BADM GIGANOTE

CH 1

Vocabulary:

Project – A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.

Stakeholders – An individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity or outcome of a project, program or portfolio.

Project management – The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.

Process – a series of actions designed to bring about a consistent and similar result or service.

Soft skills – active listening, interpersonal skills, and conflict management, as well as leadership skills such as establishing the vision and critical thinking.

Hard skills – teachable abilities or skill sets that are easy to quantify. Typically, you’ll learn hard skills in the classroom through books or training materials, or on the job.

Functional manager – functional managers organize the work of similar people (people performing a given function). They hand off their deliverables to another group.

Project life cycle – The series of phases that a project passes through from its start to its completion.

Project management process group – project management phases to structure projects and lead them from beginning to end: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and control, and closing.

Initiating - Those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase.

Planning - Those processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to achieve

Executing - Those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project requirements

Monitoring and controlling - Those processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes.

Closing – Those processes performed to formally complete or close the project, phase, or contract.

Integration management - Project Integration Management is the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate activities within the Project Management Process Groups.

Scope management - Project Scope Management is the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.

Schedule management - Project Schedule Management is the processes required to manage the timely completion of the project.

Cost management - Project Cost Management is the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so the project can be completed within the approved budget.

Quality management - Project Quality Management is the processes for incorporating the organization's quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling project and product quality requirements, in order to meet stakeholders’ expectations.

Resource management - Project Resources Management is the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project.

Communications managent - Project Communications Management is the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring, and ultimate disposition of project information.

Risk management - Project Risk Management is the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, response implementation, and monitoring risk on a project.

Procurement management - Project procurement Management is the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team.

Stakeholder management - Project stakeholder Management is the processes required to identify the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by the project, to analyze stakeholder expectations and their impact on the project, and to develop appropriate management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders in project decisions and execution.

Project Processes - Forty-nine individual project work processes that are each in a process group and a knowledge area.

Deliverable - Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is produced to complete a process, phase, or project.

Scope - The sum of the products, services, and results to be provided as a project.

Quality - The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.

Product scope - The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.

Project scope - The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions.

Sponsor - An individual or a group that provides resources and support for the project, program, or portfolio, and is accountable for enabling success.

Steering / leadership team - a team or committee that decides on the priorities or order of business of an organization and manages the general course of its operations.

PMO (project management office) - A management structure that standardizes the project- related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.

Project manager - The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.

Project team - Members of a project team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.

Agile - Agile project management is an iterative approach to delivering a project throughout its life cycle.

Agile lifecycle - agile life cycles are composed of several iterations or incremental steps towards the completion of a project.

Iterative process - or incremental steps towards the completion of a project.

Emergent design - Emergent design is a design that is constructed as it evolves as opposed to the usual upfront process of design. With emergent design, a development organization starts delivering functionality and lets the design emerge.

Product owner - The product owner is a role on a product development team responsible for managing the product backlog in order to achieve the desired outcome that a product development team seeks to accomplish.

Scrum master - (in agile project management) a person who facilitates the work performed, especially by eliminating obstacles to the completion of tasks and achievement of goals.

WBS (work breakdown structure) - A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.

CH2

Vision – A vision statement describes what a company desires to achieve in the long-run, generally in a time frame of five to ten years, or sometimes even longer. It depicts a vision of what the company will look like in the future.

Mission statement - A mission statement defines what line of business a company is in, and why it exists or what purpose it serves.

Strategic objectives - A strategic objective is a high-level goal outlining what you want to achieve, with a clearly stated deadline. Strategic objectives populate your plan’s Focus Areas and are very specific.

S M A R T - Specific, measurable, achievable, results based, and time specific objectives.

Portfolio management - The centralized management of one or more portfolios to achieve strategic objectives.

Portfolio - Projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.

Program - Related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.

Program management - The application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing program components individually.

Subproject - a significant point or event subordinate to the project.

Statement of work - a narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by the project.

Business case - A documented economic feasibility study used to establish validity of the benefits of a selected component lacking sufficient definition and that is used as a basis for the authorization of further project management activities.

Cost benefit analysis - A financial analysis tool used to determine the benefits provided by a project against its costs.

Source selection criteria - a set of attributes desired by the purchaser that the seller is required to meet or exceed.

