Why Project Managers Benefit from both The PMP and the CCPM

Stand heads and shoulders above the millions of project managers and become both a PMP and a CCPM.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Worldwide there are close to 25 million people who call themselves project managers.  The Project Management Professional (PMP) credential by the Project Management Institute has been around for 31 years and there are close to 800,000 people certified.  The PMP helps project managers from around the world speak a common language for project management – which is a major achievement  Can you imagine what chaos is created when 25 million people all follow their own ideas of what how a project should be managed?   This is why 75% of projects that are not using a PMP fail to achieve their objectives.   Having Project Managers all speak the same language on what has to happen to launch and execute a successful project is crucial for working in our global economy.  The PMP enables project managers to better work with others worldwide.  Whether it is in the next department or with a company on the other side of the planet, when Project Managers speak the same language, they work together far more effectively.

But what about a Project Manager’s unique strengths and best leveraging the unique strengths of the people on their project teams.  When a Project Manager goes the extra mile to learn how to best leverage their unique talents and masters how to bring out the latent talents of those on their teams, they go from merely being a good project manager to a great project manager.   This is what they master when taking ten days to become a Cheetah Certified Project Manager (CCPM).   Where the PMP helps a project manager better engage with the world, the CCPM, helps project manager create a better world.

Let’s first look at what the Project Management Professional (PMP) credential is all about:

The Project Management Institute’s (PMI) global standard – the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), now in it’s sixth edition, is a very important worldwide ANSI standard. Having a common standard for Project Management worldwide makes it possible for people to have an agreed upon language for doing projects across cultures and across companies.

To verify that people understand the fundamentals of the PMBOK, and have the requisite experience to lead projects, PMI, has a global certification in project management called the Project Management Professional (PMP).  To earn this important credential, people have to have at least 5 years of project management experience and a college degree or 7 years of project management experience without a college degree and they must also have 35 hours of basic project management training.  Once PMI determines an applicant has the requisite experience and training,  they must then pass a very challenging four-hour certification exam.

Many people (who do not use Cheetah’s Accelerated Exam Prep approach) spend over six months preparing for this exam, and 40% of them fail.  Cheetah students spend four days in Cheetah’s accelerated exam prep environment, and 98% of them pass the PMP exam – most the day after class is complete.  Cheetah has been doing this program since 2001.  Before Cheetah Learning started this program in 2001, the PMP exam had been in existence for 15 years. There were about 40,000 PMP’s in 2001.  After Cheetah’s first 15 years offering their accelerated exam prep format, the numbers of PMP’s grew exponentially to over 700,000 PMP’s worldwide.

The PMP credential is now mandatory for most project manager positions worldwide. And the reason is clear – in an increasingly global and collaborative world, people must all share a common vernacular for doing projects.  This helps everyone work better together.  Think electrical outlets here.  If you’ve traveled outside of the US, you need to bring adapters with you so can use your electronics. By having a common standard for doing projects worldwide, people can work together on their projects far more effectively and efficiently.

And lets look at the relationship to Cheetah’s Certified Project Manager (CCPM) program:

While the PMP shows that a person knows how to use the global standard’s  in Project Management (the PMBOK), how can they demonstrate they know how to best use their innate strengths to quickly deliver the best results possible on the projects they lead?  This is where the CCPM comes in.  With the CCPM, a project manager shows they know how to best use their innate strengths to learn fast, to pick the right projects for them and to quickly bring them to a successful completion.  They show that they know how to maintain a state of peak performance in any environment and that they also know how to bring out the best of everyone else around them.  They demonstrate they have what it takes to finish projects fast in fast-changing times and improve everyone else around them in the process.   They quickly become very valuable assets to any organization they serve.