Becoming a PMP® Certified Professional

Becoming a PMP® Certified Professional

by J. Ashley Hunt
Released February 2021
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781838989309

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Book description

Pass the PMP 2021 exam with confidence with the help of practical and up-to-date coverage of project management practices from the 6th edition of the PMBOK® Guide

Key Features

  • Written by J. Ashley Hunt, an experienced PMP® trainer with over 20 years of project management experience
  • Learn with the help of PMP® practice tests, exam tips, and best practices from the PMBOK® Guide
  • Effectively plan core project work aspects such as scope, cost, quality, procurement, and communication

Book Description

One of the five most prestigious certifications in the world, the PMP® exam is said to be the most difficult non-technical certification exam. With this exam guide, you'll be able to address the challenges in learning advanced project management concepts.

This PMP study guide covers all of the 10 project management knowledge areas, 5 process groups, 49 processes, and aspects of the Agile Practice Guide that you need to tailor your projects. With this book, you will understand the best practices found in the sixth edition of the PMBOK® Guide and the newly updated exam content outline. Throughout the book, you'll learn exam objectives in the form of a project for better understanding and effective implementation of real-world project management tasks, helping you to not only prepare for the exam but also implement project management best practices. Finally, you'll get to grips with the entire application and testing processes in PMP® and discover numerous tips and techniques for passing the exam on your first attempt.

By the end of this PMP® exam prep book, you'll have a solid understanding of everything you need to pass the PMP® certification exam, and be able to use this handy, on-the-job desktop reference guide to overcome challenges in project management.

What you will learn

  • Understand how to fill out the exam application and what to expect on the day of the exam
  • Get a comprehensive overview of project management processes, knowledge areas, and project execution
  • Explore project and organization structures and other factors influencing projects
  • Manage risk, scheduling, and cost using expert tips and insights
  • Acquire and manage resources and communication in project work
  • Monitor and control projects from planning to execution
  • Discover professional responsibility, study tips, and what's in store for certified project management professionals

Who this book is for

If you are an experienced project manager looking for a common language and best practices in the project management space and want to achieve the PMP certification to accelerate your career growth, this book is for you. A minimum of 3 to 7 years of experience in leading and directing projects for a variety of industries will be useful.

