PMI ACP® Course Manual
Looking forward to a career in agile? Yes, it is the way the industry is trending and most of the organizations have started embracing agile techniques. It is because of the iterative processes which save time, money, and eliminate errors. For your hunger to grow, you need to understand the right career path. Having started working in agile it is a good practice to get certified with a globally recognized institute.
We suggest you choose PMI ACP which is offered by an international organization. The course covers the basics of agile and walks you through a special project management role. It is two in bonus to learn agile principles and apply in real-time.
What is PMI ACP® course
Ignite the agile performer in you by professionally going through a certification course offered by Project Management Institute (PMI). They make you a qualified agile practitioner and that is how they have designed their certification course. In this course content, we will explain to you what is the course all about, who should attend, how to attend, and how to get a certification.
What is PMI
They are an institute with their headquarters in Pennsylvania, US offering project management certification to people across the globe. The certificate they offer has global recognition and also they have devised a standard curriculum allowing professionals to learn project managerial concepts.
What is ACP®
Agile practitioner certification is a certification course that helps people to learn and master the agile way of working in projects. Since most of the organizations are migrating to the agile work model this certification course will bring all in a common platform. The course covers all agile fundamentals, tools and methodologies embraced in agile projects.
Who can apply for PMI agile certified practitioner
Well, we understood why PMI offers ACP® certification. Now, we must evaluate whether we are eligible to opt for one.
- If you are working in an agile project as a PM, team lead, or developer, then you need to go for this training at some point in time which will allow you to master the basics in the right manner.
- Every developer can begin their agile career by learning the agile methodology from scratch
- As a team member, you will know how to gel with your team and tune your mindset in an agile way.
- As a PM you are expected to practice agile in your projects and that becomes easy after attending this course. Set an example for your team.
Why PMI-ACP® certification training
You will be molded as a perfect agile professional as the course covers the following topics. Certification is given only after the training and in the training, you will go through a practical explanation about each agile concept which you can acquire in life after many years of experience. In short, the PMI-ACP® class will offer the required experience during the course duration itself.
- Understand agile principles and tune your mindset to embrace agile methodology as it is the way the product development will happen in the coming years.
- Know how to carry out delivery in a value-driven manner. Delivery time matters and so the value too. The training will educate an ACP® to handle delivery giving importance to the value.
- Stay engaged with the stakeholder and they are the key people for successful project delivery.
- Master the art of managing team and embrace adaptive planning
- Work towards continuous improvement by detecting and resolving problems periodically.
How to apply for the certification
Check for your job experience and then make up your mind to attend a PMI agile course
- Complete the training to collect your PDU
- Fill the exam form and become a PMI member
- Pay the fees
- Schedule a date for examination and take the test
- Pass the test to get qualified for a certificate.
Let us see how do we move forward from each step to reach the destination of becoming a PMI agile certified practitioner
PMI ACP® certification requirements
If you want to apply for the certification course, then you need to apply. Yes, it is a straight answer. However, the institute has set some requirements and only if you meet them you can start with your application process.
The prerequisites to apply for PMI certification includes
- A minimum of 2000 hours of work experience in projects.
- Along with that, you need 1500 hours of work exp in agile projects.
- Attended a minimum of 21 hours PMI agile certified practitioner training course.
From the above it is clear that training is mandatory as the experience you will gain as part of your career. This training is required to collect 21 PDU to apply for certification.
Agile certified practitioner training
Many institutes offer training and these days online PMI ACP® training has become a trend that is at par with the classroom training. Therefore you need not worry about the mode of training. But choose wisely the best PMI ACP® online training institute that has the following edge over others. Get answers to the following questions and validate them.
- Check for their experience in training offered and how many have been successful
- Know if they offer PDUs and SEUs.
- Ask them if their trainer has the required professional experience
- Do they provide you with recorded videos that will let you prepare for the examination?
- Will case studies be part of the training? This is important because those will help you go through a practical experience during training.
- Know if they conduct projects to test your skills at the end of the training
- What kind of materials they give matters as you need to refer them and get ready for the examination
- Do they assist with application assistance?
- How many practice exam questions they provide?
Application process
Let us assume that you chose the right institute and got trained. Now, its time to apply for the certification examination.
- Create a login with the PMI website and fill an application form. You have 90 days to complete the form from the date you created an account.
- After the application process, you will get a reply in 10 days about your application status.
- Then you need to submit documents within 90 days and PMI will take 1 week to check your documents.
- Make payment and schedule your exam. You can fix a date within 1 year period from the date your application got approved.
- Also, you are allowed with 3 attempts to pass the exam.
PMI ACP® certification cost and PMI ACP® exam fee
The training cost is INR 6999 + GST with StarAgile. You need to make USD 495 with PMI for appearing to the exam and getting certified. In case you are a member of PMI then you can pay USD 435 only. These costs are applicable for PMI online test.
PMI ACP® exam pattern
Having paid the fees we are sure you are seriously preparing. Understand the exam pattern and other details to clear the exam in one attempt.
- The examination is online with 120 MCQs and you need to complete them in 180 minutes.
- 120 questions will include 20 pretest questions. However, you will not know which pretest questions are and you need to give equal importance to all questions.
- The 7 domains on which the questions will revolve include
Domain
| Number of questions |
Agile principles | 9 |
Delivery – Value Driven | 14 |
Engaging with stakeholders | 9 |
Team performance | 9 |
Adaptive planning | 6 |
Detecting and resolving problems | 5 |
Continuous improvement | 6 |
- You can resume the test after pausing and you will retake the test from the place you left. But remember that the test time will continue from the time where you left.
- It is possible to make 3 attempts to clear the examination beyond which you need to make payment of USD 335 and USD 395 for members and nonmembers respectively.
- There is no passing score and no marks awarded for the examination. It is based on the number of questions you wrote right and each question has different weightage. Therefore you need to prepare well and marks do not matter in this examination.
PMI ACP® cost and renewal process
- Your certificate is valid for 3 years from the day you passed your examination.
- You need to collect 30 PDU to renew your certification after 3 years
- Login to the PMI site with your credentials and submit your earned PDUs make payment to renew the certificate. Members need to pay USD 60 whereas nonmembers will pay USD 150 for renewal.
- There are several options to earn PDUs which is a separate topic by itself.
Benefits of attending PMI agile training
We have briefed you about what is PMI ACP® and all details pertaining to PMI ACP® exam fees etc. We will also throw some light on how to prepare for the exam.
Make up your mind as to why you have chosen PMI ACP®. Only then preparation becomes easy.
21 contact hour PDU is a must for applying with PMI for certification. This you can attain in self-study, attending seminars, etc. But training will offer the following advantages.
- Hearing from a learned professional will help in easing grasping. It also allows getting doubts clarified.
- Connecting with other participants will provide room for discussions and hence teamwork culture is inhibited.
- Case studies will pave the way for practical experience and projects will make the participant work hands-on.
- Finally, the mock examination will provide the necessary idea about how the actual will be conducted and what kind of questions will be asked.
One last fool-proof suggestion – Why StarAgile
Experience and self-study are important. However, we suggest you to register with StarAgile PMI ACP® training online to reap the benefits easily. The study material, case study, mock examination, and the training will get you ready mentally to attend the examination and pass in the first attempt.
Wishing you good luck!