So, you decided to give a huge makeover to your qualification.
Learning shall never stop and adding credentials to your resume is many times desirable and necessary.
Certifications not only help in horning your skills but also qualify you for certain privileges and make you more employable.
If you aren’t sure what certification to go for, hopefully after reading this blog post, you will be able to pick the certification based on your previous qualification and current industry needs.
Let’s uncover these three most desirable, respected, and in demand project management certifications – i.e:
- ITIL
- PRINCE2
- PMP
Abbreviations:
ITIL: Information Technology Infrastructure Library
PMP: Project Management Professional
PRINCE2: Projects in Controlled Environment
Governing body:
ILXGroup is responsible for ITIL and PRINCE2.
PMI is responsible for PMP.
Certifications Level:
ITIL: ITIL has five levels:
- Foundations
- Intermediate
- MALC – Managing Across The Lifecycle
- Expert, and
- Master
PMP: PMP has no levels, though professionals who are not eligible for PMP, get CaPM first.
PRINCE2: PRINCE2 has two main levels:
- Foundation
- Practitioner.
However, At Practitioner level, there is Prince2 Practitioner and PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner.
There’s no argue: all accredited certifications bring value to your resume.
I can think of a few:
- It shows your commitment to the profession.
- Send a positive message to your current and future employer.
- Demonstrates the understanding and technical ability of that topic.
- Depicts your attitude and seriousness for your career.
But the million-dollar question is: how much value these Project Management Certifications add to your career and resume?
Is It Worth The Investment?
ROI (Return on Investment) is an important business concept both for short and long-term investment. In business and in life, we determine the importance and value of a performing activity.
Getting ITIL, PMP, or PRINCE2 certification comes with a price, both time and money.
That means a careful and calculated decision has to be made about the value of these certifications in your personal growth and career.
Let’s look at each of these certifications individually and then analyze them combinely.
ITIL VS PRINCE2 VS PMP
ITIL:
ITIL is Process based.
ITIL is a Framework.
ITIL is world’s most recognized framework for IT Service Management.
ITIL focus on IT Services System and helps in achieving optimum performance of IT resources of an organization.
It enables organization to enhance and improve the effectiveness, quality and efficiency of IT Services while bringing down the cost.
If you are in the IT sector, this certification will greatly help you in improving the efficiency of your organization IT Services.
PRINCE2:
PRINCE2 is process based.
PRINCE2 is a Methodology.
PRINCE2 is process-based methodology, that provides step by step instructions and procedures for delivering and managing a project.
e.g: It gives you clear guidelines and step by step instructions on what to do at the start of the project and at the end of the project.
Whether you are new to the profession of Project Management or a Veteran Project Manager, PRINCE2 will increase your knowledge and helps you grow professionally and will play a pivotal role in improving your project performance metrics.
PMP:
PMP is based on the guidelines and principles mentioned in The PMBOK (Project Management Body Of Knowledge).
Though, not in great detail but, it covers every aspect of the project, from initiating to planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, and closing and all the processes in between.
Like, risk, procurement, cost, schedule, etc.
PMP is adopted on the best project management practices used globally by certified practitioners for delivering successful projects.
A similarity between PRINCE2 and PMP is, both are project focused.
If you are new to Project Management;
A project is a journey that has a start and an end date and produce some kind of product or deliverable.
The project can be large, like building a motorway or small, like a tool tax plaza on a motorway.
The project can be physical, like building a call center or virtual, like organizing an event.
ITIL, on the other hand is focused on the service delivery, the project or deliverable resulted from the project.
Example:
A City want to build an inquiry center for it’s residence.
The inquiry center is a project and so it will be managed using PMP or PRINCE2 techniques.
Once the inquiry center is built and operations starts, like agents start receiving calls and inquiries, ITIL will kick in.
ITIL and PRINCE2 are process based and has a comprehensive process model.
PMP is not process based but promotes best practices regardless of any industry.
PRINCE2 and PMP are competitors.
PRINCE2 and PMP complement each other as well.
PMP covers a wide spectrum and identify essential areas of project management.
Can One Take Multiple Certifications?
Yes.
As mentioned previously, it is at times desirable and required.
Though, I talk about here which project management certifications to choose from. But here, I’ll briefly mention that your current and future employer location and organization shall be kept in mind before pursuing for any of these certifications.
All these certifications complement each other and taking multiple certifications is recommended and beneficial in the long run.
Which Certification to choose from?
Well, if you are reading these materials to enhance your Project Management knowledge, then they all complement each other.
If you are considering these certifications to add an extra credential in your resume for your current and future employer, then environment, organization and your location will play an important role.
Are these certifications accepted Globally?
ITIL, PRINCE2 and PMP are globally recognized and respected. Though,
PRINCE2 is developed in the UK and can be called as the UK standard for Project Management and Project Management Certification.
Though, it is equally followed in Europe and Australia and organizations based in Europe with operations overseas follow PRINCE2 in other countries as well.
PMP is the US standard for Project Management.
Though, it is equally popular in the world especially in the middle east, Pakistan and India.
These certifications won’t make anyone a good project manager. We know that requires years of experience in managing projects, but they are definitely helpful in equipping you with the knowledge, tools, and techniques necessary to make a project successful.
Your Thoughts!
