Project Management Certifications

Picking the optimum project management certification to advance your career is difficult. Ed Naughton, Director General IPMI (Ireland) has published the following analysis in his “Project Management Trends” newsletter:

This of course raises the question as to which project management accreditation the recruiting company or HR manager prefers. Quite frankly, our experience is that very often there is a distinct lack of understanding by those hiring, as to the relative merits of the credentials that are most commonly considered. The below table provides a comparison of offerings from the main providers (IPMI train both PMP and IPMA certifications).

What, in a nutshell, are the distinguishing features between the three different accreditations. Some schools of thought like to summarise succinctly as follows:

• IPMA – Competence based
• PMI – Knowledge based (with a minimal ‘time served’ requirement)
• APMG – Methodology based & does not require ‘time served’ or address Behavioural skills

When trying to determine which certification is best for your requirements, talk to a reputable organisation that understands the difference between entry-level exam-based PM certifications, and the advanced certifications that can correlate to increased project and business success.

We concur with the summary.  AIPM’s RegPM was not considered as it has little relevance in Ireland! RegPM is a competency assessment where the trainee pays a qualified assessor to review their competence and based on the assessor’s report the certification is awarded. Importantly RegPM does not test the underpinning knowledge of the candidate, just the workplace behaviours and outcomes. AIPM and IPMA are working to align their certifications. For more on competency see: WP1056 Competency

For more on the PMP and other PMI credentials see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-PMI_Framework.html#PMI_Cert