Agile Certification: (PMI-ACP) Agile Certified Practitioner
Is an Agile certification right for you? Here, we’ll dig into everything you need to know about becoming an Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) and PM-ProLearn’s agile training course to get you there. At PM-ProLearn, we aim to help individuals like you grow into prosperous careers within the project management field. These career-enhancing certifications can be used globally across a variety of industries depending on where your passion lies. Here you’ll find:
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What is the PMI-ACP?
The PMI-ACP is a globally recognized certification from the Project Management Institute that stands for Agile Certified Practitioner. This project management certification proves to employers that you can manage important projects and business initiatives using agile approaches like scrum, lean, kanban, and more. This agile certification shows you have an agile mindset with a team-centric approach, great collaboration skills, the ability to embrace complexity and respond quickly. This certification also shows that you have a broad understanding of Agile as an overarching approach, more than just how to fill a single role like Scrum Master or Product Owner.
As a premier authorized training partner of the Project Management Institute, our expert agile training and learning resources are everything you need to earn this agile certification with confidence. Start your journey to become an Agile Certified Practitioner today!
Why Should I Get an Agile Project Management Certification?
An Agile certification, specifically the PMI-ACP, showcases to employers that you are highly skilled in utilizing agile approaches such as Scrum, lean, kanban, and test-driven development. It also shows you can effectively engage stakeholders in crucial aspects of your projects to gather and incorporate important feedback and make informed decisions using agile metrics delivering higher value to customers.
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Higher Salary
16% higher salary potential for a scrum master holding the PMI-ACP compared to one without it.
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Be In Demand
The demand for project management professionals is rising. 25 million new project management professionals are needed to meet global demands by 2030.
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Increased Career Opportunities
Get increased career opportunities by setting yourself apart in a competitive job market.
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71% of U.S. companies use Agile methologies
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86% of Agile Certified Practitioners qualified for new Opportunities
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94% of Agile Certified Practitioners gained recognition for career advancement
PMI-ACP Certification Requirements
In order to earn the PMI-ACP, you’ll have to meet a certain level of education and real-world experience. The PMI-ACP requirements are as follows:
Have a secondary diploma (high school diploma, GED, associate's degree or global equivalent), AND
Complete the 28 hours of formal training in agile practices, frameworks, and methodologies, AND
2 years agile experience in past 5 years, OR
Our agile training course completes your 28 hour training requirement.
1 year agile experience and degree from GAC program, OR
1 year agile experience and active 3rd party agile certification (earned over 1 year ago), OR
An active PMP® Certification
What Qualifies as
Agile Experience?
Many equate Agile project management to software development which can immediately turn many people away who have never worked in that industry. What you actually need to know, is that Agile, at its core, is about enabling and embracing change. If you’ve worked on large projects by breaking them down into smaller pieces, allowing for iterative and incremental approaches, then you’ve completed an agile project. This allows complex and sometimes ill-defined problems, to be solved. Agile also uses a cycle-based or life-cycle approach, meaning looking at the opportunities and risks involved at each stage of the project.
When it comes to our military, we can we find these cycles already in use almost everywhere. Military planning cycle (COA Dev IPT) Targeting Cycle, Intelligence cycle, and really any deployment. Military Staff and especially Special forces use Agile practices every day as well. Have more questions? Connect with an advisor today.
Maintaining Your PMI-ACP Certification Requirements
Additionally, it is important to note that the PMI-ACP certification must be maintained and renewed every 3 years. The requirements to do so are to earn 30 PDUs or Professional Development Units, which are 1-hour time blocks you spend either learning, teaching others, or volunteering. These PDUs can be earned at any time throughout the 3-year cycle. Your 30 PDUs must break down into:
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18 minimum education PDUs
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12 maximum giving back PDUs
Looking to get re-certified? Check out our Lean Six Sigma Certification. Earn the PDUs required to re-certify your PMI-ACP and earn a new certification at the same time!
