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Preparing to Be Certifiable
While I don’t believe PMBOK will necessarily make you a better project manager, it does establish an ideal picture of what project management should be. There’s a clear distinction between what happens in the real world and what happens between Chapters 1 and 12 in PMBOK.
If you’re preparing to earn PMI’s Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) or the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, you’ll want to become intimate with PMBOK. Both certifications test your knowledge and experience in project management.
The CAPM examination will be updated and based on the new PMBOK on August 1, 2009. This examination, sometimes seen as a fine stepping stone to the PMP, has several requirements in which to qualify:
- You’ll need a minimum of a high school diploma and 1,500 hours of project management experience
- Or, in lieu of the experience, 23 hours of project manager training counts
- The exam fee is $225 for PMI members and $300 for non-PMI members
- Complete the exam’s 150 questions in a three-hour window
The PMP examination will change on July 1, 2009, to reflect the updates in PMBOK v4. The PMP examination is bit trickier to qualify for and pass. Here are the requirements:
- With only a high school diploma, you’ll need five years’ project management experience
- With a bachelor’s degree you’ll need three years’ project management experience
- All applicants need 35 contact hours of project management education
- The exam costs $405 for PMI members and $555 for non-PMI members
- You’ll have four hours to answer all 200 questions on the exam
In case you’re wondering, it costs $129 for an individual membership to PMI. That’ll save you a few dollars on both exams and you get a magazine, a wallet card (ooh!), and some other goodies from PMI. You also get online access to the PMBOK Guide as member.
You’ll probably want to tack on a few dollars more for your membership for the local chapter dues. You don’t have to join a local PMI chapter, but that’s really the best part of PMI in my opinion. The local chapters are a great resource for networking, to hear good project management speakers, and for keeping your certifications current.
You can purchase a hard copy of PMBOK through PMI's website. The book costs $65.95 for non-PMI members and $49.50 for PMI members.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, my toast is ready.