Big Games and Big Data

There is a funny exchange as seen in a native movie wherein a vagabond takes shelter in a temple and manages to employ a runaway teenager to run errands for him to get ‘free’ breakfast, lunch and dinner from temples that provides food as religious offering to be consumed by worshippers after worship. Initially, the starved teenager assents and accepts to do the rounds by collecting food and shares with his ‘master’. One day, frustrated to be at the beck and call of the ‘vagabond’ who just sits and does nothing but instructs him to go to a particular outlet to collect ‘that day’s food offering’, the teenager puts his foot down and refuses to move a muscle. “Why should I have to share with you when you don’t as much lift a leg? Why can’t I just eat it all?” The vagabond smiles “son, I agree you can eat it all yourself. What about the next meal? Who will offer where? You see, that’s where my value-add comes into play. I don’t merely sit on my bottom. I alone know on which day, what time, who will offer you what? How is that?” Tapping his head, he smirks “the database is right here and that’s why I sit and you sweat. Got it?  Now get going.” 

Big Data – some insights

The power of Database is just gripping. The DBMS will become more powerful, and robust with a ‘Relational’ element as RDBMS – which is more structured mapped with parent to a child through a primary key. Now that premise is revisited to look for alternative approach to make things work even more faster in data  retrieval after all database isn’t just to store data but retrieve and re-engage. From a MySQL came out the NoSQL meaning we are back to flat file system which instead of sending a query to a database,  performs the typical request-response mechanism keeping the latency at the lowest possible [100% is utopian. Let’s get real]. So the concept of sending multiple queries to different databases concurrently to fetch the desired result in a jiffy was sheer magic, and that magic wand is Big Data. We will call its database as 'NoSQL' or Not structured and ‘Hadoop’ is the ecosystem within which the whole things exists and offers the user experience; the concept of sending multiple queries is to minimize the time taken in data retrieval  by knocking at several databases that possibly holds the data, and of course, one of the servers will surely serve given the data aggregated and returns with the sought after result – which in this parlance called as ‘MapReduce’ and the database system as HDFS – Hadoop Database File System. The hardware aspects is equally significant as processing of data produces large heat which calls for ‘Hardware Management’ and stretches the budget, but its worth every penny as your ROI is expected to scale to not just break-even. Its impact on the topline and bottom line will be tremendous as its will be customer-focused and customer-centric effort in every sense. Enough chatter about the technicalities and we will turn our attention how Big Data s aids and assists outcome.

The precursor to Big Data analytics undoubtedly is predictive analysis. The Brad Pitt starrer Moneyball, which went to become a box-office hit, employed empirical statistical analysis using to analyze the potential of a player, and also predict about performance. As they say every picture has a story behind, and now every second is snapped when you factor that in the blink of an eye the ball gets passed, thrown, kicked or creamed.

Big Data provides that window to analyze in any role one may choose - player, coach, fan, viewer, stakeholder, analyst, economist and the list goes on. We live in this digital age where there is a downpour of data that is ‘humungous’ in size and count keeps climbing.

Big Data and Sports

Remember the good old days of  Tennis, when hard heavy wooden racquets.  Bjorn Borg vs McEnroe matches at Wimbledon are truly legendary, and in fact holds the record for tie-breaker. Watch the latest play and notice the racquets are the most advanced lightweight  carbon fiber composites with powerful guts. Its more power play now. Times have changed and so has technology.

The  comments made by Cynthia Rudin, associate professor of statistics at MIT condenses the essence of Big Data and its impact in sports

“Sports are watched by millions and millions of people - yet, pretty much all of the strategic decisions are made by humans in a split second. These decisions could definitely be enhanced by learning from past data, but humans can’t keep large databases in their heads. I wanted to build predictive analytics tools to help teams make these decisions,”

“If we know, for instance, that in certain circumstances, a particular coach on the opposition team tends to make a particular decision, then we can be ready for it,”   “Another example - we can place sensors all over a car while it is in training for a race, and use the sensor data to help a driver learn how to race better.”

It couldn’t have been said better.

