CompTIA changes IT Project+ exam

CompTIA recently revised its IT Project+ certification exam to make the certification more valuable to IT pros and employers. The overhauled exam places more emphasis on the IT aspect of the equation and problem-solving, which helps ensure your project management staff are able to work past the inevitable snafus that occur with large deployments.

IT Project + validates an individual’s knowledge of foundation-level concepts pertaining to IT and traditional projects. “The process of studying for and earning this certification is going to deepen the IT professional’s project management capabilities,” says Gene Salois, CompTIA’s vice president of certification. “Having a number of project managers IT Project+-certified will help to establish best project management practices throughout an organization.”

The new exam more closely follows the IT project lifecycle, which includes project initiation and scope definition; IT project planning; project execution, control and coordination; and project closure, acceptance and support. Questions present candidates with everyday project management scenarios, such as how to log progress and help others involved make timely decisions.

In addition to testing soft skills such as conflict resolution, negotiation, issues management, team building, and setting and managing expectations, the exam gauges hard skills such as scope definition, risk assessment and resource management. The new version explores in greater detail a candidate’s familiarity with project management tools, including schedulers, spreadsheets and databases.

Candidates have until Dec. 31 to take the older version of the exam, after which it will be retired. The new exam is available now through Prometric and Pearson VUE. Pricing ranges from $108 to $207, depending on whether your company is a CompTIA member and how many staffers are taking the test. However, CompTIA is offering Network World readers a 25% discount for non-members if they take the exam before year-end. To obtain it, have your employees enter the promotional code “ITP253” when they register for the exam online at: https://www.comptia.org/certification/itproject/default.asp.