PMI have announced the next update to the PMP examination will be on the 15th December 2019, based on the updated PMP RDS due for release in Q3 of 2019.

Contrary to popular belief, the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam is not based on the PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition. The content of the PMP test, is detailed in the PMP Examination Content Outline, which is a direct output from the PMP role delineation study (RDS), a job analysis of the project manager role.

PMI conduct a new RDS study every 5-7 years, independent of the PMBOK® Guide development schedule, to identify any changes to the profession and ultimately determine what content should be included in the test.

When the PMBOK® Guide is updated, PMI do align the terms used in the test with those used in the global standard to minimize confusion and we as trainers have to follow suite as well as updating references, etc in our training materials. However, during this type of update, PMI do not change the structure of the exam or the scoring model.

The update associated with a new RDS is quite different! After the new RDS is published there are likely to be changes to the design of the PMP exam reflected in the PMP Examination Content Outline and the Handbook for the PMP exam as these items relate directly to the RDS research.  These changes may affect the scoring model, the examination structure, the scope of knowledge tested, and what’s required to be successful in the exam.

The PMP Examination Content Outline and A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) have commonalities, and this is likely to continue, but it is important to note that those involved in the RDS study are not bound by the PMBOK® Guide. They are charged with defining the roles of individuals leading and directing projects, and using their experience and pertinent resources to help in this task.

The current edition of the PMBOK® Guide is, and will remain as one of the key references for the new PMP exam but this is only part of the overall requirements for PMP – the core document will be the updated RDS.

CAPM is the only exam PMI have that is intended to measure candidates’ understanding of the PMBOK® Guide and this examination will not be changing until the 7th edition of the PMBOK in 2 to 3 years time (see more on CAPM).

What is completely unknown at this time is what the new PMP RDS will encompass, and by definition what will be included in the new PMP examination come December 2019.  My expectation is too see far greater emphasis on communication, leadership, stakeholder engagement and ‘agility’ (‘soft skills’). Less emphasis on prescriptive tools and structured techniques but this is a guess.  Fortunately, PMI do give their training community early access to the updates so we can adapt our courses.

What does this mean for you?  My recommendation is anyone planning to become PMP certified and who is in a position to do the examination this year get stuck in and pass before December.  The current exam structure has been in place since 2015 and is well understood. Come December it may be a whole new ballpark… or not…. we just have to wait and see!

What does this mean for us? Apart from a few long weeks updating training materials this is ‘situation normal’, we have to refresh our training materials every 4 years or so to deal with the PMBOK update cycle and every 6 years or so to deal with changes in the PMP RDS.  After 20 years teaching PMP, we know what to expect.

See more on the current PMP examination and our Mentored Email training course. 

The good news is after years of complaint, PMI has listened and will be rolling out a vastly improved Exam Results Report over the next few months.  The passing score and your actual score remain confidential to PMI for exam security reasons, but with this limitation, the new report will provide candidates with a much better understanding of their performance in relation to the examination pass level.

The headline report shows your overall performance with the performance by domain also categorised into one of the four groupings.  On its own, this is a vast improvement on the old report!!

Click here to see a sample of the Exam Report

However, of even more value, backing up this summary will be a detailed report highlighting your performance against the various domains and topics, accessible from within your CCR portal on the PMI website. Below is a preview of this part of the report (provided by PMI):

You still won’t know the exact number of questions in each domain or how they are divided into each of the Tasks within the ‘domain’, but the report will tell you where improvement in your knowledge will be valuable and help you plan your continuing development as a project professional. This additional information will also help training design and deliver better courses based on feedback from our clients all round a win-win-win development.

For once PMI is to be highly commended for listening to their members and delivering a great initiative.

Scheduled roll-out

Anyone taking the PMI-PBA®, PfMP® or PgMP® certification exam on or after 28 April will receive the new report and explanation pages. The new report will then be rolled out to the remaining certifications over the next few months, ending with the PMP® on 28 August. Key dates for the launch of the reports for courses we teach:

PMI-SP – 25^th May
(for more see:  http://www.planning-controls.com.au/ )

CAPM – 22^nd August
(for more see: http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/index.php?cID=175 )

PMP – 28^th August
(for more see: http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/index.php?cID=173 )

Following the change to the new exam, there will be a 4–6 week period between taking the examination and the candidate receiving their results via email. This delay is necessary for PMI to validate the new examination structure.

All candidates can expect to receive their examination results by mid-October and once the new examination has been validated, the results will be available at the Prometric examination centres on completion of an exam, as now.

As part of the exam change, the PMP experience reporting requirements are being simplified. Currently, PMI requires candidates to track and report their hours of experience leading and directing projects for each task within the Role Delineation Study (RDS). From 31st August, candidates will only need to track and report their hours for each domain (Process Group) within the RDS. Any candidates who have an application in progress at the time the change is made will have their experience hours migrated to the new application, so that no data will be lost.

For more on the changes visit our News Page.