IPL [Indian Premier League]

Cricket in the sub-continent is big-time and cricketers are worshipped as demi-gods. That’s what fame and fortune can place – high aloft on a pedestal. But then along with its power is the Damocles sword of performance. If you fail to live up to the expectation, then it will be a nosedive – from glory to fall from grace. Where does Big data come into the frame? Talk about technology for the turnaround. From tweaking to thriving, players in this digital age with digital possessions can equip themselves by playing to the strength and working on weakness and beyond self-analysis, there is the advice of a professional who knows where it hurts and what helps . How? Data points. Every stroke you have played or every ball bowled is captured and analyzed from different perspectives. It’s a typical holistic 360 degree analysis and with 3-D technique the sky too isn’t the limit.  Predominantly primary data is always the ‘historic data’ or past data readily available and secondary data will be made up of the searched and secured ones. What if everything is under one folder that’s within reach? It provides a ring side view about your potential and helps to tap onto your advantage. The information is funneled to predict with certain degree of probability. Everyone, without any exception, goes through period of slump. In managerial economics, its boom and slump, and in stock market we call bearish and bullish. In a highly competitive environment, wherein a single ball can alter the fate , there is so much that goes into the game. Every player is an asset – and so much is at stake.

As an illustration, let’s check how India fared against Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup Matches.

1992: Ind 216/7, Pak 173/10 Result: India won by 43 Runs

1996: Ind 287/8 Pak 248/9 Result: India won by 39 Runs

1999: Ind 227/6 Pak 180/10 Result: India won by 47 Runs

2003: Pak 273/7 Ind 276/4 in 45 overs Result: India won by 6 Wickets

2011: Ind 260/9 Pak 231/10 Result: India won by 29 Runs

2015: Ind 300/7 Pak 224/10 Result: India won by 76 runs

Legend has it when Sachin Tendulkar is on a song, it can be nightmare for the bowlers and notably the 2003 World Cup, when opponent’s ace pace bowler had to give up in sheer frustration in being smashed all the way to or over the ropes. Likewise, Brian Lara on his day can be devastating. So the in-form and out-of-form batsman are closely studied to detect any loopholes that can be used to advantage. Why does the team have a mix of youth and experience combine? For raw aggression, the youth and when ‘pressure’ piles up the inexperienced tend to crumble like a cookie, which emphasize the need for  the experienced player who can keep a cool head undeterred and undisturbed. Composure counts and comes from experience. And that’s what makes it a balanced team. 

Let’s walk-through some infographics of the ongoing T-20, 2016, courtesy: the Times of India, to substantiate the substance.

It’s a snapshot of the key information required – the data on the dashboard. Complete with prediction.

EPL [English Premier League]

Who is your top goal scorer in this season? How many appearance? How many assists? What is the rate of conversion in  penalty kicks? Fouls? Suspension?

Not mere questions. There are answers available – ask your team’s analyst.

Considering a bird’s view, with data available , the analysis is again for numerous perspective : a)  as a game that usually involve player evaluation, team management, strategy and planning, competitor analysis, and  b) Business – managing a team comes with a cost. Injuries are a coach’s nightmare, more terrifying than to the player hurt and you can do the math how much will be the cost in covering the insurance. The overall expenses incurred,  check the impact on the top line, and bottom line.  Its business. 

NBA [National Basketball Association]

Should it spring any surprise that professional analytics that can break down data so granular to sift for information – forewarned is forearmed, and that’s why information is wealth. Digital Asset is too precious to be lost. Coaches do their own SWOT on every player in the team – own and opposition and strategize. Stats cite that major sports do hire their talent to tap into analysis.  97 percent of MLB teams and 80 percent of NBA teams are accompanied   by data analytics professionals.

Sports is more sophisticated today. And the power of numbers and the need for its interpretation is greater than never before, and that’s how and why the tug or pull from all sides seem to be on Big Data. Uncertainty notwithstanding, you can measure player’s performance, read patterns  and predict a possible outcome.  Big Data provides  the space to maneuver around for better planning by leveraging on the data available that will empower you to  face the odds in ‘expecting the unexpected’. Big Data helps you to make sense of the data available to chart out the action plan to enhance your preparedness. It might sound early to speculate how Big Data  will expand the shores of Artificial Intelligence, but the way the wind blows, the  supposition looks dead on.

