PMP Flashcards
What is the difference between “individual Project Risk” and “Overall Project Risk”?
Individual project risk is a single uncertain event or condition that can impact the project.
Overall project risk is the risk exposure of the project as a whole
What is the difference between “risk appetite” and “risk tolerance”
Risk appetite is the amount of risk you are willing to take for a reward
- ex: not willing to go to vegas because you don’t want to take that risk
Risk tolerance is the amount of volume of risk you are willing to take
- ex: how much you are willing to play in the slot machine
What is a “known-known” risk?
Risk that you know about and generally know how to respond to it
What is a “Known-Unknown” risk
risks that you know about but you haven’t analyzed to the full extend.
What is an “unknown-unknown” risk
a risk you don’t know about but it could happen
What is the difference between Variability Risk and Ambiguity Risk?
Both Non-Event Risks
Variability risk is some aspect of a planned task or situation that is uncertain. E.g.: productivity targets, error during testing, weather patterns
Ambiguity Risks are uncertainties arising from lack of knowledge or understanding. e.g. future regulations
What is Project Resilience
Ability to handle risk that was not known. Ability to handle unknowable-unknowns
What are the three types of contracts?
Fixed-Price, Cost-reimbursable, Time and Material
Tell me about a Fixed Price (Lump Sum) contract
- Buyer pays one flat price (lump sum) for all work in the contract
- includes labor and material
- used when the scope is well-defined and understood
- all risk is with the seller (person performing work)
- 3 types:
- Firm Fixed Price (FFP): price is fixed and cannot be changed
- Fixed price incentive fee (FPF): fixed price includes additional fee for meeting a target outlined in the contract
- Fixed price economic price adjustment (FP-EPA): adjust fixed cost over the life of the contract because of economic conditions
Tell me about a cost-reimbursable contract
- Buyer pays for the work expenses and then pays the seller a fee for his profit (example: I will buy all the materials and pay you $100 to paint the room). Fixed fee for profit.
- The risk is with the buyer because the cost overrun of work expense is covered by the buyer because the seller (painter) is guaranteed the profit
3 types-- Cost plus fixed fee (CPIFF) buyer pays the work expense and then a fixed fee to the seller for profit
- cost plus incentive fee (CPIF): buyer pays the work expense and an additional fee, if a target is met, such as, finishing two weeks earlier
- cost plus award fee (CPAF): buyer pays the work expense and pays an award fee that is based on satisfaction of work
Tell me about Time and Material contract
buyer pays for both labor and material
- buyer takes all the risk of cost overrun for both the labor and materials
- should only be used when scope is high-level
What procurement document describes the type of agreement to use and how the project would like delivery to take place?
Procurement strategy
The procurement strategy documents delivery methods, types of agreements, and the procurement phases of the project.
What documents are used to get a response from potential sellers
- generally include an RFP, RFQ or RFI
Bid documents
What is a Bidder Conference (Contractor, vendor, or pre-bid conferences)
Meeting between buyer and sellers
- when you have a big project, and you want to explain the project to a bunch of people at once
what do you do if there are ANY disagreements between a buyer and a seller?
Send it to the Claims Administration
what is the list of sellers that have been properly vetted by the organization and can be used as potential sellers on a project?
Preapproved seller list
Criteria used to evaluate the sellers and can include things such as costs, delivery dates, experience, financial stability, and management experience
Source selection criteria
What are you getting when you hire an outside professional estimator to provide a benchmark to determine whether the bids form a seller are adequate for the project
Independent cost estimate
What is the difference between the procurement statement of work and the procurement management plan
The procurement management plan is part of the project management plan, while the procurement statement of work is a project document.
The procurement management plan contains the activities necessary to conduct the procurement processes.
The procurement statement of work outlines what, from the scope baseline, will be outsourced. It also contains information such as specifications, desired quality, and quality levels.
Who approves all deliverables prior to the closure of procurement?
The Project Manager
What model is used to describe stakeholders based on their power level, influence, urgency, or legitimacy.
salience model
Where should the project manager include the organization position and role of the project stakeholders?
stakeholder register
which document has all details about each work package, such as who is doing it, where it’s getting done, and its cost. Also includes acceptance criteria for each of the work packages
WBS dictionary
____ dependencies are those that are legally or contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work.
Mandatory dependencies
_____ dependencies are when the sequence of activities does not necessarily have to be done in that particular order but is usually at the discretion of the person doing the work
Discretionary dependencies
_____ is when the work is outside of the project team’s control, such as getting a permit. I
External dependency
____ dependency is usually within the project team’s control.
Internal dependency
______ estimating is based on historical information, generally from previous projects that were very similar. This technique would lead to a quick estimate, but may not be very accurate.
