PMP Tips & Tricks

Success
BEN HAMOUDA CONSULTING
by Ahmed Ben Hamouda

PMP® SCT® SAFe®

 PMI Mindset
Manage projects according to PMI’s best practices

Follow the processes that PMI describes

Use the recommended tools and templates

The practice questions help you understand better the PMI mindset

Some questions can be answered based on your experience

Most questions are best to be answered according to what we learn in the training
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 PMI Mindset Points
●Project Manager must have Business Acumen skills and understand that projects
are part of the company's strategy and success.
●Transition to Hybrid/Agile is welcomed and the Project Manager facilitates/leads
that without backing-off.
●Project Manager takes full responsibility of the project, except in case of
functional/weak matrix organization or situation exceeds their authority.
●Project Management is an art and a function, and the Project Manager must
choose and tailor the approach that fits best the project and the interests of the
initiators.
●It is recommended that the Project Manager learns different tools and techniques
to be used in each step/process/phase/etc as part of the Ways of Working.

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 PMI Mindset Points
●Use of documentation depends on the project management approach but no
project without documentation.
●Meetings are an important part of any project and they serve for different
purposes.
●Project Manager must apply the right skills and solutions in order to responsibly
solve every situation in the project within the approved budget and costs.
●The Project Manager must be capable of managing the project with the allocated
resources.
●The Project Manager must avoid any situation that might indicate a conflict of
interest or a wrong-doing.

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 PMI Mindset Points
●Project Manager must always assess/evaluate/review/analyse when an
event/situation occurs or whether the process is being applied correctly.
●Creating and delivering value is a must and any gaps must be treated and causes
must be eliminated or fixed.
●Compliance with Regulations, OPA, PMO Guidance and approvals structure is a
must.
●Contracts and agreements must be respected and fulfilled by all parties.
●Success factors and acceptance criterias must be set from start of
project/requirements so PM/Team can deliver correctly quality-wise and
successfully.

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 PMI Mindset Points
●The Project Manager must be capable of predicting and foreseeing various
scenarios with the help and the expertise of the team and the stakeholders.
●When plans are finalized, they must be baselined and respected to the maximum.
●If unsure about the efficiency of a solution/step, it is recommended that the
Project Manager performs a benefit/cost analysis.
●Project Manager must engage stakeholders throughout the project, understand
and respond to their needs and use proper communication channels with them.
●It is very important to manage changes effectively through the right
steps/processes depending on the project management approach.

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 PMI Mindset Points
●All disagreements/conflicts must be treated with seriousness, in good intention and
with a win-win mindset through confrontation.
●Leadership is situational and it is part of the Power Skills that the Project Manager
is equipped with to deal with people of different personalities and backgrounds.
●The Project Manager cannot succeed alone and must form their own collaborative,
cross-functional and well-organized team according to the chosen approach.
●Work can be performed onsite or remotely and technological tools are available to
support this.
●Team development is essential for the project success and all team members can
succeed in their work with the help, mentoring and guidance of the Project
Manager.

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 PMI Mindset Points
●It is recommended to plan the work and deliveries in a way to find out early if
objectives are being achieved.
●Information sharing and transparency is important to help everyone involved know
and assess where the project stands.
●Project Manager must be capable of knowing the project performance at any
moment and take any necessary preventive/corrective action.
●Audits must take place during and after the project to ensure adherence to
processes, guidelines and rules.
●Project closure activities must be administratively correct.

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 Business Environment Tips & Tricks

● Code of ethics : Honesty, Respect, Fairness, Responsibility.

● Key skills : Business acumen, Ways of working, Power skills
● The project must deliver Business Value .
● Business Value can be: Financial Gain, New Customers,
Social Benefit, First to market, Improvement, Regularization
● Project Management plan (waterfall) explains how the
project will be managed, and so do “all knowledge areas'
plans” .
● Baselines (Scope , Schedule , Cost ) are approved plans and
are used for measuring performance.

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● The Project is temporary and unique , operations are
ongoing and repetitive .
● PMO regulates project management and can be:

PMO

Supportive Controlling Directive

(Low Control) (Moderate) (High Control)

Organizations

Matrix Projectized
Functional
(weak/balanced/strong) (PM with 100% power)

In Functional/Weak matrix In Strong matrix /Projectized

Functional Manager decides PM leads and decides.

