PMP

Blocker

Completely stalls the team from delivering on time e.g. deliverable that needs to be fixed before going to production

Project quality management

Conformance to requirements, fitness for use. Process of continually measuring the quality of all activities and taking corrective action until the team achieves the desired quality. Associated processes: plan quality management, manage quality, control quality

transactional leader

(aka management by exception) - rewards and punishes - gives rewards to top performers, punishes bottom, everyone else in the wash

interactional leader

(fantastic, hybrid type of leadership) - coaching and motivational - transactional, transformational, and charismatic blended together - participate with the team, but team still held accountable for results

laissez-faire leader

(hands-off approach to project decisions) - team makes all the decisions, has autonomy - but sometimes leader can appear absent - kind of dangerous

transformational leader

(inspiring and motivational) - tell the team they can do more than they think possible - empower team to take action, find innovation, perform, get project done

10 Knowledge Areas

-Project integration management -Project scope management -Project schedule management -Project cost management -Project quality management -Project resource management -Project communications management -Project risk management -Project procurement management -Project stakeholder management

Budget planning

1) estimates applied to project work to create the cost baseline 2) contingency reserve for known unknowns (risks) added to cost baseline to create the budget 3) management reserve for unexpected activities added budget excludes management reserves but DOES include contingency reserves

Forming

A project manager must exercise their authority over the team members at the beginning of the project so that a cohesive team can be developed and efficiently execute the deliverables of the project The earlier a project manager instills motivation during the forming/develop team stage, the team can collaboratively build on the positive foundation. Forming sets the tone for the duration of the project.

Information

Analyzed data, useable info to make decisions, status to actionable results

Project cost management

Associated processes: plan cost management, estimate costs, determine budget, control costs

Project schedule management

Associated processes: plan schedule management, define activities, sequence activities, estimate activity durations, develop schedule, control schedule

OPA

Created based on past experience, benefits created e.g. templates, guidelines, etc. organizational standard policies, processes, procedures for charter OPAs help you, been created for you, to make project more successful. portfolio, program, and project governance framework monitoring and reporting methods Templates Lessons learned historical information and lessons learned repository - one of the best OPA is proven information

Project scope management

Defining all of the project work to satisfy objectives of project Associated processes: plan scope management, collect requirements, define scope, create WBS, validate scope, control scope

WBS Dictionary

Detailed description of the scope of work, broken down to the work package level (where it can be assigned to someone to work on). It includes the acceptance criteria, an asignee, cost information, schedule information, and resource requirements Describes each work package and helps create cost and duration estimates

Project charter

Document that formally authorizes the project. The business case, benefits management plan, cost-benefit analysis, and feasibility studies are inputs into this document and process, to help provide a link between the project and the strategic objectives of the organization Things in project charter: project purpose measurable project objectives high-level requirements overall project risk summary milestone schedule at each phase preapproved financial requirements key stakeholders approval requirements exit criteria- close or cancel assigned PM Sponsor The charter contains a high level definition of scope/deliverables that can be used to generate a top down decomposition in support of the development of the WBS.

Project business case

Feeds into the project charter, is very high level Has recommendation and is used by managers and executives for decision-making, determines whether expected outcomes justify investments (cost vs. benefit) WHY do we need to do the project economic feasibility study benefits project will create maintained throughout the project, project sponsor accountable for development and maintenance

Project integration management

Gears of project management; helps teams work together more seamlessly. Integration management brings together various processes, systems, and methodologies to form a cohesive strategy. Associated processes: develop project charter, project management plan, direct and manage work, manage project knowledge, monitor and control project work, perform integrated change control, close project or phase

Relationship management (emotional intelligence)

Getting along well with others, handling conflict effectively, clearly expressing ideas/information, using sensitivity to another peron's feeling (empathy) to manage interactions successfully

Project benefits management plan

How and when project benefits will be delivered and measured Developed based on needs assessment (A needs assessment can be defined as a systematic process projects managers will use to evaluate requirements that are considered non-negotiable to a project.) and business case Continually updated The project manager will usually have responsible for producing the benefits management plan, in close collaboration with sponsor, senior user and other key stakeholders. The benefits management plan presents a summary of the project's benefits expected by the business, how they will be delivered and how they will be measured. It will also describe any post-project benefits reviews that are required. The benefits management plan should establish baselines and targets in order to measure achievement for each benefit identified. Feeds into project charter

Reports

How you package up information, communicable - helps make decisions (e.g. status reports)

Smooth/Accommodate (conflict resolution technique)

If the number one goal is to maintain the harmony or relationship of the team, this approach might be best. One party concedes their position and instead emphasizes areas where differing parties actually agree. "Project leaders do not always have direct authority over conflicting parties, so instead of demanding an agreement, they'll need to use people skills, such as emotional intelligence, leadership, and influence, to nudge the parties toward a resolution," LOSE/WIN Emotionally intelligent leaders are more likely to use a smoothing conflict resolution technique. Smoothing involves making some concessions but focuses on an agreement.

