This is a quick refresher guide for the PMI certified PMP exam.  I’ve broken it down according to the knowledge areas to make it easy to quickly look up information on any particular knowledge area. 

Organizations, Projects and Process Groups: -

v  The triple constraint triangle

                                                                         Time

 

 

 

                                                Cost                                            Scope

 

v  Organizations can be of three types as follows

Ø   Functional -> In this case operations hold more importance than projects.  The organization structure includes several functional heads, who are responsible for that particular department.  The level of communication required for a project is minimal and all decisions/requests need to go through the functional heads

Ø  Projectized ->  This is well suited to projects and project management.  Teams are formed as required for projects and once completed, they are dispersed to form other teams as required.

Ø  Matrix.  This is a combination of the two above. The matrix organization type can be further divided into weak, balanced and strong matrix.

v  Project expeditors have no real authority and only keep status tabs.  Project coordinators have slightly more authority than expeditors to make minor decisions and usually report to someone higher up in the organization. Both exist in a week matrix organization.

v  Portfolios are collection of programs and projects that meet a specific business needs/goal. The objective of any program/project in a portfolio is to meet the strategic objectives of the portfolio which in turn meets the objective of the enterprise.

v  Programs are groups of related projects that are managed using the same technology in a coordinated fashion and capitalize on benefits that wouldn’t be achievable if projects were managed separately.

v  The Project Management Office (PMO) is a centralized organization unit to oversee management of projects and programs in the organization. Also called program management office, project office or program office.

v  A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to produce a unique product, service or result. Operations on the other hand are ongoing. 

v  A project is usually divided into phases. A project life cycle defines the phases in a project. At a minimum every project will have an initiation phase, one or more intermediate phases and an ending phase.  At completion of each phase, you will have one or more deliverables.  Phase-end reviews are conducted at the end of each phase, with the goal of obtaining authorization to close current phase and move to the next one. Phase-end reviews are also called phase exits, phase gates or kill points.

v  A product life cycle includes the project life cycle within in.  In a product life cycle, you usually start with a Business Plan, followed by the idea which then starts off the project.  Once the project life cycle is completed, the final product/service/result forms part of the operations.  This could be followed by one or more upgrades which again go into the idea, followed by the project life cycle and the final result in a circular fashion.  This continues till the product is divested.

v  Process groups divide up the Project Management processes by function or kind of work.  Knowledge areas divide up processes by subject matter. 

v  You have five process groups – Initiation, Planning, Executing, Monitor and Control, Closing.

v  There are nine knowledge areas – Scope Management, Time Management, Cost Management, Quality Management, Human Resource Management, Risk Management, Quality Management, Communication Management and Integration Management.

v  A process is a set of actions taken to achieve a desired objective.

v  The level of uncertainty is highest at the start of the project and falls as you reach the end of the project. The fall is a result of risk planning that is undertaken during the project. There is always a risk factor associated with a project. This risk factor exists as long as the project continues and never really goes away.

v  A Stakeholder is a person or organization who can influence the outcome of your project

 

 

Integration Management: -

 

v  Integration management means making sure all the processes work together seamlessly to make your project successful

v  Work authorization system is a part of Enterprise Environmental Factors. It defines how work is assigned to people and ensures that tasks are done properly and in the right order.

v  You always begin dealing with a change by consulting your project management plan.

v  The project manager has to be assigned ideally when the charter is being created and definitely before the

v  The project charter officially starts the project and authorises the Project Manager to assign work, use resources and spend money on the project.  It contains the following information

Ø  Project Description

Ø  Project Requirements

Ø  Assigned Project manager and authority level

Ø  External constraints and assumptions

Ø  Summary milestone schedule

Ø  Summary Budget

Ø  Business Case for the project

Ø  Project justification

Ø  Stakeholder influences

v  The two categories of project selection methods are Benefit Measurement method (or Constrained Optimization method) and Mathematical method.

v  The benefit measurement methods or comparative approach may be one of the following

Ø  Weighted Scoring Models

Ø  Benefit – Cost Ratio (only consider projects where the BCR > 1)

Ø  Payback Period (period of time when revenue = initial investment)

