PMP Key Notes

Projects
Project – A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or
a result
Project Management – Using knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to satisfy
project requirements. Management is to control
Programme – a group of related projects, subprograms, and program activities
managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them
individually. A Programme has a vision of strategic objective
Portfolio - is a collection of projects or programs and other work grouped together to
facilitate effective management of that work to meet the strategic business
objectives.

Roles
Project Sponsor – Provides funding for project and provides support to the PM
Programme Manager – Manages Programmes
Functional Manager – Normally a department manager who owns resources/staff
Project Coordinator – Can make some decisions reports to PM
Customer – Receiver of the projects deliverable or results or user
Corporate – The Busines who appoints the sponsor and is external to the PMT
Stakeholders – Anyone who can be affected or can affect the project objectives

Common Techniques
Inputs – Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF), Organizational Process Assets
(OPA), Project Management Plan, Work
Performance Data, Work Performance Info, Work Performance Reports
Tools & Techniques – Expert Judgement, Project Management Info System
(PMIS), Meetings, Facilitation Techniques,Analytical Techniques
Outputs – Change Requests, Updates to PM Plan and PM Document updates,
Work Performance info, Work Performance Reports

Types of Organisations
Functional – An organization grouped by departments with different functional areas
Projectized – An organization structured by the projects they run
Weak Matrix – PM has limited power and authority. PM has part time role no staff
reports to him/her
Balanced Matrix – Power and authority are shared between the functional
managers and the project managers
Strong Matrix - Most of the power and authority is held by project manager

Integration
Integration management is a collection of processes required to ensure that the
various elements of the projects are properly coordinated. It involves making trade-
offs among competing objectives and alternatives to meet or exceed stakeholder
needs and expectations.
Project Charter – Identifies and authorizes the PM to run the project and expend
resources to achieve project objectives, may include high level requirements, budget
and milestones
Business Case – Explains the business justification for the project to determine if
the project is warranted
PM Plan – A single, formal document describing how the project will be managed,
executed and controlled see table above Key Terms
Work Authorization System – Used by the PM and his/her designees in order
ensure all the work is done at the right time and in the proper sequence
Change Requests – Approved or Rejected in the Perform Integrated Change
Control Process, PM influences factors that cause change always assessing the
impact of that change on the project baselines

Scope
Group Creativity Techniques – Brainstorming, Nominal group technique, Delphi
technique and mind mapping
Delphi Technique – Collecting expert advice anonymously to avoid biasing opinions
within the team and group think
Nominal Technique – Ideas are brainstormed and voted upon and then ranked by
priority
Group Decision Making Techniques – Unanimity, majority, consensus, plurality,
and dictatorship
Project Scope Statement – Document which gives requirements, objectives,
deliverables, boundaries and acceptance
Scope Creep – Uncontrolled changes to the project which are not approved
WBS – A hierarchal diagram which shows deliverables in more details as they are
decomposed to the lowest level
WBS Dictionary – describes the work to be completed for each of the work packages
in the WBS
Decomposition – A tool and technique of create WBS, breaking down scope from
larger into smaller manageable items
Product Scope – Describes all the features of the products being produced and is
measured against requirements
Project Scope – Describes all the features of the entire project and is measure
against the project management plan
Scope Baseline – Comprised of 3 pieces. The WBS, WBS dictionary and the Scope
statement and all approved changes

Schedule
Project Schedule management is managing the processes to ensure timely
completion of a project. Schedule management plan is a component of overall
project management plan in which the project timeline is analyzed and developed for
the completion of a project or deliverable.
Network Diagram – A diagram that represents the project activities in the order they
must be completed according to the Project Schedule and supporting successful
completion of the work to be performed
Precedence Diagramming Method – A Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM),
which is sometimes also known as the Activity on Node (AON) Diagramming
Method, is a graphical representation technique, which shows the inter-
dependencies among various project activities
Free Float – the amount of time a scheduled activity can be delayed without
delaying the start of subsequent activity
Total Float – The amount of time an activity can be delayed with effecting the
project completion date

Critical Path – Longest path through the network and shortest path to project
completion.
Critical Path Method – an analysis of the schedule to determine the critical path
Critical Chain Method – Schedule management centered on managing schedule
buffers and continually applying resources

Lead – Starting an activity prior to the finish of an activity before it Key Terms
Lag – Delaying the start of an activity after the activity before it completed

