Writing the PMI-ACP application is the first step in the journey to acquiring the PMI-ACP certification. After the PMP, the PMI-ACP or Agile Certified Practitioner is the fastest-growing PMI certification. PMI-ACP is a certification which entirely focuses on agile principles, mindset and concepts and requires a deep understanding of agile. Like PMP, the PMI ACP application process requires aspiring candidates to prove their work experience across agile projects.
In the post below, I’ve explained in-depth how you can fill out the PMI-ACP application form and have provided useful PMI-ACP application examples.
However, if you’re struggling to with the PMI-ACP application process or if your application has been rejected, then we offer a PMI-ACP application review and rewrite service where we write your application to meet PMI standards and ensure that they will accept your application on the first try.
Overview of the PMI-ACP application and certification process
Here is a step-wise overview of the PMI-ACP application and certification process.
Application submission: Start filling out your PMI-ACP application and complete the process within 90 days.
Application completeness review: PMI will review your PMI-ACP application information, including a thorough review of your education and project management experience. The review takes a maximum time of 10 business days.
Audit Process: PMI randomly selects applications for audits. If your application is selected for one, you must follow the audit process and provide the required materials within 90 days. PMI audits are usually completed within 5-7 days.
Application approval: You will be able to check your PMI-ACP application status by logging into the PMI portal. Upon approval, it will say, 'Your PMI-ACP application has been accepted.' Upon approval, your would need to submit payment for the PMI-ACP certification exam.
Appear for the PMI-ACP certification exam: You will have one year after application approval to appear for the PMI-ACP certification exam. PMI allows 3 exam attempts within the one-year period.
PMI-ACP credential maintenance: Within 3 years of passing the PMI-ACP exam, you must earn and report 30 professional development units (PDUs) to maintain your certification.
Getting started with the PMI-ACP application process
The first step is to visit the PMI.org website and register a free account. Registration is simple; you only need an email address and password to set up your account. The next step is to login into your account and go to 'Dashboard', which you will find under your name on the top right of the screen (see image below). Then, scroll down, and you will see an option which will say 'Apply for PMI ACP'. If you do not see the option, go to 'PMI ACP certification page' and click on 'Apply now for your PMI ACP'. It will redirect you to the application page where you can record your education and experience information.
How many sections does the PMI-ACP application have?
The PMI-ACP application process requires you to document the following information:
Academic Education: This includes your academic education information such as high school, diploma, associate's or bachelor's degree, master's degree or a Ph.D.
Professional Education: Professional education includes information about the project management education you've acquired. E.g., the PMI-ACP course you bought from your training provider. For the PMI-ACP certification, your training provider must provide the 21 contact hours certificate, which you will need to enter in this section.
Agile Project Management experience: Once you've entered the required education information for your PMI-ACP application, the next section will require you to provide your project management experience information, starting with your agile experience. Here you will primarily need to enter information such as product/project information, organization name, your organization's industry, the type of agile methodology used, your project start and end dates and a detailed description of your project. The description must include the objective, outcome, your role, project management responsibilities and deliverables.
General Project Management experience: PMI-ACP certification requirements also include that you must show your general project management experience, which could be in a waterfall, agile or hybrid project environment. Similar to your agile experience, you need to document the project title, organization name, your organization's industry, the type of agile methodology used, your project start and end dates and a detailed description of your project.
#1 Completing the Academic Education Information section
You will start with the academic education information which is the first section you must complete for PMI-ACP.You must review the eligibility for the PMI-ACP exam and enter the information accordingly.
You must enter the highest level of education you've acquired, such as a Bachelor's, Master's or Doctorate degree, the start and the end date of your education, the country and the name of the college or university.
#2 Completing the Professional Education section
Professional education includes the agile project management training you've acquired. Here you will enter the information which will evidence the 21 contact hours of training you've obtained.
There are various ways you can acquire the 21 contact hours for the PMI-ACP certification exam:
Attend a physical or virtual PMI-ACP training from a training organization.
Enrolling in a PMI-ACP E-learning or Blended learning programme.
PMI-ACP classes from PMI chapters.
University or college programs.
Employer-sponsored programs.
In this section, enter information such as the course name, provider name, start and end date of the course and 21 contact hours under qualifying hours. Training providers will provide you with a certificate containing the information required for this section. However, you do not need to upload the PMI-ACP course certificate here but will need it when selected for an audit.
#3 Completing the Agile experience section section
The experience section of the PMI-ACP application is the most challenging and tricky part for many candidates. Hence, you must ensure your write this information properly.
Below is the list of all the sections you must fill out:
Project title
The project organization's name
Your job title
Functional reporting area or organizational department.
Organization's industry or their primary focus.
The project approach (E.g. Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming etc.)
Project Team size
Project Start and End dates
Project Description; A high-level summary of your experience includes the project objective, outcome, role on the project, and responsibilities and deliverables. A standard response is between 200 and 500 words. Try to stick to the 500-word limit.
While under 'Project Approach', you will find several options for managing agile projects, a large majority of people have worked in a Scrum, Kanban, SAFE or an Extreme Programming environment.
If you need help with this section, we can help you write your entire application to meet PMI requirements. You can consider using our PMI-ACP application review and rewrite service.
#4 Completing the General project experience section
The general experience section of the PMI-ACP application requires information about your waterfall or hybrid experience. This section is valid for anyone for whom PMI-ACP is their first PMI certification.
Below is the list of all the sections you must fill out under general project experience:
Project title
The project organization's name
Your job title
Functional reporting area or organizational department.