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● OPA are company's internal processes, guidelines and
lessons learned.
● EEF are conditions surrounding the company.
● Iron triangle constraints : Scope , Cost , Schedule .
● Project success criteria must be defined at project start .
Projects must align with company strategy, meet
constraints and create/Deliver value.
● Product Life Cycle > Project Life Cycle .
● Project < Program < Portfolio .
● Business Case = Study Phase (before project ). Justifies
the existence of the project.
● PM is not necessarily involved in project study phase, but
must consult business case if at start of project
stakeholders are not aligned on the objectives and
deliverables. Projects should never harm the company. 11
● Projects must sustain Planet , People , Profit .
● SWOT : SW (internal factors ) and OT (are +/- risks ).
● Use SWOT if the company considers a new technology
project.
● In case of transition project, assess company
culture/change acceptance.
● Use Cost-Benefit analysis to convince stakeholders of
solution.
● Project with highest IRR is most beneficial . Other
formulas: ROI.
● NPV calculates value of future incomes in present .
Negative NPV is bad.
● Payback period: how much time to break-even the
invested amount .
● Time2Market: how much time until delivering into market.
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 Project Stakeholders Tips & Tricks
● A Stakeholder is anyone who is interested/involved in the
project, can influence the project work, might be impacted by
the project results.
● Stakeholder can be Supportive , Resistant , Neutral .
● Stakeholders must be involved throughout the project to
capture all their requirements and expectations/acceptance
criterias and to be able to deliver to them project work correctly.
● The Sponsor assigns the PM, provides him/her with authority,
supports the team and is the first escalation point in case the
matter is beyond PM power/authority.
● The sponsor is part of the SteeCo. The customer is a key
stakeholder .
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● All data about stakeholders are recorded in Stakeholders
Register .
● CCB reviews and approves/rejects changes in Waterfall .
● In case of disagreement with a stakeholder , review the gap
between deliverables and acceptance criteria and/or analyze
root cause --> Take action and inform the stakeholder.
● NPS and mood chart for measuring stakeholder satisfaction.
● Direct communication with stakeholders is encouraged.
● When stakeholder is not committed or skips meetings, review
the stakeholder engagement plan.
● In case of missing information , review the communications
management plan.
● PM engages stakeholders based on their power/interest
levels , and can use the stakeholder engagement matrix for
monitoring.
● Key stakeholders are managed closely. 14
 Project Team Tips & Tricks
● Terminology
Waterfall Agile

Project Team → Development Team

● The Team can be Functional (divided per speciality like in operations) or

Cross-functional in a project.
● Remote/Virtual team is the new normal. PM and team use various online
collaboration tools including video-conferencing, meeting recording, digital
information sharing, etc.
● The PM uses various skills assessment techniques to hire people with the
right skills.
● PM ensures team development and improvement of their skills through
training , mentoring and coaching , especially if a member has a poor
performance. 15
● People have different personalities (refer to MBTI test) and
cultural background and PM helps them to improve
collaboration through Team-building activities.
● Empowering team members is important=> to
participate in decision-making and taking ownership of
actions helps to improve team productivity to realize more
effective and efficient results.

● Resource Management plan includes tools and techniques

to manage resources (human and non-human ).
● Leadership is situational. Servant Leadership is preferred.
It's about coaching, mentoring and removing impediments.
● If Team is confused => Review with them project goals ,
roles and responsibilities . 16
● RACI :

Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed

with
(does the task) (asked about
outcome/Results)

