Friday, July 31, 2015

PMI-ACP Exam series -1 :: Why not PMI-ACP certificate

PMI-ACP has changed exam content and now focusing more on Scrum and Kanban. I would not recommend PMI-ACP to anyone due to exam fee and examination process itself but reading reference material is always helpful. PMI approach is not encouraging especially when it's come to Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) certificate. Purpose of this PMI-ACP exam series not to criticize but elaborate what contents get cover in exam. I will be writing a separate blog on each topics in coming days. 

Here is details why not PMI-ACP.

Content:-
Unlike PMP there is NO guide from PMI and only suggest to read below 12 books. These books are anyway available and agile enthusiast refers it. Why should I go to PMI to get this list if same is available everywhere. In case of PMP, PMI does provide a guide called PMBOK.

1. Agile Estimating and Planning: Mike Cohn
2. Professional Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products: Jim Highsmith 
3. Professional Agile Retrospectives: Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, Ken Schwaber 
4. Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game Author: Alistair Cockburn
5. Coaching Agile Teams: Lyssa Adkins 
6. Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile Extreme: Robert K. Wysocki
7. Exploring Scrum: The Fundamentals: Dan Rawsthorne with Doug Shimp 
8. Kanban In Action: Marcus Hammarberg, Joakim Sunden
9. Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business: David J. Anderson 
10. Lean-Agile Software Development: Alan Shalloway, Guy Beaver, James R. Trott  
11. The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility: Michele Sliger, Stacia Broderick
12. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development: Mike Cohn

Approach:-
PMI test agile enthusiast skills through exam but since content is not provided by them and course will not going to be taught by PMI accredited trainer then why someone has to write PMI exam? Unlike PMI, other organizations like Scrum Alliance and Lean kanban University teaches same and conduct their own exam which are more focused on  good content and good trainer. Becoming Scrum alliance trainer is difficult and someone should really be good in agile and scrum and has to go through well managed process. In case of PMI, anyone can teach without even knowing agile and scrum. Bad part is participants come to know about poor training only when they fail in exam and same time PMI is not going to take any action against trainer.

Exam Fee:-
$495 (33,000 INR) only for exam? but why? what if I have failed due to poor training by any trainer? Will PMI take any action against trainer? NO then $495 just for exam? Because PMI is a brand and can issue a piece of paper? I was hoping that PMI will reduce exam fee and will keep it around $200 but unfortunately exam fee remain same. Participants also has to spend 15,000 for training and around 5,000-10,000 for books. Total cost of PMI-ACP certification comes around 55,000-60,000 INR in India.
Scrum Alliance program cost is very less that includes training, content and exam/certification fee. Participants can attend multiple program and get certificates in 55,000 - 60,000 INR in India then why PMI-ACP?

Certified Scrum Master CSM) cost around 24,000 INR and Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) cost around 27,000 INR so total cost for both still 51,000 INR that will also help in getting Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)
If not Certified Scrum Developer then you can think of getting Certified Kanban Professional Management or Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) in 27,000 INR same will also help in getting certified Scrum Professional (CSP).

I will definitely recommend to read above books but will not suggest to spend lots of money to test your learning skills through expensive exam.

This is my personal view please ignore if you don't like. 

1 comment:

  1. I have been searching for some guidance online dealing with pmi certification, and I just wanted to thank you for recommending the books above. I will definitely be checking them out. I also found a good site dealing with pmi-acp training & I thought I'd share it here for your readers as well.
    Thank you for putting this list together.

    ReplyDelete