FDM APM

What are the categories of stakeholders?

- Internal - External

What are the risk responses?

1. Accept: Take it on the chin 2. Avoid: Do not accept the risk, change the project. 3. Mitigate: Do things to mitigate the fallout of risk happening.

What kind of changes can there be in projects?

1. Business case change 2. Organisational change 3. Political Change 4. Scope creep (most dangerous)

What are the risk techniques?

1. Checklists 2. Interviewing 3. Brainstorming

What are some estimating techniques?

1. Comparative estimating (Similar jobs) 2. Parametric Estimation (Using smaller estimates and then mathing out the total time) 3. Top down (Estimating other times based on other phases) 4. Bottom up (Breaking the larger activity into smaller measurable ones)

4 stages in project life-cycle?

1. Concept - Is it possible? - justifiable? - worth risk? 2. Definition - Make the plan - feasibility study - risk management 3. Development - Plan, monitor, control cycle 4. Handover - Post Project Review - benefits realisation

What does project support do?

1. Documentation 2. Filing 3. Plan Updating 4. Standards 5. Configuration Management 6. Reports

What are the components of good estimations?

1. Experience 2. Product 3. Environment 4. Historical Info 5. Objectivity

What are the responses to opportunity?

1. Exploit: Guarantee 2. Enhance: greater magnitude 3. Share: transfer the positive 4. Accept: Only react if it occurs

What are the types of change?

1. External change: Changes outside the business. 2. Internal change: changes inside the project itself 3. Intended change 4. Unintended change These will change project: 1. Scope 2. Products 3. Budget 4.Timescale 5. Business Case

What are the internal project risk categories?

1. Financial 2. Schedule 3. Technical 4. Physical

What is in an activity list?

1. ID 2. Activity Title 3. Duration 4. Dependency

What are the steps in risk analysis?

1. Initiate 2. ID 3. Assess 4. Plan Response 5. Implement response

What are the 4 rules of brainstorming?

1. No criticism 2. Quantity over quality 3. everyone must contribute 4. Write everything down

What are the 5 basic functions of configuration management?

1. Planning 2. ID 3. Control 4. Status accounting 5. verification

What are some guidlines to interviewing for risk?

1. Prep properly 2. Make a objective clear 3. Make the environment good 4. manage time 5. Open ended questions 6. Keep a record

What are the 3 meeting types?

1. Present Info 2. Exchange Info 3. Make Decisions

What is needed for successful programs?

1. Processes 2. People 3. Organisation 4. Infrastructure 5. Leadership

What are the risk inputs?

1. Prod. Desc. 2. Project planning 3. Historical info

What should be included in the project scope statement?

1. Project Description 2. Phase Description 3. Project Objectives 4. Project deliverables 5. Functional scope 6. Organisational scope 7. Geographic scope 8. Technical scope 9. Constraints and assumptions

What is the structure of project team?

1. Project board 2. Senior executives 3. Project assurance 4. PM 4.5. Project Support 5. Team manager

What are the levels of project plans?

1. Project management plan 2. Project plan 3. Stage plan 3.5. exception plan 4. Team plan

What is Quality process?

1. Quality assurance: auditing quality 2. Quality planning 2a. objectives 2b. requirements 2c. approach 2d. quality plan 2e. quality activities 3. Quality control 3a. examine 3b. testing 3c. checking 3d. reviewing

What are the 3 steering group roles and what does each do?

1. Senior supplier: Focused on the business end 2. Sponsor: Chairs the meetings and oversees the completion of the project. 3. Senior User: Oversees the project is delivering on product requirements.

What are the main topics of a communication plan?

1. Stakeholders 2. Report requirements 3. Meetings 4. Timing 5. Exceptions 6. Filing 7. Updating procedures

What is a project management plan?

1. The Why should the project be done. 2. The what should be done. 3. How the project should be done. 4. How Much resource 5. Who is doing what. 6. When to schedule 7. Where to do so 3 major areas: 1. Commitment/acceptance 2.methods/strategies 3. Scheduling/Planning

What are the ways to mitigate risk?