Product roadmaps - an agile product roadmap is a plan of action for how a product or solution will evolve over time

Release - An Agile release refers to the final delivery of a software package after the completion of multiple iterations or sprints. A release can be either the initial build of an application or the addition of one or more features to an existing application. A release should take less than a year to complete, and in some cases, may only take three months.

Portfolio vision - a description of the future state of a portfolio’s value streams and solutions and describes how they will cooperate to achieve the portfolio’s objectives and the broader aim of the enterprise.

Solutions - products or services designed to meet a particular agile Method

Products - An artifact that is produced, is quantifiable, and can either be an end item in itself or a component item.

User stories – Need to be described by who wants it, how they will use it, and why.

Product backlog – An ordered list of user-centric requirements that a team

maintains for a product.

Epic – Epic or epic stories are defined as large user stories that, in their current state, would be difficult to estimate or to complete in a single iteration. Epic stories are typically lower priority and are waiting be broken down into smaller components.

Eat your dessert first – early value delivery.

Minimum viable product (mvp) – an early version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development.

Customer driven-value - the practice of establishing expectations based on customer needs

Refine requirements – as a result of the iterative process of requirements definition, which may evolve after producing a minimum viable product.

Customer prioritization – the practice of giving priority to customer defined needs, effectively and consistently prioritizing the requirements.

Risk-adjusted backlog – a sprint or release backlog containing risk response tasks for actionable risks.

Prioritized backlog – a practice required to organize the product backlog items to make the sequence of its development and deployment.

Product - An artifact that is produced, is quantifiable, and can either be an end item in itself or a component item.

CH3

Project charter – A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

Milestone schedule – A type of schedule that presents milestones with planned dates.

Acceptance criteria – a set of conditions that the software must meet in order to satisfy the customer.

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

Assumptions – A factor in the planning process considered to be true, real, or certain, without proof or demonstration.

Constraint – A factor that limits the options for managing a project, program, portfolio, or process.

Resources – People, parts, equipment, expendables (etc.) needed to complete a project.

Lessons learned – The knowledge gained during a project which shows how project events were addressed or should be addressed in the future for the purpose of improving future performance.

Scope creep – The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources.

Uncertainties – It includes unpredictability, ambiguity, and just plain not knowing what might happen.

Assumptions log – A collection of the factors in the planning process considered to be true, real, or certain, without proof or demonstration.

Share knowledge – A team’s agreement to inform others of any information he/she might have that is important to the advancement of the project

Product vision – describes the product’s purpose and intent for which it will be used.

Time boxes – A fixed period of time, for example, 1 week, 3 weeks, or 1 month.

Defer decisions – a practice where a decision is not made so that the project can continue but it is agreed that the decision will be made in a specified time, example tomorrow’s scrum meeting, end of day, Monday scrum meeting.

Sustainable pace – the pace that an Agile team can work at indefinitely without resulting in developer burnout (ideally 40 hours per week).

Commit to work – a practice that agile team members commit to the prioritized work at the start of the sprint and then fully completing it at its conclusion.

Commitment – a practice where the team agrees to complete the work in a specified period.

Definition of done – A team’s checklist of all the criteria required to be met so that the deliverable can be considered ready for customer use.

Sprint (aka iteration) - A fixed period of time, for example, 1 week, 3 weeks, or 1 month.

CH4

Functional organization - An organizational structure in which staff is grouped by areas of specialization and the project manager has limited authority to assign work and apply resources.

Projected organization - An organizational structure in which the project manager has full authority to assign work and apply resources.

Co-location - placing multiple resources in a single location.

Matrix organization – An organizational structure in which the project manager shares authority with the functional manager temporarily to assign work and apply resources.

Milestone – A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio.

Agile – A term used to describe a mindset of values and principles as set forth n the Agile Manifesto.

Duration – a period of time or other measure (iteration, timebox, increment).

Experimentation – a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis for testing.

Empiricism – knowledge comes from experience and decisions should be based on what is known.

Small releases – to deliver a small working increment in a short period of time.

Product increment – the sum of all the product backlog items completed during a sprint and the value of the increments of all previous sprints.

Stakeholder vision – a statement that the product owner and stakeholders all agree on what product is being produced or problem is being solved.

Lean – An agile methos inspired by the original Kanban inventory control system used specifically for knowledge work.

Proven approach – a known-successful method to solving a problem or advancing the work performed.

Continued viability – Variation in output sustained over a period of measurement.

Production-ready – the practice of ensuring that your product or service is continuously in a state where it could be shipped at a moment's notice.