● Differentiate between Theory X, Y (related to leadership), Z, Expectancy

(related to motivation).
● Herzberg's intrinsic motivators and extrinsic hygiene factors .
● Tuckman Team Development stages : forming , storming , norming ,
performing , adjourning.
● Team-building is used in Storming.
● Team charter is built together with the team during the norming phase
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and it contains Ground Rules.
● Emotional intelligence is about understanding others and
sympathizing with them.
● Communication Management Plan contains which
information to share with whom in which format and when
(frequency).
● Avoid answers with adding resources (leads to extra cost).
● In case of issue, discussing it with the team can be favoured.
● In case of Conflict , first find root cause and use face to face
communication . Discussion in private is better than in front
of others.
● Conflict Management :
➢ Confronting/problem solving (win/win).
➢ Collaborating through PM/team (win/win).
➢ Compromising/reconciling (lose/lose), but we keep the relationship.
➢ Accommodating/smoothing (yield/lose).
➢ Forcing/directing (win/lose). 18
➢ Withdrawal/avoiding (lose/leave), end of relationship.
Most Common:
● Leaderships Styles
Situational : employs the appropriate type of leaderships depending on
situation.
Servant : providing well-being, mentoring, coaching, removing impediments.
Democratic : taking decision jointly.
Transformational : empowering others.
Laissez-faire : team take decisions.
Transactional : uses reward and sanction.
Charismatic : inspires and uses storytelling.
Authentic : transparent with info and data.
Autocratic : decides alone.
Interactional : mix between Charismatic, Transactional and Transformational.

● Power Types
Legitimate, Reward, Punish, Referent, Expert, Situational.

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 Waterfall
Tips & Tricks
● Project charter is based on the business case and is first official document in
the project and authorizes its existence.
● Scope Management Plan is part of the Project Management Plan and it
contains description of which tools & techniques will be used for manage the
scope.
● The scope baseline is the approved version of a Scope Statement + WBS +
WBS Dictionary .
● WBS helps the project team visualize the project work and organize the project
scope. It is deliverables oriented.
● Scope control : the team verifies if deliverables are aligned with the
requirements.
● Scope validation : the customer approves the deliverables.
● PM should not accept any requirements without their acceptance criteria to
avoid any conflicts with stakeholders.
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● A good deliverable is both fit for use and fit for purpose.
● Key stakeholders should be involved in every phase of the
project to keep them engaged and ensure their acceptance of the
deliverables.
● Lead and Lag are in Planning phase .
● Resource leveling for over-allocated resources (expanding
schedule) # Resource smoothing uses slack .
● The critical path is the minimum duration required to complete
the project. All activities on the CP are important and without
float .
● Float for prolonging activity and slack for delaying its start.
● Schedule crashing through adding resources (increases cost )
# Fast-tracking (increases risk ) are schedule compression
techniques during controlling phase and require change
request .
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● When behind schedule, always check fast-tracking first. Avoid
● Integrated Change Control Process
1. Change is raised (when deviating from baselines/new requirements/not meeting
acceptance criteria).
2. PM creates change request with impact assessment/analysis.
3. PM logs change into change log
4. PM submits CR to CCB
5. CCB review and decide (defer/reject/approve)
6. PM updates change log with decision/explanation and informs stakeholders.
7. In case of approval, PM updates baselines and change is implemented.
8. Monitor results.

● Always evaluate before taking a decision/action. Involve the team.

● Always raise change request after checking situation with
team/sponsor.
● Scope creep is the uncontrolled expansion of scope.
● Murder-board decides if project should continue after each phase/kill point.

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 Agile & Hybrid
Tips & Tricks
● Scope
Waterfall Agile

Fixed Flexible

● Delivery cadence/release is defined by the PM/PO with

consultation with the team , and taking customer contract
into consideration.
● Agile values are: Collaborative team , Incremental Product ,
Customer involvement , Welcoming changes .
● Customer involvement is a source of feedback and reduces
disagreements about deliverables.
● Transition to Agile is encouraged and no backing off of it.
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In Agile:
● Iterations are a form of Progressive elaboration .
● Agile methodologies (and sometimes in Waterfall) use a form of
rolling wave planning through their iterative cycle (Sprints ).
Iterative Approach Incremental Approach
goals is to refine product Goal is Time2Market

Scope not defined Scope defined

Many changes Minimum changes
Using Experimentation Completed increments
Welcoming feedback to improve Early ROI
Delivery at the end Delivery possible after each
iteration .
● Full Agile Approach : mix between iterative and incremental.
● Lean is about continuous improvement of existing processes.
● KanBan is a flow/pull-based approach with limiting WIP .
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In SCRUM:
● Scrum values transparency in information.
Product Owner Voice of the customer Prioritizes the value to be
delivered and refines the project
backlog.

