What exactly makes someone a project management professional? This is not always an entirely easy question answer. On one hand the project management professional is any individual employee or team member who actually is involved in the management of any projects. This can be represented by the project team leader, the other individual members of the project team, or any other ancillary project team members. And while technically any professional employee who works on projects is a project management professional of sorts, the term project management professionally actually has a very specific and technical designation. The actual and literal meaning of project management professional refers specifically to a person or individual who has been deemed worthy of receiving the certification of project management professional (the official title is also known by the three letter anagram PMP) by the project management institute (also known by the 3 letter anagram PMI).
This term is defined in the 3rd edition of the PMBOK but not in the 4th.