PMP Credential Maintenance

Ok, so you’ve passed the exam. Congratulations, you’re a Project Management Professional!exclamation-point

Well, the first thing you need to do is collect Professional Development Units (PDU’s) in order to keep your credential active.

In order to maintain your PMP credential, you will need to earn 60 PDU’s per three-year cycle. You can take paid classes but why do that? According to PMI, the average PMP spends $3,000-$6,000 to maintain their credential. That’s ridiculous no matter how busy a person claims to be.

If you’re a PMI member, the easiest way to earn PDU’s is to join a number of PMI’s Communities of Practice (CoP). Each CoP will generally host a few webinars each month. Sign-up and attend a webinar and you will automatically earn PDU’s for free. Most webinars earn 1.0 – 1.5 PDU’s. There are 34 Communities of Practice so it should be easy to find an area or areas which draw your interest.

PMI Communities of Practice

Aerospace and Defense  International Development 
Agile  IT and Telecom 
Change Management  Leadership in Project Management 
China Project Management  Learning, Education and Development 
Construction Industry  Legal Project Management 
Consulting  Marketing and Sales 
Earned Value Management  New Practitioners 
eBusiness  Organizational Project Management 
Energy, Oil, Gas and Petrochemical  Pharmaceutical 
Ethics in Project Management  Program Management Office 
Financial Services Industry  Project Management Quality 
Global Diversity  Project Risk Management 
Global Sustainability  Requirements Management 
Government  Scheduling 
Healthcare  Service and Outsourcing 
Human Resource Project Management  Utility Industry 
Information Systems 
Innovation and New Product Development 

Three years of PMI membership will cost you $397 ($139 for the first year, $129/yr to renew afterwards). If you attend enough webinars, that’s the only cost you’ll ever need to keep your PMP credential active and in good standing. Sure, folks are busy with work and their personal lives but over a three year period, all you need to do is earn 2 credits per month and you’ll be more than covered. That’s only two webinars/month. If you attend the webinar live, then normally the PDU’s will be reported automatically for you.

But you don’t even need to attend the webinars live. If you miss the live date, you can listen to the recorded presentation of most webinars and then claim the PDU’s. Or you can access PMI’s catalog of On-Demand webinars.

Here are some other ways you can use your PMI membership to earn PDU’s:

  • Contribute to a wiki or discussion thread — Category C
  • Give a webinar — Category D
  • Present at an event — Category D
  • Write an article or a blog post — Category D

Now, isn’t that easier than spending $3,000-$6,000!

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“Project Management Professional (PMP),” “PMP,” “Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM),” “CAPM,” “PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP),” “PMI-ACP,” “PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP),” “PMI-RMP,” “PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP),” “PMI-SP,” “Program Management Professional (PgMP),” “PgMP,” “PMBOK® Guide,,” and “PMI,” are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.