Business Value of Project Management Professional Certification for IS Project Managers

Information systems (IS) departments are organizing more of their work into projects. Thus, the project management profession is growing and project managers are becoming more and more important to their success. The Project Management Institute (PMI) offers certification of project managers. The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, first offered in 1984, has gained a positive reputation among project managers as well as with HR managers and recruiters. The organizational benefits associated with PMP certification is untested. This paper attempts to understand the business value of PMP certification. The two central research questions are, “What is the value to an organization of PMP certification for its IS project managers?” and “What motivates a project manager to pursue PMP certification?” The authors conducted fourteen structured interviews of IS project managers on their views of PMP certification. Analysis of the transcripts indicated there are several reasons businesses should encourage their project managers to pursue PMP certification, but many of the benefits are not easily quantifiable.