I am a long-time practitioner of the predictive approach to managing projects, and in the past few years have been exposed to more Agile approaches. I wish I had done so much earlier in my career such are the benefits.
The Agile approach has huge relevance in today’s project delivery environment and delivers a lot of advantages. These include closer business collaboration, more frequent product releases and the ability to embrace change for strategic customer benefit. All together these benefits provide a greater level of flexibility to meet & deliver on customer expectations.
To supplement my experience in the adaptive approach I chose to pursue the PMI’s Agile Certified Practitioner Certification (PMI-ACP) to further recognise my experience as an Agile practitioner. The PMI-ACP serves as a formal recognition of my understanding and skills of Agile principles and techniques. It allows my employers, peers, and stakeholders to know the credibility of my agile capabilities and denotes both knowledge and experience, as both are needed to obtain this certification.
It is seen as a complement to one’s experience and is an industry-recognised ‘stamp of approval’.
With the growing adoption of Agile by organisations to align with the demands of markets & competitors, there is an ever-increasing demand for PMI-ACP certification and Disciplined Agile (DA) practises. The PMI-ACP certification covers Kanban, Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Lean. All of these have enhanced my levels of flexibility and capability in my day to day working environment.
To obtain PMI-ACP certification, I had to first complete an application via the PMI.org website. This was a straightforward process where I detailed my experience and education as there are criteria that must be met to obtain this cert. Once my application was approved, I was able to schedule my PMI-ACP exam for a day and time that suited me. The exam itself contains 120 questions with multiple choice answers and gave me 3 hours to answer all the questions. The required mark to pass the exam is in the region of 70-75% though the PMI never share the exact number.
With my PMI-ACP certification, I have increased my value as an agile team member, through increased agile adoption, increased productivity and competitive advantages for my client organisations. The certification within the agile environment can potentially develop into multiple role options to pursue such as Agile PM, Agile Coach, Scrum Master or Product Owner.
To maintain my Agile certificate, I need to earn at least 30 Professional Development Units (PDUs) every 3 years. This I fully intend to do as having the agile traits definitely makes me a more rounded and better-prepared project manager. Regardless of my project, client or environment, having that appreciation & understanding of Agile serves to enhance my capabilities.
Author: Thomas McGrath, Senior Project Manager, Aspira.