Gary Drumm – PMP, ITIL

So, while preparing to take my ITIL Foundation certification in September, I began to research practice tests so I could determine the areas where I needed improvement. I came across a fantastic resource at Berbee.com

They have a free online practice test that looks fantastic! I won’t go into my first pass test results, because I’m still “in training”, but it appears to give you great exposure to the terminology and concepts they’re looking for in the actual ITIL test environment.

Check it out!

http://www.berbee.com/public/learning/webseminar/WS_ITILExam/player.html

I just got notice from PMI today congratulating me on obtaining my PMP. This is, without a doubt, one of the most significant accomplishments of my professional life. So I checked and confirmed that I’m now listed in the PMP registry.

This is just too cool!

Dearest Microsoft,

I love you guys. I really do. I’ve made a living, nay a career delivering, installing, and supporting your software. You guys do great work, but honestly what’s up with your eOpen website?

I use the site as part of my license management job on a fairly regular basis, at least 2-3 times a month, and it seems that EVERY time I try to go to the site I have some sort of connection problem.

If I can login without issue, then it takes me seemingly forever to load my license information. I have difficulty using your site no matter what time of day, or whether I’m connecting from home, work, or over another broadband connection.

You guys are the biggest software company in the world. Can you please do something about this?

Sincerely,

Very Frustrated eOpen User

Watch in awe as executives at Gateway Computers make their company and brand disappear! Gateway Computers announced on Friday that they will be moving to a “100% Indirect Sales Model” Umm guys, have you not been paying attention? In business, generally, more distribution channels is better than fewer, especially for a product manufacturer like Gateway.

Gateway was a pioneer in the direct sale of computers back in the late 80′s and early 90′s. You called their toll-free number, told them what you wanted, gave them your credit card, and they put it together and shipped it to you. A very low-cost/high profit model.

Now, Gateway intends to do away with all of that, going to a distribution model that’s just like every other product we buy on a day to day basis. I guess this could indicate the total market saturation of computers in general. I mean there are literally dozens of players in the computer field and they all basically do the same thing: Buy components from other manufacturers (i.e motherboards, memory, video cards, hard drives, wireless cards, etc), put them together in their own, branded, case, mark it up and sell it. There’s just not a whole lot of innovation in that process.

Gateway could try to develop a new way of computing. They could develop some great new product that generates a lot of buzz (i.e. The Eee PC). They could try to expand their market share by developing new ways of making computers cheaper in general, or more energy efficient. How about Gateway trying to reestablish it’s brand by declaring itself “The greenest computer you’ll ever own”, and then developing systems that meet that standard. Surely with all of the “Global Warming” buzz, that would get someone’s attention.

But no. They decide to keep being a simple computer assembly-line and decrease their market value and exposure by removing distribution channels. Oh well. So, sadly, Gateway may be going the way of the Dodo. Sadly because I used to own a Gateway and it was actually a pretty good computer, at the time. But alas all things must come to an end. Maybe Dell will buy them out…

The following pictures contain some of the study materials I used to pass the PMP.

Here are some of the details:

PMBOK Guide, Of course
- Mastering Project Management by James P Lewis (ISBN:0786311886)
- Exam Cram 2, by Michael Solomon (ISBN:1789734621)
- Information Technology Project Management By Kathy Schwalbe (ISBN:1423901452)
- PMP In Depth By Paul Sanghera, Ph.D. (ISBN:1598631772)
- PMPrepCast (http://www.pmprepcast.com)
- Villanova University PMP Prep Course, as well as Essentials of Project Management, Mastering Project Management, and IS/IT Project Management (Earning me Two Master’s Certifications as well)
- Oliver F Lehmann Project Management Training – Self Assessment Test (http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm)
- PMP Study Notes by Rafi Peltekian and Raymond Okimura (PDF File – http://www.robertperrine.biz/students2000/Rafi%20Peltekian%20PMP.pdf)
- A very special Thank you goes out to Ray Pierce, PMP, from my local PMI Chapter for the help with the EV formula memorization technique.
- Gantthead.Com, of course!
- PMI.Org – I’m not listed in the registry yet, but that should happen in the next few days.
- Numerous websites, forums, and discussion groups.

Of course I also have to say thank you to my family (wife and son), for putting up with the long hours of study I put into getting this thing finished. Without you guys, it would have all been for nothing.

Now that I’ve passed the PMP, I could rest on my laurels and do nothing, however; I’ve decided that I’m going to get ready to take the ITIL Foundation test. What is the ITIL Foundation test? ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. It’s basically an individual certification that says you understand the basics of ISO 20000 standards and processes.

