Written by: Conrado Morlan

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a professional association recognized worldwide that offer several credentials for project and program management professionals.

PMI started with two credentials: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® and Project Management Professional  (PMP)® and in the last five years it had incorporated other credentials such as: Program Management Professional ® (PgMP)®, PMI's Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)®  and PMI's Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)®.

As a PMI credential holder you must accrue a minimum number of PDUs to maintain your certification status in a tree year cycle. PDUs are classified in different categories described in the  PDU category Caps and Rules.
The Certified Associate in Project Management ® (CAPM®) is the only credential that does not need to accrue PDUs. This credential last for five years and it expires.  The CAMP® credential holder may decide to re-take the CAMP® exam or to pursue another PMI credential.

I have seen a lot of questions from other fellow PMI credential holders on how to get PDUs to maintain their credential status.  Many of the questions look to get PDUs in a “quick and cheap” fashion.

Professional development programs offered by Register Education Providers (REP) to the credential holders may usually accrue a PDU per hour of training but this require some investment of money and time and may not fit the “quick and cheap” condition.

I have successfully used the following alternatives to accrue the sixty PDUs per cycle required to maintain my PMP® and PgMP® credentials

A)      Practitioner (Category 2H). Accrue five PDUs per year for 1500 annual hours as a practitioner. This may be a category missed by many project and program management professionals. This is a natural alternative to earn PDUs

B)      Chapter Meetings (Category 3). Attending a monthly meeting of your local chapter adds up to 12 PDUs per year or 36 PDUs per cycle and the opportunity to meet other project and program management professionals in your area

C)      Volunteer Opportunities (Various categories). Assuming you achieve a total of 51 PDUs  completing the alternatives A and B you may chose from the following:

i.            PMI Global Congress. Attending one congress within the three year cycle you will earn 16+ PDUs

ii.            Articles. Writing an article (Category 2B1) accrue for 15 PDUs and co-authoring an article (Category 2B2)

iii.            Speaking engagements. You can chose between presenting at a project management congress/symposium (Category 2C) for 10 PDUs; presenting at a  PMI Component meeting (Category 2D) or being a member or moderator of a project management panel (category 2E) for five PDUs each

These are some alternatives that you may consider to maintain your certification status.  At the end accruing PDUs is as easy as the ABC

Article Source:

http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-abc-of-pdus-professional-development-unit

#
About Conrado Morlan:

My passion is program and project management and how culture impacts the project outcome. I'd been managing global and regional projects around the world led and managed diverse and disperse teams and transformed programs into benefits.
I had been exposed to several project management methodologies and achieved credentials from different project management organizations. I am the first Mexican to achieve the PgMP credential and mentoring potential candidates from Latin America.
As an avid volunteer with PMI and with other organizations I participate in events that promote the project management culture. I have a strong multi-cultural background and speak fluently English, Spanish and Portuguese.
I am a frequent speaker at regional and global project management congresses. You can read my columns in PMI Community Post and INyES Latino.