

The project management profession is evolving. For instance, agile methodologies were not in common in project management as it is nowadays. In order to be compliant with the changing industry dynamics, the PMP exam changes every 3-5 years based on the PMI leadership conducted by subject matter experts from leading organizations around the world.
Key takeaways from this post:
Let us go through these details one by one now.
Note that, PMP exam changes do not mean that PMBOK will change as well. Latest PMBOK (6th edition) has been released by end of 2017 and the PMP exam changed in 2018 Q1 based on the PMBOK.
In this post, we will cover when the PMP exam is changing, what PMP exam changes will bring to the PMP exam content, what you should do to be prepared for the PMP exam changes, and more.
Hint: Do you wonder when you can take the PMP exam? Read more about the PMP exam schedule, the next PMP exam date and how you can schedule, and more on the PMP exam schedule post.
Based on the calendar that PMI announced on its website, as of the 2nd of Jan 2021, PMP certification exam takers will sit for the new PMP exam content outline. So, the PMP exam has changed already.
PMP Exam contains 180 questions. There are 230 minutes to complete the exam. The PMP Exam Questions will be a combination of multiple-choice, multiple responses, matching, hotspot, and limited fill-in-the-blank types of questions.
1- People (42%)
2- Process (50%)
3- Business Environment (8%)
About half of the PMP exam will represent predictive project management approaches and the other half will represent agile or hybrid approaches.
The PMP exam content was focusing on the stages of a project lifecycle as a domain and in each domain, there are several tasks. This process utilizes knowledge and task-driven guidelines to assess the practitioner’s competence and determine the levels of salience, criticality, and frequency of each of the knowledge, tasks, and skills required to perform to the industry-wide standard in the role of a project manager. Following is a sample from the tasks of the closing domain.
The PMP exam assesses the PMP exam candidate’s knowledge and experience based on these tasks, knowledge, and skills for each domain.
While the current PMP exam content focuses on five domains as the stages of the project lifecycle, new PMP exam content will be based on three domains:
Based on the research of PMI through the current project management jobs, today’s project management practitioners work in a variety of project environments and utilize different project approaches. Accordingly, the PMP certification will be reflective of this and will incorporate approaches across the value delivery spectrum. About half of the examination will represent predictive project management approaches and the other half will represent agile or hybrid approaches. Predictive, agile, and hybrid approaches will be found throughout the three-domain areas listed above and are not isolated to any particular domain or task. The following figure describes the percentage of each domain on the PMP exam.
2021 New PMP exam content will have tasks under each domain as well as in the current PMP exam. However, there are new term “enablers” in the new PMP exam content. Now, let’s what is domain, tasks, and enablers are coming with PMP exam changes.
You can see an example of the new task structure and affiliation with the enablers.
See the complete new PMP exam content that has been effective by Jan 2, 2021.
PMI has published a New PMP Exam Content Crossover map which will help the PMP aspirants to identify areas of content that will change in the new PMP exam content.
This document is a current mapping the PMI Certification team is using to determine what existing inventory can be reused in the new exam. There are sections that are brand new to the exam and will need to have content created. This mapping document is intended to help you get started to update PMP course content.
Along with the ECO, the mapping document will be one of many resources that PMI will provide in the upcoming months to help PMP training providers to update their coursework to help students prepare for the new PMP® Exam starting in Jan 2021.
Domain Content Location
People: current PMP course may have limited content to address this new domain. If there is content it would be woven throughout the PMP course. 42% of the exam questions will be based upon this domain.
Process: current PMP training materials may have a fair amount of content to address this new domain as this was the bulk of the exam previously. 50% of the exam will be based upon this domain.
Business Environment: current PMP training programs may have very limited content to address this new domain. If there is content it would be woven in small threads throughout your course. 8% of the exam questions will be based upon this domain.
Following is the full list of new enablers coming with the new PMP exam:
Summary The project management profession is evolving. For instance, agile methodologies were not in common in project management as it is nowadays. In order to be compliant with the changing industry dynamics, the PMP exam changes every 3-5 years based on the PMI leadership conducted by subject matter experts from leading organizations around the world.
Its really becoming very difficult to pass PMP exam now a days. Thanks God I did it in 2008.