 We look forward to meet you again in another post. Thank you for your time.

The 'Big' Data

The Big Data seems to be the buzz word not just in the bay area but almost everywhere. Big numbers are interpreted as Big Data – which is true but not the whole truth. First, Big data is not a recent phenomenon.  Long before computers came into  the big picture, not many knew that there were ‘human computers’ that  did the math  instrumental in launches of shuttles to space.  Incredible! But that’s how an “all-women’ empowered  team influenced science and technology with ‘mind’ math  to propel rockets,  which today is accomplished with sophisticated computers. The important connect – data. What the mind did then, a machine is doing in the present. 

Cave man didn’t really drive cars, but they were the ones to invent the wheel and its that legacy we have passed from generations to generations – from Ford to Ferrari to Tesla to ‘tomorrow’.  The big deal – of course, the wheel.

This generation might not know a ‘floppy disk’ could save 1.44 MB. Only that much? Ridiculously less. Well, in its time, the floppy was an amazing storage device that can just fit in your pocket and the bytes large enough for  vital information.  Even before floppy, We did have tapes saving and storing data.

The world is enamored with ‘big’. We have big screens, big tvs, big cars – everything bigger. Dispelling the notion ‘small is big’, and again contrary to popular belief, it was apple that set the pace and premise in building phones that were smarter and ‘bigger’.   And it would be apple that did roll out with smaller screens and after the demise of Steve Jobs, there was a roll back and iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus was launched with huge 5.5 inch screen – imposing in size compared to its previous iPhone versions. Buyers clearly signaled that it isn’t Steve but consumers’ diktat determine surge or slump in sales and clearly the bet was on ‘big’.

‘Bigger is better’ – and so went the line and sentiment. So when it comes to data, why and how the Big Data became so prominent?

Pen and Paper

It sure dates before old Star Trek episodes because by then we have seen computers introducing itself to Captain Kirk “I am C-3PO, human/cyborg relations”. It’s just an aside. On a serious note, the onset of the computer age was preceded by man power – literally wherein things weren’t yet automated and mostly manual with desk and file occupying key positions, and tap-tap-tap resonance of the typewriter  that somehow synced with the tick-tock of the clock. It will be  computer keyboard  that silenced the sound with soft touches and simplicity . Till the changeover,  pen and paper were the ubiquitous source to collect facts and figures which was processed as information. Information is made up of data while the converse is not true. Just as population grew, the data emanating also raised manifold that was raw and refined.  Then processing the data accrued proved to be a pain point as screening quality data proved cumbersome weeding out the unnecessary and unwanted. Well, how do you ascertain which is necessary? Probability and Statistics became immensely popular a branch of applied mathematics  in employed heavily for data interpretation.

Data Storage and Data Processing

The challenge with the burgeoning data posed a serious problem in storage. The memory of in-built system storage expanded and mainframes were the rage. External storage like floppy was superseded by external hard disk drives, compact discs , and  USB flash sticks with a greater capacity to hold data. Physical servers to data centers were created in the growing demand and clamor to conserve data and its integrity. We are talking of this moment of yottabyte computer. From mega to peta to zeta to yota may not mean much other than  ramping up the storage size, till someone pitches the price, which is $100 trillion.

Image courtesy: www.gizmodo.com

The data storage will be on-going struggle for memory and maintenance. Data warehouse grew big time and along with came in Data Mining. One could mistake Data Mining as fishing for data, rather Data Mining is about analyzing the worthiness of data and extract it for required use.

With increased data at disposal and companies unable to make head or tail, Data Analysts, and Data Scientists introduced the intelligence aspects formally and Data Analytics was clearly in the spotlight. So when massive data gets aggregated, the logistics issues notwithstanding, consumers wanted information at ‘lighting speed’.  Not fast, but faster. If you are not up to it, you aren’t worth it. We have Google , which holds 64% in market share  as search,  throwing  search  results by the thousands.

