Maintain your PMI-RMP Certificate – 30 PDU’s

Once you get the PMI-RMP certificate, your journey to maintain your PMI-RMP certificate each three years will begin, you need to gain 30 PDU’s within three years of time to renew your PMI-RMP Status. In this article am listing all key points you need to know about the PDU. PDU refers to Professional Development Unit. There are two types of professional development units (PDUs) that you can claim towards renewal —Education and Giving Back to the Profession. Under each of these categories are numerous options and, once you’ve satisfied certain educational requirements, the rest is up to you.

PMI PDU requirements for the PMI-RMP certification is a quality assurance mechanism to ensure PMI-RMP certificate holders are up to date with latest project and risk management field concepts, best practices and trends; simply, the PDU is a system which will encourage PMI-RMP certificate holders for continues education.

In general , 1 PMI-RMP® PDU equals 1 hour of participation in the PDU activity, PMI accepts PDUs to be recorded in quarterly increment (in the multiple of 0.25 PDU) for Educational activities, for the rest PMI-RMP® PDUs must be submitted in multiples of 1 PDU.

On the other hand, if you are not able to accumulate 30 PMI-RMP® PDU during your 3-year cycle, the PMI-RMP® credential will be suspended. PMI gives you 1 extra year to earn the required PDU. But be reminded that the next 3 year re-certification cycle will still be counted from your original credential end date.

For the PMI-RMP PDU requirements, you need to consider the following:

1. Out of the 30 required PDU’s, there shall be minimum 18 educational PDU’s, through courses, eLearning, webinars and self-directed learning, Education PDU’s have three categories: Category A which is courses provided by REP and Chapters, Category B through Continuing education, Category C Self Directed learning, the minimum 35 PDU’s from education can be earned but not more than 30 PDU’s in Category C, moreover, out of these 18 PDU’s, 8 PDU’s should be in technical project management, 8 PDU’s in project skills and 8 PDU’s in strategic business management skills, this is named as the PMI talent triangle.
2. Out of the 30 required PDU’s, there shall be maximum 12 contribution PDU’s. creating PM knowledge , volunteer service, and working as a professional in project management, It’s also called giving back to the profession PDU’s which can be categorized into three categories as well : Category D with creating knowledge, Category E through volunteering and Category F with working as a professional. Only 4 PDU’s can be claimed through category F during the three years.
3. Once you collect the 30 PDU’s, you can apply for the credential renewal for $60 if you are a PMI member and $150 if you are not.

Best Ways to Earn to PDU’s for the PMI-RMP Exam

A. Your Day Job , Earn 8 PDU’s for FREE .

If you work as a Project Manager this is probably the easiest way to tick off up to 4 PDU’s per three year period. For the details on this and the other PDU categories mentioned below please refer to the PMI website.

B. Learn Deeply Practical Project Management on Udemy , Earn 15 PDU’s @ $12

A Course created by William Stewart , Applying the project management processes into practical life , Highly recommended for project management practitioners , and you can earn 15 PDU’s for the PMI PMP renewal process , the course is 9 Hours videos ,Register here for $12.

C. Learn MS Project beginner to expert on Udemy , Earn 9 PDU’s @ $12

Microsoft project is the most commonly used scheduling software in project management; even you are not a planner! you should be aware of using MS Project , Srikanth Shirodkar created the best seller MS project course on Udemy, which you make use of to learn MS project and earn 9 PDU’s for your PMP renewal process, the course is 9 Hours videos ,Register here for $12.

D. Learn Microsoft Excel for Project Managers on Udemy, Earn 5 PDU’s @ $12

Microsoft Excel can help you with so much of that! In this course we’re going to explore lots of things that Microsoft Excel can do for project management. We’ll dive into formatting, charting, conditional formatting, and building a custom dashboard and report. If you don’t have a more advanced project management software, that’s okay, you can do much of that business right in Microsoft Excel, this course is worth five (5) Professional Development Units with the Project Management Institute, the course is 4 Hours 30 minutes videos , Register here for $12.

E. PMP Seminar on Udemy, Earn 35 PDU’s @ $12

Formal Academic educational courses related to Project Management is one of the easier categories, Joseph Philips Formal Academic educational courses related to Project Management is one of the easier categories, Joseph Philips created a course on Udemy which includes 35 PDU’s with 20 Hours of Technical project management , 9 hours of business skills and 6 hours of leadership skills , at the end of the course you will have a certificate of completion which you can submit for the PMI renewal process , this seminar is considered as a great tool to refresh your knowledge in the PMBOK material , the course is 24 hours video . Register here for $12.

F. Volunteer Service

Become a volunteer of your local project management association like PMI Saudi Chapter or PMI Jordan chapter and earn 1 PDU for each hour of service. A letter or certificate from the organization acknowledging the participation is required for confirmation. (To find your local  PMI^® chapter, go to http://www.pmi.org/GetInvolved/Pages/PMI-Chapters.aspx)

G. Create new Project Management Knowledge

There is a lot you can do in this category to earn PDUs. You could be authoring or co-authoring articles, books or newsletters, present a webinar or podcast, or create and present a project management course. Each will earn you PDUs. The rule is that every hour spent in preparing and delivering these activities is equal to one PDU. The PDUs claimed in this category count toward the 12 PDU’s maximum for categories D, E and F.

H. Self-Study

Do you consume a lot of materials like reading articles or books, watching videos? If you participated in any of these activities and the topic at hand was relevant to project management, had a specified purpose and used knowledgeable resources then you can claim 1 PDU for each hour spent on this as “self-study”.

How to Submit PDU?

PMI supplies you with an online “Continuing Certification Requirements System” to record your PDU. After you have attended PDU activities, you can submit the PDU activity details through the Continuing Credential Requirements System (CCRS). If you participate in a webinar by PMI or projectmanagement.com, your PDU will be automatically recorded and there is no need to enter it manually.

After you have submitted the PDU request, PMI will review and approve the PDUs. You will receive an email and the PDU will be added to your account once PMI approve your request. PMI may require you to submit supporting documents with reference to the particular categories of PDU you are claiming within 5 days in order to evaluate your claim, after you have collected enough PDUs in your PMP® renewal cycle, PMI will send you an email asking you to complete the form and pay for credential renewal. The PMP® renewal fee is US$60 for PMI members and US$150 for non-members as I mentioned earlier ,the renewal application and payment process must be completed in 90 days after your credential end date in order for your to keep your PMI-RMP® status. PMI will send the new PMI-RMP® certificate to you within 6 to 8 weeks.

You PDU application might be selected for audit randomly before you are approved for PMP® renewal. You will need to present proof/documentation for all the PDU claimed during the 3-year cycle to PMI for verification.

In Case Of Audit

Like the PMI-RMP® Certification audit, you may be required to submit supporting documents for the PDU  you have claimed or selected for an audit process of your claimed PDU by presenting documentation for verification after submitting your renewal request. PMI requests PMI-RMP® to keep the documentation at least 18 months after the 3-year cycle.

Documentation for the PDU can be attendance certificate , registration confirmation letter , webinars, self-study or during discussion about project management , authored books / presentation materials / podcasts / record of webinars ,blog posts , transcript or grade report of academic courses .

Good Luck!