CAPM® Prep Introduction Tutorial

Hello and welcome to the CAPM® Certification Course offered by Simplilearn! In this lesson, we will be introduced to the CAPM® certification course.

After completing this lesson, you will be able to: Define CAPM® and PMI Identify the application requirements for the CAPM® examination Identify the guidelines to fill up the CAPM® application Describe the CAPM® exam outline and syllabus Let us now begin with the terms PMI and CAPM®

Project Management Institute or PMI is a not for profit organization that offers a certification program for project practitioners for all educational and skill levels. PMI is based in the USA and has local chapters across the globe. Therefore, if you are based in Singapore, you can look for a PMI chapter in Singapore. Such local chapters conduct regular knowledge sharing and networking sessions for people interested in project management. Certified Associate in Project Management or CAPM® on the other hand is one of the certifications awarded by PMI. It is a credential industry recognized and demanded worldwide. For many of the project management jobs, it is a mandatory qualification. CAPM® is not restricted to a specific domain. A project manager working in any industry, be it manufacturing, retail, defense, or information technology, can write the CAPM® exam and upon successful completion can be a CAPM® certified professional. To sum up, PMI is an organization and CAPM® is a credential. PMI therefore writes and supervises the CAPM® examinations.A CAPM® credential is valid for five years. After the completion of this three-year period, it can be renewed. PMI measures project management experience in the units of PDU. PDU means Professional Development Unit. You can acquire PDUs in many ways. For example, if you attend a project management class of 1 hour by an expert, it is considered equivalent to 1 PDU. If you write a white paper on the topic related to project management, it may be equivalent to 5 PDUs. PMI has detailed guidelines on what kind of project management activity amounts to how many PDUs. You can look for the “CCR handbook” on the PMI website for more details. PMI releases a guide every four years. It called as PMBOK® Guide, i.e., a Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. PMBOK® Guide acts as a textbook for the CAPM® exam. PMBOK® Guide can be considered as a standard for project management profession. In the next screen, we will look into the application requirements for the CAPM® exam.

Project Management Institute or PMI is a not for profit organization that offers a certification program for project practitioners for all educational and skill levels. PMI is based in the USA and has local chapters across the globe. Therefore, if you are based in Singapore, you can look for a PMI chapter in Singapore. Such local chapters conduct regular knowledge sharing and networking sessions for people interested in project management. Certified Associate in Project Management or CAPM® on the other hand is one of the certifications awarded by PMI. It is a credential industry recognized and demanded worldwide. For many of the project management jobs, it is a mandatory qualification. CAPM® is not restricted to a specific domain. A project manager working in any industry, be it manufacturing, retail, defense, or information technology, can write the CAPM® exam and upon successful completion can be a CAPM® certified professional. To sum up, PMI is an organization and CAPM® is a credential. PMI therefore writes and supervises the CAPM® examinations.A CAPM® credential is valid for five years. After the completion of this three-year period, it can be renewed. PMI measures project management experience in the units of PDU. PDU means Professional Development Unit. You can acquire PDUs in many ways. For example, if you attend a project management class of 1 hour by an expert, it is considered equivalent to 1 PDU. If you write a white paper on the topic related to project management, it may be equivalent to 5 PDUs. PMI has detailed guidelines on what kind of project management activity amounts to how many PDUs. You can look for the “CCR handbook” on the PMI website for more details. PMI releases a guide every four years. It called as PMBOK® Guide, i.e., a Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. PMBOK® Guide acts as a textbook for the CAPM® exam. PMBOK® Guide can be considered as a standard for project management profession. In the next screen, we will look into the application requirements for the CAPM® exam.

