PM Training and Certification Is All Too Easy – Advance Your Career In Project Management

If you’re looking to advance your career in project management, obtaining the right training and certification is crucial. Project management is a rapidly growing field with increasing demand for qualified professionals. By investing in your professional development and acquiring the necessary skills and certifications, such as PM Training and Certification, you can open up new opportunities and propel your career forward.

Importance of PM Training and Certification

PM training and certification provide numerous benefits for project managers:

• Enhanced Knowledge and Skills: Training programs cover essential project management concepts, methodologies, and best practices. They equip you with the knowledge and skills required to successfully plan, execute, and monitor projects.
• Industry Recognition: Certification validates your expertise and demonstrates your commitment to the profession. It provides credibility and recognition in the industry, making you stand out among other project management professionals.
• Career Advancement: PM certification can significantly boost your career prospects. It increases your chances of landing higher-level positions, earning promotions, and accessing better job opportunities.
• Networking Opportunities: PM training programs often provide opportunities to connect with industry experts, peers, and potential employers. Networking can help you expand your professional contacts and gain insights from experienced professionals.
• Continual Learning: Project management is a dynamic field with evolving practices. Certification programs require you to maintain your knowledge through ongoing professional development, ensuring you stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends.

Choosing the Right PM Training and Certification

With numerous PM training and certification options available, it’s essential to select the one that aligns with your career goals and aspirations. Consider the following factors when choosing a PM training program:

• Accreditation: Ensure the training program is accredited by a reputable organization or institution.
• Course Content: Evaluate the curriculum to ensure it covers the relevant knowledge areas and methodologies.
• Instructor Expertise: Check the qualifications and experience of the instructors delivering the training.
• Flexibility: Consider the training format, whether it’s online, in-person, or a combination of both.
• Cost and Value: Assess the cost of the program in relation to the value it provides.
• Reviews and Recommendations: Read reviews and seek recommendations from professionals who have completed the program.

Achieving Your PM Training and Certification

The certifications that you receive are the foundation of your career in project management. Establishing mastery of the basics will open up new opportunities for you that were previously unattainable. Having a stable foundation and the basic certifications will allow you to build upon your career as time progresses. Achieving the pertinent certifications requires the correct training. Training options are available in various formats.

• Self-paced Online Course Training
• In-person Instructor Training
• Live Virtual Instructor Training

Whether you choose to train in-person or virtually and individually or in a classroom setting, achieving a certification is accessible and worthwhile.

Maintaining Your Status

After completing these programs and acquiring your certification you must maintain your status with Professional Development Units (PDUs). The requirements of a project management credential depend on the continued maintenance of your accreditation. Therefore as a PM, you must maintain a specific amount of PDU, which is earned by the continuation of involvement in training courses and events. The demanding environment and quick-moving curriculum require the consistently accelerated pace of a PM training and certification.

PMI Triangle

The PMI Talent Triangle identifies the core skills of project management. This is a tool that can help you understand the training requirements and standards of a successful PM. The PMI Talent Triangle will assist you in identifying the gaps in your education. This visual will help you target your goals and adjust your skill set to be on par with the global standards.

By addressing the three core areas of leadership, technical project management, and strategic/business management you will be on your way to complete success in project management.

There are various critical aspects highlighted in the PMI triangle:

• Strategic and Business Management: Business Acumen
  • Models and Structures
  • Industry Knowledge
  • Market Awareness

• Technical Project Management: Ways of Working
  • Risk Management
  • Schedule Management
  • Time, Budget, and Cost Estimation

• Leadership: Power Skills
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Teamwork
  • Interpersonal Skills

Technical Project Management

The foundational technical aspects of project management are required in every project that a PM takes on. As a PM you must be adept in the execution of the projects that you oversee. The PMI Skills triangle identifies the skills that PMs must be familiar with when managing large projects:

• Data Gathering and Modeling
• Planning and Schedule Management
• Scope Management
• Design Thinking
• Budgeting

Strategic and Business Management

There are various subsets of management:

• Project Management
• Program Management
• Portfolio Management

These identified subsets of management simplify the strategies that produce success in your projects. These simplified strategies are a tool that will map the success of a project. It is important that the project manager understands these strategies and can oversee their translation into a project.

Leadership

The identified roles of management are a tool used to bring clarity to a large, daunting project or job. It is the job of a manager to use these suggested tools and find alternative and dynamic approaches to challenges that may arise in a project. A manager must devise the best plan of action while maintaining a minimal risk for error. Managers must navigate conflict, disagreement, and unforeseen problems decisively.

Skills of leadership that are required in managers include:

• Creativity
• Management
• Soft Skills
• Communication
• Personality
• Respect

The methodologies of project management are important for every PM to understand. There is a vast variety of projects that PMs can be in charge of. These differing projects vary in nature and no methodology of management is a “one size fits all” solution. A complete understanding of management and its strategies is required for the work of a PM who should be able to apply a multitude of methodologies to a wide variety of projects.

Stacy’s Model of Complexity

Stacy’s Model of Complexity relays a simplified visual of the decision-making process that PMs will have to consider.

This model depicts regions of simplicity, complexity, and chaos and identifies the varying degrees of uncertainty. A PM should be able to identify the areas of uncertainty in their project and weigh the solutions against the predictability of their outcomes. PMs must navigate the complex nature of their projects and devise the most suitable, adaptive, and dynamic solutions.

Let’s discuss a few terms that will help you better understand the world of project management.

Waterfall Method

The Waterfall Method is a linear approach and methodology to an organized project. In this approach, each phase of the process will come one at a time and no two phases will overlap. Each phase will be completed before you move on to the next.