Configuration control

In project management, configuration control is about managing the specifications of the deliverables and processes with appropriate documentation throughout the lifecycle of the project from the very beginning to the closure of the project.

Gold Plating

In project management, gold plating refers to adding a feature or service to a project that management or the client hasn't asked for. In gold plating, the project manager or a team member decides to add a feature on their own that wasn't requested

withdraw/avoid (conflict resolution technique)

In this scenario, the project managers avoid or postpone the issue until they are better prepared to address it or let it be resolved by others. This technique is best for low-stakes, non-pressing situations. LOSE/LOSE

Project resource management

Includes processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project. Associated processes: plan resource management, estimate activity resources, acquire resources, develop team, manage team, control resources

Project procurement management

Includes the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team Associated processes: plan procurement management, conduct procurements, control procurements

5 Process Groups

Initiating Planning Executing Monitoring & Controlling Closing

Self-management (emotional intelligence)

Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check, acting in congruence with your values, handling change flexibly, pursuing goals and opportunities despite obstacles and setbacks

Leadership vs. management

Leadership is about aligning and motivating, inspiring; management is about getting things done, biz skills

Resource smoothing

Limits labor except on the critical path (tries to adhere to deadline) When you use available float to adjust a task without affecting the overall schedule

Resource leveling

Limits labor in a time period, and often extends the project schedule It allows you to readjust timelines so that a project can be finished with the available resources. With this technique, you can allocate resources accordingly to ensure goals and objectives are met. Resource leveling can be challenging for project managers as it requires balancing the demand for the same resources across multiple projects.

Managed Conflict

Managed conflict is a conflict that has been redirected from hostility to beneficial problem-solving. Managed conflict is not a conflict that has been suppressed. Suppressed conflicts usually reappear in more hostile forms later.

Accept (risk management)

Nothing is done

persuasive power

PM can do sales pitch to get someone to act a certain way

guilt based power

PM can make project team feel guilty to gain compliance

pressure based power

PM can restrict choices to get project team to perform and do work - puts pressure

balanced matrix

PM has low to moderate amount of authority - sometimes power struggle; part-time project team and PM may have part-time admin staff to expedite project; PM and functional manager share control of project budget

PMO org structure

PMO organizes and manages control over all projects; uniform approach for all projects; PMOs helps PMs share resources across projects; offer coaching and communication; change control and stakeholder management; help resolve issues

Phase gate reviews

Phase gate reviews happen at the end of each project phase and before the next phase will begin. These are opportunity to review the project work so far and to confirm that the project can and should move forward.

Social awareness (emotional intelligence)

Picking up on the mood in the room, caring what others are going through, hearing what the other person is "really" saying

Project stakeholder management

Process of managing the expectations and requirements of anyone who has an interest in a project or will be affected by it Associated processes: identify stakeholders, plan stakeholder engagement, manage stakeholder engagement, monitor stakeholder engagement

Projects

Projects are temporary, create unique products, services, or results; drive change, moving, adding, changing, or deleting (MACD); done because of business value which is documented in biz case

Change management plan

Provides the process for managing change control, including the CCB. If scope change or change of features or functions, goes into configuration management AND change management if doesn't touch features or functions, goes into change management

Data

Raw data and facts about project work about what's going on in project (status) can include - cost of activities, number of change requests, defects, durations

Avoidance (risk management)

Risk is completely avoided/removed

Reduce (risk management)

Risk is mitigated

EEF

Rules and processes you must follow; RESTRICT CHOICES any time you have to do certain procedure, likely dealing w/EEF external - laws or regulations, market conditions, industry standards internal - how you do procurement, communicate with public, secure email server -unique to company Other internal: Organizational culture Type of organizational structure Internal political conditions Available resources Infrastructure The distribution of resources

Scope baseline

Scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary. Work packages and planning packages are also included.

Self-awareness (emotional intelligence)

Self confidence, awareness of your emotional state, recognizing how your behavior impacts others, paying attention to how others influence your emotional state

Supportive PMO

Shares knowledge, consultative, templates, training A supportive PMO provides OPAs and consultation for projects but has a very low level of control over projects.

