0.

General

Management Plans: considering how you will do the work. Answers the
questions:
●​ How will we manage and monitor/control scope, schedule, cost now
that we have planned what needs to be done?
●​ How will we perform the closing of the project phases and overall
project?
●​ Includes requirements; if requirements change, need to update
management plan

Organizational process assets (OPAs)

●​ Processes, procedures, policies: developed over time by
organization; owned by the PMO
●​ Organizational knowledge repositories: historical information that
can be used by the organization to plan and manage future projects
(lessons learned repository, activities, WBSs, risks and response
plans, project documents, meeting minutes, presentations)
○​ Can be reviewed to ID lessons learned from the past

Organizational Structure
●​ Functional: common org. structure; functional orgs are grouped by
areas of specialization (accounting, marketing, etc.)
○​ Projects occur within departments
○​ PM has little to no power
●​ Project-oriented: company is organized by projects; PM has control
of projects; team members have “no home”
●​ Matrix: think “two managers”; team members report to PM and
functional manager
○​ Strong matrix: power is with PM
○​ Weak matrix: power is with Functional Manager; PM is
part-time; PM’s power over resources is low
Performance Measurement Baselines: scope, schedule, cost; included in
the PM plan; against which the PM will report project performance
●​ Record of what the project had planned, scheduled, and budgeted in
terms of scope, schedule, cost performance and are used to compare
the project’s actual performance against planned performance
●​ Deviations from baselines are often due to incomplete risk ID and risk
management
●​ If exam asks what to do when a project deviates from established
baselines, correct answer is the one about reviewing the project’s risk
management process
●​ Performance measurements are used to assess the magnitude of
variation from a baseline

Needs assessment: involves understanding business goals and objectives,

issues, and opportunities and recommending proposals to address them;
done during pre-work

How to answer questions:

1.​ Is the question about a technique or a process?
2.​ Is it about a project DOCUMENT, PLAN, OR OPA?
3.​ Is the question in initiating and planning? (That means no change
request required to change anything)
4.​ Is the question asking for what to do next? Or what is the best action
to do? (What to do next may be “record the issue” but this doesn’t
solve it).

During project review, stakeholders remark that several technical

requirements were overlooked = Issue a change request (to add
requirement to requirements documentation, requirements traceability
matrix)

Portfolio is a collection of projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios and

operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.
●​ Portfolio management = when programs, projects, operations are
managed together
Program management = a program is a group of related projects,
subsidiary programs, and program activities that are managed in a
coordinated manner. Does NOT include operations.

Project management = the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and

techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Includes
program and operations.

Always ensure the project aligns with company standards

Conflict management techniques:

1.​ Compromise/reconcile: characterized by searching for solutions that
bring some degree of satisfaction to all parties to temporarily resolve
a conflict (lose-lose)
2.​ Force or direct: involves pushing one’s viewpoint at the expense of
others (win-lose)
3.​ Collaborate or problem solve: intended to provide a permanent
solution; involves taking methodical steps to deal with a problem
4.​ Smooth or accommodate: where the PM emphasizes areas of
agreement rather than differences between the 2 parties and
concedes one’s position to the needs of the other to maintain
harmony in relationships
5.​ Withdrawal: parties postpone a decision

Waterfall vs. agile project management approach

●​ Waterfall: traditional project methodology
●​ Agile: focuses on continuous improvement and will review
performance more regularly; retrospectives are conducted at the end
of each iteration and at the end of the project

Conduct a walkthrough: a walkthrough is the examination of a deliverable

to determine if it confirms to documented standards
●​ Can be used during the Validate Scope or the Control Quality
processes
Affinity diagram
●​ Technique that allows large numbers of ideas to be classified into
groups for review and analysis (used in Collect Requirements and
Manage Quality processes)

Alternative Analysis
●​ Technique used to evaluate identified options in order to select the
options to use to perform project work (used during ID risk process)

Need: PC, stakeholder register, and approved PM plan before project

execution can begin.

If issue is ID’ed as a risk during planning and a contingency reserved has

been allocated to cover the risk response, no updates to baseline required
and only project schedule would have to be adjusted

If a stakeholder raises a concern that needs to be addressed = update the

ISSUE LOG with complaint and with action items
Journey of Deliverables

KA Output KA Output KA Output

Direct and Deliverables Control Quality Verified Validate Scope Accepted

Manage Deliverables Deliverables
Project Work

Journey of WPD to WP Report

KA Output KA Output KA Output

Direct and WPD Several other WPI M+C Project WP Report

Manage M+C Work
Project Work Processes
1. Integration

Project management plan is the document that describes how the project
will be executed, monitored and controlled, and closed. It integrates and
consolidates all of the subsidiary management plans and baselines, and
other information necessary to manage the project.
●​ PM Plan is approved by Sponsor as well as all relevant stakeholders

Configuration management plan describes how the information about the

items of the project (and which items) will be recorded and updated so
that the product, service, or result of the project remains consistent and/or
operative. It does track changes to the configuration items to keep docs
and information about the items up to date.
●​ Defines which project artifacts will be controlled and therefore require
a CR to make modifications

Configuration control is focused on the specification of both the

deliverables and the processes.

Performance measurement baseline an integrated scope-schedule-cost

plan for the project work against which project execution is compared to
measure and manage performance.

Project life cycle describes the series of phases that a project passes
through from its initiation to its closure.

Development approach describes the product, service, or result

development approach, such as predictive, iterative, agile, or a hybrid
model.

Management reviews identifies the points in the project when the project
manager and relevant stakeholders will review the project progress to
determine if performance is as expected, or if preventive or corrective
actions are necessary.
Change log is used to document changes that occur during a project. The
change log contains all related information and the status of all
change requests.
●​ Needs to be updated once CRs are approved or a change has been
implemented

Change management plan provides the direction for managing the

change control process and documents the roles and responsibilities
of the change control board (CCB).
●​ Describes how the change requests throughout the project will be
formally authorized and incorporated
●​ Shows who is responsible for reviewing the CR and making a
decision
●​ If stakeholders can’t agree on whether to approve a CR, PM needs to
consult change management plan for criteria on which CRs are
approved, rejected, deferred
●​ If a key resource leaves the team, review the Change Management
Plan and submit a change request

Change control is focused on tracking the changes, including identifying,

documenting, and approving or rejecting changes to the project documents,
deliverables, or baselines.

Assumption log high level strategic and operational assumptions and

constraints are normally identified in the business case before the
project is initiated and will flow into the project charter. The assumption
log is used to record all assumptions and constraints throughout the
project life cycle.
●​ Output of the Develop Project Charter process

Business case
●​ Started by sponsor or stakeholder
●​ Documents the business need and the cost benefit analysis
(economic feasibility) that justify the project. The business case lists
 the objectives and reasons for project initiation. Business case
analysis criteria are: required, desired, optional. Identification of
options to be considered for addressing the business problem or
opportunity are:
●​ Do nothing. This is “business as usual” option meaning option
results in the project not being authorized.
●​ Do the minimum work possible to address the problem or
opportunity. The minimum may be established by identifying the set
of documented criteria that are key in addressing the problem or
opportunity.
●​ Do more than the minimum work possible to address the
problem or opportunity. This option meets the minimum set of
criteria and some or all of the other documented criteria.
●​ If CBA is greater than 1 = benefits (revenue) greater than cost

Benefits management plan

●​ The benefits management plan outlines the target benefits of the
project such as:
○​ Target benefits (e.g., the expected tangible and intangible
value to be gained by the implementation of the project;
financial value is expressed as net present value);
○​ Strategic alignment (e.g., how well the project benefits align to
the business strategies of the organization);
○​ Timeframe for realizing benefits (e.g., benefits by phase,
short-term, long-term, and ongoing);
○​ Benefits owner (e.g., the accountable person to monitor,
record, and report realized benefits throughout the timeframe
established in the plan);
○​ Metrics (e.g., the measures to be used to show benefits
realized, direct measures, and indirect measures);
○​ Assumptions (e.g., factors expected to be in place or to be in
evidence); and
○​ Risks (e.g., risks for realization of benefits).
●​ The benefits management plan is NOT part of the business case; it is
a separate document
Develop Project Charter = where key deliverables are ID’ed

Project Charter
●​ Authorizes existence of project; can be approved prior to all
stakeholders being ID’ed
●​ Ensures common understanding by stakeholders of key high-level
requirements, high-level risks/opportunities, key deliverables,
milestones, project start/end dates, pre-approved financial resources,
exit criteria, roles and responsibilities of everyone on the project,
overall project risk
○​ Contains project success criteria, approval requirements, who
will sign off on project, high level EEFs
○​ Sponsor signs PC to approve project and move to Planning
○​ Will explain to stakeholders how the project will impact their
department
○​ The key benefit of charter is provides a direct link between the
project and the strategic objectives of the organization, creates
a formal record of the project, and shows the organizational
commitment to the project.
●​ Exit criteria: what needs to be approved for the project, WHO can
approve, etc.

