Everything You Need To Know About PMI PDUPut in simple terms, the PDU or the professional development unit, is a unit that quantifies the approved learning and professional services of a project manager. Every single PMI PDU typically implies one hour spent in a planned and structured learning activity of project management. There are quite a few responsibilities that the project manager is entrusted with in the office. The PM needs to be able to communicate effectively to his team members and guide them their way through the project. He is also expected to lead the team carefully in even the most hard pressed times. But most important of all, the project manager needs to be proactive. He needs to plan strategies so that the future risk on projects can be minimized proactively so that the project can be delivered on time and within the given budget. Come November, and you see most PMPs asking for a quick number of PDUs. This seems to be an acute case of the PMPs not being able to understand the recertification requirements of the PMP. But if you act on time, you could easily get the required number of PDUs before the year draws to an end. Here, it becomes important to understand that the only authoritative source for recertification from PMP is the Continuing Certification Requirements Handbook from PMI. This handbook is a ten page document and you can find it at the official website of PMI. Log on to the site and refer to the career development section of the website. This document will tell you everything that you need to know about PDU. Gaining PDU is not that difficult a task. You can earn these PDUs under five different categories. The first category is known as the formal academic education. If you are enrolled in a course that has project management as one of the subjects, you can easily claim 15 PDUs for a period of 15 weeks. Under category 2 you can claim PDUs depending upon your Professional Activities and Self-Directed Learning. Under this category you8 could claim a maximum of 40 PDUs for free if you have authored a book, 15 PDUs if you work 1,500 hours per year. You could even get 10 PDUs for teaching a course in project management. The next in line is Category 3 lays emphasis on attending educational programs that are offered by Registered Education Providers (REP) of PMI. You could attend a monthly dinner meeting or a monthly seminar at a very low cost. There are some PMI chapters that even offer online webinars along with PDUs. While category 4 refers to attending educational programs offered by other providers, category 5 lays emphasis on voluntary services to professional or community organizations. This knowledge about PMI PDU will help you secure your PDUs in a much easier way. You just need to act a little smart and agile and you can have your PDUs easy. |