PMI PMP study Notes based on PMBook6

Short notes.
Source https://eliteminds.co/pmp-study-notes/

1 of 101
IMPORTANT TERMS AND CONCEPTS
This article contains most of the important information you need to know about Project management framework in order
to answer questions related to this topic in the PMP Exam, I recommend you review this type of articles 1 week before
your exam date, all information mentioned are based on PMBOK Guide 6 edition and PMP Exam Prep 9 edition for
th th

Rita Maclhy’s,
Project: Temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, result or service, it have a defined start and end.
Operations: ongoing work that supports business and systems of an organization, usually when a project is finished,
the product is handed off to operations.
Program: group of related projects, when grouping them an organization can coordinate the management of those
projects, it is done when this approach adds value only.
Portfolio: Group of programs, projects and operations that are prioritized and implemented to achieve strategic
business goals, it optimize use of resources, reduce risks and enhance organization benefits.
Organization project management (OPM): Provides direction for how portfolios, programs and projects should be
managed, executed and measured to best achieve strategic goals.
OPM3: Organization project management maturity module, it helps organization determine their level of maturity in
project management.
Process: Package of inputs, tools and outputs, there are 47 processes defined by PMI.
Phases: Group of logically related activities, produces one or more deliverables at the end of the phase.
Progressive Elaboration: also called “Rolling Wave Planning “, it’s used in activity planning, analysis and estimates
can be more accurate as the project goes on and progress.
Project Management; The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet
project objectives.
90% of Project manager work is to do communication.
Project Management office : It is a department that Centralizes and standardizes the management of projects , there
is 3 forms of PMO
Supportive: PMO provides policies, methodologies; templates and lessons learned for management projects,
it has low level of control over projects.
Controlling: Support and guidance in the organization on how to manage projects, trains others, it has a
moderate level of control over projects.
Directive: Provides project managers for different projects and responsible for results of those projects, it has
a high level of control over projects.
Constraints: things that may limit team options, Scope, Cost, Time, Quality, Risk, Resources and customer
satisfaction.

2 of 101
Stakeholders: any people or organizations whose interests may be positively or negatively impacted by the project or
its products.
Management by objective (MBO): the process of defining objectives within and organization so that management
agrees to the objectives and understand what they need to do.
Organizational Structure: Projects are impacted by , and have an impact on , the culture norms , management policies
and procedures , there is 3 main forms of organization structures:
Functional: Such organizations are grouped by areas of specialization within different functional areas; here
projects generally occur within one department, employees transmit the request to the head of department
who communicate the request to other department head, Project manager here is working mainly as
coordinator and have very level of authority.
Projectized: the entire company is organized by projects, Project managers have full authority and control
over the project and working as Full time, tam members complete only project work and they do not have a
department to go back to.
Matrix: Team members reports to 2 bosses, project manager and functional manager, communications goes
from team members to both bosses , in strong matrix power rests with project manager, in weak matrix power
rests with functional manager and project manager acts like coordinator or expeditor , in balanced matrix
power is shared.
Composite Matrix: Combination of different types depending on the actual need.
Tight Matrix or Co-location, locating offices of project management team in the same room regardless
of the organization structure.
Project Facilitator: Gives guidance as required without interfering.
Project Expeditor: Acts primary like staff assistant and communication coordinator.
Project coordinator: Similar to expeditor expect that coordinator has some power to make decisions
Project Based Organization ( PBO) : It create temporary frameworks around their projects and allow them to
circumvent any obstacles .
Organization hierarchy: Any organization is divided into 3 levels : Strategic, Mid management and operations.
Enterprise Environmental Factors: expressed as company culture and existing systems and it’s an input to many
processes, they are mainly

 Organization Structure
 Organization hierarchy
 PMIS “ Project management Information system “
 Company Culture.
Organization Process Assets, existing processes, procedures and historical information, lessons learned and
corporate knowledge base, they are inputs to the majority of processes.
Work Authorization system: system used during project integration management to insure that work gets done at
the right time and its right sequence.
Project Governance: It provides a framework for PM and sponsors to make decisions to satisfy both parties.

3 of 101
Project Statement of work (SOW) : It is created by the customer or sponsor and describes their needs , product
scope and how the project fits into the organization or customer strategic plan.
Project assumptions: things that are assumed to be true but they may not be true, high level assumptions are defined
in initiating while detailed are defined in planning.
Sponsor: Provides financial resources and support the project, lead the process through initiation.
Customer: Responsible to provide final acceptance of the product.
Journey to Abilene: When a group of people decides on a course of action that is counter of many preferences, it
makes group breakdown of communication.
There is 3 different terms to identify the stages through which data and information move :

 Work performance Data: Initial measurements and details about activities gathered during project work.
 Work Performance Information: Data are analyzed to make sure they confirm to project management plan
and to assess what they mean for the project.
 Work Performance reports: Work performance information should be organized into reports which are
distributed to the various stakeholders.
Project Life Cycle: Describes what you need to do to do the work while project management processes is what you
need to do to manage the work, project life cycles have different forms :
Predictive (Plan Driven Projects): Required Scope, schedule and cost to be determined in detail early in the life of
the project.
Iterative/Incremental (Change Driven Projects): early planning of high level scope sufficient enough to allow for
preliminary estimates of schedule and cost, scope is developed more with each iterative phase.
Adaptive (Change Driven Projects) : Involves Fixed time and cost , scope is broadly defined with the understanding
that it will be refined as the project progresses.

4 of 101
PROJECT SELECTION METHODS

This article contains most of the important information you need to know about Project selection methods and economic
concepts in order to answer questions related to this topic in the PMP Exam, I recommend you review this type of
articles 1 week before your exam date, all information mentioned are based on PMBOK Guide 6 th edition and PMP
Exam Prep 9th edition for Rita Maclhy’s.

Economic Concepts:
Business Case: It captures the business need for a project, It explains why the project was selected, how it fits into
the organization strategic goals and how it will bring business value to organization.
Economic Value added (EVA) : concerned with weather the project returns to the company more value than the
initiative costs.
Opportunity Cost: the value of the project was not selected.
Sunk Costs: Expended costs, in accounting standards sunk costs should not be considered when deciding whether
to continue with a troubled project.
Law of diminishing return: It states that after a certain point , adding more input will not produce a proportional
increase in productivity.
Working Capital: Current assets minus current liabilities, the amount the organization can invest.
Depreciation: Large assets loses value over time in 2 forms :
 Straight line depreciation: the same amount of depreciation is taken each year.
 Accelerated depreciation : different amount of depreciation is taken each year and it depreciates faster than
straight line in 2 forms also :
o Double declining balance.
o Sum of year digits.
Project Selection Methods
In professional organizations there should be a project selection committee in place to put all data together on various
project ideas. There is two categories of project selection methods :
1. Benefit measurement method
1. Murder Board
2. Peer Review
3. Scoring Models
4. Economic models
2. Constrained Optimization Methods
1. Linear Programming

5 of 101
 2. Integer Programming
3. Dynamic Programming
4. Multi Objective Programming
Economic Models for project selection
Present Value (PV): It is the value today of future cash flow PV= FV/(1+r)n , where FV is future value , r is the
interest rate , n is the number of years . higher is better for the project
Net Present Value (NPV): Present Value of the total benefits minus the costs over many time periods , higher is
Better
Internal rate of return (IRR): The rate at which the project inflows equal project outflows, project with higher IRR
should be selected.
Payback period: length of time it takes for the organization to recover its investment in the project before it starts
accumulating profits, project with less payback period should be selected.
Cost Benefit Analysis: compares the expected costs of the project to the potential benefits it could bring the
organization , the project with higher benefit cost ratio should be selected.

In the PMP Exam , expect to see questions asking you to calculate the present value or the cost benefit analysis , but
the majority of the questions will have a group of projects which you need to select one of them based on the five
economical models explained above , for more detailed explanations and math questions of the project selection
methods , you can refer here .

INITIATING

The Initiating Process Group contains processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing
project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase. Within the Initiating processes group , the project initial
scope is defined and initial resources are committed. Project key stakeholders who will interact and influence the
overall outcome of the project are identified. High level risks and assumptions are listed as well , If not already
assigned, the project manager will be selected , As per the PMBOK 6th edition , the Initiating process group
contains TWO processes :
1. Develop Project Charter – Integration Management
2. Identify Stakeholders – Stakeholder Management
Initiating Process group have a share of 13% out of the 200 PMP exam questions.

6 of 101
Develop Project Charter

This process is a part of Initiating Process group and Integration Management Knowledge Area with the following
ITTO’s :
Inputs:

1. Business Documents
2. Agreements
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Date Gathering ( Brainstorming , Focus Groups , Interviews )
3. Interpersonal and Team skills ( Conflict management , facilitation , Meeting management )
4. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Project Charter
2. Assumption Log

Chartering a project validates alignment of the project to the strategy of the organization , a project charter is not a
contract because there is no consideration or money promised or exchanged in its creation .

A project charter should contains the following : Project Name & Description , Project Manager assigned & Level
of authority , Preassigned resources , Business Case , Stakeholders , Stakeholders requirements, Assumptions, Risks
, Constraints , Project Objectives , Product Description , Project approval requirements and Sponsor authorizing the
charter .

A Project Charter Main Benefits are: Formally authorize Project existence, Assign the Project manager and authorize
him to apply organizational resources, Links the project to ongoing work of the organization and mention Project high
level requirements, risks and constraints.

Project Charter is considered from the Project Documents and it shouldn’t change during the project life, changing a
project charter calls to the question if the project should continue or not.

7 of 101
Memorize:
 that Develop project charter process is in the initiating process group and all information defined are High
Level, Nothing with details, as detailed information consumes time and needs money and you can’t spend
time and money while the project is not authorized yet .
 The same project may contain 2 Charters, one for the buyer and one for the seller.
 Project Charter must be officially signed by the sponsor ( Signed Off by sponsor )
 The business case is an important term which must be mentioned in the project charter since it captures the
business need and should contains the following: why the project was selected, business value project will
add and how the project will help achieving Organization Strategic goals.
 High level strategic and operational assumptions are normally identified in the business case before the
project is initiated , and will flow into the project charter , the assumption log is then used to record all
assumptions during the project lifecycle .
 Project managers are not usually involved in the project selection but they should be aware of the Project
business value and why it was selected among others , a professional project manager will keep the business
value in mind to make sure the project achieves the objectives for which it was selected .

Identify Stakeholders

This process is a part of Initiating Process group and Stakeholder Management Knowledge Area with the following
ITTO’s:
Inputs:

1. Project Charter
2. Business Documents ( Business Case , Benefits management plan )
3. Project management Plan ( Communications Management Plan , Stakeholder Engagement plan )
4. Project Documents ( Change log , Issue log , Requirements Documentation )
5. Agreements
6. Organizational Process Assets
7. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Gathering ( Questionnaires and surveys , Brainstorming )
3. Data Analysis (Stakeholders Analysis , Document Analysis )

8 of 101
 4. Data Representation ( Stakeholder mapping representation )
5. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Stakeholder Register
2. Change Requests
3. Project Management Plan Updates (Communications , Requirements and Risk Management Plans , Stakeholder
Engagement plan )
4. Project Document Updates ( Assumption log , Issue log ,Risk Register )

Stakeholders are groups or individuals who may affect the project or being affected by the project. It’s an important
process since any stakeholders who are missed will be likely found later, when they are discovered they will probably
ask for changes, changes made later on will cost the project much more than if it was indicated earlier , so you should
identify all of them.
 Identify Stakeholder process is done by the Project manager and Project team.
 Procurement Documents is an important input as it includes all contracts signed with suppliers and customers
who are considered as stakeholders.
 Stakeholders from operation side should be identified and documented.
 Stakeholders have the greatest impact during the initial stage of the project.
 Stakeholder’s Hot buttons are responses in specific situation which must be determined in this process.

 Stakeholder Analysis technique is used here to analyze each stakeholder potential impact or influence to
manage effectively throughout project life.
 Classification tools which can be used include Power/Influence grid, Power/Interest grid, Influence/impact
grid & salience Model.
 Salience Model which describes stakeholders based on Power, Urgency, and Legitimacy.
 Stakeholders who have high interest in the project with great influence must be closely managed throughout
the project life.
 The only output of this process is the Stakeholder Register which document all information about
stakeholders, Name, Title, Contact details, Role in the project, requirements , impact, influence and more
details depending on the organizational standard form of the stakeholder register.

9 of 101
PLANNING

The Planning Process Group consists of those processes performed to establish the total scope of the effort, define
and refine objectives, and develop the course of action required to attain those objectives . among the 5 Process
groups, planning process group has the most number of processes , PMI defines twenty-four discrete processes that
are involved in planning. While a project team can decide which of those to choose for a given project :

1. Develop Project Management Plan – Integration Management

2. Plan Scope Management – Scope Management
3. Collect Requirements – Scope Management
4. Define Scope – Scope Management
5. Create WBS -Scope Management
6. Plan Schedule Management – Schedule Management
7. Define Activities – Schedule Management
8. Sequence Activities – Schedule Management
9. Estimate Activities Duration – Schedule Management
10. Develop Schedule – Schedule Management
11. Plan Cost Management – Cost Management
12. Estimate Costs – Cost Management
13. Determine Budget – Cost Management
14. Plan Quality Management – Quality Management
15. Plan Resources Management – Resources Management
16. Estimate Activity Resources – Resources Management
17. Plan Communications Management – Communication Management
18. Plan Risk Management – Risk Management
19. Identify Risks – Risk Management
20. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis – Risk Management
21. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis – Risk Management
22. Plan Risk Responses – Risk Management
23. Plan Procurement Management – Procurement Management
24. Plan Stakeholder Engagement – Stakeholder Management
Planning Process group have a share of 24% out of the 200 PMP exam questions.

10 of 101
Develop Project Management Plan

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Integration Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Charter
2. Outputs from other Processes related to other knowledge areas (Risk, scope, schedule, cost, communication,
stakeholder, quality, procurement, resource)
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Gathering ( Brainstorming , Checklists , Interviews , Focus Groups )
3. Interpersonal and Team skills ( Conflict Management , Facilitation , Meeting management )
4. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Project Management Plan

Management Plans: they mainly document the strategy for managing the project and the processes related to the
knowledge areas of scope , schedule, cost, quality , human resources , communication ,risk, procurement and
stakeholder management , those plans are the in essence set of documents with processes , procedures , practices,
standards and metrics that you want the project stakeholders to follow to ensure consistent results.
 Planning is thinking through the project in advance.
 Project management plan should be a written formal document; usually it is created by the project manager and
signed off by key Stakeholders.
 It’s progressively elaborated during project life cycle.
 Once the project management plan is baselined (validated and signed off by key stakeholders) it is subjected for
formal change control and is used as basis to compare with actual plan.

Project management plan mainly contains Project management processes that will be used in the project , 13
management plans in addition to the performance baselines as following :

11 of 101
 1. Project management processes that will be used in the project: project manager should determine what
processes need to be used based on the needs of the project.
2. Subsidiary Management Plans : Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, human resources, communication, Risk,
procurement and stakeholder management plans.
3. Requirements management plan: defines how requirements will be gathered, analyzed, evaluated,
managed and controlled. ( Product of plan scope management )
4. Change management plan: it is for managing changes and the change process on the project.
5. Configuration management plan: manages changes to the documentation about deliverables and
processes of the project.
6. Process Improvement plan: how the processes that are used in the project will be evaluated and improved
( Product of Plan Quality Management )
7. Performance measurement baselines : the baselines at which the project performance and the
performance of the project manager will be measured upon , they can be changed but it shouldn’t be an easy
process to do.
a. Scope baseline: project scope statement, Work breakdown structure and WBS dictionary. ( Product
of Create WBS Process)
b. Schedule Baseline: the agreed upon schedule, includes start and stop dates of each activity. (
Product of Develop Project schedule process)
c. Cost Baseline: Time phased cost budget, Product of determine project budget.

Project Management Information system ( PMIS ) includes Change control system and configuration control system.
Management Reviews : Milestones will be built into the project management plan , indicating times when management
and stakeholders will compare project progress to what was planned and to identify any needed changes to any of the
management plans .
Project Documents: it is the term used to refer to any project related documents that are out of the project
management plan, they include Procurement SOW, Project charter, stakeholder register, Risk register , issue log ,
change log ….
Kick Off meeting: This is the meeting of key parties involved in the project, the purpose of the meeting is to announce
the start of project and to ensure everyone is familiar with its details and with the people working on it.
 Items that may be reviewed in Kick off meeting may include: Project milestones, Project Risks, Communication
management plan and meetings schedules.
 As per PMI , Microsoft project is considered as close to bar chart and not a part of PMIS ( Project management
Information system )

12 of 101
Plan Scope Management

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Scope Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan (Quality Management Plan, Project life cycle description, Development approach )
2. Project Charter
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Analysis ( Alternative Analysis )
3. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Scope Management Plan

2. Requirements Management Plan
Product Scope: Product deliverables with their associated features and functions, the resulting product is compared
to the product requirements.
Project Scope: The work the project will do to deliver the product of the project, the results is compared to the scope
baseline and project management plan.
The development of the scope management plan and the detailing of the project scope begin with the analysis of
information contained in the project charter. As a project manager you must be able to control the scope, no one can
request or add work that is not related to the reason documented in the charter for initiating the project. Scope
management plan is about defining what work is required and making sure that this work and only is done, once it is
prepared it should be formally approved. Scope management plan is part of the project or program management plan
that describes how the scope will be defined , developed , monitored , controlled and validated .
All requirements gathered should be evaluated against scope in order to determine what is in and out from scope
against project business case.
Plan Scope management Process outputs are:
1. Scope management plan: contains how scope will be planned, executed and controlled.
2. Requirements management plan: describes the method you intend to use to identify requirements.
Gold Plating: Adding extras to the scope which customer didn’t ask for in order to exceed expectations , It is not
allowed !

