Head First PMP, 4th Edition

Table of Contents (the real thing)

• Intro

  Your brain on PMP. Here you are trying to learn something, while here your brain is doing you a favor by making sure the learning doesn’t stick. Your brain’s thinking, “Better leave room for more important things, like which wild animals to avoid and whether naked snowboarding is a bad idea.” So how do you trick your brain into thinking that your life depends on knowing enough to get through the PMP exam?

  • Who is this book for?

  • We know what you’re thinking

  • Metacognition: thinking about thinking

  • Here’s what YOU can do to bend your brain into submission

  • Read me

  • Acknowledgments

• 1 Introduction: Why get certified?

  Tired of facing the same old problems? If you’ve worked on a lot of projects, you know that you face the same problems, over and over again. It’s time to learn some common solutions to those problems. There’s a whole lot that project managers have learned over the years, and passing the PMP exam is your ticket to putting that wisdom into practice. Get ready to change the way you manage your projects forever.

  • Do these problems seem familiar?

  • Projects don’t have to be this way

  • Your problems…already solved

  • What you need to be a good project manager

  • Understand your company’s big picture

  • Your project has value

  • Your project follows a lifecycle

  • Portfolios, programs, and projects have a lot in common

  • Portfolios, programs, and projects all use charters

  • What a project IS…

  • … and what a project is NOT

  • A day in the life of a project manager

  • How project managers run great projects

  • Project management offices help you do a good job, every time

  • Good leadership helps the team work together

  • Project teams are made of people

  • Operations management handles the processes that make your company tick

  • A PMP certification is more than just passing a test

  • Meet a real-life PMP-certified project manager

  • Exam Questions

• 2 Organizations, constraints, and projects: In good company

  If you want something done right…better hope you’re in the right kind of organization. All projects are about teamwork—but how your team works depends a lot on the type of organization you’re in. In this chapter, you’ll learn about the different types of organizations around—and which type you should look for the next time you need a new job.

  • A day in Kate’s life

  • Kate wants a new job

  • There are different types of organizational structures

  • A few more types of organizations

  • PMOs can be supportive, controlling, or directive

  • Kate takes a new job

  • Back to Kate’s maintenance nightmare

  • Managing project constraints

  • Don’t reinvent the wheel

  • You can’t manage your project in a vacuum

  • Kate’s project needs to follow company processes

  • Kate makes some changes…

  • …and her project is a success!

  • Exam Questions

• 3 The process framework: It all fits together

  All of the work you do on a project is made up of processes. Once you know how all the processes in your project fit together, it’s easy to remember everything you need to know for the PMP exam. There’s a pattern to all of the work that gets done on your project. First you plan it, then you get to work. While you are doing the work, you are always comparing your project to your original plan. When things start to get off-plan, it’s your job to make corrections and put everything back on track. And the process framework—the process groups and knowledge areas—is the key to all of this happening smoothly.

  • Cooking up a project

  • Projects are like recipes

  • If your project’s really big, you can manage it in phases

  • Phases can also overlap

  • Break it down

  • Anatomy of a process

  • Combine processes to complete your project

  • Knowledge areas organize the processes

  • The project manager’s role

  • Leadership is different than management

  • The benefits of successful project management

  • Exam Questions

• 4 Project integration management: Getting the job done

  Want to make success look easy?
  It’s not as hard as you think. In this chapter, you’ll learn about a few processes you can use in your projects every day. Put these into place, and your sponsors and stakeholders will be happier than ever. Get ready for Integration Management.

  • The day-to-day work of a project manager

  • The seven Integration Management processes

  • Start your project with the Initiating processes

  • Integration Management and the process groups

  • The Develop Project Charter process

  • Make the case for your project

  • A closer look at the project charter

  • Plan your project!

  • The Project Management plan lets you plan ahead

  • A quick look at all those subsidiary plans

  • Question Clinic: The just-the-facts-ma’am question

  • The Direct and Manage Project Work process

  • The project team creates deliverables

  • Executing the project includes repairing defects

  • The Manage Project Knowledge process

  • Knowledge is the lifeblood of any project

  • Eventually, things WILL go wrong…

  • Sometimes you need to change your plans

  • Look for changes and deal with them

  • Make only the changes that are right for your project

  • How the processes interact with one another

  • Changes, defects, and corrections

  • Decide your changes in change control meetings

  • Control your changes; use change control

  • Preventing or correcting problems

  • Finish the work, close the project

  • You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here

  • So why INTEGRATION Management?

