I've been offered the opportunity to go on an agile project management course (funded) so i am looking for the "best" and for a total beginner.
I have found PMI-ACP and i think this is the one...BUT looking at the overview, it suggests i should have previous project management experience (which i don't).
Can anyone offer an insight?
This is very long, but I write it mostly as a personal clarification of my research....
Coming back to the point about prior experience, I've been doing some more research on requirements. Importantly, you don't need to be an official Project Manager in any shape or form as part of your job title. That was my 1st worry as I have worked as a Senior Software engineer, senior research scientist, Senior Data scientist and company director. Jobs with lots of responsibility and I have managed teams but done more work in areas of business development than managing people.
In the end, What you do need to show is experience working in a project, in all areas of project management, regardless of your role or job title. If you a software developer, you certainly have experience in planning, deriving requirements, reporting and monitoring progress, concluding the project with a release and likely documenting some aspect. Moreover, you have experience in the execution stage simply writing code. There are 5 PM areas you need to show experience in, but no single project needs to have all 5. And it doesn't seem like there is any minimum number of hours in each topic, so as a developer if have 60-70% of your time in the execution stage then that *might* be sufficient (I don't know if there are internal criteria). It talks about leadership but never specifying a minimum requirement, so similarly leading some junior developers is likely sufficient.
The definition of a project is also vague. If you have ever volunteered to throw together a website then that counts. If you were talked with creating some marketing documents, or a training manual, or replace the server room infrastructure, install a wifi network for the office. State what you did in planning, risk analysis, facilitated a workshop gathering requires (i.e., you had a 1-2 hr chat with the boss and a couple of team mates)
You have to use the correct terminology and fill it with the official lingo that the PMI use. Essentially making it sound very official , using all the jargon you hate that project managers actually use.
So all of that, be honest, then submit application. Something like 1 in 5 are audited so you need your supervisors to be on board but can loose co-workers etc. If PMI don;t think your experience counts then you haven't lost much. You can look at PRINCE2 (agile). which has no requirements.
That may not be the spirit of the experience requirement but only you know your true experience and abilities (especially given the tiny 550 character limit for each project) , your prior experience is on your CV for all future jobs and when you are in an interview and they talk about prior project management experience you will have to be honest. IN t end, the PMP exam is very tough, and it is entirely about theory of project management with no real emphasis on a practical methodology. If you pass the tough exam, then you know the theory and that is all the PMP certificate really signifies.
It is something I might do to keep me busy for the next couple of months while I await for the economy to recover.
Also, if you a super certain of only doing Agile and remaining close to the development of software then you might be better of becoming a certified Scrum master, which is going to be far easier and may be more relevant if your company/team uses agile explicitly. If in your career you are looking for a more senor managing position then PMP/Prince 2 will be better.
Also, int eh UK Prince2 seems to dominate while most of the world uses PMP. PMP is theory, which you then have to be capable of applying. Prince2 is a specific framework so you can follow that framework without worrying too much about theoretical issues. Prince2 works in organization using prince2 and is more liekly to lead to good results even if used by a beginner, while PMP is more general but the complecity means that the outcome is more dependent on ability.
