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PMI Community POST |
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Here are some hints to consider … |
Employers voice confidence in PMP credential holders. As a PMP, your responsibilities may increase and your rewards may increase as well: the PMI Project Management Salary Survey—Fourth Edition reports that on average, PMP credential holders command salaries that are 17 percent higher than their non-credentialed counterparts. When you attain the PMP, you become part of an elite global community. As you maintain the PMP, you continue to expand your knowledge and skills and remain at the forefront of the profession. To be eligible for the PMP credential, you will need to demonstrate that you have led and directed project tasks in these performance domains: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing the project. Eric Norman, PMP, a member of the PMI Certification Governance Council, offers guidance on the leading and directing requirement to help PMP candidates discern their contributions in this area. Mr. Norman is chief project officer for Choicepoint headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and is a volunteer leader for PMI global standards projects. He helped develop the initial edition of the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures and served as the project manager for the second edition of this standard, directing a volunteer team of nearly 120 participants from around the world. He has been a project manager for nearly 25 years, a PMI member for 20 years and a PMP credential holder for 10 years. Mr. Norman says it is helpful to think of the PMP not as a project management credential, but as a project manager credential. “PMP credential holders perform a role, and the PMP credential helps identify your qualifications to perform that role,” he said. “When I interview project management job candidates, I look for people who have been in roles where they have been leading and directing.” Mr. Norman seeks individuals that drive the decision-making on a project either directly or indirectly through influence — a quality that resonates with the leading/directing requirement of PMP eligibility. For example, as a PMP candidate:
“You don’t have to be at the table when decisions are made but you do need to know what is important to your company,” Mr. Norman said. “Be able to speak to the boss about a specific decision and speak with authority about what needs to be solved. Give your input to a decision-making session. You can do this from anywhere in the organization.” PMP candidates should be active, not passive in their work and must be communicators. “A leader is constantly moving forward, creating vision for what needs to happen and doing analysis and work to make your communications credible,” he added. In the domain of project initiation, have you helped select a project and evaluate what is needed to begin such as clear objectives, a charter and adequate support and resources? Once the decision is made to advance a project, do you build the team, clarify the work breakdown structure and build the resource plan? Your own view of your role may benefit from a different perspective. “Be sure to look at your activities from a different direction, even on small projects. Maybe you have led and directed small teams of two to three people,” Mr. Norman adds. “What would have happened if you had not been there to influence an outcome?” Watch future editions of PMI Community Post for more on the topic of leading and directing project tasks. If you interested in the PMP credential, view more information online, including the PMP credential handbook.
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For project team members, the Project Management Professional (