Enterprise environmental factors (EEF) refer to conditions, not under the

control of the project team, that influence, constrain, or direct the project
(Ex: labor rules and regulations, etc.)
●​ This is an input to the Develop Charter process

Issue log
●​ Is a project document where all the issues that happen during
project are recorded and tracked, including issue type, who raised
the issue and when, description, priority, who is assigned to the issue,
target resolution date, status, and final solution. Even if the issue is
 listed in this log, this doesn't guarantee that it will be resolved or
won’t happen again.
○​ Issues that arise in the Manage Team process should be
recorded in the issue log (Ex: 2 team members are fighting; you
meet with them to resolve the conflict)
○​ An issue is a current conduction or situation that may have an
impact on the project objectives
○​ If a stakeholder comes to the PM with an issue:
■​ Update the issue log
■​ Meet with the stakeholder, collect the information, update
the issue with the information for further investigating
●​ If a deliverable does not meet quality requirements = considered an
issue and update the issue log

Lessons learned register

●​ Can include the category and description of the situation, the
impact, recommendations, and proposed actions associated with
the situation. The lessons learned register may record challenges,
problems, realized risks and opportunities, or other content as
appropriate. The lessons learned register is created as an output of
Direct Project knowledge. Thereafter it is used as an input and
updated as an output in many processes throughout the project. At
the end of a project or phase, the information is transferred to an
organizational process asset called a lessons learned repository.
Final lessons learned register is done during closing phase.
○​ Info gained from feedback (survey / questionnaire results)
documented here
○​ Performed during the Manage Project Knowledge process
○​ Risk lessons learned are captured in LL register

A milestone is a significant point or event in a project. A milestone list

identifies all project milestones and indicates whether the milestone is
mandatory, such as those required by contract, or optional, such as those
based on historical information. Milestones have zero duration because
they represent a significant point or event.
Knowledge management tools help to connect people so they can work
together to create new knowledge and share tacit knowledge, including:
●​ Networking, including informal social interaction and online
networking.
●​ Communities of practice (sometimes called communities of interest
or just communities) and special interest groups;
●​ Meetings, including virtual meetings where participants can interact
using communications technology;
●​ Work shadowing and reverse shadowing;
●​ Discussion forums such as focus groups;
●​ Knowledge-sharing events such as seminars and conferences;
●​ Workshops, including problem-solving sessions and learning reviews
designed to identify lessons learned;
●​ Storytelling;
●​ Creativity and ideas management techniques;
●​ Knowledge fairs and cafés; and
●​ Training that involves interaction between learners.

Information management tools and techniques are used to connect

people to information. They are effective for sharing simple,
unambiguous, such as:
●​ Methods for codifying explicit knowledge; for example, for producing
lessons to be learned entries for the lessons learned register;
●​ Lessons learned register;
●​ Library services;
●​ Information gathering, for example, web searches and reading
published articles; and Project management information system
(PMIS).
●​ PMIS ensures that stakeholders can easily retrieve the information
they need in a timely manner
Alternatives analysis
●​ Is used to select the corrective actions or a combination of corrective
and preventive actions to implement when a deviation occurs.
(Basically, review multiple options to choose from).

Multicriteria decision analysis

●​ (used during Collect Requirements, Acquire Resources, Conduct
Procurements) (e.g., prioritization matrix) can be used to identify
and rank the key issues and suitable alternatives to be prioritized
as a set of decisions for implementation.
○​ Criteria are prioritized and weighted before being applied to all
available alternatives to obtain a mathematical score for each
alternative.
○​ The alternatives are then ranked by score. As used in this
process, it can help prioritize quality metrics.

Document analysis consists of reviewing and assessing any relevant

documented information such as project documents and plans and
compare them to similar previous projects.

Regression analysis technique analyzes the interrelationships between

different project variables that contributed to the project outcomes to
improve performance on future projects, such as factors leading to
success of project or failure. It is done during the close project
process.

Benefit owner is someone assigned to monitor, record and track realized

benefits throughout the project.

Final report provides a summary of the project performance on all areas

such as: risk, performance, scope, schedule, criteria used to determine if
project has met these objectives. Performed during project close process.
Kick off meeting in predictive approach is done at the end of planning. In
multi phases project, it happens at the beginning of each phase. In projects
where the team is small and the same team members doing all the project
work (initiate, plan, execute, etc) the kick off meeting happens right after
initiation is completed.
●​ Meeting is used to communicate the objectives of the project, gain
commitment of the stakeholders and the team, and explain the roles
and responsibilities of each stakeholder

Phase gate, also known as kill point, is a review done by the project
manager and the relevant stakeholders at the end of a phase in which a
decision is made to continue to the next phase, to continue with
modification, or to end a program or project. During this review the project
performance and progress is reviewed against the business documents
such as business case.
●​ Business documents = business case, benefits management plan

Agile teams focus on continuous improvement and will review performance

more regularly.
●​ Agile team retrospectives are performed at the end of each of each
iteration and can focus on the team’s working practices – how they
work together, celebrating a job well done, bettering the relationships
in the team, and often a more traditional approach focuses on the
project tasks and deliverables and not how the team performed
together.
●​ Agile teams will have release or sprint retrospectives where the
focus is on the product or service covered in that release. The team
is responsible for planning the work to be accomplished by each
iteration NOT the PM, the PM is just a facilitator and overlook the
work. The team is accountable for meeting the deadline because they
are self-organizing. In the meeting at the beginning of each
iteration, reviewing and approving detailed scope of the iteration
takes place. Agile doesn't use CCB or change management plan.
Changes are approved by the product owner.
 ●​ Not much time spent developing change management plan for agile
projects
●​ Daily stand up meetings are used on agile projects

Law of diminishing returns states that sometimes, adding more resources

doesn’t produce proportional increase in productivity.
●​ 1 programmer produces 1 module per day
●​ 2 programmers produce 1.75 module per day
●​ 3 programmers produce 2.49 module a day.

Work Performance Data: includes the initial measurements and details

about activities gathered during the Direct and Management Project Work
process in executing
●​ Monitor and Controlling: work performance data is analyzed to
make sure it conforms to the project management plan and
performing according to baselines in PMP
○​ Assessed to determine what the data means for the project as a
whole (result is work performance information)
○​ Output is work performance information
○​ If variances from plan requires changes, CRs are evaluated in
PICC process
●​ Work performance information is then organized into work
performance reports, which are distributed to stakeholders who
need to receive and act on information

Handling changes steps

1.​ Try to prevent the root cause of the change by making sure during
planning that the scope is complete, all stakeholder needs are
identified and all risks are identified.
2.​ Identify the need for change and who is asking for it and the work
around (options to deal with the effects of the change request).
3.​ Create and submit a change request.
4.​ Evaluate if the change related to the scope, check the impact on all
project aspect areas and constraints.
5.​ Perform ICCP.
 a.​ Get the CCB to approve, defer or refuse the change.
b.​ Get the customer or sponsor buy in if required in the change
management plan.
c.​ Update the change log and any other baseline documents
(scope, schedule, cost) if change approved or rejected, the
disposition of all change requests are recorded in the change
log as a project document update.
d.​ Inform the stakeholder(s) who requested the change request
with the result of the change request (approved, rejected,
deferred).
e.​ Approved change requests will be implemented through the
Direct and Manage Project Process and monitor the results.
f.​ Adjust the project plan, baseline and documents as necessary.

Direct and Manage Project Work: process of leading and performing the
work defined in the PM plan as well as implementing approved changes to
achieve the project’s objectives
●​ Process where CRs are implemented (for the most part)

Monitor and Control Project Work: process of tracking, reviewing, and

reporting the overall progress to meet the performance objectives defined
in the PM plan
========================================================================
2. Scope

Scope management plan

●​ Is a component of the project management plan that describes how
the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and
validated.
○​ Includes process and procedures for the formal acceptance of
completed project deliverables
○​ Outlines process of how deliverables are accepted
○​ Includes project lifecycle and development approach

Requirements management plan how the requirements will be managed,

documented and analyzed including how to process requirements, address
missed requirements, configuration management, prioritize requirements,
metrics (and rationale) for defining the product, define the traceability
structure (in RTM), authorization level for approving new requirements.
Primary means to understand and manage stakeholder expectations.

Product scope the features and functions that characterize a product,

service, or result. The term “project scope” is sometimes viewed as
including product scope.

