My PMI-ACP Audit Completed. Here’s How.

I got selected randomly for the PMI-ACP® Exam Audit. I am the “lucky few” who got selected for both PMP Audit and PMI-ACP® Audit (that’s why I believe the audit selection is completely random). It took me nearly a month to complete the PMI-ACP® Audit (delivery time included). The audit process is described in details below – from the moment I received the PMI Audit notice to the moment I successfully passed and completed the PMI-ACP® Audit.

My PMI-ACP® Audit Summary

• After paying the PMI-ACP® Exam fee, I got noticed of the PMI-ACP® audit.
• To complete the PMI-ACP® Audit:
  1. I downloaded and printed the Experience Verification Forms for my sponsor to sign.
  2. I printed a copy of the PMI-ACP® Exam Prep Course certificate (it helps to take a course from PMI R.E.P).
• I posted both of above to PMI and got the audit pass email about two weeks later.

Below is the detailed description of the PMI-ACP® Audit process and the actions I took to complete and pass the PMI-ACP® Exam Audit successfully:

Pay the PMI-ACP® Exam Fee First…

After I have submitted my PMI-ACP® Exam application, I waited for about 9 days to receive an email asking me to ‘continue with the PMI-ACP® application process’ (i.e. to pay the PMI-ACP® Exam fee and wait to see if I would be selected for the PMI Audit):

Please continue with your PMI-ACP® application process

Dear Chi Wing Chung ,

Your PMI-ACP® application has been accepted. You have one year from 14 Feb 2015 to sit for and pass the exam. This time is known as your exam eligibility period and is discussed in detail in your respective handbook .

THE NEXT STEP in the process is to submit payment . Before you can schedule your examination, you need to first pay the fee. Leave enough time to schedule because seating capacity at Prometric Testing Centers is limited and availability is on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Once you make payment, you will receive a PMI Eligibility ID, which you will need in order to schedule your examination .

PMI’S AUDIT PROCESS:

Please note that PMI randomly selects a number of applications to participate in the audit process, as detailed in the handbook. Once payment is made, you will be notified whether your application has been selected. If selected, you will be advised of the process and provided with a link for more in-depth instructions.

For candidates going through the audit process, the examination eligibility period will be reset to one year following the successful completion of the audit. PgMP and PfMP candidates will move to the first evaluation, the application panel review, once they successfully complete the audit.

Please contact the Customer Care Centre in your region if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you,

PMI Customer Care

The email from PMI means that every PMI-ACP® Exam candidate will have a chance to be selected for the audit. The candidate must pass the audit in order to be able to book a date for the PMI-ACP® Exam. PMI will ensure that the candidate being audited will have one full year as the “exam eligibility period” by counting the period from the very day the candidate passes the audit.

My PMI-ACP® Application Was Selected for PMI Audit

Since I was selected for the PMP Exam audit, I told myself I would not be selected for the PMI-ACP® audit this time as the chance of being selected for an audit for both PMP and PMI-ACP® Exams is so low… It turned out I was WRONG.

I received the following email from PMI immediately after paying the PMI-ACP® Exam fee:

Your PMI-ACP® application has been selected for PMI’s audit process

Dear Chi Wing Chung,

Thank you for your payment for the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) Certification.

Your application has been randomly selected for PMI’s audit process. Please log in to the certification system at https://certification.pmi.org/ to obtain information about the audit process and to download your audit forms.

Please submit your audit materials by 16 May 2015.

To obtain a receipt of your payment, log in to the online certification system at https://certification.pmi.org/ and click on “My Information” on the left navigation bar, then click on “View My Orders” and print your receipt.

Please contact the Customer Care Centre in your region if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you,
PMI Customer Care

PMI-ACP® Audits are really random in nature! I was given 90 days from the date of settling the PMI-ACP® Exam fee to complete the PMI Audit. Since I do not reside in the United States, I believe the 90 days limit is about the “stamp date” of my Audit package, not the actual date PMI receives my Audit reply.

I logged back into the PMI website immediately and found the Audit message in my PMI-ACP® Certification Exam application.

