I’ve heard many people say “Never assume anything!” in response to someone saying “I assumed …” just after something has gone wrong. I’ve had the same thought jump from the back of my mind as soon as I think “we’ll have to assume…”.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working at getting a complex project back on track. As well as being quite complex there are a lot of unknowns especially surrounding the design of the new system. Previous project performance means we don’t have the luxury of waiting until the evaluation and testing phase is complete before we begin building the new system which in turn means assumptions will have to be made.

I always get a little nervous when making assumptions, however within every assumption there lies a risk related to the assumption being untrue. In the real world unfortunately assumptions have to be made but the important thing to understand and communicate to stakeholders is the risk associated with that assumption turning out to be wrong.

Do you take this approach assumption management? Did you find this article useful? If so, please leave a comment.

Until the next Post…

Not had much time to post anything as I’ve been hard at work on projects I get paid for and studying for the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam. I received an email today telling me that I have passed the exam so the hard work has been worth it.

Hopefully I’ll get time to publish some useful posts than just boasting about my achievements.

Until the next post.

Well, I’ve managed to get half way to the full PRINCE2 (PRojects In Controlled Environments) certification. I received an email earlier today telling me I’ve passed the PRINCE2 Foundation exam. So, now onto preparing for the Practitioner exam.

Until the next post…

Passed the PMP Exam!
 
Sorry for the delay in posting but I’ve been concentrating on PMP study.

After about 2 months study preparation I am glad to report that I have passed the PMP exam on the first attempt, phew! I completed all the questions with about 10mins to spare and left the exam room feeling completely exhausted.

I’m not going to cover what was on the exam, NDA and all that, suffice to say (and I’m stealing one of my Uni lecturers lines here) that you should expect everything that’s in the PMBOK plus some extra general knowledge – but you knew that already right? I don’t like reading other people’s braindumps and hints on exam content as you just never know how accurate they are and whether they’re out of date.

My main sources of study material was the PMBOK (of course), a few PM books and the good old internet.

Off to celebrate success with the company of my loved one; a few pints in one of the local pubs and a meal at my favourite Indian restaurant with maybe a couple more beers.

Next phase of my certification project is Prince2 (Foundation and Practitioner)!

Until the next post…