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David Geoffrey Litten CasaBlanca Publishing Corp Preparing For PMP PMP EXAM Flash Summaries Essential Exam Aspects of PMBOK PMP, PMP, and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute Inc. Materials within this publication are based on the Project Management Institute A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK ® Guide) – Fifth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2013.

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Page 1: Pmp Exam Summaries 2014

David Geoffrey Litten

CasaBlanca Publishing Corp

Preparing For PMP

PMP EXAM Flash Summaries

Essential Exam

Aspects of

PMBOK

PMP, PMP, and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute Inc.

Materials within this publication are based on the Project Management Institute A Guide to the

Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK ® Guide) – Fifth Edition, Project Management

Institute, Inc., 2013.

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CasaBlanca Publishing Corp | David Geoffrey Litten 2014 2

Hi and Welcome!

I thought long and hard about even producing this PMP Exam Flash Summaries product.

Believe me; I nearly tossed the whole thing in the trash!

You see, it’s a bit like naming your top ten favorite songs, my list would be different to yours,

and worst, you may claim that I missed out an obvious choice of your favorites.

My intention is to give you an easy read of the key PMP Certification Exam areas that you need

to know in preparing for the PMP Certification Exam, and if I was not careful, I could easily turn

my PMP Flash Summaries into an entire PMP topic list!

So I honed them down to just 65 essential PMP aspects…

So I resisted, and here is what I came up with. I’d recommend you skim through this using it

almost as an aide memoire – if you find yourself saying, know that, know that, hhhmmm, I’d

forgotten that…then Great! I just nudged you to look into a topic further.

So despite my grand title, if you find this short document helped you to better focus on your

revision, then I’ve achieved my objectives.

You probably know that I have created my PMP Video Primer, and yes, that will give you the

finest training to prepare for your impending PMP Certification Exam.

But I’m not here to try to sell you anything, my intent here is to help you on your way to having

the PMP Certification after your name, and to that goal, I give you my very best wishes on your

path to success.

Stay Focused,

Author and creator of the PMP Primer

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The PMP Exam Objectives

These are the broad topics that you must become competent in:

Initiating the project

Conduct project selection methods

Define scope

Document project risks, assumptions, and constraints

Identifying perform stakeholder analysis

Develop project charter

Obtain project charter approval

Planning the project

define and record requirements, constraints, and assumptions

identified project team and defined roles and responsibilities

create the WBS

develop change management plan

identify risks and defined risk strategies

obtain plan approval

conduct kickoff meeting

Executing the project

executing tasks defined in project plan

ensure common understanding and set expectations

implement the procurement of project resources

manage resource allocation

implement quality management plan

implement approved changes

implement approved actions and workarounds

improve team performance

Monitoring and controlling the project

measure of project performance

verify and manage changes to the project

in show project deliverables conform to quality standards

monitor all risks

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Closing the project

obtain final acceptance of project

obtain financial, legal, and administrative closure

release project resources

identify, document, and communicate lessons learned

create and distribute final project report

archive and retain project records

measure customer satisfaction

Professional and social responsibility

ensure individual integrity

contribute to the project management knowledge base

enhanced professional competence

promote interaction among stakeholders

The skills of a good project manager. Communication, problem solving, budgeting,

organizational, team building, team leading, negotiation and influencing, are the

skills of project management excellence.

The difference between a project and business as usual (operations). A project is temporary

in nature with a definite beginning and ending date. Projects produce products (deliverables),

services or results. Business as usual is an ongoing activity and use repetitive processes that

typically produce a similar result time and again.

Name the five project management processes. These are initiating, planning, executing,

monitoring and controlling, and closing.

Name the ten project management knowledge areas. These are integration management,

scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human

resource management, communications management, risk management, procurement

management, and stakeholder management.

