Day 5 PMP

Introduction

  • Day 5 of the PMP boot camp.

  • Carl Moens and Dave are available to answer questions.

  • The day's focus includes:

    • People aspects of managing projects.

    • Monitoring and controlling projects.

    • Dealing with impediments, obstacles, and barriers.

    • Professionally closing a project.

    • Recommended next steps and test-taking tips.

Logistics and Communication

  • Breaks will be taken around the top of each hour.

  • A longer one-hour break is scheduled for 1:30 PM eastern time.

  • Two communication channels are available:

    • Chat (optional).

    • Q&A (for curriculum-related questions).

Engagement and Future Boot Camps

  • Attendees should minimize missed time (no more than 15 minutes).

  • Future five-day boot camps are scheduled.

  • Details and registration are available at a specific URL.

Presentation Replays

  • Replays of all presentations will be available.

  • Processing time is 24-48 hours.

  • Access via a specified URL.

  • Workbook access requires a password.

  • Video hyperlinks within the workbook require another password (provided in the tab).

  • Videos are available for one year.

PMP Exam Updates

  • The PMP exam was last updated in 2021.

  • Anticipate a new version in 2025.

  • PMI usually provides a three-month warning before changes.

  • New versions typically include additional content, potentially on business analyst frameworks.

Certificate of Completion

  • Certificate of completion will auto-generate for Precipio users with uninterrupted engagement.

  • Others (Precipio users with issues/non-Precipio users) need to submit an attendance tracker following provided video instructions.

Schedule Estimating: Question and Answer

  • Durations are estimated during data gathering sessions and planning meetings.

  • Estimations are sought from those closest to the work.

  • Estimation bases (parametric, PERT, analogous) are documented.

Exam Presentation of Duration

  • Estimating approach identification (PERT, simple average, bottoms-up, analogous).

  • President's diagram with durations (for critical path identification).

  • No forward/backward pass calculations are required on the exam.

Review of Risk Management

  • Risk identification meetings utilize a risk prompt (based on the risk breakdown structure).

  • Risk probability and impact definitions establish a common understanding.

  • Identified risks are scored using a probability and impact matrix.

  • Risk scores enable prioritization.

Key Risk Terms

  • Risk Register: A repository of identified risks, their probability, impact, risk score, and potential triggers.

  • Risk Trigger: An indicator that a risk may develop.

  • Risks are not always negative; they can be opportunities.

Quality Management

  • Quality requires proactive investment (prevention costs) or reactive expenses (failure costs).

  • Proactive investments: testing, training, better equipment, inspections, samplings, experiments.

  • Expenses due to bad quality: scrap, rework, brand damage, liabilities, warranty work, harm.

Key Quality Concepts

  • Failing Safe: Having a fallback position that is still acceptable if the primary system breaks.

  • Failing Fast: Recognizing when an approach isn't working and being ready to adapt and adjust.

Emotional Intelligence

  • Emotional intelligence is crucial for project managers; further study is encouraged.

  • EQ (emotional quotient) is related to emotional intelligence.

Conflict Management

  • Conflict is inevitable in projects and needs to be addressed.

  • Healthy conflict can be beneficial when managed correctly.

Conflict Management Approaches

  • Predictive/Hybrid: The project manager monitors and facilitates resolution, team norms can dictate conflict resolution.

  • Agile: Self-organizing teams resolve conflicts themselves, with the team lead getting involved if needed.

Causes of Conflict

  • Common causes: scarce resources, scheduling priorities, personal work styles.

  • Conflict is a natural consequence of driving change.

Conflict Management Tools and Techniques

  • Team charter.

  • Focus on issues and behaviors, not individuals.

Levels of Conflict (Lee's Theory)

  • Level 1: Differences are identified and discussed (problem-oriented).

  • Level 2: Personalities and issues mix (problems become personal).

  • Level 3: Contest emerges (win-lose dynamic, distorted communication).

  • Level 4: Participants seek to hurt opponents (attacks).

  • Level 5: Participants seek to destroy others (war).

  • Intervention is required by level 4.

Strategies to De-escalate Situations

  • Cultivate emotional intelligence and empathy.

  • Use decision-making tools and techniques.

  • Practice active listening.

Conflict Resolution Approaches

  • Smooth and Accommodate: Find points of agreement, remain calm, listen without defensiveness.

  • Withdraw and Avoid: Call a break to de-escalate the situation.

  • Compromise and Reconcile: Facilitate dialogue to reach consensus and reconcile relationships.

  • Force and Direct: Escalate the decision to someone with authority as a last resort.

  • Collaborate and Problem Solve: Work together to search for optimal solutions (time-consuming).

Continuous Improvement

  • Kaizen: Continuous improvement methodology involving experimentation.