13 of 101
Collect Requirements

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Scope Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project charter
2. Project Management Plan ( Scope & Requirements management plan , Stakeholder engagement plan )
3. Project Documents ( Assumption log , lessons learned register , stakeholder register )
4. Business documents ( Business case )
5. Agreements
6. Enterprise environmental factors
7. Organizational process assets
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgement
2. Data Gathering (Interviews, Focus Groups, Facilitated Workshops Brainstorming, Surveys and benchmarking)
3. Data Analysis ( Document Analysis )
4. Decision making ( Voting , Multicriteria decision analysis )
5. Group Creativity Techniques
6. Group Decision Making Techniques
7. Observations
8. Surveys
9. Prototypes
10. Benchmarking
11. Context Diagram
12. Document Analysis
Outputs:

1. Requirements Documentation
2. Requirements Tractability matrix

Requirements are what stakeholders needs from a project , here are the main types of requirements
1. Business Requirement: Support Business objectives of the company
2. Stakeholder requirements.
3. Solution Requirements: Functional ( Product behavior ) and non-functional ( reliability, security … )

14 of 101
 4. Transitional Requirements: temporary requirements including trainings, tracking.
5. Quality Requirements: Quality criteria defined by stakeholders.
All requirements should be evaluated against :
1. Project Business Case.
2. Project Charter.
3. Project Scope of statement.
4. Project Constraints.
Collect Requirements Process Tools and Techniques :
1. Review historical Records: Looking on previous similar projects.
2. Interviews: Expert interviews, meeting key stakeholders to collect requirements.
3. Focus Groups: Meeting a specific set of stakeholders to collect requirements for an aspect of the project.
4. Facilitated Workshops: group of stakeholders from different perspectives which results in user stories like “As
a – Role- , I want a –Goal- , So that “business case” .
5. Brainstorming, main reason is not only to collect ideas but to encourage participants to build on each other idea.
6. Nominal Group techniques which includes ranking of useful ideas.
7. Multi criteria decision analysis , quantify requirements through decision matrix based on factors like risk
,schedule ,cost…
8. Mind Maps , Diagram ideas to help generate , classify or record information , several trees radiating from central
core.
9. Affinity Diagram , Requirements divided upon similarities , each is given a title.
10. Surveys , used for large groups and projects.
11. Prototype , Model of proposed product.
12. Bench marking , looking at what competitors doing, It consumes time and cost , it limits group creativity.
13. Observation , includes job shadowing , watching potential use of the product at work.
14. Context Diagram , diagrams that shows input , source and output to show how people interact with the system.
15. Analytic Hierarchy process , for complex decisions give different weights to factors to build hierarchy then
voting is accomplished.
16. Group Decision making ,
17. Dictatorship
18. Majority technique , above 505 agreement
19. Plurality technique , Biggest percentage agree
20. Consensus technique , generates agrrement

15 of 101
 21. Delphi technique , From remote locations experts gives their opinion , it is executed several times until
agreement is obtained.
 Voice of customer ( VOC ) , translates customer needs into requirements
Collect requirements process have 2 major outputs :
1. Requirements Tractability Matrix, tracks requirements from origin to deliverables , it links each requirement
to the objective , requirement attributes should be documented and to include source, status , identification
… all necessary details .
2. Requirements Documentation , Document all stakeholders requirements along with acceptance criteria of
each .

Define Scope

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Scope Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

2. Project Charter
3. Project Documents
4. Enterprise Environmental factors
5. Organizational process assets
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Analysis
3. Decision making
4. Interpersonal & Team skills
5. Product Analysis
Outputs:

1. Project Scope Statement

2. Project Document Updates

Define scope process is concerned with what is and is not included in the project and it’s deliverables , it is continues
process as project progress and will be iterated. The process of developing a detailed description of the project and
product.

16 of 101
  In Iterative life cycle projects , the define scope process can be very iterative , as a high level vision will be
developed for the overall project, but the detailed scope will be defined one iteration at a time .
 Product analysis is the major tool used in this process, Project Scope statement is the major output of this
process.
o Product Analysis : analyze project objectives and product description stated by the customer to
turn them into deliverables , it make sure product and project scope is well understood .
o Value Engineering : it is a part of product analysis technique , it is about finding alternatives to
constraints to improve product and reduce cost while maintaining the required scope.
The main output of this process is Project scope of statement which is part of the Scope Baseline , Scope Statement
should include the following :
1. Product Scope description
2. Project Scope
3. Deliverables
4. Acceptance criteria
5. What is not part of the project- Project exclusions
6. Detailed assumptions and constraints ( High level ones are created in initiating ).

Create WBS

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Scope Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

2. Project Documents
3. Organizational process assets
4. Enterprise Environmental factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Decomposition
2. Expert Judgment
Outputs:

1. Scope Baseline
2. Project Document Updates

17 of 101
Creating WBS is REQUIRED as part of project management, it should be created even for small projects. It’s the
process of subdividing the project deliverables and project work into smaller and more manageable components . It is
created through input from the project team and stakeholders; it is great in helping the team walk through the project
to gain their buy in.
Work Breakdown structure ( WBS ) is a structure hierarchy created by the organization , it can be in organization chart
or table form based on the project deliverables not actions and tasks. ( Nouns not actions ) , It is a decomposition tool
to break down work into lowest level manageable .The major tool and technique is Decomposition which divides
deliverables into smaller peace’s called work packages, decomposition happens in Top-Down approach or bottom-up
approach. In the process of “Define activities “those resulting work packages will be decomposed into activities. A
group of tasks makes activity; task is a lower level than activity.

A higher level above the work package is the Control account , each work package can have only one control account,
This tool allows aggregation and analysis of work performance data regarding time , scope and cost.
Work package duration varies on time , Small projects ( 4-40 hours ) , Medium Project ( 8-80 hours) , large projects (
Above 300 Hours ) .
Code Of accounts: Numbering system that identifies WBS components.
Chart of accounts: list of all account names and numbers
Scope Creep: Increasing scope or varying from what was planned for.
WBS doesn’t show dependencies between work packages but a WBS dictionary does.
WBS Dictionary : Mainly protects from scope creep, it provides description of the work needs to be done for each
work package , it can be used in work authorization system.

As mentioned in Develop project management plan process, a Scope baseline contains Scope statement of work,
WBS and WBS dictionary, so the Scope baseline is the main output of this process.

For the PMP Exam , Memorize the followings for WBS :

1. It is a graphical picture of the hierarchy of the project.
2. Identifies all the deliverables to be completed.
3. The Foundation upon which the project is built.
4. Should exist for each project, It is very important!
5. Forces you to think through all aspects of the projects.
6. Can be reused for other projects.
7. Doesn’t show dependencies.

18 of 101
The Major Output of Create WBS Process is the Project Scope Baseline which contains the following :
1. Project Scope Statement
2. WBS
3. WBS Package
4. Planning Package
5. WBS Dictionary

Plan Schedule Management

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Schedule Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

2. Project Charter
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Meetings
3. Data Analysis
Outputs:

1. Schedule Management Plan

It’s the process of establishing the policies , procedures and documentation for planning , developing , managing ,
executing and controlling project schedule. Involves documenting how you will plan , manage and control the project
schedule . Schedule management plan is the only output of this process and it should include the following:
1. The scheduling methodology and scheduling software to be used.
2. Rules of how estimates should be stated.
3. Release and iteration length .
4. Level of accuracy .
5. Establishment of schedule baseline.
6. Identification of performance measures that will be used.
7. Determination of acceptable variance.

19 of 101
 8. Planning for how schedule variances will be identified.
9. Identification of schedule change control procedure.
10. Reporting formats to be used.
Schedule Control threshold: Limit points at which corrective or preventive actions should be used.

Define Activites

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Schedule Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Schedule Management Plan , Scope Baseline )

2. Organizational Process Assets
3. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Decomposition
2. Rolling Wave planning
3. Export Judgment
4. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Activity List
2. Activity Attributes
3. Milestones list
4. Change Requests
5. Project Management plan updates ( Schedule & Cost Baselines )
It’s the process of defining and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables .
This process involves taking the work packages produced in create WBS process and decomposing them into activities
that are required to produce the work package deliverables.Activities produced are more related to actual project work
that will produce project deliverables.
Activity Types :
1. Level of efforts, Support and measured in time period.
2. Discrete efforts, indirect proportion to other activities.

20 of 101
Note for the exam that if the team is decomposing project deliverables, they are in creating WBS process, if they
are decomposing work packages, they are in define activities process.
This process can be combined with Create WBS; it depends on the project manager.
Rolling Wave planning is the major tool here in addition to the decomposition , it is used when the project contains a
lot of unknowns , it is about planning at a higher level and then wait until the project work has begun and the work is
clearer to plan lower levels , it is called “ progressive elaboration “ also .This process results in Activity list, activity
attributes and Project milestones.
 The activity list includes the schedule activities required on the project .
 The activity attributes extend the descriptions of the activity by identifying multiple components associated with
each activity .
 Milestones: significant events within project schedule , they have no durations, project milestones may be
mentioned in project charter , they can be used as check points to help control the project.

Sequence Activites

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Schedule Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Schedule Management plan and Scope Baseline )

2. Project Documents (Activity Attributes , Activity list ,Assumption log , milestones list )
3. Organization process assets
4. Enterprise environmental factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Precedence diagraming method

2. Dependency Information
3. Leads and Lags
4. Project Management Information System
Outputs:

1. Schedule network Diagram

2. Project Document Updates ( Activity Attributes , Activity lists , Assumption log and milestones lists )
Each activity except the first and last should be connected to at least one predecessor and one successor activity with
an appropriate logical relationship.

21 of 101
This process involves taking the activities and milestones and sequencing them in the order in which the work will be
performed resulting in the project network diagram. A network Diagram shows just dependencies, if duration
estimates of the activities are added it can also show the critical path.
There is 3 methods to draw the network diagram ;
1. Precedence diagraming method (PDM): here nodes or boxes represent activities while arrows show
dependencies.
2. Arrow diagraming method (ADM): activities are represented as arrows; dashed arrows represent dummy
activities that show dependencies.
3. Graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT): allows for conditional branching and loops, it is a
computer simulation technique.
Logical relationships :
1. Finish-to-Start , Activity must finish before the successor can start.
2. Start-to-Start , Activity must start before the successor can start.
3. Finish-to-finish , Activity must finish before the successor can finish.
4. Start-to-finish , Activity must start before the successor can finish.
Types of Dependencies :
1. Mandatory Dependency (Hard Logic), inherent in the nature of the project or required by the contract,
identified by project team.
2. Discretionary Dependency ( Soft Logic ) , the way an organization has chosen to do the work , it is identified
by project team and it is very important in project schedule compression.
3. External Dependency, based on the needs or desire of party outside the project , identified by project
manager.
4. Internal Dependency, based on the needs of the project , identified by the project manager.
Lead: it may be used to indicate that an activity can start before it is predecessor activity is completed.
Lag : it is the waiting time inserted between activities.
Padding: Extra time added to a schedule that you don’t really need, project manager just add to feel confident in the
estimate , it is a sign of poor project management.

22 of 101
Estimate Activities Resources

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Recourses Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Recourses Management plan ,Scope Baseline)

2. Project Documents (Activity List , Activity Attributes, Assumption log , Cost estimates ,Resources Calendar ,
Risk Register)
3. Enterprise environmental factors
4. Organizational Process assets
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Meetings
3. Bottom Up estimating
4. Analogues estimating
5. Parametric estimating
6. Data Analysis ( Alternative Analysis )
7. PMIS
Outputs:

1. Resources Requirement
2. Resource Breakdown structure
3. Basis of estimates
4. Project Document Updates ( Activity attributes , Assumption log , lessons learned register )
It’s the process of estimating team recourses and define the type and quantities of materials , equipments and supplies
necessary to complete project work .In this process you are required to determine the type and quantity of resources
required for each activity.
Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS): Hierarchy image that organizes the planned resources by their category and
type. In this process the human resources are matched into activities.
Recourses Calendar identifies the working days , shifts , start and end of normal business hours , weekends and
public holidays when each specific recourse is available .

23 of 101
Recourses Requirements identifies the types and quantities of recourses required for each work package or activity in
a work package and can be aggregated to determine the estimated recourses for each work package , WBS branch
and the project as a whole .

Estimate Activites Duration

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Time Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan (Schedule management plan & Scope baseline )

2. Project Documents ( Activity resources requirements ,Activity List ,Activity Attributes ,Resources breakdown
structure , Risk Register , Scope of statement , Resources Calendar , Lessons learned register . , project
team assignments , resources requirements )
3. Organization process assets
4. Enterprise environmental factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Analogues estimating
3. Parametric estimating
4. Three points estimating
5. One point estimating
6. Data Analysis ( Reserve Analysis , Alternative analysis )
7. Decision making
8. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Activity duration estimates

2. Basis of estimates
3. Project Document Updates ( activity attributes , assumption log, lessons learned register )
It is the time to estimate how much time each activity will take , usually estimators should be those who will do the work
or who are almost familiar with the work needs to be done.Padding is a sign of poor project management.
There are different estimating techniques :

24 of 101
 1. One-Point Estimating, the estimator submits one estimate per activity , it can be based on expert judgment
or historical information or it could be just a guess , It is not used frequently and have a lot of negative effects
such as ; it forces padding , it can result in schedule that nobody believes in.
2. Analogous Estimating (Top-Down) , It uses expert judgment and historical information to predict the future,
it can be done at the project level and can be applied on activity level. The level of accuracy depends on how
closely the project or activity matches the past history, it is mainly used when the project is chartered.
3. Parametric Estimating , looks at relationship between variables on an activity to calculate time or cost
estimates , the data can come from historical records from previous projects , industry requirements ,
standard metrics , it comes like time per code , time per linear meter , time per installation and there is 2
ways of parametric estimating
 Regression Analysis, a diagram tracks two variables to see if they are related and creates a
mathematical formula.
 Learning Curve, The 50th room block work will take less than the first room because of improved
efficiency.
4. Three-Point Estimating, In this method estimators give an optimistic (O), pessimistic (P), and most likely
(M) estimate for each activity. It allows more consideration and uncertainty of estimating , three point
estimating calculate a risk based expected duration estimate by taking either a simple average or a weighted
average of three estimates with the following formula
 Triangle Distribution (Simple Average), (P+M+O)/ 3 , It gives equal weight to each of the three
point estimates calculating the expected activity duration or cost.
 Beta Distribution (Weighted Average) , (P+4M+O)/6 . It gives stronger consideration for the most
likely estimate, this method gives benefits of risk management in reducing the uncertainty of
estimates.
Beta Expected Activity Duration ( EAD ) +/- SD , where SD is the standard deviation ( P-O)/6 . the start of range
is EAD-SD and the end of the range is EAD+SD
Heuristics: Generally accepted rule, a best practice or rule of thumb.
Accuracy: The conformance to target value.
Group decision making is used within the tools in estimating, they will do brainstorming, nominal group techniques and
Delphi technique.
Reserve analysis. there can be two types of reserves added to the project schedule ,
 Contingency Reserves, It is for the identified schedule risks remaining after the plan risk responses process
, they are included in the project schedule baseline .

25 of 101
  Management Reserves. Additional funds set aside to cover unforeseen risks that would impact the project
ability to meet the schedule , management time reserves are not part of project schedule baseline.

Develop Schedule

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Time Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan (Schedule management plan & Scope Baseline)

2. Project Documents (Activity resources requirements , Activity List , Activity Attributes , Project Schedule
network diagrams , Activity Duration estimates , Resources breakdown structure , Risk Register , Scope of
statement , Resources Calendar , Project Staff assignments , Resources requirements , lessons learned
register)
3. Agreements
4. Organization process assets
5. Enterprise environmental factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Schedule Network analysis

2. Critical Path method
3. Critical chain method
4. Data Analysis ( What-if-Scenario , Simulation )
5. Resource optimization techniques
6. Modeling techniques
7. Leads and lags
8. Schedule compressions
9. Scheduling tools
10. Project Management Information System
11. Agile release planning
Outputs:

1. Schedule Baseline
2. Project Schedule
3. Schedule Data
4. Project calendars

26 of 101
 5. Change Requests
6. Project Management Plan updates ( Schedule management plan , Cost Baseline )
7. Project document updates ( Activity Attributes , assumption log , Duration estimates , lessons learned register
, resources requirements , risk register )
One the Network diagram is completed, activity resources and estimates are done , it is the time to put all this data
into a schedule tool to create a schedule model . A Project schedule model consists of all project data that will be used
to calculate the schedule , such as activities , dependencies , lead and lags …

Schedule : Calendar based , approved , and realistic as it relates to all of the other activities and resources that are
needed to complete work of project.

Schedule Network Analysis :

Critical Path Method ( CPP) : Determining the longest path through the network diagram , the earliest and latest an
activity can start and the earliest and latest an activity can be completed
Critical path: the longest duration path through a network diagram and determines the shortest time it could take to
complete a project.
Near Critical path: The path is close in duration to critical path, the closer in length the near critical path to the critical
path are , the more risk the project has.
Float / Slack : three types of float to know for the exam
 Total Float, amount of time and an activity can delay without delaying the project end date or an intermediary
milestone.
 Free Float, Amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of its successor.
 Project Float , Amount of time a project can be delayed without delaying the externally imposed project
completion date required by the customer. Float is considered as an asset for the project. All activities on the
critical path have zero float.
Activity float = ( Late Start – Early Start ) Or ( Late Finish – Early Finish)
Schedule Compression : The objective is to compress the schedule without changing the scope , usually used when
the project have negative float.
1. Fast Tracking , Allows overlapping of activities or doing activities in parallel , Usually it increases
risks and requires more attention to communication.
2. Crashing, Adding resources in order to shorten activity while maintaining the project scope , always results
in increased costs and may increase risk.
Modeling , It is used to calculate or model the effect of activity durations changes is Monte Carlo analysis

27 of 101
  Monte Carlo Analysis : Uses a computer software to simulate project outcome , simulation can tell you the
probability of completing a project on specific day or for a specific cost , it can give you the project overall risk,
It is very useful in dealing with path convergence .
Resource Optimization
 Resource Leveling, used to produce a resource-limited schedule , leveling lengthens the schedule and
increases cost in order to deal with a limited amount of resources, resources availability and other resource
constraints .
 Resource Smoothing, a modified form or resource leveling where resources are leveled only within the limits
of the float of their activities so the completion dates activities are not delayed.
Critical Chain method (CCM)
Another way to develop a bought into approved, realistic and formal schedule, it takes into account both activities and
resources dependencies. This method uses a network diagram and critical path to develop a schedule by assigning
each activity to occur as late as possible to still meet the end date , you add resource dependencies to the schedule ,
and then calculate the critical chain , starting at the end date , you build buffers for resource limitations and risks into
the chain at critical milestones.