1. Transfer: Insurance, contracting out 2. Contingency: Something that happens to keep the impact to a minimum such as budget in place, backup specialists, time buffer 3. Reduce: Find ways to limit the possibility of that risk occurring like bringing in more staff or increasing budget

What are the 4 concerns of PM?

1. What has to be done 2. When should it be done 3. How should it be done 4. How Much will it cost

What questions should be answered by a communication plan?

1. What reports should be made? 2. Who should make the reports? 3. When should the reports be made? 4. What meetings should be held? 5. Why should the meetings be held? 6. How should the meetings be held? 7. What if there are communication issues

What is quality?

1. fitness for intended purpose 2. Satisfying needs of the customers

What are the 4 types of scope?

1. functional scope (What will be done) 2. Organisational scope (Jobs, training, etc.) 3. Geographic scope (location based) 4. Technical scope (technologies used)

What is the difference between projects and programs?

1. projects are planned to end 2. Projects are focused on products. Programs are the inverse

what is contract closeout?

2 main steps: 1. Product verification: did it meet requirements 2. Admin closeout: All the docs are collected and the contract is finalised.

What is tender invitation?

4 major objectives: 1. create the ITT doc 2. ID appropriate suppliers 3. create an ITT calendar of events 4. communicate with prospective suppliers

With a prompt list, what signifies a possible risk?

A false mark

What is a team/teamwork?

A group of people working together to meet a common objective. These people need: 1. defined membership 2. group conscious 3. shared purpose 4. interdependence 5. interaction 6. react as unit

What is a program?

A group or related projects happening at the same time or sharing resources working toward a common goal.

What is a project?

A unique transient endeavor undertaken to achieve planned objectives. These have finite life cycles.

What are the qualifications for APM and AXELOS?

APM - APM project Fundementals - APM Project Managment Qualificaiton - APM Practitioner Qualification AXELOS - PRINCE2 Foundation - Prince2 Practitioner - MSP

What is an estimate?

An assessment based on skill and experience the time and resources required to execute an activity.

What is risk?

An event that if it occurs it will have an effect on the project objective. These can be positive or negative.

What is a product?

Anything produced that can be identified, described, and is tangible/measurable.

What is source selection?

Bids and proposals and the decision to pick a supplier. Typical selection concerns: 1. Quality 2. Risks 3. Reliability 4. Stability 5. Ethics

What is resource smoothing?

Changing the floats on activities to smooth the resource demands.

What is AXELOS and APM?

Common PM standards and guidlines. - prince2 - MSP - BS 6079 (guidlines)

What is ISEB? PMP?

Courses given for IT PM in UK. PMP is the american version.

What is scope planning?

Defining and Documenting both scope of project and how that scope is to be managed and controlled.

What is a product description and what are its main categories?

Details what the product is so everyone agrees on what the product is. Categories: 1. Purpose 2. Composition: major categories 3. Derivation: variations or supporting products 4. Format 5. Quality Criteria 6. Quality Method

What are quality management systems?

Document that lays out the orgs quality policy and the processes to be performed to give this standard of quality. Typically includes: 1. Quality policy 2. mgmt commitment 3. quality procedures 4. quality records 5. quality assurance 6. quality education 7. quality training 8. quality culture

What is project scope management?

Ensuring the project includes all of the work required and only the work required to complete the project

What is project hand over?

Giving the completed project over to the operational team. This needs to include: 1. Who will be given the project? 2. What training will be involved? 3. Are there manuals that need to be created? 4. Are there any drawings or specifications? 5. health/safty considerations 6. Maintinance requirements 7. Commissioning 8. Hand over review

How do you gain customer acceptance?

Go through the checklist of requirements with them again and make sure they are satisfied with the finished product.

What is project management important for?

Going beyond personal planning, you need to know what is being done, how to do it, and how to mitigate risk.

What is a portfolio?

Groupings of projects and programs.

How do you give project evaluation?

How the project went and how the process can be improved. These notes are put into a lessons learned log. This becomes a lessons learned report to improve the processes.

What is risk magnitude and how is it calculated?

