PMP
A project is in the development stage. During this stage, there will be sensitive client data to handle. The compliance manager raises an issue of project non-compliance. What is the first document the project manager should review to check what current items are of concern?
After a new issue is raised, the issue log should be reviewed prior to taking action.
During a retrospective, your team determines the most of their impediments stem from a single stakeholder who is abusing their authority. The project lead notes this particular stakeholder has never been fond of this project and has been very vocal about it being a bad decision on the sponsor. He also states this will lead the company in the wrong strategic direction. How could this have been avoided?
After conducting an analysis, determine their engagement and build a relationship with the stakeholder to get their buy in. By assessing their power, interest, and impact, the project manager could then determine the appropriate engagement level required by the stakeholder. Then, they must effectively engage them according to the stakeholder engagement plan and communication management plan.
Who is primarily responsible for ensuring team members and stakeholders are trained on the concepts of agile?
Agile Coach
Cause and Effect Diagram or Why-Why
Aids in identifying the root cause of a problem, but not how many times the problem occurred
Cost of Quality (COQ)
All costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements, appraisal of the product or service for conformance to requirements, and failure to meet requirements.
You are an agile coach in an organization that is starting to implement agile. What can be done to ease the transition to agile while beginning to satisfy certain aspects of the organization's current project management governance model?
Alter your project reporting to fit governance expectations. As an agile coach, you could alter your agile friendly information (burn up or burn down charts) to the required format (for example, a Gantt chart). Additionally, you could use story points, burn rate, and actual costs to provide earned value metrics.
Cost Variance (CV)
Amount of budget deficit/surplus at a given point in time expressed as the difference between Earned Value (EV) and Actual Cost (AC) + = under budget 0 = on budget - = over budget
Estimate to Completion (ETC)
Amount of money needed to complete the project Based on the current spending efficiency of the project. ETC = EAC - AC
Team Charter
An agile document that records the team values, agreements, and operating guidelines, as well as establishing clear expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.
Parametric Estimating
An estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters. Is not time consuming. May be inaccurate, depending on the integrity of the historical information.
Project Management Information System (PMIS)
An information system consisting of the tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and disseminate the outputs of project management processes.
Rolling Wave Planning
An iterative technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a higher level.
A project manager needs to ensure that all data security requirements are covered during a data warehouse development project's execution stage. Each of the databases created during different project phases will have a specific data security policy to comply with governmental data security laws. How should the project manager plan to meet these requirements?
Arrange for review of the data security status on a quarterly basis, and recommend remedial steps if non-compliance is found. The project review is the best opportunity to formally review compliance. These reviews should be scheduled quarterly or at significant milestones.
You have just been informed that you have been selected as the new project manager for the XYZ Widget project, which is on a very tight schedule. You recall that previous projects for this customer did not go as smoothly as planned with respect to both the budget and schedule so there is a lot of pressure to meet expectations on this new project. Which of the following should you do first?
Ask for a copy of the project charter so you can review who the major stakeholders are, what the high-level budget, schedule and requirements are, and verify your authority as the project manager.
Backlog Refinement
Define the sequence of deliverables over time.
Scope Statement
Description of the project scope, major deliverables and exclusions Documents entire scope including project & product scope.
You have just been identified as the project manager for a new project within your organization. You have a team with varying experiences and is also riddled with conflict. As the project manager, how should you proceed?
Determine the best approach and have the team create a team charter.
A project manager realizes that sponsor expectations are not being met, specifically regarding project deliverables. To address this issue, which action should the project manager take?
Develop a stakeholder engagement plan.
Your project team does not understand the fundamentals of project management. You feel this has the potential to harm your project. You decide to put together a half-day training session to teach project management basics. Which of the following have you achieved by having this training?
Develop your Project team. This is an example of developing your project team because you are enhancing the team's overall competencies and skills. Note that B is incorrect because avoiding a risk means taking it off the table completely, but project failures could still occur notwithstanding the training.
Agile PMO Services
Developing and implementing standards Developing personnel through training and mentoring Multiproject Management Facilitating organizational learning Managing stakeholders Recruiting, selecting, and evaluating team leaders Executing specialized tasks for projects
Five Levels of Conflict: Level 2
Disagreement Self-preservation is as important as a solution
Control Chart
Displays process stability and performance
What is the purpose of a RACI matrix?
Displays the relationship between work packages and team members. It is used to identify roles, responsibilities and authority on a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM).
Project Phases
Divisions within a project where extra control is needed to effectively manage the completion of a major deliverable (i.e. feasibility study)
Information Radiators
Big, visual boards to display in high traffic public locations about the project and the advancement of the project. The aim is to radiate information to all about the project.
A company is planning to utilize a new product that leverages innovative technologies and processes. The project manager has verified that the component work packages have been defined, and constraints for each component have been identified. Which estimating technique should the project manager use to obtain a precise cost estimate of the project?
Bottom-up Bottom-up estimating is a method of estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower level components of the work breakdown structure (WBS).
You are in the planning stages of a project to build a shopping mall in a small community in a nearby town. You have used bottom-up estimating to determine costs for each activity and have created a cost baseline. Which of the following statements is true?
