PDU Category Structures: Existing and New

Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.

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You may have heard that the PDU Category Structure is changing in December, but are you clear on what it changes from and to? This article illustrates those changes, contrasting the current structure to the new structure and discussing some of the implications.

Effective December 1, 2015, the allocation of PDUs that can be claimed in the categories of Education and Giving Back are changing. Previously, for people requiring 60 PDUs per renewal cycle, 45 could be from the Giving Back category that included things like volunteering at local PMI chapters, writing articles and working as a professional in project management. This limit is being cut from 45 to 25.

Clearly this is a big reduction in the number of PDUs available for Giving Back to the Profession. At a recent PMI Leadership event, I heard it summarised as: “In the most extreme case, people could be getting a lot of their PDUs from stacking chairs at local PMI events, which is in nobody’s best interest. The changes help ensure a better balance of education and giving back.” True enough, many people get the majority of their PDUs per cycle from the Giving Back category. I do not know any chair stackers, but there did seem to be some “soft” or easy PDU opportunities there.

Continuing with the Giving Back category, limits are being (re)introduced. In the future, only eight (…

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