PMP Exam Review Session - ADV Consultants

PMP Exam Review Session I

9/16/2018

5:30 – 7:30 PM

Agenda

O Welcome

O Review Session Rules

O What will the review session cover?

O Basic Concepts

O EVM overview

O Quality Management Overview

O Schedule Management Overview

O How will the concepts be reinforced?

O Matching Games

O Define the term

Session Rules

O Please mute phones and computers

O Questions through WebEx chat box only

O The review session will take the entire 2 hours

O Please have pen and paper ready to take notes

O If you have computer issues please do not disturb the classroom with it. Troubleshoot on your own.

Basic Concepts

O Define: Knowledge Area

O A subject that represents one board topic on

project management.

O How many knowledge areas are there?

O 10

O (Project Integration, Project Scope Mgmt.., Project

Schedule Mgmt.., Project Quality Mgmt.. Project

resource Mgmt.., Project Communication mgmt.,

Project Risk mgmt., Project Procurement mgmt.,

and Project Stakeholder Mgmt..)

Projects, Programs, Portfolios and Operations

O Define: Project

O A Temporary effort to create something unique

O What are the 4 project initiation context

categories?

1. To meet the regulatory, legal and social

requirements

2. To satisfy stakeholder needs

3. To implement or change strategies

4. To create or make better products, processes or

services

Match Words to Definition

Word Definition

❑Factor

❑Project mgmt.

❑Program

❑Portfolio

❑Mega projects

❑Project

1. A good reason to start a project

2. Really large projects that typically cost more than $1billion, impact more than $1million people, and can go on for years.

3. Represents where the work is done

4. Allows us to mange multiple projects (or even multiple programs) at once

5. Contains two or more programs, portfolios, and even individual project

6. An application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to activities so that we can meet the project requirements

Questions

O What question does a portfolio answer?

O Are we doing the right things?

O Of portfolio, program, and project, which tells us which goal we should by trying to reach?

O Portfolio

O Of portfolio, program and project, which tells us how to reach our goal?

O Program and Project

Organizational Project Management or OPM

O What does OMP Ensure?

1. Everyone understands what we’re doing,

why we’re doing it and how we’re doing to

get it done

2. The right projects are executed

3. Resources are allocated properly

Match the letter to the Definition

❑ To define a new project or phase, get authorization to start it, and then begin

❑ To do the actual work

❑ To establish scope and define goals

❑ To track how things are going and make changes as needed

❑ To close out the project or phase

A. Executing process

group

B. Closing Process

Group

C. M&C Process Group

D. Initiating process

group?

E. Planning process

group

Knowledge Area continued…

O What is the purpose of the project schedule knowledge area? O To make sure the project

finishes on-time

O What is the purpose for the Project Cost Management Knowledge area? O To make the projects stays

within budget

O What is the purpose for the Project Quality management Knowledge Area? O To ensure the project creates

what the stakeholder wanted

O What is the purpose of the Project Resource management knowledge area?

O To ensure all required resources are available when needed

O What is the purpose of the Project communications Management Knowledge area?

O To make sure that all project information is created, shared, and disposed of properly

O What is the purpose of the project Risk management Knowledge area?

O To identify and manage risk of failure

What’s the type of Performance?

3 Types of data that must be tracked

❑Work performance data –

❑ C

❑Work performance information –

❑ B

❑Work performance reports –

❑ A

A. A collection of all reports –both physical and electronic – used to alert people about issues and force decisions to be made.

B. The status of deliverables and change requests, along with estimates till we are done

C. All raw observations and measurements

Business Documents

4 Major Business

DocumentsDefine Business Case

O Business Case

O Benefits

Management Plan

O Project Charter

O Project management

Plan

O A document that

spells out the

justification and goal

for the project and is

provided by the

sponsor

Environments

3 things that can

influence a project EEF’s and OPA’s

O Enterprise

environmental factors

or EEF’s

O Organizational Process

assets, or OPA’s

O Organizational Systems

O EEF: Influences that comes from outside of the project and often outside of the company itself

O OPAs: Influences that come from inside of a company, perhaps even other projects

Examples

OPAs EEFs

O Processes, policies,

and procedures

O Knowledge

repositories

O Marketplace

O Social and culture issues

O Laws

O Commercial databases

O Academic research

O Standards

O Finances

O The physical environments

O Exchange rates and inflation

3 Types of PMO’s

Type Description

❑Supportive

❑Controlling

❑Directive

❑ An entity that exercises a high degree of control by assigning a PM to directly manage each project, and to report back

❑ An entity that does not control a whole lot but does provide methodologies tools and techniques for projects to use

❑ An entity that asserts a moderate level of control by requiring compliance to things such as frameworks, methodologies, templates and governance framework

Project Manager Role

O 3 Spheres of influence a PM has

O Project

O Organization

O Industry

O PM Competencies

O Technical

O Strategic

O Leadership

O Types of PowerO Positional: Formal Position

O Informational: PM controls flow of information

O Referent: Gained when people respect you

O Situational: Granted during crises

O Personal or charismatic Power: Charm or attraction

O Relational Power: associated with a network, connections or alliance

O Expert Power: Recognized expert

Analysis and Calculations

Definition

Match Letters to

Definition

❑ Compares baselines to actual schedule and cost performance

❑ Amount of money estimated to have been spent by the time we complete the project

❑ The amount of money we expect the project to cost at a given time based on estimates

❑ The actual budget spent by a given date

A. EVA

B. BAC

C. AC

D. PV

QUICK Formula Practice

Type King EV Math Formula

CPI EV Divide AC CPI=EV/AC

SPI EV Divide PV SPI=EV/PV

CV EV - AC CV=EV-AC

SV EV - PV SV=EV-PV

EV = King

Trend AnalysisAn analysis that tells us if the project performance is getting better or worse

over time.