ITIL was originally created under the British government and is a subset of the IT Governance Board. At any rate, it’s sort of become the defacto standard for understanding how IT Service Management should be structured and implemented.

There are 3 levels of ITIL certification: Foundation, Practitioner, and Manager. Initially, of course, I will go for the Foundation certification. If all goes according to plan, I should have this completed by the end of September or Mid-October.

Man it’s good to have PMP done though. It’s like a 1000 pound weight has been lifted off of my back.

It’s done! Today I sat for my PMP exam and, after 18 months of preparation (going back to college, reading numerous books and blogs, memorizing dozens of processes and formulas, and spending countless hours studying) I’m now, officially, a PMP!

I cannot even begin to describe the feeling. I’m actually kind of numb. I keep having to look at the test results printout to beieve that’s it’s finally finished. This is my first professional certification in my 15 year career. The process has been incredible for me. It’s helped me get back into the mindset of learning new things. It’s also done wonders for my own self-esteem, not that I really lack in that department, but it’s nice to have a 3rd party vailidation of your skills, something I previously did not care much about.

At any rate. I am now, offically, Gary Drumm, PMP. Damn that looks good!!!

In just two days I sit for the PMP. I feel pretty good about it. I’ve crammed my head with as much PMI think as I possibly can. I’ve worked out what I think is a very good method for my formula brain dump, and I took tomorrow off so I can spend the day going over a few final items (critical path calculation, building network diagrams, calculating backward passes, etc.).

I think I’m just about ready to go. I recently met a guy at my local PMI chapter meeting who gave me a fantastic and yet simple method for rembering the formulas you need to know. I’ll share more about that method in a separate post. So wish me luck, say a prayer fos me, and send good PMP thoughts my way. This is a really BIG deal for me.

OK. So the wife and kid were out of the house for about 12 hours today, leaving me to study for my PMP, which I’m scheduled to take next Saturday. Since I can’t really study for 12 hours, I decided to do a little work on my office at one point, just to relieve the bordum.

At any rate, I moved my dekstop to become my primary PC. I did this for a couple of reasons, 1) I wanted to expand my monitors to 3 instead of just two. My original plan was to have 4 monitors, with two of them in portrait instead of landscape, but my crappy video card made sure that wasn’t possible.

So I went with 3 monitors and went ahead an hooked a small (10″) monitor I’ve had in the closet for a while. My idea is to use this monitor as a “watch, but it’s not important” monitor, meaning I out apps like my Zune software. I just leave it up so I can easily change the music, without having to close or minimize windows.

I also hooked my external DVD/RW, Iomega 500 GB and some cheapy 500GB enclosure I got, as well as my Sony ebook reader, a rather “colorful” USB hub, my iPod docking station, and my new keyboard (A Logitech cordless Wave desktop).

So anyway, here are the pics…

Last year, I wrote a little blurb about VMWare’s issues with Microsoft entering the hyper-visor market (Microsoft-vs-VMWare).

In this week’s issue of Information Week, they discuss the recent departure of VMWare CEO Diane Greene. In the article they discuss the issues that VMWare faces with it’s extremely high pricing model and the author (Charles Babcock) notes a quote by Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman:

“…with no competition, you can get away with that… now VMWare has seven solid competitors…”

Babcock also goes on to note:

“…it’s Microsoft’s presence that’s sending shivers through the stock price…”

Don’t get me wrong. VMWare is an awesome company, with an awesome product. They virtually (no pun intended) create the virtualization market on an enterprise scale. They have made it possible for companies to streamline their network infrastructure and management. That said, however; it’s precisely what I stated almost 10 months ago that’s causing them to experience the shakeup now.

Another quote from the article states. “…Microsoft offers a far deeper server and infrastructure management solution than VMWare”. Duh! Ya think! Microsoft runs in 90% of networks in the market. If they decide to roll your little one-off application into their server core, what can you do? They have a unique ability to squeeze you out of a particular market without directly competing with you. Like I said, if Microsoft decides they want to play in your sandbox, your better off selling them all of your sand and letting them have it. It’s just not a good idea to bet against Microsoft.

Wrong? Right? Who knows. I love VMWare’s products and services. I use it in my own network environment. Just like said about Asus-vs-Dell in an earlier post this week, now we’ll get to see what happens when the big boys come to town. If it were me, I would have courted Microsoft to buy me out…now, where did I put that “how to write the next big software technology platform pamphlet”?