 Note that buffers are not like pad , they are planned and inserted to minimize know risks.
Project Schedule , It is the result of all planning processes in schedule management ,it will be iterated in response to
risk management and other parts of management until an acceptable and realistic schedule can be ageed upon .
Buffer : determined by assessing the amount of uncertainties .
Parkinson’s Low : Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion
Hammock Activities : Higher level summary activities between milestones.
Project Calendars should identify the working days.
Project schedule can be shown in three forms depending on the needs of the project ,
1. Network Diagram, Shows only dependencies.
2. Milestone Chart, Only show major events, milestones have zero duration, those durations are good tools
for reporting to management and to customer.
3. Bar charts, they are weak planning tools, but they are effective for progress reporting and control.
Agile release planning provides a high-level summery timeline of the release schedule based on the project roadmap
and the product vision for the products evolution , it determines the number of iterations or sprints in the release .
Schedule Baseline, Version of a schedule model used to manage the project and that the project team’s performance
is measured against, the difference between the schedule baseline and the end date is called project float .

28 of 101
Plan Cost Management

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Cost Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Schedule and Risk Management plans )

2. Project Charter
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Meetings
3. Data Analysis
Outputs:

1. Cost Management Plan

This process defines how you are going to plan, manage and control costs.
It defines how the project costs will be estimated, budgeted, managed, monitored and controlled. Cost management
planning efforts occurs early in project planning and sets the framework for each of the cost management processes.
Funding a project can be through Self Fund, Funding with equity or funding with debits.
Cost management plan is the only output of this process; it can be called budget plan or budget management plan. It
is about thinking in advance about how you will manage costs , it may include
1. Units of measure
2. Funding decisions.
3. Level of accuracy.
4. Level of precision
5. Cost change control procedures
6. Cost thresholds
7. Methods of documenting costs.
8. Rules of performance measurement .
9. Roles and responsibilities of cost activities.
10. Organizational procedure links.
Cost thresholds: the amount of variation allowed before you need to take action.

29 of 101
Discounted Cash flow: A technique to estimate the attractiveness of an investment by predicting how much money
will be received in the future.
Life Cycle Costing : Looking at costs over the entire life of the product, not just the cost of the project to create the
product.
Value analysis: referred as value engineering , its focus is to find a less costly way to do the same work while
maintaining the same scope.
Cost Risk , It involves the cost related risk .

Estimate Costs

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Cost Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan (Cost and Quality management plans, Scope baseline )
2. Project Documents (Lessons learned register , Project schedule , Resources requirements , risk register )
3. Organization process assets
4. Enterprise environmental factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Analogues estimating
3. Parametric estimating
4. Bottom Up estimates
5. Three points estimating
6. One point estimating
7. Project management information system .
8. Data Analysis (Reserve Analysis , Cost of Quality , Alternative analysis )
9. Project Management Software
10. Decision making techniques ( Voting )
Outputs:

1. Activity Cost estimates

2. Basis of estimates
3. Project Document Updates ( Assumption log , lessons learned register , risk register )

30 of 101
This process involves coming up with cost estimates of each activity, the costs will be combined into one time-phased
spending plan .
Costs can be either variable or fixed
1. Fixed Cost , Costs do not change as production changes like Set up , rent , utilities .
2. Variable Costs , Costs changes with mount of production or amount of work , material , supply , wages.
Costs can direct or indirect
1. Direct Cost , Directly attributable to the work on the project , like team travel and wages costs , materials
cost.
2. Indirect Cost, Includes overhead items or costs incurred for the benefit of more than one project , like taxes,
janitorial services .
There is different estimating techniques :
 One-Point Estimating, the estimator submits one estimate per activity, it can be based on expert judgment
or historical information or it could be just a guess , It is not used frequently and have a lot of negative effects
such as ; it forces padding , it can result in schedule that nobody believes in.
 Analogous Estimating (Top-Down) , It uses expert judgment and historical information to predict the future
, it can be done at the project level and can be applied on activity level. The level of accuracy depends on
how closely the project or activity matches the past history, it is mainly used when the project is chartered.
 Parametric Estimating , looks at relationship between variables on an activity to calculate time or cost
estimates , the data can come from historical records from previous projects , industry requirements , standard
metrics , it comes like time per code , time per linear meter , time per installation and there is 2 ways of
parametric estimating
 Regression Analysis, a diagram tracks two variables to see if they are related and creates a mathematical
formula.
1. Learning Curve, The 50th room block work will take less than the first room because of improved
efficiency.
 Three-Point Estimating, In this method estimators give an optimistic (O), pessimistic (P), and most likely (M)
estimate for each activity. It allows more consideration and uncertainty of estimating , three point estimating
calculate a risk based expected duration estimate by taking either a simple average or a weighted average of
three estimates with the following formula
o Triangle Distribution (Simple Average), P+M+O / 3 , It gives equal weight to each of the three
point estimates calculating the expected activity duration or cost.

31 of 101
 o Beta Distribution (Weighted Average) , P+4M+O/6 . It gives stronger consideration for the most
likely estimate, this method gives benefits of risk management in reducing the uncertainty of
estimates.
 Bottom Up estimating , Involves creating detailed estimates for each part of activity or work package , it is
more accurate and time consuming.
Group decision making is used within the tools in estimating, they will do brainstorming, nominal group techniques
and Delphi technique.
Reserve analysis. there can be two types of reserves added to the project schedule ,
o Contingency Reserves, It is for the identified schedule risks remaining after the plan risk responses process,
they are included in the project Cost baseline .
o Management Reserves. Additional funds set aside to cover unforeseen risks that would impact the project
ability to meet the Budget, management time reserves are not part of project Cost baseline.
Project management software, it should be used for estimating activity costs.
Resources cost rates , Resources are not just internal human resources , this work might also involves estimating
the work of consultants , vendors and suppliers.
Cost of quality , The cost of work added to the project to accommodate quality efforts.
Accuracy of Estimates , Estimates made in early part in early part of the project will be less accurate than those made
later ,
a. Rough order of magnitude Estimate ( ROM) , During project initiation , -25% to +75% .
b. Budget Estimate , During project planning , -10% to +25%
c. Definitive Estimate , As project progress , it is done during planning -5% to 10% .

Determine Budget

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Cost Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project management plan (Cost and resources management plans , Scope baseline )
2. Project Documents (Activity Cost estimates , Basis of estimates ,Project Schedule and risk register )
3. Organization process assets
4. Business documents ( Business case and benefit management plan )
5. Agreements
6. Enterprise Environmental factors

32 of 101
Tools & Techniques:

1. Cost aggregation
2. Data Analysis ( Reserve Analysis )
3. Expert Judgment
4. Funding limit reconciliation
5. Financing
6. Historical Relationships
Outputs:

1. Cost Baseline
2. Project funding requirements
3. Project Document Updates ( Cost estimates , project schedule , risk register )
It’s the process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish an authorized
cost baseline .
Project budget includes all the funds authorized to execute the project .Here the project manager calculates the total
cost of the project in order to determine the amount of funds the organization needs to have available for the project, it
results with the “ Budget “ . Cost baseline is a portion of the budget and meeting the cost baseline will be a measure
of project success.
Cost Budget is how much money the company should have available for the project.
Reserve Analysis addresses management reserves (Unknown risks) and Contingency Reserves (Known risks).

Cost aggregation, To create budget , activity costs are rolled up to work packages cost , work package costs are then
rolled up to control accounts costs and finally to project costs , this process called cost aggregation .
Contingency reserves are added to determine the cost baseline, and once the final set up is ready management
reserves are added to create the project budget. When management reserves are used in the project they are added
to the project cost baseline.
Usually cost baseline and project budget are expressed in S Curve.
Funding limit reconciliation, Now once you project budget is clear , it is the time to check the cash flow , funding ,
may be not available causing changes to other parts of the project . then reconciliation with any cost constraints in the
charter , if the project estimates exceeds the constraints the project manager has to meet with management to decrease
costs.
Cost Baseline = Project Estimates + Contingency Reserves
Project Budget = Cost Baseline + Management Reserves.

33 of 101
Once the project manager comes up with the cost baseline and project budget, It should be compared with expert
judgment and historical records estimates in order to justify significant differences.
Total funding requirements and periodic funding requirements are derived from the cost baseline .

Plan Quality Management

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Quality Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Requirements and Risk Management Plans , Stakeholder Engagement Plan ,
Scope Baseline )
2. Project Charter
3. Project Documents ( Assumption log , Requirements Documentation , requirements traceability Matrix ,
Stakeholder Register , Risk Register )
4. Organizational Process Assets
5. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert judgment
2. Data Gathering ( Benchmarking , Brainstorming , Interviews )
3. Data Analysis ( Cost Benefit analysis , Cost of Quality )
4. Decision Making (Multi criteria decision analysis )
5. Data Representation ( Flow Charts , logical data model , matrix diagrams , mind mapping )
6. Test and Inspection planning
7. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Quality Management Plan

2. Quality Metrics
3. Quality Checklists
4. Project management plan Updates ( Risk Management plan and Scope Baseline )
5. Project Document Updates ( Lessons learned register , requirements traceability Matrix , Stakeholder
Register , Risk Register )

34 of 101
PMP Exam highlights manufacturing in questions related to quality because it is an important factor in the industry.
Quality is the degree to which the product fulfils it is requirements.
Requirements gathering efforts and requirements documentation are very important to the quality management efforts.
Grade refers to a general category or classification for a deliverables or resource that indicates common functions but
varying technical specifications.
Quality management definitions,
1. Creating and following policies and procedures to ensure that a project needs it was intended to meet from
customer perspective.
2. Ensuring a project is completed with no deviations from the project requirements.
Gold Plating, giving the customer extras .
Accuracy refers to correctness while Precision refers to how closely conforms to target.
Quality Management Concepts
1. Joseph Juran , He developed the 80/20 rule , and defined quality as “fitness for use “
2. Philip Crosby , He developed the concept of cost of poor quality , zero defects and prevention over
inspection , he believed that quality is “conformance to requirements “
3. Edwards dimming , He developed 14 points to total quality management and created the Plan-Do-Act-
Check ( PDCA) cycle , he stated that 85% of quality problem is managers’ responsibility .
4. Prevention over inspection, It is better to inspect work to find problems and prevent them in first place.
5. Marginal Analysis , Looking for the point where the benefits or revenue to be received from improving
quality equals the incremental cost to achieve that quality , when the point is reached , you should stop
tying to improve quality .
6. Continues improvement ( Kaizen ) , Involves continuously looking for small improvements as per
Japanese theory.
7. Just In time ( JIT) , States that holding raw materials in inventory is too expensive and unnecessary , a
company using JIT must achieve a high level of quality in their practices.
8. Total Quality Management (TQM) , It encourages companies and their employees to focus on finding
ways to continuously the quality of their products
9. Responsibility for Quality , states that the project manager has the ultimate responsibility for the quality
of the product of the project , senior management has the ultimate responsibility for quality in the
organization as a whole .
10. Impact of poor quality ,
11. Increased Cost.
12. Decreased Profits.

35 of 101
 13. Low Morale.
14. Low customer satisfaction.
15. Increased Risk.
16. Schedule delays.
17. Capability Maturity Model Integration ( CMMI) , Improves overall software quality.
18. Plan Quality management process defines quality for the project and how it will be achieved, it identify all
relevant organizational or industry practices, standards and requirements for the project quality.
19. Cost-Benefit Analysis, technique used to weight the benefits versus the costs of quality efforts to
determine the appropriate quality level.
20. Cost of Quality ( COQ ) , Means making sure the project is not spending too much to achieve a particular
level of quality , Cost of conformance ( Quality training , Studies , surveys ) , Cost of nonconformance (
Rework, Scrap, Inventory Costs, warranty costs and lost business ) .
Seven Basic Quality Tools :
1. Cause and effect Diagram ( Fishbone , Ishekawa ) , it looks backward at what may have contributed to
quality problems on the projects , the diagram shows the defect with potential and sub causes , maily used
in defect analysis and quality requirements identification.
2. Flow Chart ( Process Map ) , it shows how a process or system flows from beginning to end , how
elements interrelate , alternative paths , used mainly to determine cost of quality ,help communicate the
process t the team and watch a process how it flows to define potential quality issues.
3. Check sheet ( Tally sheet) , mainly gathers data , used to track of data such quality problems , its primary
purpose to gather data .
4. Pareto Diagram ( Pareto Chart ) , a bar chart that arranges the results from most frequent to least frequent
to help identify which root causes are resulting in the most problems, useful to identify potential problems
using historical information , focuses attention on the most critical issues and separates the critical few
from the uncritical many.
5. Histogram, Displays data in the form of bars or columns in no particular order , useful to determine the
most pressing problem.
6. Scatter Diagram ( Correlation Chart ) , Tracks two variables to determine their relationships , can be
used for estimation and forecasting.
7. Control Chart , Determines if the process is stable using statistical sampling , it contains upper and lower
control limits ( Inputs from organization ) , Specifications limits which are input by customer so that they
should be within the limit of control limits to ensure customer satisfaction , The process is considered out

36 of 101
 of control if a data point falls outside the control limits or if they is a nonrandom data points such as rule of
seven .
8. Poke Yoke, Japanese term that means “mistake-proofing” or “inadvertent error prevention.
9. Benchmarking, looking at other projects to take ideas.
10. Design of experiment (DOE) , It determines statistically what variables will improve quality , it is fast and
accurate technique ,
11. Statistical Sampling, Taking a sample to do measurements , the size of the sample and frequency of
measurements are determined as part of plan quality and actual sampling is done in control quality .
12. 3 or 6 Sigma , Sigma is another name for standard deviation and indicates how much variance from the
mean has been established as permissible in a process, at 3 Sigma approximately 2,700 will have a
problem and so on as follow :
a. +/- 1 sigma is equal to 68.27%
b. +/- 3 Sigma is equal to 99.73%
c. +/- 6 Sigma is equal to 99.9999998%
13. Loss function, it is a financial measure of the users dissatisfaction with product performance.
14. Quality Function Deployment ( QFD ) , uses House of Quality (HOQ) to transform user demands and
voice of customer (VOC) into design quality.
15. Kano Model , a model that differentiate features as ( Satisfy, delight and dissatisfy )
16. Force Field Analysis ( FFA ) , a technique that reviews any proposed action with proactive opposite
forces.
17. Quality Metrics are one of the process outputs , it should be stated by the project manager about the
areas on the project that are important to measure and decide what measurements are acceptable.
18. Quality Checklists, it is a list of items to inspect , a list of steps to be performed or a picture of the item to
be inspected With spaces to notes of defects if any .
19. Process Improvement plan , It helps save time by analyzing processes to find ways to increase efficiency
and prevent problems.

Plan Communications Management

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Communications Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Recourses Management Plan , Stakeholders engagement plan )

37 of 101
 2. Project Charter
3. Project Documents (Stakeholder Register , Requirements Documentation )
4. Organizational Process Assets
5. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Communication Requirements Analysis

2. Communication Technology
3. Communication Models
4. Communication Methods
5. Interpersonal and team skills (Communication Styles assessment, Political awareness, cultural awareness )
6. Data Representation (Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix )
7. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Communication Management Plan

2. Project Management Plan Updates ( Stakeholder engagement matrix )
3. Project document Updates ( Project Schedule , Stakeholder Register )
This process considers how to store, maintain, distribute and retrieve information, and what will happen to all project
information once the project is closed, it also focuses on the information and communications needs of the
stakeholders.
It’s the process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications activities based on the
information needs of each stakeholder or group .
Communication related issues are the most frequent problems in projects; project manager spent 90% of his time doing
communications , 50% with the project team.
Communication Dimensions
1. Internally and externally to the core project team.
2. Vertically ( Up and down levels of the organization )
3. Horizontally ( Among Peers )
Communication Types
1. Formal Written, used with complex problems, project management plan , project charter , communicating
over long distance.
2. Formal Verbal, Presentations and speeches
3. Informal written, emails, handwritten notes, text messages and instant messaging.

38 of 101
 4. Informal verbal, Meetings and conversations.
The sender has the responsibility to ensure the receiver correctly understand the message.
Communication Model, Basic model includes 3 parts, Sender, message and receiver, it is encoded by the sender
and decoded by receiver, Factors which affect the way receiver decodes a message is noise such as environment,
experience, language and culture.
Communication Factors ,
1. Nonverbal , also known as body language
2. Paralingual , Pitch and tone of voice also help to convey a spoken message .
3. Words , Words and phrasing the sender chooses are essential component to the message.
In message transmission: 7% in word, 38% in vocal pitch and 55% in body language.
Communication Technology , includes face to face , telephone , email , fax , instant messaging .
Communication methods:
1. Interactive Communication: It can involve 2 people or many people m one person provides information ,
other receive and respond , like conversations , meetings .
2. Push Communication: One way stream of information , Sender provides information to people who need it
but doesn’t expect feedback like status reports , email updates.
3. Pull Communication: Information is placed in central location , used to distribute large documents or to
send information to many people.
A Perfect meeting should have the following :
1. Time limit
2. Regular
3. Scheduled in advance
4. Meeting agenda
5. Purpose
6. Documented minutes of meeting.
Communication Channels = N( N-1)/2 , where N: number of stakeholders.
Communication plan should be in writing form.

