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by Jennifer Greene, Andrew Stellman
Head First PMP, 2nd Edition
Dedication
Praise for Head First PMP
How to use this Book: Intro
Who is this book for?
Who should probably back away from this book?
We know what you’re thinking.
And we know what your brain is thinking
Metacognition: thinking about thinking
Here’s what WE did
Here’s what YOU can do to bend your brain into submission
Read me
The technical review team
Acknowledgments
Safari® Books Online
1. Introduction: Why get certified?
Do these problems seem familiar?
Projects don’t have to be this way
Your problems... already solved
What you need to be a good project manager
You can’t manage your project in a vacuum
Understand your company’s big picture
Portfolios, programs, and projects
What a project IS...
... and what a project is NOT
A day in the life of a project manager
How project managers run great projects
A PMP certification is more than just passing a test
Meet a real-life PMP-certified project manager
2. Organizations, constraints, and projects: In good company
A day in Kate’s life
Kate wants a new job
There are different types of organizations
Kate takes a new job
Kate’s being asked to do operational work
Stakeholders are impacted by your project
Negative Stakeholders
Identify Stakeholders
Back to Kate’s maintenance nightmare
Managing project constraints
Kate makes some changes...
... and her project is a success!
3. The process framework: It all fits together
Cooking up a project
Projects are like recipes
If your project’s really big, you can manage it in phases
Phases can also overlap
Iteration means executing one phase while planning the next
Break it down
Anatomy of a process
Combine processes to complete your project
Knowledge areas organize the processes
The benefits of successful project management
4. Project integration management: Getting the job done
Time to book a trip
Larry’s cutting corners
The teachers are thrilled... for now
These clients are definitely not satisfied
Larry’s been let go
The day-to-day work of a project manager
A bird’s-eye view of a project
The six Integration Management processes
Start your project with the Initiating processes
Integration management and the process groups
The “Develop Project Charter” process
Make the case for your project
Use expert judgment to get an outside opinion
A closer look at the project charter
Two things you’ll see over and over and over...
Plan your project!
The project management plan lets you plan ahead for problems
The project management plan is a collection of other plans
A quick look at all those subsidiary plans
Question Clinic: The “Just-The-Facts-Ma’am” Question
The Direct and Manage Project Execution process
The project team creates deliverables
Executing the project includes repairing defects
Deliverables include everything that you and your team produce for the project
Eventually, things WILL go wrong...
... but if you keep an eye out for problems, you can stay on top of them!
Sometimes you need to change your plans
Look for changes and deal with them
Make only the changes that are right for your project
Changes, defects, and corrections
Decide your changes in change control meetings
How the processes interact with each other
Control your changes; use change control
Preventing or correcting problems
Finish the work, close the project
You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here
So why INTEGRATION management?
What else is there?
Integration Management kept your project on track, and the teachers satisfied
5. Scope management: Doing the right stuff
Out of the frying pan...
... and right back into the fire
Cubicle conversation
It looks like we have a scope problem
You’ve got to know what (and how) you will build before you build it
The power of scope management
The five Scope Management processes
Cubicle conversation
Collect requirements for your project
Talk to your stakeholders
Make decisions about requirements
Help your team to get creative
Use a questionnaire to get requirements from a bigger group of people
Observation can help you see things from a different point of view
A prototype shows users what your product will be like
Collect requirements outputs page
Define the scope of the project
How do you define the scope?
Facilitated workshops
Product analysis
Alternatives identification
Expert judgment
The scope statement tells you what you have to do
Question Clinic: The “Which-is-BEST” Question
Create the work breakdown structure
The inputs for the WBS come from other processes
Breaking down the work
Break it down by project or phase
Decompose deliverables into work packages
Inside the work package
The baseline is a snapshot of the plan
The outputs of the Create WBS process
Cubicle conversation
Why scope changes
Good change
Bad change
Scope Creep
Gold plating
The Control Scope process
Anatomy of a change
A closer look at the Change Control System
Just one Control Scope tool/technique
There’s no “right order” for the Control Scope and Scope Verification processes
Make sure the team delivered the right product
The stakeholders decide when the project is done
Is the project ready to go?
