Dear Colleagues:

I have a CRM and last year earned a PMP. I learned about the PMP about six years ago from a respected friend and did not have the opportunity to actually get the certification until last year because I didn't have time for the coursework requirement.

The PMP is comparable to the CRM in that it requires at least 3 years of broadly-based experience in records management. Documenting the experience can take an entire day unto itself, much more time that it took to document my experience in records management. You need references, but not letters of recommendation. Unlike the CRM, you also need at least 35 hours (not credit hours, but hours) of formal education in project management from a certified educational source. The exam is only about 200 questions, but the questions can come from a wider variety of areas than the CRM, so you have to study just as hard. The cost, including the education, is a lot more than the CRM. Both the CRM and the PMP require continuing education.

These type of certifications are a demonstration of knowledge and skills that are a part of my core experience. These certifications demonstrate what my Ph.D. qualifying exams tested, broad, deeply embedded knowledge.

Exams taken at the end of a class, whether it is a week or a semester, do not measure long-term knowledge and skills. University faculty know that and avoid them where possible. Such tests do not measure a change in your core experience. Such exams are a snapshot of your knowledge after brief study. To measure actual change, you would have to take the test after six months or a year. The alphabet soup of letters from taking tests at the end of a class demonstrate a desire, an opportunity, and an effort to continuing education, but not to mastery of a topic. The CRM and the PMP demonstrate the desire, opportunity, and effort toward mastery.

Not all of us have the time, opportunity, or need to show mastery of our subject. There are plusses and minuses to it. I spend a lot of money and time on continuing education for my PMP (my CRM is somehow easier and cheaper). The PMP chapter meetings I go to are huge (100+ people) and are dominated by IT people. I do enjoy the continuing education for the PMP because it is all about leadership and teamwork, even when it is about risk management. My local ARMA meetings are always delightful and volunteering for ARMA is non-stop learning and working with people for whom I have the highest regard and respect.

One interesting correlation between certification and membership. All those people come to the PMP chapter meetings primarily to get their continuing education credits. All those people come to ARMA primarily for the networking. If ARMA (10,000 members worldwide) were as large as PMI (200,000 members worldwide) and had the same number of certifications (50% instead of about 10%), I would bet that networking would go down and getting continuing education credits would go up.

Best wishes for a warm and dry week!
Carol
Carol E.B. Choksy, Ph.D., CRM, PMP
CEO
IRAD Strategic Consulting, Inc.
(317)294-8329

Adjunct Professor
School of Library and Information Science
Indiana University, Bloomington

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