The PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® certification highlights agile expertise with the industry’s only agnostic, experienced-based, ISO-accredited exam. Stay up-to-date on what's new with PMI-ACP training course content.
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What’s New
PMI-ACP® Exam Content Outline and Eligibility Update
In advance of release to the general public, we are providing partners with first access to the PMI-ACP Exam Content Outline (ECO), which provides important information on exam content.
- On 11 October, ATPs will receive a private link in email to access the ECO.
- After 16 October, the ECO will be publicly available at the link below.
Important Eligibility Update
Based on feedback from our community and partners, we are revising the eligibility requirements for the new PMI-ACP to make it more accessible to learners while maintaining its rigor:
- Instead of three years of agile experience within the past five years, the new PMI-ACP program will require only two years of agile experience within the past five years.
- If the candidate has an active third-party agile certification earned more than one year ago OR has a degree from a PMI Global Accreditation Center (GAC) program, the agile experience requirement will be reduced to one year.
- If the candidate is an active Project Management Professional (PMP)® holder, they will be recognized as having the equivalent of two years of agile experience.
Important Update: Introducing the new PMI-ACP®
We’re excited to share more details about the updates coming to our PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) certification program. These changes represent an exciting opportunity for ATPs to grow PMI-ACP training to a wide market of interested agile practitioners and organizations.
What's Changing?
- On 8 November 2024, we are launching a new PMI-ACP exam designed to better meet the needs of organizations and experienced agile practitioners, growing the certification’s relevance and appeal.
- As part of our commitment to providing gold-standard professional certifications supported by a complete learner journey, we are launching a suite of supporting PMI-ACP learning and exam prep offerings to enhance the candidate experience.
- This includes an instructor-led training course for ATPs, eLearning course, practice exam, and Study Hall
- In mid-September, we released the new PMI-ACP instructor-led training course to ATPs. Exclusive to our partners, this is the first new PMI-ACP course publicly available. The eLearning, practice exam, and Study Hall will launch on 8 November. More information on how ATPs can qualify to teach the new PMI-ACP instructor-led training is available below.
Requirements for ATPs to Teach PMI-ACP
IMPORTANT! To train on the new PMI-ACP exam, ATPs must use the official PMI course materials. ATPs may NOT develop their own training for the new PMI-ACP.
The PMI-ACP Instructor-Led Training Materials (Student and Instructor kits) are now available. If you are interested in gaining access to the PMI-ACP Instructor-Led Training materials, you first need to have a qualified trainer affiliated with your program. If you have a trainer who qualifies, you may submit their resume/CV to [email protected] for review.
To qualify to teach the new PMI-ACP, instructors must:
- Hold the PMI-ACP certification
- Complete the PMI-ACP Train the Trainer.
- Complete the PMI-ACP eLearning course.
Successful completion of the courses and assessment will trigger the process of obtaining your PMI Authorized Training Partner Instructor Badge and allow Authorized Training Partners to assign PMI-ACP classes for you to deliver.
Course material will be available for ATPs to order via the standard PMI Partner Platform order process as soon as an instructor completes the full qualification process, and ATP classes may be launched immediately after.
So that ATP instructors could qualify to teach the instructor-led course as soon as it became available in September, PMI provided an exclusive pre-registration opportunity for ATPs to take the new PMI-ACP eLearning before its release. This pre-registration opportunity ended on 20 September.Any pre-registered instructor can now access the PMI eLearning and Train the Trainer in their my.PMI course library.
Didn’t pre-register? Instructors looking to qualify to teach the new PMI-ACP may purchase the PMI-ACP eLearning and Train the Trainer when it becomes available. Please email [email protected] for more information.
Learn About The Updated PMI-ACP
Agile Mindset Focus: The new PMI-ACP certification program emphasizes an 'Agile Mindset,' aligning with the latest industry practices and ensuring that certified agile practitioners deliver even greater value to agile teams and organizations, by validating a professional’s experience and skillset across multiple agile approaches, tools and techniques. The PMI- ACP promotes team collaboration to drive agile transformations, projects, and product development-keeping organizations competitive and agile in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Updated Exam Content Outline: The exam content has been refreshed to reflect the latest trends and demands in agile delivery, inclusive of product development in addition to project management. The new PMI-ACP exam has been streamlined from 7 to 4 domain areas, maintaining 120 multiple choice questions and expanding the item types/questions going beyond multiple choice to include multiple response, drag-and-drop-style items, and exhibits (charts).
Rigorous, Agile-Focused Prerequisites: The exam prerequisites have become more rigorous, requiring 28 hours of training in agile practices, frameworks, and methodologies, and 3 years of agile experience within the last 5 years. Additionally, current third-party agile certifications can satisfy one year of experience, provided they are current and earned over a year ago. These changes ensure that only highly qualified and experienced agile practitioners earn the PMI-ACP, reinforcing its value as a gold-standard certification.
PMI-ACP Transition Measures for ATPs with Existing Courses
Important Update: We have listened to feedback from some of our valued partners whose existing ACP courses may be disrupted by this change. We are implementing the following measures to support your transition:
- If you have existing ACP courses in the market, you will not be required to change over to the official PMI ILT materials until 28 February 2025, giving you several months to execute your existing scheduled courses.
- In parallel, your students will have until 31 March 2025 to apply for the exam with the 21 contact hours they acquired from existing training. We will accept 21 contact hours to qualify for the new PMI-ACP up to this date. After 31 March, applicants will need 28 contact hours to qualify.
- Please note that students applying for the exam after 8 November must still meet the increased work experience requirements for the new PMI-ACP.
- To better prepare students taking existing 21-hour PMI-ACP courses for the new PMI ACP exam, we highly recommend using PMI Study Hall to supplement their training. ATP Resellers can purchase Study Hall in bulk. Please reach out to your account manager or [email protected] if you are interested.
Important Information
New PMI-ACP® Certification Program FAQs
Have more questions about the new PMI-ACP exam or the instructor-led training? Check out our FAQs or watch the August Authorized Training Partner Webinar on the Marketing Portal.
To support ATPs in promoting PMI-ACP training to new learners, we will be providing a set of PMI-ACP marketing materials for ATPs in October and November via the Marketing Portal.
PMI-ACP Marketing
Technology and Digital Transformation: PMI-ACP's framework-agnostic approach and comprehensive learning path make it particularly appealing to organizations in technology, digital transformation, large enterprises, and government sectors. This broad applicability provides ATPs with ample market opportunities.
- Emerging Markets: Regions where agile adoption is on the rise, such as Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and MENA, offer significant opportunities for training and certification growth.
- Agile Practitioners: PMI-ACP is perfect for all agile practitioners, including Scrum Masters, Developers, Agile Project Managers, and now Product Owners, as well as Agile Coaches and Consultants.
- Agile Cert Holders: Practitioners who currently hold certifications such as CSM, PSM, SAFe, or related agile certifications are prime candidates for PMI-ACP, as it offers them an opportunity to broaden their expertise and validate their skills across multiple agile approaches which is what we know hiring managers are looking for to build their agile teams.
Resources
PMI-ACP on pmi.org
Learn more about the value of the PMI-ACP certification and what it takes to earn it.
EPP User Guide
Instructions and information on how to utilize PMI's Education Provider Portal.
Education Provider Portal
Manage courses, and access CCRS and other useful tools.