What is the PMP Certification? How to Get Certified?

To manage an organization on a day-to-day basis, it is essential to have the necessary skills, competence, and experience.

21:07 04 September 2020

Individual project management can be challenging on a different level altogether. Often, the different management style is required to oversee resources and employees and manage everything in strict constraints for achieving very specific goals. Such a management style needs the use of proven practices and has to be backed by solid experience.

 

Following a proven methodology offers several advantages, even though a self-taught manager wouldn’t agree with it. It helps the organization in saving time, money, and effort, which can easily be wasted due to indecision and vagueness. Having said that, the manager must also be capable of adapting these methods to suit the unique environment of each project and the unforeseen challenges it might bring.

 

What is PMP?

 

PMP (Project Management Professional) certification is a globally recognized professional qualification that a project manager can have. This certification is provided by the PMI (Project Management Institute). There is an exam based on the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) guide. An aspirant has to pass this exam to acquire the PMP certification. If you want to improve your career opportunities in the field of project management, this is the certification for you.

 

The PMP certification validates your expertise and skills in managing demanding projects that span cultures and geographies and are time and resource intensive. If you undergo a PMP course, you will learn skills that will develop you into an exemplary project manager. You will be more capable of completing projects within the required budget and promptly while meeting the requirements and keeping team members and customers happy. The course on PMP prepares you for the certification through intensive practical and theory sessions.

 

Before you undergo any training or course for the PMP certification exam, you should make sure you are eligible to sit for the exam. You need to fulfil certain prerequisites to be eligible for the PMP certification exam. These include:

 

• A four-year bachelor's degree or equivalent educational qualification along with at least 4500 hours of experience in project management.
  
  
• A secondary degree like an associate degree or high school diploma along with at least 7500 hours of experience in project management in the last 5 years.
  
  

Apart from these, you also need to have 35 hours of project management education from a REP (registered education provider). You can fulfil the requirement of contact hours by enrolling yourself for a PMP course.

 

PMP Examination Information

 

 

The exam structure for PMP certification is given below:

 

• The PMP examination comprise of multiple-choice questions which you need to answer to pass the exam
  
  
• You have 4 hours to answer 200 of these questions in total
  
  
• There are 13 different languages in which the exam is available globally
  
  

The PMP certification exam assesses your management knowledge in the following 5 major domains. Each domain has a different weightage of questions. The domains, along with question weightage are given below:

 

• Initiating the project – 13% of questions
  
  
• Planning the project – 24% of questions
  
  
• Executing the project – 30% of questions
  
  
• Monitoring and Controlling the project – 25% of questions
  
  
• Closing the project – 8% of questions
  
  

The exam covers the following ten major knowledge areas:

• Project Integration Management
  
  
• Project Time Management
  
  
• Project Scope Management
  
  
• Project Cost Management
  
  
• Project Communications Management
  
  
• Project Quality Management
  
  
• Project Risk Management
  
  
• Project Human Resource Management
  
  
• Project Stakeholder Management
  
  
• Project Procurement Management
  
  

A project manager with PMP qualifications will be comfortable in utilizing tools, processes, techniques, and inputs to ensure successful projects, regardless of the organization’s size, sector, industry, or location. A PMP qualification also demonstrates their experience in the domain of project management. It shows that they have both soft and hard project management skills.

PMP training can be utilized to augment what you already know to prepare for your examination. When even a highly experienced manager starts studying the PMBOK guide, he or she will get new insights from it.

Why should you use a good e-learning platform to gain PMP certification?

When you search for a PMP certification course, you might be tempted to look for options that are cheap and provide quick results as well. If you search online, you might even come across providers who claim that they can provide certification without you having to undergo the auditing process of PMI. However, that is never true. If you want to earn the PMP certification, you are required to meet all the eligibility requirements set by the PMI. This includes getting through a minimum of 35 contact hours of project management training. Through good e-learning platforms, you get access to fully accredited and top-tier project management courses. These courses meet the required standard to ensure the best quality of training you can get. Through a good PMP certification course, you will learn the following:

1. Concepts and terminologies: Learn about project management concepts and terminologies and how to apply them.
   
   
2. Best practices in project management: Apply globally recognized standards to real-world scenarios for successful results
   
   
3. Problem-solving skills: Provide faster solutions while ensuring compliance, reducing risk and saving costs and time.
   
   
4. Communication skills: Ensure open communication between team members and stakeholders
   
   
5. Maintaining budget and schedules: Make sure the project meets the cost requirements and timeframes
   
   
6. Becoming a good leader: Motivate and lead the team for better performance
   
   
7. Thorough preparation for the exam: Prepare in a way that you can pass the PMP certification exam in the first attempt
   
   
8. Master the PMBOK guide: Know everything about process groups and knowledge areas.
   
   

How to get certified?

• Meet the necessary education and experience requirements, including 35 contact hour requirements
  
  
• Apply for the PMP certification exam through PMI
  
  
• Pay the exam fees after receiving approval mail from PMI
  
  
• Schedule the exam
  
  
• Prepare well and take the exam
  
  
• You will gain certification if you pass the exam
  
  
• You need to gain 60 PDUs every three years for maintaining the certification.