PMP® PDU Requirements – Maintaining Your Credential

Once you’ve earned your Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, you’ll need to fulfill your PMP PDU requirements to maintain your credential. As a Project Management Institute® (PMI®) credential holder, you’ve proven that you have acquired the knowledge and experience necessary to meet certain eligibility requirements. In addition, your PMP certification shows your dedication to your profession, vocation, organization and clients. Now that you’ve received this impressive credential, you need to enhance your professional development to remain in active status. PMP holders need to earn 60 professional development units (PDUs) over three years to maintain the credential. Your certification and/or Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) cycle starts the day you pass the PMP certification exam and ends on the same date three years later.

Five Pointers for Retaining Your PMP Certification

Earning 60 PDUs over three years is manageable, especially if you map out a plan for when and how you will attain your PDUs. From taking an e-learning course to getting involved in PMI chapter and community activities, there are many ways to gain these valuable PDUs. Typically, you will earn one PDU for every hour (60 minutes) spent on an acceptable professional development activity. The Project Management Institute provides these five tips for maintaining your PMP credential:

  1. Start early. Establish a strategy for attaining your PDUs before your cycle begins.
  2. Maintain a personal folder for all your PMP PDU claims documentation. This information will be valuable if your reporting form is randomly selected for audit.
  3. Report activities soon after completion. This makes it easier to complete the Activity Reporting Form.
  4. Take advantage of the opportunity to transfer PDUs from one cycle to the next. If you are a PMP credential holder, you can transfer up to 20 PDUs earned in the last year of your current cycle.
  5. Make sure you have the registered program number for R.E.P. classes, which is required on the Activity Reporting Form.

Five Categories of Professional Development

Although there are no minimum requirements for the amount of PDUs you can earn in any specific category, PMI has designated these five categories from which you can attain PDUs:

  • Category 1: Formal Academic Education
  • Category 2: Professional Activities and Self-Directed Learning
  • Category 3: Courses Offered by PMI-Registered Education Providers/PMI Components
  • Category 4: Courses Offered by Other Education Providers
  • Category 5: Volunteer Service to Professional or Community Organizations

According to the PMI PMP handbook, you may accomplish your PDUs through any combination of the various categories, with the following restrictions:

Category No. of maximum PDUs per three-year CCR cycle
Category 2-SDL (self-directed learning) 15 PDUs
Category 2H (practitioner of project management services for more than 1,500 hours in a calendar year) 15 PDUs (5 PDUs per year)
Category 5 20 PDUs

9 Ways to Fulfill Your PMP PDU Requirements

You will have hundreds of opportunities each year to earn the necessary PDUs to maintain your PMP certification. As a PMP holder, you are required to abide by the CCR program, which supports ongoing professional development. Although courses and seminars are ideal for staying current with project management best practices, there are many other activities happening in your daily professional life that can count toward PDUs as well. The Project Management Institute outlines these 12 ways to accomplish your PMP PDU requirements:

  1. PMI's Knowledge Shelf: Posts your articles about project management and information to help professionals and organizations advance the practice of project management. A team of volunteers along with PMI staff review the articles before posting them. Your paper could be a part of this virtual collection and earn you 15 PDUs under Category 2B if you are its sole author.
  2. PMI Publication Quizzes: Allow you to earn PDUs from the comfort and convenience of your personal computer. When you purchase a quiz bundle from PMI.org, you receive PMI-published articles and white papers with accompanying quizzes that test your knowledge. If you obtain a quiz score of 70% or higher you will earn between one and two PDUs per quiz in Category 3. PMP credential holders can earn a maximum of 20 PDUs per certification cycle using Publication Quizzes.
  3. Volunteer Service: Earn PDUs for providing your professional services to an organization outside of your employer. You could serve as an elected officer or volunteer committee member for a project management organization. Or you could provide a project management-related service to a community or charitable group. PMI also has multiple volunteer opportunities.
  4. Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) Courses: There are more than 900 PMI R.E.P.s worldwide, including Villanova University, who offer courses that are pre-approved for PDUs.
  5. PMI Global Congresses: Congresses offer opportunities to network with colleagues and attend seminars that go toward receiving PDUs.
  6. PMI Community Offerings: PMI’s chapters, specific interest group (SIGs) and colleges hold events, meetings and educational sessions that are pre-approved for PDUs. PMI members are welcome to join these communities and take advantage of their offerings.
  7. Professional Activities: Authoring an article about project management or speaking at a project management event can quickly earn you 10 to 30 PDUs. PMI has specified a number of professional activities – things you may already be doing – that can translate to varying amounts of PDUs.
  8. Self-Directed Learning: Obtain PDUs by sharing project management knowledge with your colleagues. PMI will recognize activities that involve personally conducted research or study. This includes discussions or coaching sessions with colleagues or clients that put to use informational materials such as CD-ROMs, articles, books, videos or instructional manuals.
  9. Educational Programs by Outside Providers: PMI recognizes relevant educational activities or programs offered by organizations not registered with PMI. Use the following formula to calculate the number of PDUs earned: One hour of learning relevant to project management within a structured activity or course equals one PDU.

You can learn more about these options at PMI.org.

Work Toward Satisfying Your PMP PDU Obligation With Villanova University – 100% Online

As a registered education provider for PMI, Villanova University is authorized to issue Professional Development Units (PDUs). PDUs are always associated with certification or re-certification and are not correlated to college credit (ACE) in any way. Not only are Villanova University’s project management certificate programs ideal to prepare for PMP certification, they’re also perfect for attaining valuable knowledge and a new credential along with critical PDUs:

Course Name PDUs
Essentials of Project Management 50
Project Management for IS/IT Professionals 60
Mastering Project Management 60
Advanced Strategic Project Management 60
Project Management Professional (PMP®) Exam Prep 35
Project Management Capstone 45
Maximizing IS/IT Team Effectiveness 45
Maximizing Team Effectiveness 45
Six Sigma Green Belt 45
Six Sigma Green Belt-Healthcare 45
Six Sigma Green Belt-Financial Services 45
Six Sigma Green Belt-Information Technology 45
Lean Six Sigma 50
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt 90
Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt 75
Essentials of Commercial Contract Management 45
Essentials of Government Contract Management 45
Mastering Business Skills 45
Advanced Contract Management 45
Essentials of IS Security 45
Mastering IS Security+™ 45
Advanced Information Assurance and Security 60
Advanced Information Assurance and Security – Government 60
Essentials of Business Analysis 45
Mastering Business Analysis 50
Essentials of Software Testing 40
ISTQB® Software Testing Capstone 40
Human Resource Management 40
Mastering Organizational Effectiveness 45
Essentials of ROI Methodology 50
Mastering ROI Methodology 50
Essentials of ROI Methodology 50
Finance & Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager 60
Strategic Organizational Leadership 40

Gain Sought-After Skills and PDUs With Villanova’s Career-Building Online Certificate Programs

Villanova has been ranked the #1 University by U.S. News & World Report in the Master’s category/North region for nearly two decades, and empowers professionals with essential skills and in-depth knowledge through 100% online video-based e-learning. At your convenience, you can earn a multi-course master certificate along with critical PDUs in a wide variety of high-demand professional disciplines, including:

Find out how you can meet your PMP PDU obligation with Villanova’s premier certificate programs.