Best Project Management Qualifications [2025 Guide]

A recognized project management qualification can jump-start and accelerate your project career as a project manager.

But which one should you choose? Out of the dozens out there?

In the article, you will discover six “waterfall” and Agile qualifications to consider:

• PMI Project Management Professional (PMP)
• APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ)
• PRINCE2 Practitioner
• PMI Agile Certified Professional (ACP)
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
• PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner

I will also discuss the factors to take into account when choosing one.

Before that, let’s decide if you actually need a project management certification.

Why consider getting a project management qualification?

Many roles require project management skills. But they don’t always require project management qualifications. As a freelance writer, I’ve worked with excellent managers who rarely fail to deliver content within the allocated time and budget — despite multiple stakeholders and complex dependencies to manage.

And yet, they don’t hold any project management tickets!

So, when should you consider getting certified?

I can see three main situations:

• When you want to pursue a project management career but have limited project experience, a qualification can help you land an interview.
• When you want to take your career in project management to the next level. Think more independence, more complex projects, and more $$$.
• When you work in a highly regulated industry, like finance, construction, or civil service, project management qualifications are required for compliance. Essentially, companies need qualifications to prove that competent managers run projects.

Does any of the three apply to you?

If not, but you still want to improve your understanding of project management methodologies, look for courses on LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, or Coursera.

If yes, keep reading.

“Waterfall” project management qualifications

If you’re building a bridge or implementing a new IT infrastructure at your company, you will most likely follow the “waterfall” project lifecycle.

Put simply, waterfall project methodologies break the project into stages.

These usually include:

• initiation (developing the business case)
• planning (scope definition, estimates, timelines, etc.)
• implementation (delivery of the project outputs)
• closure (project signoff and transition to business as usual)

The catch?

It’s a linear process. A stage can’t start before the previous one is closed.

So, if you’re only involved in the implementation stage, you may not get to work for months or even years—or never if the stakeholders scrap the project in the meantime.

PMI Project Management Professional

PMI (Project Management Institute) PMP qualifies you to manage complex projects independently and is recognized around the globe, making it the most valuable project management qualification in the roundup.

PMP isn’t easy to get.

Candidates need an academic qualification, like a college degree, and 4-5 years of documented project management experience or CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management), PMI’s entry-level qualification.

You tick all the boxes?

The exam consists of 180 questions, takes 230 minutes, and will set you back by $655 (or $405 if you’re a PMI member).

You can take an e-learning or an intensive 5-day classroom-based course to prepare for the exam. Followed by 3-4 weeks of self-study to consolidate what you learn.

Once you qualify, the certification is valid for 3 years. You must complete 30 PDU (Professional Development Units) during this time to keep it. This focus on ongoing professional development is another reason employees value the qualification so highly.

PMI opens the door to the PgMP, or Program Management Professional, qualification.

If, on the other hand, PMP sounds like too much to handle at this stage of your career, you can start with CAPM.

What I like about PMP is that you can take the exam in 16 languages, which makes it more inclusive than the other quals. English non-native speakers don’t have to worry that their limited English skills will put them at a disadvantage.

APM Project Management Qualification

APM (Association for Project Management) PMQ is the UK equivalent of PMP.

It isn’t as well known as its American counterpart, but it can still help you progress your career in Europe (and the UK, of course).

APM recommends that candidates have at least 2-3 years of project experience, but no proof is required.

My take? You can pass the exam without it — I did. However, real-life experience would definitely make it easier.

Speaking of the exam: it’s brutal. You have 185 minutes to answer 10 out of 16 open-ended questions.

We’re not talking about 2-3 sentence answers. More like mini-essays.

The good thing is that it’s computer-based now. But it hasn’t always been and I know at least two people who failed it because of hand cramps!

The exam is marginally more expensive than PMP: £471 for APM members and £591 for non-members.

But once you get it, it’s valid for life. No professional development or retakes needed.

Just like with PMP, you can take an online or an intensive online course, followed by the exam on day 6.

Self-study is a viable option, too. That’s what I did.

And honestly, I can’t imagine how you can cover the whole syllabus in 5 days (the APM Body of Knowledge has 250 pages).

Successful candidates can progress to higher APM quals: Project Professional Qualification (PPQ) and then Chartered Project Professional (ChPP).

There’s also an entry-level certificate called Project Fundamentals Qualifications (PFQ) for those who are only dipping their toes.

PRINCE2 Practitioner

PRINCE2 stands for PRojects IN Controlled Environments and was developed by the UK government for IT project management.

PRINCE2 is a structured methodology with a focus on strict governance, detailed documentation, and clearly defined project roles. All of these matter when you work on government-sponsored projects.

The qualification is globally recognized, and there are 1M+ PRINCE2 practitioners worldwide. However, it’s best known in Europe, and particularly, in the UK (surprise, surprise).