Bottom-up estimating is the most labor intensive and is more accurate than parametric estimating. Bottom-up estimating takes the most time but is the most accurate since it aggregates the cost of every activity.
Risk Identification - Tools and Techniques Data Gathering
Brainstorming Checklist Analysis Interviews
Suitability Assessment Radar Chart: Culture
Buy-In, Trust, Decision Making
Which of the following is not a servant leadership characteristic? 1 - Listening carefully 2 - Coaching and mentoring 3 - Promoting self-awareness 4 - Allowing team members to solve their own problems without intervention 5 - Keeping tally of each team members errors to weed out the lowest performers
4 and 5 Servant leaders focus on listening carefully, coaching and mentoring, and promoting self-awareness. Expecting teams to solve disputes without intervention is a characteristic associated with the Laissez-Faire leadership style.
Pair Programming
A XP (agile) method in which two programmers write code using a single computer. One programmer in the "driver" role uses the mouse and keyboard to actually write the code while a second acts as a "observer", keeping track of the big picture, catching errors, and making suggestions. Programmers switch roles frequently and communicate throughout the process.
Project Calendar
A calendar that identifies working days and shifts that are available for scheduled activities.
Planning Poker
A consensus-based estimation technique, mostly used to estimate effort or relative size of user stories in Agile software development. It is a variation of the Wideband Delphi method using a deck of cards using the Fibonnacci sequence with values representing the units in which the team estimates.
Three-Point Estimating
A technique used to estimate cost or duration by applying an average or weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates when there is uncertainty with the individual activity estimates. Takes unknowns into consideration Can be time-consuming to consider positive and negative effects on costs.
Product Backlog
An ordered list of user-centric requirements that a team maintains for a product and used in agile projects.
Tailoring Options to Improve Fit: The flow of work is often interrupted by various delays or impediments
Consider making work visible using kanban boards and experimenting with limits for the various areas of the work process in order to improve flow.
Which of the following is not considered a servant leader responsibility?
Creating the project development approach and processes
Your company has won a contract to oversee the expansion of a major highway in your area. The project had been discussed for several years, and due to constant changes in the political climate, the controversial project was hard to get off the ground. The project has drawn criticism from nearby residential landowners, environmental groups, and taxpayers who deem it too expensive. Moreover, some environmental studies suggest that the subsurface in some areas may be inadequate to sustain the road, which may result in expensive detours being built around those spots. You are working on your risk management plan. What is the best way to proceed?
Document each category of risk in the Risk Management Plan to help ensure all risks are properly identified The Risk Management Plan should contain risk categories, which will help you systematically identify risks as you move through risk planning. A risk breakdown structure may be used to show risk categories, and this would be part of the Risk Management Plan. Remember, since you are working on the Risk Management Plan, you have not yet documented specific risks
Change Management Plan
Establishes change control board, documents extent of its authority, describes how change control system will be implemented (Predictive)
Contingency Reserves (Schedule Reserves)
Estimated duration within the schedule baseline, which is allocated for identified risks that are accepted.
Weak Matrix Organization
Maintains many of the characteristics of a functional organization, and the project manager role is more of a coordinator or expediter than that of a true project manager Functional Manager has the authority over budgets.
WBS
Organizes and defines the project scope.
Project Scope
Outlines what work will (and will not) be done to complete the project
100 Points Method
Prioritization technique where each stakeholder is given 100 points and can multi-vote their points across all the stories, which then give a weighted priority when combined
Who is responsible for orchestrating and integrating all planning activities for an agile project?
Project Team. Agile teams are self managing, and thus make all planning decisions.
Which of the following statements is true regarding risk management?
Project risks are uncertain events.
Work Performance Data
Raw observations like percent complete, measurements such as actual cost, actual duration and scope completed
Risk Identification - Tools and Techniques Data Analysis
Root cause analysis with a cause-and-effect diagram Assumption and constraint analysis SWOT analysis Document analysis
Work Performance Information
Work performance information is the processed and analyzed data that will help the project manager make project decisions.
Cadence
a rhythm of execution (agile)
Social Awareness
ability to understand and/or perceive the emotions of others Social awareness is one of four emotional intelligence components (self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management). Social awareness is a person's ability to understand and/or perceive what others are feeling or thinking. This is performed by observing and listening to those around you.
Suitability Assessment Radar Chart: Project
Changes, Criticality, Delivery
Monitor and Control Project Work
Comparing project results to baseline plans, gathering and recording data, recommending corrective actions, and ensuring the proper implementation of approved change requests
You are running an agile project and many of the people on the team are relatively new to agile concepts. You are concerned about how well the team will adapt and perform over the long run, and want to help the team improve as it delivers each iteration. What is the best practice for doing this?
Conduct retrospectives at the end of each iteration The retrospective is the most important practice for the team to learn about, improve, and adapt to the process. You might still do the other things, but the retrospective is the most important one for long term gains.
Tailoring Options to Improve Fit: The project team members are inexperienced in the use of agile approaches
Consider starting by training team members in the fundamentals of the agile mindset and principles. If the team decides to use a specific approach such as Scrum or Kanban, provide a workshop on that approach so the team members can learn how to use it.
