How to Prepare and fill PMP application form

Got stuck? Unable to understand where to start? You are not alone. Many PMP aspirants have these questions and to tell you the truth, filling PMP exam form is a time consuming and complicated task. If you are not taking it seriously, you application may get rejected or may get audited (even if auditing is a random process). In last few years, I got many requests from PMP aspirants to find out how to fill it. To share this knowledge, I thought of writing this article and I hope this article will help. I have tried to simplify the process and by no means is this the only approach any one should follow. Suggestions are welcome. Let’s start with it –

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PMP application form
• Blue or Black ballpen
• Computer/laptop with an excel program
• If filing online - computer with internet connection

1. Section # 1, 2 & 3 – Very Straight forward and no explanation required. Review the tips section.
   
   No explanation required for other information on page # 1 and 2 (contact information, email, education).

2. Part I - Experience verification form – Provide all the information required on page # 3.
   
   Note: Please provide valid and correct information as PMI may contact them to verify your experience.

3. To complete part II and III - let’s first try to understand the template and fill the same. You can find the template at www.pmpquest.com. Address is provided below.

4. 
   PMP application form Template

   First list down all your projects in descending order for last 5 years (latest project should be on top). Then list down the start and end date of each project.
   
   Caution! - Please do not count project management experience multiple times. E.g. If you are working on multiple projects for 2 months, your project management experience is only 2 months and not 4 months. Accordingly adjust the start and end dates.

5. Approximately remember the number of holidays, vacation, non-working days due to any reason (sick etc) and enter that number in column F6 (# of non-working days). Minimum number of holidays in a year is 10.
   
   In any given year (Jan to Dec), number of working days should not be more than 250. If required, adjust the number of non-working days column, F6.

6. Now the excel will calculate the number of project hrs and the expected number of hrs for each phase. Estimated number of hours’ column is just to provide you a general guideline.
   
   It is not necessary to follow the guideline figures. Depending on your project situation, you can modify the same in "Guidelines" sheet.

7. Now allocate number of hours you spent on each activity in every phase, e.g. for Initiation process - column I6 to M6. System will calculate the total number of hrs you spent in every process.
   It’s not necessary to match the actual spent number of hrs (N6) with estimated number of hrs based on guidelines (M6).
   All modifiable columns are marked with tan color background.

8. Repeat step 8 for all processes and for every project. It is not necessary that you will participate in every process of every project. E.g. you may have joined a project in the planning phase. So put 0 hrs for Initiating process and so on.

9. As a cursory check, review the column BB6. If the value is non-zero, review the number of hrs for each process.

10. Review the "Total Project management experience in hrs", column H16. It should be equal or greater than 4500 hrs.

11. Part III- Describe briefly the deliverables for each and very process.
    
    Rests of the sections are very easy to fill out. I hope this template would be of some help. Please do not forget to provide your feedback on this article.

Tips & Warnings

• Download the template at address - http://www.pmpquest.com/info.php - go to last question and you will find a link "Click Here".
• Make sure that your name (first name, last name) is matching with any valid government document like passport and/or driving license.
• Number of working hour is 40 hours per week
• All modifiable columns are marked with tan color background.
• Please not that we do not have any type of affiliation with the PMI organization or with PMP certification process. User should use this excel at their own risk(s). The template is created to provide the guideline to PMP aspirants and this template has NOT been endorsed by PMI.

Resources

• PMPQuest