Any Prince 2 Practitioners/ITIL people? (Project Managers)
 

Whilst I'm an unemployed, hopping around the house git, I'm going to do some study.

I want one of the project management certifications and ITIL and Prince2 are up there. I don't really know the difference between the two in terms of industry recognition so any pointers will help. I don't want to go and do a course, I'd rather get the book and study myself etc then go do the exams.

Any advice on the pro's and con's of each and study materials would be just dandy.

Thanks :D

TP
Unemployed Nerd

Yep and yep

depends on what you want to do i guess!

drop me an email tomorrow if you want to chat although wont get on line until later in the day

tony , you're not unemployed.
More a case of, you're exploring the more exciting and diverse portals of career enhancement.;)

You've done both?

Well, I want to learn more about PM'ing and also have an industry recognised certification for doing so.

You know what recruiters are like, it's all tea and donuts and no research ;)

Thanks Robin, that's an interesting way to look at it :D

[Edited on 14-9-2005 by TP]

I'd just call you a loser - but sometimes I can be too honest :lol:

prince in some form seems to be what most ask for, altho lots of companies have their own versions most are similar

Prince is more widely acknowledged for PM and is starting to be a bit like MCSE as something recruiters/companies ask for as proof that you can read a book and take a test.

ITIL is widely recognised in Service Management stuff but it depends on what level of qualification you go for as to whether it will get you any further than not having it.

Given a choice I reckon P2 is more beneficial to you as a job seeker :)

Well Prince 2 is the first one I'm looking at anyway, if I did ITIL it would be after Prince 2 was out of the way. I thought as much about the Prince 2/MCSE thing - they are turning into commodities and being removed from the skills they are supposed to reinforce. I blame recruiters for not knowing enough about their markets and relying on acronyms to 'place candidates'. Funnily enough, I'm an MCSE twice over but I couldn't be bothered doing it again ... I mean really!

But I digress ...

I'll focus on Prince 2 for now - best materials for doing this myself? Any tips?

Don't give up your day job :lol:

:D

:lol:

I don't have one!!!!

its actually fairly time intensive and if you can i would say its probably easier to book a course and do it rather than having to sit and read at home, unless you are totally dedicated.

try and do the practitioner course straight off as this includes the foundation course (multiple choice) so saves a bit of time.

I'd rather not spend the money on courses and I'm not overly mobile at the moment! Seriously, the last one of these types of courses I went to I nearly went insane with the number of stupid questions and time wasting that goes on (Veritas Clustering ..).

I've done all my certifications and Uni through self study and not attending courses so I can be disciplined enough to get the job done when I need to. I prefer that to be honest.

i guess its not like you can go for a jog or anything :D


I have little discipline at home as there is always ironing to do or kittens to play with :)

Do any of those qualifications stop you posting twice?:lol::lol:

tony , does that mean you are fully conversant with disk array's , clustering , etc.

if so......:eureka::eureka:

pretty much .. depends what OS you're talking about with clustering though. I've done the veritas clustering training but it was windows focussed. I'm not a Unix man. I've done some cluster design and implementation.

What are you looking for?

Recruiters - Oi! I resemble that remark (even though it is true)

PM'ing certification - Institute of Project Managers would be a good place to start. The teams I've worked with seem all decent fella's

Colleague of mine was doing Prince2 course and found it pretty easy to follow (via online and CD/Manual)

Best of luck

[Edited on 14-9-2005 by guest1]

Best qualification I've seen of late in terms of cash vs effort is CISSP. Nothing to do with PM but lucrative all the same. Thought about doing it last year when things were looking bleak on the work front and stillmight if I get turfed out soon.

Ali

ps: Six Sigma also worth a look but I think companies are getting tired of paying £1.5k/day to have someone spout mgmt bo11ocks at them....