Tailoring Options to Improve Fit: The quality of the product increments is poor
Consider using the various test-driven development practices. This mistake-proofing discipline makes it difficult for defects to remain undetected.
Pareto Chart
Contains both bars and a line graph, where individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is represented by the line.
Five Levels of Conflict: Level 3
Contest Goal is to win; overshadows resolution
When working in a highly regulated industry, what can be done to ensure any changes in regulatory compliance are met during an agile project?
Continuously groom the product backlog Requirements for new and/or changing regulatory compliance will be incorporated into the product backlog as they arise if the product owner grooms (or refines) the backlog regularly.
Which earned value measurements can easily be translated to agile?
Cost performance index and schedule performance index. Schedule performance index (SPI) is the project's schedule efficiency and Cost performance index (CPI) is the project's cost or spending efficiency rating.
Which of the following would be least useful in establishing a strong project vision?
Creating a highly-detailed vision that focuses on what will be done A highly-detailed and complex vision is difficult to remember and may confuse team members. A short, concise project vision offers clarity.
A project manager has been asked to conduct a risk analysis that is based on a high-level scope. As part of the analysis, the project manager must use expert judgment to prepare a document. Which document-based action is being performed?
Creating the project charter
Five Levels of Conflict: Level 4
Crusade Resolving situation is not enough; members take sides & protect their group
Focus Groups
-Less structured -More Information-sharing sessions -Trained moderator-guided interactive discussions -Include stakeholders & SME's -Form of qualitative research
Change Control Process
1) Prevent the root cause of changes 2) Identify the change with documentation 3) Evaluate the impact of the change 4) Issue the change request to the CCB 5) Perform Integrated Change Control (get CCB approval) 6) Update change request log and project documents to reflect the change 7) Communicate the change (and impacts) to stakeholders and get buy-in 8) Direct and manage the project according to the new plan.
A project manager realizes that stakeholder interests will conflict on a project and decides to utilize a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix. The matrix pinpoints an influential stakeholder who is resistant to the project. The project manager needs to align this stakeholder's expectations. What should the project manager do to accomplish this goal? 1 - Produce a stakeholder engagement plan. 2 - Convey the stakeholder engagement plan. 3 - Gain consensus on project objectives by meeting with all stakeholders. 4 - Monitor stakeholder engagement and make neccesary updates to the plan as needed 5 -Ensure that the stakeholder register is complete and updated. 6 - Identify the key stakeholders and follow their lead
1, 2, and 4 Plan stakeholder engagement is the process of developing approaches to involve project stakeholders based on their needs, expectations, interests, and potential impact on the project. The key benefit is that it provides an actionable plan to interact effectively with stakeholders.
Although a previously identified technical issue has been resolved, the project manager is warned that the same issue is likely to occur on similar projects. Which of the following should be part of the first step in responding to the warning? 1 - Update the issue log 2 - Inform the PMO 3 - Create a risk report 4 - A communication with the project sponsor 5 - Review the lessons learned register
2 and 5 The PMO is responsible for sharing information between concurrent projects and the lessons learned register is archived in the lessons learned repository at the end of each project. This can be reviewed by project managers in future projects to avoid past project issues. Updating the issue logs for future project cannot be done, as these projects are in the future.
What is the ideal size of an effective agile team?
3 - 9 members
Which of the following would not typically be included in a team charter for an agile project? 1 - Group norms for meeting times, durations and formats 2 - Core and flexible work hours 3 - Project vision 4 - Working agreements 5 - Corporate mission 6 - Team member behavior expectations
3 and 5 (Remember the TEAM Charter is agile :) The project vision is typically included in the project charter - not the social contract for the agile team (team charter).
80/20 Rule
80% of problems are from 20% of the causes. You should focus attention on the top few causes.
Timebox
A fixed period of time, for example, 1 week, 1 fortnight, 3 weeks, or 1 month
Change Control Board (CCB)
A formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or rejecting changes to the project, and for recording and communicating such decisions.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.
Apart from smoothing out the allocation of resources, what would resource leveling generally lead to?
A longer project duration. Resource leveling is applied to allocate scarce resources to critical path activities first, but this often results in a project duration that is longer than originally planned.
Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
A measure of schedule efficiency expressed as the ratio of earned value (EV) to planned value (PV). >1.0 = ahead of schedule 1.0 = on schedule <1.0 = behind schedule
Schedule Variance (SV)
A measure of schedule performance expressed as the difference between the earned value (EV) and the planned value (PV) + = ahead of schedule 0 = on schedule - = behind schedule
Prototyping
A method of obtaining early feedback on requirements by providing a working model (mock-ups, drafts, storyboarding, etc.) of the expected product before actually building it.
Earned Value Management (EVM)
A methodology that combines scope, schedule, and resource measurements to assess project performance and progress.
Phase Gate
A review at the end of a phase in which a decision is made to continue to the next phase, to continue with modification, or to end a project or program.
