Certification in project management: yes or no? Essay

Do we need certification in project management? How many certifications are there and which one is the best among them? Is it worth the time and effort? Why is it worth or why not? Answers to these questions are the main focus of this paper.
The requirement for project management is real and companies acknowledge it. Many new projects are taken up by the organizations and there are lot of parameters involved like money, resources, time and ultimate goal. It can be product development that a company wants to release in the market before the competitors or technical expertise outsourced to different company. Projects differ in their goals, budget, requirements and resources. Project Management helps the organization to go through the process in a systematic way taking every parameter into consideration. In the last decade or so large number of projects have been going over budget or facing other issues due to various reasons. The demand for project management skills is higher than ever and it is imperative that professionals are trained in this subject.
Adding a project management certification to the list of IT credentials is a great way to benchmark skills for potential employers and to demonstrate the know-how to plan, schedule, budge, execute, deliver and report on IT initiatives.
In today's corporate environment project management is a hot topic and project management certifications are sought after at various levels in the organization especially where different type of structures like functional, dedicated teams or matrix type, project management are followed. Professionals are encouraged to get the certifications done. It can be either an excellent career move or a mandatory step to stay in the job. Project Management certification is important for those who want to want to make a career in managing and executing jobs.
In the job portals like dice.com and cio.com majority of the advertisements either require or prefer project management certification. Those advertisements are for mid-to senior-level IT project management that require 5-10 years of experience. The market place in US and across the globe are in high demand for project management certification. Importance of project management certification is widely known for successful completion of projects.
There are many types of Project Management certifications available. To list a few are Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional, Portfolio Management Professional and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM).
Project Management Professional is considered to be the highest quality level accreditation. It is the most popular and highly reputed among all the project management certifications. This certification gives the knowledge and recognition to be considered for the position of Project Manager. It is administered by Project Management Institute in US which is a world's leading not-for-profit professional membership association for project, program and portfolio management profession. It is a knowledge-based approach to project management that illustrates what should be known to manage project with good practices. The descriptive framework explains the knowledge areas, such as risk, time management etc. in detail and each topic can be studied in isolation.