PMP Archive

How to Claim PMP PDUs as a Non-PMI Member

– January 3, 2012Posted in: Agile, Project Management

How would I claim PDUs if I’m not a PMI member?

This question keeps coming up in conversation. I offer the hypothetical situation where someone sees value in the new PMI-ACP certification but is hesitant to become a member of PMI. I guess it would be complete fantasy if not for the fact there are about 100,000 more PMI credential holders than PMI members*. PMI reported as of November 2011, there were 370,744 PMI members and 469,051 PMPs. Add the CAPM, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP, and PgMP and I think we get to our 100,000.

100,000 people realized you don’t need to be a member of PMI to maintain a PMI credential, particularly the PMP. They save a $119 membership renewal fee in exchange for being charged more for PMI events and products or not having access to the Communities of Practices. Granted, if they aren’t really engaged in the Project Management or Agile community, maybe it’s worth saving the $10. For the record, I think being a member of the PMI Agile Community of Practice is worth the cost of membership. Seriously, it’s only $10 a month! But I digress.

The focus of this post is for those 100,000. The key to claiming PDUs is having a PMI.org account. Yes, the glue that holds this all together is a free account, not a paid membership. Your potential membership and credentials will be linked to this account.

If you’re applying “project management” educational credit toward exam eligibility, there is a different way to claim those hours. For example, if you take my PMI-ACP class, you can apply 21 PDUs toward any of the current PMI credentials and also apply 21 contact hours toward ACP eligibility.

But you still don’t need to have a paid membership.

*Source: December 2011 issue of PMI Today

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Tags: PDU, PgMP, PMI, PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP, PMIAgile, PMP

The Future of Agile & PMI

Derek Huether

– November 12, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

During my session at the AgileDC conference, I talked about the past, present, and future of Agile. I drew a parallel between the adoption curve of Agile and Geoffrey Moore’s adoption curve of technology. Even before the Agile Manifesto was penned, there were Innovators introducing agile practices and mindsets. In the last ten years, the early adopters and visionaries have taken Agile to the next step of market acceptance. I’ll admit, I only started using agile practices about 6 years ago. During that time, as acceptance of Agile has grown, the Agile “mantra” has been relatively consistant. I like to use the word mantra because Agile really does create a transformation. If the values and principles of the Manifest resonate with you, you become an adopter, a proponent, and a member of a community.

The Agile community is a self-organized group of like-minded people and market adoption has been very organic. So, back to my session at AgileDC. I wanted to make a point of saying that Agilists do what they do because something resonates within them. What we are doing, as Agilists, feels like it aligns with why we do it. We want to deliver more value. We want more interactions and collaborations. We respond to change.

Now, let’s look at the Project Management community, specifically that group related to the Project Management Institute. The primary difference between the PMI community and the Agile community is Project Managers don’t appear to be joined by a common cause. Rather, they are joined by a common certification. PMI’s goal is

“Serve practitioners and organizations with standards that describe good practices, globally recognized credentials that certify project management expertise, and resources for professional development, networking and community.“

While I was doing research for my AgileDC session, I came across an interesting fact. What Project Managers (associated with PMI) are doing does not align with why they are doing it. Scan the blogoshere and you’ll find less content about how to become a better project manager and more about how to pass the Project Management Professional (PMP®) exam. Though the graph above about Agile Adoption is subjective, the graph below is not.

Something happened in February 2008. It was the last time there were more members of PMI than there were PMPs. (260,458 vs. 259,694) Since then, the gap has widened to 366,854 PMI members and over 466,163 PMPs. Project managers, associated with PMI, find more value in a certification than they do being a member of a community. But can you blame them? Job listings require certifications or accreditations. Hiring managers search for acronyms and not people. The simple truth is some are pursuing the mastery of performance-based objectives versus learning-based objectives (ie. getting a passing score on an exam versus getting better at a craft). Since credential holders don’t have to be a member of the community to maintain their PMP status, they dropped their memberships. If not for the fact that I could not be a member of the PMI Agile Community of Practice without being a member of PMI, I would probably have ended my membership as well. But, that alone is enough for me to stay.

The Agile Community of Practice (CoP) and it’s leadership are self-organized. I get a different vibe from them than I do others associated with PMI. It’s less about how do I maintain my certification and more about how can we help others. It is my hope that as the Agile CoP grows, its servant leadership and passion will spread to other areas of PMI.

With the PMI-ACP certification, I’m very curious how this will impact the Agile community and the PMI community. When I did my last PMI-ACP prep class, 66% of my learners were PMPs and 33% of the class was not associated with PMI at all. Will the PMI-ACP just be another group of letters to appear in a hiring manager’s keyword search or will it become more than that? I truly hope it is the latter.

If you are a member of PMI, I strongly recommend that you join the Agile Community of Practice (it’s free for PMI members). The writing is on the wall, people. It’s a sign of things to come. What if you are a PMP but not a member of PMI? I think joining the Agile CoP is worth the price of the membership. Regardless of what happens at PMI, Agile will continue to be an ever-evolving self-organized force.

