What Are The Best Project Management Certifications?

Project Management is a highly sought after skill that encompasses many different skill-sets including, organization, leadership, and time and resource management. It’s a skill that is developed through both specialized training and experience managing successful projects and project failures. In a survey conducted by CIO.com, they found seven must-have skills for Project Managers:

1) Be highly organized and a good multi-tasker

2) Take charge and know how to lead

3) Be an effective communicator

4) Know how and when to negotiate

5) Be detail-orientated

6) Recognize and solve problems quickly

7) Possess the necessary technical skills

Project Management
Project Management
There are certifications and software tools available that help those pursuing a career in Project Management, build these seven must-have-skills. Getting a certification is important as it demonstrates your ability to understand the fundamentals and common language of project management. Once you have this knowledge it is even more important to know how to apply them to real projects, and build and learn from your project experience. Tools such as Microsoft Project allow you to apply the project management principles, be more productive, and overall be a better project manager.

The Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) credential demonstrates that you have the experience, education and competency to lead and direct projects. The PMP certification establishes a common language among project managers and helps each other work within a common framework. A Project Management Certification is great for any industry, and will teach you how to organize a project from beginning to end. If you have a desire to pursue a career managing projects, this certification will provide you with the solid foundation and understanding of everything you need to know to be an effective project manager. Experience comes with time, but the foundation and understanding of the basic project management principles will come from training.

Taking the PMP exam is not free. Training for the PMP will ensure that you pass the exam the first time you take it. Among the things you will learn in the PMP training class are:

The Project Management Framework
Project Scope Management
Project Time Management
Project Cost Management
Project Quality Management
Human Resource Management
Click here to learn more about the Professional Management Professional (PMP) Certification Preparation class.

Benefits of using Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project
We know experience is gained over time, and that experience is a strong quality that can make a great project manager. The great Project Managers have found that there are tools, when utilized consistently throughout the project, that make job tasks easier, making them more productive and effective project managers. These tools help them deliver their projects on time, on budget, while meeting or exceeding expectations. One of the tools out there that has helped Project Managers tremendously is Microsoft Project. The truth is, if you are a Project Manager and you are not using this tool then, you are missing out on the opportunity to really excel in the project management role. The Microsoft (MS) Project management tool can surely help develop these must-have-skills.

MS Project for Organization and Multi-Tasking
Microsoft Project helps Project Managers get organized and stay organized. The Project templates allow project managers to easily plan and manage their project for beginning to end. Task Path highlighting allows users to indicate which tasks are most important.

MS Project helps you be a team leader
The Project tool provides Project managers a platform where they can assign tasks to individual team members, as well as share and collaborate. The tool creates timelines, giving the ability to monitor the time is takes to complete a task. Project managers can learn and recognize when adjustments need to be made in order to maintain schedule and budget. A strong leader emerges when actions are taken before the project gets off track.

Effective communication with MS Project
Communication is a key contributor to project success. Projects can crumble because of the lack of communication between all parties and team members involved. Microsoft Project has great communication features that keeps everyone connected. Sharing and collaboration is easy as ever with all project information located in one central place that all team members have access to at all times. Keeping your team informed of project status, and allowing them to share input is crucial in maintaining proper communication.

Give attention to detail with the help of MS Project
This tool allows you to break down tasks as much as needed to get very detailed on the time and budget needed for each task. Over time, a Project Manager can learn from this data, and adjust and predict future schedules and budget.

Microsoft Project Training Classes
There are a number of Microsoft Project training classes you can take:

50413: Mastering Microsoft Project 2010
50552: Microsoft Project 2010 Exam Prep Bootcamp
55054: Mastering Microsoft Project 2013
91110: Microsoft Project 2013: Part 1
91111: Microsoft Project 2013: Part 2
Microsoft Project 2010 Level 1
Microsoft Project 2010 Level 2
Ultimate Microsoft Project 2013 Exam Prep Boot Camp
Project Management Principles for IT Professionals
Project Management skills are helpful in any industry, and IT professionals are amongst those who could use project management training. IT projects require tight budgets and timelines, while maintaining quality, which sadly aren’t being met. We can at the recent launch of the Obamacare website as an example of poor IT project management which led to disaster. There are training classes out there specifically for IT Professionals. These classes dive into the project management principles, but training in Microsoft Project is also recommended so you know how to implement and manage you projects better. The Project Management Principles for IT Professionals training class, not only prepares students for the CompTIA Project+ exam, but provides essential training in several areas including, but not limited to:

necessary business knowledge
interpersonal skills
discovery and analysis of problem/opportunity
developing a schedule and budget
project planning and team development
identifying variances in schedule and budget and outline corrective actions
Get more information on Project Management Principles for IT Professionals here.

Excel with Project Management Training
There are several things that make a good project management, seven must-have-skills to be exact. These skills are acquired through training and experience, as we have discussed here. If you are serious about pursuing a career where you will be managing projects, then getting the training and certifications is the first step. This will certainly push your resume to the top of the stack. Once you land the job (maybe not the one you want in the long-run), it is most important to apply these concepts and training to the real thing, and gain the invaluable experience companies are looking for. Experience is valuable and highly sought, and will come with time. Visit our website to register for a class, or contact one of our reps to get started today (866)704-9244.