The advantages of the Waterfall Method are abundant. One can begin the Waterfall Method by scheduling deadlines with each stage of development that is completed. This sets the project on a direct path with clear points and a defined finish line. This organized method is valuable for someone who needs a clear, simplified direction to follow.

Someone following the Waterfall Method will be able to hone in on a smaller piece of the project without becoming overwhelmed by the bigger picture. As one follows the waterfall method, each phase should be closed before the next is opened. This continued simplicity is required for this method to be executed properly. The linear Waterfall Method and its divided phases are typically depicted as a multi-layered waterfall.

The downwards direction of the water, moving through each step represents the sequential phases that the project should follow. This flow of process defines each step clearly. The job of the project manager is to translate the project into steps broken down as so. The success of the Waterfall Method is dependent on the PM’s ability to define clear stages with high regard for the success of the end goal of the project. The PM must recognize that each stage drawn out is a critical milestone in the execution of the project.

A project manager must be able to relay the direction of the project to the people who are completing the various stages. There are many small tasks within each stage and those not made aware of the big picture may lose direction. A PM is accountable for every aspect of the project from the planning to the execution. The purpose of the broken down stages is to align everyone involved including the team working on the project to the project stakeholders.

The waterfall method focuses on:

• Detailed Analysis
• Monitoring and Control
• Risk Management
• Budgeting
• Team Management
• Documentation
• Goal Setting
• Detailed Scheduling
• Breakdown Structures
• Testing

The Agile Approach

The complex and multi-layered nature of projects requires adaptive and flexible approaches. The Agile Approach falls under the umbrella of “adaptive methodologies.” This is the second training option we would like you to familiarize yourself with PM Training and Certification.

The Agile Approach has been popularized due to the growing demand for a flexible approach to project management. The requirements and challenges of projects do not remain static. The nature of project management is ever-changing.

Values and Advantages

The core principle of the Agile Approach is to deliver the work of the project in small iterations or sprints. A short sprint rather than a long marathon maintains the stamina of the given project. The dedicated sprints are chosen on the basis of prioritization for a high requirement of functionality. The quick and continuous patterns keep the project paced in an upward direction.

In this method, stakeholders are fed constant updates on productivity and do not have to wait long periods to be let in on the progress of the project. Incremental delivery of progress decreases the amount of time to market and produces a competitive and high revenue. Short sprints of progress allow for sudden changes to be made without the risk of having a large setback in the project.

The biggest value of the Agile Approach is the quick streamlining between customer feedback and the team of developers. Access to continuous and incremental feedback allows the PM to readjust their future sprints to align better with a changed direction in the project. These days, adaptive approaches, mainly agile, are included in almost all of the project management certifications learning material (e.g. PMP, CAPM, ACP).

Soft Skill Training

We have covered technical methodologies to project management but a PM must also possess a high regard for soft skills. Soft skills are useful in the application of any methodology or technology that a PM is involved with. Soft skills are tools that create a great and versatile project manager.

Project managers working on larger projects are required to manage a larger team of people. PMs must develop effective soft skills that enable them to interact harmoniously with team members. Creating personal relationships and developing professional trust builds stronger teams and a better-executed project. Soft skills are a foundational requirement for a manager that leads a large group of people.

Soft skills are a universal ability that is relevant in many areas of work. You can access training for soft skills sessions at any point in your career. Training options that focus on soft skills often do not have many prerequisites and will not require you to already be a PM. If you choose to enlist in soft skill training at the beginning of your career you will have a great foundation to build upon with future learned skills and strategies.

You may also choose to take explicit soft skills training in the middle of your career as a PM to maintain your PDU and continue your professional development as a project manager.

Project managers must navigate both hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills include:

• Budgeting
• Scheduling
• Planning

Soft Skills include:

• Adaptability
• Communication
• Leadership

Training options that offer work on soft skills will focus on the following:

• Leadership
• Time Management
• Negotiation Management
• Problem Solving
• Communication Skills
• Conflict Management skills
• Team Management
• Decision Making

These skills are versatile but essential to every aspect of management. Taking on a managerial role is dynamic and requires a multitude of skills. From conflict resolution to critical decision-making, project management is a diverse job. Every project that you work on will carry its separate challenges. As you continue to lead as a PM you will gain experience under your belt that will advance your skills in management. Training programs in soft skills offer acceleration of progression in your development of vital soft skills.

A Readiness for Digital Age

The previous training options give a well-rounded foundation to project management. However, there are many other training options to be considered that fall under the umbrella of project management. In an age of digital innovation, PMs must evolve with the growing market. Disruptive technologies will infiltrate the market persistently and continuously. Forward-thinking organizations will sustain themselves by increasing market share and maintaining aggressive progress.

Leading a team through uncharted times and unprecedented markets is a job requirement of a project manager. The most important role of a PM that exists in an unstable market is the certainty that you bring to your team. Employees must see confidence in their leader. A reliable and certain leader will encourage and protect your team through unforeseen circumstances.

Focus on the following skills to not only lead but thrive in a developing digital age:

• Innovative Mindset
• Security and Privacy Knowledge
• Compliance Knowledge
• Ability to make data-driven decisions
• Collaboration Leadership Skills

These skills will advance your career in an ever-changing market. Prepare for any circumstance as a project manager.

Conclusion

Investing in PM training and certification is a wise decision for anyone looking to advance their career in project management. It equips you with the necessary skills, knowledge, and industry recognition to excel in the field. Take the time to research and choose the right training program that suits your needs and aspirations. By doing so, you’ll be on your way to unlocking new career opportunities and achieving success in project management.

Have you led projects and are looking to earn a project management certification?  You might be interested in learning about how lucrative this can be.  Check out these articles.

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