My PMP Recertification Story (Warn Your PMs)

 

I recently re-certified for my PMP, and I learned some lessons for next time. Still, I’m glad I did it and learned a lot to become more skillful for the future.

Procrastination

There are just too many points needed to fill them in at the last minute, even in the last months. I was lucky in that I had a continuous way to make points over time, but the rationalization that comes from procrastination made me think that I had more PDUs than I thought. Look at the number of PDUs you need and plan to space them out over the three years. It’s just like an intermediate milestone in a project plan. Tracking your progress will let you know whether you are falling behind or not.

PDU Caps

What made procrastination worse was that the PDU category caps limited the number PDUs I could get from certain activities. I mismanaged this.

Granted, you can do all the PDU classes and local PMI continuing education you want to meet 100% of your goal and this is a good thing. You even get to meet great people.

But if you choose to get PDUs through other means, there are limits. That’s where I went wrong. I thought I could get more points in one category than was actually true. Don’t do as I do, do as I say.

• Don’t think Self-Directed Learning is the same as continuing education or other types of courses. You are limited to 30 self-directed learning PDUs per cycle, for example, if you are maintaining a PMP.
• The same goes for Creating New PM Knowledge. There is a 45 PDU cap there. And by the way, check the three categories of Creating New PM Knowledge to make sure what you think qualifies actually qualifies. Ditto this for Volunteer Service.
• Next, you might think that you can get a large number of PDUs from Work as a Practitioner. Here you are limited to 5 PDUs per year.

So clearly you need a decent plan where you think about how and when you will best obtain the most PDUs for the activities you will actually complete and enjoy. You like taking classes? Then take classes. You like a mix of classes, continuing education at PMI meetings, but you also enjoy create new knowledge? Plan to do all of those things and document it during the 3-year cycle on your PDU meter on the PMI site.

If you don’t have a plan, then you could be left scrambling in the final months, when work load happens to be at its peak and when employer-provided online courses are switching over to the new PMBOK versions and then you find that you have completed the wrong mix of PDUs in categories.

Believe me, it can happen. Don’t ask me how I know.

If you lead PMs who are also re-certifying, tell them the same thing.