PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) certification badge

As defined and certified by the Project Management Institute, the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) formally recognizes your knowledge of agile principles and your skill with agile techniques. The PMI-ACP spans many approaches to agile such as Scrum, Kanban, Lean, extreme programming (XP) and test-driven development (TDD). To earn the PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® certification, you must meet the experience and education requirements, and pass the PMI-ACP exam, a 120-question, multiple-choice exam. The PMI-ACP requires rigorous preparation and attention to detail. The following team members at Agileana are PMI-ACP certified:

• Addie Wolcott
• Blake Newman
• Shefali Naik
• Abigail Melo

As you prepare to pass the PMI ACP certification, I wanted to share with you my observations and experience based on passing the test first time around.It takes about 3-4 hours to thoroughly read a chapter. So, I would dedicate one day to reach each chapter and take notes the first time around.  There are 7 chapters. So, plan on 7 full days to read through the book and take notes and highlight important things the first time around. Try to use a fine yellow highlighter on first pass. Don’t waste time with the end of chapter questions or practice exam, especially on the first pass.Second time around, read it throughly, word for word. Don’t rush through it.  Slow down. Pay special attention to your highlights but don’t skip. The first pass was to become familiar. The second pass is to really understand it deeply.  Use a second color highlighter, like pink, or use a fine point pencil to highlight AGAIN. This helps you keep track of what you have read, what is important, what is interesting.As you read, if anything seems relevant to Agileana or one of your projects, put an asterisks for you to come back and research after the exam. This book is not just to pass the exam, it is to learn it, embrace it, change your mindset, and take action to improve our company and our processes. So, when you come across something that really makes you think we can do things a better way, make a big note of it, dog-ear the page. Come back to it later.By the third time, you can just speed read, focusing exclusively on your highlights and underlines. By the third pass, you will be ready to just take the damned exam.Plan on 3 weeks preparation. One day one, you can go to PMI, register, sign up, and apply for the exam. Schedule it out 3-4 weeks in advance. You don’t need to wait. If you need help putting together your resume, then ping me and we can pair on it. I can also pay the exam fee for you and registration fee.Pay close attention to these concepts:

• The Agile Mindset
• Value Driven Delivery
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Adaptive Planning
• Continuous Improvement

Don’t dwell on technical techniques likes:

• XP
• Lean Product Development
• FDD
• DSDM
• Crystal
• Earned Value Management
• Prioritization Schemes
• CFDs
• Agile Contracting
• Tools for Sizing and Estimating
• and this like this

I mean, you need to read it once or twice, but don’t try to memorize anything. It is more important that you understand than you memorize.When you are done and have passed your exam, you need to follow up and do these things:

• Blog about your preparation and experience
• Update your Linkedin profile
• Go back to your notes in your dog-eared pages
• Talk to me about how we can implement changes
• Contribute to this page your epiphanies
• Update this page on your exam experience

Back to:

• Certifications and qualifications page
• Team members page
• Back to Main Page