Tips to document portfolio management experience for PfMP®

In my previous posts related to Project Management Institute (PMI)’s most recent and coveted Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)® credential. , I have shared 

• What is Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)® Credential?
• My Lessons Learned for (PfMP)® Exam and
• Portfolio Management Knowledge Areas, Process Groups & Processes

and this post is for sharing some tips on how to fill application for PfMP. Note that for obtaining (PfMP)® credential, there are two evaluations that needs to be cleared. 

Evaluation 1—Panel Review: The initial evaluation occurs through an extensive application review during which a panel of portfolio managers will assess your professional experience based on your responses to the Portfolio Management Experience Summaries provided on the application.

Evaluation 2—Multiple-Choice Examination: The next step occurs with the multiple-choice examination in which you will be called upon to demonstrate your competence in both situational and scenario-based questions. 

So its important to fill application with appropriate answers to pass panel review. 

Note that there are lot of folks who actually fail panel review and are given only one more chance to reapply with updated answers 

Following experience summary questions are asked in align with 5 knowledge areas of Portfolio Management (Strategic Management, Governance, Portfolio Performance Management, Portfolio Risk Management and Portfolio Communication Management) and you can select either option A or B for each question to map your answer with

Experience Summary #1: Strategic Alignment
A. Identifying and prioritizing portfolio criteria and evaluating portfolio component priorities based on the organization's strategic goals and objectives
B. Creating and/or updating a high level portfolio roadmap using scenarios that helped the organization to align and operationalize the portfolio in accordance with the organization's strategic goals and objectives

Experience Summary #2: Governance

A. Securing authorization to execute the portfolio through identification and justification of recommendations regarding the portfolio

B. Ensuring effective and efficient portfolio management by implementing and/or optimizing the portfolio management plan including key components applicable to your portfolio 

Experience Summary #3: Portfolio Performance

A. Managing portfolio changes to optimize resource utilization and/or ensure portfolio effectiveness and efficiency
B. Evaluating continuous progress toward the achievement of business or strategic goals through the collection, consolidation, and measurement of portfolio value

Experience Summary #4: Portfolio Risk Management
A. Developing and/or updating the portfolio risk management plan
B. Enabling the organization to capitalize on an opportunity(ies) or manage threat(s) based on portfolio risk management processes, methods, and/or techniques

Experience Summary #5: Communications Management

A. Developing, and/or updating a portfolio communication strategy and plan

B. Engaging stakeholders to set and manage expectations and influence the success of the portfolio

Tips on how to document Portfolio Management Experience Summary

#1. How the Portfolio you managed was aligned with strategic goals of the Organization. Remember that Portfolio is a collection of components (i.e. projects, programs, portfolios and other work such as maintenance and related ongoing operations) that are grouped together to facilitate the effective management of that work in order to meet the strategic business objectives. So need to make sure that when you define your portfolio, it clearly defines components and how they were grouped to align with goals.

#2. Make sure that strategic goals are well defined that are tangible and fits acronym SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Time bound)

#3. Use empirical data such as $ (Money and try putting in USD), # (Number like # of years, # of Projects, Programs or Portfolios) or # of direct reports, # of team members, # of projects), % (percentage of increase in efficiency, growth, revenue increase, scalable)

#4. Use more empirical data and less verbiage. Try using more universally known acronyms like Org, SME, PMI, PMP, PgMP, PfMP, others to save on verbiage

#5. Remember that Portfolio is more strategic in nature than projects, programs or operations so include words like strategy, objectives, benefits, org goals, how your portfolio was aligned with the org goals. Do not use words that would reflect 'how' you managed teams because that would be more Project Mgmt. Use words where it mentions more on 'Why/What' of Portfolio and ‘How’ you did governance management to keep it aligned.

#6. Before filling your application make sure to read Pfmp® Handbook and if possible “The Standard for Portfolio Management” to understand how PMI is defining Portfolio and what standards are being suggested to do Portfolio Management (Strategic Management, Governance, Portfolio Performance Management, Portfolio Risk Management and Portfolio Communication Management). While filling in your application, you would need to clearly define how you used each of the 5 knowledge areas to manage your Portfolio in your answer(s)

#7. Portfolio management includes processes to identify, categorize, monitor, evaluate, select, prioritize, balance, and authorize portfolio components within the portfolio. So explain in your answer(s) what those processes were in your case to work on portfolio components

#8. All Portfolio Components have following common features including                    

• Be representative of investments made or planned by Organization
• Be aligned with Org. strategic goals and objectives
• Grouped together for effective management
• Have the ability to be quantifiable
• Can be measured, ranked and prioritized
• Share and compete for Org. resources

So explain in your answer(s) how your portfolio(s), programs, projects & operations that are possible Portfolio components have above mentioned feature(s)

#9. Portfolios have an organizational scope that changes with the strategic objectives of the organization so explain in your answer(s) what was the scope and how it changed (most often it does) with strategic objectives of org