Table of contents

  1. Becoming a PMP® Certified Professional
  2. Contributors
  3. About the author
  4. About the reviewers
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Conventions used
    5. Get in touch
    6. Reviews
  6. Section 1: Introduction to Project Management and People
  7. Chapter 1: Introduction to the PMP® Exam
    1. Why get a Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification?
    2. What will you learn about?
    3. Who is this book for?
    4. Frequently asked questions
      1. Who exactly is the PMI®?
      2. What is The PMBOK® Guide – 6th Edition?
      3. I heard Agile is included – what is the deal with that?
      4. Predictive and adaptive? What does that mean?
        1. Predictive project management – PMP® and CAPM®
        2. Adaptive or Agile project management – The Agile Practice Guide® and PMI-ACP®
      5. I heard the PMP® exam is super difficult, is that true?
      6. Can I cram for this exam? I have like zero time to study
      7. 100 hours of study???
      8. Will your practice exams match my exam?
      9. Am I going to pass the exam the first time?
      10. Do I need other study materials?
      11. I heard the application is difficult. Are you going to cover that in this guide?
      12. What are the qualifications for the PMP® exam?
      13. What does project management education mean?
      14. I took a PMP® boot camp 4 years ago, does that count?
    5. How to apply for the exam
      1. What if the organization has closed or the people I worked with are gone and I can't find them?
      2. The application
    6. What to expect on exam day – if you take the exam at a testing center
      1. What to expect on exam day if you take your PMP® exam online at home… in your pajamas…
    7. Common questions you may be thinking to yourself after all of that
      1. Do I need to be proficient in everything? How will I know?
      2. Will anyone be able to see my results? As in, will PMI® post my results anywhere?
      3. If I get below target in any domain, will I fail the exam?
      4. What score should I be aiming for in practice exams?
      5. I have zero time to study and that study for 100 hours bit is making me nervous. How can I still work and have a life, but also still study?
        1. How will I know I am ready to schedule my exam?
        2. How many times can I take the exam?
        3. My training company has a "first-time pass guarantee" – is that for real?
      6. Study tips
    8. Learning styles
      1. The seven learning styles
        1. Visual
        2. Verbal
        3. Logical
        4. Aural or auditory
        5. Social
        6. Intrapersonal
        7. Physical
    9. Summary
    10. Assessment exam
  8. Chapter 2 :Introduction to Project Management
    1. What are process groups?
    2. Overview of knowledge areas
    3. Introduction to the 49 processes
    4. Inputs, tools/techniques, and outputs
      1. Inputs – what do I need before I can make a PB&J?
      2. Tools and techniques – what tools/techniques will I use to create my sandwich?
      3. Outputs – what will I have when I am finished?
    5. Organizational process assets and enterprise environmental factors
      1. Enterprise environmental factors
      2. Organizational process assets
    6. The documents and plans
      1. The project management plan and project documents
        1. Fundamental rules for inputs and outputs
        2. Project documents rules
        3. Project management plan rules
        4. Sequencing rules
        5. Rules for handling tools and techniques
    7. Summary
    8. Assessment exam
  9. Chapter 3: Pre-Project Initiation
    1. Defining a project
      1. Temporary
      2. Unique
      3. What is a program?
      4. What is a portfolio?
      5. Key phrases that pay
    2. What is project management?
    3. Spot check exercise
      1. Spot check exercise answers
    4. Types of project management
      1. Predictive or waterfall project management
      2. Adaptive or agile project management
    5. Project and development life cycles
    6. Project phases
      1. Phase gates
      2. Spot check exercise
      3. Spot check exercise answers
    7. Project management data and information
      1. Work performance data
      2. Work performance information
      3. Work performance reports
      4. Key phrases that pay
    8. Project selection techniques
      1. Creating a case for business
        1. Decision models
        2. Economic models
      2. Constrained optimization
      3. Expert judgment
      4. Spot check exercise
      5. Spot check exercise answers
      6. Feasibility analysis
      7. The business case
      8. Key phrases that pay
    9. Key project stakeholders
      1. Project management offices (PMOs)
        1. Supportive
        2. Controlling
        3. Directive
      2. Change control board (CCB)
      3. Sponsor
      4. Spot check
      5. Spot check answers
      6. Functional manager
      7. Procurement administrator/vendors
      8. Customers/end users
      9. Key phrases that pay
    10. Understanding organizational structures
      1. Organizational structures and their elements
        1. Functional organizations
        2. Matrix organizations
        3. Projectized or project-based organizations
      2. Spot check exercise
      3. Spot check exercise (possible) answers
    11. The role of the project manager
    12. Summary
    13. Assessment exam
  10. Chapter 4: Charters and Stakeholders
    1. Politics, power, and leadership
      1. Leadership versus management
        1. Leadership styles
    2. Spot check
      1. Personality traits
    3. The project manager and project integration
      1. The process level
      2. The cognitive level
      3. The context level
    4. Goals and objectives of a project charter
    5. Documenting high-level requirements
    6. Spot check
    7. Criteria of a project charter
      1. Typical headings in a project charter
    8. Agile project charters
      1. Typical heading on an Agile charter
    9. Project stakeholder management
    10. Identifying the stakeholder's process
      1. Project coordinator
      2. Scheduler
      3. Project team
      4. Project Management Office (PMO)
      5. Change Control Board (CCB)
      6. Functional managers
      7. Sellers, vendors, and suppliers
      8. Procurement managers
    11. Data analysis
    12. Data representation