Ø  Discounted Cash flow (Present Value (PV) = FV / (1 + i)ⁿ  where FV is the Future Value of the project, i is the interest rate and n is the number of years.  You select the project with the highest value for PV)

Ø  Net Present Value (this is the PV with costs included)

Ø  Internal Rate of Return (this is the discounted rate when NPV = 0)

v  The Preliminary scope statement defines the project and its needs.  It includes the following information

Ø  Product and Project objectives

Ø  Product and Project requirements

Ø  Project boundaries

Ø  Project deliverables

Ø  Initial Project Organization

Ø  Initial Risks

Ø  External Constraints and Assumptions

Ø  Acceptance Criteria

Ø  Approval Requirements

Ø  Initial Order of Magnitude (or your rough budget)

Ø  Summary milestones

v  The Close Project process includes finalizing all actions completed across all Project Managements process groups to formally close the project or phase and transfer the completed or cancelled project as appropriate.

 

Scope  Management: -

v  The Scope Management process group covers what work will be and will not be done as part of the project

v  The processes within scope management include the following

Process Name	Process Group	Main Output
Scope Planning	Planning	Scope Management Plan
Scope Definition	Planning	Project Scope Statement
Create WBS	Planning	Scope Baseline
Scope Control	Monitor and Control	Requested CRs
Scope Verification	Monitor and Control	Accepted Delivery

 

v  Bad changes to your scope always affect the triple constraint.  These can include Scope Creep and Gold Plating

v  Scope Management plan tells you how to define the scope, create the WBS, verify scope and control changes to scope

v  Inspection is also called reviews, product reviews, audits or walkthroughs

v  The WBS can be structured based on project phases or deliverable.  It depends on how things are done at your organization

v  The project scope statement, WBS and the WBS dictionary together form the scope baseline

v  The following steps take place when change is required

Ø  Identify that a change is needed

Ø  Create the change request

Ø  Send it to the Integrated Change Control process to get approved (or rejected)

Ø  Do variance analysis by comparing actual against baseline

Ø  Re-plan the work

Ø  Create a new baseline

 

Time Management: -

v  The processes within the Time Management process group include the following

Process Name	Process Group	Main Outputs
Activity Definition	Planning	Activity List + Activity Attributes + Milestone List
Activity Sequencing	Planning	Activity Schedule Network Diagrams
Activity Resource Estimating	Planning	Activity Resource Requirements, Resource Calendars, Resource Breakdown Structure
Activity Duration Estimating	Planning	Activity Duration Estimates
Schedule Development	Planning	Project Schedule + Schedule Model Data + Schedule Baseline
Schedule Control	Monitor and Control	Performance Measurements

 

v  Planning Components could be either Control Accounts or Planning Packages.  The control accounts are at a higher level in the WBS and are used for accounting purposes. The planning packages is at a level between control accounts and work packages. They are used for planning known work content that does not have detailed schedule activities.

v  GERT is a technique to create schedule network diagrams. It follows a flowchart model. You can have repeated activities or loops unlike in a PDM/ADM.

v  The following are the different dependency types

Ø  Mandatory Dependency or Hard Logic.  This is a fixed relations between two activities and cannot be changed

Ø  Discretionary Dependency or Preferred Logic or Preferential Logic or Soft Logic.  This implies that activities do not have any relationship as such and so for the sake of the schedule diagram, you impose a relation.

Ø  External Dependencies. This is when an activity depends of an external factor. These are normally included as milestones and are treated as constraints.

v  PERT technique for 3-point estimates

Ø  Expected Time (T_e) = (T_o + 4T_m + T_p) / 6, where T_o is the optimistic time, T_m is the most likely time and T_p is the pessimistic time

Ø  Standard Deviation = (T_o – T_p) / 6

Ø  Variance = (Standard Deviation ) ²

v  Schedule Network Analysis is a technique that generates the project schedule. It employs a schedule model and various analytical techniques such as critical path, critical chain method, what-if analysis and resource levelling to develop the schedule

v  When trying to come up with the critical path, use the following formulas

Ø  EF = ES + D – 1, where EF is the Earliest Finish, ES is the Earliest Start and D is the duration

