Understanding the 2024 PMI-ACP Exam Update: What’s New and What Remains the Same

In today’s fast-evolving world of work, the PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner) certification remains a valuable credential for professionals seeking to validate their expertise in agile practices. With the release of the 2024 PMI-ACP Exam Content Outline, the Project Management Institute (PMI) introduces some updates, reflecting agile’s adaptation to modern organizational needs and complexities. However, candidates preparing for the exam can take comfort in knowing that around 70% of the exam content remains consistent with the 2014 outline, reinforcing the timeless principles and practices of agile methodologies.

In this article, we’ll explore what remains the same in the 2024 exam, followed by a deep dive into the differences that bring fresh relevance to the certification.

What Remains the Same in the 2024 PMI-ACP Exam?

Despite the evolving nature of agile, the core principles and practices that make agile effective have stood the test of time. Let’s take a closer look at the foundational topics that remain unchanged in the 2024 PMI-ACP Exam Content Outline.

1. Agile Principles and Mindset

Agile principles and mindset continue to form the foundation of the PMI-ACP certification. This domain emphasizes understanding and embodying agile values and principles such as collaboration, adaptability, and continuous learning. Both the 2014 and 2024 outlines prioritize creating an agile mindset within teams and organizations, focusing on:

• Transparency: Open and honest communication remains essential to agile practices.
• Collaboration: Agile teams work together, fostering a culture of shared responsibility and mutual trust.
• Adaptability: Agile practitioners must embrace change and remain open to iterating on their work based on feedback and new insights.

In the 2024 update, agile principles are still at the core, reflecting their enduring importance for agile professionals.

2. Value-Driven Delivery

Delivering value incrementally to meet stakeholder needs is another timeless aspect of agile, emphasized consistently in both outlines. The focus on Value-Driven Delivery in 2014, which involved producing high-value increments, gathering feedback, and prioritizing deliverables, remains crucial in 2024.

Value-driven delivery enables agile practitioners to:

• Produce valuable work at every stage, aligning with evolving stakeholder needs.
• Maintain flexibility by gathering and incorporating feedback from each increment.
• Prioritize work based on potential impact and importance to stakeholders.

While the 2024 outline renames this domain as “Product,” the concept of delivering value remains consistent.

3. Stakeholder Engagement

Engaging stakeholders effectively has always been critical to agile’s success. Both outlines underscore the importance of building trust, setting clear expectations, and maintaining transparency with stakeholders.

This involves:

• Regular feedback loops: Gathering and integrating feedback to ensure that the product meets stakeholder requirements.
• Trust-building: Creating a collaborative environment where stakeholders feel engaged and valued.
• Managing expectations: Keeping stakeholders informed about progress, challenges, and changes to foster alignment.

Stakeholder engagement in the 2024 outline expands slightly to reflect agile leadership qualities, but the foundational principles remain.

4. Team Performance and Collaboration

Creating high-performing, self-organizing teams is another essential agile principle that remains unchanged. Both outlines emphasize:

• Empowerment and autonomy: Teams are encouraged to take ownership of their work, making decisions that drive quality and efficiency.
• Trust and openness: A team culture that values open communication fosters problem-solving and creativity.
• Continuous improvement: Agile teams must always seek ways to improve their processes, performance, and collaboration.

The 2024 outline builds on these ideas by adding a greater emphasis on agile leadership and team resilience, but the core concepts of team performance remain intact.

5. Adaptive Planning

Agile planning has always been adaptive, prioritizing flexibility to respond to new information, feedback, or changing conditions. Both outlines continue to support:

• Rolling wave planning: Creating plans in stages, refining them as the project progresses.
• Multi-level planning: Covering strategic, release, iteration, and daily planning to stay responsive to project needs.
• Stakeholder involvement: Engaging stakeholders in planning to align with expectations.

Adaptive planning remains a staple in agile, allowing practitioners to refine their approach and meet objectives efficiently.

6. Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement at every level—product, process, and people—continues to be fundamental to agile. Both the 2014 and 2024 outlines encourage:

• Regular retrospectives: Conducting retrospectives after iterations to identify and implement improvements.
• A culture of learning: Promoting a mindset that values growth, learning, and adaptation.
• Process optimization: Seeking ways to streamline workflows and eliminate waste.

By retaining continuous improvement as a core principle, the PMI-ACP certification ensures that agile practitioners are equipped to foster a learning organization.

7. Problem Detection and Resolution

Early identification of risks, issues, and impediments remains a focus in both outlines. Agile practitioners are expected to:

• Promote visibility: Keeping issues transparent and encouraging open discussion for faster resolution.
• Proactive resolution: Addressing problems as they arise to maintain steady progress.
• Prevention: Implementing changes to reduce the likelihood of recurring issues.

Problem detection and resolution are integral to maintaining agile’s adaptability and alignment with project goals.

8. Tools and Techniques

Core agile tools and techniques, such as user stories, backlog prioritization, story mapping, and estimation methods like planning poker, are unchanged in the 2024 outline. These practices continue to support agile teams in managing workflows, measuring progress, and adapting to changing needs.

What’s New in the 2024 PMI-ACP Exam?

While around 70% of the content remains consistent, the 2024 PMI-ACP Exam Content Outline introduces several updates that reflect modern agile practices and respond to the complexities of today’s agile environments.

