize my processes and documentation. I learned the language of the profession, which is a fundamental tool in any career.

Project management is transferable across so many different industries, so even if you move on, the skills you learn will be invaluable to any job role you do in the future.

Mayte Mata-Sivera

Mayte ‘found’ IT project management after studying chemical engineering. She describes how she built her skills in a new area.

Mayte Mata-Sivera

A lot of people ask me how I developed my career in IT after six hard years at Chemical Engineering School in Valencia, Spain. I’m one of those examples of coincidences in your life that help you to discover a career path that you really love.

A week before my graduation, one of the big 5 firms in the IT world reached out to me, offered me an internship plus a free tuition for SAP course. I struggled for days about accepting the offer, but I did take it in the end. I was not very tech savvy, but thanks to my mentors and coach in the company I learnt not only IT but also leadership skills that I continue to use and develop today.

After my experience in several IT organizations, I’ve realized that my passion is being a great project manager. There are some myths about project management. It’s not just spending the day in front of the computer sending emails with due dates! It is also engagement, communication, leadership…I want to be one of those who really inspire the team, one of those who creates more leaders. 

For developing some of my skills as project manager, I used not only my personal and professional network, but also social media platforms like LinkedIn and projectmanagement.com. They gave me the availability to choose the project that I wanted to lead, the group of people that I love to work with and to create a team. Also, using social media, I developed mentorship and coaching relationships with people around the world that helped me learn something new every day.

Donna Unitt

There are lots of different ways that people gain their certifications. Donna explains how she gained hers (UK).

Donna Unitt

I was a super user at my company and then moved into an IT project management role. I took my APMP [now PMQ] qualification which definitely helped me manage projects. I also took the PRINCE2® Practitioner qualification which was good to have as it is widely recognized and has a solid methodology, but I use those concepts less in my day job today.

In IT project management, it’s not the technical side that’s most important. It might have been like that once, when people came into the role from a pure IT background, but it’s not the case any longer. Now it’s about being organized, driving the work forward, communication and engagement.

Part of my role is educating others about why we need to follow a methodology, how our processes set us apart from our competitors and how much customers value the repeatable and proven approaches we take to deliver consistently and minimize risk.

Once I was in an IT project management job and had gained my project management qualifications I then went on to do a Masters in Technology Management. Put like that, it sounds like I did them the wrong way round but that path made the most sense for my career! My degree helped me understand how systems and infrastructure fit together.

I’ve recently done a change management course as well.

Elise Stevens

IT project management is a truly flexible career. Elise, organizational change management coach and project management podcaster extraordinaire, explains her career path (Australia).

Elise Stevens

When I left university with a degree in electrical engineering I went to work for Qantas on business-type projects. I spent two years working in Germany and then worked for another airline as a senior analyst, then programmer, then team leader and then moved into project management. I was gradually getting more experience and I took a Microsoft Project course.

Then Y2K hit. I was able to move into IT project management roles, grow my skills and through a succession of jobs, became a program manager. I took the Managing Successful Programmes course to support that. Much of it didn’t feel relevant but it did give me a framework for defining a program as more than the sum of the component projects and other useful tools. I did get value out of it.

In this program management role, I had challenging stakeholders, which reflected what was going on in the organization at the time. It was a complex political environment and I got to understand the drivers behind people’s actions. In particular, people didn’t want to collaborate and were happy to work in silos. I used my organizational change skills – everything from showing stakeholders how to use One Note to scheduling to organizing testing and training.

Today I’m in an organizational change role and I coach project managers. Technology isn’t the answer in situations like that one, where the organization was broken. I seep into the business and do what’s required to ensure projects are successful.

Frances Place

Frances is Account Director at digital agency White October. She explains how she’s learned new skills over her project management career (UK).

Frances Place

I’ve worked on many projects with teams dutifully following lists of fixed requirements, only to discover we’re going off in different directions because we’ve misunderstood the vision, or we’ve missed a detail because the requirements aren’t exact enough.

Agile consultant Jeff Patton created user story mapping: a visual way to outline, sort, and prioritize what you need to do. It’s a dynamic way to capture changing requirements in the context of the vision that briefs and engages the whole team in the process.

I have been using this technique for over a year and I now can’t start a project without it – it is an invaluable tool for us.

After years working on project teams, there’s no doubt in my mind that a shared understanding and clear vision for the scope of a project, at the outset, is crucial.

Good luck with your job search, and here’s hoping you become a project manager very soon!

This is an edited extract from my book, Project Manager, published by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. You can get a copy on Amazon here or from the publisher’s website where BCS members get a discount.

This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

MPlaza PRINCE2® Foundation Online Course Review (for 2023)

Welcome to my Mplaza PRINCE2® Foundation review! I owe a lot of my confidence as a project manager to the PRINCE2 course I took many years ago. It gave me all the basics, the jargon, and ability to plan and manage a project.

BUT… it’s hugely important to choose a good quality course. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have had bad experiences with PRINCE2 training providers… and that’s a lot of wasted money.

In this PRINCE2 Foundation Management Plaza review for soon-to-be project managers, I’ll share:

Whether the course lives up to the hype (spoiler: it does)Why it’s especially good for early career project managersHow long you’ll need to spend studying before you can expect to pass the exam.

I’ve spent many hours reviewing the materials and going through the lessons so you can save time in your own course evaluation.

If you want to learn more about my thought process for validating online training, I have written before about how to choose a PRINCE2 course online, and that explains what I think is important for virtual training.

With the Foundation course, you can study in your own time and build your confidence for the exam. Many competing course packages give you fewer hours of material or don’t include the exam fee and don’t come anywhere close to Mplaza’s quality.

It even includes access to an active Facebook group where Frank – the lead trainer – is active pretty much every day.

Who is PRINCE2 Foundation for?

PRINCE2 Foundation is the entry-level course for early-career project managers. You don’t need any prior knowledge or pre-requisite study in order to study and sit for the exam.

When I took my first PRINCE2 course, I did a 2-day classroom course and then sat the Foundation exam on the following morning.

Foundation is a great entry point for people who work in a PRINCE2 environment or who want to learn more about a process and principle-led approach to managing projects.

Despite the fact that you don’t need any prior experience, I think it would be helpful to have at least some knowledge of working in projects. PRINCE2, like any project management course, includes a lot of jargon. While no knowledge is assumed, you will find it easier to grasp the concepts if you do have some basic understanding of project work.

Note: If you are planning to do Practitioner soon after your Foundation exam, don’t buy this training. Get the PRINCE2 Practitioner online course instead. That one will cover you for both exams.

About the course and structure

This course offers everything you need to learn PRINCE2 and prepare for the PRINCE2 Foundation exam. It even comes with Pass Guarantee!

The videos are available in English and French, with optional subtitles (in English or French). There is also a time-stamped transcript which I found very useful, especially if you have to stop a lesson because you need a study break for whatever reason. The timestamps make it super easy to find where you need to start from when you return to the class.

The PRINCE2 Foundation course online is structured in a logical way. There is a link at the end of each lesson to take you to the next lesson.

The first 18 lessons are free so you can check out the teaching style and make sure the course is a good fit for you.

You should expect to take about 21 hours to work through the course content, perhaps longer if you do all the relevant reading and exercises.

Which PRINCE2 Foundation training package is right for you?

Mplaza offers three options for people who want to study for and pass the Foundation exam.

Best Choice     PRINCE2® Foundation, Online Course and Exam PRINCE2® Foundation Exam Simulator PRINCE2® Foundation Official Exam Description:

A comprehensive and accredited PRINCE2® Foundation online course, including exam voucher and simulator access.

eLearning CourseExam SimulatorPass GuaranteeOfficial Exam (online) Description:

A confidence-boosting set of mock exam questions to prepare you for the PRINCE2® Foundation exam in realistic test conditions.

Exam Simulator Description:

Purchase a voucher to take the exam online and receive access to the exam simulator and training manual.

Exam SimulatorTraining ManualOfficial Exam (online) £474 £54 £384 Buy Now Buy Now Buy Now Best Choice PRINCE2® Foundation, Online Course and Exam Description:

A comprehensive and accredited PRINCE2® Foundation online course, including exam voucher and simulator access.

eLearning CourseExam SimulatorPass GuaranteeOfficial Exam (online) £474 Buy Now PRINCE2® Foundation Exam Simulator Description:

A confidence-boosting set of mock exam questions to prepare you for the PRINCE2® Foundation exam in realistic test conditions.

Exam Simulator £54 Buy Now PRINCE2® Foundation Official Exam Description:

Purchase a voucher to take the exam online and receive access to the exam simulator and training manual.

Exam SimulatorTraining ManualOfficial Exam (online) £384 Buy Now Best all-round option: Online course package

This self-study package includes:

The eLearning course 57 (short) video lessons, equivalent to 3 days in the classroomPrintable handoutsIntegrated flashcardsPDF training manualThe exam simulator, so you can test your knowledgeThe official voucher you need to take the exam onlinePass guarantee.

This is the option that I would recommend for who have no prior experience and haven’t yet done any PRINCE2 training online or in a classroom.

You get everything you need: excellent quality course content, access to practice exams to get confident for test day and the exam fee is included too.

Best for exam practice: Foundation Exam Simulator

This option is just access to the PRINCE2 exam simulator for Foundation for one year.

I’m not sure why you would buy this separately. You may as well get the Exam Pack (see below) and get the exam fee included.

Perhaps this would be a good option if you are studying with another training provider and find that their material does not give you enough experience of what the real exam will be like. Get the simulator as a standalone option and then you can build exam practice ready for your test.

Regardless, this is one of the best PRINCE2 exam simulators out there, so if it’s the right option for you, go for it.

Best for exam takers: Exam Pack

This option only includes the elements you need if you are ready to take the exam.

Let’s say you took a training course with another vendor, or have done some self-study, or you have already failed the exam once and need to re-sit. This is the package for you. It includes:

Access to the exam simulator for a yearPDF training manual that is good for a refresherThe official voucher you need to book and take the exam online.

If you are confident that you already understand the content but just need some exam practice, then this is perfect for you.

Quiz

The lesson ends with a quick self-test quiz. I like the fact that the answers are hidden. Hit the button on the screen to show the answers and see how you did.