#10. Portfolio managers continuously monitor changes in the broader internal and external environment so explain in your answer(s) how you were monitoring the changes

#11. Portfolio managers create and maintain necessary processes and communication relative to the aggregate portfolio so explain in your answer(s) how you were communicating and using what processes

#12. Portfolio success is measured in terms of the aggregate investment performance and benefit realization of the portfolio so explain in your answer(s) how they were measured and what was the benefit realization

#13. Portfolio managers monitor strategic changes and aggregate resource allocation, performance results, and risk of the portfolio so explain in your answer(s) how they were monitored including portfolio risks

#14. Portfolio managers may manage or coordinate portfolio management staff, or program and project staff that may have reporting responsibilities into the aggregate portfolio so explain in your answer(s) how as a portfolio manager you were coordinating the portfolio staff

#15. Portfolio Management balances conflicting demands between programs and projects, allocates resources (e.g., people, funding) based on organizational priorities and capacity, and manages so as to achieve the benefits identified.  Explain in your answer(s) how you were balancing conflicting demands

#16. In your answer(s) try including references to Portfolio Charter, Portfolio Strategic Plan, Portfolio Roadmap, PMO, Portfolio Governance, Portfolio Sponsors, Portfolio Risk Management Plan, Portfolio Risk Register, Portfolio Communication Management Plan and how they were used in your Portfolio wherever applicable.

Sample points that could be used in your answer(s)

·       Establishing and maintaining a framework, governance model, and methodology (policies and procedures) for portfolio management to achieve organizational strategies and objectives.

·       Guiding the selection, prioritization, balancing, and termination of portfolio components to ensure the alignment with strategic goals and organizational priorities.

·       Providing key stakeholders with assessment of portfolio component selection, prioritization, and performance, as well as identification of portfolio-level issues and risks that are impacting performance.

·       Measuring and monitoring the value to the organization through portfolio performance metrics and targets.

·       Supporting senior-level decision making by ensuring timely and consistent communication to stakeholders on progress, changes, and impact on portfolio components.

Portfolio Management Knowledge Areas, Process Groups & Processes

As mentioned in previous My Lessons Learned for (PfMP)® Exam blog post, I am sharing Portfolio Management Knowledge Areas, Process Groups & Processes for quick reference. 
You can download PDF version from my PfMP folder in box.net

My Lessons Learned for (PfMP)® Exam

This post is for sharing my lessons learned while successfully obtaining Project Management Institute (PMI)’s most recent and coveted Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)® credential.

Journey To Obtain PfMP® Credential 

#1. Submitted PfMP® application on 06/16 and got a mail next day from PMI stating that my (PfMP)® application has been accepted and asked me to proceed to make the payment

---Will be sharing tips on filling PfMP application in a later post---

                                 

#2. Made the payment same day and immediately was notified that my application was selected for auditing

   

                                     

 #3. Got the audit package endorsed by one of my portfolio sponsor & supervisor (COO) and Fedex'ed it to PMI on 06/19. Package reached PMI on 06/24 and same day got the mail stating that i have cleared the audit process and moved to first evaluation, the Panel review

                               

#4. In the handbook it is stated that Panel review takes 10 working days and I was getting impatient as the days passed because it actually took more than 10 working days when finally got the mail on 07/11 stating that I have passed the first Panel review evaluation

                               

#5. Referred my PfMP notes, below reference materials and sample exam references and scheduled for taking the exam on 07/16 (exactly one month after applying), obtaining PfMP® credential. 

                               

Exam Tips
#1. Exam is 4 1/2 hours long so make sure you are mentally preparing yourself to sit for that long and devoting with full concentration. Even though this seems very obvious but professionals who have been managing portfolios would have empathy that in our professional daily life, which is packed with meetings, presentations, submitting/reviewing proposals, training & mentoring resources, one seldom gets an opportunity to sit in front of system for that long and not to mention answering bunch (read 170) of questions while concentrating on which answer(s) to eliminate as more often than not, more than one answer can be applicable. 

#2. One can answer some questions based on their practical Portfolio experience but since not all Portfolios are managed ideally the way it is described in the The Standard for Portfolio Management, its important to think from what is described in the The Standard for Portfolio Management while answering the questions in the exam  

#3. Its important to understand all process groups, knowledge areas, processes & their respective ITTOs (Input, Tools & Techniques and Outputs). Expect some direct questions and some indirect questions on ITTOs. 
---Will be sharing my Study Aid on ITTOs in a separate post---

#4. Expect few questions that are related to analyzing which Portfolio component to select or not to select (NPV, IRR, Weighted Ranking & Scoring, etc.) 

#5. Personally I did not get many questions from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) or The Standard for Program Management but understand from other's experiences that folks did see questions referred from the two standards. 

#6. As stated in #1 there are few questions for which more than one answer could be applicable so key is to eliminate the least applicable (or select the most applicable). In my case, answering first few questions made me feel uncomfortable as I was not 100% sure of which is most applicable answer so 'marked' the questions. After marking initial questions, I got into the mode and was able to answer subsequent questions with more ease. Having said that, I did continue marking questions and would have marked ~35% (~60) of my questions.  

