Procept courses accredited by the CCA for Gold Seal certification credits
PMP Application Process

PMP Application Process

Now that you are convinced that PMP is a worthwhile effort with a positive ROI, let’s get started with the tedious task of putting together your PMP application.

To make your life easier, download one of the free templates available out there to organize your application and summarize your experience. Here is one that is very comprehensive: http://intranet.procept.com/spreadsheet.html

Tips and tricks:

  • Summarizing your project management tasks in 300-500 words can sometime seem like a frustrating task. My suggestion is to summarize the main project and its product, service, or result in a few words, and then summarize the main tasks and your role during each of the project management process group – initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and control, and closing. Below is an example to help you with your summary. Always remember, it never hurts to use PMBOK terms and terminology while aspiring for a PMP.
    • “Project Manager for the selection and implementation of a CRM.
    • Led a team of business analyst, sales executives, and vendor consultants.
    • Conducted project feasibility and led RFP development.
    • Created a project plan including a WBS, schedule, cost, responsibility matrix, risk management, vendor management, and change management plan.
    • Used Earned Value to track project against baseline.
    • Provided monthly progress report to Project Sponsor.
    • Closed project with a lessons learned report and plan for training the staff in CRM.”
  • Even though overlapping months will be counted only once towards your 3 (or 5) year experience, all overlapping experience hours from multiple projects within a particular month will be counted. In other words, if in a year you were working on two projects concurrently, only 1 year will be counted towards the 3 (or 5) year requirement; however, you can count the hours from both the overlapping projects towards the 4500 hr (or 7500 hr) requirement. Be careful, there are only 24 hrs in a day, don’t try to claim 25hrs (or for that matter 16hrs) a day working on two projects, PMI will catch it!
  • Save all your project plans, documents, WBSs, emails, etc in a folder to be able to use it in case your application gets audited. Start thinking about risk management!
  • Ensure agreement from your primary contact (manager, sponsor, or client) on the project summary and the number of hours allocated to each process group. They could be your best friend and ally in case of an audit.   Another risk mitigated!

PMP Application Process

Register for a new account with the PMI to use their online application process: http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Project-Management-Professional-PMP.aspx

 PMI advises – Before you begin, check to make sure you meet the credential eligibility requirements and can record the necessary information on the application.

Once you start an online application, you cannot cancel it. You can save it unfinished, come back to it later, and edit any information you already entered. The application will remain open for 90 days during which time PMI will send you an email reminder to complete the application.

  • Enter the required information for education, experience, and project management education. If you skipped the tips and tricks above, please read them, they can save you some headaches later.
  • After you are satisfied with your application, press Submit and keep your fingers crossed.
  • Within 5 business days, you will hear back from PMI that your application has been reviewed and approved and are required to pay the exam fee and proceed to the next step.

The fees for the PMP exam are as follows:

  • Computer Based Training – non-member rate USD$555
  • Computer Based Training – member rate USD$405
  • PMI membership – USD$139

Joining the PMI and paying the member rate will cost you less than paying a non-member rate. Plus as a PMI member, you get access to the online PMBOK Guide and e-reads library and a good collection of exam preparation books. But, of course, it’s your choice.

  • After you pay the fees, this is the moment of truth! You will either receive a confirmation that your application has been approved or an email informing you that your application has been randomly selected for an audit (5-6% of the submitted applications).

Don’t lose hope if your application has been selected for an audit, remember we mitigated the risk above. Just provide the requested information and you will be good to go in no time.

  • Once your application has been approved, PMI will provide you with a registration code which you can use to book your exam at a Prometric Testing Centre. You will have 12 months to schedule and write the exam from the date your application has been approved.

Congratulations!

Now that your application has been approved and you have successfully completed your PMP application project (did you create a WBS for this project? just kidding), let’s focus on preparing for the exam now.