What Project Management Professionals Need to Know About Certification Renewals

April 11, 2018

Resource: Blog Industry: All Industries

Tags: Compliance and Certification

You’ve finally earned your spot among the few elite Project Management Professionals, and your PMP training and hard work have finally paid off. You’re all set, right? Well, not quite …

As the adage suggests, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’ And for those in project management – which has specific certification requirements and renewals – you likely know this to be all too true.

Because in an industry that is constantly evolving, it’s never proven more critical to expand skills in order to enhance the quality of the services project managers provide. Certification renewal requirements – as cumbersome as they may often feel – are designed to encourage continuing professional education through courses and other activities that help serve clients more effectively.

The Project Management Institute has published the sixth edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOKⓇ Guide), an exhaustive best-practices guide for professionals overseeing projects and initiatives.

Why Does This Matter?

PMI believes that PMPs should always be up-to-date with the changes and best practices being used by project managers around the world – which is why there’s a PMP certification renewal process. So every three years from the time of certification, PMPs are required to make a PMP certification renewal in order to maintain a ‘PMP with good standing’ status.

Why Do PMI Certification Exams Change?

Exam updates help keep certifications current with the evolving state of the project management profession, and are updated in two circumstances:

• When PMI releases new exam content outline, which details the critical tasks and knowledge areas tested in the exam;
• When there is an update to an existing standard, or when a new PMI publication is added to a certification reference list. This ensures the questions align with any new terminology.

The questions are written by active project management professionals and reflect the latest information and best practices.

Why Is The PMP Exam Changing?

According to PMI, the PMP exam is changing in order to ‘[ensure] consistent use of terminology and harmonizes process groups, tools and techniques between the guide and the exam.’

AN OVERVIEW: What is changing?

The following updates can be expected:

• A new chapter on the role of the project manager that focuses on effective leadership, including necessary competencies, experience and skills.
• Two renamed Knowledge Areas that more accurately reflect which elements can be managed and which cannot:
  • Schedule Management (formerly known as Time Management)
  • Resource Management (formerly known as Human Resource Management)
• Every Knowledge Area now features four new sections:
  • Key Concepts
  • Trends and Emerging Practices
  • Tailoring Considerations
  • Considerations for Agile/Adaptive Environments

THE DETAILS: What is changing?

Here are five critical updates included in the PMBOKⓇ Guide – Sixth Edition that every project manager should know and understand:

• Agile Implementation Support: The PMBOKⓇ 6 includes an implementation guide for the agile product development methodology, which 94 percent of businesses worldwide are currently using.
• Internal ROI Generation/Business Case: The PMBOKⓇ 6 gives PMs the strategies and messaging they need to make their cases to C-level leaders and other stakeholders who collectively waste $122 million for every $1 billion they invest in company projects.
• Organizational Knowledge Creation: The PMBOKⓇ 6 provides a framework for collecting and sharing learned insights, allowing PMs to develop institutional knowledge banks, which are critical in 82 percent of the projects that meet original business goals.
• Adherence Documentation: The PMBOKⓇ 6 empowers PMs with project resource management techniques for ensuring adherence to key performance indicators, key metrics that 55 percent of modern organizations do not track.
• Project Team Development: The PMBOKⓇ 6 establishes best practices for cultivating effective project teams and bolstering communication channels, the lack of which leads to failure in 30 percent of projects.

Next Steps for Project Management Training & Renewals

While technical skills are core to project and program management, PMI research suggests they’re not enough in today’s increasingly complex and competitive global marketplace.

RedVector has been reviewed and approved as a provider of project management training by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and helps PMPs plan, manage and control projects and resources to exceed customer expectations.

When organizations focus on all three areas of the PMI’s Talent Triangle™ – a combination of technical, leadership, and strategic business management expertise — 40 percent more of their projects meet their goals with competencies that can support long-range strategic objectives that contribute to the bottom line.

RedVector provides complete project management training covering proposals, schedules, budget, quality control and more, as well as construction project management training for professionals in the architecture, engineering and construction industry.

RedVector can help PMPs prepare to pass project management certification exams as well as certification renewals, including PMP, CAPM and ACP, delivering training through our best-in-class learning management system to better manage compliance, career development and certifications.

Explore all the ways RedVector can help your organization stay safe, sound and certified today.