Pmp+ +hints+and+tips

2009

Waleed El-Naggar, MBA, PMP https://www.facebook.com/waleed.naggar

PMP EXAM HINTS AND TIPS

PMP EXAM HINTS AND TIPS May 2009

W a l e e d E l - N a g g a r , M B A , P M P

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Table of Contents

Project Management Framework ................................................................................................................. 2

Two-Minute Drill ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Scope Management ...................................................................................................................................... 6

Time Management ........................................................................................................................................ 9

Cost Management ....................................................................................................................................... 12

Human Resource Management .................................................................................................................. 14

Communication Management .................................................................................................................... 17



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Project Management Framework

Sunk costs, the money already spent on a project, should not be considered when

deciding if a project should continue. Instead, the cost of the work to complete is one of

the elements that should be taken into consideration when considering to kill a project.

Remember that each phase creates a deliverable of some sort and allows the project to

move forward if the deliverables meet preset metrics.

Projects don’t last forever. Though projects may sometimes and seem to last forever,

they fortunately do not. Operations, on the other hand, do go on and on. Projects pass

through logical phases to reach their completion, while operations may be affected or

created, by the outcome of a project.

The phases within a project create deliverables. The deliverables typically allow the

project to move forward from one phase to the next phase—or allow the project to be

terminated based on the quality, outcome, or condition of the completed phase

deliverable.

The project life cycle is different than the Project Management Life Cycle. The Project

Management Life Cycle is composed of the five project management processes

(initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure). The project life cycle, meanwhile,

is composed of the logical phases within the project itself.

The project life cycle is affected by the project stakeholders. Project stakeholders have a

vested interest in the outcome of the project. Stakeholders include the project manager,

project team, management, customers, communities, and anyone affected by the

project outcome. Project managers should scan the project outcome in order to identify

all of the stakeholders and collect and record their expectations, concerns, and input

regarding the project processes.



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The project manager’s power is relative to the organization structure he is operating

within. A project manager in a functional organization will have relatively low authority.

A project manager in a matrix environment can have low, balanced, or high authority

over the project. A project manager in a projectized organization will have a high level of

authority on the project. Essentially, the project manager’s authority is typically inverse

to the authority of the functional manager.

Project managers must scan the project for hidden stakeholders. The project manager

should investigate all parties affected by the project to identify all of the stakeholders—

not just the obvious ones. Hidden stakeholders can influence the outcome of the

project. They can also add cost, schedule requirements, or risk to a project

When it comes to stakeholder expectations, nothing beats documentation! Get

stakeholder expectations in writing as soon as possible

Know that customers can be internal or external but they all have the same theme:

Customers pay for, or use, the product deliverables. In some instances, they’ll pay for,

and use, the deliverable.

Leadership and management are interrelated. You won’t have effective leadership

without management, and vice versa. Know that leadership can also come from project

team members, not just from the project manager.

The purpose of negotiations is to reach a fair agreement among both parties

Two-Minute Drill

Project Management and Organizations

The Project Management Framework is the inner construction of project management

that allows it to operate and fluctuate from organization to organization.



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Projects within each organization will follow the culture and expected practices of the

organization hosting the project. Projects, in any organization, operate to support the

organization and its purpose.

Project Phase Create Projects

Projects follow a logical sequence of phases to completion. Phases are typically different

from project to project since the project work will differ from one to the next. The point

of segmenting projects into phases is to allow for smaller, manageable sections, and to

provide deliverables in support of the ongoing operations.

The collection of the project phases, as a whole, is known as the project life cycle.

Project life cycles define the beginning, middle, and end of a project. Projects have a

greater risk and uncertainty in the early phases of the project life cycle than near its end.

The project is also most susceptible to change, failure, and stakeholder influences at the

beginning of the life cycle than near its end. In tandem, project costs and demand for

resources are generally low at the beginning of the project, have a tendency to peak

near the end of the project work, and then diminish.

Identifying Project Stakeholders

Project stakeholders are individuals, businesses, or communities that have a vested

interest in the project’s outcome. Typically, project stakeholders are involved in the

project process and their expectations drive the project requirements.

It is essential to scan for hidden stakeholders early in the project life cycle to eliminate

the need for change when addressing stakeholder needs later in the project.