Velocity – The forecasted number of story points a team can do in one iteration

Hybrid – A combination of two or more agile and non-agile elements, having a non-agile result.

CH5 – NOT ON TEST

Management – the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizational resources.

Leadership – the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change

Acquire project team – a process of identifying skill requirements for a project and acquiring human resources that possess those skills based on their availability to work on project assignments.

Develop project team – the process of defining roles and responsibilities, improving competencies, working productively at individual and team levels, and improving the work environment to improve the team and project performance.

Manage project team – the process of assigning tasks, roles, and responsibilities to all the team members, tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and coordinating changes to optimize project performance.

Negotiation – is about redefining an old relationship that is not working effectively or establishing a new relationship, necessary when a proposal is not acceptable to both the parties; most commonly used process and the first step to resolve a dispute, a difference, or a conflict.

Virtual team – known as a distributed team, rarely meet in person and rely on information and communication technology

Generalized specialists – human capital who are very good at one thing, but also competent at a wide variety of work

Improve collaboratively – When one worker has problems, others help and learn together

Collective ownership – All qualified team members are responsible for product and all can change it

Pair programming – practice of one programmer writing while another reviews, two minds are better than one

Openness – Seek new ideas, ask for help when needed

Transformational leadership – Leader aims to develop trust and align personal values of individuals (followers) to accomplish vision and mission of the organization

Servant leadership – Leader focuses on needs of the followers first through integrating followers’ needs with project goals, honesty, delegation, and empowerment.

Developmental leadership – Safe environment in which different team members informally take on leadership roles at different times and are supported by team members and other stakeholders

Courage – Tell the truth, work together, adapt to changes, question status quo, have difficult conversations

Respect – Everyone gives and feels respect, everyone contributes, team strength is collaboration, give each other permission

CH6

Identify stakeholders – the process to determine the people, groups, or organizations who are or might be impacted by some aspect of our project

Stakeholder analysis – a technique composed of gathering and evaluating information to determine whose interests should be emphasized throughout the project.

Stakeholder register – a repository of information regarding all project stakeholders used to develop strategies to either capitalize upon stakeholder support or to mitigate the impact of their resistance.

Stakeholder engagement – by creating a tool called a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix and by planning to build relationships with the stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement plan – defines how they will effectively engage stakeholders in planning and performing the project based on the analysis of the stakeholders’ needs, wants, and influences

Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix – matrix typically includes the stakeholders in the first column and additional columns may represent how much they are currently supporting or opposing the project, where you would like them to be, barriers to change (from current position to target position), and strategies you may employ to move them.

Manage stakeholder engagement – the process of the project team communicating and working with stakeholders to satisfy their needs (and additional desires if applicable and possible), manage issues quickly, and encourage active stakeholder participation throughout the life of the project.

Monitor stakeholder engagement – the process of engaging stakeholders and managing relations with them effectively.

Communications management plan – the plan that considers stakeholders’ information needs and steers the project communications.

Communications matrix – documents who, what, when, and by what mode communications will take place.

Knowledge – as insights derived from information and experience; a conclusion drawn from information after it is linked to other information and compared to what is already known

Manage project knowledge – the process of using and developing knowledge to help improve both the current project performance and the capability of the organization.

Manage communications – includes all the work associated with the project communications plan, starting with planning, generating, organizing and sharing, and, eventually, storing and disposing of it

Issue – a situation that requires a decision to be made by the team, but one that the team cannot make now, usually either due to needing information or more time

Issues log – is a dynamic repository of information regarding both open issues and those that have been resolved.

Feedback – Demonstrate results early, listen carefully, make adjustments

Communication – Confer on everything, every day, create best solution together

Embraces change – Acceptance and eagerness to serve updated customer needs

Information radiators – Highly visual device that conveys project information publicly in the workplace

Transparency – All people openly present the facts as they are to create necessary trust.

Events – Five types of meetings: backlog refinement, sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective

Product backlog refining – A planning meeting to understand, slice, and estimate the time to create each user story to ensure each meets the definition of ready.

Sprint planning – A planning meeting to plan the work outputs and methods for the upcoming sprint.

Daily stand-up – A 15-minute meeting for each team member to share what they did yesterday, what they plan today, and what may get in the way

Sprint review – A demonstration meeting when the team shows product created and PO determines if it meets definition of done

Sprint retrospective – Review meeting in which the team and scrum master reflect on what worked well, what did not, and plan to improve people, process, and product.

