By Allan Anderson, Professor of Product Development, Massey University
PDMA offers the opportunity for all members to gain certification as a “product development practitioner”. This basically involves 2 steps:
- Submitting a brief CV outlining your educational background and your experience in Product Development (a minimum of 2 years practicing experience)
- Sitting an on-line multi-choice exam.
The main value in PDMA certification is the recognition of a level of achievement and knowledge in product development by the major professional organisation in the field. It has benefits to companies wishing to up-skill there NPD staff and to NPD professional who are looking for new job opportunities.
Two months ago I successfully completed the certification process. My main reason for seeking certification was to enable Massey University to seek, and hopefully be granted, accreditation as a training provider for PDMA. In early November I will be attending the annual PDMA conference in Los Angeles to discuss the accreditation process. (see later article on the PDMA conference).
The whole experience of seeking certification was both interesting and challenging. For someone who has practiced and taught NPD for over 20 years you would think this would be a “doddle”. But no. It required hours of reading to ensure I had a complete understanding of all aspects of NPD including strategy, process, human resources, techniques and metrics. All in preparation for an exam including 200 multi-choice questions – to be completed within 4 hours at an independent on-line location in Auckland.
If Massey University is accredited as a PDMA training provider, it is our intention to run the appropriate courses in 2010. More about this following my return from the PDMA conference.
For more information on PDMA certification go to http://www.pdma.org/certified.cfm
