Business Environment

This lesson addresses tasks from the business domain of the PMP Exam Content Outline

Topics

1A Foundation
• Foundational project management concepts
• Project management principles
• The Agile mindset
• Tailoring – hybrid approaches, processes and practices in project management
1B Strategic Alignment
• Define strategic alignment and business acumen
• Follow guidelines for effective business decision-making
• Explore organizational influences on projects
• Explain how projects align with broader organizational strategy and global trends
1C Project Benefits and Value
• Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value
• Investigate that benefits are identified (3.2.1)
• Evaluate delivery options to deliver value (3.2.4)
• Execute project with the urgency required to deliver business value
• Assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally (2.1.1)
1D Organizational Culture and Change Management
• Support organizational change
• Assess organizational culture (3.4.1)
• Evaluate impact of organization change to project, and determine required actions (3.4.2)
• Evaluate impact of the project to the organization and determine required actions (3.4.3)
1E Project Governance
• Establish project governance structure
• Determine appropriate governance for a project (e.g., replicate organization governance) (2.14.1)
• Define escalation paths and thresholds (2.14.2)
1F Project Compliance
• Plan and manage project compliance
• Confirm project compliance requirements (e.g., security, health and safety, regulatory compliance (3.1.1)
• Classify compliance categories (3.1.2)
• Analyze the consequences of non-compliance (3.1.5)

Starting  the Project

This lesson addresses tasks from the process domain of the PMP Exam Content Outline.

Topics

2A Identify and Engage Stakeholders
• Collaborate with stakeholders
• Evaluate engagement needs for stakeholders (1.9.1)
• Engage stakeholders
• Analyze stakeholders (power interest grid, influence, impact) (2.4.1)
• Categorize stakeholders (2.4.2)
• Develop, execute, and validate a strategy for stakeholder engagement (2.4.4)
• Manage communications
• Analyze communication needs of all stakeholders (2.2.1)
• Determine communication methods, channels, frequency, and level of detail
for all stakeholders (2.2.2)
2B Team Formation
• Empower team members and stakeholders
• Organize around team strengths (1.4.1)
• Ensure knowledge transfer for project continuity
• Discuss project responsibilities within team (2.16.1)
• Outline expectations for working environment (2.16.2)
• Engage and support virtual teams
• Examine virtual team member needs (e.g., environment, geography, culture,
global, etc.) (1.11.1)
• Investigate alternatives (e.g., communication tools, colocation) for virtual team
member engagement (1.11.2)
2C Build Shared Understanding
• Lead a team
• Set a clear vision and mission (1.2.1)
• Negotiate project agreements
• Analyze the bounds of the negotiation for agreement (1.8.1)
• Assess priorities and determine ultimate objective(s) (1.8.2)
• Determine a negotiation strategy (1.8.5)
• Participate in agreement negotiations (1.8.4)
• Build shared understanding
• Survey all necessary parties to reach consensus (1.10.2)
• Support outcome of parties’ agreement (1.10.3)
• Define team ground rules
• Communicate organizational principles with team and external stakeholders
(1.12.1)
• Establish an environment that fosters adherence to ground rules (1.12.2)
2D Decide Project Approach/Methodology
• Determine appropriate project methodology/methods and practices
• Assess project needs, complexity, and magnitude (2.13.1)
• Recommend project execution strategy (e.g., contracting, financing) (2.13.2)
• Recommend a project methodology/approach (i.e., predictive, agile, hybrid)
(2.13.3)

Plan the Project 

This lesson addresses tasks from the process domain of the PMP Exam Content Outline.

Topics

3A Planning Projects
• Differentiation of Planning for Predictive vs Adaptive Approaches
• Execute project with the urgency required to deliver business value
• Support the team to subdivide Project tasks as necessary to find the MVP
3B Plan and manage scope
• Predictive vs Adaptive approach for scope
• Determine and prioritize requirements (2.8.1)
• Break down scope (e.g., WBS, backlog) (2.8.2)
• Plan and manage project/phase closure or transitions
• Determine criteria to successfully close the project or phase (2.17.1)
3C Schedule
• Plan and manage schedule
• Predictive vs Adaptive approach for schedule
• Estimate project tasks (milestones, dependencies, story points) (2.6.1)
• Utilize benchmarks and historical data (2.6.2)
• Prepare schedule based on methodology (2.6.3)
3D Resources
• Build a team
• Deduce project resource requirements (1.6.2)
• Plan and manage procurement (resources)
• Define resource requirements and needs (2.11.1)
• Communicate resource requirements (2.11.2)
• Manage suppliers/contracts (2.11.3)
• Plan and manage procurement strategy (2.11.4)
• Develop a delivery solution (2.11.5)
3E Budget
• Plan and manage budget and resources
• Estimate budgetary needs based on the scope of the project and lessons
learned from past projects (2.5.1)
• Anticipate future budget challenges (2.5.2) Plan and manage resources (2.5.4)
3F Risks
• Assess and manage risks
• Determine risk management options (2.3.1)
• Iteratively assess and prioritize risks (2.3.2)
• Plan and manage project compliance
• Determine necessary approach and action to address compliance needs (risk,
legal) 3.1.6)
• Determine potential threats to compliance (3.1.3)
3G Quality
• Plan and manage quality of products/deliverables
• Determine quality standard required for project deliverables (2.7.1)
• Plan and manage project compliance
• Use methods to support compliance (3.1.4)
• Measure the extent to which the project is in compliance (3.1.7)
3H Integrate Plans
• Integrate project planning activities
• Consolidate the project/phase plans (2.9.1)
• Assess consolidated project plans for dependencies, gaps, and continued business value (2.9.2)
• Analyze the data collected (2.9.3)
• Collect and analyze data to make informed project decisions (2.9.4)
• Determine critical information requirements (2.9.5)
• Manage project changes
• Determine strategy to handle change (2.10.2

Lead the Project Team 

This lesson addresses tasks from the people domain of the PMP Exam Content Outline.