Project scope the work performed to deliver a product, service, or result

with the specified features and functions.

Define Scope
●​ Process of developing detailed description of the project and product

Project scope statement

●​ Is the description of the project scope, major deliverables,
assumptions, and constraints. The project scope statement
documents the entire scope, including:
○​ Project and product scope
 ○​ Product scope description
○​ Acceptance criteria
○​ Deliverables
○​ Project exclusions

Collect requirements process of determining, documenting, managing

stakeholder needs and requirement to meet project objectives

Requirements documentation describes how individual requirements

meet the business need for the project. The requirements in this
document may address: business, stakeholders, solutions, project, quality,
transitions and readiness.
●​ Used as an input into Control Scope Process to detect any deviation
in the agreed upon approach

Requirements traceability matrix

●​ Is a grid that links product requirements to the deliverables that
satisfy them and shows who requested the requirement.
○​ Ensures that strategic goals are accomplished
○​ Updated for every stakeholder that provides deliverable
acceptance
○​ Helps to ensure each requirement in the requirements
documentation is tested. The matrix provides an overview of
the tests needed to verify the requirements

Product analysis used to define products and services. It includes asking

questions and carry discussions about a product. The techniques are:
●​ Product breakdown
●​ Requirements analysis
●​ Systems analysis
●​ Systems engineering
●​ Value analysis
●​ Value engineering: how to reduce cost but meet budget
Work breakdown structure (WBS)
●​ Lists the scope of the work to be carried out by project team to
accomplish the objectives and create required deliverables
○​ Deliverable oriented decomposition of project work
○​ Decomposes the project scope
○​ 100% rule = if PM work is missing from WBS, it does not pass
100% rule
○​ Code of accounts: numbering system to uniquely ID each
component of WBS

Scope baseline is the approved version of a scope statement, WBS, work

packages, planning packages and WBS dictionary, which can be
changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a
basis for comparison.
●​ If additional scope is ID’ed, scope baseline is updated
●​ Can be used as a basis for comparison between the scope that was
planned to be delivered by the project the scope that was actually
delivered

Accepted deliverables are verified deliverables that have been checked

during control quality process and meet the acceptance criteria are formally
signed off and approved by the customer or sponsor.

Planning package is a work breakdown structure component below the

control account and above the work package with known work content
but without detailed schedule activities.

Decomposition is the method used to break down the scope and

deliverables to a manageable level of detail to the degree needed to control
the project cost + duration.

Control Scope Process: goal is to prevent scope creep

Validate Scope Process: process of formalizing acceptance of the
completed deliverables. Includes reviewing deliverables with the customer
or sponsor to ensure they are completed and obtaining formal acceptance.
●​ Acceptance criteria are used during the inspection in the Validate
Scope process to ensure that contractual obligations have been met

Trend Analysis
●​ Performed during Control Scope; examines project performance over
time to determine if performance is improving or deteriorating

Focus groups
●​ Bring together prequalified stakeholders and subject matter
experts to learn about their expectations and attitudes about a
proposed product, service, or result. A trained moderator guides the
group through an interactive discussion designed to be more
conversational than a one-on-one interview.

Benchmarking
●​ Involves comparing actual or planned products, processes, and
practices to those of comparable organizations to identify best
practices.

Mind mapping consolidates ideas created through individual

brainstorming sessions into a single map to reflect commonality and
differences in understanding and to generate new ideas.

Nominal group
●​ Interpersonal skill, technique that enhances brainstorming with a
voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further
brainstorming or for prioritization.
Time-boxing helps to minimize scope creep as it forces the teams to
process essential features first, then other features when time permits. It
is an Agile approach usually done during standup meetings with the team.

Joint application design/development (JAD) JAD sessions are used in the

software development industry. These facilitated sessions focus on
bringing business subject matter experts and the development team
together to gather requirements and improve the software development
process.

Quality function deployment (QFD) In the manufacturing industry, QFD is

another facilitation technique that helps determine critical
characteristics for new product development. QFD starts by collecting
customer needs, also known as the voice of the customer (VOC).
These needs are then objectively sorted and prioritized, and goals are set
for achieving them.

User stories which are short, textual descriptions of required

functionality, are often developed during a requirements workshop.
User stories describe the stakeholder role, who benefits from the feature
(role), what the stakeholder needs to accomplish (goal), and the benefit to
the stakeholder (motivation).

Storyboarding is a prototyping technique showing sequence or navigation

through a series of images or illustrations.

100% percent rule total of the work at the lowest levels should roll up to the
higher levels so that nothing is left out and no extra work is performed.

Context diagram visual depiction of the product scope showing a business

system and how people interact with it

Sprint review meeting retrospective is a meeting to review lessons

learned from iteration.
Project retrospective
●​ Is a meeting at the end of the project to review knowledge gained
from the project to improve future projects.

Iteration retrospective
●​ Is a meeting held generally at the end of each iteration to review
lessons learned.
○​ A regularly occurring workshop in which participants explore
their work and results in order to improve both process
and product (what went well, what needs to improve).
○​ If on an agile project and quality is a primary focus, include a
quality review with each iteration retrospective. Recurring
retrospectives regularly check on the effectiveness of the
quality process.

Affinity diagram
●​ Is a tool used during Collect Requirements that gathers large
amounts of data (ideas, opinions, issues) and organizes them into
groupings based on their natural relationships
○​ Used to ID areas of scope (or risks) that have not been
identified

Rolling wave planning progressive elaboration = enough details to start

the planning work then more details become available as work progresses.
When decomposition may not be possible for a deliverable or
subcomponent that will be accomplished far into the future, the project
team usually waits until the deliverable or subcomponent is agreed on, so
the details of the WBS can be developed.

Manage stakeholder engagement process is the process of communicating

and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations,
address issues, and foster the appropriate stakeholder involvement.
========================================================================
3. Schedule

Iterative scheduling with a backlog is a form of rolling wave planning

based on adaptive life cycles, such as the agile approach for product
development. This approach is often used to deliver incremental value to
the customer or when multiple teams can concurrently develop a large
number of features that have few interconnected dependencies. The
benefit of this approach is that it welcomes changes throughout the
development life cycle.
●​ For adaptive projects: the detailed scope is defined and approved
during an iteration planning meeting at the start of the iteration.
Adaptive approaches use short cycles to undertake work, review the
results, and adapt as necessary. A Kanban board provides a visual
representation of the workflow (by using cards that are “pulled” from
process to process).

Agile release planning provides a high-level summary timeline of the

release schedule (typically 3 to 6 months) based on the product
roadmap and the product vision for the product’s evolution.
●​ Agile release planning also determines the number of iterations or
sprints in the release, and allows the product owner and team to
decide how much needs to be developed and how long it will take to
have a releasable product based on business goals, dependencies,
impediments.
●​ Release 1 > Release plan > Iteration 1 > Iteration plan > Feature
1 based on user story > Task 1 and its duration.

On-demand scheduling this approach, typically used in a Kanban system.

It is based on the theory of constraints and pull-based scheduling
concepts from lean manufacturing to limit a team’s work in progress
in order to balance demand against the team’s delivery throughput.
Schedule management plan establishes the criteria and the activities for
developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.

Mandatory dependencies are those that are legally or contractually

required or inherent in the nature of the work. Sometimes referred to as
hard logic or hard dependencies. Technical dependencies may not be
mandatory.

Discretionary dependencies are sometimes referred to as preferred logic,

preferential logic, or soft logic. Discretionary dependencies are
established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular
application area.

External dependencies involve a relationship between project activities and

non project activities.

Internal dependencies involve a precedence relationship between project

activities and are generally inside the project team’s control.

Precedence diagramming method: technique used for constructing

schedule model to show sequence of activities
●​ Input data into scheduling software (PMIS) to create a schedule
model

Activity list is the scheduled activities required on the project. For projects
that use rolling wave planning or agile techniques, the activity list will be
updated periodically as the project progresses. The activity list includes
an activity identifier and a scope of work description for each activity in
sufficient detail to ensure that project team members understand what
work is required to be completed.

Schedule network analysis technique used to generate the project

schedule (Gant chart, bar chart, milestone) models.
Project schedule Gantt chart represents linked activities with planned
dates, durations, milestones along with the resource type. The
schedule can be in three types (bar chart, milestone, project schedule
network diagram). It can be updated, changed without a change request
as long as it doesn’t affect the schedule baseline.

1.​ Network diagram A type of project schedule that shows

dependencies among project schedule activities.
2.​ Milestone chart: only show major events with due dates; no duration.
Good to show to management and customer.
3.​ Bar charts: good for progress reporting and control. Do not show
dependencies, resources

What-if scenario analysis

●​ Can be used to assess the feasibility of the project schedule under
different conditions, and in preparing schedule reserves and
response plans to address the impact of unexpected situations.

