PMP Blitz Review
5 responses to negative risks
- Escalate: Bring to higher level - Avoid: eliminate the risk or its impact. You do this by changing your project management plan, by changing the project scope - Transfer: Hire someone to take on risk - Mitigate: lessen the impact of the risk - Accept: Do nothing
What are 5 interpersonal & team skills
1 Active listening 2 Cultural awareness 3 Leadership 4 Networking 5 Political awareness
What is the workflow for integrated change control?
1 Change requests > 2 Configuration mgmt & change mgmt systems > 3 Integrated change control OR change control board 4 Change request approved, declined or deferred. 5 Updated PM plan and project documents, change log updates
What are the 4 processes of stakeholder management knowledge area?
1 Identify stakeholders 2 Plan stakeholder engagement 3 Manage stakeholder engagement 4 Monitor stakeholder engagement
Cost Plus Award Fee Contracts (CPAF)
CPAF Very unusual Cover allowable costs plus the buyer does subjective review to determine extra award to be given to seller
What are 3 actions requiring change request occur during the executing process group of project integration management, process direct & manage work?
Corrective action Preventive action Defect repair
Fixed price economic price adjustment contract (FP-EPA)
FP-EPA On long-term contract - contains pre-defined financial adjustments (inflation, material cost fluctuations, etc)
What are the 2 main types of contracts?
Fixed price or cost-reimbursable
Scatter diagram shows us what?
The correlation between 2 or more variables There may be : positive correlation, negative correlation or no correlation
Power/Influence Grid
grouping stakeholders based on their level of authority and their involvement (influence) in the project.
Communications channel formula
n (n-1) / 2 Helps determine how many communication channels there are If there are 10 different people involved: 10 (10-1) / 2 = 45 communication channels
Project charter contains what?
1 High level justification 2 Measurable objectives 3 High-level requirements & project description 4 Overall project risks 5 Summary milestone schedule 6 Pre-approved financial resources 7 Stakeholder list 8 Assigned responsibilities & authority 9 Sponsor name & authority
3 types of quality costs
1 Prevention: QA 2 Appraisal: QC 3 Failure (internal or external)
What are 4 ways to actively engage stakeholders?
1 Use information management system 2 Use expert judgment 3 Meeting with stakeholders 4 Be honest & direct with project news
What is a project team charter?
A document that defines how a team will communicate and make decisions Defines: -Team values -Communication -Decision-making -Conflict resolution -Meeting guidelines -Team agreements -Ground rules
Stakeholder Analysis
A technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account throughout the project.
Three-Point Estimate
A technique used to estimate cost or duration by applying an average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates. (O+ML+P) / 3 = E
Power/Interest Grid
A tool used to group stakeholders based on their level of authority (power) & their level of concern (interest) for project outcomes High interest & high power: Manage closely High interest & low power: Keep informed Low interest & high power: Keep satisfied Low interest & power: Monitor
80/20 Rule
AKA Pareto Principle - idea that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes Majority 80 percent of capital tends to be controlled by a minority 20 percent of elite stakeholders.
Cause-and-effect diagram
AKA fishbone or Ishikawa diagram Look at negative effect and try to map out potential causes (& subcauses to each cause) to determine root-cause
McClelland's Theory of Needs
Achievement, power, and affiliation are three important needs that help explain motivation Individual needs are different & are acquired over time - Achievement: seeks to excel - Affiliation: harmonious, acceptance - Power: personal & institutional
Actual Cost (AC) meaning & formula
Also known as Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP), Actual Cost is the actual to-date cost of the task. AC = Actual Cost of the Task For example, if the actual cost is $3,500, AC = $3,500.
Earned Value (EV) meaning & formula
Also known as Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP), Earned Value is the amount of the task that is actually completed. It is also calculated from the project budget. EV = Percent Complete (actual) x Task Budget For example, if the actual percent complete is 25% and the task budget is $10,000, EV = 25% x $10,000 = $2,500.
