Becoming a PMP Professional is not as hard (or easy) as it seems!
I’ve been involved with a project management system for 7 years, as a technical writer, than a marketer, and now also in the development and sales aspects. You could say I like to get involved!
I was thinking about getting the CAPM accreditation, to officially be a Certified Associate in Project Management. All I needed was some training credits and to pass an exam. It seemed simple enough.
But that’s not what I really wanted. I wanted the coveted PMP letters, I wanted to become a Project Management Professional. When I looked at the requirements, I was taken aback by the experience required: 36 months of project management experience is easy enough, but 4500 hours? Surely I would not have all those hours.
Here is the not-so-hard part
A friend of mine strongly encouraged me to fill out the application form, and I was surprised at the totals I got. In the last 8 years, I had been managing projects almost constantly, but I hadn’t realized how quickly it added up: well over the required 4500 hours of experience.
The truth is, project management is a question of perspective. Almost anything can be a project: from organizing the Christmas party to launching a new product, and even redesigning a new website. If it has a beginning, a middle and an end,; if it has a goal at the end to reach for; then you can call it a project.
And this is why it’s not as hard as it seems to become a PMP Professional.
Hence comes the hard(er) part
If you have the experience, now you need to get 35 hours of training. This is 35 hours in a classroom. For all of us who work full-time jobs, it’s a serious commitment to give our precious free time for PM training.
After training comes the exam. This is nerve-racking. What if I invested all this time into getting the accreditation, and I fail?
For me, it turned out to be harder to go through the motions of getting accreditation than having the requirements to be able to apply for accreditation in the first place!
Oct 24th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I hear you Karine, I have tried the CAPM and didnt make it in my first attempt. The preparation does take time and sucks if you don’t make it after that. Of course I had my share of mistakes.
To read more about the exam (CAPM), you can see here (http://steppingintoprojectmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/09/capm-i-didnt-make-it.html.
Reply
Oct 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Congratulations, Karine, on earning that “coveted” PMP designation.
Now that you have it, I would ask that you take a few moments to put it in perspective.
Exactly how much credibility should anyone put in a “professional” credential that only requires 35 hours of training before passing a 200 question, multiple choice exam, of which only 175 questions actually count and requires a passing grade of only ~62%.
In today’s world, a “professional” anything usually requires either extraordinary skills (as in Tiger Woods) or at least a Master’s degree and normally 4 or 5 years of experience, working under the tutelage of a “Master”. This is the model followed by Doctors, Lawyers, Professional Engineers, Commercial Pilots and nearly all occupations generally accepted or recognized as “professions”.
While I don’t want to demean your PMP, I do hope you and others like you, realize it ONLY tests for KNOWLEDGE and does not test for COMPETENCY. (Applying your skills and knowledge) So my best advice would be to treat the PMP as it was originally designed- as an entry level credential that tested for the minimum KNOWLEDGE that a novice project manager should know before embarking on a project, UNDER THE SUPERVISION of an experienced “Journeyman” project manager.
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta
Reply
Claude Gauthier Reply:
August 11th, 2009 at 7:28 am
First I would like to precise that I’m french-Canadian and have been chock when I read your comment. This is good in fact because it generates discussions.
I am in preparation for the PMP and I want to underline that it is not only a preparation of 35hrs course and passing with 61%. PMI exam are VERY hard to pass. At many times, they test your capacity to manage your stress during exam as there are MANY tricky questions for that ( psychrometric). I manage projects for more then 4500hrs ( competency) and will spend more then 250 hrs to prepare for PMP ( knowledge).
In other words, passing the PMP credential, is much more demanding then what you simply stated.
I challenge you to pass the exam on firts try !!
But I agree with Josh below, that it doesn’t mean you are a good project manager even if you have a PMP…but still hard to get !
Sincerly,
Claude Gauthier,
Magog, Qc.
Reply
Josh Nankivel Reply:
August 11th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Thank you for the comment Claude! I agree with your statements. It’s not an easy exam, and you certainly can not just spend 35 hours with no previous knowledge of the PMBoK standard and expect to pass the test.
With the 4th edition test, I think the PMI has stopped publishing the % score or what is actually required to pass? I’m not completely sure on the second part of that.
Reply
Oct 25th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Good points, Dr. Paul. I would add that certifications are like degrees in that you get out what you put it. Having a PMP doesn’t mean you are a competent project manager. Having most degrees doesn’t mean your are competent in the field either. There are exceptions where the process requires thing like residency, etc.
Dr. Paul didn’t mention the 4500 hours minimum time you need to document where you managed projects. That is an important aspect of the PMP…it indicates you have some level of experience + knowledge….many times competence goes along with those, but not always.
