Yesterday, I submitted the last PDUs I needed for the 3-year cycle and was able to renew my certification early. Here’s how I did it, and some additional ideas.
PDU Overview
PDUs are Professional Development Units. For PMI, 1 PDU = 1 hour of PM training or study.Whether or not you need or will benefit from pursuing PDU activities and resources depends on where you’re at in your PM study:
Certified PMP: If you’ve certified PMP already, then you must get 60 PDUs in 3 years to maintain your certification.
PMP Candidate: If you’ve not yet certified or are new to PM, you don’t need PDUs. Traditional PDU sources usually do not count toward the required 35 contact hours you’ll need to apply to take the exam.Still, traditional PDU activities and resources are excellent opportunities to learn and review PM concepts and tools, but they may not always align completely to the PMBOK, and that should be your focus for exam prep. (Check out my PM Prepcast page for good exam prep resources.)
PM Student: If you’re a PM student not yet seeking certification, traditional PDU activities are an excellent way to gain new PM knowledge in short bites over time. I highly recommend that approach, so keep reading. (As a PM Student, you’ll probably also enjoy Josh Nankivel’s new site, Project Management e-Learning.)
How I earned my PDUs
I earned all 60 PDUs within the first year of my certification. Here are the activities I pursued:
- Teach classes on PM topics: I took a good, straightforward, introductory PM book and designed a class / book club discussion cycle around that book for my staff. See my post about this here: http://www.cottagepm.com/blog/archives/143. Designing a class garners a certain number of PDUs, and teaching the class garners more. I taught the class twice during the first year, and am teaching it again now in another department at my company. I also taught classes on other PM topics, such as Communication skills.
- Attend local PMI chapter events: My local PMI chapter hosts a monthly luncheon and lecture. The monthly event gets you 1 PDU. That’s 10 per year (they skip summer). The chapter events have also provided me networking opportunities with local PMs and given me insight into some interesting PM topics. My chapter also hosts a “Professional Development Day” once each year. That’s worth 8 PDUs.
- Attend PM topic training: This is easier than it sounds. Relevant training can cover any of the many Knowledge Areas you see listed in PMBOK. For example, we decided to bring in an Email training class for our department based on the book, “The Hamster Revolution.” The beta class was 4 hours = 4 PDUs. It wasn’t PM training; it was Communication training. Communication is a Knowledge Area for PMBOK, and training in Communication is relevant to PM and counts as PDUs. A Time Management course would also count.
- Read relevant books: I read a handful of books whose topics are relevant to PM. I blogged about one of them here: http://www.cottagepm.com/blog/archives/340. Time spent reading these materials counts as PDUs — self-training, self-directed learning activities. There are limits on how many PDUs you can get in the category.
- Mentor PMP Candidates: Do you work with PMP candidates? Time spent mentoring them on PM skills, on study tips, on the exam application process, etc., all count as PDUs.
- Listen to the Project Management Podcast: Cornelius Fichtner provides a free podcast on PM topics. He also has a Premium subscription version. I subscribed and the time spent listening to these excellent podcasts garners 15 free PDUs! Cornelius just launched a new podcast service called PDU Podcast. This more formal offering qualifies for more PDUs (no limits). Check it out here.
There are a lot more activities and categories where you can get PDUs, too. Notice how each of these activities was either a direct skill and knowledge benefit to me or to my organization. I working with my organization, I chose activities and materials that were immediately relevant to them. Also notice that I didn’t spend a dime on PDU training.
But if you’re not into handling the high-yield PDUs like teaching classes and such, then there are some really economical ways to get the needed PDU training. I recommend Cornelius Fichtner’s PDU Podcast. The list of podcasts for the first year is impressive and comprehensive. Check it out here.
How did you do it?
How have you gotten your PDUs? Comment below and share your own ideas!
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Question: If you renew your PMP after 1 year, is your PMP good for 5 years (remaining 2 years plus 3 more years) or is it just good for 3 years from the renewal date?
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Max Reply:
August 16th, 2010 at 09:33
Hi Scott – Great question! I had the same question. Having done it, I can confirm that the renewal adds on the 3 years; you don’t lose any time by renewing early.
So, in my case, I certified in 2009 and my PDU cycle would expire in 2012 (+3 years). I renewed in 2010, and my new PDU cycle expiration date is now 2015.
Before renewing, I confirmed that on the phone with PMI.org, and after renewing, it does show correctly when I log in at PMI.org.
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Scott Reply:
August 16th, 2010 at 10:18
Thanks Max! BTW, excellent blog.
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Max Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 09:44
Glad you find it helpful, Scott! A writer always wonders. . . .
How do you know how many PDUs an activity is worth?
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Max Reply:
June 6th, 2011 at 13:43
Hi Marlene – The PMI web site provides documentation on the different categories of PDUs and how to figure them. That program was revised recently, so be sure to check the web site for the most current info.
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Hi
How did you determine how many PDU’s for each book you read? I know you can only have a total of 30 in this category. But did you base it like:
1 book = X PDU’s
OR
1 hour of reading = X PDU’s
The rules only say that every one hour of PM training is about 1 PDU so I am leaning towards basing it on the hours spent reading relevant material.
Thanks!!!!
[Reply]
Max Reply:
June 6th, 2011 at 13:42
Hi Lyn – My understanding matches your understanding: 1 hour training/reading = 1 PDU.
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Hello Max,
I have mentor one candidate on PMP aspects and even taught on weekends for his success on exam. But have no records of it, however that person can validate. How can I register PDUs for this.
Thanks
[Reply]
Max Reply:
June 16th, 2011 at 15:19
@Sukhbinder, it’s probably best to confirm with PMI. It’s valid “giving back” activity that PMI not only allows but encourages for PDUs.
For some of these things, I’ve simply made notes about my coaching conversations. Sometimes I’ve attached a copy of the calendar event from my scheduling system.
When I’ve taught, I’ve done it by providing formal scheduling and registration, which provides great evidence. (I’ve done that for the benefit of the students since it then shows up in their corporate training history, but it also helps for PDUs.) If you made an agenda list or a list of items to cover while teaching, that’s very good evidence.
Be sure to look at PMI’s new PDU guidelines, released a couple of months ago. It is simpler than before, but you still need to be aware of limits in certain categories such as “giving back.”
Good luck!
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Thank you very much for your tips! I passed the PMP exam yesterday and already want to start accumulating PDUs!
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Max Reply:
September 4th, 2011 at 12:08
Congrats! Very cool! I’m starting to plan achumulating PDUs again now.
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Hi Max,
Now that you have renewed your PMP in the first year, does any new PDUs you earn and report go towards your new cycle or continues to tack on to the current cycle even though your have already renewed?
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Max Reply:
November 4th, 2011 at 08:52
@Brandon, Good question, and it’s an important part of earning PDU’s that we all need to keep in mind.
PMI lets the PMP credential carry over up to 20 PDU’s from the previous cycle to the next cycle, but these carry-over PDU’s must be earned in the final year of the 3-year cycle. The number of PDU’s that can be carried over varies by credential type.
Details are in the PMP Handbook. The new version is found here. The carry-over info is found on page 43.
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