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Agile, PMI, PMI CoP, PMI-ACP, PMP

My PMI-ACP Exam Experience

Derek Huether

– November 8, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

Because I wanted to ensure people taking my class were learning things that are actually on the PMI-ACP exam, I thought it necessary to actually take the test. Sure, I was an independent reviewer of the PMI-ACP content but I was not part of the team who wrote the exam. Let me just say, I think those who wrote the exam did us all proud. I know it sounds sick but I really enjoyed taking this exam. It wasn’t too hard or easy. For a v1.0 exam, it’s pretty darn good. If you’ve been leveraging Agile for several years, I think you could pass it (in its current form). Let me caveat that by saying you’d have to be properly leveraging Lean, XP, and Scrum for several years. In all seriousness, there are people who still think cowboy coding or having no formal process or documentation makes them “agile”. This exam pays its respects to the values and principles of agile practices and to those who wrote the Agile Manifesto just 10 years ago.

Now, considering every exam will be different, you can’t take my testing experience as gospel to prepare. But, you can focus your attention in certain areas. I’m pretty certain I won’t upset anyone with this blog post. I’m not exposing any super-secret strategy to game the exam. I remember taking the PMP and getting frustrated because I felt like the goal was to trick me, not test me. Thankfully, the PMI-ACP is not crafted like the PMP. It’s written in a tone an everyday Agilist will understand.

Here is my bullet list for public consumption. The rest I will reserve for my PMI-ACP classes. (shameless plug)

Know the Agile Manifesto Values and Principles. Understand them. Don’t just memorize them.

Have an end-to-end understanding of Scrum.
Know and understand the key roles of Scrum.
Know and understand the artifacts of Scrum.
Understand what are and why we use big visible charts or information radiators.
Be able to read a burndown chart and offer a few scenarios that would explain its appearance.
Understand all of the Scrum meetings. Who is there? Why? What happens and when?
Understand Scrum from a ScrumMaster perspective.
Understand Scrum from a Product Owner perspective.
Understand Scrum from an empowered Team perspective.
Know and understand the XP (eXtreme Programming) roles and who does what.
Understand Test Driven Development. Know how it works and why it’s valuable.
Understand Continuous Integration. Know how it works and why it’s valuable.
Understand the Lean Software Development Principles
Know what Lean Portfolio Management is and how your organization could benefit from it.
Understand what Value Stream Mapping is and how to do it
Understand the basics of Kanban
Understand what WIP is and why it works.
Know what Osmotic Communications is.
Understand what makes a Servant Leader and what they do.
Understand Velocity and it’s usefulness.
Understand Risk Burn Down Charts
Know about Risk Audit Meetings
Know Agile Estimation techniques
Understand the Definition of “Done”
Know how to write and identify good User Stories.
Know what Personas are and how to use them.
Understand why and when you would use AgileEVM (don’t worry about how!)

Remember, you have 3 hours to answer 120 questions.

Good luck!

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Tags: Exam, PMI, PMI-ACP, PMP

When PMI Introduced the Elephant – Part 2

Derek Huether

– October 15, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

In just a few weeks, I will be speaking at an upcoming (sold out) Agile conference here in Washington D.C. It’s unfortunate that I had to decide between going to the PMI North American Congress and speaking at the AgileDC event. The events are happening the same week. I had to decide if I wanted to speak or if I wanted to just attend.

The title of my talk at AgileDC is “When PMI introduced the elephant in the room”. Let’s define that. We’re talking about an important and obvious topic, which everyone present is aware of, but which isn’t discussed, as such discussion is considered to be uncomfortable. That elephant, of course, is the mainstream adoption of Agile. Many of us saw the momentum of agile practices growing. And I think just as many out there have tried to ignore it, misrepresent it, or dismiss it. Though it took 10 years, I see PMI’s move to formally embrace Agile, with its own Agile certification, as a sign we’re about to cross the chasm. The PMI wouldn’t do this if they didn’t see market trends supporting it. With the PMI endorsement, Agile will be more widely used, more openly adopted…and yes, abused.

But I’m not here to rain on PMI’s parade. I take my hat off to the PMI leadership, the PMI Agile Community of Practice leadership, and the informal Agile luminaries we all know in the industry. I know there are people who are not very happy with the idea of PMI being the organization to release a comprehensive Agile exam. Like it not, someone has to do it! Agile needs something that will motivate people to accept it as a legitimate alternative (or primary choice) and leverage it. Though not every project environment appears to be conducive to what the Agile Alliance or the Scrum Alliance offer, they seem to be more receptive when the PMI offers it. In the U.S. market, the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification has reached a point in the adoption curve whereby if you are a Project Manager and don’t have it, you are at a disadvantage. It has reached such a fever pitch that even people who are not Project Managers (by trade) are finding ways to get the certification. People are believing certifications will make them more marketable and better managers or leaders. PMI is merely capitalizing on that belief, with the introduction of the Agile Certified Practitioner certification. A certification that is not easy to get, immediately has a perception of value.

When you think of PMI, what do you think of?

Processes and tools?
Comprehensive documentation?
Contract negotiation?
Following a plan?

PMI is the world’s largest project management member association, representing more than half a million practitioners in more than 185 countries. As a global thought leader and knowledge resource, PMI advances the profession through its global standards and credentials, collaborative chapters and virtual communities and academic research.

When you think of Agile, what do you think of?

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

The authors of the Agile Manifesto wrote “We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.”

So, is this a contradiction?

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Tags: Agile Manifesto, PMI, PMI-ACP, PMIAgile, PMP

Big Jump in PMPs

Derek Huether

– September 1, 2011Posted in: Project Management

It’s been a few months since I reported on PMI numbers. But, when I got my copy of PMI Today, I couldn’t help but post about it. Though PMI only added 5,956 new members in the month of July, it added 13,869 PMP to the ranks. I’ve seen the credential outpace actual membership before but not by such a wide margin.