Project and Engineering Management Certification

The CAPM certificate offered by PMI is designed for project team members, project managers, and undergraduate or graduate students to gain project management credentials, and it is the most basic certificate offered by PMI. Applicants must have either a high school diploma or equivalent, and $\mathrm{1,500}\text{hours}$ of work on a project team or $23\text{hours}$ of project management education to qualify. The CAPM exam is administered by Thomson Prometric testing centers in 83 countries around the world. The three-hour, computer-based exam consists of 150 multiple-choice questions. Individuals who have a PMP or PgMP credential cannot attain a CAPM certificate.

One of the most globally recognized project management credentials is the PMP, offered by PMI. Generally, those who hold a CAPM certificate will become a PMP to increase their proficiency in project management, though a CAPM is not a prerequisite for the PMP certification. The PMP is designed to objectively assess and measure professional knowledge in all areas of project management. The subject area weights for the PMP exam are shown in Table 1. Further information on the PMP is given in PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (www.pmi.org).

To be eligible to take the PMP examination, the applicant must either have (1) a bachelor’s degree, $\mathrm{4,500}+\text{hours}$ of project management experience, $35\text{hours}$ of project management education, and $36\text{months}$ of experience in project management within an eight-year period prior to application; or (2) a high school diploma, $\mathrm{7,500}+\text{hours}$ of project management experience, $35\text{hours}$ of project management education, and $60\text{months}$ experience in project management within an eight-year period prior to application. The PMI now checks the applicant’s professional experience more carefully than in the past. Thomson Prometric testing centers administer the PMP exam in 83 countries throughout the world (to check if the exam is available in your country, visit http://securereg3.prometric.com). Five countries have recently been added: China, Jamaica, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Slovenia. The four-hour, computer-based exam consists of 200 multiple-choice questions. A passing score is 106 or more correct answers out of 175 scored questions. The exam has recently become more practice oriented and less academically oriented.

The PgMP certificate, offered since 2007, is designed to demonstrate project and large-program management skills and is considered the culmination of the CAPM, PMP, PgMP progression. Management experience, education, and professional knowledge are all carefully assessed during the application process.

To be considered for the PgMP certificate, applicants must either have (1) a bachelor’s degree, four years of project management experience, and four years of program management experience within a $15\text{-}\text{year}$ period prior to application; or (2) a high school diploma, four years of project management experience, and seven years of program management experience within a $15\text{-}\text{year}$ period prior to application. PMI staff and a panel of professional program managers comprehensively review eligibility requirements. The four-hour PgMP exam is administered by Thomson Prometric and consists of 170 multiple-choice questions designed to measure one’s ability to apply knowledge, skills, and techniques used in program management. The final part of the PgMP certification process is a Multi-Rater Assessment (MRA) in which the applicant must select a team of 12 colleagues and peers to evaluate his or her performance as a program manager via a Web-based survey.

One of the newest professional certifications is the PMI-SP certification for those who provide expertise in the area of developing and maintaining project schedules. It is designed to offer proof of one’s ability to help project managers through contributions of specific project scheduling skills. To be eligible for this credential, one must have a high school diploma, associate’s degree or global equivalent, at least $\mathrm{5,000}\text{hours}$ spent in a specialized area of professional project scheduling within the last five years, and 40 contact hours of formal education in project scheduling. Alternatively, one must have a bachelor’s degree or global equivalent, at least $\mathrm{3,500}\text{hours}$ spent in the area of professional project scheduling within past five years, and 30 contact hours of formal education in the area of project scheduling. If an applicant meets the eligibility requirements, they must then pass a 170-question, three-and-one-half-hour multiple-choice exam to receive the PMI-SP credential. This examination is based upon the PMI-Scheduling Professional Examination Specification (www.pmi.org).

Strong emphasis is placed on evaluating project risks during the implementation phase and before a project is approved. As a result, PMI has introduced a new risk management professional certificate. Accordingly, individuals whose specialties lie in recognizing and analyzing project risks as well as resolving threats and capitalizing on opportunities, would be well-served by this particular PMI credential. To be eligible, interested persons must have a high school diploma, associate’s degree or global equivalent, at least $\mathrm{4,500}\text{hours}$ spent in the area of professional project risk management within the past five years, and 40 contact hours of formal education in project risk management. Or, a person must have a bachelor’s degree or global equivalent, at least $\mathrm{3,000}\text{hours}$ spent in the area of project risk management within the past five years, and 30 contact hours of formal education in project risk management. Like the PMI-SP credential, a passing grade on a 170-question, three-hour multiple-choice exam is required.

