Message from VP Certifications – April 2018
Hello NCPMI Members, I am Bill Flanagan, VP Certifications for NCPMI. This month I have the pleasure to telling you what we are doing in the Certification arena. The primary function of the VP Certifications is to bring you quality certification training at a reasonable price.
We currently offer a Project Management Professional Preparation Class in the Spring, Summer, and Fall of each year. Each class is offered from 8:30 AM to 4:30 AM on five sequential Saturdays. We have started something new this year, our members are obtaining classroom space for our PMP Exam Prep Class at their corporate facilities in the Raleigh-Durham area. This is a win-win because it eliminates our facility cost which helps us maintain our low course fee while showing off your company to our class. An additional bonus to companies that participate in this program is that for each class they sponsor, two of their employees are granted no cost seats in that class. If you are interested in sponsoring class, please contact Bill Flanagan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
We have five members on our instructor team. In a leadership role we have myself, the VP Certification, and Atul Peres-da-Silva, Director Certifications. Our training team includes myself and Atul as well as Dawn Collins, Jane Harris and Richard Dumas. Each of our instructors holds a current PMP Certification and each is a member of NCPMI. Our instructors bring a wide variety of industry experience and different personalities to our PMP class which makes the class an interesting learning environment.
We follow a new instructor qualification process that we call Instructor Excellence. The first step in acquiring new instructors is to announce the need to the chapter membership through our news letter and a chapter meeting. All interested parties must complete an application form which describes their reason for wanting to teach, their qualifications for teaching, their experience in teaching, examples of their creativity in the classroom, and their involvement in NCPMI. A selection committee utilizes Multi Criteria Decision analysis to select the top five candidates. These five candidates will then make three presentations to the committee in a classroom environment. The first presentation is self-introduction to the review committee, the second is an impromptu presentation on a PMBOK topic pulled from a hat, and the third is a presentation prepared in advance on a PMBOK Process of the candidate’s choice. Each presentation is followed by a Q&A session by the selection committee. The selection committee will choose two of the candidates to become NCPMI PMP Class Instructors. The final requirement is that before teaching a class the new instructor must observe a full NCPMI PMP Class to be sure the understand all the course material and the different instructor styles. Overall it is a tedious process, but we believe it leads to a higher quality instructor. We will begin this process in the next month, if you’re interested, watch of for announcements in our newsletter and chapter meetings.
To maintain quality of instruction we also conduct instructor training when either the PMP Exam Content Outline of the PMBOK changes. Additionally, we ask students to complete a course evaluation for each module and the instructor for that module. And finally, the VP Certification observes each instructor at least once during each class.
In addition to the PMP Certification Class, we are exploring the possibility of developing a PMI-ACP Class that will be taught by NCPMI. Our Director certifications, Atul Peres-da-Silva, PMI-ACP, PgMP, PMP is exploring this option. More information on this endeavor will be available later this year.
If you have any questions, comments, or ideas, please share them with me by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or come by and talk to me at any chapter meeting.
Thank you,
Bill Flanagan, MBA, PE, PMI-RMP, PMP
VP Certification
