PMI is aware that getting 120 or more PDUs every 3 years to maintain 2 or more of their credentials is not an easy thing, even when someone can get PDUs for free. PMI has actually implemented a process specifically to handle this issue, where the Project Manager holding muliple certification is offered three choices:

1. Aligning the Credentials with the Old Credential Cycle

   Let’s assume the Project Manager became a PMP on April 1st, 2008. The Project Manager then earned a PgMP certification on April 1st, 2010. All of the PDUs earned from April 1st are counted towards both certifications. On the flip side, the Project Manager has to renew both certifications on April 1st, 2010 (merely 1 year after acquiring the PgMP certification) as both CCR (Continuing Certification Requirements) cycles are now the same. This is a good option to take in case the Project Manager has collected a lot of PDUs in the previous 2 years.

2. Aligning the Credentials with the New Credential Cycle

   Let’s look at the above example where the Project Manager became a PMP on April 1st of 2008 and a PgMP on April 1st, 2010. In this option, all of the PDUs earned in the 2 years preceding the PgMP certifications are not counted, on the other hand, the renewal date for both certifications will be on April 1st, 2013. This is a good option to take in case the Project Manager has collected very few PDUs in the previous 2 years.

3. Not Aligning the Credentials

   The Project Manager might elect not to align his multiple credentials, so the renewal date for the PMP in the example mentioned in the first option will remain April 1st, 2011, and the renewal date for the PgMP certification will also remain April 1st, 2013. This is a cumbersome option, as the Project Manager has to track a different CCR cycle for his multiple credentials. However, it is worthy to note that a PDU reported for the PMP can also be reported for the PgMP certification in this case (similar to the previous options), provided the acquiring of the PDU occurs in the certification cycle for both accreditations.

Sharing PDUs with Specialty Credentials

The alignment of the credentials mentioned does not apply to specialty credentials such as the PMP-SP or the PMP-RMP. However, the Project Manager can still use the PDUs earned for his PMP-SP and/or his PMP-RMP towards maintaining his PMP/PgMP credential in the applicable credential cycle. For example, in case the Project Manager acquired his PMP certification on April 1st, 2008, then acquired his PMP-SP certification on April 1st, 2010, then any PMP-SP PDUs reported can be reported as well to maintain his PMP certification (and also his PgMP certification, in case he has one).

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In order to determine the right answer to this question, we need to examine three things: titles, business cards, and the history of the PMP accreditation.

Titles

Titles are suffixes or prefixes appended to the name of the person originally used to highlight a certain career position (for example “MD”), a level of education (“Ph.D.”, “MBA”), a rank in the government (“MP”), etc…. Recently, titles have been used to highlight prominent accreditations issued by either commercial or self-proclaimed not-for-profit organizations, such as “MCSC” (issued by Microsoft) or “CCNA” (issued by Cisco).

Business Cards

Business cards are essentially given to one’s acquaintances to promote himself or his business. Business cards usually include the career position and/or the level of education. However, since business cards are all about promotion, then adding any title (including a prominent accreditation title) promoting the person is considered acceptable.

History of the PMP Accreditation

The PMP accreditation was initiated in 1984 by PMI which is, as of 2010, a 40 year old (self-proclaimed) not-for-profit organization, aiming at enhancing the status of Project Management worldwide, and promoting it as a profession, while at the same time, defining Project Management standards. The PMP accreditation was launched as a response to the increasing number of projects worldwide, to give companies the ability to test the knowledge of their Project Managers, in order to make sure that these Project Managers are fully capable of managing projects efficiently.

The mid 90’s was a turning point for the PMP certification, namely because:

• Its reputation and popularity increased dramatically.
• Companies started seeking PMP certified Project Managers to fill in Project Management jobs.
• Companies started paying higher salaries for PMP certified Project Managers.

The above reasons created a rush (that still exists) to get become PMP certified. Project Managers (and sometimes persons with no Project Management experience) started seeking this certification on an individual basis in order to increase their salary and their job prospects.

Ever since, the demand for the PMP certification has skyrocketed, and it’s fast becoming a requirement for Project Managers (with the exception of countries where the PRINCE2 certification is much more prominent), and no longer a “nice-to-have” certification.

