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How important is “PMI certified” when selecting a project manager for an enterprise software implementation?

Project Management Institute (PMI) certification can be a distinguishing criteria when deciding between two project managers with the same experience. PMI certification should never be an absolute requirement for someone to be the lead on an enterprise software implementation.

PMI certification provides great tools and processes to be a great project manager, but it does not certify that person will be a great project manager. The best assurance that a project manager will be a success is that he or she has a successful successful track record in managing like projects.

Construction and project-centric businesses have to manage their supply chains more to minimize overall project failure than just to reduce costs. Project-centric businesses use their supply chains to manage risks. Supply chain costs are secondary than the risk of inadequate resources or meeting critical project deadlines and deliverables. Project-centric businesses must look at the total project cost instead of supply chain costs in isolation. To that end, project-centric businesses are using supply chain systems to provide better visibility, less risk, lower total costs, and strengthen supplier relationships.

SupplyChainBrain has a great article, Lifting the Burden of Project-Centric Supply Chains. This article talks about the five drivers of project-centric businesses: risk, cost, cash flow, time, resources. Additionally, enterprise systems are now increasingly being used by project-centric businesses for visibility and control, strengthening supplier communications, managing risk, and even managing return on investment (ROI).

A PMP certification is valuable, but not a requirement. Anyone that is a project manager should have a formal education in management. A PMP certification provides the education, but it is no “silver bullet” that you will be a great or even a good project manager.

If someone has a PMP certification and limited project experience, they can actually impede a project by putting process over results. Someone with limited project experience, regardless of their formal training, needs coaching and mentoring.

I would encourage any employer looking for a project manager to identified PMP certification as a desired requirement. If the project manager will be working unsupervised, an employer needs to hire a job candidate with a successful project management track record. I would encourage any project manager or aspiring project manager to get their PMP certification if they lack formal management experience.