Plan Risk Management

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Risk Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

39 of 101
 2. Project Charter
3. Project Documents -Stakeholder Register
4. Organizational Process Assets
5. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Analytical techniques
3. Meetings
4. Planning sessions
Outputs:

1. Risk Management Plan

The main purpose of this process is to develop the overall risk management strategy for the project, to decide how risk
management will be planned m executed and controlled; it involves deciding who should be involved, when risk
activities should be performed and how frequently they should be done.
It may include how you will measure the success of Risk management efforts and creation of metrics to measure
against such as , number of unidentified risks, amount of extra reserves needed … there is 2 categories of success
criteria for risk management , Project related criteria ( Refers to project in general ) and process related criteria (
Refers to the Risk management ) .
Project Manager Role on Risk management is Directive while everybody should participate.
Project Management office within the organization may support Risk management activities by providing policies and
procedures, Standard probability and impact scales , risk reporting templates …
For Big projects a Risk management department may be created to address project risk , and the organization itself
may have a Governance Body .
Risk Team can be created for large projects as well, a well-chosen risk team is one of the keys to identify risks , It may
include Project team members , key stakeholders ,Sponsor and customer .
Risk related communications occurs at two levels , within the project team and between the project team and other
project stakeholders , principles for each of these categories should defined in risk management plan.
Planning sessions is one of the most important techniques which can help build common understanding of project
risk approaches , participants should include Project manager , selected team members , subject matter experts , board
members of organization and key stakeholders.
If your organization has no experience with risk, you can use risk consultants and experts who are specialized in risk
identification.

40 of 101
State of art and one of kind projects requires more attention of risk management.
As a project manager you should adapt the risk management processes and activities as per the need of your project,
it depends on the priority of the project within the organization, the project complexity, Risk tolerances and if the project
was done before or not.
Risk management activities budgets and schedules should be created after the initial budget and schedule for the
project and before the final schedule and budget are created in schedule development and cost budgeting.
Critical Success factors of plan risk management includes but limited to :
1. Identify and address barriers to successful project risk management, and that can include a clear
definition of project objectives, organization recognize the benefits of managing risk and then adding value
of it.
2. Project Stakeholders involvement in project Risk management , disagreements between stakeholders
about risk tolerances and evaluation measures should be addressed and resolved as early as possible.
Risk management Plan is the Major output of this process , it should include the following :
1. Introduction
2. Project Description , with project size and complexity level …
3. Methodology, Defines how you as a project manager will perform risk management for a particular project.
4. Roles and responsibilities “Who will do what “.
5. Budget, this section of the risk management plan should include the cost of the risk management process.
6. Timing, when to do risk management for the project?
7. Risk Categories, the main source where you can find common risk categories is the historical records of
similar projects and Risk breakdown structure .
8. Definition of probability and Impact , the definition of probability and impact matrix help standardize the
risk rating and help comparing risks between projects .
9. Stakeholders Tolerances, stakeholders tolerances should be considered and mentioned in the risk
management plan and sometimes it is collected while collect requirements process.
10. Reporting formats, this section includes reports related to risk management that will be used and what they
will include.
11. Tracking, it means how the risk process will be audited and documented.

Identify Risks

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Risk Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

41 of 101
 1. Project Management Plan (Requirements , Risk , Cost , Schedule , Quality , Recourses Management Plans,
Scope, Cost , Schedule Baselines).
2. Project Documents ( Cost Estimates ,Duration Estimates ,Assumptions Log , Issue Log , Lessons Learned
Register ,Stakeholder Register , Requirements Documentation , Resources Requirements )
3. Procurement Documents
4. Agreements
5. Enterprise Environmental Factors
6. Organization Process Assets.
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Gathering ( Checklist , Brainstorming , Interviews )
3. Data Analysis ( Root Cause Analysis , Assumption and constraint Analysis, SWOT Analysis , Document
Analysis )
4. Interpersonal and Team Skills ( Influencing )
5. Prompt Lists
6. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Risk Register
2. Risk Report
3. Project Document updates ( Assumption Log , Issue Log , Lessons Learned Register )
Objectives of this process are to identify and record a long list of risks , make sure all risks are in Cause-Risk-Effect
format ( Metalanguage) and understands all listed risks.
Usually risks listed in this process included details such as potential risk owner, triggers and potential responses.
As a professional Project manager a good time should be spent to gather information and collect requirements from
key stakeholders , have a well defined scope as unclear requirements or scope is a Major risk of the project that may
have a negative cost and schedule impact .
Meeting experts face to face is a perfect tool as meetings virtually or using email for risk management decreases the
quantity and quality of risks identified.
Any risk with 80% or above probability should be treated as a fact .
A Good tool used to differentiate risks from facts is use the casue-risk-effect format for naming risks .
Risks effects are usually related to project objectives, constraints and tolerances.

42 of 101
Critical success factors of identify Risk process includes the following :
1. Early identification, it enables ley decisions to take maximum account of risks inherent in the project.
2. Iterative identification, the frequency of iteration is defined in plan risk management process , and it can
be done at key milestones and on significant changes.
3. Emergent Identification, As risks in nature can be identified anytime.
4. Comprehensive Identification, As a broad range should be used.
5. Opportunities to be considered not only threats.
6. Multiple perspectives, it should be done with key stakeholders from different perspectives.
7. Risks linked to project objectives, each identified risk must be linked to at least on project objective.
8. Complete Risk statement, Each identified risk should be clearly stated in the metalanguage format.
9. Ownership and level of detail, each risk owner should be identified with detailed description of his role ,
risk triggers should be mentioned as well.
10. Objectivity , All biases should be recognized and addresses as early as possible , biases effect on risk
management should be controlled and managed proactively.
A Well-defined risk is written in the Metalanguage format , Cause-risk-Effect , it should be well worded and specific to
the project.
Opportunities should be identified to balance out the negative occurrences ( Threats ) , as well as to take advantage
of additional benefits to the project , a separate list of opportunities should be created.
While identify risks the project manager should look at the assumptions list , it is a good source of risk.
Risks identified are recorded usually in 2 forms , Sticky Notes & Forms..
Risks could be identified during checklists, it is a great tool during initiating , before a charter is created and before
formal risk management begins .
Note that risks that are identified are less likely to occur as they changed from unknown risks to known risks.
Major tools and techniques to identify risks :
1. Prompt List , Generic list of risk categories , used as a starting point to customize a list of risk categories
most relevant to your project, while identifying risk using categories , the risk category might be inserted in
the Cause column of the risk format , make sure there is no forgotten risk category from the prompt list you
are using.
2. Risk Breakdown Structure, which arrange risks though category .
3. Historical Records, Looking at records from past projects as it will save time in risk management.
4. Review Project documents, making sure all project documents are available.

43 of 101
 5. Brainstorming, meeting to come up with ideas or solve a problem, it help participants build on each other
idea , a brainstorming session should be conducted in with 2 scribes , one to facilitate and one to record
ideas , it can build a very long list of risks quickly .
6. Conduct a pre mortem , meeting to come up with ideas, the group of participants are asked to imagine that
the project is completed or terminated , and it failed to achieve one or more objective, then they will start
mentioning why the project was failed , they should imagine the project is a success to list opportunities.
7. Affinity diagram, Risks identified from other tools are grouped in this tool and categorized as per similarities
, each group is given a title.
8. Expert Interviews, this tool can be done in all steps of risk management processes , It can be done through
emails, meetings, letters and telephone calls , the best interview could be done with 3 team members, one
ask questions, one records answers and one looks for nonverbal communication of the stakeholder.
9. Nominal Group technique, mainly used when you need to gain a group opinion not individual, it helps
gaining the group buy in .
10. Delphi Technique, to obtain agreement on what risks exists in the project, or on the quantitative risk analysis
results.
11. Cause and effect Diagram, used to evaluate causes of risk events, helps team members visually determine
potential and sub causes
12. Failure Mood and effect Analysis / Fault tree analysis , especially used for engineering design , looks for
failure modes ( The ways a product or project may fail ) , it designs a failure out of the product, each failure
mode will have a list of risks , the risks with the highest Risk Priority number ( RPN) will be selected as risks
, RPN = Sensitivity * Occurrences * Detection rate
13. SWOT Analysis , Looks at the project strengths and weaknesses and therefore looks at threats and
opportunities.
14. Force Field Analysis .
15. Influence Diagrams.
16. System Dynamics
As a professional Project Manager you should never depend on one method to identify risks , you should use a
combination of methods .
You know that you should stop identify risks in two cases :
1. When new identified risks seems stupid.
2. Ask the team to rate how confident they are about identified threats and opportunities and check the rating ,
if it is too low you should continue.

44 of 101
Identify Risk Process results with Risk Register, It’s the place where most of risk information is kept , it’s part of the
project documents and it will be updated after finishing each risk management process.
In this phase the produced risk register will results in the following information:
1. List of Risks.
2. Root Causes of the Risks.
3. Potential risk owners ( May be proposed and noted here , assigned officially in Plan risk response Process )
4. List of Potential responses , potential ones only as there will be a process of Planning risk responses.
5. Updated Risk Categories.

Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Risk Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan (Risk management Plan)

2. Project Documents (Risk Register ,Assumption Log ,Stakeholder Register )
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Data Representation (Probability and Impact Matrix , Hierarchal Charts )

2. Data Analysis (Risk Data Quality assessment , Risk Probability and impact assessment , Assessment of
other risk parameters )
3. Risk Categorization
4. Risk Urgency Assessment
5. Expert Judgment
6. Meetings
7. Data gathering – Interviews
8. Interpersonal and team skills ( Facilitation )
Outputs:

1. Project Documents Updates ( Assumption Log , Issue Log , risk Register , Risk report )
Perform qualitative risk analysis evaluates characteristics of individual risks identified earlier subjectively and prioritize
them based on agreed upon characteristics , specific objectives are :
1. Subjectively evaluate probability and impact of each risk.

45 of 101
 2. Create a shortlist of identified risks earlier.
3. Make Go/No go Decisions.
If several Risks are categorized in one group which arise from a common source which called “ Root Cause “ , risk
responses may be more effective in facing this root cause.
If several risks making common effects on the project , it will be identified that this area with common effects have the
greatest risk exposure , and risk response will focus on this area.
A successful qualitative risk analysis should got an agreement from the project stakeholders especially on the
fundamental criterion , some factors which may affect the success of this process includes :
1. Using and agreed-upon approach , risks are assessed according to probability , impact and some major
factors such as :
2. Urgency, some risks requires near term responses, indicators of urgency may include lead time required to
execute risk response and clarity of warning signs.
3. Manageability, some risks are not manageable and it is waste of time trying to plan a response , so there
should be a contingency reserves , scope of the project or consulting the customer about a decision regarding
these risks.
4. External impact of the risk such as affecting the overall organization.
5. Using a standard probability and impact of risk ratings on project objectives.
6. Collect high quality information about risks and identifying any biases in data.
7. Perform qualitative analysis iteratively; frequency of performing should be defined in risk management
plan.
Assumptions testing, professional project manager should look on what assumptions have been made while identifying
risk and check which of them still valid, In assumptions testing, the stability and consequences are rated from 1-10 ,
an assumption with stability of 5 to 10 means it still valid, consequences of 5 to 10 means the assumption could have
large impact on the project.
Major Tools and techniques used in this process are :
1. Data quality assessment, It is the question of “ How well the risk is understood ? “ , the higher the priority
of the project the more accurate data is needed , this technique can be executed using a chart to test the
following :
2. Extent of the understanding of the risk.
3. Amount of data available about the risk
4. Reliability and integrity of data.
5. Is there is any bias in data gathered.

46 of 101
 6. Probability and impact Scale, if there is no standard risk scales in your organization , you as a project
manager should define one, remember that 9 or 10 in probability rating is considered as a fact not a risk ,
the importance of this scale to reduce bias and to achieve consistent evaluation. Having a defined scale for
probability and impact with detailed description of each value on the scale will reduce biasing. Some
organizations prepare this probability and impact matrix on specific objectives while others do on overall
project, you can have both!
7. Risk urgency assessment , as some risks will have higher urgency than others and they should move
directly to plan risk response , this can be defined through the list of risks in priority order or priority groups ,
sometimes there is a risk prioritization index which will give a good sign about importance of the risk , a risk
ranking within the project should be executed as well depending on the risk scores ( Probability by impact )
, always remember that risks with probability of 9 and 10 are considered issues and they should be addressed
in Project scope not in risk management .
8. Risk Categorization, grouping risks into categories may lead to improved analysis of the probability and
magnitude of project risk and to effective responses, one major category is the root cause category, some
risks may be linked in a casual chain, and understanding the chain of risks may lead to a better understanding
of project risk, a combination of risk analysis information with the work breakdown structure can show the
areas of the project that exhibit the highest risk.
Project risk threshold is the total amount of risk acceptable on the project; risk thresholds should be identified and
agreed upon as early as possible.
Project risk score , it is calculated as the sum of individual risk scores and divide that sum by the number of risks, it
is the standard by which risk efforts are measured , the difference in scores between the planning stage and monitoring
stage shows the success of risk response efforts.
The project with highest risk score compared to other projects within the organization should have the best project
manager assigned to with the most experienced resources, the risk score of the project overall will help the
management make Go/ No Go Decisions , Should we do this project ?
Risks with lowest priority are recorded as non-top risks “ Watch List “ which should be recorded and revised in
later on in the monitor and control risk process.
Highest risk activities should be considered, activities with the highest number of risks, activities with the highest risk
score, and activities on network diagram with convergence and divergence.
Bar charts are useful to show risk scores of each activity on the bars itself.
Once you are done with Perform qualitative risk analysis you should decide to proceed for Perform quantitative risk
analysis or forward to plan risk responses.
This process results in :

47 of 101
 1. Assumption Log updates
2. Updates to risk register ,
3. Risk ranking for the project compared to other projects.
4. List of prioritized risks.
5. Risks grouped by category.
6. List of risks requiring additional analysis.
7. Watch list ( Non top risks )
8. Trends, to know if project risk is increasing , decreasing or staying the same.
9. Go/No go Decisions.
10. Qualitative Risk analysis are used to compare project overall risk to others within organization and to
determine whether to proceed for perform quantitative risk analysis or plan risk responses.

Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Risk Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan (Risk management Plan, Schedule , Cost and Scope Baselines )
2. Project Documents (Risk Register , Risk Report , Basis of estimates , Assumption log , Cost estimates ,
Duration estimates , Milestone lists , Recourses Requirements , Schedule forecasts )
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Data Gathering – Interviews

2. Interpersonal and Team skills – Facilitation
3. Representation of Uncertainties
4. Data Analysis ( Simulation , Sensitivity Analysis , Decision Tree Analysis , Influence Diagrams )
5. Expert Judgment
6. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Project Document Updates ( Risk Report )

48 of 101
The process provides a numerical estimate of the overall effect of a risk on the objectives of the project, based on
current plans and information, it is not required for all projects depending on the priority and complexity of the project.
Another definition is that it is an attempt to determine how much risk the project has , and where, so that you can spend
your limited time and effort in the areas of greatest risk, to decrease the risk on the project.
In order to define the probability and impact numerically of each risk , here are some methods which will help you
quantitatively determine probability and impacts :
1. Guess at a percentage of probability or a cost or time impact using subjective judgment.
2. Calculate the actual cost and or time impact.
3. Using historical records
4. Use a Delphi technique
5. Conduct interviews and expert interviews.
Critical Success factors of Perform Quantitative risk analysis :
1. Prior Risk Identification and Qualitative Risk analysis, To make sure Quantitative analysis will target the
most significant risks, there should be an accurate list of prioritized risks from previous processes.
2. Appropriate Project Model, As those models will be the basis of performing quantitative analysis , they
should be accurate and they include Project schedule , Project Budget and decision tree.
3. High quality Risk Data.
4. Unbiased Data, You as a project manager should recognize when biases occur , you should be able to find
and eliminate two sources of bias , motivational and cognitive biases.
5. Overall project risks derived from individual risks, as it derives overall project risk from individual risks.
6. Interrelationships between risks in Quantitative risk analysis.
7. Iterative nature of the process where frequency of occurring is defined in plan risk management process.
Major tools and techniques used in this process includes but limited to :
1. Expected Monetary value of risks, used to determine what the overall probable circumstances will be as
a result of events , it helps determine which risks need the most attention and should be moved into plan risk
responses process. EMV = P * I , Opportunities should be subtracted from the threats. A Risk exposure is
the expected monetary value of the project overall and it should be within the thresholds set by management
, It is a common practice to use the expected monetary value of the project to forecast potential project costs
because it is considered the only unbiased predictor and the best single value estimate for forecasting
2. Monte Carlo Simulation, used when there are continuous probability distribution iterations performed to
calculate the possible impact on project objectives, it’s using a software which use a random sampling
process to pick up one time estimate for each activity and determine the project length and critical path, the
main purpose Is to calculate the probability of competing the project on any specific day and amount of cost.

49 of 101
 3. Decision Tree, Models of real situations and are used to see the potential impacts of decisions by taking
into account the associated risks , probabilities and impacts, it takes into account future events in trying to
make a decision today and it involves mutual exclusivity .
4. Failure Mode effect analysis ( FMEA ) .
5. Sensitivity analysis, Used to analyze and compare potential impacts of identified risks, results in a tornado
diagram while risks are represented in horizontal bars, the longest and uppermost bar represents the
greatest risk.
Data Gathering Tools , it includes assessment of historical data and workshops , interviews or questionnaire to
gather quantified information
Major output is risk register Updates :
 Prioritized List of Quantified Risks
 Amount of contingency time and cost reserves needed.
 Possible realistic and achievable completion dates and project costs.
 Quantified probability of meeting project objectives.