The open-book exam takes 150 minutes, has 68 questions and is available in 8 languages. Similar to PMP, it expires after 3 years unless you complete enough CPD. Or retake the exam.

To apply for the exam, you need another recognized project management qualification. PRINCE2 Foundation, the entry-level certification, meets the criteria.

You can’t just swipe your card and book it, though. You must take a course from an accredited provider.

PRINCE2 Practitioners who want to deepen their expertise can progress to the PRINCE2 Professional qualification.

Agile project management qualifications

Agile is a better alternative to linear project methodologies in industries where the project scope is difficult to define. For example, because of their unique nature, or when the requirements change frequently.

When developing a new SaaS product, medication, or a marketing campaign, you don’t have enough information to plan what you will do weeks or months in advance.

Instead, you collect the information as you go and adjust the course accordingly.

Agile teams work in short time-boxed iterations, which usually take 1-4 weeks. During these iterations, all the processes, like planning, development, and testing, happen in parallel. This reduces the holdups that plague waterfall projects.

At the end of the iteration, the team presents the deliverable, collects stakeholder feedback, and uses the insights to inform the next iteration.

Increasingly, Agile processes are embedded within the traditional waterfall frameworks.

For example, you can use Agile techniques to define requirements during the early project stages. Instead of shipping the deliverable only when it’s ready, do it in small batches.

Mind you, Agile isn’t a methodology but more of a mindset. Agile principles are the foundation of frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming, Lean, or SAFe.

PMI-ACP Agile Certified Practitioner

PMI ACP is an eclectic Agile qualification incorporating elements of various Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP).

As mentioned, PMI qualifications are well-known, and ACP isn’t an exception. It can help you advance your career in the USA, Europe, and Asia.

To qualify, you first need 2 years of experience working in Agile teams or PMP and 28 hours of Agile training.

The exam costs $495, takes 3 hours, and consists of 120 multiple-choice questions.

There are plenty of providers offering online and classroom courses (3-5 days) and you can choose to study independently, too.

To retain the ACP qualification, you must complete 30 PDUs in 3 years.

Certified Scrum Master

Scrum is one of the most popular Agile frameworks.

Teams, up to 10 people, work in 1-2 week Sprints, and collaborate closely with the product owners representing the customers.

The main role of Scrum Masters is to organize work and remove obstacles. They don’t manage their teams — they serve them.

CSM is awarded by the Scrum Alliance. It’s recognized globally, but as an entry-level qualification, its impact on your career will be limited.

It does give you a good understanding of the Scrum processes, though, and allows you to progress onto Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM) and Certified Scrum Professional (CSP-SM). These carry more weight.

The exam is dead-easy. 60 minutes, 50 multiple choice questions, and open books.

However, there is no self-study option. You must take a two-day course, which costs $350-$400.

In my opinion, the course is the only reason it’s worth taking the qualification.

Provided you find a good trainer, because the quality varies even with the same providers.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Mark Palmer from Great Fish Agility. I learnt tons from his course.

I later did a product owner course with another instructor, and it was still good but nowhere close to Mark’s. So do your homework.

The certification is valid for 2 years (or three if you do the Product Owner cert as well). To recertify, you don’t need to do another course if you’ve gathered enough CPD points during this time.

A quick note to finish: You can also get Scrum certifications from Scrum.org.

The Professional Scrum Master qualification is said to be more difficult, but it doesn’t require course attendance so that you can prepare independently. And it’s valid for life.

PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner

PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner is a hybrid qualification that incorporates Agile processes into its structured linear methodology.

The qualification has global recognition, but will be most useful for those pursuing careers in the UK and Europe.

To get it, you must pass an open-book exam which consists of 50 questions and takes 2.5 hours. It costs £300.

The prerequisites include another project management qualification (not necessarily PRINCE2).

The syllabus draws from different Agile frameworks, including Scrum, Kanban, and Lean. To prepare, you can take self-paced online courses or intensive 3-4 day courses. Self-study is also possible.

Just like the regular PRINCE2 qualification, the Agile one expires after 3 years if you don’t log enough CPD hours.

Next steps: choose the best qualification for you

To wrap up, let’s review the factors to consider when choosing your project management qualification.

• Industry. If you work in the construction, engineering, manufacturing, aerospace, defence, or public sector, go for PMP or PMQ. And back them up with an agile qualification later on. Agile is the way to go if you’re in software development, for example, in the startup space.
• Location. PMP is your safest bet if you’re pursuing a career in the US or Asia. It will also help you in Europe, but getting a PMQ or PRINCE2 might be easier and employers will equally well recognize them.
• Previous qualifications. APM PMQ is the only mid-level qualification that doesn’t require other qualifications.
• Project experience. If you have no experience, you can choose PMQ and PRINCE2 or CSM.
• Budget & time. The established qualifications like PMP or PMQ require a massive time commitment and aren’t cheap even if you go the self-study route. A CSM, on the other hand, takes a couple of days and is more affordable.