Why should I consider project management certification?

The following article talks about the value of certification as a professional project manager, a designation that Schulich ExecEd’s top-rated Masters Certificate in Project Management program is designed to prepare you for – and more. If you are serious about standing out as a project manager and pursuing your PMI®-PBA Certification, Schulich ExecEd’s masters certificate program is one of the best, and most popular, ways to do it.

By David Barrett, Program Director

I have always thought that this was a ‘no-brainer’. Apparently, I was wrong. I really thought that this certification opportunity would explode within the ranks of the professional project management community.

It really hasn’t, and I have been quite surprised.

So, let me put you in the shoes of an HR director or manager looking at a resume or LinkedIn profile. You see the words ‘Professional Project Manager” and even “PMP designation”. Truthfully, these days, your reaction would be one of “Seen many of those – so tell me what’s different?’

Then your eyes glance a little further down and you see the words professional business analyst.

That’s when there should be no doubt that the tone changes immediately. The challenge for today’s project managers is to be unique and be different and stand out in the crowd. This is exactly what a designation in the requirements side of our project work would do for you.

You see, we read about failed projects day in and day out and one of the most common reasons we see is lousy or missing requirements, lack of customer buy-in and no formal ‘specification details’ at the front end. This is all about business analysis and requirements gathering, analyzing and reporting. Good requirements lead to good models and good models lead to better understood solutions. It’s a no-brainer.

The stats don’t support this. As of July, 2017…

• PMI Membership – 486,551
• PMP – 774,406
• CAPM – 33,880
• PgMP – 1,967
• PMI-RMP – 4,158
•  PMI-SP – 1,710
• PMI-ACP – 16,283
• PfMP – 450

*** PMI-PBA – 1,479

Yup, there are more PMPs in good standing out there than PMP members. Go figure.

But at a high level, take away the CAPM and you have just 26,047 people thinking they need something more than the PMP.  But to my point, just 1,479 people have sought out this Requirements certification!  Ouch.

So, why should you consider the PMI®-PBA certification?  Because no one else is and ‘lousy or missing requirements’ is still in the top three reasons for failed projects. It’s a no-brainer!

David Barret is the program director of Schulich ExecEd’s Masters Certificate in Project Management. For more information and to register in the program, visit the program website. This article was originally published Oct 4, 2017.