The assessor and consultant certifications have been offered since April 2006 by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), with approval from PMI (Larry Bull, personal communication, February 22, 2006). The OPM3 certifications are for assessors and consultants to improve their project management maturity and capability. To become a PMI Certified OPM3 Assessor or Consultant, the applicant must pass a two-hour, computer-based online exam consisting of 100 multiple-choice questions related to OPM3 topics, and submit a project management and assessor or consultant experience portfolio. After passing the online exam and portfolio review, the applicant must attend a three-day, instruction-based assessment training session if applying for assessor certification; or a five-day, instruction-based assessment and improvement training if applying for consultant certification. The training sessions are offered around the world. A multiple-choice assessor or consultant exam is given at the end of the course. After the exam is passed, the applicant can apply for certification and become registered as a PMI Certified OPM3 Assessor or PMI Certified OPM3 Consultant.

At the time this paper was being written, the assessor and consultant training courses were on a temporary hiatus to allow PMI to revise the course content to reflect the updates included in the 2008 revision of the Project Management Body of Knowledge. New training schedules will be posted on PMI’s Web site as soon as they are released (www.pmi.org).

The CCM certificate is offered by the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA). To be eligible to become a CCM, the applicant must have (1) four years experience as a construction manager as well as a four-year degree in construction management, architecture, engineering, or construction science; or (2) a two-year undergraduate degree or certification in one of the above fields and four years experience in general design/construction (in addition to the four-year requirement); or (3) eight years in general design/construction (in addition to the four-year requirement). In the past, the applicant was required to enroll in a self-study “capstone” course on construction management and pass the capstone test with a score of 80 percent or higher. This requirement has recently been dropped. The CCM exam is a true-false and multiple-choice, 200-question test taken over six hours. There are test sections on cost management and time management, quality management, professional practice/project management, contract administration, and safety and risk management. Table 2 details the certification exam breakdown. The exam is offered quarterly at Construction Manager Certification Institute-sponsored locations around the United States, in addition to being offered at CMAA’s national and spring conferences. Since 2008, these exams have been offered on proprietary computer platforms.

The EMCF and EMCP certificates are offered by the Engineering Management Certification International (EMCI), an organization developed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in cooperation with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME); the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE); the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME); and the American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM). Started in 2005, the society certifies engineers in engineering management, a broad certification that includes, but is not limited to, project management (George Ji, personal communication, April 11, 2005). Similar to the engineer’s license process, which has two levels of certification—Engineer in Training (EIT) and Professional Engineer (PE)—the EMCI also offers two certifications reflecting different levels of experience.

To become eligible for the EMCF, an applicant must have either (1) a bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, or technology, and three years experience; (2) two years education in engineering, science, or technology, and five years of experience; or (3) a master’s degree in engineering management, in which case all experience requirements are waived. To become eligible for the EMCP, an applicant must either have a bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, or technology, or have their EMCF certification. Additionally, the candidate must have five years engineering practice including two years of engineering management.

Both the EMCF and EMCP tests are three-hour, computer-based exams with 150 multiple-choice questions. Both exams test the same eight subject areas but with different weights, as shown in Table 3. A passing score is an overall 70 percent correct, with no less than 50 percent correct in any single subject area. The exams are offered at nearly 300 locations in the United States and Canada at Thomson Prometric testing centers. These are the same testing centers that are used for the PMP, PgMP, and CAPM exams.

The EMCI offers reduced exam fees to members of any of their sponsoring organizations: ASME, ASCE, AIME, AIChE, and SME (Table 4 shows membership fees for each of these five sponsoring organizations). The exams range in cost from $500 to $650 for members and $700 to $850 for nonmembers. These costs include a necessary, one-time application fee of $100. The first set of exams was given in June 2005. The EMCI program has recently been expanded to offer certification in China (for further information, readers should contact EMCI, www.engineering certification.org).