Community Post

25 April 2011

Updates Planned for the PgMP^® Credential

The Program Management Professional (PgMP)^® credential examination will be revised in January 2012, based on the recent Role Delineation Study (RDS).

Every five to seven years, PMI conducts an RDS for each of our credentials based on the role in project management the credential serves. This ensures that the credential exams continue to assess what is most relevant in the day-to-day work of project and program management practitioners as the profession evolves over time.

The PgMP RDS enables PMI to identify the most current and critical elements of the professional practice of program management.

The RDS resulted in an updated description for the professional role of a program manager.

More than 1,100 program managers from 79 countries, 119 of whom hold the PgMP credential provided feedback for the RDS. The responses met the requirements for statistical relevancy and adequately reflected the profession in geographic, industry and other standard demographics.

The outcomes of the RDS provide PMI with a blueprint for updating the credential through the PgMP Examination Content Outline.

The major outcomes of the PgMP RDS include:

• The three evaluations for the PgMP credential, which include the panel review, the examination, and the multi-rater assessment, are being updated to reflect the changes to the role identified in the study.
• Restructured program management performance domains and tasks.

The new PgMP examination will be released globally on 1 January 2012. This means that the last day to take the current PgMP exam is 31 December 2011.

Candidates who would like to take the current version of the examination are advised to schedule early to better ensure they are able to obtain a test date before the updates.

More information about the changes to the PgMP as a result of the RDS can be found on the Updates to the PgMP Certification Exam page on PMI.org.