Certifications

Should certification be your goal or part of your improvement journey?

Skills development, that is what we deliver. Certification can be part of the journey, but it shouldn’t be the only goal. Our clients want their students to return from the training with new skills, processes and tools they can use on the job that will make them more productive. We work with our clients to deliver results that meet their learning and skill development expectations. The goal is productivity improvement and a high value return on investment.improvement-journey
If the improvement journey includes certification, we provide that too. We just prefer that certification is a result of the improvement journey and not the goal. As an example our 5 day PMP Exam Preparation Boot Camp is very different from the typical boot camp. The PMP exam questions have been getting better and better at testing the applicant’s ability to actually apply the knowledge within A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide®). To address this SPL has combined the best of our skill developing Simulation Powered Learning workshops and our PMP Exam Preparation into a 5 day program that prepares applicants not only with the necessary knowledge but the ability to apply that knowledge in both passing the exam and in improving their project management skills in the workplace.

Most PMP Exam Preparation classes are structured to follow the PMBOK covering one knowledge area (section) at a time. That doesn’t help your students understand how to apply the knowledge on a real project in an integrated way. It also doesn’t help your students know how to answer the application based questions. Integration is critical and the PMBOK devotes a section to integration, but talking about it is not the same as experiencing it.

Our PMP boot camp is executed like a real project, by phases. First defining the big picture, project initiation and scope. then planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing the project. boot-campIn our boot camp we introduce the processes, tools and techniques in the same order they would be used on a real project, by phase. Each tool and technique is then created/used on a real-life project. We also start with the fundamentals, add the more advanced tools and techniques, and then wrap everything together with a finishing focus on the exam particulars and final preparations for passing the exam.

Scrum Master Certification

There is a lot of interest in Agile Scrum today and many people are getting the Scrum Master certification. What does it require? Paying for and taking a 2 day class which includes an “easy to pass” end of class exam. It requires zero experience managing Agile Scrum projects. This is not a true certification of real Agile Scrum skills and competency. Because the Scrum Master certification doesn’t require or prove real skill competency we do not offer or support it. We do offer training for and support the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) certification program as it does require real life Agile experience, Agile Scrum training, passing an exam and continuing development.