WHICH IS BETTER, PMI –ACP OR CSM CERTIFICATION

When you are a newbie in the sector of project management, you often get confused about which course you should be taking. You always look into two certifications, which are PMI-ACP and CSM. You often get confused with what is best for you. Here we bring you the solution to which certification will be better for you. 

First of all, you must know what the brownie points that you will get when you get yourself with agile project manager certification are—agile being the most growing project management certification in the trend. When you get thought of doing the project manager role, you always look for the scrum master or business analyst.  When you get the job of a project manager, which you get from the PMI –ACP certification, your paycheck gets increased by 20 %. The salaries range from $122554 to $163339.

Now let’s get to know what the benefit of PMI-ACP is?  PMI-ACP is known to be the most acclaimed credential, which every candidate of agile practice looks for. The agile certificate comes from the PMI institute. 

The PMI is known as the number 1 organization, which is for project management. It is still there for the last 50 years. It looks up to the practices and promotes all kinds of research and education in the project management sector. The gold standard of project management is the PMP certification.  PMI is the most liked and loved certification among 2.9 million professionals. The professional look for more values and quality of management space from it. 

Now let us know what CSM is. CSM stands or certified scrum master. This certification is mostly focused on the scrum methodology. The CSM credential views the scrum methodology. The CSM only gets you the certificate only in scrum methodology. This is the one important point that you must put your head on when you are choosing between PMI-ACP and CSM. When you want to go for an organization that uses the scrum methodology, you must go for the CSM certification, as these will help you in succeeding in your career.

Who can all go for these PMI-ACP and CSM certifications?  If you are in a company that is following the agile methodology, then you can focus on PMI ACP certification. If you are in a close-knit team, those who are basically focusing upon the agile principles, then always chose for the agile credential.

In the PMI-ACP requirement, PMI looks for the judicious mixture of education and long term experience. It also looks for the eligible training program. If you are going for the CSM certification, then you must know that there is no specific education or experience required in this certification. But you have o undergo the CSM course certified training program.  You must need to spend your time with a person who is 16 hours by the certified scrum trainer (CST).  You can take on the online classroom training for the ACP. The examination format differs a little in both the certification process. In PMI-ACP, you get around 3 hours, wherein in CSM, you get around 1 hour. In PMI-ACP, you get 120 questions, wherein in the case of CSM, you get around 50 questions. Both the examination has multiple-choice questions. The place of the test in PMI-ACP is Pearson VUE center, and that of CSM is online mode. When you go for PMI-ACP certification, you must cover the seven domains.  They are agile principle and mindset, value-driven delivery, stakeholder engagement, team performance, adaptive planning, problem detection and resolution, and continuous improvement. In the CSM exam, you have to cover all the Scrum roles, scrum history, and basics, product backlogs, sprints, planning releases and sprints, all the problems which can arise when you go for implementing scrum methods. Creating all kinds of tasks and reports, and many more. The PMI-ACP certification comes with all the overall assessments, whereas the CSM has the cons in a practical aspect. When it comes to the cost of certification, then definitely the winner is PMI-ACP. The number of questions in CSM is lower, as you get a wide range of questions in the PMI-ACP course. You get a wider note of exposure in this case.

So these are some of the differences that you get in PMI-ACP and CSM certification; choose wisely what is beneficial for your career.