I’ve been doing project management related work for the past 9 ~ 10 years. I took SXMC’s PMP® course in year 2010, and got my certification within a month after completing the course.
In 2012, SXMC offered this PDU renewal course on Agile project management. I attended the introductory course, and was fascinated by the brand new way of managing projects. And since I’ve only earned approximately half of the required PDUs to maintain my PMP® certification, I decided to enrol for the 5-week class.
All the things taught by SXMC really kept me interested in wanting to actually learn more about Agile, and practice it. Unfortunately, I failed the exam due to lack of preparation, and probably, over-confidence.
Three years later, I found myself again needing to earn a handful amount of PDUs to maintain the PMP® certification. I’ve also came across a couple of job openings on the market where Agile project management is emphasised. Although I’m not proactively seeking for new jobs, I figured that I should give myself more dimensions on the resume, to be more competitive in case there is a suitable opportunity.
Although I have taken the course 3 years ago, I felt I needed to adjust my concept, or “what I think I know”, about Agile. There was a reason why I failed my exam the first time. Therefore, I felt the need to relearn everything from scratch.
Over the course of 4 weeks, I tried to stay as focused as possible. Not just the materials taught by the instructor, Mr. Hsu, but also the questions or conversations raised by classmates (not sure if there’s such thing as “Osmotic Learning”) . Mr. Hsu, obviously did a great job teaching all he knew about Agile, and patiently answered all the questions, even in our Line chat room. Although the class ran longer than scheduled every week, but it was through those Q&As, and the Line group conversations that I learned a lot of stuff.
I also think our classmates were the most wonderful bunch of professionals I could have as classmates. Their willingness to help each other by answering questions, discussing Agile practices & scenarios, and thoughts on exams were all very helpful means for my learning.
I think to have success in passing the exams, it is necessary to attend very class. Although SXMC does video recording of the classes, you just won’t receive as much information if you are not physically sitting in the classroom. You’d have to pay extra attention to the questions raised by classmates, and the answers replied by the instructors. Whenever in doubt, ask questions.
That is how you’d know if your understanding of Agile is on the right track. Make sure you review the course handout from beginning to end at least once (for me, I only reviewed the English version). Take the practice exams seriously. A lot of the questions in the practice exams were there during the real exam, so it was very important to understand what are the questions trying to ask, and why certain answers are better than the other answers.
I’d like to express my appreciation to SXMC & Mr. Huang for giving me the opportunity to learn Agile, and I’d like to thank the instructor, Mr. Hsu for the tireless efforts to ensure students’ success. I also want to thank all the classmates for helping each other with pointers, and keeping each other motivated. And finally, I’d like to thank 信丞助教 for all the coordination, and helping the Mr. Hsu answers questions.
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仕新管理顧問 PMI-ACP® (Agile & Scrum) 學員心得實況