Analogous estimating
_____is using subject matter experts in order to estimate the duration of a project
Expert judgment
_____ estimation is done by aggregating the work in order to come up with the duration
estimation is done by aggregating the work in order to come up with the duration
The ____ is used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of schedule flexibility
The longest path on the critical path diagram
critical path method
The activities on the critical path have no float (or slack)
Float = total float = slack
_____ the schedule is a compression technique in which activities are generally done in parallel.
“Fast tracking”
The ____ method is used to construct a schedule in which the activities are represented graphically using nodes and are linked based on their relationship.
The precedence diagramming method.
The designated person that represents the customer on the project
Prioritizes the product backlog
Product Owner
The person who manages the agile project
responsible for facilitating the process
Focuses team and protects them from external interruption
assists the product owner in leveraging scrum
Agile Project Manager / Scrum Master
Meeting done by the agile team to determine what features will be done in the next sprint
Sprint planning meeting
A short iteration where the prjoect team work to complete the work in the sprint backlog (1-4 weeks typically)
Sprint
A quick meeting each day to discuss project statuses, led by the Scrum Master (usually 15 minutes)
Daily Stand Up Meeting
An inspection done at the end of the sprint by the customers
Sprint review
Meeting done to determine what went wrong during the sprint and what went right. Lessons learned for the sprint
Retrospective
Several Sprints worth of work directed to operations for possible rollout and testing
Release
What are the three scrum artifacts
-
Product backlog - prioritized list of all work that needs to be done to complete the product.
- List is dynamic, it evolves as the more work is added and prioritized.
- Items in it are prioritized by the product owner and is sorted by value.
- Most valuable items are listed first. Constantly being refined as more work is added to it.
- Team and product owner will “groom the backlog”
-
Sprint backlog - list of committed items to be addressed within sprint
- The sprint backlog is accompanied by a plan of how to achieve the sprint goal, so it serves as the development team’s forecast for the functionality that will be part of the sprint
- It is a highly visible view of the work being undertaken and may only be updated by the development team.
-
Product increment - part of the product that is complete after each sprint
- Part of the product that is done after each sprint
- Done to get feedback after each sprint
- The product owner and team need to agree upon the “definition of done” before the team starts working on the product
What is collective code ownership?
Any pair of developers can improve or amend any code
Multiple people work on all code, which results in increased visibility and knowledge of code base
Leads to a higher level of quality; with more people looking at the code, there is a greater chance of defects
Remove redundancy, eliminate unused functionality, and rejuvenate obsolete designs
Basically, cleaning up your code after you finish writing it
Refactoring
Refactoring throughout the entire project lifecycle saves time and increases quality
code is kept clean and concise so it is easier to understand, modify, and extend
What is a Release?
A series of sprints (aka scrum) that results in a product that the customer can start using
When is customer review work done on an agile project?
Sprint Review Meeting
During a sprint review meeting, the customers will review the work completed in the sprint and give the team their feedback.
What is Gulf of Evaluation?
The Gulf of evaluation occurs when, what one person described is often different from how another interpreted it.
What are the levels of conflict (1-5)?
Level 1: Problem to solve - sharing info
Level 2: Disagreement - Personal Protection
Level 3: Contest - Must win
Level 4: Crusade - Protecting one’s group
Level 5: World War - Must destroy the other
Generalizing specialists
- Have Members that can do different tasks
- Members skilled in more than one area
- Share work reduce bottleneck
What are some things you can do to build a high-performance agile team?
-Have a shared vision
- Realistic goals
- fewer than 12 members
- have a sense of team identity
- provide strong leadership
What is the difference between a burnup chart, a burndown chart, and a velocity chart?
A burnup chart shows work that HAS BEEN DONE
A burndown chart shows the work that REMAINS TO BE DONE
A velocity chart shows how the team is performing
What can the agile project manager use in the agile charter as a brief way to describe the goals of the project?
Project Tweet
The project tweet will describe the project goal in 140 characters or less.
What is the collaboration game that asks stakeholders to imagine that an upcoming release was successful and to look back on what made it a success. This will allow stakeholders to define the success criteria for the release.
Remember the future
What is the agile manifesto
individuals and interactions over processes and tools
According to the cost constructive model, the people factor is how many more times costly than tools and processes?
11
Agile project teams should have fewer than __________ members?
12
What does the Shu-Ha-Ri Model of Skill Mastery mean?
Shu - Obey
Ha - Moving away
Ri - Finding individual paths
If people in a team are in the “Shu” phase they are quite immature in agile, and they just follow the rules.
If they are more mature, they will be in the “Ha”, where they can break the rules safely.
The last stage is the “Ri” phase where people are so mature that they can create their rules.
During what level of the Tuchman’s letter should the agile project manager be directing the team?