Project calendar identifies working days and shifts that are available for
scheduled activities.

Schedule data is the collection of information for creating, describing and

controlling the schedule includes, the schedule milestones, schedule
activities, activity attributes, and documentation of all identified
assumptions and constraints, resource histograms, cash-flow projections,
order and delivery schedules.

Iteration burndown chart tracks the work that remains to be completed in

the iteration backlog.
●​ If ahead of schedule then below line

Performance review measure, compare, and analyze schedule

performance against the schedule baseline such as actual start and finish
dates, percent complete, and remaining duration for work in progress.
Activity standard deviation range all possible range of estimate = P- O / 6 .
The greater the range the greater the risk.

Develop Schedule process of analyzing activity sequences, durations,

resource requirements, and schedule constraints. Output of this process
is:
●​ Schedule model for project execution and monitoring and
controlling.
●​ Schedule baseline

Schedule compression
1.​ Fast Tracking: taking critical path activities originally planned in
sequence and perform in parallel instead. Results in rework,
increased risk.
2.​ Crashing: adding or adjusting resources while maintaining original
scope. Results in increased costs, risk. Can be used if project has
negative float.
a.​ Ex: overtime pay

Resource Optimization
1.​ Resource leveling = resource limited schedule A technique that
involves adjusting start/end dates to keep resource use below a set
limit, based on resource constraints with the goal of balancing the
demand for resources. Lengthens schedule and increases costs.
Resource leveling can affect a project’s critical path.
2.​ Resource smoothing: resources are leveled only within the limits of
the float of their activities, so completion dates are not delayed.

Estimate Activity Durations

●​ Process of estimating team resources and the type and quantities of
material, equipment, and supplies necessary to do the job.
●​ Performed after activities have been defined and sequenced, next
step is to estimate how long each activity will take
Estimating
●​ One point estimating: one estimate per activity; not the best method
to use; easy way to draw network diagrams and find the CP
●​ Analogous (top-down) estimating: used when there’s limited info on
current project; historical information + expert judgement to predict
the future (i.e., can use previous similar project estimates). Think
“analogy”
●​ Parametric estimating: more accurate; used when info is available;
creating a mathematical equation using historical data from other
sources to create estimates; can use info from earlier on in project
○​ Ex: cost per line of code; cost per meter
●​ Heuristics: a generally accepted rule or best practice (i.e., 80/20 rule)
●​ Three-point estimating: states estimates in a range: optimistic (O),
pessimistic (P), most likely (M)
○​ Triangular: (P+O+M) / 3
○​ Beta: (P+4M+O) / 6
●​ Bottom-up estimating: involves creating detailed estimates for each
part of an activity or work package (need an accurate WBS);
estimates are then rolled up

Data Analysis
●​ Alternatives analysis: when activity estimates are not acceptable
within the constraints of the project, alternative analysis is used to
look more closely at the variables that impact the estimates
○​ Results in determining the best approach to completing
project work within constraints
○​ Can be used during the Define Scope process to select the
final project requirements that will best meet the objectives
identified in the project charter
●​ Reserve analysis: is used to determine the amount of contingency
and management reserve needed for the project.
 ○​ Estimate Activity Duration may include contingency
reserves, sometimes referred to as schedule reserves, to
account for schedule uncertainty.
○​ Management reserves are additional funds and time to cover
unforeseen risks; NOT part of the schedule baseline
○​ When management reserves are used, the amount of
management reserve used is added to the cost baseline, thus
requiring a change request
○​ If money is saved on project due to an opportunity = add money
to the contingency reserves

Total float amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the
project end date or any milestones.
●​ If activity is on CP then cannot be delayed = 0 Total Float

Free float amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the
start of the successor activity. Calculation for FF is :
Early start of the successor activity minus early start of the intended
activity minus the intended activity duration

Kaizen events aim to achieve improvement of the system.

Kanban Board
●​ Visualization tool that enables improvements to the flow of work by
making bottlenecks and work quantities visible. It helps to limit and
track the work by showing work in progress. Using pull system
enables work optimization of workflow.
○​ Kanban process is a system for scheduling inventory control
and replenishment

Parkinson’s Law where work expands to fill the time available for its
completion (in other words, if you finish work early bring more from work
from the next stage and use your time to work).
WBS dictionary is a document that provides detailed deliverable, activity,
and scheduling information about each component in the WBS; supports
the WBS.

Schedule forecast: estimates of events in the project’s future based on

known info

First of 5 Technique: agile; shows level of agreement

●​ Ex: if developers hold up less than 5, explain why they can’t complete
within current iteration

Apply Leads and Lags is a way to bring project activities that are behind
schedule into alignment with the project plan

=======================================================================
4. Cost

Cost management plan describes how the project costs will be planned,
structured, and controlled. It includes variances and thresholds
estimates.
●​ Determines what estimating methods to be used

Bottom-up estimating is a method of estimating a component of work. The

cost of individual work packages or activities is estimated to the greatest
level of specified details. The detailed cost is then summarized or “rolled
up” to higher levels for subsequent reporting and tracking purposes.

Cost estimates include quantitative assessments of the costs required to

complete project work, as well as contingency reserves to account for
identified risks, and management reserves to cover unplanned work and
unidentified risks.

Basis of estimate the amount and type of additional details supporting the
cost estimate vary by application area including direct and indirect costs
and the level of confidence in these estimates.
●​ They are used as a reference for the evaluation of performance

Cost baseline the approved version of cost not including management

reserves.
●​ An approved change request is required to transfer funds from
management reserves to the cost baseline
●​ Once management reserves have been moved to cost baseline, the
PM can access the funds as part of the cost baseline and restart
project execution

Cost budget is the cost baseline plus the management reserves.

Project funding requirements total funding and periodic funding
requirements (e.g., quarterly, annually) are derived from the cost baseline.
This is an estimate not a document.

Value analysis also known as value engineering = finding the lowest

cost method to do the work without affecting the scope.

Variance analysis

Determines if features are in line with the project’s scope baseline

●​ CPI = EV / AC = Greater than 1 is GOOD
●​ SPI = EV / PV = Greater than 1 is GOOD
○​ Ex: SPI of 1.8 means “you completed 80% more work than
planned as of today” (GOOD)
○​ Ex: SPI of .8 means “you completed 10% of planned rate (BAD)
●​ CV = EV - AC = Positive is GOOD
●​ SV = EV - PV = Positive is GOOD
○​ Schedule variance = earned schedule (ES) - Actual time (AT)
○​ Ex: PM is 20 weeks into project scheduled for a year (AT); half
of the work has been completed (ES)
■​ 26 (52/2) - 20 = 6 weeks
●​ TCPI = BAC - EV / EAC - AC = Greater than 1 means “we must
achieve better SPI than so far”
○​ Used to determine “to be completed work”
●​ EAC = AC + (BAC - EV)
○​ Ex: if EAC > BAC, expect project to go over budget
●​ VAC
○​ Ex: if VAC > $0 = project will underrun budget (GOOD)
●​ ETC
○​ How much more we need to spend over what we have spent to
complete the project
○​ Ex: if ETC = $7k, need to spend $7k more than already spent to
complete the project

Cost forecast either a calculated EAC value or a new EAC

Historical information review is performing parametric analysis by
comparing the current project with previous ones using current project
provided numbers.

Funding limits reconciliation is keeping the project expenses within the

project determined budget.

Earned value analysis (EVA) compares the performance measurement

baseline to the actual schedule and cost performance.

Estimate ranges
●​ Rough Order of Magnitude = ROM takes place very early in a
project's life cycle — during the project selection and approval period
and prior to project initiation in most cases. -25 to + 75.
●​ Budget estimate = the cost of work, activities and all related work.
The range is -10 to +25.
●​ Definitive estimate = more realistic estimate during project late life
cycle.The range is -10 to +10.

Cost of Quality (COQ) are preventative, appraisals, failure.

