The Simplest Guide™ to Project Management and PMI-PMP Certification Exam

The Simplest Guide™ to Project Management and PMI-PMP Certification Exam

by Aslam Khan
Released March 2023
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781801079846

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Video description

Dive into the comprehensive PMP Certification Exam Preparation course, meticulously designed to ensure your success on the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam on your first attempt.

Our PMP Certification Exam Preparation course aligns with the latest PMP Exam content, blending teachings from the PMBOK 6th and 7th editions with the Agile Practice Guide. It covers key areas like Project Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, and more, enhancing skills in project coordination, budgeting, quality assurance, and stakeholder engagement. Additionally, it introduces the System of Value Delivery, agile methodologies such as Scrum, Lean, and Kanban, and practical SCRUM implementation. This holistic approach not only prepares you for the PMP exam but also emphasizes the significance of agile environments, offering practical insights into agile roles, responsibilities, and the implementation of SCRUM, ensuring you're well-versed in both traditional and modern project management practices.

By the end of this course, you will not only be well-prepared to pass the PMP exam but also equipped with a robust understanding of both traditional project management principles and agile practices, enabling you to manage projects more effectively in today's dynamic work environments.

What you will learn

  • Develop a project charter to effectively capture the high-level objectives of the project
  • Create and implement a robust project management plan to ensure the successful delivery of the project
  • Clearly define the expectations of key stakeholders in the project to align project goals and objectives
  • Accurately identify and manage the scope of the project to ensure project deliverables meet expectations
  • Utilize WBS to determine the project scope and establish a scope baseline to manage changes effectively
  • Understand the 12 principles of project management

Audience

This is for individuals who aspire to pass the new PMP exam after the 2021 change and for anyone who desires to learn project management in the easiest and most efficient way, particularly through visual aids.

About the Author

Aslam Khan: Aslam Khan loves simplifying anything that appears to be a complex topic. He does this using picture (and lots of them!)—pictures that are simple and illustrative to visualize the topic being explained.

He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and an SAS Base and Advanced Certified Programmer, with a master's degree in management information systems.

He works with businesses in understanding their complex problems, surfacing their business needs and offering viable technical solutions, overseeing change management, program benefits realization, and organizational project management. He's also worked in the clinical data management, biostatistics, and SAS programming areas of the life sciences industry.