There are several key stakeholders that have direct influence over the project. They are:

Project manager: Manages the project

Customer Pays for the project; uses the project deliverable

Performing organization: The organization hosting the project

Project team: The collection of individuals completing the project work



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Project Sponsor: Authorizes the project work and budget

Organizational Structures

Organizational structures have direct influence over the project. Organizational

structures determine the procedures that the project manager must follow and the

amount of authority the project manager possesses. A project office may oversee

project management activities and provide additional support in any of the

organizational structures. The organizational types and the level of authority a project

manager can expect are shown in the following table:

Organizational Structure Level of Power

Beyond the concept of getting the work done, project managers must also consider the

social, economic, and environmental influences that may sway a project. Specifically,

the project manager must evaluate the project to see its social, economic, and

environmental impact—as well as note the project’s surroundings. The project manager

may have some external guidance in these areas in the form of standards and

regulations.

Standards are guidelines that are generally followed but not enforced or mandated.

Regulations come in the form of laws and industry demands, which are enforced by

various governing bodies.



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Scope Management

Projects are initiated based on business and customer needs, as well as

opportunities.

Feasibility studies can help determine if a project should be selected for

authorization.

The product description is created to help direct the project planning and

selection method.

The project charter is created and signed by senior management to

authorize the project.

The project manager is named and appointed in the project charter.

There are two types of scope, project scope, and product scope. Unless the

exam is talking about features and characteristics of the project

deliverables, it will be referring to the project scope. If you think this

through, it makes sense: think of all the billions of different product scopes

that can exist… the exam will offer big, old hints if its talking about product

scope. Project scope, on the other hand, focuses on the work that has to be

done in order to create the product. Recall that the project scope is

concerned with the work required—and only the required work—to

complete the project.

Your favorite project management tool, the WBS, is the most important

tool in your project management toolbox. It is used as input to five planning

processes:



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Cost estimating

Cost budgeting

Resource planning

Activity definition

Risk management planning

Here’s a nifty hint: WBS templates come from previous projects and/or the

project management office if the organization has one. WBS activities are

defined in the WBS dictionary.

Understand the purpose of the scope statement. The scope statement

serves as a baseline for future project decisions. The project objectives and

deliverables and their quantifiable measurements are documented in the

scope statement and are used by the project manager and the stakeholders

to determine if the project was completed successfully.

Be able to name the Scope Definition tools and techniques and outputs.

The tools and techniques from Scope Definition are decomposition and

WBS templates. Decomposition is breaking the deliverables down into

workable, manageable units of work. The outputs are the work breakdown

structure and scope statement updates.

Be able to describe the purpose of the scope management plan. The scope

management plan describes how scope changes will be handled during the

project and how to request changes. It details how likely it is that scope

changes will occur, their frequency, and their impact.



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Be able to define a WBS and its components. The WBS is a deliverables-

oriented hierarchy. It uses the deliverables from the scope statement or

similar documents and decomposes them into logical, manageable units of

work. Level one is the project level, level two is the major deliverable level

or subproject level, and so on. The lowest level of any WBS is called a work

package.



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Time Management

You should understand how activity estimates are created.

Analogous estimates use historical information to predict how long current project

activities will take place. These estimates are considered top-down estimates and are

part of expert judgment. Quantifiable estimates, on the other hand, use a quantity to

predict how long activities will take. Consider any unit such as square feet painted per

hour or number of units created per day.

GERT is the only network diagram that allows for loops and conditional branching based

on what the project has experienced to date. System dynamics is another example of

conditional advancement.

When developing the schedule, the most common method is the CPM, though PERT and

GERT may also be used. Lag is a positive time added to a task to indicate waiting. Lead is

negative time added to a task to “hurry up.” Fast tracking arranges activities to happen

in tandem rather than in succession—this increases risk. Crashing adds more resources

to activities to decrease their duration, which typically adds cost.

Monte Carlo Analysis is typically a computer program to estimate the many possible

variables within a project schedule. Monte Carlo simulations predict probable end

dates, not an exact end date. Another tool the project manager can use is resource

leveling. Resource leveling smoothes out the project schedule so resources are not over-

allocated. A result of this is that projects are often scheduled to last longer than initial

estimates.

The critical path in a project has zero float, and is the path with the longest duration to

completion. There can be more than one critical path in a network diagram. Should

delays happen on non-critical paths, and all float is consumed, the critical path may

change.

The project schedule is a calendar-based system used to predict when the project, and

work, will start and end. Gantt charts map activities against a calendar and may show

the relationship between activities. Milestone



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charts show when key deliverables are expected; they do not show the relationship

between activities.

When resources are needed but are not available, the project manager must negotiate

to secure the resource. This may involve tradeoffs between projects or additional

expenses as the activity is outsourced to a vendor to complete the work. The project

manager does not want to delay the project waiting on a resource

The critical path is used to determine which activities have no float. It can also be used

to determine the earliest date for when the project may be completed. There can be

more than one critical path in a project. It is possible for the critical path to change.

