PMP® Study Notes

Terms for both waterfall and agile


Avoid single point of failure

Laissez faire - let the team member to do it

Requirements Traceability Matrix - both waterfall and agile. Document that includes the description, date, owner, source, priority, and status of product requirements. See the connection between the requirements and the business and project objectives.

Design of Experiments - An automotive designer uses a certain technique to determine which combination of suspension and tires will produce the most desirable ride characteristics at a reasonable cost. To do this, the designer employs a statistical framework and systematically changes all the important parameters instead of changing the factors one at a time.

Project charter – develop by PM, reference from statement of work

1. Project purpose

2. Measurable project objectives and related success criteria

3. High-level requirements

4. High-level project description, boundaries, and key deliverables

5. Overall project risk

6. Summary milestone schedule

7. Preapproved financial resources

8. Key stakeholder list

9. Project approval requirements (i.e., what constitutes success, who decides the project is successful, who signs off on the project)

10. Project exit criteria (i.e., what are the conditions to be met in order to close or to cancel the project or phase)

11. Assigned project manager, responsibility, and authority level

12. Name and authority of the sponsor or other person(s) authorizing the project charter


Project Scope Statement

1. Project scope description (progressively elaborated)

2. Project deliverables

3. Acceptance criteria

4. Project exclusions


Knowledge Management

1. Tacit knowledge is subconsciously understood and applied, difficult to articulate, developed from direct experience and action, and usually shared through highly interactive conversation, story-telling and shared experience. Knowledge that is personal and difficult to express, such as beliefs, insights, experience, and “know-how”.

2. Explicit knowledge, in contrast, can be more precisely and formally articulated. Therefore, although more abstract, it can be more easily codified, documented, transferred, or shared. Knowledge that can be readily codified using words, pictures, and Numbers. E.g. A team member asks you where she can find a set of building codes.


Progressive Elaboration – project management plan will continuously increase in the level of detail as the project moves forward. e.g potential impediments, change request, regular re-planning activities, backlog maintenance in agile project.

Critical Path – the longest path (in time) from Start to Finish; it indicates the minimum (shortest) time necessary to complete the entire project.

CTL - Critical Timeline = Critical Path

ROM - Rough Order of Magnitude

RBS - Resource Breakdown Structure

Alternative analysis

Cost-benefit analysis

Earn value analysis - scope, schedule and cost performance

Root cause analysis - identify main reason of the problem

Trend analysis - forecast future base on pass result. During a project review, the construction manager reports that the concrete production rate change over the last three months

Variance analysis - review the difference between planned and actual

Monitor and Control Output - dashboard, heat report, stop light charts. They are for decision making

Quantitative analysis - Monte Carlo, Tornado Diagram

Tornado Diagram - Assess risk for quantitative risk analysis. A bar chart that visually displays the magnitude of each risk in a descending order. The biggest risk is shown at the top of the chart, and it will have the biggest spread. This is the risk that deserves the most attention

Project Assumption - PM is having meeting to discuss pre-allocation of customer budget

Decision Making - voting, autocratic decision making, multicriteria decision analysis

Assumption log - record all assumptions or constraints that were identified during project life cycle

Assumptions and Constraints Analysis - Project initial stage, concern high level requirements

Organization Model

Pure Product - PM have the greatest authorities in using project resources

Weak Matrix - The functional manager is making all the decisions and your role is to set up meetings and perform other administrative stuff. A part time freelancer project manager


PMO - Role of PMO is project charter

Change requests - can include scope changes, corrective actions, preventive actions, and defect repairs

Corrective actions - are reactive in nature and are intended to bring the project back into alignment with the baselines

Preventive actions - are proactive in nature to ensure the project doesn't deviate from the baselines. A senior technician discovers a new function can smooth the future performance

Defect repairs - are used to correct products or deliverables that do not meet the documented quality requirements

Motivation of staff - the project manager also needs to be aware of Student Syndrome—or procrastination—when people start to apply themselves only at the last possible moment before the deadline, and Parkinson's Law where work expands to fill the time available for its completion. (PMBOK6. 196-236)

Student Syndrome - May be a project constraints. It proves that human behavior plays a crucial role in project delivery. Determine it is Real Constraint or Just Human Factor. Student always postponed their activities till the deadline just because they were sure they had plenty of time for completing their homework. That affects the time of task delivery. tasks' durations are probably unnecessarily too long. Student Syndrome effect occurs in most cases if a person has too much time for accomplishing a task. The rule is like this: the more time we have, the less productive we become

Factors provoke the Student Syndrome:

1. Unclear Priorities

2. Laziness

3. Overload and Multitasking

4. Uncertainty

5. Tasks' difficulty


Needs Assessment - For complex and highly critical projects, activities of business analysis get started well before the project is initiated. Typically in such cases, the requirements management process starts with needs assessment

PBS - Product Breakdown Structure