Project Management Professional Certification

Project Management Professional Certification
Kevin Manning
Azusa Pacific University

Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification

Introduction

Project Management Professional (PMP) is a certification recognized internationally meant for project managers in nearly every country in the world; the certification is presented by Project Management Institute (PMI) (Edward, 2016). There are a number of other certifications, but most of them do focus on a given subset of geography of domain; PMP works in the whole globe. There are about 200 countries and territories worldwide which have a total of 275 chartered chapters and approximately 700,000 active PMP certified individuals (Edward, 2016).

 The PMP signifies that the holder of the certification is capable of speaking and understanding the global language as far as project management is concerned; connects you to a community of professionals, organizations and project management experts worldwide to help one become a renowned project expert and a hero in his field (Levin Ginger, 2014). The main purpose of PMP therefore is to help the government and other organizations improve the success and quality of various projects by employing certified managers (Bon, 2006). The research paper analyses the benefits and justification of this certification to individuals and Christian businesses.

The benefits of PMP to project managers

The PMP has a number of both strengths and weaknesses; the research paper discusses the benefits it offers to project managers. PMP certification can be used as an added advantage in the project manager’s Curriculum Vitae or a resume; providing a competitive advantage and better market signaling to prospective employers (Broderick, 2008). In this regard, PMP certification proves that the candidate has experience in project management. It is a requirement that in order to be allowed to get a certification, one must have had a certain level of experience in this field. That is always 60 months of experience for those who have an associate degree and 36 months of experience for those with bachelor’s degree (Edward, 2016).

PMI certifications also ensure better earnings from employment or projects conducted. Many certification holders are paid higher salary of up to 20% compared to non-PMP project managers because of their certification status. This was according to a project management salary survey conducted in 2011 (Edward, 2016). It is believed that the certification is issued to highly qualified individuals with vast management experience that performs better than the non-certified counterparts (Bon, 2006).

The certification can increase social networking opportunities hence better strategic positioning for lucrative job opportunities (Levin Ginger, 2014). When a project manager is PMP certified, he gets connected to all other PMPs in the world. The members hold frequent meeting and get together to network and learn about more new ideas on project management theory (Edward, 2016). During such meetings, people get to know one another and gather information about available job opportunities from members. There is always time for individuals to share about any available job opportunities in their respective organizations   (Bon, 2006).