Plan Risk Responses

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Risk Management Knowledge Area with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan (Risk , Recourses management Plans , Cost Baseline )

2. Project Documents ( Lessons Learned Register ,Project schedule , Project Team assignments , Resources
Calendars, Risk Report, Stakeholder register , Risk Register )
3. Enterprise environmental factors
4. Organizational Process assets
Tools & Techniques:

1. Risk Response Strategies

2. Data gathering – Interviews
3. Interpersonal and team skills – Facilitation
4. Strategies for Threats and Opportunities
5. Contingent Response Strategies
6. Data analysis ( Alternative and Cost-Benefit analysis )
7. Decision Making ( Multicriteria decision analysis )

50 of 101
 8. Expert Judgment
Outputs:

1. Change Requests
2. Project Management Plan Updates ( Schedule, Cost, Quality, Recourses , Procurement , Cost, Schedule
and cost baselines )
3. Project Document Updates (Risk Report, Risk register ,cost forecasts , assumption log, Project team
assignments )
It determines effective response actions that are appropriate to the individual risks and to overall project risk, it
considers key stakeholders risk attitudes.
Determine what can be done to reduce the overall risk of the project by decreasing the probability and impact of threats
and increasing the probability and impact of opportunities
Performing this process in planning phase entails agreeing upon the actions to be taken and the potential changes to
budget, schedule, resources and scope which actions might cause change.
Each Individual risk response description should include the following details :
1. To make sure each response to be executed in optimum time, the description should include a
description of any corresponding trigger conditions.
2. Risk Owner, responsible for ensuring that the risk response is effective and for planning additional
responses if required, he should watch out for the risk during project life cycle, identification of potential risk
owners was recommended in identify risks process, assigned and documented in plan risk response,
effectiveness of risk owners is monitored and reported through risk audits in monitor and control risk process.
3. Risk Action Owner, responsible for ensuring that the agreed upon risk responses are carried out as
planned.
Secondary Risk, Responses when implemented, can have potential effects on project objectives and can generate
additional risks which called secondary risks, a secondary risk should not have an impact greater than the initial risk, it
is the responsibility of risk owner to watch for the secondary risks.
The secondary risks should be included in risk response planning , for those risks that remain, contingency plans,
fallback plans and triggers should be identified.
 Residual Risks, Risks which remains after the plan responses have been implemented, they should be clearly
identified, analyzed , documented and communicated to all relevant stakeholders , each of them should have a
contingency plan and fallback plan.
 Contingency planning, planned actions to be taken if the threat or opportunity happens .
 Fall Back plans, Plans created in case contingency plans fails, it is the answer of question of “What happens if
the contingency plan does not work “ .

51 of 101
  Risk Triggers, early warning sign that tells risk owners and project managers that an accepted risk occurred or
about to occur , potential triggers are identified in identify risk process , but they are documented as part of plan
risk response process, they are listed in the risk response plan,
 Critical success factors to plan risk responses includes but not limited to :
1. Communicate, Communication with key and various stakeholders should be maintained in an open and
appropriate manner, it may involve high levels of the organization’s management and other stakeholders.
2. Clearly Define risk roles and responsibilities, It needs the team support , a single risk owner should be
assigned to every identified risk, and each agreed upon risk response plan should have a single action
owner. Risks related to politics and organizational causes might be taken over by management.
3. Specify timing of risk responses.
4. Provide resources, budget and schedule for each agreed upon responses, obtain management approval
and obtain risk owners and action owners commitment.
5. Address the interaction of risks and responses, interaction effect that may occur is when one risk, if it
occurs, may affect the probability or impact of other risks.
6. Ensure appropriate, timely, effective and agreed-upon responses, all responses should be feasible,
applicable and well-studied.
7. Address both threats and opportunities, not to focus only on threats.
8. Develop strategies before tactical responses, responses should be planned into strategic level then
should be expanded into actions at the tactical level and integrated into the project management plan.
Major tools and techniques used in the process :
1. Plan risk responses strategies , responses should be listed for both threats and opportunities , for threats
you can use on of the following :
a. Avoid , eliminate the cause of the risk by eliminating the cause
b. Mitigate (Control) , Reduce the expected monetary value of the risk by reducing its impact or
probability of occurrence or impact .
c. Transfer (Allocate) , Assign the risk to a third party , outsourcing or subcontracting or buying
insurance.
d. Accept, it can be passive or active, Active acceptance requires a contingency plan or passive which
requires a workaround once it happens.
e. Escalate , When the risk falls outside the authority of the project manager it should be escalated to
higher management .
2. For Opportunities you can use one of the following :
a. Exploit, Increase the opportunity by making the cause more probable.

52 of 101
 b. Enhance Increase the expected time, quality or monetary value of risk by increasing its probability
or impact of occurrence.
c. Share, Retain appropriate opportunities of parts of opportunities instead of transferring them to
others.
d. Accept, it can be passive or active, Active acceptance requires a contingency plan or passive which
requires a workaround once it happens.
e. Escalate ,When the risk falls outside the authority of the project manager it should be escalated to
higher management
Make sure to involve the team, stakeholders and experts in selecting the suitable strategy.
As a result of this tool the project cost or schedule should be decreasing by eliminating threats and increasing
opportunities.
Contingency reserve analysis, A reserve is an amount of time/or cost added to the project to account for risks, mainly
there is 2 types , contingency reserves ( To deal with the known unknowns which were identified earlier ) , Management
reserves ( To deal with unknown unknowns , risks were not identified earlier ) , a reserve is not a pad , pad is hidden ,
reserve is not .
Here are the main methods you can use to determine project contingency reserves, Management reserve is
usually a percentage of the total project cost and usually falls between 2 and 15 percent.
1. Method 1 : 10 Percent , add a percent of the project time and cost as a reserve for both contingency reserve
and management reserve
2. Method 2 : Guess, you can guess the appropriate amount of time and cost contingency reserve based on
the number and severity of the risks.
3. Method 3 : Expected Monetary value, Find the expected monetary value of risks to create a contingency
reserve , add 5% to 10% for management reserve , the value of contingency reserve can be the expected
monetary value of the project overall , it can be also the value while considering having all threats occur in
their entirety.
4. Method 4 : Monte Carlo simulation , it is preferred to be used for sanity check after you are done with
calculations in method 3 , the results of monte Carlo analysis depends on how accurate the WBS , network
diagram and estimates based on are .
The process of plan risk responses should results in revised project management plan as work packages will be
changed , added to , or removed from work breakdown structure
The risk register will be used for meetings with management, get reserves accepted and make go/ no go decisions,
new risks can be added and tracked during project life cycle.

53 of 101
Contracts, it refers to any legal agreement for the purchase or sale of goods and services, it may include purchase
orders , service agreements or contracts , risk management helps team determine that it would be less risky to transfer
one or many risks to another company through contracting , it also helps determine what terms and conditions to put
into contracts to decrease project threats and to increase opportunities , never create a contract without risk analysis .
Insurance Purchased, used for risks like fire, theft, risk response maybe to purchase insurance , it’s a mitigation
choice because complete impact is not removed.
Note that non top risks “Watch list “ do not have risk owners, the project manager is responsible to monitor these risks.
This process mainly results project management plan updates , Project document updates and in Risk Register updates
1. Residual Risks, Risks remains after plan risk response, contingency plan and fall back plan should be
created for each , especially ones which was accepted actively.
2. Contingency Plans, plans describing specific actions that will be taken if opportunity or threat occurs.
3. Risk Owners, someone who will help develop the risk response and who will be responsible to carry out
response plan.
4. Secondary Risks, Risks created due to performing another risk response plan.
5. Risk Triggers, Early warning signs for risks.
6. Contracts, contract terms and conditions should be created after risk analysis.
7. Fallback plans, plans executed when contingency plan fails .
8. Reserves, Schedule and cost reserves are created and documented here.

Plan Procurement Management

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Procurement Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Charter
2. Business Documents ( Business Case , Benefits Management Plan )
3. Project Management Plan ( Scope, Quality & Recourses Management Plans , Scope Baseline)
4. Project Documents (Requirements Documentation , Stakeholder Register , Milestones list , Resources
Requirements ,Project Schedule , Requirements traceability Matrix , Project team assignments )
5. Organizational Process Assets
6. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

54 of 101
 1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Analysis (Make or buy analysis)
3. Meetings
4. Data Gathering (Market Research)
5. Source Selection Analysis
Outputs:

1. Procurement Management Plan

2. Bid Documents
3. Procurement Strategy
4. Procurement Statement of work
5. Independent Cost estimates
6. Source Selection Criteria Documents
7. Make or Buy decisions
8. Change Requests
9. Project Document Updates ( Lessons Learned register , Issue log , milestone list , requirements
documentations , Requirements tractability matrix , Risk register , Stakeholder register )
Contracts can be written or verbal, but they are created with external entity as there is exchange of goods or services
for some type of compensation.
Contracts form the legal relationship between entities , it includes business terms regarding payments , reporting
requirements , proposal and procurement SOW .
To have a legal contract you should have :
1. Offer
2. Acceptance
3. Consideration ( something of value )
4. Legal Capacity ( Separate legal parties )
5. Legal Purpose
Agreement is a broader term , it encompasses documents or communications that outline internal or external
relationships and their intentions.
Contract can be considered an agreement , but agreement isn’t a contract.
Procurement is a formal process to obtain goods and services , Private companies have a lot of flexibility in their
procurement practices rather than governmental entities.
Managing procurement requires legal knowledge , Negotiation skills and Understanding of procurement process.Type
of contract to be used and procurement documents type are selected by the procurement manager.

55 of 101
Buyer : The company or person who purchase the services
Seller : The company or person who provides services or goods , can be called “Contractor” , “Subcontractor” , Supplier
, designer or vendor .
For Large projects, Sellers typically going to provide the complement of a solution .
Important Notes :
1. Contracts Require Formality, so all contracts notifications should be in formal written communication, always
take a formal approach In dealing with contracts.
2. Contracts should help diminish Risks of project.
3. Changes to contracts must be submitted and approved in writing.
4. For Contracts breaching, There should be arbitration by a third party or Court system for dispute resolution.
5. As a project manager you should include the time required to complete the procurement process.
6. As a project manager you should be involved in project negotiations to protect relationship with the seller,
and you will be capable of answering many of the technical and project management questions that arise
during bidder conference.
7. As a project manager you should protect the integrity of the project.
Centralized Contracting ,
1. Procurement managers have a higher level of expertise.
2. Defined Career path in procurement.
3. They are more likely to forget important details about the project.
4. More difficult for the project manager to get contracting help when needed.
Decentralized Contracting ,
1. Project manager has easier access to contracting expertise .
2. Procurement manager has more loyality to the project.
3. Procurement manager has better understanding of the project.
4. There is no home department for procurement manager.
5. May not be a career path and duplication of expertise.
6. May have little standardization of procurement practices.
Internal cost estimate for each procurement should be created before the procurement process starts to be used for
comparison.
Contract elements: Offer , Acceptance , Capacity , Consideration and legal purpose.
Procurement Categories ,
1. Major Complexity ( High Risk )
2. Minor Complexity ( Low Risk )

56 of 101
 3. Routine Purchase
4. Goods and Services
Plan Procurement management process involves putting together the procurement documents that will be sent to
prospective sellers describing buyer needs , how to respond and the criteria buyer will use to select a seller.
Make or Buy analysis, Making a decision about whether to do the project work themselves or outsource some or all
of the work .
 You usually make if you have an idle plant or workforce, you want to retain control or work involves proprietary.
 You usually buy to decrease risk to the project constraints.
 The cost saving of purchasing a product may be outweighed by the cost of managing the procurement.
Planning the procurement includes the process of creating procurement documents and procurement statement of
work , terms and conditions of the contract , standards of selecting the contract type in addition to the source selection
criteria of proposed sellers.
Procurement Statement of Work ( SOW ) , It is the work to be done on each procurement , it must be clear , complete
and concise as possible , it will describe all the work and activities the seller is required to do , it contains drawings ,
specifications , technical and descriptive wording and it comes in different types :
 Performance, It conveys what the final product should be able to accomplish, used usually in IT and R&D
Projects.
 Functional, It conveys the end purpose or result rather than specific procedures of approach, used usually in
IT and R&D Projects.
 Design , Conveys precisely what work to be done , it includes the materials to be used and an explanation of
how work should be completed , usually used in Construction projects and equipment purchasing .
Contract Types , Selecting the contract type is affected by the following :
1. What is being purchased
2. The completeness of the statement of work.
3. The level of effort and expertise the buyer can devote to manage the seller.
4. If the buyer intents to give the seller incentives.
5. Marketplace and economy
6. Industry standards for the type of contract used.
 Category 1: Fixed Price Contracts ( FP )
Fixed Price ( Lump Sum , Fixed Firm Price ) , in this type of contracts the Price is fixed , the specifications
are well defined , if costs are more than the agreed upon price the seller will bear the additional costs , so that
the Seller have risk of this contract type with least on the buyer , profit is not disclosed to the buyer , this type
have the following disadvantages :

57 of 101
 1. Seller is forced to take all the risk
2. Seller will add huge amount of reserves
3. Seller will try to increase profits by cutting scope or claiming for variation orders
a. Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF), profits can be adjusted based on the seller meeting specified
performance criteria such as getting work done faster.
b. Fixed Price Award Fee (FPAF), the buyer pays a fixed price plus an award amount based on
performance, same like the previous type except the total possible award amount is determined
in advance.
c. Fixed Price Economic Price Adjusted (FPEPA), it used in multiyear period projects, it protect
the seller from uncertainties about future economic conditions.
Purchase Order , Unilateral contract instead of bilateral , usually used for simple commodity
procurements, becomes contract when they are accepted by performance.
 Category 2: Time and Material ( T&M ) or unit price , the buyer pays on a per hour or per item basis , used
for service efforts in which the level of effort cannot be defined with contract is awarded . Better to use with
small contracts or contracts lasting for short time , buyer and seller share the risk .
 Category 3: Cost Reimbursable ( CR ) , used when the exact scope is not clear , that time costs cannot be
estimated accurately enough to sign a fixed price contract , preferred to be used with research and
development projects and Information technology projects , the buyer carry most of the risk in these projects.
1. Cost Contract ( CR ) , the contract value is equal to the cost , used with work performed by nonprofit
organizations.
2. Cost Plus Fee ( CPF ) or Cost plus percentage of Costs ( CPPC ) , This type requires the buyer to pay
for all costs plus percentage of costs as fee , this type is very bad for buyers everywhere as it requires
the buyer to carefully monitor and control all invoices.
3. Cost Plus Fixed Fee ( CPFF ) , This type requires the buyer to pay for all costs plus a negotiated fee ,
fee doesn’t vary with actual costs.
4. Cost Plus incentive Fee ( CPIF ) , Seller will be paid for the actual costs plus incentive fee adjustable
upon specific performance objective agreed bu both parties in the contract , also both parties share an
used if under or over contract value with sharing ratio , example 80/20 .
5. Cost Plus award fee (CPAF ) , the buyer pays all costs and a base fee plus a bonus amount based on
performance , same like the previous type except the total possible award amount is determined in
advance.
Incentives : It is very useful to make the seller follow the buyer objectives and interests . It is a great motivation tool
for the seller .

58 of 101
Payment terms should be mentioned in the contract , payment schedule should be clear in order for the project
manager to manage his Cost budget plan as per contracts payments.
Procurement Documents ( BID Documents ) , Describes the buyer needs to seller , 3 different types :
1. Request for proposal ( RFP ) , requests a detail proposal on how work will be performed , used with Cost
Reimbursable contract type and Performance or functional statement of work
2. Invitation for Bid (IFB), Requires a total price to do all work, used with fixed price contract type and design
statement of work.
3. Request for quotation ( RFQ ) , Requires a price quote per item , used with time and material contract type
and any statement of work.
Important Terms ,
 Request For Information ( RFI ) , used before procurement documents are created , used to clarify some
information .
 Profit, The amount included into the price the seller provides the buyer , each seller have accepted margin
profit .
 Price, the total amount seller will charge the buyer for the project work.
 Cost, how much an item cost the seller, the buyer costs include the seller cost and profit.
 Target Price , Expected price in mind for the buyer , used as a measure of success .
 Sharing Ratio , Under or over contract costs will be shared between buyer and seller with a ratio like 70/30
, first number for the buyer , second for the seller.
 Ceiling Price , Highest Price buyer will pay , it should be mentioned in the contract.
 Point of total Assumption ( PTA ) , Relates to fixed price incentive fee contract type only , the amount
above which the seller bears all the loss of cost overrun.
PTA = ( ( Ceiling Price – Target Price ) / Buyers sharing ration )+ Target Cost
 Source Selection Criteria , It is the basis for the buyer to use evaluating the bid proposals ( Number of years in
business , expertise level , Financial stability measurement … )
 Nondisclosure Agreement , a formal form signed before procurement information released to sellers in order
to protect appropriate information .
 Letter of intent , sometimes contracts not signed in time , the seller may ask the buyer to provide a letter of intent
, it not a contract and doesn’t have any legal binding .
 Privity , The contractor may use subcontractor , no direct contractual relationships with the buyer .
 Cancelation for convenience, buyer can cancel the contract and pay up to the point.
 Cancelation for cause, Default by one of the parties and may result in legal actions.
 Force of Majeure , Standard disclaimer refers to “ Act of god “ .

59 of 101
  Retainage , Amount to be withheld to ensure delivery , usually 5% or 10%.
 Risk of loss , How the risk is shared by the parties in case services are lost or destroyed.
 Work Made for hire , All performed work to be owned by the buyer .
 Arbitration , method used to resolve disputes .
 Warranties , Promises of quality for the goods or services .
 Time is of the essence, Delivery Dates are strictly binding.
 Non Competitive Forms of procurement , Can be used in private companies due to schedule pressure ,
seller with unique qualifications , only one seller can provide the goods or services ….
 Single Source, You contract directly with your preferred seller without going through full procurement
process.
 Solo Source , there is only one seller , this may be a company that own a patent.

Plan Stakeholder Engagement

This process is a part of Planning Process group and Stakeholder Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Charter
2. Project management Plan ( Communications , Recourses and Risk Management Plans )
3. Project Documents ( Assumption, Change log , Issue log , Requirements Documentation , Project Schedule
, Risk Register , Stakeholder register )
4. Agreements
5. Organizational Process Assets
6. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Gathering ( Bench Marking )
3. Data Analysis ( Assumption and Constraint analysis , Root Cause analysis )
4. Decision Making ( Prioritization , Ranking )
5. Data Representation ( Mind Mapping , Stakeholder engagement matrix )
6. Meetings
Outputs:

60 of 101
 1. Stakeholder engagement Plan
It’s the process of developing approaches to involve project stakeholders based on their needs , expectations, interests
and potential impact on the project .
You need to think ahead about how the project will impact stakeholders, how you and the team will interact with
stakeholders, how you will involve them in making decisions.
Stakeholders can be an asset or a problem of your project.
Stakeholder engagement plan should document the following :
1. Stakeholder engagement level.
2. Scope and impact of stakeholders
3. Communication requirements and forms.
Stakeholder engagement level can be :
1. Resistant , Resistant to change
2. Neutral
3. Supportive , Supports Changes
4. Leading , Actively engaged for project success.
Planning stakeholder engagement must produce the “ Stakeholder Engagement assessment matrix “ which included
the current level of a stakeholder engagement.

