The PMI (Project Management Institute) PMP - Project Management Professional - certification does not need to be presented to experienced project managers. This black-belt project manager certification is an internationally recognised proof that a certified project manager has extensive experience and knowledge of project management.
In our previous post, we wrote about the CAPM exam changes for September, but After 15 December 2019, the PMP exam will also change slightly.
UPDATE: The PMI has postponed the change until 30 June 2020, so the new exam will be live on 1 July 2020 according to current information.
This is not as much of a change as with CAPM, but it is worth being aware of these changes so that you don't get a nasty surprise in the real test.
The basic syllabus for the qualification remains the same as before, maintained and edited by PMI Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, better known as the 6th edition of the PMBOK.
Content:
- When and why will the PMP exam change?
- What have you been up to?
- What can we expect from December 2019?
- What has not changed?
WHEN AND WHY WILL THE PMP EXAM CHANGE?
Experts and project managers working in the field know that project management, like many other professions, is constantly evolving. At certain intervals, new trends, approaches and tools emerge that fundamentally affect the work and operation of project stakeholders.
The International PMI is committed to incorporating these trends regularly into the curriculum and, through this, into the examination. These updates typically take place every 3-5 years. The last 2 years have seen several major changes in the PMI exams. Just a year and a half ago, the exam was updated to the 6th edition of the PMBOK, followed by an increasing emphasis on agile and hybrid project management approaches.
This year, PMI has decided that in addition to these changes, the PMP exam requires a further facelift, which will come into effect on 16 December 2019. With this change, PMI aims to further enhance the value of the PMP qualification, with a greater focus on non-traditional approaches and working with people.
WHAT'S BEEN UP TO NOW?
Many people don't know, but the PMP exam is not just designed around the current edition of the PMBOK. There are also many questions on the exam that are not directly answered in the PMBOK.
As a guide, the PMI has published the free exam content outline, which describes the proposed tasks for project managers to perform along the domains corresponding to the process groups. These tasks are not to be confused with the processes, but go beyond them in an attempt to help the examinees.
These areas and their associated focuses, expressed as a percentage of the exam, are:
- Project Initiation, Initiation (13%)
- Project design, Planning (24%)
- Implementation, Execution (31%)
- Tracking and monitoring, Monitoring & Controlling (25%)
- Project closure, Closing (7%)
It should be added to the above list that in our exam preparation programme we always emphasise that the above percentages are not set in stone. It is possible to ask questions that could be classified as planning or even monitoring and supervision for example, so these have tended to show that questions can be expected from all areas so far.
In summary, so far, in addition to the knowledge of the processes, inputs, outputs and tools covered in the PMBOK, successful completion of the exam has required knowledge and experience beyond this.
What can we expect from December 2019?
So let's take a look at how the PMP exam is changing. The basis of the whole change is that the exam content outline mentioned in the previous point is changing. In principle, this should not cause a big uproar yet, as the version in force at the time of writing this post was released in 2015 (when PMBOK 5 was still in force). So, updating the document based on PMBOK 5 was not considered important enough by PMI for 4 years, and exams based on PMBOK 6 could be taken with this version.
What makes the current changes more pronounced is that the modified exam content outline has not only been completed, but has been given a completely new structure.
Instead of the areas and domains described earlier, the following have been replaced with their corresponding percentage of examination prevalence:
- People - 42%
- Processes - 50%
- Business environment - 8%
This list does not tell us much, but a glance at the document shows that the activities behind each domain have been complemented by elements that enable the activity to be carried out (enablers).
New elements such as a values-based approach, servant leadership, mentoring and barrier removal have been added to those described above. For more experienced project managers, these terms may be familiar from agile trends. Although there is no concrete information on this from PMI yet, we suspect that the new exam (despite the creation of a separate PMI rating for agile trends) will give more emphasis to agile and hybrid interoperability.
In order to make the changes more transparent, PMI has published a so-called crossover map, highlighting 25 elements that have not yet appeared in the official syllabus.
To summarise, the processes described in the PMBOK do not change, but there are several new aspects and elements that may be new to the exam.
What do we expect?
We expect that the new exam will not be much more difficult than the current one, but we recommend that before any changes are made, students should try to take the old system if possible. The reason for this is that we have a lot of experience and continuous feedback and information from candidates. There is still time and opportunity to do this comfortably through our PMP preparation programme which will start in September and October.
What does not change?
The basic exam script remains the same as the PMBOK, and the length of the exam (4 hours), the number of questions (200) and the type of test will not change. In order to pass the exam, it is not enough to memorise the syllabus, but to be able to adapt it to different situations, which is a good basis for our previous experience.
The exam fee is expected to remain at USD 555.
In summary
Basically, the changes make sense, we are not talking about changes for their own sake, such as the renaming of tools (e.g. using the term agreement instead of contract) as seen in the PMBOK amendment. Agile thinking and tools are becoming more and more common in project management, whether it is the application of traditional or agile approaches. It is also positive that PMI recognises and reinforces the importance of people in projects (no success without a good team) and the process-oriented curriculum is complemented by these elements. In the last weeks we compared the content of our previous coaching programmes with the new requirements and were pleased to see that only a few topics needed to be added, as our PMP coaching included agile insights, motivation and leadership topics, among others. In our opinion, knowledge of these is essential for successful application of the project management job. In our September and October exam preparation programmes, we place particular emphasis on highlighting what elements to expect before 16 December and what elements to expect after 16 December, so that participants can make an informed decision on which version of the exam they wish to take. Free individual consultations will continue to be available to our participants, which we hope will help us to maintain our first exam pass rate above 90% in the future.
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