It is worthy to note that in the whole history of the accreditation (and so far), it was never easy to become PMP certified, even if the applicant is an experienced Project Manager. The current PMP pass rate is 80% (according to the PMI) and almost every applicant studies hard for the PMP test. This means that not just everyone can get this certification. Worldwide, the current number of PMP certified people is around 360,000.

Is It Appropriate to Add PMP to the Project Manager’s Business Card?

By examining the history of the PMP accreditation, one can easily determine that is has the following 2 characteristics:

• It has now become a prominent and a reputable accreditation.
• It definitely adds value to the Project Manager.

Since PMP is now a prominent accreditation, it has now a “title status”, and since it adds value to the Project Managers, it is a good promotion to the individual and can definitely be added to the business card of the Project Manager.

Quick Note: Some Project Managers append “PMP” to their name while posting in various Project Management forums and commenting on Project Management posts/articles. While, as we stated, PMP is considered a title, your are discouraged to mention it extensively in front of other Project Managers that may very well be much more experienced than you (and often not holding any kind of Project Management accreditation). Doing so might be considered “boasting”.

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Many Project Managers wonder if it’s possible to become a PMP without Project Management experience. The short answer is “No”, PMI is very clear in its requirements for the PMP credential: the Project Manager has to gather at least 4,500 hours of real Project Management Experience.

Unfortunately, PMI only audits a small percentage of PMP applications, which allows some unethical applicants to fake the required Project Management experience (and sometimes the education) in hope that they will not get audited. Deceptive techniques used to faking the Project Management Experience include (but of course, are not restricted to, as unethical people are usually creative in finding ways to trick the process):

• Claiming fake Project Management experience either as an employee or as a contractor from disreputable companies/organizations that went bankrupt, ceased to exist, or are owned by a friend or a family member.
• Inflating the experience acquired with the current company/organization, many times even informing management about this deceptive technique, so that management is able to confirm the validity of the applicant’s claim in case of an audit.

Sadly, because of the very small percentage of applications being audited, quite a few people are able to become PMPs by using the above (again deceptive) techniques.

This, of course, has some negative consequences, including:

• An influx of bad “Project Managers” in the job market: Most companies assume that being a PMP (because of the traditional respect for this certification) equates being a Project Manager. While this is true in most cases, it certainly is not for anyone unethically becoming a PMP.
• Diminishing prestige of the PMP accreditation: Those landing a Project Management job after unethically acquiring the PMP accreditation through faking their experience will send the wrong message to companies about the real value of the PMP because of their clear incompetency.
• Reduced salary for PMP certified Project Managers: The diminishing prestige of the PMP as well as the abundance of (bad) Project Managers will have a direct and negative effect on the PMP salary.
• Less respect for Project Management in general: The reduced quality of those working in Project Management will send the wrong message about the worthiness of Project Management as a profession and as a process to get projects done. This will hinder the evolvement of Project Management and will push companies to seek alternatives for managing their projects.

What PMI Should Do

For better or for worse, PMI has a huge say in the Project Management world, and as we can see from the negative consequences above, the somehow lax standards of auditing PMP applicants for their experience can affect the profession of Project Management as a whole.

Here are some thoughts on what PMI should do to avoid this:

• Drop the random PMP audit mentality: PMI claims that it randomly audits applicants for their experience. This, of course, results in efforts being spent in the wrong place. Many times, it is very obvious to differentiate between someone with real Project Management experience and someone with no experience at all. What’s the point of “randomly” auditing the former and not auditing the second? It is better that PMI adopts a more targeted approach as stated in the next point below.
• Adopt targeted auditing: Candidates documenting Project Management experience from unknown companies/organizations or those applying immediately after acquiring the minimum required Project Management experience to be eligible (for example exactly 4,500 hours) should have their application looked at with scrutiny.
• Increase the percentage of the audits: According to PMI, only a small percentage of PMP applications gets audited. Most probably this is done because PMI is understaffed. Perhaps PMI should consider hiring more resources to perform audits. By hiring more auditors, audits can then be more proactive, such as contacting involved companies/individuals to verify that the Project Management experience is definitely “real”.
• Enforce a lifetime ban for those faking the Project Management experience: Anyone claiming a fake Project Management experience is clearly not doing it with “good faith”. Those doing so should be banned for life from taking any PMI certification. Of course, some people make genuine mistakes in their application and should be excluded from this punishment.