Forming
Refers to the time it would take to complete a given task assuming zero interruptions or unplanned problems
Ideal Time
variation of the Delphi estimating method where subject matter experts complete multiple rounds of producing estimates individually, with a project team discussion after each round, until a consensus is achieved.
Wideband Delphi
High-level planning tool
stakeholders map out what the project priorities early in the planning
When finished, it turns into the product roadmap
Shows when features will be delivered and what is included in each release
Story Maps
What are the types of iterations in agile
Iteration 0
- Set the stage for development efforts
- Doesn’t build anything
Development Iterations
- Build the product increment
Iteration H (hardening sprint or release)
- Done at the end to clean up codes or producing documentation
What are the two types of Spikes
Architectural spike
- Period of time dedication to proof of concept
Risk-based spike
- Team investigate to reduce or eliminate risk
What is the process of iteration planning?
- Meeting run by the delivery team
- Discuss the user stories in the backlog
- Select the user stories for the iteration
- Define the acceptance criteria
- Break down the user stories into task
- Estimate the task
What is the process of release planning
- Meeting with all stakeholders to determine which stories will be done in which iterations for the upcoming release
- Selecting the user stories for the release
- Using Velocity - points per iteration
- Slicing the stories
- Breaking down the stories that are too large to e completed in 1 iteration
Technical Debt
Backlog of work caused by not doing regular cleanup
If not done, will lead to increase cost of development and make it harder to implement changes
refactoring is the solution
what is Lead Time and Cycle Time
Lead Time: how long something takes to go through the entire process
Cycle Time: a subset of lead time. How long something takes to go through a part of the process. part of lead time.
- Measure of how long it takes to get things done
- Long cycle times lead to increased amounts of WIP
What is the formula for Cycle Time
Cycle Time = WIP / Throughput
Throughput: amount of work that can be done in a time period
Long cycle times lead to increased amounts of WIP
What are the two types of trend analysis metrics?
Lagging metrics: provide information on something that has already happened
Leading metrics: provide information on something that is about to occur
What are the Three C’s of user stories?
Card- The Card, or written text of the User Story is best understood as an invitation to conversation. …
Conversation. The collaborative conversation facilitated by the Product Owner which involves all stakeholders and the team. …
Confirmation.
What is the agile improvement process?
plan, develop, evaluate, and learn
What is the difference between control quality and manage quality
Manage Quality
is about improving your process. This happens as the deliverable is getting built. Example is as the painter is painting the room, looking to see if there are ways they can improve.
Control Quality
is looking at the deliverable itself and saying to yourself “is this painted room a quality job. did they do a quality job?”. You are assessing the perfromance against the quality standards and requirements in those deliverables to see if they meet the quality requirements.
At what part of the project do you identify and analyze stakeholders?
throughout the project. not just the beginning
As you acquire, document, and transfer knowledge throughout the project, what document should be constantly updated
The lesson learned register
What process do you collect quality requirements?
Collect requirements
When should quality requirements be defined?
early in the project and should be checked often to ensure they’re getting done
Who is the best at breaking down work and determining when a particular activity should happen?
The project team
Who should be checking the deliverable for scope conference and quality requirements?
The customers
what is the mindset around selecting a contract to use on a project with potential sellers?
Always use a contract that is mutually beneficial to both the seller and the buyer to the overall benefits of the project objectives
What are the 5 process groups?
Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing
What are the major outputs for the Initiating Process Group
- Project Charter
- Assumptions Log
- Stakeholder Register
What are the major outputs of the Planning Process Group?
Project Management Plan:
- Change mgmt plan
- Configuration mgmt plan
- Scope mgmt plan
- Requirement mgmt plan
- Schedule mgmt plan
- Cost mgmt plan
- Quality mgmt plan
- Resource mgmt plan
- Communication mgmt plan
- Risk mgmt plan
- Procurement mgmt plan
- Stakeholder mgmt plan
- Scope baseline
- Schedule Baseline
- Cost Baseline
- Performance measurement baseline
- Project life cycle description
- Development approach
What are the major outputs of the Executing Process Group
- Accepted Deliverable
- Work Performance Information
- Work Performance Reports
- Approved Change Request
What are the major outputs of the Closing Process Group
- Final Product, Service, or result transition
- Final Report
What are the retrospectives stages in order?