Ø  LS = LF – D + 1, where LS is the Latest Start, LF is the Latest Finish and D is the duration

Ø  ES or the Earliest Start date is the highest date from the immediate predecessor + 1

Ø  LF or Latest Finish date is the lowest date from immediate successor – 1

Ø  Total Float = LS – ES ( or it could be LF – EF)

Ø  Free Float is the difference between EF of an activity and ES of its successor

Ø  In a critical path method, you calculate ES and EF during the forward pass and the LS and LF on the backward pass. The critical path is the path with 0 (or negative float). It is also the one with the longest duration

v  There are two Schedule Compression Techniques

Ø  Crashing - > This is done by applying more resources to the project.  This always increases the cost of the project

Ø  Fast Tracking -> This is done by performing activities in parallel rather than wait for the predecessor to finish.  This method increases the risk of the project

v  A project schedule can be represented in a tabular format or graphically which is more common using either Project Schedule Network Diagrams, Bar Charts or Milestone Charts.

v  The activity list is used in the schedule model and is the component of the Project Management Plan

v  Portions of a schedule network diagrams are often referred to as sub-network or fragment network

 

Cost Management: -

v  The processes within Cost Management include the following

Process Name	Process Group	Main Outputs
Cost Estimating	Planning	Actual Cost Estimate + Cost Estimate Supporting Detail
Cost Budgeting	Planning	Cost Baseline + Project Funding Requirements
Cost Control	Monitor and Control	Performance Measurements + Forecasted Completion

 

v  Rough order of magnitude estimate has a range of -50% to +100%

v  Life-cycle costing is the estimates of the project maintenance phase

v  Parametric estimating is used in both Cost Estimating and Cost Budgeting

v  Performance Measurement Analysis is one of the tools and techniques of Cost Control and is done using Earned Value Technique

v  Few of the formulas under Cost Control are

Ø  Planned Value (PV) is the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS)

Ø  Earned Value (EV) is the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP)

Ø  Actual Cost (AC) is the Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP)

Ø  Cost Variance (CV) = EV – AC

Ø  Schedule Variance (SV) = EV – PV

Ø  Cost Performance Index (CPI) = EV / AC.  If CPI = 1 we are on target.  If CPI < 1 we are over budget. If CPI > 1 we are under budget

Ø  Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = EV / PV.  If SPI = 1 we are on schedule. If SPI < 1 we are behind schedule. If SPI > 1 we are ahead of the schedule

v  Forecasting is another tool and technique of Cost Control and uses information collected to estimate future performance of project. It use the Estimated Time to Complete (ETC) and Estimate At Completion (EAC)

Project Start                                           Current point in Project                           Project End

 

                                Actual Cost (AC)                                                               ETC

Ø  EAC = AC + ETC, if original estimates were flawed

Ø  EAC = AC + (BAC – EV), where BAC = Budget at Completion which is the original budget and EV is the Earned Value.  The value of BAC – EV in the formula forms the value of ETC in this case. This form of the formula is used when the variances are not typical and are not expected to continue

Ø  EAC = AC + (BAC – EV)/CPI.  The value of (BAC – EV)/CPI is the value of ETC here.  This form of the formula is used if current variances are expected to continue

Ø  VAC = BAC – EAC, where VAC is the Variance at Completion. If VAC < 1, it is considered unfavourable.

v  A project can have two types of reserves. The Contingency Reserve is used when estimating costs and form part of the cost baseline.  These are used to respond to Known Unknowns. The Management Reserve is set as a reserve by management to deal with Unknown Unknowns i.e. risks that haven’t been identified. They do not form part of the cost baseline.