Final Report
A summary of the project performance - Scope, Quality, Cost & Schedule objectives achieved Summary of risks/issues, business needs achieved, & validation information for the final product.
eXtreme Programming (XP)
A team-based agile method that features frequent releases of workable software, short time boxes, programmers who work in pairs, and a focus on testing Based on frequent cycles Best practice in purest, simplest form intended to improve results.
Analogous Estimating
A technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data from a similar activity or project. Quickest method to develop estimates. Will result in inaccurate estimates.
Swarming
A technique in which multiple team members focus collectively on resolving a specific impediment. (Agile)
Mobbing
A technique in which multiple team members focus simultaneously and coordinate their contributions on a particular work item. (Agile)
Pair Work (pairing)
A technique of pairing two team members to work simultaneously on the same work item.
Design for X (DfX)
A tool for the Manage Quality process A set of technical guidelines that may be applied during the design of a product for the optimization of a specific aspect of the design.
Fishbowl window
A video conferencing link that is started at the beginning of a workday and closed at the end of the day. This enables people to engage spontaneously with each other, reducing the collaboration lag otherwise inherent in the geographical separation.
Strategies for Opportunities: Accept
Accepting an opportunity acknowledges its existence but no proactive action is taken. This strategy may be appropriate for low-priority opportunities, and it may also be adopted where it is not possible or cost-effective to address an opportunity in any other way. Acceptance can be either active or passive. The most common active acceptance strategy is to establish a contingency reserve, including amounts of time, money, or resources to take advantage of the opportunity if it occurs. Passive acceptance involves no proactive action apart from periodic review of the opportunity to ensure that it does not change significantly.
Which of the following process(es) best describes why agile is ideal for planning and managing compliance?
Adaptive planning, focus on continuous improvement, and flexibility Due to the of focus agile on quick delivery of business value through short, timeboxed iterations, the agile team is planning frequently. This allows the team to flex quickly due to any new laws or regulations that may be implemented and adapt accordingly.
For organizations that are new to agile concepts and are working to adopt and utilize them, which of the following would be a potential roadblock to successfully achieving this?
Employees are specialized contributors (I-shaped)
Specialized Contributors
Employees with I-shaped skills. Depth of knowledge with limited breadth.
Simple Design (XP)
Enough design is carried out to meet the current requirements and no more.
When building an agile team, which concept should be least considered?
Ensure a strong project manager is assigned for decisions and coordination
A software vendor is behind on a key project deliverable. There is a 21% buffer in the budget for cost overruns. The project manager needs to mitigate the issue. Which action should the project manager take next?
Evaluate alternate software vendors that can help project deliverables despite resource restraint. The first step is analysis and evaluation of alternate options. After that, specific and appropriate action can be taken.
Review the following project characteristics: -The project is in its initiation stage. -Due to lack of funding, the project gets terminated. -The project manager must close the project. What is the first action the project manager should take?
Examine the organization's project closure guidelines.
A project is completed, but the project manager and project team members are being asked to do the following: Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues, evaluate new requirements, make minor adjustments. The project manager needs to ensure that the product developed by the project now has operational support. What should the project manager do?
Execute the project hand-off At project close, the final product, service, or result can be transitioned to a production support team. This output refers to this transition of the final product, service, or result that the project was authorized to produce (or in the case of phase closure, the intermediate product, service, or result of that phase) from one team to another.
A new product is released. When a customer identifies performance issues with this product, the project manager realizes that cost of quality (COQ) should have been used to estimate this cost. Which category of COQ should the project manager have used?
External failure costs External failure costs are those failures found by the customer.
Kano Model: Satisfiers
Features that bring value to the customer
Kano Model: Exciters
Features that deliver new high-value to the customer
Kano Model: Indifferent
Features that have no impact on the customer.
Kano Model: Dissatisfiers
Features that if not included, would cause the users to dislike the product.
What are the Team Development Stages (Tuckman Ladder)?
Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning (or Mourning)
What is the term you would use to describe the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the successor activities?
Free Float
You are a project manager in the Information Technology department. Your company is new to agile concepts, and while most of your department is familiar with and on board with agile, most of the business units are not. Since key stakeholders will now become part of agile teams, you realize that you will need to mentor and coach them during sprints to help "sell" them on the benefits of agile to help keep them properly engaged. Which of the following would not be a typical benefit of using agile?
Greater accountability and productivity of empowered teams. While a self organizing empowered team is a crucial part of agile, this is one of the areas that predictive management often struggles with due to a lack of trust or feeling of not being involved the same way as before. Each of the other elements directly ties to business value and can usually be accepted more quickly.
Herzberg's Theory of Motivation
Herzberg theorized pay and benefits do not lead to positive satisfaction for the long-term. But if these factors are absent or non-existent at the workplace, then they lead to dissatisfaction.
Lessons Learned Register
If it's an output of a process, it can also be an input, especially when the process is being performed after the project has begun.
You are submitting a status report to your external customer. Which communication approach should you use?
Interpersonal communication
Which of the following is not an attribute of a version control system?
It DOES NOT track change requests! While there is a relationship between approved change requests and updating project artifacts and their versions, the change request itself is tracked either manually or via a change request system. Many change control systems have workflow as a primary feature.
A customer is not satisfied with the delivered product, saying that it was not what they expected. The project manager is surprised, because the agile development team delivered the product several iterations early. What is one way that the project manager could have avoided this result?