What are the 2 Types? Define Forecasting?

O Charts

O Forecasting

O The process of

calculating EAC

O EAC: A re-estimation

of the total project

cost when BAC is

deemed to be invalid

EAC & VAC

O Formula for EAC?

O EAC = AC + Bottom-

up ETC

O VAC = BAC – EAC

O 3 Methods of

calculating EAV

1. EAC = AC + BAC –

EV

2. EAC = AC + [(BAC-

EV)/ (CPI x SPI)]

3. EAC = BAC/CPI

Assumes

Best

case

scenario

Most

accurate

TCPI

O The future cost performance index (CPI) we must achieve for the remaining work, if you want to have any hope of staying within budget in terms of both time and money

O Underbudget Formula

O TCPI = (BAC – EV) / (EAC – AC)

O Overbudget Formula

O TCPI = (BAC – EV) / (BAC – AC)

O What is the difference between CPI and TCPI?

O CPI is the past cost performance of the project, while TCPI is the future cost of performance of the project

How do you interpret values of TCPI

O If TCPI < 1, we are in great shape

O IF TCPI > 1, we must perform with a better

cost performance than the past cost

performance Or get someone to approve a

budget increase

O If TCPI = 1, we can continue with the same

cost performance

Reserve

❑Contingency Reserve

❑Schedule Reserve

❑Management

Reserves

❑Reserve Analysis

A. Looks at both contingency and management reserves and decides if they should grow or shrink

B. Another name for the contingency reserve

C. To account for known-unknowns in the schedule

D. Account for unknowns, unknowns in the schedule

Project Quality Management

What is quality?3 Processes for Project Quality Management

Knowledge Area

O The measure of how well the deliverables meets requirements

O Prevention: Keeping errors out of the process

O Inspection: Keep errors out of the hands of the customer

O Plan Quality: Identify quality requirements or standards and documents how we will meet them

O Manage Quality: Translate the quality mgmt. plan into activities that implement our quality plan

O Control Quality: Where we see how well we have done to-date on meeting quality standards

Project Quality Management

Audits: A structured process that determines if an activity complies with some policy

Quality Control Measurements: The documented results of quality activities, and are captured in the format as specified by the quality management plan.

O 2 Common Quality

Improvement

Methods:

O Plan-do-check-act

(PDCA)

O Six Sigma

Project Quality Mgmt.

❑Quality Metrics

❑Quality Reports

❑Test and Evaluation

Docs.

❑Test and Inspection

Planning

❑Testing/Product

Evaluations

1. Input into the quality control process and are used to decide if we have achieved quality

2. A link from a project or product attribute to the quality control process

3. The act of finding errors or non-conformance problems in the deliverable

4. Graphical, numerical or qualitative reports used by processes and departments to achieve quality

5. Determining how to test or inspect the deliverable against two standards – the stakeholder’s expectations, and against performance and reliability goals.

Project Schedule Management

6 Processes for Project

Schedule Management

2 Flavors of adaptive

planning?

O Plan Schedule Mgmt..

O Define Activities

O Sequence Activities

O Estimate Activity

Durations

O Develop Schedule

O Control Schedule

O Iterative scheduling with a backlog –Rolling wave or agile approach

O On-demand scheduling – Kanban, minimize the amount of work in-progress at any given time

Project Schedule Management

O 4 attributes used with dependency determination and integration

O Mandatory: Predecessor must be completed before the successor is possible

O Discretionary: Best practice should be followed but is not strictly enforced

O External: Dependency on an activity external to the project

O Internal: Where there is a depends on an activity internal to the project

Precedence Diagramming MethodA visual representation of how activities are linked together, including the sequence of

execution

4 Types of Relationships

defined with PDM

3 methods to show a

project schedule

O Finish-to-start (FS)

O Finish-to-finish (FF)

O Start-to-start (SS)

O Start-to-finish (SF)

O Bar Chart, Also called

a Gantt Chart

O Milestone Chart

O Project Schedule

Network Diagram

(PDM)

Schedule ForecastsUpdates to a schedule calculated based on work performance information, and are issued as

changes are made, or specific events are reached

O Schedule Network

Analysis: A activity

that generates the

project schedule by

using the critical

path method,

resource

optimization and

modeling

O Three-Point

Estimating

O An approach to

estimation that

takes the average

of 3 data points

O Pessimistic (P), Most

Likely (M), and

Optimistic (O)

Schedule Forecast

Triangular Distribution Beta Distribution

O A three-point

estimating technique

with each case being

represented equally:

T=(P+O+M)/3

O A three-point

estimating technique

that emphasizes the

most likely case:

T=(P+O+4M)/6

What are the sequence of events the develop schedule process follows?

