PMP Certification for ERP Projects: Formalizing my degree from the school of hard knocks

With twenty years of practical experience implementing Tier 1 ERP solutions as both a user and a consultant, I recently decided to formalize that experience with an official Project Management Certification from PMTI. I had just completed several major go-live projects it felt like the perfect time to step back and "put a ring on it".

Going back to a classroom setting at this point in my life was not the most natural thing, but I knew there had to be things from this class that would help me with on my next project. After many successful implementations and numerous war wounds, this would be a great affirmation of what I use daily.

While I did not know exactly what to expect in class, I was pretty certain nothing would be physically thrown at me - something a very upset VP of Finance once did years ago (I ducked, he missed). For those of you who have not taken PM classes, you might now be visualizing Rodney Dangerfield's first economics class in his movie Back to School - book theory and practical experience collide in a classroom setting. But as they told me my very first day in class, forget about everything you've done in your project work. This certification is based on PMBOK processes only, and past experience is not applicable. At that moment all my war wounds became very irrelevant.

Believing in proper classroom etiquette I put panic aside and I opened up my PMP Exam Prep Blue Book, with pen, pencil, and notebook at the ready. I took a cursory flip through the book and calmed myself. I can read, I understand graphs and charts and I've been working on ERP projects forever. Change is good right? I was ready for ...