Made sure that the customer was aware of the value of demos The customer was not engaged enough in the project. The iteration review is the best mechanism for the team to demonstrate working software and for the customer to give feedback to ensure that their expectations are met.
Theory X
Managers who believe that workers are lazy and don't naturally want to work.
Theory Y
Managers who believe that workers naturally work hard and thus can be left alone to do their jobs.
Tailoring Options to Improve Fit: Demand pattern: steady or sporadic
Many teams find that using a cadence (in the form of a regular timebox) helps them demo, retrospect, and take in new work. In addition, some teams need more flexibility in their acceptance of more work. Teams can use flow-based agile with a cadence to get the best of both worlds.
Cost of Quality - Cost of Nonconformance
Money spent during and after the project because of failures Internal Failure Costs (Failures found by the project) External Failure Costs (Failures found by the customer)
Cost of Quality - Cost of Conformance
Money spent during the project to avoid failures Prevention Costs (Build a quality product) Appraisal Costs (Assess the quality)
You are managing a project to build a bridge across the bay. The previous project had cost overruns because the project team underestimated the winds and harsh weather conditions on the bay. From which of the following should you derive this historical information?
Organizational process assetts (OPAs) The lessons learned documentation from the prior project is part of the organizational process assets (OPA)
SWOT Analysis
Part of risk identification and examines the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of the project to make certain all possibilities for risk identification are covered.
Tacit Knowledge
Personal knowledge that can be difficult to articulate and share such as beliefs, experience, and insights. Essential to provide context of explicit knowledge.
Scatter Diagram
Plots data points to show the relationship between 2 variables (x, y)
PESTLE acronym
Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental
Contract Terms and Conditions
Prescribes procedures for closing out a particular procurement, and should therefore be consulted during closure
Approaches to change will vary with the project lifecycle you are using. In a predictive project the project manager's attention is BEST spent doing which of the following?
Preventing unnecessary changes. Be proactive.
MoSCoW (MSCW) analysis
Prioritization technique that categorizes features as must have, should have, could have, and won't have (for now). Helps customers organize their thinking about what are truly must-have capabilities, and enables identification of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Five Levels of Conflict: Level 1
Problem to Solve Everyday passing conflict; easily resolved
Who is the only person who can prioritize the product backlog?
Product Owner
Who is responsible for approving the project management plan?
Project Manager, Sponsor & key stakeholders The project management plan is the master plan from which a predictive project will be executed. It is the responsibility of all key parties (project manager, sponsor, and key stakeholders) to approve the project management plan.
A medium-sized company is expanding into a new market. However, the company does not have previous experience in that market. A project manager needs to collect requirements. Which tool or technique should the project manager use?
Prototypes
Project Life Cycle
Provides a basic framework for managing the project
Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
Quantify the risk exposure of a project and determine the size of reserves needed
You are the project manager of a very important software development project in your organization. As you are closely monitoring and managing your project, you are happy the project is progressing as per your plan. You reviewed the status of all the deliverables with your team members prior to having a project status update meeting with the stakeholders. Your team has developed a prototype and it is ready to be presented to the stakeholders for interface and feedback. This will be an iterative process and the prototype may be modified numerous times to incorporate the feedback until the requirements have been finalized for the product. Which of the following will you do in your status meeting?
Report on the progress of your prototype and point out it is a completed task. Per PMI, mixing meeting types is not considered a best practice. Usually the project manager reports on the progress of a project in a status meeting rather than demonstrating any prototype or reviewing any technical documentation.
A Project Manager has been assigned to manage a project to develop a low-priced laptop for a company that does not have this expertise. The project is three weeks behind schedule and under budget. After calculating the estimate at completion (EAC), the Project Manager finds that the project will be $454,589 under budget, but is expected to take four weeks longer than expected. What should the Project Manager do?
Report the actual project status and budget to the customer. Professional and social responsibility require that a Project Manager report accurate and truthful information for services provided. The time delay should be reported candidly.
Your team is on sprint four (4) of an estimated ten (10) sprints for the creation of a sports game for a major corporation. A stakeholder has been holding on to information that is required to complete each sprint and it is starting to delay the progress of work and completion of sprints. As the product owner, how should you proceed?
Report the issue to the team facilitator and have them speak with the stakeholder. The product owner is responsible for guiding the direction of the product and managing the backlog. The team facilitator is responsible for removing impediments for team members. The team facilitator is also known as scrum master, project team lead, team coach, and project manager.
RACI Matrix
Responsible (does the work) Accountable (ensures the work is done) Consult (input required from SME) Inform (updated on status)
Tailoring Options to Improve Fit: Rate of process improvement required by the level of team experience
Retrospect more often and select improvements.
In which meeting(s) would issues be typically reviewed?
Retrospectives and Daily Stand-Ups
Kill Points
Reviews conducted at the end of the project phase on key deliverables and project performance (to determine approval for continuance into the next phase and corrective actions). Also called stage gates or phase exits.
