Rita Mulcahy's Original Exam Prep ™
  1. Home
  2. Talent Triangle

The PMI Talent Triangle®

Congratulations! You just received your PMI certification.

Time to meet the PMI Talent Triangle.

The PMI Talent Triangle® defines continuing education topics for all PMI certifications. Its ability to adhere to the needs of many different professionals makes it a valuable tool, but one that can create a bit of confusion. We can certainly relate, as we have literally spent hours studying the Talent Triangle® to help make it easier for you to understand.

The most important thing to know is the Talent Triangle® is here to help you.

To keep our discussion focused, we will only concentrate on the Talent Triangle as it applies to the PMP® certification.

You must earn 60 PDUs over the course of three years to maintain your certification. Of these 60 PDUs, PMI requires a minimum of eight in each of the three categories, Technical Project Management, Strategic and Business Management, and Leadership.

With these continuing education requirements, the Talent Triangle® is a mechanism helping you learn new skills and adapt to an evolving industry. The skills you learn fulfilling your Talent Triangle requirements will help you perform better in your role and make you more valuable.

To put it plainly, the Talent Triangle® is your guide to a successful career.

Technical Project Manager

How To Do Your Job


The Technical Project Management category of the PMI Talent Triangle® focuses on the practical knowledge of doing your job. This includes understanding the current industry standards and applying that knowledge to succeed in your role.

The project management industry is a growing organism, and your professional knowledge will slowly grow out of date as you focus on your day-to-day job.

When studying for the PMP® exam, you learn the ideal way to manage projects. The Technical category of the Talent Triangle will give you real-world knowledge and help you stay current with new industry standards.

Strategic and Business Management

How to do better at your job

The Strategic and Business Management category of the PMI Talent Triangle® focuses on improving your job performance. Specifically, training in this category could focus on outside factors influencing your industry, like current industry standards, and how you can use that knowledge to succeed.

Training in the Strategic and Business Management category serves a dual purpose. It enhances your performance in your role while helping you understand and achieve your business’ long-term goals.

Understanding your industry and how projects add value and contribute to a company’s success and vision make you a more valuable project manager. These skill sets give you a more entrepreneurial spirit and investment in the strategic performance and outcomes of your organization’s projects.

Leadership

How to help others achieve their goals

The Leadership category of the PMI Talent Triangle® focuses on the ability to lead and develop a team. These skills help you inspire the team to achieve their goals as well as completing the project. Leadership is most concerned with the success of the group over individual accomplishments.

The Leadership category teaches you how to motivate team members and yourself to complete projects and achieve team or individual goals. The skills you learn will also make you an effective team leader by teaching you how to be a problem solver and be proactive rather than reactive.

The Leadership category will help you succeed as a project manager because you will have the skills to train a team to complete the project efficiently, effectively, and on time. This will also make you more valuable to employers because you will learn tactics for working with all stakeholders included on a project.