Do PMI PDUs carry over?

Do PMI PDUs carry over?

Learning Mudra, Category - PMP

Understanding the problem

Are you a person who received their PMP certification? Are you just lurking about details of PMP certification and want to know what PDU is? How to achieve them? How are they calculated? Are they carried forward into the next year or not? Worry not. These are normal questions that come to the mind of everyone looking to get PMP certification and after they’ve received it.We will try to answer all such questions and more in this article to give you a better understanding of the situation at hand.

What are PDUs ?

First let us assess what is PDU that every project manager is talking about and why is so important. Why are people concerned about whether it will carry forward or not? PDU is an abbreviation for Professional Development Unit. This becomes your concern once you get your PMP certification and have a timer on you of 3 years. In 3 years your certificate will get expired if you don’t fulfil the 60 PDU criteria. One PDU basically is a one hour time that a person spends learning, teaching other individuals or volunteering in projects. These 3 things in totality should be 60 hours in 3 years’ time.

Why is PDU important ?

If you do fulfil the minimum eligibility criteria you can get your PMP renewed for another 3 years. This is basically done to ensure that individuals keep up with latest trends in the project management field. The PMP certification is a precious one and this strictness ensures that it is not taken for granted. Only people who are willing to contribute time to it will be able to be certified for long enough. The method of getting PDU is such that people keep up with what is happening in the actual field. Project management is a promising field, it only makes sense that appropriate measures are taken to ensure exclusivity. And that the certificate is not taken for granted.

Technicality of PDU

Now that we have answered what is PDU and why this process exists, , now let us explore a little more about how to actually get these PDUs. PDUs exist for continuous improvement of Project Management Professionals. Although it may seem easy to get PDUs but the actual scenario is a bit more complex than it seems. There is a minimum criteria of different categories which individuals need to have to qualify for renewal. There should a minimum of 8 technical PDUs, 8 leadership related PDUs and 8 business related PDUs. This is minimum criteria upon which everyone has to act on. Then it depends on your personal choice which one would you like to have more of after these initial 8.

What if you’ve more than 60 ?

You might be wondering what if you get more than 60 PDUs in 3 years. Then what happens? Will the additional PDUs be carried over? The answer is yes. The PDUs earned over the initial 60 in the last year of your certificate can be carried over to the next cycle. Read that again. Only the ones in the last year can be carried forward after 60 are done. For example you did 80 in 3 years then 60 will be counted for this cycle’s renewal. Out of remaining 20, if you did 2 of them in the 2ndyear then only 18 of 20 will be carried forward. This ensures not too old PDU are carried forward.

How to get PDUs ?

The easiest way to earn PDUs would be to attend sessions by PMI authorized centres only, like Learning Mudra which offer the best solutions for PMP. This is the easiest way of getting PDU as it only requires you to attend classes which will keep you up to date. Another good method is to read books written on project management. Each hour spent reading on this will count as PDU. And of course working as project manager and doing what your certificate is about will also get you PDU credits. You can also get agile certification which is ACP. This will count as a lot of PDUs as it is elaborate and will add value to your career. This is an agile version of PMP.

Modern approaches

Another way is mentoring. This can be done in a variety of ways given we are living in a digital age and we don’t need to interact with people. What one can do is make his/her blog and start posting your learnings there for world to see and learn. This is a modern method of earning PDUs as well learning to teach others. Another similar way is to open your Youtube channel. This is a niche people have not popularly gotten into. This can be a great opportunity for you to earn PDU sas well as earn fans and influence.

Another interesting perspective

V-logging while doing projects can also be a good idea of teaching as you are filming real life complex situations. The possibilities are endless. Who knows the next big trend in project management would be PMPs teaching on social media platforms and spreading their wisdom and experience for others to learn from. Contact us now for complete assistance.