TOPIC: Question about technical words in the Project Description

Hi,

I have been trying to complete the project description in PMI application for many days. I believe I have just enough technical jargon in it. But one of my friends (who got PMP certification recently) told me that it is better to avoid all technical words as the person reading the application will not know them. I want to confirm if it is ok to have a balance of industry-specific words and PMI words or should I have no or very limited technical words in it?

As you know, now the PMI application allows the project description to have even 550+ words ! (previously 550 characters). This confusion about technical words is stopping me from submitting the application. So, please help. Thank you.

I can't comment on the specific language / jargon that PMI would find acceptable, but in general you would want to make sure the average person could understand it. Maybe ask a spouse or family member to review. The PMI reviewers will likely not understand industry specific jargon. You should focus more on using terms that are frequently used in PMBOK (e.g. Initiating, Planning, etc.), as well as Project Documents or Management Plans that you may have helped prepare. Communication is an important tool as a Project Manager, you don't have to avoid all technical words but make sure that your description can be easily understood.

Thank you, Kyle. I limited the technical words to a level, just enough to convey the information. I cut down elaborations.

Hi Rahul,

following Kyle's recommendations, I would focus on describing your experience from a project managament perspective. I worked on different industries, and while the technical activities were all different and very industry-specific, I tried to focus on my role as a project manager, which in fact did not require much of a technical jargon.
Also, one of my mentors reminded me that we—as a project managers—are primarily responsible for all the activities related to the Integration Management, while other Knowledge Areas can be managed by specialists. While this may be different and vary across projects, you may want to keep that in mind.

Gabriella

Thank you, Gabriella. I am almost done refining the description.