Project Management Professional (PMP®) Exam Preparation

Explore the foundational concepts of project management, including the differences between the project lifecycle and the project management lifecycle, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets.

Define a project as a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result with a defined start and end, distinguishing it from ongoing operations.

Apply progressive elaboration to continually refine a project from high-level scope to detailed plans, using rolling wave planning and iterative agile sprints to deliver value and adapt to feedback.

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet requirements. Communication is the number one job skill for PMs.

Learn how programs group related projects and how portfolios bundle unrelated programs, projects, and operations. Discover how the PMO standardizes practices with templates and procedures and its three types.

Explore the agile lifecycle and the agile manifesto, including releases, sprints, product backlog, roles, daily stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives, emphasizing customer collaboration and responding to change.

Identify traditional and agile project roles, from stakeholders and sponsor to project team, business analyst, scrum master, product owner, agile team, and agile coach.

Explore how project constraints shape outcomes, from the traditional scope, time, and cost to a six-constraint view including resources, quality, and risk, and how changes ripple through schedule and budget.

Identify stakeholders who influence or are impacted by the project, including you and the team. Distinguish enterprise environmental factors from organizational process assets, noting culture, external factors, and systems.

Learn how the PMI framework roots the five process groups in the plan-do-check-act cycle and organizes 49 processes across 10 knowledge areas, with integration management as the master domain.

Explore integration management as the master knowledge area, linking all other domains through seven processes including developing the project charter across five process groups.

Develop project charter is the first process, a signed charter formally authorizes the project, states the business justification and high-level objectives, and assigns sponsor and project manager.

Develop the project management plan by assembling subsidiary plans, baselines (scope, schedule, cost), and development approach, while detailing change and configuration management procedures, progressive collaboration, and stakeholder sign-off.

Direct and manage project work implements the project plan during execution, coordinating deliverables, change requests, and work performance data with the project management information system.

Manage project knowledge by capturing and reusing lessons learned, converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, and maintaining a lessons learned register to update plans and policies.

Close the project or phase by obtaining formal acceptance, validating scope, and transitioning the deliverable to ongoing operations, then archive records and finalize lessons learned and reports.

Master scope management by defining boundaries, distinguishing product scope from project scope, preventing scope creep and gold plating, and applying change control with a work breakdown structure.

Plan scope management defines how to identify and control project scope and requirements, detailing procedures for scope statement creation, work breakdown structure development, and change handling.

Create a visual work breakdown structure to capture all work as work packages for clear communication, and learn terms like control account, code of accounts, planning package, and scope baseline.

Validate scope formalizes customer acceptance by testing and inspecting deliverables, using inputs like the scope management plan and requirements management plan, to produce accepted deliverables and work performance information.

Control scope ensures we deliver what the customer wants by monitoring plan versus actual, using work performance data, variance analysis, and change control to manage scope across the project.

Plan schedule management defines how to plan, develop, monitor, and control schedule, outlining schedule management plan, tolerance limits, and inputs such as project charter, project management plan, and OPAs.

Define activities by decomposing each work package into individual activities, producing the activity list and attributes with milestones, guided by the work breakdown structure and the schedule management plan.

Sequence activities organize project tasks into the correct order using precedence diagramming, dependencies, and leads and lags, producing a project schedule network diagram.

Use pert to estimate duration from optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic values; apply (optimistic + 4×most likely + pessimistic) ÷ 6 and derive range from (pessimistic − optimistic) ÷ 6.

Develop the project schedule by integrating prior inputs and applying schedule network analysis to identify the earliest start and latest finish, with the critical path method as the core technique.

Learn to identify the critical path by comparing path durations using forward and backward passes, computing early start, early finish, late start, and late finish, and calculating total float.

Demonstrates forward and backward path calculations using early and late starts and finishes, identifying the critical path and floats.

Develop schedule by applying resource optimization, leveling, and smoothing; use Monte Carlo analysis and schedule compression (crashing and fast tracking) while respecting discretionary vs mandatory dependencies and agile backlog concepts.

Monitor and control the project schedule by tracking plan versus actual results. Use baselines, calendars, earned value, and burn down charts to forecast finish dates.