#7. Personally I always recommend taking a break to rejuvenate, so after finishing answering 170 questions while marking ~60 of them, I took a break. It took me little less than 2 hours to finish answering 170 questions so i could afford a break. After the break, I went through all 'marked' questions and now could think more clearly. It helped me to change answers to almost ~10 questions and feeling more confident on the answers. This time I took more time to go over 'marked' questions and finally finished my exam in 3 hours time. 

#8. To keep things simple for me, I always rely on notes and tend to joggle down points so that I do not need to strain myself while trying to remember. So in the first 10 minutes, while tutorial was running, used scribbling pad provided to me in prometric center to joggle down all ITTOs mapped with processes & respective KA's

#9.  Its important to understand the difference between Strategic Plan, Portfolio Charter, Portfolio Roadmap, Portfolio Management Plan, Portfolio and Portfolio Process Assets. In practical we do use in our Portfolios all of them in some form but sometimes there are overlaps, so its important to understand how The Standard for Portfolio Management clearly segregates their respective inputs, contents and timing of updates. 

#10. My personal experience about PfMP® exam was that I found it easier than any of my previous exam. This was maybe because I now have a sense of understanding of what PMI recommends in terms of standards and how the layout of questions would be. 

Reference Materials
1. Pfmp® Handbook
2. The Standard for Portfolio Management, Third Edition
3. The Standard for Program Management, Third Edition
4. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition
5. PfMP Examination Content Outline
6. PfMP® Exam Practice Tests and Study Guide 
7. Managing Change In Organizations
8. Business Driven Project Portfolio Management: Conquering the Top 10 Risks
9. Mastering Project Portfolio Management
10. Managing Change in Organizations (PMI Article)
11. Portfolio Risk Management (PMI Article)
12. Agile Processes A Unifying Approach for the Future of Projects (PMI Article)
13. Do's and Don'ts for Portfolio Managers (PMI Article)
14. The Power of Portfolio Management (PMI Article) 
15. Strategic Portfolio Management Governance Financial Discipline
16. Unified Portfolio Management Model Paper
17. Use PfM to maximize IT spending
18. PfM keeps IT aligned with business strategy
19. Portfolio Kanban
20. Priority Systems Glossary 
21. Efficient Frontier 
22. Using project portfolio management to improve business value (IBM Article)
23. Project Selection and Portfolio Management
24. Enterprise Risk Management
25. Project Portfolio Risk Management 

Sample Exam References 
1. PfMP® Exam Practice Tests and Study Guide
2. http://www.pmoadvisory.com/live/pfmp_training/
3. http://www.cheat-test.com/Samples/PfMP-Exam.html  

What is Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)® Credential?

This post is for sharing information on Project Management Institute (PMI)’s most recent Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)SM credential.

PfMP® recognizes the advanced experience and skill of portfolio managers. The PfMP® credential Professional demonstrates proven ability in the coordinated management of one or more portfolios to achieve organizational objectives.

PfMP® credential holders are responsible for the execution of the portfolio management process, communication around portfolio progress, and recommendations for action. Where project and program managers are responsible for “doing work right,” this is an ideal credential if one is responsible for ensuring your organization is “doing the right work.”

Portfolio management is much more than simply managing multiple projects or programs. It is the management of the entire portfolio in a way that maximizes the impact of projects, programs, portfolios and operations to the overall success of the organization. Effective portfolio management aligns a company’s investments, people, and programs with its overall strategic objectives. It is a continual process that integrates business strategy with operational performance to synchronize resources, strategies, and schedules.

Earning PfMP® credential helps one get international recognition as the professional who demonstrates a proven ability to manage and align a portfolio of projects and programs to realize organizational strategy and objectives

PMI recognizes Portfolio Manager to play more strategic role in an Organization, helping translate an organization's business strategy into a portfolio of projects, programs and portfolios' benefits and results, which are delivered by project managers or program managers and their respective teams.

In summary, PfMP® credential, in my opinion, is right for all those who play a very strategic role in their respective Organizations including responsibilities that include but not limited to
• Balancing conflicting demands between programs and projects, allocates resources (e.g., people, funding) based on organizational priorities and capacity, and manages so as to achieve the benefits identified
• Aligning with organizational strategies by selecting the right portfolios, programs or projects, prioritizing the work and providing the needed resources
• Assist in the development of portfolio, program and project process standards and lead the adherence to the processes and standards.
• Responsible for communicating the organization''s ability to execute its prioritized strategic projects and strategic plan and who significantly interacts with cross-functional departments within the company and excellent communication and relationship management.
• Engaging the Review Board leadership team and other leadership teams in the organization to prioritize, select, and resource load strategic projects & programs.

PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) Certificate

This post is for Project Management Institute (PMI)’s Agile Certified Practitioner(PMI-ACP) Certificate. Exam for this certificate is meant to test skills of agile practitioners. Pre-requisite for appearing in the exam includes having prior experience in general project management (2000+ hours) and agile specific project management (1500+ hours). Folks having prior PMP^® or PgMP^® automatically satisfy general project management experience and hence need not elaborate the experience while filling the form. Also pre-requisite requires having 21 contract hours earned in agile practice, which could include imparting or participating in agile training [Certified Scrum Master (CSM®), In-house agile training, Coaching Client, etc.]

My experience of the exam includes following tips

1. This exam tests knowledge on tools, techniques, processes, artifacts, etc. of those practicing agile. It includes knowledge on Scrum, XP, Kanban & Lean including each of the terminologies, ceremonies/meetings, roles, etc. associated with them

2. Its important to be familiar with agile specific principles and keywords including

• Agile Manifesto
• Agile Twelve Principles
• Adaptive Leadership, 
• Affinity Estimating,
• Agile Scaling Model
• Agile Leadership
• Agile Triangle
• Agile Earned Value Management (EVM)
• Definition of Done
• Burn Down Charts
• Burn Up Charts
• Chartering in Agile
• Collaboration
• Collocated or Distributed Teams
• Conflict Types or Levels of Conflict
• Continuous Integration
• Cumulative Flow Diagrams
• Customer Valued Prioritization
• Emotional Intelligence
• Empirical Process Control
• Escaped Defects
• Exploratory Testing
• Extreme Programming (XP) including roles, principles, TDD, CI, Pair Programming, etc.
• Fractional Assignments
• Information Radiator
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
• INVEST Model
• Iteration and Release Planning
• Lean including process, value, five why's, etc.
• Kanban including process, principles, task boards, etc.
• Kano Model
• Osmotic Communication (Open space or collocation advantage) 
• Pareto Principle
• Payback Period
• Relative Sizing 
• Refactoring
• Retrospections
• Risk Burn Down Charts
• Risk Exposure
• Scrum Ceremonies/Meetings (Release Planning, Sprint/Iteration Planning, Daily Scrum Meetings, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospection)
• Servant Leadership
• Signal Card
• Story points (how to calculate them) 
• Use Cases
• Technical Debt 
• Triangulation
• User Stories
• Value Stream Mapping
• Velocity

3. I have been practicing Agile for 6 years and have digested most of the recommended reference books by PMI for this certification. Having said that when I tried answering the sample questions, was not getting more than 60%. That's when I realized that there are some gaps between practical and standard defined under PMI. After doing some googling, found AgileExams having some good set of questions and brought package of $49 for 9 months. 

4. Have to confess that going through this certification process was definitely beneficial for me as there are lot of things that I learned, which helped me improve upon certain processes that I follow. For example, how to control daily scrum meetings to not exceed more then 15 minutes, how earned value (Cost, Schedule) should be calculated for agile projects, getting familiar with keywords like osmotic communication, triangulation, servant leader, mapping agile values to my current projects, etc. 

5. I spent ~10 hours practicing the exams (short & long) and scheduled the exam in a prometric center, which luckily for me turned out to be less than a mile from my home and was having an opening slot within a day.

6. Allocated exam time is 3 Hours and consists of 120 questions. When I started the exam, I did answer the first question and then instead of 'marking' (middle button), pressed 'review' button (right bottom). It opened the review screen and I missed a beat, phew!!! :). I then went back to the exam screen and being little more attentive this time. After answering initial 2 -3 questions, found my rhythm & confidence and finished the exam within 40 minutes, marking ~10 questions. Took a break for using the restroom and finished reviewing the marked questions in next 5 minutes. I then spent some 1-2 minutes answering survey question about the prometric center and then it came on my screen something like " Congratulations on passing the PMI-ACP® examination"

7. I have prepared some notes on Agile Certified Practitioner exam, similar to my notes on My Notes on PMP® or My Notes on PgMP®, which I will be sharing in my next post. 

Following are some useful links which have free sample tests

1. http://www.agileexams.com/

2. http://starpmo.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

3. http://agiletraining.com/2011/09/24/pmi-acp-agile-certification-exam-study-tips/

4. http://pmiacptraining.com/

5. http://whitewaterprojects.com/pmi-acp-sample-exam/#

6. http://www.agiledream.com

7. http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=pmiacp

8. http://www.rmcproject.com/pmi-acp/pmi-acp-FreeContent.aspx

9. https://www.keysurvey.com/votingmodule/s180/survey/349789/69ea/

10. https://insite.velociteach.com/pmi_acp_practiceTest_A.aspx

My Notes on PMBOK V4

These are my notes based on PMI's PMBOK V4. These are not extensive notes as I prepared notes keeping Program Management Professional (PgMP) Exam in mind and not Project Management Professional (PMP) exam.
For those interested in PMP exam, I had earlier shared following posts
1. My Notes on PMP
2. My Notes on PMP Formulas
3. For PMP Some Useful Links for Sample Questions
4. PMP Lessons Learned (Journey to PMP Certification)
which were essentially based on PMBOK V3 but in my opinion, some points are still relevant for current PMP exam.

