Top 7 Project Management Certifications: IT Career Manual

These days, almost everyone keeps talking about project management but the issue is: do you really know what project management is all about? What does it entails? What is its essence? Before this current dispensation, traditional methods were used in running most project or business. But the continuous evolution in technology coupled with rapid development in the IT industry, the market experts and entrepreneurs have introduced better alternative and new strategies for the purpose of ensuring desired success in every project. Nowadays, all organizations make use of project management because of its extraordinary profits and undeniable advantages.

With the recent statistics, project management is an extremely growing career and the demand for it will keep increasing in the nearest future. At this moment, you must be thinking of what is so special in this project management which has resulted to great increase in its demand. Before this question could be answered, it is very important to know what project management is all about.

What is Project Management?

Project management is a very wide term that covers different strategies, procedures, methods, and techniques while the objective each of them is same. Hence, PM can be defined as any action program or plan that uses every technique and strategy that could help in successful execution of any project. In other word, it refers to planning, organizing, leading, and governing the resources humanly and physically so as to attain the goals targeted for the project effectively and efficiently. With project management, you can minimize the chances of failure or loss of any project. It may interest you to know that all highly skilled professionals make use of project management.

Now that you know what PM is, as a business owner, a leader or an entrepreneur, now why is it very important more so, it is about the prosperity and success of your business?

Why Is Project Management So Important?

1. Strategic Alliance

Project management is highly imperative due to the fact that it makes sure that what is being delivered is right and delivers real value which is contrary to the business opportunity. Any project that fails to conform to the needs of the business could end up being costly and/or irrelevant.

2. Leadership

Project management brings leadership and direction to projects. When there is no project management, a team will be likened to a ship that has no rudder; but just moving without direction, purpose or control. PM provides leadership and motivation, vision and removes obstacles as it coaches and inspired the team to carry out best work.

3. Clear Focus and Targets

It makes sure that there is a thorough preparation for the execution of strategic finishes. When the project management is abandoned to the team to work on it alone, you will see that such team will work without thorough briefs, the project will lack focus, can have cloudy targets, thereby leaving the team in dilemma and not sure of what they need to do or the reason for doing it. It is very important that the goal of a project must change in line with a risk that can materialize.

4. Real Project Planning

It ensures that proper expectations are set around your result about the deadline and at what price rate. When there is no proper project management, the estimation of budget and the project timelines delivery could be over-ambitious or have no analogous estimating perceptivity from the same projects. In other words, when there is no good project management, the project will be delivered lately and even with over budget.

5. Quality Control

It ensures that the quality of the project delivered always hit the mark. You need to know that almost all projects are always completed under pressure. When there is no dedicated project, a manager that has the support and stock of executive management, the tasks could be underestimated with tight schedule and thereby rush the processes. This may lead to bad quality. If there is dedicated project management, it will make sure that there is project timeline and resources delivered on time with quality tested output. The PM is extremely important to quality control.

6. Risk Management

Project management makes sure that risks are appropriately managed and extenuated against it becoming problems. Always remember that risk is vital to the success of your project. Very good practice of PM needs project managers to carefully analyze all the possible risks to certain project, evaluate them, and create an extenuation plan against them alongside an eventuality plan in case any of them crop up. Therefore, risk must be prioritized based on the likelihood of their occurrence and proper responses are assigned for each risk.

7. Orderly Process

Project management makes sure that appropriate people do the right thing per time and ensures that proper process is followed in the project throughout the lifecycle of the project.

8. Continuous Lapse

Project management ensures that every progress of a project is tracked and properly reported. When proper lapse and project reporting is put in place, it will be very easier to know the time a certain project begin to shift away from its purported course. The earlier the deviation is detected, the easier it will be to be corrected.

9. Expertise of Subject Matter

Project management is highly imperative because you must be able to understand whether everyone is doing the right thing and what they should be doing. When there is no subject matter expertise via PM, a project will become unbalanced in the sense that the creative will ignore the technology limitations or developers forget the project’s creative vision.

10. Managing and Learning from Failure and Success

Project management learns from the failures and successes so far. It helps break bad habits and when you are able to deliver projects, you will not make the same mistakes at the second time.