CH7

Plan scope management – the process of developing a plan that includes the total scope of what needs to be done and what is excluded from the project, implementation, and validation of the scope, and control deviations from the scope statement.

Requirement – a condition or capability needed by the client or a user to solve a problem or achieve an objective that satisfies a standard, a specification, or any other formally documented need.

Collect requirements – a systematic effort to understand and analyze stakeholder needs to define and document these requirements.

Define scope – the process of translating stakeholder needs and requirements into detailed specifications of the project outcomes and products.

Scope description – This description briefly states the work that needs to be accomplished to create the project deliverables.

WBS – It is, or should be, a uniform, consistent, and logical method for dividing the project into small, manageable components for planning, estimating, and monitoring.

Define activity – a project-planning process that identifies and determines specific actions to develop and deliver the project outcomes, such as products, services, or results.

Work package – lowest level deliverable.

WBS component – a work element that is part of the WBS at any level.

WBS dictionary – a document that provides detailed information about each work package by providing details about the associated deliverable, activity, scheduling information, predecessor, successor, person responsible for it, resources required, and associated risks.

Rolling wave planning – a planning technique of identifying and defining the work to be completely accomplished in the near term and planning the future work at a higher level.

Decomposition – to break them into smaller deliverables or components.

Baseline – the approved project plan mainly consisting of scope, schedule, and cost.

Change control system – formalized decision-making system to receive and review change proposals and accept or reject them after evaluating their impact on project scope, cost, and schedule.

Change request – a formal written request or a formal proposal to recommend changes to any project planning component such as a document, project deliverable, or baseline (scope, cost, and time).

Progressive elaboration – First defining simply, then adding detail as needed.

Simplicity – Do what is needed and no more, take small simple steps, use the sheerest possible design to meet today’s requirement.

Extra features – Extras not used by the customer add cost and failure possibility.

Extra processes – Steps such as extra documentation or planning that add no value

Savage summary – The briefest description of an idea or tool to help people understand it.

Story map – Visual with product features on top and supporting detail below.

Release backlog – The work that is planned to be completed in the current release.

Sprint backlog – The work that is committed to be completed in the current sprint.

MoSCoW – Prioritization technique of must, should, could, and will not have.

Personas – Fictional username and description of expected user of deliverables.

Pivot – Changing direction on next sprint based upon customer desires.

CH8

Activity – a unique and dis-tinct part of work with a duration greater than zero time period, which is scheduled to be performed during the course of a project

Plan schedule management – arranging how to develop, manage, execute, and control the project schedule.

Define activities – A project planning process that identifies and determines specific actions to develop and deliver the project outcomes, such as products, services, or results.

Sequence activities – a project planning process that identifies and determines specific actions to develop and deliver the project outcomes, such as products, services, or results.

Estimate activity durations – the process of estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual schedule activities

Develop schedule – the process of analyzing schedule activity sequences, schedule activity durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule

Control schedule – the process of monitoring and regulating changes to the project schedule.

Critical path method (CPM) – A method used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of schedule flexibility on the network paths within the schedule model.

Precedence diagramming method (PDM) – represents scheduled activities with nodes and connects each activity to one or more other activities with logical relationships or sequences of performance from left to right

Predecessor activity – an initial activity or an activity that comes before another

Successor activity – the activity that follows another

Mandatory dependency – a logical relationship between activities that must happen —usually due to a physical or legal demand

Discretionary dependency – a logical relationship between activities that is considered desirable, usually based upon experience or best practice

Finish-to-start (FS) – a logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished.

Lead – a modification of a logical relationship that allows an acceleration of the successor activity.

Lag – a modification of a logical relationship that imposes a delay of the successor activity.

Finish-to-finish (FF) – the logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has finished

Start-to-start (SS) – a logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started.

Estimating activity durations – the process of approximating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources

Duration – the total number of work periods (not including holidays or other non-work periods) required to complete an activity or project, expressed in hours, days, or weeks.

Critical path – the longest sequence of activities from the project start date to the finish date

Forward pass – a critical path method technique for calculating the early start and early finish dates by working forward through the schedule model from the project start date or a given point of time.

Early start date (ES) – the earliest possible point in time when the sched-ule activity can begin based on critical method (CPM) forward pass of schedule model logic

Early finish date (EF) – the earliest possible point in time when the uncompleted portion of the schedule activity can be completed given the assigned resources.