Be able to compare and contrast the different organizational structures and the project

manager’s authority for each of them. The main structures are functional, projectized, and

matrix. There are three variants of the matrix organization, the weak matrix, the balanced

matrix, and the strong matrix. While the matrix organization is a balance between the project

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manager’s authority when comparing the other two, project

managers have the most authority in a projectized organization

and the least authority in a functional organization.

The six needs or demands that can create a project. These are

market need, business need, customer request, legal

requirements, social needs, ecological impact, or technological

advance.

Be able to calculate and describe the payback period. This is the time-frame it will take the

organization to recoup its investment from the product of the project. The calculation involves

the sum of the expected cash inflows, compared against the original investment, and to

calculate how many time periods (typically years), before the cash inflows equal the initial

investment.

State the inputs for the develop project charter process. These are the project statement of

work, the contract (if this is appropriate), the project business case explaining why the project is

being undertaken, the problem that it will solve and the benefit cost analysis, the enterprise

environmental factors and the organizational process assets.

The different project selection methods. These measure the value of the product or service

that the project will produce and compare this against the benefits realized by the organization,

and they fall into two categories; benefit measurement methods and mathematical models.

You may find these also describes as decision models, which compares different criteria, and

calculation methods which calculate the value of the project. Both are used to aid project

selection decision making.

Mathematical models are complex formulas and algorithms, also known as constrained

optimization methods. Benefit measurement methods which you must understand and

calculate include benefit cost ratio (BCR), internal rate of return (IRR), economic value add

(EVA), present value (PV), net present value (NPV), payback period, return on investment (ROI),

opportunity cost, and return on invested capital (ROIC).

Make decisions based on NPV and IRR. Any project with an NPV greater than zero should be

accepted, and any NPV less than zero should be rejected. When comparing two or more

projects, the project with the highest IRR should be chosen. IRR is the discount rate at the point

when NPV is equal to zero, and therefore assumes reinvestment at the IRR rate.

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Describe the project charter, its creation and purpose. The project

charter officially recognizes and acknowledges that the project exists,

it is created during the develop project charter process and it explains

the business need of the project. It names and authorizes the project

manager and is signed off by the performing organizations senior

management.

It contains the high-level project requirements, and a milestone view

of the project schedule. It will also have a summary level preliminary project budget. It is used

as a key input for the development of the project management plan.

State the purpose of the develop project management plan process. The project management

plan process defines, coordinates, and integrates all of the subsidiary project plans, and as such

specifies the who, what, when, where, and how of the project. The project management plan is

progressively elaborated which means that it is developed in the first place and then refined,

revisited, and updated.

State the purpose of the project management plan. The project management plan consists of

the 15 component plans integrated together, and so will need to be assembled after these

component plans have been created. It describes how the project is to be executed, what is to

be monitored and controlled, and how it is to be closed. It therefore documents the outputs of

the planning group processes, and the level of detail contained here will reflect the size and

complexity of the project.

Describe the project constraints and assumptions. Project constraints often restrict or dictate

future actions and they limit the options available to the project team. Classic constraints that

the project must work within are time, cost, and scope, although there may be others for

example the amount of risk that is acceptable or maybe quality or benefits constraints.

Assumptions are merely some future condition that at the present are presumed to be real or

true. Assumptions may be the underlying cause leading to risks and as such should be

continually monitored and checked.

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Define the purpose of the project scope statement. This provides a

common understanding of the project scope across all of the project

stakeholders. It lays out the project goals and objectives, project

requirements, the project products or deliverables along with their

quantifiable criteria, and any constraints, assumptions, and scope

related risks. This document is used at the end of the project to agree

its successful completion, and therefore objective criteria must be

included for accepting the final product of the project.

Define the work breakdown structure (WBS) and its component parts. This is created in the

create WBS process and as such is a very important topic. The WBS is the hub of information

for the project and is used later to determine the project activities, costs, risks, quality

attributes, and procurement decisions.

It is a deliverable-oriented hierarchy, and the main inputs for its creation are the project scope

statement, the requirements documentation, and the organizational process assets (which

might include templates, tools, or previous project examples). It uses the projects products

derived from the project scope statement and decomposes them into logical and manageable

units of work. The lowest level of a WBS is called a work package.