Impediment

Slows down the progress of the team e.g. slow internet connection, developer's absence, bug found in testing

Change management

Structured approach to transitioning groups to a future state. Too much change or lack of understanding can lead to resistance and change fatigue. Methods include communicating vision, goals, and benefits of the change early, along with impact to work processes

Project risk management

Systematic process of identifying, analyzing, and responding to project risks Associated processes: plan risk management, identify risks, perform qualitative risk analysis, perform quantitative risk analysis, plan risk response, implement risk response, monitor risks

Project life cycle

The PMBOK® Guide defines the project life cycle as "a collection of generally sequential project phases whose name and number are determined by the control needs of the organization or organizations involved in the project" A life cycle phase is unique to a project and shows the type of work and expected deliverables achieved within that phase.

Affinity Diagram

The affinity diagram is a convergent thinking tool used to organize or "cluster" ideas and data. The tool is commonly used within project management and allows large numbers of ideas stemming from divergent thinking tools such as brainstorming to be sorted into groups, based on their natural relationships, for review and analysis. It is also frequently used in contextual inquiry as a way to organize notes and insights from field interviews. It can also be used for organizing other freeform comments, such as open-ended survey responses, support call logs, or other qualitative data.

Project management plan

The document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled. It includes: scope management plan requirements management plan schedule management plan cost management plan quality management plan resource management plan communications management plan risk management plan procurement management plan stakeholder engagement plan The PM plan is updated throughout the project; communicates intent of project, serves as guide for PM (project structure, documentation, baselines) There are scope, schedule, cost baselines

Risk threshold

The measure of acceptable variation around an objective that reflects the risk appetite of the organization and stakeholders.

Conflict Management Process

The process for managing conflict is a repetitive set of actions that can be performed in any order, as needed to anticipate or mitigate the conflict situation. The first step is to identify the key players in the project whose expectations or concerns may differ from those of other key players. The next step is to identify the catalysts and depth of their differing expectations and concerns. Every issue unconvered could have consequential effects on the project must be researched and understood. The project manager must make sure that the methods a project will use for conflict management are documented during project communication planning. Having the project stakeholders agree to these methods early in the project helps start the culture change needed to move from blame to acclaim.

Project communications management

The processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage, and ultimate disposition of project information. Associated processes: plan communications management, manage communications, monitor communications

Compromise/Reconcile

This approach involves searching for solutions that bring some degree of satisfaction to all parties in order to at least temporarily or partially resolve the conflict. But beware that this technique occasionally results in a lose-lose situation. MODERATE LOSE/MODERATE LOSE

Collaborate/Problem-Solve (conflict resolution technique)

This approach seeks to incorporate multiple viewpoints and insights from differing perspectives. To reach a consensus, all parties must have a cooperative attitude and open dialogue. While this technique typically requires more effort, it can result in a win-win situation. "If the issue is over providing funds for the next project phase or arranging teamwork priorities, a more collaborative approach may work better," WIN/WIN

Burndown chart

Tracks the work that remains to be completed in the iteration backlog (e.g. # of user stories). It shows the variance against the work committed during iteration planning. A burn-down chart shows the amount of work remaining on a project (the remaining effort), whereas a burn-up chart shows how much work has been completed and the total scope of the project.

Project management

Typical project management: Identifying requirements Addressing needs, concerns, and expectations of stakeholders Setting up, maintaining, and carrying out communications Managing stakeholders -anyone that can affect the project or is affected by the project Balancing competing project constraints: scope, quality, schedule, budget, resources, risks

Contingency reserves

Usually associated with money for risk events that disrupt the project Known unknowns Calculated by summing probability of risks occuring and the associated costs

Closing a project or phase*

When closing a project, the PM should get stakeholder acceptance, complete lesson learned, archive project information, create a final report, transfer the product, service, or result to the next phase (production or operations), and release the project team. Make sure all issues are resolved and all deliverabes are formally accepted, as well as all the costs are charged to the project so it can be closed out financially. The customer's validation of scope is not done in the project closure phase. The customer's validation is done in the monitoring and controlling stage of the project. This is done so that the customer can provide feedback on the deliverables and the project can be adjusted as needed. The customer provides feedback on the overall project in the closing phase. The project manager archives records and completes procurement closure in the closing phase.

Coercive leadership style

a command and control style. It relies on forcing people to do what you tell them, whether they want to or not.

