Project Management International (PMI) announced on October 8 that the Project Management Professional (PMP) credential examination will be revised in 2011, based on updates to the professional role of a PMP credential holder recently found by PMI’s Role Delineation Study (RDS).   PMI conducts a role delineation study for the PMP credential every five to seven years to ensure the credential reflects contemporary practice, evolves to meet current needs in the profession, and to comply with the PMP credential’s accreditation against the ISO 17024 standard. PMI says that approximately 30 percent of the PMP exam will change.  Note that education and experience eligibility requirements for the PMP credential will not change.

In the new version of the exam, the Professional and Social Responsibility content area will now be tested in every domain rather than as a separate domain on the examination. The recognition obtained through the RDS is that professional and social responsibility is integrated into all of the work of project management. PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct should therefore be viewed as now integrated into the day-to-day role of a project manager, emphasizing its importance in each phase of the project lifecycle.

The new examination is scheduled to be released on August 31, 2011.