Representation of uncertainty is an input used for Monte Carlo analysis,

used when particular risks or other sources of uncertainty are not clear or
unknown when the pm wants to run the simulation.

https://pmstudycircle.com/2012/05/to-complete-performance-index-tcpi-in-project-cost-manage
ment/
========================================================================
5. Quality

Quality management plan describes how policies, procedures, and

guidelines will be implemented to achieve the quality objectives. It
describes the activities and resources necessary for the project
management team to achieve the quality objectives set for the project.
●​ Plan includes quality standards, so if you are on a project and the
government establishes more stringent standards, a CR should be
requested to update the quality management plan
●​ Also describes what to do with nonconforming products and what
corrective action to implement

Quality metrics specifically describe a project or product attribute and

how the control quality process will verify compliance to it. Some examples
of quality metrics include percentage of tasks completed on time, cost
performance measured by CPI, failure rate, number of defects identified
per day, total downtime per month, errors found per line of code, customer
satisfaction scores, and percentage of requirements covered by the test
plan as a measure of test coverage.
●​ Compare test results to quality metrics; this verifies compliance of
the product with the pre-defined specifications

Manage Quality
●​ Is quality assurance, the process of translating the quality
management plan into executable quality activities that
incorporate the organization’s quality policies into the project.
○​ Does this by using quality control measurements gathered
during the Control Quality process
●​ 4 goals:
○​ Design an optimal and mature product by implementing specific
design guidelines
○​ Build confidence that a future output will be completed in a
menner that meets the specific requirements
 ○​ Confirm that the quality processes are used and their use
meetings the quality objectives
○​ Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of processes and
activities

Control Quality is the process of ensuring a certain level of quality in a

deliverable, products, services, or results are measured to determine
whether they meet the quality standards.
●​ Are the results of our work meeting the agreed upon standards and
thereby meeting project requirements?
●​ What is the actual variance from the standards?
●​ Is the variance from standards or processes outside of acceptable
limits?
●​ Are people using the checklists to support meeting the metrics
established for the process?
●​ What changes in the project should be considered?
●​ CHANGE REQUESTS should be verified, confirmed for
completeness, restested, and the corresponding deliverables certified
as correct
●​ Product testing is performed at this step

Cost of quality (COQ): performed during Plan Quality Management

process; the optimal COQ reflects the appropriate balance of investing in
the cost of prevention and appraisal (cost of conformance) to avoid failure
costs (cost of nonconformance)
●​ Conformance: work to be done internally to avoid failure in satisfying
customer requirements
●​ Non-conformance: sent work to customer, didn’t work, need to fix it

Quality report can be graphical, numerical, or qualitative. The

information provided can be used by other processes and departments to
take corrective actions in order to achieve the project quality
expectations.
●​ The information presented in the quality reports may include:
○​ Issues escalated by the team
 ○​ Recommendations for process, project, and product
improvements
○​ Corrective actions recommendations (including rework,
defect/bugs repair, 100% inspection, and more); taken when a
project has deviated from planned scope, schedule, cost,
quality; and
○​ Summary of findings from the Control Quality process.
●​ Output of the Manage Quality process

Types of actions
●​ Preventative action: proactive measure
○​ Ex: reviewing lessons learned repository from other projects
and applying lessons learned
●​ Corrective action: reactive measure
○​ Correcting an existing issue to prevent a similar issue from
happening in the future (i.e., a tool causing defects is replaced)
●​ Defect repair: reactive measure
○​ Modifies a nonconforming product or component, especially if
something does not work according to specifications
○​ Ex: a crack that needs to be repaired

Test and evaluation documents

●​ are used to evaluate the achievement of quality objectives. These
documents may include dedicated checklists and detailed
requirements traceability matrices as part of the document.

Attribute sampling the result either conforms or does not conform.

Variable sampling the result is rated on a continuous scale that measures

the degree of conformity.

Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a population of interest for

inspection (for example, selecting 10 engineering drawings at random
from a list of 75).
Benchmarking involves comparing actual or planned project practices or
the project’s quality standards to those of comparable projects to identify
best practices.

Quality marginal analysis quality vs cost, too much attention to improve

quality may not produce a higher value.

Logical data models are a visual representation of an organization’s

data, described in business language and independent of any specific
technology. The logical data model can be used to identify where data
integrity or other quality issues can arise.

Matrix diagrams help find the strength of relationships among different

factors, causes, and objectives that exist between the rows and columns
that form the matrix to identify the key quality metrics that are important
for the success of the project.

Process analysis identifies opportunities for process improvements.

This analysis also examines problems, constraints. It checks process not
requirements.

An audit is done during manage quality process used to determine if

project activities comply with organizational and project policies,
processes, and procedures. A quality audit is usually conducted by a
team external to the project, such as the organization’s internal audit
department, PMO, or by an auditor external to the organization. It is NOT
conducted by team members.
●​ Audits are used to evaluate a documented procedure to ensure the
procedure is being carried out according to plan and analyzed for
improvements

Design for X (DfX) is a set of technical guidelines that may be applied

during the design of a product for the optimization of a specific aspect of
the design.
Checklist used to verify that a set of required steps has been performed or
to check if a list of requirements has been satisfied.

Cost of Quality (COQ) are 3 types:

●​ Preventative
○​ Ex: reviewing lessons learned repository from other projects
and applying lessons learned
●​ Appraisals (related to evaluating, measuring, auditing the quality)
●​ Failure costs

Problem solving steps

1.​ Defining the problem
2.​ Identifying the root-cause
3.​ Generating possible solutions
4.​ Choosing the best solution
5.​ Implementing the solution and
6.​ Verifying solution effectiveness.

Check sheets are also known as tally sheets are used for collecting useful
data about a potential quality problem. They are especially useful for
gathering attribute data while performing inspections to identify defects; for
example, data about the frequencies or consequences of defects collected.

Control charts are also known as sigma standard deviation = a method to

achieve organizational correctness with extremely reduced variances. The
higher the sigma the lower variances. The level of quality usually required
is 3 or 6 sigmas. They can also be used to present project performance,
cost and schedule variances.

Quality improvements methods Plan-do-check-act PDCA (Deming) and

six sigma are two of the most common quality improvement tools used to
analyze and evaluate opportunities for improvement.
Six Sigma is a technique to improve quality, has 5 phases: define,
measure, analyze, improve, control.
●​ Six Sigma is defined as having less than 3.4 defects per million
(DPMO)

Flowcharts are also referred to as process maps because they display the
sequence of steps that lead to a defect, known as a SIPOC (suppliers,
inputs, process, outputs, and customers) model.

Quality control measurements document the results of control quality

activities and demonstrate compliance with the quality requirements.
Quality control measurements are used to analyze and evaluate the
quality of the processes and deliverables of the project against the
standards of the performing organization or the requirements specified.

Affinity diagrams affinity diagrams can organize potential causes of defects

into groups showing areas that should be focused on the most.

Cause-and-effect diagrams are also known as fishbone diagrams,

why-why diagrams, or Ishikawa diagrams. This type of diagram breaks
down the causes of the problem statement identified into discrete
branches, helping to identify the main or root cause of the problem.
●​ Can also use Ishikawa diagrams in Plan Stakeholder Engagement to
ID underlying reasons for the level of support of project stakeholders
in order to select the appropriate strategy to improve their level of
engagement
●​ Used during Quality Management to determine the cause of
deliverables with poor quality

Histograms show a graphical representation of numerical data with three

categories. It can show the number of defects per deliverable, a
ranking of the cause of defects, the number of times each process is
noncompliant (frequency, type, percentage of defects).
●​ Pareto chart: bar chart used to ID which root causes are resulting in
the most problems (arranges results from most frequent to least)
Scatter diagrams is a graph that shows the relationship between two
variables and can demonstrate a relationship between any element of a
process, environment, or activity on one axis and a quality defect on the
other axis.
●​ If diagram has close proximity between the data points and trendline,
then there’s a strong correlation between the 2 variables

TQM all organization members participate in the process of improving

process, culture, products and quality.

Phase review can be performed at the end of each phase and allows you to
assess the project performance and take necessary actions in subsequent
phases

====================================================================
6. Resources

Resource requirements also known as resource requirements

documentation used to identify the types and quantities of resources
required for each work package or activity in a work package and can be
aggregated to determine the estimated resources for each work package,
each WBS branch, and the project as a whole.

Requirements traceability matrix is a grid that links product requirements

to the deliverables that satisfy them.
●​ This is updated with quality requirements

Text oriented format is a description of team member responsibilities in

details. This may include details of the task, authority of the team member,
qualifications, etc.

Physical resource assignments describe the expected physical resource

utilization along with details such as type, amount, location, and whether
the resource is internal or outsourced. Records the material, equipment,
supplies, locations, and other physical resources that will be used during
the project.
●​ Developed during Control Resources process

Resource calendar
●​ Identifies the working days, shifts, start and end of normal
business hours, weekends, and public holidays when each resource
is available.
●​ Specifies when and for how long resources will be available during
project

Project team resource management guidance on how project team

resources should be defined, staffed, managed, and eventually released.
Project team assignments
●​ specify which team resources are assigned to each activity.
Documentation of team assignments records the team members and
their roles and responsibilities for the project.
○​ Includes team member competencies
○​ Documentation can include a project team directory and
names inserted into the project management plan, such as the
project organization charts and schedules. Whenever there is
a change in the team (add or remove), we update this doc
first.
○​ Project team directory is a documents list of project team
members, their project roles, and communication information

Resource breakdown structure

●​ is a hierarchical representation of resources by category and type.
○​ A hierarchical list of team and physical resources related by
category and type that is used for planning, managing, and
controlling project work
○​ This includes information on the composition of the team and
may help understand what knowledge is available as a group
and what is missing

Estimate Activity Resource Process output of process is Activity

Attributes (Ex: resource requirements, imposed dates, activity location,
assumptions, constraints)

Develop Team the process of improving competencies, provide training

team member interaction, and the overall team environment to enhance
project performance.

