How Many PDUs Required for PMP Certification Maintenance?

Gaining a PMP certification is a significant achievement that displays your knowledge, experience, and dedication to excel in project management jobs. PMP-certified professionals must satisfy ongoing professional development prerequisites to sustain the top-notch standard of expertise.

You have to track your professional development activities using a Professional Development Unit (PDU) metric provided by Project Management Institute (PMI). Monitoring your PDUs ensures you satisfy the PMP PDU prerequisites to maintain active credential status.

In this article, we will see how the certification holder can maintain the PMP accreditation and how many PDUs you will need to keep the active status.

How Many PDUs Do I Need for PMP Maintenance?

The criteria for maintaining a PMP certification through PMI are simple: you got 3 years to earn 60 PDUs. This 3-year Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) cycle begins when you pass the credential exam.

What is PDU?

PMI defines PDUs as one-hour blocks of time that you spend learning, teaching others, or volunteering, and 1 PDU equals to 1-hour. Therefore, to 60 PDUs, fulfill PMI certification renewal prerequisites, and successfully maintain your PMP certification, you must spend 60-hours through applicable project management activities.

While PMI is flexible regarding how you earn the PDUs, you must follow specific PMP criteria concerning the 2 types of PDUs: Giving Back and Education.

Giving Back PDUs

Here, you can earn a maximum of 25 PDUs. This includes hours you spend contributing to the project management by sharing knowledge, applying your skills, and volunteering. 

The Giving Back PDUs are optional; there are no criteria for earning these PDUs. Here are a few ways how you can earn 25 PDUs for this category:

• Volunteer your professional services. PMI makes it seamless for you to volunteer for a company outside your organization through numerous activities.
• Write and share blogs or articles on project management. Publications like PMI's Knowledge Shelf provide ways for professionals and companies to share experiences and viewpoints that help in enriching the project management sector.
• PMI lets you work as a practitioner, where you can earn a maximum of 8 PDUs in one CCR cycle for professional activities. 

PMI recognizes the significance of empowering its credential holders to give back to the profession, which is why you can earn up to 25 Giving Back PDUs.

Education PDUs

This includes hours you spend on continuing education in project management and related subjects. The project management sector is constantly transforming, which indicates that ongoing education is necessary for project managers who wish to remain in the top spot in their area.

According to PMI criteria, you have to earn a minimum of 35 PDUs in this category. But if you want, you can also acquire all the 60 Education PDUs.

Let's see some examples of how you can earn Education PDUs:

• PMI holds virtual and in-person PMP community events such as college or university events, chapter meetings, specific interest groups, etc. 
• Take Authorized Training Provider (ATP) courses. iCert Global is a PMI-approved ATP - where all our courses are approved for PMP certification maintenance.
• Conduct self-directed project management research, learning, or other study approaches. PMI provides resources to assist you in correctly claiming self-directed PDUs.
• Learn with PMI e-Learning that helps project managers to develop relevant skills and earn PDUs.

Note: Your Education PDUs must align with the PMI Talent Triangle.

PMI Talent Triangle PDUs

The PMI Talent Triangle explains the three critical skill areas for influential PMP-certified professionals:

• Technical
• Leadership
• Strategic & Business Management

PMP certification requires that you align your education PDUs to each of these 3 skill areas by earning at least 8 PDUs/area.

Technical Area of the Talent Triangle

PMI defines this area as the Skills, knowledge, and behaviors related to specific domains of program, project, and portfolio management, i.e., the technical aspects of performing your role.

You can earn Technical Education PDUs by gaining experience in project management. For instance, you can take an earned value project management practices course or learn about schedule management methods.

Leadership Area of the Talent Triangle

PMI defines this area as the skills, knowledge, and behaviors involved in the potential to encourage, guide, and direct others to achieve a target. There are several methods to build PMP competency in these areas to achieve a common objective.

Let's see a few ways in which you can earn Leadership Education PDUs:

• Learn about approaches across negotiation, brainstorming, coaching & mentoring, and other areas
• Attend a seminar regarding team development, management of conflicts, or other related skills.
• Undergo a learning session on topics like interpersonal or emotional intelligence skills within your company.

Strategic & Business Management Area of the Talent Triangle

PMI defines this area as the knowledge and expertise in the industry that helps you align your team to improve performance and better delivery of business outcomes.

You can learn business-related PMP skills in several ways. PMI and its ATPs provide related in-person and online courses, and so does universities and colleges. Now, which option you go for depends on whether you wish to learn more about business models, develop customer relationship management, or gain industry and market knowledge.

Remember, after you have earned a minimum of 8 PDUs in each area of the PMI Talent Triangle, you can achieve the rest of the Education PDUs in any skill area.

Concluding Thoughts

Earning 60 PDUs to maintain your PMP credential can be daunting. However, let's see a few tips that will help you make the process streamlined and seamless:

• Start searching for ways to achieve 60 PDUs from the day you pass the test. The sooner you earn all, the easier the costs will be for the maintenance.
• Keep either a digital or a physical folder with proofs that will help you back up all the PDUs you got for PMP credential renewal.
• Be organized. If you have undergone ATP classes, ensure you got their number.
• Report PDUs as you complete them via the CCR systems. This indicates that you got little work to do to complete the renewal process.
• If you earn all 60 PDUs before the cycle expires, take the opportunity to apply PDU credits to your following process. As a PMP certified professional, you can apply up to 20 PDUs earned in the last year of your current CCR cycle to your next CCR cycle.

Once you earn all 60 PDUs, PMI will offer you the information you require to complete the renewal process, including where to submit the processing fee and, if necessary, any documents.

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