The downside of the quiz is that all the answers display at once. I found it was best to write my answers down and then compare them all in one go. You can’t just do one question and check it – I ended up ‘cheating’ by accident as you can’t avoid seeing the answers.

Pros

The advantages of the MPlaza PRINCE2 Foundation course are:

You get a lot of stuff for the price. It’s amazing value.The videos are great with nice visuals.The course is definitely good quality.The pass rates are good – people report having exam success with Mplaza materials so you can be confident that if you follow the program, you have a good chance of a positive outcome. There is a pass guarantee to back that up.

Frank comes across as a genuinely interested tutor. He seems to love the content, and I liked that he made me enthusiastic about – let’s face it – a project management approach that is generally thought of as pretty bureaucratic.

The team is active on Facebook and the customer service and responsiveness is great. You get access to their team of tutors too, so there is always someone around to offer help if you get stuck.

The course is fantastic value for money. You won’t need any other PRINCE2 books. The exam simulator is brilliant, and really cements what you need to know for the test.

Wondering if you really need the exam simulator? You do. Read more about it in my PRINCE2 exam simulator review for Foundation.

Cons

The disadvantages of the MPlaza PRINCE2 Foundation training that I found are as follows.

First, the biggest disadvantage is that it does not come with the official PRINCE2 manual. You have to buy that separately.

The course is designed so that you don’t actually need it, but I felt more secure having a copy. The book is not the greatest to read anyway, and you get everything you need to know in the lessons, handouts and training manual.

I don’t think other vendors can sell the book or include it in their training packages as I have not seen any other training companies offering it either. You can get a copy on Amazon or a bookshop of your choice, or perhaps a colleague has one they can lend you.

Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®, 6th Edition (2022) £90.00 Buy Now We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you #ad 12/14/2022 07:20 am GMT

The learning management system is pretty basic. It’s functional and it looks like it has been built directly on to a website, if you know what I mean. If you are used to a slick LMS or courseware, then you might be disappointed.

However, the look and feel is clean and obviously the LMS doesn’t affect the quality of the course content in any way.

Another disadvantage is that the training is not interactive. Yes, there are the end-of-lesson quizzes, but these days video content can be a lot more engaging than simply listening to a person talk.

Given that they are relatively short, around 10 minutes, it’s fine though. I reckon it’s not too hard to stay engaged in bite-sized chunks.

Having said that, there are some ‘educational games’. I didn’t get a lot out of those as that is not my preferred way of learning. Perhaps I’m too old!

Recommendation: Should you buy this course?

You should buy this course.

I think it is the best PRINCE2 online Foundation course. It’s well-put together, confidently delivered, and the student feedback is overwhelmingly positive.

The team behind it are committed and helpful, and if you want to show up for your PRINCE2 Foundation exam feeling confident and ready, this is the course I recommend.

I should let you know that I am so impressed with Frank that I’m an affiliate for the Mplaza products, but I only recommend products I have tested out and am confident in.

More PRINCE2® ResourcesPRINCE2: The Project Management Method ExplainedHow to Choose a PRINCE2 Course OnlineThe Best PRINCE2 Exam SimulatorsMPlaza PRINCE2® Practitioner Exam Simulator ReviewMPlaza PRINCE® Foundation Exam Simulator ReviewPRINCE2® and PMBOK®: How They Compare7 Best PRINCE2 Books for 2023 (Including PRINCE2 Agile Books)What PRINCE2 Certification Should You Get?The Best PRINCE2 Course for Beginners 12 Tips for PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Success

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This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

MPlaza PRINCE2�� Foundation Online Course Review (for 2023)

Welcome to my Mplaza PRINCE2�� Foundation review! I owe a lot of my confidence as a project manager to the PRINCE2 course I took many years ago. It gave me all the basics, the jargon, and ability to plan and manage a project.

BUT��� it���s hugely important to choose a good quality course. I���ve lost count of the number of people who have had bad experiences with PRINCE2 training providers��� and that���s a lot of wasted money.

In this PRINCE2 Foundation Management Plaza review for soon-to-be project managers, I���ll share:

Whether the course lives up to the hype (spoiler: it does)Why it���s especially good for early career project managersHow long you���ll need to spend studying before you can expect to pass the exam.

I���ve spent many hours reviewing the materials and going through the lessons so you can save time in your own course evaluation.

If you want to learn more about my thought process for validating online training, I have written before about how to choose a PRINCE2 course online, and that explains what I think is important for virtual training.

With the Foundation course, you can study in your own time and build your confidence for the exam. Many competing course packages give you fewer hours of material or don���t include the exam fee and don���t come anywhere close to Mplaza���s quality.

It even includes access to an active Facebook group where Frank ��� the lead trainer ��� is active pretty much every day.

Who is PRINCE2 Foundation for?

PRINCE2 Foundation is the entry-level course for early-career project managers. You don���t need any prior knowledge or pre-requisite study in order to study and sit for the exam.

When I took my first PRINCE2 course, I did a 2-day classroom course and then sat the Foundation exam on the following morning.

Foundation is a great entry point for people who work in a PRINCE2 environment or who want to learn more about a process and principle-led approach to managing projects.

Despite the fact that you don���t need any prior experience, I think it would be helpful to have at least some knowledge of working in projects. PRINCE2, like any project management course, includes a lot of jargon. While no knowledge is assumed, you will find it easier to grasp the concepts if you do have some basic understanding of project work.

Note: If you are planning to do Practitioner soon after your Foundation exam, don���t buy this training. Get the PRINCE2 Practitioner online course instead. That one will cover you for both exams.

About the course and structure

This course offers everything you need to learn PRINCE2 and prepare for the PRINCE2 Foundation exam. It even comes with Pass Guarantee!

The videos are available in English and French, with optional subtitles (in English or French). There is also a time-stamped transcript which I found very useful, especially if you have to stop a lesson because you need a study break for whatever reason. The timestamps make it super easy to find where you need to start from when you return to the class.

The PRINCE2 Foundation course online is structured in a logical way. There is a link at the end of each lesson to take you to the next lesson.

The first 18 lessons are free so you can check out the teaching style and make sure the course is a good fit for you.

You should expect to take about 21 hours to work through the course content, perhaps longer if you do all the relevant reading and exercises.

Which PRINCE2 Foundation training package is right for you?

Mplaza offers three options for people who want to study for and pass the Foundation exam.

Best Choice     PRINCE2�� Foundation, Online Course and Exam PRINCE2�� Foundation Exam Simulator PRINCE2�� Foundation Official Exam Description:

A comprehensive and accredited PRINCE2�� Foundation online course, including exam voucher and simulator access.

eLearning CourseExam SimulatorPass GuaranteeOfficial Exam (online) Description:

A confidence-boosting set of mock exam questions to prepare you for the PRINCE2�� Foundation exam in realistic test conditions.

Exam Simulator Description:

Purchase a voucher to take the exam online and receive access to the exam simulator and training manual.

Exam SimulatorTraining ManualOfficial Exam (online) ��474 ��54 ��384 Buy Now Buy Now Buy Now Best Choice PRINCE2�� Foundation, Online Course and Exam Description:

A comprehensive and accredited PRINCE2�� Foundation online course, including exam voucher and simulator access.

eLearning CourseExam SimulatorPass GuaranteeOfficial Exam (online) ��474 Buy Now PRINCE2�� Foundation Exam Simulator Description:

A confidence-boosting set of mock exam questions to prepare you for the PRINCE2�� Foundation exam in realistic test conditions.

Exam Simulator ��54 Buy Now PRINCE2�� Foundation Official Exam Description:

Purchase a voucher to take the exam online and receive access to the exam simulator and training manual.

Exam SimulatorTraining ManualOfficial Exam (online) ��384 Buy Now Best all-round option: Online course package

This self-study package includes:

The eLearning course 57 (short) video lessons, equivalent to 3 days in the classroomPrintable handoutsIntegrated flashcardsPDF training manualThe exam simulator, so you can test your knowledgeThe official voucher you need to take the exam onlinePass guarantee.

This is the option that I would recommend for who have no prior experience and haven���t yet done any PRINCE2 training online or in a classroom.

You get everything you need: excellent quality course content, access to practice exams to get confident for test day and the exam fee is included too.

Best for exam practice: Foundation Exam Simulator

This option is just access to the PRINCE2 exam simulator for Foundation for one year.

I���m not sure why you would buy this separately. You may as well get the Exam Pack (see below) and get the exam fee included.

Perhaps this would be a good option if you are studying with another training provider and find that their material does not give you enough experience of what the real exam will be like. Get the simulator as a standalone option and then you can build exam practice ready for your test.

Regardless, this is one of the best PRINCE2 exam simulators out there, so if it���s the right option for you, go for it.

Best for exam takers: Exam Pack

This option only includes the elements you need if you are ready to take the exam.

Let���s say you took a training course with another vendor, or have done some self-study, or you have already failed the exam once and need to re-sit. This is the package for you. It includes:

Access to the exam simulator for a yearPDF training manual that is good for a refresherThe official voucher you need to book and take the exam online.

If you are confident that you already understand the content but just need some exam practice, then this is perfect for you.

Quiz

The lesson ends with a quick self-test quiz. I like the fact that the answers are hidden. Hit the button on the screen to show the answers and see how you did.

The downside of the quiz is that all the answers display at once. I found it was best to write my answers down and then compare them all in one go. You can���t just do one question and check it ��� I ended up ���cheating��� by accident as you can���t avoid seeing the answers.

Pros

The advantages of the MPlaza PRINCE2 Foundation course are:

You get a lot of stuff for the price. It���s amazing value.The videos are great with nice visuals.The course is definitely good quality.The pass rates are good ��� people report having exam success with Mplaza materials so you can be confident that if you follow the program, you have a good chance of a positive outcome. There is a pass guarantee to back that up.

Frank comes across as a genuinely interested tutor. He seems to love the content, and I liked that he made me enthusiastic about ��� let���s face it ��� a project management approach that is generally thought of as pretty bureaucratic.

The team is active on Facebook and the customer service and responsiveness is great. You get access to their team of tutors too, so there is always someone around to offer help if you get stuck.

