Why I pursued PMP certification
At rudybohrer, we work with people who see the same project from different angles. Subject specialists understand the processes, marketing knows the audience, and IT knows the existing systems. Designers and developers have to bring those perspectives into something people can use. The responsibility between those disciplines is a particular focus of my work.
I took the preparation course in 2024 and became a certified Project Management Professional, or PMP, in 2025. It gave me a formal framework for that responsibility: bringing requirements, risks and decisions together, and adapting the way we work to the project in front of us.
PMP is a certification from the Project Management Institute, PMI. It covers a range of approaches, including predictive, agile and hybrid delivery. Which approach helps in practice depends on the people involved, the dependencies and how much is known at the outset.
What the PMBOK domains cover in an IT project
The PMBOK Guide groups project management into connected areas of practice, known as performance domains. The current eighth edition identifies seven. Applied to our work, they help us keep decisions, collaboration and costs in view alongside the development itself:
- Governance: who decides and who is accountable
- Who can change the scope? Who approves a release? We agree responsibilities and establish how unresolved decisions reach the person who can make them.
- Scope: what the team will deliver
- User journeys, integrations and acceptance criteria define the result. We assess new requests against that agreement and make any additional work visible.
- Schedule: how the work fits together
- A launch needs more than finished code. Content, access, external systems and approvals all have to be ready at the right time.
- Finance: the budget and the work still ahead
- We consider work completed alongside the effort needed to finish. That gives the client room to adjust scope and priorities before the options narrow.
- Stakeholders: involve the people affected
- Business teams, IT, marketing and future users need different information. We seek feedback while it can still shape the design and implementation.
- Resources: plan for people and practical needs
- Capacity includes the client’s testers, external suppliers and available test environments. Their availability needs to match the delivery plan.
- Risk: investigate uncertainty early
- A technical prototype can establish whether an unfamiliar integration will work. For a migration, we examine data quality, the switchover and recovery options ahead of launch.
Resolve dependencies before they hold up development
Consider a customer portal. The interface might be designed while the rules about what each signed-in user may see are still undecided. That decision affects the data model, integrations, interface and tests. It belongs in the shared plan, well before technical acceptance.
We record what information is needed, who can provide it, when it is needed and which work depends on it. Content, privacy requirements, access to third-party systems and the availability of users for testing all belong in that picture. An open question then becomes a task someone can act on.
Make changes with a clear view of the consequences
Development brings new information. A test may reveal a better workflow, or another market may become important. We assess changes together, making their effects on completed work, cost, quality and release dates visible.
Suppose an additional language is requested for launch. Translation may be only part of the work. Editing, approvals, local content and quality assurance also need time. The options might be to reduce scope elsewhere, move the launch or release the extra language later. The client and delivery team need the same information to make that choice.
- Priority
- Which business objective does the change support, and what might need to wait?
- Impact
- Which components, people and previous decisions will it affect?
- Approval
- Who authorises the additional work and timing, and where is the decision recorded?
Combine firm milestones with short feedback cycles
A launch date can be fixed while the best interface is still being worked out. That calls for agreed milestones for content, acceptance and deployment, alongside regular feedback on designs and working parts of the application.
We agree what acceptance involves and who needs to take part. Progress is assessed through tangible results: a workflow tried with sample data, an integration supplying the required information, a user journey approved. A list of completed development tickets does not, by itself, tell us whether the project is ready for its next stage.
Use AI to prepare decisions, with people reviewing the result
The current PMBOK Guide reflects this development. Its eighth edition, published in November 2025, includes expanded coverage of AI.
Useful applications are specific: turn approved meeting notes into a proposed task list, look for conflicting requirements, collect questions for a review or compare possible workflows. People involved in the project need to check those suggestions before they become commitments or decisions.
A model does not automatically know that a specialist is committed elsewhere, or that a seemingly minor change requires another internal approval. The team also needs to agree which data may be processed in which tools. AI can reduce preparation work; setting priorities, making commitments and taking responsibility for their consequences remain with the project team.
Plan for the people who will run the result
The project includes the people who will maintain the website or application after launch. With your team and service providers, we work through access, documentation, training, maintenance and incident handling. A migration also requires plans for data transfer, approvals and what to do if the switchover encounters a problem.
This is what professional project management should give our clients: a clear view of where the work stands, which decision they need to make next and what each option means. We bring the business and technical perspectives together and stay involved after launch.
Project management connects business goals with design, development and operations. It makes the next decision clear: who can make it, and what it means for scope, budget and timing.