PMI PDUs - Under new PMP Talent Triangle®

We all know that the marketplace is becoming competitive with every passing day. Reasons are also clear and can be listed broadly in terms of organization(s) strategic objectives, constant need of improving the bottom line. And to achieve this there is an utmost focus on nurturing talent pool in the areas of Strategic and business management, Thought leadership along with technical project management. No brainer why the combination of these three key talent attributes forms the widely-known PMI Talent triangle.

^{Image source: pmi.org}

So when did it come into effect? PMI in its effort to ensure that its project management certifications are always relevant to industry and organization need conducts various surveys and along with inputs from industry veterans bring in changes to the content and pattern of exams. In 2015 PMI developed and announced its talent triangle and the changes that one can expect. As mentioned above PMI clearly called out the areas of competence that a current day project manager needs to build his/her competencies on.

In this article, I will describe and understand the areas of competence as per the new talent triangle, understand the ways to acquire required PDU’s. Building on what we go through today my next post will address some common questions with respect to preparing for changes introduced in the exams after Jan 2016.

What we will not cover is an overview of PMI Certifications, information already available with PMI.org site. You can take a look at the PMI talent triangle flyer by clicking here.

^{Decoding Talent Triangle}

Technical Project Management: Technical here means methodical, building expertizes in project management methodologies. Complement them with the real world experiences and solutions deployed to overcome challenges. The expectation is a project manager will be able to apply his structured project management knowledge in practice.

Leadership: Build leadership skills that will help a project manager deliver all project objectives and stakeholder expectations by showing situationally appropriate behavior. This piece of the triangle includes negotiation skills, conflict management abilities, team development, emotional intelligence, resources motivation and so on. Strategic and Business management: In order to improve on project implementation and deliver the best possible organization results, the project manager will execute their projects as per the strategy and vision of company leaders. The expectation is that the project manager will showcase there entrepreneurial, contract management, strategic planning skills, be able to simplify complexity and so on.

^{All About PDU’s}

All PMI certifications must be renewed after a specified period of years. PMI simplify it by awarding Professional development units hereinafter referred to as PDU’s that one needs to claim by continuing education and by giving back to the profession. For example, in case of PMP certification, there is a requirement of obtaining 60 PDU’s within 3 years of obtaining PMP certification. While continuing education will help you receive 35 PDU’s, a maximum of 25 PDUs can be claimed by giving back to the profession. Below tables will help you understand various options available in PMI site for the same. For one hour of learning/giving back you can claim 1 PDU.

*CCRS - Continuing Certification Requirements System

Note: As you can see from the table above it is very very important to choose education topics so that they cover each of the three listed PMI Talent Triangle areas. To simplify you must do Education activities that are related to PMI Talent triangle and spent at least 8 hours of effort or claim 8 PDU’s for each one of Technical, leadership and strategic areas.

Earn PMI-PDUs in education category (Categorised in Talent Triangle^®)

Note: All 25 of Giving back category PDUs may come from either Create New Project Management Knowledge or Volunteering. A maximum of only 8 PDUs is allowed from experience as a PMP Practitioner. So those who were able to earn 15 PDU’s earlier because of there Project Management work may not appreciate this change in the system. Below table list all PMI Certifications and number of PDU’s required

^{Did anything really change with the introduction of PMI’s Talent Triangle?}

Put simply the answer to the question is no.

We discussed on why Talent triangle and those of you who are PMP aspirants must understand this - PMI wants to ensure that the PMP Exam is an accurate reflection of the tasks, knowledge, and skills project management professionals actually perform and need on a daily basis. If PMI didn’t regularly add new methods and remove outdated ones, then PMP aspirants like yourself would still be tested on obsolete tools and techniques that were used 30 years ago when the PMP exam first came into being.

As we understand 20-25% of 200 questions are driven from new outline changes that come into the picture via PMI talent triangle. Please note the word driven here which means focus on talent triangle and aligning the exam questions more with latest project management practices in the marketplace.

Keep watching this space for more and in my next post, I will extend on this topic to help you understand what has changed in the exam and what has not. And how keeping yourself abreast of the latest technology trend will help you in your project management journey.