Project Management Professional (PMP) in a nutshell

What is PMP?

Project Management Professional (PMP) is an internationally recognized professional certification offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI), a non-profit organization based out of the United States. PMP certification shows the experience, skills, and capabilities to lead and direct projects.

Why should I take the PMP exam?

Here is a list of some of the benefits of PMP certification:

1. Job opportunities: First and foremost, with a PMP certification, your chances of getting hired is higher. When there are two candidates with similar experience and qualifications, but one of them has a PMP certificate, and the other doesn't, obviously, the one with a certificate will be hired!

2. Higher Income: In general, people with a PMP certificate earn anywhere around 10%-20% more than those without a PMP certificate.

3. Credibility: Apart from being a globally recognized certificate, PMI is ISO / IEC 17024 accredited for the PMP certification. Hence, holding a PMP certificate has credibility in over 85 countries that have adopted the ISO standards.

4. Improves Risk Management Skills: Yes, projects come with uncertainties and risks. There's a high probability that such uncertainties leave negative impact on the Project Manager. PMP certified Project Managers are equipped with advanced risk management skills that helps in identifying and assessing potential risks, mitigating threats, and making the best of the opportunities.

5. Improves overall job performance: With better risk management skills, problem solving skills, improved team management skills, PMP certification helps professionals improve their overall job performance.

Am I eligible to take the PMP exam?

To be able to take up the PMP exam, you need not necessarily be a "Project Manager", you need not be have a software or IT background.

To be eligible to write the PMP exam, you must meet either of the following conditions:

1. A secondary degree with a minimum of 5 years (60 months) of professional Project Management experience, 7500 hours leading and directing projects, and 35 hours of Project Management Training.

or

2. A four year degree with a minimum of 3 years (36 months) of professional Project Management experience, 4500 hours leading and directing projects, and 35 hours of Project Management Training.

Structure of the PMP exam:

PMP is a closed book exam, and the duration of the exam is 4 hours. There are no scheduled breaks, and if any breaks are taken, the clock still keeps ticking.

PMP exam can be paper based, or computer based. However, Paper Based Test (PBT) is available only for those who live at 300 km away from a Computer Based Test (CBT) center.

Before the exam begins, there is a 15 minute awareness session, where candidates are shown how to navigate through the exam, how to mark answers for later review, and how to select an answer. The exam consists of 200 multiple choice questions, out of which 25 questions are pretest questions. There is no negative marking for wrong answers, hence, it is recommended to attempt all questions.

There is no set passing score, and the score depends on the difficulty of the questions with tougher questions having a higher weightage.

For CBT, exams results are shown immediately on completion of exam, and for PBT, the results can be expected 6-8 weeks after the exam.

2020 PMP Exam Changes

With a change in the job roles and responsibilities of a Project Manager over the last couple of years, PMI has redefined the PMP examination outline, and thus, starting 1st July 2020, there will be a change in the PMP exam. The previous change was made in the year 2015.

The current exam focuses on 5 domains: Initiating (13%), Planning (24%), Executing (31%), Monitoring and Controlling (25%), and Closing (7%).

However, The updated exam requires people to have experience, and answer questions on three domains: People (42%), Process (50%), and Business Environment (8%).

It is clearly evident that the new exam is drastically different from its previous version, but it is at the same time, equally valuable.

How to become a PMP certified professional?

If you hold the experience and required education to qualify for the PMP exam, we at Infimind Institute provide the mandatory 35 hours (over a period of two weekends) of Project Management training. On successful completion of the course, we provide the 35 Hrs. Contact Hours PMI - Registered Educational Provider (REP) Certificate.

At Infimind Institute, we provide an eBook "Road to project - success" worth Rs. 1,250 free of cost for PMP preparations. We also provide 90 days access PMP Questions Bank with around 1300 cases (worth Rs. 2,500), access to an online game for learning (worth Rs. 500) tips and tricks to clear exam in first attempt in 8-12 weeks, WhatsApp exam hints (Daily flash card, Q and A Card, Videos / Games), as well as post training coaching for examination.