Missed Practice Exam Concepts/Terms

Self-Awareness

Key area of EI:

The ability to conduct a realistic self assessment. it includes understanding ones own emotions, goals, motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.

Self-Management or Self-Regulation

Key area of EI:

The ability to control and redirect disruptive feelings and impulses.

ability to think before acting and to suspend snap judgments and impulsive decisions.

Social Awareness

Key area of EI:

Convey empathy and understanding and considering other people's feelings.

includes the ability to read nonverbal cues and body language.

Social Skill

Key area of EI:

The culmination of the other dimensions of emotional intelligence. It is concerned with managing groups of people (such as project teams), building social networks, finding common ground with various stakeholders, and building rapport.

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

An important attribute for project managers, this is the capability to understand and manage not only one's own emotions, but also the emotions of others. Multiple models exist, but all models for this concept focus on four key areas.

Iterative Life Cycle

A subcategory of the adaptive lifecycle in which development occurs through continuous refinement over the life of the project.

Development during this life cycle focuses on initial, simplified implementation, followed by future progressive elaboration that adds to the features until the final deliverable is complete.

Nothing is delivered partially. All cumulative iterations are delivered in one go.

Incremental Lifecycle

A subcategory of the adaptive lifecycle in which development occurs in small segments, gradually forming the end deliverable through these same segments

During this life cycle, focus is on releasing fully functional features successively until the final deliverable is complete.

Adaptive lifecycle

• This lifecycle allows a project to be less constrained because developing requirements early is avoided

• allows modifications as the deliverables are finally reviewed

• often makes the end product very different from what might have been articulated at the start of the project.

Predictive Life Cycle

• This lifecycle is associated with clear phases.

• constrained to develop requirements early

• stay with the original requirements and design plans that were created at the start of the project

Hybrid Lifecycle

• A project lifecycle that contains elements of both predictive and adaptive approaches

• Each is used to achieve greater overall effectiveness that could be achieved by using either approach alone.

• Practical when compliance requirements demanded that certain aspects of the deliverable be implemented in a very predictable way, but the court of the solution may need to be determined entirely through iteration and simulated.

Schedule Compression

• A means of improving the duration of a project.

• Common techniques include fast tracking and crashing.

Crashing

A means of schedule compression.

Shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources in key activities along the critical path.

Fast tracking

A means of schedule compression.

Activities or phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel for at least a portion of their duration.

Mandatory dependency

A consideration in schedule compression.

A relationship that is contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work.

Usually cannot be modified.

Discretionary dependency

A consideration in schedule compression.

A relationship that is based on best practices or project preferences.

May be modifiable.

External dependency

A consideration in schedule compression.

A relationship between project activities, and non-project activities.

This type of dependency usually cannot be modified.

Internal dependency

A consideration in schedule compression.

A relationship between one or more project activities.

May be modifiable.

Risk

An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more of the project objectives.

Negative risks are called threats.

Positive risks are called opportunities.

Issue

A question, current condition, or situation that may have an impact on a project, and that therefore requires some sort of research and resolution.

Also a risk that has materialized.

Constraint

A project boundary or limit on time, cost, scope, or quality.

Assumption

Presumed context about a project or its requirements that creates a special condition around which the project must be planned and executed.

Risk/Threat avoidance

When the project team acts to eliminate a threat or to protect a project from the impact of a threat.

Examples include realizing that there is not enough time to implement an app for both android and iOS operating systems so changing the scope to implement for only one software.

Threat Transfer

Involves shifting ownership of a threat to another party to manage the risk or bear the impact if the threat occurs.

Examples include sourcing an external vendor to build out certain elements of a project or product.

threat mitigation

Action is taken to reduce the probability of the occurrence or impact of a threat. Doing this early is often more effective than attempts to repair the damaged after a threat has occurred.

Examples include sending a training resource to team members to prevent risks materializing into threats due to inexperience

Threat Acceptance

Acknowledging the existence of a threat, but no proactive action is taken or planned.

Examples include deciding that not offering an app on android software does not pose a sufficient concern to project success.

Definition of Done

Checklist of all the criteria required to be met so that a deliverable can be considered ready for customer use.

Can be applied to one or multiple deliverables

Example: code is peer reviewed, tested, documented, and deployed to staging.

“What must be true for any work to be considered complete”

Acceptance Criteria

Define the conditions that must be met for a particular user story to be considered complete

Written from a users perspective to ensure functionality meets their needs.

Example: the system must allow users to reset their password via email.

“What does this feature need to do?”

Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities

Maximize value of the product resulting from the work being done by a project team.

Handles changes and change requests to product backlog.

Serves as liaison to customer

Business Analyst Roles and Responsibilities

Ensures business needs are clearly understood

Interface between business stakeholders and technical teams

Interprets and enhances information with domain knowledge

Project Portfolio

A collection of programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate effective management to meet strategic business objectives.