The tool used to create it is called decomposition, and the WBS is accompanied by its WBS

dictionary providing detailed information for each WBS node. Another main output here is the

scope baseline which represents the combination of the project scope statement, the WBS, and

the WBS dictionary. As with all baselines, once the scope baseline is created it is placed under

change control as laid out within the scope management plan.

Describe the purpose of the communications management plan. Fundamentally, this plan lays

out the communication needs of the stakeholders, and for that reason it uses the stakeholder

register and the stakeholder management strategy document as the primary inputs. The

communications management plan describes who should receive project communications,

what those communications should be, how and to whom the communications should be sent

and how often it will be updated.

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The plan quality process. Quality is planned in from the start and not

inspected in after the product has been constructed. Being able to

meet quality requirements, leads to an increase in stakeholder

satisfaction, lower costs, less rework and an increase in productivity.

The plan quality process is where the project identifies what such

quality specifications are, and how all of those will be met. Two of the

main outputs are the quality management plan describing how the

quality policy will be met and the process improvement plan which

covers how quality activities will be refined and improved.

Define the cost of quality (COQ). This is the total cost of all the work to produce the product or

service of the project such that it meets the required quality standards. The three costs

associated with the cost of quality are prevention costs – those associated by creating a defect-

free product, appraisal costs which are those associated with inspections and testing, and

failure costs – which are typically reworks costs so that the requirements are met, or failure

costs wants the customer has been using the product.

The tools and techniques of the plan quality process. These include cost-benefit analysis,

COQ, statistical process control (Control Charts), design of experiments (DOE), statistical

sampling, benchmarking and flow charting (e.g. Cause and effect diagrams).

The purpose of the scope management plan. This describes the process for determining the

project scope and facilitates the creation of the work breakdown structure(WBS). It also

describes how the project product or service is to be verified and accepted, and details how

changes to scope will be managed. This document forms part of the project management plan.

The purpose of the requirements documentation. This contains an understanding of what is

needed to satisfy the stakeholders, why each requirement is important, and it covers both the

project itself and the products to be created. It is a significant lever on determining the project

schedule, budget, quality specifications, risk factors and both human and non human resource

requirements. The requirements documentation is accompanied by the requirements

management plan, describing how the requirements will be managed, and that goes on to

define the team activities needed to gather and manage the project requirements.

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Name the define scope tools, techniques and outputs. This

process uses the project charter, requirements

documentation, and organizational process assets as inputs.

The tools and techniques used are product analysis, expert

judgment, alternatives identification, and facilitated

workshops. The two outputs of this process are the project

scope statement and the many project document updates.

These may include the requirements documentation, the

requirements traceability matrix, the stakeholder register, and changes or additions to project

risk and issues.

Key quality techniques. Phillip B. Crosby invented the zero defects practice and the quote,

‘doing it right first time’, Joseph M Juran coined the term ‘fitness for purpose’, and W Edwards

Deming was the major contributor of total quality management (TQM). Six Sigma focuses on

achieving very high levels of quality both by controlling the process and reducing defects. Also

be aware of continuous improvement, ‘Kaizen’, that advocates constant process improvement

via small changes in products or services.

The risk management plan purpose and definition. This describes how you will define,

monitor, and control risks throughout the project, and is created in the plan risk management

process. It does not define responses to individual risks. It defines what level of risk (risk

appetite) is tolerable, how risk will be managed, who will be responsible for risk activities, cost

and time to be allocated to risk activities, and how risk will be communicated. It also includes

how risks will be categorized, and a risk breakdown structure can be helpful in achieving this.

The purpose of the identify risks process. This identifies all the risks which may impact the

project and also to understand the characteristics or nature of each. The output from this

process is the risk register, containing a list of all known risks at this time, their causes, and if

possible, any responses that can be identified.

