Firms have a high demand for project managers to take care of their important product delivery schedules and better organize the teams involved in making these products and ensure the quality too. Deadlines are scary, but professional project managers can take care of time constraints easily with their skills and applicable tools such as Six Sigma and Agile methodologies. Recruiters actively ook for these skills for the company’s different leadership roles so they can be in charge of coordination tasks and management of the resources. It just so happens that PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) program works as an effective credibility measure of individuals who possess these skills and wisdom.
The entire procedure of qualifying and passing the examination is a complicated one, but with the right guide, it can be a cakewalk. The certification process can be divided into three parts – eligibility qualifications, audit process, and the examination itself. Let’s go through them one by one.
ELIGIBILITY AND QUALIFICATIONS
The qualifying criteria of the PMP examination include a blend of work experience and education. The aspirants either have to complete 36 hours of work in leading various projects along with a four-year college degree, or they have to finish 60 hours leading projects with any high school diploma. Either way, the candidate has to have 35 hours of educational training in the field. These training routines can be carried out under the supervision of registered service providers, company-sponsored programs and training sessions, university programs, and DLPs. Self-learning cannot be accounted for as formal training, and hence, that does not count. The candidate can also qualify if they have finished PMI’s CAPM training schedule. Work experience accounting has special terms and conditions. Overlapping project times can only have one project accounted for, and the other projects are not counted until the overlapping period is over. This helps take into account the number of hours a candidate has dedicated to the job and makes sure quality and merit is given more importance over quantity.
AUDIT PROCESS
After beginning your work on the application, candidates have a 90-day window to complete it, and it takes about five days for it to get reviewed. Once passed, candidates have another 90 days to submit all the relevant details and paperwork for auditing and verification. This process is to ensure that the candidates have met the necessary working hours and training that they claimed on their application form. PMI makes sure that the candidates have completed their degrees or high school diploma as well. The paperwork that has to be submitted includes educational certificates, signatures from previous employers about work records, and letters from Sprintzeal training institutes.
EXAMINATION
The examination consists of 200 questions, out of which the first 25 help determine the nature of the 175 that appear next. This makes the test adaptive and allows for flexibility. The candidate can apply for the test within one year of verification of their eligibility. The examination continues for four hours and examines the aspirants on the basis of various domains that are important for any project management job. The content of the examination is also determined by various guidelines and also on the basis of ISO standards. Each version has a predetermined proportion of questions from each domain, which are designed by PMI officials according to the latest trends and demands by the firms.
In order to pass the examination, the candidates can apply for various preparation courses available online. These courses provide live support and instructor-led guidance regarding the certification. The PMBOK Guide also serves as an information brochure about the syllabi and key concepts.
The examination is conducted, keeping in mind the convenience of the candidate. They can opt for both center-based exam or a more flexible proctored online test which can be taken from a home or office setup. It is necessary to go through the policies of each test to avoid any complications. Owing to all the effort that goes into conducting these examinations, the fee is roughly $405 for PMI members and $555 for non-members.
After passing the examination, certified individuals need to adhere to PMI’s code of ethics. They also make sure they follow the continuing education policy to update their existing knowledge to maintain their certificate. In fact, the submission of 60 PDUs within three years of being certified is compulsory to avoid scrapping of the accreditation. The whole procedure has a lot of catches and terms to make a note of. However, each of these carefully designed policies makes the PMP Certification one of the most credible titles to have on the resume.