What if you have applied for PMP; and found out that your application has been selected for an audit? I feel you. Do not panic. Let’s figure out what to do and how to pass it.
I’m PMP certified and before I got certified my application has passed an audit too. Thus, basically I’m going to share my personal experience and tips on how to approach the situation. And before we dive in let me know in comments if you need to pass an audit too.
When
To begin with, when could you be audited? Actually PMI reserves the right to pick your application for an audit either before the exam; or when you have already passed the PMP test. That is why it is extremely important to:
- make sure that you have completed the application thoughtfully;
- you have all the references on hand;
- all your reference people are informed that potentially they could be contacted in future;
- and they need to confirm your professional experience for the Project Management Institute.
If you are selected for an audit before the exam you usually know this right away. At least according my experience as soon as I have submitted my PMP application I saw this exciting notification on the screen instantly.
– Your application has been randomly selected for PMI’s audit process.
So what does it mean you have been selected for an audit?
What Does It Mean
This means that PMI is requesting you to confirm all the information that you have provided in your application. Information about your education, professional experience and professional education. Confirm it by sending all the supporting documentation. By the way, let me know in comments if
you have already submitted your PMP application?
When you found out you have been selected for an audit the next step would be to carefully review all the information that PMI sends you to your email. As always you can contact PMI support as they usually are very much responsive and provide all the necessary information in order to help you passing an audit.
In my personal case and probably this would resonate with some of you too, before I have submitted my PMP application the majority of my project management experience during my career was earned while I was working remotely with international teams and clients. This means that all of my references were located in different cities and even in different countries. That promised me a really hard work ahead.
What Do You Need To Pass
Usually there are three types of documents you need to provide for the PMI. Keep in mind all the documentation should be gathered, packed and sent physically to the headquarters of the Project Management Institute. For those three types of documents which are:
- education,
- professional education and
- professional experience,
what you are going to do is this.
For education what you’re going to make a copy of your diploma with all the transcripts. What is important, if the diploma is not in English you need to translate it.
As for the professional education, you are going to make a copy of the certificate that you received after you have completed your professional education and earned those 35 contact hours.
Here is where all the fun comes! To confirm your professional experience you need to meet with your reference people in person and ask them to complete the templates provided by the PMI. In these documents they are confirming your professional experience on the project which you have included in your application.
More Audit Tips
Make sure this experience confirmation is done in a hardcopy. Your reference people are going to sign those documents by hand, pack them in the envelope, close it and sign over it.
If you have been working remotely like I did, this is going to be a little bit harder. But still, this is not the end of the world. What you’re going to do is to
pack the templates into envelopes and send to your reference people; ask them to complete the documents and send them back to you by the regular mail. Of course, this is going to take time and it is going to be longer than if you are able to meet those people in person. However, you anyway need to do this in order to pass an audit.
What you also need to know is that if you are selected for an audit before the exam you are not eligible to take the test before you confirm you experience and all the information from your application. What is more, you’re not even able to book the sit for the exam before the audit is passed. Therefore, it is extremely important to do everything as fast as possible and to do this accurately.
For instance, when you have everything on hand, you need to send it to PMI all together. PMI doesn’t accept partial parcels of the confirming documentation. Thus, make sure that you’re sending the information all together.
So, you have gathered the confirmation documents of your education; of your professional education and of your professional experience. You have packed all together, and you have sent it to the PMI. hurrah! The hard work is done. Now you need to receive the confirmation from the PMI that they have received everything; and that they confirm the audit is passed.
By the way, here is the link to the formal instructions for the audit provided by PMI.
Let me know if this information was helpful.
Cheers!