Explore how iteration burn down and burn up charts act as information radiators in agile projects, showing remaining versus completed work and the impact of the definition of done.

Explore cost management fundamentals by estimating activity costs and developing the project budget, distinguishing direct, indirect, variable, and fixed costs, with emphasis on the controllable direct costs.

Learn to control costs with earned value analysis, converting data into dollar-valued performance information, forecasts, and plan updates, guided by cost baselines, funding requirements, and lessons learned.

Explore earned value management with a practical five-story project scenario, calculating BAC, PV, EV, AC, SV, CV, SPI, CPI, and EAC to assess schedule and cost performance.

Outline quality management theories from Crosby to Deming. Highlight zero defects, prevention, fitness for use, PDCA, Six Sigma, Kaizen, JIT, Kano, Taguchi, and CMMI.

Develop quality management by following policies and procedures, leveraging the quality management plan and lessons learned, and using root cause analysis, fishbone diagrams, Pareto charts, quality audits, and process analysis.

Test and verify the deliverable throughout the project to ensure quality control. Use check sheets, inspections, and control charts to document results.

Plan the resources by identifying needed roles, materials, and timing to produce the resource management plan and team charter.

Identify resources required for each activity, including labor, equipment, and materials. Link these needs to the schedule and cost management through bottom-up, analogous, parametric, and alternative analyses.

Acquire resources is the first executing process in resource management, securing facilities. Assign names and roles for the project team while engaging in negotiation for resources outside the organization.

Develop team builds a cohesive project crew by placing the right people with the right skills. Engage and empower them through collaboration, clear communication, team charter, resource calendar, and recognition.

Develop the essential skill sets for a project manager and agile teams, emphasizing communication, conflict management, stakeholder engagement, facilitation, leadership, and the depth versus breadth of knowledge in team members.

Identify training needs, design a training plan, and implement pairing and mentoring to boost team development. Evaluate outcomes with pre- and post assessments to demonstrate learning and trust-building.

This lecture contrasts leaders and managers in a predictive project, showing the project manager as a visionary leader guiding planning, collaboration with stakeholders, and alignment with strategic direction and scope.

Explore how the project manager influences stakeholders and leads team building through upward, downward, sideways, and outward communication, empowering teams, managing conflicts, and fostering collaborative performance in agile environments.

Explore common performance tracking tools and reports, including Kanban boards, throughput and cycle time metrics, earned value, velocity, quality reports, and value stream maps.

Master kanban boards as visual task boards for agile and non-agile projects, showing started, in progress, testing, and done, and applying a work-in-progress cap to optimize progress visibility for stakeholders.

Learn how impediments slow progress, while obstacles and blockers halt work, and discover how to identify, document, and address them in backlog reviews, daily stand-ups, and risk management.

Explore the forms of power and authority in project management, including positional power, expert, reward, coercive, referent, informational, and representative power, plus situational, pressure-based, flattery, and guilt-based dynamics.

Explore situational leadership by Hersey and Blanchard, tracing stages of individual development and the shift from directing to delegating; compare expectancy theory, hygiene theory, and McClelland's need theory.

Manage team explains how the project manager in strong matrix organizations evaluates individual team members, sets clear roles, delivers timely feedback, and resolves conflicts using collaborate, withdraw/avoid, smoothing, and compromise.

Identify the five levels of agile conflict—problem-solving, disagreement, contest, crusade, and World War—and see how teams move from collaboration to polarization.

Explore organizational change management as distinct from change control, addressing resistance in the business environment, and applying Lewine McKinsey seven model and Cotlar theory with eight steps.

Develop interpersonal skills within emotional intelligence by mastering empathy, social skills, and the ability to develop others, leverage diversity, and build trust through clear communication and collaboration.

Develop key interpersonal skills for project leadership, including active listening with reflecting, attending, and following; adjust communication styles for audiences and apply MBTI or True Colors personality assessments.

Master communication management as a project manager by delivering right information to the right stakeholders at the right time using effective and efficient methods, guided by planning, executing, and monitoring.

Apply project communications management by using the communication management plan and stakeholder engagement, with tools and techniques, active listening, feedback, and cultural awareness to engage stakeholders.