1. Psychological Safety and Emotional Intelligence

The 2024 outline places new emphasis on psychological safety and emotional intelligence as essential aspects of agile leadership. These topics address:

• Creating a no-blame culture that allows team members to share ideas openly.
• Using emotional intelligence skills like empathy and conflict resolution to foster a supportive environment.
• Encouraging transparency, which is essential for innovation and trust-building within teams.

2. Hybrid Agile Approaches

With many organizations now blending agile and traditional practices, the 2024 exam includes hybrid agile approaches. This addition allows agile practitioners to:

• Tailor agile practices to meet organizational needs, especially in regulated or structured environments.
• Combine elements from agile and traditional methodologies to create adaptable frameworks.
• Understand when and how to adapt agile practices in complex scenarios.

3. Experimentation and Innovation

The 2024 outline introduces a focus on experimentation and innovation, encouraging practitioners to create environments where iterative learning and testing are prioritized. This shift reflects agile’s adaptability, allowing teams to:

• Use feedback loops to test and refine ideas.
• Encourage creativity and experimentation to find the best solutions.

4. Advanced Agile Metrics and Flow Optimization

The 2024 exam adds new metrics, such as flow metrics (e.g., lead time, cycle time), to help teams track and optimize work efficiency. These metrics enable agile teams to:

• Use data-driven insights to manage productivity, quality, and risk.
• Make informed adjustments based on performance metrics.

5. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

For the first time, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles are explicitly included in the PMI-ACP outline. This addition highlights the importance of fostering a culture where all team members feel respected and valued. Agile practitioners must now be prepared to:

• Build inclusive teams that benefit from diverse perspectives.
• Support psychological safety and equitable practices.

6. Remote and Distributed Team Dynamics

Reflecting the rise of remote work, the 2024 outline emphasizes remote and distributed team management. Agile practitioners must understand how to:

• Use tools to support virtual collaboration and communication.
• Maintain engagement and alignment across geographically dispersed teams.

7. Compliance and Regulatory Awareness

With more industries working within regulated environments, the 2024 outline includes compliance and regulatory awareness. Agile practitioners need to:

• Balance agile’s flexibility with regulatory requirements.
• Implement practices that align with both agile principles and industry-specific standards.

8. Sustainability and Resilience

The new outline highlights sustainability and resilience, encouraging practices that prevent burnout and promote long-term team health. Agile practitioners are now expected to:

• Foster sustainable work practices that prioritize well-being.
• Build resilience within agile teams to maintain productivity over time.

9. Agile Coaching and Mentorship

The 2024 outline introduces agile coaching and mentorship as part of agile leadership. Practitioners are encouraged to:

• Support team development through coaching and guidance.
• Build team maturity, enabling teams to achieve higher levels of agility.

Advice for Test Takers Preparing for the 2024 PMI-ACP Exam

If you’re preparing for the PMI-ACP exam, now is a strategic time to take action, especially given some transitional allowances from PMI. As part of the updated requirements, PMI now asks for 28 hours of agile study instead of the previous 21 hours. However, until March 31, 2025, PMI will still accept the previous 21 hours for exam applications. Additionally, once your application is approved, you have one full year to sit for the exam. Here’s a step-by-step guide to leverage this opportunity and streamline your path to certification:

1. Submit Your PMI-ACP Application Before March 31, 2025

If you’ve already completed 21 contact hours of agile training, this is an excellent time to apply before the requirements change to 28 hours. Submitting your application by the end of March 2025 allows you to make use of your existing study hours, saving you time and effort. This can be a great advantage for candidates who have been preparing under the previous guidelines.

2. Focus on the New Content Topics

Even though the application requirements temporarily allow the 21-hour minimum, the exam will test the new 2024 content outline. Be sure to cover the updated topics in your study plan, as they will reflect the broader scope of modern agile practices. In particular, emphasize learning in areas like:

• Psychological Safety and Emotional Intelligence: Understand how to create a psychologically safe, collaborative environment.
• Hybrid Agile Approaches: Familiarize yourself with integrating agile practices with traditional frameworks for complex environments.
• Advanced Metrics: Study flow metrics (e.g., lead time, cycle time) and how they support data-driven agile decisions.
• Compliance, Sustainability, and Resilience: Learn how these principles apply within agile environments.

These additions are highly relevant for today’s agile environments and likely to be emphasized in the new exam.

3. Leverage Your Existing Knowledge for Core Agile Topics

Since 70% of the exam content remains consistent with the previous outline, use your foundational knowledge to reinforce your preparation. Topics like agile principles, value-driven delivery, stakeholder engagement, team performance, adaptive planning, and continuous improvement will still play a major role in the exam. Balancing your study time between these core areas and the new topics can help you maintain a comprehensive understanding without having to start from scratch.

Conclusion

Preparing for the PMI-ACP exam under the 2024 guidelines may feel like a challenge, but with the right strategy, you can take advantage of PMI’s transitional allowances to complete your application and dive into the new topics. By focusing on the core agile principles you’ve already mastered and supplementing with study in the updated areas, you’ll be well-prepared to earn your PMI-ACP certification. Taking this proactive approach not only positions you to pass the exam but also equips you with a cutting-edge skill set that meets today’s agile demands.

With agile’s continued evolution, earning your PMI-ACP now will keep you at the forefront of agile best practices and provide a lasting credential that demonstrates your adaptability and readiness for the agile environments of the future.