From the Battlefield to the Boardroom — 2025 Update: Using Military Experience for the PMP® Application

Many veterans hear that project management is a very lucrative career after the military, and this is a true statement.  Yet many veterans don’t understand how to translate their experience into civilian terms. Even more, they don’t think they can earn the Project Management Professional (PMP ®) certification because they don’t meet the 36 to 60 months of experience to qualify. 

When our CEO, Tim Dalhouse, published 'How to Use Military Experience to Qualify for the PMP® Exam' in 2016, it became a cornerstone resource for helping military veterans translate their leadership experience into project management language. Nearly a decade later, PMI's certification landscape has evolved significantly — and with PMBOK® Guide 8th Edition launching January 13, 2026, this update from PM ProLearn brings that guidance to current standards.

What's Changed Since 2016

2016 (eBook Guidance)	2025 (Current PMI Process)
Five process groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing	Three domains: People, Process, Business Environment
Applicants tracked hours by domain	Applicants now record non‑overlapping months (hours no longer required)
PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition (process‑based)	PMBOK® Guide 7th Edition transitioning to 8th Edition (Jan 13, 2026)
Manual audits with signed letters	Digital DocuSign audits and POC verification
Short 350‑character narratives	200–500 word narratives (optimal: 250–450 words) with five required elements

This article/guide will walk through the foundational definitions of projects and project management, and highlight how these overlaps with military planning, operations and mission execution, and will provide a step-by-step framework on how to use this experience to fill out the PMP application. 

Veterans already have the core skills—they’re just described in military language. Use this guide to understand what a project is, the various project types, how military operations map to project management, and how to fill out your PMP application step-by-step.

1. What Is a Project — Military Edition

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), A project is defined as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” (Mission/Operation/Exercise/Inspection/Upgrade etc)

• A product that can be a component, an enhancement, or an end item itself

• A service or capability to perform a service (e.g., a business function supporting production or distribution)

• An improvement in existing product or service lines (e.g., a Six Sigma project to reduce defects)

• A result such as an outcome or document (e.g., research that develops knowledge to determine trends or process benefits)

  
  

Each project must have a start and end, deliver a unique outcome, and be performed to meet a specific objective.

The “project manager” is the person assigned by the organization, to lead the team and manage the resources and schedule in order to achieve the project objectives (Action officer). Note: you do not need to be called a PM to apply for the PMP certification.

Project management follows a consistent process: Initiating → Planning → Executing → Monitoring & Controlling → Closing.

Required Project Management Role Characteristics

Your role must demonstrate that you:

• Performed duties under general supervision and were responsible for all aspects of the project throughout its lifecycle

• Led and directed cross-functional teams to deliver projects within the constraints of schedule, budget, and resources

• Applied appropriate methodology to projects with reasonably well-defined requirements and deliverables, demonstrating sufficient knowledge and experience

  
  

2. Types of Projects — and Where Military Operations Fit

Projects typically fall into three separate categories of projects:

Predictive (traditional / waterfall): Scope/mission objective is fixed; cost/resources and schedule/time may flex. Used for well-defined efforts such as construction, procurement, or major organizational changes. (Think garrison operations and maintenance)

Adaptive (Agile / iterative): Time/schedule and cost/resource are fixed while scope is adjusted as work progresses. Ideal for dynamic or uncertain environments. (Think deployment or tactical execution)

Process Improvement (Agile or Waterfall): Project is focused on improving flow, removing waste, or improving quality through the removal of variation and error and increase in standardization. 

Military mapping: MDMP, MCPP, and JOPP align with all of these types of projects in various degrees. Rapid Response Planning Process (R2P2) follows more of an Agile approach. Strategic planning and garrison operational planning is typically more predictive.

Deployed operational and tactical (Day to day ops) planning are more adaptive as well as small unit leadership and staff operations. 

Admin and Logistics work and process planning can use a mix of both focused on process improvement or readiness improvements.

3. Military Activities That Are Projects (and Which Aren’t)

Examples that are projects:

• Planning for an conducting a Field Training Exercise

• Planning and preparation for a maintenance inspection

• Planning for and conducting a Deployment

• Implementing a new process

• Planning for and conducting an operation

• Planning for a Readiness Inspection

• Implementing a new piece of technology or software

• Developing a training plan or curriculum

• Planning a Birthday Ball

• Planning and conducting a change of command

• ITX/JRTC rotation

  
  

Routine tasks such as daily maintenance, watch standing, or recurring training without defined start and end points do not qualify as projects. These actions can be part of the project execution, but the initial project title must have a defined goal to achieve as well as a specific timeline. 