Nominal group technique

a decision-making method that begins and ends by having group members quietly write down and evaluate ideas to be shared with the group you ask for as many ideas and solutions as possible, and then rank the concepts to help guide the requirements development.

authoritarian leadership style

also known as autocratic leadership, is a management style in which an individual has total decision-making power and absolute control over his subordinates.

affiliative leadership style

an approach to management that prioritizes emotional intelligence and strong emotional bonds between managers and team members. Affiliative leaders embrace the theory that high-performing teams enjoy good communication and a sense of belonging.

hybrid org structure

any type of mashup of structures - composite; blend of org types; PM power unique to structure

functional (centralized) org structure

clear division of biz units or lines of biz (sales, marketing, finance, IT); PMs don't have lots of authority, PM may be called coordinator or team lead and is typically PT role; functional manager has power and also manages budget

virtual org structure

departments involved in project, one person for each dept represents that group; communication can be a challenge bc one point of contact; PM has low authority over project team; share authority over project budget with functional manager; PM could be FT or PT; project team members likely to be PT; admin staff could be PT or FT

Assumptions log

document that has record of all assumptions and also constraints assumption is anything you believe to be true but isn't proven (e.g. the project won't be cancelled) updated throughout the project constraints - anything that restricts options (e.g. have to develop particular software package)

Qualitative risk analysis

fast, subjective approach - qualifies for quantitative risk analysis, IDs risks that may proceed directly to risk response planning

ingratiating power

gains favor through flattery - false power like this wears down (quit sucking up)

Requirements traceability matrix

grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them and provides structure for managing changes to the product scope tracks where requirements are in phases to completion. RTM is created after the requirements are collected4 The requirements traceability matrix will contain information that relates to project requirements and strategic objectives

project-oriented org structure

groups of employees - collocated or not - work on project FT; PM has complete or close to complete power, high level of autonomy over projects; FT project staff, FT admin staff; PM manages budget

Scope statement

has scope description, project deliverables, acceptance criteria, exclusions focuses on completing all the required work, and only the required work, to create the project's deliverables. A scope statement is a document that defines all the elements of the project scope as well as assumptions, project requirements and acceptance criteria. Your project scope statement will act as the primary tool for stakeholders and teammates to refer back to and use as a guideline to accurately measure project success. After the development approach has been determined and requirements have been provided, a project scope statement should be created. From here, the project scope statement will inform the development of a schedule and an activity list.

charismatic leader

high energy, inspires team, go do it now, often take part in work - want project team to be successful

Transfer (negative risk response)

hire someone else - someone else owns risk, usually for fee/contract

avoiding power

individual is laissez-faire - refuses to act

Low influence/high interest

keep informed

High influence/low interest

keep satisfied

High influence/high interest

manage closely

Escalate (negative risk response)

may be significant, outside of PM's ability, escalate to management Individual risk responses implemented by team, overall risk escalated

Low influence/low interest

monitor only

Controlling PMO

prescribing; can review PM's work/does audits. A controlling PMO exerts a moderate level of control but is not accountable for the success of projects.

multidivisional org structure

replication of functions for each division - Finance group has IT group, so does Sales not always cost efficient but necessary bc massive org; PM doesn't have much authority - might be called coordinator Resources will be part-time functional manager in charge of budget

Scope

sets the vision for what the project is going to create - how we move from current state to desired future state

strong matrix

similar characteristics to balanced, but PM has moderate to high level of power and management of part-time to nearly FT team; FT role as PM, FT admin staff; PM manages project budget

Management reserves

specified amount of the project budget withheld for management control purposes and are reserved for unforseen work that is within the scope of the project Unknown unknowns

Directive PMO

super control/assigns PMs who report to PMO; directly manages the project as the PMO owns and controls project life cycle. A directive PMO is rigid and is responsible for the success of all projects.

PMO

supports PMs manages shared resources across the PMO coaching, mentoring, training - uniform approach conduct project audits - adhering to repeatable approaches developing and managing processes and procedures facilitating communications across projects A PMO may have the authority to act as an integral stakeholder and a key decision maker throughout the life of each project in order to keep it aligned with the business objectives. The PMO may: Make recommendations, Lead knowledge transfer, Terminate projects, and Take other actions, as required.

weak matrix

team has blend of departmental and project duties; PM has little authority, management is part-time and project team, coordinater or team lead title for PM, part-time admin staff to help; functional manager in control of budget

Force/Direct (conflict resolution technique)

this approach, one party pushes their viewpoint at the expense of others, offering only win-lose solutions. This option is often enforced from a position of power to resolve an emergency. "For example, when dealing with a potentially dangerous work situation involving the proper processes for protecting individuals from falling off a building on a construction site, the approach may be directive and, if necessary, dictatorial," WIN/LOSE

organic or simple org structure

usually smaller company with bigger project - people jump in and do work; resources dedicated to project are low; PM has little or no authority over project resources

personal or charismatic power

warm personality that other people like

Mitigate (negative risk response)

what can we do to reduce the probability and impact of the risk event

reward power

where project team sees PM as someone who can reward them, so team acts accordingly