The course is fantastic value for money. You won���t need any other PRINCE2 books. The exam simulator is brilliant, and really cements what you need to know for the test.

Wondering if you really need the exam simulator? You do. Read more about it in my PRINCE2 exam simulator review for Foundation.

Cons

The disadvantages of the MPlaza PRINCE2 Foundation training that I found are as follows.

First, the biggest disadvantage is that it does not come with the official PRINCE2 manual. You have to buy that separately.

The course is designed so that you don���t actually need it, but I felt more secure having a copy. The book is not the greatest to read anyway, and you get everything you need to know in the lessons, handouts and training manual.

I don���t think other vendors can sell the book or include it in their training packages as I have not seen any other training companies offering it either. You can get a copy on Amazon or a bookshop of your choice, or perhaps a colleague has one they can lend you.

Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2��, 6th Edition (2022) ��90.00 Buy Now We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you #ad 12/09/2022 07:56 am GMT

The learning management system is pretty basic. It���s functional and it looks like it has been built directly on to a website, if you know what I mean. If you are used to a slick LMS or courseware, then you might be disappointed.

However, the look and feel is clean and obviously the LMS doesn���t affect the quality of the course content in any way.

Another disadvantage is that the training is not interactive. Yes, there are the end-of-lesson quizzes, but these days video content can be a lot more engaging than simply listening to a person talk.

Given that they are relatively short, around 10 minutes, it���s fine though. I reckon it���s not too hard to stay engaged in bite-sized chunks.

Having said that, there are some ���educational games���. I didn���t get a lot out of those as that is not my preferred way of learning. Perhaps I���m too old!

Recommendation: Should you buy this course?

You should buy this course.

I think it is the best PRINCE2 online Foundation course. It���s well-put together, confidently delivered, and the student feedback is overwhelmingly positive.

The team behind it are committed and helpful, and if you want to show up for your PRINCE2 Foundation exam feeling confident and ready, this is the course I recommend.

I should let you know that I am so impressed with Frank that I���m an affiliate for the Mplaza products, but I only recommend products I have tested out and am confident in.

More PRINCE2�� ResourcesPRINCE2: The Project Management Method ExplainedHow to Choose a PRINCE2 Course OnlineThe Best PRINCE2 Exam SimulatorsMPlaza PRINCE2�� Practitioner Exam Simulator ReviewMPlaza PRINCE�� Foundation Exam Simulator ReviewPRINCE2�� and PMBOK��: How They Compare7 Best PRINCE2 Books for 2023 (Including PRINCE2 Agile Books)What PRINCE2 Certification Should You Get?The Best PRINCE2 Course for Beginners 12 Tips for PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Success

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This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

MPlaza PRINCE2�� Practitioner Online Course Review (for 2023)

Welcome to my Mplaza PRINCE2�� Practitioner review! I gained a lot of project management knowledge and confidence from doing my PRINCE2 course. It was a few years ago now, but the experience gave me the vocab, structure, and processes to confidently deliver projects.

BUT��� it���s hugely important to choose a good quality PRINCE2 course. If I remember rightly, the training firm I used when I took the course again when my certificate expired was nowhere near as good.

Fortunately, I was only there for a refresher, but if it���s your first time taking PRINCE2 and you want to pass on the first attempt ��� then my recommendation for the best online PRINCE2 Practitioner training is the Mplaza course I���m about to tell you about.

In this MPlaza PRINCE2 Practitioner course review for project managers, I���ll share:

Whether the course is worth it (spoiler: it is)Why it���s a good choice for project managersHow long you���ll need to spend studying before you can expect to pass the exam.

I���ve spent many hours reviewing the materials and going through the lessons so you can save time making the decision about the best PRINCE2 certification course for you.

If you want to learn more about my thought process for validating online training, I have written before about how to choose a PRINCE2 course online, and that explains what I think is important for virtual training.

The Practitioner course is fully online, so you can study in your own time. Build your confidence for the exam with the practice materials. Many competing course packages give you less content or don���t include the exam fee and don���t come close to Mplaza���s quality.

Who is PRINCE2 Practitioner for?

You need to have passed PRINCE2 Foundation before you can take the Practitioner exam or hold an alternative certification (PMP��, CAPM��, or an IPMA Level A, B, C, or D certificate).

You don���t need to have any particular project management experience, so you can be working in another role with no relevant work experience.

However, I can say that the exam is easier, having worked in a project environment. The people in my class (I took my first Practitioner exam in a classroom) were a mixed group of people working as project managers and those who were yet to break into the job.

I believe the people who didn���t work with projects every day found the experience of learning harder simply because there is a ton of stuff you have to pick up, the jargon can be obscure, and some of the processes don���t feel intuitive unless you have worked through them already.

So, if you have some project experience, I would recommend PRINCE2 Practitioner. You can still do it without work experience, but expect to have to put in some more time to fully learn the concepts.

About the course and structure

This course offers everything you need to learn PRINCE2 and prepare for the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam.

It is equivalent to 48 contact hours of training. The lessons are 10-15 minutes, so you can fit them in during the day. Expect to spend about a week in total working through the materials.

You don���t need any special tech as the lessons are available via the Mplaza website, and you can access them anywhere with a web browser.

Which PRINCE2 Practitioner training package is right for you?

Mplaza offers three options for people who want to study for and pass the Practitioner exam.

Best Option     PRINCE2�� Practitioner, Online Course and Exam PRINCE2�� Practitioner Exam Simulator PRINCE2�� Practitioner Official Exam Description:

A comprehensive and accredited PRINCE2�� Practitioner online course, including exam voucher and simulator access.

eLearning CourseExam SimulatorSample ProjectsOfficial Exam (online) Description:

A robust and realistic exam simulator for PRINCE2�� Practitioner with 4 full exams.

Exam Simulator Description:

Receive a voucher to take the exam online and receive access to the exam simulator.

Exam SimulatorOfficial Exam (online) ��474 ��44 ��389 Buy Now Buy Now Buy Now Best Option PRINCE2�� Practitioner, Online Course and Exam Description:

A comprehensive and accredited PRINCE2�� Practitioner online course, including exam voucher and simulator access.

eLearning CourseExam SimulatorSample ProjectsOfficial Exam (online) ��474 Buy Now PRINCE2�� Practitioner Exam Simulator Description:

A robust and realistic exam simulator for PRINCE2�� Practitioner with 4 full exams.

Exam Simulator ��44 Buy Now PRINCE2�� Practitioner Official Exam Description:

Receive a voucher to take the exam online and receive access to the exam simulator.

Exam SimulatorOfficial Exam (online) ��389 Buy Now Best all-round option: Online course package

This self-study package includes:

The eLearning course 66 (short) video lessons with English subtitles2 sample projects so you can see how the method is appliedPrintable process model handoutsThe exam simulator, so you can test your knowledgeThe official voucher you need to take the exam onlinePass guarantee.

This is the option that I would recommend for who have no prior experience and haven���t yet done any PRINCE2 training online or in a classroom.

You get everything you need: excellent quality course content, access to practice exams to get confident for test day and the exam fee is included too.

Best for exam practice: Practitioner Exam Simulator

This option is just access to the best PRINCE2 exam simulator for Practitioner exams for one year.

This is the option that is right for you if you are studying with a provider that does not offer a tool for mock exams. I found it really helpful to do a lot of practice questions for PRINCE2 because the exam is not straightforward. You need to be able to interpret the options and make smart choices ��� and some of that is about knowing how questions are phrased.

Understanding the style and format of questions is very useful, and the exam simulator helps with that.

It includes the equivalent of 4 exam papers, but as the questions are dynamic, you���ll find you can take more than that and see different question/answer combinations.

Best for exam takers: Exam Pack

This option only includes the elements you need if you are ready to take the exam.

Have you already taken a training course with another provider?

Have done some self-study?

Have already failed the exam once and need to re-sit?

This is the package for you. It includes:

Access to the Infinite Exam SimulatorTM for a year320 question variations in the same structure as the real examThe official voucher you need to book and take the exam online.

If you are confident that you already understand the content but just need some exam practice, then this is perfect for you.

Pros

The advantages of the MPlaza PRINCE2 Foundation course are:

It���s amazing value. You get a lot of content for the price (and no filler stuff either)There is an active Facebook group which is helpful in case you get stuck or have questions. It���s also motivating to hear other students��� stories!There is no homework! Other courses rely on homework to get through the syllabus in time, but this course covers the content in other ways.The videos are great with nice visuals. The trainers are engaging and the conversational presentation style is easy to follow.There is a pass guarantee. You probably won���t need it. The course is so good and has excellent pass rates.

Frank and Nader come across as genuine experts in the subject matter. The customer service and responsiveness is great. You get access to their team of tutors too, so there is always someone around to offer help if you get stuck.

The course is fantastic value for money. The exam simulator is brilliant, and really cements what you need to know for the test.

Wondering if you really need the exam simulator? You do. Read more about it in my PRINCE2 exam simulator review for Practitioner.

Cons

The biggest disadvantage is that it does not come with any PRINCE2 books or the official PRINCE2 manual. You have to buy that separately. It���s available on Amazon or from the publisher and other bookshops. It costs over ��80 so it���s quite an investment.

You don���t actually need the manual to do the course but it is referenced in some of the lessons. I found it helpful to have a print version of the book to make my notes in.

I recommend that you buy the printed manual for the exam because the exam is open book. You can use your manual during the exam ��� that���s an advantage you don���t want to miss out on!

Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2��, 6th Edition (2022) ��90.00 Buy Now We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you #ad 12/09/2022 07:56 am GMT

Other disadvantages:

Students who learn better in a classroom environment should choose an in-person course instead of this. It���s good, but it���s not the same as learning with a group of your peers.There are no end-of-lesson quizzes. Each lesson ends with a summary but you can���t really test yourself unless you use the simulator.Recommendation: Should you buy this course?

You should buy this PRINCE2 Practitioner online self-study course and exam simulator.

I think it is well-put together, confidently delivered, and the student feedback is overwhelmingly positive. The team behind it are willing to help and committed to your success.

I recommend the training, which is exactly what you need if you want to show up for your test feeling confident and ready.

