How to earn PDUs for PMP recertification FAQ – part2

The second part of the FAQ about earning PDUs and PMP recertification. Please enjoy it, I hope it will help you earn required numbers of PDUs to renew ourr PMP certificate.

9. For what activities exactly PDUs can be obtained ?

The following activities for which you can earn  PDUs according to the distinction used by the PMI.

Categories related to Education:

•  1 – Formal Academic Education related to project / programme management

Higher education, post-graduate, PhD, MBA, DBA,  etc. related to the project or programme management

One semester of the course related to the management of projects / programs can give you  10 or 15 PDUs (depending on the length of the semester). Reports on individual courses, not the entire study.

• 2SDL –  Self-directed learning activities and individualized learning events involving personally conducted research or study, discussion, coaching session with colleagues, coworkers, clients, or consultants. Reading / watching articles, books, videos, cd-rom , etc.

Each 1 hour dedicated to the activity enables you to earn 1 PDU. Within three years, you can receive a maximum of 15 PDU in the category 2-SDL.

• 3 – Courses offered by PMI REP (organizations registered with the PMI, which deal with the provision of training).

Number of acquired PDUs depends on the specific training. As a rule, you will receive 1 PDU for one hour of training on the management of projects or programs.

• 4 – Courses offered by other education providers (not registred with PMI)

Number of acquired PDUs depends on the specific training. As a rule, you will receive 1 PDU for one hour of training on the management of projects or programs. If we took part in the training, the value of which was marked in CEU (Continuing Education Unit, for more information on the IACET CEU go (http://www.iacet.org/content/continuing-education-units.html)). The conversion between CEUs and PDUs  is  1 CEU = 10 PDUs .

Categories related to the knowledge sharing:

•  2A – Author or co-author of an article pertaining to project / programme management published in refereed journal

30 PDUs for author and 20 PDUs for co-author

• 2B – Author or co-author of an article pertaining to project / programme management published in non-refereed journal.

15 PDUs for author and 10 for co-author

• 2C – Speaker or teacher on project / programme management topic at a conference, symposium, workshop or formal course.

10 PDUs per activity

• 2D – Speaker on project / programme management topic at PMI Component  meeting (chapter, SIG, college)

PMI Component includes: chapters (geographically based community), SIGs (specific interest group), college (community centered around a knowledge area in PMBOK® Guide)

 5 PDUs per activity

• 2E – Participation in panel discussion (the topic of project management / software) as a member or moderator at a conference, symposium, workshops, or training.

5 PDUs for a panel discussion

• 2F – Author or co-author of textbook that pertains to project and/or programme management.

  40 PDUs for author and 20 for co-author

• 2G – Developer of content for a structured project and/or program management courseware.

 10 PDUs per a new course

Categories related to project management activities:

• 2H – Practitioner of project / program  management services  for more than 1500 hours in a calendar year. Remember, that it is necessary to be able to prove this work.

 5 PDUs per year

5 – volunteer service to professional or community organization (eg.for PMI but not only)

3 months of the board of the organization – 2 PDUs

3 months in committee – 1 PDU

6 months in the organization of the Management Board – 5 PDUs

6 months in committee – 3 PDUs

12 months in the organization of the Management Board – 10 PDUs

12 months in committee – 5 PDUs

Volunteering – 5 PDU per year

In the fifth category, you can receive a maximum of 20 PDUs over the entire cycle of certification. PDUs can be obtained only for work for which no remuneration was collected.

10. What is the difference between category 3 and 4?

 PDUs’ reporting is much simpler in category 3  than in category 4 and it requires less evidence. In addition, we can be sure that the amount of PDU will be exactly as provided by a course provider. For category 4, we have no such assurance. For me personally, this is not a decisive factor in the choice of training, but if I have to choose between two very similar trainings and I have a certain PDUs….

11. Can I earn PDUs for posting on a blog?

This is a very interesting question. PMI does not provide a specific category for running a blog, but last time there is a hope for it. (It all started wit a tweet – PDU for blogs  Earnig PDU through the blog). With curiosity I’ve asked  PMI about opportunity to earn PDUs from blog, here’s the answer I received. It looks quite encouraging. I think that you can be given PDUs for blogging (related to project management)  in category 2B (and if your blog is beein reviewed in addition to 2A).  Of course you can always register your blog as a journal (as far as I know it is possible in Poland).

From: xxxx@associationhq.com]

To: Mateusz Jasny

Subject:

Dear Mateusz,

These PDUs can be claimed under category 2A or 2B, depending if the article

is published in a refeered or non refeered journal. A journal is considered

refeered when it is reviewed by a professional group before being published.