54,002 Google searches in 1 second.

 Big Data

It took us thus far to get to the point? Well, a little bit of narrative hopefully should help to put things in perspective.  In this time and age, the consumer is well informed and expectation is exponential. Search results don’t satisfy anymore – it’s the accuracy in the results and the speed of delivery that’s decisive. Intelligence inspires to probe ‘what’s next’. And expectation too hit the roof “ok, now what?” questions the inquisitive customer. So the ability to preempt and predict almost to the point of being prescient is typical ‘customer centric service’. Just like Hotels these days are able to cater to the customer soon after check-in without any orders placed speaks volumes of consumer behavior analysis in terms of taste and preference. Likewise in search, the matching frequency to the ‘searched’ ought to be mapped. You can’t afford to send your visitor or prospect or client to on a wild-goose chase, and that’s slamming a lid hard on all the openings and opportunities. Surprise with a ‘wow’ factor with customer exclaiming “God, look at the speed and brilliance. It might even guess my next move and read my mind.”  Hence, it’s not the number of search results have gone up in numbers, but the quality  as well. Algorithms are amazing and fascinating that are capable of meeting challenges like content, capture, curation, analysis, search, delivery and ability  to read patterns, choices, preferences of the customer through lot many means like ‘last visited’ or ‘most visited’ or page ranks or offering “you might like”. 

We are In an era of information overload. How do we make sense of this data? How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Contextual business data mining  wherein data can be processed at superfast speed hard to even imagine few years before. Entity that makes sense of information overload and then converts into  insights to empower business. Well, that’s Big Data.

Big Data, as part of its evolution, will build a podium for posterity to offer improved and increased services without saddling the end-user with any burden. It presents quality data faster than expected with alarming accuracy that defies odds and enhances your decision making. Informed Decisions.

In our  subsequent posting, we will discuss more about Big Data and its impact  in almost everything, yes, including sports.

Thank you for stopping by and spending your time reading this blog.  

Apples - Oranges & Big Data

Didi President Jean Liu said "Our company's legal name is called 'little orange,“ so apples and oranges today do have a connect – as companies. While it was gathered from industrial sources that Didi was on the lookout for working with investors on products and technology, Tim Cook of Apple Inc., said in an interview that he saw opportunities for Apple and Didi Chuxing to collaborate in the future. It also presented him an opportunity to better understand ‘critical Chinese market’ as reported.

The investment and other investors

Apple Inc made news recently by investing $ 1Billion in Chines ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing. This move is also interpreted in the market circles of Apple trying to make peace with Chinese government after it shutdown iTunes in the country. Apple was forced to view the impositions seriously after China pulled down iTunes and iBooks. In the wake of such developments, its significant to note that Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who is Apple’s largest outside shareholder sold his apple shares stating Beijing  could “come in and make it very difficult for Apple to sell there”. The crackdown by China forcing Apple to bring down the curtains on Apple’s s iTunes Movies and iBook services pushed Carl to pull the trigger to sell his shares.  Ironically, Apple’s manufacturing plants are located in China, and despite the investments pumped, didn’t prove a deterrent for China to shut down iTunes, which did sour the ties shared.

So investing in Didi, instead of Uber, Apple is trying the smoothen the rough edges and improve relationship with China. Apple’s investment is the biggest so far, alongside with other investors like the Chinese technical heavyweights  Tencent and Alibaba .

But why Apple chose Didi?

One theory that was floated was Didi shares a good equation with the Chinese government. Didi’ initial strategy was e-hailing taxis.  When the Chinese government clamped e-hailing as illegal, Didi collaborated with the taxi companies by providing Didi’s mapping and routing systems. Didi’s partnership with Haibo, a Shanghai taxi company is telling about its willingness to offer space and not crush competition.

Didi, is putting up a stiff competition to its American rival Uber through its strategic partnership and expansion with the US based Lyft and Grab in Southeast Asia and also investments with Olacabs in India.