Manage Team the process of tracking team member performance,

providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing team changes to
optimize project performance.
Resource management methods justin- time (JIT) manufacturing, Kaizen,
total productive maintenance (TPM), theory of constraints (TOC).

Emotional intelligence (EI). The project manager should invest in personal

EI by improving inbound (e.g., self-management and self-awareness) and
outbound (e.g., relationship management) competencies.

Influencing is gathering relevant and critical information to address

important issues and reach agreements while maintaining mutual trust.

Responsibility assignment matrix

●​ RAM shows the project resources assigned to each work package,
such as RACI.

RACI chart
●​ Example of RAM, useful tool to use to ensure clear assignment of
roles and responsibilities
●​ It uses responsible, accountable, consult, and inform statuses to
define the involvement of stakeholders in project activities.

Resource management plan provides guidance on how project resources

should be categorized, allocated, managed, and released. It determines
how team members will be rewarded, trained, disciplined and followed
up with on their performance. Recognition/punishment (discipline)
management plan is part of this plan.
●​ If resources change on project, need to submit CR to update

Recognition plan part of the resource management plan which

recognition and rewards/punishment will be given to team members, and
when they will be given.

Project organization charts is a graphic display of project team members

and their reporting relationships.
Team charter is a document that establishes the team values,
agreements, and operating guidelines for the team.
●​ Includes: team values, communication guidelines, decision-making
criteria and process, conflict resolution process, meeting guidelines
and team agreements.
●​ Establishes clear expectations regarding acceptable behavior by
project team members (Ground Rules).

Tuckman ladder states that managing teams has 5 stages:

●​ Forming: team members are polite, behave more independently until
they know where they fit in the project
●​ Storming: tension, disagreement, conflict
●​ Norming: team begins to work together, adjust work habits/behaviors
●​ Performing:
●​ Adjourning:

Individual and team assessment (PRD) tools give the project manager and
the project team insight into areas of strengths and weaknesses, help
project managers assess team members’ preferences, aspirations.

Team performance assessment is training the team, building to

improvements in skills and competencies.
●​ The project management team can identify the specific training,
coaching, mentoring, assistance, or changes required to improve
the team’s performance.
●​ Output of Develop Team process

Performance reviews measure, compare, and analyze planned resource

utilization to actual resource utilization.

Pre assignment when physical or team resources for a project are

determined in advance, they are considered pre-assigned.
●​ Used during Acquire Resources process
●​ Good way to “lock in” resources with specific skillsets in advance so
they will be available to work on the project
Maslow hierarchy of needs states awarding people with different kinds of
emotional and physiological awards.

McClelland theory of needs states acquired needs theory = people are

motivated by 3 factors, affiliation, power and achievement.

Herzberg's 2 factors states hygiene (salary, status, security) and

motivation (self-actualization and recognition).

Organizational breakdown structure is arranged according to an

organization’s existing departments, units, or teams, with the project
activities or work packages listed under each department. An operational
department, such as information technology or purchasing, can see all of
its project responsibilities by looking at its portion of the OBS.

========================================================================
7. Communications
Project communications reports on all aspects of the project such as
performance reports, deliverable status, schedule progress, cost incurred,
presentations, and other information required by stakeholders.

Project reporting is the act of collecting and distributing project

information. Project information is distributed to many groups of
stakeholders and should be adapted to provide information at an
appropriate level, format, and detail for each type of stakeholder.

Communication requirements analysis determines the information needs

of the project stakeholders. These requirements are defined by combining
the type and format of information needed.

Sample basic sender/receiver communication model this model is

concerned with ensuring that the message is delivered, rather than
understood. Encode and decode.

Sample interactive communication model this model also describes

communication as a process consisting of two parties, the sender and
receiver, but recognizes the need to ensure that the message has been
understood.

Communication styles assessment used to assess communication styles

and identify the preferred communication method, format, and content
for planned communication activities.

Political awareness concerns the recognition of power relationships.

●​ Understanding who wield power and influence; develop specific
strategies for interacting with them

Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix displays gaps between

current and desired engagement levels of individual stakeholders
engagement, it supports comparison between the current engagement
levels of stakeholders and the desired engagement levels required for
successful project delivery:
●​ Supportive: low control
●​ Controlling: moderate control; provides support
●​ Directive: take control by managing the project
●​ Unaware:
●​ Neutral:
●​ Resistant:
●​ Leading:

Communications management plan is a component of the project

management plan that describes how project communications will be
planned, structured, implemented, and monitored for effectiveness.
Includes:
●​ Stakeholder communication requirements
●​ Escalation processes
●​ Methods or technologies used to convey the information, such as
memos, email, press releases, or social media
●​ The person responsible for communicating the information.
●​ The use of a project website and project management software can
be included if these are to be used in the project.
●​ Can be updated with new information to make communication more
effective (i.e., if a stakeholder is not attending weekly meetings, you
can update the plan)

Communication competence combination of tailored communication

skills that considers factors such as clarity of purpose in key messages,
effective relationships and information sharing, and leadership behaviors.

Communication skills are communication competence, feedback,

nonverbal (body language) and presentations.

Feedback supports interactive communication between the project

manager, team and all other project stakeholders. Examples include
coaching, mentoring, and negotiating. It is done before closing
project process.

Communication channels formula n (n-1)/2. The PM should be added as a

stakeholder.
●​ n represents the number of all individuals who could potentially
communicate with one another
●​ If you have 12 stakeholders and 1 PM, then n = 13

Communication blockers what may cause to fail the message of

communications such as lack of cultural sensitivity and lack of purpose in
the communication. Also physical reasons such as noise and distance.

Multifaceted approaches can be added to the standard communication

strategy for project stakeholder communications embraces and selects
from all technologies and respects cultural, practical, and personal
preferences for language, media, content, and delivery. Mostly used for
multicultural, very diverse teams.

Communication planning is increasingly important in a virtual team

environment

Pull communications: allow stakeholders to access info at their discretion

(i.e., website, intranet site, knowledge repositories)

Push communications: sent directly to specific people (email)

Interaction communication: an exchange of info between 2 or more people

in real time (meetings, phone calls, IM)

====================================================================
8. Risk

When the team IDs a new risk

1.​ Document risk in risk register
2.​ Consult project risk management plan for info. on what to do next

Risk workshop part of qualitative risk analysis, the project team may
conduct a specialized meeting dedicated to the discussion of identified
individual project risks. The goals of this meeting include the review of
previously identified risks, assessment of probability and impacts (and
possibly other risk parameters), categorization, and prioritization.
●​ Assessment of probability and impacts: the project team may
consider other characteristics of risk when prioritizing project risk for
further analysis and action

Risk owner who will be responsible for planning an appropriate risk

response and for reporting progress on managing the risk, will be allocated
to each individual project risk as part of the perform qualitative risk
analysis process.

Individual project risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs,

has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.

Overall project risk is the effect of uncertainty on the project as a whole,

arising from all sources of uncertainty.

Variability risks such as weather, market changes, etc, can be addressed

using Monte Carlo analysis.

Ambiguity risk is addressed through incremental development,

prototyping, or simulation.
Risk management plan describes how risk management activities will be
structured and performed. Methodology, timing, risk categories, funding,
risk strategies.

Probability and impact matrix descriptive grid with terms (such as very high,
high, medium, low, and very low) or numeric values can be used for
probability and impact. It is created after conducting probability and
impact assessments.

Risk probability assessment considers the likelihood that a specific risk

will occur.

Risk impact assessment considers the potential effect on one or more

project objectives such as schedule, cost, quality, or performance.

Assumption and constraint analysis explores the validity of assumptions

and constraints to determine which pose a risk to the project.

Prompt Lists predetermined list of risk categories that might give rise to
individual project risks and that could also act as sources of overall
project risk.