Scrum Facilitator , Coach and Removes impediments and

Master/Project Servant Leader resolves conflicts.
Manager

Team Self-organized and Plan and estimate their work,

Cross-functional manage the sprint backlog.
● No using e-mails between SM/PO/Team, use direct communication.
● User stories US are estimated in Story Points .
● Acceptance criteria AC is part of the Definition of Done .
● US and AC are part of the product backlog which is maintained by the PO.
● Tasks are part of the sprint backlog which is maintained by the team .
● They are both part of artifacts including increments , scrum-board and
impediment log .
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 In SCRUM:
● MVP Vs MMP

MVP MMP

is for getting feedback

and minimizing the is for speeding T2M
risk
● In the sprint: first day is Planning , last day is Review (demo)
and Retrospective (improving ways of working). Every day there
is a 15 minute status update and impediments meeting.
● No other/urgent meetings are allowed between SM/PO/Team.
● Blocking issues are reviewed during the stand-up meeting .
Identify their root cause then decide action.
● No changes are allowed in the middle of the sprint. PO cancels
the sprint if it won’t deliver the expected results/value.
● DoR during Planning and DoD during Review. 26
 In SCRUM:
● Burn-down chart is for tracking remaining work in sprint by PM.
If the line of work completed is below line of plan, it is good.
● Burn-up chart is for monitoring scope in release/project by PO. If
the line of work completed is above line of plan, it is good.
● Stakeholders can attend the Review meeting.
● Scrum Master tries to re-energize the team during the
Retrospective meeting.
● Team tries to maintain consistent velocity across sprints .
● Partially finished work is not counted into velocity!
● Work ends if budget ends .
● Scrum of scrums is for projects with multiple teams and SM’s.
● Lead time (process E2E) and Cycle time (between process
steps). 27
 Hybrid:
● Hybrid is a mix between Agile and Waterfall.
● You know it is hybrid if it tells you explicitly or uses terms from
Waterfall and Agile at the same time.
● Always check in which part is the project currently (agile or
waterfall) and choose the answer from the respective practice.
● Tailoring happens during planning (and can be ongoing for
improvement)
=> It's about choosing the suitable processes/tools for the
project and according to OPA/PMO.

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 Planning Techniques
Tips & Tricks
● Collecting Requirements
Waterfall Agile

The acceptance criteria takes place mainly in Happens at any time during the
the planning phase . Any changes to the project.
scope that happen later during the project
must go through change process.

● Techniques
❏ Expert Opinion : senior members / specialists.
❏ Delphi : anonymous questionnaire to experts.
❏ Affinity: grouping related ideas.
❏ Nominal group : ranking grouped ideas.
❏ Brainstorming : gathering max ideas.
❏ Focus group : meeting facilitated by PM with stakeholders.
❏ Benchmarking : comparing between products.
❏ Voting : Unanimity (100% ), Majority (51%+ ), Plurality (most votes ),
Dictatorship (one decides ). 29
Estimation Techniques

❏ Preliminary Estimate (Rough Order of Magnitude): -25% /

+75%
❏ Conceptual Estimate (Budgetary): -10% / +25%
❏ Definitive Estimate: -5% / +10%
❏ Analogous Estimating (Top-down ): comparing with previous
project based on total duration and complete cost. Can be
single point or range .
❏ Bottom-Up Estimating : most accurate estimating technique.
❏ Parametric Estimating: multiplying through measurement units.
❏ Three-Point Estimating :
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Triangular PERT (P+M+O)/3 or BETA distribution
● In Agile , estimating is based on average velocity of previous
sprints.
● Wideband Delphi : Team members discuss estimations after
each round until convergence is achieved.
● Alternatives analysis: checking time & cost of various
options .
● Spike : additional research time.
● A sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred and
cannot be recovered. It is not relevant to future
decision-making.
● A predefined budget/schedule is a project constraint.