NOTESPROJECT LIFE CYCLE & PHASES1. Characteristics of a general project life cycle include

• Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak as the work is carried out, and drop rapidly as the project draws to a close
• Stakeholder influences, risks and uncertainty are the greatest at the start of the project. These factors decrease over the life of the project
• Ability to influence the final characteristics of the project’s product, without significantly impacting the cost, is highest at the start of the project and decreases as the project progresses towards completion

2. The project life cycle goes through a series of phases to create the product

3. Phase end reviews are also called phase exits, phase gates, or kill points

4. A Project Phase is “Marked by the completion of one or more deliverables”. In other words, a project phase is generally concluded and formally closed with a review of the deliverables to determine completeness and acceptance

5. Formal phase completion does not necessarily include authorizing the subsequent phase. For instance, if the risk is deemed too great for the project to continue or if the objectives are no longer required, a phase can be closed with the decision to not initiate any other phases

6. There are three types of phase – phase relationships

• A sequential relationship: where a phase can only start once the previous phase is complete
• An overlapping relationship: where the phase starts prior to completion of the previous phase. This can sometimes be applied in schedule compression techniques like fast tracking
• An iterative relationship: where only one phase is planned at any given time and the planning for the next is carried out as the work progresses on the current phase and deliverables. This approach is useful in highly uncertain, undefined or rapidly changing environments such as research.

7. The Process Groups are NOT project phases. As projects are separated into distinct phases or subprojects such as feasibility study, concept development, design, prototype, build, test, etc, all of the Process Groups would normally be repeated for each phase or subproject

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
8. In a Weak Matrix structure, functional management will have more authority than the project manager and the project manager role is more of a project coordinator or expediter than that of a true project manager.

• Project Expediter: The project expediter acts primarily as a staff assistant and communications coordinator. The expediter cannot personally make or enforce decisions
• Project Coordinator: Similar to the project expediter except the coordinator has some power to make decisions, some authority, and reports to a higher-level manager

9. Complex and large projects would be more effectively managed in “Strong” and ‘Projectized” Structure/Matrix

10. In a balanced matrix, Power is shared. This is a combination of both Functional and Projectized. Resources would have two managers – Project Manager and Functional Managers. After Project Completion, resources go back to Functional department.
GENERAL POINTS
11. The outputs of process groups are:

• Initiating: Project charter
• Planning: project management plan;
• Executing: work results;
• Monitoring & Controlling: corrective actions;
• Closing: project product

12. Scope includes

• The project and product requirements,
• Criteria,
• Assumptions,
• Constraints, and
• Other influences related to a project

and how each will be managed or addressed within the project

13. A project manager is identified and assigned as early in the project as is feasible, preferably while the project charter is being developed and always prior to the start of planning

14. It is recommended that the project manager participate in the development of project charter, as the charter provides the project manager with the authority to apply resources to project activities

15. Projects are authorized by someone external to the project such as sponsor, PMO or portfolio steering committee

16. Stakeholder identification is a continuous process and can be difficult

17. The project initiator or sponsor should be at a level that is appropriate to funding the project. They will either create the charter or authorize project manager to do.

18. The initiator’s signature on the charter authorizes the project

19. The Statement Of Work (SOW) is a narrative description of products or services to be delivered by the project

20. SOW references

• Business Need: An organization’s business need may be based on a market demand, technological advance, legal requirement or government regulation
• Product Scope Description: This documents the characteristics of the product that the project will be undertaken to create. The description should also document the relationship between the products or services being created and the business need that the project will address
• Strategic Plan: Documents the organization’s strategic goals. Therefore, all projects should be aligned with the strategic plan

21. Business case or similar document provides the necessary information from a business standpoint to determine whether or not the project is worth the required investment.

22. Business case includes business need and cost-benefit analysis

23. A contract is an input to the charter if the project is being done for the external customer

24. Project baselines include but not limited to

• Schedule baseline
• Cost performance baseline and
• Scope baseline

25. Common formats for performance reports include bar charts, Scurves, histograms, and tables

26. Performance Reporting is a Controlling process. It creates Performance Reports, which are comparisons of performance to the performance baselines. These are typically done in tabular or graphical format.

27. The “Earned Value Technique” is a method to measure project performance against the project baseline

28. Change Requests include

• Corrective action: Documented direction for executing the project work to bring expected future performance of the project work in line with the project management plan
• Preventive action: A documented direction to perform an activity that can reduce the probability of negative consequences associated with the project risks
• Defect repair: The formally documented identification of a defect in a project component with a recommendation to either repair the defect or completely replace the component
• Updates: Changes to formally controlled documentation, plan, etc. to reflect modified or additional ideas or content

29. Benchmarking compares previous similar activities to the current project activities to provide a standard to measure performance against.

