Complete Guide To Earning PDUs

27/11/2019 PMP PDU, CCR And The Quest For Career Growth: The Complete Guide to Earning PDUs -
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Complete Guide to Earning PDUs 
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by SHIV SHENOY
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Hello! My name is Shiv
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PMP PDU PMP Exam PMP Course
tons of time in
Getting PMP certification is only half the job done. It’s a nice milestone to reach for one’s career preparing for PMP or
growth, but there is more to it. Application of PMP concepts at work is certainly one of them, CAPM exam, learn
with fun, and pass the
which is what the PMP questions train you for.
exam at first
attempt...
D OWNLOAD MY BOOKS FOR FREE !
Continuous improvement is as much a required aspect of one’s career-growth as it is for Kaizen

projects.
For many the very thought of getting PDUs can be a painful one. I receive a lot of ‘how to earn
PDUs for PMP renewal‘ emails. I fret over it for many months before coming up with a plan. But
with this article you can have it like a breeze. Almost. You’ll have to put in some hours to get them,
but this planning exercise can make it seem like a breeze.
In this article, we will look at the exercise of earning PDUs from career-growth
perspective.
BONUS: Download PDU planner spreadsheet template in this article.
Also, in the last part of this post I’m sharing with you a way to get PDUs by
simply sharing about in your favorite project management topic!
What is PDU?
PDU stands for Professional Development Units and is a unit of measurement of our efforts
at upgrading our job related knowledge. This unit of measurement is defined by PMI, and on a
time scale, this translates to the number of hours of efforts you put in to upgrade your knowledge.
For instance, one hour of studying a project management practices related book, or attending a
a d
webinar, or preparing presentation on a project management topic, or a creating project h k
https://www.pmexamsmartnotes.com/pmp-pdu-ccrs-complete-guide-earn-pdus/ 1/12
management knowledge (writing a blog post such as this one, book, whitepaper) earns you one
PDU. 2 hours of effort earns youthis
Share 2 PDUs, and soaccumulate
knowledge, on. good Karma!
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To keep your PMP certification in force you need to earn 60 PDUs in a 3-year period from the
date of passing your PMP exam – known as certification cycle. You earn PDUs as per Continuing
Certification Requirements (CCR) guidelines defined by PMI and file them under a separate
account at the CCRS portal, ccrs.pmi.org.
As per CCR guidelines, all PMI certification holders – except CAPM – must earn PDUs to keep
their certification in force. This exercise actually helps one stay updated with latest
developments
25,254 in Project Management field and equip oneself to handle changes. I MPORTANT P OSTS
 READERS
Let us3,586
 first understand the ways you can earn PDU.
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This is important because you can plan for earning PDUs according to your interest area and * Here’s what’s changing in PMP exam in 
career plan. You’ll understand this better when we look at Talent Triangle in a bit. 2019-2020
* CAPM exam changes in 2019-2020
* Step-by-step Guide to Submitting Your PMP
PMI allows you to earn PDUs under two broad categories – Application on PMI.org (plus a free template)
* PM Prepcast Review, Discount and Bonuses to
Help You Pass PMP Exam With Ease
Education – learn and enhance your technical, leadership, or strategic and business
* How To Remember ITTOs for the Exam?
management skills. * PMP FAQ – Discover the nuances!
Giving Back to the Profession – help other project managers learn by sharing your skills * Grab free PMP training now!
* Training: Point of Total Assumption
and knowledge.
* Training: Advanced EVM
* How to calculate Critical Path, Float and Early-
Further, PMI defines sub-categories under each of these categories to earn your PDUs. What you & Late Start & Finishes
* Demystifying Earned Value Management
need to understand is that for PMP certification, you’ll need a minimum 35 PDUs under
(EVM)
Education category and can earn a maximum of 25 PDUs under Giving Back to the Profession * 7 PM best practices to skyrocket career
category. PDU restriction is a little more complicated than this, and as you read ahead in this * 108 amazing PM stats you can use today
* Brain-friendly PMP study resources toppers
guide, it will become easy to understand.
have been secretly using
* 10 symptoms of project failure (check if yours
At this point, I highly recommend that you fire up your favorite word processing program (or has any)
* How to create your Project Schedule – the right
take a paper and pencil) before you go ahead. You can as well get your PDUs planned by
way
investing few more minutes of time. * Introduction to Project Management Body Of
Knowledge – Version 6
Here’s a quick look at various sub-categories that you can plan to get your PDUs under. * PMP Insider Tips that Reduce Study Effort
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* Corrective Action Vs Preventive Action Vs
Figure 1: Sub-categories available to earn your PDUs Defect Repair
* Project Management Body Of Knowledge

