TOPIC: Serious quandary with PMP Application - experience

My coworker and I are both applying to take the PMP exam. We have worked together for 9 years. I actually supervise her. Anyhow, I just asked what projects she is putting down for her experience and she listed one of my projects, because it was bigger than most of hers. I did not use the project for my own experience because I had a bigger project that overlapped during the same timeframe. She did help a few times when issues came up, and I cc'd her on some, but not all of the emails. I didn't even know what to say. I just said I guess she could use it since I didn't, but that I had managed that one. She didn't respond. (We were instant messaging). It is just causing me stress because she shouldn't be using one of my projects. Aren't the projects you list supposed to be ones that you are the lead on? Does it even count if you are just having a minor supporting role? If she includes it, does that mean she is presenting it like she managed it? It seems like she is. I don't know what I am supposed to do about it.

Christine,

My advice is simple: Your co-worker's application is not really any of your business. That is between her and PMI.

Harry

Besides someone taking credit for my work, I guess I felt that it was a bad thing to know that someone is getting their PMP by lying to PMI. I thought this was a matter of ethics.

Hi Christine,

In your PMP application you need to include experience for projects you were leading and directing only. That is taken directly from the Exam Content Outline. In rare cases where a project has co-leads, it would be perfectly fair if both applicants use the same experience on their application since each person would have a unique experience, it should not be a copy-paste scenario. Wishing you good luck in your application!

Regards,

Christine,

There seems to be two things at play here: The first that someone is "taking credit for your work;" the second "ethics."

From the "taking credit for your work" perspective - that happens all the time if you work for a larger organization. Sure, you may get a kudo or two for a well-run project, but your intellectual property generally belongs to the company; so they are in fact taking credit for your work, every day. That happens all the time in every profession. Having experienced over 60 revolutions around the sun, been through graduate school and other experiences, I've learned to not worry so much about that. I am also lucky enough to have a great group of colleagues (who are all independent contractors) and we use each other's work constantly because we recognize that our jobs are, in the end, about other people's health and environmental well-being.

With respect to ethics - PMI Is the final arbiter of that (both before the test and after), and better them than me, I say.

Finally, keep in mind that there will be unintended consequences of unnecessarily raising a red flag ("Unnecessary" here is my opinion). Up to, and including, losing a friend/colleague.

Ultimately, the choice is yours. I've told you where I'd go with it, but it's really up to you.

Harry