How to get PMI PDUs(Professional Development Units) easily

Hello Friends… After getting your well earned PMP certification many of you would have had these questions in you your minds, how do I get/claim PDUs? Do I need to spend lot of money in getting PDUs? Well… I had these questions when I completed my PMP Certification. I googled for hours trying to find out ways to get my PDUs. I have tried to compile below some of the easy ways I had found out in getting the required PDUs

1. If you are a PMI member, join one of the special interest groups (SIG) that offers webinars. Membership to these SIGs will cost you around $15-$20 annually depending on the SIG that you have selected. Attend the webinars offered by them. You can do this from the comfort of your home if you have a multimedia PC. Each webinar will typically take around 45mts to 1 hour and attending this webinar will fetch you 1 PDU. There is no limit to the number of webinars that you can attend in your PDU cycle. You can even browse through the webinar archives and go through the webinars with topics that interest you. I myself am a member of Information Systems SIG and this group offers 1 new webinar every month. They also have a big archive of webinars. ISSIG also provide webinars as podcasts. What more can you ask for? Isn’t that a cheaper way of fetching some PDUs.
2. Join PMIs Volunteer Programs. What this means is you can be a part of the projects executed by PMI. For Volunteer opportunities please visit PMIs Opportunity Page (http://www.volunteertools.com/Tools/Opportunities.dll/?SN=61702.).If you find any opportunity that interests you, then you may submit an application at http://www.volunteertools.com/Tools/ApplicationForm.dll/?SN=61702On any typical project you need to spend at least 1-2 hours every week. PDUs are awarded depending on the project
3. Join your local PMI Chapter and attend the chapter meeting. This will fetch you 1 PDU for every meeting. Attend the programs organized by the chapter. Each such program will have certain number of PDUs attached to it.
4. The day-to-day Project Management activities that you do in your workplace can fetch you 5 PDUs every year. That means 15 PDUs in a typical PDU cycle.
5. If you take any training sessions on Project Management topics or if you are a speaker at a Project Management conference, this can fetch you 10 PDUs.

The next thing that you will be having in your mind will be how to claim these PDUs. It is as easy as getting them. Visit the website http://tel.occe.ou.edu/pmi/PMI_Member/PDUlogin.php3. Logon to this site with your PMI Membership number, PMP Certification Number and first four digits of your surname. If you are not a PMI member please contact PMI Customer Care Centre. However you will need to maintain the documents relating to your PDU activities so that it can be submitted to PMI if you are selected for an audit.

Feel free to contact me (gpriyesh@gmail.com) if you have any questions on the above article

Happy PDUing…..