How are PMP hours calculated?

How are PMP hours calculated?

Learning Mudra, Category - PMP

Opportunity in PMP

If you are a project manager since years, it definitely must have dawned upon you that you should get PMP certification. And why shouldn’t you ? PMP is one of the most prestigious certification you can get which actually gets you professional opportunity and financial opportunity that you might not be enjoying right now. Data suggests that Project Managers who get certified enjoy an average of 25% increase in their earnings. And that number varies from place to place. In India, the percentage is 36%. Just imagine, a whopping 36 percent increase in your income in a country which people experience 10-15% increment per year on average.

What is the problem ?

And not to mention the credibility which the certificate will get you. You will have more chance of getting a project with certificate, even more chance than guy who has a lot more experience than you but don’t possess the certificate. This is the power of a PMP certificate. Sounds promising, doesn’t it? You can have it too. As a project manager when you go to PMIs website and see the eligibility criteria of PMP certification you get confused. That is how it is designed. Figuring out how are PMP hours calculated seem like a project in itself. Let us see how to actually calculate so you can continue with your application.

Eligibility criteria for PMP

The application process is complicated enough that if you don’t apply correctly it might lead to your application getting rejected. Yes, you read that correct. People get their application rejected because they did not document their projects correctly. To do that you will need to calculate your project management experience hour by hour. The process seems very complicated as the time you need to calculate for is 3 and 5 years for both cases and it is not easy to recollect all that you did. And there is a subtle distinction in what is and what not a project is. Let’s explore all your questions one by one.

Dividing hours

First for the minimum eligibility, you need to have 3 years/36 months of experience in leading projects if you have a 4 year degree and 5 years/60 months of experience in leading projects if you have high school diploma. Furthermore it is divided further into hours. So, ultimately you need 4500 hours and 7500 hours, respectively. In simpler terms, you work 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year, generally speaking. Which makes 6000 hours of work in total. On an average you, let’s say spent 75% of the time leading projects then it will be 4500 hours. And in case of 60 months, you will work 10000 hours and 75% of which is 7500 hours.

For more information on how PMP hours are calculated; get in touch with us at +91-987-123-7360 or email us at info@learningmudra.com

What counts as a project ?

You need to, however, figure out what counts as a project and what does not. Doing so will give you better picture on how to approach the problem. First, it is not necessary that you need to lead big time projects for it to count. Leading small time projects also count. Most people underestimate them and don’t apply. Even if you led certain projects for short term, then include them. Being a leader in action is crucial not a leader on paper. If you led things head on that is what you can include.

What does not count, and a way to count

There is, however, one thing you need to keep in mind regarding this. In case you were pursuing more than one projects simultaneously then you cannot include all of them. Since PMI doesn’t allow you to do so. Ideally what you should do is choose the longest project among them and include that one. Or choose smaller ones if they are more combined as compared to the big one. Now let’s talk about a hack that will make calculation easy. Divide a project in 5 steps. Doing so will make it easy for you to document it and then ultimately more chances for your application to get selected. Your application will definitely have more chance of getting selected if you document it well and then do it.

Components of a project

The steps to break down are, namely:

• Initiation of a project- starting where you simply define the problem and think of possible solutions to it. After this all the alternatives are evaluated and the best alternative is chosen.
• Planning of project- this is where best one is elaborated and a plan of action is made.
• Execution of a project- This is the implementation stage of the project.
• Monitoring and controlling of a project- constantly monitoring and controlling what you are doing will see to it we are on the right track and ensure work is done correctly. Finding any redundancy and eliminating it, is what happens here.
• Closing of a project- we have achieved our desired result or solved a problem.

Do the calculation

In each of the above steps you will need to find hours taken to calculate. One thing to note here is that a project is something that has a desired end result or something which solves an existing problem. Excel would be a good option to document it. We trust that this article helped you gain clarity on the subject. In case you need any assistance in documentation, we a Learning Mudra can guide you through the process. We offer complete PMP solution from filling the form to training to exam preparation.