Organization's industry or their primary focus.
The project approach (Traditional, Hybrid or Agile)
Project Team size
Project budget
Project Start and End dates
Project Description; A high-level summary of your experience includes the project objective, outcome, role on the project, and responsibilities and deliverables. A standard response is between 200 and 500 words. Here too, stick to the 500-word limit.
If you're a PMP, then PMI has verified your project management experience, and you do not need to fill this section again.
Here are some useful tips for a successful PMI-ACP application:
Agile project experience must be 8 months within the last 3 years.
General project management experience must be 12 months within the last 5 years.
Use agile project management terminology while filling the agile project description section.
Use project management terminology provided in the PMBOK while writing your project descriptions.
Include projects where you've played the role of a Project, Program Manager, Scrum Master, Agile Project Manager etc.
Show what you did in the project from a leading or directing perspective. Come across as a leader rather than just a team member.
Start from the current project and work backward until you've reached the total months required.
Demonstrate your general project management experience and skills across various domains and activities from the PMBOK. For example, you can write specific actions that you performed across the five process groups: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing a project.
Note that general project management experience is required in each process area when all projects are totalled, but not necessarily on each project.
Check spelling and grammar using an app like grammarly.com.
Stick to the PMI suggested word limit of 500 words.
PMI-ACP Application example
Below is a PMI-ACP application example to help you understand how to write the application. This PMI ACP application project description is for an agile project.
Project Objective: The objective of this project was to redesign a document management application with a modern technology stack.
Project Outcome: The Project outcome expected was to reduce any security and infrastructure risks associated with the application, reduce the total cost of ownership and enhance the availability, resiliency and continuity of the application.
My role on the project: Program Manager
My responsibilities:
Assess the application modernization feasibility and approach, evaluate the cost and constraints associated with the initiative and created a business case.
Determined the business and technology stakeholders for the project and collaborated with various stakeholders to understand the current state of the application.
Created a project charter.
Decided the project development lifecycle and developed a project management plan defining the scope, quality, schedule, budget, risk and communication management plans.
Determined the project's dependencies and challenges and developed a dependency map.
Held a kick-off meeting with all project managers, leadership team, and business stakeholders and communicated project details, goals, and timelines.
Created feature-level epics, user stories and sub-tasks for the project in collaboration with the agile and project teams.
Worked with other project and functional managers to define the project sprints and the release dates for the project.
Set up the agile teams and appointed agile leaders to drive the book of work in Application Modernization Initiative.
Encourage teams to follow modern software engineering practices such as test-driven development, DevOps practices, continuous integration and continuous deployments (iterative production deployments).
Enabled the team to embrace a fail-fast culture and shift left best practices in the overall project execution.
Monitored project progress, published sprint reports, agile metrics, sprint highlights and impediments, and led and actively participated in various agile meetings of teams.
Review the project plan and concept design documents and request changes after the meeting with stakeholders, architects and Teams.
Managed and prioritized the product backlog using various prioritization frameworks (e.g. new features, defects, production issues and business stories).
Constantly communicated and collaborated with stakeholders keeping them informed of project progress; sought their input and feedback.
Monitored project progress and reported on budget allocation and cost utilization promptly.
Oversaw and ensured end-to-end testing completion with zero defects and performance testing with satisfactory results.
Confirmed the acceptance of increments and the final product from stakeholders.
Completed the financial closure.
Ensured product hand-off was done to end users, completed a final project report and collaborated with stakeholders for formal project closure.
Common PMI-ACP application process questions
Who should apply for the PMI-ACP certification exam?
Any candidate working in an agile team or an agile organization can acquire the PMI-ACP certification. The list, although not exhaustive, includes Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Developers, Project Managers, Functional Managers, or any other roles and tiles that can apply for the PMI-ACP exam.
What are the PMI-ACP eligibility requirements?
To meet the PMI-ACP certification exam requirements, you must fulfil the following educational and professional experience requirements.
If you have a secondary degree such as a high school diploma or associate's degree, then you must:
Show 12 months of general project management experience and 8 months of agile experience.
If you have a Bachelor's or post-graduate degree, you only need to show 8 months of agile project management experience.
Candidates already certified PMPs or PGMPs do not need to show any general project management experience since PMI has already verified your project management experience. Therefore, you only need to show 8 months of agile experience in your PMI-ACP application.
What if I get selected for a PMI-ACP application audit?
Anyone's PMI ACP application can be selected for an audit at any time, although only a small percentage of applications are selected for audit. Audit selections are random.
Usually, if your application is selected for an audit, you will be informed immediately by PMI. You will see a message saying, 'Your PMI ACP application is selected for an audit'. These days audits are online, so you do not need to send any physical paperwork.
To comply with the audit, you need the following:
A digital uploadable copy of your college or university degree certificate.
A digital uploadable copy of your professional education certificate.
Names and email addresses of reference. (E.g., superiors or colleagues who worked with you on that project).
The audit process must be completed within 90 days. After submission of audit information, PMI would need a maximum of 5-7 business days to provide you with an answer, although in our experience, audits are getting completed much faster.
According to PMI, PMI reserves the right to select any candidate to be audited at any time, including after the certification has been bestowed.
Once you complete the audit and your application is approved, you have one year to write your PMI-ACP exam.
If you are worried about a PMI-ACP application rejection or audit and want to avoid unnecessary stress, then you can consider our PMI-ACP application review and rewrite service, which hundreds of students have used to get their PMP and PMI-ACP applications approved on their first try.