Although many people prefer MBA for project management, there are other options. The new project management programs are better than MBA. For instance, PMI-ACP certification is emerging as the best certification for project managers. If you learn PMI-ACP, you will get plenty of job opportunities.
There is tough competition for jobs these days. With thousands of applicants for single employment, you require to develop your skills. Project management jobs are becoming popular among people. The primary purpose for the popularity is job security.
Stability and security are the two primary reasons for the popularity of project management jobs. As many people are dropping their jobs to AI, job security has become an essential concept. If you learn project management, you will be ready to apply for a career in any industry.
What Is PMI-ACP Certification?
PMI-ACP certification will teach you agile practices. The market conditions are becoming unstable. So, to cope up with it, you need to practice agile principles. In essence, you require to be flexible enough to adapt to changes. Moreover, you also require to take care of growing customer demands.
Overall, the economic conditions are constantly changing. You require to learn those skills that will assist you in surviving the change. The PMI-ACP is the perfect certification for learning agile practices. You will be ready to apply agile practices to your work. It is the best alternative to the traditional waterfall method. You can change your career by obtaining a PMI-ACP certification.
At first, make sure that PMI-ACP is the certification you require to satisfy your professional requirements to educational needs. The PMI-ACP will be a good choice if you work on agile projects with agile teams and if your organization is adopting or maintaining agile practices. The PMI-ACP certification would be excellent evidence of practical, hands-on experience and skill in agile principles and methodologies and help structure your theoretical and practical knowledge.
How Can You Be Sure If Taking the PMI-ACP Exam Is the Right Step for You?
First, you require to have the urge to become a PMI-ACP. Next, you need to confirm that you meet the PMI-ACP certification conditions in four areas; educational background, broad project experience, Agile project experience, and training in Agile practices.
It would be best to have a secondary degree, high school diploma, associate’s degree, or global equivalent for educational background. In general project experience, you need at least 2,000 hours of broad project experience within the past five years. In Agile project experience, you need to have at least 1,500 hours of experience working on project teams that used Agile methodologies within the past three years. Remember that you cannot count the same hours or projects towards extensive project experience for Agile project experience.
Finally, in training in Agile practices, you are required to have at least 21 Contact Hours. A Contact Hour is an estimated one hour of formal education, formal education in Agile practices.
Once you have all of your overall project and Agile project hours documented and have received your 21 contact hours, you are ready to start your application to sit for the PMI-ACP exam. You can make the application online or download a PDF copy of it, fill it out, and submit it by mail. If you select to apply online, you will have 90 days to make the application. If you have already made your PMP or PgMP credential, then PMI has already verified you have fulfilled the 2000 hours of extensive project experience requirements to take the PMI-ACP exam, and this condition will be waived.
What Should You Expect in the PMI-ACP Exam?
The PMI-ACP exam consists of 120 multiple choice questions that require to be answered within three hours. There are two lots of questions on the PMI-ACP certification. Half of the exam questions cover Agile tools and methods, and the other half covers Agile knowledge and skills. Additional information on what is precisely covered on the PMI-ACP exam can be found in the most current copy of the PMI-ACP Exam Content Outline.
Once you take and pass the PMI-ACP exam, you will be required to focus on keeping your certification. This is achieved by obtaining at least 30 professional development units during your certification cycle, which is three years and begins the day you pass the PMI-ACP exam. A PDU is earned for each hour spent managing activities in one of two divisions; education or giving back to the profession. You can achieve all 30 PDUs with educational activities but are limited to 20 PDUs per cycle to give back to the profession category.
If you are already a certified PMP or PgMP, you can claim elegant project activity PDUs toward maintaining your PMP or PgMP credential. All activities in either category must be within the specific area of agile project activities to be counted towards maintaining your PMI-ACP certification. So you still only require to earn 60 PDUs in total in three years, not 90. And remember that all PDU hours you make towards your PMI-ACP certification must be in the area of agile project activities.
Obtaining your PMI-ACP certificate proves to others your knowledge of agile practices, tools, and techniques. Make sure you understand PMI’s most popular requirements to qualify for the exam before starting the exam application process.
In Conclusion
The PMI-ACP is one of the best certifications for project management. It will teach you everything about agile methods. After obtaining a PMI-ACP certification, you will be able to move forward in your career.