Project management shifts its focus to people, process and business environment. Certifications can help professionals better understand their job function and role within a company and achieve success through continued education.
As certifications become more prevalent in business success, they continue to evolve. The Project Management Professional certification exam will shift its focus from the five domains of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing to three domains focusing on people, process and business environment, starting Dec. 16.
To accommodate the changes, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business will offer additional courses to prepare leaders for the Project Management Professional certification exam, including the addition of a course on Agile project management.
“The current PMP exam focuses on predictive approaches,” said Cori Perdue, director of Professional Education in the Collat School of Business. “The new PMP exam includes predictive, agile and hybrid approaches to project management. Our new Agile course is designed to teach principles and practices of Agile in real-world settings to help prepare professionals for the Agile Certified Practitioner exam, with the added benefit of teaching the new methodology that will be integrated into the PMP exam after December 15.”
Agile is a project management and software development methodology centered around collaboration. Solutions evolve from self-organization and cross-functional teams that are flexible.
UAB’s Agile project management begins Sept. 6 with online and in-person classes. Classes will be held Saturday, Sept. 6 and 20, from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Collat School of Business, with additional online assignments. The class will look at the Agile principles and mindset, value-driven delivery, leadership and team performance, adaptive planning, continuous improvement, and stakeholder engagement.
In addition to the Agile Project Management class, those interested in pursuing a Project Management Professional certification can attend classes to help prepare them for the exam, including the Microsoft Project workshop, PMP test prep course and project management foundational course. To learn more, click here.