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(Please Enable Images - otherwise all the content in images will not be shown)
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December Newsletter
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The holiday season is here, and we’re ending the year with a bang! This December edition of the PMillustrated Newsletter is packed with exciting updates, new features, and tools designed to make your PMP prep more effective and enjoyable.
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Master the Business Environment Domain
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The third Practice Path game is here! Test your knowledge of the Business Environment Domain while navigating a steampunk world with Scrumpy the Monkey. This engaging game challenges you to apply PMP concepts in a playful steampunk world while solving real-world scenarios.
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Meet Your AI Study Companions:
Q-Chat and PMPurrfect
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Paying members already get Quizlet AI functionality baked into the summary section of every task page. It provides flashcards, quizzes and other evaluation modes to test your understanding.
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However, you may not know, you can also visit the Quizlet website for full AI powered Q-Chat functionality. This allows freeform interactions and custom tutoring based on PMP, general project management, and PMillustrated trained content.
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Here, we are getting immediate corrective feedback, explaining the implications of not being in compliance go beyond just stopping the project. Yet, the scenario and guidance are somewhat generic. Fortunately, we can tailor the training to our industry and project type, making the topics much more relatable. Using the prompt "Teach me using examples from medical imaging projects" causes the tutor to adapt to our environment.
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Now this is behaving more like a personal tutor. We are receiving tutoring geared to our level of understanding, tuned to our learning preferences. Personalized, one-on-one tutoring with immediate feedback is the holy grail for effective teaching. (If you would like to learn more, see this PMillustrated blog post “AI Tutoring and the 2 Sigma Problem: A New Era in Education.”
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This month we add PMPurrfect, an onsite tutoring agent that is also adaptive and offers real-time feedback to provide that personal tutor advantage.
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PMPurrfect, is trained on PMP content and embedded in the PMillustrated site on the new AI Tutor page. Initial comparison testing shows PMPurrfect is not as sophisticated at Q-Chat, but as the OpenAI models that drive it continue to improve, such chatbots will be as effective (if not more) than having access to your own personal tutor.
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Personal tutor chatbots are not that new, however, they are now truly useful. Khan Academy has the excellent Khanmigo tool, featured in this interesting TED Talk.
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Virtual Reality Game MVP
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Exploring VR Learning at RePoCo
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In August, I reported on LinkedIn that I had recently viewed a VR game called Task Titans that is aimed at get young people interested in project management. Task Titans is a full VR experience game played with an Oculus headset and controllers. In the game you navigate project environments earning budget to spend on staff to complete projects. It teaches balancing scope, schedule, cost and quality concepts in a fun way.
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I liked the idea of performing tasks in a work environment and have been investigating what type of VR simulation is available without dedicated VR headsets. I created a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) demo on the Practice Paths page below the new Business Environment Practice Path game. You can make the image full-screen by clicking on the top right corner icon. Then, using click-and-drag with your mouse, explore the world of “RePoCo the Recycling Company” and answer a couple of questions about compliance on projects.
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Without a headset and things happening in parallel, I am not sure if it offers much new from a user experience perspective.
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In Task Titans, I was impressed with was how things happen in the background as you play the game. For example, one activity required performing project management activities while simultaneously addressing risks. If you ignored the little creatures (representing risks) running around some transformed into big monsters (representing issues) that caused problems.
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I thought this cleverly simulated the need for continuous risk management while also getting work done. Other simultaneous in the game have stakeholders falling asleep and team members wandering off if you ignore them. Projects are like this, we need to keep many “plates spinning” (activities happening in parallel) to be successful.
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The plugin I am using in my RePoCo pilot does not allow this type of concurrent activity. Instead, everything is triggered by a user action. Maybe it is worth investigating further? Perhaps I could use the format to drill down into abstract concepts, such as click-down through the layers of a WBS, or explore elements of an agile life cycle?
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Please reply to this email to tell me if you enjoyed it or found the fun, bonus cat video hidden in there.
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PMP Exam Study - Forensics Results Radar
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People learn in small chunks. If we try to take on too many new concepts, we forget things and get elements confused. This was one of the main motivations for developing PMillustrated as a modular learning platform. It supports learning in chunks with the ability to navigate the content in multiple ways. All with plenty of exercises and quizzes along the way to earn badges that track your progress through the subjects.
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However, the PMP exam tests our knowledge and application via one large batch of questions. There is no Take-your-PMP-exam-in-ten-manageable-chunks option. So, an important part of preparing for the PMP exam is taking practice exams. Unfortunately, beyond a pass or fail grade and question explanations, the results of sample exams can be difficult to interpret from a study perspective.
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- If you failed, now what? - Keep studying, I guess.
- Just about passed? – Let’s hope, we just pass the actual exam!
There is a better way. Practice exams are most useful when they clearly identify our strengths and weaknesses. This allows us to focus our study time on addressing our weaknesses.
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What we really need is a forensic level analysis of our results, showing us exactly which exam content outline elements we performed well on and which we need to study more. To address these challenges, I’ve developed Results Radar—a tool designed to transform practice exam results into actionable insights.
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(In the example above, we can see from the Process Domain that the task “2.11 Plan and Manage Procurement” is weak and needs studying more. Likewise, “1.3 Support Team” needs more work too.)
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Look out for this functionality in the New Year. The custom coding to produce the radar charts is now complete, and I am building out the first practice exam with Results Radar analysis. One radar exam will be free for anyone to try and two more full tests are planned for paying members. Question writing and ECO task mapping will be my holiday project!
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Thanks
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Your study to become a certified Project Management Professional is a journey I take seriously, in a fun way. These new features are designed to make your learning experience not just effective but enjoyable and engaging. I can't wait for you to try them out and hear your thoughts.
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Thank you for letting me be part of your PMP journey this year. Here’s to a productive and fun learning experience in 2025! Have a wonderful holiday season.
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Mike Griffiths, creator PMillustrated.com
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