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 Performing Work
Tips & Tricks
● Gold Plating : adding unneeded quality. Customer won’t pay for.
● Customer Obsession : Responding to all customer requests .
● Multi-tasking : Starting many tasks without finishing them
according to plan. Can impact project schedule.
● Pareto: 20% of the time give 80% of the outcome.
● Parkinson's law : Dividing effort according to allotted time.
● Student Syndrome : Delaying start of task.
● Dropped Baton : One team member is late and this impacts
project timeline.
● Tacit Knowledge : Experience based and not easily transferred
or recorded.
● Explicit Knowledge : Codified and easily expressed.
● In case of Resource conflict on projects in functional/weak
matrix organization , first discuss with functional managers.
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● Compliance requirements are always prioritized .

● KanBan is an information sharing radiator. Can be exposed

in a central , visible place for easy access

● Meetings are important for:

➢ Sharing information
➢ Clarifying disagreements
➢ Finding root cause of issue
➢ Resolving conflicts .

● Status meeting in Waterfall only .

● Kickoff and SteeCo meetings in Waterfall and Agile .
● Lessons Learned are for recording how issues were solved
and can be source of info for future projects (ex. in case of
issue). 33
 Procurement Management
Tips & Tricks
● Procurement Management plan is part of Project
Management Plan in Waterfall and contains the approach,
processes, guidelines, tools and templates for managing
procurement.

● In bidder conference , the buyer answers the questions of the

sellers , clarifies any doubts and explains the bid terms and
[Link] RFP RFI
Request For Request For Request For
Quotation Proposal Information

● SoW: Statement of Work and it explains how the work will 34

be performed and all conditions.
● Process of selecting vendors :
Screening Weighting/Scoring Awarding

(Filtering) The contract to

According to evaluation
criteria vendor with
(qualitative/quantitative). highest score.

● Exit criteria are the conditions that must be met before a

contract/project can be considered complete.
● Procurement documents :

Letter of Memorandum Of Service Level

Intent Understanding Agreement Contract
(MOU) (SLA)

Memorandum Purchase Basic Ordering

of Agreement Order (PO) Agreement
(MOA) (BOA)
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● Inspection is a review of the seller’s delivery and/or performance.
● Statistical sampling is an inspection technique.

● Fixed Price Contract is used when scope is defined and changes

are not expected. The risk of cost increase on the seller's side .
Sub-types: FFP, FPIF, FPEPA (for long term contract due to inflation).
● Cost Reimbursable Contract is used when scope/requirements
are not well defined and the risk of cost increase is on the
buyer's side .
Sub-types: CPFF, CPAF, CPIF
● Time & Material Contract is hybrid and is used for hiring
freelancers, experts and consultants.
● In case of Team Performance issue , hiring an external resource is
not a favored solution .

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● A procurement audit is a formal review and examination of the
procurement processes, procedures, and activities within a
project or organization.
● Negotiation is important at awarding the contract and in case of
dispute/disagreement . Win-Win output is favored .
● In case of force majeure , management reserve is used.
● Dispute Resolution Steps :
(1) Direct Negotiation (ex. meeting vendor).