 

Quality Management: -

v  The processes that form part of the Quality Management knowledge area includes the following

Process Name	Process Group	Main Outputs
Quality Planning	Planning	Quality Management Plan + Checklist + Metrics + Process Improvement Plan
Perform Quality Control	Monitor and Control	Quality Control Measurements + Validated Deliverables + Defect Repairs
Perform Quality Assurance	Executing

v   

v  Quality measures how well your product meets its requirements, whereas Grade describes how much people value a product

v  Concepts of quality include

Ø  Customer Satisfaction -> Making sure the customer is happy with what they get.  It should satisfy both implicit and explicit requirements

Ø  Fitness to Use -> Ensuring that the product uses the best design possible

Ø  Conformance to Requirements -> Customer Satisfaction + Fitness to Use

v  The better the quality planning, the less inspection you have to do.

v  Quality Management Plan is the main tool for preventing defects in your project

v  The seven basic tools/pillars of quality are the following

Ø  Control charts

Ø  Cause and Effect diagrams (Also called Ishikawa or Fishbone diagram)

Ø  Flowcharts

Ø  Pareto Charts (based on the 80-20 rule)

Ø  Histograms

Ø  Run Charts

Ø  Scatter Charts

v  In the Quality Planning process, you figure out how to manage quality related activities, how you will measure quality and prevent defects.

v  Perform Quality Control process is where you look at all your deliverables and inspect them for defects

v  Perform Quality Assurance process is where you check to see if you are working as efficiently as possible by checking your processes and with as few defects as possible.  It also checks if you are following all company quality policies.

 

Procurement Management: -

v  The processes within the Procurement Management knowledge are

Process Name	Process Group	Main Outputs
Plan Purchases and Acquisition	Planning	Procurement Management Plan + Contract SoW + Make/Buy Decisions
Plan Contracting	Planning	Procurement Documents + Evaluation criteria
Request Seller Response	Executing	Procurement Document Package + Qualified Sellers List + Proposals
Select Sellers	Executing	Selected Sellers + Contract + Contract Management Plan + Resource Availability
Contract Administration	Monitor and Control	Contract Documents
Contract Closure	Closing	Closed Contracts

 

v  Union contracts are called Collective Bargaining Agreements. You must consider unions as a stakeholder and any union rules and agreements as your project constraints

v  You have several different contract types including

Ø  Fixed Price or Lump-Sum Contracts. These type of contract could be either Fixed Price (FF) or Fixed Price Plus Incentive Fee (FFIF)

Ø  Cost-Reimbursable or Cost-Plus contracts. These could be one of the following -> Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF), Cost Plus Percentage of Costs (CPPC), Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF)

Ø  Time and Materials Contract. This is usually used for labour contracts. 

v  The relation between the contract type and the risk for the buyer and seller are as follows

High                                                                               Buyer                                                                                                                                                                                    Low  

 Cost Plus %                        Cost Plus Fixed                  Cost Plus Incentive                          Fixed Plus Incentive                Fixed Price

Low                                                                                Seller                                                                                                                                                                             High

v  You also need to be aware of the following terms w.r.t. procurement

Ø  RFP – This is a Request For Proposals

Ø  IFB – Invitation for Bid

Ø  IFQ – Invitation For Quotes.  This is used for fixed-price contracts

Ø  Force Majeure – This is a kind of contract clause that says that if something like war, riot or natural disaster occurs, you will be excused from the terms of the contract

Ø  Point of Total Assumption – This is the point where the seller assumes the costs.  In a fixed price contract, if the costs are overrun so much that a seller runs out of money from the contract and has to pay costs themselves.

v  Consideration is another term for Payment

v  Performance Reviews are about the work, whilst Inspection/Audits are about the deliverables and products

v  Time and Materials contracts are typically used when scope of work is unclear, the buyer wants more control or work is required to start immediately.

v  The qualified sellers list includes those sellers who are asked to submit a proposal or quotation

v  Procurement Documentation Package is a buyer-prepared formal request sent to each seller and is the basis upon which a seller prepares a bid.

v  Contract Close process supports the Close Project process, since it includes verification that all work and deliverables were acceptable. It also involves admin acts such as updating records and archiving information. The output of Contract Closure process is a closed contract, in which a buyer provides the seller with formal written notice that the contract has been completed.