Are you able to identify few familiar ones that you already can claim PDUs under? Excellent! Let’s
go right ahead and put that in a plan.
FREE PMP L AUNCHPAD
Note – If your 3-yr certification cycle ends prior to 1 December 2017, there is a slight change to COURSE !
a d
this requirement. We will look at this special case in the last section of this guide. h k
This PDU guide assumes that you have only PMP credential to earn PDUs for, and not multiple Name: Your first name, please
PMI certificates. Share this knowledge, accumulate good Karma! Email: Email address to send the training
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5-Step Exercise to Earn Your PDUs We respect your email privacy
Here’s a simple 5-step process to earn and report PDUs –
1. Understand PMI’s Talent Triangle: you’ll need to plan your PDUs to fall into these PMP Exam Notes, T…
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buckets
2. Create your PDU plan: how many from each of the 3 Talent Triangle sections, and
25,254 from Giving Back category
 how many
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3. Create a PDU schedule: based on how much time remains in your 3-yr certification cycle,
3,586
 you’ll need a custom plan
TWEETS Timeline Messages 
4. Earn PDUs: only planned action gets easy and quick results
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5. Report them in PMI’s CCRS: as soon as you earn them enter them in CCRS portal. PMI
may reject few PDUs too! So, avoid any last-minute surprises.
PMP Exam Notes, Tips
and Resources
13 hours ago
Let us look at these in detail.
Download the interactive infographic
>>
https://www.pmexamsmartnotes.com/c
Step 1. Understand PMI’s Talent Triangle: you’ll need to plan your hoose-effective-project-…/
PDUs to fall into these buckets
You now know that you need a minimum of 35 PDUs from Education category, and a
maximum of 25 PDUs from Giving Back category.
Technically, this means that you can aim for all of 60 PDUs in Education category alone. PMI also
states that earning PDUs under Giving Back category is optional. But you will want to plan to G ET F REE PM P REP C AST !
spread PDUs between these two categories for multiple reasons.
First, if you are working as a project manager you can simply claim 8 PDUs! Second,
scroll up to the image above and take a look at other sub-categories under Giving Back category.
They provide you with a golden opportunity to build your network and increase your sphere of
influence. This sure can come handy when you have some outside dependency in one of your
projects, or you need some help with your next role, or you simply want to move to a different
organization.
PMI constantly surveys evolving project management practices and understands how current
practices are faring across industries. It discovered that it takes more than just technical skills in
project and program management to stay competitive in today’s complex marketplace. Many
organizations seek additional qualities such as leadership skills and business intelligence in
project managers. And PMI wanted to make changes to the self-development platform so that
project managers can up-skill themselves in each of these segment and stay competitve.
This sure is a good reason to plan for PDUs. CCR it’s no more a requirement to maintain PMP
credential now, this is an journey to keep ourselves constantly up-skilled in order to excel at
our profession. Who knows, this may just prepare you for that new position opening up at
your organization!
Hence PMI introduced The Talent Triangle.
The Talent Triangle consists of three segments –
Technical Project Management

Leadership
Strategic and Business Management
As you would have figured by now, you’ll need to distribute your PDUs under these 3 segments of
the Talent Triangle. And yes, you guessed it right – there are restrictions on how many PDUs you
can earn in each segment as far as PMP certification is concerned.
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Figure 2: PDUs distributed under 3 sections of Talent Triangle for Education category
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YouFOLLOWERS
could take an online course from PMI, or with any REPs, or an instructor-led course, or 
participate in organizational meetings related to project management, or read relevant books
(from PMI store or projectmanagement.com) or watch a webinar to earn your PDUs (ref Figure 1).
You need a minimum of 8 PDUs under each of 3 sections of Talent Triangle, and then you’ll need
to distribute at least 11 more PDUs under one or more of these sections.
CCR states that you need to limit PDUs from meetings (organizational, PMI local chapter or third
parties – discussing project management related topics) to 1-2 PDU but there is no clarity on how
many PDUs can go under this sub-category.
A word of caution – when you choose an activity to get PDUs under, first find out the Talent
C REATE A BLOG LIKE THIS ONE
Triangle segment that the PDU you earn goes under. This can save you a lot of time. The
planning spreadsheet in the next section should help you organize your activities.
PMI has many study material that you can use to earn PDUs and if you are a member, you’ll get a
discount on them.
Talent Triangle section 1: Technical Project Management