You’ll encounter float, scheduling, and critical path activities on the PMP exam. You

have to remember a few important rules:

Always draw out the network diagram presented on your scratch paper; it may

be used in several questions.

Know how to calculate float. (The complete process was shown earlier in the

“Calculating Float in a PND” section)

You may encounter questions that ask on what day of the week a project will

end if no weekends or holidays are worked. No problem. Add up the critical

path, divide by 5 (Monday through Friday), and then figure out which day of the

week the activity will end on.

You may see something like Figure 6-7 when it comes to scheduling. When three

numbers are presented, think PERT; optimistic is the smallest number,

pessimistic is the largest, most likely is somewhere between the two. When a

number is positioned directly over the tasks, it is the task duration. When a

number is positioned to the upper-right of a task, this represents the Early Finish

date.

Projects cannot last forever—thankfully. To effectively finish and manage a project, a

project manager must be able to effectively manage time. Within a project there can be

many factors that affect the project length: activity duration, project calendars, resource

calendars, vendors, activity sequencing, and more. Time management begins with the



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constraints of the product schedule, the project calendar, the resource calendars, as

well as the activities and their expected duration.

Many projects can rely on project templates that have worked before. Other projects,

new and never-attempted technology, require that a project schedule be created from

scratch. The WBS contributes to the activity list, which in turn, allows the project

manager and the project team to begin activity sequencing.

Activities to be sequences must be estimated. The project manager and the project

team must evaluate the required time to complete the work packages. The project

manager can rely on a number of estimating methods to come to a predicted duration

for activities. For example, a project manager may use analogous estimation of historical

data to provide the needed estimate. Or, the project manager may use a parametric

model to predict the amount of time for the activities. The importance of estimating is

that each work package is considered and its duration calculated.

Within the process of activity sequencing there will be hard logic and soft logic. Hard

logic is the mandatory relationships between activities: the foundation must be in place

before the house framing can begin. Soft logic allows the relationship and order of

activities to be determined based on conditions, preferences, or other factors. For

example, the landscaping will happen before the house is painted so that dirt and dust

won’t get onto the fresh paint.

The relationships of activities are illustrated within a network diagram. Network

diagrams show the path from start to completion and identify which activities are on

the critical path. Of course, the critical path is the path with the longest duration and

typically has zero slack or float. Activities on the noncritical paths may be delayed to the

extent that they do not delay activities on the critical path.



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Cost Management

The PMP examination requires the exam candidate to know how to estimate, budget,

and manage costs. The WBS is an input to estimating costs, as it reflects the whole of

the project. When creating the estimates, rely on documented historical information

over team member’s recollections. There are three estimating approaches:

Analogous A top-down approach that is less costly and less accurate than others

and provides just an idea of what the project will cost.

Bottom-up Starts with zero and adds up all the expenses. This is more costly and

takes longer, but gains team buy-in to the project.

Parametric modeling Uses a parameter for labor and goods to calculate the cost

of the project.

The accuracy of the estimates is based on available information. As the project manager

and the project team progressively elaborate the project plan, more details become

available. The more details a project has, the more accurate the estimate. Know these

facts on estimating:

Rough order of magnitude: The accuracy of the estimate is –25 percent to +75

percent and is used in the initiation process and in top-down estimating.

Budget estimate: The accuracy of the estimate is –10 percent to +25 percent.

This is used early in the planning process and also in top-down estimating.

Definitive estimate: The accuracy of the estimate is –5 percent to +10 percent.

This is used late in the planning process and in bottom-up estimating.

The resources on a project can include people, materials, and equipment. If the people

on a project do not have the necessary skill set to complete the work, either hire an SME

to guide the project implementation, outsource the project work, or train the current

people for the needed skills.

Earned value management is a tool to measure project performance.

Earned value is the budget at completion multiplied by the percentage of the project

work that has been completed.



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The Cost Performance Index shows how well the project is performing financially. It is

calculated by dividing EV by the actual costs spent on the project.

The most common formula for finding the estimate at completion, EAC=BAC/CPI.



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Human Resource Management

Project human resource management questions on the exam center around three big

points:

A role is who does what.

A responsibility is who decides what.

Project managers are responsible for the project. Team members fill roles on the

project.

Because project managers are responsible for the success of the project, they have

power to exert over the project team.

There are five organizational theories you may encounter on the exam:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs People don’t work for money, but for self-

actualization.

Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation The presence of hygiene factors doesn’t

motivate people; the absence of hygiene factors, however, hinders people’s

performance.

McGregor’s Theory of X and Y: X people are lazy and do not want to work. Y

people are self-led, motivated, and want to accomplish.

Ouchi’s Theory Z Workers and management cooperate for the good of the

organization. Everyone wins!

