Course - Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP) Overview
Posted by Kevin Miller
Released: July 27, 2022
Full Course: View on Pluralsight
If you are ready to get certified in change management, join me on this journey and learn how to prepare for the CCMPTM exam. In this course, Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP™) Overview, you’ll learn all about the Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP™) credential. First, you’ll discover the value of the CCMP™ and what you can expect while pursuing it. Next, you’ll learn how to qualify and apply for the exam. Finally, you’ll explore what happens after you pass the exam. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have all the knowledge needed to schedule your CCMP™ exam.
Free Clips
What is the CCMP?
When you research change management certifications online, the CCMP consistently ranks at the top of many lists. This is because it requires experience in addition to training, and the exam and body of knowledge the exam is based on are well-researched and widely accepted in the change management community.
Now, it's still too early to say which change management certification will become the de facto standard synonymous with the discipline, but I believe it will be the CCMP, which is administered by the Association of Change Management Professionals, or ACMP for short. In fact, I wrote an article on why I believe the CCMP will follow in the footsteps of the PMP, which is the certification synonymous with the project management discipline, and how it is poised for massive growth over the next decade. Since I wrote the article a few years ago, the number of CCMP holders has doubled, and the CCMP is on a faster growth trajectory than the PMP was at this age.
What is the Value of the CCMP?
If you are having trouble justifying the time and cost necessary to become certified, here are a few points straight from ACMP.
Certification validates a discipline and demonstrates the maturity of a profession. Before the PMP certification for project management became popular, people thought anyone could manage a project, and doing so was common sense. And while there are many ways of managing projects successfully, certification ensures the best ways are known by those responsible for doing so.
Because certification confirms an understanding of a common body of knowledge. This will reduce the time it takes to find and train someone because everyone who is certified already knows the best way to do something. Many certifications, such as the CCMP, also confirm experience. It's a way of ensuring someone doesn't just learn a few buzzwords and doesn't know how to actually do the job.
Certification enhances an individual's and an organization's reputation. Any time you get to add letters after your name on your resume, you increase your value, and when an organization adds certifications, it increases the overall knowledge held by its employees and reduces the risk of doing something the wrong way, thereby causing schedule delays and cost overruns.
While a certificate provided at the end of a course shows the completion of training, certification shows a deep understanding and retention of the material and proves it with a third-party proctored exam. Any person or for-profit organization can provide a certificate. The ACMP, though, is nonprofit, which eliminates the monetary motivation to get as many people certified as quickly as possible.
Exam Expectations for the CCMP
As for the exam, it is available to take in person or proctored online. Proctored means you take it online while someone watches you through your webcam to ensure everything is legit. If you decide to take the exam online, you will need to download and install what is known as a lockdown browser. There are also minimum hardware and software requirements. The ACMP website has all the specifics.
The exam includes 150 multiple-choice questions, testing both your knowledge and your ability to apply it to common scenarios. Questions are based on ACMP's Standard for Change Management and the Code of Ethics, and each will have four options from which to choose the correct answer.
None of the questions are meant to trick you. There's no math involved, and none of the answers will be combination answers, such as all of the above or options A and B. This should allow you to quickly eliminate at least one wrong answer right away, if not more.
The exam has a 3-hour time limit, so if you plan on taking an online proctored exam, be sure to be undisturbed the entire time. Restroom breaks are allowed, but the timer will not stop running. You should also be sure to eat a good meal prior to the exam, as hunger is known to decrease brain activity.
The application must be submitted in English, and the exam is currently only available in English.
You will have one year to take the exam from the time your application is approved. In the next clip, you will learn what it takes to get approved and the six steps for the online application.
You will need to commit some time to become certified. I'll talk about all of these steps in more detail in the next clip.
In order to apply for the exam, you need to complete 21 hours of instructor-led training. You may need to wait until a training class opens up or even make travel arrangements, so this can take a few weeks by itself.
The application process has six steps, and I recommend not completing it all in one sitting. Spreading it out over a week will afford you some time to reflect and adjust your answers and ensure you don't burn out halfway through.
All applications are reviewed by trained assessors, which can take an average of two to three weeks before you can schedule your exam.
The amount of study time depends on your level of comfort. If you're relatively new to the field, you will probably require more study time than someone who has been in the field for the majority of their career. All in all, count on anywhere from three to six months to get certified if you are starting from scratch.