RE: How important is project management certification ...
PMP certification isn't just handed out to anyone who wants it. You have to have a track record of managing or projects or at least project participation. It's substantial if you have an undergraduate degree and even more if you do not. Non graduates must to log at least 7,500 hours of managing projects to even be accepted to sit for the exam. Certification combines real-world experience, eduaction as well as the ability to pass the 4 hour exam. It's not fluff.
RE: How important is project management certification ...
You have to go thru 40 hrs mandatory training for PMP and learn the PMBOK framework. Theory and practice are not different in project mgt. What you learn is what you practice. If you learn good project mgt from from PMI and practice it, your chances of delivering the project successfully is much more than you do it in a traditional trial and error method. Afterall, people at PMI have comeout with an elaborate framework and set of resources for project mgt.
RE: How important is project management certification for a project manager and why?
PMP is a highly professional certificate. It requires 40 hours of mandatory PM training which exposes you to the PMBOK guide. The PMBOK guide is a reference book built on the collective intelligence of numerous PMs worldwide. It exposes you to the common mistakes/pitfalls and the solutions for many projects which happened in the past. In addition to that you also learn a lot of industry best practices. Hence you could benefit from the knowledge of others and not waste your time reinventing the wheel.
Apart from the above advantages, PMPs are expected to maintain a strict code of ethics and conduct themselves in a professionally and socially responsible manner. The PMI mandates this behaviour. Hence a PMP certification is really important for PMs who would like to set themselves apart from the rest of the folks.
