Benefits of PMI-ACP

PMI-ACP is one of the market's most popular agile certifications. PMI-ACP is a PMI-awarded agile certification. Once you have acquired the PMI-ACP certification, you will receive various benefits.

The following are the five most important PMI-ACP benefits:

• In an "Agile" world, you will discover how Agile projects work from start to end.
• Because organizations seek Agile certified people, you will have more and better work prospects.
• PMI-ACP is a well-known and respected certification in the business.
• You will learn to communicate in the Agile world's common language.
• Opportunity to make a higher wage ($127K on average in the United States)

Why Agile is getting popular?

The way how businesses work has changed in the last few decades. The demand to complete the projects on a tighter budget has increased. Also, as the need for the rapid delivery of products and services has risen, Agile project management is being adopted more and more everywhere. Agile project management focuses on continuous planning, development, and feedback. It results in faster turnaround times and delivery of business value from the beginning of the project. Hence, Agile benefits the organizations as well as the customers.

As Agile project management is being adopted by many organizations worldwide, the need for employers to hire Agile certification holders has also risen. Agile certification helps professionals who deal with Agile tools and practices. And it is a great addition to their professional profile, too.

PMI-ACP Benefits vs What are the most popular Agile certifications?

There are a few organizations that offer Agile certifications. Scrum Alliance is one of them and it offers two important Agile certifications, namely, Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO).

Scrum.org also offers two important agile certifications. One is Professional Scrum Master (PSM) and the other one is Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO).

Project Management Institute (PMI) also offers an Agile certification, called Agile Certified Professional (ACP). PMI’s Agile certification is more credible and most of the professionals choose their certification because of the PMI-ACP benefits which they seek. In this post, we will be talking in detail about these PMI-ACP benefits.  

PMI-ACP Benefits

There are several benefits of having Agile Certified Practitioner certification. Here are the top 5 PMI-ACP benefits:

1- The world is shifting to “Agile”

Organizations worldwide are shifting to an Agile way of working. The Agile way of project planning and delivering encourages the development team and the client to work closely and in an iterative manner. With the frequent feedback at the end of the iterations, the development team could easily adapt to the changes and ensure the delivery with positive outcomes. The Agile team could more easily predict the project schedule and cost. They have more transparency in the work. They can ensure improved quality, which is one of the greatest benefits of adopting Agile at the workplace.

The waterfall model is still the most popular model. The development and the manufacturing environments are still using the waterfall model. However, at the same time, the project teams feel the need for continuous delivery and faster adaption to changes. That is why they are switching to Agile.

One of the many PMI-ACP benefits is that you will learn how Agile projects work from start to finish. If you hold the PMI-ACP credential and working in an Agile environment, you will feel confident that you can easily integrate with the Agile practices being used there. Moreover, you would have enough knowledge of Agile tools & techniques and skills that it would be very easy for you to successfully complete the projects. Hence, the PMI-ACP credential will allow you to fill the Agile opportunities in the market and contribute to the Agile way of project delivery.

2- Organizations look for Agile professionals

Due to the increasing need to use Agile practices at work, more and more organizations are now hiring Agile professionals. Whether they are CSMs, CSPO, PSPOs, or PMI-ACPs, they are hiring them to get their projects done successfully. Although the ScrumAlliance and Scrum.org certifications are valuable, having a PMI-ACP certification will stand you out in the crowd. When you are looking for a job, this credential will distinguish you as an effective and trained Agile practitioner.

Organizations have realized the need to implement Agile methodologies to execute projects in a dynamic environment. Hence, it can be said that agile is the need of the hour. And to fulfill the Agile projects’ requirements, multiple Agile roles such as Scrum Master, Product Owner, etc. are being hired by the organizations.

According to the VersionOne State of Agile survey, 94% of the respondents said that they were already using Agile methods. From this, we can conclude that organizations do need Agile professionals for their project delivery. The increasing pace of Agile adoption is even making the organizations compete for Agile talent. That is the reason, you will see a lot of jobs these days require an Agile professional to work on the projects.

When it comes to PMI-ACP benefits, organizations understand its worth. They know that the PMI-ACP credential holder is the best fit to work with their Agile project teams. They are aware that an ACP can be trusted to analyze, develop, test, and deliver the product the Agile way. That is why in most Agile jobs, organizations prefer to take expertise from PMI-ACP credential holders.

3- PMI-ACP is a demanded Agile certification

There are several recognized and popular agile certifications like CSM, CSPO, PSM, PSPO, Leading SAFe. However, PMI-ACP is the most popular and most demanded certification. The PMI-ACP benefits are much more and are more meaningful. In all the industries worldwide, PMI credentials are well recognized and PMI-ACP is one of them. The employers prefer to hire professionals who hold the PMI-ACP credential.

Companies often tend to use the blend of Agile methods such as XP, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, DSDM, Crystal Clear, DSDM, and more. They will find all this expertise in a PMI-ACP credential holder. Moreover, PMI-ACP certification also provides more comprehensive coverage of Agile skills, knowledge areas, and tools. These are the essential things, which are needed in an Agile workspace. In addition, PMI is a credible and renowned organization to offer standardization and certifications. Their certification holders easily get extra attention from the employer.

4- Common language among Agile professionals

If you do not hold an Agile credential or have prior Agile experience, it will be difficult for you to integrate yourself into Agile project communications. Whether it is an Agile daily standup meeting, iteration planning, retrospectives, or Agile project status reporting, if you happen to be involved in any Agile activity, you will face many difficulties. At the minimum, you will find it hard to understand the Agile terminologies being used in project communications.

However, if you have an Agile credential, specifically the PMI-ACP, you will start speaking Agile at your workplace automatically. You will be able to understand the Agile project activities well. So, PMI-ACP benefits you even when you would talk or write at work. Any Agile communications being made at work will be easy for you to understand. You will avoid making errors in interpreting what will be said to you. Moreover, you will be able to talk confidently to your Agile peers or the seniors and understand what they are talking about.

Speaking a common language is very important. It will help avoid misunderstandings. It will facilitate inter-departmental ties and the smooth execution of the Agile projects.

5- Better salary

One of the other PMI-ACP benefits is that you will get a better salary once you have earned the PMI-ACP certification. Take an example of the role of the Agile Coach. The average salary an Agile Coach receives is $127,000 in the United States. Similarly, a Scrum Master and Product Owner receive a similar salary in the United States. According to a survey, a PMI-ACP gets 28% more salary than a non-certified professional. If we look outside the United States also, the salary of the ACPs is more than the salary of non-certified Agile professionals. Let’s take an example of the salary of the Product Owner in Dubai, UAE. The average salary they would receive is equivalent to US$ is 93,000. This is about $11,000 more salary than an IT project manager earns in Dubai.

Considering the fact that the PMI-ACPs receive a better salary in the Agile-oriented organizations, more and more people are getting inclined towards the PMI-ACP certification to get noticed and secure higher salary jobs.