If you have ever considered obtaining a project management certification, there is a high chance that you are aware of the Project Management Professional (PMP) and the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certificates, offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). For many specialists, choosing between these two credentials is a difficult choice to make. If you are in this dilemma, this blog post will help you make an informed decision and understand which of the two is appropriate for your career path.

What Is the Difference Between PMP and CAPM?

The major difference between these two credentials is that PMP is a professional-level certification while CAPM is an associate-level one. The individuals with the PM certificate have some level of experience in the industry and have been recognized as professionals. Hence, PMI PMP is focused on the experienced project managers. On the other hand, the associate level means an entry-level credential. In other words, CAPM can be described as an entry-level certification when compared to PMP. The implication of this is that Certified Associate in Project Management is aimed at those individuals who want to improve their project management skills and earn a validation in the process.

Another difference between these two certificates is the difficulty level of their exams. The test for CAPM is easier when compared to PMP. In addition to this, it has less restrictive requirements and, of course, it is less expensive. Let’s delve into the two certification exams properly.

• PMP Exam

The PMP credential is seen as the gold standard as far as the project management certifications are concerned. Its exam is also believed to be one of the most difficult tests. It is made up of 200 multiple-choice questions and has four hours allocated for its completion. It covers the concepts and principles of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide. The exam content is more than what you simply memorize. Rather, it measures your understanding of the topics and concepts, as well as your ability to apply the theoretical knowledge.

To write the PMP test, you have to pay the exam fee of $405 for the PMI members, and $555 – for the non-members. There are some specific prerequisites. The candidates are required to have a high school diploma or an associate degree or its equivalent. In addition to this, you should have at least 7,500 hours of project management experience and 35 hours of education in the field of project management. An alternative prerequisite is a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent 4-year degree, 4,500 hours of PM experience, and 35 hours PM education. To maintain your PMI certification, you have to earn 60 PDUs (Professional Development Units) within three years. You can learn more details about the exam and the recertification process on the official webpage.

• CAPM Exam

CAPM is also based on the PMBOK but it is more focused on understanding the principles and concepts rather than applying knowledge. It is a 3-hour exam consisting of 150 multiple-choice questions. No doubt, the CAPM test is easier than the PMP exam, but it is not so simple. As a matter of fact, the CAPM credential is believed to require more difficult test than many other entry-level project management certificates. To write the CAPM exam, you have to pay the fee of $225 for the PMI members, and $300 – for the non-members. The prerequisites for this certification test include a high school diploma or an associate degree (or its equivalent), and 23 hours of PM education, or 1,500 hours of PM experience. To recertify the CAMP credential, you have to retake the exam every five years. You can learn more about this in the CAPM handbook.

Is It Possible to Upgrade CAPM to PMP?

Unlike many other IT certifications, you cannot upgrade your CAPM to PMP. The two credentials are entirely different. The good thing about it is that CAPM gives you thorough foundational knowledge for the PMP exam. In addition to this, the education hours on project management you have attained for your CAPM can be applied to fulfill the prerequisites for the PMP test.

PMP vs. CAPM: Real World Roles and Responsibilities

A PMP certified professional is qualified for a full time project management role. The individuals have the capacity to manage projects of different sizes. These specialists can pursue the job titles, such as a project manager, a project controller, and a program manager. While working in any of these positions, they are required to take up ownership of large and complex projects. They are also expected to lead their team to project conclusion considering the budget and time.

A CAPM certified professional takes up the entry-level roles. These individuals work as assistant project managers, junior business analysts, or project coordinators. They will be required to apply their skills in coordinating teams, scheduling, and enhancing effective communication among the project team members. With CAPM alone, you are unlikely to head large projects with large budgets. However, if you have significant technical experience, you can still be given a leadership position. Technical experience is of great importance for the job that you received.

PMP vs. CAPM: Salaries

There are a lot of variables that determine salaries, and the PM credentials are just one of them. However, based on the PayScale report, a PMP certified professional can earn an average of $104,000 per annum while a CAPM certificate holder can get about $65,000 per year.

Conclusion

The ‘best’ in this case is very relative. Both credentials can add value to your resume, and your choice is dependent on your experience and your ability to fulfill the certification prerequisites.

This blog article explores the four areas where you will need to function optimally in a small IT shop. It is essential to mention that these are not the only skills, but they are definitely among the best that will be of great help for you.

• Data Analysis

If you work in an organization where you are the only IT professional, there is a good chance that you are an analyst, a trainer, and a database administrator. As a matter of fact, you can also take up some level of Excel training. You can develop your skills to become an expert in many areas. To gain more exposure to some of the best tools for data analysis, you might want to focus on technologies, such as Power BI, Python, and Tableau. Having expertise in these tools will enable you to automate data requests and reports, and you may also be able to equip your users to explore data on their own. If this is interesting for you, 2019 is a great year to consider this path. By the way, it can be useful to know that there is currently a high demand for the data professionals, and this demand is expected to grow by about 364,000 openings by 2020.

