"PRINCE" stands for PRojects IN Controlled Environments and is a process-based approach for project management providing an easily tailored and scaleable method for the management of all types of projects. The method is the de-facto standard for project management in the UK and is practiced worldwide.

It’s a very practical method of managing projects, and combined with the PMBOK® Guide, gives to the project manager a good set of best practices to increase the rate of successful projects.

The more I read the manual the more I love it.

It’s so practical and lean that I’m already starting to use it in my projects and already seeing a lot of benefits over my previous PMBOK® Guide based methods.

Not the PMBOK® Guide is bad. In fact, not at all. I would say that I that wasn’t able to tailor a custom method as good as PRINCE2®. Now I’m leveraging all the hard work and experience of PRINCE2®, tailoring it to my specific projects and needs.

To me, it seems that the PMBOK® Guide is more abstract and that PRINCE2® is more concrete. The later has more out-of-the-box features to execute a project than the first, but, conversely, lacks some knowledge areas such as Procurement and Human Resources.
It’s like PRINCE2® is a more detailed version of some aspects of the PMBOK® Guide, what makes them quite complementary and far from being mutually exclusive or competitors.

I’m still studying the 2005 version and I can’t wait to receive the 2009 material where they did a lot of improvements.

I’ll keep posting about my studies where I plan to bring a side-by-side vision of PRINCE2®, PMBOK® Guide, Scrum, RUP and TOGAF.

To know more about PRINCE2® check:
http://www.apmgroup.co.uk/PRINCE2/PRINCE2Home.asp
and
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/methods_prince_2.asp

I think French is such a beautiful language. Although it’s not spoken worldwide, it’s a good language to learn.

This desire to learn it suddenly started when Ale (my wife) and I went to a French Music Concert, where a band played a lot of famous French songs.

After that day, I bought used tapes of the Michel Thomas French Method and after listening them for 3 days I was already able to speak some French.

Michel Thomas’s method is amazing. He teaches you the grammar and how to build sentences by examples and how you can "import" / "reuse" a lot of known English vocabulary adapting them to French.

My wife was really impressed by how fast I was learning the basics and then we decided to study together. She already has an intermediate level, so for now we will just level up.

We bought the Forum Méthode de Français 1 and we are planning to study 1 hour per day.

Today we read the introduction of the Guide Pédagogique and started the Unité 0.

We learned:

-Saluer:
Bonjour.

-Demander à quelqu’un comment il s’appelle:
Tu t’appelles comment?
Vous vous appelez comment?

-Dire comment on s’appelle:
Je m’appelle Vitor.
Tu t’appeles Alessandra.

-Le verbe s’appeler:
je m’appelle
tu t’appeles
il/elle s’appelle
nous nous appelons
vous vous appelez
ils/elles s’appellent

-Les sons du Français

And that’s it.

I’ll keep posting while we learn cette très chic langue.

For Immediate Release

15 June 2009

VITOR CIARAMELLA EARNS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIAL

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA, USA – Vitor Ciaramella of Campinas, Brazil has earned the Project Management Institute’s most recognized and respected global credential — the Project Management Professional or PMP^®.

To obtain a PMP credential, an individual must satisfy education (35 hours) and experience (no less than 4500 hours) requirements, agree to adhere to a professional code of conduct and pass the PMP examination. The PMP Certification Program supports the global community of project management practitioners and is designed to objectively assess and measure professional knowledge. The PMP designation following a professional’s name demonstrates to employers and others that the PMP credential holder possesses a solid foundation of experience and education in project management. The PMI Certification Program is the first professional certification program of its kind to receive the ISO 9001 certification, a globally recognized mark of a quality management system.

Vitor Ciaramella is a member of the São Paulo Chapter of PMI, and he works as an independent IT Software Consultant, specialized in Project Management and Software Architecture (.Net, SharePoint and SQL Server). Vitor has a B.S. in Systems Analysis and has more than 30 certifications from leading IT companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Borland, Oracle and Novell.

# # #

About PMI

The Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI) is the leading membership association for the project management profession and the largest association dedicated to project management in the world. As the leading advocate for the profession, PMI is actively engaged in setting professional standards, providing a professional career path for project managers and maintaining a family of professional credentials: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM^®), Project Management Professional (PMP^®), Program Management Professional (PgMP)^® and PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)^SM. The PMP is the only project management credential that is globally transferable. PMI provides members with access to the knowledge, skills, educational support and networking opportunities needed to drive business results through project management, program management and portfolio management. The Institute is highly regarded for its extensive research capabilities and its program to accredit colleges and universities and Registered Education Providers to teach PMI approved project management courses. PMI was founded in 1969. Please visit PMI.org for more information.

# # #