30. Project scope management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.

31. Managing the project scope is primarily concerned with defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project

32. Scope baseline of the project include

• Approved detailed project scope statement,
• Its associated WBS and
• WBS dictionary

33. The scope baseline is then monitored, verified and controlled throughout the lifecycle of the project

34. The stakeholder register is used to identify stakeholders that can provide information on detailed project and product requirements

35. Several group activities can be organized to identify project and product
requirements. Some of the group creativity techniques that can be used are:

• Brainstorming: A technique used to generate and collect multiple ideas related to project and product requirements
• Nominal group technique: This technique enhances brainstorming with a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further brainstorming or prioritization
• The Delphi technique: A selected group of experts answers questionnaires and provides feedback regarding the responses from each round of requirements gathering. The responses are only available with the facilitator to maintain anonymity
• Idea/mind mapping: Ideas created through individual brainstorming are consolidated into a single map to reflect commonality and differences in understanding, and generate new ideas
• Affinity diagram: The technique allows large numbers of ideas to be sorted into groups for review and analysis

36. There are multiple methods of reaching a group decision including

• Unanimity: Everyone agrees on a single course of action
• Majority: Support from more than 50% of the group
• Plurality: The largest block in a group decides even if a majority is not achieved
• Dictatorship: One individual makes the decision for the group

37. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team, to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables, with each descending level of the WBS representing an increasingly detailed definition of the project work.

38. The WBS is a decomposition of all the deliverables the project will create

39. The work package level is the lowest level in the WBS. Time and cost estimation is easily determined at this level as are resource assignments. Quality control measurements can be determined at this level as well

40. Each element in the WBS is assigned a unique identifier. These are collectively known as the code of accounts. Typically, these codes are associated with a corporate chart of accounts and are used to track the costs of the individual work elements in the WBS

41. Level one of the WBS is the project itself

42. A ‘Planning Package” is a WBS component below the control account but above the work package. It is used for planning unknown work content that does not have detailed schedule activities

43. Control account Plan (CAP) is a management control point where the integration of scope, budget and schedule take place and where the measurement of performance takes place. These CAPS are placed at the selected management points in the WBS.

44. A Control Account is a management control point where scope, cost and schedule are integrated and compared to the earned value for performance measurement. They are placed at selected management points of the WBS above the Work Package Level

45. Each Control Account may include one or more work packages, but each of the work packages must be associated with only one control account

46. WBS Dictionary” is a document which describes the details for each component in the WBS. It includes a brief description of the of the “Scope” or “Statement of the work”, defined deliverables, a list of associated activities, and a list of milestones

47. Scope Verification differs from Quality Control in that scope verification is primarily concerned with acceptance of the deliverables, while quality control is primarily concerned with correctness of the deliverable and meeting the quality requirements specified for the deliverables

48. Scope Baseline includes Project Scope Statement, WBS, WBS Dictionary

49. Scope Verification

• Verified work results

50. Perform Quality Control

• Assured quality requirements were met

51. You can remember the difference between Scope Verification and Perform
Quality Control this way:

• Scope Verification = accepting work results
• Perform Quality Control = checking for correct work results (assuring that the quality requirements are met)

52. Control Quality is generally performed before Verify Scope but these two processes can be performed in parallel

53. Scope verification must take place at the end of each phase

54. Scope Verification is done during Project monitoring and controlling BUT Product verification is done during the Project Closing

55. Control scope is the process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline

56. Rolling Wave Planning is a form of progressive elaboration planning where the
work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail and future work
is planned at a higher level of the WBS

57. In an environment where there is a great degree of flexibility or instability, it's good to
use a rolling wave planning approach. This approach allows team members to plan as
much as possible. While executing that part of the plan, they continue to plan future
work as they learn more about it

58. A milestone is a significant point or event in the project

59. Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) includes four dependencies or logical
relationships:

• Finish to Start (FS):
• Finish to Finish (FF):
• Start to Start (SS):
• Start to Finish (SF):

60. Finish to start is the most commonly used logical relationship in PDM and most project management software packages.

61. PDM uses one time estimate to determine duration, while ADM can use more than one time estimate.

62. In Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) or Activity on Node (AON) network diagrams, nodes are activities and arrows are dependencies

63. Mandatory dependency, also known as hard logic. Mandatory dependencies are inherent in the nature of the work

64. Discretionary dependencies, also called preferred logic, preferential logic, and soft logic, are defined by the project team

65. A lead allows an acceleration of the successor activity

66. A lag directs a delay in the successor activity

67. Analogous estimating is not a qualitatively based technique. It is a top-down estimating technique that considers previous similar activities when calculating estimates

68. Analogous estimating is generally less expensive and time consuming but also less accurate

69. Parametric estimating multiplies a known element—such as the quantity of materials needed—by the time it takes to install or complete one unit of materials. The result is a total estimate for the activity

70. Three point Estimate originated from Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), which uses a weighted average formula to predict the length of activities and the project. Specifically, PERT uses a 'pessimistic,' 'optimistic,' and 'most likely' estimate to predict when the project will be completed

