Project Management
PMP Certification Guide for Beginners
·12 min read
What the PMP is, how the 2026 exam works, who qualifies, what it costs and how to apply — a plain-English walkthrough for first-time candidates.
Continue readingPMI-ACP Certification Guide
What the PMI-ACP is, who it suits, its eligibility rules, the 120-question exam format and domains, current fees and how the credential renews.
Sofia Martinez · 8 min read
The PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) is the Project Management Institute's certification for professionals who work on agile teams — and, following the retirement of PMI's Disciplined Agile exams, it is PMI's flagship agile credential. Unlike certifications tied to a single framework, the PMI-ACP examines agile practice broadly: Scrum, Kanban, lean thinking and hybrid ways of working all fall within its scope. It requires real agile experience plus 28 hours of agile training, involves a 120-question exam sat over three hours, and as of 2026 costs $435 for PMI members and $495 for non-members, with pricing varying by country and region.
This guide covers what the credential is, who it is designed for, the eligibility requirements, the exam format and domains, the full cost picture and how renewal works. Study plans, difficulty verdicts and head-to-head comparisons each have their own dedicated guides, linked where relevant.
What exactly is the PMI-ACP?
The PMI-ACP is a professional certification issued by the Project Management Institute (PMI), the same body behind the Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM). Where those credentials certify project management capability across predictive, agile and hybrid approaches, the PMI-ACP certifies one thing specifically: that the holder understands and can apply agile principles and practices across multiple frameworks.
That breadth is the credential's defining trait. A Scrum-specific certificate says you know Scrum; the PMI-ACP says you can operate wherever your organisation sits on the agile spectrum — a Kanban-driven support team, a Scrum delivery squad, or the hybrid arrangements most large organisations actually run. Earning it means passing an exam built on PMI's Exam Content Outline (ECO) for agile practice, after PMI has verified your training hours and hands-on agile experience.
The credential has been refreshed recently. PMI updated the PMI-ACP with a new Exam Content Outline taking effect from the November 2024 refresh (the current outline is dated March 2026), restructuring the exam from its old seven-domain model into four domains and raising the training requirement from 21 to 28 hours. Anything you read describing seven domains or 21 training hours refers to the retired version — check publication dates on any resource you use.
Who the PMI-ACP is designed for
The certification fits professionals whose day job already involves agile delivery and who want that experience validated by a framework-neutral body:
- Project managers moving into agile or hybrid environments, who need a credential that speaks agile rather than extending their predictive credentials.
- Scrum masters and iteration managers who want recognition broader than a single-framework certificate.
- Team members on agile teams — developers, business analysts, testers, product specialists — whose role includes agile practice and who want a portable credential from a widely recognised professional body.
It is not an entry ticket. Because eligibility demands verified experience on agile teams, complete beginners cannot sit it; someone new to agile typically starts with training and team experience first. Where the PMI-ACP takes you afterwards — from scrum master roles towards agile coaching and beyond — is mapped in the PMI-ACP career path guide.
PMI-ACP eligibility requirements
PMI's requirements have three parts:
- A secondary degree — a high school diploma or its global equivalent.
- 28 hours of agile training. This rose from 21 hours with the 2024 update (PMI accepted the old 21-hour requirement until 31 March 2025). The hours must be in agile practices specifically, and course certificates are your evidence.
- Agile experience. PMI requires recent, hands-on experience working on agile teams. The precise experience figures under the updated outline are stated on PMI's site — verify the current requirement on the official PMI-ACP page before applying, as older articles quote figures from the previous outline.
Note what is not required: no university degree, no PMP, no project-manager job title. The application asks you to document your agile work and training; describe genuine agile activity — working in iterations, agile events, backlog work, delivery on an agile team — rather than general project involvement.
PMI-ACP exam format and domains
The current exam presents 120 questions in 180 minutes. Question formats go beyond simple multiple-choice: expect multiple-response, drag-and-drop and exhibit-based items alongside standard single-answer questions. Delivery is through Pearson VUE, with test-centre and online proctored options generally available.
The four domains and their weights, from PMI's current Exam Content Outline:
| Domain | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Mindset | 28% | The agile values and principles that drive behaviour and decisions |
| Leadership | 25% | Leading, supporting and growing agile teams and their environment |
| Product | 19% | Shaping and managing the product side of agile delivery |
| Delivery | 28% | Getting valuable, working outcomes delivered iteratively |
Two features of this design are worth registering. First, Mindset and Leadership together account for more than half the exam — the PMI-ACP is substantially a test of how you think and lead in agile settings, not a vocabulary quiz on ceremonies. Second, no single framework owns the outline: questions draw on situations a practitioner might meet under Scrum, Kanban, lean or hybrid approaches, which is precisely what separates this credential from framework-specific alternatives.
