Daniel LuderManager| Industrial Project ManagementPerth Western Australia, Wa, Australia
The balance of practice and certification needs to be looked at, on a regular basis and perhaps measured, in volume per location. I have noticed on a different 'certification scheme' not related to this, that thousands got their certification without experience or too early, resulting in nothing but an annual fee collector and a flood of certified individuals spread over the globe!!!.
The way this system at hand here is, I have more confidence that this will not happen to easily. But there is a risk on over qualification and over certification. A fast and virtual learner is always likely to steer towards certification opposed to real-world practice. This can not only turn into individuals weakness, but rather spread across boarders with a devaluation of those who have real-life experience.
Personnel not quite qualified seem to be often stronger candidates because they are eager to accomplish the actual work. These individuals have greater potential to be real. With agencies or HR not having much of an idea, they tend to ask for more qualifications to compensate for what they don't know, and this is the start of all evil in my opinion. As soon as the job market openly advertises specific certifications it created a pull situation for qualification over practice.... Saving Changes...
Aejaz ShaikhPM I| Alyx Technologies India Pvt LtdPune, Maharshatra, India
Experience is a good teacher...but certification often teaches you what is the best for you to do in a particular situation. Saving Changes...
One thing to keep in mind is there are two words that are similar, but mean two different things; Certificate and Certification.
A certificate, certifies that on a particular date the person who took and passed the test was competent or there was only the requirement of a set of classes with no test. There are no guarantees of future performance. There are usually no requirement for keeping the certificate up, with the possibility of an annual membership fee. It is up to the person to seek further education. So gaining a certificate is open to a wider audience.
A Certification; generally requires more education and/or experience to qualify to take and exam, some are the equivalent of college degrees. The exams are generally more vigorous and take more knowledge to pass. In most all instances there are requirements for maintaining the certification and an expectation of future performance.
In making the choice to hire a PM there should be an understanding of whether the person has a certificate of completion or a certification.
...
1 reply by John Tieso
May 17, 2017 1:06 PM
John Tieso
...
You make a good point here, Susan. Many years ago (too many, I'm afraid), I was a proctor for the AICPA Exams which certify public accountants. In those days, at least, you had to be employed by a CPA-recognized firms, have five years experience, and pass the exam. Once employed, you could take the test anytime, but without the five years, and a recommendation from the firm, you could not add 'CPA' to your business card. Certificate versus certification is what employers should understand well when they demand PMP's for their project staff.
Saving Changes...
Andre CassuleFEED and Detailed Engineering, Project management| DEALLuanda, Luanda, Angola
I think it depends on the type of certificationn to certification for example for CAPM certification you don't need any experience in case of certification PMP you need to have experience and solid understanding of the concepts and this understanding (knowledge) is acquired with experience. Saving Changes...
Godfred SabbihSenior Software Engineer| Walmart Global TechAccra, Outside Australia, Ghana
I think with experience you do not need to have many years of it before you certify. While having the experience you can go ahead and certify. I am two years in PM and working towards certification. I believe certification also shows dedication to the field and the willingness to advance my career Saving Changes...
John TiesoAuthor, Lecturer in Business Management| The Catholic University of America, Busch School of Business & EconomicsArlington, Va, United States
May 16, 2017 8:33 AM
Replying to Susan Reilly
...
One thing to keep in mind is there are two words that are similar, but mean two different things; Certificate and Certification.
A certificate, certifies that on a particular date the person who took and passed the test was competent or there was only the requirement of a set of classes with no test. There are no guarantees of future performance. There are usually no requirement for keeping the certificate up, with the possibility of an annual membership fee. It is up to the person to seek further education. So gaining a certificate is open to a wider audience.
A Certification; generally requires more education and/or experience to qualify to take and exam, some are the equivalent of college degrees. The exams are generally more vigorous and take more knowledge to pass. In most all instances there are requirements for maintaining the certification and an expectation of future performance.
In making the choice to hire a PM there should be an understanding of whether the person has a certificate of completion or a certification.