Why Is Project Management So Popular?

Since more and more companies keep discovering the value of project management every moment, they have find out that by adopting the use of project management will help:

• Minimize costs.

• Increase your business productivity.

• Boost the satisfaction of the employee.

• Enable the company’s statue before the customers.

• Minimize the work overhead off the shoulders of the executives.

• Enable communication between various entities or individuals who are into the same project.

Top 7 Project Management Certificates

There are numerous project management certifications for the professionals which you can choose from, but the problem is which of these certificates you need to go for. The answer to this problem is not far-fetched. It always depends on your learning objective, recognition and the salary remuneration. Below are the best project management credentials that are extremely in demand by the professionals across the globe.

1. Project Management Professional (PMP)

PMI PMP is the most demanding project management certification across the globe. It can be compared to the gold standard among the PM certifications. It bestows rigorous knowledge to handle project with proper planning, scheduling, controlling, supervising, and execution of a project. Based on the statistical survey, the PMP certification holders earn about 17% higher salary than their colleagues that are not yet certified. The professional with the PMP certificate are more flexible and able to work in various industries, market sectors and any geographical location. The basic salary for this certification is nearly $100,000 annually.

2. Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

Are you a manager with little experience in how to handle projects? Then, this entry-level project management certification is special for you. It acts as the stepping stone to the PMP certification. Almost 16 million new project management jobs will be set up in 2020 in about seven project intensive industries. The CAPM credential is in high demand for those professionals that has the right certification for project management. The minimum annual salary package for the holder of the CAPM certification is almost $101,000 based on your role in the job and your experience.

3. PRINCE2 Practitioner

PRINCE2 stands for Project in Controlled Environments. This is globally recognized as one of the top project management certifications and it is very popular in the UK and other European countries. This credential is divided into three certificates: PRINCE2 Foundation, PRINCE2 Practitioner and PRINCE2 Professional. The highest average annual salary for the PRINCE2 Practitioner and Professional has scaled to $100,000 based on your experience.

4. CompTIA Project+

This demonstrates the communication and business skills of individual required to lead and direct projects. Also, it offers confidence in executing projects and still remains within the budget range. The CompTIA Project+ certification has a good reputation as it is an entry-level credential for the professionals and it is equivalent with the CAPM certification of PMI. With this CompTIA certificate, you can expand your scope of project management career. The minimum annual salary for the CompTIA Project+ certification holders is almost $76,279.

5. Master Project Manager (MPM)

The Master Project Manager certificate is a direct competitor to the PMP certification of PMI. The MPM credential depends on the board review of the resume and job experience of the participant. As a professional, if you are able to meet up with the job experience, you are qualified to have a certification from the AAPM programs and go for AAPM-approved training classes as this will enable you to clear your MPM exam. The holder of the MPM certification is capable to make the least package of about $91,230 and $121,790 annually.

6. Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

This is a very popular project management certification with great increase every year. Every enterprise across the globe keeps embracing this Agile methodologies for them to attain more for less and streamline processes. If you are a project manager who is starting your adventure to Scrum, you will be able to validate your knowledge of the Scrum principles and values. Also, you will have comprehensive knowledge of establishing Scrum on projects. Presently, almost 400,000 certified Scrum masters professionals are in the market; this is just to show you the significance of Agile project management methodologies in the business world today. The average pay for the CSM certification holders is almost $86,305 annually.

7. Certified Project Manager (CPM)

The Certified Project Manager credential is globally recognized as one of the project management certifications in the Pacific Rim regions. The purpose of CPM is to promote professional project management and demonstrate efficient usage of resources, such as people, time, and money in a project. The CPM exam concentrates on the project management skills, including marketing, IT, communications, integration, risk and issue management, finance, quality management, and HR. The basic mean salary for this certification is between $55,000 and $100,000 annually.

Bottom Line

With the PM certification, you can take your career to another level for fruitful rewards and the best level. The requirements and the cost of the basic education do vary according to the university you subscribe for your course and its duration. The certifications stated above are most sought after in the IT industry and if you are able to get them or anyone of them, it will help you build up the best project management job work.