(2) Indirect Negotiation (ADR): using mediation / arbitration

(3) Litigation at court

● Closing the contract happens after all deliverables meet

requirements. It should be administratively correctly done.
● Generally, don't choose answers that incur cost increase such
as using awards, hiring externals, crashing, asking for more
budget, etc (depending on situation). 37
 Quality Management
Tips & Tricks
● Quality is a practice , a mindset and a process # Grading is ranking
between products.
● In Agile, quality is customer-centric , in Waterfall it is process-centric .
● Regulations must be respected and complied with # Standards are
guidelines.
● Kaizen is continuous improvement.
● Quality Management Plan in Waterfall is part of Project Management Plan
and explain the quality processes and tools to be applied and used.
● Quality Assurance takes place during performing work to prevent defects
# Quality Control/Review includes inspection and testing to detect
defects after work completed .
● Quality audit to inspect the application of the process and its efficiency .
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● Fishbone , 5 why's and why-why diagrams are root cause
analysis (RCA) tools.
● Cost of conformance during the project for prevention
(training/documentation) and appraisal (testing/inspection).
● Cost of non-conformance can be internal (rework/scrap/etc
through change request) or external (liabilities/warranty/etc).
● Technical debt is delaying correcting errors. The longer the
costlier.
● When a change request is approved by CCB , implement it as
is.
● What should the project manager do to ensure full compliance
of quality requirements during the execution phase ? -->
Continually survey the quality of the deliverables.
● In case of non-compliance --> find out root cause --> fix it
(can include CR) --> Review/update the process.
● In Agile , use the retrospective meeting to better understand
the root cause of the quality problems and put together a plan 39
with the team to address the problems.
 Risk Management
Tips & Tricks
● Risk is a potential/uncertain event and can be positive (opportunity) or
negative (threat). It is recorded in risk register.
● Risk probability is never 100% or 0%.
● Issue is recorded in issue log and is always negative and it happened.
● Preventive action for risk and corrective action/workaround for issue.
● Risks appear due to trigger condition .
● Risk Management Process: Some techniques:
Expected Monetary
1. Prepare risk Value, Monte-Carlo
4. Quantitative
management plan (with computer)
analysis

2. Identify risks (in

5. Plan risk responses
risk register)
Some techniques:
3. Qualitative
what-if scenario, 6. Implement risk
analysis (probability
alternative analysis, responses & update 7. Monitor risk
& impact) for risk
Decision tree risk register 40
prioritization
● Volatility (≠Predictability ): Unpredictable and quick/high
rate of change
● Uncertainty (≠Understanding ): Unclear about the
present/future
● Complexity (≠Simplicity ): Multiple interconnected
factors
● Ambiguity (≠Clarity ): Lack of clarity about the event
● Urgency: assess how quickly the risk response needs to
be implemented in order to be effective.
● Dormancy: assess how long after a risk has occurred
before its impact is discovered .
● Proximity : assess the amount of time before the risk can
impact one or more objectives .
● Connectivity: assess if the risk is related to other
individual project risks .
● Individual risk may affect one or more project objectives
(e.g., scope, schedule, cost, quality).
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● Overall project risk may affect the project as a whole.
● Insurable risk can be transferred to an insurance company
through the purchase of an insurance policy.

● Known Unknowns (identified risks ) are covered by

contingency reserve (in project budget).
● Unknown Unknowns (unidentified risks ) are covered by
management reserve if they happen (out of PM authority).

● Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS): Technical, External,

Organizational, Managerial.
● Risk appetite: limit of what is inconsequential.
● Risk tolerance : limit of what is acceptable.
● Risk averse: don't take risk.
● Active acceptance (take action) and passive acceptance
(just monitor).
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 Threat Response Strategies Opportunity Response Strategies

Accept : no active action Accept: no active action

Mitigate : reduce Enhance : increase
probability/impact probability/impact
Transfer : ex.: through insurance Share: ex.: with partner
Avoid: leave/quit Exploit : take action
Escalate: when situation out of Escalate : when situation out of
PM/team power/authority
PM/team power/authority

● Risk audit examines the effectiveness of the risk

management processes

#
● Risk review reexamines the effectiveness of the response
plans 43
 Assessing Project Performance
Tips & Tricks
● KPI’s can be of different measurements.
● When there is Performance Variance , find root cause/gap and take corrective (with a CR) or
preventive action .
● Earned Value (EV) Management Terminologies: Actual Cost (AC), Planned Value (PV), Budget At
Completion (BAC), Cost Variance (CV), Schedule Variance (SV), Cost Performance Index (CPI), Schedule
Performance Index (SPI).
● If CV and SV are > 0 / CPI and SPI are > 1 , project is ahead of schedule and under budget =>
Resource leveling / Crashing can be considered if necessary.
● If CV and SV are < 0 / CPI and SPI are < 1 , project is behind schedule and over budget. Crashing
and schedule extension are not possible . Consider fast-tracking.
● When TCPI is <1, project will be completed easily.
● Other Terminologies: Estimate At Completion (EAC), Estimate To Complete (ETC), Variance At
Completion (VAC), To Complete Performance Index (TCPI).