PMI has to assume its responsibility of protecting Project Management and its future as a profession from fraudsters posing themselves as Project Managers. Otherwise, as stated earlier, companies will seek an alternative, and Project Management, as we know it right now, will perish.

Note: To its credit, PMI reserves the right to audit applications even after the certification is bestowed, but this is rarely (if ever) done.

© 2010 Project Management Learning – Reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited without the written consent of Project Management Learning.

First it should be stated that the reason why PMI randomly audits PMP applications is solely to maintain the quality of the applicants becoming PMP certified by making sure that all applicants are eligible for the PMP credential. Naturally, PMI cannot audit all the PMP applications, but auditing just a small percentage will deter quite a few (though definitely not all) applicants that do not meet the requirements.

The PMP audit process starts immediately after the applicants pays the fees for the exam, at this point PMI might elect to audit the candidate’s application who will be notified electronically shortly after paying the PMP fees.

Once notified, the candidate has to provide PMI with documents supporting his application. This might include:

• College/University diplomas (copies)
• Signed attestations from supervisors in the projects that were documented in the candidate’s application
• Proof of accumulating the 35 contact hours. This may include university/college certificates, letters certifying that training has been undertaken, etc…

The candidate has to physically mail (no other form of sending documents is accepted) all the supporting documents to the PMI headquarters in Pennsylvania. Once PMI receives the candidate’s mail, it will make a decision on the candidate’s application within 5 working days. If accepted, the candidate will be allowed to take the test, if not, the candidate will be refunded the fees.

Note that PMI sometimes audits applicants who are already certified, this is very rare, and only happens when someone raises concerns about the applicant’s actual eligibility prior to taking the exam. If an already PMP certified Project Manager gets audited and fails the process, then PMI will revoke his credential.

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A rule of thumb is that any government issued identification with the applicant’s picture and signature is acceptable. This includes drivers license, passports, permanent resident cards (US and Canada, referred to as “Green card” in the US).

There are some government issued identifications that do not have any photos, in these cases, a secondary identification (doesn’t have to be governmental) showing the applicant’s photo is required (for example, a valid university card). In case the government issued identification lacks the applicant’s signature, then also a secondary identification bearing the signature is required (for example, a credit card signed by the applicant).

Any form of identification presented to PMI should have the same name as the one on PMI records (otherwise the applicant will be denied taking the test).

Failure to submit proper identification when taking the test usually results in barring the applicant from taking the exam. The main reason behind PMI’s strictness about this is to prevent people from taking exams for others. If the applicant is denied from taking the PMP exam because of this reason, then he must reschedule the exam and pay the full rescheduling fees. PMI treats this case as if the applicant missed the PMP exam with a voluntarily reason.

Note: Social Security Cards/Social Insurance Cards are not an acceptable form of identification (although government issued), as they bear no signature nor a photo. Library cards and gym membership cards are not accepted as secondary form of identification.

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Voluntarily reasons are those reasons that are under the applicant’s control such:

• Traveling for leisure/business
• Overload at work
• Marriage

Involuntary reasons are those reasons that are beyond the applicant’s control, such as:

• Urgent medial issues
• Family illness
• Death of a close relative
• Accidents
• etc…

In either case, informing PMI in advance (48 hours in case of a Computer Based Test, 35 days in case of a Paper Based Test) will allow the person to either reschedule the PMP exam for free or cancel the PMP exam and get a refund.

Informing PMI after the PMP test should happen within 72 hours of the test day by contacting the PMI customer care department, failure to do so will result in paying the full reexamination fee. Even when the applicant informs PMI within the 72 hours after the test, it is at PMI’s discretion to whether accept the applicant’s excuse or not. Naturally, it is very hard for PMI to accept any “voluntarily reason” as an excuse for missing the test. In case of an “involuntarily reason”, PMI may request related documents to the applicant’s case, such as death certificate, accident report, doctor/hospital report.

In case the PMP applicant elects to proceed with a reexamination (instead of canceling the exam), the PMP exam should be scheduled within 1 year from the date the PMP application was approved.

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The answer, of course, depends on the Project Manager. In case the Project Manager is junior, with very little experience (unfortunately some PMP applicants inflate their project management experience in order to be eligible to take the PMP exam), then a couple of months of very hard studying is the norm. In case the Project Manager is experienced, then a month of concentrated studying would be enough.

