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 how the project manager fulfills technical project management, leadership, and strategic and business management under PMI talent triangle, and how matrix and agile contexts shape leadership and alignment.

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 agile ceremonies, including release planning, sprint planning, stand-ups, backlog grooming, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, and learn how product owners, agile teams, and facilitators plan, execute, and reflect on releases.

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.

Examine functional, matrix, and project oriented organizations and how they determine project manager authority, resource availability, and roles such as expediter, coordinator, and PMO interactions.

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.

Explore how to monitor and control project work by comparing actual results to the plan, analyzing variances, and generating work performance information and reports to guide corrective actions.

Explore integrated change control: assess, approve or reject change requests with a change control board, perform impact analysis, update logs, and implement tested changes to protect project scope and budget.

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.

Identify what the customer wants by collecting and documenting requirements, using interviews, questionnaires, and the product backlog, then align work with a traceability matrix to ensure smart, testable needs.

Define scope by setting project boundaries after gathering requirements, identifying what is included and excluded, and producing a scope statement that describes major deliverables, constraints, and assumptions.

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.

Master schedule management, the largest knowledge area, through its six processes—from plan schedule management and define activities to sequence, estimate durations, develop, and control the schedule.

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.

Estimate activity duration by examining each work unit, applying analogous, parametric, bottom up, and three point estimate, and incorporating risk register inputs to address known risks.

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.

Explore agile prioritization techniques, including Keino model, Canel model, Moscow analysis, PED comparison, and one hundred point method to identify minimum viable product, minimum marketable feature, and minimum business increment.

Learn four basic agile consensus techniques that teams use to agree on story size, effort, and priorities, including fist of five, Román voting, polling, and dot voting.

Discover agile estimation techniques, including relative estimates, t-shirt sizing, story points using the Fibonacci sequence, planning poker, and coffee cup sizing, contrasted with predictive methods.

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 the critical path method to schedule a project by calculating early starts and late starts with forward and backward passes, and assess zero float on the longest path.

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 techniques on the critical path by calculating total float, free float, and project float. Identify negative and positive float to see how delays affect early starts and deadlines.

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.

Plan cost management defines how we estimate costs and set the budget in the cost management plan, using inputs like the project charter and earned value analysis.

Estimate cost determines the cost of individual activities and packages to establish the project budget, integrating schedule and resources with techniques like analogous, parametric, bottom-up, three-point estimates, and lifecycle costing.

Determine budget teaches building a time-phased final budget from bottom-up estimates, rolling up costs through the work breakdown structure to the cost baseline, with contingencies and funding limits.

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 by interpreting planned value, earned value, and actual cost, and apply CPI, SPI, EAC, ETC, EFC, and TCPI to forecast completion and budget.

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.

Define quality as the degree to which inherent characteristics fulfill requirements per ISO 9000, explain grade versus quality, and compare quality assurance, control, corrective and preventive actions.

Plan quality management defines the quality management plan and sets metrics to reduce defects. Use cost of quality and cost-benefit analysis to justify prevention and appraisal costs, improving customer satisfaction.

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.

Master resource management by balancing physical and human resources—equipment, materials, facilities, and team members—through planning, estimating, acquiring, developing, and controlling resources. Emphasis on execution, where resource constraints impact projects.

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 five stages of team development—forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. See how new members join and teams move toward a well-functioning unit.

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 seven principal causes of project conflict, including scheduling, priority, resources, meetings, administrative procedures, cost, and personality, and examine agile conflict management with a servant leader and self-organizing teams.

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 emotional intelligence by understanding your own emotions and recognizing others’ cues to minimize conflicts, apply personal skills (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation) and interpersonal skills (empathy, social skills) for leadership.

Explore emotional intelligence through personal skills, including self-awareness, self-regulation, and motivation, with focus on emotional awareness, self-assessment, self-confidence, self-control, adaptability, and leadership in project management.

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.

Control resources monitors physical resources to ensure equipment and facilities are available as planned. Use performance data, alternatives analysis, problem solving, and PMIS to update plans and resolve issues.

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.

Plan communication management to determine stakeholder information needs, delivery methods, and timing. Create the communication management plan detailing who receives what information, when, and how, plus escalation and meeting guidelines.

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.

Monitor communications ensures the right information reaches the right stakeholders at the right time through the correct medium, and ensures updates and reports align with the communication management plan.