Week 2 - PMP Flashcards
Define Enterprise environmental factors
Conditions are not under control of project team that influence, constrain, or direct the project.
Originate from the environment outside the project and often outside enterprise.
What level does EEF effect?
May impact organizational, portfolio, program or project levels
Do EEF result in positive or negative result on outcome?
Either
Are OPA’s internal or external to the organization?
Internal
What is an OPA?
Organizational process asset; plans, processes, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organization
Where do OPAs originate from?
Organization itself, program, another project, or combination
List internal EEFs
- Org. culture, structure, governance (e.g. vision, leadership style, hierarchy)
- Geographic distribution of facilities/resources (e.g. factory locations, virtual teams).
- Infrastructure (e.g. existing facilities, equip. avail.)
- Information technology software (e.g. scheduling software)
- Resource availability (e.g. contracting constraints, collaboration agreements)
- Employee capability (e.g. existing human resource capability, skills, knowledge)
List EEFs external to organization
- Marketplace conditions (e.g. competitors, market share brand)
- Social & cultural influences/issues (e.g. political climate, ethics, code of conduct)
- Legal restrictions
- Commercial databases (e.g. bench marking results, standardized cost estimating data)
- Academic research (e.g. industry studies, publications)
- Govt./industry standards (e.g. regulatory agency regs and standards related to products, production, etc.)
- Financial considerations (e.g. currency exchange rates, interest rates, inflation rates)
- Physical environmental elements (working conditions, weather)
How are OPA’s grouped?
- Processes, policies, procedures - generally not updated as part of project work and are established by PMO
- Organizational knowledge bases - Updated throughout project
List organizational knowledge repositories for storing/retrieving data
- Configuration management
- Financial data
- Historical info
- Issue/defect management
- Data
- Project files from prev. proj.
Define system
collection of various components that together can produce results not obtainable by the individual components alone
Define component
identifiable element within the project or org. that provides a particular function or group of related functions
List the principles of systems
- They are dynamic
- Can be optimized
- Components can be optimized
- Systems and components cannot be optimized at the same time
- Systems are non-linear in responsiveness (a change in the input does not produce a predictable change in output)
Who is responsible for a system?
Organization’s management
Who is responsible for governance?
Organizational or structural aragements
Define governance
Framework within which authority is exercised in organizations
List principles of governance
- Multidimensional
- Include consideration of people, roles, structures, policies
- Requires providing direction and oversight through data & feedback
What does governance framework include?
- rules
- policies/ procedures / processes
- norms
- relationships
- systems
What does the governance framework influence?
- How objectives org. are set and achieved
- How risk is monitored and assessed
- How performance is optimized
List the governance domains
- Alignment
- Risk
- Performance
- Communications
What functions do the governance domains have?
- Oversight
- Control
- Integration
- Decision making
Define project governance
framework, functions and processes that guide PM activities in order to create a unique product/ service/ result to meet org, strategic, and operational goals
Is one governance framework most effective?
No one governance framework is effective in all organizations
Define management elements
Components that comprise the key functions or principles of general management in the organization
Define PMO
org. structure that standardizes the project related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, T&T
List (not define) types of PMO
- Supportive
- Controlling
- Directive
Describe supportive PMO
Provide consultive role by supplying templates, best practices, training. Serves as project repository.
Degree of control = low
Describe Controlling PMO
Provides support and requires compliance through various means such as:
- adoption of PM frameworks/methodologies
- templates, tools, forms
- conformance to governance frameworks
Degree of control = moderate
Describe Directive PMO
Take control by directly managing project. PM are assigned by and report to PMO
Degree of control = high
Can PMO be considered a SH?
Yes, can be integral stakeholder and key decision maker
What is the scope of a PMO?
- Support PM
- Make recommendations
- Lead knowledge transfer
- Terminate projects
- Take other actions as required
How can PMO support PM?
- Manage shared resources across all projects administered by PMO
- Identify/develop PM method/ best practice/standard
- Coach/mentor/oversight
- Monitor compliance with standards/policies/proced.
- Develop and manage policies, templates, documentation
- Coordinate communication across projects
How are predictive life cycles characterized?
By emphasis on specifications of requirements and detailed planning during beginning phases.
- As detailed plan progresses, monitoring and controlling processes focus on constraining changes that might impact scope, schedule, budget
How are highly adaptive/ agile life cycles characterized?
By progressive elaboration of requirements based on short iterative planning and executing cycles
What are the impacts on the project by using highly adaptive/agile life cycles?
- Risk and cost reduced by progressive elaboration of initial plans
- Key SH continuously involved and provide feedback
Which type of lifecycles involve SH more?
Incremental, iterative, and agile cycles more than predictive because can get continuous feedback
Do life cycles stay the same for all phases?
No, life cycles can change based on the phase.
Define phases
A collection of logically related project activities that culminates in a completion of 1 or more deliverables
Can a process be repeated during a process group?
Yes, repeated as necessary until criteria for that phase have been met
What two patterns do adaptive projects use?
- Sequential iterations
2. Continuously overlapping phases
Describe continuously overlapping phases
Intent is to aggressively refine/improve all elements of the PM plan beyond prescheduled checkpoints associated with iterations
- Can be viewed as micro-iterations & maximize time available on execution rather than management
Characteristics of adaptive projects in initiating process
-Adaptive project revisit and revalidate project charter frequently. As proj. progresses, compelling priorities and change dynamics may cause constraints and success criteria to become obsolete
How frequently is an initiating process conducted in adaptive life cycles?
On each iterative cycle
Characteristics of adaptive projects in planning process?
- Highly predictive life cycles characterized by few changes to project scope and high SH alignment. –> Benefit of detailed upfront planning
- Adaptive develop a set of high level plans for initial req. and progress. elaborate requirements
How do predictive and adaptive life cycles differ?
How much planning is done and when it’s done
Characteristics of adaptive projects in executing process?
- Each iteration in agile/ iterative/ adaptive have work followed by a demonstration of functionality or design
- Based on demonstration, SH/team create retrospective review
- Review helps check progress against plan and determines if changes to scope, schedule, or execution process are necessary
How are retrospectives beneficial?
Are a primary tool to manage project knowledge and develop team through discussions of what is working well and team-based problem solving
How are highly adaptive teams organized?
- Highly adaptive approaches aim to utilize specialized team knowledge for task completion.
PM doesn’t assign tasks, team self organizes specific tasks.
Which processes use a backlog?
Iterative, agile, adaptive
Explain backlog
- Prioritized by business representative with help from team
- Work pulled from top of backlog for next iteration based on business priority and team capacity
- Requests for change evaluated by business rep and team and prioritized according in backlog of work
Explain closing process group in iterative/adaptive/ agile projects
- Prioritized to undertake the highest business value items first
- If closing process group prematurely closes, high chance some useful business value already generated, allowing less of sunk cost and more of a quick win or proof of concept