Define the risk register and its contents. This is an output of the identify risks process,

and for each risk, the following aspects should be captured; the risk ID number, a

description of the risk itself, the chosen responses, the root cause of the risk, the risk

triggers, the risk owners, and what category the risk falls into.

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Defining the perform qualitative risk analysis process. For each risk, its

impact on the project will be determined and the probability of that

particular risk occurring. This process then ranks each risk according to their

impact on project objectives in rank order.

Defining the perform quantitative risk analysis process. This assigns a

projected value to each risk, normally specified in terms of cost or time. This

can be done by pre-assigning numeric probabilities to each risk and their

potential impacts on the objectives of the project.

Defining the plan risk responses process. This creates the plan for how each risk will be

handled. Remember that a risk may have a negative impact or it may have a positive impact

(normally called an opportunity). They are both risks because they both have uncertainty.

Responses for negative risks or threats, are avoid, transfer, mitigate (reduce), or accept.

Responses for positive risks or opportunities are, exploit, share, enhance, and accept (also used

for negative threats – it is the ‘do nothing’ option.

The purpose of the plan procurements process. This determines which products, components

or services of the project will be created internally, and which will be procured externally. In

addition the project manager must determine the most appropriate types of contracts to be

used for each procurement. The two main outputs from this process are the procurement

management plan; defining how procurement will be conducted, and the procurement

statements of work, which explains the relevant parts of the project scope to potential Sellers

to decide if they wish to bid for the working question.

Identify the contract types and their use. There are three categories of contracts. Fixed price

contracts (lump sum contracts), of which there are three variances; firm fixed price (FFP), fixed

price incentive fee (FPIF), and fixed price economic price adjustment (FP-EPA). The second type

are called cost reimbursable contracts and there are two types of these; cost plus fixed fee

(CPFF), and cost plus incentive fee (CPIF). The final type is a time &materials contract, which is

a combination of fixed and cost reimbursable contracts.

The point of total assumption. This is the point within a contract where the subcontractor

assumes responsibility for all additional costs, and is therefore motivated to bring their work to

a swift conclusion because they have consumed all the costs, and any further spending will be

funded by them.

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Name the outputs of the plan procurements process. These are the

procurement management plan, the procurement statements of

work, make or buy decisions, procurement documentation, the

source selection criteria, and if needed, change requests relevant to

changes in procurement.

Name the tools and techniques of the conduct procurements process. These are bidder

conferences, proposal of valuation techniques, independent estimates, expert judgment,

advertising, Internet search, and procurement negotiations.

Name the outputs of the develop human resource plan process. This of course is the human

resource plan itself, and consists of three parts; roles and responsibilities, organization charts,

and the staffing management plan. The staffing management plan explains how and when the

project will be staffed, including their release, and if appropriate how they will be trained.

Name the purpose of the define activities process. This takes the WBS and decomposes it into

the activity list (each one should match that to a unique work package), it defines the activity

attributes such as resources needed and any procurement activities, and a milestone list.

Identifying the tools and techniques of the sequence activities process. The main output here

is the project schedule network diagrams, which basically show the sequence and

dependencies between each activity but do not include start or finish dates. The main tool is

the precedence diagramming method (PDM) which is a graphical representation showing the

correct order and sequence of the various project activities. The dependencies between each

activity must be determined whether mandatory, discretionary, or external. Activity leads and

lags must also be incorporated. For similar previous projects it may be possible to use existing

schedule network templates.

Name the purpose of the estimate activity resources process. The purpose is to determine the

types of resource needed (human, materials, facilities, or equipment), and to determine how

many are needed for each activity. The resource availability must also be taken into

consideration, and all of these aspects will determine the duration of each activity.

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Name the tools and techniques of the estimate activity durations process. These are expert

judgment, analogous estimating (top down estimating), parametric estimating (linear

extrapolation), three-point estimates (PERT estimates), and reserve analysis, also called

contingency which consists of extra time added to an activity duration estimate.