Excuting

The Executing Process Group consists of those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project
management plan to satisfy the project specifications.” This group integrates and coordinates people and other
resources to carry out the project management plan. The processes below make up the Executing Process Group :

1. Direct and Manage Project Work – Integration Management

2. Manage Project Knowledge – Integration Management
3. Manage Quality – Quality Management
4. Acquire Resources – Resources Management
5. Manage Team – Resources Management
6. Develop Team – Resources Management
7. Manage Communications – Communications Management
8. Conduct Procurement – Procurement Management
9. Implement Risk Responses – Risk Management
10. Manage Stakeholder Engagement – Stakeholder Engagement

61 of 101
Executing Process group have a share of 31% out of the 200 PMP exam questions.

Direct And Manage Project Work

This process is a part of executing Process group and Integration Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

2. Project Documents ( Change log , lessons learnt register , Milestones list , Project communications , project
schedule , Requirements tractability matrix , Risk Register , Risk report )
3. Approved change requests.
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors.
5. Organization Process Assets.
Tools &Techniques:

1. Meetings
2. Expert Judgment
3. Project management Information System
Outputs:

1. Deliverables
2. Work Performance data
3. Issue log
4. Change requests
5. Project Management Plan updates
6. Project Document Updates ( Activity list, assumption log , Lessons learnt register , Requirements
documentation , Risk register , Stakeholder register )
7. Organizational Process Assets Updates
The Role of the project manager in this process is to integrate all executing works in order to accomplish project
management plan to produce. Mainly this process involves executing the project planned activities to achieve the
project deliverables and accomplish established objectives .
Direct & Manage Project Work mainly involves the following points
1. Managing people and keeping them engaged in the Project
2. Improve processes involved in the work.

62 of 101
 3. Create Project Deliverables.
4. Requesting Changes.
5. Implementing approved change requests, Corrective actions, Preventive actions & Defect repair which was
approved in perform integrated change control process.
6. Project Manager should be in service of the team to help them get work done.
7. Keep the team and functional managers informed about the next month schedule.
Work Authorization System (WAS) , Defines approval levels needed to issue work authorization , it helps preventing
scope creep as formal approval must be available before work begins , it is a part of the Enterprise environmental
Factors .
PMI assumes that when executing starts , project manager takes time to focus on all knowledge areas rather than
giving attention to one knowledge area .
Most Of the Project time & resources are spent in the direct and manage project work process !

Manage Project Knowledge

This process is a part of executing Process group and Integration Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

2. Project Documents ( Project team assignments , lessons learnt register , Stakeholder register, source
selection criteria , resource breakdown structure )
3. Deliverables
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors.
5. Organization Process Assets.
Tools &Techniques:

1. Knowledge Management
2. Information Management
3. Expert Judgment
4. Interpersonal and team skills ( Active listening , facilitation , leadership , networking , Political awareness )
Outputs:

1. Lessons learnt register

2. Project Management Plan updates

63 of 101
 3. Organizational Process Assets Updates
It’s the process of using existing knowledge and creating knew knowledge to achieve project objectives and contribute
to organizational learning.
Knowledge is commonly split into Explicit and tacit.
 Explicit knowledge is a fact based, and can easily be communicated through words and symbols, it may need
explanation to provide value to recipients of this information, and it can be readily codified into words, pictures
and numbers.
 Tacit Knowledge includes emotions, experience and ability, which are more difficult to communicate clearly,
sharing this type of knowledge requires an atmosphere of trust. It’s personal and difficult to express such as
beliefs and insights.
From organizational perspective, knowledge management is about making sure the skills , experience , and
expertise of the project team and other stakeholders are used before , during and after the project .
Work shadowing and activity observation are techniques used for sharing knowledge , instead of receiving hard to
understand process documentation , a team member can watch someone doing a particular job or activity to more
easily learn the process .
Specific knowledge share through this process is referred to as lessons learned , it will be used both as an input
to and output of many processes .
Lessons learned are collected and saved in a lessons learned register which is the key output of this process ,
It’s a living document which will be shared throughout the project .
Using categories will ensure that all lessons learned are captured use categories such as : technical , project
management and management .

Manage Quality

This process is a part of executing Process group and Quality Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Quality Management Plan

2. Project documents (Lessons learned register , Quality control measurements , Quality Metrics , Risk report)
3. Organizational process assets
Tools &Techniques:

1. Data Gathering ( Check lists )

64 of 101
 2. Data Analysis ( Alternative Analysis , Document analysis, Process Analysis , root cause analysis )
3. Decision Making ( multicriteria decision analysis )
4. Data Representation ( Affinity diagram, cause and effect diagrams , flow charts , histograms, matrix diagrams
, scatter diagrams )
5. Quality audits
6. Design for x
7. Problem solving
8. Quality improvement methods
Outputs:

1. Quality Reports
2. Test and evaluation documents
3. Change Requests
4. Project Management Plan updates (Quality management plan ,scope baseline, schedule baseline, cost
baseline)
5. Project Document Updates ( Issue log , lessons learned register , risk register )
Usually this process is done through a third party or Quality assurance Department.
This process insures all Quality standards are being followed
It’s the process of translating the quality management plan into executable quality activities that incorporate the
organization’s quality policies into a project .
Manage Quality is sometimes called Quality assurance .
It’s concerned with overall process improvement for activities and processes.
Major Tools & Techniques
1. Affinity Diagram: used to organize thoughts, group the results of root cause analysis.
2. Tree Diagram: Useful for decision analysis, help organize data & Map relationship.
3. Process Decision Program charts (PDPC): Defines a goal then mention the steps required to achieve this
goal.
4. Interrelationship Diagrams: Map the relationships between different issues.
5. Matrix Diagrams: visual representation between 2 or more sets of items.
6. Prioritization Diagrams: Useful for decision analysis about process improvement and quality management
plan components that may need to change, you prioritize both issues and solutions.
7. Activity Network Diagram: in order Improve time management process.

65 of 101
 8. Quality Audit: It’s done by Quality assurance department or the project manager if there is no QA
Department in order to verify quality of processes, to seek improvement, identify best practices, and reduce
overall cost of quality.
9. Quality Review: To review Quality management plan.
10. Process analysis: Mainly used when there’s multiple installations, lessons learned from first installations
should help.

Acquire Recourses

This process is a part of executing Process group and Resources Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan (Resources, Procurement Management Plans, Cost baseline)

2. Project Documents (Stakeholder Register, Project Schedule, Recourses Calendar, Recourses
Requirements)
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise environmental factors
Tools &Techniques:

1. Pre assignment
2. Interpersonal and team skills (Negotiations)
3. Virtual teams
4. Decision Making (Multi Criteria Decision analysis )
Outputs:

1. Physical Recourses Requirements

2. Project Team assignments
3. Change Requests
4. Resources Calendar
5. Project Management Plan updates (Recourses Management , Cost baseline )
6. Project Document Updates ( Lessons learned register , Project schedule , recourses breakdown structure ,
recourses requirements , risk register , stakeholder register
7. Enterprise Environmental factor updates
8. Organizational Process Assets Updates

66 of 101
Recourses needed for the project can be internal or external to the organization performing the project , Internal
recourses are required through recourses managers while external recourses are acquired through Procurement
department .
Some examples of decision criteria used in this process are : Availability , cost , ability , experience , knowledge , skills
, attitude, international factors
Halo Effect (Cognitive Bias): If he is good at one thing, he will be good at everything, it’s tendency to rate team
members on specific factor or due to specific impression.
When physical or team recourses for a project are determined in advanced they are considered pre-assignment .
Trainings for the acquired team are usually paid by the organization not by the project.
Teams used in projects can be divided into 4 groups:
1. Dedicated, easiest to deal with from project manager side, usually found in projectize organizations.
2. Part Time, Often seen in Functional & Matrix organizations.
3. Partnerships, groups from different organizations, Hard to manage by project manager but cost saving.
4. Virtual team, difficult communications.
Project Manager have the full control on dedicated team, in part time team he should coordinate with functional
manager, in Partnerships and virtual teams the project manager should spend time on risk analysis and communication
management.
Physical recourses requirements are documentation of the physical recourses assignments records the material ,
equipment, supplies , locations and other physical recourses that will be used during the project .
Major Tools & Techniques :
1. Pre assignment: Project manager should deal with team members assigned in advanced as part of project
team.
2. Negotiations: Frequently used in gaining resources from within your organization or in procurement
situations.
3. Virtual Teams: It’s more challenging to manage this type of project team due to communication issues, time,
language & cultural differences.

Manage Team

This process is a part of executing Process group and Resources Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Resources Management Plan)

67 of 101
 2. Project Documents ( Issue log , Lessons learned register , Project Team assessments , team charter )
3. Team Performance Assessments
4. Work performance reports
5. Organization Process Assets
Tools &Techniques:

1. Interpersonal and team skills ( Conflict management , Decision making , emotional intelligence , Influencing
, leadership )
2. Project Management Information System
Outputs:

1. Change Requests
2. Project Management Plan Updates ( Recourses Management Plan , Schedule Baseline , Cost baseline )
3. Project Document updates ( Issue log , lessons learned register , project team assignments )
4. Enterprise environmental factors updates

It is the process of tracking team members performance , providing feedback , resolving issues and managing team
changes to optimize project performance .
The process involves day to day activities of managing people, observation & Conversation; Project Manager should
watch what’s happening on site and talk with people.
Observation and conversation , project manager should watch what is happening and specifically talk to people to
understand how things are going .
Project Performance Appraisals: Evaluations of employees done who supervise them, it also can be done with the
“360 Degree” Method which includes inputs from coworkers, subordinates and supervisors.
Issue Log is an important input for this process, it is fed from manages stakeholder engagement process, used to
understand who is responsible to solving specific issues.
In Functional or matrix organizations mangers separately evaluates employee performance.
Powers of the Project Manager :
1. Formal (Legitimate), Based on your position.
2. Reward, it stems from giving rewards.
3. Penalty comes from the ability to penalize team members.
4. Expert, Comes from being technical or project management expert.
5. Referent, Comes from other person liking you, respecting you or wanting to be like you.

68 of 101
Best forms of power are expert and reward, penalty is the worst, formal, reward and penalty comes from your
position, expert power comes from your own.
Situational Leadership , refers to a manager using different leadership styles based on the people and project work
he or she is dealing with .
Here are few leadership styles you should be familiar with ,
1. Directing , telling others what to do.
2. Facilitating , coordinates inputs to others ,
3. Analytical, depends on the manager own technical knowledge and ability.
4. Autocratic, Top down approach where the manager has the power to do whatever he want.
5. Consultative, Bottom up approach used influence to achieve results.
6. Laisseze-Faire , allow to act , allow to do but it need highly skilled team.
Arbitration : In arbitration , a neutral party hears and resolves a dispute.
Perquisites ( Perks ) , some employees receive special rewards such as special parkings , corner offices …
Fringe Benefits , Standard benefits formally given to all employees such as educational benefits , insurance and profit
sharing.
Conflict Management: conflicts force a search for alternatives, need openness , not personal , focus on present and
future , it is investable consequence of organization interactions.
Seven sources of conflicts in order of frequency :
1. Schedules
2. Project Priorities
3. Resources
4. Technical Opinions
5. Administrative procedures
6. Cost
7. Personality
Conflict Resolution techniques :
1. Collaborating ( Problem Solving ) , Parties discuss differences and try to incorporate , leads to a win-win
situation.
2. Compromising ( Reconciling ) , Involves finding solutions that bring some degree of satisfaction of both
parties , leads to lose-lose situation.
3. Withdrawal ( Avoidance ) , parties postpone a decision on a problem , leads to lose-leave situation
4. Smoothing ( Accommodating ) , emphasizes agreement rather than differenced in opinions , leads to lose-
yield situation .

69 of 101
 5. Forcing ( Directing) Involves pushing one viewpoint at the expense of another , leads to win-lose situation.
 Collaborating choices are generally the best answers , Forcing is the worst.
Motivation Theories
 Expectancy Theory , Employees who believe their efforts will lead to effective performance and who expect
to be rewarded for their accomplishments will remain productive as rewards meets their expectations.
 Mcgregors theory of X and Y ,
o Theory X assumes people need to be watched every minute.
o Theory Y assumes people are willing to work without supervisions.
o Theory Z , Increasing loyalty by providing a job for life with focus on well being employee.
 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs , in a pyramid shape , starting from below : Physiological ( Water, food and
housing ) , Safety ( Security and stability ) , Social ( Love, friends ) Esteem ( respect and attention ) , Self-
Actualization ( Growth and learning )
 David McClellands theory of Needs , a person falling into one caregory would be managed differently than
other person , Categories are Achievement , Affiliation and Power.
 Contingency theory , effectiveness of a leader stile is contingent on the situation .
 Herzbergs theory , deals with Hygiene factors and motivating agents , states that hygiene factors are not
enough to motivate people , Examples of hygiene factors :
1. Working conditions
2. Salary
3. Personal life
4. Security and status
5. Relationships at work
While motivating agents includes:

1. Responsibility
2. Self-Actualization
3. Professional growth
4. Recognition

Develop Team

This process is a part of executing Process group and Human Resources Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

70 of 101
 1. Project Management Plan (Resources Management Plan)
2. Project Documents ( Resources Calendar , Project team assignments, lessons learned register , project
schedule , Team charter )
3. Enterprise Environmental factors
4. Organizational Process Assets
Tools &Techniques:

1. Virtual teams
2. Communication Technology
3. Interpersonal Skills ( Conflict management , Influencing , Motivation , negotiation , Team building )
4. Trainings
5. Colocation
6. Ground Rules
7. Individual and team assignments
8. Recognition & rewards
9. Personal Assignment tools
Outputs:

1. Team performance assessments

2. Change Requests
3. Project Management Plan Updates ( Lessons learned register , Project schedule , project team assignments
, recourses calendar , Team charter )
4. Enterprise environmental factors updates
5. Organizational Process assets updates
The process of improving competencies, team member interactions, and the overall team environment to enhance
project performance.
The main purpose of this process is decreased turnover, increased individual skills & improved team work.
Project manager should be able to capitalize all members’ cultures.
Tuckman Ladder: It defines the following steps in sequence for developing project team
1. Forming: People are bought together as team.
2. Storming: Disagreements.
3. Norming: Building food relationships
4. Performing: Team become efficient, in this phase project manager can focus on individual member’s
improvement.

71 of 101
 5. Adjuring: Project ends and team disabled.
Major Tools & Techniques :
1. Team Building Activities: WBS creation is a strong team building tool. Trust is gained or lost from the first
minute you meet a team member, it is affected by project manager repetition, team building activities may
include outside work trips, birthday celebrations & milestone parties.
2. Personal assessment tool: used to help the project manager learn more about his team in order to deal with
them and guide them.
3. Trainings: Increase efficiency, usually covered by organization.
4. Ground rules: Setting ground rules help eliminates conflicts or problems and it’s very important when
managing virtual teams, mainly used to decrease bad behavior.
5. Colocation (Tight Matrix): The project may have “War Room” , Central location for project coordination, it
improves communications , decrease impact of conflict.
6. Recognition & Rewards: Project manager should appraise performance.
Team Performance assessments, Major output of the process, Project manager should complete formal and informal
team performance assessments as part of team development.

Manage Communications

This process is a part of executing Process group and Communications Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Recourses Management Plan , Communications Management Plan ,

Stakeholders engagement plan )
2. Project Documents (Change log , Issue Log , Lessons learned register , Quality Report , Risk Report ,
Stakeholder Register)
3. Organizational Process Assets
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Communication Technology
2. Communication Skills (Presentations, Nonverbal , feedback , Communication Competence )
3. Communication Methods
4. Project Reporting

72 of 101
 5. Interpersonal and team skills (Active listening , conflict management, Meeting management , networking ,
Political awareness , cultural awareness )
6. Data Representation (Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix )
7. Project Management information system – PMIS
8. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Project Communications
2. Project Management Plan Updates (Communication management plan , Stakeholder engagement matrix )
3. Project document Updates ( Issue log , lessons learned register , Project Schedule , Stakeholder Register ,
Risk register )
4. Organizational Process Assets Updates
It’s the process of ensuring timely and appropriate collection , creation distribution , storage , retrieval , management,
monitoring and the ultimate disposition of project information .
Involves gathering and providing this information and making sure information is flowing back and forth in the project
as planned.
Techniques of active listening includes acknowledging , clarifying and confirming , understanding , and removing
barriers that adversely affect comprehension .
Communication blockers ,
1. Noisy surroundings
2. Distance between those trying to communicate
3. Improper encoding of messages
4. Making negative statements
5. Hostility
6. Language
7. Culture
Performance Reporting , It is big part of managing communications as it should be collected and communicated to
the right stakeholders in the level of detail required , there are different types of performance reports :
1. Status Reports , Describes where project currently stands
2. Progress Reports, Describes what has been accomplished.
3. Trend Report, Examine project results overtime to see if performance is improving.
4. Forecasting Report , Predicts future project status
5. Variance Report , Compares actual results to baselines
6. Earned Value report , Integrates Scope , cost and schedule measures to assess project performance.

73 of 101
 7. Lessons learned documentation , reports on performance are used as lessons learned for future projects.
Project communications may include but not limited to : Performance reporting , Deliverables status , Schedule
progress , Cost incurred , presentations and other information required by stakeholders .