Late start date (LS) – the latest possible point in time when the schedule activity can begin without violating schedule constraint or delaying the project end date.

Late finish date (LF) – the latest possible point in time when the schedule activity can be completed without violating schedule constraint or delaying the project end date.

Backward pass – a critical path technique for calculating the late start and late finish dates by working backward through the schedule model from the project end date.

Total float – the amount of time a schedule activity can be delayed from its early start date without delaying the project end date or violating a schedule constraint

Free float – the amount of time a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any successor or violating a schedule constraint

Monte Carlo simulation – a computerized mathematical technique that allows people to account for risk in quantitative analysis and decision making.

Gantt chart – a horizontal bar chart that shows each work activity on a separate line with the bar placed from the early start date to the early finish date from left to right for each activity on a timescale

Story point – an estimate by team of complexity and size of specific work in story form

Planning poker – Method for team to size-specific stories quickly and relatively

Right-sized – Ensuring stories are small, understood, and testable

Definition of ready – Agreement that team understands a story enough to bring into a sprint

Risk-based spike – short time-boxed work to address a specific risk

Kanban boards – Visible information register that communicates work status as to do, in progress, or done

Task card – Sticky note or index card showing work item name and other info

3C Process – Task card with conversations and confirmation of understanding

Project calendar – It refers to what you think of as a normal calendar: the working and non-working dates for a project, including holidays.

Resource calendar – It pertains to the resources of a project—that is, the people, equipment, space, or materials used in a project.

Velocity - The forecasted number of story points a team can do in one iteration

CH9 – Not on test

CH10

Plan cost management – the process to determine how to plan, estimate, and control project costs

Cost management plan – includes forecasting and refining cost estimates of all the project activities throughout the duration of the project

Estimate cost – the process of developing an approximate and best guess of the monetary value of resources needed to complete all project activities

Fixed costs – Costs that remain the same regardless of the size or volume of work.

Variable costs – Costs that vary directly with the volume of use.

Direct costs – Costs that only occur because of the project and are often classified as direct labor or other direct costs.

Indirect costs – Costs that are necessary to keep the organization running but are not associated with any one specific project.

Recurring costs – Costs that repeat as the project work continues, such as the cost of writing code or laying bricks.

Nonrecurring costs – Costs that happen only once during a project, such as developing a design that, once approved, guides the project team.

Regular costs – Preferred costs and occur when progress can be made by normal work hours and purchasing agreements.

Expedited costs – Costs that occur when the project must be conducted faster than normal, so overtime for workers and/or extra charges for rapid delivery from suppliers are necessary.

Estimate – a quantified assessment of the likely amount.... It should always include an indication of accuracy

Reserve – extra money in the project budget to be used if necessary— usually if a risk event occurs

Management reserve – money assigned to the project for unknown possible costs, which is controlled by senior management

Contingency reserve – money assigned to the project and allocated for identified risks for which contingent responses are developed

Order of magnitude estimates – Estimates that are often used to seek initial charter approval and are often created during the project initiation stage when very little information is available about the project.

Analogous estimating – a technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or project using historical data from a similar activity or project

Parametric estimating – an estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters

Bottom-up estimating – a simplified mathematical description of a system or process (used to assist calculations and predictions) that is prepared by starting at the lower, more detailed-level pieces of work; these estimates are then aggregated into total quantity for the component work

Value engineering – a formal and structured approach to reducing cost without decreasing the quality or performance

Life cycle costing – Another concept project manager needs to understand when estimating their project costs. The life cycle cost is the total cost in which life cycle denotes the life of the product or deliverable of the project.

Determine budget – the process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline

Cost baseline – that part of the project baseline that handles the amount of money the project is predicted to cost and on the other side when that money will be spent. It is an approved budget usually in a time distribution format used to estimate, monitor, and control the overall cost performance of the project

Control cost – the process of monitoring the project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline

Shift left – Perform as much testing and risk reduction early to gain feedback as soon as possible so needed changes can be started quickly

Spike – Short, time-boxed effort to test the concept or reduce risk

CH11

Plan risk management – describes how the risk management processes are implemented and how they fit with other project management processes

Performing organization – an enterprise whose employees have direct involvement in executing and completing the project

Project risk – anything that may impact the project team’s ability to achieve the general project success measures and the specific project stakeholders’ priorities—together, referred to as project objectives

