Updated 10 Step Help To Submit PMP PDUs

– February 3, 2010Posted in: Project Management

I’m in the process of helping my client make their submissions for PMI Professional Development Units (PDUs). All PMPs need 60 PDUs during a CCR cycle so don’t put it off until the last minute. In this case, my client participated in a workshop. If you want to collect PDUs, you’re going to need some kind of evidence. It might be a program agenda, copies of a publication, transcript, certificate, registration form… do I need to go on? This is actually for you in the event PMI audits you. In this case, participating in a workshop, the evidence is not required to actually complete the PDU request online. Because PMI has updated their website, I think it’s important you know the new process.

Know your PMI ID #, Cert #, and Last Name on file with PMI.

Step 1: Log into the PMI homepage.
A Membership Status box will appear in the left navigation menu with the following data:
PMI ID No.:
Member Since:
Expires:

A Certification Status box will also appear in the left navigation menu with the following data:
PMP No.:
Earned:
Renewal Date

Within that Certification Status box, at the bottom, is a link titled “View PDUs”
(If you follow the link before logging in, you’ll be asked to do so at that time)

Step 2: Select the “View PDUs” link
Step 3: In the left navigational column, select Report professional development units (PDUs)
Step 4: Select a PDU category and sub-category (if applicable) (“2e” for participating in a workshop)
Step 5: Select the Next button
Step 6: Complete the entire form (know the knowledge area and process group)
Step 7: Select the Next button
Step 8: Review for accuracy and enter the number of PDUs (if given the option)
Step 9: Select the Next button
Step 10: Select the checkbox, agreeing to the accuracy of the claim and Select the Submit button

Go back and review your Online Transcript in a few days to verify your submission was successful.

See, it’s not as hard as you thought!

I welcome any questions you may have about the process.

Regards,

Derek

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Tags: Helpful Hints, PDU, PMI, PMP

About Derek Huether

Enterprise Agile Coach and Trainer at LitheSpeed. Co-Lead of the PMI ACP Support Team. Lover of Agile, Scrum, & Kanban. Lawfulgood PMP Level 15. Chaotic Good Agilist Level 5. Author of Zombie Project Management (available on Amazon)

http://WBSCoach.com Josh Nankivel

Thanks for this Derek, it’s one of those things that is easy once you’ve done it a few times but can be a challenge the first time for sure.

A frustration I’ve had when going to claim PDU credit is not having all the right information provided by the presenter.

For instance, you need the physical address, phone number, and email contact for the provider.

If you attend a webinar of some sort, how many people make it REALLY easy to claim your PDUs?

So, when I put out WBS Coach and it counts for 5 PDUs, I included a step-by-step guide with screen shots on how to submit to PMI properly. I haven’t heard any feedback yet good or bad, but I hope it’s helping.

Josh Nankivel
.-= Josh Nankivel´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.

Derek Huether

Josh, I completely forgot WBS Coach was worth 5 PDU! Though I have all of my PDUs through 2011, it makes WBS Coach a worthy purchase.

http://WBSCoach.com Josh Nankivel

Thanks for this Derek, it’s one of those things that is easy once you’ve done it a few times but can be a challenge the first time for sure.

A frustration I’ve had when going to claim PDU credit is not having all the right information provided by the presenter.

For instance, you need the physical address, phone number, and email contact for the provider.

If you attend a webinar of some sort, how many people make it REALLY easy to claim your PDUs?

So, when I put out WBS Coach and it counts for 5 PDUs, I included a step-by-step guide with screen shots on how to submit to PMI properly. I haven’t heard any feedback yet good or bad, but I hope it’s helping.

Josh Nankivel
.-= Josh Nankivel´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.

Derek Huether

Josh, I completely forgot WBS Coach was worth 5 PDU! Though I have all of my PDUs through 2011, it makes WBS Coach a worthy purchase.

http://WBSCoach.com Josh Nankivel

In summary, all you providers of PDUs out there…get better at making it easy for your audience to claim their PDUs!!! Take the guesswork out, and don’t make them search for contact info to plug into the PMI form.
.-= Josh Nankivel´s last undefined ..Response cached until Sat 6 @ 1:29 GMT (Refreshes in 23.90 Hours) =-.

Derek Huether

PMI recently redesigned this submission interface but it still requires information many fail to provide when you go to a round-table or sit on a panel. When I’ve hosted training, I made sure the agenda had everything the attendee needed to claim PDU and then I reminded them at the beginning and end of the meeting to submit the claim.

Thank you, Josh, for excellent comments.

http://WBSCoach.com Josh Nankivel

In summary, all you providers of PDUs out there…get better at making it easy for your audience to claim their PDUs!!! Take the guesswork out, and don’t make them search for contact info to plug into the PMI form.
.-= Josh Nankivel´s last undefined ..Response cached until Sat 6 @ 1:29 GMT (Refreshes in 23.90 Hours) =-.

Derek Huether

PMI recently redesigned this submission interface but it still requires information many fail to provide when you go to a round-table or sit on a panel. When I’ve hosted training, I made sure the agenda had everything the attendee needed to claim PDU and then I reminded them at the beginning and end of the meeting to submit the claim.