PMI-CAPM® certificate is an “experience” as well as “knowledge” based certification. This means, certain prerequisites are to be met in order to be able to apply for this certification. The prerequisites depend upon a person’s formal education. As shown in the table, a professional needs to have at least 1,500 hours of project management experience along with a Secondary diploma (High School diploma/global equivalent). A professional, whose highest formal education is a high school degree, will require 23 hours of formal project management education. Lastly, one also has to submit details of having attended 35 hours of project management training just before writing the CAPM® exam. R.E.P. stands for Registered Education Provider. PMI R.E.P training institute means, these training companies are registered with PMI as a registered education provider. These provide 35 PMI contact hours certificate, if you attend their 35-hour training program. Their certificate can be used as a proof to be submitted to PMI. Applications can be submitted online. Once the exam fee is paid, PMI sends an Authorization Letter. Many companies are PMI R.E.P. and provide project management training. Simplilearn is one of them. PMI randomly audits some applications from time to time. In the event of the application being selected for audit, clear instructions will be given on the evidence that has to be physically submitted to PMI. Follow the instructions and send the evidence before authorization is given to proceed. Examination must be written within a year of receiving the Authorization Letter. If you need more information on PMI, you can visit their website, www.pmi.org Let us focus on CAPM exam process in the next screen.

PMI-CAPM® certificate is an “experience” as well as “knowledge” based certification. This means, certain prerequisites are to be met in order to be able to apply for this certification. The prerequisites depend upon a person’s formal education. As shown in the table, a professional needs to have at least 1,500 hours of project management experience along with a Secondary diploma (High School diploma/global equivalent). A professional, whose highest formal education is a high school degree, will require 23 hours of formal project management education. Lastly, one also has to submit details of having attended 35 hours of project management training just before writing the CAPM® exam. R.E.P. stands for Registered Education Provider. PMI R.E.P training institute means, these training companies are registered with PMI as a registered education provider. These provide 35 PMI contact hours certificate, if you attend their 35-hour training program. Their certificate can be used as a proof to be submitted to PMI. Applications can be submitted online. Once the exam fee is paid, PMI sends an Authorization Letter. Many companies are PMI R.E.P. and provide project management training. Simplilearn is one of them. PMI randomly audits some applications from time to time. In the event of the application being selected for audit, clear instructions will be given on the evidence that has to be physically submitted to PMI. Follow the instructions and send the evidence before authorization is given to proceed. Examination must be written within a year of receiving the Authorization Letter. If you need more information on PMI, you can visit their website, www.pmi.org Let us focus on CAPM exam process in the next screen.

CAPM® exam covers 150 questions, out of which 15 questions are considered as pre-test questions used for future tests and are not scored. You will not be communicated about these questions; they might be any random pick. Therefore, you should answer all 150 questions with the same seriousness. PMI includes these questions to see how many test takers are getting them right. Based on this, they might decide to include these questions in the future exam. It is similar to a survey conducted by PMI. Of the 150 questions, therefore, 135 will be scored. All questions are multiple-choice questions, with only one correct answer. You get one point for every question answered correctly. There is no negative marking for the incorrect ones. You may also mark a question for review and revisit it at the end, if unsure then. However, you should attempt all the 150 questions in the given time. PMI grades students on each of the five process groups and based on the grading they declare CAPM® pass or fail. The grades are not disclosed to everyone rather a rating is given. They are Below Proficient, Proficient, and Moderately Proficient in each of the five process groups. The percentage of questions from each of these aspects is listed on the table. CAPM® exam is conducted for three hours. There is 1 Point for every right question. There is no penalty for wrong answers. The result (pass or fail) is determined by a combination of these grades. How many grades or number of points one has to score to pass the CAPM® exam is not made public by PMI. The questions in CAPM® exam are related to various aspects of project management. These aspects are project initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. We call these aspects as Process Groups. For more details, please refer to the “CAPM Examination Content Outline” on the PMI website. Let us next discuss the CAPM® exam syllabus.