Estimating Techniques –
Analogous estimating – need similar project info
bottom up estimating need WBS to then cost each task and add up
three point estimating O + M + P/3
Parametric – Unit cost eg £10 per m
Resource Optimization – Smoothing or leveling resources to do load balancing
Schedule Compression – Crashing or Fast Tracking the schedule to get activities
done faster
Crashing the Schedule – Adding resources to activity to complete faster this
method adds cost to the project
Fast Tracking the Schedule – Doing activities in parallel to complete them faster
adds risk to the project
Milestone Chart – Like a bar chart but only illustrating major project events
Schedule Baseline – A schedule baseline (sometimes referred to as a target
baseline) is the original approved project schedule, which is agreed by project
stakeholders before the project starts
Gantt Chart - Time phased display of project activities, start dates, end dates and
durations

Cost
Cost management is the process of planning and controlling the budget of a project.
It includes planning, estimating, budgeting, funding, managing, and controlling costs
so that the project can be completed within the approved budget.
Life Cycle Costing – The total cost of ownership (TCO) from cradle to grave with
Project

Value Engineering – making sure you get the most value out of a project or finding
less costly ways to do things
Cost Baseline – All the costs that will be incurred over the project lifecycle often
represented with the S curve
Earned Value Management –Project management technique for measuring project
performance
Planned Vs. Actual – Analyzing the funds that were planned for spending versus
the amount that was spent
Variance Analysis – Analyzing and understanding any delta between what was
planned and what was actually spent
Cost Aggregation – Rolling up costs from the work packages on the WBS to gain
overall project cost estimate
Management Reserve – Funds set aside to handle any unplanned or unforeseen
expenses

Quality
The processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality
policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for
which it was undertaken
Prevention over Inspection – Prevention over inspection is the common-sense
principal that the cost of preventing mistakes is generally much less than the cost of
correcting them
TQM – A core definition of total quality management (TQM) describes a
management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. In a
TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes,
products, services, and the culture in which they work.
Kaizen –refers to activities that make small improvements continuously
JIT –Just In Time . Amount of inventory is close to zero. The inputs are made
available, just when they are required. This reduces the storage cost.
Six Sigma – Quality process targeting near perfect processes only 3.4 defects in
one million (99.99978%)
Standard Deviation – A range of outcomes, the average difference from the mean,
calculated as square root of variance Key Terms. In statistics, the standard deviation
is a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A low
standard deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean of the set,
while a high standard deviation indicates that the values are spread out over a wider
range
Control Chart – Graphic display of the results over a time to determine if the
process is "in control". The control chart is a graph used to study how a process
changes over time. Data are plotted in time order. A control chart always has a
central line for the average, an upper line for the upper control limit, and a lower line
for the lower control limit. These lines are determined from historical data.

Run Chart – a line graph that shows data points plotted in the order in which they
occur over time

Scatter Diagram - shows pattern of relationship between two variables to identify

the possible relationships observed Cause and effect Diagram – Illustrate how
various factors might be linked to potential problems or effects.
Paratoe

Histograms

Cause Effect
 Quality vs. Grade – Quality is the degree to which the product meets the customer
or end-user requirements whereas grade is a category assigned to products that
have the same functional use but different technical characteristics. High grade does
not imply high quality.
Quality Audits – A management led structured review of quality management
activities. A well-led quality audit will independently determine if a project activity
complies with the policies, procedures, and processes of the organisation or project.
A quality audit is a documented assessment that will reveal a level of conformance
or non-conformance to requirements of a system, process or product.
Quality Facts
Quality is a conformance to requirements and a fitness for use. It is
fulfilling the project scope.
Grade is a category or rank given to entities having the same
functional use but different technical characteristics.
Gold plating is the process of adding extra features to drive up costs
and consume the budget.
Quality assurance is a prevention-driven process to do the project work
right the first time.
Quality control is an inspection-driven process to keep mistakes from
entering the customers’ hands.
Scope creep is the addition of small, undocumented changes that
bypass the scope change control
system. Scope creep is sometimes called project poison.
Cost of poor quality, also known as the cost of nonconformance to
quality, is the cost of not
achieving quality: rework, loss of life or limb, loss of sales.
Prevention aims to keep errors out of the process.
Inspection aims to keep errors away from customers.
Attribute sampling shows if the results conform to requirements or not.
Variable sampling shows the
degree of conformity.
Tolerances demonstrate the range of acceptable results.