5. Step-by-Step PMP Application Process (start in word or excel and paste into PMI later)

1. Confirm that you have 35 hours of Project Management Education.  Without the education your experience will not count. It is recommended that you attend a 35-hour prep course with a veteran focused authorized training partner (ATP) so they can help you understand the parallel between PMP and military planning and ensure what you are learning is aligned to the actual exam.  As a veteran you can use Post 9/11 GI BILL ®, VR&E (VOC Rehab) along with a number of other programs. If you are active duty you may have access to Army CA, USCG CA, AF COOL, MyCAA or unit funds). 

   
   

Note: While the educational hours are not required to come from an ATP be warry of using college courses as your preparation as they are not standardized or always aligned to the PMBOK or PMI standard.

2. Determine how many months of projects you need for the application.  With a Bachelors Degree or higher you need 36 non-overlapping months. With a GED/H.S. diploma you need 60 non-overlapping months. (Military planning and execution will qualify even if you have never been called a project manager).

   
   

Note: All experience must be within the last 8 years. 

3. Gather orders, OERs, Awards, evals and identify points of contact (POCs).

   
   

Note: The POC is necessary incase you get audited.  If you are audited PMI will send a Docusign form to the POC to validate your experience.

4. Read through your work history gathered in step 3 and identify candidate projects with clear start/end and deliverables. Write these down (title and dates only for now). You do not need to write the narrative associated yet.  This is just about finding which projects you want to use. 

   
   

Note: If you have been working on one project for 36 or 60 months that is ok, but you may want to break it into phases (discussed later).

5. Identify the projects that will give you the required amount of time (without counting overlapping months).

   
   

Note: It is ok that projects overlap but when calculating months of experience you cannot count the same month on two projects.  See overlapping month graphic below.

6. Identify required project information: title (goal), org (who you did it for), role (your position), methodology (predictive, adaptive or hybrid), dates (start and end date month and year), budget (Operating cost and labor cost see calculating budget below).

   
   

   

   
   

7. Write the project narrative for each project using the PMPECO as a guide and tool (follow example below)

   
   

Note: Use PMI language, not military jargon.

8. Log Into PMI and begin copying and pasting information into the PMI application tool.

   
   

9. Verify non-overlapping months and totals.

   
   

10. Save and download your application and email to your POC’s to confirm contact information.

    
    

Note: it is recommended that you email your application to the POC and give them a heads up that you are applying for your PMP and that they may get an email asking them to validate your project experience.  Make sure you get a positive response from them and that they will support your narrative.  You will fail the audit if they do not respond on your behalf.

11.  Submit on PMI.org and monitor status.

Note: PMI will take up to 5 working days to respond and you will not get an automatic notification. You need to log in after a week to check.

12.  Prepare audit documentation if selected.

6. How to calculate project budget

Many military members never deal with budgets and costs but everything has a cost.  For most military member we immediately look at the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) budget which is what we use to calculate costs.  This is accurate and a part of the overall budget, but it is incomplete.  Other costs must include travel costs throughout the project, as well as labor costs.

Now you might think that there are no labor costs in the military but this is in fact false.  The unit doesn’t pay the cost but there is a cost for labor that you need to calculate. Even if your mission has no direct O&M costs or travel costs you will always have a labor cost.  (Keep this for your resume as well).

How do you calculate labor rates for a military unit? 

There is a simple aggregate formula that is recommended but will require you to pull some information.

• Total team size

• Average team rank

• Total project duration by months (might need to phase this out as the team grows)

• Monthly Base pay by rank

  
  

Now to calculate your project budget.

Team Size x project duration x base pay of average rank + O&M and travel = project budget

(see project example below for specifics)

7. How to write your Project Narrative (Using the PMPECO to Write Project Descriptions)

The project narrative is where you tell the story about your project.  It is important to note that this is YOUR story and not about your team.  It is asking you to validate your expertise as a project manager. There are a few initial sections that are unique and specific to you and your role.  In these sections it is important that you not use military acronyms. 

The PMP Exam Content Outline (PMPECO) organizes experience into three domains: People, Process, and Business Environment. As you write your application, it is advised that you pull specific tasks from the PMPECO that align with your project to ensure you are using proper terminology to describe your actions.  This is the best way to ensure you don’t use military jargon or acronyms. 