Well it was a hook for Dibble but you'll do :lol:

A friend of mine did that recently but it's not really inline with where I want to go mate. I'm trying to move further away from hands on ultimately, not back into it. I know you can do consulting work with the CISSP but you wouldnm't be any good without some decent hands on experience in that field.

And as you know, Microsoft pay lip service to security ...

If you wanna hook Dibble, ask him about Gay Lap Dancers at Oulton Park

Tony,

PRINCE2 is the way to go if you want to be UK based and stay that way. Get your practioner and then possibly move on to do the MSP (Managing Successful Programmes) stuff as well - there's more money in Programme Management...

If you're planning to use this further afield than the UK then P2 is not recognised anywhere else as it's a UK Government driven standard. For this you should be looking at PMI/OPM3 as the way forward (recognised across Europe and the US - don't know about any further afield).

Good luck - it's mostly common sense and remembering the right buzz words!!!

Giles

I am Prince2 qualified , about 3 or 4 years now but I am not IT based as I run the Banking Operations for an international Bank. I chose Prince2 because it was a government recognised standard (making me transportable) and is flexible depending on how use/apply it.

It is acknowlegded in the Netherlands certainly - I work for a Dutch Bank - as well as the US, but not officially recognised. As correctly pointed out, in the US they would tend to look more towards PMI.

There are some good on-line tuition courses with Prince - www.ksl.org give them a look. I did a five day residential course in Windsor and was fortunate to have my employer pay.

Give me a u2u if you qwant to have a chat about it.

all the best

kp

TP & guest1,

Put those fishing rods away .......

Now back to the question at hand ...

TP, Prince2 is genuinely recognised as an industry standard, hence PWC & Accenture encouraging their consultants to take the examinations, it has a far higher value than MCSE etc ...

Hope that helps.

Dibs

Aw shucks, he sniffed the bait and refused it:lol:

Prince2 was software of choice at Sun
BuNFuL tended to use MS and another whose name escapes me.

Ok, I've already decided to do the Prince2 Practitioner exam ... now I need some study materials. All I can find so far is CBT courseware for £1300!!!!!

All I really want are some books ... can someone help me here?

Blimey I am sure some of this thread was in english but I am buggered if I could make it out!

I have my course book although its been updated since then I think. Happy to lend it to you - let me dig it out.

If you want to sit the Basic it may well do you, if you do the Practitioners you might want the most recent version. I think they retail at about £80.

I will see what info I can gather over the next few days and then U2U you.

Where can I get them from KP? The practitioners one for £80?

www.tso.co.uk

PRINCE2 manual for £58.50 at the moment.

Go for it - join those of us who plan and direct but never actually produce anything:(

Giles

Thanks Giles, I'm on there now looking.

Is there anything you'd recommend in particular as a read for taking the practitioners exam?

Weren't you thinking about a possible career change a while back anyway? Maybe you can take stock and think things through now?

Anyway, what is it about DD and unemployment? Think I got out at the right time!

Bugger it looks like Im going down the wrong direction :)

My workplace is pushing us down the ITIL route, all staff to do the foundation course then the managers and so on as appropriate.

Rich.

Yes I was considering a career change - but I need time to do that and I don't have it at the moment. I need to bring some money in.

:(

You have to have sat the Foundation exam prior to sitting your Practitioner exam.

You cannot go straight into your Practitioner.

Currently doing it myself in a bid to finding a job too.

hth

So you'd rather be stuck doing something that you aren't hugely passionate about for the rest of your life? I know that this is true for a big chunk of the population but you are THE TP - TV celebrity and orange bib model extraordinaire!

No I don't mate - but I need to sort out work for the short to medium term whilst I come up with that plan for a happier working life.

To be perfectly honest I have too many things going on at the moment to try and concentrate on embarking on a career change!! I need money in the door first, then let everything settle down a bit and take it from there.

Also, I'm hoping if I pass my next riding coach exam with the CSS that working for them and being a riding coach will give me a much higher job satisfaction.