Explanation of Data Categories
The following data elements were extracted and entered into the research spreadsheet.
Hours of work experience required for those who already hold a Bachelor's degree (WEXP)
This information was readily available from all the certification websites and/or from downloadable .pdf files. Here we find that not all organizations use the same number of working hours. Hence, for the purposes of this research, a working year consisted of working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year. As project managers rarely work a 40-hour week, holidays and sick days were assumed to offset hours of overtime typically involved.
Standardized Value of a Bachelors Degree (BDEG)
There is little or no apparent consistency in how different professional organizations equate the value of a degree to the equivalent work experience. Therefore, a web-based research was conducted using undergraduate degrees in construction project management from Purdue, University of Houston and University of Florida, and the general Project Management degree from Colorado Technical University. This yielded an average of 130 credit hours required to earn a Bachelors degree. BDEG was then broken down into two further components:
- Actual Time Spent In Class: To calculate this value, it was assumed that for each 3 credit hours awarded, 40 hours of face-to-face classroom time was required. Thus for a 130 hour degree program: 125/3 = 41.67 individual courses x 40 hours per 3 credit course = 1,668 hours spent in a classroom.
- Level of Effort expected by the student outside of class time: Following the same approach, it was generally agreed that at the undergraduate level, for each hour spent in the classroom, a minimum of 2 hours was needed to be spent by a student in doing homework, writing research papers and taking exams. Thus 1,668 classroom hours x 2 = 3,334 hours of student effort outside of class.
Hence, to calculate the BDEG (Standardized Value of a Bachelors Degree) we added the class time to the out-of-class time, or 1,667 + 3,333 = 5,000 hours of learning experience.
Standardized Value of a Masters Degree (MDEG)
Despite a clear trend by other professional organizations such as Nursing, Civil Engineering, and Social Work in requiring a Masters degree, at least for their top-level credentials, this too was a consideration. It is worth noting that of all the credentials evaluated, only AACE's Certified Portfolio, Program and Project Manager (C3PM) required a Masters Degree or equivalent educational credits to earn that certification.
As was done with the BDEG, a web-based research was conducted using Master of Science degree in project management from George Washington University, Boston College, Western Carolina and Stevens Institute of Technology. This yielded an average of 36 credit hours required to earn the Master of Science degree. MDEG was then broken down into two further components:
- Actual Time Spent In Class: To calculate this value, it was assumed that for each 3 credit hours awarded, 40 hours of face-to-face classroom time was required. Thus for a 36 hour degree program: 36/3 = 12 individual courses x 40 hours per 3 credit course = 480 hours spent in a classroom.
- Level of Effort expected by the student outside of class time: Following the same approach, it was generally agreed that at the graduate level, for each hour spent in the classroom, a minimum of 3 hours was needed to be spent by a student in doing homework, writing research papers, working on group projects and taking exams. Thus 480 classroom hours x 3 = 1,440 hours of student effort outside of class.
Hence, to calculate the MDEG (Standardized Value of a Bachelors Degree) we added the class time to the out-of-class time, or 480 + 1,440 = 1,920
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Methodology
