It’s almost a new year. Is your New Years’ resolution to get your Project Management Institute (PMI) mandated professional development units (PDU’s) for the year completed? Well, it should be… Here is a list of PM training resources to help you earn those PMI PDU’s. I hope you find these resources helpful!
Most of these fall under the PMI Self-Study (PDU Category C) requirements. If you take part in any of these activities and it was relevant to project management, had a specified purpose, and used knowledgeable resources then you can claim 1 PDU for each hour spent on this as “self-study”. There are a maximum of 30 PDU’s for this and any other Category C activities per recertification period (3 years).
Reading for PDU’s
You can earn up to 30 PMI (Category C) PDU’s by reading books. Some of the recommended include:
Results Without Authority: Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn’t Report to You by Tom Kendrick – It’s hard enough to lead a project when you’re the boss. Leading a project team that doesn’t report to you is a whole new challenge in itself. Mr. Kendrick walks through how to motivate a team to contribute to a project’s success.
Alpha Project Managers: What the Top 2% Know That Everyone Else Does Not by Andy Crowe – Using data from a survey of more than 800 project managers from around the world, Mr. Crowe looks at what traits and practices make the top 2% of PM’s rise above the rest. Readers will walk away with actionable steps they can take to rise to the top.
Delivering Bad News in Good Ways: Turn Difficult Conversations into Purposeful Dialogue, Positive Outcomes, & Focused Results in 3 Easy Steps by Alison Sigmon – While there are a lot of books out there about the proper ways to deliver bad news, this one is directed at PMs. Ms. Sigmon gives project managers a defined process to not only break the bad news but also improve communication over the long term.
Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management by Scott Berkun – Drawing from his years leading technology projects at Microsoft (MSFT), Mr. Berkun offers readers field-tested philosophies and strategies for defining, leading, and managing projects. If you’re leading technology projects, this is a must-read.
Adaptive Project Management: Leading Complex and Uncertain Projects by Andy Silber – Mr. Silber presents a new methodology, Adaptive Project Management, in this book. He explains how to succeed or fail fast for projects that are too uncertain to use waterfall project management and too complex to succeed with agile project management.
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker – An oldie but a goodie. Don’t let the title dissuade you from reading. Mr. Drucker’s lessons about time management, prioritization, and effective decision-making can be applied to any knowledge worker.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen – The book that started it all; this is the definitive guide to GTD. In the age of multitasking and information overload, Getting Things Done is the book we need to find focus.
Getting Things Done. In this podcast enhancement to the book. Mr. Allen talks with people who are in different stages of their GTD journey and offers practical tips for building your own GTD systems.
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande – Mr. Gawande, a renowned surgeon, and New Yorker writer, is a proponent of the simple checklist. At first glance, the subject sounds like it could be just another dry how-to book, but his anecdotes and writing skills take this one to another level. He expertly blends storytelling, science, and productivity.
The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy by Chris Bailey – After college, Mr. Bailey turned down two lucrative job offers and instead funneled his energy into chronicling productivity experiments on his blog. This book has the results of these experiments, plus interviews with leading productivity experts and 25 takeaway lessons that the reader can apply to everyday life.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg – Mr. Duhigg explains the science of how habits work — and how we can change them. About 40% of the actions we do in a day are habits — so we’re on autopilot for almost half our life. Identifying what triggers your habits is key.
Podcasts for PDU’s
You can earn up to 30 PMI (Category C) PDU’s by listening to podcasts. Some good ones are:
The Project Management Podcast. Hosted by Cornelius Fitcher, the PM Podcast has more than 300 free and paid podcasts. He brings in PM experts to talk about a variety of topics, everything from how to become a PM to managing unknown risks.
The People and Projects Podcast. Andy Kaufman interviews experts on PM, productivity, and management on his People and Projects Podcast. He releases a new podcast every three to four weeks.
The Lazy Project Manager. Hosted by Peter Taylor, this podcast began in 2013 after he published his best-selling book by the same name. Mr. Taylor is described as “one of the most entertaining and inspirational speakers in project management today.” Topics and themes really run the gamut on this podcast, with new podcasts being released at least once a month.
PM for the Masses. Cesar Abeid brings a lot of guests to his popular podcast. Topics cover everything from public speaking to methodology to careers.
