PMP vs RMP: Which one is better?

1 What is PMP?

PMP (project management professional) refers to the certification of project management professionals (personnel). The PMP certification examination held by the American Project Management Institute (PMI). It has been promoted in more than 190 countries and regions around the world. It is the highest gold content certification in the field of project management. Obtaining a PMP certificate not only improves the project management level of the project manager but also directly reflects the personal competitiveness of the project manager. It is a symbol of the identity of project management professionals.

There are ten knowledge domains included in PMP certification. They are Project Integration Management, Project Scope Management, Project Schedule Management, Project Cost Management, Project Quality Management, Project Resource Management, Project Communication Management, Project Risk Management, Project Procurement Management, Project Stakeholder Management.

As a project management qualification examination, PMP has established its authority internationally:

1. PMP has trained a large number of project management professionals for the United States, and the project management profession has become the “golden profession” in the United States.
2. PMP certification has become an international certification standard, and the certification examination is conducted in nine languages such as English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese;
3. There are over one million certified PMP in the world.
4. Countries have followed the project management certification system of the United States, which has promoted the development of project management in the world.

The following are the requirements for applying PMP certification exam.

The applicants for the PMP certification exam must have at least one of the following qualifications:

1. Those who have bachelor’s degree or college’s degree of the same level or above;

This type of applicant must have at least 4500 hours’ project management experience of the five groups of the project management process and have at least 36 months of accumulative project management work at the last 6 years.

Note: In the calculation of months of project management’s work, the required total of 36 months must be independent and not overlap.

2. Those who do not have a bachelor’s degree or college’s degree of the same level;

This type of applicant must have at least 7500 hours’ project management experience of the five groups of the project management process and have at least 60 months of accumulative project management work in the last 8 years.

Note: In the calculation of months of project management’s work, the required total of 60 months must be independent and not overlap.

What is RMP?

RMP (risk management professional) refers to the certification of risk management professionals (personnel). As same as PMP, the RMP certification examination is also provided by the American Project Management Institute (PMI), therefore it is also called PMI-RMP.

Unmanaged risks often lead to project failure, so effective risk management is essential to the success of every project. Project Managers who master risk-related concepts can help organizations manage both positive and negative risks.

The PMI-RMP highlights your ability to identify and assess project risks, mitigate threats and capitalize on opportunities. In this capacity, you enhance and protect the needs of your organization.

Gaining distinction as a PMI-RMP sets you apart from other professionals and brings credit to your organization. 83% of organizations that are high performers in project management practice risk management frequently while just 49% of low performers do so. The practice contributes to a handsome payoff: high performers meet their goals 2.5 times more often and waste 13 times less money than low performers, as found by PMI’s 2015 Pulse of the Profession® report.

The following are the requirements for applying PMI-RMP certification exam:

1. Those who have bachelor’s degree or college’s degree of the same level or above;

This type of applicant must have at least 24 months’ project risk management experience within the last 5 years and have 30 hours of project risk management education.

Note: In the calculation of months of risk management’s work, the required total of 24 months must be independent and not overlap.

2. Those who have a secondary degree (high school diploma, associate’s degree, or the global equivalent);

This type of applicant must have at least 36 months’ project risk management experience within the last 5 years, and 40 hours of project risk management education.

Note: In the calculation of months of risk management’s work, the required total of 36 months must be independent and not overlap.

Which one is better?

The answer is very simple for this one.

If you are doing project management as a project manager, risk management skill is not the only skill you need to manage a project. In this case, PMP is a much better choice than RMP. In the previous content, we mentioned that PMP includes ten knowledge domains, and risk management is only one of them. Therefore, PMP is much more suitable for those who want to master all-around ability for project management.

On the other hand, if risk management skill is significantly important to your daily work, or risk management skill is the only skill you need to boost your career. Then RMP may be the better choice for you. But even though in this case, we would still strongly recommend you to gain the PMP certification first. Because when you are evaluating risk, you still need to understand the relation between the risk and other management elements (for instance, scope, schedule, and cost.) first.

In summary, in this article, we tried to establish PMP vs RMP certification, and also discuss the difference between these two certifications and which one would be you better choice for your career.