You make a good point here, Susan. Many years ago (too many, I'm afraid), I was a proctor for the AICPA Exams which certify public accountants. In those days, at least, you had to be employed by a CPA-recognized firms, have five years experience, and pass the exam. Once employed, you could take the test anytime, but without the five years, and a recommendation from the firm, you could not add 'CPA' to your business card. Certificate versus certification is what employers should understand well when they demand PMP's for their project staff.
...
1 reply by Susan Reilly
May 18, 2017 9:11 AM
Susan Reilly
...
Thanks John,
I keep reading these posts and thinking how are these people getting certified out of college? Technically to be accepted to sit for the PMP you are supposed to demonstrate 3500 hours of experience. How do they have this amount of experience out of college unless we are talking and advance degree or a non-traditional student?
When I was applying for the exam I had to look over five years of work to meet the experience requirements.
Now I am starting to question what PMI is accepting as experience, tongue in cheek comment.
You make a good point here, Susan. Many years ago (too many, I'm afraid), I was a proctor for the AICPA Exams which certify public accountants. In those days, at least, you had to be employed by a CPA-recognized firms, have five years experience, and pass the exam. Once employed, you could take the test anytime, but without the five years, and a recommendation from the firm, you could not add 'CPA' to your business card. Certificate versus certification is what employers should understand well when they demand PMP's for their project staff.
Thanks John,
I keep reading these posts and thinking how are these people getting certified out of college? Technically to be accepted to sit for the PMP you are supposed to demonstrate 3500 hours of experience. How do they have this amount of experience out of college unless we are talking and advance degree or a non-traditional student?
When I was applying for the exam I had to look over five years of work to meet the experience requirements.
Now I am starting to question what PMI is accepting as experience, tongue in cheek comment. Saving Changes...
George LewisProgram/Project Manager| DXC Technology CompanyHeredia, Costa Rica
This post gets better and interesting each day I check....
I wish managers and contractors would read all these comments... Saving Changes...
Tim PodestaDirector of PM/PMO| Former BP- now IndependentPenn, Bucks, United Kingdom
A great debate. Clearly both experience and accreditation are important
For me experience along with achievement is key - the best CV's have this.
Accreditation can support experience by demonstrating a transferrable competence and a knowledge of best practice and the language and tools of project management.
Accreditation can also be part of demonstrating achievement that is recognised by others against an industry standard. Saving Changes...
Fernando RoqueMr.| Quantic Statistics(www.metricst.info)Guatemala
Hi:
I have read your interesting answers and would like to share my knowledge in certification and experience. For me, as engineer, and Earned Value Professional, 90% of the success of process improvement is statistics and metrics of the project. Costs and Advance.
I wrote a course and filmed on videos about "E-Learning: "Budgets-Costs-Advances of Projects with Microsoft Excel". The INDEX is below. As part of my contribution to the community I can give you a free coupon of the course hosted in UDEMY.
The project control has three indicators:
a) Budget
b) Expenses
c) Advance
Measure of a graphic that shows the expenses under budget and
the advance justifies the money invested and warranties the
project sucess.
Index:
a) Project SCOPE and Work Breakdown Structure
b) Gantt Chart to see Activities Time, Duration
and Dates, Dependency and Critical Path.
b.1) What activities can be executed at the same time.
b.2) What delays affect all the project delivery date.
c) Resources and Costs for every Activity to have a budget
for each one and total amount for the project.
c.1) Cash Flow needs for every phase.
d) Human Resources Communication to show every person
how many hours and when he/she will work.
e) Escenarios of cost change for resources.
f) Risk Analysis of Activities to get the cost of RISK.
g) Execution and Change Control to see if the project is
under the planned budget and will represent a
revenue for the company.
h) Procurement to identify the best providers.
i) Lesson learned for continuous improvement of business
proposals of projects to increase revenue.
Includes:
-PDF presentation
-Excel Worksheet with data to do practical exercises
explained on the video course.
"This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy."