  • Integration Management kept your project on track, and the teachers satisfied

  • Exam Questions

• 5 Scope management: Doing the right stuff

  Confused about exactly what you should be working on?
  Once you have a good idea of what needs to be done, you need to track your scope as the project work is happening. As each goal is accomplished, you confirm that all of the work has been done and make sure that the people who asked for it are satisfied with the result. In this chapter, you’ll learn the tools that help your project team set its goals and keep everybody on track.

  • It looks like we have a scope problem

  • You’ve got to know what (and how) you will build before you build it

  • The power of Scope Management

  • The six Scope Management processes

  • Plan your scoping processes

  • Collect requirements for your project

  • Talk to your stakeholders

  • Make decisions about requirements

  • Understand your requirements

  • The stakeholders know a lot about the project already

  • Use a questionnaire to get requirements from a bigger group of people

  • A prototype shows users what your product will be like

  • Now you’re ready to write a requirements document

  • Define the scope of the project

  • How do you define the scope?

  • The project scope statement tells you what you have to do

  • Create the work breakdown structure

  • The inputs for the WBS come from other processes

  • Breaking down the work

  • Decompose deliverables into work packages

  • The project scope baseline is a snapshot of the plan

  • The outputs of the Create WBS process

  • Why scope changes

  • The Control Scope process

  • Anatomy of a change

  • A closer look at the change control system

  • Just two Control Scope tools and techniques

  • Make sure the team delivered the right product

  • The stakeholders give you criteria for deciding when you’re done

• 6 Project schedule management: Getting it done on time

  Schedule management is what most people think of when they think of project managers. It’s where the deadlines are set and met. It starts with figuring out the work you need to do, how you will do it, what resources you’ll use, and how long it will take. From there, it’s all about developing and controlling that schedule.

  • Schedule management helps with aggressive timelines

  • Plan your scheduling processes

  • Use the Define Activities process to break down the work

  • Tools and techniques for Define Activities

  • Rolling wave planning lets you plan as you go

  • Define activities outputs

  • The Sequence Activities process puts everything in order

  • Diagram the relationship between activities

  • Network diagrams put your tasks in perspective

  • Dependencies help you sequence your activities

  • Leads and lags add time between activities

  • Scheduling software can help you see the sequence of activities

  • Create the network diagram

  • Figuring out how long the project will take

  • Estimation tools and techniques

  • Create the duration estimate

  • Use the critical path method to avoid big problems

  • How to find the critical path

  • Finding the float for any activity

  • Float tells you how much extra time you have

  • Figure out the early start and early finish

  • Figure out the latest possible start and finish

  • Add early and late durations to your diagrams

  • Fast-tracking the project

  • Use data analysis techniques when you build your schedule

  • Other Develop Schedule tools and techniques

  • Outputs of Develop Schedule

  • Influence the factors that cause change

  • Control Schedule inputs and outputs

  • Measuring and reporting performance

  • Control Schedule tools and techniques

  • Exam Questions

• 7 Cost management: Watching the bottom line

  Every project boils down to money. If you had a bigger budget, you could probably get more people to do your project more quickly and deliver more. That’s why no project plan is complete until you come up with a budget. But no matter whether your project is big or small, and no matter how many resources and activities are in it, the process for figuring out the bottom line is always the same!

  • Time to expand Head First Kitchen

  • The renovation goes overboard

  • Introducing the Cost Management processes

  • Plan how you’ll estimate, track, and control your costs

  • Now you’ve got a consistent way to manage costs

  • What Alice needs before she can estimate costs

  • Other tools and techniques used in Estimate Costs

  • Let’s talk numbers

  • Now Alice knows how much the Kitchen will cost

  • The Determine Budget process

  • What you need to build your budget

  • Determine budget: how to build a budget

  • Question Clinic: The red herring

  • The Control Costs process is a lot like schedule control

  • A few new tools and techniques

  • Look at the schedule to figure out your budget

  • How to calculate planned value

  • Earned value tells you how you’re doing

  • How to calculate earned value

  • Is your project behind or ahead of schedule?