State the difference between analogous estimating and bottom-up estimating. Analogous

estimating is also known as top-down estimating, and is when the actual duration of a similar

activity on a previous project is used to help calculate the duration of an activity on this project.

This is combined with expert judgment to determine how similar the two activities really are.

Bottom-up estimating is where an activity is decomposed into small pieces of work and these

are estimated by adding them up to give a total estimate. It can be used in terms of work effort

and cost and also when developing the project schedule by summing the estimates given at

each activity level.

Calculate the critical path and its definition. This occurs in

the develop schedule process, and it is vital that you

understand how to do this using forward pass, backward

pass, and float calculations. The critical path determines

the duration – and hence the earliest finish date, of the

project. The terms float, early start, late start, early finish,

late finish, free float, and negative float need to be understood. A critical path activity is a

project activity with zero float.

Describe and calculate three point estimates (PERT estimates). These use three data points

called the pessimistic estimate, the most likely or realistic estimate, and the optimistic estimate

for each activity. We then use a weighted average technique via the formula: pessimistic, plus

four times the realistic, plus the optimistic estimate, and divide the result by six.

Name and describe the duration compression techniques. There are two techniques; crashing

and fast-tracking. Crashing consists of adding extra resources to a project activity so that the

work can be shared so the activity will be completed more quickly. This normally increases

project costs. Fast-tracking entails reordering the sequence of activities so that some are

performed in parallel. This does not normally increased costs but often increases project risk

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due to dependency rules being broken and multiple activities

occurring at once adding risk and complexity.

Name and describe the main output of the estimate costs

process. The primary output here is the activity cost estimates

describing how much it would cost to complete each activity on the

project.

Describe the cost performance baseline. This is another term for the project budget, and it

shows not just the total cost but when such costs will be incurred. Since a traditional project

starts off slowly and finishes in a similar way, when plotted as cumulative cost, forms a

characteristic S Pattern and hence is called an S Curve. As with all baselines, this is under

change control and is used to measure the cost performance of the project.

The characteristics of the direct and manage project execution process. This is where the

project work is performed, where the team are executing the work packages, and the project

products or deliverables are being created. For this reason, most of the budget is spent during

this process.

Name the five stages of group formation. This is Alan Tuckman’s model of forming, storming,

norming, performing, and adjoining.

Define Maslow’s highest level of motivation. This is self-actualization and occurs when an

individual is living and working at full potential, and that all lower level needs have been met.

Name the five forms of power. These help the project manager maximize their ability to

influence and manage the team. These are reward power, expert power, legitimate or formal

power, referent power, and punishment or coercive power. The best forms of power are

reward and expert with punishment as the least affective form.

Compare and contrast senders and receivers of information. Senders must ensure that their

message is clear concise and complete, while receivers must ensure that they understand the

message correctly.

Name the six styles of conflict management. These are problem-solving, collaboration,

compromise, forcing, smoothing, and or withdrawal. The latter is not so much a resolution to

conflict but a means of avoiding it, so this is not the best method to use as the conflict is never

actually resolved.

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Describe the purpose of the perform quality assurance process.

This process is focused on improving the activities and processes

that are undertaken to achieve the project quality standards, and

should not be confused with perform quality control, which is

about inspecting the product for quality or measuring defects.

Describe the purpose of the monitor and control project work

process. This compares actual work results to the plan and then

makes appropriate adjustments to ensure that the two match. It

make sure that both the products, and the way in which they are being produced, fall in line

with the plan, it also looks at how the overall project is progressing and takes any corrective

action if needed via change requests.

Name the tools and techniques of the manage project team process. These are observation

and conversation, project performance appraisals, conflict management, the issue log, and

interpersonal skills.

Describe the purpose of the manage stakeholder expectations process. This is an executing

process to ensure that the project stakeholders are actively managed and kept informed; it

focuses on identifying and resolving any stakeholder concerns in a timely manner.

Define the purpose of the report performance process. This process uses work performance

information and work performance measurements to report back to the stakeholders on how

the project is progressing against the plan and the various baselines (scope, time, cost, and

quality). The main output is the performance report.

