PMP Exam Comprehensive Review and Foundations

Vocabulary flashcards covering foundational project management concepts, formulas, agile practices, governance, procurement, and exam preparation based on the 2026 PMP Exam Study Guide.

PMP Exam Domains and Allocations

The three core testing domains for the PMP exam: People ($33\%$), Process ($41\%$), and Business Environment ($26\%$).

PMP Exam Structure and Format

An assessment consisting of $180$ questions administered in $240$ minutes (including $10$ unscored pretest questions), with two $10$-minute breaks. Approximately $40\%$ of questions cover predictive approaches, and the remaining $60\%$ cover adaptive, agile, and hybrid approaches.

Project

A temporary effort that creates a unique product, service, or result, distinguished from operations which sustain recurring business activity.

Program

Related projects and activities managed together to gain benefits that are unavailable from managing them separately.

Portfolio

Projects, programs, and other work grouped together to advance strategic objectives, where components do not need to be directly related.

Output versus Outcome versus Benefit

An output is a deliverable (such as a dashboard); an outcome is the resulting change (such as faster production decisions); a benefit is the measurable value gained from that change.

Business Case

A document explaining why an investment is justified, detailing alternatives, expected value, costs, risks, and strategic fit.

Project Charter

A document that formally authorizes a project and the project manager's authority, typically containing the project purpose, high-level objectives, stakeholders, constraints, and major risks.

Project Management Plan

A comprehensive document that integrates relevant subsidiary plans and baselines to explain how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled, and closed.

Assumption versus Constraint

An assumption is a factor treated as true for planning purposes that must be validated, whereas a constraint limits choices (such as a fixed regulatory deadline).

Tailoring

The deliberate adaptation of delivery methods, controls, documentation, and stakeholder engagement to uncertainty, risk, organizational context, and stakeholder needs.

Rolling Wave Planning

An iterative form of progressive elaboration that details near-term work while leaving distant work at a higher level.

Stakeholder Analysis

The process of assessing stakeholder interests, influence, expectations, impact, and current versus desired engagement to choose specific engagement actions rather than relying solely on distribution lists.

Servant Leadership

A leadership approach focused on helping the team succeed through coaching, removing impediments, supporting learning, and enabling decisions within clear boundaries.

Team Charter

A set of agreed working agreements for collaboration, decision making, communication, conflict management, and acceptable behavior, revisited when conditions change.

Psychological Safety

An environment where team members can report mistakes, ask questions, and raise concerns without humiliation, while maintaining accountability for agreed standards.

Coaching versus Mentoring

Coaching helps an individual develop their own solutions using questions and feedback, whereas mentoring shares relevant experience and direct guidance.

RACI Matrix

A responsibility assignment matrix clarifying accountability: Responsible does the work, Accountable owns the result or decision, Consulted supplies input, and Informed receives updates.

Scope Baseline

In a predictive project, the authorized baseline consisting of the approved scope statement, the work breakdown structure (WBS), and the WBS dictionary.

Scope Creep

The uncontrolled expansion of project scope without appropriate authorization and corresponding consideration of impacts on schedule, cost, resources, and risk.

Validate Scope versus Control Quality

Validate Scope is the process of obtaining formal acceptance of deliverables from the customer or sponsor, whereas Control Quality checks that deliverable results meet specified quality requirements.

Critical Path

The longest duration path through the schedule network, which determines the shortest possible project duration under the model's assumptions.

Total Float versus Free Float

Total float is the amount of time an activity can slip without delaying project completion or violating a schedule constraint; free float is the delay possible without delaying the early start of any successor.

Crashing

A schedule compression technique that shortens schedule duration by adding resources to critical activities where feasible, typically increasing cost.

Fast Tracking

A schedule compression technique that overlaps activities previously planned to be performed in sequence, which can increase rework and coordination risk.

Resource Leveling versus Resource Smoothing

Resource leveling adjusts work to address limited resources and can alter the critical path and finish date; resource smoothing adjusts activities within existing float without changing the completion date.

Cost Variance ($CV$)

A metric calculated as $\text{CV} = \text{EV} - \text{AC}$; a negative result indicates that the project is over budget for the work accomplished.

Schedule Variance ($SV$)

A metric calculated as $\text{SV} = \text{EV} - \text{PV}$; expressed in terms of budget value rather than calendar time, where a negative result means the project is behind planned earned value.

Cost Performance Index ($CPI$)

A measure of cost efficiency calculated as $\text{CPI} = \frac{\text{EV}}{\text{AC}}$; a value below $1$ indicates unfavorable cost efficiency.

