10. Some brief about PMI

Introducing the Project Management Institute (PMI)

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is another non-profit organization (but it requires membership related fees) that organizes academic conferences and publishes project management guidelines with comprehensive principles apply to management of project in all disciplines, including IT systems development, HR, law, finance, marketing, etc., as well as construction projects which the construction industry in the country like Thailand should study and practice in local construction projects toward international standards.

PMI was founded by 5 American practitioners in 1969 in a formal meeting at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. PMI's first headquarter locates in Pennsylvania, USA. The second headquarter locates in Beijing, with other two sub offices in Shenzhen and Shanghai in China. There are also Customer Care Centers for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region in Ireland and for the Asia Pacific region, in Singapore. PMI also has a service two more service centers in Delhi and Mumbai in India. Currently, there are over 450,000 members and group of members called “local Chapter”. The Chapters are over 280 branches in almost every country in every continent, including the “Thai Chapter” in Bangkok for Thailand.

The list of Standards and Practice Guides published by PMI includes:

Foundation Standards include:

•      A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) - 5th Edition, with 3 extensions 

               - Software Extension to PMBOK® Guide - 5th Edition 
               - Construction Extension to the PMBOK® Guide (This is an additional document for management of construction project) 
               - Government Extension to the PMBOK® Guide - 3rd Edition 

•     Standard for Program Management - 3rd Edition 
•     Standard for Portfolio Management - 3rd Edition 
•     Organizational Project Management Maturity Model OPM3 - 3rd Edition

Practice Standards & Framework include: 

•     Project Risk Management Practice Standard 
•     Practice Standard for Earned Value Management - 2nd Edition 
•     Project Configuration Management 
•     Work Breakdown Structure Practice Standard 
•     Practice Standard for Scheduling 
•     Practice Standard for Project Estimating 
•     Project Manager Competency Development

Practice Guides include: 

•     Requirements Management 
•     Governance of Portfolios., Programs, and Projects 
•     Business Analysis Practice Guide 
•     Implementing Organizational Project Management, A Practice Guide 
•     Navigating Complexity, A Practice Guide 
•     Managing Change Practice Guide

In addition to the publication, PMI also offers various training courses for practitioners by way of online distance learning to be ready for qualifying by professional certificate(s) as required by some of multinational employers, such as some American IT companies or American escalator & lift companies etc. who stated their job applicants must have these certificates.

PMI provides certificates to certify professional practitioners who pass the exams in the following areas: 

•     Project Management Professional (PMP) - This PMP certifies a professional project manager. 
•     Program Management Professional (PgMP) – PMI refers the term “program” to many projects run by an organization. Program Manager will strategically oversee several projects simultaneously, to ensure of completing projects and achieving organization’s goals. 
•     Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) – PMI refers the term “portfolio” to many programs (including projects) run by an organization. The Portfolio Manager will strategically oversee several programs (including projects) simultaneously, to ensure of completing programs and achieving the organization's goals. 
•     Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM). - This CAPM certifies a qualified practitioner who has known well of a basic knowledge of the processes and methodology of effective project management. 
•     PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA) – This PMI-PBA certifies an expert on business requirement analysis for business owner who can drive an organization's project to success. 
•     PMI Agile Certificated Practitioner (PMI-ACP) – This PMI-ACP certifies an IT programmer for a software development project who works with Agile practicing concept that focuses on teamwork who split jobs by member’s aptitude without relying on the long-term planning process, but rather brain storming and adjusting the need to deliver the work phase-by-phase until the objectives of the project are achieved. The Agile concept has several approaches, such as SCRUM, XP, LEAN, and Kanban. 
•     PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP) – This PMI-RMP certifies an expert who identify and  assess risks of a project and provide plans to cope with the risks in accordance with the opportunity of occurrence previously assessed. 
•     PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP) – This PMI-SP certifies a professional scheduler.

The one who passes the exam(s) and hold the certificate(s) has its right to put relevant suffix(s), such as PMP, CAPM, etc. to its name in business card or mail. Any professional certification is valid for 3 years. Within the 3 years period, the certified practitioner in a specialized area (or more), will need to renew the certificate(s) by collecting points called by PMI as “Professional Development Units (PDUs)” earned from continuous updating of work knowledge or attending live seminars (which can be revisited online retrospectively) for 60 PDUs in case of PMP, PgMP, PfMP, PMI-PBA or 30 PDUs in case of PMI-ACP, PMI-SP and PMI-RMP from 2 selective categories with its sub-categories as follows:-

1. Education (Course or training, Organization meetings, Online or Digital media, Read, Informal learning): must be at least 35PDUs from the following sub-categories 
    1.1 Group Technical (must be at least 8 PDUs) 
    1.2 Leadership category (must be at least 8 PDUs) 
    1.3 Strategic & Business category (must be at least 8 PDUs) 
    1.4 General Education

2. Giving Back (Work as a Practitioner, Create Content, Give a Presentation, Share Knowledge, Volunteer): for a maximum of 25 PDUs from the following categories. 
    2.1 Work as a Practitioner (not more than 8 PDUs) 
    2.2 Other Giving Back

It is understood that the Thai Engineering Council (COE) has adopted a similar PDUs scoring approach for an alternative process of upgrading Thai engineers’ professional level.

The most widely held certificate and commonly the same in all countries is the PMP Certificate for a certified project manager per PMI standard. The professional project manager must understand basic knowledge from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) which divides PMI’s project management life cycle into 5 Process Groups, namely:- 
       I. Initiating 
       II. Planning 
       III. Executing 
       IV. Monitoring & Control and 
       V. Closing

The five process groups consist of total 47 processes, grouped into 10 knowledge areas, which are:- 
      1. Integration 
      2. Scope 
      3. Time 
      4. Cost 
      5. Quality 
      6. Procurement 
      7. Human Resources 
      8. Communications 
      9. Risk Management and 
    10. Stakeholder Management

For construction industry, the Construction Extension of PMBOK® Guide provides 4 more knowledge areas as follows:- 
     11. All project resources, rather than just human resources. 
     12. Project health, safety, security, and environmental management 
     13. Project financial management, in addition to cost and. 
     14. Management of claims in construction

Next episode will talk about the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) which is the British’s Arbitration Institute, who provides Construction Adjudication Course training, as much as we can find information from the internet. It is hopeful that the guru in arbitration field will give some comment and share his or her knowledge for this blog’s reader. If interested, please follow ....

References and Credits 
      - http://www.pmi.org 
      - http://pmithai.org 
      - A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) - 5th Edition