How to show your PM experience in PMP application

How to show your PM experience in PMP application?

• The start date of the first project and the end date of the last project should at least cover a period 3 years  (degree holders) or 5 years (secondary degree holders) as required by the PMI.
• It is not required nor advised for each and every project you have handled. Include only enough number of projects to reach the required minimum number of hours (i.e. 4,500 hours for degree holders / 7,500 hours for secondary degree holders). Include large projects first as this would save you considerable time in case of an audit.
• It is not required to show experience in all process groups in all experience items. But all the 5 process groups should get covered across all the experience items that you mention.
• When adding details of project management experiences to the application form, you will need to:
• Give a title to each project (usually the project title)
• Give your project role (not your job title) – you can use PMI terms like project leader, project manager, project coordinator, etc.
• Insert your supervisor‘s name and contact methods (note that you need not fill in the name of the CEO of your company, but someone who works closely with you and you have gained the consent form)
• Calculate and add the time (in number of hours) spent on each project management process groups 
• PMI advocates work-life balance and will only allow 40 hours for each work week, don’t fill in more than 37 hours for each week of work.
• Write the project description of the project (in around 500 characters) including the following:
• a brief description of the project
• objectives
• key deliverables
• project outcome
• your personal role
• When composing the project descriptions for each project, make good use of PMI terms to demonstrate that you understand what project management is. Include terms found in the PMBOK® Guide like project charter, sponsor, scope, project deliverables, stakeholders, schedule, acceptance of deliverables, quality management, etc. 

Training Sample:
Project: Development of training material for sales force
Objective: To investigate, collate, review and distribute a training presentation for the in-house sales team focusing on products offerings
Deliverables: I managed the whole project. Developed the charter and identified key stakeholders (I). Defined the scope with while considering time and cost and quality (P). Coordinated the execution of the research and development of the material (E) Monitored quality and communicated with stakeholders (M) Documented Close out report (C)

Outcomes: Material handed over to sales and presented at conference

Project: Reconfiguration of Office Space
Role: Consultant
Objective: To improve space utilization and collaboration by reconfiguring Acme Company’s corporate office space to better align with worker needs.
Deliverables: As an office design consultant, I led efforts in Planning: collecting requirements, defining and sequencing activities, and in Executing: directing project work and performing quality assurance. I also controlled schedules, cost and quality (MC).
Outcome: The reconfigured space was ready on time and within budget.

Project: Construction/Development of XYZ
Role: Construction lead
Objective: to lead design assist and develop engineering shop drawings
Deliverables:
IN: Created measurable objectives; determined company existing systems
PL: Defined scope; created WBS; developed scope management plan
EX: directed and managed project work; managed project team
MC: validated and controlled scope and risks
CL: obtained acceptance on deliverables; close project phase
Outcome: completed design assist and shop drawings were issued for construction


Project: Online Business English Course-ware
Role: Project leader
Project objective: To develop an online business English course and learning platform.
Deliverables:
IN: Defined high-level scope of the project. Identified and documented high-level risks, assumptions, and constraints. Developed business case.
PL: Created scope statement. Presented project plan. Decided to make product. Ran kick-off meeting. Analyzed stakeholders. Planned human resource recruitment. Estimated budget.
EX: Managed project resources. Executed tasks from project plan. Improved team performance. Collected work performance data. Performed quality assurance. Helped teachers to create course-ware.
MC: Measured project performance. Communicated project status to management. Updated risk register with new risks.
CL: Collected lessons learned. Obtained acceptance of all project deliverables. Measured customer satisfaction.


Outcome: Successfully launched EnglishKey’s first online business English course on learning platform and was able to land several contracts with multinational enterprises like Amazon to train their personnel.

Pharma Sample:

Develop software system to manage lab data, resources and workflow. Connect software and instrumentation ecosystem to manage entire process from sample creation to final results.

Pharmaceuticals project managers are given the ultimate responsibility in taking charge of the research and development process so that a new medicine can successfully be born. Project managers must effectively manage the engineers, doctors, researchers, and other experts to make sure that medical trials are running smoothly on time and budget. Daily duties might include creating status reports for management, ensuring compliance with regulatory bodies, managing timelines, evaluating the project risks, specifying project plans, establishing work schedules, keeping meticulous research records, and gathering project resources. At times, pharmaceuticals project managers must make the tricky choice to stop development when too many side effects persist.

PMI Speak:
Project Manager Role: (source - PMP Handbook)

• Perform their duties under general supervision and are responsible for all aspects of the project for the life of the project
• Lead and direct cross-functional teams to deliver projects within the constraints of schedule, budget and resources
• Demonstrate sufficient knowledge and experience to appropriately apply a methodology to projects that have reasonably well-defined project requirements and deliverables.

Project Description:

1. A brief, one-sentence project objective.
2. Project deliverables summarized by process areas (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing - abbreviations are acceptable IN, PL, EX, MC & CL).
3. A brief, one-sentence project outcome.

Project descriptions should be a high level summary of the tasks you led and directed on the

project (e.g. Initiating: develop project charter, WBS etc.; Planning: Scope definition etc.; and so

on). Project management experience is required in each of the process group when all projects are

totaled, but not on each project. Project descriptions must be provided for all projects submitted on

application. 

Verbiage one can use to articulate ones experience in each of the process groups.

1. Initiating:

Working with stakeholders to discover feasibility of project proposals.

Involved in identifying key stakeholders who can help in development of project charter or SOW.

Participation in development of Project Charter or SOW by compiling high level project information

Contributing in validating project by checking alignment with organisation strategies

2. Planning:

Contribution in identifying project deliverables using requirement gathering techniques.

Working with stakeholders to develop project management plan which includes components like: scope, schedule, cost, quality, procurement, communication, stakeholders, and human resources

Participating in identifying risk, prioritising them, identifying risk response strategies and in creating risk register

Involvement in project kick off meeting.

3. Executing:

Helping or doing in getting resources for the project

Managing flow of information between stakeholders as per communication needs identified in project plan

Managing relationships with stakeholders

Involved in the implementation of quality standards

Contributing in implementing changes

4. Monitoring and Executing:

Involvement in measurement of project performance by identifying variances especially in cost and schedules

Participation in identifying corrective actions for identified variances

Participation in documenting, analyzing, and managing lessons learned for the projects

Contribution in verification of compliance by monitoring procurement activities according to the project plan

Evaluating effectiveness of risk response strategies and in identifying its impact on the project.

5. Closing:

Getting final acceptance of project deliverables from the business stakeholders or customers

Participating in preparing and sharing the final project report

Contributing in archiving of project documents

Participating in obtaining feedbacks from business stakeholders or from customers

Collecting lesson learned for continuous project improvement.