Agile Certification Course
Our expert-led Agile training course will prepare you to pass the PMI-ACP exam through the Project Management Institute (PMI). The course can be taken as a full-time 3-day course either in-person or virtually or as a part-time 6-evening virtual course. If choosing an instructor-led course, we recommend enrolling at least 1 week before the PMI-ACP course start date to complete the foundational pre-work.
Next, we’ll take a deep dive into what the agile certification course looks like.
Agile Training Overview and Objectives
PM-ProLearn’s agile training is designed to prepare you for the Agile Certified Practitioner or PMI-ACP certification exam. The course focuses on concepts for agile principles and mindset, team performance, adaptive processes, agile methodologies, problem detection and resolution, and continuous improvement. After completing the Agile certification course, you should be able to do each of the objectives outlined in this section.
Several course features will help you achieve these objectives; however, some objectives still require self-study after the course to fully prepare for the PMI-ACP certification exam. The PM-ProLearn learning system provides a study guide and foundation for the course materials, including all post-course study and exam preparation. In addition, as a student, you will have access to additional material from PMI to use for post-course studying in preparation for the PMI-ACP exam.
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Explore, embrace and apply agile principles and mindset within the context of the project team and organization.
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Create an environment of trust, learning, collaboration, and conflict resolution that promotes team self-organization, enhances relationships among team members, and cultivates a culture of high performance.
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Produce and maintain an evolving plan, from initiation to closure, based on goals, values, risks, constraints, stakeholder feedback, and review findings.
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Provide an overview of the primary methodologies used in agile including SCRUM, Extreme Programming, Kanban, Lean Concepts, Feature Driven Development, Dynamic System Development Method, and Crystal.
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Continuously identify problems, impediments, and risks; prioritize and resolve it promptly; monitor and communicate the problem resolution status; and implement process improvements to prevent them from occurring again.
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Continuously improve the quality, effectiveness, and value of the product, the process, and the people (team), including process analysis and tailoring, product feedback methods, reviews, and retrospectives.
Agile Training: The Lesson Plan
Lesson 1: Agile Principles and Mindset
Overall Objective: Explore, embrace and apply agile principles and mindset within the context of the project team and organization.
Why use Agile Learning Objectives:
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Understand why Agile is used as a project methodology within an organization.
“Be Agile” Learning Objectives:
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Describe the 4 Values and 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto.
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Understand the Agile Mindset and how it guides the project methodology beyond software design.
“Do Agile” Learning Objectives:
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Understand the Agile Process and how to apply it to projects.
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Describe the various Agile Methodologies and when they would be applied to different projects.
Agile Training Schedule: What to Expect
Our 3-day Agile certification course runs from 8:00 am until about 5:00 pm with an hour lunch break in between and is typically scheduled Tuesday through Thursday. The day-to-day timing may vary slightly depending on group discussions and things of that nature but will follow the outline of the following schedule. The Agile certification course outline and schedule are the same whether you do an instructor-led virtual or in-person course. No matter your preferred learning style, know you’ll get the same quality content and instruction in both atmospheres.
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Our 6-evening course runs from 6 pm to 10 pm for two weeks Tuesday through Thursday each week. The day-to-day timing may vary slightly depending on group discussions and things of that nature but will follow the outline of the following schedule. The 6-evening course is only available as an instructor-led virtual course.
The PMI-ACP exam is the industry’s only agnostic, experienced-based, ISO-accredited exam. It contains 120-multiple choice questions across 4 different domains:
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Mindset - 28%
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Leadership - 25%
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Product - 19%
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Delivery - 28%
You can rest assured that our expert-led training and extensive study library including flashcards, practice questions, practice exams, and more will have you well-prepared to pass your PMI-ACP exam on the first try.
You can take your exam at a Pearson Vue Testing Center (recommended) or securely online. You may attempt the PMI-ACP exam up to three times in one year if you don’t pass. With the purchase of PM-ProLearn’s Agile training course, your exam fees are included, and we’ll even pay for a 2nd attempt if you need it. Restrictions Apply.