There are 7 sections to your narrative

These sections are:

1. Project Objective

   
   

2. Project Role

   
   

3. Key Deliverables

   
   

After you write these three sections, you can start to use the PMPECO to help gather the correct terms and context of your actions as they specifically relate to the three domains.

4. People Domain (3-4 Tasks)

   
   

5. Process Domain (3-4 Tasks)

   
   

6. Business Environment Domain (1-2 Tasks)

   
   

Finish your project narrative by writing an outcome or conclusion statement that summarizes the results of your project.  Successful or not successful is not as important as stating the result. 

7. Project Outcome

8. Example scenario

Military Field Exercise at JRTC (ARMY) or 29 Palms (USMC) for an infantry battalion to accomplish an increase in training readiness. Exercise Duration 4 weeks.

• Warno Received: April 2023.

• Exercise Dates: 1 Sept to 30 Sept 2024

• AAR and return from Post Exercise Leave finished 15 Oct 2024. 

• Role: Operations Officer/Chief

• Soldiers/Marines trained: 1200

• Ops Staff: 12

• Average Rank of Ops team:  E6 with Base pay of $4,085

• Average Rank unit: E5 with Base pay of $3,750

• O&M budget $2.2 Million

Project Duration: April 2023 to Oct 2024 = 19 Months of PM experience. Use 19 months total planning and execution for the staff for budget.  Budget for team use 1 month.

Budget Calculation

• O&M budget $2,200,000

• Planning Cell 12 x $4085 x 19 months = $931,380

• Unit: 1200 x $3750 x 1 months = $4,500,000

• Total budget = $7,631,381 which can be rounded to $7,600,000

Writing the Narrative:

1. Project Objective – State the intended unique objective of the project

   
   

The objective of the project was to ensure the organization could meet and exceed required performance standards ensuring they can execute required duties as a military unit as directed by the department of the Army.  

2. Project Role – State your role and responsibilities

   
   

As the project manager I was responsible for creating and developing the team, prioritizing and managing requirements, and working with stakeholders to meet project objectives.

3. Key Deliverables – State key deliverables of the project

   
   

The key deliverables for the project were the 4 week exercise schedule, resource management plan, equipment distribution plan, training objective list, project budget, risk management plan, and the training and development work up plan.   

4. People Domain – State what YOU did using 3-4 PMPECO People Domain Tasks

   
   

Throughout the project we worked with stakeholders by evaluating their engagement needs and aligning our communication modalities and frequency with team priorities, accounting for virtual member engagement. (T9,11) We continuously assessed team skills and job role alignment (T6).   

I built and worked with my team of 12 by selecting the right subject matter experts and planning around their strengths(T4). I provided them with a clear vision and mission (T2, T6) while continually surveying the team to gain consensus (T10).

5. Process Domain – State what YOU did using 3-4 PMPECO Process Domain Tasks

   
   

The planning of the project consisted of determining Army training requirements (T8), developing a hybrid multi phased approach (T13), and subdividing tasks to establish overarching schedule and resource management plan.  (T11).

While completing the project work, I built a comprehensive and integrated plan to enable performance measurement (T9), while also assessing opportunities to increase value or optimize the project and team (T1).

6. Business Environment Domain – State what YOU did using 1-4 PMPECO Business Environment Domain Tasks

   
   

Throughout the project we evaluated our best options to deliver value the organization and ensure our goals are achieved (T2) by analyzing real or potential changes to training requirements and scope of the project (T3) We also monitored the impact that training was having during work ups towards the final evaluation to assess any required actions (T4).  

7. Outcome Statement – State the outcome of the project, whether it was successful or unsuccessful and why.  Tie this statement back to your project objective statement.

   
   

The overall outcome of the project was a success, with the Project completed on time achieving 100% compliance and readiness through our evaluation.  We were certified deployable and able to perform our organizational requirements as of 1 Nov 2024.

9. Common Pitfalls and Tips

• Focus on what you personally did — not what 'we' did.

• Translate military terms into PMI language.

• Avoid double-counting overlapping months.

• Prepare POCs in advance for audits.

• Stop adding projects once you meet the minimum months required.

 

10. Next steps

If you are interested in taking a training course or have questions please fill out our form at pm-prolearn.com/enroll.  Application coaching and review are part of our training.

Multiple funding programs can be used for veterans and their families including GI BILL, Army CA, AF COOL, USCG CA, MyCAA, VR&E and unit funding. 

PM Training enhances military unit performance. 

Lets help you and your team today.