Professional Blog

I just became certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI). I thought I would jot down my thoughts on the experience and give a little advice to potential PMP candidates'

The test covers PMI's Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK). It does a pretty good job at summarizing and providing a framework for, best practices for managing a major project. However, there wasn't a lot of depth and little original thinking on specific topic areas. It would be best used for training aspiring or new project managers. Mid-to-senior level project managers that have the years of experience required for certification will find it a fairly easy, but commodious, review.

I got the certification to make sure I was keeping current and wasn't missing anything in my program assessments. It accomplished those goals and I got a few useful take-aways. I liked their focus on Requirements, Scope management, Risk Assessment and the comprehensive coverage of the field. I'll be applying them in my program/project assessments and training classes.

If you are a PM looking for a job, you should consider getting certified. While there is a lot of discussion about whether PMP Certification is a valid measure of proficiency, it can be useful. Many employers are specifically looking for PMPs these days and the consensus is that it does help get your foot in the door.

It isn't too hard for an experienced PM to get certified. I applied online and needed to document 3 years (4,500 hours)of project leadership (without a BA you need 5 years) and 35 hours of PM training. The training does not have be a PMP prep course or anything related to PMI. I used college classes (organizational psychology and Dissertation Research for my thesis on Worker Motivation) and government contracting and leadership training.

Calculating all hours spent on all the different PM activities was a little complicated. I finally wrote a spreadsheet that used the Percent of time I spent on the Project, PM Processes, and Activities to calculate the hours spent on each. (Here is a similar PMP Project Hours Worksheet (cache) one of my readers sent me). It took me a few hours to gather the information and fill out the online application.

Next, Getting Ready for the Test