71. Critical Path Method (CPM) manages the total float of schedule networks paths, whereas Critical Chain manages buffer activity durations and resources

72. The critical path is the longest path to completion in the network diagram.

73. Activities on the critical path have no float or slack.

74. Free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the next activity's scheduled start date.

75. Total float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the project end date.

76. Resource leveling can cause the original critical path to change. It is used when shared or critical required resources are only available at certain times, are only available in limited quantities, or to keep resource usage at a constant level

77. Heuristic is simply a rule of thumb

78. Crashing involves adding resources to activities in order to decrease their duration, which typically increases cost

79. Fast tracking adds risk as tasks are allowed to overlap

80. Rough order of magnitude is “rough” and is used during the Initiating processes and in range of +50/-50

81. There are three generally accepted categories of estimating accuracy:

• Rough order of magnitude This estimate is “rough” and is used during the Initiating processes and in top-down estimates. The range of variance for the estimate can be –25 percent to +75 percent.
• Budget estimate This estimate is also somewhat broad and is used early in the planning processes and also in top-down estimates. The range of variance for the estimate can be –10 percent to +25 percent.
• Definitive estimates This estimate type is one of the most accurate. It is used late in the planning processes and is associated with bottom-up estimating. The range of variance for the estimate can be –5 percent to +10 percent

82. Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimates are also knows as conceptual, ballpark or preliminary estimates

83. The opportunity cost is the amount of the project that was not chosen

84. Money already spent on a project is called sunk costs and should not be taken into consideration when determining 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

85. Variance analysis involves comparing actual project results to planned or expected results.

86. Trend analysis involves examining project results over time to determine if performance is improving

87. Earned Value Management compares the baseline plan to actual schedule and cost performance.

88. BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio) compares the benefits to the costs of the project where the Benefits are the same as Revenues or often referred to as the “Payback period”

89. Management Horizon is also known as the Payback Period, which is the amount of time it takes for the program to break even on the investment. In business and economics, payback period refers to the period of time required for the return on an investment to repay the sum of the original investment. As it does not properly account for the time value of money, risk, financing, or any other important considerations such as the opportunity cost, the payback period is considered as method of analysis with serious limitations and qualifications for its use.

90. One concern is that as the payback period measure does not take into account benefits delivered after the payback period it does not measure profitability

91. Parametric (Top – Down) uses historical data and statistical relationships to determine costs

92. Each resource in the project must be accounted for and assigned to a cost category. Categories include the following:

• Labor costs
• Material costs
• Travel costs
• Supplies
• Hardware costs
• Software costs
• Special categories (inflation, cost reserve, and so on)

93. Quality is defined as the degree to which the project fulfills requirement

94. Quality MUST BE PLANNED IN AND NOT INSPECTED IN

95. The Project Manager ultimately has the responsibility for the Product of the Project and

96. Senior Management is responsible for the Quality of entire Organization

97. Cost of quality involves three types of costs:

• Prevention,
• Appraisal, and
• Failure costs
• • Internal costs and
• • External costs

98. Failure cost is also known as the cost of poor quality.
Internal failure costs – Failures found by the project
External failure costs – Failures found by the customer

99. Internal failure costs are costs associated with not meeting the customer’s expectations while you still had control over the product. This results in rework, scrapping, and downtime

100. External failure costs include Liabilities

• Warranty work
• Lost business

101. Quality Assurance (Executing) is focused on process: process analysis, quality audits, etc.

102. Quality Control (Monitoring and Controlling) is focused on sampling results to see if they meet quality standards.

103. Philip B. Crosby = Zero defects and prevention or rework results.
104. Juran = Fitness for use, conformance. Quality by design.
105. Fitness for use involves establishing what the customer needs and attempting to deliver it to them
106. Joseph M. Juran is noted for his fitness for use premise. Simply put, this means the stakeholders’ and customers’ expectations are met or exceeded.
107. W. Edwards Deming suggested that as much as 85 percent of the cost of quality is a management problem
108. Shewhart = Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
109. TQM = Quality must be managed in and must be a continuous process.
110. Total Quality Management (TQM) involves being proactive, utilizing accountability and leadership, and continuously improving as a company
111. Six Sigma = Six Sigma is a measurement-based strategy; no more than 3.4 defects per million.
112. Kaizen = Continuous improvement; improve quality of people first.
113. Kaizen involves proactively improving the organization and continuously trying to improve as an organization.
114. Continuous improvement = Watch continuously for ways to improve quality.
115. Benchmarking compares previous similar activities to the current project activities to provide a standard to measure performance against
116. Design of experiments (DOE) is a statistical method for identifying which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production
117. The Design of experiments approach relies on statistical what-if scenarios to determine what variables within a project will result in the best outcome. Design of experiments approach is most often used on the product of the project, rather than the project itself. For example, a project team creating a new bicycle may experiment with the width of the tires, the weight of the frame, and the position of the handlebars in relation to the bike seat to determine the most comfortable ride at an acceptable cost to the consumer.
118. Five stages of a team development