Note that before, it was easier to pass the exam for inexperienced Project Managers as a lot of questions were formula-based (such as the EVM formulas). Lately, however, it seems that PMI dramatically reduced the number of questions requiring the memorization of formulas and the use of a calculator (some recent PMP applicants have reported to have only seen a couple of such questions in their exam). On the other hand, PMI has substantially increased the focus on complex situational questions, for example: “Two excellent resources resent working with each other, and you need them on the same team, what will you do?” or “A functional manager is interfering with the normal flow of the project by removing resources off their scheduled tasks and giving them other, unrelated tasks. The functional manager “owns” the resources and has seniority over you, how will you handle the situation?”.

Now what makes the whole thing more complicated is that most of the times all the answers make sense in one way or another, but there’ll be one answer that will stand out. The correct answer is always based on PMI’s view of an ideal project management environment, which means that Project Managers are always able to say “No” to anyone and to prioritize the project over the stakeholders’ personal interests without getting fired. The knowledge of the latter concept alone will help Project Mangers a lot in passing their PMP exam. As mentioned before, it’s a good idea to answer questions you’re not sure as you will not be penalized for giving the wrong answers.

Now here’s a quick table explaining, based on the compilation of data from many sources, the time needed to study for the PMP. Note that the table only accounts for those who passed the PMP exam. The number of days has been rounded.

The “number of study days” does not include breaks, for example, in the last case, the total number of hours spent studying for the PMP exam is 150. The last case is very concentrated and is not recommended as the PMP applicant has to absorb too much information in too little time.

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If the Applicant Is a PMI Member:

• $405 (€340) for a computer-based test OR
• $250 (€205) for a paper-based test

If the Applicant Is Not a PMI Member:

• $555 (€465) for a computer-based test OR
• $400 (€335) for a paper-based test

Note that the paper-based test (PBT) costs between 30% – 40% less than the computer-based test (CBT), which is a bit odd, considering that paper-based tests require manual intervention (albeit minimal) to be scored, not to mention the printing costs.

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To answer this question, we need to examine the following:

• Salary: The PMP certification has a positive effect on the Project Manager’s salary, as the average salary for PMP certified Project Managers is currently above the $100k mark in the United States (2009 statistics). Thus, PMPs enjoy one of the highest salaries with respect to the necessary education and experience to reach this salary, considering that a Project Manager can pass the PMP exam by studying hard for only a few months.
• Market Demand: The demand for the PMP is big, and it’s growing every day, and there is no sign that this demand will lessen in time. In fact the demand has actually increased even with the the 2008-2009 recession.
• Prestige and Recognition: The PMP is still a prestigious certification, with difficult eligibility criteria, a hard test, as well as requiring constant maintenance (e.g. acquiring PDUs). The PMP certification is highly regarded both in the United States and internationally.
• Increased Project Management Knowledge: This is the last point in this list because, ironically, it is the least important for applicants, and rightly so: Real and solid Project Management knowledge is acquired by experience, and there’s no substitute for that. However, studying for the PMP will often help the applicant learn new Project Management concepts, or understand a few concepts that were a bit ambiguous. Again, it is worthy to stress that this factor is of the least importance, especially for seasoned Project Managers.

Conclusion

There’s no denying, it’s not that easy to become a PMP, but the good news is that it doesn’t take a lot of time (the monetary investment to become a PMP is trivial and is usually paid by the company): a few months of concentrated studies are sufficient for most people to pass the exam. The positive results will be harvested both financially and professionally for many years to come. Is the PMP worth it? Definitely!

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The answer is no, PMP applicants are not allowed to bring a calculator with them to the PMP exam. In fact, according to the PMP Handbook, all the following items are forbidden in the testing center:

• calculators, cell phones (including iphones and blackberries), pagers, laptops, ipods, and any recording device
• any kind of food or beverage (including junk food and bottled water)
• notebooks, scratch paper, and dictionaries
• coats, sweaters, and other personal items

However, the good news is that calculators are integrated into the CBT (Computer Based Testing) exam, and are provided by PMI in case of a PBT (Paper Based Testing) exam. Additionally scratch paper is also provided to candidates taking either kind of exam. Note that candidates have to surrender all the material given to them by PMI (including used scratch paper) once they finish their exam.

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