Written by: Varun Poddar

There are many vendors and consultants who are anxious to get your money in return for PDUs! During one of the chapter meetings, I got impressed by one consultant’s speech, and agreed to pay him $25 for 12 PDUs worth of webinars during the year 2009. Needless to say, I got my money’s worth – the webinars were sporadic and the content well below the mark. I didn’t hear much from the consultant throughout 2009 once I paid the fee, but as 2010 started, he reached out again to promote a new round of webinars for 2010 touting the success of last year’s webinars. These claims were baseless as I had firsthand experience of the areas where the consultant had seriously fallen short. At $25 to $200 per person, such efforts to impart knowledge in exchange for PDUs are an unfortunate attempt to take advantage of the naive. Often the goal is to rake in cash from anxious PDU-hungry candidates.

It is understandable that newly certified project managers or those nearing the end of their certification cycle might feel pressurized to collect PDUs, especially given the ever-expanding suite of certifications and PDU requirements. As you commence your search for avenues to collect PDUs, don’t fret – three years is more than enough time and there are plenty of options. There are many credible sources out there – most of which offer very valuable insight on various aspects of project management and give PDUs for no fees or are worthy of the fees they charge. In this post I’ll highlight a few cost-free avenues to pursue and also simplify some of PMI’s PDU reporting category codes. Please chime in with your experiences.

The International Institute of Learning, Inc. (IIL) posts quite a few webinars for free at  http://www2.iil.com/iilwebinars.net/ Dr. Harold Kerzner (Ph.D., MS, Engineering and MBA) is the Senior Executive Director at IIL and a globally recognized expert on project, program and portfolio management. Some of his speeches are not just educational but also very inspirational. Check out your options on the IIL site before you hand over your money to a consultant or another vendor.

Also look into PMI’s available resources. Some useful links are the PMI Career Development Center http://www.pmi.org/CareerDevelopment/Pages/Training-Intro.aspx or the list of local chapters  http://www.pmi.org/GetInvolved/Pages/PMI-Chapters.aspx. Did you know you can get up to 15 PDUs as author or co-author for every article/white paper that gets accepted in a non-referred journal? There are word limits and other qualitative requirements, but if you have good ideas that you want to share with the world, publish a white paper or collaborate with another writer. If you enjoy public speaking, reach out to the local PMI chapters or other organizations to find out if you can present on something that interests them. You can get PDUs for speaking engagements under categories 2C, 2D and 2E.

Some of the easiest ways to earn PDUs often get buried in PMI’s verbiage. If you are an active full-time project manager, you should be able to claim 15 PDUs per certification cycle just for your work without doing anything extra. You can claim 5 PDUs for 6 months of service under the 2H category. Another often neglected category is self-directed learning. You can claim up to 15 PDUs under the category 2-SDL for the time you spend researching, reading and discussing about project management. These two categories alone can get you to the halfway mark without you having to spend an extra dime or do anything out of the ordinary.

You can claim even more PDUs if you are a committee member or an officer of a PMO (categories 5A, 5B) or if you have helped institute best practices or learning programs at your work place (category 2G). Let’s say you download a project management podcast from a source that isn’t a PMI registered education provider (REP) – you can still claim PDUs for time spent listening to that podcast under category 4 (Other Provider). So stop before you pay others for PDUs only because you think it is economical and easier to do so.

However, in conclusion, if you do decide to pay independent consultants or vendors for PDUs, at least seek out the good reputable ones. To that end, do your homework. Ask around to see if others have had a positive experience with this person or company. Linked-In is a great place to post a question and get feedback. Check out the person or company’s web-site to see if it is easy to navigate and professional or a haphazard effort to just throw something together. If there is a blog linked to the site, read some of the blog’s content to assess the quality of the instructional material so you know what to expect. Ask such service providers to give you a sneak peek into their services for no cost so you can gauge if the material interests you. In short, pay for content, not just for PDUs.

Rest assured, collecting PDUs is easier than you think. Otherwise I would not have collected 60 PDUs in a little over a year without even realizing when I got to 60. In recent weeks, I noticed many posts asking people to pay for webinars and collect PDUs, so just wanted to share my experience and highlight some resources available to us as project managers.

http://www.poddarco.com/2010/04/01/dont-pay-for-pdus-other-avenues-exist/

About the Author

Over the past ten years I have led many technology projects and cross-functional teams.  Cumulative knowledge of manufacturing management, information systems and project management has helped me develop a wide assortment of skills, processes and tools that work in any environment.

My supporting credentials include multiple certifications in project management (PMP, CSM, CSP), certifications in web development (ASP, SQL, Java, PHP) and a degree in operations management.  I am an avid reader, an aspiring professional photographer and a travel-enthusiast.  I can be contacted via Twitter, LinkedIn or email ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).