PMP CERTIFICATION EXAM PREPARATION

PMBOK – 7th edition

Andrew Ramdayal
Target: Sept 2025.

PART – 1: TERMS & DEFINITION

1. Project: Temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,
service, or result.
 Temporary in nature and has a definite beginning and ending.
Can be part of a large program or portfolio.
 Unique. Temporary, progressively elaborated.
2. Project Management: is application of knowledge, skills, tools, and
techniques to satisfy project requirements
 Preparing business case to justify the investment
 Estimating resources and times
 Developing and implementing a management plan for the
project
 Leading and motivating the project delivery team
 Managing the risks, issues and changes on the project
 Monitoring project progress against the plan
 Closing the project in the controlled fashion when appropriate
3. Program Management: Group of related projects managed in a
coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from
managing them individually
 Must be some value add in managing them together as a
program
 A project may or may not be part of a program, but a program
will always have a project
 Focuses on the project's interdependencies and helps to
determine the optimal approach for managing them.
4. Project Management Office: Organizational structure that standardizes
processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies,
tools, and techniques.
 Supportive : supports the project manager, such as providing
templates, training or lessons learned from other projects
 Controlling: Determines the framework or methodology and use
of specific forms
 Directive: Controls the project. PM will be assigned and reported
to the PMO.

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5. Portfolio Management: A portfolio is a collection of projects, programs,
subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve
strategic objectives.
 Collections of Projects, programs, subsidiarity portfolios
 Achieve strategic (long term) objectives
6. Operations Management: Deals with the ongoing production of goods
and/or services
 Considers the acquisition, development and utilization of
resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services.
7. Value: the worth, usefulness or importance of something. Different
stakeholders perceive value differently.
 Customers can define value as ability to use specific features or
functions of products
 Organizations can focus on business value as determined with
financial metrics, such as benefits less the cost of achieving
those benefits.
 Societal value can include the contribution to groups of people,
communities or the environment.
8. Projects enable changes
9. Phrases and deliverables:
 Phases: A phase is a collection of logically related project
activities that culminates in the completion of one or more
deliverables
i. The number of the phases depends on the industry type
and size and the complexity of the project
 Deliverable: is any unique and verifiable product, service and
result.
i. May be tangible or intangible
ii. Must be accepted by the customer or sponsor for the
phase
The deliverables are given to the customer for acceptance are the
output of the phases. Phases are done/completed when the
deliverables are accepted by the customer.
10. Project Life Cycle: a representation of the phases that a project
typically goes through from start to finish. Project Life Cycles are
already defined by PM at very beginning of the project and continue to
the end of the project.

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 Project Life cycle

Plan - Driven/Predictive/ Change -

Hybrid
Traditional Driven (Agile)

Iterative Incremental Adaptive

11. Project Governance: Framework within which project decisions

are made
 Three Pillars: Structure, People, Information.
12. Stakeholders: Individual, group or organization that may affect,
or be affect or perceive to be affected by the project.
 Key stakeholders are following
 Project Manager
 Customer
 Project team
 Project Sponsors
 Functional Manager
13. Role of Project Manager
 Initiator: someone who takes the first step or proposes an idea
or action
 Negotiator: an individual who engages in discussions or formal
negotiations to reach mutually agreeable solutions or outcomes
 Listers: someone who pays attention to other’ ideas, thoughts,
or concerns during conversations or discussions.
 Coach: person when guides and supports individuals or teams in
achieving their goals, improving performance and enhancing
their skills.
 Working Member refers to an individual who actively
participates in as a member of team or group
 Facilitators: someone who manages groups processes,
discussions, meetings to ensure effective communication,
collaboration and decision making.
14. Milestone: is a significant achievement or event in a project that
marks a key point or completion of a major deliverable

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15. Task Duration: refers to the amount of time it takes to complete
a specific task or activity within a project.
16. Project Bosses
 Sponsors (Internal/external, project champion, funding project,
make decisions)
 Program Manager (senior to project manager, may be
responsible for several projects executed as same time, may be
used to resolve conflicts in the project)
17. Product management vs Project management
 Product Management:
i. Product management encompasses the strategic planning,
development, and lifecycle management of a product or
service.
ii. It involves understanding market needs, defining product
strategy, gathering requirements and overseeing the
product’s development, launch, and going optimization
iii. Product managers are responsible for the overall success
of the product, aligning it with business objectives and
customer demands.
 Project Management:
i. Focuses on the successful execution and delivery of
specific projects within the defined scope, timeline and
budget.
ii. Project managers are responsible for planning,
coordinating, and managing the activities required to
achieve project goals.
iii. They ensure the project is completed on time, within
budget, and according to the specific quality standards.
 Product Management vs Project Management
i. Product managers work closely with project managers to
translate the product strategy and roadmap into actionable
project plans.
ii. Project managers oversee the execution of those plans,
ensuring that the product is developed, tested and
delivered according to the defined specifications
iii. While project management is a part of product
management, it is just one component.
18. Areas of the Project
 Scope
 Schedule

