You may think there is only one project management certification, the PMP designation awarded by Project Management Institute. However that would be an incorrect assumption. The PMP does have a worldwide footprint, however there are disciplines and geographic areas where different project management certifications are more appropriate. The following list is incomplete, but reinforces the point.
Awarding Organization | Designations | Basis |
Project Management Institute | CAPM, PMP, PgMP | PMBOK, Project Management Body of Knowledge. |
DAWIA | Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 | Defense Acquisition Guide |
FAI | Entry, Mid, Senior | FAC PPM Competency Model |
British Council (APMG) | Prince2 Foundation, Practitioner | Prince2 Methodology and Process Model |
Why the differences? Projects range in size and scale from maintaining software code (typical software maintenance project is 1 or 2 people for a couple months) to development of the international space station (a multi decade, multi-national project). Given that one size does not fit all, it makes sense that there is more than one professional certification.
So which one do you pursue? For the majority of US based employees the PMP and or PgMP are the designations of choice. INCOSE, PMI and MIT recently published a paper that infers the PgMP as the designation of choice when managing complex engineering efforts. For those of you managing projects for the US Government, the designation is either the DAG oriented certfication from DAWIA or the FAC-P/PM designation for all other Federal Agencies. (Note: historically there was very little cross over between the Acquisition Designations and the PMP designation.) Finally, if you are performing work in or for European countries, you may want to consider the Prince2 designation.
ISO recently published 21500-2012, Guidance for Project Management. Given the influence of ISO, it will be interesting to see if the new standard will have an impact on the differences between the current certifications.
