The title says it all. I worked as a Regional Fraud Investigator for 4 years before my current role and I was wondering if I could use those investigations as project time towards the PMP? I lead up each investigation which lasted about a month and involved multiple people. They were project-like in nature and my former employer is willing to vouch for me. If they do then I can skip over the CAPM and go straight for the PMP. Any advice would help. Saving Changes...
Any advice would help. PM's are hard to come by around where I reside. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I'm not a PMP, so my advice might not be worth much. If you are a PMI member you can join the Virtual Communities. These are online forums, so you could maybe ask someone there. This could be an option if you can't get to PMI Chapter meetings. Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
If you developed schedules and budgets for the investigations, then I would say that would be project experience sufficient to qualify for PMP. If you can't meet the experience criteria, I would not go the CAPM route, it is too expensive and time consuming with little recognition by hiring managers.
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It is not whether they are "project like" but whether you ran them as projects or not. If you did run them as projects, preferably using some project management framework or methodology, then you were doing project management and so they should count towards your PMP.
If you were just following an investigation process of life cycle and not doing the project management, such as risk management, planning, scheduling, issues management, budget management, etc etc then no they should not count towards your PMP.
Have a look at the documents and artifacts you produced do any of them match up to what PMBoK says should have been produced?
If not then start from now on running your investigations as projects and build up your PM skills. Unfortunately there are no short cuts. Project Management is like riding a bike, you can read all about it, but reading about it will not give you the skills to actually do it, only practicing it will!
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Taralyn Frasqueri-MolinaSenior Project Manager| Independent ContractorPasadena, Ca, United States
I always like reading the answers to these questions. Some people are very serious about their PM experience :)
However, this isn't about how any one individual defines their PM experience, it is about how PMI defines PM experience.
Experience Verification Section II asks you to fill out your cumulative hours in each of 5 Process Group for every project you worked on (or at least the projects you want to claim). You may not have called them projects, but if you can fit the work you did into any (and preferably all) of the 5 Process Groups listed on the application, then you're on your way.
Next, Experience Verification Section III, comes into play. This is where PMI wants you to list the deliverables you produced in each (and preferably all) of the 5 Process Groups for each project you are claiming. Did you create schedules, budgets? Did you monitor for risk? Did you track changes to the plan? Stuff like that.
I think where you might find difficulty isn't in filling out the application or making the work you did fit PMI's definitions, but will be in taking the PMP exam. Investigations aren't traditional types of projects, and PMI's exam is filled terminology and formulas you probably do not use regularly. I imagine you have the foundational elements in place - kicking off an investigation, planning it, executing it, monitoring to make sure things go well, the closing it out and reporting. The next step is to get PMI's expectations down.