PMI does not publish a passing score. Results are reported as proficiency levels for each domain (Above Target, Target, Below Target, Needs Improvement) rather than a percentage — so no official "you need X%" figure exists for this or any PMI exam. How challenging candidates actually find the paper is a question with its own dedicated answer in how hard is the PMI-ACP exam.
To get a concrete feel for the question style before committing to the credential, you can work through free PMI-ACP practice questions — a handful of situational items communicates the exam's flavour faster than any description.
What the PMI-ACP costs
As of 2026, the exam fee is $435 for PMI members and $495 for non-members, and PMI applies region-based pricing in some markets — confirm the figure for your country at checkout on pmi.org.
The membership arithmetic deserves a look before you pay. PMI membership costs roughly $129 per year plus a $10 application fee — about $139 in the first year — against a $60 saving on the PMI-ACP exam fee alone. On this exam, membership does not pay for itself through the discount by itself, but members also receive renewal-fee discounts and access to PMI resources, so the value depends on whether you will use the membership beyond a single exam sitting.
Budget beyond the exam fee, too. The 28 training hours usually mean a paid course, and quality varies widely with price. A realistic total for the credential is the exam fee plus training plus any study materials — with the training component often the largest line. Whether that total is money well spent for your situation is exactly the question the is the PMI-ACP worth it guide answers, profile by profile.
If your application is unsuccessful on exam day, PMI's standard terms allow up to three attempts within a one-year eligibility window; retake fees apply, so check current retake pricing on pmi.org.
How the certification renews
The PMI-ACP does not expire outright, and there is no re-examination. It follows PMI's Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) programme on a three-year cycle: you earn professional development units (PDUs) through education and professional activities, report them to PMI, and pay a renewal fee. The exact PDU count and category rules for the PMI-ACP are listed on PMI's certification maintenance page — worth reading before you earn the credential, since PDU-friendly habits (webinars, agile community events, documented practice) are easiest to build early.
For working agile practitioners, renewal is generally a manageable overhead: much of the professional development you would do anyway can count, provided you record it.
How the PMI-ACP relates to neighbouring credentials
Researching this certification almost always raises three comparison questions, each with a dedicated guide:
- Against the PMP: the two serve different purposes — one is agile-specialist, the other generalist — and the full trade-offs are worked through in PMI-ACP vs PMP.
- Against the Certified ScrumMaster: breadth, rigour and recognition differ sharply between the two, and PMI-ACP vs CSM compares them directly.
- Within PMI's own family: how the ACP sits alongside CAPM, PMP and PMI's specialist credentials is covered in PMI certifications explained.
One historical note belongs here rather than in a comparison: PMI formerly offered a separate Disciplined Agile certification suite (DASM, DASSM, DAC, DAVSC). Those exams were sunset — 30 November 2025 was the last day to sit them — and PMI has replaced them with non-certification courses. If you encounter advice recommending a Disciplined Agile certification in 2026, it is out of date; the PMI-ACP is PMI's agile certification path now.
Is the PMI-ACP the right credential for you?
A short framework for the decision, based on your starting point:
- You have agile team experience and the hours to evidence it → you clear eligibility; the question becomes value for your career stage, which depends on whether your market rewards framework-neutral credentials over framework-specific ones.
- You are an experienced project manager in a hybrid organisation → the PMI-ACP complements predictive credentials rather than replacing them, signalling you can operate on both sides of the methodology divide.
- You are new to agile with no team experience yet → you are not eligible; accumulate agile team experience first and treat training hours as step one.
- You need a credential for a specific Scrum role next month → a framework-specific certificate may fit the immediate need better; weigh the trade-offs in the comparison guides above before spending.
The PMI-ACP at a glance — and your next step
Strip away the detail and the credential profile reads: PMI's flagship agile certification; framework-neutral by design; eligibility built on a secondary degree, 28 agile training hours and verified agile team experience; a 120-question, three-hour exam across four domains weighted towards mindset and leadership; $435/$495 to sit as of 2026; renewable every three years through PDUs rather than re-examination. If that profile matches where your career is heading, your next move is practical: verify the current eligibility details on pmi.org, then follow the PMI-ACP exam preparation guide to turn the decision into a study plan.
Exam facts in this guide were checked against official certification-provider pages on . Fees, exam codes and policies change — confirm on the provider’s own site before you book.
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