Planned Value (PV) meaning & formula
Also known as Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS), Planned Value is the amount of the task that is supposed to have been completed, in terms of the task budget. It is calculated from the project budget. PV = Percent Complete (planned) x Task Budget For example, if it's Feb. 12 today, and the task is supposed to last from Feb. 10 to Feb. 20, it should be 20% complete. If the task budget is $10,000, PV = 20% x $10,000 = $2,000.
What are 3 tools used for Monitor stakeholder engagement?
Alternatives analysis: To evaluate options for responding to variances in desired engagement Root-cause analysis: To determine underlying reason why engagement not working Stakeholder analysis: To determine position of stakeholder groups/individuals at any particular time
PERT Estimate
An estimate for cost or schedule that factors in optimistic, most likely and pessimistic, but weighs most likely more heavily (O+[4ML]+P)/6=E
Positive risk strategy: Share
An excellent example of the Share response is in bidding for work. You may find that your bid would be more successful if you partnered (i.e., shared) with another firm. The opportunity (in this case, winning the bid) would be more likely to happen if you worked as a team. Another example might be if you are building something, working in partnership with a specialist firm for a particular component
Cost plus fixed fee (CPFF)
CPFF Fixed fee of initial estimated costs, plus allowable costs
Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF)
CPIF - dangerous for buyer The buyer pays the supplier for allowable performance costs plus a predetermined fee and an incentive bonus Buyer covers all allowable costs & offers bonus for performance goals. Issue is that if seller rushes to meet goal, they could mess up & buyer would be responsible for cost overruns from mistakes, like need for more material Often incentive sharing (80/20)
Salience Model classifies stakeholders how?
Classifies stakeholders based on their power, urgency, and legitimacy
What is the 1 process in the closing process group?
Close project or phase (integration)
Cost-Reimbursable Contract
Cost + fee contract Buyer carries risks of overruns May be used when work scope can't be defined early
Cost Variance (CV) meaning & formula
Cost Variance tells the project manager how far the task is over or under budget. CV = Earned Value - Actual Costs If CV is negative, the task is over budget If CV is zero, the project is on budget If CV is positive, the project is under budget
What is cost performance baseline?
Cost performance baseline is what we think things will cost in the project
Positive risk strategy: Enhance
Enhancing the opportunity can come about when you focus on the causes of the opportunity. In other words, what are the factors that are going to make this positive risk/opportunity happen? Think about how you can influence those factors. This could be by introducing software features to make the new product more marketable or shareable. It relies on being able to adequately articulate what is going to cause the beneficial situation to happen so that you can focus your efforts appropriately
5 response strategies for positive risk events
Escalate Exploit Share Enhance Accept
What are 2 types of knowledge (mentioned in project integration management) ?
Explicit and tacit knowledge
Form fixed-price contract (FFP)
FFP is most common contract Seller carries risk of cost overruns Buyer specifies what's needed Changes to scope may result in addendum
Fixed-price incentive fee (FPIF)
FPIF Fixed price plus financial incentive for performance (schedule, cost, technical) But with price ceiling Seller carries risk of cost overruns
Influence/impact grid
Grouping stakeholders based on their active involvement (influence) & ability to effect changes to project (impact)
Hard logic says that activities must be done in what order?
In a specific order: ABC
Agile triangle contraints: What 2 things are fixed, and what 1 thing varies?
In agile, time and cost are fixed, while scope varies
Soft logic says that activities must be done in what order?
In any order
Risk Mitigation
In this risk response strategy you will try to lessen the impact of the risk. You can do so by either trying to decrease the probability of the risk happening or the impact of the risk. This strategy decreases the severity of the risk
Schedule Variance (SV) meaning & formula
In this, the first output calculated in the earned value analysis, the project manager obtains a value which tells you the amount that the task is ahead or behind schedule. SV = Earned Value - Planned Value If SV is negative, the task is behind schedule. If SV is zero, the task is on schedule If SV is positive, the task is ahead of schedule. In our example, SV = $2,500 - $2,000 = $500. This task is ahead of schedule.
What are the 2 types of emotional intelligence?
Inbound: Self-management / self-awareness Outbound: Relationship management
What are the two levels of risk?
Individual project risks Overall project risk
Validate scope process involves what?
