How Earning a CISSP Credential Can Turn You Into a Better Project Management Professional (PMP)

As technology evolves and corporate areas of focus shift, the most relevant and desirable certifications are changing. Cybersecurity is a primary area of focus for businesses today and the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) credential represents the gold standard of security certifications.

The CISSP cache is driven by the vendor-agnostic approach to cybersecurity execution and theory, as well as the difficulty of passing the actual exam. The exam can present as little as 100 or as many as 150 questions to the test-taker during a three-hour period and these questions are tailored around exam performance. Without a doubt, the preparation required for this exam is as wide-spanning and grueling as any certification or exam in information technology – the difficulty factor lives up to its billing. 

After earning the credential as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, work responsibilities for an IT consultant will likely shift towards a project management role. With this shift of responsibilities comes another “gold standard” certification, the Project Management Professional (PMP). Work that organizes, coordinates, tracks and ensures the delivery of large critical business outcomes for clients often dominates the personal success metrics of a PMP.  While awareness of Agile certifications has grown in recent years, the PMP remains the most widely recognized validation of one’s project management skillset. 

Two Threads Intertwined

On the surface, PMP and CISSP certifications appear to have little or nothing to do with each other. While it’s perfectly reasonable and logical that the average consultant hasn’t pursued expertise in these two disparate paths, this combination provides a unique efficiency and perspective for anyone who pursues them both.

1. Risk: Both the CISSP and the PMP force an examination of the intimate understanding and management of risk in information technology. The principles of each certification hone and tone an awareness and eye for identifying and approaching cyber risks in a manner that maximizes the potential for positive outcomes.

2. Increased peripheral vision: The deep dive that preparing for and acquiring each of these credentials requires forces the pursuer to expand their view of all the moving gears within a business and technology organization. Understanding the interdependencies of seemingly unrelated factors allows for the avoidance, management and proper handling of undesirable outcomes. 

3. Managerial perspective: Both credentials ideally prepare the pursuer for responsibilities with a breadth and scope that can be potentially transformational to an organization. Both deal with “the big picture” from an outcome standpoint, but also detail the way to get to that big picture outcome. 

Unique Perspective Yields High Value 

As anyone who pays attention to the nightly news can attest, cybersecurity threats are no longer the theoretical boogeyman hiding under the bed. Today, these threats are more like a guy in a hockey mask pounding on your door (with a very big and very menacing cyber-killing machete). 

Cybersecurity principles are becoming a necessary filter through which all technology decisions must now pass. Juxtapose that paradigm shift with the tried and true realities and challenges that all business leaders face: innovate while delivering outcomes on time and on budget. Having prepared for and acquired both the CISSP and the PMP, it’s easy to see that any IT professional holding these credentials is uniquely prepared to live in both of these complex and constantly changing worlds.