Project Management Flashcards
What are the 10 Project Management Knowledge areas?
Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resources, Communications, Risk, Procurement, and Stakeholder
What is a project?
Something which brings about a unique product, service, or result and has a definite beginning and end
What’s the difference between project and ongoing ops?
Project is temporary and creates unique product or service. Ops work is ongoing and repetetive
What are 3 types of organizational structure?
functional, matrix (strong, weak and balanced), and projectized
What is role of project manager?
Project integration. Leads the team and oversees all work required to complete the project goals to satisfaction of stakeholders
What are most common project selection methods?
cost-benefit analysis, scoring models, payback period, and economic models (discounted cash flow, NPV, and IRR), and expert judgement
What skills are needed to manage a project beyond technical knowledge?
leadership, communication, problem-solving, negotiation, organization, and time management
What is a stakeholder?
a person or organization that has a vested interest in your project. They have something to gain or lose as a result of performing the project. They work to determine project requirements and provide direction throughout the life of the project and review and approve the final end product, service, or result. Also includes the customer
What are some typical responsibilities of a project sponsor?
Provide or obtain financial resources,
Approve the project charter,
Approve project baseline,
Help define and approve the high-level requirements,
Define business case and justification,
Authorize assignment of human resources,
Assign project manager and describe their authority,
Serve as final decision maker for project issues,
negotiate support from key stakeholders,
Communicate or market benefits of project
Monitor and control delivery of major milestones,
Run interference and remove roadblocks
What is the role of the project coordinator?
assist project manager in all aspects of project. usually assist in administrative support function
What is the role of the project scheduler?
developing and maintaining the project schedule, communicating the timelines and due dates, reporting schedule performance, and communicating any schedule changes to the stakeholders and team members
What is a key role of team members?
contributing deliverables according to the schedule including time and duration estimates for tasks, cost estimates for deliverables, status updates for their tasks, and dependencies related to their tasks
What is the PMO (project management office)
provides guidance to project managers and helps present a consistent, reliable approach to managing projects across the organization. maintain standards, processes, procedures, and templates
What are the key activities of the Initiation process?
Creating the project charter,
Creating a business case and justification,
Defining a high level scope definition,
Identifying high-level risks
What are the key activities of the Planning process?
Develop a project schedule, Create a work breakdown structure, Determine resources, Identify and lan for detailed risk Determine project requirements Write a communication plan Develop a procurement plan Develop a change management plan Define project budget
What is the purpose of the project charter and in which phase is it created?
authorize the project to begin; initiating
What is the purpose of the project management plan and in which phase is it created?
consists of all the project planning documents such as charter, scope statement, schedule, etc.;
Planning
What is the purpose of the issues log and in which phase is it created?
a list of issues, containing list numbers, descriptions, and owners
Executing
What is the purpose of the organizational chart and in which phase is it created?
describes project team members organization and reporting structures
Planning
What is the purpose of the scope statement and in which phase is it created?
documents the product description, key deliverables, success and acceptance criteria, key performance indicators, exclusions, assumptions, and constraints
Planning
What is the purpose of the communication plan and in which phase is it created?
Documents the types of information needs the stakeholders have, when the information should be distributed, and how the information will be delivered
Planning
What is the purpose of the project schedule and in which phase is it created?
Determines the start and finish dates for the project activities and assigns resources to the activities
Planning
What is the purpose of the Status report and in which phase is it created?
a report to stakeholders on the status of the project deliverables, schedule, risks, issues, and more
Executing
What is the propose of the Dashboard information and in which phase is it created?
An electronic reporting tool that lest users choose elements of the project to monitor project health and status
Executing
What is he purpose of the Action items and in which phase are they created?
a list of project actions what should be resolved in order to fulfill deliverables
Executing
What is the purpose of the meeting agenda/meeting minutes and in which phase are they created?
describe the items to be discussed and addressed at upcoming meetings, and recap what was discussed at decisions made at the meeting
Executing
What are the key activities of the Executing Process?
deliverables produced and verified
What are the key activities of the Monitoring and Controlling processes?
Monitoring the risks/issues log Performance measuring and reporting Performing QA/Governance activities Administering change control process Monitoring the budget
What are the key activities of the closing process?
Transition/integration plan to the maintenance/operations team,
Training for those who will support the product, services, or result of the project once its turned over to ops,
Project acceptance and sign-off,
Archiving project docs,
Documenting lessons learned,
Releasing resources,
Closing Contract
What is the end result of the initiating process?
project charter
Who publishes, signs, and approves the project charter?
project sponsor
What are some key elements to include in the project charter?
Purpose or justification for project, Problem statement, Project goals and objectives, project description, key deliverables, stakeholder identification, High-level list of requirements, high-level milestones, high-level budget, high-level assumptions, high-level constraints, high-level risks, name of the project manager and their authority level, name of the sponsor, criteria for project approval
What are known as the “triple constraint”?
time, scope, and cost
What is the scope management plan?
describes how the team will define project scope, validate the work, and manage and control scope. should contain the following:
process used to prepare the scope statement,
process for creating, maintaining, and approving the work breakdown structure,
definition of how the deliverable will be validated for accuracy and the process used for accepting deliverables,
description of the process for controlling scope change requests, including the procedure for requesting changes and how to obtain a change request form
What is scope creep?
changing the project or product scope without having approval to do so and without considering the impacts that will have on the project schedule, budget, and resources
What are some common project constraints?
budget scope deliverables quality environment resources requirements scheduling
What are some common project influences?
change request, scope creep, constraint reprioritization, interaction between constraints stakeholder/sponsors/management other projects
Describe business requirements
the big-picture results of fulfilling a project and how they satisfy business goals, strategy, and perspective
Can be anything from planned increase in revenue to a decrease in overall spending to increased market awareness
Describe functional requirements
the product characteristics needed for the product to perform
typically behavioural in nature or performance oriented and may also describe elements such as color, quantity, and other specifications
Describe non-functional requirements
the characteristics of functional requirements. Not performance or behavioural based. For example, a green button should be 1.5 in in diameter and a red button should be 2 in in diameter.
What are the minimum requirements to include in the requirements document?
Business need for the project and why it was undertaken,
Project objectives,
Project deliverables,
Requirements
What is the WBS?
Work breakdown structure.
A deliverables-oriented hierarchy that defines all the work of the project
What is decomposition?
The process of breaking down the high-level deliverables into smaller, more manageable work units
What is the lowest level of the WBS?
work package level - where resources, time, and cost estimates are determined
What is the WBS dictionary?
Where the WBS levels and work component descriptions are documented. Includes:
Code of accounts identifier,
description of the work of the component,
Organization responsible for completing the component,
Resources,
Cost Estimates,
Criteria for acceptance
What are some typical steps when constructing a project schedule?
Determine tasks, Sequence tasks, Allocate resources, Determine task durations including start and end dates, Determine milestones, Construct a schedule, Determine the critical path, Set the baseline and obtain approval, Set quality gates, Establish the governance process
What are the types of task dependencies?
Mandatory, Discretionary, External, and Internal
What is a mandatory dependency?
directly related to the type of work being performed. Ex: utility crew can’t lay cable until trench has been dug
What is a discretionary dependency?
defined by project management team and is usually process or procedure driven. Ex: a process that requires approvals and sign-off on planning docs before proceeding
What is an external dependencyi?
relationship between a project task and some factor outside the project