It's an inspection-driven process in which the customer inspects the project work to give formal acceptance of the project Can happen at end of phase, when major deliverable created, or at end of project
Prompt List for risk management
List of overall project risks Examples: VUCA: Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity TECOP: Technical, environmental, commercial, operational, political PESTLE: Political, economic, social, technological, legal environmental
4 types of dependencies
Mandatory: hard logic Discretionary: soft logic External: external constraint Internal: type of hard logic
Tuckman Team Development Model
Model that describes how people come together & stages of group formation Forming, storming, norming, performing
How does the Monitor stakeholder engagement tie in with other areas?
Monitor stakeholder engagement process is linked to communications, including & the communications management plan and schedule
Schedule Performance Index (SPI) meaning & formula
SPI, similar to the SV, also indicates ahead or behind schedule but gives the project manager a sense of the relative amount of the variance. If you told me your project had a $500 schedule variance, this would mean drastically different things if your project was for building a backyard fence versus constructing a high-rise building. SPI = Earned Value / Planned Value If SPI < 1, the task is behind schedule If SPI = 1, the task is on schedule If SPI > 1, the task is ahead of schedule In our example, SPI = $2,500 / $2,000 = 1.25. Therefore, the task is 25% ahead of schedule.
Project scope contains what 4 things
Scope description Project deliverables Acceptance criteria Project exclusions
Communication model: 9 elements
Sender & receiver Encoder: Email of sender Decoder: Email of receiver Medium: Network Decoder: Receiver's machine/email system Noise: Anything that garbles or distorts Barrier: Anything preventing real communication Acknowledgment: Received Feedback/response: Indicate understanding
Time and Material Contract (T&M)
T&M Simple contract Seller is paid an hourly fee & for materials, with not-to-exceed clause & time limits for contract
How do tell the cost variance?
Take difference between cost performance baseline and actual costs
What does resource smoothing mean?
That there's a cap on allowed labor within a time period, EXCEPT along the critical path Resource smoothing used to try to adhere to schedule / deadlines
What does resource leveling heuristics mean?
That there's a hard cap on allowed labor within a time period The presence of a cap often extends the project schedule
Step funding
The amount of funding you have to get to a phase gate Financing by phases
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. LS - ES or LF - EF
Free float
The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor or violating a schedule constraint.
Difference between exploit risk and enhance risk strategies for positive risks?
The enhance risk response strategy takes the situation leniently, while the exploit risk response strategy takes it aggressively. Enhancing is about increasing the probability of the occurrence of positive risks Exploiting is about doing everything to ensure that the event happens
Project float
The total time the project can be delayed without passing the customer-expected completion date.
McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y
Theory X - the assumption that employees dislike work, are lazy, avoid responsibility, and must be coerced to perform. Theory Y - the assumption that employees are creative, enjoy work, seek responsibility, and can exercise self-direction. Theory X explains the importance of heightened supervision, external rewards, and penalties, while Theory Y highlights the motivating role of job satisfaction and encourages workers to approach tasks without direct supervision.
What is the theory of constraints?
Theory of Constraints says that constraint processes are the only areas where improvements in their performance will bring about a meaningful change. If you want to improve, you need to identify the biggest constraints and focus on them. ID most important limiting factor, and systematically improve that
Positive risk strategy: Exploit
This response strategy tries to make sure that the risk happens, so you get the perceived benefit from the situation. Simple ways to do this could be to train the team to give them extra skills or to tweak your deliverables slightly so that they respond better to the opportunity
Triple constraints triangle for predictive lifecyle: What aspects vary and what remains constant?
