Project Management Guru - Vicki Wrona on PMI Standard and Exam Changes Announced - Novemeber 13, 2008

Project Management Guru - Vicki Wrona on PMI Standard and Exam Changes Announced - Novemeber 13, 2008

In case you have not received word, yet, there are exciting things happening within the PMI world (http://www.pmi.org/).
First, four new standards will be available to the public in late December. They are:
· PMBOK® Guide - 4th edition (Project Management Body of Knowledge)
· OPM3® - 2nd edition (Organizational Project Management Maturity Model)
· The Standard for Program Management – 2nd edition
· The Standard for Portfolio Management – 2nd edition
By updating and introducing these simultaneously, care was taken to coordinate information across all standards and to consistently apply terminology used across the volumes.
Second, PMI has announced new exam dates along with some changes from the way the transition from one version to the next was handled in the past.
The exam date changes are as follows:
· PMP (Project Management Professional) June 30, 2009
· CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) July 31, 2009
· PMI-SP (Scheduling Professional) August 31, 2009
· PMI-RMP (Risk Management Professional) August 31, 2009
· PgMP (Program Management Professional) August 31, 2009
One change from previous years is that PMI will not grandfather, allowing people to take the old exam for a set period of time after the cutover date. This time, only the current exam will be available once the exam change date has passed. This means that if someone needs to retake the exam after cutover because they did not pass, or if they need time to complete an audit which goes beyond the cutover date, that person cannot take the older version exam but has to take the newer exam.
This is significant. Last time PMI updated the PMBOK® Guide to the 3rd edition, some high-demand cities experienced exam centers that were sold out for months prior to the final ‘old’ exam offering. Many people counted on and used the extension time. This time, that is not an option. This means that proper planning is key to ensuring enough time to get an application accepted, pass a possible audit, and allow for possible retakes. I wouldn’t wait until the last minute.
Another factor to remember is that many people have submitted applications and been accepted by PMI but have procrastinated on taking the exam. They could potentially flood the testing centers as the cutover date (or the one-year anniversary of their application) draws near. This could make it more difficult to schedule the exam in time and potentially when you want.
Good luck to you whenever you choose to take one of the exams! A future posting will list the changes from the 3rd edition PMBOK® Guide to the new 4th edition.



Vicki Wrona, PMP®is the founder and President of Forward Momentum, LLC, an 8(a) consulting and training company found at http://www.forwardmomentum.net/. She has been managing projects and mentoring project managers for the past 20 years in both the private and public sectors. She developed Global Knowledge’s PMP® Exam Prep Boot Camp class, part of the program that won PMI’s ® Professional Development Product of the Year Award in 2007. She served on PMI’s® PMBOK® Guide 4th edition creation and review team. She can be reached at vwrona@forwardmomentum.net.