It’s also widely speculated that Apple is pressing on the pedals to speed up its own electric cars that’s been in the pipeline. Apple, in this context, faced with foreign policy pressure of China   for ‘foreign online services’ that disallows competing directly with local companies, investment with Didi is strategic given that Apple Pay is supported in Didi's cab-hailing app. Besides, the investment  hopefully should become a beachhead for further developments in the automotive segment.

The advantage with Didi is its peer-to-peer service is legal in China as it works together with ‘labor companies endorsed by government and leasing companies to confirm conformance of automotive regulations by its drivers.

The Billion and Big Data

(Collected from public domain.)

Didi says “it’s doing 3 million rides per day compared to Uber’s 1 million”.

Didi Chuxing referred to as “China’s Uber” completes more than 11 million rides a day  with 87% of the private ride-hailing market in China.

Today, Didi is profitable in 200 out of 400 cities in which it operates and holds 99 percent of the taxi-hailing market, according to company vice president Stephen Zhu.

Didi provides Apple with a rich data source for its self-driving vehicle push. It also could provide benefits to Apple’s mobile ecosystem. Ride-sharing apps are closely linked to payment services, such as Apple Pay. They also can be the foundation for other mobile commerce transactions such as deliveries

“We understand the Chinese market,” Tony Qiu, director of Didi’s strategy group, commented “We know every day where people are traveling from or to, so we try to aggregate those demands.”

Tim Coulling, of  Canaly - an analysis firm opined that Apple has good reason to want to link up with a company that boasts 300 million users in 400 Chinese cities.      “What this gives Apple is access to a large user base of people within China from which they can harvest data,” he said.

Apple may be able to make use of data about driving habits and China’s complicated road system for its mapping functions as well as development of a car.

·        Derrick Cogburn, an associate professor at the School of International Service at American University, said almost every tech company is in the race for big data that informs product development and marketing. They are “all collecting lots and lots of aggregate data about our patterns and our habits,” he said.

·        

Now that you filled the PMP® Examination forms. What next? Write the PMP® Exam

As a prelude to appearing for the PMP® Certification exam, few pointers worth to ponder.

1. Fill the PMP® application form

Filling the form can be time consuming and extensive in preparation with an eye for details.

Timeline of the PMP® Credential Process

Image courtesy: www.pmi.org

Please be informed that PMI® will provide 90 days to fill your form online during which you can edit and make changes but cannot cancel the application. PMI® will post a mail to your valid email about the completeness of application.

2.  Response from PMI® about Application’s completeness

Once you submit the PMP® application, PMI will get back in about 5 days about the ‘Application Completeness Review’.  

Soon after you submit the PMP® application, it becomes mandate to appear for the examination within one year of submission. This is again for the benefit of the participants to stay concentrated about the exam. A lot many aspirants develop cold feet due lack of time constraints, unexpected events, and hectic work schedule or plainly lack of preparation.  

Also, some aspirants wait to become completely conversant and extremely confident before they can start filling the form. These are exceptional cases, besides PMI offers you enough time for the kind of confidence and conversance one can work upon and build in due course of time.

3.  Make the Payment

This is the third step. Once your application is vetted for veracity, reviewed and ratified, the PM will post a send you a confirmation email with an advise to make the payment towards the PMP® examination fee.

Now you can make the payment. You can visit ww.pmi.org and become a member by paying fee of $139 which can save $11 and also provide soft copy of PMBOK and study aids. 

4.  Scheduling the Exam

After the form is submitted, you will receive a mail from PMI® stating

Your application is approved

You will receive confirmation that your application is approved. Further, the email will provide the payment link to pay the exam fees. For PMP® certification fee, PMI members will have to pay USD $405 while for non-members, it will cost SD $555.

Or

The application is under Audit process.

The PMI audit will seek to substantiate certain details recorded in the application form. The applicant will receive an audit document which needs to be printed, verified and signed by the supervisor/manager as mentioned in the application form with the respective company seal. The printed hard copies need to be posted through ‘traceable’ post.

