The practice of project management isn’t static and neither is the exam

Terry Gerton You’ve announced from the Project Management Institute a new version of the PMP exam coming out in July. Talk to me about why now is the right time to change that exam and what exactly is going to be different about the new one.

Kelly Heuer Yes, Terry. So as you know, the PMP, or Project Management Professional, certification is a professional credential that has been around for many years and is recognized globally as a marker of success and capability in leading and managing projects. Now, the certification has been round for many year. It’s evolved over the course of those years. And so this most recent refresh, as we call it, of the exam reflects the way that project-driven work is changing and what matters for success, what constitutes good practice. Some of the specific shifts you’ll see and within the certification have to do with the emphasis on what we call business environment, or you can understand this as sort of organizational context. The exam itself is broken down into three main domains: people, process, and business environment. And more of the questions on the exam that exam takers will see after July 9th, which is when the new exam goes live, will have to do with managing and navigating complex organizational contexts, which I’m sure is extremely familiar as a phenomenon to your audience, Terry.

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Terry Gerton And so how then do you see the job of a project manager, the role of a product manager changing that is driving these changes in the exam?

Kelly Heuer Yeah. So project management has always been about managing complexity and delivering value. A project by definition, a project, a program, is something that is designed to bring about change, to change something about the way things are, or to bring something new into the world. To do that requires a vast array of skills. Stakeholder management, understanding and articulating value as it’s understood by your team within the context of your mission, within your agency, or across different stakeholder groups. Our research at the Project Management Institute, which we conduct in an ongoing way, looking at global trends in project management, show that some of those skills I was just mentioning in navigating complexity and interpersonal management are more important now than ever. And that’s because the context within which projects happen. Is becoming more complex, whether that’s geopolitical trends or local political pressures, supply chain disruption. So being able to execute under ambiguity, to pivot quickly and understand and rearticulate what matters most in terms of the actual value you’re trying to deliver with your project is more important now than ever before. And this shift in the exam, like similar shifts we see across the board in our work on the project professions reflects that change.

Terry Gerton Navigating complexity is certainly an important skill, but it seems to me like one that would be very difficult to test in a sit-down exam. What parts of the exam have changed to bring more of that skill set to the table?

Kelly Heuer Great question, Terry. And to start with, completely agree with you. Managing and being able to evaluate these skills is very challenging. And so we take the design of our examination extremely seriously. One of the concrete changes you’ll see in the way that exam questions are delivered has to do with even more scenario driven and complex scenario driven questions. So if you’re familiar with the PNP, it was always essentially based on situational questions. It’s not a test of knowledge or recall or definitions of terms, although the language of project management is part of what’s important in communicating the outcomes we’re looking at. It’s always been more about what would you do in this particular situation based on this set of factors that characterize the project. The new version of the exam has slightly more new-question format that involves multiple questions appended to the same complex and evolving scenario, which we think is a step closer to the kinds of situational judgment that are important for project professionals in navigating complexity.

Terry Gerton Dr. Kelly Heuer is the Vice President of Learning at the Project Management Institute. Kelly, this exam also takes on a little bit more of everybody’s favorite topic these days, artificial intelligence. How did you work that into the exam?

Kelly Heuer This is, we’re all tired of talking about AI, aren’t we, Terri? But we can’t stop because it’s one of the most disruptive forces across the board. And in project management, it is no different. So we recognize, and this changed the exam just as we’ve recognized in the ways we’ve changed the courses and professional development we offer. After the exam, we recognize how critical AI is to project-based work in a couple of different ways. One is that AI is increasingly, where permitted within an organizational context, the way that core project management tasks get done. Still overseen by an experienced practitioner, right, who needs to exercise judgment in evaluating the outputs. But things like meeting recaps and status updates, even Gantt charts, timeline planning, project charter assembly, right, are all things that can be significantly accelerated by AI. From our point of view, it’s critical that the tactical skills you use in leveraging AI tools as well as the judgment you apply in evaluating their outputs are a core part of the project management skill set. It’s also true that more and more projects that project managers will be called on to lead are about AI implementation or AI-based projects. And so understanding the mechanics of artificial intelligence is also becoming important just as like a subject matter area for a broader and broader pool of project professionals. Now to answer your actual question, which is how does this show up on the exam? AI is not a core knowledge area that is assessed on the PMP. It is still focused on the core capabilities and process, people and business environment that are validated to be important for success. Where you will see AI showing up is within the context of those situational questions I was just mentioning, both the longer ones and also the shorter ones, where AI is recognized as a tool you might be using to execute your task or characterizing the project context that you’re engaged in. The same thing goes by the way, Terry, for sustainability, which is another area that our research has shown to be increasingly important to long and medium term project success and a skill set that’s more and more important for project professionals. So that’s also something you’ll see showing up within the context of the scenarios or project examples that are assessed on the exam.

Terry Gerton Now, Kelly, the exam is not just for government project managers, it’s business in every domain. So for government project managers, what is it about this test that reflects their environment, but also what is about this credential that is especially useful to them?

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Kelly Heuer That’s a great question, you know, and it makes me think of a statement that was recently put out by the OPM identifying a critical talent gap within federal agencies and across federal agencies, specifically around project and program management and analysis. So there’s a hiring push in this dimension because I think it reflects a recognition of the importance of project management as a skill set for driving outcomes that serve the public good. What specifically within the exam pertains to this context? As you say, Terry, the assessment is designed to be industry and sector neutral. It focuses on skills that I think those who’ve worked in the public sector will recognize as extremely important, including stakeholder management, including across many competing entities with various motivations. Also, you know, managing in some cases, significant investments and long time horizons where the public good is one of the outputs that is being measured as whether or not the project has delivered value. That is fully in line with the way value is understood and articulated within the exam and within our evolving body of research as well.

Terry Gerton You’ve changed some of the pre-qualifications for being eligible to take the exam. Tell me about that.

Kelly Heuer Yeah, so this is something, this is personally exciting to me and I think a really important step forward for us. There are a number of requirements to sit for the PMP exam. It is for experienced professionals and so in addition to a number years of professional experience, there’s also a prior education and training requirements. What we’ve done with this next version of the exam is make it easier for those with associate’s degree or vocational training to have that prior learning recognized as part of what qualifies them to sit for the exam, not just more traditional four-year university degrees and so on. We think this is especially important in recognizing those who’ve had more non-traditional career paths, which is often true of the most talented project managers.

Terry Gerton And as you roll out this new version, what are you gonna be watching for to determine whether or not it’s hitting the mark?

Kelly Heuer Yeah, I think success for us, Terry, would really look like the PMP continuing to be recognized, especially within the government and public sector, as a stamp of approval from a global entity like PMI, and also a validation of a project professional’s readiness to navigate complexity, quickly understand a fast changing environment and pivot as necessary as well as applying both the people and the technical skills that are important for driving high investment, high stakes, long-term projects and programs.