Eligibility
Which PMI or IIBA certification is right for you?
Start with the work you do and the work you want to take on next. Your experience helps determine which certifications you can apply for; your career goals help determine which one is worth pursuing.
Education Edge prepares learners for the eleven credentials below. PMI or IIBA makes the final eligibility and certification decision.
Compare your options
PMI — eight credentials
PMI counts experience in months, never in number of projects, and months that overlap are counted once.
CAPM · Certified Associate in Project Management
PMI's entry certification. It is the only PMI credential here that asks for no project management experience.
- Main focus
- Project management foundations
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Build foundational knowledge before progressing to more experienced roles
- Experience
- None.
- Training or education
- 23 hours of project management education, plus a secondary degree (high school diploma, GED or global equivalent). PMI's page adds that you must be at least 18 years old.
- References
- None.
- To keep it
- 15 PDUs every 3 years — at least 9 of them Education, at most 6 Giving Back.
CAPM Certification Training
PMP · Project Management Professional
Four routes in, decided by your education. PMI publishes all four; most summaries publish two.
- Main focus
- Project leadership
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Validate established experience leading projects
- Experience
- 60 months leading projects, with upper-secondary school — a high school diploma, a GED-type equivalency or a school-leaving certificate.
- 48 months, with a recognised associate-level, higher-certificate or advanced technical or vocational programme.
- 36 months, with a bachelor's degree or higher.
- 24 months, with a bachelor's or postgraduate degree from a programme accredited by PMI's Global Accreditation Center.
- On every route, the experience must have been accrued within the last 10 years.
- Training or education
- 35 hours of commercial training aligned to the PMP Exam Content Outline — waived outright by an active CAPM.
- References
- None.
- To keep it
- 60 PDUs every 3 years — at least 35 Education, at most 25 Giving Back.
PMP Certification Training
PgMP · Program Management Professional
For managing programmes of related projects. There is a panel review as well as an exam.
- Main focus
- Program management
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Manage related projects toward coordinated organizational benefits
- Experience
- 48 months leading projects, or an active PMP, plus 84 months managing programmes — with a secondary diploma.
- 48 months leading projects, or an active PMP, plus 48 months managing programmes — with a four-year degree.
- 36 months of each, with a bachelor's or postgraduate degree from a GAC-accredited programme.
- All of it accrued over the last 15 consecutive years.
- Training or education
- The eligibility table states no training-hour requirement.
- References
- A panel review. PMI: “Panel Review—For the PgMP and PfMP certifications, panel reviews are also required.”
- To keep it
- 60 PDUs every 3 years — at least 35 Education, at most 25 Giving Back.
PgMP Certification Training
PfMP · Portfolio Management Professional
For portfolio managers. The business-experience bar is the same on every route; only the portfolio months move.
- Main focus
- Portfolio management
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Align investment and portfolio decisions with strategy
- Experience
- 96 months of professional business experience on every route.
- Plus 84 months of portfolio management, with a secondary diploma.
- Plus 48 months, with a four-year degree.
- Plus 36 months, with a bachelor's or postgraduate degree from a GAC-accredited programme.
- All of it accrued over the last 15 consecutive years.
- Training or education
- The eligibility table states no training-hour requirement.
- References
- A panel review, as for PgMP.
- To keep it
- 60 PDUs every 3 years — at least 35 Education, at most 25 Giving Back.
PfMP Certification Training
PMI-ACP · Agile Certified Practitioner
For agile delivery. Four routes in, and on all four the only experience PMI counts is time on agile teams — general project months do not count toward it.
- Main focus
- Agile practices and approaches
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Develop and demonstrate experience working in agile environments
- Experience
- 2 years on agile teams, earned in the past 5 years — with a secondary diploma (high school diploma, GED or global equivalent).
- 1 year on agile teams, with a secondary diploma plus a degree from a PMI GAC-accredited programme.
- 1 year on agile teams, with a secondary diploma plus a current third-party agile certification earned over a year ago — PMI credits 12 months of that year to the certification.