You are managing a project which is wrapping up. One of your team members, Luke, comes to you to voice some frustrations about his role in the project. He feels that his job on the project was never clearly established, and that he was never provided with any concrete goals. Even though the team had been working together for a few months he never felt trusted to try his strengths and truly excel during the project. If this is true, you may have done a poor job with which of the following?
Roles and Responsibilities Roles and responsibilities are a component of the resource management plan. The question suggests poor planning was done for project resources, this can lead to confusion is roles and doubts in expectations.
Which of the following would be considered agile's highest priority?
Satisfying the customer. The first principle outlined in the Agile Manifesto states the highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
You use a formula to determine what the difference is between what you planned to do and what you actually got done. What is the formula you used?
Schedule Variance (SV) - the difference between what you produced (Earned Value) and what you were supposed to complete (Planned Value)
A customer indicates that they would like to add functionality. Although this request is made during the execution stage of this waterfall project, the project manager finds that the cost for the addition would be small. The additional functionality, if successful, would increase the opportunity for profit. What should the project manager do next?
Schedule a meeting with the company's management team, and present the customer's request for additional functionality as a good opportunity. By building a small increment and then testing and reviewing it, the team can add value in terms of new functionalities or additional awarded projects. An important factor for a successful implementation and value capture is the response time of the team.
Which of the following project life cycle methods is most suitable for delivering business value in the shortest timeframe?
Scrum Agile delivers value in short increments, typically 2 weeks to 1 month in duration. All other methods typically take more time.
Strategies for Opportunities: Share
Sharing involves transferring ownership of an opportunity to a third party so that it shares some of the benefit if the opportunity occurs. It is important to select the new owner of a shared opportunity carefully so they are best able to capture the opportunity for the benefit of the project. Risk sharing often involves payment of a risk premium to the party taking on the opportunity. Examples of sharing actions include forming risk-sharing partnerships, teams, special-purpose companies, or joint ventures.
User Stories
Short descriptions of required functionality; told from user's point of view. Helps teams focus on the value provided to the user. (Agile)
On your project, a deliverable was recently created but had to be reworked due to a defect. You traced the root cause to an employee who was operating off an old version of the project management plan. As a project manager, how should you proceed?
Show the employee where to find the most up-to-date copy of the plan and verify they are receiving updates.
Burndown Chart
Shows how quickly a team is working through a customer's user stories. Shows the total effort against the amount of work for each iteration or sprint. (Agile)
When negotiating contracts with customers involving agile projects, a collaborative approach is recommended, since it emphasizes win-win between the buyer and seller vs. win-lose arrangements. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a collaborative approach?
Single document contract A multi-tiered contract structure provides for a master agreement to cover fixed items such as warranties and remedies, and including other elements that are more subject to change in other documents (e.g., schedule of services).
You are managing a project for the development of a new medical device and have completed all of your planning. As the work is commencing, a new regulation is issued by the FDA, effective immediately, which requires some additional steps to be performed in the development of this device. What is the best way to proceed?
Stop the work to which the new regulation pertains, issue a change request, and proceed with the other work that is unaffected by the change. Here, you need to comply with the regulation, so the work which is affected by the new regulation needs to stop temporarily. You will need to issue a change request and follow change control procedures to implement the new change. You would not necessarily need to stop all work, however, as this could be devastating to your project schedule, budget, resource availability, etc.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Dictionary
Stores additional information about each work breakdown structure (WBS) component including: Work package name, ID, responsible organization, schedule milestones, quality requirements, cost estimates, required resources, code of accounts identifier, etc.
Suitability Assessment Radar Chart: Team
Team Size, Experience, Access
Project Float
The amount of time a project can be delayed without impacting an imposed deadline or commitment by the project manager.
Free Float
The amount of time a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date of the earliest successor or violating a schedule constraint.
Total Float
The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint. LF-EF or LS-ES
Planned Value (PV)
The authorized budget assigned to schedule work.
Schedule Data
The collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule. Includes: schedule milestones, schedule activities, activity attributes, alternate schedules and documentation of all identified assumptions and constraints.
Benchmarking
The comparison of actual or planned products, processes, and practices to those of comparable organizations to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring performance.
A deliverable does not meet the agreed-upon quality specifications and is rejected by the customer. After investigation, the project team finds that there is a fault with the vendor-provided parts, and this fault caused the issue. The vendor says that they cannot correct the situation. What is best to review before deciding on the next steps?
The contract agreements and procurement management plan A contract is a mutually binding agreement that obligates the seller to provide the specified products, services, or results; obligates the buyer to compensate the seller; and represents a legal relationship that is subject to remedy in the courts.
Estimate at Completion (EAC)
The current projected final cost of the project Based on the current spending efficiency (the CPI) EAC = BAC/CPI
Strategies for Opportunities: Enhance
The enhance strategy is used to increase the probability and/or impact of an opportunity. Early enhancement action is often more effective than trying to improve the benefit after the opportunity has occurred. The probability of occurrence of an opportunity may be increased by focusing attention on its causes. Where it is not possible to increase probability, an enhancement response might increase the impact by targeting factors that drive the size of the potential benefit. Examples of enhancing opportunities include adding more resources to an activity to finish early.