I should let you know that I am so impressed with Frank that I���m an affiliate for the Mplaza products, but I only recommend products I have tested out and am confident in.

More PRINCE2�� ResourcesPRINCE2: The Project Management Method ExplainedHow to Choose a PRINCE2 Course OnlineThe Best PRINCE2 Exam SimulatorsMPlaza PRINCE2�� Practitioner Exam Simulator ReviewMPlaza PRINCE�� Foundation Exam Simulator ReviewPRINCE2�� and PMBOK��: How They Compare7 Best PRINCE2 Books for 2023 (Including PRINCE2 Agile Books)What PRINCE2 Certification Should You Get?The Best PRINCE2 Course for Beginners 12 Tips for PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Success

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This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

MPlaza PRINCE2�� Foundation Exam Simulator Review

Are you considering buying the Mplaza PRINCE2�� Foundation exam simulator? Don���t spend any money until you���ve read my review!

I���ve spent several hours reviewing the exam simulator from Management Plaza (MPlaza) and I can confidently say that it���s worth the investment.

In this PRINCE2 Foundation Mplaza exam simulator review, I���ll share:

Whether the tool is worth the investment (spoiler: yes, even if you are taking Practitioner as well)Why it���s a good choice for test takersWhat scores to aim for in practice exams so you can be confident in your real test.

There really aren���t that many sources of PRINCE2 sample questions, and you do have to be careful about the quality. The Foundation exam questions are straightforward, with short answers. The test is multiple choice.

It seems simple, but under pressure, you can easily make mistakes if you aren���t prepared.

Exam practice was the thing that helped me pass my exam, and I recommend you spend some of your study time going through mock exams and past question papers to get a feel for how the questions are written and how the answer mechanism works.

Who is the PRINCE2 Foundation exam simulator for?

This simulator is for project management students working towards the PRINCE2 Foundation exam. You may also be planning on taking the Practitioner exam in a similar timeframe.

EVEN IF you are planning on doing Practitioner, I would recommend the Foundation exam simulator. The question structure is completely different for both tests. You will feel more confident on your Foundation test if you know what to expect.

Note: If you are planning on taking the Practitioner version, I recommend that you buy the PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Simulator as well. The objective testing style and case study approach is totally different to the Foundation exam, and you will need to practice that style of questioning.

I know people who have failed the Practitioner exam because they couldn���t get on with the questions, even though they knew the material really well and were excellent project managers.

The simulator is a good choice for people who have the time and discipline to self-study.

How the simulator works

The questions are designed to test your knowledge of PRINCE2 terminology, processes, themes, and principles. They are simple multiple-choice questions. You select the answer and move on to the next one.

You have the option to mark a question for review if you are not sure. Then you can go back to it later.

There are no marks deducted for incorrect answers, so you may as well guess if you don���t know.

The software includes:

865 root questionsInfinite Exam SimulatorTM formats those into 419,000 variations, so you have to pay attention to the detail as each time you see a question, it could be slightly different!Explanations for each question so you can learn from what you got wrongAccess to a trainer via email if you have any questions.

You get access to the simulator for 12 months. In my experience, that will be more than long enough, and it���s comparable with other project management exam simulators. The deadline helps focus the mind��� otherwise you might never get round to taking the test!

All the questions are aligned to the 6th edition so are fully up-to-date.

Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2��, 6th Edition (2022) ��90.00 Buy Now We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you #ad 12/07/2022 09:47 pm GMT FeaturesFeatureDemo versionFull versionNumber of questions12865 root questions, 419,000 variationsDuration12 minutes1 hourResults savedNoYesFlag for reviewYesYesTimerYes, counts downYes, counts downExplanationsYesYesPenalty for wrong answersNoNoCoaching availableNoYesPass mark55%55%How to use the PRINCE2 exam simulator for exam practice

I suggest you practice each section until you consistently get marks around 80-85%. You only need 55% to pass the test, but it���s good to have a really solid grounding in the topic. This is the best approach for learning the course content and testing yourself.

When you are ready, move on to taking full exams, again aiming for 80%+ as a pass mark.

Use the PRINCE2 exam simulator in the weeks leading up to your test. Expect to do at least 4, preferably 6 full exams.

The PRINCE2 exam has 60 multiple-choice questions. You have an hour to complete the test. There is only one correct answer for each question.

If you do 6 full exams, that���s 6 hours of exam practice. I don���t think that sounds a lot, given that you need Foundation to move on to Practitioner. Practitioner is the certificate that employers value more for project managers. I would say that Foundation is more for people in project support or allied roles, but it���s not enough to evidence you can manage a project.  

If you have bought the test questions, you might as well do as many of them as possible! If you start hitting results in the 90%+ range, then I think you could confidently stop taking mock exams

Free exam simulator trial: test before you buy

It���s important to feel that what you are buying is a good fit for you.

The Foundation simulator is not a standalone software tool. It���s accessed via the Mplaza website. Many other simulators are ���separate��� software that you log into and use, but that isn���t the case here.

The benefit of that is being able to use it anywhere. The downside is that you should expect the interface to look different on your real test.

On the Mplaza website, you can take a free trial of the simulator to see what you are getting before you buy.

It only has 12 questions, but it���s enough to give you a feel for what the product is like and whether it will be suitable for your needs.

Pros

The main advantage of prepping for your exam with this particular set of test questions is that you get a detailed explanation of the answer. The straightforward language gives you exactly what you need to understand why the response you chose was wrong (or right, if you just guessed!).

Some other simulators just give you a page reference to their training material or the PRINCE2 manual, which is not as helpful. Even knowing the reference doesn���t mean you���ll get why you were wrong. Explanations take the mock exams to the next level.

You do also get the reference to the lesson to review and the relevant section of the manual.

The other advantages of the MPlaza PRINCE2 Foundation exam simulator are:

Access from anywhere. The browser access means you can do a few questions in the queue at the caf�� or wherever you happen to be.Understand the areas where you need to revise more.Access to a real trainer via email if you have questions.

There are a lot of concepts, vocabulary, themes, and processes to learn with PRINCE2, so the simulator is perfect for getting going and structuring your self-paced study time.

Cons

I don���t think you can pass the exam with the simulator alone. You also need a PRINCE2 Foundation training course (I recommend this training, also from MPlaza).

You���ll need to make time to get the best out of it. If you are the kind of person who doesn���t believe in study plans, then you won���t get around to using it. You know if you don���t have the discipline to self-study and would be better off in a classroom course with the accountability that brings.

Recommendation: Should you buy this simulator?

I recommend this PRINCE2 Foundation exam simulator.

Of all the PRINCE2 simulators I have looked at, it is by far the most robust. It���s backed by a great time of experts, gets you access to real humans for help if you need it and it���s hard to find a negative review.

Students love it, and I do too. Let me know how you get on!

I should let you know that I am so impressed with Frank that I���m an affiliate for the Mplaza products, but I only recommend products I have tested out and am confident in.

PRINCE2�� Foundation Exam Simulator ��34

A confidence-boosting set of mock exam questions to prepare you for the PRINCE2�� Foundation exam in realistic test conditions

Buy Now We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you #ad

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More PRINCE2�� ResourcesPRINCE2: The Project Management Method ExplainedHow to Choose a PRINCE2 Course OnlineThe Best PRINCE2 Exam SimulatorsMPlaza PRINCE2�� Practitioner Exam Simulator ReviewMPlaza PRINCE�� Foundation Exam Simulator ReviewPRINCE2�� and PMBOK��: How They Compare7 Best PRINCE2 Books for 2023 (Including PRINCE2 Agile Books)What PRINCE2 Certification Should You Get?The Best PRINCE2 Course for Beginners 12 Tips for PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Success

This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

MPlaza PRINCE2�� Practitioner Exam Simulator Review

Are you looking at the Mplaza PRINCE2�� Practitioner exam simulator? The right exam simulator can boost your confidence on test day and help you focus your study time on the topics where you need the most revision.

I���ve spent several hours reviewing the exam simulator from Management Plaza (MPlaza) and I can confidently say that it���s great.

In this PRINCE2 Practitioner Mplaza exam simulator review, I���ll tell you:

Whether the software is worth the hype (spoiler: definitely!)Why it���s a good choice for project management studentsHow long you���ll need to spend on practice exams before taking the real thing.

There really aren���t that many sources of PRINCE2 sample questions, and you do have to be careful about the quality. The Practitioner exam questions are not written to trip you up, but they are tricky.

Exam practice was the thing that helped me pass my exam, and I recommend you spend some of your study time going through mock exams and past question papers to get a feel for how the questions are written and how the answer mechanism works.

Who is the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam simulator for?

This simulator is for project management students working towards the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam. You will have taken the Foundation exam already or you might be working towards doing them both in a similar timeframe, which is what I did. I took them both in the same week.

The simulator is a good choice for people who have the time and discipline to self-study.

Note: If you are studying for Foundation as well as Practitioner, I recommend you get the PRINCE2 Foundation Exam Simulator as well. The questions are fundamentally different in structure and content, so it is worth making sure you are ready for both tests.

How the simulator works

The questions are designed to test your knowledge of PRINCE2 and prepare you for the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam.

The software includes:

270 root questions, equivalent to 4 exam papersInfinite Exam SimulatorTM formats those into 320 variations so you have to pay attention to the detail as each time you see a question it could be slightly different!Explanations for each question so you can learn from what you got wrong15 sections per test that mirror the structure you will find on the real exam.Access to a trainer via email if you have any questions.

You get access to the simulator for 12 months. In my experience, that will be more than long enough, and it���s comparable with other project management exam simulators. The deadline helps focus the mind��� otherwise you might never get round to taking the test!

All the questions are aligned to the 6th edition so are fully up-to-date.

FeaturesFeatureDemo versionFull versionNumber of questions12270 root questions, 320 variationsDuration25 minutesFull exam is 2.5 hours but you can also review sections for a shorter testStructureNothing specific15 sectionsResults savedNoYesPass mark55%55%Flag for reviewYesYesTimerYes, counts downYes, counts downExplanationsYesYesPenalty for wrong answersNoNoCoaching availableNoYesHow to use the PRINCE2 exam simulator for exam practice

I suggest you practice each section until you consistently get marks around 80-85%. You only need 55% to pass the test, but it���s good to have a really solid grounding in the topic. This is the best approach for learning the course content and testing yourself.