The PMP is no guarantee, to you or a potential employer. The PMBok Guide is just a standard. Getting your PMP means you are at least at the ground floor of project management. To claim more than that requires a demonstration of competence, advanced knowledge, and experience.
Just like a degree, any certification is the beginning of a journey, not the end!
Reply
Oct 26th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Karine,
Congrats on your certification, I know it was a big monkey off of my back after I passed the exam. Its great to hear/read about others stories and perspectives as they attempt to better themselves professionally.
To your point about the 35 training hours needed, there are plenty of free training resources available and most organizations will have training that can be applied toward those hours as well. I went through my local PMI Chapter’s course over three Saturdays and racked up 24 hours that way…
-chris
Reply
Oct 27th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Congratulations, Karine! When I obtained the PMP credential, it was difficult organizing and documenting my experience. Using an experience log, as you indicated, can be very helpful in preparing the application.
While I have not listened to Cornelius Fichtner’s PMPrepCast podcasts, based upon his The Project Management Podcast, I would imagine they are of high quality. I listed to The Portable PMP Exam Prep: Conversations on Passing the PMP® Exam, by Carl Pritchard and J. LeRoy Ward while preparing and found thier cd’s to be very beneficial.
Michael Crook, MSPM, PMP
Arlington, VA
Reply
Oct 28th, 2008 at 5:37 am
To Josh … the PMP does NOT require 4500 hours managing projects. It requires 4500 hours “leading or directing” project activities: a much lower bar.
To all … why not consideration getting a certification that does verify performance AS A PROJECT MANAGER … why not consider www pmcert org? It actually takes less time and costs less money, but provides a higher degree of assurance to prospective employers that you actually know what you are doing.
Duncan
Reply
Oct 29th, 2008 at 6:56 am
I don’t see PMP and other certifications as an either/or situation. Personally, I’m intrigued by IPMA level C and will probably pursue it in 2009.
The process of preparing for the PMP exam had great value for me though, and it IS something used to filter resumes.
This is how I look at it. The PMP establishes a ground-level certification for a PM. IPMA level C seems to provide a more rigorous certification of competency, which I like.
I think it was Built to Last that talked about the genius of the “And”.
Reply
Nov 3rd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Karine’s post states that “the truth is, project management is a question of perspective. Almost anything can be a project: from organizing the Christmas party to launching a new product, and even redesigning a new website. If it has a beginning, a middle and an end,; if it has a goal at the end to reach for; then you can call it a project.” This seems to imply that experience in the “management” of any “project” is acceptable in satisfying the “Project Management Experience” requirement of applying for the PMP credential.
It is important to note that the “Project Management Experience” requirement calls for “professional project management experience”. This would seem to preclude the “organizing the Christmas party”. Addtionally, the hours of experience must have been spent “leading and directing project tasks”. The applicable “project tasks” are described in PMI’s PMP Exam Specification that was developed from PMI’s PMP Role Delineation Study. These tasks closely parallel the actions required to conduct or direct the application of the processes of the five Project Management Process Groups as described in detail in the PMBOK Guide.
The sad reality is that there are varied interpretations of the required experience. As such, there is a likelihood that some applicants for the PMP credential have never led and directed project tasks (or manage a project), but go undetected due to the fact that relatively few of the PMP applications are audited by PMI. The unfortunate consequence is perhaps a significant number of certified PMPs who became so by attending an concentrated exam preparation workshop to satisfy the “Project Management Education” requirement and/or reading any number of the “how to pass” books and then successfully answering at least 106 multiple choice questions.
All this being said, the real tragedy is that once certified, many PMPs continue to manage or work on projects without applying the principles and practices that at a minimum they were exposed to in their preparation for the examination.
This might explain why even though over 250,000 PMPs have been certified worldwide since 1998, most research shows that project performance has not greatly improved over the past decade.
As a postscript, and to add insult to injury, the track-record of the establishment and effective operation of PMOs that are chartered in part to help the organzation become better at managing its projects and that are staffed to a large degree with PMP’s, has been less than stellar — i.e., new PMOs are being created at a relatively high rate, but PMOs are being shut down or radically reconfigured at a similar rate.
Reply
Nov 3rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
AMEN, Scott. I couldn’t have said it any better myself. PMI has, IMPO over-sold the PMP as well as the fundamentals underlying project management.
And not all is PMI’s fault either. As a consultant, VERY few of our clients truly understand how project management fits into an on-going business and like so many fads before them, top management is grasping at project management to be the latest “flavor of the month” “solution” to bad management practices.
If management continues to pick “Death March” projects then expects the project manager to magically turn them into successes, we will continue to “get what we always get”.
Keep on being willing to “tell it like it is”…… We need more people willing to tell the emperor he is naked…..
BR,
Dr. PDG, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Reply