Seven (7) Things You Need to Know About Project Management Certification

As the project management profession expands in scope and reach, the pursuit of certification has become increasingly important for professionals seeking to validate their skills and enhance their career prospects.

This comprehensive guide opens up the often confusing world of project management certifications, introducing the various certifying bodies, their methodologies, and the impact these certifications have on career development.

What is a certification?

A certification is an industry award that recognizes a person’s competence in a field at a certain point in time.

A certifying body conducts standardized assessments against criteria that are defined by the profession, and some offer instructional resources as optional aid to candidates.

Unlike qualifications, which are primarily knowledge-based, good certifications validate an individual’s knowledge, experience, and skills in an industry domain.

A license is a specific form of certification that is a prerequisite for participation in a particular activity.

An unrestricted motor vehicle driver’s license, for example, requires participants to evidence:

• Knowledge of the road rules (through a written test)
• Experience driving for a certain period of time (usually under supervision), and
• Skill in operating a vehicle (through an independent, practical examination of starting, driving in traffic, parking, and the like).

Despite the impression given by some, no project management certifications are actual licenses – there is no legal requirement to be certified to manage projects – but the same principles of certification apply.

Certification marks (logos) and the rules for their award are internationally regulated and protected forms of trademark.

How many project management certifying bodies are there?

More than you might think!

Of the 50 or more that exist around the globe, the four main international project management certifying bodies are:

• Project Management Institute (PMI)
• Center for Project Innovation (the Center)
• International Project Management Association (IPMA), and
• Axelos

For the purposes of clarity, I will refer to these organizations in this article by their short names (PMI, the Center, IPMA, and Axelos).

All have been around for 20 or more years and – with the exception of Axelos, which manages the PRINCE2 certifications under license – operate exclusively in the project management space.

How do these certifications assess my knowledge?

Both PMI and Axelos publish and promote their own well-documented methodologies. They assess candidates’ knowledge of them via multiple-choice quiz questions under controlled exam conditions.

Their assessments are well regarded for their rigor; however, they have been criticized for:

• demanding the rote and uncritical memorization of formulae and processes
• failing to recognize the value of other methodological approaches, and
• anecdotally reported high rates of attrition (both are quite secretive about the percentage of candidates who pass or fail their exams).

IPMA and the Center are methodologically agnostic, which is reflected in their knowledge assessments.

Whereas the Center offers a range of proprietary online and workshop-based education courses that integrate knowledge assessment to the required standard, they also recognize knowledge formally assessed through other colleges, universities, certification bodies, and corporate programs.

IPMA stands alone in not providing any methodological guidance for delivering projects, preferring instead for candidates to demonstrate knowledge in the context of the projects they deliver.

How do these certifications assess my experience?

Most certification bodies have a suite of vertically integrated awards that ascend in line with the experience of the project manager.

Axelos has no experience requirement for its PRINCE2 Foundation or Practitioner certifications, although these are positioned as early-career (as opposed to management) level awards.

PMI is unique in demanding more on-the-job hours of experience from high school than four-year degree graduates. Their certification rules also seem to specifically exclude people who have not graduated high school.

IPMA and the Center, on the other hand, only consider on-the-job project experience in their assessments, meaning they are universally attainable without regard to a candidate’s schooling.

The Center is also the first body to have mapped different forms of military service to their project experience standards.

How do these certifications assess my skills?

It is generally accepted that skills in any domain must be practically examined.

Continuing the drivers’ license analogy, this is important because even though knowledge of the road rules is essential, unless you can apply them in real-world situations you cannot be considered competent.

Similarly, a person can drive a car every day for 20 years and still be an objectively unsafe or dangerous driver – experience is a poor proxy for skills.

To give another example, doctors must complete several years of supervised residency after they graduate to ensure their skills are at the requisite standard.

For that reason, hypothetical, case-study, or scenario-based assessments done under exam or laboratory conditions can only ever be defined as knowledge assessments.

By this criterion, PMI and Axelos do not certify the skills of their candidates.

IPMA and the Center both conduct comprehensive, one-on-one interviews that align candidate’s skills to their knowledge and experience. These interviews probe candidates’ project behaviors, challenging respondents to think critically about their performance and evidence good practice.

How do these certifications support my career development?

PMI, IPMA, and Axelos all require candidates to recertify every five years.

As a condition of recertification, candidates must (at their own expense) undertake and evidence a significant volume of continuing education and/or professional development.

On-the-job delivery of projects is not accepted as evidence in this regard.

Their rules for certification also stipulate that the failure to recertify within defined timeframes means candidates must start over, resubmitting to the application and examination process from scratch.

The Center’s certifications are lifetime awards; although, like all the certifications discussed here, they may be revoked for gross criminal or ethical misconduct.

In rejecting the formal requirement for continuing education and professional development, the Center has accepted the arguments of industry that:

• the after-market for these services lacks consistency and, in some circumstances, rigor, and
• high value (yet unrecognized) education and professional development occurs on the job through channels such as mentoring, reflection and review.

Which certification do employers prefer?

Employers use project management certification to identify and promote talent, and to ensure that people working in projects have a common language, outlook and approach.

The extent to which employers express a preference for one certification over another has, to date, largely been determined by geography. PMI monopolizes North America; Axelos dominates in Europe and the UK; IPMA is the go-to certification in India; and the Center’s certifications are esteemed across Australia and the Pacific.

That said, no organization perfectly adheres to an externally defined or ‘off-the-shelf’ methodology. For example, even though PMP (by PMI) is presently the certification of choice in the USA, few companies are perfectly bound to the doctrinal approach of the PMBOK guide.

Instead, they apply the good practices of their industry and the project management profession to the unique environment and contingencies of their programs and projects.

What employers ultimately want is a robust validation of certification holders’ competence as project officer, manager, or director. This necessarily demands independent assessment of their knowledge, experience and skills to clearly defined and explicit standards.

Experience suggests that when an employer encounters a project management certification they are unfamiliar with, they will usually investigate its rigor across those three dimensions before satisfying themselves of its suitability.

Which certification is best?

I am employed by the Center for Project Innovation, so there will be no prizes awarded for guessing my preference :)

Nonetheless, our philosophy is one of educational empowerment – if we expect our certification holders to be able to think critically about the projects and programs they deliver, then we expect them to think critically about the certification they choose.

I strongly encourage you to independently investigate what the best certification model is for you!