u/SugarInvestigator

We are trying to toilet training my kid and are having a hard time. Some days they will wear their underpants no problem and won't want a nappy, other days they scream bloody blue murder refusing to give up. We started six months ago and managed to get them to wear underpants until they needed a poo, then they insisted on a nappy. It got to the point they were constipated from holding it in. We took a break because of other issues and have been trying again for the last three weeks. Every second day it's a struggle to get them into underpants, even if we get them on, they will take them off, get distressed, screaming and shouting etc.

They're about to start back in school and it's be fantastic if we had this milestone out of the way for them. Anyone any advice?

Passed practitioner today. My advice is as follows:

when doing practice tests review and try to understand why you are wrong. Read the rationale of not just the correct answers but also incorrect ones.

You can write in your book to your heart's content. So if using the physical book, do so. I put a smaller table on contents in the front cover, wrote each process name and the individual headings in it with the page number so when questions about roles in process came up I could quickly flick to them. Same with practices.

Don't bother reading the additional information in the scenario at the start. I completed two official mocks and the exam today and only one question came up in each where I had to refer to the additional information.

Remember to review diagrams and tables. There can be helpful information there

If you're unsure decide is the answer Yes or No. That way if you're certain it's a yes, you've a 50% chance of being correct. If you are completely unsure, just pick one, mark it to review and move on. you've a 25% chance of being right.

Mark questions for review, but if you've out in the hours rely on your guy. I marked about 12 to 15 questions. I finished at the two hour mark and then started checking the review. I stopped after 3 because I felt if my gut went that way to begin with they why bother. The alternative is again leave it as your gut instinct answer unless you can find definitive proof in the book that your answer is wrong.

The methodology isn't the same as real life, so for experience PMs leave your normal office process thinking at the door. It might trip you up.

Right have an exam today and I'm buggered because yesterday one ear became clogged with wax and now today the other one seems to have water in it. Any options i can get over the counter to just blast this crap out so I can hear what's going on? It's like I'm stuck in cotton wool

Due to sit practitioner next week. Have been doing practice tests that ame with the course and teg mplaze tests and constantly hitting mid 70s but I'm concerned exam day jitters might kick in.

What I've found on some questions is I'm missing that small nugget that points you in the right direction.

Any tips for how to approach the questions? I know multiple readings etc help but given the 3 minutes per question bit it's proving a challenge and I'm constantly seeing that the correct answer is obvious given the info in the answer sheets but when I'm reading the question I'm missing that part.

Following on for my earlier post (https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/s/fcS6lf7KYx) im looking for recommended short courses and what not to rebuild self confidence becuas eits taken a beating these last few weeks. Imposter syndrome has really impacted and I know I'm responsible for the mess and after I've nevageted though it I want to do some reflection and focus on refreshing processes and procedures etc and building the lessons from this project into my every day practices

Running what amounts to an IT infrastructure upgrade, very simple solution. New VMs, new hardware, clustered instanced and a preprod instance. Nothing surprising. But the application sitting in the environment is unknown and application deployment roll out strategies are not in my wheelhouse.

Anyway engaged in house test lead, discussed the project objectives with application SMEs and it was agreed the apps guys would run and manage testing as they were more knowledgeable and a test has no resources. Six months later test lead is now singing another tune saying the project dropped the ball..additionally App SMEs who guaranteed they could do testing and provide test cases can't even provide acceptance criteria. When I asked for an example I was told "all dashboards work" . I said no, they need to list the dashboard and specify in a measurable way what pass/fail looked like. They were confused. So now I'm looking like I haven't considered testing for the project and am under pressure to define test plans the SMEs were supposed to have written.

SMEs seem to be unwilling to accept accountability and want to defer everything to vendors and rely on them for everything from build and deployment to UAT, but that screams of the vendor "checking their own homework" to me.

Add to this go live is 9 months away and my portfolio are asking for a detailed go live plan, I'm saying given hardware hasn't even arrived, it's too early to drill down into details until I know with some level of certainty when it is planned for..they're pushing back.

I'm getting the impression there also politics, I'm historically infrastructure but have been asked to do this application because it's a mix of both. But I'm getting the distinct impression now there's a background battle between department heads in the different areas and I'm caught in the middle. Also feels like I might get yanked off of the project. The portfolio want me to work full time in it. My line management refuse because there's too much work on. My capacity is forecast at about 150% for the next four months. And three of my ten or so projects are strategic.

Any advice on how best to navigate or to not take things personal? Getting burned out now and seriously considering taking leave but can't afford it because I'm a contractor so no work equals no pay

Edit to add: I'm 100% accountable here for the stuff not being delivered todate. I'm owning that. But has anyone some practical advice on herding the cats and getting back on track given their lack of ownership of tasks coupled with my failure to follow up on that deliverables

Have an overnight stay in bishops town in a few weeks, staying in the rochestown park hotel. Can anyone recommend any spots for sunset or sunrise photography near by?