You would have heard about PMP certification. What are the certification prerequisites? In this article, we shall understand these concepts in detail.
What is PMP Certification?
The Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification is a globally recognized credential in project management that examines a candidate’s capability to manage a professional project’s people, business procedures, and priorities.
According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), there are over one million PMP-certified professionals worldwide. It is applicable to project managers in almost every field, including health, construction, information technology (IT), and business.
Earning the PMP certification is a cumbersome process, but it is also a crucial milestone in your career as a project manager. And it can boost your earning potential. It necessitates that you acquire and comprehend various complex topics that may reside outside your core domain of expertise.
You must fulfill PMP certification prerequisites and pass the certification exam to obtain the certification.
PMP Certification Prerequisites
The following prerequisites determine eligibility for PMP certification:
Years of Experience Leading Projects
If you have worked on many overlapping projects in a single month, only one of them could count toward your experience requirement. As long as you obtain experience in a professional atmosphere, it does not matter whether a portion of your project management job was unpaid.
Formal Project Management Education Hours
This prerequisite is satisfied by any course, workshop, or training session that teaches fundamental principles of project management and delivers an evaluation or completion certificate.
Be prepared to list the courses you have taken, the institutions you visited, the dates you attended, and the number of hours you have earned. The contact hours you have earned will have no expiration date.
We will examine the PMP education and experience requirements in the coming section of the article. Note that your PMP experience requirement will vary depending on the PMP education requirement you meet.
PMP Education Requirements-1
To apply for PMP certification and acquire PMP certification, you must have a secondary degree, such as a high school diploma or any equal level of education. In addition, if your highest level of education is secondary, you must meet the following three PMP certification prerequisites to qualify.
- 5 years of experience in project management
- 7500 hours in leading and directing projects
- 35 hours of project management education
The project management experience criteria for PMP certification do not involve active project management. Participation in a given project also counts toward five years of experience. However, 7500 hours of 5 years, approximately 3.5 years, must be spent leading and directing projects. Again, this does not imply that you should have signed up for a project as the project manager. A leading or directing function may involve supervising a junior team member or team member, leading a group, aiding the project manager with some project management tasks, etc.
PMP Education Requirements-2
Suppose your most attended education level is a four-year degree or higher, such as a bachelor’s or higher, master’s degree, Ph.D., etc. In such a case, you must meet the following three PMP certification prerequisites to apply for certification.
- Three years of project management experience
- 4500 hours leading and directing projects
- 35 hours of project management education
The project management experience criterion for PMP certification does not involve active project management. Participation in a project context also counts toward three years of experience. However, 4500 hours of 3 years, approximately 2 years, must be spent leading and directing initiatives. Again, this does not imply that you should have signed up for a project as the project manager. A leading or directing function may involve supervising a junior team member or team member, leading a group, aiding the project manager with some project management tasks, etc.
How to Meet 35 Contacts Hours as a Requirement for PMP Certification?
You must meet one of the eligibility conditions to sit for the PMP certification examination. In addition, you must complete 35 hours of Project Management Education to meet the eligibility criterion for the PMP examination.
If you are wondering how you can complete the required 35 hours of Project Management courses. Then, you can enroll in PMP certification training to get the same result. This program also helps you prepare for the PMP test and provides expert guidance to pass the exam on the first try.
Tips to Attain Project Management Experience
To be eligible for PMP certification, you must possess the required PMP experience. But how can one acquire sufficient experience? Depending on your educational background, you must have between 4,500 and 7,500 hours of project management and leadership experience.
The following recommendations will assist you in overcoming this obstacle:
By Switching Your Company
If you do not have the option to take on a different type of responsibility at your current employer, you should seek employment elsewhere. You may discover an opportunity to negotiate better terms and conditions than you have at your current employer. This will accelerate obtaining the required number of experience hours to meet the PMI eligibility criterion.
Volunteering
You can always check with your local PMI chapter for volunteer activities, which would also expose you to further perks. This will also give you more enhanced networking chances. In addition, volunteering can provide the requisite experience hours.
Full-time Project Managers
Your load is lighter if you have a full-time job as a Project Manager or something similar that lets you lead and direct projects. If you don’t have enough hours, you can continue with what you are doing and collect the necessary experience hours.
Part-time Project Manager
Not having enough hours to meet the experience eligibility requirements? It is considerably more difficult if you are not in a position that allows you to direct or lead projects. If you do not manage projects or only manage them part-time, you accumulate experience hours at a slower rate than a full-time project manager.
Roles and Responsibilities of PMP-certified Professionals
Activity Planning
Planning is essential for fulfilling project deadlines, and inadequate planning is the cause of many failed projects. Good project managers identify the project’s scope and determine its available resources first and foremost. In addition, good project managers can make real-time estimates and assess the skills of the team.
They then construct a detailed plan for project execution and progress monitoring. Projects are entirely unpredictable. Thus effective project managers can make necessary adjustments during the project’s duration.
Time Management
Time management is one of the primary responsibilities of a project manager, as adhering to the timetable is essential to the completion of any project. Project managers are accountable for addressing derailments and communicating effectively with team members and other stakeholders to bring the project back on course. In addition, project managers must be professionals in risk management and contingency planning to continue advancing despite hurdles.
Cost Estimation
Good project managers understand how to maintain the project’s budget. Even if a project satisfies the client’s expectations and is completed on schedule, it will be a failure if it significantly exceeds its budget. Therefore, good project managers regularly review the budget and plan to avoid budget overruns.
Customer Satisfaction
A project is only successful if the client is satisfied. Therefore, one of the most important roles of every project manager is to minimize ambiguity, eliminate unwelcome surprises, and involve their clients as much as possible in the project. In addition, good project managers are adept at maintaining excellent communication and keeping clients informed.
Tracking Progress and Roadblocks
The project manager spends most of their time tracking how projects are going. After a project initiation, the project manager must assess its progress and ensure it is proceeding as planned. During the middle stages of a project, there are many ways to keep track of its progress, such as through status reports, meetings, and informal updates. If the project managers adopt a suitable management system, this responsibility will be simplified.
Create a Shared Vision
A project manager must understand where a project is heading and comprehend the larger picture. The vision must be communicated to the entire team so that each member understands the significance of their participation in achieving the desired outcomes. The team should comprehend the workload and make every attempt to transform objectives into missions. Finally, the manager should create the proper tone to ensure an easier journey.
Handling Documentation and Reports
When the project is completed adhering to the deadline and budget, the project manager must deliver the necessary paperwork to give the final reports to clients and highlight areas that require further growth. This is also an important aspect of a project manager’s responsibilities for project development. It serves two primary purposes:
- Keep track of what has been accomplished and who has participated in the project
- To guarantee that the project meets all project requirements
The project managers enable your team to develop reports, visualizations, and data dashboards in a matter of minutes, facilitating documentation and reports management. Your team has the flexibility to work on projects of any complexity and scope and migrate between projects freely.
Irrespective of business size, when working on any project, you must be able to manage incoming documents and reports. For example, you must know where you are in the project, who is responsible for what, when all documents are due, who has evaluated them, etc.
Conclusion
We hope this blog helped you to comprehend the eligibility requirements and methods for taking the PMP certification exam and the responsibilities of project management certified professional. In addition, this will assist you in preparing to begin the PMP certification process by acquiring the necessary education and work experience.
Acquire the necessary experience hours by assuming a different position or volunteering with your local PMI organization. Wishing you success on your PMP journey!
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