- Nothing to document separately, with a secondary diploma plus an active PMP.
- Training or education
- 21 hours of agile training, on every one of the four routes.
- References
- None.
- To keep it
- 30 PDUs every 3 years — at least 18 Education, at most 12 Giving Back.
PMI-ACP Training
PMI-RMP · Risk Management Professional
For project risk specialists. The months must be in risk management specifically, not in project management generally.
- Main focus
- Project risk management
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Specialize in identifying, assessing, and responding to risk
- Experience
- 36 months in the specialised area of project risk management, with a secondary diploma.
- 24 months, with a four-year degree.
- 12 months, with a bachelor's or postgraduate degree from a GAC-accredited programme.
- On every route, within the last five consecutive years.
- Training or education
- 40 contact hours of formal education in project risk management — 30 hours on either degree route.
- References
- None.
- To keep it
- 30 PDUs every 3 years — at least 18 Education, at most 12 Giving Back.
PMI-RMP Certification Training
PMI-PBA · Professional in Business Analysis
PMI's business analysis credential, and the one people weigh against IIBA's CBAP.
- Main focus
- Business analysis in project environments
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Strengthen analysis skills used to define and deliver business outcomes
- Experience
- 60 months working as a practitioner of business analysis, earned in the last 8 years, with a secondary degree.
- 36 months in the last 8 years, with a bachelor's degree or higher.
- 24 months, with a bachelor's or postgraduate degree from a GAC-accredited programme.
- Training or education
- 35 contact hours earned in the topic of business analysis practices.
- References
- None.
- To keep it
- 60 PDUs every 3 years — at least 35 Education, at most 25 Giving Back.
PMI-PBA Certification Training
PMI-CP · Construction Professional
For construction and built-environment projects. Four PMI course modules come before the application, not after it.
- Main focus
- Construction project work
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Develop expertise relevant to construction and the built environment
- Experience
- 3 years of on-the-job experience on construction or built-environment projects, within the past 10 years.
- Training or education
- PMI's four foundational course modules, all four completed.
- References
- None.
- To keep it
- 30 PDUs every 3 years.
PMI-CP Certification Training
IIBA — three credentials
IIBA awards CBAP, CCBA and ECBA. It counts work history in hours rather than months, and its professional development hours must align with the BABOK Guide knowledge areas.
ECBA · Entry Certificate in Business Analysis
IIBA's entry certificate. Its May 2026 handbook sets no eligibility bar at all.
- Main focus
- Business analysis foundations
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Start building formal business analysis knowledge
- Experience
- None.
- Training or education
- None. The handbook states no professional development hour requirement, and IIBA lists the application fee as not required.
- References
- None, and there is no application step.
- To keep it
- Nothing. IIBA lists ECBA as a certificate with no expiration and no recertification.
ECBA Certification Training
CCBA · Certification of Capability in Business Analysis
IIBA: “CCBA is for business analysis professionals with 2-3 years of experience in business analysis.”
- Main focus
- Applied business analysis
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Validate developing professional business analysis experience
- Experience
- 3,750 work history hours within the last 7 years.
- Distributed as a minimum of 900 hours in each of 2 knowledge areas, or 500 hours in each of 4.
- Training or education
- 21 professional development hours within the last 4 years.
- References
- Two. Each must have known you for at least 6 months and must give a work email, not a personal one.
- To keep it
- 60 CDUs every 3 years, counted from your date of certification.
CCBA Certification Training
CBAP · Certified Business Analysis Professional
IIBA: “CBAP is for business analysis professionals with 5+ years of experience in business analysis.”
- Main focus
- Advanced business analysis
- A useful starting point if you want to
- Recognize substantial business analysis experience
- Experience
- 7,500 work history hours within the last 10 years.
- With a minimum of 900 hours completed in 4 of the 6 knowledge areas — at least 3,600 of the 7,500.
- Training or education
- 35 professional development hours within the last 4 years.
- References
- Two. Each must have known you for at least 6 months and must give a work email, not a personal one.
- To keep it
- 60 CDUs every 3 years, counted from your date of certification.
