On December 1^st, 2015 the new rules to the Project Management Institute (PMI) Continuing Certification Program (CCR) became effective. What did change in PMP PDU earning? The most praised change is the introduction of PMI’s talent triangle, that requires earning of at least 8 PDUs in each category (Technical Project Management, Leadership, Strategic and business management), however, the update is more than just that, here are 6 most important changes that you might be not aware of. In short, yes you will need to earn more PDUs from the ‘education’ part.

1. It is simplified

Names of the categories are simplified, and the category letters disappeared. No longer worry about Category A, B, C PDUs, just report what your action was: Course or Training, Organization Meetings, using online or digital media, reading, etc.

2. PMI Talent triangle gets importance

As written before PMI’s talent triangle got importance. It might take a little time to understand which category should be reported when. PMI does a good job here providing nice guidance, however, please find the following as brief  guidance to understand quickly PMI’s talent triangle:

• Technical Project Management: ‘hard project management’, topics with schedules, risks, plans, processes, tools, agile, earned value, requirements,…
• Leadership: ‘soft project management’, topics with negotiation, team building, interpersonal skills, emotions, etc.
• Strategic & Business management: ‘business’, industry and market specific topics, strategic analysis, etc..

3. It is not hard to meet minimum Talent Triangle Requirements

As you know you need to gather  8 PDUs from each PMI’s talent triangle. As mentioned in the next point, the cap of 30 PDUs for self-learning was lifted, and now you are free to choose what to learn about. What is more(talent triangle) categorization for PDUs provided by Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s)  is predetermined and cannot be changed by reporting person, however, training or courses, readings, etc. are to be self-categorized by a person claiming for PDUs. Sites like pdu4free.com provide a catalog with free opportunities to earn PMP PDU and they are categorized by talent’s triangle categories.

4. No more restrictions for self-learning PMP PDU

Mentioned earlier, but this is really important – you can earn all your PDUs just by reading books, blogs, etc. Be sure to take notes, and log your activities, as you still might be audited when renewing your PMP certification.  Yes, all 60 PDUs can be earned this way (just remember that still need to categorize at least 8 PDUs in each PMI’s talent triangle category).

5. Lower limits for giving back to the profession

This actually can be bad news for people working for PM communities, giving presentations, writing blogs, etc. The limit was lowered from 45 PDUs to 25 PDUs, so now at least 35 PDUs need to be earned from ‘Education’ part.

6. Working as PM will get you fewer points

As the whole part ‘giving back to profession’ was cut, working as a PM particularly suffered. The part that could have ‘automatically’ be earned ‘just for working’ within an area related to project management was cut down from 15 PDUs to just 8 PDUs, that means more learning or volunteering.

More information can be found at the PMI’s PMP PDU program site called CCR.

• PMP PDU Blog

January 21, 2016

11 responses to “PMP PDU – 6 changes you probably didn’t know about”

1. Josie Campagna says:

   January 23, 2016 at 8:14 pm

   Thanks, this summary is super informative. I had no idea

   Reply
2. A Rezika says:

   January 26, 2016 at 3:48 pm

   Great Summary. I am really grateful.

   Reply
3. Roma says:

   January 27, 2016 at 11:15 pm

   Thanks for publishing this info. Great resource

   Reply
4. perry Jaye says:

   January 28, 2016 at 12:16 am

   Yes, thank you for the summary…..reminds me to get busy!

   Reply
5. M Saravanan says:

   January 30, 2016 at 4:37 am

   Thanks. Good information in short and crisp.

   Reply
6. Fidelis Esemene says:

   January 31, 2016 at 1:48 am

   Good information. Thanks a lot.

   Reply
7. Luis Jimenez says:

   January 31, 2016 at 7:29 am

   Great summary.

   Many thanks !!

   Reply
8. Ali Shaik says:

   January 31, 2016 at 8:40 pm

   Thank you. This is information is very helpful.

   Reply
9. malay says:

   February 1, 2016 at 2:01 am

   Very nicely presented. Detailed info requested..

   Reply
10. Andy Kaufman, PMP says:

    February 1, 2016 at 4:45 pm

    That’s a great summary. Thank you! Lifting the 30 PDU limit really makes options like your site, podcasts, books, etc. very attractive.

    Thank you, as always, for your excellent work.

    Reply
11. Watson Xavier says:

    February 1, 2016 at 11:52 pm

    Thanks for this very useful summary.

    Reply
12. Richard Reavis says:

    March 14, 2016 at 7:33 pm

    Working as PM will get you fewer points – This is extremely disappointing!!

    Working in this field as a practitioner is now LESS important? Why would such a change be made?

    I don’t understand how a decision can be made to lessen the importance of actually doing the job. I guess to some, it is more important to read about work and talk about work but NOT to actually work!

    Very disappointed!

    Reply
13. Hillary says:

    April 5, 2016 at 8:27 pm

    Thank you for the crisp summary

    Reply