PMI ACP Exam

Introduction to PMI ACP Exam

Project management institute agile practitioner certification in short PMI ACP exam. This certification is formally for recognizing once knowledge, skills, and principles with agile project management and development. Agile project management and development practice are one of the best practices today; most of the top software running companies are making use of Agile project development and management technique. More than 80 percent of companies are using Agile software development and management technique today to increase productivity and deliver the product on time; importantly, customer satisfaction is the prime goal. Based on PMI’s research, the use of agile is increasing year by year (tripled from Dec 2008- May 2011).

Exam Criteria And Fee Structure

• Exam: This Exam PMI ACP is oriented to validate the related knowledge of agile project development for those who want to work in the software development field.
• Duration: 3 hours
• Total number of questions: 120 (Multiple choices)

To keep upgraded with the agile software development method, one can maintain this by earning 30 professional development units (PDUs) by taking PMI-ACP in every three years.

• Processing starts with:

1. Application submission (within 90 days, once started)
2. Complete application and review (online submission)
3. Process Auditing (eligibility begins with completion of audit)
4. Payment process (payment is a must to schedule the exam)
5. Eligibility to the multiple-choice exam (eligible up to 3 times in a year)
6. The certification cycle starts with passing the exam
7. Maintenance and renewal (units can be earned within 3 years)
8. Certification expiration

• The exam dates usually lie from – 1st April, 1st July and 1st-15 December.
• Application submission can be online or can be sent through registered mail. The processing time is five calendar days.
• The examination fee is different for members and non-members:

Computer-based testing (CBT)/ Paper-based testing (PBT)	Members	$435
Computer-based testing/ Paper-based testing	Non-Members	$495
Re-examination CBT/PBT	Members	$335
Re-examination CBT/PBT	Non-Members	$395
CCR certification renewal	Members	$60
CCR certification renewal	Non-Members	$150

• Minimal requirements: For taking this examination, eligibility of the examiner is the must factor. The minimal education needed is a high school diploma, associate degree within the country or globally recognized equivalent degree.

Education globally	High school Diploma, associated degree or recognized equivalent.
General project Experience	2000 hours (12 months working) must have earned within the last five years.
Agile project experience	1500 hours (8 months working) must have earned this experience within the last three years. These are an addition to general working hours experience
Training in agile practice	21 contract hours must have earned in agile practice.

• Question Content: The divisions are made based on content.

The questions covered in the exam as:

The tools and techniques of agile software development approach contain 50% of the total, which includes-

1. Tools and techniques of agile development with the requirement of soft skills negotiation at initial.
2. Prioritizing the work with proper planning, monitoring, and adapting nature for successful completion of the project on time.
3. Risk management, the most important factor during the development process, is done through an agile estimation practice.
4. Matrices are the road map for the team to work on for the entire development duration, so agile analysis and designing marks an important place in the development process.
5. Analyzing the value of the product to deliver the quality product to the customer, so stream analysis is a must factor.

• The knowledge and the skills about agile software development contain another 50% of the total. The knowledge and skills divisions are based on levels of understanding. For example-

1. Level 1 is containing 18 knowledge/skills, which are 65%/33% of the total share. This means 33% of the total examination questions are from this part.
2. Level 2 is containing 12 knowledge/ skills, which are 25%/12% of the total division. It means that 12 % of the total examination questions are from this part.
3. Level 3 is containing 13 knowledge/skills, which are 10%/5% of the total part. This means that five percent of total examination questions will be from this part of the total.

• The topic from where questions are found in the exam usually are from:

1. Agile principles and mindset.
2. Value-driven Delivery.
3. Stakeholder Engagement.
4. Team Performance.
5. Adaptive planning.
6. Problem Detection and Resolution.
7. Continuous Improvement is an improvement of product, process, and people during the project development.

The agile certificate is the proof to show to the company (manager) that one has the skills and knowledge to work with agile software development projects.

The PMI- ACP Certification is For

• Agile Project Managers
• For Product owners
• Scrum masters
• Scrum team members
• Project sponsors
• Project planners
• Quality staff for testing and quality assurance
• Team members of Agile developers or programmers.
• Software architect and Designers
• Project Testers
• For PMO office for Project controllers

Need for Agile learning- In the software development industry, the traditional development approach was used over the years, but it exists with few short comes, so to bring out the benefits with the project develops new approach came into a run that is agile software development approach.

Benefits of using an Agile Development Approach

• The agile approach puts the highest priority on its customers; the timely or early delivery is the target, and continuity in delivering software is kept on the priority list.
• An agile approach is open to accepting changes in the product even at the late development stage. It also tackles changes for the customer’s competitive advantage.
• It is focused on delivering working software from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, all with a shorter timescale.
• Short meetings are conducted on a daily basis between business people and developers throughout the project development process.
• Face-to-face communication is considered an efficient and effective way to convey information within the team.
• The primary goal is to deliver working software.
• Attention is put upon technical excellence and good design, which enhance agility.
• The self-organizing teams are indulging in architecture, requirements, and designs before the actual development is started.
• The teams, on a regular basis, keep updating their behavior and skills accordingly.

Benefits of taking PMI ACP

The certification will make the one aware of the following terminologies:

• Value-added delivery with proper understanding value, assessing value, planning value, delivering value, confirming value, tracking, and reporting value.
• Stakeholder engagement.
• Boosting team performance practices.
• Adaptive planning
• Problem detection and resolution
• Continuous improvement.

Reference

• Rambo PMI ACP: PMI agile Certificate Practitioner exam.
• Chris Zarbock PMI- ACP: Agile Certificate Practitioner, 2012.
• PMI Project Management Institute: PMI Agile Certified Practitioner.
• Cornelius Fichtner: Project Management.com, 2014.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to PMI ACP Exam. Here we discussed exam criteria and fee structure, different benefits of taking PMI ACP, and Minimal requirements for the PMI ACP exam. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –

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