The Tim Ferriss Show. Hosted by Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, this podcast was the first business/interview podcast to pass 100,000,000 downloads. He brings on well-known personalities to dissect what tools, techniques, and tactics they used to get where they are.
Back to Work. In this award-winning podcast, Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discuss productivity, constraints, tools, and communication. Mann and Benjamin offer a nice balance of clever banter and teaching in every one-hour episode.
Massive Open Online Courses
MOOCs can get online the opportunity to take a class from institutions around the world.
edX – Was founded in 2012 and is governed by more than 90 global partners. EdX is the only leading MOOC provider that is both nonprofit and open source.
Project Risk Assessment – University of Michigan – In this course, you will learn how to conduct risk analysis of different projects using both conceptual and practical developments in modern finance. – Self Paced – Verified Certificate $99.00
Strategic Applications of IT Project & Program Management – University of Washington – This course focuses on learning project management methodologies in the IT field, and why they are effective. This course introduces you to project management standards and frameworks that increase efficiency and deliver tangible business benefits to IT projects. – Self Paced – Verified Certificate $79.00
Coursera – Agile Development Specialization – This course provides a beginner overview of the Agile methodology, specifically within software projects. You’ll learn to coördinate all aspects of the agile development process, including running design sprints, managing teams, and fostering a culture of experimentation. – Cost: $49 monthly Coursera subscription
Lynda.com – The online learning platform Lynda.com offers more than 90 courses related to project management. Many of these courses qualify for PDU’s through PMI. – Cost: Free for the first 30 days, then $19.99 per month – Start date: On-Demand
Project Management Websites
Project Management Institute (PMI) – Everyone’s go-to project management resource is PMI. Their website is chock full of helpful information, including articles, white papers, online courses, and webinars
Microsoft Project Users group – MPUG is recognized as the official Industry Association for Microsoft® Project. MPUG delivers PMI PDU eligible online training, deep-dive certificate series sessions, hundreds of on-demand training videos helpful articles and resources, as well as a community forum for all your Microsoft Project Questions. $99.00 annual membership
A Girl’s Guide to Project Management – PM expert Elizabeth Harrin, writes about a variety of project management topics. Her strength is writing about careers, leadership, and teams within the PM space. She also provides free templates and toolkits to help PMs excel at their jobs.
Project Times – A well-curated site of helpful articles, webinars, white papers, and case studies about project management. Project Times isn’t afraid to post the offbeat (i.e., “Why Project Managers Shouldn’t Wear Man Buns”), which makes for a fun read.
Harvard Business Review – While HBR isn’t solely focused on PM, its focus on management, leadership, and careers is beneficial and applicable to any office dweller. They hide their content behind a paywall.
Herding Cats – Glen Alleman writes about a variety of topics related to Agile methodology and project management.
CIO – The project management section of the CIO website has some great content within the context of IT and tech PM. Articles cover everything from implementing an ERP system to managing project budgets.
What is your favorite source for PDU’s Let me know and I will add it to the list in the comments.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
The agile manifesto was published almost 20 years ago. The publishers of the agile manifesto looked to overthrow previous project management methodologies. The agile manifesto authors cast away what they considered burdensome. They looked to eliminate contracts, plans, and documentation. Along the way, agile became the latest consultant-speak to solve any firm’s problems.
Over the years Agile has morphed into CI/CD, DevOps, Extreme Programming, Kanban, Lean, SAFe and more buzzwords. The top agile methods employed by organizations include scrum (54%), scrum/XP Hybrid (10%), custom hybrid (14%), scrumban (8%), and kanban (5%).
Recent signs are pointing to a possible backlash against agile. California-based IT research firm Computer Economics reports that the growth in agile development is starting to taper off. Adoption was flat year over year, and we may be closing in on the ceiling for agile.
Computer Economics concludes that Agile is an important tool for organizations with high-level development needs, such as software and cloud providers. However, for most enterprises that do little custom development, agile might not be right for them.
So following the money, it is very likely that intentional obfuscation on the part of corporate marketing machines at MSFT and TEAM to drive changes to PM methodologies in order to keep everyone on the planned obsolescence train and have to update PM and PPM software every year to match the latest agile methodology.
Since the dawn of time, one of the questions most likely to strike fear into the heart of even seasoned project managers is, “So how much is this project going to cost?” In fact, 