This is the knowledge and skills required to manage a project, program or portfolio.
If you took an Agile project management course like this one, for instance, although it would look
to give you PDUs under this section alone, you’ll get PDUs under all the three segments of Talent
Triangle. P UBLISH YOUR POST FOR FREE !
Therefore, from a skill enhancement perspective, unless you already are certified in Agile project
management methodology, it would be useful to include an agile course as part of your PDU
planning. This Agile project management course gives you 37 PDUs straight away.
Some of the topics you can learn to get PDUs are –
Agile project management methodologies (XP, Scrum and so on)

Risk management and best practices
Estimation methods (cost, budget and schedule)
Scope management
Requirement management and Traceability
Data modeling techniques
Earned value management
Agile estimation
Agile release planning
Product backlog management
Business analysis and planning
Requirement verification techniques
Product evaluation
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Here are few courses from PMI that you can take to earn PDUs under Technical Project
Management segment of the Talent Triangle.
Talent Triangle section 2: Leadership

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Few topics under which you can learn (books, webinars, courses etc) and earn PDUs under
28 Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Leadership segment
SHARES are –
Change management
Communication strategies
Conflict resolution skills
Customer focus related topics
Innovation at work place
Emotional intelligence and importance in recruitment
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Morale and motivation related topics
Team management best practices
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Dispute resolution skills
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 Negotiation skills
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Here are some of the courses from PMI that you can take to earn PDUs under Leadership segment
of the Talent Triangle.
Talent Triangle section 3: Strategic and Business Management

Some of the topics under which you can earn PDUs under this section are –
Aligning Project management to Organizational strategy and goals

Application of Project Management to a specific domain niche
Business models, structures and improvements
Tracking and measurement of certain organizational level metrics
Best practices of management of cross-cultural project teams
Regulatory and legal compliance for projects in a specific domain
Strategies in recruiting and retaining talent
Analyzing Financial statements as applicable to projects
Market study and strategies to manage changes
Business strategy and implementation specific to people and processes
Organization building
Here are few courses from PMI that you can take to earn PDUs under Strategic and
Business Management segment of the Talent Triangle.
Step 2. Create your PDU plan: how many from Talent Triangle,
and how many from Giving Back category
Out of 60 PDUs needed to keep the PMP certification in force, you’ll need to plan your PDUs in
specific categories keeping in mind your professional goals.
Working as a project management professional is most likely the first of PDUs you can claim.
CCRS allows you to claim 8 PDUs under ‘Working as a practitioner’ section, and this goes under
Giving Back category.
A good practice is to create a planning spreadsheet based on where you want to

grow in your career.
Plan for more PDUs in,
..Technical project management segment if you’d like to get into program, portfolio
management or PMO organization
..Leadership segment if you’d like to move into leadership positions in delivery organization
..Strategic & Business Management segment if you’d like to move to the business side of
(customer facing) middle/senior management role in your company.
a
Here’s how your PMP PDU planner may look like –
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Figure 3: Sample PDU planning spreadsheet
Few Free Resources

I will periodically update this list as I find good resources –
Project Management Podcast