      1. Power/interest grid, power/influence grid, or impact/influence grid
      2. Stakeholder cube
      3. Salience model
      4. Directions of influence
      5. Prioritization
    13. Stakeholder register
    14. Spot check
    15. Wrapping up
    16. Summary
    17. Assessment exam
  11. Chapter 5: Introduction to Agile Considerations
    1. The history of Agile and the Agile Manifesto
      1. The Agile Manifesto
      2. Key phrases that pay
      3. The 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto
    2. Scrum and empirical process control
    3. Spot check
      1. Spot check solution
    4. Agile versus predictive project management
      1. The benefits of using Agile approaches in any industry
      2. The Agile mindset
    5. Scrum overview
      1. Transparency
      2. Inspection
      3. Adaptation
    6. Agile team roles
      1. The product owner
      2. The development team
      3. Scrum master/coach/Agile project manager
    7. The Agile life cycle
      1. Sprint planning
      2. The Sprint
      3. Daily Scrum or stand-up meetings
      4. Sprint reviews
      5. The retrospective
    8. Summary
    9. Assessment exam
  12. Chapter 6: Creating and Leading a Team
    1. Interpreting the source and stage of the conflict
    2. Analyzing the context of the conflict
    3. Conflict resolution strategies
      1. Collaborate and problem-solve
      2. Compromise/reconcile
      3. Smooth/accommodate
      4. Force/direct
      5. Withdraw/avoid
      6. Negotiate
    4. Setting a clear vision and mission
      1. Leadership
      2. Team-building
      3. Communication
      4. Active listening
    5. Supporting diversity and inclusion
      1. Responsibility – aspirational standards
      2. Responsibility – mandatory standards
      3. Respect – aspirational standards
      4. Respect – mandatory standards
      5. Fairness – aspirational standards
      6. Fairness – mandatory standards
      7. Honesty – aspirational standards
      8. Honesty – mandatory standards
    6. Value servant leadership
    7. Inspiring, motivating, and influencing
    8. Motivational theories
      1. Maslow's hierarchy of needs
        1. Physiological needs
        2. Safety needs
        3. Social needs
        4. Esteem needs
        5. Self-actualization
      2. Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y
        1. X managers
        2. Y managers
      3. Dr. William Ouchi's Theory Z
      4. Frederick Herzberg's theory of hygiene
      5. David McClelland's theory of needs
        1. The need for achievement
        2. The need for power
        3. The need for affiliation
    9. Reward and recognition
    10. Analyzing team members' and stakeholders' influence
    11. Key phrases that pay
    12. Summary
    13. Assessment exam
  13. Section 2: Project Management Processes
  14. Chapter 7: Scope Management
    1. Key concepts and scope management trends
      1. Tailoring considerations
      2. Agile considerations
    2. Developing a scope and requirements management plan
    3. Collecting requirements
    4. Defining the scope and creating the scope statement
    5. The Work Breakdown Structure
      1. The WBS dictionary
        1. WBS dictionary information
    6. Monitoring and controlling scope
      1. The Validate Scope process
      2. The Control Scope process
    7. Key phrases that pay
    8. Summary
    9. Assessment exam
  15. Chapter 8: Schedule and Cost Management
    1. Key concepts for schedule management
      1. Trends and emerging best practices in scheduling
      2. Tailoring considerations for scheduling
      3. Considerations for Agile and adaptive environments
    2. Developing a schedule management plan
      1. Schedule management plan considerations
    3. Define activities
    4. Sequencing activities
      1. Dependencies
    5. Relationships
      1. Finish to Start relationships
      2. Start to start relationships
      3. Finish to finish relationships
      4. Start to finish relationships
    6. Lead and lag time
    7. Estimating durations
      1. Dates
        1. Project calendars
        2. Resource calendars
        3. Activity or task calendars
      2. Effort
      3. Duration
        1. Analogous estimates
        2. Parametric estimates
        3. Three-point estimates
    8. Developing the project schedule
      1. Critical path
      2. Critical chain
      3. Monte Carlo technique
      4. Schedule compression
        1. Fast tracking
        2. Crashing
      5. Resource optimization
        1. Leveling
        2. Smoothing
    9. Schedule baseline
    10. Key concepts for project cost management
      1. Trends and emerging best practices of cost management
      2. Tailoring considerations for cost management
      3. Considerations for Agile and adaptive environments
    11. Plan cost management
    12. Estimating costs
    13. Determining budget
    14. Controlling schedule and budget
      1. Tracking and reporting cost/schedule performance
      2. Earned value management (EVM)
        1. Budget at Completion (BAC)
        2. Earned value (EV)
        3. Planned values (PV)
        4. Schedule variance (SV)
        5. Schedule performance index (SPI)
        6. Earned schedule (ES)
        7. Cost variance (CV)
        8. Cost performance index (CPI)
        9. Forecasting
        10. To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)
    15. Key phrases that pay
    16. Summary
    17. Assessment questions
  16. Chapter 9: Quality Management
    1. Key concepts for quality management
      1. Quality versus grade
      2. Precision versus accuracy
      3. Other considerations for quality management planning
        1. Prevention over inspection
        2. Attribute sampling
        3. Tolerance levels
    2. Trends and emerging practices in quality management
    3. Tailoring considerations
    4. Agile/adaptive environments – retrospectives
      1. The purpose of the retrospective
    5. Spot check
    6. Planning for quality management
      1. Data representation
      2. The quality management plan
      3. Quality metrics
      4. Quality checklists
    7. The gurus of quality management
      1. W. Edwards Deming and Walter A. Shewhart
      2. Joseph Juran
      3. Vilfredo Pareto
      4. Bill Smith
      5. Phillip Crosby
      6. Genichi Taguchi
    8. Key phrases that pay
    9. The Manage Quality process
