All About Project Management Institute (PMI) Certifications

The Project Management Institute (PMI)® is one of the world’s largest project management professional organizations.  It has over 600,000 members with 8 certifications including:

1. Project Management Professional (PMP)®
2. Program Management Professional (PgMP)®
3. Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)®
4. Certified Associates in Project Management (CAPM)®
5. Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®
6. Professionals in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)®
7. Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)®
8. Scheduling Management Professional (PMI-SP)®

This article summarizes the key questions that I frequently receive, and of course, it is my perspective.  At the end of the article, I am including a list of the current requirements for qualifications, examination information, and certification maintenance requirements.

PMI, PMP, PgMP, PfMP, CAPM, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, PMI-RMP, and PMI-SP are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

PMI-ACP is one of the fastest growing certification. As agile approaches are rapidly replacing many of the traditional methods, PMI-ACP is viewed as an umbrella certification that enables professionals to manage a wide range of specific agile methods.

Assuming you have an advance degree, my suggestion would be to wait and attempt to earn enough years of experience to qualify for the PMP.  CAPM is a stepping stone. But if you only have a high school diploma or wish to gain some experience with PMI examinations, then CAPM is more valuable today than before. This is because PMI changed the PMP requirements in 2020 and now CAPM can fulfill the educational requirement for PMP qualification.

I only recommend PMP for those who truly have the leadership experience required to lead projects.  Not only are you doing your employer a favor, but you are also helping yourself. Projects can be difficult, and there is no reason to set yourself for failure which can lead to a whole range of personal issues.  

When I was leading a large PMO, I never (not even once) hired someone because they have the PMP. I hired them because they have the professional and project management experience and PMP was served as a key differentiator.  

The Program Management Professional (PgMP) is a natural advancement for most project professionals. As you gain experience and also a record of successful project implementation, it is only natural that the projects you manage start to grow in size and complexity. Program is a collection of highly related projects, and thus, it is a natural next steps.  

To me, there are three important benefits:

1. It’s really a great differentiator.  With over 1 million PMPs, it’s hard to stand out. PgMP, on the other hand, is less than 3,000.
2. Preparing you for the exam is likely solidify your knowledge. If nothing else, it provides a nice structure to organization your experiences and understanding.
3. (Finally) Organizations are looking for Program Management Professionals. In fact, I just spoke yesterday with a potential client looking for PgMP training. She mentioned that her advertising agencies are planning to make sure all project managers have at least PMP with PgMP on the career path. This echos another conversation with an aerospace executive – adding PgMP to the career path of senior project leaders.  

When PMI introduced the Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) at the end of 2014, I was excited.  By creating this certification, which I was a big advocate, it lifted the “head room” for the entire project management professional value chain. I signed up to the early adopter program, and took the exam in January 2015. When the dust settled, I was the eight person certified.  Amazingly, in that initial announcement in May 2015, I counted 121 certified PfMP.  When I looked at the individuals closely, I realize that many of them, exactly 59 of them, did not have another other PMI certifications. They are experienced professionals, but either have no PMI certified or let them expired. Either way, this is exciting – a validation of the my headroom theory.

In the year since, PfMP grows steadily.  It’s clearly not for everyone.  Portfolio managers deal with organizational level decisions and issues, such as politics.  But it can serve as a path way to the c-suite.  Here’re my thoughts on its benefits:

1. Project professionals are seen mainly as doers, and to some extent this is of course true. But as one grows, it hits a soft ceiling of sorts. I confronted that earlier in my career.  The CIO then thought I was a PMP, so what was I doing with all the thinking?  Well, portfolio managers inevitably break that ceiling because ALL organizations have limited resources. Thus, choosing the right projects to work on is important. (This is especially true during and after the pandemic as organizations reevaluate its priorities.)  In short, PfMP gave me additional stripes that elevated my status.
2. Similar to the other certifications, preparing for the portfolio management exam solidified my knowledge. It created a nice shell to organize my experiences and understanding.  This gave me the confidence to later join PMI’s Standard Committee for Portfolio Management (which I was a part of the team that created the 4th Edition of the Standard for Portfolio Management).
3. PfMP is a true competitive differentiator as there are less than 1,000 certified practitioners. With over 1 million PMPs, this certification truly set you apart. 
4. Perhaps most importantly and to add to #1, I believe portfolio management puts professionals on the path to become Chief Project Officer.  Click here to see my recent research article on this topic.  

Risk management is a funny concept.  One the one hand, it’s one of the most frequently managed concern, especially in larger projects. On the other hand, it’s also one of the most under-practiced. In short, there’s a lot of noise about managing risks, but when it comes to action, they typically fall short.  Does this sound familiar?

To some extent, the problem of hot air is the challenge with this certifications. Professionals and organizations love to talk about risk, but few truly practice it well.  I was on the PMI’s core team that developed the latest Standard for Risk Management in Project, Program, and Portfolio, and our team tried really hard to make a clear and compelling case why organizations need to take risk seriously.  The pandemic, sadly as it is, hopefully change the urgency.

I personally believe if there is a “low hanging fruit” in project management that improves effectiveness and performance, it’s the management of risks. By able to spent just a little time, say 5% of a professional’s time, and dedicate them to examine the uncertainties, the ROI would be just huge, especially on larger and complex projects and programs.  Also as we come out of the pandemic, organizations will need to reevaluate how they fundamentally make project investments and manage uncertainty, risk management is an ideal credential to enhance your career. 

PMI Certifications – Summary of Qualifications 

The following table highlights the eight PMI certifications and the required qualifications (prior to application): 

PMI Certification – Summary of Exam Information

The following table highlights the examination information, including cost, number of questions, and approximate seconds per question for the eight PMI certification exam. 

The number of seconds is particularly important for those who read at an average speed or below. Here is why this number is important:

• An average American adult reads casually about 200-250 words per minute. This is about 2 minutes per page.
• On technical matters, the speed drops significantly. The average is between 50-100 words, depending on your proficiency and familiarity. PMI exam questions are fairly technical.
• An average PMP question plus the four multiple-choice answers (or other answer formats that’s rumored to come next year), there are somewhere between 50 to 150 words (this is based on my educated guess).
• Let’s just use 100 words as an illustrative example and also let’s assume you can read 100 words per minute.
• This means that on the PMP exam, you spent 60 of the 72 seconds on average just for reading. Within the next 12 seconds, you need to process, analyze, evaluate, and select the response. It’s rather daunting.

That is one reason why people need to study hard for the PMP exam. If nothing else, it boosts your reading speed. By the way, this short article here is 220 words. 

PMI Continuing Education Requirements

The following table highlights the continuing certification requirements for the eight PMI certifications. For more information, visit https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/certifications/ccr-certification-requirements-handbook.pdf.