When you are ready, move on to taking full exams, again aiming for 80%+ as a pass mark.

Use the PRINCE2 exam simulator in the weeks leading up to your test. Expect to do at least 4, preferably 6 full exams.

The PRINCE2 exam has 68 scenario-based questions, so you need to be able to quickly read the scenario and draw conclusions from the text. You have 150 minutes to complete the test.

If you do 6 full exams, that���s 15 hours of exam practice, which sounds a lot. It sounds like a huge amount, to be honest, but it���s worth it to know you are massively increasing your chances of success on your first attempt.

If you have bought the tool, you might as well use it to the max!

Free exam simulator trial: test before you buy

I think it���s important to know what you are buying.

The Practitioner simulator is not a standalone software tool. It���s accessed via the Mplaza website. Many other simulators are ���separate��� software that you log into and use, but that isn���t the case here. I���m indifferent to the set up, to be honest. It���s handy to have it all in the browser, but it does feel less like the experience you get on test day because it���s not the same look and feel as you get on the exam.

On the Mplaza website you can take a free trial of the simulator to see what you are getting before you buy.

It only has 12 questions but it���s enough to give you a feel for what the product is like and whether it will be suitable for your needs.

Practice answering the questions without referring to the PRINCE2 manual. You can take the (printed) manual into the exam with you, but there is not a lot of time. I wasted time looking for answers when I could probably have managed to answer them from my brain without checking.

Pros

The main advantage of prepping for your exam with this particular set of test questions is that you get a detailed explanation of the answer. The straightforward language gives you exactly what you need to understand why the response you chose was wrong (or right, if you just guessed!).

Some other simulators just give you a page reference to their training material or the PRINCE2 manual, which is not as helpful. Even knowing the reference doesn���t mean you���ll get why you were wrong. Explanations take the mock exams to the next level.

You do also get the reference to the lesson to review and the relevant section of the manual.

The other advantages of the MPlaza PRINCE2 Practitioner exam simulator are:

Access from anywhere. There���s no software required, you just use it in a browser window.See where you are going wrong and learn from your mistakes, so you can revise only the topics where you need additional time.The exam is online so you get used to using a similar interface.The access to a real trainer. OMG, that is game-changing!

There is a lot to learn with PRINCE2 so the simulator is perfect for getting going and structuring your self-paced study time.

Cons

I don���t think you can pass the exam with the simulator alone. You also need a PRINCE2 Practitioner training course (I recommend this training, also from MPlaza).

You���ll need to make time to get the best out of it, which means putting together a study plan and being disciplined. If you can���t do that, you���ll never get round to using it.

Recommendation: Should you buy this simulator?

I recommend this PRINCE2 Practitioner exam simulator.

Of all the PRINCE2 simulators I have looked at, it is by far the most robust. It���s backed by a great time of experts, gets you access to real humans for help if you need it and it���s hard to find a negative review.

Students love it, and I do too. Let me know how you get on!

I should let you know that I am so impressed with Frank that I���m an affiliate for the Mplaza products, but I only recommend products I have tested out and am confident in.

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A robust and realistic exam simulator for PRINCE2�� Practitioner with 4 full exams.

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[image error]PRINCE2: The Project Management Method ExplainedHow to Choose a PRINCE2 Course OnlineThe Best PRINCE2 Exam SimulatorsPRINCE2�� and PMBOK��: How They Compare7 Best PRINCE2 Books for 2023 (Including PRINCE2 Agile Books)What PRINCE2 Certification Should You Get?The Best PRINCE2 Course for Beginners 12 Tips for PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Success

This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

How the CAPM exam is changing in 2023: What you need to know

The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)�� exam is changing in 2023.

This will bring it in line with the latest PMBOK�� Guide ��� 7th edition and generally more modern ways of thinking about project management.

So what do you need to know? In this article, I���ll outline what���s currently announced about the changes and how you can prepare.

Table of ContentsWoah, the exam is changing? I didn't know. How did that happen?When is the CAPM�� exam changing?What is changing with the latest update?What domains will be tested?How questions are split on the new examProject management fundamentals and core conceptsPredictive plan-based methodologiesAgile frameworks/methodologiesBusiness analysis frameworksWhat are the reference texts?Will the exam experience change?Do you need agile experience to take the exam?What do I need to do?Should I be worried about the CAPM exam changes?Woah, the exam is changing? I didn���t know. How did that happen?

Every so often PMI carry out an assessment of what people in project management jobs do all day. This helps them check that the certification exam still tests the project management skills required for someone who typically holds this certification. This exercise included market research and also a job tasks analysis, as well as identifying trends. The output of the analysis informed the changes.

The point is to make sure the CAPM exam reflects current practice and to make any tweaks appropriate to keep it still relevant for both professionals and the organizations that hire them.

The implication right now is that the old version of the exam doesn���t include enough about agile and hybrid to reflect the ways of working that are current practice in many businesses. Therefore, the exam gets updated to make sure candidates have a decent working knowledge of predictive (waterfall), adaptive (agile) and hybrid project management approaches.

When is the CAPM�� exam changing?

At the time of writing, PMI had not yet announced the new date from which all candidates would be taking the new exam.

However, they are going through a pilot period to test the new exam and the exam content outline.

Given that the exercise for piloting the new exam is well underway, I would assume that the exam will change in early 2023.

Normally, PMI provides enough notice to candidates so they can finish up studying with their existing training materials and get their exam booked before it changes. That also gives training providers time to update their courses.

What is changing with the latest update?

The current CAPM exam was very much a memorization exercise from what was in the PMBOK�� Guide ��� Sixth edition. If you knew the contents of the book, and could manage your time in the exam, you���d be OK.

The new exam will have the same approach in that it will still test the fundamentals, common practices, terminology, processes, but it will draw from a wider pool of professional practice. You should expect to be tested on agile, hybrid and different delivery approaches and ways of working as well.

In other words ��� to me, at least ��� it feels like the exam is going to get harder because it will cover more concepts.

If you work in an agile environment then you might actually find the exam tests more of your real experience and it gets easier!

What domains will be tested?

The new CAPM exam will test 4 different domain areas. These are:

Project management fundamentals and core conceptsPredictive plan-based methodologiesAgile frameworks/methodologiesBusiness analysis frameworks.How questions are split on the new exam

Questions across the domains are split like this:

DomainPercentage of test questions on the domainProject management fundamentals and core concepts36%Predictive, plan-based methodologies17%Agile frameworks/methodologies20%Business analysis frameworks27%

Yikes, more questions on agile and business analysis than on predictive projects? I think that tells you something about the way waterfall is going���

Let���s break down these domains a bit.

Project management fundamentals and core concepts

This domain is all about understanding the different lifecycles and basics like the need to plan, and execute, solve problems and identify roles and responsibilities.

Predictive plan-based methodologies

This domain is about recognizing when predictive methods are appropriate and common scheduling and planning techniques like using critical path methods and creating a work breakdown structure. It also covers project controls.

Agile frameworks/methodologies

In this domain you���ll evidence that you understand when it���s appropriate to use an adaptive approach, how to plan iterations and explain the agile different methodologies. The domain also covers document control and artifact creation as well as how to ���execute task management steps��� i.e. doing the work.

Business analysis frameworks

This domain is the most controversial for me, if you hadn���t picked that up already! The domain tests your understanding of the Business Analysis role and responsibilities, talks about stakeholder communication (isn���t this important for project managers too?), requirements gathering (don���t BAs call this requirements elicitation?), product roadmaps and validating requirements through delivery which is about traceability.

It also tests your knowledge of how project methodologies influence business analysis processes, which seems to be about how you would work on a predictive or agile/adaptive team as a BA and what the role would do in those different environments.

It is certainly a different syllabus to before.

What are the reference texts?

Previously, the only reference text you needed was the PMBOK�� Guide. Now, it���s recommended that you read more widely.

The reference texts are:

PMBOK�� Guide ��� 7th edition (PMI)PMIStandards+ (which is effectively a searchable, digital version of the PMBOK�� Guide ��� 6th edition)Agile Practice Guide (PMI)Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide (PMI)Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, Hybrid (Robert K. Wysocki and a personal favorite read of mine)Project Management Answer Book, 2nd Edition (written by my friend Jeff Furman ��� excuse the name dropping!)The PMI Guide to Business Analysis (PMI).

The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is also mentioned in the exam content outline, so you���ll need to read that too (it���s short; don���t worry).

What you���ll notice is there are two business analysis books on the pilot reference list. I���m not sure whether that will be the case in the full exam, as the role of a CAPM�� certified professional is not necessarily to do business analysis. PM and BA are two distinct, albeit complimentary, professions.

I think the apparent focus on BA skills might muddy the water somewhat for students, but let���s see how it evolves.

Will the exam experience change?

Yes.

Although not by much.

The current and new exams are 150 multiple-choice questions over 3 hours, either taken at a test center or via the online proctoring system (of which I have mainly heard bad things, to be honest).

The difference in the exam experience is that there will be a 10-minute break added to the exam, after you���ve completed 75 questions.

Do you need agile experience to take the exam?

Not technically, no. The exam eligibility requirements are not changing.

But I expect you���ll find the agile and hybrid questions a lot easier if you have experience working on agile projects.

What do I need to do?

First, don���t panic!

If you���re reading this and the exam hasn���t changed yet, book your exam, get your CAPM training course and just take the test before the change.

If you���re reading this and you���ll be taking the new exam, then don���t worry. Get a PMI membership and gain free access to the PMBOK�� Guide, PMIStandards+ and the Agile Practice Guide and save on your examination costs.

If you are clear about the concepts described in those, you have covered a lot of the material. If you can afford to, get the other reference texts and read those, but a good (updated) exam prep course will cover what you need anyway.

Next, get yourself a copy of the exam outline. This is the document that outlines exactly what is going to be in the exam. If you are comfortable with the topics in here, then you���ll be fine with the questions.

Get a CAPM prep course, like the PM PrepCast or Brain Sensei, and start learning how to pass the exam right now!