Threats – risks that would adversely impact one or more project objectives

Opportunity – any uncertainty that has a positive impact on one or more project objectives

Risk management plan – escribes how risks are identified, prioritized, and monitored for changing priorities, and how prioritized risk management activities will be planned and performed

Risk breakdown structure – a hierarchical organization of risks based on categories such as operational, strategic, finance, external, and project management

SWOT analysis – a detailed analysis of the project's and project management's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

Delphi technique – an information-gathering technique used as a way to reach a consensus among experts on a subject, with the experts participating anonymously to avoid groupthink and prejudice

Root cause analysis – an analytical technique to ascertain the fundamental or causal reason or reasons that affect one or more variances, defects, or risks

Trigger condition – a situation that has been identified in advance that prompts us to invoke a risk strategy or risk action

Risk register – a repository in which outputs of risk management processes are recorded.

Perform qualitative risk analysis – evaluates the importance of each risk to categorize and then prioritize risks to develop further actions

Decision tree analysis – a graphic tool depicting alternative choices as branches, multiple options for each alternative, and evaluating potential outcomes in terms of uncertainty and monetary value. Potential outcomes are often determined using the expected monetary value (EMV) method

Expected monetary value (EMV) analysis – a statistical technique to calculate the present value of future outcomes to choose the best alternative. It is generally used for engineering economics and cost-benefit analysis

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) – Failure mode means the ways, or modes, in which something might fail. Failures are any errors or defects, which can be potential or actual. Effects analysis refers to studying the consequences of those failures. FMEA documents current knowledge and actions about the risks of failures and can be used for continuous improvement

Sensitivity analysis – a quantitative what-if risk analysis technique that presents comparative analyses of various desirable outcomes with respect to a financial measure or uncertainty. It can be used to determine which risks have the most impact on the project outcomes or goals.

Tornado diagram – a special type of bar chart and data where project goals are listed vertically and risk uncertainties are depicted horizontally as probability

Simulation – a technique that mimics real situations using uncertainties and assessing their impact on project objectives. In the context of projects, the Monte Carlo simulation tool is used to develop probability distribution of risks and their impact on project goals such as cost and time

Plan risk – a process determines effective response actions that are appropriate for prioritized individual risks and for the overall risk of a project

Continuously identified – Specific effort to use feedback and engage team to identify risks

Premortum – Brainstorming description of what could go wrong

Assume variability – Preserve options to provide flexibility because of unknowns

Handoffs - Whenever work is turned over some tacit knowledge is lost

 BADM ETEXT NOTES (Fixed Version)

CH1

Core Objectives

Define a project and project management in your own words, using characteristics that are common to most projects.

A project is a series of operations conducted within a specific and limited period with a clearly defined objective. Characteristics that are common to most projects include:

• Goal Identification

• Resource assessment (Money, Time, Personnel, etc.)

• Strategic direction

• Risk assessment

• Key Performance Indicator identification

• Execution phase

Describe major activities and deliverables at each project life cycle stage.

• SELECTING AND INITIATING – Idea created, project selected, and planned at a high level. Ends when participants commit to it.

• PLANNING – Starts after commitment, includes planning, and ends when the plan is accepted.

• EXECUTING – Starts when the plan (or enough of it to be functional) is accepted. This step includes authorizing, executing, monitoring, and controlling the project.

• CLOSING & REALIZING – All activities after the project is accepted by the customer.

List and define the twelve principles and eight performance domains of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK 7e).

Principles

1. Stewardship - Be a diligent, respectful, and caring steward displaying integrity, care, trustworthiness, and compliance.

2. Stakeholders - Create a collaborative project team environment through team agreements, organizational structures, processes, authority, accountability, and responsibility.

3. Interactions - Engage effectively with stakeholders using proactive, two-way communication to improve project results and satisfaction.

4. Tailor - Focus on value as understood by a successful outcome, solution to a need, or business case satisfaction.

5. Complexity - Recognize, evaluate, and respond to system interactions holistically and dynamically.

6. Adaptability - Demonstrate leadership behaviors by creating a desired environment and leading with vision.

7. Team - Tailor the delivery approach based on context, using just enough process and adapting to stakeholders and objectives.

8. Value - Build quality into processes and deliverables, maximizing probability of success with minimal waste.

9. Leadership - Navigate complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty with strong leadership and adaptable strategies.