Risk register risk log captures details of identified individual project

risks. The results of performing qualitative risk analysis, plan risk
responses, implement risk responses, and monitor risks are recorded in
the risk register as those processes are conducted throughout the project.
It includes short risk title, risk category, current risk status, list of identified
risks, potential risk owners, list of potential risk responses.
●​ Only updated if the risk was previously ID’ed
●​ Should be updated to reflect any changes to the previously agreed
upon risk responses
●​ Trigger condition: an event or situation that indicates that a risk is
about to occur
Risk report presents information on sources of overall project risk,
together with summary information on sources of overall project risk,
summary information on identified individual project risks.
●​ PM should review this to see current status of risks and ID which
ones are still open

Perform qualitative risk analysis is subjective (H, M, L). The key benefit of
this process is that it focuses efforts on high-priority risks.

Risk data quality assessment evaluates the degree to which the data about
individual project risks is accurate and reliable as a basis for qualitative
risk analysis.

Propinquity (Risk importance) the degree to which a risk is perceived to

matter by one or more stakeholders. Where a risk is perceived as very
significant, propinquity is high.

Sensitivity analysis / tornado diagram helps to determine which individual

project risks or other sources of uncertainty have the most potential
impact on project outcomes.

An influence diagram represents a project or situation within the project as

a set of entities, outcomes, and influences, together with the relationships
and effects between them. The influence diagram is then evaluated using
a simulation technique, such as Monte Carlo analysis, to indicate which
elements have the greatest influence on key outcomes.

Monte Carlo analysis

●​ Used to analyze cost, schedule, risk using computer software. It
provides possibilities and scenarios based on inputs provided.
●​ Uses a model to simulate the combined effect of individual project
risks and other sources of uncertainty to evaluate impact on
achieving project objectives
Technical performance analysis compares technical accomplishments
during project execution to the baseline of technical achievement of the
products of the project.
●​ Measures may include: weight, transaction times, storage capacity,
etc.
●​ Deviation can indicate the potential impact of threats or opportunities

Perform quantitative risk analysis:

●​ Decision Tree Analysis

○​ if you have to choose between many alternatives, you should
analyze how each choice benefits or hurts the project before
making decision; shows associated paths and monetary
values
○​ Expected monetary value (EMV) = P (probability) x I (impact)
○​ Pick the LOWER of the 2 values OR the positive of the 2 values

Monitor Risk Process monitors the implementation of risk response plans,

tracks identified risks, identifies and analyzes new risks.

Residual Risks remains after the risk response strategy was

implemented, may be identified in the planning process (may subject to
contingency/fallback planning) They don’t need any further analysis
because you have already planned the complete response strategy you
know in dealing with the risk that came before them.

Secondary Risks risk arises when the risk response strategy was
implemented.

Risk audit done during monitor risk process, requires frequent review of
risks and their categories. The focus is on the effectiveness of risk
management process.
Risk review meeting: A meeting for reviewing the effectiveness of risk
responses dealing with individual and overall project risks. The focus is
on the risks response themselves.

Risk appetite risk tolerance = acceptable level of risk that stakeholders are
OK with.

Risk threshold the point when risk becomes unacceptable.

Averse someone who doesn’t want to be impacted negatively by risk.

Project resilience the existence of emergent risk is becoming clear, with a

growing awareness of unkown-unkowns.

Urgency the period of time within which a response to the risk is to be

implemented in order to be effective. A short period indicates high urgency.

Proximity the period of time before the risk might have an impact on one or
more project objectives. A short period indicates high proximity.

Dormancy the period of time that may elapse after a risk has occurred
before its impact is discovered. A short period indicates low dormancy.

Individual risk (Threat) response strategies

●​ Escalate: appropriate to escalate a risk if the response to a risk would
exceed the PM’s authority
●​ Avoid (eliminate the root cause)
●​ Mitigate (reduce): action is taken to reduce probability of occurrence
or impact
●​ Transfer (share): involves shifting ownership of a threat to a third
party to manage risk or beat the impact if threat occurs (i.e.,
purchasing insurance, outsourcing work to a third party)
●​ Accept: acknowledges existence of a threat without taking proactive
action
Overall risk response strategies avoid, exploit, mitigate (reduce), transfer
(share), accept.

Individual risk (OPP) response strategies escalate, enhance, share, exploit,

accept.

Escalation is appropriate when the project team or the project sponsor

agrees that a threat or opp is outside the scope of the project or that the
proposed response would exceed the project manager’s authority.
Escalated risks are managed at the program level, portfolio level, or other
relevant part of the organization, and not on the project level.

Risk breakdown structure (RBS)

●​ is a hierarchical representation of potential sources of risk. An RBS
helps the project team consider the full range of sources from
which individual project risks may arise. This can be useful when
identifying risks or when categorizing identified risks.

The Delphi technique can be used to build consensus on project risks. The
Delphi method is a forecasting process framework based on the results of
multiple rounds of questionnaires sent to a panel of experts.

Risk triggers events or conditions that indicate that a risk is about to occur.

Project sponsor is most likely to be external, high power and high interest,
with an upward direction of influence
●​ Projects are initiated by an entity external (i.e., not part of to the
project (sponsor, program or PMO, etc.)
●​ They procure funding and commit resources to the project
●​ PM works with the project sponsor to address internal political and
strategic issues that may impact the team or the viability or quality of
the project (such as issues with resource constraints)
If a previously unidentified risk threatens the successful completion of the
project, PM should create a workaround

Terminate for convenience: a determination has been made that it would be

less costly and more efficient to include the current project scope within the
larger renovation project rather than managing both projects separately
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9. Procurement

If there’s a dispute or conflict with invoicing:

1.​ Contact supplier to negotiate a settlement; if no resolution, then
2.​ Resolve matter using ADR (i.e., mediation, arbitration hearing); if no
resolution then
a.​ This is typically done with the help of a third party
3.​ Litigation

Market research includes examination of industry and specific seller

capabilities. Procurement teams may leverage information gained at
conferences, online reviews, and a variety of sources to identify market
capabilities.

Source selection analysis includes :

●​ Least cost, appropriate for procurements of a standard or routine
nature
●​ Qualifications only for small procurements.
●​ Quality-based/highest technical proposal score first evaluated based
on the quality of the technical solution offered.
●​ Quality and cost-based quality should be a key element when
compared to cost.
●​ Sole source technical and financial specialty.
●​ Fixed budget requires disclosing the available budget to the invited
sellers in the RFP and selecting the highest-ranking technical
proposal within the budget.

Source selection criteria

●​ Describes how bidder proposals will be evaluated, including
evaluation criteria and weights, the buyer seeks to ensure that the
proposal selected will offer the best quality for the services required.
●​ They are used to rate or score the seller proposals
 ●​ It is an output of the Plan Procurement Management process which
then becomes an input to the Conduct Procurements process

Procurement documentations bid documents (RFI, RFQ, RFP), SOW,

independent cost estimate, source selection criteria.

Bid documents
●​ All documents used to solicit info, quotes, or proposals from
prospective sellers
○​ RFP RFT (request for tender) is used when there is a problem
in the project and the solution is not easy to determine.
○​ RFQ is used for more information is needed on how vendors
would satisfy the requirements and/or how much it will cost.
○​ RFI is used when more information on the goods and services
to be acquired is needed from the sellers.

The selected sellers are those who have been chosen to be awarded the
agreements and contracts. Final approval of complex, high-value,
high-risk procurements will generally require organizational senior
management approval prior to award the contracts.

Agreement contract is a mutually binding agreement that obligates the

seller to provide the specified products, services. Agreements can be
amended or cancelled at any time prior to contract closure by mutual
consent.

Contested changes and potential constructive changes are those

requested changes where the buyer and seller cannot reach an
agreement on, they should be addressed by negotiations first, then move
to ADR if can't agree on any solutions.

Claims administration is known as alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is

the legal way to solve the procurement disputes.
Inspection
●​ Is a structured review of the work being performed by the contractor.
Done during control procurements.
●​ May involve a simple review of the deliverables or an actual physical
review of the work itself
●​ There is NO inspection of a process; can only inspect products

Audits
●​ Are structured review of the procurement process. Done during
control procurements.
●​ Used to review a PROCESS

Letter of intent a letter stating the buyer is intending to hire the seller (so
seller can start buying materials before the contract is signed).

Privity contractual work relationship. The work is contracted to the seller

and the seller contracts some of it to a third party.

Closed procurements
●​ they are closed in control procurement process when they meet
the agreed on criteria in the contract, and no outstanding claims.
The seller then gets his performance evaluated and then a decision is
made to add him to the prequalified list or not.

Preapproved seller lists are lists of potential sellers who are previously
qualified (approved). After closing the procurements, the seller is
evaluated and then either added to this list or not. This list is part of OPA.