               

Communications Management: -

v  Processes within Communication Management knowledge are include

Ø  Communications Planning  - Planning Process Group

Ø  Information Distribution     - Executing Process Group

Ø  Performance Reporting      - Monitor and Control Process Group

Ø  Manage Stakeholders         - Monitor and Control Process Group

v  Communication Types include the following

Ø  Formal Written     - project documents, specifications, contracts etc

Ø  Informal Written    - Email, sticky notes

Ø  Formal Verbal         - presentations, prepared speech

Ø  Informal Verbal     - meetings, hallway chats

v  Communications plans includes the following information

Ø  Event    - example status meetings, budget reports

Ø  Rationale    - why you are doing it

Ø  Frequency  - how often does this occur

Ø  Deliverable – actual deliverable such as reports, meeting minutes etc

v  Number of lines of communication for n people = n (n – 1) / 2 

v  Conflict Resolution techniques include the following

Ø  Confrontation or Problem-solving

Ø  Compromise

Ø  Smoothing

Ø  Forcing

Ø  Withdrawal

v  Reasons for conflicts in order of occurrence probably 

Ø  Schedule

Ø  Priority

Ø  Resources

Ø  Technical Beliefs

Ø  Administrative policies and procedures

Ø  Costs

Ø  Personalities

 

Human Resource Management: -

v  Process within Human Resource Management knowledge area includes the following

Ø  Human Resource Planning   - Planning Process Group

Ø  Acquire Project Team       - Executing Process Group

Ø  Develop Project Team      - Executing Process Group

Ø  Manage Project Team      - Monitor and Control Process Group

v  Human Resource Planning gives you the Staffing Management Plan, Organisation Chart and Roles & Responsibilities (example the RACI Matrix). The staffing management plan can include the Resource Histograms, training needs, rewards and recognition and the release criteria.

v  You can have five kinds of power

Ø  Legitimate

Ø  Reward power

Ø  Expert power

Ø  Referent power

Ø  Punishment power

v  There are different motivation theories including

Ø  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Ø  Herzberg’s Motivation

Ø  Expectancy Theory

Ø  McLelland’s Achievement Theory

v  Team Performance Assessments, which is the output of the Develop Project Team process, can have the following information  - Competencies/Skill Improvements, Team Performance and Turnover rate.

v  All newly formed teams go through four stages of development

Ø  Forming. This is the initial stage. Here the team members are formal and reserved and have just formed the team

Ø  Storming. This is the next stage.  Team members are confrontational and are trying to be the top dog

Ø  Norming. In this stage, members are comfortable with each other and affectionate with each other.  They concentrate more on the project problems rather than personal problems

Ø  Performing.  This is where you want your team to be.  The team in this stage is productive and effective and make a great team.

 

Risk Management: -

v  Processes within Risk Management knowledge area include

Ø  Risk Management Planning    - Planning Process Group

Ø  Risk Identification                       - Planning Process Group

Ø  Qualitative Risk Analysis          - Planning Process Group

Ø  Quantitative Risk Analysis       - Planning Process Group

Ø  Risk Response Planning           - Planning Process Group

Ø  Risk Monitoring and Control  – Monitor and Control Process Group

v  The Risk Identification, Qualitative Risk Analysis and Quantitative Risk Analysis processes together form Rick Assessment.

v  The Risk Management Plan includes risk categories, risk breakdown structure (RBS), guidelines on probability and Impact of risks, who will take responsibility, how often risk planning is to be done etc

v  Information Gathering techniques for Risk Identification includes

Ø  Brainstorming

Ø  Delphi technique

Ø  Interviews

Ø  SWOT Analysis

Ø  Root-cause identification

v  Tornado diagrams are used to look at a project’s sensitivity to just one risk factor and is a sensitivity analysis method

v  Decision Tree analysis is a way of doing Earned Monetary Value (EMV) analysis.  EMV of each risk = probability * Impact.  This value is negative for risk and positive for an opportunity

v  Total EMV = Sum of EMV for each risk

v  Strategies for risk responses include the following

Ø  Negative Risk  - Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate

Ø  Positive Risk or Opportunity – Exploit, Share, Enhance

Ø  Both Positive and Negative Risk also include the strategy of Acceptance

v  Management Reserves are used to handle unknown unknowns whereas contingency reserves are used to handle known unknowns.