10. Quality - Optimize risk responses to maintain project quality and effectiveness.

11. Risk - Embrace adaptability and resiliency to mitigate risks and exploit opportunities.

12. Change - Enable change to achieve the envisioned future state by continuously engaging stakeholders and evaluating benefits.

Domains

1. Stakeholder - Actively engage stakeholders to ensure alignment with project objectives.

2. Team - Promote shared ownership and high performance.

3. Approach - Determine the appropriate level of centralized vs. distributed management.

4. Planning - Utilize iterative, incremental, or predictive approaches for planning and adaptability.

5. Work - Manage stakeholder engagement, resources, procurement, and process improvements.

6. Delivery - Ensure projects contribute to business objectives and deliver stakeholder-accepted outcomes.

7. Measurement - Use key performance indicators and data-driven decision-making.

8. Uncertainty - Proactively identify and manage risks, ambiguity, and complexity.

Delineate measures of project success and failure, and reasons for both.

Success Measures:

• Deliverables meet all agreed-upon features and specifications.

• Project satisfies customer expectations and usability requirements.

• Completed on schedule and within budget.

• Enhances staff well-being and organizational knowledge.

• Aligns with operational objectives.

Common Causes of Failure:

• Incomplete or unclear requirements

• Inadequate user involvement

• Insufficient resources

• Unrealistic timelines

• Lack of executive support

• Changing requirements

• Inadequate planning

CH2

Strategic Planning and Portfolio Management

Explain the strategic planning and portfolio management processes.

• Strategic Analysis – Evaluate internal and external environments to assess organizational capabilities (SWOT analysis).

• Guiding Principles (Mission & Vision) – Leadership establishes guiding principles:

  • Vision: A one-sentence statement describing the inspirational long-term objective.

  • Mission: A brief description of what the organization does, why, and how.

• Strategic Objectives – Short- and long-term desired effects.

• Flow-down Objectives – Break high-level goals into actionable components.

• Portfolio Alignment – Select, prioritize, and fund projects to maximize organizational benefits.

Compare strengths and weaknesses of financial and scoring models for project selection.

Financial Models

• Pros: Data-driven, objective, easy comparison.

• Cons: Short-term focus, financial-only perspective, reliance on estimates.

Scoring Models

• Pros: Holistic, adaptable, considers multiple factors.

• Cons: Subjective criteria, complex, difficult to compare across projects.

Example: If an organization prioritizes eco-conscious efforts, it would choose an environmentally sustainable real estate project over a standard high-rise development.

CH3

Project Charter

Describe a project charter and its critical role in project success.

A project charter is a ~1-4 page informal contract between the project team and the sponsor (senior management and possibly external customers). It serves as:

• Authorization for the project manager to proceed.

• A document ensuring alignment of participant mindsets.

• A tool to screen out unsuitable projects quickly.

CH4

Organizational Structures for Projects

Compare and contrast different organizational structures.

Agile Concepts

Agile Charter Vocabulary

• Product Vision – A description of what would satisfy the customer.

• Timebox – A defined time period (days/weeks/months) to complete a set of tasks.

• Sprint/Iteration – A short time period where teams commit to specific deliverables.

• Defer Decisions – Making decisions as late as possible for better preparation.

• Sustainable Pace – A work speed that prevents burnout or errors.

• Commit to Work – The team’s agreement on achievable workload per timebox.

• Definition of Done – An agreed-upon evaluation criterion for completion.

CH8

Project Scheduling

Critical Path Method (CPM)

• Critical Path: Any delayed task in this sequence will delay the project.

• Non-Critical Paths: May still be essential but offer scheduling flexibility.

Project Cost Management

Estimating Costs

Cost Types:

• Fixed vs. Variable: Fixed = stays the same; Variable = changes with scale.

• Direct vs. Indirect: Direct = project-specific; Indirect = organization-wide.

• Recurring vs. Non-Recurring: Recurring = continuous (e.g., software updates); Non-recurring = one-time (e.g., initial development).

• Regular vs. Expedited Costs: Regular = standard rate; Expedited = premium for faster delivery.

Order of Magnitude Estimates

• Early estimates with little information, accuracy range ±100%.

• Used for project initiation approvals.

(Clarification: EA vs. CDPR was shorthand for Electronic Arts vs. CD Projekt Red, referencing business models for recurring vs. non-recurring costs.)

End of Fixed Notes