Schedule Performance Index ($SPI$)

A measure of schedule efficiency calculated as $\text{SPI} = \frac{\text{EV}}{\text{PV}}$; a value below $1$ indicates that less work has been earned than planned.

Estimate at Completion ($EAC$) - Continuing Current Efficiency

The forecast total project cost when current cost efficiency is expected to continue for the remaining work, calculated as $\text{EAC} = \frac{\text{BAC}}{\text{CPI}}$.

Estimate at Completion ($EAC$) - Budgeted Rate for Remaining Work

The forecast total project cost when prior variances are considered atypical and remaining work will proceed at the planned rate: $\text{EAC} = \text{AC} + (\text{BAC} - \text{EV})$.

To-Complete Performance Index ($TCPI$)

The cost performance required on remaining work to achieve the original budget: $\text{TCPI}_{\text{BAC}} = \frac{\text{BAC} - \text{EV}}{\text{BAC} - \text{AC}}$; a value greater than $1$ indicates greater cost efficiency is required.

PERT Expected Duration Formula

A weighted three-point estimation formula calculated as $\text{PERT} = \frac{\text{Optimistic} + 4 \times \text{Most likely} + \text{Pessimistic}}{6}$.

Expected Monetary Value ($EMV$)

A statistical technique used to quantify risk impact, calculated as $\text{EMV} = \text{Probability} \times \text{Financial Impact}$.

Potential Communication Channels Formula

The formula used to calculate total potential two-way communication links among $n$ people: $\text{Channels} = \frac{n(n - 1)}{2}$.

Risk versus Issue

A risk is an uncertain future event or condition with a positive or negative effect, whereas an issue is a condition or problem that already exists.

Risk Response Strategies

Responses for threats include avoid, mitigate, transfer, accept, or escalate; responses for opportunities include exploit, enhance, share, accept, or escalate.

Scrum Team Accountabilities

The Product Owner is accountable for product value and Product Backlog management; Developers plan and create usable increments; the Scrum Master fosters Scrum adoption and team effectiveness.

Scrum Events

The five formal events in Scrum: Sprint (a container event of one month or less), Sprint Planning (sets the Sprint Goal and plan), Daily Scrum (inspects progress and adapts), Sprint Review (examines outcomes with stakeholders), and Sprint Retrospective (identifies improvements in team effectiveness).

User Story

A short, conversational statement of a user need and its intended value, commonly structured as 'As a [user], I want [capability] so that [benefit].'

Acceptance Criteria versus Definition of Done

Acceptance criteria are specific conditions that an individual item must satisfy to meet its intended need; the Definition of Done is a shared standard of quality criteria required for an increment to be complete.

Work in Progress (WIP) Limits

Kanban constraints placed on the number of items active in workflow states simultaneously, designed to expose bottlenecks and enhance delivery flow.

Cycle Time versus Lead Time

Cycle time measures the elapsed duration from a defined work start to finish; lead time measures the duration from a customer request or commitment point to final delivery.

Burndown versus Burnup Charts

A burndown chart tracks remaining effort over time; a burnup chart displays total completed work over time and can explicitly track scope changes.

Technical Debt

The future rework and maintenance burden accumulated by choosing expedient technical shortcuts or deferring necessary engineering work.

Benefits Management

The discipline of defining intended business benefits, baseline measures, targets, timing, and ownership, as well as verifying value realization, which often extends beyond project closure.

Responsible AI in Projects

The practice of using approved AI tools and authorized data while evaluating privacy, bias, security, accuracy, transparency, and requiring human validation before acting on AI outputs.

Fixed Price Contract

A procurement agreement with a predetermined total price for defined work, placing greater cost overrun risk on the seller.

Cost Reimbursable Contract

A contract where the buyer pays legitimate allowable costs incurred by the seller plus an agreed fee, requiring rigorous buyer cost oversight due to higher financial exposure.

Time and Materials Contract

A hybrid contract paying predetermined unit rates for labor and materials, requiring clear oversight and limits because the total cost remains open-ended.

Project Closure

The final stage of a project involving obtaining formal acceptance, closing records and vendor contracts, transferring ownership to operations, archiving lessons learned, and releasing project resources.

Four-Week PMP Review Plan

A structured preparation sequence: Week 1 covers foundations, people, and communication; Week 2 focuses on predictive baselines, risk, and calculations; Week 3 addresses agile, hybrid, governance, AI, and change; Week 4 conducts mixed timed practice and error-log remediation.