Expectancy Theory People expect to be rewarded for their effort.



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Within projects there will likely be conflicts and disagreements among the project team

and stakeholders. Conflicts typically stem from one of the following sources (in

descending order):

1. Schedules

2. Priorities

3. Resources

4. Technical beliefs

5. Administrative policies and procedures

6. Project costs

7. Personalities

Conflict Resolution Methods:

Project human resource management focuses on utilizing the people involved in the

project in the most effective way. The people involved in the project are more than just

the project team members, though they’re the most obvious.

The project manager can’t forget to involve other stakeholders: customers,

management, individual contributors, the project sponsor, and any other stakeholder

unique to the project.

Organizational planning calls on the project manager to identify the roles and

responsibilities of the project and the reporting relationship within the organization.

Reporting relationships can be internal, such as to management, or external, such as to

a customer or community. The relationships and the procedure to communicate with

these project interfaces must be documented.



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Because projects are often similar, the project manager can rely on templates to re-

create the success of historical projects. Reporting structures, role and responsibility

matrixes, and other human resource models can be replicated, and adjusted, between

projects.

The staffing management plan describes the process that the project manager must

follow to bring resources onto a project, or to dismiss them from a project when the

resources are no longer needed.

The policies and procedures of the performing organization should be documented

within the staffing management plan to ensure the guidelines are followed as

management intends.

The staffing management plan will also detail the policies of how the project manager

can recruit project team members. The plan may also detail the procedure to procure

resources for the project from vendors or consultants.

Throughout the project, the project manager must work with the project team to

develop their ability to complete their project work, grow as a team, and focus on

completing the project work accurately and on time.

A reward and recognition system can help the project manager motivate the project

team to perform as hoped.

Special care to involve the project team must be given when the team is scattered

geographically. The project manager can rely on face-to-face meetings,

videoconferences, or teleconferences to promote non-collocated teams.

Ideally, the project is collocated and has access to a war room to refer to project

information, research, schedules, and other project team members.

The goal of team development is outstanding performance for the good of the project.

Through training, the project team may increase their ability to work together and

individually with a higher level of confidence, performance, and teamwork.

The result of team development is project performance improvements. The

improvements should be noted in an honest appraisal of the project team members’

effort and contributions to the project.



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Communication Management

Communication is the most important skill a project manager can have. Project

managers spend 90 percent of their time communicating.

Since the project manager is expected to spend so much time communicating, you can

bet the project manager needs a plan to determine what needs to be communicated, to

whom, and when.

The Communications Management Plan is the comprehensive plan the project manager

and the project team rely on for all communication guidance.

The organizational structure affects the level of communications the project manager

can expect. Matrix structures have to include the functional managers of the project

team from the different units within the organization, whereas a functional organization

does not have the same level of complexity in reporting.

The basic communication model consists of a sender, a message, and a receiver.

When technology is involved, the project can become more complex: encoders, the

medium, and decoders are included. Consider sending a fax: you are the sender and

Jane is the recipient, and the message is the information on the page to be faxed. The

encoder is your outgoing fax machine, and Jane’s fax machine is the decoder. The

telephone lines between the fax machines are the medium.

Management, customers, and other concerned stakeholders will be interested in the

performance of the project. The project manager will need to meet their expectations

on an established schedule or based on conditions within the project.

The most common method for showing performance is through earned value analysis.

Administrative closure happens at the end of each phase and at the end of the project.

Administrative closure is the final documentation of the project; it includes the process

of organizing, indexing, and archive all relevant project materials. The archived materials

should show the project performance from start to formal acceptance that signals

project closure.



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Planning for Communication

Communication centers on who needs what and on when and how you are going to give

it to them.

Communication requirements are set by stakeholders.

Communication planning is accomplished early in the planning processes.

Communications are linked to the organizational structure of the performing

organization.

Constraints and assumptions can affect the communications planning.

Communications Management Plan

Provides instructions on how to gather and disseminate project information.

Provides instructions on the communications methods, such as hard copies, reports, and

email.

Includes a schedule of expected communications, such as reports and meetings.

Provides a method to access needed information between regularly scheduled

communications.

Performance Reporting Status reporting provides current information on the project.

Progress reporting provides information on what the team has accomplished—and may

include information on what is yet to be accomplished.

Forecasting provides information on how the remainder of the project or phase is

expected to go.

Variance analysis examines the reason why cost, schedule, scope, quality, and other

factors may vary from what was planned.

Trend analysis is the study of trends over time to reveal patterns and expectations of

future results.

Earned value analysis is a series of formulas that reveal and predict project

performance.

Change requests may stem from performance reports.

Education

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