PMI-ACP Exam
Free Practice PMI-ACP Exam
While we offer plenty of study materials and practice exams to those paying for our pmp training, we also offer this free practice exam to anyone who would like to get familiar with the PMI-ACP exam layout.
This timed and full-length practice PMI-ACP exam is 120 questions designed by a team of experts so that you may evaluate your readiness to take the official PMI-ACP exam with PMI.
Agile Principles and Mindset - 16%
Value-Driven
Delivery- 20%
Stakeholder Engagement - 17%
Team Performance -
16%
Adaptive Planning -
12%
Problem Detection and Resolution - 10%
Continuous Improvement - 9%
Take Me To The PMI-ACP Practice Exam
PMI-ACP Exam Domains
About This Practice PMI-ACP Exam
All questions were created by a team of PMP expert instructors referencing a set of cloned PMP questions provided to us by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Every instructor who worked on this project is certified by PMI as an Authorized Training Partner (ATP) instructor. They worked hard to meticulously align each question to a specific domain and task from the PMP exam content outline published by PMI according to the same percentage of the actual PMP exam.
The time limit for this practice PMP exam is set for 250 minutes. When you take the actual PMP exam, you can take two 10-minute breaks, so we highly recommend that you schedule and take those breaks during this practice test giving you an actual 230 minutes of testing time. We recommend taking your first break after question 60 and your second break after question 120.
You may take this practice PMP exam as often as you’d like. The same 180 questions will always appear however they are presented randomly. Don't be discouraged by a low score the first time you take this test. Our expert-instructors will be able to get you where you need to be to pass the PMP Exam.
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Agile Certification Cost
Our Agile certification cost for instructor-led classes is 1899. The agile training portion can be taken in-person or virtually through Zoom. Both in-person and virtual courses are instructor-led and can be delivered in a 3-day format 8 am - 5 pm during weekdays. If you prefer evening courses, there are virtual 6-evening courses available from 6 pm -10 pm during weeknights.
The Full Agile Certification Cost Includes:
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Agile training course covering the 28-hour requirement
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1 year access to our online video study system
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1 year access to our live instructor help desk
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1 year free reattendance (reattend the training as many times as you’d like!)
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Practice Questions/Exams
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Mastery Analytics
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Study Guide
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Memory Aids
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PMI-ACP application assistance and review with our instructors
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PMI-ACP exam fee
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2nd attempt retest fee if needed (conditions apply)
Agile Certification Funding Options
You may be eligible to get your certification at absolutley no cost to you. There are a number of funding options for both civilian and military personnel.
Talk to an advisor about our funding options and discounts for military and first responders.
Many employers offer benefits like tuition reimbursement programs that will pay for your certifications. Check with your HR executive to see if you qualify. Some employers we've worked with include:
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Booz Allen
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Northrup Grumman
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KPMG
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General Dynamics
Additionally, retired military can use:
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Post 9/11 GI Bill
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The military funding options you can use for the PMP are:
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Army CA
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Coast Guard COOL
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Post 9/11 GI Bill
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VR&E
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AF COOL
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Unit Funding
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MyCAA
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30% Off
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Can't use any of the above funding options? Military members and their spouses may receive a 30% discount. Contact us to see if you qualify.
What Is Agile
Project Management?
״Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change״
In today’s world where change is constant, Project Managers need to find a way to direct the action of their teams, while not restricting their actions. Essentially, they need a way to control the chaos while providing clarity, without micromanaging the work. Hence the birth of Agile or adaptive project management.
Unlike predictive or traditional project management, Agile focuses first and foremost on the team. It has been learned that people matter more than process when dealing with change. Building upon this foundation, Agile will break complex problems into iterative and incremental steps.
This allows for integrating new ideas in stride with the work being done. Lastly, Agile incorporates a variety of processes so that the team can determine their way of working to solve the unique problem in front of them.