Resource Management
Conflict Resolution Techniques

There are five conflict management techniques that you need to know for the PMP
exam. Collaborate/Problem Solve is always the best one. If you can, collaborate and
problem solve. (You don’t really need to memorize that one — it makes intuitive sense.)
Here are the conflict management techniques for the PMP exam:

 Withdraw/Avoid – This techniques involves ignoring the problem until someone else
solves it.
 Smooth/Accommodate – This solution focuses on the area where folks agree and kind
of just ignores the places they disagree, in the interest of positive relationships.
 Compromise/Reconcile – Get folks to agree on something so that the conflict is
partially resolved.
 Force/Direct – Use your power as the PM to tell your project members what to today.
 Collaborate/Problem Solve – Work together to solve the problem and ensure that the
entire team is on board with the solution.

Organizational Breakdown Structure – A depiction of the project organization

arranged so (OBS) as to relate work packages to organizational units.
Project Management Team –Members of project team directly involved in project
management activities
Team Conflicts – Conflicts in the team are caused due to resources, priorities,
schedules and technology
Problem Solving Techniques – Problem solving, compromise, withdrawing, forcing
and smoothing
Emotional Intelligence There are many different components that come together to
determine the success of a project, and one of these is emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is when you are able to demonstrate emotions, empathize
with others, and make decisions using multi-level awareness
Project Managers Power – Formal, legitimate or expert
Organizational Theories – MacLellan’s theory of needs, Theory X/Y, Herzberger,
Maslow’s Hierarchy
Constructive Team Roles – Initiators, Information seeker/giver, Summarizer, Gate
Keeper
Destructive Team Roles – Aggressors, blockers, withdrawers, devil’s advocate
Staffing Management Plan – subset of HR plan, describes how team will be
staffed, trained and released
RACI Chart – Describes who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed
on project activities
Responsibility Assignment Matrix – A Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)
describes the participation by various organizations, people and roles in completing
tasks or deliverables for a project. It's used by the Program Manager (PM) in
clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional team, projects and processes.
A matrix showing the WBS and the OBS
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow believed that we have five needs; we’re on a quest to
satisfy these needs. The needs are,
from the bottom up:
1. Physiological. We need air, food, clothing, and shelter.
2. Safety. We need safety and security.
3. Social. We need friends, approval, and love.
4. Esteem. We need respect, appreciation, and approval.
5. Self-actualization. We need personal growth, knowledge, and
fulfillment.

Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation

There are hygiene agents and motivating agents. Hygiene agents
are expectations for employment:
paycheck, insurance, safe working environment. Motivating agents
are motivators for employees
such as bonuses, career advancement, opportunity to grow.
Hygiene agents will not motivate, but
their absence will de-motivate.

Halo Effect
All opinions are formed by one component. A great engineer doesn’t
always make a great project
manager. Parkinson’s Law Individuals allow their work to consume
all of their time. Work will expand
to fill the amount of time allotted to it.

McGregor’s X and Y
Management’s perspective of employees. X people are bad, lazy,
and need to be micromanaged. Y
people are selfdirected. Most managers have X and Y attributes.

Ouchi’s Theory Z
Workers do well if motivated. This provides participative
management, familiar work environment, and lifelong employment.
Known as Japanese Management Style.

McClelland’s Theory of Needs

Needs are acquired over time and are shaped by life experiences.
Our needs are categorized
as achievement, affiliation, and power. McClelland used a Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT) to
determine an individual’s needs.

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

People behave based on what they believe (expect) their behavior
to bring them.

Communication
The processes required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection,
creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring, and
ultimate disposition of project information
Active Listening – The receiver confirms that she is listening, confirms agreement
and asks for clarification if required
Administrative Closure – Generating, gathering, and disseminating information to
formalise phase or project completion.
Information Distribution– Making needed information available to project
stakeholders in a timely manner
Communication Blockers– Noise, distance, hostility, language and culture
Communication Methods– Formal verbal, Informal verbal, formal written, informal
written and non-verbal
Effective Listening– Watching the speaker to pick up physical gestures and facial
expressions, thinking about what you want to say before responding, asking
questions, repeating and providing feedback.
Noise – Anything that interferes with the transmission and understanding of the
message
Paralingual– means the pitch and tone of your voice. This also helps to convey a
message
Feedback – Verbal and nonverbal cues that listener is understanding
No. of Communication Channels – n(n-1)/2

