Projects are affected by constraints. Constraints may compete against one another.

If one of the
six primary constraints changes, others may (but don’t necessarily have to) also change. The
six constraints are as follows:
• Scope
• Risk
• Resources
• Quality
• Schedule
• Budget
These six constraints are based on the original triple constraint - scope, time, and cost. Think
about your current project. What would happen if a stakeholder wanted to add more scope?
Would you need to increase the budget, extend the schedule, etc.? A big part of project
management is managing change requests as they occur.

Progressive elaboration - allows for improving and adding detail to the plan as more
information becomes available. Adding additional objectives, requirements, or scope is not
considered progressive elaboration. Progressive elaboration is adding detail to what we
already have, not adding new objectives.
PLANNING - Knowledge and Skills

These ideas discussed below are based on information provided by the PMP® Exam Content

Outline (PMI®, June 2015) and may or may not be directly referenced in the PMBOK® Guide.

Change management planning – During the process develop project

management plan the project team develops both a change management plan and a

configuration management plan. Both of these plans are subsets of the project management

plan. Change management is a normal part of running a project and we should plan proactively

for change. When change requests occur, mostly as outputs from the executing and the

monitoring and controlling processes, a change management system should already be in place

to handle them.

Efficiency principles – Efficiency is creating output while employing the

minimum amount of input (resources and time). Efficiency is being able to produce an output

with in the minimum amount of time and utilizing the minimum amount of resources.

Efficiency is often confused with effectiveness. Effectiveness is doing the right things.

Efficiency is doing things in the right manor. In project management we think about efficiency

in many areas. For instance, in earned value management, we often use two measures of

efficiency: the schedule performance index (SPI) and cost performance index (CPI).

Lean principles – In Lean production, we focus on the pursuit of perfection by

systematically and continuously identifying and eliminating waste.

Five principles of lean thinking:

1. Identify customers and specify value - Define value from the point-of-view of

your end customers and then target removal of all non-value activities

2. Identify and map the value stream, the entire process that delivers value to the

customer

3. Create flow by eliminating waste - Eliminate elements of the value stream that do

not add value to the customer’s product(s)

4. Respond to customer pull - Understand customer demand and create a process

that meets this demand

5. Pursue perfection - Work toward making every asset and every action add value

to the end-customer’s product

Lean project management principles – Lean project management

is the creation of customer value with the least waste of resources in the shortest amount of

time.

Seven principles of lean project management:

1. Eliminate waste – Among the many types of waste are wasted time and effort at

handoffs between team members.

2. Empowerment, respect and integrity – For example, functional managers can

empower team members to represent their function on the project team

3. Decide later - Make decisions as late as possible. For example, groom the

backlog as late as possible.

4. Deliver fast - Break a project into a series of smaller, more easily achievable

interconnected projects so as to deliver value earlier in the project. Perform

active pipeline management.

5. Amplify learning - Plan for training. Communicate often, get feedback and learn

from it.

6. Optimize the whole - View the whole project as more than the sum of its parts.

Determine how the project aligns with the whole organization.

7. Build quality in - Ensure quality throughout the life of the project and not just at
the end. For example, through refactoring, - restructure existing code to improve

readability and reduce complexity.

Regulatory impacts assessment planning – Regulatory actions

may affect project objectives and deliverables. The PMBOK® Guide includes regulations

from government regulatory agencies and classifies them as “government standards” among

enterprise environmental factors. These items should be planned for over the life of the

project. Regulatory compliance can often necessitate a tremendous amount of documentation

which can take time, money and resources to produce. Therefore, the project plan should

include a regulatory impacts assessment.

Environmental impacts assessment planning – The project

team should assess the impacts the environment may have on the project and the impacts the

project may have on the environment. Projects impacts can be social, economic, or

environmental and cant long outlive the life of the project. Again the project team should

assess these impacts as part of project planning.

Scope backlog – In the agile SCRUM model there are two types of backlogs.

1. The product backlog - This is a prioritized list of all the work that needs to

happen to deliver the product. The list is a living document and may be

continuously updated. Some important terms in backlog management are the

following:

a. Backlog refinement (sometimes called “grooming” the backlog)

i.Deleting non-relevant user stories

ii.Adding or splitting user stories

iii.Refining estimates

iv.Etc.

b. The product owner usually has authority to update the product backlog

2. The sprint backlog, which is a subset of the product backlog, that includes all the

work expected to be completed in the current sprint.

a. The sprint backlog should be very visible

b. The team has authority to update the sprint backlog