    10. The Control Quality process
      1. Histograms
      2. Fishbone diagrams
      3. Pareto diagrams
      4. Run charts
      5. Scatter diagrams
      6. Control charts
    11. Summary
    12. Assessment exam
  17. Chapter 10: Resources and Communication Management
    1. Key concepts in resource management
    2. Trends and emerging best practices
    3. Resource management planning
      1. Plan resource management
      2. Key phrases that pay
    4. Estimating activity resources
      1. Key phrases that pay
    5. Acquiring resources, developing, and managing a team
      1. Acquiring resources
      2. Developing and managing a team
    6. Supporting your team's performance
      1. Peter Drucker's MBO
        1. Specific
        2. Measurable
        3. Attainable
        4. Realistic
        5. Time-based
    7. Controlling resources
    8. Key concepts in communications management
      1. Trends and emerging best practices
        1. Stand-up meetings
      2. Tailoring
      3. Agile considerations
    9. Communication considerations
    10. Communications management planning
      1. Key phrases that pay in communications management
    11. Spot check
    12. Managing communications
    13. Monitoring communications
    14. Summary
    15. Assessment questions
  18. Chapter 11: Risk Management
    1. Key concepts for risk management
    2. Trends and emerging best practices in project risk management
      1. Non-event risks
    3. Tailoring considerations for risk management
    4. Considerations for Agile and Adaptive environments
    5. Plan risk management
      1. The risk management plan
    6. Identify risks process
      1. Root cause analysis
      2. SWOT analysis
      3. Prompt lists
      4. Creating the risk register
      5. The risk report
    7. Performing qualitative risk analysis
      1. Key phrases that pay
    8. Performing quantitative risk analysis
      1. Expected monetary value (EMV)
    9. Plan risk responses
      1. Creating risk responses for threats
        1. Escalate
        2. Avoid
        3. Transfer
        4. Mitigate
        5. Accept
        6. Contingent response strategy
      2. Opportunity responses
        1. Escalate
        2. Exploit
        3. Share
        4. Enhance
        5. Accept
      3. Strategies for overall project risk
        1. Risk triggers
        2. Risk owners
      4. Issue logs
      5. Spot check
      6. Spot check answers
    10. Implement risk responses
      1. Secondary risks
      2. Residual risk events
    11. Monitor risks
    12. Summary
    13. Assessment exam
  19. Chapter 12: Procurement Management
    1. Key concepts for procurement management
    2. Trends and emerging best practices in project procurement management
    3. Considerations for Agile/Adaptive environments
    4. Planning procurement management
      1. Contract types
        1. Fixed-price
        2. Cost-reimbursable
        3. Time and material
      2. Roles in procurement
        1. The role of the project manager in procurement
      3. Key phrases that pay
    5. Conduct procurements
      1. Bidder conferences
      2. Proposal evaluation
        1. Screening system
        2. Weighting system
        3. Contract administrator/agreement coordinator/procurement team
    6. Partner-centric procurement documents
      1. Letter of intent
      2. Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
      3. Breach of contract
      4. Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
      5. Purchase Order (PO)
      6. Nondisclosure agreement (NDA)
      7. Cease and desist letter
    7. Control procurements
      1. Claims administration
      2. Data analysis
      3. Inspections and audits
      4. Seller surveys
      5. Warranty
      6. Waivers
    8. Summary
    9. Assessment questions
  20. Chapter 13: Stakeholder Engagement
    1. Planning stakeholder engagement
    2. Managing stakeholder engagement
    3. Monitoring stakeholder engagement
    4. Summary
    5. Assessment questions
  21. Chapter 14: Integration Management
    1. Developing the project management plan
    2. Directing and managing project work
    3. Managing project knowledge
    4. Monitoring and controlling project work
    5. Performing integrated change control
    6. Closing the project or phase
    7. Spot check
    8. Summary
    9. Assessment questions
  22. Section 3: Revision
  23. Chapter 15: Next Steps and Study Tips
    1. Why project management certification?
      1. Where can I find the information?
        1. Review the exam objectives
        2. The application
        3. Ready for your exam?
      2. Other changes and information
        1. What to expect on exam day for in-person exams
    2. Study tips
    3. Stuff to know about projects
      1. Why projects are necessary
      2. What is the difference between a portfolio, program, and project?
      3. Project management documents
      4. Skills of a project manager
      5. Organizational structure types
      6. Other important terms to be aware of
        1. Project management data and information
        2. Formulas
    4. Final thoughts
      1. On exam day
      2. Question types
    5. Summary
  24. Chapter 16: Final Exam
    1. Questions
    2. Answers
  25. Assessment
    1. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 1)
    2. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 2)
    3. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 3)
    4. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 4)
    5. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 5)
    6. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 6)
    7. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 7)
    8. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 8)
    9. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 9)
    10. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 10)
    11. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 11)
    12. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 12)
    13. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 13)
    14. Assessment exam answers (Chapter 14)
    15. Why subscribe?
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Product information

  • Title: Becoming a PMP® Certified Professional
  • Author(s): J. Ashley Hunt
  • Release date: February 2021
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781838989309