Strategies for Opportunities: Exploit
The exploit strategy may be selected for high-priority opportunities where the organization wants to ensure that the opportunity is realized. This strategy seeks to capture the benefit associated with a particular opportunity by ensuring that it definitely happens, increasing the probability of occurrence to 100%. Examples of exploiting responses may include assigning an organization's most talented resources to the project to reduce the time to completion, or using new technologies or technology upgrades to reduce cost and duration.
Project Governance
The framework, functions, and processes that guide project management activities in order to create a unique product, service, or result to meet organizational, strategic, and operational goals.
Earned Value (EV)
The measure of work performed expressed in terms of the budget authorized for that work. % work complete to date (x) budgeted cost
Bottom-Up Estimating
The most accurate time-and-cost estimating approach a project manager can use. This estimating approach starts at "the bottom" of the project and considers every activity, its predecessor and successor activities, and the exact amount of resources needed to complete each activity. Is very accurate and gives lower-level managers more responsibility May be very time consuming. Can only be used after the WBS has been well-defined.
Cost Performance Index (CPI)
The most important EVA metric. A measure of the cost efficiency of budgeted resources expressed as the ratio of earned value (EV) to actual cost (AC) >1.0 = under budget 1.0 = on budget <1.0 = over budget
On-Site Customer (XP)
The on-site customer practice includes embedding a customer (or customer representative) into the team itself. Therefore, if external circumstances, (market conditions, competition, financial considerations, etc...) present themselves, the agile team can act quickly and decisively.
Direct and Manage Project Work
The process of leading and performing the work defined in the project management plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project's objectives.
Perform Integrated Change Control
The process of reviewing all change requests; approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the project management plan; and communicating their disposition.
Actual Cost (AC)
The realized cost incurred for the work performed on an activity during a specific time period.
Organizational Theory
The study of how people, teams and organizations behave. -Maximize efficiency & productivity -Solve problems -Motivate people -Meet stakeholder requirements
Budget at Completion (BAC)
The sum of all budgets established for the work to be performed. The value of total planned work, the project cost baseline.
While communicating an issue with the project with one of the stakeholders, they begin crossing their arms and becoming very defensive with you. You require their support on this project and they are known to be passive aggressive. How should you proceed?
They think you are blaming them for the issue and you should adjust your approach immediately and focus on how much they have done for the project. Their body language changed during the conversation, this implies something stated began to bother the stakeholder. By focusing on the good things they have done it will make it easier to listen to how they can improve.
Strategies for Opportunities: Escalate
This risk response strategy is appropriate when the project team or the project sponsor agrees that an opportunity is outside the scope of the project or that the proposed response would exceed the project manager's authority. Escalated opportunities are managed at the program level, portfolio level, or other relevant part of the organization, and not on the project level. The project manager determines who should be notified about the opportunity and communicates the details to that person or part of the organization. It is important that ownership of escalated opportunities is accepted by the relevant party in the organization. Opportunities are usually escalated to the level that matches the objectives that would be affected if the opportunity occurred. Escalated opportunities are not monitored further by the project team after escalation, although they may be recorded in the risk register for information.
Tailoring Options to Improve Fit: More than one team is needed to build a product
To scale from one to several agile teams, with minimal disruption, first learn about agile program management or formal scaling frameworks. Then, craft an approach that fits the project context.
After a project delay, the project manager determines that a change is needed to the product deliverables in order to ensure quality. The project manager takes the following steps: 1. A formal change request is issued. 2. The project manager communicates the change to all stakeholders. 3. The project manager receives feedback that the communications approach did not meet stakeholder expectations. What should the project manager do next?
Use the communications management and stakeholder engagement plans
Decision Tree
Used primarily in risk to determine the best course of action
Paired Comparison
Used to compare multiple criteria against each other, in order to find the ranked order of importance.
Histogram
Used to track the number of identified issues sorted by their causes
Tornado Diagram
Uses the results of a sensitivity analysis to graphically show which variables have the greatest impact on the project.
Project deliverable
Usually any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result, or item that is produced to complete a project or part of a project. Can sometimes be intangible like testing, etc.
What can be used to improve the accuracy and reliability of release planning?
Velocity By understanding a teams current velocity (the number of story points a team can finish per sprint based on past performance) and knowing the remaining story points required for the release, a release date can be forecasted more accurately.
A project manager is creating an agenda and presentation materials for a kick-off meeting that will involve stakeholders across multiple geographic regions who will be working on a global project. Which of the following would be the MOST important step for the project manager to ensure that the stakeholders are engaged?
Verify that all required participants or their delegates will be available to attend. None of the other options are viable without ensuring that all stakeholders are attending the project kick off meeting.
Team Development Stages (Tuckman Ladder): Norming
Where the team begins to work together Team begins to work productively, without worrying about personal acceptance or control issues
Team Development Stages (Tuckman Ladder): Adjourning
Where the team disbands and is sometimes referred to as "mourning" Team members complete their assigned work and shift to the next project or assigned task
Team Development Stages (Tuckman Ladder): Storming
Where the team has disagreements Team members begin to assert themselves and control emerging issues During the storming phase, individuals need to be focused on tolerance and patience. If these two objectives are not met, the team may flounder and remain in the storming stage. A team in the storming phase is not a high-performing team.
