Those who adapt, survive. Those who adapt and act, thrive. This is the essence of Agile. –from the book, I Want to Be An ACP.
Project Management Institute’s (PMI®) Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP®) certification is relatively new when compared with the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. As of January 2020, over 1,000,000 professionals globally hold a PMP certification, and the main reference guide, the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide, has seen over 6 million downloads.
Though ACP certification is new, it’s been one of the fastest growing certifications since its inception. As of May 31, 2020, there were over 35,000 ACP credential holders worldwide.
In my view, this is primarily due to the following facts:
- The certification is coming from PMI, a well-recognized and trusted body globally within the project, program, and portfolio management community.
- Unlike many other certifications, which can be easily done in 24 hours or at max 72 hours with little to no effort, the ACP certification takes sincere effort to earn. I have seen people who never did a single Agile project in their career suddenly become ‘experts’ in Agile or ‘masters’ in Scrum, after a certification earned in only two days! How is that even possible? It insults common sense.
- When studying for the PMI-ACP certification, aspirants learn a whole gamut of frameworks and methodologies: XP, Scrum, Lean, Kanban, Crystal, FDD, and TDD, among many others. The ACP certification is not tied to any single Agile or lean framework.
- The exam is well structured, well administered, tested professionally, and recognized within the Agile management community.
- The certification is constantly changing and evolving to accommodate the needs of the Agile practitioners. For example, PMI added quite a few reference books in the latest change for the ACP exam in 2019.
Another aspect is that Agile driven methodologies (or frameworks) have seen wide acceptance in the industry today. In industries, where requirement churn is high, Agile approaches are often considered and used for product development.
In my on-demand webinar, we discuss the following:
- How to go from an Aspiring ACP to a Candidate ACP?
- How to go from a Candidate ACP to a Successful ACP?
- How to continue being an ACP?
- How to approach the ACP exam in a world impacted by COVID-19?
This webinar is based on my teachings, interactions, and what I’ve learned from professionals aspiring to be ACPs and from professionals who are already ACP credential holders. I hope you enjoy the session.