  • Are you over budget?

  • The earned value management formulas

  • Interpret CPI and SPI numbers to gauge your project

  • Forecast what your project will look like when it’s done

  • Once you’ve got an estimate, you can calculate a variance!

  • Finding missing information

  • Keep your project on track with TCPI

  • A high TCPI means a tight budget

  • Exam Questions

• 8 Quality management: Getting it right

  It’s not enough to make sure you get it done on time and under budget. You need to be sure you make the right product to suit your stakeholders’ needs. Quality means making sure that you build what you said you would and that you do it as efficiently as you can. That means trying not to make too many mistakes and always keeping your project working toward the goal of creating the right product!

  • What is quality?

  • You need more than just tests to figure out quality

  • Once you know what the product is supposed to do, it’s easy to tell which tests pass and which fail

  • “An ounce of prevention…”

  • Plan Quality is how you prevent defects

  • How to plan for quality

  • The Quality Management plan gives you what you need to manage quality

  • Inspect your deliverables

  • Use the planning outputs for Control Quality

  • Tools for data gathering

  • Tools for data analysis

  • Inspection, testing, and product evaluation

  • Tools for data representation

  • Question Clinic: The which-one question

  • Control Quality means finding and correcting defects

  • Trouble at the Black Box 3000^™ factory

  • Introducing Manage Quality

  • A closer look at some tools and techniques

  • More ideas behind managing quality

  • The Black Box 3000^™ makes record profits!

  • Exam Questions

• 9 Project resource management: Getting the team together

  Behind every successful project is a great team. So how do you make sure that you get—and keep—the best possible team for your project? You need to plan carefully, set up a good working environment, and negotiate for the best people you can find. But it’s not enough to put a good team together… If you want your project to go well, you’ve got to keep the team motivated and deal with any conflicts that happen along the way. Human resource management gives you the tools you need to get the best team for the job and lead them through a successful project.

  • Mike needs a new team

  • Get your team together and keep them moving

  • Figure out who you need on your team

  • A closer look at the Plan Resource Management outputs

  • Important components of the Resource Management plan

  • The Resource Management plan

  • What you need to estimate resources

  • Estimating the resources

  • Get the team together

  • Develop your team

  • Develop the team with your management skills

  • Your interpersonal and team skills can make a big difference for your team

  • Lead the team with your management skills

  • Motivate your team

  • Stages of team development

  • Managing your team means solving problems

  • Conflict management up close

  • How to resolve a conflict

  • Make sure to control resources to keep your project on track

  • Outputs of the Control Resources process

  • Exam Questions

• 10 Communications management: Getting the word out

  Communications management is about keeping everybody in the loop. Have you ever tried talking to someone in a really loud, crowded room? That’s what running a project is like if you don’t get a handle on communications. Luckily, there’s Communications Management, which is how to get everyone talking about the work that’s being done, so that they all stay on the same page. That way, everyone has the information they need to resolve any issues and keep the project moving forward.

  • Party at the Head First Lounge!

  • But something’s not right

  • Anatomy of communication

  • Get a handle on communication

  • Tell everyone what’s going on

  • Get the message?

  • More Manage Communications tools

  • Let everyone know how the project’s going

  • Take a close look at the work being done

  • Now you can get the word out

  • People aren’t talking!

  • Count the channels of communication

  • It’s party time!

  • Question Clinic: The calculation question

  • Exam Questions

• 11 Project risk management: Planning for the unknown

  Even the most carefully planned project can run into trouble. No matter how well you plan, your project can always run into unexpected problems. Team members get sick or quit, resources that you were depending on turn out to be unavailable—even the weather can throw you for a loop. So does that mean that you’re helpless against unknown problems? No! You can use risk planning to identify potential problems that could cause trouble for your project, analyze how likely they’ll be to occur, take action to prevent the risks you can avoid, and minimize the ones that you can’t.

  • What’s a risk?

  • How you deal with risk

  • Plan Risk Management

  • Use a risk breakdown structure to categorize risks

  • Anatomy of a risk

  • What could happen to your project?

