...that is the question!
Over the last few years, I have come across several professionals as well as organizations mulling over this question!
The individuals, without exception, happen to be senior folks, well established in their profession and now responsible for several client accounts with more than a few hundred people under them! And I am talking about individuals in 'project based' organizations!
There are several reasons why they feel they don't need this certification - mostly because their professional credentials, they feel, can get them a well paying job anyway! They don't feel the need to add another credential to their CV! Looking at the PMP certification purely from the point of view of employability, I believe, is a very narrow take on this certification!
Unlike a lot of other certificates, that certify your knowledge about a certain subject- I believe the PMP certification is beyond just a certificate of your understanding of the Project Management Knowledge Areas! Its a commitment to a discipline!
To me PMI/PMP is our professional body- our as in us 'Project Managers' - including management at any organization which primarily executes 'Projects'. It is therefore important that senior professionals who have spent a lot of time executing projects, become part of this group- not just to align their knowledge with the PMBOK, but also to review and add to the periodic update of the PMBOK. And last but not the least, to collectively work toward building good Project Management practices within the professional community!
The responsibility of preserving and advancing the knowledge lies with the practitioners!
For the senior managers, its also an opportunity to understand the structure of the PMBOK and better communicate with the younger reports in a consistent manner!
Just like for a young Project Manager, the possibility of getting a higher paying job, however legitimate, to me is a poor singular reason to pursue her PMP; for a senior professional, the thought that she does not need any more credentials to show on her CV, is a poor reason for not joining the club! The individual and the community gets richer by the wealth of knowledge and experience that its members bring in!
This brings me to second set of doubters- the organization's. During my interaction with a lot of organizations here in India, I have sensed a certain degree of cynicism regarding PMP. To be more specific, I am talking about few IT organizations!
Anyway, a casual analysis(nope, I haven't yet interviewed people formally on this topic or done a delphi or drawn an Ishikawa diagram) of this led me to certain conclusions!
As the Indian IT/Off-shoring industry started maturing, the nature of projects started becoming more complex and larger in size. With this came the demand from a lot of client (primarily American) for certified project managers. Typical RFP/RFI would ask - 'How many certified PMPs do you have in your organization'. This lead to a sudden rush for internal PMP certification and hiring PMPs from the market. Sensing this, a lot of professionals who had not worked in a process mature organizations, but who genuinely had the required 4500 hrs of PM experience, took their certification.
But 'A 35 hour class and passing a test, does not a good project manager make!'
This sudden rush for certified PMs, perhaps did not turn out to be the silver bullet these organizations were hoping for! These organizations and their project managers continued to struggle with their projects!
This, perhaps (its my theory and certainly open to challenge!) led a lot of organizations and their HR managers to believe that a PMP certified PM does not bring any value over and above the non-certified PMs! Perhaps overlooking their own lack of processes and the organizations support to excellence in project execution! (Environment factors and Organization's Process Assets, after all are very key to successful project execution! For example in an IT services organization, without the organizations support for processes, a Project Manager would at best execute at CMMI level 2. But again, haven't we heard criticism of CMMI too!!)
I strongly recommend such organizations to relook at their own processes, while continuously investing in their Project Managers with PMP as well as other IT(domain) specific Project Management training programs!
Also, these organizations need to separate the learning needs of the first time Project Managers with the PMP certification mandate of the organization. They should nominate PMP certification only for managers who have more than the mandatory 4500 hours of experience, while not neglecting the training needs of the new PMs!
Having a separate, NON-PMBOK based training program for the new PMs, gives us more flexibility to focus on basic project management processes and practices for better utilization of workshop time!
PMP certification is not the end point for individuals or organizations pursuing project management excellence! Its about building over your existing knowledge, being cognizant of what are largely accepted good practices and a commitment to continuously adopting and adapting them!
Certification is only a key milestone- the real journey lies ahead!
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