I have been an application developer, project lead, project manager for over 25 years. Most recently I've been working on small projects wear I might wear all three hats. Typically, my projects have me working with the customers to develop the specs, create a project plan, execute the plan (often by myself), implement the product, obtain sign off, close the project and review with manager.
I reviewed the PMP Credential Handbook and I'm a bit confused. What portion of my hours can count towards my 4500 hours of PM experience? Also, one company I worked for is no longer in existence and I've lost touch with my former manager. Do I just put down his last known contact information and cross my fingers I don't get audited?
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Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
I wouldn't get too hung up on the "hours" measure and think in terms of weeks. Whenever your primary title was a project lead or project manager and your time was spent working on project deliverables, I think it is fair to call that a week/40 hours of experience. During project execution, if you were a project lead, but doing a lot of development work, you may only want to target 20 hours per week. I would include all time that you think can be fairly allocated to meeting the experience hours. Let PMI decide how to deal with lost contacts if they decide to audit; though if you have some contacts at previous companies to fill the void, certainly be ready to call on them. Be accurate and fair, but don't cheat yourself because of audit requirements. With today's job market, I'm sure there are a lont of people who can't find contacts at jobs 2, 3, 4 years back. Saving Changes...
Thanks for your opinion. By the way, nice name! Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Brian, the key word used by PMI is ‘project management activities’, so the position title does not have to be Project Manager to count as experience toward PMP eligibility requirements. When I did mine I estimated the percentage of work that could be catalogued as project management from the total worked. For example, for couple of months I had a “day” job and a part-time project, so it came out to 45-50 hours weekly during that time frame.
Regarding the contacts, I listed the managers I reported to and their position and contact at the company while I was there. Some moved up, some moved out – it’s almost impossible to keep track of all people you ever worked with. My perspective was that if I get audited I’ll track them down, but why spend all that time now when it may not be needed.
Hope this helps, and good luck with your exam!
George Jucan
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Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
I pretty much agree with what's already been said, although the definition has changed slightly for the latest iteration of the exam - they are now looking for evidence of leading project tasks, but to George's point, that isn't necessarily being a PM. The underlying driver is to have candidates demonstrate that project related activities are the bulk of their role - the 1,500 hours a year is roughly equal to 75% of working time and you can allocate that across all of the different areas.
In terms of the contact names, I don't know anyojne who was audited, but to echo other points I wouldn't worry too much about having an accurate contact for everyone, as long as the PMI can find someone to back up some of your claims you should be alright.
Andy Jordan, President, Roffensian Consulting Inc., www.roffensian.com Saving Changes...
