PMP PDU – 6 changes you probably didn’t know about

PMP PDU certification

On December 1st, 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.

  1. 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..

 

  1. 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.

  1. 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).

  1. 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.

  1. 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.


January 21, 2016

Comments

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

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

  2. A Rezika says:

    Great Summary. I am really grateful.

  3. Roma says:

    Thanks for publishing this info. Great resource

  4. perry Jaye says:

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

  5. M Saravanan says:

    Thanks. Good information in short and crisp.

  6. Fidelis Esemene says:

    Good information. Thanks a lot.

  7. Luis Jimenez says:

    Great summary.

    Many thanks !!

  8. Ali Shaik says:

    Thank you. This is information is very helpful.

  9. malay says:

    Very nicely presented. Detailed info requested..

  10. 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.

  11. Watson Xavier says:

    Thanks for this very useful summary.

  12. Richard Reavis says:

    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!

  13. Hillary says:

    Thank you for the crisp summary

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