PMP Definitions

shorter PMP Definitions

Escalate Risk Responses

The process of raising issues or concerns regarding risk responses to higher management or stakeholders for additional support or decision-making.

Avoid Risk Reponses

Strategies to eliminate threats by changing project plans to sidestep risks entirely.

Transfer Risk Responses

Strategies to shift the impact of a risk to a third party, often through contracts or insurance.

Mitigate Risk Responses

Strategies to reduce the likelihood or impact of risks by implementing measures that lessen their effects on project objectives.

Accept Risk Reponses

Strategies to acknowledge the existence of a risk and decide to proceed with the project, understanding that the risk may impact project objectives.

3 Point Estimating

A technique used in project management to improve the accuracy of estimates by considering three scenarios: optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely.

Through Put Chart

A graphical representation that shows the flow of work through a system, highlighting the time taken for each stage and identifying bottlenecks.

Schedule Performance Index

A measure used to assess the efficiency of time utilization on a project, calculated by dividing earned value by planned value.

Cost Variance

A measure of financial performance in a project, calculated by subtracting actual costs from earned value, indicating how much under or over budget the project is.

Cost performance Index

A measure used to evaluate the cost efficiency of a project, calculated by dividing earned value by actual costs.

Schedule Variance

A measure of schedule performance on a project, calculated by subtracting planned value from earned value, indicating how much ahead or behind schedule the project is.

Business Organization Matrix

Resource availablity high, budget managed by Pm

Matrix -Strong

resources availablity moderate; budget manged by PM

matrix -weak

resources availablity low, budget manged by fucntional manger

organic

resource availability low, budget managed by owner

Maslow Hierarchy of Needs (PMP)

A psychological theory that prioritizes human needs in a five-tier model, often represented as a pyramid, ranging from basic physiological needs to self-actualization.

Macgregor’s Theory Y

A management theory that suggests that employees are inherently motivated, enjoy work, and seek responsibility, contrasting with Theory X, which views them as needing direct supervision.

Macgregor’s Theory X

A management theory that posits employees are inherently lazy, require constant supervision, and are motivated primarily by monetary rewards, contrasting with Theory Y.

Herzbergs Theory of Motivation

A motivational theory that distinguishes between hygiene factors, which can cause dissatisfaction if absent, and motivational factors that lead to job satisfaction and increased performance.

large Scale Scrum

A framework for scaling Scrum across multiple teams, focusing on collaboration, alignment, and transparency in delivering complex products.

SAFe

A framework for scaling Agile practices across large enterprises, integrating principles from Agile, Lean, and product development flow. Value Streams

Extreme Programming (XP)

A software development methodology that emphasizes customer satisfaction, rapid iterations, and continuous feedback, promoting high-quality code through practices like pair programming and test-driven development. Shared Code

Dynamic System Delivery Method

A delivery approach that emphasizes flexibility and responsiveness to change, enabling teams to adapt to evolving project requirements and deliver value incrementally. Team focuses on constraints driven

Resource Smoothing

A project management technique that aims to balance resource allocation over time, ensuring that resources are used efficiently without overloading team members, while meeting project deadlines.

Resource Leveling

Pareto Analysis

A decision-making technique that identifies the most significant factors in a dataset, often summarized by the 80/20 rule, where 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. count of the data that focuses on the few causes with the biggest impact.

Upwards

SR management sponser steering committee

Downward

project team or specialist providing knowledge or skills to the project

Escalate Risk Opportunity

discovers an opportunity to improve the system but it is outside the scope of the project

Exploit Opportunity Risk

wants to make sure that an opportunity for a joint venture actually happens

Enhance Opportunity Risk

takes steps to increase the probability of the oprtunity occuring

Accept Opportunity Risk

acknowledges that the opportunity is there but decided not to take any actions

Share Opportunity Risk

finds an opportunity in the system but his project does not need it so he offers it to another project.

Swarming

as issue is raised during stand ups multiple team members meet afterwards to solve it quickly

mobbing

a portfolio owner impacted by a recent change and asks multiple teams to work closely together for an outcome

Fixed Price Contracts

when scope is straight forward and requirements are well defined

cost reimbursable contracts

when you want to incentivize the seller or if work is expected to change

Time & Materials Contracts

useful when precise statement of work is not available

Rolling Wave Planning

project team plans near term work on detail and further away items at a high level

cycle time

time to complete a task or smaller piece (user story)

Lead Time

the time from the customer order to delivery (features)

Predictability

how much was commited vs how much was completed in a given iteration

queue size

the amount of work waiting to be completed

Process Effiency

measures of the ratio of the value-added work to the total work time

Extreme Programming (XP)

focuses on frequent releases continuous feedback & high customer involvement to improve quality

Dynamic System Delivery

team focus on constraint -driven delivery with formalized priorization of scope (MoSCoW)

Agile Unified Process

aims to perform more iterative cycles access 7 discipline such as modeling implementation, testing

Crystal

family of methodologies that emphasis tailoring practices to species needs of a project team

Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)

applied scrum ways of working to programs and portfolios only when necessary

SAFe

focuses on organizing project teams around ‘value streams’

scrum of scrum

scaled approach where multiple scrum teams collaborate through regular cross team meetings