CAPM® exam covers 150 questions, out of which 15 questions are considered as pre-test questions used for future tests and are not scored. You will not be communicated about these questions; they might be any random pick. Therefore, you should answer all 150 questions with the same seriousness. PMI includes these questions to see how many test takers are getting them right. Based on this, they might decide to include these questions in the future exam. It is similar to a survey conducted by PMI. Of the 150 questions, therefore, 135 will be scored. All questions are multiple-choice questions, with only one correct answer. You get one point for every question answered correctly. There is no negative marking for the incorrect ones. You may also mark a question for review and revisit it at the end, if unsure then. However, you should attempt all the 150 questions in the given time. PMI grades students on each of the five process groups and based on the grading they declare CAPM® pass or fail. The grades are not disclosed to everyone rather a rating is given. They are Below Proficient, Proficient, and Moderately Proficient in each of the five process groups. The percentage of questions from each of these aspects is listed on the table. CAPM® exam is conducted for three hours. There is 1 Point for every right question. There is no penalty for wrong answers. The result (pass or fail) is determined by a combination of these grades. How many grades or number of points one has to score to pass the CAPM® exam is not made public by PMI. The questions in CAPM® exam are related to various aspects of project management. These aspects are project initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. We call these aspects as Process Groups. For more details, please refer to the “CAPM Examination Content Outline” on the PMI website. Let us next discuss the CAPM® exam syllabus.

There are 5 process groups, 10 knowledge areas, and 47 project management processes. To understand the syllabus, you need to understand the following terms—process groups, knowledge areas, and processes. Let us first discuss process group. The project management discipline is divided into five broad process groups. When a new project starts, it is first in the project initiation phase, moving to planning phase, then to execution, followed by monitoring and controlling, and finally it is closed. Project execution and monitoring and controlling processes go hand in hand. Therefore, when a new project is initiated, all processes of project initiation process group should be applied to the project. Similarly, when the project is being closed, all processes of project closing group should be applied. For instance, “Identify Risks” is a process of project planning group. So when the project is in planning phase, you must identify all the risks of the project. Next, let us see what knowledge area is. As per PMBOK® Guide, there are 10 knowledge areas. A knowledge area is a set of specific processes performed to meet a project objective. Let us now consider processes. There are 47 processes. These processes might be accomplished in the project planning process group and few others in project monitoring and controlling process group. For example, “Develop Schedule”, one of the processes, is a part of the “Planning” process group and the “Project Time Management” knowledge area. Likewise, in “Human Resource Management” knowledge area, “Develop Human Resource Plan” process is in the project planning group and “Manage Project Team” process is in project execution group.

There are 5 process groups, 10 knowledge areas, and 47 project management processes. To understand the syllabus, you need to understand the following terms—process groups, knowledge areas, and processes. Let us first discuss process group. The project management discipline is divided into five broad process groups. When a new project starts, it is first in the project initiation phase, moving to planning phase, then to execution, followed by monitoring and controlling, and finally it is closed. Project execution and monitoring and controlling processes go hand in hand. Therefore, when a new project is initiated, all processes of project initiation process group should be applied to the project. Similarly, when the project is being closed, all processes of project closing group should be applied. For instance, “Identify Risks” is a process of project planning group. So when the project is in planning phase, you must identify all the risks of the project. Next, let us see what knowledge area is. As per PMBOK® Guide, there are 10 knowledge areas. A knowledge area is a set of specific processes performed to meet a project objective. Let us now consider processes. There are 47 processes. These processes might be accomplished in the project planning process group and few others in project monitoring and controlling process group. For example, “Develop Schedule”, one of the processes, is a part of the “Planning” process group and the “Project Time Management” knowledge area. Likewise, in “Human Resource Management” knowledge area, “Develop Human Resource Plan” process is in the project planning group and “Manage Project Team” process is in project execution group.

Let us take an overview of all the lessons of this tutorial. We have 14 lessons in total. This is the first lesson, which is an introduction to the CAPM® certification. Lesson 2, Project Management Framework, aims to explain what project and project management is all about; it can be considered as an introduction to the Project Management. Lesson 3, i.e., Project Management Processes Groups, aims to explain the five project management process groups. The ten knowledge areas are covered in lesson 4 to lesson 13. Each lesson is dedicated to each of these ten areas. Lesson 14 revises the same processes from a process group perspective. This will help clarify the sequence in which some of the activities are carried out, and understand these processes more holistically. Once you are through with these 14 lessons, you can go ahead and take our online practice tests.

Thank you and happy learning!