Table of contents

  1. Chapter 1 : About the PMP Certification Exam
    1. Course Introduction
    2. Your PMP Exam Journey - How Does It Look Like
    3. Qualifying Criteria to Appear for the PMP Exam
    4. Applying to the PMP Exam - What to Expect
    5. Maintaining Your PMP Credentials
    6. PMP Exam Content
    7. Number of Exam Questions and Duration of the Exam
    8. Exam Question Types
    9. Exam Tips
  2. Chapter 2 : The Big Picture of Project Management
    1. The Big Picture of Project Management
    2. The Six W's of Project Management
    3. Example: Pyramid Project (Waterfall/ Predictive Approach)
    4. Example: Project Mortar and Pestle (Agile/Adaptive Approach)
    5. The Big Picture of Project Mortar and Pestle
    6. Example: Project Mortar and Pestle by Drones (Adaptive/Agile Approach)
    7. The Big Picture of Project Mortar and Pestle by Drones
  3. Chapter 3 : The Project Management Framework
    1. What Is a Project?
    2. What Is Project Management
    3. Delivering Value on a Project
    4. System of Value Delivery
    5. System of Value Delivery - Examples
    6. Systems Thinking - Inputs, Outputs, Tools, and Techniques
    7. The Matrix Environment
    8. Enterprise Environment Factors and Organization Process Assets
    9. Project Constraints
    10. Process Groups
    11. Integration Management
    12. Stakeholder Management
    13. Scope Management
    14. Schedule Management
    15. Cost, HR, Quality, and Risk Management
    16. Communication and Procurement Management
    17. Knowledge Areas and Process Groups
  4. Chapter 4 : Why Do We Do This Project (Integration Management)
    1. Develop Project Charter
    2. Project Charter Template
    3. Digital Content Artifacts: Project Charter
  5. Chapter 5 : Who Are on the Project (Stakeholder Management)
    1. Stakeholder Register Template
    2. Digital Content Artifacts: Stakeholder Register
    3. Identify Stakeholders
  6. Chapter 6 : What Is to Be Done on the Project (Scope Management)
    1. What Is Project Scope
    2. Collect Requirements
    3. Define Scope
    4. Create WBS
    5. Project Scope Baseline
    6. Digital Content Artifacts: Project Scope Baseline
    7. Microsoft Project as a Tool for Project Management
    8. MS Project - User Interface Explained
    9. MS Project - Entering Scope Items
  7. Chapter 7 : When Are Things to Be Done on the Project (Schedule Management)
    1. Define Activities
    2. Sequence Activities
    3. Estimate Activity Durations
    4. Develop Schedule
    5. Critical Path Method
    6. Compressing Schedule: Crashing and Fast-Tracking
    7. Digital Content Artifacts: Milestones, N/W Diagrams, Dur. Est, Project Schedule
    8. Microsoft Project - Entering Activities and Duration
    9. Microsoft Project - Sequencing Activities and Creating Gantt Chart
    10. Microsoft Project - The Project Schedule
  8. Chapter 8 : How Much/How Many of the Project (Cost, HR, Quality, Risk Management)
    1. Estimate Costs
    2. Determine Budget
    3. Digital Content Artifacts: Project Budget
    4. Estimate Activity Resources
    5. Digital Content Artifacts: Project Resources
    6. Plan Quality
    7. Digital Content Artifacts: Quality Metrics
    8. Introduction to Risks
    9. Identify Risks
    10. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
    11. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
    12. Plan Risk Responses
    13. Digital Content Artifacts: Risk Register
  9. Chapter 9 : Where in the Project (Communication and Procurement Management)
    1. Plan Communication
    2. Digital Content Artifacts: Communications Plan
    3. Plan Procurement
    4. Digital Content Artifacts: Make/Buy Decisions, SOW
  10. Chapter 10 : How Are Things Done on the Project (Integration Management)
    1. How Are Things Done on the Project
    2. Develop Project Management Plan
    3. Individual Management Plans
    4. Digital Content Artifacts: Management Plans
    5. Digital Content Artifacts: Project Management Plan
    6. Direct and Manage Project Work
    7. Digital Content Artifacts: Parts of Product/Service, Work Performance Information
    8. Manage Project Knowledge
    9. Digital Content Artifacts: Lessons Learned
    10. Monitor and Control Project Work
    11. Digital Content Artifacts: Change Request, Work Performance Reports
    12. Perform Integrated Change Control
    13. Steps to Perform Change Control
    14. Digital Content Artifacts: Approved Change Requests
    15. How to Control Cost - Budget at Completion (BAC)
    16. How to Control Cost - Planned Value (PV)
    17. How to Control Cost - Earned Value (EV)
    18. How to Control Cost - Schedule Variance (SV) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
    19. How to Control Cost - Actual Cost (AC), Cost Variance, and Cost Performance Index
    20. How to Control Cost - Budget Forecasting - Estimate at and to Completion
    21. Close Project or Phase
    22. Digital Content Artifacts: Product/ Service, Lessons Learned, OPA Updates
  11. Chapter 11 : Principles of Project Management (Topics from the PMBOK 7 Guide)
    1. Introduction to Principles of Project Management
    2. Principle #1: Be a Diligent, Respectful, and Caring Steward
    3. Principle #2: Create a Collaborative Project Team Environment
    4. Principle #3: Effectively Engage with Stakeholders
    5. Principle #4: Focus on Value
    6. Principle #5: Recognize, Evaluate, and Respond to System Interactions
    7. Principle #6: Demonstrate Leadership Behaviors
    8. Principle #7: Tailor Based on Context
    9. Principle #8: Build Quality into Processes and Deliverables
    10. Principle #9: Navigate Complexity
    11. Principle #10: Optimize Risk Responses
    12. Principle #11: Embrace Adaptability and Resiliency
    13. Principle #12: Enable Change to the Envisioned Future State
  12. Chapter 12 : Lean
    1. Definable Work Versus High-Uncertainty Work
    2. Mortar and Pestle Chocolate Factory - Introduction
    3. Inside the Mortar and Pestle Chocolate Factory: Production - Operations
    4. Value Stream
    5. Lead Time and Cycle Time
    6. Technology Value Stream
    7. Throughput
    8. Requirements
    9. Kanban
    10. Kanban Board
    11. Batch Size
    12. WIP Limits
  13. Chapter 13 : Introduction to Agile
    1. Introduction to Agile
    2. The Agile Manifesto
    3. User Stories
    4. Product Backlog - An Inventory of User Stories
    5. Project Lifecycles
    6. Predictive Lifecycle
    7. Iterative Lifecycle
    8. Incremental Lifecycle
    9. Agile Lifecycle
    10. Lifecycle Continuum
    11. Hybrid Lifecycles
    12. Product Owner
  14. Chapter 14 : Creating an Agile Environment
    1. Agile Mindset
    2. Servant Leader
    3. Agile Team
    4. Role of a Project Manager in Agile environment
  15. Chapter 15 : Delivering in an Agile Environment
    1. Iteration Planning - Backlog Preparation and Refinement
    2. Demonstration/Reviews
    3. Iteration Retrospectives
    4. Daily Stand-Ups
    5. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and Minimum Marketable Product (MMP)
    6. MVP Example: Mortar and Pestle App
    7. Scrum
    8. Definition of Done
    9. Story Points
    10. Velocity
  16. Chapter 16 : Implementing Scrum – A Practical Example
    1. Implementing Scrum in 10 Easy Steps
    2. Scrum Applied to the Mortar and Pestle Project - Introduction
    3. Introducing the Mortar and Pestle Project Scrum Team
    4. Create and Prioritize the Product Backlog
    5. Refine and Estimate the Product Backlog Items
    6. Estimation of User Stories in the Product Backlog
    7. Sprint Planning
    8. Make Work More Visible
    9. Daily Scrum/Daily Stand-Up Meeting
    10. Sprint Demo/Sprint Review
    11. Sprint Retrospective
    12. Implementing Scrum - Wrapping-Up
  17. Chapter 17 : PMP Exam Application – How to Create a Compelling Application
    1. PMP Exam Application - Account Creation and Entering Educational Credentials
    2. PMP Exam Application - Entering Your Work Experience
    3. Course Conclusion Message and Instructions to Obtain Course Completion Certificate

Product information

  • Title: The Simplest Guide™ to Project Management and PMI-PMP Certification Exam
  • Author(s): Aslam Khan
  • Release date: March 2023
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781801079846