- Set Stage
- Gather Data
- Generate Insights
- Decide what to do
- Close retrospective
EAC
Estimate At Completion
EAC = BAC/CPI
= Budget / Cost Performance Index
Forecast of the total cost of the project at the end based on the current spending rate of the project
SV
Schedule Variance
SV = EV - PV
= Earned Value - Planned Value
The difference between the amount of work we should have done vs. the amount actually done
Negative values indicate behind schedule
SPI
Schedule Performance Index
SPI = EV / PV
= Earned Value / Planned Value
The rate of how we are meeting the project schedule
A value of 1 or above indicates the project is ahead of schedule
CPI
Cost Performance Index
CPI = EV / AC
= Earned Value / Actual Cost
The rate of how we are spending to actually earning on the project
Values of 1 or above indicate the project is under budget
CV
Cost Variance
CV = EV - AC
= Earned Value - Actual Cost
The difference between the work done and the money spent
Positive values mean we are under budget
AC
Actual Cost
Amount of $ you have spent on the project thus far
EV
Earned Value
EV = Actual % Complete * BAC
Amount of $ worth of work you have actually done on the project
PV
Planned Value
PV = Planned % Complete * BAC
Amount of $ worth of work that we should have done on the project
BAC
Budget at Completion
Original budget of the project
TCPI
To-Complete Performance Index
TCPI = (BAC - EV) / (BAC - AC)
The performance that needs to be met to finish the project within the budget
VAC
Variance at Completion
VAC = BAC - EAC
= Budget - Estimate at Completion
The difference between the original budget and the new forecasted budget.
A positive value indicates the project may end at or under budget
ETC
Estimate to Completion
ETC = EAC - AC
= Estimate at Completion - Actual Cost
Forecasting the amount of $ that will be needed to complete the project based on the current performance
Communication Channels Formula
of channels needed = n*(n-1) / 2
n = # of people on the project
What are the steps you need to follow when solving a problem?
1) Define the cause of the problem (not just the symptoms)
2) Analyze the problem (cause + effect diagram)
3) Identify Solutions
4) Implement the selected solution
5) Review the solution - make sure it works
6) Confirm the solution solved the problem
What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (from top to bottom)
- Self Actualization (seeking personal growth and fulfillment)
- Esteem (respect and approval from others)
- Social (friends and family)
- Safety
- Physiological (basic needs like food, water, shelter)
What is the difference between McGregor’s theory X and Theory Y?
Theory X is bad. They need to be watched all the time, micromanaged, and distrusted. people who avoid work and have no ability to achieve. Theory X Managers are micromanagers
Theory Y is good. these people are self-led, motivated, and can accomplish new tasks proactively.
What is Ourchi Theory Z
A theory about increasing employee loyalty to the organization
What is Herzberg’s theory of motivation?
Hygiene agents. Things that need to be provided to employees in order for things to get done. things like provide paychecks to employees
What is the Ishikawa Diagram
Known as the fishbone diagram. Also known as the cause of defects diagram
shows you the potential reasons of a major defect. for example, what caused the system to fail
What is a histogram
A barchart aka a pareto diagram
shows you the 80/20 rule: 80% of your issues are likely coming from 20% of the potential causes
What is a scatter diagram
used to show trends
What is the Rule of Seven?
Applies to a control chart, which tells you if a process is in control or not.
What document lays out detailed information about each individual activity?
this document expands the description of the activity by identifying many of the aspects of the activity, including resource requirements, predecessor and successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, etc.
This is one level below the Work Packages in your standard WBS
Activity Attributes
Process where created: define activities
What document is a list of all project assumptions and constraints?
Assumptions Log
Process where created: Develop project charter
What document describes how schedule, cost, and resource estimates were developed. Also includes their confidence level and ranges
Supporting detail for cost estimates contained in the ___ should specify any basic assumptions dealing with the inclusion or exclusion of indirect or other costs in the project budget.
Basis of estimates
Process where created: Estimate activity duration, estimate costs, estimate activity resources
What document lists and describes the status of the change requests that are being processed or have been processed through the perform integrated change control process?
Change log
Process where created: Perform integrated change control
What document shows the cost of each individual activity
Cost Estimates
Process where created: Estimate costs
___ are predictions of how much the project will cost when completed based on the current work?
Cost Forecasts
Process where created: Control Costs
___ outline the amount of time needed to complete each activity on the project?
Duration Estimates
Process where created: Estimate Activity Durations
An ___ is used to record and monitor information on active issues.
Issues are assigned to a responsible party for follow up and resolution.
Issue Log
Process where created: Direct and Manage Project Work
What document is a description of milestones on a project
Milestone LIst
Process where created: Define Activities
What document shows the assignements of the physical resources to the activities or work packages
Physical Resource Assignments
Process where created: Acquire Resources
What documents are associated with Manage Communications?
Project communications
Process where created: Manage Communications
What document is a detailed breakdown of the work that needs to be done in order to complete the project. Will include a bar chart, milestone chart, and the project schedule network diagram
Project Schedule
Process where created: Develop Schedule
What document is a sequencing diagram that shows the relationships amongst the activities and the sequence they will be performed. but also show the critical path
Project schedule network diagram
Process where created: sequence activities
What document is an assignment of the project team members to the work packages or activities
Project team assignments
Process where created: Acquire resources