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning

119. Techniques for resolving conflicts

• Withdrawing/Avoiding - Retreating
• Smoothing/Accommodating - Emphasizing on agreements than disagreements
• Compromising – Satisfying all parties
• Forcing – Pushing one’s viewpoint
• Collaborating – Incorporating multiple view points and driving consensus
• Confronting/Problem Solving – Head on with give-and-take policy and open dialogue

120. Forcing uses a direct order.
121. Smoothing focuses on the positive and distracts attention from the negative.
122. Compromise is consent based on mutual concession.
123. Problem solving attempts to work out the solution to the actual problem
124. There are five types of powers the project manager yields: ( E R F C R)

• Expert: The authority of the project manager comes from experience with the technology the project focuses on.
• Reward The project manager has the authority to reward the project team.
• Formal The project manager has been assigned by senior management and is in charge of the project. Also known as positional power.
• Coercive (Penalty) The project manager has the authority to discipline the project team members. This is also known as “penalty power.” When the team is afraid of the project manager, it’s coercive.
• Referent The project team personally knows the project manager. Referent can also mean the project manager refers to the person who assigned him the position—for example, “The CEO assigned me to this position so we’ll do it this way.” This power can also mean the project team wants to work on the project or with the project manager due to the high priority and impact of the project

125. The best forms of powers include Expert and Reward. Penalty is the worst
126. Formal, Reward and Powers are derived from the PM’s position in the company
127. Expert is earned on your own
128. The key components of the communication model include:

• Encode. To translate thoughts or ideas into a language that is understood by others.
• Message. The output of encoding.
• Medium. The method used to convey the message.
• Noise. Anything that interferes with the transmission and understanding of the message (e.g., distance).
• Decode. To translate the message back into meaningful thoughts or ideas

129. A risk is an uncertain event that could have a positive or negative effect on your project

130. Strategies for “Negative Risks or threats” (Avoid Transfer Mitigate)

131. Strategies for “Postive Risks or Opportunities” (Exploit Share Ehance)

132. Common Strategy for both threats and opportunities is “Acceptance”
133. There are 3 stages of “reaction to stress” (Alarm, Resistance & Exhaustion)
134. Risk Response Strategies
Threats
o Avoid – remove the cause of the risk so that it never materializes
o Mitigate – reduce the probability and or impact of the risk
o Transfer – transfer the risk to another party; usually done with insurance, performance bonds, warranties, guarantees or outsourcing the work.

Opportunities
o Exploit – make sure the opportunity occurs, you can add work or make a change to the project
o Enhance – increase the probability and or positive impact of the risk
o Share – share the opportunity with a third party to be able to take advantage of the opportunity
135. For both Threats & Opportunities
o Accept
Active acceptance – preparing a contingency reserve of cost or time
Passive acceptance – preparing for the dealing with the effects of the risk after the risk has occurred
136. Workarounds are unplanned responses. Workarounds deal with negative risk events as they occur. As the name implies, workarounds were not previously known to the project team. The risk event was unplanned, so no contingency plan existed to deal with the risk event, and thus it required a workaround Contingency Plans can be best described as “Planned responses to Risk Events”
137. Contingency Plan document outlines the actions to be taken if an identified risk event should occur
138. “Utility Theory” considers the pains or tolerance level a stakeholder has to risk
139. Residual Risk are those that “Remain” after Risk Responses have been taken
140. There are three key components to a Risk

• Risk Event (The Event)
• Probability of the Event
• Impact or Effects of the Event (Amount at Stake)

141. Delhi technique is a “Consensus Technique”
142. Risk is the notion of dealing with “Uncertainty”

• Knows at the extreme end of the Uncertainty Spectrum will definitely affect you, although you have no control over them
• Knows-Unknowns are items that will affect you although you are not able to predict how or how much they will effect you
• Unknown–Unknowns are items or situations whose existence we cannot imagine(Who knows?)

143. Fast tracking adds risk as tasks are allowed to overlap
144. Historical information is always an excellent source of information for risk identification
145. Brainstorming is likely the most common approach to risk identification
146. Force majeure is a powerful and unexpected event, such as a hurricane or other disaster
147. Fait accompli is a tactic used during contract negotiations where one party convinces the other that the particular issue is no longer relevant or cannot be changed
148. Some of the traits/qualities exhibited by effective leaders are Flexibility, Ambition, Intelligence, Decisiveness, Creativity, Persistence and Energy
149. Project manager must possess following interpersonal skills

• Leadership
• Team building
• Motivation
• Communication
• Influencing
• Decision making
• Political and cultural awareness and
• Negotiation

150. Ten most important skills and competencies for Project Managers

1. People skills
2. Leadership
3. Listening
4. Integrity, ethical behavior, consistent
5. Strong at building trust
6. Verbal communication
7. Strong at building teams
8. Conflict resolution, conflict management
9. Critical thinking, problem solving
10. Understands, balances priorities