Note: there is no need to get worked-up or become anxious. It’s just PMI is cross-checking with the information provided in the application and validating any gaps observed. It can happen due to oversight despite checking and double-checking some information or may be certain data failed to capture. PMI will provide 90 days for you to post the required documents back to its head office. Its advised that you always you’re your superiors informed about your certification endeavor and they will do the needful when taken into confidence. PMI will require 7 days to approve your application, subject to the orderliness of the submitted hard copies, and will mail you the link to make the payment and schedule PMP® Examination date. 

5.  Appear for the Exam

The PMP® certification prep courses, multiple model papers, study aids, Resources available and the numbers of hour spent preparing will definitely make a difference. As stressed in our previous blog posting, preparation stress the need of heightened anticipation – which is what we meant as ‘state of readiness’ so that the date scheduled by PMI will not take you by surprise, and also you can keep sharpening axe. Practice and preparation are the keys.
 

NOTE: You must retain the unique PMI Eligibility ID located on your scheduling notification. This number will be required to register for the examination. [courtesy: www.pmi.org. to read more, click here}

“I try to prepare for everything beyond the extent of preparation. Taylor Swift”

We wish you success!!

Filling the PMP® Application Form

Sounds simple and that’s why its suprising to find many professionals struggle to complete the form. Agreed its not rocket science, but spending time to fill is taken for granted or slighted till it get escalated to a “do-it-now” situation.

How to become PMP® certified? It can be an article in itself but our intent in this write-up is to help you fill the application form and hence we will focus on the ‘application form ‘in detail. To become PMP® certified, you must be meet the standards set by PMI.

1

         1. Qualify with Education and Experience

  

You must have a Bachelors’ degree and possess 4500 hours of leading and directing projects or High-school with 7500 leading and directing projects. Click here for more information about the Prerequisite in terms of education and experience.

2       2. Earn 35 hours of contact hours

It is mandatory to earn 35 contact hours in order to become eligible to take up the test.  You can get the 35 contact hours by attending the PMP® Certification preparation courses. Please note that PMI does allow PMP® aspirants earn the contact hours  through classroom (offline) or instructor-led online trainings too from a reputed vendor.

       3. Fill the PMP®  Certification application form

Most tend to sidestep this requirement and fail to pay due diligence in providing proper information and also miss out the time slot in scheduling the exam.

To complete the form, we strongly recommend to furnish information that can be proved and verified any time. Remember, PMI conducts audit and in case your application is selected for scrutiny, then every word entered in the form will be vetted.

For your reference and better understanding, a PMP® application form that can be accessed after registering with PMI.org is presented below:

Contact Information

You need to fill the Name for correspondence from PMI and Contact Information.

·  Make sure the information entered is accurate and confirm again before moving to the next field.

·  Your Name and Contact information are vital and the choice is yours in selecting the name to appear on the certificate.

·  Also don’t miss out any fields as it will delay processing of the information after submission. 

Attained Education:
Enter your academic qualification starting from the highest level and capture all the information relevant and required.

Project Management Experience:

Your work experience information is equally important, just as your educational in meeting the eligibility requirement. In showcasing your work experience, start from the career early on in aspects of management, for example, Team Lead or Tech Lead and then move onto the next level , just like the promotion in your career span till that point in time. Lets say in “Tech Lead in ‘XYZ’ organization in ‘abc’ project from <start date> to <end datee>organization.  At the end of the project, you probably got placed in some other project in the same role, and over due course in time moved up in position or you switched organization with a change in designation and responsibilities as well. PMI is concerned about your work experience in the capacity of leading or managing projects. So you can use this block to fill as many project details so long there is proof for any entry made in the form.

