Counting PMP experience part time on multiple projects

Question

I know you aren't allowed to claim hours for overlapping dates when you work full time because there are only 40 hours in a week. I wonder though how to document my situation. I usually have one big project and one small project going on at the same time. I spend 60% of my time on the big project and 40% on the small one, like this:

• Project A: 1/1/15 to 3/30/15, 60% of my time. Total possible hours = 503 * 60% = 302 qualifying hours.
• Project B: 2/1/15 to 2/28/15, 40% of my time. Total possible hours = 154 * 40% = 62 qualifying hours.
• Project C: 3/1/15 to 3/30/15, 40% of my time. Total possible hours = 166 * 40% = 66 qualifying hours.

In this case, should I report 503 hours for Project A and none for the others? 302 + 62 + 66 for all three projects? Or only 302 for A and none for B and C?

Answer 1

I cannot speak for PMI but I would advise to report what is factually correct and that, if audited, you can substantiate your claim. Rules get interpreted and applied differently by different people so it becomes a bit of a gamble as to whether or not someone at PMI will challenge you. You, however, have the greatest chance of prevailing the challenge if what you report actually happened. Stick to the truth.

Answer 2

If you're referring to the hours that you must have 'Led or Directed Projects' then it says you can use all of the hours from overlapping projects, but they will not recognize more than 40 hours/week.

Number of Hours that You Led or Directed Project

Consider all of the projects that you have worked on and identify how many hours you spent leading and directing the project. For this section of the application, if you worked on multiple projects at one time, all the hours count toward the total.

There is a separate metric, months of project experience, where you cannot include overlapping projects.

Number of Months of Project Management Experience

For each month in which you worked on multiple, overlapping projects, you can only count the time spent on ONE of those projects toward fulfilling your eligibility requirements. Using this example below, the time spent working on Project 1 from January–April would count as four months toward the eligibility requirement, while the time spent working on Project 2 during May–June would count as two months toward the eligibility requirement. However, you cannot count the time working on both projects during February–April twice. Therefore, Project 1 and Project 2 equal six months (January–June) of project management experience toward your eligibility requirement.

From the PMP Handbook, page 8.

So in your case, I would submit the hours for all three projects as you've listed them for the hours requirement, but you'll only be able to claim 3 months of project experience for this same time period.