Remember: If you are scheduling your exam after the change, make sure the training provider has updated their training material to align with the new exam content outline.

Meanwhile, practicing with an exam simulator is still my preferred option for getting exam ready.

Should I be worried about the CAPM exam changes?

No!

People have been studying for and passing this exam for years. 2023 and beyond might bring a few tweaks, but ultimately if you study, use good exam prep materials (like this course or this one), take practice exams and feel ready, you���ll be fine.

The changes might feel like a big change at the moment, but hopefully in time they will feel like a natural evolution of the requirements of the job. Take some practice exams to build your confidence and then go for it! Good luck!

This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

Brain Sensei vs PM PrepCast

I���ve long used products from Cornelius Fichtner of The Project Management PrepCast fame for my own professional development. But I also know the team behind Brain Sensei.

So how does Brain Sensei compare to the PM PrepCast? That���s what we���re covering in this article. I���ve used them both, I���ve had conversations with both teams, and over the year���s I���ve come to appreciate what they are both good at. Let���s do the comparison of their PMP training!

Packages

For a start, both companies offer Project Management Professional (PMP)�� training.

Brain Sensei offers:

A self-paced PMP prep course that includes video-based training and an exam simulatorVirtual, instructor-led trainingThe exam simulator which you can buy as a separate option.

The PM PrepCast has a lot of different options:

Basic is just the video-based trainingElite offers the training plus the exam simulatorElite Plus is the training, the exam simulator, plus an ebook on formulas and the PM StudyCoach Guidebook which is a done-for-you study planYou can also buy the exam simulator separately.

For the purposes of this review, we���ll compare the self-paced Brain Sensei course with the PM PrepCast Elite package, as those both have the videos and exam simulator included.

Professional and cost-effective Interactive and engaging The PM PrepCast Elite PMP Exam Prep Course: Brain Sensei 5.0 4.5 $349 $499.99 Scholarship: No Scholarship: For military personnel on application Buy Now Buy now Read my full review Read my full review Professional and cost-effective The PM PrepCast Elite 5.0 $349 Scholarship: No Buy Now Read my full review Interactive and engaging PMP Exam Prep Course: Brain Sensei 4.5 $499.99 Scholarship: For military personnel on application Buy now Read my full review Training method

The main difference between Brain Sensei and the PM PrepCast is the teaching approach.

Brain Sensei videos are animated and interactive. There are exercises and it���s engaging. For example, you are invited to click on elements to reveal definitions. You keep clicking to work through the material and advance the slides.

Example of interactive exercise in Brain Sensei

The content is presented by cartoon characters in Brain Sensei and a slightly robotic voice.

However, there are also slides that look like the text on them has been taken direct from the PMBOK�� Guide, that don���t have any narration on them at all.

The PM PrepCast videos are not interactive ��� they are totally different. You get Cornelius as your instructor talking you through the concepts with a slide presentation that looks like a PowerPoint deck. In my view, the slide design is not super modern either.

The video modules are broken up into short lessons but you don���t have to engage with them. Just watch and take notes. Each module ends with a review question, but you have to pause the video to answer it in your own time (or not, as you choose), before the answer is revealed on the next slide.

If you think cartoon characters are going to annoy you after a while, and you want to know there���s a ���real��� instructor behind your training, then The PM PrepCast would be a better choice.

If you need to click the screen to stay engaged with your learning, then the interactive elements of Brain Sensei might be better for you.

Personally, I think I prefer the video learning style as I don’t like so much clicking on the screen and I can take my own notes.

User interface

There is not much to choose between the different learning management systems that the courses use. Brain Sensei is built on Articulate, which is fine but doesn’t seem to work on my computer using Firefox.

The PrepCast uses a different LMS (I don’t know which one) and it feels a little more old-fashioned.

They both have a lot of material inside, so there are nested lessons and lots to scroll through in the menus.

Personally, I found both systems a little clunky, but I don’t think I’ve yet found an LMS I particularly like to use at all! Neither of them feel as clean as a course set up on Teachable, but then the courses I’ve done on that platform have a lot less content.

You’ll get used to either, regardless of which one you choose, it’s honestly not worth worrying about.

PrepCast user interfaceBrain Sensei user interfaceSupport and community

The PM PrepCast has a huge community behind it and active forums with community moderators (including me, for full disclosure), so you can always ask a question. Their support team is responsive and there is extensive online help as well as active social media profiles.

Brain Sensei also has online help but I don���t feel there are as many articles. It doesn���t have a student forum but it does have a Facebook community. There are the normal social media profiles too and the team always get back to you if you get in touch via the help button.

Military scholarship

Brain Sensei are one of the few training courses for project managers that I am aware of that offer a scholarship for military personnel. There is an application process that requires you to prove you are in service (or have retired from active duty).

The scholarship is worth either 10% of the course fees or 100% of the course fees and is awarded in the form of a discount code that you use when you buy the course.

The PM PrepCast used to offer scholarships (to anyone meeting the eligibility criteria) via PMIEF but they no longer do that due to a change in PMIEF���s policy.

Refund period

Brain Sensei has a 30-day refund period, assuming you haven���t taken more than one practice exam (for both the CAPM�� and the PMP�� courses).

The PM PrepCast also has a 30-day refund period, with similar conditions. You can���t have started or completed the final exam, printed your contact hours certificate or intend to claim any contact hours, or taking one or more quizzes or exams.

There���s no real difference here. You have a month to make your choice about whether your learning style matches the way the instructors teach, and if you don���t feel you can pass with the resources, you can request a refund.

Guarantee

Brain Sensei has a 100% pass guarantee, which means if you fail the PMP exam within a year of buying the course, they will give you another 90-days of access to go through the material again. If you fail a second time, they���ll give you another 90-days. The third time you fail, you get your money back, assuming both second and third attempts happen within 6 months of your first attempt. Three failures in 18 months is going some, but I suppose they are confident in their product and willing to refund if it is not a good fit for you.

This is broadly the same guarantee as they have for their CAPM training, except for that one, all 3 attempts at the exam must happen within a year of your purchase date, so you have less time to cash in on the guarantee.

The PM PrepCast does not have a pass guarantee, but it will offer you an extension to the PM Exam Simulator product if you failed your test one or two times to help you prepare for the retake.

In summary

To wrap up:

Both provide 35 contact hours.Both cover the full range of things you need to know for the exam.Neither are part of the Authorized Training Partner program with PMI although both used to be in the Registered Education Provider program before it changed.Both offer a huge amount of study material and practice questions.

The one you choose is a personal preference and I honestly think it comes down to which pedagogical method you think you are going to get the most out of.

Which one will you choose?

Professional and cost-effective Interactive and engaging The PM PrepCast Elite PMP Exam Prep Course: Brain Sensei 5.0 4.5 $349 $499.99 Scholarship: No Scholarship: For military personnel on application Buy Now Buy now Read my full review Read my full review Professional and cost-effective The PM PrepCast Elite 5.0 $349 Scholarship: No Buy Now Read my full review Interactive and engaging PMP Exam Prep Course: Brain Sensei 4.5 $499.99 Scholarship: For military personnel on application Buy now Read my full review

This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

Runn Software Review

You sell your time. You���re a professional services firm, but PSA tools just aren���t robust enough to manage the resource requirements for in-flight projects and the pipeline for workload management. You never know the answer to ���when can we start a new piece of work?���

So if Sales are selling all the time, and the implementation team is struggling to keep up, you need Runn.

Runn brings together the people side of your business with powerful project resource management features. It���s resource planning software that is perfect for professional services and firms that would benefit from the transparency of seeing where time is being spent.

Resource management is one of the biggest challenges for project professionals. We need to know when the right people are available. And if you can���t simply lean over the desk to ask Fred if he���s free next week to do something new, it���s hard. 

I���ve spent a long time looking at a number of resource management and capacity planning software tools and I loved this one. If you are currently managing capacity planning in an adhoc way or with spreadsheets, then Runn could be a brilliant choice to remove some of the admin overhead of resource planning. Read on!

Summary

Product: Runn

Cost and plans: Free 14-day trial. Free for up to 5 resources managed (unlimited projects). Then $10 per resource managed, per month on the Pro plan, with a 20% discount for annual plans.

Hosting model: Cloud only

Languages: The interface is available in English only. As it���s a browser-based tool, you can use Google Translate to display the interface in different languages. 

Summary review of Runn: If you find managing resources a headache because you never know who is free when, then check out what Runn can do. It will totally change the way you forecast and assign resources so you can focus on profitability and keeping people off the bench. Runn is an alternative to Float, Mosaic and Saviom. What is Runn?

Runn is a venture-backed resource management tool that was founded in 2018 out of New Zealand, so it has a modern take on what it means to manage human resources.

The founders come from an IT consulting background, so they know first-hand what it���s like to have to juggle clients, a pipeline of ���maybe we���ll look at that project in the new year��� and consultants who need to keep their billable hours up. 

Runn is a smart, flexible and intuitive way to forecast resource needs and change scheduling requirements dynamically but it���s not a task management tool. It���s aimed at organizations that need to closely manage resources, and it���s feature-rich in that space. 

It sits in the middle of your tech stack, integrating projects information from your CRM and financial systems. Project teams manage their day-to-day tasks outside of Runn (in Jira, Asana, whatever) which can be kept in sync with Runn via API or out of the box integrations.  

Runn���s web-based resource management software has a project planner and a people planner so you can cut the data in a variety of ways.

People planner

The people planner gives a great overview of what people are doing. You can see an overview of the teams and then drill down into each team to see the people. You can view their used and available capacity by day, week, month, even the year.

I liked that you can hover over someone���s name to see more about them: helpful for resource allocation and skills management.

It goes even further because you can click into someone���s name and see the projects they are working on and their available free time. 

People planner view in Runn

If someone is overallocated, you can easily reassign tasks to someone else based on the role that was due to complete the task. For example, Runn will flag up some people who have similar skill sets. Need a business analyst? Let���s find all available business analysts. 

Then the resource manager (or team leader) can easily move the work to someone else with the right skills. If the work is too big to slot into one person���s diary, you can split the task up then it can be allocated to a couple of people.

You can create different views which is helpful if you want to see contractor���s workload, or one team or one view. 

