NOTE: This article has been updated based on the fact that after consultation, the Project Management Institute has revised the change from 16th December 2019 to 1st July 2020. Thank you to Emily Luijbregts for bringing this to my attention.
Changes to the role of Project Manager has led the PMI to make changes to the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam, which will come into effect from the 1st July 2020. The changes will have wide-ranging consequences for current students which it is important to be aware of.
Why change?
Not only is the business environment evolving, but the area of project management is too. Research from the PMI suggests that the job role of Project Managers has changed since their last round of research in 2015, and after working with experts from global organisations, a new PMP exam outline was published in June 2019.
What’s changed?
Rather than focussing on five performance domains, the PMP exam will now focus on just three:
People
This domain will make up 42% of the exam and will focus on the skills and activities that are associated with effective project team management.
Process
The largest domain, process will make up 50% of the exam and will examine the technical aspects of project management.
Business Environment
Whilst it only makes up 8% of the exam, it is no surprise that the business environment features given the modern-day emphasis of aligning projects with the organisation’s strategy.
Students will need to have experience in all three domains, and answer relevant questions from each in relation to: tasks (what Project Manager’s do), and enablers (what actions are taken to complete tasks).
Another change is that the exam will be split into two halves: predictive project management approaches and agile/hybrid approaches.
What does this mean for students?
In a nutshell, the new exam is larger and more difficult. The people and business environment domains will contain predominately new content, whilst the process domain will contain around 70% of the existing exam.
Another consequence is that students must have knowledge and experience of agile and hybrid methods, meaning that they must know more to pass the exam.
When should the exam be taken?
Students should keep two dates in mind, 30th June 2020 – the last date to take the existing PMP exam, and 1st July 2019 – the first date to take the new exam.
It makes sense to take the exam before the changes come into effect, however as it takes around 8-12 weeks to prepare this decision needs to be made sooner rather than later.
If the exam is to be taken before the changes then here are some tips that may help:
- Bear in mind that others may have also come to the same decision to take the exam before the changes. Schedule the exam as soon as possible to avoid the rush of people trying to book in June 2020.
- Consider scheduling your exam in May (or earlier). This will give you an opportunity to re-take the old exam if you don’t pass first time.
- Don’t make any changes to your current course of study and continue to use the 2015 published version of the PMP exam content outline.
If the exam is being taken after the deadline:
- Ensure that the 2019 published PMP exam content outline is used. Read it through in its entirety to ensure you understand the topics thoroughly.
- Ask if the training materials will be updated to reflect the changes and ensure that you have access to them as soon as they are available.
- Learn about agile and hybrid methods.
- Continue to use the PMBOK Guide 6th Edition as your study guide – this will not change.
PMP Exam Resources
There are many good resources available to help pass the PMP exam. One that I have recommended in the past are the resources available from OSP (including the PM Prepcast and PM Exam Simulator).
Cornelius Fitchner, founder of OSP International has been providing training resources for many years and invests time and effort ensuring that all of the resources are up to date.
PM Prepcast Discount Codes
The following codes can be used during checkout to secure a 10% discount on the resources.
August 2019
- PM Prep Cast Elite – Aug19pmp
September 2019
- PM Prep Cast Elite – Sep19pmp
October 2019
- PM Prep Cast Elite – Oct19pmp
You can find out more through the following links.
If you decide to take the important step and become PMP certified, I wish you the best of luck.