  • Data-gathering techniques for Identify Risks

  • More Identify Risks techniques

  • Data analysis tools and techniques

  • Where to look for risks

  • Rank your risks

  • Examine each risk in the register

  • Data gathering

  • Qualitative vs. quantitative analysis

  • Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis

  • First gather the data…

  • …then analyze it

  • Calculate the expected monetary value of your risks

  • Decision tree analysis uses EMV to help you make choices

  • Update the risk register based on your quantitative analysis results

  • How do you respond to a risk?

  • Add risk responses to the register

  • Implement Risk Responses

  • Risk response can find even more risks

  • You can’t plan for every risk at the start of the project

  • Monitor Risks is another change control process

  • How to monitor your risks

  • More control risk tools and techniques

  • Exam Questions

• 12 Procurement management: Getting some help

  Some jobs are just too big for your company to do on its own. Even when the job isn’t too big, it may just be that you don’t have the expertise or equipment to do it. When that happens, you need to use Procurement Management to find another company to do the work for you. If you find the right seller, choose the right kind of relationship, and make sure that the goals of the contract are met, you’ll get the job done and your project will be a success.

  • Victim of her own success

  • Calling in the cavalry

  • Ask the legal expert

  • Anatomy of an agreement

  • Start with a plan for the whole project

  • Types of contractual agreements

  • More about contracts

  • Figure out how you’ll sort out potential sellers

  • Get in touch with potential sellers

  • Pick a partner

  • Interpersonal and team skills: negotiation

  • Data analysis: proposal evaluation

  • Keep an eye on the contract

  • Stay on top of the seller

  • Kate closes the contract

  • Hello, this is Technical Support. How can I help you?

  • Question Clinic: BYO questions

  • Exam Questions

• 13 Stakeholder management: Keeping everyone engaged

  Project management is about knowing your audience. If you don’t get a handle on the people who are affected by your project, you might discover that they have needs you aren’t meeting. If your project is going to be successful, you’ve got to satisfy your stakeholders. Luckily, there’s Stakeholder Management, which you can use to understand your stakeholders and figure out what they need. Once you really understand how important those needs are to your project, it’s a lot easier to keep everyone satisfied.

  • Party at the Head First Lounge (again)!

  • Not everybody is thrilled

  • Understanding your stakeholders

  • Find out who your stakeholders are

  • Stakeholder analysis up close

  • How engaged are your stakeholders?

  • Managing stakeholder engagement means clearing up misunderstandings

  • Monitor your stakeholders’ engagement

  • Now you can tell when you need to change the way you deal with stakeholders

  • It’s party time!

  • Exam Questions

• 14 Professional responsibility: Making good choices

  It’s not enough to just know your stuff. You need to make good choices to be good at your job. Everyone who has the PMP credential agrees to follow the Project Management Institute Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, too. The Code helps you with ethical decisions that aren’t really covered in the body of knowledge—and it’s a big part of the PMP exam. Most of what you need to know is really straightforward, and with a little review, you’ll do well.

  • Doing the right thing

  • Keep the cash?

  • Fly business class?

  • New software

  • Shortcuts

  • A good price or a clean river?

  • We’re not all angels

  • Exam Questions

• 15 A little last-minute review: Check your knowledge

  Wow, you sure covered a lot of ground in the last 13 chapters! Now it’s time to take a look back and drill in some of the most important concepts that you learned. That’ll keep it all fresh and give your brain a final workout for exam day!

  • A long-term relationship for your brain

  • Here’s how to do this next section

  • Use the Examination Content Outline… as a study tool

  • The People domain

  • The Process domain

  • The Business Environment domain

  • People domain answers

  • Process domain answers

  • Business environment domain answers

• 16 Practice makes perfect: Practice PMP exam

  Bet you never thought you’d make it this far! It’s been a long journey, but here you are, ready to review your knowledge and get ready for exam day. You’ve put a lot of new information about project management into your brain, and now it’s time to see just how much of it stuck. That’s why we put together this 200-question PMP practice exam for you. It looks just like the one you’re going to see when you take the real PMP exam. Now’s your time to flex your mental muscle. So take a deep breath, get ready, and let’s get started.

  • Exam Questions

  • Exam Answers