PMI Announces Softening of Requirements for New PMI-ACP Certification

The Project Management Institute is softening the eligibility requirements to qualify for their new PMI ACP (Agile Certified Professional) certification test. A key change is in respect to agile experience. Previously individuals needed 1,500 hours of experience working on an agile project, accrued over the last two years. Now the requirement is 1,500 hours of experience on an agile project accrued over the last three years. The requirement for contact hours (e.g. training) has been similarly broadened to include any agile practices, not just Project Management.

These new requirements started on 26 March 2012, and they were distributed to current candidates pursuing the certification. The following table was included in the communication and the updates are highlighted in red font.

According to Derek Huether, who is the PMI Agile CoP Co-Lead for the ACP Support Team, the change from “project management” to “project” experience was prompted by confusion among a significant number of those in the candidate base.

While the description clearly stated that the certification is not limited to project managers, the label “project management experience” tended to imply to practitioners that we required experience managing projects rather than working on project teams.

The other change is the loosening of the agile project experience from having to be accrued in the last two years to being accrued in the last three years. In total, these changes will allow a larger number of individuals to qualify for the PMI ACP Test.

To find out more about eligibility requirements check the following links:

• PMI-ACP Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• PMI-ACP page on PMI.org