The link to reading detailed PMI Audit requirements and downloading the Experience Verification Forms is there too. The Experience Verification Forms are pre-filled with details of the Agile projects you have entered in the PMI-ACP® application form. You can download them as PDF files. You would need to print the forms out as PMI only accept hardcopies of the forms.

My PMI-ACP® Audit Package

PMI states clearly that the information supplied in the PMI-ACP® Audit would be keep in strict confidence:

As stated in the Credential Handbooks, all eligible applications are subject to audit. Your application has been selected to participate in the Certification Audit. Upon successful completion of the audit, candidates will be able to move to the next step in the application process. The information that you provide to PMI in the candidate audit is confidential, and should only be discussed with the PMI certification department and your immediate managers or supervisors that are required to assist in experience verification.

Normally,  PMI would need documents and proofs of the following education attainment and working experience:

• Sub-degree Education or above
• 21 Contact Hours of Agile Project Education
• Agile Project Experience
• Traditional Project Experience

Since I was PMP certified previously, the Certificate for my degree education and the verification for traditional project experience are not required this time. I need to do the following:

Verifying your Agile Project Experience

A manager, supervisor, or colleague who is intimately familiar with the experience on your application is required to review your Experience Record and then complete the Experience Verification Form. After they verify, they will put the completed Experience Verification Form and Experience Record in an envelope, sign his/her name over the sealed flap of the envelope, and return the envelope to you via in person or by mail. If one person is verifying multiple projects for the same company, they can fill out one form and initial or highlight on the Experience Record the projects that they are verifying. Faxed or scanned forms will not be accepted as the forms need to be placed in a sealed and signed envelope for security purposes. No substitutions will be accepted.

To verify my Agile project experience:

• I  need to download the PMI Experience Verification Forms for my two projects included in my PMI-ACP® application and print them out
• Since the sponsor of the projects are the same and co-located with me, I just need to hand both forms to her and ask her to enter the information on the first project and sign.
  • For the second project, she just needed to write her initials there (which would signify the agreement to the information entered on the form).
• The two forms would need to be put into a blank envelop, which would be sealed with glue. The sponsor would need to sign across the flap of the envelop again.
• The completed package would be handed back to me to post to PMI with the proof of Agile education (detailed below) in one batch.

That’s it.

Verifying 21 contact hours of Agile Project Education

Documentation for each course submitted for meeting the 21 hours of Agile-specific project education outlined in the attached Education Record. To properly document these activities you must include a certificate, transcript, or letter of attendance from the company, Registered Education Provider (R.E.P), school, or institute that provided the training. The courses submitted must have learning objectives that are directly related to agile principles and practices. No substitutions will be accepted.

Since I took an online PMI-ACP® Exam Prep Course provided by an PMI Authorized Training Partner (Registered Education Provider), the 21 Contact Hours verification is extremely easy. I just need to print out the Course Complete Certificate and put it into the audit package. No course outline or materials are needed since courses by PMI Authorized Training Partners are pre-approved by PMI to satisfy the Contact Hours requirements of the PMI-ACP® Exam.

In case you are submitting Agile courses other than that by PMI Authorized Training Partners, you may need to include course descriptions, outlines, attendance certificates or even coursework to assist PMI to understand the contents of the courses. This may take up more time.

Sending the Audit Package to PMI

Once I have gathered all the required documentations for the PMI-ACP® Audit, I mailed the package back to PMI at the following address:

PMI Global Operations Center
14 Campus Blvd., Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 USA
Tel: +1-610-356-4600 (Option 8 from phone menu)

You should be careful to make sure all the required documentations are there in the package. PMI would only accept ONE audit package (i.e. if you miss something, you will FAIL the PMI-ACP® Audit automatically).

Waiting for the Audit Results

I sent out the PMI-ACP® Audit Package on 26 Feb 2015 and waited patiently for the audit results. In theory, PMI would send out an acknowledge email on the receipt of the Audit Package once arrived at PMI and another email about the PMI-ACP® Audit results. However, I did not receive the former in about two weeks’ time.