• Cybersecurity

Any organization and team, irrespective of its size, requires security. The number of offensive attacks is increasing, and there have been reports of hacking systems and attracting the users to ransom. To mitigate this, the companies are heavily investing in cybersecurity in today’s business world. As a matter of fact, the global spend on cybersecurity services and products are expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2021. The core goal of offensive attacks is to access information that the hackers can sell. Another goal is to cause harm to a business enterprise or an industry. This means you have to equip your team with the right tool to mitigate any attack. However, before you can achieve this, you need to develop your security skills. There are various ways you can enhance them. In fact, the number of security training available in the industry is limitless. However, as a small team, you may want to stick with the basics for the purpose of resources and time. Some vendors that you can explore include Microsoft and Cisco. You can consider some vendor-neutral credentials from CompTIA.

It is very critical to equip every employee in your organization with up-to-date information and security best practices in the industry. As an IT professional, you should be able to explain in detail to your team members how cybersecurity functions. As a result, it will be easy for everyone in the company to take steps to secure the network or handle the basics.

• Project Management

As mentioned earlier, as an IT professional, you are the whole team, including technicians and managers. Equipping yourself with project management skills will help you understand how you can successfully manage projects within timeline and budget. When you have a project management framework in place, you are sure that everything is within your control without anything falling through. Project management knowledge will help you in scheduling, task management, and critical thinking. All of them are an integral part of any successful organization, irrespective of its size. If your company has a small IT team, it means it will likely have a small project management unit. The implication of this is that the IT pro in the team will have to wear many hats.

You can easily develop your skills in project management and validate your experience with the relevant certification. You can consider the ITIL credential to validate your IT knowledge as well as your project management skills.

• Collaboration Technologies

The size of the team doesn’t matter as every organization uses some kind of collaboration technology. Whether it is Microsoft Team for chat or Cisco Call Center for phones, there is always a need for collaboration technology in your team. Hence, there is a need for someone to manage the systems. Since you are an IT specialist, there is the tendency that the responsibility will fall on you. This means you have to develop competence in at least the fundamentals of collaboration tools. No doubt, this will be a worthwhile venture.

Many employers across the industries look out for the qualified specialists with the ability to combine different online communication tools and utilize them appropriately to develop a stronger and deeper communication platform. If you have this ability, you are on your way to becoming a highly valuable IT pro in your organization. You will also be perceived as a contemporary IT expert who has the capacity to run any technologies and combine them to create an excellent working tool.

Conclusion

The skills highlighted above will definitely help you stand out from the crowd. Developing skills in data, security, or project management will widen the scope of your activity and the circle of people with whom you can effectively work and communicate. It also brings the potential to land a more lucrative job role.

Why the update?

Every few years, the PMI conducts the RDS, or Role Designation Study, to see how the roles have changed, and to update certifications in order to keep them relevant to the current project management landscape. The last time PMP certification got such an overhaul was in 2011, so obviously, it was time to conduct the RDS this year.

The research has resulted in significant changes to the exam. These changes mainly reflect how the role of the project manager has evolved over the past 4 years. When it comes to the approach of this project management certification, the key changes include:

• Emphasis on business strategy and benefits realization – since project managers get involved in projects earlier than they used to be in the past, and have to focus on project development and project benefits, and not just project deliverables.
• Value of lessons learned – lessons learned throughout the entire lifecycle of the project, rather than lessons learned from previous projects on the initiation stage and lessons learned during this particular projects which are looked into during the closing stage.
• Project charter responsibility –much project manager isn’t the only one responsible for project charter: creating and approving the project charter is also responsibility of the project sponsor. Project Manager contributes to its development, but is no longer the only person responsible for the project charter.
• Enhancing stakeholder relationships – increased emphasis on relationships and engagement with stakeholders to ensure the utmost efficiency of the project team.

When it comes to exam itself, the new PMP exam outline has the same domains, however, their percentage/weight (how many questions related to each topic are included in the exam) has changed. So expect different number of questions per domain.

New PMP Exam Domains:

• Initiating the project: 13%
• Planning: 24%
• Executing the project: 31%
• Monitoring and controlling 25%
• Closing the project 7%

According to PMI, each topic includes a list of tasks a project manager faces. Questions correspond to these tasks. This year, PMI adds 8 entirely new tasks to its PMP exam. Here’s a quick cheat table on what you should pay special attention to in the blueprint:

So what does this change mean for you as a PMP candidate? With the new PMP exam, you will be facing 25% of new content focusing on 8 new tasks. There will also be a sufficient percentage of updated/new questions on topic that were already on the exam. According to PMI, the PMP exam is undergoing sufficient overhaul, and soon we will see what this is all about.

