This quarter sees the launch of two new registration programs.



PMI is launching a Registered Consultant Program, and in the UK, APM launches its Registered Project Professional scheme.
 

PMI’s Registered Consultant Program

 


PMI’s Registered Consultant Program, which, they say, is based on demand from organizations around the world, will provide organisations with the convenience of accessing a PMI maintained list of consulting firms prepared to improve their project, program, and portfolio management practices.



It will also provide marketing opportunities to help consulting firms directly reach organisations looking for project, program, and portfolio services.



The Registered Consultant Program will enable customers to quickly select consultancy firms based on specific factors including areas of practice, location and size. Customers will also be able to download a free guide to the selection of a project, program or portfolio consultancy.



To qualify for inclusion in the PMI Registered Consultant Program, each consulting firm must demonstrate the following:

 

 

 





     
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  • It is legally constituted and recognized by its country’s regulations/laws




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  • It agrees and adheres to PMI’s Code of Conduct (based on the PMI Code of Ethics)




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  • It has a minimum of five years of relevant consulting experience




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  • Its officer-signed application attesting to the accuracy of its provided information




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Each firm must also supply a one-page case study for each designated practice area that describes a specific engagement and its outcome. The annual membership fee for program participation is US $1,500.

 

 

 

 

 

APM’s Registered Project Professional Scheme

 


APM Registered Project Professional (RPP) is a new standard that will acknowledge that all professionals across projects, programme and portfolios have reached a recognised standard in their profession.  RPP assesses both knowledge and experience across a range of different competencies. APM will start accepting applications for the new standard in March 2011.  This seems to be a pre-cursor to APM receiving Chartered Project Professional status from the UK’s Privy Council.



The first delegates – the pilot group – have already received their certificates, and some of them will go on to be assessors for future candidates.



[caption id="attachment_6066" align="alignright" width="382" caption="Geraldine receives her certicate from Mike Nichols"]Geraldine receives her certicate from Mike Nichols[/caption]



Freelance project manager, project management consultant and educator, Geraldine Duffy successfully completed the process as both a candidate and assessor.  She found it to be a positive experience as filling in her portfolio was both challenging and interesting. She said: “I was given a good opportunity to be able to talk about my experiences in project management.”



The second preliminary stage was completed in November last year with the third and final phase of the pilot process happening in February 2011, in preparation for the official launch in March 2011.



This thorough pilot scheme has allowed the APM to develop a robust process that successful candidate, Stephen Norton, found both “interesting and rewarding”. The programmes and engineering manager from Thales wanted to have his own professional background and competencies independently assessed and found that RPP was the ideal way of doing that.



Stephen said: “Going through the process was straight forward. The most valuable part of the preparation was going back to the APM Competence Framework and working through it. That is the advice I’d give to anybody. Start slow and take your time to work through the competencies set and assess yourself against them. That helped enormously”.