How to get my 60 PDUs for PMP Re-certification?

As per PMI's Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR), every PMP needs to re-certify his/her credentials every 3 years. In order to re-certify, a PMP needs to earn 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) every 3 years. There are numerous ways to earn these PDUs such as Practicing Project and/or Program Management, attending classroom trainings, self-learning, attending Project/Program Management related seminars and workshops, doing voluntary work for Project Management communities or organizations.

Please refer to the CCR Handbook for the details of this program.

This lens is meant for current Project Management Professional (PMP) credential holders. PMP aspirants are also encouraged to read this information.

After I passed my PMP exam, I experienced a sense of relief and satisfaction. Three months of rigorous preparation had turned into sweet success. I also received good recognition for my achievement, from my employer. I was on a high, and time whizzed-by. Before I knew, six months had passed. That's when it struck me that PMP Certification is not forever. I need to re-certify (by earning 60 PDUs) every three years in order to maintain my credentials. But I was left with not three, but only two and a half years to achieve this target.

I started searching for information on earning PDUs and found a lot of it. So much so that I was totally overwhelmed and confused. I had no idea where to begin from and where these 60 PDUs would come from. I found several courses, which offered 20-30 PDUs, but costed hundreds of dollars. I certainly did not want to spend this amount of money every year on earning PDUs. I said to myself that with 250 thousand PMPs out there, there ought to be some easier and cost-effective ways to get these PDUs. So, I decided to dig further.

Gradually, the hard work started paying off. I started finding several good and effective ways to earn these PDUs, without burning a hole in my pocket. Just to give you an idea, I managed to earn 35 PDUs within just 5 months using the sources listed below, and without spending too much money.

I shared these ideas with many of my fellow PMP friends and colleagues. Their positive response encouraged me to create this lens.

With this article, my aim is to help familiarize fellow PMPs with the 'simplest' and most 'economical' means to earn the 60 PDUs, which will qualify for PMI's Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR).

Maintaining your PMP credentials is not as hard as most people think, as long as you plan it well. Treat your re-certification as a Project. Follow the same processes that you do on your projects - Initiate, Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, Close.



Let's consider a few aspects of PMI's Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) program:

• Earn 60 PDUs in a Certification Cycle (3 years): A Certification Cycle is 3 years in duration. As per the new PMI guidelines, the certification cycle ends exactly 3 years from the date you certify (or recertify). To know more about the recent changes to the Certification Cycle, click here.
  
  60 PDUs in three years breaks down into an average of 20 PDUs per year.
  
  This breaks down into 20 PDUs every year. My advice is to plan early and start accumulating PDUs as early in your Certification Cycle as possible.


• Know the Categories of PDUs: There are five categories under which you can earn PDUs. Those categories include:
  
  
  
  • Category 1: Formal Academic Education
  
  
  • Category 2: Professional Activities and Self-Directed Learning
  
  
  • Category 3: Courses offered by PMI Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.) or Components
  
  
  • Category 4: Courses Offered by Other Education Providers
  
  
  • Category 5: Volunteer Service to Professional or Community Organizations
  
  


• Maintain a Record of your PDUs: PMI randomly selects a small percentage of re-certification applications for auditing. If your application is selected for an audit, you need to produce evidence of all the PDUs that you reported. Therefore, you should maintain a folder of all PDU certificates or other documentation, which validates your claim. It is best to maintain this folder along the way.


• Report your PDUs to PMI: PMI provides an Online application to report and track your PDUs. Though PMI does not mandate the frequency of reporting the PDUs within a Certification Cycle, it is in your best interest to report them periodically to keep track of your progress and avoid forgetting to report them altogether.


• Carry over excess PDUs to next Certification Cycle: Yes, you can carry over upto 20 PDUs earned in the last (third) year of your Certification Cycle over to the next cycle. For example, if you have earned 50 PDUs in the first 2 years of your Certification Cycle and you earn 30 PDUs in the third year, 20 of your 30 PDUs (earned in the third year) can be carried over to the next Certification Cycle.


• Review CCR Handbook: Last, but not the least, review the CCR Handbook for a deeper insight into PMI's CCR Program.
  

Following are some of the easiest and cost-effective means to earn the 60 PDUs, which will qualify for PMI's Continuous Certification Requirements (CCR):

1. Category 2H - Practice Project Management: Claim upto 5 PDUs per calendar year by doing what you already do, i.e. Project Management. You can claim total upto 15 PDUs per certification cycle (CC), which is typically 3 years in duration, under this category.

2. Category 2-SDL - Self-Directed Learning activities: Claim upto 15 PDUs per CC. This includes:

• Reading project management related books


• Listening to free podcasts available online. Some sources of free podcasts:


• International Institute for Learning: Currently offering a free podcast from project management Guru, Dr. Harold Kerner that is worth 2.5 PDUs


• The PM Podcast


• ESI International


• Developing skills in project management tools such as MS Project.

3. Category 3 - Join your local PMI Chapter (such as Singapore PMI Chapter - SPMI) and attend PM seminars and focus group meetings. Attendance to these events fetch upto 1 PDU per hr of the event. Moreover, registration for these events is free (most of the time) for the chapter members. If you can attend one 2-hr event (worth 2 PDUs) per quarter, you can earn about 8 PDUs per year => 24 PDUs per CC.

• Note: There is no limit to the number of PDUs that you can earn in Category 3.

4. Category 3 - Attend free Webinars: Even if you attend 2 webinars per calendar year, you can achieve 6 PDUs per CC. Some sources of free webinars:

• International Institute for Learning: Currently offers 11 free webinars worth 1 PDU each


• ESI International: Offering several On-Demand webinars, which can be downloaded for free.


• RMC Project Management: Currently offering 1 free webinar worth 1 PDU; more webinars will be available in future

If you do your math, you can earn 60 PDUs (15 + 15 + 24 + 6) without much sweat, by following the 4 simple steps listed above.

There are many ways to earn PDUs under several other categories. I suggest that you refer to PMI's CCR Handbook for more details.

I do plan to write a more comprehensive article covering all the categories in detail. But, that's for another day.