The project is ready to ship!
6. Time management: Getting it done on time
Reality sets in for the happy couple
Meet the wedding planner
Time management helps with aggressive time lines
Use the Define Activities process to break down the work
Tools and techniques for Define Activities
Rolling wave planning lets you plan as you go
Define activities outputs
Activity List
Activity Attributes
Milestone Lists
The Sequence Activities process puts everything in order
Diagram the relationship between activities
Network diagrams put your tasks in perspective
Predecessors help you sequence your activities
External predecessors
Discretionary predecessors
Mandatory predecessors
Leads and lags add time between activities
Create the network diagram
Rob and Rebecca have resource problems
What you need to estimate resources
Resource Calendars
Estimating the resources
Figuring out how long the project will take
Estimation tools and techniques
Create the duration estimate
Back to the wedding
Bringing it all together
Question Clinic: The “Which-comes-next” Question
One thing leads to another
Use the Critical Path Method to avoid big problems
How does knowing your critical path help?
How to find the critical path
Finding the float for any activity
Float tells you how much extra time you have
Figure out the early start and early finish
Early start
Early finish
Figure out the latest possible start and finish
Late start
Late finish
Add early and late durations to your diagrams
Take a backward pass to find late start and finish
Let’s take some time out to walk through this!
Crash the schedule
Fast-tracking the project
What-if analysis
Monte Carlo Analysis
Scheduling Tool
Other Develop Schedule tools and techniques
Performance Reviews
Resource Leveling
Adjusting Leads and Lags
Schedule Compression and Schedule Network Analysis
Outputs of Develop Schedule
Project Schedule
Milestone List
Schedule Data
Schedule Baseline
Updates and Requested Changes
Influence the factors that cause change
Control Schedule inputs and outputs
What Control Schedule updates
Measuring and reporting performance
Control Schedule tools and techniques
Another satisfied customer!
7. Cost management: Watching the bottom line
Time to expand the Head First Lounge
The guys go overboard
Lounge conversation
Introducing the cost management processes
Estimate Costs process
Determine Budget process
Control Costs process
What Alice needs before she can Estimate Costs
Other tools and techniques used in Estimate Costs
Project Management Estimating Software
Vendor Bid Analysis
Reserve Analysis
Cost of Quality
Let’s talk numbers
Now Alice knows how much the Lounge will cost
Activity Cost Estimates
Basis of Cost Estimates
Updates to Project Documents
Requested changes
Lounge conversation
The Determine Budget process
What you need to build your budget
Determine budget: how to build a budget
Question Clinic: The Red Herring
The Control Costs process is a lot like schedule control
A few new tools and techniques
Earned Value Management
To-Complete Performance Index
Performance Reviews
Forecasting
Project Management Software
Variance Analysis
Look at the schedule to figure out your budget
Budget at completion (BAC)
How to calculate Planned Value
Earned Value tells you how you’re doing
How to calculate Earned Value
Put yourself in someone else’s shoes
Is your project behind or ahead of schedule?
Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
Schedule Variance (SV)
Are you over budget?
Cost Performance Index (CPI)
Cost Variance (CV)
To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)
You’re within your budget if...
You’ve blown your budget if...
The Earned Value Management formulas
Interpret CPI and SPI numbers to gauge your project
If your project is on track, that means you’re delivering the value you promised.
You can tell if your project is ahead of schedule or under budget by looking for larger numbers.
A project that’s behind schedule or over budget will have lower numbers.
Forecast what your project will look like when it’s done
Meanwhile, back in the Lounge
Once you’ve got an estimate, you can calculate a variance!
Finding missing information
Let’s say you’re given...
Keep your project on track with TCPI
To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)
TCPI for the Head First Lounge renovation project
A high TCPI means a tight budget
Party time!
8. Quality management: Getting it right
What is quality?