Contract Types

●​ Fixed price contracts are suitable when the type of work is

predictable, the requirements are well defined and not likely to
change, and no changes in scope. The seller has the most cost
risk.
 ○​ Fixed price incentive fee (FPIF): profits can be adjusted
based on the seller meeting specified performance criteria
○​ Fixed price award fee (FPAF): the buyer pays a fixed price
plus an award amount based on performance
○​ Fixed price with economic price adjustments (FPEPA):
contract will cover a multiyear period, there may be
uncertainties about future economic conditions (future costs of
supplies and equipment)
○​ Purchase order: simplest type; used for simple commodity
procurements (i.e., 30 meters of wood at $9 per meter)
●​ T&M = time and material the buyer pays per item (material) and per
hour. Used when LoE can't be determined when awarding a contract.
○​ Terms and conditions are simpler to allow for quick negotiation
○​ Best used for small dollar amounts and short amount of time
●​ Cost reimbursable (CR) suitable when the scope of work is evolving,
likely to change, or not well defined, which means costs can't be
determined and price is not fixed. The seller should have accounting
track system. The buyer has the most cost risk.
○​ Cost plus fixed fee (CPFF): provides for payment to the seller
of actual costs plus a negotiated fee
○​ Cost plus incentive fee (CPIF): provides for the seller to be
paid for actual costs plus a fee that will be adjust based on
whether specific performance objectives stated in the contract
are met
■​ The seller gets a percentage of the savings if the actual
costs are less than the target costs
○​ Cost plus award fee (CPAF): the buyer pays all costs and a
case fee plus an award amount based on performance

Master service agreements MSA contracts between the buyer and seller
for current and future transactions. This is a time saving approach.

Procurement management plan contains the activities to be undertaken

during the procurement process. It should document whether
international competitive bidding, national competitive bidding, local
bidding, time table, constraints, etc.

Statement of work (SOW) is developed from the project scope baseline

and defines only that portion of the project scope that is to be included
within the related contract.

The qualifications only this type of procurement method applies when the
time and cost of a full selection process would not make sense because the
value of the procurement is relatively small.

Contract change control system the system used to collect, track,

adjudicate, and communicate changes to a contract. Changes always
need approval from PM and procurement manager BOTH.

Bidder conferences (also called contractor conferences, vendor

conferences, and pre-bid conferences) are meetings between the buyer
and prospective sellers prior to proposal submittal. They are used to
ensure that all prospective bidders have a clear and common
understanding of the procurement and no bidders receive preferential
treatment.

Proposal evaluation ensures the proposal from the sellers are complete
and respond in full to the procurement documentation (bid documents,
procurement statement of work, source selection criteria and independent
cost estimate).

Independent cost estimate for large procurements, the procuring

organization may elect to either prepare its own independent estimate or
have a cost estimate prepared by an outside professional estimator to
serve as a benchmark on proposed responses.

Procurement strategy includes delivery methods, contracts type and project

phases.
Terms of reference (TOR) is used when contracting for services.

Procurement file is a complete set of indexed contract documentation. It is

part of OPA.

Seller performance evaluation document

●​ Is prepared by the buyer to document the seller’s ability to continue to
work on the current and or if they should be allowed to work on future
projects. This is part of OPA.

1.​ Provide final payment to vendors AFTER the deliverables have

been approved. Contract is not complete until final payment
provided.
2.​ Then a formal written notice that the contract has been
completed is sent to vendor.

Data gathering: technique used during Plan Procurement Management

process
●​ Market research includes examination of industry and specific seller
capabilities

Control Procurements process: process of managing procurement

relationships, monitoring contract performance, making changes and
corrections, and closing out contracts. Buyer conducts performance
reviews of sellers.
●​ Oversight of sellers is performed during Control Procurements
process
●​ This is the process where payments to the seller are made and
monitored
●​ Performance reviews determine and document the vendor’s
progress in delivering the contracted products within cost, on
schedule, and of the quality required as compared to the contract

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10. Stakeholders

Stakeholder register output of ID stakeholders process and perform

stakeholder analysis.
●​ Contains information about identified stakeholders that includes
identification information.
○​ Name, organizational position, location and contact details, and
role on the project, assessment information, major
requirements, expectations, potential for influencing project
outcomes, and the phase of the project life cycle where the
stakeholder has the most influence or impact, stakeholder
classification.
○​ Internal/external, impact/influence/power/interest,
upward/downward/outward/ sideward, or any other
classification models chosen by the project manager.
●​ Vendors should be included in this document

Stakeholder analysis results in stakeholder register. A list of stakeholders

and relevant information such as their positions in the organization, roles
on the project, “stakes” expectations, attitudes (their levels of support for
the project), and their interest in information about the project.
●​ If stakeholder register is not complete and accurate, expect lots of
change requests

Salience model describes classes of stakeholders based on

assessments of their power, urgency (need for immediate attention),
legitimacy (their involvement) good for large number of stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement plan

●​ Identifies the strategies and actions required to promote
productive involvement of stakeholders in decision making and
 execution. It is updated regularly to reflect changes to the
stakeholder community such as changes to organization structure,
add new stakeholders, stakeholders who left the project.
○​ Can be updated to address the issues related to a low level of
stakeholder support for the project
○​ Once updated, update the change log and communicate the
status to the stakeholders

Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix

●​ Is an outcome of performing stakeholder engagement
assessment. Compares the current engagement levels of
stakeholders and the desired engagement levels required (unaware,
neutral, supportive, resistant, leading).

Directions of influence known as hierarchical focus. It shows the

classified stakeholders according to their influence on the work of the
project or the project team itself (upward, downward, outward, sideward).

Power/interest grid, power/influence grid, or impact/influence grid also

called stakeholder cube techniques support a grouping of stakeholders
according to their level of authority (power), level of concern about the
project’s outcomes (interest), ability to influence the outcomes of the
project (influence), or ability to cause changes to the project’s planning
or execution.

Assumption and constraint analysis explores the validity of assumptions

and constraints to determine which pose a risk to the project. Analysis of
current assumptions and constraints may be conducted in order to tailor
appropriate engagement strategies.

Prioritization/ranking Stakeholder requirements need to be prioritized

and ranked, as do the stakeholders themselves. Stakeholders with the
most interest and the highest influence are often prioritized at the top of the
list.
Mind mapping is used to visually organize information about stakeholders
and their relationship to each other and the organization.

Brain writing allows individual participants time to consider the question(s)

individually before the group creativity session is held.

Leadership is balancing vision and leadership with work being done (not
just dream as a leader but manage work as well).

Document analysis is assessing the available project documentation and

lessons learned from previous projects to identify stakeholders and other
supporting information and how stakeholders were chosen.

======================================================================
11. Close
Evaluating stakeholder satisfaction is one of the last tasks

If project terminated = perform financial and administrative close of the

project (i.e., close contract with vendors)

PM is responsible for transferring ownership of deliverables to the customer

during closing

PM does not have authority to terminate projects; PM needs to obtain

approval for project termination.

Project closure checklist

1.​ Contract closure
a.​ Are all contracts closed out (with suppliers, etc.)
b.​ Has the client reviewed and accepted project deliverables?
2.​ Financial closure
a.​ Has all permitted funding been received?
b.​ Have all payables been paid?
3.​ Administrative closure
a.​ Release project personnel
b.​ Develop final report
c.​ Update all files and archive

Inputs to the Close Project of Phase process:

●​ Project charter: to confirm that exit criteria was met
●​ Business case: to validate that it was fulfilled
●​ Benefits management plan: to evaluate and report on benefits
delivery
●​ PM plan: to confirm that all planned work was completed within
baselines with approved changes
●​ Deliverables: to complete the final review for acceptance and
transition to ongoing business
 ●​ Lessons learned register: to archive lessons learned in the lessons
learned repository
●​ Risk register and risk report: to confirm that all risks were managed
successfully
●​ Change log: to evaluate the number of changes and the impact of
those changes on the project
●​ Agreements and procurement documentation: to confirm that all
contracts are closed

From Rita’s chart:

●​ Confirm work is done to requirements
●​ Complete final procurement closure
●​ Gain final acceptance of product
○​ This means getting final, formal acceptance of the project or
phase as a WHOLE from the customer
●​ Complete financial closure
●​ Hand off completed product
●​ Solicit customer’s feedback of project
●​ Complete final performance reporting
●​ Archive records
●​ Gather final lessons learned and update knowledge bases

Final Report: output of Close Project process

●​ Provides a summary of project performance
●​ Can include: scope objectives, quality objectives, cost objectives,
schedule objectives, and the degree to which these goals were met
●​ Then need to send to stakeholders based on the communications
management plan

Exit criteria: defines the conditions that need to be met in order to close or
to cancel the project or phase
●​ Ex: if key resources are unavailable for project, the project will fail.
This is a risk that will terminate the project