Don’t bother with project management certifications if your primary reasons include getting instant fame and fortune. Adding the PiMP designation after your name will not make you an overnight sensation even if your name is John! And no, the new iPMP designation is not the latest iPhone.
Only consider getting a project management certification if you are willing to:
- change your old habits
- standardize your terminologies
- learn additional tools and techniques
- commit to professional development
And, your organization will agree to:
- change ineffective and inefficient processes
- aspire for consistent and repeatable results
- reward your efforts based on project results
- expect that success will not happen overnight
It takes two to tango. Likewise, certifications are only valuable through mutual commitments. If you can’t tango, you might as well not give it a go!
Connect with Dr. John A. Estrella via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Tags: certifications, designations, pmp
Interesting, I thought about getting certified after getting out of university. It was costly and i didn’t feel like i would learn something really valuable. Now I see they ask it alot (all the six sigma black belt stuff, etc)
Love the first list. In the second, are you telling people to not bother with certifications unless the organization agrees to your list ahead of time (commitment from the top)? I agree this is optimal; yet it’s far from required before an individual should consider advancing themselves professionally.
I can tell you that knowing the PMI standard has been helpful for me even inside organizations that didn’t commit to your list. Since organizations are made up of individuals a shared understanding and process can work it’s way in from the grass roots too. Operational directives change in many cases due to the efforts of teams and individuals who make senior management aware of what’s possible.
Josh Nankivel
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Josh,
Thank you for your comments below. I am not sure if most people notice it but I try to keep my blogs to 140 words or less. It was inspired by Twitter’s 140-character limit and I don’t have time to write long blogs.
One of the items that I removed from the top list to fit my self-imposed limit was for the project manager to be willing to “champion proper project management practices”. In retrospect, I should have kept it but then again, without the willingness from the organization to change, any kind of certification would be perceived as worthless. For something to be truly worthwhile, both parties would have to acknowledge it.
Sure, I have learned so much by earning various certifications. But, they only become valuable when organizations implement some of the best practices learned through the certification process. Otherwise, it is nothing but lip service. Given this, why bother?
Now, if someone is planning to get a certification to advance their career, AND they are willing to find an organization who will value it or convince their organization to listen to them, then it is worth something. What do you think?
John
I found my PMP certification to be incredibly valuable, if for nothing else but credibility. I got it when I was a 25 year old project manager. I could do the work, but getting staffed was an issue. After getting the PMP, there were no issues at all. More interesting work, more respect with clients, and no more focus on the age issue.
Doesn’t it prove my point that if the other side values it, then it is worthwhile?
Dr. Estrella
I have to admit that the title is intriguing because it is controversial.
However, I don’t quite agree with your points.
Look at all your own certifications: CMC, PMP, CBAP, CTFL, CSTE. Did you actually wait until your organizations met all these conditions before your pursued these certifications:
- change ineffective and inefficient processes
- aspire for consistent and repeatable results
- reward your efforts based on project results
- expect that success will not happen overnight
I think certification in most cases nowadays can get you to be invited for an interview. Without it, then anyone who has it has an advantage over you. Therefore, certification should be part of every PM’s professional development plan. I think you will agree with me on this one because it is item 4 above in items that PMs should consider before pursuing certification. I think you would also agree with me that professional development plan is the ownership of the individual not the company.
I think if we wait until our organizations met all the above conditions, none of us will be certified. Is it really realistic to wait for (or even expect) all this to happen? We can wait until the cows come home, like they say in the U.S.
Let’s get real. Companies do not have to be perfect. They just have to be slightly better than the competition. And there is nothing wrong with that.
In the meantime, as individuals, we should own our professional development plans. The certification is not for our companies. It is for us. It is a statement about the value we bring to the table. It shows that we are committed to do what it takes to develop ourselves and prove our value. Getting certified is smart business.
Samad Aidane
http://www.GuerrillaProjectManagement.com
samad@GuerrillaProjectManagement.com
Actually you can think of a certification even if your organization doesn’t care at all about that. One should think about this in wider perspective - whether certification would work in the long run. People aren’t fixed in one company and on one role.
If you like to switch your workplace for something else it might be a good idea to think what king of organization you’d like to work for and whether they would appreciate certification.
Having said that, personally I’m not a big fan of certification but that’s because I prefer small companies over big organizations and usually certification isn’t very important there.
Thanks for the response John. I agree with Pawel and others who have commented since. I can be helpful to the individual regardless of your current company’s status or even companies you might work for in the foreseeable future.
2 years from now, the “foreseeable future” has changed and you may be wishing you had gained the certification already. When something pops up at a great company you really want to work for, but they stridently require a certification of some kind, it may be too late for you and they have other candidates.
We agree that your list for the company is optimal and enhances the efficacy of individual knowledge and competency. My argument is that individual certification can be very valuable in the absence of company buy-in.
In addition to all that, I’ve brought solid practices into organizations (especially small ones) and part of that came from my knowledge of a particular standard. The certification process drove me to deeply understand the standard. Individuals can make impressive changes in any system with some level of autonomy and by virtue of that fact I would want to be certified even if my boss has no idea what those letters mean.
Josh Nankivel
pmStudent.com
Samad and Pawel,
Please allow me to use Boolean logic to prove my point.
V2M = valuable to me
V2O = valuable to organization
TCV = total certification value = V2M + V2O
When I earned the PMP designation, my employer (E) did not even want to change my title from a project leader to a project manager. Actually, it was part of the reason why I left.
V2M = true
V2O = false
PMP TCV (E) = true + false = false
Several years later, Dell was looking for a PMP-certified project manager to work on a large program for a client (C) with an ISO-certified project management process. Without the PMP designation, there is no way I could have passed the resume-screening process.
V2M = true
V2O (Dell) = true
V2O (C) = true
PMP TCV (Dell, C) = true + true + true = true
Now, don’t even get me started with my other designations! :-)
Thank you for your replies!
John
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Hi John,
Your comments here are longer than your post :) The best part I like about your blog is that your posts are short and crisp. You don’t have the time to write long posts and we don’t have the time to read them.
Coming back to the topic, after reading your post, I had similar thoughts as other readers expressed. But after going through your boolean logic, it seems that you are not saying (in the second list) that an individual should not go for certification, if the organization doesn’t value it. Rather you are suggesting that an individual who is certified, should find an organization, which values his/her certification. Is that a correct interpretation?
Harwinder
Hi John
It’s an unfortunate feature of the current job market that you need a PM certification just to avoid going onto the reject pile. With so many candidates going for each vacancy the resume screening is increasingly being outsourced to agencies. The PM certification just becomes the first hurdle to jump - even though:
- The recriuting organisation may not follow a particular PM methodology.
- Your resumee demonstrates significant project delivery experience.
- The PM certification does not actually show that you are a good PM!
I beg to differ here. I think what’s important is the process of certification, the body of knowledge that gets covered and it’s standing amongst professionals. For instance, Qai’s CSBA is meant to bridge the gap between IT business management - http://bit.ly/qaibap
[...] I like certifications in general. That’s not the point of my rant here. [...]