All I can say is that I have been a PM in the private sector, the federal government, and the NGO world for decades in the arena of hundreds of millions of dollars. I have never heard of "Project Charter", "Work Breakdown Structure", or "Risk Register", nor have I ever heard of most of the processes and terms taught by PMI. Do I estimate and manage budgets? Yes. Do I draft a scope of work? Yes. Do I award contracts to vendors? Yes. Do I manage teams of technical experts and communicate the project's progress to senior management? Yes. Do I pivot as needed when the progress goes off track for whatever reason? Yes. Do I use or need a weird language and unnecessary intermediate steps and processes to do any of this? No. Have I ever encountered anyone in my travels who has employed PMP language? No. Would I hire someone because they have a PMP? No. My own view is that the PMP often teaches methods and jargon that one would need to later unlearn in order to be a successful PM. There are many questions I have encountered in the quizzes and training where I immediately know how it would go in the real world. But when I am presented with PMI's "correct" answer, I am left baffled, because I know that if I had implemented that response in an actual project, it would have gone off the rails. I am thankful that PMI requires years of experience as a PM to take the test, because it's hopefully easy enough to forget it all once you pass and just go back to being a regular PM. What I DO know, is that PMI and the PMP industry has already gotten about $500 of my money. And you know the saying about if something doesn't make sense on the surface, just follow the money. That's the only thing about all of this that makes any sense to me.

Hi all,

Honestly, I must say I have quite a different view on this topic. I can’t understand how the PMP or the language used in the PMP framework could be considered arbitrary, nonsensical, or even invented.
What is the basis for such a claim? When I think of terms like Project Charter, Work Breakdown Structure, or Risk Register, these are well-established concepts that are similarly named in many other project management standards.

Where I do agree—and where I also see an issue—is that every project management standard tends to try to leave its mark and differentiate itself from other standards, frameworks, or methodologies. But as I
understand the founding of PMI and the PMP, this was precisely one of the key reasons that led a group of professionals to come together and say, “Hey, we need a globally unified and standardized project management language,” precisely to reduce the confusion and arbitrariness that existed back then—even more so than it does today, hopefully.

That was the exact intention behind it, and in my experience, I believe they succeeded to a considerable extent. Maybe not in all industries and globally, but if I take the industry I come from—IT—then the Project Management Professional is regarded as the gold standard worldwide.

Okay, PRINCE2 might still be more prominent in the UK, but that may well be. I can’t judge that. I’m based in Germany. But even here, we’re seeing convergence, and PMP has gained more traction than, for instance, t
he IPMA standard promoted by GPM.

The variety of standards and terminology is a nuisance and should ideally be unified—we are absolutely on the same page there. However, no institution or organization has yet succeeded in fully achieving this. Still, the PMI and the PMP are the most globally widespread, recognized, and respected standards. That may be different in the government sector—I can’t assess that, as I don’t work in that field—but when I look at job postings here in Germany (and that includes some government roles), I regularly see that a project management certification is either required or at least preferred. And the phrasing is almost always something like: “We require a project management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent.”

So, whether you support or criticize the PMP is up to each individual. But for my part, I find the philosophy behind the PMBOK Guide, the methodology, and the overall framework promoted by PMI to be both sensible and applicable. What I learned while preparing for the PMP and everything I’ve continued to learn since, I strive to apply in my daily project work—and, I believe, with some degree of success.

I can’t really relate to the comments or criticism mentioned. But again, that’s just my personal opinion.

Thank you.

Raiden,

Welcome to the forums.

Your complaint is a common one. However, the PMP was never designed or advertised as a certification of "you can't do Project Management without this" or "this is the one true standard for PM everyone must adhere to". As PMI itself will even say, PM is such a broad and versatile field that every organization has it's own way of doing it, even within the same industry. If you're looking for a certification that is going to prove to an organization that you'll be able to immediately jump in and start doing PM the exact way they want you to, you're not going to find it.

All the PMP says is that you know the baseline principles of PM. That you're willing to work extra on your own time to better yourself. And that you can pass a test. If that's not valuable to you or your organization, then don't get the certification.

I have to agree with the poster here. I've been a PM for many years AND I work for the federal government, managing massive and complex projects. At no point have I ever encountered a situation where the PMP cert was required for our projects. Further, the PMP language is arbitrary and nonsensical, and nobody in the industry talks like this from my experience. It's just a made up language that is redundant to what already exists. If I ever had a contractor or PM communicate using PMP language, I'd have no idea what they were talking about. It really seems to be used more as a tool to weed out candidates in the private sector than anything else...hence the reason I am studying for it. But yeah, the deeper I get into it, the more confused I am.

Agree! As an exam and even as a body of knowlage PMP is a joke.
But a lot of company seem to value the certification, so it still holds value.

While I agree with the sentiment that PMI is making a lot of money from the test taker (because PMI is also a business), I can completely back up what Harry has mentioned about PM standards in the federal government. I have managed military projects for several years, and I found the PMP exam very relevant to much of my everyday work. Harry is right when citing that the majority of formal projects are managed inside the federal government, and thus some of these concepts may not be relevant to other fields, but it never hurts to have a different perspective. If you believe that the PMP exam is irrelevant to your field, or if obtaining the certification is of no real value to you or your profession, then I encourage you to spend the time and money doing something else. I would also encourage you to refrain from being a troll on an academic website dedicated to attainment of the PMP certification.