Though some
project manager’s dispute the certification’s worth, it does seem to help
project managers land project management jobs or at least get their feet
through the door. In general, we feel
that if you’re a project manager, and you’re interested in continuing your
career in project management, it is worth the go ahead. Finish your PMP prep
course, apply, take the PMP examination and pass to become a certified Project
Management Professional.
One of the
most frequent (if not the most frequent) questions I am asked by
potential PMP hopefuls is about the PMP examination application process. In
particular, project managers would like to know how they should go about filing
their work experience: how to document their hours of project
management experience, how to report it to PMI, and how to prepare for the
dreaded PMI
audit, should it occur.
As
suggested by one of our senior instructors…
I followed a
process of my own devising to file my own project management work experience in
preparation for my application to take the PMP exam that seemed to work pretty
well. I’ll share it here in case you would like to try it during your own
application process.
Recording
your PM work experience
In order to
apply for the PMP examination, you need to have amassed 4,500 hours
of project management work experience. If you do not have a bachelor’s degree,
the work experience requirement is greater at 7,500 hours of
experience. You need to have completed 36 months (three years) of unique,
non-overlapping project management experience, that is to say
that if you’ve completed all of your 4,500 hours of project management
experience within a 12 month window, that is not sufficient to apply to take
the PMP examination.
For each
project that you have worked on during your career, you need to document the
hours you have spent in each of the five PMI Process Groups listed below:
·
Initiating
the Project
·
Planning the
Project
·
Executing the
Project
·
Monitoring
and Controlling the Project
·
Closing the
Project
After
calculating the hours per Process Group for each project, you will arrive at a
total number of project hours for that individual project. Once you have
completed tallying your work experience for all of the projects you have worked
on, you can then figure out the total hours that you have worked for all of the
projects in your career. At this point, if you don’t already know, you will be
able to figure out whether or not you have the requirements to apply to take
the PMP examination.
To
figure this total out, please use an Excel spreadsheet that tally’s up all of your
work experience hours per Process Group, per project, that you had worked on in
my previous roles. Then use built-in Excel functions to figure out how many
hours total that equalled to tally your own project management work experience.
You
can download the template here.
Preparation
for a possible PMI audit
The next and
perhaps most important step you need to take before you submit your PMP
application is to prepare yourself in case your application should get audited
by the Project Management Institute (PMI). In order to do this, you will want
to contact those managers who you have worked for in the past and send them the
hours that you have indicated that you worked on projects while under their
management in your Excel spreadsheet. You will then ask these managers: Should my
application happen to get audited by PMI, would you attest that I worked the
hours as indicated on this spreadsheet?
If your
managers agree to vouch for the hours you have indicated, then you’re in good
shape! Should PMI decide to audit your application, you can simply have your
former managers sign off on the hours that you have already passed by them. Any
conflicts or disagreements about the hours you have worked while in their
employment should have been resolved before you submitted your PMP application.
Some
special audit scenarios
There are a
few difficult scenarios that you may encounter when preparing for a possible
PMI audit. These may include the below:
· What if your manager no longer works for the company
you’ve filed hours for, and nobody at the company can vouch for your hours?
· What if you worked for your own company and did not
report to anyone?
· What if the projects you worked on were top secret,
government or military contracts for which you cannot disclose any information?
In these
cases I recommend collecting as much collateral as you can about the projects
you’ve worked for in the past – project charters, work breakdown structures,
project schedules and the like – to demonstrate to PMI should they ask for it;
unless, of course, this information is classified by the companies you’ve
worked for. In that case, I should go in armed with the truth – that these
hours that you have indicated, you have worked but cannot vouch for, and the
reasons that you cannot vouch for them. I am sure that PMI has received many
applications from project managers working in military or top-secret
organizations who cannot disclose information about the various projects that
they have worked on. In that case, I imagine that you can work with PMI to find
a way to approve your application without your having to deliver any separate artefacts
to prove your experience.
We hope that
this article and accompanying spreadsheet will come in handy when it comes time
for you or someone you know to file your project management work experience for
the PMP application. Good luck with your application, PMP exam preparation, and
the exam!
For more info/guidance. Please contact us
Website: www.global-teq.com
Email: info@global-teq.com
Phone: +1-214-227-6396
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