PMI-ACP Certification Guide

This PMI-ACP Certification Preparation Guide is based on my own experience in preparing for and acing the exam. I am a PMP certified project manager, working in the project management field for more than 15 years. I have recently earned my PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner), and Professional Scrum Master certificates. Filling the certificate and passing the exam wasn't easy, so I thought there is value in documenting my experience and offering it for others.

The guide covers details about how I filled the application and documented my experience, how I studied, and lists all the resources and references I used as I studied and practiced for the exam. I also included in it a suggested study plan that you can tailor to meet your time constraints. 

Guide Introduction

Agile approaches to project and work management have been in practice for many years, but recently they have become mainstream. It is now an expectation in every field that a project manager is at least familiar with agile practices, if not already experienced in applying them. Almost every project management related job posting I came across recently mentions agile experience as either a requirement or an advantage.

Certification and training institutes are capitalizing on this trend, and have expanded their offerings to include a multitude of agile related products. PMI made a major step in this direction by acquiring “Disciplined Agile” in 2019 and integrating the certification program with its more traditional training and certification programs (CAPM, PMP, PgMP,..)

PMI currently offers five Agile related certifications, four of which are part of the Disciplined Agile path, and the fifth is the PMI-ACP. Here is a link to a Helpful infographic about PMI Agile Journey.

PMI started offering the PMI-ACP certification in 2011, and there are some rumors that PMI was considering phasing out the certification and keeping just the Disciplined Agile path. That might be a difficult decision to make knowing that PMI-ACP is the fastest growing certification offered by PMI (According to PMI), although it had a slow start.