Please refer to page 6. CCR handbook

Please do not hesitate to contact me, if you have any further questions.

Kind regards,

xxxx

EMEA Certification Examination Delivery Liaison

Project Management Institute

Regional Service Center: Europe – Middle East – Africa (EMEA)

Avenue de Tervueren, 300

B-1150 Brussels, Belgium

req usr validity of a blog he created for operation Proj Mgmt as cat 2B

From: Mateusz Jasny

To: pmihq@pmi.org

Subject: Blog PDUs for postingDear Sir or Madame,

I run a blog about project management and IT management topic.

I? ‘Like to claim for PDUs for posts on my blog which are related to the

project management area, I think I shall classify this activity into 2B

category (author of an article pertaining to project management). Am I

right?

Do you have any official policy about PDUs and blog postings?

Regards,

—

Mateusz Jasny, PMP

12. Where can I find a complete list of R.E.P. (Registred Education Providers)?

List R.E.P. is available on the PMI site.

13. What if only part of the reported training, course, lecture, etc is  related to project management?

You’ll need to determine the percentage of topics related to the project management and it will be multiplied by contact hours. In such cases, you may always consult with PMI.

 14. What does this actually mean that the activiy, training, course, article refers to the project / programme management ?

Each reported activity need to be determined in three dimensions: Project Knowledge Area, Process and Application Specific Area. In particular it should be possible to establish a “Knowledge Area Project” and “Process” in accordance with the PMBOK. You’ll find also that it is a very broad topic, anything that relates to project mangers duties can be considered here (like trainings about Six Sigma, ITIL, finance).

15. Do I need to score PDUs in all categories? Is there a minimum number of PDUs to obtain, in each category?

There is no such thing, it is worthwhile to note that you should be aware that ther are some categories in which you can obtain no more than x PDUs in a year or in a CCR cycle.

 16. You’ve mentioned about evidences, what can it be?

 Many documents,actualy, but  in particular, it  may be any type of certificate of participation in the study, training, etc., agenda of meetings, certificates, etc. Details are on the PMI site, you can always ask PMI for more details. Also refer to the summary table in this post.

17. So many possibilities, and the easiest to obtain the required PDUs is…?

I’ll give a typical consultant’s answer, “it depends” – what are you doing, what is your job?

If you’re a Project Manager – 15 PDUs is yours just for your duty. Even better, if you are running a project management training, all the required PDUs can be obtained practically without doing (remember, however, for the collection of evidence) anything extra.

 However, if you’re in a situation like many people, or do a little this, a little bit of that, you are a consultant, or PMP done only for the paper (unfortunately, many among us is the PMP for the paper itself, but they also need to understood)  you need to use your head:

First you should look on what you’ve been doing already. A very good source of PDU may be trainings, which takes place within your company. Find your certificates, see if the training relates to project management (it can be for example soft skill training). Then you need to ask the training department to provide the training program with specified number of hours of the course. This summary of course or training + certificate should be sufficient to apply for a PDUs in category 4.

If you work in PMO and train people from project / portfolio management tool or just about managing projects it is worth to formalize those trainings. As an author of training materials (category 2G – 10 PDUs per courseware)  and the trainer (2C – 10 PDUs per activity) you can obtain a lot of PDUs.

Maybe it is worth thinking about postgraduate study in project management or training in this field? Remember that is always easier to prove training taken from PMI REPs  (category 3) than the date (category 4) .

It’s worth also to note 15 PDUs for self-study, so you can use self-study for the preparation of training materials, or write an article or prepare to the conference.

Finally I want also to mention the huge source of PDUs –  e-courses and webinars. You can find a lot of free.  For people with limited amounts of time, there are also opportunities to gain paid PDUs (announced on the Internet often in a very straight way: ‘You want to get x PDUs you pay y $‘). Among them there are many valuable trainings, courses and webinars, but also  you can find a lot of junk. I’ve just started a new web site which will be cataloging free and cheap sources of PDUs for you. It’s called pdu4free.com (it’s still under development) .

 Here are some sources of PDU (completely free, or available for a small fee). If I find new interesting opportunities for PDUs I’ll be posting them at pdu4free.com .

Training from IBM (IBM Rational Project and Portfolio Management certification training e-kit) – 17 PDU

IIL is a very good source of webinars. There are many interesting webinars, unfortunately, only those on the introductory level are for free, for the more advanced we have to pay.

It is worth to sign up at gantthead – more information on obtaining PDU.

Generally you can find a lot of PMI branches that provide interesting and cheap opportunities to earn PDUs.

Hare are some interesting links:

You’ll find more soon on PDU4FREE.COM