Team Development Stages (Tuckman Ladder): Forming
Where the team is initially brought together Team members get to know each other and trust one another
Team Development Stages (Tuckman Ladder): Performing
Where the team reaches optimal performance Team is working at optimum productivity and is collaborating easily, communicating freely, and solving its own conflict problems
Watchlist
Where you note risks that don't have a high enough probability or impact to make it into the risk register, yet still need to be monitored.
The procurement department has been negotiating the terms of a new contract with a customer who is unsure of what the final product should look like. They only know what the product should do once complete. The procurement department is having difficulty choosing between a fixed price contract or a cost reimbursable contract and they decide to call you, the project manager, in to assist with negotiations. As the project manager, how should you proceed?
Work with the customer to determine the objectives and clarify requirements. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation is the preferred method. Since you have a procurement department, the project manager's role is to provide information about the aspects of the project itself, but they do not conduct contract negotiation.
Five Levels of Conflict: Level 5
World War Someone MUST lose; little to no communication between groups
Matephor
XP technique that describes a common vision of how a program works Simple, non-technical Understanding of overall approach
McClelland's Theory of Needs
a theory that states achievement, power, and affiliation are three important needs that help explain motivation
Iteration
a time boxed cycle of development on a product or deliverable in which all of the work that is needed to deliver value is performed. (Agile)
Product Analysis
a tool and technique of Define Scope which uses techniques such as product breakdown analysis, systems engineering, value engineering, value analysis, function analysis, and quality function deployment, all in an effort to integrate the requirements most effectively into a deliverable. Used to define products and services. It includes asking questions about a product or service and forming answers to describe the use, characteristics, and other relevant aspects of what is going to be delivered.
Smoothing
adjusts activities of a schedule model where critical path is unchanged OR conflict management technique to concede position to maintain relationships
laissez-faire leadership
allowing the team to make their own decisions and establish their own goals, also referred to as taking a hands-off style
Vision
an encompassing explanation of the reason the project is being performed
Explicit Knowledge
can be codified using symbols such as words, numbers and pictures can be documented & shared with others
Problem Solving
defining the problem, looking at various solutions and making decisions
Configuration Management Plan
describes how to identify and account for project artifacts under configuration control & how to report and record changes to them. (Predictive)
Project Schedule Network Diagram
displays the relationships among activities -includes a time scale & bars that represent the duration of activities with the logical relationships
Servant Leadership
encourages team members by listening, coaching and providing an environment which allows them to grow
Schedule Management Plan
establishes criteria and the activities for developing monitoring, and controlling the schedule
PESTLE
identifies the external business environment factors that can affect the value and desired outcomes of a project.
Control Procurements
involves overseeing the contractual relationship
Conduct Procurements
involves the selection of the seller and contract award
Retrospective
meeting at the end of each sprint (agile) -what went well -what could be improved
Plan Procurement Management
results in bid documents (such as an RFP, RFQ, RFI, etc.) and the procurement strategy
4 components of emotional intelligence
self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management
T-Shirt Sizing
the best and easiest comprehensible relative sizing technique used for agile estimation using t-shirt sizes (S, M, L, XL)
Retrospective
the closeout meeting in an agile project
IRR (Internal Rate of Return)
the interest rate that makes the net present value of all cash flows equal zero
Velocity
the number of story points a team can finish per sprint based on past performance
Validate Scope
the process by which the customer or sponsor formally accepts the deliverables (which may sometimes be done in conjunction with Control Quality)
Resource Optimization Techniques: Leveling
• Adjusts start and finish dates based on resource constraints • Goal is to balance the demand for resources with available supply • Use when shared or critically required resources have limited availability or are over-allocated • Can change the critical path and most often will delay the project completion date
Resource Optimization Techniques: Smoothing
• Adjusts the activities of a schedule model to keep resource requirements within predefined resource limits and within free and total floats • The critical path is not changed, nor does it delay the completion date
Conflict Management Approaches: Smooth/Accomodate
• Emphasize areas of agreement • Concede position to maintain harmony and relationships
Conflict Management Approaches: Collaborate/Problem Solve
• Incorporate multiple viewpoints • Enable cooperative attitudes and open dialog to reach consensus and commitment
Schedule Compression Techniques: Fast-Tracking
• Perform activities in parallel to reduce time • May result in rework, increased risk and increased cost
Conflict Management Approaches: Force/Direct
• Pursue your viewpoint at the expense of others • Offer only win/lose solutions
Conflict Management Approaches: Withdraw/Avoid
• Retreat from conflict situation • Postpone the issue
Conflict Management Approaches: Compromise/Reconcile
• Search for solutions that bring some degree of satisfaction to everyone • Temporarily or partially resolve the conflict through compromise
The Planning Game (XP)
• Seeks to maximize interaction between those who need a new system and those who build it • Phases: Exploration, steering, commitment
Schedule Compression Techniques: Crashing
• Shortens schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources e.g. overtime, additional resources • Works only for activities on the critical path • Does not always produce a viable alternative and may result in increased risk and/or cost.