Name the purpose of the perform integrated change control process. This process is where

you assess the change’s impact on the project, because whenever a change occurs in one area,

it must be evaluated for its impact across the entire project. This process is focused on

managing change to the project’s scope.

Define the purpose of a configuration management system. It describes how change requests

are submitted; it includes processes for tracking the changes and their authority levels. A

configuration management system must include configuration identification describing the

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characteristics of each product, configuration status accounting

to determine the true status of each product, and configuration

verification and auditing.

Describe the purpose of the control costs process. This process

monitors project costs to prevent unauthorized or incorrect

costs from entering the cost baseline. The focus here is on cost

variance. It does this by measuring what was executed against

what was planned. If they do not match, then go on to

harmonize the planned and actual costs; this may mean altering future plan forecasts or

changing the way in which the work is being carried out.

Be able to define and calculate earned value. There are 13 key formulas that need to be

understood and memorized. The technique continuously monitors the planned value, earned

value, and actual costs expended to produce the work of the project. There are performance

measures, performance indexes, and forecasting and variance analysis techniques.

Describe the purpose of the monitor and control risks process. This is performed almost

continually throughout the project because existing risks can change and new risks may arise.

The main outputs here are updates to the risk register and as a consequence may need new or

modified risk responses resulting in a change to the activities within the project.

Name the tools and techniques of the perform quality control process. These are cause and

effect diagrams (Ishikawa diagrams), control charts, and flowcharting, histograms such as a

pareto chart, run charts, scatter diagrams, statistical sampling, and inspection.

The purpose of the verify scope process. This verifies that the product, service, or result of the

project matches the documented scope baseline. Verify scope focuses on completeness and

acceptance of the product by the appropriate stakeholders.

The purpose of the close project or phase process. The focus here is to ensure that the project

or phase comes to a controlled shut down. This will typically create any appropriate

documentation and archive it, capture the lessons learned, and ensure the contract (if any), is

closed properly. The purpose of lessons learned is to document the project successes and

failures, make recommendations, and is used as information learned for future projects.

Be able to apply professional responsibility. The project manager should deal with issues in a

direct swift, open and honest manner, and should act ethically and legally. The project

manager should act with integrity by a adhering to ethical standards. If in doubt always do the

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right thing. Aspirational standards are those that we strive to uphold whereas mandatory

standards establish firm requirements that must be adhered to.

Project management knowledge areas.

There are Ten PMBOK® Guide project management knowledge

areas that are used throughout the project management

processes.

They are:

Project Integration management

Project Scope management

Project Time management

Project Cost management

Project Quality management

Project Human resource management

Project Communications management

Project Risk management

Project Procurement management

Project Stakeholder Management

Let’s consider each PMBOK® Guide in turn:

Project Integration management.

This consists of six processes:

Develop project charter

Develop project management plan

Direct and manage project work

Monitor and control project work

Perform Integrated change control

Close project or phase

This knowledge area is concerned with identifying defining the work of the project and then

combining and integrating with the appropriate processes

It also includes managing issues and change, and re-planning if required.

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There are two tools which fall with this process. They are earned Value management and the

use of project management software such as Microsoft Project.

Project Scope management.

This has six processes:

Plan Scope Management

Collect Requirements

Define Scope

Create WBS

Validate Scope

Control Scope

There are two aspects of Scope management; one is product Scope and the other project

Scope.

Product Scope covers the required features of the product and clarifies the boundaries what is

not included.

Project Scope is concerned with the work of the project, and again clarifies the boundaries of

what is not included.

Project Scope management within PMBOK will use the following PMP areas:

The end-product requirement details

measurement techniques to verify those details

creating the project Scope management plan

creating the work breakdown structure

controlling changes to these processes

Project Time management

Project Time Management

This includes estimating task schedules, determining the project schedule and project

completion date. It will also include monitoring and controlling a project schedule throughout

the project. It is closely aligned with Project Cost Management, in particular with the Estimate

Activity Resources and the Estimate Activity Durations, since it is these along with their cost

implications that must be finalized before the schedule can be developed.