What I did receive (TWICE!) during the period was the PMI-ACP® Audit reminder email from PMI:

Reminder: Your PMI-ACP® application has been selected for PMI’s audit process

Dear Chi Wing Chung,

Thank you for your interest in the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®)® Certification. We have received your payment.

This is a reminder that your application has been selected for PMI’s audit process. The selection of an application for audit is random. Log in to the certification system at https://certification.pmi.org/ to obtain information about the audit process and to download your audit forms.

Please submit your audit materials by 16 May 2015.

You can contact the Customer Care Centre in your region if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you,
PMI Customer Care

The content is almost identical to the PMI-ACP® audit notice received previously, except with the word “reminder:” added and the deadline for the audit in bold.

After a while, I received both the receipt acknowledgement email as well as the long-waited “Audit pass” email AT THE SAME TIME.

Passed the PMI-ACP® Audit

The receipt acknowledge email stated that I would receive the audit result in “5 business days”.

Your PMI-ACP® application audit materials have been received

Dear Chi Wing Chung,

We have received the requested documentation for the audit of your PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®)® application.

Thank you for submitting this material. PMI’s audit process allows us to maintain the integrity of our credentials.

In five business days, we will notify you about the next steps of the process.

Please contact the Customer Care Centre in your region if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you,
PMI Customer Care

But I did receive the “Audit Pass” email at the same time (the timestamp of both emails are the same!):

You have successfully completed PMI’s audit process for the PMI-ACP® credential

Dear Chi Wing Chung ,

Congratulations! You have successfully met the requirements of PMI’s audit process.

You may now schedule your PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP® ) credential examination. Use the Exam Scheduling Instructions to help you with this next step.

The following information will be required when you schedule your examination:
Name exactly as it appears on your identification: Chi Wing Chung
PMI Eligibility ID: ######## 
Exam: PMI-ACP®
Language the Examination will be Administered in: English
Language Aid:
Eligibility Expiration Date: 06 Mar 2016

IMPORTANT NOTE:

A fee of US$70 will be charged if you reschedule or cancel your CBT exam within 30 calendar days of the exam appointment.

There is no charge to reschedule or cancel an exam more than 30 calendar days before the appointment date. The existing policy that states you must reschedule or cancel your exam more than two calendar days prior to the appointment or forfeit the exam fee still applies.

Please read your respective handbook and the FAQs document for details.

Tips on Preparing for Your Examination

Review:
The PMI-ACP® handbook
Current titles in project management
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ® Guide)

Enroll in a formal study course offered by PMI chapters or Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s)

We wish you a successful testing experience. Please contact the Customer Care Centre in your region if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you,
PMI Customer Care

Relieved finally. Can head over to booking my PMI-ACP® Exam seat now. One thing curious I did spot in the email is about the “Tips on Preparing for Your Examination” which includes “the PMBOK® Guide” as one of the PMI-ACP® Exam references. For what I have read about the PMBOK® Guide, it should be applied to “traditional” waterfall project management practices with little mention on Agile. Seems a bit strange seeing it in PMI-ACP® Exam prep. Anyway, I need to study in full gear from now on for the PMI-ACP® Exam!

Why PMI Carries Out Audits?

For the benefits of all PMI Credential holders!

PMI must ensure that practitioners who obtain the certifications have met requirements that reflect the evolving profession. One way in which PMI works to maintain the integrity of its certifications is to conduct candidate audits.

PMI conducts audits to ensure that applicants meet the basic requirements necessary to gain accreditation with PMI. The purpose of the audit is to enhance the credibility of the Certification and of the Credential holder. For each certification, a specified percentage of applications are selected for audit.

It is not known how many percentage of PMI-ACP® applications are selected for the PMI Audit, but according to the experiences of PMI-ACP® candidates, the percentage of getting PMI-ACP® audited would be much higher than that of PMP (at around 10-25%) since the number of candidates taking the PMI-ACP® Exam is less than that of the PMP.

Further Questions About PMI-ACP® Audits?

You may refer to the FAQ on PMI-ACP® Audit to search for your questions.

Or you may contact PMI directly via the email: [email protected]