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● Earned Value Measurement formulas:
BAC = cost baseline + contingency reserve.
EV = % of work complete x BAC.
PV = % or sum of planned work to be completed at time of measurement.
CV = EV – AC SV = EV – PV
CPI = EV / AC SPI = EV / PV
In case of variance EAC = BAC / CPI When variance will end EAC = AC + BAC - EV
In case of Updated Plan EAC = AC + ETC (bottom-up) Other EAC = AC + ((BAC - EV) / (CPI x SPI))
ETC = EAC - AC
TPCI = (BAC - EV ) / (BAC - AC)
When CPI < 1, TCPI = (BAC – EV) / (EAC – EV)
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 GENERAL
Tips & Tricks
● Look for keyword in question text or in one of the answers.
● Choose specific answer rather than general answer (example
business case vs SWOT).
● When question asks what should do first , several answers can
be right, but must choose first in the process/or in chronological
order. Mostly start with assess/evaluate/analyze/review.
● PM must always apply fully the right/complete solution , and
avoid short-cuts/half-solution.
● Facing the issue is important. Avoid delegating the issue.
● Escalation (to sponsor/SteeCo) is the last resort.
● PM chooses project management methodology. No backing-off
transition to Agile.

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 PMP Exam Question Types

● Total exam questions is 180.

● ≈ 170 MCQ with 4 choices and 1 possible answer
● ≈ 5 MCQ with 5 choices and several possible answers
● ≈ 5 Drag and Drop Questions / hotspot questions
● All questions are situational.

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Scenarios (for the 170 questions)

48
 When the question asks about do next
STEP I What is the context /situation in the question
STEP II Waterfall ? Hybrid ? Agile ?
STEP III Risk ? Change ? Conflict ? Sprint ?
Step IV Follow the next step Follow the next Follow the next Follow the next
in process/mindset step in step in step in
process/mindset process/mindse process/minds
t et

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 In case of disagreement with stakeholder --> analyze
gap/compare with AC
● if we are right --> meet with stakeholder to convince
If convinced --> OK
If not convinced --> escalate
● if we are wrong --> corrective action (with change
request) --> inform the stakeholder

Don’t change project management approach because team

does not know it. Favor transition to Agile.
.

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● Some questions can be answered only by elimination
techniques (scenario 4).
● Automatic elimination of following 10 answers (saves
you 25% of the time in the exam):

Do nothing / Close project with Try to persuade a higher

outstanding points authority (sponsor, PMO,
SteeCo)

Ignore Passive action (example: record

info in register instead of taking
action)

Firing/Replacing/Releasing team Half solution/short-cut (ex: hire

member external, ask sponsor to handle)

Ask team to work overtime Delegating solution

Escalate* Solution with Cost increase

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PMP Exam Duration: how to manage the time?

0:00 180 Questions → 3h:50min 4:10

10 min 10 min
60 Questions 60 Questions 60 Questions
Break Break

➔ 1 question = 230 min / 180 = 1mn17sec ➔ Using translation (max 3 questions/60Q)

➔ 20 questions = 25min ➔ Marking questions (max 3

➔ 60 questions = 1h:16min questions/60Q)

➔ Review answers before taking breaks 52

 Time Management
First 3 mock exams: each exam broken down on 3 days
Day 1: 60Q + stopwatch per question (1:17) and calculate (+/-)
Day 2: 60Q + stopwatch per question (1:17) and calculate (+/-)
Day 3: 60Q + stopwatch per question (1:17) and calculate (+/-)

Last 2 mock exams

Use stopwatch per entire exam.

Objective:
Whenever you reach 50 seconds --> you must get the « tick »
Means you still got 20 seconds to pick the answer.
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 Time Management
Example:

In mock exam 17:

Q1 answered in 1mn02sec 🡪 -15sec
Q2 answered in 0mn51sec 🡪 -26sec
Q3 answered in 1mn40sec 🡪 +23sec
------------------------------------------------------
Result of first 3 questions: -18 sec = ahead of time .

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 Time Management
Very important:

If less than 30 minutes remaining and 30 questions or more are remaining, don’t read
the text, just read the answers and answer based on the 10 elimination techniques.

You must answer all the exam questions.

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Thank You
for learning with us!

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