What remains the same? The new PMP certification exam will have the same eligibility requirements and the same structure. It will consist of 200 scenario-based multiple choice questions. You will get an immediate pass/fail result once you finish your exam.

PMI’s PMP certification is considered to be the best paid project management credential in the world. So if you think that you’ve got what it takes to achieve this certification and reap rewards associated with it, you should start your PMP preparation now. Visit PMI’s website for further info.

As many of you know, Agile is a collection of similar methodologies, and the PMI-ACP exam covers most of them. This includes : Lean, Kanban, test-driven development (TDD), Scrum and extreme programming (XP), which makes this certification very versatile and applicable in almost any organization.

PMI has recently announced changes to the PMI-ACP exam. The pilot for the new exam began on July 15, 2015 and continues through October 15, 2015, so you can now try and take the updated version of the exam and save 20%. Most notable among the 2015 changes is the addition of an entirely new practice domain — Domain 1: Agile Principles and Mindset. It will account for 16% of your exam score. According to PMI, this domain helps candidates “explore, embrace, and apply agile principles and mindset within the context of the project team and organization.” The domain covers nine practice areas:

• Modeling agile principles and values to develop a shared mindset across the team;
• Ensure a common understanding of agile values and principles, and a common knowledge of agile practices and terminology;
• Support change through education and influencing processes, behaviors and people;
• Practice visualization;
• Contribute to safe and trustful team environments;
• Enhance creativity; encourage experimentation with new ideas, processes, and techniques;
• Encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration;
• Encourage leadership;
• Practice servant leadership.

Besides this domain, the exam will include the following: Value-Driven Delivery, Stakeholder Engagement, Team Performance, Adaptive Planning, Problem Detection and Resolution, and Continuous Improvement (Product, Process, People).

The pilot for the new exam began on July 15, 2015 and continues through October 15, 2015. For those who are adventurous and willing to take the exam early, PMI is offering a 20 percent discount to all PMI-ACP test takers before August 16, 2015. The normal exam fee is $435 USD for members and $495 for non-members, so this is a nice savings. After August 16, regular exam fee rates apply. The pilot phase ends on October 15, 2015.

For more information, visit the PMI website, and keep an eye on latest PMI exam dumps at ExamCollection.

Obviously, the CAPM looks like a better option compared to the Project+ as it’s developed by PMI, the organization that sets standards in the project management industry. The good news about the Project+, however, is the fact that it was developed on the same PMBOK (project management body of knowledge), hence, it covers the same information as the CAPM. So, what’s the difference between these two credentials?

First, prerequisites. Like with the PMP, PMI does not make it easy with the CAPM. To be eligible for the Certified Associate In Project Management credential, candidates need to have either 1,500 hours of documented on-the-job experience (approximately 9 months of full-time work) or 23 hours of project management classroom training. Project+, however, does not have these requirements.

Both CAPM and Project+ require sitting one exam that covers more or less similar areas. Neither of the two exams is easy, and some people fail, but the CAPM fail rate does not even come close to the PMP, which is notoriously hard.

The CAPM is definitely a great option for IT professionals interested in project management. Yet, it’s worth keeping in mind that it’s still an entry level certification, meaning that it’s is unlikely to provide a ticket to a proper project management job. However, it may be great for those IT professionals who have to deal with a number of project management aspects in their daily work, and need some project management training to work more efficiently. For the very same reason these candidates may want to consider CompTIA Project+ certification.

CompTIA has an excellent reputation as a certifying body for its balanced and quality certifications. The Project+ is another example of CompTIA doing a good job. Compared to the CAPM, Project+ comes from a computing industry-spanning organization that develops its certification programs based on the needs and input from industry stakeholders, from leading IT companies to government organizations, education institutions etc. This way, CompTIA Project+ credential targets the needs of project management with a special focus on the IT industry – which adds a huge value to this certification.

CompTIA Project+ certification does not have any prerequisites, and candidates have to take one exam: PK0-003.

Many certification holders and project management experts agree that the Project+ is easier to obtain, which makes it seem somewhat less valuable compared to the CAPM. In spite of that, Project+ is just as good a stepping stone to the PMP, as CAPM. Yet, if you google for entry level positions in project management, many mention having the CAPM as an advantage while very few list the Project+.

Summing up, both credentials are definitely worth your attention if you are looking for an entry level project management certification. The CAPM definitely has the challenge and edge to it, while CompTIA’s Project+ is more IT industry focused, and this fact may come as a significant advantage to many candidates.