Certification Program Overview

The IPMA Four-Level Certification (4-L-C) System is role-based, world leading, and professionally demanding.

There are more than 200,000 IPMA certificants worldwide. Over 70,000 of them hold advanced, competence-based, peer-assessed certifications.

These advanced certifications include IPMA Level A_® (Certified Project, Program, or Portfolio Director), IPMA Level B_® (Certified Senior Project, Program, or Portfolio Manager), and IPMA Level C_® (Certified Project Manager). These certifications are especially useful as the demand for individuals with demonstrated Project, Program, and Portfolio Management competence spreads to executives, strategic leaders, managers, and stakeholders.

The remaining certificants are certified at IPMA Level D_® (Certified Project Management Associate). This designation, which demonstrates the individual's ability to understand the basics of project management, is similar to the exam-oriented, knowledge-based certifications of other major Project Management associations. For many, Level D is the first step towards a professional project or program manager role.

IPMA-USA understands the importance of impartiality in carrying out our certification activities. We make every reasonable effort to avoid both real and potential conflicts of interest to ensure the fairness and objectivity of our certification activities.

For those who are curious about how IPMA's certifications differ, see this article, Comparing PM Certifications, here at the IPMA-USA website.

IPMA's role-based suite of professional certifications in the 4-L-C system are exclusively available in the USA through IPMA-USA.

Want to Know More?

The following table lists the major components of certification at each level. The links at the bottom of this page should allow you to get answers to other questions you might have about the 4-L-C System.

Does your organization demonstrate the PPPM Competence Difference? Do you?