Top 5 IT Certifications For 2020

In this article, we will discuss the top IT certifications that you can add to your resume this year. The list goes from cloud computing, cybersecurity, and networking to project management. Cloud, Machine Learning, AI, and project management were among the top five most desired certifications last year. These certifications will continue to dominate in 2020 as well. Approximately 80% of IT professionals say that certifications are useful for their careers. The tricky part is deciding which area to focus on. This article will help you choose the right certification for you. Let’s have a look at the most demanded and highly paid IT certifications along with the average salary earned by these certs. We will discuss a few of them here.

Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect (GCPA): USD 139,529
Project Management Professional (PMP): USD 135,798
Certified ScrumMaster (CSM): USD 135,441
AWS Certified Solutions Architect/Associate: USD 132,840
AWS Certified Developer/Associate: USD 130,369
Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Server Infrastructure: USD 121,288
ITIL® Foundation: USD 120,566
Certified Information Security Manager (CISM): USD 118,412
Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC): USD 117,395
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP): USD 116,900

Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect (GCPA)

This certification helps you gain an understanding of cloud architecture and Google Cloud Platform(GCP) so that you can design, develop, and manage robust, secure, scalable, highly available, and dynamic solutions to stimulate business applications. The certification assesses a candidate’s ability to analyzing and optimizing technology and business processes; managing and implementing cloud architecture and ensuring solution and operations reliability.

Project Management Professional (PMP)

This PMI PMP certification demonstrates that the certified professional possesses the project management knowledge, experience, and skills to bring projects to successful completion. As the demand for skilled project managers increases practitioners who hold the PMP certification are well-positioned to provide the professional skills necessary to lead project teams and achieve successful project results.

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

This certification will help you learn the Scrum framework and gain an understanding of team roles, events, and artifacts. The certification will help you:

Expand your career opportunities by adopting Agile practices
Demonstrate your attainment of core Scrum knowledge
Learn the foundation of Scrum and the scope of the role
Engage with Agile practitioners committed to continuous improvement

AWS Certified Solutions Architect/Associate

This certification is designed for individuals who perform a solutions architect role and have one or more years of hands-on experience in designing available, cost-efficient, fault-tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on AWS.

AWS Certified Developer/Associate

This certification is for individuals who perform roles in development and have one or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining an AWS-based application. This also demonstrates an understanding of core AWS services, uses, and basic AWS architecture best practices.

So, are you excited about earning these IT certifications and adding value to your career? Start your prep today with uCertify – an award-winning, e-learning platform that offers comprehensive courses that will help you prepare for these cert exams with its learning resources.

Why Does Your Company Need to Be Familiar With Project Management Software Today?

Do you believe that project management software is just an annoying business buzzword? Well, in fact, it’s not just a buzzword.

In today’s competitive business environment, project management software helps companies to engage employees, boost overall performance, and keep the project on time and under budget. If you want to learn more about why your company needs to be familiar with this type of advanced software, just keep reading.

1. Connect People In Your Workplace

To complete the project successfully, you should ensure that your team is connected. Why it’s so important? Because if no one in the team knows what others are doing, it’s impossible to deliver quality work on time and budget.

The project management platform works as the main hub of socializing and exchanging information. The platform shows team members what their colleagues are currently doing and on what tasks they will work next.

2. Improve Employee Performance

Project management software helps not only to enhance collaboration but also to delegate tasks in a more effective manner. It makes it easier for managers to track the progress of every team member and distribute workload evenly.

“Project management tools help to motivate employees to work harder. Since team members are aware of monitoring and tracking, they try to complete their tasks faster and better,” explains Rita Miller, a project manager at Studicus.

3. Complete Work On-time

Project management and time management go hand in hand. That is why project management software was primarily designed to solve time management issues and keep delays out of the way.

To prevent overdue and to keep every team member on board, this software allows sending real-time notifications and reminders. It helps to ensure that every single task, subtask, and individual assignment will be completed on time.

4. Stay Within A Given Budget

If a company can control the time spent on the project, it can also calculate billable hours and figure out how much exactly the project will cost.

“Using project management software, it’s easy to monitor the earned value, return on investment, and other indicators. It’s also easy to assess project health and prevent any issues before they happen,” says Joshua Ashton, a financial manager at BestEssayEducation.

5. Adjust To Changes Faster

Today, both small companies and big corporations face issues while adapting to change in the business environment. But fortunately, modern project management software can solve most of these issues and help the company to keep up with industry trends.

Using project management tools, you can determine which portion of the project carries the highest risk and define where you might need to allocate more time in the schedule. Besides, you can apply these tools to systemize knowledge in order to boost your efforts and overcome uncertainty.

Now you know why your company should use project management software. So don’t hesitate to take the next step! Chose software that suits your business and train your employees on how to use it.

Check Out The Popular PMO Training Trends

Organizations these days get a higher rate of project success by establishing a Project Management Office (PMO). The PMO within an organization is a department that sets and handles processes by which projects are managed.

The PMO increases the accuracy of projects within a defined resource, budget, and schedule. This leads to cost savings. Cost savings are specific when accuracy comes into the equation. A PMO also makes certain that organizations develop and apply process across the board which leads to enhancement in project management skills and uniformity in a project team. These processes develop through data collection and analysis, reporting, templates, communication, and more. A PMO helps in better decision making by connecting schemes together with the organization’s results that lead to success within their projects. PMO resolves an organization’s resourcing issues by examining the skills of the project managers. Its office has an overall view of an organization’s projects portfolio and therefore is able to support the high-level management team.

49% of PMOs provide project management training. Check out some of the popular PMO training trends and their percentage:

PM basics	85%
PM software and tools	67%
Leadership skills	55%
Advanced PM skills	51%
PMP prep	42%
Business alignment	34%
PM certificates	22%

So, it is very important for a PMO that their organization get tangible and meaningful business benefits. To achieve this, the office must not only need good processes and good people but also supporting technology. However, there are five biggest barriers to any PMO success:

Some PMOs have poor resource management capabilities
Values added by PMO are challenging to prove
PMO have not enough time and resources for strategic activities
PMOs are perceived as unnecessary overhead in certain organizations
PMOs have resistance to change within the organization

Therefore, when a PMO is introduced into an organization it is important that it is done in a manner that balances the existing structure of the organization. An effective PMO provides benefits, ensures efficiency, and will significantly improve project success rate. Want to learn more about PMOs skills and abilities? Check out the latest PMP certification course offered by uCertify.