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This knowledge area has seven processes:

Plan Schedule Management

Define Activities

Sequence Activities

Estimate Activity Resources

Estimate Activity Durations

Develop Schedule

Control Schedule

Project Cost management

In a similar way, this knowledge area is there to estimate the resources required, and the

project budget.

Resource costing is not just about people. It should also include other types of resource such as

Materials, equipment, facilities, and project related services such as letting contracts.

This knowledge area has four processes:

Plan Cost Management

Estimate Costs

Determine Budget

Control Costs

Here are two techniques used to determine options and optimize the process: Value

engineering, and life-cycle costing. These will be discussed in detail in a later article.

Project Quality management

This covers two main areas, creating the products to an acceptable quality level, and the quality

of the project management process itself.

This uses three processes:

Plan Quality Management

Perform Quality Assurance

Perform Quality Control

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Performing Quality Assurance is the act of auditing and comparing the quality requirements

against the quality control measurements to check that appropriate quality standards and

operational definitions are used. Compare and contrast this to:

Perform Quality Control. This is the monitoring the results of carrying out quality activities

which will include the project deliverables/products and project management results such as

how the project is performing against schedule and budget.

Project Human resource management

This knowledge area is to do with managing people. It includes aspects such as acquiring the

team, developing the overall team performance, and then managing that performance such as

performance appraisals, leading and coaching, and resolving resource issues and optimizing the

project performance. The objective here is to ensure that all human resources are used

effectively, and draws upon skills such as leadership, team building, and communication.

This knowledge area contains four processes:

Plan Human Resource Management

Acquire Project Team

Develop Project Team

Manage Project Team

Project Communications management

Communications is not just about the human kind, but includes information such as meeting

management and actions, risk actions and assessments, project plans, reviews and walk-

throughs, etc. This information must be shared with all of the project stakeholders — both

internal and external to the project.

The Communications plan should document all of these aspects and along with other

documents, be reviewed and updated as needed.

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This knowledge area contains three processes:

Plan Communications Management

Manage Communications

Control Communications

Project Risk management

The PMBOK Guide advises that risks include both threats and opportunities. An opportunity

should also be seen as a type of risk because just like a negative threat, an opportunity also has

uncertainty. Risks predict potential give negative impacts, and any actions should strive to

reduce or remove these.

By the same token, opportunity actions should strive to make them more probable and

increase their potential positive outcomes. Put another way, opportunities should be grasped,

and action taken to ensure that they are realized.

This knowledge area contains six processes:

Plan Risk Management

Identify Risks

Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis

Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis

Plan Risk Responses

Control risks

Risk identification is best done during planning, and as many people should be involved as

possible, so that the complete picture of risk threats and positive opportunities to the project

can be identified.

Project Procurement management

Most projects work within a customer/supplier environment. Generally the project team are

working on behalf of the customer, and suppliers are responsible for the creation of the project

deliverables/products — there can be both internal suppliers and external suppliers.

Project Procurement is used when it is necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or

results needed from outside the project team. This knowledge area includes contract

management and change control.

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Activities in this knowledge area will include working with suppliers, vendors, contractors,

service groups, etc.

This knowledge area contains four processes:

Plan Procurement Management

Conduct Procurements

Control Procurements

Close Procurements

Project Stakeholder management

This is defined as the creation and maintenance of relationships with the aim to satisfy needs.

This is done by identifying stakeholders and their needs, then going on to manage these while

providing continuous communication and involvement throughout the project.

There are four processes:

Identify Stakeholders

Plan Stakeholder Management

Manage Stakeholder Engagement

Control Stakeholder Engagement

If you need help to get the PMP Exam results you deserve by mastering the

PMBOK knowledge areas, then CLICK HERE

“PMI” and “PMP” are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc.

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