Certifiably IT?

Certifiably IT? Amber Nelson October 29, 2001

Advice, Anecdotes and Case Studies

So you're an IT Project Manager and you're ready to become certified. Maybe you've been on the job a long while and want the accreditation. Maybe you're just starting out and you want to be taken seriously.

You've got two options.

The first, oldest and more stringent is the Project Management Institute's Project Management Professional Certification. The second, based on practical applications and specifically geared toward IT project managers, was developed as the Gartner Certification but is now owned and operated by CompTIA and called IT Project +.

On the surface, they seem comparable. Both test and certify an applicant's ability to manage projects. But if you dig a little deeper, you'll find vastly different programs that speak to different audiences and yet may be complementary.

Let's take a minute to look at the organizations behind each of the certification programs.