Time and cost vary; scope remains constant
Run chart
Tool for tracking results over a period of time Results of measurements over time Closer the dots, the more accumulated in short amount of time
Risk escalation
You use the escalate risk response strategy when you identify a risk and find that you cannot manage it on your own because you lack the authority, resources or knowledge required for a response. When this kind of situation happens, you will contact your PMO or top management to inform them about it and ask them to take the responsibility of managing the risk
Risk transference
You use this strategy when you are lacking skills or resources to manage the risk or you are too busy to manage it. In the transfer risk response strategy, you transfer the risk to a third party to manage it
Pareto Chart
a bar chart on which factors are plotted along the horizontal axis in decreasing order of frequency May use to chart defects from largest to smallest
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Procurement process: 4 steps
1. Buyer: SOW, ItB, RfQ, RfP 2. Bidder conference, SOW update 3 Seller response (bid, quote, proposal) 4 Buyer: Negotation, source selection, contracting
Stakeholder Analysis Steps
1. Identify all potential project stakeholders and relevant information 2. Identify the potential impact or support each stakeholder could generate, and classify them for approach strategy 3. Assess how key stakeholders are likely to react or respond in various situations, in order to plan how to influence them
Rule of Seven
A component of a control chart that illustrates the results of seven measurements on one side of the mean says that if seven consecutive points are above or below the centerline, this must be due to some process which is skewing the values to one side of the center line
In a run chart, if you have ____ or more values consecutively trending upward or downward, it's considered a trend
5
Mneumonic for 10 knowledge areas
2 C, 1 I, 3 S, 1 Q, 2 R Communications Cost Integration Schedule Scope Stakeholder Procurement Quality Resource Risk
Maslow's hierarchy of needs from bottom to top includes:
5 elements: Physiological Safety Social Esteem Self-actualization
Incentive sharing (80:20)
80% is for the buyer, and 20% is for the seller
Probability and Impact Matrix
A matrix that ranks the probability of a risk event occurring and its impact if the event does happen; used in qualitative and quantitative risk analyses.
What is a RACI chart
A responsibility assignment matrix which identifies the task to be performed, the individual or organization assigned to the task, and what level of responsibility or involvement they have for this task.
Risk avoidance
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact. Usually have to change a behavior or plan to avoid risk entirely
Risk Acceptance
A risk response strategy whereby the project team decides to acknowledge the risk and not take any action unless the risk occurs.
Network diagram
A schematic display of the logical relationships or sequencing of project activities
Assignable Cause
A source of variation in a process that can be isolated it is readily distinguishes it from random causes of variation.
Resource leveling v resource smoothing
Both try to adhere to labor limit, but smoothing allows flexibility along critical path so can meet deadlines
Difference between corrective action and defect repair?
Defect repair is an easy concept—repair the defects. In corrective action, you try to take action to correct the non-conformance event that happened in the past
Design for X
Design For Excellence (DFX or DfX), where the X is a variable which can have one of many possible values. X may represent several traits or features including: variability, cost, yield, or reliability. DfX can control or improve final characteristics of a product Examples: design for manufacturability (DfM, DFM), design for inspection (DFI), design for variability (DfV), design for cost (DfC)
In risk management, what is the goal of quantitative and qualitative analysis?
Determine risk exposure
What are the 2 processes that take place in the initiating process group and what are their knoledge areas?
Develop project charter (Integration) Identify stakeholders (Stakeholder mgmt) - but need the project charter first
Within the integration knowledge area, what process occurs in the planning process group?
Develop project management plan
Deming cycle
Plan, Do, Check, Act
Herzberg's Theory of Motivation
Posits that there are two catalysts for workers: Demotivators (poor pay, pressure) & motivators (sense of achievement, varied work, recognition) He really talks not about demotivators but about Hygiene agents, which do nothing to motivate, but their absence demotivates workers. Hygiene agents are the expectations all workers have: job security, paychecks, clean and safe working conditions. Their absence are demotivators
What document inputs are needed to identify stakeholders?
Project charter business documents PM plan if available Agreements EEFs OPAs
What is the main difference between the project charter and the project scope?
Project charter is all about authorizing the work and the project manager Project scope is all about what we will create specifically
What are the 10 knowledge areas?
Project integration management Project scope management Project time management Project cost management Project quality management Project Resource Management Project Communication Management Project Risk Management Project Procurement Management Project Stakeholder Management
Quality v grade
Quality is fulfilling requirements Grade is category or ranking (plywood, oak). Low grade isn't necessarily bad, low quality always issue
What are the 5 types of stakes that stakeholders may have in a project?
R : Rights I : Interest O : Ownership C : Contribution K : Knowledge