Conduct Procurement

This process is a part of executing Process group and Procurement Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Scope, Requirements ,Communications , Risk Procurement and Configuration
Management Plans , Scope Baseline)
2. Project Documents (Requirements Documentation ,Project schedule , Lessons learned Register , Risk Register,
Stakeholder Register)
3. Seller Proposals
4. Procurement Documentation
5. Enterprise Environmental Factors
6. Organizational Process Assets
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Advertising
3. Bidder Conference
4. Data Analysis ( Proposal Evaluation )
5. Interpersonal and Team skills ( Negotiation )
Outputs:

1. Selected Sellers
2. Agreements
3. Change Requests’
4. Project Management Plan Updates (Scope, Requirements ,Communications , Risk , Quality , Procurement
Management Plans , Scope ,Cost and Schedule Baselines )
5. Project Document Updates ( Lessons Learned register , Recourses Calander , requirements documentations ,
Requirements tractability matrix , Risk register , Stakeholder register )

74 of 101
 Involves getting the procurement SOW and other procurement documents to prospective sellers , answering
seller questions , having responses and select a seller according to the source selection criteria .
 Major Tools and Techniques :
1. Advertising, advertisement may be made to attract sellers.
2. Prequalified Seller List, a list contains all qualified sellers for this service created in earlier project,
procurement documents may be sent to this list only.
3. Bidder Conferences, Mainly this tool is used to maintain integrity of the procurement process , it is a meeting
where all sellers participating in the procurement will be invited and contains questions and answers session
4. Seller Proposals ,
5. Proposal reviews , All proposals received from invited sellers will be reviewed , evaluated as per the source
selection criteria .
6. Screening system , Screen out not qualified vendors who do not meet the minimum requirements .
7. Weighing system
8. Independent estimates, comparing prices with estimates made in house.
9. Presentations , Usually used with Cost reimbursable contract type , it is a formal meeting between buyer and
seller teams in order to give a chance for the seller to present their proposal .
10. Negotiations , Usually they are led by procurement manager while project manager must attend , it aims to
obtain a fair and reasonable price and to obtain a good relationship with the seller , it should end by a win-win
situation , scope , schedule and price are the key items to negotiate , Contracts are signed once negotiations
are done and it is awarded to selected seller , here are some negotiation techniques :
11. Personal Insults , not recommended.
12. Deadline , “ I should leave in 30 minutes “
13. Attacks, force Compliance.
14. Good Guy/Bad Guy , one friendly and one aggressive .
15. Missing man, “ only the CEO can agree on that “
16. Lying , obvious or hidden .
17. Limited Authority, I don’t have the authority.
18. Fair and reasonable
19. Delay, escape in critical moments
20. Extreme Demands
21. Withdrawal
22. Fait Accompli , Not negotiable

75 of 101
Implement Risk Responses
ITTO refers to Inputs, Tools & Techniques and outputs.

Inputs :

1. Project Management Plan ( Risk Management plan )

2. Project Documents ( Lessons Learned register , Risk Register , Risk Report )
3. Organizational Process assets
Tools & Techniques :

1. Expert Judgment
2. Interpersonal and team skills – Facilitation
3. Project Management Information system
Outputs :

1. Change Requests
2. Project Document updates ( Issue Log , Lessons Learned Register , Project team assignments , Risk register
, Risk Report )
3. It’s the only risk management process in the Executing process group .
Implementing risk responses is a new process in the PMBOK guide 6 edition .
th

It’s where a proper risk management value will be apparent .

The key to success of this process is the risk identification in advance , and then planning for their potential
occurrence .
In this process , at the point the risk becomes imminent , the risk owner and action owner supported by the
project manager leads previously assigned resources to perform activities of risk response .
Project documents are updated as a result of implementing risk responses process , The risk register and
risk report are updated with information about implemented responses taken .

Manage Stakeholder Engagement

This process is a part of executing Process group and Stakeholder Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Charter

76 of 101
 2. Project management Plan ( Communications , change and Risk Management Plans , Stakeholder
engagement plan )
3. Project Documents (Change log , Issue log , Stakeholder register )
4. Organizational Process Assets
5. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools &Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Communication skills ( Feedback)
3. Interpersonal and team Skills ( Conflict management , Cultural and political awareness , negotiation and
observation )
4. Ground Rules
5. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Change Requests
2. Project Management Plan Updates (Communications Management Plan, Stakeholder Engagement plan )
3. Project Document Updates ( Change log , Issue log , stakeholder Register , lessons learned register )

It’s the process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations , address issues
and foster appropriate stakeholder involvement)
Aims to meet stakeholder needs, resolve their issues and make sure they remain interested and active in the project.
It is essential to manage stakeholder engagement and expectations throughout the project/
The issue log ( Action item log ) is used in this process to identify issues and track any concerns or conflicts
Ground rules are defined in the team charter set the expected behavior for project team members .

MONITORING & CONTROLLING

The Monitoring and Controlling Process Group consists of those processes required to track, review, and orchestrate
the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate
the corresponding changes. This Process Group not only monitors and controls the work being done within a Process
Group, but also monitors and controls the entire project effort , as per the PMBOK 6th edition , there are 12 Processes
in the Monitoring and Controlling Process group :

1. Monitor and Control Project Work – Integration Management

77 of 101
 2. Perform Integrated Change Control – Integration Management
3. Control Scope – Scope Management
4. Validate Scope – Scope Management
5. Control Schedule – Schedule Management
6. Control Cost – Cost Management
7. Control Resources – Resources Management
8. Control Quality – Quality Management
9. Monitor Communications – Communication Management
10. Control Procurement – Procurement Management
11. Monitor Risks – Risk Management
12. Monitor Stakeholder engagement – Stakeholder Engagement
Monitoring and Controlling Process group have a share of 25% out of the 200 PMP exam questions , for practicing a
PMP exam structured as per the PMI standards of the five exam domains , you can refer to my course on Udemy
platform .

MONITOR AND CONTROL PROJECT WORK

This process is a part of Monitor and Control Process group and Integration Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

2. Project Documents ( Assumption log , basis of estimates , Cost Forecasts , Issue log , lessons learnt register ,
milestone list , quality reports ,risk register , risk reports and schedule forecasts )
3. Work Performance Information
4. Agreements
5. Organizational Process Assets
6. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Analysis ( Alternative analysis , cost benefit analysis , earned value analysis , root cause analysis , trend
analysis and variance analysis )
3. Meetings

78 of 101
 4. Decision Making
Outputs:

1. Change Requests
2. Work Performance Reports
3. Project Management Plan Updates
4. Project Document Updates ( Cost forecasts , issue log , lessons learned register , risk register , schedule
forecasts )
It involves looking at what is happening on the project and comparing the actual and forecasted performance to what
was planned.
Always remember that Monitoring and controlling means measuring against the project management plan.
Monitoring and controlling project work process is concerned with :
 Comparing actual performance against project management plan.
 Assessing performance periodically.
 Checking the status of individual risks .
 Provide information to support status reporting
 Monitoring implementation of approved change requests .
 Ensuring the project stays aligned with the business needs .
 The Main output of the process are the change requests.
Change requests includes 3 types :
1. Corrective Action: An action taken to bring expected future project performance in line with the project
management plan.
2. Preventive Action: An action taken to deal with possible deviations from the performance measurement
baselines and other metrics.
3. Defect Repair: An action requested when a component of the project doesn’t meet specifications.
Corrective & preventive actions should be reviewed in the perform integrated change control process , those
changes that would affect the project management plan , baselines , policies and procedures , charter , contracts or
statement of work would likely have to go to the change control board or sponsor for approval.
Validated Changes are actions taken as a result of the approved change requests are validated against the original
change requests to ensure correct implementation.
Main input of this process is Work performance information which should be fed into here from all other control
processes (control Schedule, Control Cost, Control Communication …. )

Perform Integrated Change Control

79 of 101
This process is a part of Monitor and Control Process group and Integration Management Knowledge Area, expect
to see around 20 exam questions about this topic, the followings are the ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Change & Configuration management plans, Performance baselines )
2. Project Documents ( Basis of estimates , risk report and requirement tractability matrix )
3. Change Requests
4. Work Performance Reports
5. Organizational Process Assets
6. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Change Control tools
3. Data Analysis ( Alternative analysis , cost benefit analysis )
4. Decision making ( Voting , multicritria decision analysis )
5. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Approved Change Requests

2. Project Management Plan Updates
3. Project Document Updates ( Change Log )

This process where the Change Log is created.

Change requests here are the major input of the process, all are evaluated and accepted or rejected in the perform
integrated change control process.
Key focus in this process is to look at the impact of each change on all project constraints.
Approved change requests results from this process are implemented in the Direct and manage project work.
Note that during planning phase there is no need for any change request.
In order to fully evaluate the impact of change, it’s necessary to have a realistic project management plan to
measure against and complete project & Product scope.
Changes can have negative impact on the project , changes made late in the project can cost up to 100 times more
than if they were made early.
Professional Project manager should work to prevent the root causes of changes whenever possible.

80 of 101
Usually changes arise due to :
1. Missed Requirements.
2. Views of Stakeholders.
3. Poor Design of a WBS
4. Inadequate Risk assessment.
When the number of changes become excessive reevaluate the business case of the project and consider terminating
the project while your review.
Mainly there is two types of changes :
1. Key Change ,Those that effect the project management plan, baselines, policies and procedures, charter,
contract or statement of work , in this case the change should go to the change control board ( CCB) in order
to decide.
2. Minor Change, Changes that doesn’t affect any project key element, Project manager may approve the
change without referring to CCB.
Change Control Board, CCB: Responsible for reviewing and analyzing change requests in accordance with the
change management plan for the project, they approve, postpone or reject the change, the result of the board decisions
are documented in the Change Log , It is created in the Change management plan.
On high level basis, the project manager should follow these steps :
1. Evaluate the Impact to all aspects of the project.
2. Identify Options, cutting other activities or compressing schedule.
3. Get change request approved internally.
4. Get customer buy in (If needed).
Finally here is what to do in a detailed level :
1. Prevent the root cause of the change.
2. Identify Change; Project manager should be proactive in this process.
3. Look at the impact of the change within knowledge area , If it a schedule change , how this will affect the
project schedule.
4. Perform Integrated change control :
1. Assess the change, First of all you as a project manager should check if this change will benefit the
project? note that any change that already have a reserve created for it would be counted in the
project management plan as part of risk management efforts and should be handled as part of direct
and manage project work.
2. Look for options, increase opportunities, compress schedule, adjust quality or cut the scope …. Etc
3. Change is approved or rejected by the CCB.

81 of 101
 5. Update the status of the change in the change log.
6. Adjust the project management plan , project documents and baselines as needed .
7. Manage stakeholders expectations by communicating the change to stakeholders affected by the change
8. Manage the project to the revised project management plan.

Control Scope

This process is a part of Monitor and Control Process group and Scope Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

2. Project Documents
3. Work Performance Data
4. Organizational Process assets
Tools & Techniques:

1. Data Analysis
Outputs:

1. Change Requests
2. Work Performance information
3. Project Document updates
4. Project management plan updates
It’s the process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline.
Proactive process as project manager should be overlooking the project scope.
Controlling project scope ensures all requested change requests and corrective actions or preventive actions are
processes through the integrated change control process.
It involves measuring and assessing work performance data against the scope baseline and managing scope baseline
changes.
 Scope performance should be measured continually against the scope baseline.
 Variance Analysis: a method to compare planned and actual work an determine the actions.

Validate Scope

82 of 101
This process is a part of Monitor and Control Process group and Scope Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan

2. Project Documents
3. Verified Deliverables
4. Work Performance Data
Tools & Techniques:

1. Inspection
2. Decision making techniques
Outputs:

1. Accepted Deliverables
2. Change Requests
3. Work Performance information
4. Project Document updates
It’s the process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables; it brings objectivity to the
acceptance process and increases the probability of the product, service or result acceptance by validating
each deliverable.
 In this process the verified deliverables obtained from control quality process are reviewed with the
customer or sponsor.
 Validate Scope Process actually involves frequent, planned meetings with the customer or sponsor to gain formal
acceptance of deliverables during project monitoring and controlling.
 It can be done at the end of each project phase during project life cycle and at other points throughout the project.
 Validate scope is done with customer multiple times in one project.
 Validate scope process results in formal acceptance by the customer of deliverables.
 Validate scope process is a must even in case of early cancelation or termination of the project to save any usable
deliverables for other projects.
 Quality Control and Validates Scope processes are confusing, you need to know the following:
1. Quality Control is done first
2. Quality control is done by quality department as they check to see if requirements specified are met.
3. In validate scope the customer checks and hopefully accept.

83 of 101
Control Schedule

This process is a part of Monitor and control Process group and Time Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Schedule Management Plan , Schedule baseline , scope baseline , performance
measurement baseline )
2. Project documents ( Lessons learned register , project calendars , project schedule , resources calendars ,
Schedule data )
3. Work Performance Data
4. Organization process assets
Tools & Techniques:

1. Data Analysis ( Earned value analysis , iteration Burndown chart, Performance reviews , trend analysis . variance
analysis , What if scenario )
2. Critical path method
3. Resource optimization techniques
4. Project management information system
5. Modeling techniques
6. Leads and Lags
7. Schedule Compression
Outputs:

1. Work Performance information

2. Schedule Forecasts
3. Change requests
4. Project Management Plan updates ( Schedule management plan , Schedule & Cost baseline , performance
measurement baseline )
5. Project documents updates ( Assumption log , Basis of estimate , lessons learned register , project schedule ,
resources calendar , Risk register , Schedule data )
It’s the process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and managing changes to the
schedule baseline .

84 of 101
  When an agile approach is applied to the project , the control schedule process is concerned with reprioritizing
the remaining work plan (Backlog) , managing actual changes as they occur , determining the project schedule
has changed and conducting retrospectives if required .
 Project manager is responsible in this process to keep measuring against the plan and to take actions as needed
to control schedule.
 If the project can no longer meet the agreed upon completion date , the project manager might recommend
termination of project.
 Project manager should identify the need of changes and follow the change control process.
Iteration Burndown Chart , It tracks the work that remains to be completed in the iteration backlog , used to analyze
the variance with respect to and ideal burndown based on the work committed from iteration planning.

Control Cost

This process is a part of Monitor and control Process group and Cost Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project management plan ( Cost management plan , cost baseline and performance measurement baseline )
2. Project documents (Lessons learned register)
3. Project Funding requirements
4. Work Performance data
5. Organizational process assets.
Tools and Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. To Complete Performance Index
3. Project Management Information system
4. Data Analysis (Reserve Analysis, Trend Analysis , Variance Analysis , Earned Value Analysis )
Outputs:

1. Work Performance Information

2. Cost Forecasts
3. Change Requests
4. Project Management plan updates ( Cost Management Plan , Cost baseline , Performance measurement
baseline )

85 of 101
 5. Project Document Updates ( Assumption log , basis of estimates , Cost estimates , lessons learned register ,
Risk register )
 This process includes progress reporting in order to control cost.
 It includes reserve analysis as well , analyzing whether these contingency reserves are still necessary or whether
new reserves are required , if risk doesn’t occur and it is determined that the risk is no longer a threat , the
contingency reserve can be removed from cost baseline.
 Analysis of management reserves may also indicate that too many unknown risk events are occurring, if an
unknown risk event occurs, management reserves will pay for the workaround , a change request will be required
to move those management reserves funds into cost baseline and to add any additional funds required to
complete the reestimated project work with the new parameters .
 Earned Value management, Earned value is used in performance reviews to measure project performance
against the scope , schedule and cost .
 The benefit of using earned value management is that it integrates cost,time and work done ( Scope ) and can
be used to forecast future performance and project completion dates and costs.
 Planned Value (PV) : As of today , what is the estimate value of the work planned to be done .
 Earned Value (EV) : As of today, what is the estimated value of the work actually accomplished.
 Actual Cost (AC) : As of today , what is the actual cost incurred for the work accomplished .
 Budget at completion (BAC) : How much did we budget for the total project effort.
 Estimate at completion (EAC) : What do we currently expect the total project to cost ( Forecast )
 Estimate to Completion (ETC) : from this point on , how much more do we expect it to cost to finish the project (
Forecast )
 Variance At completion ( VAC) : As of today , how much over or under budget do we expect to be at the end of
the project .
 To Complete Performance Index (TCPI ) : This term divides work remaining to be done by the money remaining
to do .
 The table following should be memorized for the exam

Name Formula Notes

Negative is over budget, positive is

Cost Variance (CV) CV = EV-AC
under budget.

Negative is behind schedule, Positive

Schedule Variance ( SV) SV = EV-PV
is ahead of schedule

86 of 101
 Greater than one is good , less than
Cost Performance Index (CPI) CPI=EV/AC
one is bad

Greater than one is good , less than

Schedule Performance Index (SPI) SPI = EV/PV
one is bad

· AC + ETC

· BAC/CPI
Estimate At Completion (EAC)
· AC + ( BAC-EV)

· AC + (BAC-EV)/CPI*SPI

To Complete Performance index ( Greater than one is bad , less than one
(BAC-EV)/(BAC-AC)
TCPI) is good

Estimate to Complete (ETC) EAC-AC

Variance At completion (VAC) BAC – EAC

Earned Value Accrual,

1. Discrete efforts, Describes activities that can be planned / measured for output including fixed formula.
2. Apportioned Efforts , describes work that has a direct/supporting relationship to discrete work .
3. Level of efforts (LOE) , describes activities without deliverables

CONTROL QUALITY

This process is a part of Monitor and control Process group and Quality Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project management plan ( Quality Management Plan )

2. Project Documents ( Quality Metrics , Lessons learned register , test and evaluation documents )
3. Approved change requests
4. Deliverables
5. Work Performance data
6. Enterprise Environmental factors
7. Organizational process assets.

87 of 101
Tools and Techniques:

1. Data Gathering ( Check lists , Check sheets ,statistical sampling , Questionnaires and surveys )
2. Data Analysis ( Performance reviews and root cause analysis )
3. Inspections
4. Testing and Product evaluations
5. Data Representations ( Cause and effect diagram , control charts , histograms , Scatter diagrams )
6. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Work Performance Information

2. Verified deliverables
3. Quality control measurements
4. Change Requests
5. Project Management plan updates ( Quality Management Plan )
6. Project Document Updates ( Issue log , lessons learned register , risk register , Test and evaluation documents
)
 It’s about monitoring and recording results of executing the quality management activities in order to asses
performance and ensure the project outputs are complete , correct and meet customer expectations .
 It’s performed to measure the completeness , compliance and fitness for use of a product or service prior to user
acceptance and final delivery .
 It is the process of ensuring a certain level of quality in a deliverable whether it be a product, service or result , it
helps ensure customer acceptance.
 It validate the changes against the original approved change requests .
 Identify the need of quality improvements .
 Mutual Exclusivity, two events are said to be mutually exclusive if they cannot both occur in a single trial.
 Probability, Likelihood that something will occur on a scale from zero to one.
 Normal Distribution, Probability density distribution chart , it have the shape of bell curve and it is used to measure
variations .
 Statistical Independence , this means that the probability of one event occurring doesn’t affect the probability of
another event occurring .
 Seven basic quality tools explained in the Plan quality management process could be used here as well .