Tips:

• The timeline from the start of the first project listed in the form to the last should clock 7500 hours of directing/managing projects.
• Get the numbers of experience endorsed by your superiors. The PMI audit will check for the certification during scrutiny.
• Don’t be misled that every project you are involved either as directing or managing need to clock the prescribed hours. It’s a sum of hours put together, and not on individual project. Of course, it helps if you are involved in project that runs for yours - long-terms projects.
• While filling the form, provide information about your Project title or role; reporting person' name.
• Calculate the hours spent in a project as an offline exercise - plus or minus is not advisable.
• Enter proper description more in terms of project objective and its description, goals set, key deliverables, challenges faced and solution proposed, the end-result of the project and your roles and responsibilities. Its encouraged to use the PMP terms and your role in the project especially with regard to project charter, scope, stakeholder, schedule, Quality, deliverables, stakeholders Management. Besides, you must read the PMBOK® Guide before writing the 'Description' and in case the details are not in line, then PMI® may seek for a rewritten Description. So be cautioned. 
• Please be informed that PMI will provide 90 days for filling your form online and will delete after 90 days. AS per PMI, once you start filling the form online, you are allowed to edit changes and revisit to make more changes bout cant cancel. PMI will post reminder mails to complete the incomplete applcaition and keep it open for 90 days after which it gets deleted.
• It will good to be acquantied with the MI Code of Ethics and the Professional Conduct and the Certification Agreement/ Renewal Agreement more from self-awareness and information about certfication. You can to get know more about the same by clicking here .

Project Management Education

Finally, the information about 35 contact hours earned. You can enter institution/organization that conducted the PMP® Certification preparation courses with the duration and of course the 35 contact hours. 



4. Prepare for the Exam
There are enough resources to complement the PMP® Certification preparation course, and it highly recommended to become conversant with PMBOK®-5 Edition. Get access to study aids, and join study groups to get onto the next level of prepration. PMI will schedule the exam  once your application is approved. So ensure your state of readiness is at all-time high.  PMI will notify you about the exam by mail.

You may please refer to details pertaining to examination by clicking here. And refer this document for Scheduling Exam

5. Get Certfied
Now that you are armed to the teeth with solid prepration through books and mock tests, your confidence must be at an amazing high. The PMP® Certification will be a 200-question, multiple-choice test. You will be clear the certfication in your first attempt - without a doubt.

We would like to connect again about “when to fill the form” and keep you posted about more topics on PMP® and Project Management. Thank you for your time and do visit our other blog posts.

Classroom still Cool - a Case Study

This may sound more personal a blog in a professional hangout, but the ‘walk the way’ with my son to his school woke up my senses to ‘start school again’. Leading the way, he walked more grown-up and I was awkwardly gawking like a little lost that ‘I needed hand holding’.

Drawing me in, he showed around. Definitely state-of-the-art and very sophisticated infrastructure right to the seating arrangements which weren’t wooden but metallic with an elegant finish. The polished touch and finesse provided the flair for learning and admittedly ambience has to be accounted. 

“So this is your class? Wow! Nice drawings on the wall. I like the color. superb. Now, Where do you sit?” expecting something and surprised by his ‘study station’. Startled, I almost shout “all for yourself?  I mean no one is sitting next?”

“pa, that’s for me. There is one place and that’s taken. How many more can sit?” probably grinding his teeth. 

The white board drew my attention. “ah! That’s a nice white board. But why white? We used to have black boards.”

“It’s a smart board” the boy cut me out throwing that ‘which school and who taught you’ look.  His exasperation at my ignorance can’t be excused given my background of a conventional classroom packed with students with a cane wielding teacher walking around with chalk pieces which would be broken to parts and hurled at you to draw attention. So the white board sounded more corporate than academic.

“What makes the board smart? I just see a white screen.”

It’s the kid’s response that makes it a defining moment.  Pausing for a second, “it can do a lot. It’s like TV. You can change channels and watch oggy, ninja hatori and pokemon.”  Feigning surprise, “it’s really smart. Is it also touch-screen like your ipad?”, and my son pulled my hand down “don’t touch . you will make it dirty. The teacher will scold.”

Kids don’t articulate with scholarly statement. They only relate and connect, and his answer was stunning.  Versatile, multi-faceted, it can multitask and that’s what makes it smart was summed up in ‘TV with channels to change’.  Of course, he didn’t touch on the ‘interactive’ aspect, and that’s understood. The mark of an educated mind is its ability to think. Had he answered “I don’t know. Teacher calls it a smart board, so do I.” and I would have been terribly disappointed and even let down. It is the curious mind which is inquisitive in nature that questions. By the time we leave his campus, I felt like a caveman – the iGen walking with Neanderthal. The voice and view have changed with iGeneration. They question the answer. 