CBAP Certification Training
If you are starting out
CAPM and ECBA are useful options to explore when you do not yet have the professional experience required for more advanced credentials. CAPM has education and training requirements. ECBA does not require prior business analysis work experience or professional development hours under the current published requirements.
Choose based on the discipline you want to develop: project management or business analysis. An entry credential is not a compulsory first step if you already qualify for a more experienced route.
Explore CAPM training · Explore ECBA training
If you already lead projects
Consider PMP if your experience meets PMI's project leadership requirements. If your work is more specialized, compare PMI-ACP for agile practice, PMI-RMP for risk, or PMI-CP for construction.
PgMP and PfMP address different responsibilities from managing one project. Review their program or portfolio experience requirements carefully before committing to preparation.
If you work in business analysis
Compare ECBA, CCBA, and CBAP according to your documented experience and learning goals. PMI-PBA is another option for professionals whose analysis work is closely connected with projects and programs.
Our IIBA certification guide explains the differences between ECBA, CCBA, and CBAP, including their application and exam fees.
Check eligibility before choosing a course
PMI commonly measures experience in months; IIBA's CCBA and CBAP requirements use qualifying work-history hours. Overlapping work, the recency of experience, the subject of training, and the level of an academic qualification can all matter.
Use the awarding body's current requirements to check your position. Do not rely only on a job title or the number of years you have been employed.
How PMI counts the months
Tenure is tracked in months, not in number of projects. Months that overlap are counted once: PMI's own worked example runs one project from 1 January to 31 March and a second from 1 February to 31 May, and the total is five months, not seven.
The window is the last 10 years, and it closes at the date you submit the application rather than at the date you sit the exam.
School projects, academic research for a degree-granting programme, planning personal events and home improvement projects do not qualify, and PMI asks that project entries exclude routine, operational and administrative tasks. The work does not have to be paid, but it does have to be in a professional setting.
One education requirement is worth checking carefully if you studied outside North America. On the bachelor's route, a non-degree qualification counts only where a competent authority has formally mapped it to the bachelor's level. PMI states that titles containing “advanced”, “professional” or “graduate”, with no official level mapping, are insufficient.
What an active CAPM does for a PMP application
An active CAPM satisfies the PMP's 35 training hours. PMI's wording is that a CAPM holder does not need to document them — holding the certification earns a 35-training-hour credit.
It does not satisfy anything else. You still need the months and the education PMI asks for on whichever PMP route applies to you, and CAPM has its own renewal cycle of 15 PDUs every three years running alongside.
So the question to settle first is whether you have the documented months yet. If you do not, CAPM can be sat now and removes a requirement from the PMP application later.
Does the December 2026 training rule change which one you pick?
For the PMP it changes where the 35 hours may come from, not whether you qualify. PMI has published a planned update, effective 1 December 2026: live training hours will be eligible only where the course is delivered by a PMI Authorized Training Partner, a China Registered Education Provider, or an eligible accredited academic programme, including PMI Global Accreditation Center accredited programmes.
Two carve-outs are PMI's own and both matter. Self-paced training may still be taken from any organisation. And any training completed before 1 December 2026 remains eligible under the current requirements.
PMI's July 2026 Exam Content Outline and PMI's notice word the provider requirement differently, so confirm the current rule with PMI before booking live training with a provider that is not an Authorized Training Partner, a China Registered Education Provider or an eligible accredited academic programme.
PMI has published no equivalent restriction for CAPM live training. The notice is written for the PMP, on PMP pages, and it should not be read across to the other credentials on this page.
Education Edge identifies its PMI Authorized Training Partner number as 4456. Learn what ATP status means and how to verify it.
How to check the current fee
PMI's Certification Handbook states that prices “may vary based on a candidate's membership status and regional location”, and it directs certification holders to their myPMI dashboard for renewal pricing.
Check the current fee with PMI or IIBA for your own country and membership status. The PDU and CDU counts above are published, they are the same everywhere, and they are the part of the ongoing cost a reader can plan around.
