PMI Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is the most sought after professional certification. PMP being the short for Project Management Professional is a credential offered to project managers by (PMI) Project Management Institute with headquarters at Pennsylvania, USA. The Project Management Institute was incorporated in October of 1969 in Pennsylvania, by its founders – James Snyder, Eric Jenett, Gordon Davis, E.A. “Ned” Engman and Susan C. Gallagher as a not-for-profit professional membership association for the project, program and portfolio profession.Going by the report in May 2017 edition of PMI Today, the Project management institute has 286 chapters, in 208 countries and has 484,524 members as of 2016. This has since increased drastically. As of March 2018, the membership has increased to 833,025 active PMP certified individuals in 286 chapters globally.
We previously wrote about the benefits of Project Management Professional certification for individuals. Today we will look at the organizational benefits of PMP certification, different from our earlier enumerated general benefits of professional certification to organizations . By organizational benefits, we mean globally recognized benefits organizations tend to gain when they have PMP certified project managers in their team. This could either be by hiring certified projects mangers or sponsoring employees for this invaluable professional certification.
1.) Having Better Project Manager
The first benefit that comes to mind at any time is that companies will now have improved project managers. Employees will of necessity learn the PMBOK, which they wouldn’t have done if they are not PMP certified. The PMBOK which means Project Management Body of Knowledge, contains the entire collection of processes, best practices, terminologies, and guidelines that are accepted as standards within the project management industry for better project execution.Certified project managers stand shoulder higher than others in project execution because they bring exceptional efficiency to bear in the discharge of their duties.
2.) Competitive Advantage
In today’s business world, where the competition is stiff and a classic case of “only the strong survive”, to stay ahead of the crowd there is need to have a unique strategy that consistently deliver laudable business results. The ability to deliver projects timely and within budget is often a deciding factor as to whether your company will get the next job or whether her new product will hits the market as scheduled. As a business owner, when you adopt project management practices across your organisation, you will be able to easily create efficient strategic value chain that will give you advantage over your competitors. Also, organisations that use some formal project management approach successfully meet their goals (PMI Pulse of the Profession 2018 survey). Furthermore, adopting the PMP processes, best practices, terminologies, and guideline for your organization’s operation will bring your firm a greater level of success.
3.) Certified PMPs Make Projects Successful
Project managers face a lot of challenges in project execution but there are some reasons that could be attributed to a project failure:
• Uncertain scope of the of project objectives
• Poor or improper project specification
• Unrealistic timescale and over-optimism
• Fewer resources or inappropriate staff
• Failure to manage project dynamics
• Failure to meet client’s expectation
• etc.
Irrespective of what the challenge may be, the Project Management Institute has introduced a project management framework which is the basis for a Project Management Professional Training. This framework was formed after years of research and industrial liaison. PMP professionals possess extensive knowledge of this framework and its application therefore making them capable of managing any project in a smart way, to bring the much needed project execution success to organizations they represent.
4.) Efficient Risk Management
Risks are naturally associated with projects and because projects don’t always go exactly according to plan, risk tolerance is necessary for organisations. PMP training teaches employees how to successfully mitigate risk, plan for uncertainty and reduce all forms of ambiguity to the barest minimum. The knowledge acquired from Project Management Professional training makes it possible for professionals to properly acknowledge and account for risk management.Therefore, when an organization adopts project management practices within her operational space she will not only encourage the avoidance of risks, but also reduces costs and ensures an efficient delivery process for project execution. Professionals will also know which project not to embark on to save cost.
5.) Easy Collaboration With Other Organizations
Its clear from the aforesaid that risks are inevitable in project execution. But Project Management Professionals are able to manage the unexpected as they are vast in relevant knowledge and trained to expect the unexpected in project execution. This will make project execution seamless in cases when organization team up with other organization.
Adopting a standard project management techniques and processes makes collaboration with other firms easier, saves time and cost and help with easy mitigation of risk. The accepted processes, tools, and documents endorsed by the Project Management Institute ensures a common approach for risk identification, analysis, and proper management.
Working with PMI’s standardization create a healthy and enabling environment for easy collaboration with other organizations for successful shared project execution.
6.) Increased Revenue For Organizations
By choosing to adopt the processes, best practices, terminologies, and guidelines that are accepted as standards within the project management industry for better project execution, you deliver exceptional customer satisfaction. And enhanced customer satisfaction translates into more projects and client’s recommendation.
7.) Increased PMPs
Hiring Project Management Professionals in your organization will highly motivate others within the organization to get certified as well even if the company is not sponsoring them. This comes from the fact that PMP certification will give the credential holder edge and superiority over other as he would be able to proffer solution to handle difficult projects easily. The resultant effect of this is more job roles which will pressure others who want to stay relevant in the organization to get PMP certification. And increased numbers of certified project managers means high efficiency for the organization.
Conclusion
In summary, PMP certification certainly adds tangible value to an individual’s professional credentials and this is expressed in the employees efficiency and expertise in duty discharge. Therefor, the relevant question should not be whether to take the certification or not. What should be an issue for consideration is when is the best time to enroll for the training. The earlier an employee get PMP certification, the better it is for them and the organization they represent. Organizations can also encourage her employees to get Project Management Certification by, sponsoring them, providing them with study materials, a supportive culture that encourages them to get trained, encourage positive peer pressure and providing good incentives to Project Management Professionals in the form of bonuses and salary increase.
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