Emphasis on building, sustaining, and advancing the organization.

Program

Related projects and activities that are managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available for managing them individually.

Project Manager Roles and Responsibilities

After receiving authority from charter,

Maintain schedule

Update logs and registers

Submit change requests

Actions taken during the Initiating phase of a Predictive Development Approach

Actions:

• Develop Charter

  • High level requirements

  • Preliminary scope

  • Authority granted to project manager

• Identify Stakeholders

Actions taken during the Planning phase of a Predictive Development Approach

Actions:

• Fully define scope and requirements

• Create work breakdown structure.

• Define and sequence activities.

• Develop schedule.

• Estimate costs

Actions taken during the Executing phase of a Predictive Development Approach

Actions:

• Acquire resources.

• Develop and manage team.

• Conduct communications and procurement.

Actions taken during the Monitoring and Controlling phase of a Predictive Development Approach

Actions:

• Control costs and schedule.

• Monitor risks.

• Control and validate scope.

  • Perform change control processes

Actions taken during the Closing phase of a Predictive Development Approach

Actions

Deliver product or project deliverables.

Perform handoff activities where needed.

Ensure deliverables are accepted.

Conduct lessons learned meetings.

What is the NPV (Net Present Value) and what does it signify?

Reasons:

• Provides insight into whether an investment will provide value.

• The higher this is, the greater the value an option is expected to provide

What is the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and what does it signify?

• Incorporates the interest rate into net present value of all cash flows.

• The higher this is, the higher the return on investment will be

What is the Payback Period (PBP) and what does it signify?

• Quantifies time needed to recover an investment.

• The longer this is, the greater the risk will be.

What is the Return on Investment (ROI) and what does it signify?

Compares total benefits to total cost

Shows the percentage return on an initial investment.

A Negative value is bad, a positive value is good, and a high positive value is best

What is a vision statement? What does it do?

This describes outcome, not process.

This motivates the team by painting a compelling picture of the future.

This is clear and concise and supports broader business objectives

What is an Ishikawa/Fishbone/Cause-And-Effect diagram and how is it used?

This tool is used to systematically identify and analyze the origins of a specific problem or effect.

Commonly used for:

• Root cause analysis

• Process improvement

• Brainstorming sessions

  • Quality control

What are key components of an Agile PM team?

Key Components of this team type include:

• Self organizing

• Self-directing

• Working collaboratively and among themselves to determine who is best for any given task

What are key characteristics of a Product Backlog?

Key characteristics of this Agile tool include:

• Maintained by product owner

• Continuously evolving

• contains all work, features, technical tasks associated with product lifecycle at all levels of detail (high-level to granular)

What are key characteristics of a release plan?

Key characteristics of this Agile tool include:

• outlines what items will be delivered from the backlog and when

• Focuses on a specific timeframe or milestone

• includes high-priority items from backlog only

What is the Risk Appetite? Who is responsible for providing it in a Project Management Environment?

The level of uncertainty or risk your stakeholders are willing to accept.

What is the Risk Threshold? How is it applied to Risk Appetites and Risk Levels?

The measure of acceptable variation around an objective reflecting the risk appetite.

If a risk has a potential impact of $2,000,000, and this concept equals 10%, the risk level would have an acceptable variation of $1.8m to $2.2m

This chart tracks the completed work over time

The definition for Burnup chart.

This chart tracks the work remaining over time

The definition for Burndown chart.

What are the best times to use formal verbal communication?

This communication style would be best used for:

• Product demos

• Kickoffs

• Status updates

What are the best times to use formal written communication?

This communication style would be best used for:

• Providing progress reports and other artifacts

• Distributing the project charter, project plan.

  • Informing stakeholders of quality evaluation outcomes

Last Responsible Moment

The latest point in time at which a decision can be made without negatively impacting the outcome of a project.

What is a Schedule Management Plan? What is put there?

• a component of the project management plan

• developed at the beginning of a project’s lifecycle

• outlines how a schedule will be developed.

• Includes:

What is a schedule baseline?

• The approved version of a project schedule

• serves as benchmark against which actual performance is measured

What is typically included in a schedule baseline?

• This typically includes:

  • finalized start and end dates

  • milestones

  • deadlines

  • the critical path

  • resource assignments

What is typically included in a Schedule Management Plan?

• This typically includes:

  • accuracy of the schedule

  • reporting formats

  • model(s) used

  • tools/software used

  • expected cadence of schedule updates

  • Guidelines for managing changes

What are the components and considerations of a RACI Diagram?

Components:

• Responsible

• Accountable

• Consulted

• Informed

Considerations:

• “Responsible” can also be “accountable”

• Ensure there is only one person assigned to “Accountable” so there is no confusion over authority.