In order to take the PMP Exam, you must have a certain amount of experience managing projects and have 35 hours of formal education in project management. If your highest degree is a high school or associates degree, you’ll need to document 5 years and 7,500 hours of managing projects. If your highest degree is a bachelor’s degree or higher, you’ll need to document 3 years and 4,500 hours of managing projects. The 35 contact hours of formal education can take the form of various types of instruction, although it is often in the form of taking a course with a Registered Education Provider (REP). A REP is an organization that is approved by the Project Management Institute (PMI) for providing education and has the ability to award contact hours and Professional Development Units (PDUs) to its students. For example, here at TAPUniversity we are a REP whose 10-week online PMP course both prepares participants for their PMP Exam and also satisfies the requirement of 35 contact hours.
For those that meet the experience and education requirements, the first step is going to http://www.pmi.org to work on the application for the PMP exam. You’re able to save your application and come back and work on it later if you wish. On this application, you’ll be documenting your education and the specific details of the projects you have led. After submitting your application, PMI reviews it for completeness. Then you’ll be asked for payment. The cost of the exam for PMI members is $405. At this point, some applications will be audited. Otherwise, the exam can be taken. The computerized exam is scheduled through Prometrix at a testing center. You’ll be taken to the Prometrix website through the PMI website.
The exam itself is 200 questions. Only 175 of these questions are actually scored. The rest are questions that are being tested for future exams, and you won’t know which questions these are. You’ll have four hours to take the exam. You’re allowed to take breaks, but the clock is still ticking so it’s best to keep breaks short. Immediately after you finish the exam questions, you’ll be informed whether you passed. To maintain your PMP certification, you’ll need to earn PDU’s. During the three years after you earned your PMP, you’ll need 60 PDU’s. There are various ways to earn PDU’s—for example, you can be involved in your local PMI chapter meetings, give talks or write papers on project management, and take classes. If you choose to take classes for your PDU’s, TAPUniversity has a variety of online classes available.
Here’s the link to PMI’s official handbook that goes into more detail on the PMP certification if you wish to read more: http://www.pmi.org/PDF/pdc_pmphandbook.pdf
David Samuel are discussing. 
Dr. Paul D. Giammalvo 9:17 am on September 19, 2009 Permalink |
Sorry, but what justifies your claim that project management is a “profession”? I surely hope it is not based solely on PMI’s marketing hype….?
There are not one, but two published, academically sound research efforts, one of which was funded in part by PMI that concluded “project management is not now, nor is it likely in the foreseeable future, to be recognized as a profession” (Zwerman & Thomas, 2004)
My own PhD dissertation- “Is project management a profession? And if not, what is it?” confirmed Zwerman’s research and went on to conclude that project management is a process, and that process is embedded in all existing professions and trades and even into most of our day to day lives.
While I share your enthusiasm and passion for project management, we need to be very careful that we don’t take PMI as being the FINAL WORD on the practice of project management. The largest? Yes, but the most highly respected? I think not….
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta, Indonesia
http://wwwgetpmcertified.com
David Samuel 2:08 pm on September 19, 2009 Permalink |
While Dr. PDG makes several excellent points about Project Management, I respectfully disagree.
If one is to examine whether project management is a profession, one should examine the roots of the terms involved.
“Profession” is defined as:
n.
1. A. An occupation or career: “One of the highest compliments a child can pay a parent is to choose his or her profession” (Joan Nathan).
B. An occupation, such as law, medicine, or engineering, that requires considerable training and specialized study.
C. The body of qualified persons in an occupation or field: members of the teaching profession.
2. An act or instance of professing; a declaration.
3. An avowal of faith or belief.
4. A faith or belief: believers of various professions.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/profession)
“Management” is defined as:
n.
1. The act, manner, or practice of managing; handling, supervision, or control: management of a crisis; management of factory workers.
2. The person or persons who control or direct a business or other enterprise.
3. Skill in managing; executive ability.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/management)
If a profession is an occupation or career, and management is the act, manner, or practice of managing, as defined above, is stands to reason that Project Management is an occupation or career practicing management of projects.
An argument running counter to this might be that management is not a profession, which, by the definitions elaborated above, does not hold water.
Extending the metaphor of Project Management into everyday activities is under-representing the nature of true Project Management. It would equate to saying all baseball players are “Professionals” and therefore those that play in the major leagues are the same as those that play t-ball. It is just not the same activity, practiced with the same levels of expertise, competence, professionalism and results.
With all due respect to Dr. PDG, I believe Project Management is a profession, and, moreover, is recognized by many Fortune 500 companies as a core competency. I agree that taking PMI as the “FINAL WORD” on the practice of Project Management is a slippery slope, but saying, ““project management is not now, nor is it likely in the foreseeable future, to be recognized as a profession” (Zwerman & Thomas, 2004)”, in my view, is slightly disrespectful to the thousands of highly competent professionals practicing this fine art and science.
Dr. PDG, I would also like to understand which organizations in the community you feel are more highly respected than PMI, and your basis for these conclusions. Additionally, if you would be so kind as to offer more specific citations of the works involved in your post (including your own) it would be appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
David Samuel, PMP
Ryan Gensel 6:18 pm on September 19, 2009 Permalink |
Isn’t this just a semantic argument? The difference between a profession and a performance is how one is contracted to use their competence. Organizations are economies of scale, and competence is a scarcity. The larger the organization, the more centralized a role could become because of an individual’s specialty, or the more distributed it could become as a compliment to practicing knowledge. All employees are delegated some responsibility to plan, but authority is relative, and to balance the competence and performance of others is not a science, any more than it is an art. The difference between an artist and a scientist is who’s paying you.
-Ryan Gensel
twitter.com/readysetproject
ryangensel.blogspot.com
Dr. Paul D. Giammalvo 9:10 pm on September 19, 2009 Permalink |
Hi Ryan,
In my research I looked at the semantic, legal, sociological and economists definitions of profession, and in all cases, project management came up short…….
But you do raise an issue that unfortunately, appears to me to be hurting the practice of project management, and that is the mistaken impression that having the PMP means you are a competent practitioner.
Whether intentional or not, PMI has allowed, if not encouraged, this belief to persist when there is nothing to prove that people who have their PMP tend to manage projects more successfully or better than those who do not, nor does it mean that those who do NOT hold their PMP are less likely to manage projects more successfully than those who do.
In short, IMPO, PMI (along with several other professional organizations purporting to represent the practice of project management) is selling nothing more than wishful thinking……..
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta, Indonesia
http://www.getpmcertified.com
Ryan Gensel 3:48 am on September 20, 2009 Permalink
Thanks for the great response Dr. Paul!
I think “profession” is inherently linked to the pre-existing knowledge silos that maintain institutional academia. By implying the need for a distinct “multi-disciplinary” role would alienate the “supposed” authority. I imagine the role of a professional project manager (informal noun) to facilitate integration and motivate team members. PMI provides a wonderful ontology that describes projects, but it’s more of a postmortem language to record an autopsy (and establish blame). I love the PMBOK, but it’s a formal system describing an informal one. It’s an approximation of a complete system.
PMP’s are awarded on their experience, diligence to learn, and ability to apply knowledge. What they do with their competence is no guarantee of their performance. I think organizations have to set the expectation for the role of PM, but a PMP has to realize their role independently of what the PMBOK may discuss (as a professional not as a PMP).
There’s no magic bullets.
-Ryan Gensel
twitter.com/readysetproject
ryangensel.blogspot.com