Courses from iZenBridge
PeopleAndProjectPodcast.com
Apart from these,
You can also plan to earn PDUs every month from here, or plan to get one time from here.
To make this whole PDU exercise easier, I have created a template for you.
In this planner you simply add the name of PDU activity and number of PDUs you’ll get from it,
and the sheet will calculate the total PDUs in that category as well as overall total against the
target of 60 PDUs.
Download Your PMP PDU Planner now! (right click and save to disk)
Step 3. Create a PDU schedule: based on how much time remains

in your 3-yr certification cycle, you’ll need a custom plan
Getting 60 PDUs will take at least 60 hours – theoretically, that is. Practically, if you are going
over a 1-hr webinar, you’ll spend at least 10-15 minutes more, and even more, if you are pausing
and taking notes. So, overall you may spend about 80-100 hours to earn 60 PDUs.
It is easier to make this a regular routine task and so more manageable.
Let us take an example.
Let us say you have 15 months for your current certification cycle to end, so you may want to make
a 14-month plan. That is about 5 PDUs per month to get. Not bad, eh?
If you work in the role of project manager you can claim up to 8 PDUs under Giving Back category
for ‘Working as a practitioner’. So you have 52 PDUs to aim for. That’s roughly 4 PDUs per
month. a d h k
Based on the plan you came up with in the previous step, you may decide to take, say, an Agile
course in the first 2 months – thereby
Share earning 21accumulate
this knowledge, or 37 PDUsgood
(with this or this course,
Karma!
respectively). 28
Then you’ll be left with 31 PDUs (52 – 21) or 15 PDUs (52 – 37) to earn in remaining 12 months.
That is like 1-2 PDUs a month. You can squeeze in about 4 hours to study time per month, with
ease, right?
You can even add a column to the spreadsheet downloaded in the previous section and add due-
dates to get those PDUs.
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 READERS
The mere exercise of planning for PDUs and preparing this schedule sheet will take quite a
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 heavy load off your shoulder.
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Step 4. Earn PDUs: only planned action gets results
Well, this is merely a step in this exercise. Once you have the plan and schedule sheet in place,
you’ll simply work as per that and keep claiming your PDUs in PMI’s CCR website.
The smallest PDU increment you can report is 0.25 (corresponding to 15 minutes of an
activity).
Step 5. Report PDUs in PMI’s CCRS Portal

Make it a practice to claim your PDUs in CCR website as soon as you earn them, even if it is one
PDU. You’ll get a congratulatory email from PMI for each approved PDU submission.
Note – if the product owner of the course, webinar, or book you choose can confirm that the
content can be used towards claiming PDUs then you may find the study resource already
registered with PMI. If this is the case, PMI will populate all required fields as you start the
PDU claim process.
Reporting PDUs in CCRS portal is quite simple. Here’s how I claimed PDUs for one of the
submissions (for an Agile course) –
Step 1: Log into PMI’s CCRS portal ccrs.pmi.org
Step 2: Navigate to ‘Report PDU’ section from the sidebar choose the right sub-category under
Education or Giving Back category. In this case I had to take the ‘Course or Training’ option under
Education.
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Figure 4: Report PDU screen in CCRS h k
Step 3: Enter the name of source of PDU
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If the source (course,
dropdown list SHARES
a
webinar,
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book etc) is already registered with PMI, you’ll find the name in the
Facebook
as you start typing.
Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
In my case, as I started typing ‘Simplilearn’ the appropriate provider option came up.
If your source is not listed, no issues – you’ll just have to fill in few fields such as contact person,
email an such.
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Step 4: In the Activity text box type in the type of activity such as the name of training, webinar
etc
Again, if your provider is registered with PMI, your activity name will likely show up. Choose the
right one if there are multiple options.
Step 5: If your activity is not registered with PMI you’ll have to choose appropriate Talent
Triangle section (for Education category).
In my case, since it was Simplilearn Agile course, the application automatically splits 21 PDUs
into Technical, Leadership and Strategic sections of PMI’s Talent Triangle.
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Click on the ‘I agree this claim is accurate.’ checkbox and click on Submit button.
That’s it! If you checked ‘Claim History’ sidebar option, you’ll see that the PDUs are automatically
approved and applied for an PMI-approved activity. For the rest, you’ll receive an email from PMI
about the status in a day or two as it takes manual intervention from PMI support team to validate
PDU claim.
Once you have 60 PDUs claimed, you will be invited by PMI to complete renewal application
process, pay fee ($60 for PMI member, $150 for non-PMI member) and renew your PMP
certification. Post this step, as you roll into next 3-yr certification cycle.
A certification holder can be subjected to audit by PMI. In case of an audit, the certification
renewal is allowed after successful completion of the audit process.
If you have earned in excess of 60 PDUs in a 3-yr certification cycle, PMI allows you to carry
forward up to 20 PDUs earned in the final year of certification cycle into the next 3-yr
certification cycle.
BONUS – GET PDUs BY SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE!

