Project Management Certification Exams
Below are the list of certifications available in Project Management Domain
- Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® Certification – This is the basic level certification in the project management domain. Only thing you need is a a secondary diploma (high school diploma), or any global equivalent credential to appear in this certification exam
- Project Management Professional (PMP)® Certification – Any candidate who is working as team leader or a project manager and looking for a long career in project management can apply for PMP.
- PMI® Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Certification – Any project manager working on agile technologies can go for this certification. It requires a combination of agile training, working experience on agile projects and examination on agile practices and methods. Agile strategic management recognizes that you need to build learning and a degree of flexibility into the decision making process. This can be achieved by the PMI® ACP Training.
- Program Management Professional (PgMP)® – Program management is the act of creating and managing multiple projects, most of the projects are usually related to one another. This certification is for senior project managers
- Certified Information Systems Security Professionals (CISSP)® Certification – CISSP® is a vendor neutral security certification. People who hold this certification have the skills and knowledge to complete high-level activities involving architecture, design and management.
- Prince 2® (Projects in Controlled Environments, version 2) – PRINCE2® is a project management methodology developed by the UK government agency – Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and is used extensively within the UK government as the project management standard for its public projects.
- Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)®– For candidates who are working in support and maintenance tasks and want to enhance their career as incident, problem or change manager.
- Certified Scrum Master– Those who are working as Scrum master in agile technologies, this certification will be a great option for you.
How to prepare for Project Management Certifications?
Which Certification is most appropriate for your requirements?
Basis his current profile and experience, an individual can decided how to proceed to enhance his career and growth. For people who are team leaders and want to be promoted as managers can go for CAPM®. For project manager with less than 5 years of project management experience should look for certifications like Prince2 or PMP®. Both PRINCE2 and PMP® are accepted globally, but Prince 2 is used extensively within the UK government as the project management standard for its public projects. Whereas Prince2 defines the roles of everyone involved in a project, PMP® focuses only on the project manager’s role.
People in senior management should go for PgMP (Program Management) or PMI-RMP (Risk Management Professional). Those who have the understanding of agile methodology/concepts and are working with project teams that are specifically devised for agile practices should go for PMI-ACP®.
The Scrum Master help the team in its use of Scrum. He is like a trainer, who will provide motivation while at the same time making sure you are honest with your work. The trainer’s authority, however, is limited. He cannot make you do your work, he can only guide you.
Depending on your qualification, experience and interest you can opt any certification.
Why to appear in Project Management certifications?
In the current economy, certifications are an increasingly important tool for building skill levels, improved marketability and career opportunities.
Some believe certifications prove that the candidate is knowledgeable but do not guarantee about his/her performance at work. Certifications helps you to handle any situation at work place in well planned and professional way. Those who are working as Scrum master in agile technologies can go for certified Scrum master certificate.
To be a successful project manager it is important for a project manager to do the planning part most efficiently. Top 5 reasons of a project failure are
- Incomplete or incorrect scope
- No visibility of resource workload
- Absence of strong change management control board (CCB)
- Failure to establish effective communications between internal and external stakeholders.
- Lack of clear roles and responsibilities of team members.
The solution to these five problems can easily be taken care by Scope Management, Time Management, Stakeholder Management, Communication Management, and Human Resource Management. All these are the part of Project management preparation and covered in PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge)
A large percentage of people believe that the strategy and vision of the organisation is linked to the execution of successful projects. There is a great need of project management discipline and capability to meet these expectations.
Yes there are umpteen number of educational institutes who are offering various certification courses, some guarantees success, some offering early bird discounts, some bothering you a lot by sending emails every now and then.
Some advantages of doing certifications are
- Job security – Having an additional qualification can always improve your chance to be retained at the time of recession.
- Promotion eligibility and/or salary hike – You can contribute in the growth of your company with additional knowledge, thereby increasing your chance of promotion.
- Career Improvement – Most professionals just do their job without taking any new or challenging assignment. After doing a certification you can take some new initiatives in your organisation.
- Self-grooving – Globally recognised certifications increase your self-confidence, as a result your team members and supervisors starts trusting you more.
- Your Organisation can rely on you – Organizations are outsourcing their computer services and support to save money, but they need to be sure that the third part vendors they hire are competent. A certified project manager can be trusted more than others.
- Everyday changing technology and demands of the customers can be handled in a better way –to learn latest technology and apply industry best practises.
- Increase job opportunities and credibility by adding new credentials in your resume.