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TOPIC: Business Environment Jump... How to Study for This?

Business Environment Jump... How to Study for This? 1 week 4 days ago #33177

  • David Jones
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I'm looking at the new exam outline and honestly the biggest thing jumping out is how much Business Environment weight increased. For those deeper in the prep materials: what does this actually mean for how I study?

I come from a technical background so strategy, compliance, and value delivery aren't my strong suit. Is this new content I need to learn from scratch, or is it more about applying the same mindset to different scenarios? Any specific topics I should focus on?

Business Environment Jump... How to Study for This? 1 week 4 days ago #33179

  • Harry Elston
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David,

Other mods that are plugged into the process may have some better insight. I would rely heavily on a robust exam simulator. I have a strong bias towards the PrepCast simulator, because it worked for me and I found some other ones lacking during my PMP journey several years ago.

I don't think that there will be a huge change in the style of questions, but there will be more of them to test more areas of that rubric.

Good luck.
+++++
Harry J. Elston, Ph.D., CIH, PMP

Business Environment Jump... How to Study for This? 10 hours 19 minutes ago #33208

  • Anusha Jayaram
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Hi David,
Without knowing a lot about your background, it would be hard to comment on whether you will find this change very easy to adapt to, or would need some more time/ effort to work through the changes.

While I am not "in the weeds" in prep right now, the understanding I have on the changes is that the emphasis is going to be a lot more on making sure PMs know that the big "WHY?" questions are being answered.
Whereas previously, much of the emphasis was on the "WHAT?" and "HOW?" - i.e.: the nuts and bolts of how the actual change was planned and delivered.

The huge jump in Business Environment is likely to ensure that PMs understand WHY their projects are being chosen (alignment with organizational strategy; business environment mandated projects - at a time when changes are more rapid than ever; the need to prioritize projects in a changing world and maintain flexibility) - all of htese were covered in previous iterations of the PMP, but the emphasis is shifting to ensure that the "Zoomed Out" perspective is considered equally important.

This is reflective of other certifications gaining more traction in the past few years, such as SAFe - which also have a huge emphasis on adapting to the external environment and the larger organizational strategy - with frequent reviews.
Yes, it will be more "business" focused, that previously - but it is also warranted.

This does not mean the traditional "WHAT?" and "HOW?" - the actual project planning + execution is less important - it will still remain, of course. If you are already familiar with these aspects, I would recommend you focus your additional bandwidth into understanding how projects fit into the larger ecosystem and the drivers that determine projects' worth to the organization at a given point in time.
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