PMPs have to accumulate at least 60 PDUs (Professional Development Units) every 3 years in order to preserve their title. Gathering these PDUs is not has hard as one might think, as there are several ways to earn PDUs for free:
- Self-Improvement: Reading excellent PM essays, articles, papers and books can earn the Project Manager up to 5 PDUs/year, that’s 15 for 3 years.
- Working as a Project Manager: This is one of the easiest requirements, since PMPs usually have Project Management jobs, then they’re allowed to claim up to 5 PDUs for year. Again, that’s 15 for 3 years. Note that the amount of Project Management work must be at least 1,500 hours/year in order to be eligible for the 5 PDUs.
- Writing Some Papers on Project Management and Having them Published: When any Project Manager writes a decent Project Management paper and gets that paper published in a decent Project Management magazine (online or offline), then PMI will reward him with anything between 10 to 30 PDUs.
There are other ways to accumulate free PDUs such as: Speaking at PMI chapters, and doing some volunteer work on Project Management.
Of course, Project Managers can always go the easy way and take a Project Management course in a university (thus pay money). A 16 week course can easily equate 48 PDUs.
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