I found that this works when you know what the work is (at least at a high level), so you can shuffle the assignments around. A line manager using this tool would have no problem making those business decisions. A project manager who hasn���t worked with each resource before might struggle to find the right person, but if you���ve got central resource management via a pool, then this is going to be easy for you. 

Let���s say you don���t have the details. For example, I���ve just been working on a proposal for a project. We don���t know if it will go anywhere yet, but if it does, we need to be ready to resource it. Placeholders are built into Runn to give you options. I added skills and more context to activities and placeholder people (e.g. Business Analyst, Developer, Implementation Specialist) to flesh it out ��� useful if you are not the main resource management person and you are relying on a team leader to allocate you some people. And you want to get the right contributor for the team.

Financial management for people

Resources cost money, so it���s not just about whether someone is available to do work. 

I really liked the way you can easily see what impact switching resources has on your project. For example, you can choose an existing person and model what the project timeline and cost would look like with a cheaper resource.

Alternatively, select a placeholder for ���business analyst��� and put in a cost as the max you want to pay out for that skill. If you don���t mind who does the work, add some context to help the tool search through the resource pool. 

Charge out rates are set by role and costs are set by person. There���s a lot of flexibility around rates and rate cards. 

Managing non-billable hours

You can make activities repeat, and you can set activities as non-billable, for example if they are  pre-project set up tasks that won���t be charged to the client.

���Internal work projects��� are used to cover the admin overhead tasks, which is good ��� that helps us make sure that people are only scheduled a reasonable amount on projects or billable work. Everyone needs time to go to the toilet.

Project planner

The other major part of Runn is the project planner. From this view, you can see the projects with the resources allocated to them. 

Projects can be pulled in from your CRM or a project management tool, but you can also set up a new project in Runn with a few clicks. The rate cards and pricing models are set here, underpinning the focus on billable work from the beginning. 

I found it easy to add phases: Runn is focused on the people side of things and the enterprise view for big picture planning. 

If you need to track back to the actual project tasks, you can add Jira links in the Notes section (or links to anything else).

Project Planner viewFinancial tracking for projects

Do you need to know how much a project costs? It���s easy to do that. I���m not sure you���d want to add too many details, if you were managing the overall project budget in another tool, but it is helpful if you are billing the client for hours worked. 

Project performance graph

You can track travel and other expenses, and Runn will highlight whether you are over budget or not. It will also show you the margins for the project, and I found the revenue report really helpful. 

Project overview reports showing financial measuresAudit trails

You can see the 30 days of history for a detailed audit trail so you can see what happened recently on the project. 

I don���t know what happens when 30 days is past. I don���t want to scroll through pages and pages of history, but it would be nice to know I could access it if I needed it.

Reporting

There are project and people reports, so you can display the data in lots of formats. The reports are browser based, real time data. You can add different fields and then you can filter by those fields. 

I love that you can group fields, so you can see the total per client, per project or however you want to view it. Perfect for being able to do accurate billing.

It���s actually very easy to explore the data, but it doesn���t feel overwhelming. I found it very intuitive, straightforward to use. There are no strange, bespoke terms for common features. Everything makes sense. It looks nice and I can use it straight out of the box (as it were).

Variance reporting

One of the biggest challenges I have (apart from resource management) is helping people understand variances. This is huge in organizations where billable time matters. If you have fixed price contracts, it���s really important that you measure profitability because if you don���t, your projects will cost you!

I have worked with people from a few companies where this happens routinely��� how do those firms stay in business?

Runn shows you the schedule vs actuals and where the variances are. 

Exporting data

All the data is exportable so you can send it to a BI tool if that would help you dig into it in more detail. 

At the moment you can���t save a template report, so if you have a few you run each month, you���ll have to reset all the toggles etc each time. I would recommend writing down what you toggle on and off or what features you group/filter by so you get consistency between the reports. When I raised this with the team, they said the feature is coming, so I���ll look out for that.

Do we have capacity?

The big question: when can we start the next project?

You can answer this by setting up projects in Tentative mode. Genius! This is the major selling point for me. The charting option gives you the option to toggle on and off tentative and in-flight projects so you can see what your capacity would be.

You can try different scenarios in Runn and it will help you work out the best outcome for the decisions you want to take. 

For example, I made a chart showing current capacity and in-flight projects. We still had some capacity, so I toggled on some more projects in priority order until we couldn���t start anything new. That���s a very visual way of making executives aware that they can���t have everything now. 

Toggle projects on and off to see what the impact on the team���s availability would be. You can shift projects around to see what happens if it shifts in a different date. 

If you want to do that, you have to duplicate the project and set a different start date, then add it in (and delete it afterwards if it doesn���t give you what you want). So it���s a little clunky here but it���s only a couple of clicks. 

You can play around with what will work best on the bottom line. Perhaps you want one big project, or the top priority projects, or only projects for one client or whatever.

This chart shows the capacity for designers and developers. Purple is the capacity. Dark blue is confirmed work in the time period and light blue is tentative work for projects not yet started.

But we really need that person!

Runn���s resource management features don���t block you from assigning a person to work even if they are fully allocated on other things. This is so you can make the human-led decision about whether that is the right call. 

Runn flags conflicts and you���ll see if there is going to be a challenge. Then you can go in and make a decision: do we leave that person on this project and reassign their other work, do we change the project dates, do we just overwork them (don���t choose this!). 

Even more capacity planning options

Need more than that? Oh yes. Increase the granularity of your forecasting. Turn on skills and see how your upcoming projects would impact the Java developers, for example. 

That helps you present the data to show you do/do not need to hire another one, or that you need to stagger the start date of projects that use that skill set. 

You can filter the charts by so many different categories and tags so you can really dive deep.

Time tracking

There are time tracking tools built in but it also integrates with the tools you already use.

People can add their own time. It���s a robust time tracking tool ��� if you think people will do it, they can, but project managers can add in time on behalf of their time. Personally I like this option as I know my team have not (in the past) been hugely good at filling in timesheets.

The time tracking reporting shows a giant red X if someone hasn���t completed their timesheet, so you know who to chase down. 

There is also a time tracker widget in Chrome so that might help some of your more reluctant time-fillers.

Who has done their timesheet?Managing out of office time

The upcoming public holiday feature allows you to choose the resource calendar options for each resource when you first add them, so you can manage resources based in different countries.

Vacation time and other time off can���t be added by an individual themselves. It can be added by a user with project manager level permissions or via an integration with another enterprise tool that manages the workflow of approving absence. 

Advantages of Runn

Here are the main advantages of Runn as I see them:

It gives you the confidence that you can resource a project once you say yes to it. Big win!Every decision is data-informed, but it doesn���t try to make the decisions for you. Instead, it surfaces a whole host of relevant, easy to understand information so your smart managers can make their own decisions about how to proceed.It���s beautiful to look at and easy to use.

Runn can be great for tracking project finances, making it brilliant for agencies and organizations needing to closely control resource costs. It���s all about the strategic view. 

Disadvantages of Runn

Here are the limitations of Runn:

Currently you can���t change the colors to align with your brand colors. Not the end of the world, as long as you don���t mind too much, and aren���t sharing the reports externally.Another color point: the color of a project relates to the color allocated to the project phase, not whether the person is available or overallocated. Tell your project managers not to choose green for their phases! There is a little red outline around an activity that shows if someone is overallocated, so there is still a visual cue.You can���t display the date in day-month-year format.Runn has extensive modelling and planning features. If your team is still at the point where they aren���t creating estimates for potential projects and the planning is a bit haphazard, this tool will frustrate you. You have to be prepared to get great data going in, and that may require a culture change. It���s worth it, but it could be a challenge for some people to shift to new ways of working.

Runn does need some set up time. It���s obviously only as good as the data in it, so you need to put the interfaces in place, or add in your projects and people before you really get the benefits. 

Ready to try Runn? There���s a free 14-day trial (no credit card required).

This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management

Brain Sensei CAPM Review (for 2023 exam)

Looking for Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)�� training for your PMI certification?

You���re probably checking out a lot of training options and you���re here because you want to know if Brain Sensei is right for you. It might be��� I���ve been through the course and I���ve got opinions about Brain Sensei!

In this review of Brain Sensei���s CAPM training, I���ll share who the course is most appropriate for, what to expect, the cost, the pros and cons and all the features you get included.

I���ve been working as a project manager for over 20 years (gulp) and I���ve written a pile of books about it, plus I���ve spent hours going through project management training so I can confidently share my thoughts on courses and providers. All to help you make the right choice about who to invest money with.

So could Brain Sensei be the perfect CAPM�� course for you? Let���s find out!

Table of ContentsWhat you need to know about the CAPM exam changesOverview of Brain Sensei CAPM�� TrainingFeaturesComplete CAPM�� contentProsHighly interactiveExam simulator and practice questionsGuaranteeOffline ModeConsSlow page load timesCostVery click-heavy12 months accessHow long does it take to complete Brain Sensei?Is Brain Sensei approved by PMI?Who is Brain Sensei's CAPM course best for?Brain Sensei product comparisonInstructor-led Virtual Course OptionBrain Sensei free trialSummary: Is Brain Sensei CAPM training good?Discount code

Before we get started��� some housekeeping.

What you need to know about the CAPM exam changes

PMI hasn���t yet announced a specific date for the CAPM 2023 exam changes, although we know some are coming. They changes will likely reflect the same changes that we saw for the PMP exam, to update the material in line with PMBOK 7 while still keeping PMBOK 6 as a reference text.

Until the exam officially changes, the Brain Sensei CAPM course is still valid. The team behind the Brain Sensei materials are also working in parallel to prepare for the changes, so if you purchase the CAPM exam prep package you���ll get access to all the updates within your subscription period.

Overview of Brain Sensei CAPM�� Training

Brain Sensei is a CAPM�� Exam Prep Course, but it���s unlike other courses I���ve seen or taken because it is story-based and takes place in feudal Japan. The main character is a female Samurai.

When I went through the first Module I was drawn in from the beginning ��� who doesn���t want to be the project manager who rallies the community to build a castle to protect our children and the village?