Thank you, Josh, for excellent comments.

Greg

As a PM practitioner, where I may be involved in a number of projects at any one time, I found that the process for claiming Cat 2H PDUs was a touch confusing – it only allows you to calim 5PDUs per year, but with very little granularity (ie, you can’t log a 6-month program that you managed as 2.5PDU, you have to claim the full 5PDUs for the year and try to summarize the key programs or projects you managed in a single-line description.

I also wondered what material would count should PMI choose to audit me for these particular PDUs, any ideas? I suppose we could use the PMI Career tracking tool elsewhere on PMI.org, but I have not tried that yet.

Feedback an comments on this particular area of the PDU process welcome.

Derek Huether

Greg, this is a very good question.

PMP®/PgMP®: Time in service 6 months: 5 PDUs Maximum 15 PDUs may be earned per cycle.
PMI-SP®/PMI-RMP®: Time in service 6 months: 2.5 PDUs Maximum 7.5 may be earned per cycle.

You should be accounting for your professional experience the same way you did if you were audited.
Here are some data points to capture:
Organization Name
Project Title
Start Date – End Date
Hours committed to each domain (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling, Closing)
Project Description
Your participation

Greg

Thanks for the quick response!

“Time in service” – is this the same as “duration of project managed”? I know PMI are particular about not having overlap when claiming your experience hours prior to taking the PMP exam, so I assume they expect the same thing here. It seems that the CCR “engine” and the rules behind it are not very helpful when you are trying to lodge the claim for under Cat 2H: it assumes once you have more than 6mths between the dates that you are claiming the full 5PDUs.

I see your point about keeping the documentation separate, in much the same fashion as the pre-PMP exam requirements do – that makes the most sense.

Derek Huether

Greg, I steered you wrong. I just got off the phone with PMI. When claiming PDUs for something like a roundtable discussion, the only proof you need is an agenda or something similar. For the Category 2H, it’s kind of a free for all. IF you are working with the title of Project Manager or in a PM capacity, for the duration of 6 months, you get 5 PDUs. You can claim the 2H PDUs up to 3 times during the cycle (3 years). That’s it! There is no audit for 2H PDUs. I have to admit, I don’t agree with this. I think I’m going to have to publicly apologize to you with a post. I’ve been keeping track of my projects since being audited back in 2006.

Greg

As a PM practitioner, where I may be involved in a number of projects at any one time, I found that the process for claiming Cat 2H PDUs was a touch confusing – it only allows you to calim 5PDUs per year, but with very little granularity (ie, you can’t log a 6-month program that you managed as 2.5PDU, you have to claim the full 5PDUs for the year and try to summarize the key programs or projects you managed in a single-line description.

I also wondered what material would count should PMI choose to audit me for these particular PDUs, any ideas? I suppose we could use the PMI Career tracking tool elsewhere on PMI.org, but I have not tried that yet.

Feedback an comments on this particular area of the PDU process welcome.

Derek Huether

Greg, this is a very good question.

PMP®/PgMP®: Time in service 6 months: 5 PDUs Maximum 15 PDUs may be earned per cycle.
PMI-SP®/PMI-RMP®: Time in service 6 months: 2.5 PDUs Maximum 7.5 may be earned per cycle.

You should be accounting for your professional experience the same way you did if you were audited.
Here are some data points to capture:
Organization Name
Project Title
Start Date – End Date
Hours committed to each domain (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling, Closing)
Project Description
Your participation

Greg

Thanks for the quick response!

“Time in service” – is this the same as “duration of project managed”? I know PMI are particular about not having overlap when claiming your experience hours prior to taking the PMP exam, so I assume they expect the same thing here. It seems that the CCR “engine” and the rules behind it are not very helpful when you are trying to lodge the claim for under Cat 2H: it assumes once you have more than 6mths between the dates that you are claiming the full 5PDUs.

I see your point about keeping the documentation separate, in much the same fashion as the pre-PMP exam requirements do – that makes the most sense.

Derek Huether

Greg, I steered you wrong. I just got off the phone with PMI. When claiming PDUs for something like a roundtable discussion, the only proof you need is an agenda or something similar. For the Category 2H, it’s kind of a free for all. IF you are working with the title of Project Manager or in a PM capacity, for the duration of 6 months, you get 5 PDUs. You can claim the 2H PDUs up to 3 times during the cycle (3 years). That’s it! There is no audit for 2H PDUs. I have to admit, I don’t agree with this. I think I’m going to have to publicly apologize to you with a post. I’ve been keeping track of my projects since being audited back in 2006.

Chris

What proof do you need for Category C podcasts in the event you are audited. What documentation can you keep to prove you actually listened to the podcast.

Anonymous

Chris, I keep a digital library of my PDUs on Evernote. It does an excellent job and I’ve been using it for a few years. If I attend an event, I scan in the physical proof and within Evernote, I add comments like number of PDUs and details of the event. For podcasts, just do a screen grab, save it to Evernote, and add some details about date listened to, duration, and topic. You’ll be all set!