A New Look Coming to the PMP® Exam

The theme for PMI® is Change.

In case you haven't heard yet, the PMP® exam is changing and the final day to take the exam in its current format will be June 30, 2020.

PMI® announced the change was coming a couple of months ago, but did not give us much more detail than that. Well, PMI® just released a couple of interesting bits of information this week that I wanted to make sure you all received as well.

First, preparations for the PMBOK® 7th Edition are underway, and according to PMI®, it will be ready for printing in Q4 of 2020.

Second, it appears the updated exam content - which will be in play as of June 30th, 2020, will include:

1. More approaches to delivering outcomes. The exam will cover both predictive (~50%) and agile/hybrid (~50%) approaches to project management.Domains aligned to real-life practices.

2. The number of domains will be reduced from five to three, which include People, Process, and Business Environment. Specific project management approaches will not be aligned to individual domains but will be incorporated throughout the exam. Fortunately, We've already been building even more agile/hybrid discussion points into our in-class content so I know that our courses at Blue Summit are well in line with the future of the profession already. 

Fortunately, we've already been building even more agile/hybrid discussion points into our content so I know that our courses at Blue Summit are already well in line with the future of the profession. 

The domains for the exam content outline are currently aligned with the five Process Groups (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing), but this is changing to "People, Process, and Business Environment". This will be an interesting shift that I suspect will involve more lessons on leadership, process improvement (i.e. some Lean Six Sigma and Agile practices), and emotional intelligence and change management. Thankfully, these are subjects we are well versed in and are completely prepared to teach today. You can read the new exam content outline for 2020 in full HERE. Also, be sure to read through the list of reference materials HERE.

The main take away here is that PMI® is not just making an incremental update to the exam. The PMBOK® will have a significantly different look very soon. So if you haven't taken your exam yet, I highly recommend that you do so before June 30th, 2020, so you don't have to learn more material. If you know anybody who is considering getting their certification, encourage them to get in a class and test sooner rather than later too.

I'm actually very excited about this because I do believe it will make the PMBOK® much more relevant for many years to come, and should produce some pretty amazing operational results.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you and your organization achieve industry-leading management certifications and meaningful operational results.