Today we’ll discuss the recent PMP rule change
and the differences between PMP, PMI and PDU.
[Intro Video]
Hi this is Mike Negami, Lean Sigma Black Belt.
I’ll talk about PMP today.
Soon, it’ll have been 3 years since I got my PMP certificate, and I need to renew it.
I also want to share what I found out recently about renewal requirement.
First, here’s a brief explanation of PMP: PMP stands for Project Management Professional
and is a certificate from PMI, the Project Management Institute that manages examinations
and issues the certificates.
Since PMI has been researching and providing us with state-of-the-art PM knowledge, they
are the global standard of Project Management.
In addition, a PMP’s renewal requires more than just paying a renewal fee.
You have to study and have 60 hours of activities related project management, and report them
to PMI during the 3 years.
We call those activity and study hours PDU, Professional Development Unit.
Therefore, PMP holders have to continuously brush up on their skills.
Because of this situation, PMP’s reputation is very high with companies globally.
In the US’s case, Lean Sigma certificates are more specialized, but many organizations
issue Lean Sigma certificates and their certifying standards greatly vary.
There is a joke: “We are supposed to be organizational experts, but our certificate
system is most disorganized”.
Regarding certification, PMP is more reliable.
In fact, during my job hunting, I got my Lean Sigma certificates first, then I got a PMP.
I think the PMP opened up more opportunities.
Now, I’ll talk about the topic of PDU’s in detail.
You may think that 60 hours of activities spread among 3 years is not a big deal, but
people have a tendency to put things off until just before due dates.
The problem is that the rules for PDU’s have changed recently.
Before the change, we could obtain 15 hours of PDU’s if your job is project management
and 30 hours of PDU’s from self-learning such as reading books or listening to podcasts.
I use PMPodcast.
It’s free and they gave me great customer service regarding my renewal issue.
I highly recommend it.
I intended to get the rest of my 15 hours from my YouTube activity and attending local
chapter meetings.
However, because of the rule change, I can only get 8 hours from my work.
I can get 60 hours from self-learning, but we have to classify what we learned.
I’ve already gained 30 hours for self-learning, but there was no need for classification at
that time.
I have no way to change the report.
The information available at that time was unclear and confusing, and I didn’t have
much time left, so I was very anxious.
Here is what I found in the end: For people whose renewal date is earlier than December
1st 2017, the old rules apply to them.
Since that’s my case, I was able to go on as originally planned.
There might be different circumstances depending on your country and individual situation,
so you should contact PMI directly if you have concerns.
I contacted this e-mail address.
It took 3 to 4 days to get a response, but they are helpful.
I hope this video is useful to people who have the same situation.
Some other FYI: if you have a PMI membership, their website, ProjectManagement.com is very
useful.
You can learn and gain PDU’s from that website with auto PDU reporting to PMI.
I put the all links that I introduced today in the video description.
Thank you very much for viewing.
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Thanks.