In each issue, Cheetah News features an individual who shares his or her ideas, insight, and experience with Cheetah Learning's Methodology.

If you are a project manager and would like to be featured in a brief interview with Chief Cheetah Michelle LaBrosse on her EverydayPM blog, please click here to send us your contact information.

Helping People Rebuild Their Homes a Great Project

Getting certified as a PMP® was really important to John Thornton, but getting his fellow citizens of hurricane-ravaged Louisiana back into their homes was where he needed to spend his time.

John is the Chief Administrative Officer for The Road Home program, the largest housing-recovery program in U.S. history. "After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," says John, "my company, ICF Emergency Management Services, was selected by the State of Louisiana to administer a fund disbursement program for Louisiana homeowners who lost their homes due to the storm to help them rebuild and get back in their homes." In roughly two years, John and his team have distributed approximately $7 billion to 118,000 homeowners.

With such a huge project to manage, it's no surprise that John's biggest challenge in preparing to take the exam was dedicating the time to prepare for it. "I am extremely busy day-to-day and could not afford to take a more extended period or approach to prepare and test," he explains. Finding even four days to set aside so he could dive into the material was hard, but it was even harder trying to prepare for the exam piecemeal, by reading text books. In the end, this new, focused approach was the secret to his success.

"Cheetah was more demanding from a memorization requirement," John says. "However, ultimately this proved to be very important. I believe the information we were expected to have memorized by the first day of class was absolutely critical. It framed the strategy of Project Management to build upon once the class began."

Project Management strategy was something John already felt confident in and he thought his many years of project management experience would serve him well in the classroom. "However, I found myself sometimes disagreeing with the instruction, as it differed from my experience," he says. "I would tell fellow students it is less important to prove or even debate your perspective. Rather, spend that time and energy accepting the instruction and committing it to memory, as that is what will be tested."

Ultimately, giving in to new methods not only helped John pass the PMP exam, it has helped him in his job, too. Taking this class "changed the way I consider Project Management and has benefited me on a day-to-day basis as I think through the various projects that I lead," he says – and it's opened new doors for me, too."