Cost$349.99Access1 yearExam simulator included?YesEducation (contact) hours35Practice exam questions4 practice exams (600 questions)Guarantee30-day refund guarantee and 100% ���pass satisfaction��� (terms apply)SupportFacebook group, email sequence, and a full Brain Sensei FAQ section on their website. I didn���t have a reason to use the use the support, but other reviews say they provide awesome service.Key features of the Brain Sensei CAPM training

It���s online, video-based training that provides the 23 contact hours required to be eligible for the exam. I thought the course itself was really well put together. It actually made me want to learn about process groups, which is a rare thing. I can���t resist a puzzle.

CAPM�� Certification Exam Prep with Brain Sensei $349.99

An interactive and engaging online, self-paced CAPM exam prep course. Save 10% when you use our exclusive code RGPM10 at checkout.

Buy Now We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you #ad Features

Brain Sensei started out as a self-paced CAPM/PMP exam prep course, but now they offer a range of study options for people taking PMI certifications. The self-paced CAPM course is still a favorite of mine. It includes:

9 modules (same as their PMP course)A year of access to the contentExam simulatorKnowledge assessments to test yourselfThe ���storyline challenges��� are quite funSpaced repetition system (this is really helpful for improving retention, which is the main thing you need to pass the exam: the ability to recall the key project management terms and concepts)Complete CAPM�� content

There are 9 modules which cover the full expectations from the CAPM exam content outline. I think you would also benefit from having a copy of the PMBOK�� Guide (6th edition at the moment). You can get a PDF of that for free if you are a PMI member.

Each module is made up of lessons and they are short, which is helpful if you are juggling your exam prep and revision with work or family commitments.

The course takes you through the story and you find yourself learning (and remembering) the project management principles and key concepts.

You don���t have to take the modules in the order they are presented, but I would recommend it, as the content builds on what is covered in the previous modules.

So far, so expected. I have to say that most of the CAPM (and PMP) online self-paced courses provide the required contact hours and training materials that cover the exam content outline. The Brain Sensei difference is really in how the materials are presented; the story-based interactive video training. That���s a big advantage, but let me tell you about some of the other pros and cons now.

ProsHighly interactive

There is a lot of content to read on screen but it���s built on the Articulate platform and it���s highly interactive.

If you aren���t sure what that means, it means you get to touch the screen, select options, do self-assessment quizzes, drag and drop and all those kind of things.

Interactivity means you are more likely to remember what you���re learning, which should increase your chances of passing the exam. Having to engage with the materials means you improve your recall, because, you know, science.

Working through the key knowledge areas doesn���t feel like a chore.

Exam simulator and practice questions

There are also built-in knowledge assessments, that are designed to help you understand what you don���t know so you can focus in on revising those topics. This is really helpful to cut down the amount of time you spend studying.

Once you know you have a solid grasp of a topic, you can stop going over that module (for now anyway, I think it���s helpful to do a quick refresh before the exam) and move on to topics where you need more support.

There are also 4 full practice exams (with 600 realistic exam questions). I think it���s incredibly important to do full mock exams as well as work through quizzes because the exam is long and you need to be good at managing your time.

I highly recommend using an exam simulator ��� and Brain Sensei���s training package includes access out of the box with no additional charge.

Guarantee

They offer a 100% pass guarantee and will extend your access to the course if you don���t pass the certification exam. With a 99.6% pass rate, it seems unlikely that you will have to take advantage of it, but it is nice to know it is available.

Plus they have a 30-day refund policy if you decide it isn���t the course for you after you purchase ��� as long as you have only take one (or no) practice exam.

Offline Mode

If you are an Apple Podcast user, you can watch a video walkthrough of the learning modules when you are offline. Both Android and Apple users can stream the animated stories via the Spotify and Apple Podcast apps.

ConsSlow page load times

Some of the pages took a while to load. This probably says more about my internet connection on the shocking wifi in our house than the product, but do make sure you���ve got a decent connection before you start a study session ��� as you would with any online training course.

Cost

You can get cheaper courses. The PM PrepCast CAPM is cheaper but also has disadvantages. There are also cheaper courses on Udemy and LinkedIn Learning, but not necessarily ones I would recommend!

If cost is an issue for you, be wary of buying something that is cheap but not capable of doing the job of getting you prepared. Be very careful about choosing something that is a good fit so you can be sure you won���t have to invest in anything else afterwards.

Very click-heavy

Because it���s so interactive, there are lots of places to click. If you use a lot of keyboard shortcuts like me, then you���ll have to turn to the mouse.

Having said that, I now have a touch-screen laptop so that makes this level of interactivity more manageable as I can just touch the screen instead of having to use the mouse, and that���s easier on my hands than constant clicking.

12 months access

You only get access to the course materials for 12 months. Is that long enough? It should be.

Actually, this is an advantage, because if you can���t motivate yourself to study and sit the exam in a year, then CAPM probably isn���t for you.

If you do want access to the materials for longer, I expect you could reach out to the provider for an extension (and there may be a fee for this). However, you really should be aiming to study and take the exam within a fixed time period. The deadline on access to the training helps focus the mind.

How long does it take to complete Brain Sensei?

The content will take you 23 hours to get through the CAPM course. That doesn���t seem very long but you���ll still need to make a study plan to fit the exam prep into your life.

The course online help section says most people complete the material in 1-2 months (for PMP, they don���t specify a time frame for CAPM). I would say you can definitely be done in 3 months if you can make the time to study.

I should also point out that there is a monthly subscription option, so if you just wanted to buy it by the month for 2 months and cram all the content (for example, if you are currently out of work and using the time to get a project management certification), then you can do that too and it works out cheaper than buying the annual option.

The fact that you can access the materials on your tablet or phone makes it easy to fit learning around the rest of your responsibilities.

Is Brain Sensei approved by PMI?

Brain Sensei was approved by PMI under the Registered Education Provider (REP) scheme, and that���s how I first found out about them. The new accreditation scheme is the Authorized Training Provider program and Brain Sensei is not part of that.

However, you don���t need to take a course from an accredited program, and many people don���t. In fact, all the online, self-paced courses I have checked out are no longer accredited under the ATP scheme as it really seems designed for accrediting in-person training.

Rest assured that if you choose to do the Brain Sensei CAPM course, you will still get your 23 hours eligibility certificate and cover all the relevant content for the exam.

Who is Brain Sensei���s CAPM course best for?

Brain Sensei is best for people who know they have the self-motivation to want to study, and know they need exercises and interactivity to keep them engaged.

If you just want to play videos and listen to the materials without interacting, then there are other courses (PM PrepCast is my top alternative to Brain Sensei, although their CAPM self-paced course is being phased out) that will give you that.

Brain Sensei is great for people who don���t have a photographic memory! The whole learning approach is based around the science of remembering. The teaching philosophy is great and I really enjoyed working through the course materials.

If you are concerned that you won���t be able to memorize the content required for the exam, then don���t be. Brain Sensei���s advantage is that it is built from the ground up to help you recall and understand instead of just learning by rote.

Best for:

Self-motivated peopleStudents who are concerned about being able to memorize everything for the test!

Avoid if:

Video learning is not for youThe cartoon and story-based learning is too cutesy for you (although do the free trial and make that call based on your actual reaction, not how you think you might react to the content)Your employer will only pay for an accredited courseYou’ve already got enough experience to go straight for PMP. Check out Brain Sensei’s PMP training instead.

��You might find their instructor-led course a better option, which is still delivered virtually but with a ���real��� trainer.

Brain Sensei product comparison

The table below shows the different options available from Brain Sensei.

Product Name / Primary Rating / Price Best For / Primary Button Engaging Prep Course PMP Certification 4.0 $499.99 Project managers with enough experience to go straight for PMP Learn more Live Course PMP�� Certification Exam Prep (Live Virtual Instructor) with Brain Sensei 3.5 N/A Project managers who prefer human interaction and more support while studying Buy Now For CAPM CAPM�� Certification Exam Prep 3.5 $349.99 People prepared to self-study for CAPM Buy Now Simulator only Brain Sensei PMP Exam Simulator - 6 Months Access 3.5 $119.99 Students that don't need training but want exam practice Buy Now Engaging Prep Course PMP Certification 4.0 $499.99 Project managers with enough experience to go straight for PMP Learn more Live Course PMP�� Certification Exam Prep (Live Virtual Instructor) with Brain Sensei 3.5 N/A Project managers who prefer human interaction and more support while studying Buy Now For CAPM CAPM�� Certification Exam Prep 3.5 $349.99 People prepared to self-study for CAPM Buy Now Simulator only Brain Sensei PMP Exam Simulator - 6 Months Access 3.5 $119.99 Students that don't need training but want exam practice Buy Now Instructor-led Virtual Course Option

They also offer an instructor-led course that offers a few different options including a 5-day bootcamp style class, a weekend course, and a twice a week course spread over 5 weeks. This style of class gives you the opportunity to interact with other project managers and the instructor. It also comes with the self-study course.

Brain Sensei free trial

You can sign up for a free trial and click around inside the course to see what it���s like. I highly recommend you do that, because it will either give you the confidence to take the course or make you realize that it isn���t a good fit for your learning style. If you���re about to embark on your CAPM exam prep then check it out on the Brain Sensei website.

The trial will give you a sense of what the full course material is going to be like. You���ll get a taste of the full exam prep course, and be in a better position to make an informed decision about whether this is the course for you.

Summary: Is Brain Sensei CAPM training good?

I���ve never seen a project management training course with so much interactivity and engagement built into the course materials. Studying feels easy. The storyline is great. I was worried the cartoon-y-ness would be a bit childish but it was quite gripping.

Well, as gripping as project management training can be, let���s be realistic. It���s not a movie.

It���s a cost-effective course in comparison to live classroom courses, so sign up for the free trial and see how you get on!

If you learn well through video but need a good story to keep you engrossed in the material, this course will be perfect to help you prepare for the CAPM exam.

Discount code

Ready to check it out? Use the discount coupon RGPM10 to get 10% off your purchase!

CAPM�� Certification Exam Prep with Brain Sensei $349.99

An interactive and engaging online, self-paced CAPM exam prep course. Save 10% when you use our exclusive code RGPM10 at checkout.

Buy Now We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you #ad

This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management