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  Cost
 Quality
 Resources (People and material)
 Communication (timely information to stakeholders)
 Managing Risk
 Procurement (acquiring resources from outside the project)
 Stakeholder’s engagement
19. Approaches to Project Management
 Predictive Approach: (waterfall or traditional): follows the linear
and sequential process
i. It involves detailed planning and documentation upfront,
with a focus on predicting and defining the project scope,
objectives, timeline and deliverables
ii. Extensive upfront planning
iii. Sequential execution
iv. Emphasis on control and documentation
v. Limited flexibility, limited changes with a well define
change control process
 Adaptive Approach (Agile or iterative) focuses on flexibility,
collaboration and iterative development (customer collaboration)
i. It embraces change throughout the project and
emphasizes continuous feedback and improvement
ii. Iterative and incremental development
iii. Emphasis on adaptability
iv. Self-organizing terms
v. The adaptive approach, commonly used in agile
methodologies like Scrum and Kanban.
20. Organizational structure
 Functional Organizations
i. Structure that groups staff members according to their
area of expertise (sales, marketing, construction etc).
Functional structures require the project team members to
report directly to the functional manager
 Matrix organizations
i. There are three matrix structures (Weak, Balanced,
Strong). The difference structures are reflective of the
project manager’s authority in relation to the functional
manager’s authority
 Project oriented organizations (Projectized)

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 i. Structures where the PM has the greatest amount of
authority. The project team is assigned to the project on a
full-time basis. When the project is completed, the project
team members move on the other assignments within the
organizations
 Hybrid
i. Blended type
Function Stron Projectize
Weak Balanced
al g d
PM Littel/No Low Moderate High high/total
Resource
Littel/No Low Moderate High high/total
Available
Budget Functional Function
Mixed PM PM
Controls Manager Manager
PM roles Part time Part time PT/FT PT/FT Full time

PM Staff Part Time Part Time PT/FT PT/FT Full time

21. Risk Vs Issues vs Assumptions Vs Constraint

 Risks: are potential events or situations that may occur in the
future and have an impact on the project’s success
i. As a PM, identification of the risk at the beginning of the
project is very important.
 Issues: refers to the problems or challenges that arise during the
course of project. They are typically negative events or
circumstances that can hinder progress or impact project
objectives
 Assumptions: are statements or belief that are considered to be
true or valid for the purpose of planning and decision-making
 Constraints: are limitations or restrictions that affect the project
planning and execution.
22. Project Constraints
 Scope
 Schedule
 Cost
 Risk
 Quality
 Resources
i. Customer satisfaction will be affected if the constraints
take too long to be identified and resolved.

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23. Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
 EQ refers to the ability to recognize, understand, and manage
emotions, both in oneself and in others.
 It involves being aware of one’s own emotions, effectively
handling them, empathizing with others, and using emotions to
guide thinking and behaviors.
 In project management, EQ plays a significant role.
i. Relationship building
ii. Communication and conflict management
iii. Motivation and influence
iv. Leadership and decision making
v. Stakeholders' management
24. Leadership Vs Management
 Management
i. Management focuses on tasks, processes, and operations
to ensure efficient execution
ii. It involves planning, organizing, coordinating, and
controlling resources.
iii. Managers have formal authority and responsibility within
the organization
iv. They maintain stability, control, and order, ensuring
established processes and procedures are followed
v. Focus on coordinating and directing tasks, resources, and
processes to achieve predetermined objectives.
 Leadership
i. Focuses on inspiring and influencing people
ii. Involves setting direction, motivating and empowering
individuals
iii. They inspire and influence others
iv. They encourage collaboration, trust and empowerment.
 Team management and team leadership compared
Management Leadership
Guide, influence and
Direct using positional power collaboration using relational
power
Maintain procedure/processes Develop procedure/processes
Administrate Innovate
Focus on systems and Focus on relationship with
structures people
Rely on control Inspire trust
Focus on near-term goals Focus on long-term vision

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 Ask how and when Ask what and why
Focus on bottom line Focus on the horizon
Accept the status quo Challenge the status quo
Do things right Do the right things
Focus on operational issues Focus on vision, alignment,
and problem solving motivation and inspiration