In this section I’ll show you how to claim PDUs by simply writing about your favorite project
management topic!
This is a simple 4-step process. I have created a short training video (free) for you to make this a
fun exercise for oyu.
Click this link to know more!
a d h k

In closing,SHARES
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That’s about there is to getting PMP PDUs and keeping your certification valid for another 3
years. If you planned along with me while reading this guide, hopefully you have your PDU plan
all chalked out.
Congratulations!
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Thank you for your time, and for taking action!
READERS
3,586

-Shiv TWEETS 
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 FOLLOWERS

References –
CCRS handbook
PMI.org
CCRS portal
Other sites as linked
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Checklists are a great way of getting things done.
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{ 12 comments… add one }
Stephen January 6, 2017, 3:50 am
Hi Shiv,
Thanks a lot for sharing this information. Also with your support, I passed the
exam on Dec. 23 and looking forward to plan the next three years.
Thanks again,
Stephen
REPLY
Shiv Shenoy January 18, 2017, 11:38 pm
Hi Stephen,
Congratulations on passing your PMP exam! Yes, planning for 3yrs is

important and best done at the beginning of new cycle. Hope this guide has helped you.
Best wishes,
Shiv
REPLY
dipti January 4, 2017, 7:51 am
Thanks for writing a detailed article. Your blog also helped me in preparing for
my PMP. Just passed it on 31st Dec and got this article in my mailbox. Timing
could not have been more perfect to plan PDUs for next 3 years. Keep up the good work Shiv!
REPLY
Shiv Shenoy January 6, 2017, 12:31 am
Awesome, Dipti! Congratulations on passing your PMP exam. I’m glad to

know that you found PMESN content useful in your prep.
Good luck for CCR.
a d
Best,
Shiv
h k
REPLY

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27/11/2019 PMP PDU, CCR And The Quest For Career Growth: The Complete Guide to Earning PDUs -

D OWNLOAD MY BOOKS FOR FREE !

Continuous improvement is as much a required aspect of one’s career-growth as it is for Kaizen

BONUS: Download PDU planner spreadsheet template in this article.

5-Step Exercise to Earn Your PDUs We respect your email privacy

Here’s a simple 5-step process to earn and report PDUs –

Hence PMI introduced The Talent Triangle.

The Talent Triangle consists of three segments –

Technical Project Management

Share this knowledge, accumulate good Karma!

Talent Triangle section 1: Technical Project Management

Some of the topics you can learn to get PDUs are –

Agile project management methodologies (XP, Scrum and so on)

Talent Triangle section 2: Leadership

Talent Triangle section 3: Strategic and Business Management

Aligning Project management to Organizational strategy and goals

A good practice is to create a planning spreadsheet based on where you want to

Plan for more PDUs in,

Share this knowledge, accumulate good Karma!

Figure 3: Sample PDU planning spreadsheet

Few Free Resources

Project Management Podcast

Apart from these,

Step 3. Create a PDU schedule: based on how much time remains

It is easier to make this a regular routine task and so more manageable.

Let us take an example.

Step 5. Report PDUs in PMI’s CCRS Portal

Step 1: Log into PMI’s CCRS portal ccrs.pmi.org

Share this knowledge, accumulate good Karma!

BONUS – GET PDUs BY SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE!

Click this link to know more!

You may also like -

Print and Paste at your study desk, make quick Progress!

Share this knowledge, accumulate good Karma!

{ 12 comments… add one }

Stephen January 6, 2017, 3:50 am

Shiv Shenoy January 18, 2017, 11:38 pm

Congratulations on passing your PMP exam! Yes, planning for 3yrs is

dipti January 4, 2017, 7:51 am

Shiv Shenoy January 6, 2017, 12:31 am

Awesome, Dipti! Congratulations on passing your PMP exam. I’m glad to

Share this knowledge, accumulate good Karma!

This site rocks the Thesis Classic Skin for Thesis

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