It is the likelihood and impact of something happening to the business. It is calculated by: Magnitude = Probability * Impact If something is more than 50% probable to happen we cannot accept that risk.

What is the difference between effort and duration?

It may take many more less man hours to do a process but depending on number of people and amount of work time dedicated to that activity.

What is resource levelling?

Limit the required resources and move the date out to flatten resource needs.

What is configuration management?

Logically related set of products. and is synonymous with product control. Which includes: 1. ID 2. Record 3. File 4. Distribute 5. Manage Issue 6. Manage Change

What are the 2 types of business work and what makes each unique?

Operations -Repeated -Continuous -Stable Projects -Unique -Planned -Imply radical change

What are the follow-on actions?

Outstanding project requirements handed over to the operations team. This includes things like: 1. Contracts for on-going maintenance 2. Review performance 3. Updating documentation 4. Assessing benefits

What is project quality?

Overall quality in every aspect of the project to the final product delivery.

What are product and activity based planning?

Product: Looking at what has to be produced Activity: Looking at what activities need to be done.

What is PMI?

Project management Institute. American PM standard. - PMoC (Project Management Body of Knwledge)

What is a workaround?

Response to unplanned risk.

What are the risk outputs?

Risk Register

What is the difference between scope verification and quality control?

Scope verification: Checking to see that the stakeholders agree on the direction and vision of the project. Quality control: Checking for correctness.

How do you file/archive a project?

Secure the documents that are necessary for future projects. Destroy the documents that would not be helpful in the future.

What is a tornado chart?

Sensitivities put onto a single bar chart to graphically represent the different effects on the overall model.

What are stages and stage boundaries?

Stages: Segments of the project Stage Boundaries: Progress reports and times to review the progress of the project.

How do you provide administrative closure?

Steps include: 1. PM gives the closure recommendation 2. Communication policy is followed and all parties informed 3. configuration management is confirmed 4. Change log is reviewed 5. risk log is reviewed 6. End project report is made with how the project went.

What is communication?

Succeed in convey information and understanding through: 1. speaking 2. written 3. speak + write

What is leadership?

The ability to establish vision and direction to the business.

What is project tolerance?

The amount of leeway given to the PM to do the project. Includes things like cost, time, and resources

What is float in terms of network diagrams?

The amount of time that a non-critical activity can be delayed until it impacts a critical activity.

What is project management?

The application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills, and experience to achieve project objectives.

What is change control?

The means to: 1. Capture change 2. Impact analysis 3. Authorisation 4. Recording 5. Communication 6. Implement and monitor

What is procurement planning?

The process of determining which parts of the project can be best satisfied from outside the business. This also includes timing, amounts, scope, quality, and performance criteria. Contract type selection belongs here, which includes: 1. Fixed price: lump sum for well defined products 2. Cost plus: all costs plus a percentage for the product 3. Time and materials: Agreed amount in beginning and the contractor is paid based on progress.

what is contract administration?

The process of ensuring the contractor is meeting contract specifications.

What is project assurance?

The responsibility of the steering group to ensure the project is doing what it is expected to deliver.

What is a business case?

The set of information for the project made before the project begins. Typical sections include: 1. Reasons 2. Options 3. Benefits 4. Risks 5. Cost Timescale 6. Investment Appraisal

What is the cost of quality?

There is a balance between cost, time, and quality. Types of Quality Costs: 1. Appraisal 2. Prevention 3. Failure

How do you determine the probability and impact of a risk?

Triangulation: Best to Worst case shows the most likely cases in the middle. Triangulated mean: probabilities averaged. Decision Trees: Split out the different decisions and triangulate the risk for each outcome.

What is sensitivity analysis?

What-if analysis made with an algorithm. That can then manipulate the values to find what most effects the whole process.

What are exception plans?

When a stage plan goes wrong, this can replace that plan

How do you triangulate risk value.

difference between value 1 and 2 times the risk added to the best case for most likely case. Average the best, most likely, and worst cases.

What is the difference between replenishable and reusable resources?

replenishable: Resources used once and need to be restocked. Reusable: Resources that still exist at the end of the project.