PART –2: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

1. Introduction to Project Management Principles

 Principles serve as foundational guidelines for strategy, decision
making and problem solving
 Professional standards and methodologies are often based on
principles
 Principles for project management provide guidance for the
behavior of people involved in projects.
2. PMI - Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
 Principles can, but do not necessarily, reflect morals.
 A code of ethics for a professional can be adopted by an
individual or professional to establish expectations for moral
conduct. PMI is based on four values
i. Responsibility
ii. Respect
iii. Fairness
iv. Honesty
3. Principles of Project Management
 Be a diligent, respectful and caring steward
 Create a collaborative project team environment
 Effectively engage with stakeholders
 Focus on value
 Recognize, evaluate and respond to system interactions
 Demonstrate leadership behavior
 Tailoring based on the context
 Build quality into processes and deliverables
 Navigate complexity
 Optimize the risk responses
 Embrace adaptability and resiliency
 Enable change to achieve the envisioned future state
4. Be a diligent, respectful and caring steward

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  Stewardship – the act of taking care of or managing something,
for example property, an organization, money or valuable
objects.
 Stewards act sensibly to carry out actions with integrity, care
and trustworthiness while keeping compliance with internal and
external guidelines.
 They demonstrate a broad commitment to the financial, social
and environmental impacts of the projects they support.
 Stewardship has responsibilities both within and external to the
company.
 Stewardship includes
i. Integrity – stewards behave honestly and ethically
ii. Care – stewards are fiduciaries of the organizational
matters in their charge, and they diligently oversee them
iii. Trustworthiness – stewards represent themselves, their
roles, their project team, and their authority accurately,
both inside and outside of the organization
iv. Compliances – stewards comply with laws, rules and
regulations and requirements.
 A holistic view of stewardship considers financial, social,
technical and sustainable environmental awareness.
5. Create a collaborative project team environment
 Projects are done by the project team
 Project teams are made up of people who have diverse skills,
knowledge and backgrounds
 Project teams that work collaboratively can finish shared
objectives more effectively and efficiently than individuals
working on their own.
 Project teams work within organizational and professional
cultures and guidelines, often establishing their own “local”
culture
 A collaborative project team environment facilitates
i. Alignment with other organizational cultures and guidelines
ii. Individual and team learning and development, and
iii. Optimal contributions to deliver desired outcomes
 Transparency in roles and responsibilities can improve team
culture
 Authority – the order of having the right, within a given context,
to make relevant decisions, establish or improve procedures,
apply project resources, expend funds, or give approvals

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  Accountability – the condition of being answerable for an
outcome. Accountability is not shared.
 Responsibility – the condition of being obligated to do or fulfill
something. Responsibility can be shared.
 A diverse project team can develop the project atmosphere by
bringing together different perspectives
 The team should incorporate practice standards, ethical codes,
and other guidelines as part of the professional work within the
project team and the organization.
 A collaborative project team environment promotes the free
exchange of information and individual knowledge
6. Effectively engagement with Stakeholders
 Engage the stakeholders proactively and to the point needed to
contribute to project success and customer satisfaction
 Stakeholders impact projects, performance and outcomes.
 Project teams work for other stakeholders by engaging with them
 Stakeholder engagement proactively improves value deliver
 Identifying, analyzing and proactively engaging with
stakeholders from the start to the end of the project
 Project teams are a group of stakeholders
 Consist of defining how, when often, and under what
circumstances stakeholders want to be and should be engaged
 This relies on interpersonal skills, including taking initiative,
integrity, honesty, collaboration, respect, empathy, and
confidence.
 Engagement helps project teams detect, collect and evaluate
information, data and opinions.
 Project teams actively engage other stakeholders throughout the
project to minimize potential negative impacts and maximize
positive impacts.
7. Focus on the value
 Continuously evaluate and adjust project alignment to business
objectives and intended benefits and value
 Value is the ultimate indicator of the project success
 Value can be realized throughout the project, at the end of the
project, or after the project is completed
 Value and the benefits that contribute to value, can be defined in
quantitative and/or qualitative terms
 A focus on outcomes allows project teams to support the
intended benefits that lead to value creation.

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 Project teams evaluate progress and adapt to maximize the
expected value
 Includes outcomes from the perspective of the customer or end
user, is the ultimate success indicator and driver of projects
 A business case contains at least these supporting and
interrelated elements
i. Business need
ii. Project justification
iii. Business strategy
 Value is the worth, importance or usefulness of something. Value
is subjective, in the sense that the same concept can have
different values for different people or organization
 To support value realization from projects, project teams shift
focus from deliverables to the intended outcomes. Doing so
allows project teams to deliver on vision or purpose of the
project, rather than simply creating a specific deliverable.

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