CONTROL RECOURSES
88 of 101
This process is a part of monitoring and controlling Process group and Resources Management Knowledge Area
with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Resources Management Plan

2. Project Documents ( Issue log , Lessons learned register , Physical resources assessments , Recourses
breakdown structure , Recourses Requirements , Risk Register )
3. Agreements
4. Work performance Data
5. Organization Process Assets
Tools &Techniques:

1. Problem Solving
2. Data Analysis ( Cost Benefit Analysis , Performance Reviews , Alternatives Analysis , Trend Analysis )
3. Interpersonal and team skills ( Negotiating and Influencing )
4. Project Management Information System
Outputs:

1. Change Requests
2. Work Performance Information
3. Project Management Plan Updates ( Recourses Management Plan , Schedule Baseline , Cost baseline )
4. Project Document updates ( Issue log , Assumption log , lessons learned register , Physical resources
assignments , Recourses breakdown structure , Risk Register )
5. Enterprise environmental factors updates
 It’s the process of ensuring that the physical resources assigned and allocated to the project are available as
planned , as well as monitoring the planned versus actual utilization of recourse and taking corrective action as
necessary .
 It should be performed continuously through all project phases and throughout the project life cycle.
 This process relates to physical recourses being used on the project.

MONITOR COMMUNICATIONS

This process is a part of Monitor and Control Process group and Communications Management Knowledge Area
with the following ITTO’s
Inputs:
89 of 101
 1. Project Management Plan ( Recourses Management Plan , Communications Management Plan , Stakeholders
engagement plan )
2. Project Documents (Issue Log , Lessons learned register , Project Communications)
3. Work Performance Data
4. Organizational Process Assets
5. Enterprise Environmental Factors
Tools & Techniques:

1. Interpersonal and team skills (Observation , Conversation )

2. Data Analysis (Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix )
3. Project Management information system – PMIS
4. Expert Judgment
5. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Work Performance Information

2. Change Requests
3. Project Management Plan Updates (Communication management plan , Stakeholder engagement matrix )
4. Project document Updates ( Issue log , lessons learned register, Stakeholder Register)
 Involves making sure information is flowing as planned in the right way to the right people at the right time and
making sure communication management plan is followed .
 You need to measure and compare the actual project communications to the planned one .
 Issue log is an important input as it can be used to communicate issues on the project , areas of confusion ,
disagreement, conflict, and concerns that require attention and resolution .

MONITOR RISKS

This process is a part of Monitoring and control Process group and Risk Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project management plan – Risk Management Plan

2. Project Documents ( Issue Log , Lessons learned register , risk report , Risk register )
3. Work Performance data
4. Work Performance Reports

90 of 101
Tools and Techniques:

1. Data Analysis ( Technical Analysis , Reserve Analysis )

2. Risk Audits
3. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Work Performance Information

2. Change Requests
3. Project Management plan updates
4. Project Document Updates ( Assumption Log , Issue Log , Lessons Learned register , risk register and risk report
)
5. Organizational Process assets update.
 Primary objectives of this process are to track identified risks, monitor residual risks, identify new risks, ensure
risk response plans are executed at the right timing, and evaluate their effectiveness through project lifecycle.
 Project Manager should ensure periodic risk reassessments are repeated on reasonable intervals; in addition
risk audits should be identified to determine strengths and weaknesses in handling risks within the project.
 While project closure is performed, a description should be given of the closure of each risk in the risk register
like didn’t occur, occurred and contingency plan invoked.
 Critical Success Factors for the Monitor risks process :
1. Integrate risk monitoring with project monitor and control phase.
2. Continuously monitor risk trigger conditions.
3. Maintain risk awareness, it should be regular item in every status meeting.
 During the Monitor risks process, risk owners will respond to risk triggers by implementing contingency plans and
fallback plans if needed .
 Highest risk score path on the network diagram critical path should be managed closely.
 Major Tools and techniques used in this process includes but limited to the following :
1. Reserve Analysis, Contingency reserves will be used only for identified risks, Management reserves will be used
for risks were not identified ( Unknown unknowns ) , you should be careful if something outside the project scope
occurred , no reserves should be used , a change order should be created.
2. Workarounds, unplanned response to an unidentified risk that occurs , it is a reactive action while project
management is supposed to be proactive, a high number of workarounds during the project indicates improper
project risk planning , studies shows that between 75 to 100 times more expensive to fix a problem than prevent
it.

91 of 101
3. Risk Review, it is a way to control risks and manage changes, it looks forward in time to check what should
happen for risk, a Risk review board may be created for this purpose, it include people who have not been part
of the risk management process for the project to date , it generally doesn’t include the project manager.
4. Risk Audits, takes a look at what the project team has done for risk management and whether it has worked, it
looks backward in time to what has occurred , it includes reviewing risk owners and their effectiveness , usually
results in corrective actions , contingency plans adjusted, and risk owners changed , it can be executed by project
manager but preferred to be executed through a third party outside the project.
5. Earned Value analysis, Used to quantitatively measure and monitor overall project performance against project
baseline.
6. Technical Performance Reviews , mainly includes looking for risks during the verify scope process to check any
deviations from project and product requirements
7. Risk Reassessment, there are two major times when risk reassessment may occur , when new risks are identified,
when changes occur on the project , mainly it is the role of project manager to look and identify new project risks
, risk reassessment means doing all risk management planning activities again for any new identified risk.
 You should note the difference between an issue and risk , an issue is an unforeseen , minor problem that has
occurred and it might be listed in action item log or “ issue Log “ in order to be managed.
 Risk Performance might be measured in Control risks process bu evaluating the following metrics :
1. Number of identified risks that were not in original risk evaluation.
2. Number of workarounds needed.
 Communicate about Risks , a professional project manager will keep the stakeholders up to date on the status
of the project , information’s about risks should be delivered to key stakeholders on regular basis, Risk information
in the monthly project report keeps focus on the risks, a bar chart can be used for communicating risks , include
the risk score and risk owner as text columns .
 Risk Reverse Report, Keeps a running balance of the remaining reserve and helps the project manager control
reserves.
 A real lessons learned should be recorded in risk activities closure , it should take a look on the following :
1. Project Management.
 Monitor risks process outputs :
1. Risk Register updates : Outcomes of risk reassessment and audits, closing of risk didn’t occur, lessons learned.
2. Risk Report Updates
3. Change Requests.
4. Project Management Plan Updates.
5. Project Document Updates.

92 of 101
 6. Organization Process assets updates like new risk templates created.

CONTROL PROCUREMENTS

This process is a part of Monitor and control Process group and Procurements Management Knowledge Area with
the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project Management Plan ( Change, Requirements ,Communications , Risk Procurement and Configuration
Management Plans , Schedule Baseline)
2. Project Documents (Requirements Documentation ,Project schedule , Lessons learned Register , Risk Register,
Stakeholder Register , Milestone list , Quality Reports , Requirements Tractability Matrix . )
3. Agreements
4. Procurement Documentation
5. Approved Change Requests
6. Work Performance Data .
7. Enterprise Environmental Factors
8. Organizational Process Assets
Tools and Techniques:

1. Expert judgment
2. Claims Administration
3. Data Analysis ( Performance Reviews , Earned Value analysis , Trend Analysis )
4. Inspections
5. Audits
Outputs:

1. Closed Procurements
2. Work Performance Information
3. Change Requests
4. Procurement Documentation updates
5. Project Management Plan Updates (Risk and Procurement Management Plans , Cost and Schedule Baselines )
6. Project Document Updates ( Lessons Learned register , Recourses Calendar , Requirements tractability matrix ,
Risk register , Stakeholder register )
7. Organizational Process Assets Updates

93 of 101
  It’s the process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance, and making changes
and correction as appropriate.
 Involves managing the relationship between the buyer and the seller and ensuring both parties perform as
required by the contract.
 A project that spends too much time dealing with contract changes should be reevaluated.
 A Buyer can terminate the contract at any time for convince or seller fault.
 It includes review of invoices , completer integrated change control , authorize payment to sellers, resolve
disputes , hold procurement performance review meetings.
 In many cases the Procurement manager is the only person with authority to change the contract.
 Contract change control system , this system includes change procedures, forms , dispute resolution processes
and tracking systems .
 Procurement performance reviews, Buyers project manager analysis all available date to verify that the seller is
performing as they should., the purpose of this technique is to determine if changes are needed .
 Claims administration, a claim is an assertion that the buyer did something that has hurt the seller and the seller
is asking for compensation , this technique deals with changes and disputes , disputes are the best to be settled
through negotiations.
 Records Management system , Every email , every payment, and every written and verbal communication must
be recorded , kept and stored. , in big projects one person or more maybe assigned for recording only.
 Contract interpretation , based on an analysis of the intent of the parties to the contract and few guidelines , a
contract supersedes any memos or conversations that may have occurred prior to signing the contract.
 When changes and potential constructive changes where the buyer and seller cannot reach agreement on
compensation for the change or cannot agree the change has occur , this is called a claim .
 The buyer , Usually through its authorized procurement administrator , provides the seller with formal written
notice that the contract has been completed .

CONTROL STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

This process is a part of Monitor and Control Process group and Stakeholder Management Knowledge Area with
the following ITTO’s
Inputs:

1. Project management Plan ( Communications and resources Management Plans , Stakeholder engagement plan
)

94 of 101
2. Project Documents (Project Communications , Issue log , Stakeholder register , Risk register , lessons learned
register )
Tools & Techniques:

1. Data Analysis (Alternative analysis , Root cause analysis , stakeholder analysis )

2. Decision making (Multi criteria decision analysis , Voting )
3. Data Representation ( Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix )
4. Communication Skills (Feedback , Presentation )
5. Interpersonal and team skills ( Active Listening , Cultural and political awareness , networking and leadership )
6. Expert Judgment
7. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Change Requests
2. Work Performance information
3. Project Management Plan Updates (Communications and resources Management Plan, Stakeholder
Engagement plan )
4. Project Document Updates ( Issue log , Risk Register , stakeholder register, lessons learned register )
5. Organizational Process assets updates
 It’s the process of monitoring project stakeholder relationships and tailoring strategies for engaging stakeholders
through modification of engagement strategies plans .
 Maintaining Stakeholder relationships and controlling stakeholder engagement are ongoing responsibilities for
the project manager.
 It involves reassessing the stakeholder register, adding stakeholder as appropriate and noting when a particular
stakeholder involvement is no longer necessary.
 To maintain strong relationships you need to spend time talking with stakeholders and develop ways to listen and
gather information on their ongoing feelings about the projects and other stakeholders.

CLOSING

95 of 101
The Closing Process Group consists of those processes performed to conclude all activities across all Project
Management Process Groups to formally complete the project, phase, or contractual obligations. This Process Group,
when completed, verifies that the defined processes are completed withing all of the Process Groups to close the
project or a project phase, as appropriate, and formally establishes that the project or project phase is complete , As
per the PMBOk 6th edition there is only one process within the closing process group :

1. Close Project or Phase – Integration Management

Closing Process group have a share of 7% out of the 200 PMP exam questions , for practicing a PMP exam structured
as per the PMI standards of the five exam domains , you can refer to my course on Udemy platform .

CLOSE PROJECT OR PHASE

This process is a part of Closing Process group and Integration Management Knowledge Area with the
following ITTO’s:
Inputs:

1. Project Charter
2. Project Management Plan
3. Project documents ( Assumption log , issue log , change log , basis of estimates , lessons learned register ,
milestone list , project communications , quality control measurements , quality report , requirements
documentation , risk register and risk report )
4. Accepted Deliverables
5. Business documents (Business case , benefits management plan )
6. Agreements
7. Procurement documentation
8. Organizational Process Assets
Tools & Techniques:

1. Expert Judgment
2. Data Analysis ( Documentation analysis , Regression analysis , Trend analysis , variance analysis )
3. Meetings
Outputs:

1. Final Product/Result/Service.
2. Final Report

96 of 101
3. Project document updates ( Lessons learnt register )
4. Organizational Process Updates
 Close project or phase is the process of finalizing all activities of the project, phase or contract.
 Key benefits of this process is that project information is archived, planned work is completed, and organization
team resources are released to pursue new endeavors .
 Efforts done in this process finalizes all activities of the project to formally close out the phase or the project.
 Many of Project managers think that the project is done when the technical work is completed , Project Closing
have 2 main parts , Closing project or phase and close procurements.
 The project should always be closed, no matter is the circumstances under which it stops, it’s terminated or
completed.
 Financial, legal and administrative efforts involved in closing a project.
 Close Procurements should be completed before project closure.
 If a project is multiphase project, this process will be done at the end of each phase once and at the end of the
whole project once.
 Close Project process includes the following efforts:
1. Confirm work is done according to requirements.
2. Complete Procurement closure.
3. Gain final and formal acceptance of the product.
4. Complete financial Closure.
5. Hand off completed product to operations.
6. Get feedback from the customer about the product.
7. Complete final performance reporting.
8. Index and archive records.

Note: Expect to see a lot of questions in the PMP Exam about this topic as closing
process group contains only one process and it have the share of 7% of exam
questions.

PROFESSIONAL & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

97 of 101
 This article contains most of the important information you need to know about Professional and social
responsibility in order to answer questions related to this topic in the PMP Exam, I recommend you review this
type of articles 1 week before your exam date, all information mentioned are based on PMBOK Guide 6th edition
and PMP Exam Prep 9th edition for Rita Maclhy’s .
The code of ethics and professional conduct breaks professional and social responsibility down into 4
categories :
Responsibility
Make decisions based on the best interests of the company, rather than your own best interest.
Only accept assignments you are qualified to complete.
Protect Proprietary information.
Report unethical behavior and violations.
Uphold laws and regulations.
Own error and accept corrections.
Respect
Maintain an attitude of mutual cooperation.
Respect cultural differences.
Engage in good faith negotiations
Be direct in dealing with conflict
Do not use your power or position to influence others for your own benefit.
Fairness
Act impartially without bribery.
Continuously look for conflicts of interest and disclose them.
Do not discriminate against others.
Do not use your position for personal or business gain.
Honesty
Try to understand the truth.
Be truthful in all communications and create an environment where others tell the truth.

Topic Term Definition Formulas

Simple Average / (P+M+O ) / 3

Activity cost/duration Gives same weight for each of the three
Triangle
estimates points estimates P = Pessimistic
Distribution

98 of 101
 O = Optimistic

M= Most Likely

(P+4M+O) /6
P = Pessimistic
Weighted / Beta Gives stronger consideration to the
Average most likely estimate O = Optimistic

M= Most Likely

The possible range of the estimate, the (P-O)/6

Standard Deviation greater the range created by the P = Pessimistic
(SD) standard deviation calculation , the
greater the risk . O = Optimistic

A range of the estimate starts with EAD-

Range of estimate EAD ± SD
SD and ends with EAD+SD
Range of Estimate
EAD : Expected Activity Duration

Float = LS – ES
= LF – EF
ES : Early Start
The amount of time an activity can be
Critical Path Method Float delayed without delaying the project EF : Early Finish
end date or project milestone.
LS : Late Start

LF : Late Finish

= EV – AC
Cost difference between planned and
Cost Variance
actual , target value is 0 , positive is EV : Earned Value
(CV)
good , Negative is bad
Earned Value AC : Actual Cost
Management
Schedule difference between planned = EV – PV
and actual , target value is 0 , positive is
Schedule Variance EV : Earned Value
good , Negative is bad
(SV)
PV : Planned Value

99 of 101
 Ratio of planned to actual costs , target = EV/AC
value is 1 , greater than one is good ,
Cost Performance EV : Earned Value
less than 1 is bad
Index (CPI)
AC : Actual Cost

Ratio of planned to actual schedule, = EV/PV

Schedule target value is 1 , greater than one is
Performance Index good , less than 1 is bad EV : Earned Value
( SPI )
PV : Planned Value

Estimate At As of today, How much we expect the

Completion (EAC) total project to cost?

This formula calculate the actual costs = AC + ETC

to date plus a new estimate for the
EAC , Formula 1 remaining work . It is used when the AC : Actual Cost
original estimates assumptions are no
longer valid ETC : Estimate To Complete

This formula is used if there is no = BAC / CPI

variances from BAC .have occurred or BAC : Budget At Completion
EAC , Formula 2
you will continue in the same rate of
spending. CPI : Cost Performance Index

This formula calculate the actual costs = AC + ( BAC-EV)

to date plus remaining budget , it is used AC : Actual Cost
when current variances are through to
EAC , Formula 3
be atypical of the future , It is the actual BAC : Budget At Completion
cost plus the remaining value of work to
perform EV : Earned Value

= AC + ( BAC-EV)/(CPI*SPI)
This formula calculates actual to date
plus the remaining budget modified by AC : Actual Cost
performance , It’s used when current
variances are though to be typical of the BAC : Budget At Completion
EAC , Formula 4 future and when the project schedule
constraints will influence the completion EV : Earned Value
of the remaining efforts
CPI : Cost Performance Index

SPI : Schedule Performance Index

100 of 101
 EAC – AC
How much more will the project cost?
Estimate To EAC : Estimate At Completion
Complete ( ETC)
AC : Actual Cost

As of today , how much over or under BAC-EAC

budget do we expect to be at the end of
Variance At BAC : Budget At Completion
the project
Completion (VAC)
EAC : Estimate At Completion

= ( BAC-EV)/(BAC-AC)

The Formula divides the work remaining BAC : Budget At Completion

To Complete
to be done by the money remaining to
Performance Index
do it .The only index with below 1 is AC : Actual Cost
(TCPI)
good , above 1 is bad !!
EV : Earned Value

While you are evaluation a risk you will

look at the probability or impact, but = P * I
Expected calculating the expected monetary P: Probability
Risk Analysis Monetary Value value is a better measure to determine
(EMV) an overall ranking of risk . I: Impact

Simple Concept , For each added = N(N-1) / 2

Communication
Communication stakeholder there should be increase in
Channels
the number of communication channels N : Number of Stakeholders

List of tools and techniques

https://thegeneralistit.com/blog/2016/10/29/the-complete-list-of-pmp-tools-and-techniques/

101 of 101