O Identify the planned start and finish dates

for each activity.

O Have staff review their assigned activities

and check for resource calendar conflicts

O Look for conflicts with activity relationships

and level resources if needed

O Approve and baseline

O Revise and maintain throughout the project

Testing Strategy❑ Read the last sentence of the question first. Then read the entire

question before you look at the possible choices. Try to separate the pertinent, important parts of the question from any meaningless or extra details. To prevent your eye from jumping ahead, always cover up the possible choices with a piece of paper or with your hand while you read the question.

❑ Come up with the answer in your head before uncovering the possible choices. In this way, the choices given on the test won't throw you off or trick you.

❑ Read all the choices before choosing your answer. If you see the choice that you anticipated, select it, and then check to be sure that none of the other choices is better. Sometimes the correct choice is very obvious; do not overlook it or talk yourself out of the right choice!

❑ Be aware of the role that you are being asked to play in the question. Select the choice that best corresponds with that role!

Testing Strategy Continued…

❑ During the exam, try taking a few breaks by stopping for a moment, shutting your eyes, and taking some deep breaths. Periodically clearing your head in this way can help you stay fresh. Two or three 30-second breaks can be very helpful.

❑ Don't keep on changing your answer; usually your first choice is the right one unless you misread the question. Even though first answers are often correct, you shouldn't be afraid to change your original answer if, upon reflection, it seems wrong to you. Most people who change their answers will change from a correct one to a wrong one. Only change your answer if you are absolutely sure you made a mistake.

Testing Strategy Continued…

❑ Answer each question in order. Do not spend too much time on any one question. Don't get stuck on things you know that you don’t know! If you cannot make a final choice decision, select the choice that you believe to be most correct, and then mark the question to come back to later. Use information and ideas that you gain in working through the entire exam to go back and answer earlier questions that you weren't sure of.

❑ There is no good substitute for knowing the right answer, so study! Studies suggest that spaced study is usually better than large blocks of study. You'll get better results out of three 2-hour blocks than one 6-hour block. Cramming the night before usually results in poor recall, fatigue, and carelessness on the exam. Focus your study time, study as much as you can, and give it your best.

Class TestA governance expectation, a customer request, and a technological advance are examples of:

A. Reasons to outsource the work

B. Components of a work breakdown structure (WBS)

C. Changes to the project

D. Reasons to initiate a project

The correct answer is D. The items listed might lead to changes, but they are not changes themselves. These items may be considered when creating a WBS, but they are not components of a WBS. None of the choices necessarily indicate a need to outsource project work. A governance expectation, a customer request, and a technological advance are all good justifications for a project to be initiated. (Initiating)

Operational work is different from project work in that operational work is:

A. A part of every project activity

B. Ongoing and repetitive

C. Temporary

D. Unique

The correct answer is B. Operational work is that which is ongoing and frequently requires performing job functions repeatedly to sustain an organization. (Initiating

Class TestWho is responsible for determining appropriate project management processes to use for a specific project?

A. Project management office

B. Project manager/project management team

C. Sponsor

D. Customer

The correct answer is B. The project manager or the project management team determines how best to accomplish the project. (Planning)

Progressive elaboration means:

A. Distinct processes are developed for each project.

B. Project management plans must be elaborate in order to be effective.

C. Implementation of the project must progress strictly according to the initial project management plan.

D. Project processes are iterated as more information is uncovered throughout the project life cycle.

The correct answer is D. As more information about the project becomes known, further iterations of the planning process result in more detailed and specific management plans. (Initiating)

Class TestThe high-level project schedule constraints have just been determined. What project management process group are you in?

A. Monitoring and controlling

B. Planning

C. Executing

D. Initiating

The correct answer is D. High-level constraints are identified in the project charter, which is created during project initiating. (Initiating)

A market demand, a business need, and a legal requirement are examples of:

A. Reasons to hire a project manager

B. Reasons people or businesses become stakeholders

C. Reasons projects are initiated

D. Reasons to sponsor a project

The correct answer is C. These are all reasons projects are initiated. (Initiating)

Next Session?

O Review Session Dates:

O Dates: 10/14, 11/9, 12/9

O Time: 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM

O Place:

Intellectual Point Training Center

11321 Sunset Hills Road,

Reston, VA 20190.

O Delivery: WebEx and In-class

O Will continue with review of other chapters.

Liked the Review Session?

O Please rate us by going to the following link:

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O And unlock ITTO practice spreadsheet.

O Email us for questions at:

O Mahjooba BianchiO Email: [email protected]

O Call: 703 259 7280O Join the Facebook Study Group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/eZPMP/

O And if you are practicing PM join the “Savvy Project Managers group” for a community of PM practitioners who are here to support each other.O https://www.facebook.com/groups/PracticingPMs/