You need more than just tests to figure out quality
Once you know what the product is supposed to do, it’s easy to tell which tests pass and which fail
Quality up close
Quality vs. grade
“An ounce of prevention...”
And that’s why you need the three Quality Management processes!
Plan Quality is how you prevent defects
How to plan for quality
The quality management plan gives you what you need to manage quality
Inspect your deliverables
Use the planning outputs for Perform Quality Control
The seven basic tools of quality
Pareto charts, flowcharts, and histograms
Run charts and scatter diagrams
More quality control tools
Question Clinic: The “Which-One” Question
Quality control means finding and correcting defects
Trouble at the Black Box 3000TM factory
Introducing Quality Assurance
A closer look at some tools and techniques
More ideas behind quality assurance
The Black Box 3000TM makes record profits!
9. Human resource management: Getting the team together
Mike needs a new team
Cubicle conversation
Get your team together and keep them moving
Figure out who you need on your team
The staffing management plan
Get the team together
Cubicle conversation
Develop your project team
Develop the team with your management skills
Your interpersonal skills can make a big difference for your team
Lead the team with your management skills
The five kinds of power
Motivate your team
Stages of team development
How’s the team doing?
Cubicle conversation
Managing your team means solving problems
Conflict management up close
Some of the common reasons that conflicts happen
How to resolve a conflict
The Cows Gone Wild IV team ROCKS!
Question Clinic: The “Have-A-Meeting” Question
10. Communications management: Getting the word out
Party at the Head First Lounge!
But something’s not right
Anatomy of communication
Get a handle on communication
Find out who your stakeholders are
Tell everyone what’s going on
Get the message?
More Distribute Information tools
One of your most important outputs...
Let everyone know how the project’s going
It all starts with Work Performance Information
Take a close look at the work being done
Now you can get the word out
People aren’t talking!
Count the channels of communication
Counting communication lines the easy way
It’s party time!
Question Clinic: The Calculation Question
11. Project risk management: Planning for the unknown
What’s a risk?
How you deal with risk
Plan Risk Management
The Risk Management Plan is the only output
Use a risk breakdown structure to categorize risks
Anatomy of a risk
What could happen to your project?
Information-gathering techniques for Identify Risks
Four useful information-gathering techniques
More Identify Risks techniques
Where to look for risks
Now put it in the risk register
Rank your risks
Examine each risk in the register
Qualitative vs. quantitative analysis
Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
First gather the data...
... then analyze it
Calculate the Expected Monetary Value of your risks
Decision tree analysis uses EMV to help you make choices
Update the risk register based on your quantitative analysis results
How do you respond to a risk?
It isn’t always so bad
Response planning can even find more risks
Add risk responses to the register
You can’t plan for every risk at the start of the project
Monitor and Control Risks is another change control process
How to control your risks
More risk monitoring and control techniques
Question Clinic: The “Which-is-NOT” Question
12. Procurement management: Getting some help
Victim of her own success
Calling in the cavalry
Ask the legal expert
Anatomy of a contract
You can have several contracts for a single project
Start with a plan for the whole project
The decision is made
Types of contracts
Fixed price contracts
Cost-reimbursable contracts
Time and Materials
More about contracts
Figure out how you’ll sort out potential sellers
Get in touch with potential sellers
Use outputs from the Plan Procurements process to find the right seller
Pick a partner
Two months later...
Keep an eye on the contract
Stay on top of the seller
Tools and techniques to keep your project running
Tools and techniques to find and fix problems
Close the contract when the work is done
Kate closes the contract
Question Clinic: BYO Questions
13. Professional responsibility: Making good choices
Doing the right thing
The main ideas
Keep the cash?
Fly business class?
New software
Shortcuts
A good price or a clean river?
We’re not all angels
14. A little last-minute review: Check your knowledge
A long-term relationship for your brain
Here’s how to do this next section
Great job! It looks like you’re almost ready
15. Practice makes perfect: Practice PMP exam
What you’ll see on the PMP Exam
Before you look at the answers...
Index
About the Authors
Copyright
Search in book...
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