Risk Management

SEEA - FAARTS
The processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis,
response planning, and controlling risk on a project.
Mitigation – Taking steps to lessen risk by lowering the probability of a risk event's
occurrence or reducing its impact
Opportunities – Positive outcomes of risk
Threats – Negative outcomes of risk
Risk Event – A discrete occurrence that may affect the project for better or worse
Workaround – Response to negative event, a workaround is not planned of the
occurrence of the risk event
Avoidance – Changing the project plan to eliminate the risk and protect the project
objectives
Transference – Shift the consequence of the risk and ownership to a third party.
(E.g. insurance)
Exploit – Risks with positive impacts where the organisation wishes to ensure that
the opportunity occurs
Share – Sharing the consequences of a risk
Enhance – Increasing probability and/or positive impacts
Monte Carlo Analysis – A schedule risk assessment technique that performs a
project simulation many times to calculate a distribution of likely results
Expected Monetary Value - The product of an event's probability of occurrence and
the gain or loss that will result. For example, if there is a 50% probability it will rain,
and rain will result in a $100 loss, the expected monetary value of the rain event is
$50 (.5 * $100)

Threats Opportunities
Fall Back Share
Accept Enhance
Avoid Exploit
Reduce Accept
Transfer
Share

Eight Risk Responses

Escalate: the risk (or opportunity) is outside of the project scope and
is escalated to management.
Avoidance: Avoid the risk.
Mitigation: Reduce the probability or impact of the risk event.
Acceptance: The risk may be small so the risk may be accepted.
Transference: Risk ownership is transferred to third party, usually for a
fee.
Enhance: A positive risk strategy to increase the probability/impact of
the opportunity for the project.
Exploit: A positive risk that a project wants to take advantage of.
Share: A positive risk that can be shared with the organization or
other projects.

Risky terms
Contingency fund: An amount of funds used to offset a project’s risks.
Secondary risks: A risk response creates another risk.
Residual risks: A risk response may create small generally accepted
risks ie after a response so a risk still is present but probability and
impact less
Triggers: Condition, event, or warning sign that a risk is about to
happen. Usually “triggers” a risk
response.
Positive risk: Risks with a positive impact; also called opportunities.
Negative risks: Risks with a negative impact; also called threats.
Pure risk: Only offers a negative impact (injury, fire, theft,
destruction).
Business risk: offer an upside or a downside.
Qualitative analysis: Qualifying the risks for legitimacy.
Quantitative analysis: Quantifies the risk exposure.
Utility function: A person’s or organization’s willingness to accept risk.
Relative to the project priority
as high-priority projects are typically risk adverse. Also known as
risk tolerance.

Procurement
The processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results
needed from outside the project team.
Point of Total Assumption – At this point the seller will wind up assuming all
responsibility of costs
SOW –A statement of work is a document routinely employed in the field of project
management. It is the narrative description of a project's work requirement. It defines
project-specific activities, deliverables and timelines for a vendor providing services
to the client.
Make or Buy Analysis – Determine whether it makes sense to make it in house or
go to an outsider vendor
Bidder Conference – A conference for all potential contractors
Buyer – The acquirer of products, services, or results for an organization
Seller - A provider or supplier of products, services, or results to an organization
Source Selection Criteria – Criteria which allows sellers to be rated or scored
Independent Estimates – Estimates provided in house
Procurement Audit – Used to find successes and failures in a contract and lessons
learned
Selected Sellers – The process of reviewing offers, choosing from among potential
sellers, and negotiating a written contract with a seller
Procurement Management Plan – The document that describes how procurement
processes from developing procurement documentation through contract closure will
be managed.

Stakeholders
The processes required to identify all people or organizations impacted by the
project, analysing stakeholder expectations and impact on the project, and
developing appropriate management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders
in project decisions and execution
Stakeholder – Anyone or group of people who can affect of be affected by the
projects.
Stakeholder Analysis – Using a systematic process to gather information and
analyse it about a stakeholder
Stakeholder Register – A full list of all the identified stakeholder on a project
Stakeholder Power/Interest Grid– Used to show various stakeholders power and
influence

Stakeholder Engagement – Unaware, Resistant, Neutral, Supportive, Leading

Issue Log – A written account or log of all issues with a single owner for each
Change Log – A log used to document changes that occur during the project
Key Project Manager Powers
Expert: The authority of the project manager comes from experience
with the technology the project
focuses on.
Reward: The project manager has the authority to reward the project
team.
Formal: The project manager has been assigned by senior
management and is in charge of the
project. Also known as positional power.
Coercive: The project manager has the authority to discipline the
project team members. This is also
known as “penalty power.”
Referent: The project team personally knows the project manager.
Referent can also mean the
project manager refers to the person who assigned him the position.