TOPIC: Q: Earn PDUs for Writing PM Articles?

Can I earn PDUs for Writing Project Management Articles?

Yes you can.

Ever since PMI published the new PDU Category and Structure in March of 2011, earning PDUs has become much easier. This ease is especially visible in Category D “Creating New Project Management Knowledge”: Every hour that you spend creating and / or presenting new project management knowledge counts as 1 PDU.

This means that if you decide to write a project management related article and you invest 3 hours in writing it then you have just earned 3 PDUs. (Please note that there is a maximum of 45 PDUs that you can earn in Categories D, E and F, so these 3 hours would count against that maximum).

So you think you have nothing to write about? Think again! Let me give you 3 simple ideas:

• Write a white paper about your last project. Describe what and how you managed it, focusing on project management best practices
• There isn’t one project meeting that I have attended where I don’t learn something new about being a PM. Think back to your last 3 meetings and describe what you have learned.
• Discuss a particularly difficult area on your project with one of your colleagues at work and then write an article about what the problem is and how you decided to do to solve it. And of course in 3 weeks down the road you can write an article about how well / badly it worked.

But beware... there are some topics that don’t count toward PDUs:

• Product Reviews: An article that talks about the latest and greatest features of a PM software won’t earn you PDUs
• Articles on how to prepare for the PMP exam (or similar).
• Articles on PDUs: The article you read right now doesn’t give me a single PDU because I’m just telling you about how to earn PDUs.

The three topics above don’t count, because any article written about them isn’t creating new knowledge - it just describes a “product”. So be safe and write about what you learned in your daily work as a PM managing your projects.

In my view, every project manager has something to say and share with others. So pick up that pen... err I mean keyboard and start writing.

Next time we’ll look at where you can publish these articles.

Greetings
I wrote about 7 scientific articles related to management issues and were published in Scopus and Web of Science. I don't know how much PDU to consider for each one, if I calculate in terms of hours, a lot of time was spent on those articles.
Thank you for your guidance.
sharif Akbari

Sharif,

The guidance is really quite simple:

1. Ensure that the articles fall into the new PMI Talent Triangle categories
2. Estimate the amount of time you invested in writing each article
3. Claim your PDUs on the CCRS website. Make sure that you give a good description about the articles. At least include a title for each. Even better if you include a published link

Sharif,

When you do your citation, please be aware that neither Scopus nor Web of Science are journals - they are databases where journal contents are located.

Harry