What is the best project management certification?
All officially recognized project management certifications are equally valid, but it can be confusing knowing where to start with so many certifications on the market such as PRINCE2, PMI Project Management Professional (PMP)® and AgilePM to name just a few.
While all project management qualifications are good to have, some are more specialized than others. It pays to know which qualifications can be applied to your work, and which are tailored to suit specific industries or work environments. A PRINCE2 Agile® qualification for example, is aimed at those who already have a PRINCE2 qualification and what to adapt what they know to suit an Agile environment.
Every qualification has a different purpose, different pre-requisites and different learning goals. So, what you really have to ask is: “What project management certification is best for me?”
What is the best project management certification for me?
Let’s break this down into 3 categories: Beginner qualifications, intermediate qualifications and expert qualifications.
Beginner qualifications are those that require no previous experience or knowledge. If you’re new to project management, or if you don’t have any other qualifications, you’ll want to start here.
Intermediate qualifications are a bit of a mixed bag. Some are just extensions of beginner qualifications, while others are aimed at working professionals with at least a few months of project management experience. For the purpose of this article, we’ll consider intermediate qualifications as those that have some entry requirements but don’t require you to be an expert in project management.
Expert qualifications are still fairly rare. There are only a handful, and those that do exist are less of a learning opportunity and more a badge of excellence rewarded to project managers who take a keen interest in project management theory.
Beginner project management certifications
Like we said, this category will include only those courses that have no entry requirements and are suitable for new project managers or those who have some prior experience in project management and want to gain their first official qualification.
