PDUs a Necessary Way to Maintain Your PMP Certificates

In the field of Project Management Professionals the principal global association is Project Management Institute. The project management professional certification is recognized and respected globally. A PMP certification gets you recognition about your expertise and skill in leading and directing your team and giving optimum results within the limitation of your budget, schedule and resources.

Once you gain your certification as a PMP you cannot just sit on your laurels. This PMP certification is not forever. You have to maintain this certification by earning PMP PDUs. A pmp pdu is required because it tells the world that you are a practicing PMP and that you are continuing to fine tune your skills of managing projects.

If you plan it well maintenance of your PMP credentials is not hard work. You are a professional and you can plan about recertifying the same way as you would attack any project – begin, chart, implement, scrutinize, manage and closure.

Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR), as of 2008 is a cycle of three years i.e. the day that you passed your PMP Certification, after three years on that same date you have to get yourself recertified. During this three year cycle one has to obtain 60 PDUs in order to continue to be called a PMP. That means that you can break it down to 20 PDUs per year. The best course to follow is by starting to collect your PDUs from the first year of your certification cycle.

To collect your PDUs five categories have been designated by PMI.

Category 1: Formal Academic Education: This is with reference to a credited course in a university or college. For, say ,a course being conducted for 15 weeks you will get 15 PDUs. The course cannot be just any but related to the field of project or program management. So if you are in another field you would have to join a business course. Your transcripts and grade report have to be submitted to PMI and they should approve of it to get your 15 PDUs.

Category 2: Professional Activities & Self Directed Learning: There are many ways in which you can earn your PDUs in this category. By publishing an article pertaining to project or program management in a refereed or non-refereed journal as an author or co-author (10-30 PDUs) or text (20-40 PDUs); be a speaker on project or program management at a conference, symposium, workshop, formal course or at PMI component meetings (5-10 PDUs); develop courseware (10 PDUs). You can easily earn 5 PDUs by just doing what you do i.e. work as a project manager for a period of minimum 1500 hours in a period of 12 months.

Category 3: PMI Registered Education Providers: To attend pre approved courses conducted by REPs who are partners of PMI. No approval is necessary from PMI as it is conducted by their partners and they issue a completion certificate with the PMI code. You would get 1 PDU for every hour attended. So if the course is for duration of two and a half days or fifteen hours you get 15 PDUs.

Category 4: Other Education Provider Courses: In this category you attend courses and submit programs that are not held by any accredited college or university or REP. There is one catch though as you do not know how many PDUs PMI will grant you for attending them. They may also reject these attendances by not granting you any PDUs.

Category 5: Volunteer Service to Professional or Community Organizations: Volunteering to do project or program work, by contacting your local PMI chapter can help you earn up to 20 PDUs.

To help you keep your PDUs in line you must maintain all records of your PDUs. You must maintain a folder in which you can keep all the certificates and documents that proves your claim. Report your PDUs to PMI by an online application form provided by it. It is not mandatory to report PDUs but it is only good for you. If you do so it will help you keep a track and at the end you won’t forget to report them altogether.

You can carry over the excess PDUs that you have earned in this three year cycle to another one but you should not exceed a limit of 20 PDUs to be carried forward.

Lastly but most importantly review the CCR Handbook for an in depth insight into the CCR Program of PMI.