  • Other methods: Lean Six Sigma, Crystal methods, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).

Continuous Improvement Implementation

  • Incorporate a process improvement plan in project management.

  • Address quality improvement in the risk register and quality management plan.

  • Evaluate the success and apply changes.

Agile Retrospectives

  • Retrospectives are held at the end of every sprint or iteration to improve the way of work.

  • Retrospectives can also be used in plan-based projects at the end of each phase.

  • AB testing: Comparing two options based on outcomes.

  • Pareto chart: A histogram that ranks causes in a hierarchical format (descending order) to communicate that 80% of the results are attributable to 20% of the drivers.

Supporting Team Performance

  • Communicate project objectives to keep the team focused.

  • Negotiate budget authority.

  • Negotiate the thresholds for schedule and tolerances.

  • Key tasks that cannot be delegated by the project manager.

Monitoring and Controlling

  • Project manager's role is to monitor conditions and intervene when necessary.

  • Centralized Model: Assumes it is the accountability of the project manager.

Threshold and Tolerance for Decision-Making

  • The project manager needs to have a level of tolerance when making important business decisions.

  • Encourage a fail fast mindset.

  • Key study slide is what are your accountabilities as the project manager.

Communication

  • Essential for success: Create and monitor a master communication plan.

  • Get feedback and tailor approach as necessary.

Feedback Provision:

  • Give real-time feedback.

  • Praise in public, coach privately.

Transparency and Task Tracking Boards

  • Use Kanban boards (to do, doing, done).

  • Transparency leads to accountability, motivation, and performance.

Artifacts

  • Keep the RACI matrix up-to-date.

  • Responsibility Assignment Matrix

Knowledge Management

  • Explicit knowledge: Documented information.

  • Tacit knowledge: Experience-based knowledge that must be shared.

Sharing Tacit Knowledge

  • Mentoring, job shadowing, and coaching arrangements.

  • Community of Practice: An informal grouping coming together to share tacit knowledge.

Team Motivation and Alignment

  • Avoid forcing team building.

  • Bring new team members up to speed and help them add value.

  • Navigate disruptions and conflict constructively.

  • Secure and protect data through access protocols.

Evaluating Project Progress: A Comprehensive Overview

  • Focus on continuous improvement and staying on track.

  • Examine progress across scope, schedule, budget, resources, quality, and risk.

Scope Evaluation

  • Traditional: Compare against the scope baseline (scope statement, WBS, WBS dictionaries).

  • Adaptive: Ensure requirements/user stories meet the definition of done based on client feedback.

Tools for Scope Validation

  • Iterative reviews and demonstrations.

  • Definition of ready/done.

Schedule

  • Tracking Performance for Deliverables

  • Quality of deliverables

  • Variance analysis.

Schedule Management Tools

  • Fast Tracking.
    Crashing.

  • Smoothing.
    Leveling.

Visualizing Status.

  • Burn down and burn up charts.
    Kanban Task Boards. Information Radiators

Burn Down Charts

  • Adaptive agile.
    Per Iteration.

  • Takes all the user story points

  • Burndown charts are for iterations. You divide total points by working days. Red line is target, blue is reality.

Burn-Up Charts

  • For Releases.
    Iteration based.

  • Accumulated the total of user story points over time iteration by iteration.

Task Boards

  • Kanban

  • Divided into at least three boards

    • what is pending to be done.

    • what’s being done.

    • what has been done.

Velocity

  • Average number of user story points by a team each iteration.

  • PM office performance of two project teams.

  • PMO cannot compare how much value is being delivered by comparing velocities of two teams.

Cumulative Flow Diagram

  • Time vs volume. How long it takes from when they are started to when the tasks are finished.

  • Lead time: cycle time plus the period before start.

  • Work in Progress: The amount that is being run through the system.

Budget Evaluation

  • Addresses Earned Value Management formulas.

  • PV: Planned value

  • EV: Earned value

  • AC: Actual cost

Key Acronym Formulas.

  • Schedule variance: Earned Value - Plain Value.

  • Schedule Permformance Index: Earned Value / Plan Value , where higher % means greater. >1 is good

  • Cost Variance: Earned Value - Actual Cost.

  • Cost Performance Index: Earned Value / Actual Cost. >1 is good

Resource Management Evaluation

  • Vendor oversight, reports, communication and invoicing.

Contracts.

  • Contracts often come into you, you authorize, they are sent to a sponsor with signature. Get done expediously.
    Make sure vendors are fully and well taken care of.

Contract Management.

  • You should only give authorized work structure code, not your code in full.

  • Code of accounts is a money pool. Your code of accounts is how you've taken your total budget.

  • Change is coming! Vendors need to understand the change request process.

  • You CAN be responsive to change better with an agile process.

Conflict

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