Most present day business firms prefer to divide their functions into several highly character-specific “projects”. The success or failure of a company depends critically on the viability of the projects it chooses to undertake. In order to understand why projects fail and what corrective measures need to be taken in such scenarios, we need to understand “projects” clearly first:

A project can be defined as "any outcome the company or one of its team is committed to achieve that will take more than one action step to complete”. Alternatively, projects can also be explained as a management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case.

Project Management is a highly specialized job that requires the exclusive attention to specially-trained personnel. The agency that offers credentials and provides such corporate management is the PMI or the Project Management Institute. Once an employee is certified in project management by completing the training and exam certified by PMI, he becomes a Project Management Professional (PMP).

In project management, PMI acts as the central or apex institution. Apart from the PMP certification, PMI also offers the following corporate training modules:

1. CAPM: Certified Associate in Project Management
2. PgMP: Program Management Professional
3. PMI: RMP PMI Risk Management Professional:

The PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) publishes all PMP training and examination material (the most recent publication being in 2007). The problems that an employee is required to solve in order to get the PMP certification are determined by PMBOK, and all such questions have references to PMI's project quality standards.

The methodology of PMBOK is widely accepted as the Project Management standard and it is adopted as a single project management standard even by agencies like NASA. The entire PMP certification program is conducted under the strict vigilence of the ISO.

In order to be enrolled for the PMP certification course, a candidate has to satisfy certain eligibility requirements. An employee wishing to get enrolled in the PMP program must:

1. Hold a diploma from High school, and
2. Associate’s degree or global equivalent
3. Have a minimum five years or 60 months of unique professional experience in project management that does not overlap and in this a minimum of 7,500 hrs was given to directing the tasks of the project
4. Have thirty five contact hours for formal PMP Training certified by PMI

However, if a prospective candidate does not satisfy any of the above criteria, (s)he can get enrolled provided (s)he:
  

1. Holds a Bachelor’s degree or something like this accepted globally,
2. Has minimum three years/36 months of unique and non-overlapping project management experience as a professional and in this a minimum of 4,500 hours was invested in leading and directing project tasks,
3. Has 35 contact hrs of formal PMI certified PMP training.

First, a candidate needs to ensure that (s)he satisfies the conditions to enroll for the PMP program. Then, he needs to apply for enrollment in the said course. The enrollment process in a PMP course has 6 salient features that the candidate must follow closely:

1. A window to submit application and complete it once the application has been opened,
2. The Review of Application Completeness takes 5 business days when submitted to PMI,
3. An audit Process on selection of the application. The audit can last upto 5 days,
4. Multiple-Choice Examination designates PMP certification up to 1 year since the application is approved,
5. A Certification Cycle that starts 3 yrs from passing the exam for getting the report PDUs for credential maintenance,
6. The Application Payment Process that cannot be used schedule the exam until course fees are submitted.

The PMP training program involves classroom instruction that is measured in terms of contact hours in project management training. The PMP course requires candidates to complete study courses as recommended by PMI Registered Education Providers and Component organizations of the PMI. (S)he also needs to complete programs sponsored by the company or the PMI and other and continuing academic or university/college education programs.


The PMP certificates are awarded after a candidate successfully completes the entire course and clears the final qualifying examination (the PMP exam). This test is computer-based and comprises of 200 questions. One-eighth of the questions (i.e., 25 questions) are considered pretest. The duration of the entire PMP test is four hours.

There is a pre-determined breakup of the 200 questions in the PMP test according to the topics that are taught in the course. A broad breakup can be depicted as follows:

1. Initiation - 11%
2. Planning - 23%
3. Executing - 27%
4. Controlling and Monitoring - 21%
5. Closing - 9%
6. Social and Professional Responsibility - 9%

On successful completion of the PMP certification program, the actual PMP certificates are provided by the PMI. Certification claims are also be verified from the website of PMI.

Thus, a successful completion of the PMP training program, conducted by PMI, leads a candidate to become a trained and expert Project Management Professional.