At the start of his summer vacation, a mail pops inviting parents to enroll in a 10-daysspecial maths on-line course. Its 1 hour in duration.  Before signing up, I checked with my son who immediately sulked “school just finished. It’s holidays. Please…” and when I assured “online learning will be fun” and connected to the virtual learning session. There were 5 other students and with a trainer completing the class that went on for an hour before winding up by summarizing the day’s agenda. The whole session was available as recorded video, in case student misses out for some reason.   “How did it go?” the anxious father in me queried the buoyant boy whose eyes lit up “great. It was very nice. I liked it.”  Later in the day when the conversation again came up “pa, I like internet yearning more than school.  Did you like going to school or studying through internet?”

“No, We didn’t have internet.  Our schools were less fancy than yours. We had great teachers who taught us the beauty of books.   I don’t see you pick a book.  You are busy on gadget. You don’t even have time for me. Ever talk to me? “

“I talk to you now….” Meaning my bandwidth is choked that you either book a slot or buy time. So the walk the talk session is actually a paid slot for its an ice-cream outing. He reminds me of Evan Spiegel who prefers meetings ‘on the move’ or Steve jobs who liked walking around his home chewing thoughts.

So the case was done – open and shut. Technology enabled tutoring triumphed over traditional training. Apparently the gadgets and gizmos proved more fascinating as enablers but the results remain to be seen. The case clearly states the choice or preferred mode of knowledge transfer – from the perception of a child.

Classroom training coming to a close?

That’s interesting a poser. The traditional approach of brick and mortar physical setup is on the verge of a takeover by technology? Not yet.  It’s not fair to state classroom is one the wane while eLearning on the rise. Technology is a double-edged sword. Self-learning as compared to instructor-led has its downside. Not all are self-starters, and personal assistance is sought in straightening the learning which tends to become steep in the absence of pedagogy and personal counsel. 

Corporate call

Corporate are often left mulling over the choice of ‘training’. Should it be onsite or offshore?  In-house or outsource? A corporate’s call is on merit, usually based on the ease,  cost and convenience, besides harnessing technology to the hilt.  Apparently one tends to make the most. If you can’t go to the training, then get the training here. When there is bandwidth and budget, the call could be different.

But the point is which is more effective to leverage for learning. Physical or virtual classroom? Now this can’t be nailed with a yes/no scenario.  Classroom confines into four corners while live virtual class has practically no boundary and can connect any corner on the earth so long there is connectivity.

Blended Training.

Its always about a judicious mix. The IMF’s youngest ever chief economist exhorted in a recent convocation speech  to ponder about  empowering education using technology “Why not have the best professors beam lectures at thousands of students over the net?” and does make a point about the course completion rate which in his opinion is ‘abysmal ‘. You can have the best mind deliver a message or lecture to group of people assembled in one or several places, but the very effort coming to fruition is again an individual’ choice and effort.  The Paid vs free. A dollar saved is dollar earned. Premium or paid course aid the rates of completion as  comparably higher because the  intent is high as lesson have been bought and hence completion makes sense about opportunity cost.  That’s the reason corporate apportion budget for training and also identify the personnel to be in attendance and make it a mandate that cetain number of hours clocked to their credit. Companies are stressing the need for certification and recognizes the effort of their employees through rewards and rise in remuneration.

Finally boiling down to the contention of classroom being still effective in enhancing learning,  consider the possibility of  live lecture that can be recorded to be studied at leisure. One has to revisit and reconnect.  So Online Training is not the sole solution.  You can check out online training academies  galore across the internet and at the same time  live virtual tutors who are capable of offline tutelage is swelling in numbers. It works fine both ways. If you connect the above case study and correlate, be it classroom or online, the common denominator is the trainer.  The Teacher/Trainer is in the equation irrespective of brick and mortar or beamed session. Technology is the enabler for the teacher and not a replacement. Instructor-led teaching is here to stay - the medium will keep changing.