Enterprise Scrum

aims to extend scrum practices to the organizational level aiming to align & integrate multiple teams

Lean Methodologies

framework that offers a comprehensive flexible approach integrating agile and lean methodologies

Prevention Cost

wants to improve the process & provide training for the project

Appraisal Cost

a software tester creates a plan to find defects or errors in the product

Leading Indicators

measurable factors that help predict a project's success or failure by providing early information on its progress.Proactive metrics used to predict future performance & id potential issues

Lagging Indicators

metrics that measure the results of past project activities and initiatives. They are used to evaluate the success of a project and to identify areas for improvement in future projects. metrics that reflect past performance outcomes providing insights into what has already occurred

Key Performance Indicators

measurable values used to assess the success of project activities and overall performance

Objectives & Key Results:(OKR)

high level written goals for the project with clear measures to get there

HAWTHORNE Effect

what we measure influences behavior

vanity metrics

measuring things that arent actionable

demoralization

if what we measure isnt acheiveable

confirmation bias

using metrics to validate our own opinion

SWOT analysis

analyzing strength weakness opportunity and threat

Regression Analysis

using statistics to find reading data

Root Cause Analysis

Five Whys Ishikawa Diagram Pareto Diagram

Risk Definitions

clear real world measures of the risk impacts and likeihoods

Salience Chart

assesses stakeholders by their power urgency and legitimacy

Stakeholder Engagement Matrix

Classifies stakeholders by their current and desired level of support for the project

Unaware/resistant/neutral/supportive/leading

Prioritization Matrix

prioritizes items with the highest value and lowest effort

WSJF (Waited shortest job first)

is using SAFe, prioritizing features using a method similar to the cost of delay. is a prioritization model used to sequence work for maximum economic benefit.

Kano Analysis

prioritizes features by must have, satisfiers, and delighters

MoSCoW

prioritizing by must have should have could have and wont have

Burn up chart

The chart is that it can show changes in scope, making the impact of those changes visible.

Brainstorming, affinity diagrams, and mind mapping

A project team completes the identification of project and product requirements. By using these

Which of the following is a tactic that a project manager can employ to effectively monitor the impact of the risk on the project while monitoring risks?

Risk reporting

Question

In an agile development environment, when should a risk analysis be performed?

. Before the start of each iteration

When managing a strategic project for their organization, what four tools should a project manager use for risk analysis?

Brainstorming, Risk checklists, Interviewing and Decision tree analysis

Which of the following represents levels of risk attitude?

Risk-averse, risk-neutral, risk-tolerant, and risk-seeking

While performing a qualitative project risk analysis process the project manager finds that the product is missing the "Definition of Done". What type of risk is this?

Technical Risk

During a retrospective meeting, the project team confirmed that all deliverables were completed according to the specifications provided in the product backlog. However, the number of errors found during testing increased dramatically.

What should the project manager do?

Meet with quality assurance specialists to clarify the issue and seek resolutions

Performing a ______ is a statistical technique used to estimate the probability of different outcomes. A _____ would only be helpful if the project manager was trying to estimate the probability of this event occurring before it happened.

Monte Carlo analysis

A project team implements a change that was approved by the change control board (CCB). The change was intended to minimize a risk but it had the opposite effect.

What should the project manager have done to avoid this outcome?

Confirmed the effectiveness of the risk response and monitored progress

The opening of a new overseas office faces potential delays as the required permit has not yet been issued by the local government. The project team met to evaluate the appropriate course of action as outlined in the risk register. After a thorough assessment, the team decided to postpone the opening to another date.

Which document should the project manager use to update the project management plan?

Risk register

The risk register is a document that records details of all identified individual risks to a project. What is the minimal content of this document?

Identified risks, risks owners and potential risks responses

During an important project, one of the contractors complains that the approval process is difficult to handle and may delay the project schedule.

What should the project manager do first?

Add the risk to the risk register to be monitored and reviewed.

What are the main outputs of the risk identification process?

Risk report, risk register, and project documents updates

A project manager is reviewing work performance data in preparation for the Close Project process. The data reveals that one of the deliverables was not accepted. The estimated work required to complete acceptance of the deliverable will delay the project completion date by two months.

What should the project manager do next?

Issue a change request for review by the change control board (CCB)

A project is being audited to ensure compliance with organizational policies. What process is being conducted?

Manage Quality/Quality Assurance

A project manager discovers a significant flaw in a major project deliverable. Which project management process is being performed?

Control Quality is the process that records deliverable results and ensure the project outputs are correct.

Burn up Chart

a visual tool used in Agile project management to track a project's progress by plotting work completed against the total project scope

throughput chart

a visual representation that tracks the number of work items (like user stories or tasks) completed and delivered by a team within a specific timeframe,

Monte Carlo Analysis

a statistical method is used to estimate potential outcomes of a complex system by repeatedly running simulations with random inputs

Manage Quality

quality is the planning stage; quality assurance

control quality

This is the implementation stage where responsible parties follow the plans and evaluate how well the project conforms to the specifications. ______ involves inspecting the work results to ensure the quality requirements were met

salience chart

a tool used to prioritize stakeholders in a project by evaluating them based on three attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency. The model is often represented as a Venn diagram with three circles, each representing one of the attributes.