How to Become ACP – Agile Certified Practitioner

Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) is a certified credential globally recognized by Project Management Institute – PMI and globally called as PMI ACP. This certification gives you the credential and opportunity to work as an Overall Agile Practitioner in Agile methodology clubs with Project Management processes and Practices. 

This course will also provide you the opportunity to work more in detail at ground level to explore close agile team experience. Your Agile knowledge will also become deeper and agile principles, skills, techniques would also fine-tune your implementation approach that can be better recognized by your team, customers, and other internal and external stakeholders of the project.

The PMI-ACP certification horizon and scope are very vast which can provide you expertise in major agile approaches such as Scrum, Kanban, Lean, extreme programming (XP), and test-driven development (TDD) according to your projects wherever you want to achieve your business goals and objectives.

Who Can Apply and How Does It Fit?

You can apply for the ACP certification, if:

You work in agile teams or are part of an agile group within your organization and your organization also follows and adopts an agile delivery model then PMI ACP certification would be the most reliable choice for you as you already have experience in the same environment. 

At the end of this certification once you pass the exam and are certified then you will be an expert to work with agile teams and utilize those skills as a practitioner as per your project requirements.

You can open a free online account on the PMI website and create your profile and add your details as per the online form, you can also go into the certifications section and see the details around the PMI ACP certification course. 

You can be a paid member and can avail PMI ACP Benefits for downloading study material and in exam fee, as there is some relaxation in the price for both study material and exam fee depending on situation and schedule, Tax is also applicable in some locations depending upon from where you would write the exam in terms of your current location.

Pre-Requisites and Examination Schedule

Eligibility Criteria

Here is a detailed section for the eligibility criteria for the ACP examination:

• You need to have a secondary degree.
• You should also have 12 months of general project experience within the last 5 years and 8 months of agile project experience within the last 3 years.
• A requirement of 21 contact hours of Instructor-Led training in agile processes and practices from a PMI authorized institution or training center. 

Examination Schedule 

Furthermore, There is a secured online mode of the certification exam is being set up by PMI considering the covid-19 situation and you can directly book and schedule the exam by attaching 21 contact hours (PDUs) certificate from Instructor-led training. You need to arrange a secured computer or laptop machine with a webcam, a reliable internet connection, and a quiet space as this will be a live exam.

You can also schedule your exam day or night from your office or home 24/7. Please check the below link to see more details:

https://www.pmi.org/certifications/certification-resources/process/online-proctored-testing

Steps To Achieve PMI-ACP Certification

Here is a detailed guide about how you can become a PMI ACP, you have to follow these steps to achieve PMI-ACP certification:

Check Eligibility Criteria 

Check whether you pass the eligibility requirements of the ACP certification. Make sure you have all the listed experience and educational qualifications necessary for giving the ACP examination.

Get Instructor-Led Training

To earn your 21 contact hours for passing the eligibility requirements you need to get instructor-led training. You can easily find and enroll yourself in ACP training from any renowned training provider.

Start your ACP Exam Preparation 

You can start preparing for the PMI-ACP exam using the recommended study material and the PMI ACP-specific guides. 

Register On the PMI Website

After checking the eligibility criteria, the next step is to register yourself on the PMI website. Now, you have the option to get a PMI membership at $129 to enjoy several perks. However, becoming a PMI member is completely optional, but it is recommended. 

Start The Application Process

You can easily locate the ACP exam application form on the PMI website itself. Fill out the application form with all the necessary details such as the 

• General details- name, educational details, address, contact details
• Details for general project experience
• Record of 21 contact hours of acquiring training for agile practices. 

Application Review

PMI will take about 8-10 days to review your application form to verify and check the form for completeness and quality check. 

Pay Exam Fee

You will be able to pay the exam fees once you receive a confirmation email from PMI. The exam cost structure is as follows:

Schedule And Take the Exam

After paying your ACP exam fee, you can schedule the exam date and take the exam on that set date.

ACP Certification Renewal

After earning the PMI-ACP certification, you will have to earn 30 PDUs (Professional development units) every three years to maintain your certification after the 3-year validity expires. 

You will need to be more adaptive and experimental in your approach while writing the exam of PMI ACP as the past agile experience of any project will also be an add-on to successfully pass the exam. Once you pass this exam then you will be entitled to get three years of credentials for PMI ACP with a certificate which you can get just after passing your exam online. You can also earn PMI ACP and maintain it after three years as well by earning 30 PDUs in agile-related topics.

You will need to be more adaptive and experimental in your approach while writing the exam of PMI ACP as the past agile experience of any project will also be an add-on to successfully pass the exam. Once you pass this exam then you will be entitled to get three years of credentials for PMI ACP with a certificate which you can get just after passing your exam online. You can also earn PMI ACP and maintain it after three years as well by earning 30 PDUs in agile-related topics.

If you want to learn more about PMI-ACP Certification, check out the new blog on PMI ACP-vs-PMP.

Four Important Elements of Earning PMI ACP Credential

The four important elements of earning a PMI ACP credential are as follows: 

1. Instructor-led training
2. Agile delivery experience
3. Education- Diploma/secondary degree
4. General project experience

PMI ACP Exam Format and Domains

Coming to the certification exam, it has the following structure:

• 120 multiple-choice questions 
• You will get three hours to complete the ACP examination.
• Among 120 multiple-choice questions, 20 are pretest questions that do not carry any marks. 

All questions will be situational, where your knowledge plus experience will be judged as per the skills that you learn in training and how to implement them end to end in a real-time scenario. Your performance in the exam will be judged by various domains and how you perform in each domain as per below target levels (Overall performance will be measured by how performance in every domain and performance by target level is achieved):

• Needs Improvement
• Below Target
• Target
• Above Target

Performance categories as mentioned above will be calculated in each domain according to the below figure so that any candidate can be aware of which area or domain improvements are required for their professional development.

The weightage of each domain is as follows:

1. Domain I. Agile Principles and Mindset- 16%
2. Domain II. Value-driven Delivery- 20%
3. Domain III. Stakeholder Engagement- 17%
4. Domain IV. Team Performance- 16%
5. Domain V. Adaptive Planning- 12%
6. Domain VI. Problem Detection and Resolution- 10%
7. Domain VII. Continuous Improvement (Product, Process, People)- 9%

Conclusion

Lastly, It is recommended to have an agile mindset right from start thinking about this certification course as this will help you understand each domain. Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) credentials not only cement your agile process and practices skills but also contribute to developing a value-driven delivery approach in yourself that will set up the best quality product roadmap as well. Hence, “Begin with Agility, Share it and Experience it with value-driven product delivery.”