Topics

4A Craft Your Leadership Style
• Lead a team
• Value servant leadership (e.g., relate the tenets of servant leadership to the
team) (1.2.3)
• Determine an appropriate leadership style (e.g., directive, collaborative) (1.2.4)
• Distinguish various options to lead various team members and stakeholders & Engage and support virtual teams
• Implement options for virtual team member engagement (1.11.3)
4B Create a Collaborative Project Team Environment
• Manage project artifacts
• Determine the requirements (what, when, where, who) for managing the
project artifacts (2.12.1)
• Validate that the project information is kept up to date (i.e., version control)
and accessible to all stakeholders (2.12.2)
4C Empower the Team
• Lead a team
• Support diversity and inclusion (e.g., behavior types, thought process) (1.2.2)
• Inspire, motivate, and influence team members/stakeholders (e.g., team
contract, social contract, reward system) (1.2.5)
• Empower team members and stakeholders
• Determine and bestow level(s) of decision-making authority (1.4.4)
4D Support Team Member Performance
• Support team performance
• Appraise team member performance against key performance indicators
(KPIs) (1.3.1)
• Support and recognize team member growth and development (1.3.2)
• Determine appropriate feedback approach (1.3.3)
• Verify performance improvements (1.3.4)
• Promote team performance through the application of emotional intelligence
• Assess behavior through the use of personality indicators (1.14.1)
• Analyze personality indicators and adjust to the emotional needs of key project stakeholders (1.14.2)
4E Communicate and Collaborate with Stakeholders
• Manage communications
• Communicate project information and updates effectively (2.2.3)
• Confirm communication is understood and feedback is received (2.2.4)
• Analyze team members and stakeholders influence (1.2.6)
• Engage stakeholders and by category
• Collaborate with stakeholders
• Optimize alignment between stakeholder needs, expectations, and project objectives (1.9.2)
• Build trust and influence to accomplish project objectives (1.9.3)
• Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value
• Apprise stakeholders of value gained by the project (3.2.5)
4F Train Team Members and Stakeholders
• Build a team
• Appraise stakeholder skills (1.6.1)
• Ensure team members/stakeholders are adequately trained
• Determine required competencies and elements of training (1.5.1)
• Determine training options on training needs (1.5.2)
• Allocate resources for training (1.5.3)
• Measure training outcomes (1.5.4)
• Mentor relevant stakeholders
• Allocate the time for coaching mentoring (stakeholders) (1.13.1)
• Recognize and act on coaching mentoring opportunities (1.13.2)
4G Manage Conflict
• Interpret the source and stage of the conflict (1.1.1)
• Analyze the context for the conflict (1.1.2)
• Evaluate/recommend/reconcile the appropriate conflict resolution solution
• Define team ground rules
• Discuss and rectify ground rule violations (1.12.3)
• Build shared understanding
• Investigate potential misunderstandings (1.10.4)
• Break down situations to identify the root cause of a misunderstanding (1.10.1)

Support Project Team Performance

This lesson addresses tasks from the Process domain of the PMP Exam Content Outline.

Topics

5A Implement Ongoing Improvements
• Continuous Improvement
• Plan Continuous Improvement Methods, Procedures, and Tools
• Assess CI framework
• Plan CI methods, procedures, tools & Recommend/Execute CI steps
5B Support Performance
• Manage communications, Communicate project information and updates
effectively (2.2.3) & Confirm is understood/feedback is received
• Empower team members and stakeholders & Support team task accountability
Evaluate demonstration of task accountability (1.4.3)
• Build a team & Continuously assess and refresh team skills to meet project
needs (1.6.3) to Maintain team and knowledge transfer (1.6.4)
• Engage and support virtual teams
• Continually evaluate effectiveness of virtual team member engagement
Manage project artifacts & Continually assess the effectiveness of the
management of the project artifacts (2.12.3)
• Determine appropriate project methodology/methods and practices
• Use iterative, incremental practices throughout the project life cycle (e.g., lessons learned, key stakeholder engagement, risk) (2.13.4)
5C Evaluate Project Progress
• Plan and manage Monitor and validate scope
• Measure ongoing progress based on methodology (2.6.4)
• Modify schedule, as needed, based on methodology (2.6.5)
• Coordinate with other projects and other operations (2.6.6)
• Plan and manage budget and resources
• Monitor budget variations and work with governance process to adjust as
necessary (2.5.3)
• Execute project with the urgency required to deliver business value
• Examine the business value throughout the project (2.1.2)
• Plan and manage quality of products/deliverables
• Recommend options for improvement based on quality gaps (2.7.2)
• Continually survey project deliverable quality (2.7.3)
5D Manage Issues and Impediments
• Manage project issues
• Recognize when a risk becomes an issue (2.15.1)
• Attack the issue with the optimal actions to achieve project success (2.15.2)
• Collaborate with relevant stakeholders on the approach to resolve the issues (2.15.3)
• Address and remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team
• Determine critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team (1.7.1)
• Prioritize critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team (1.7.2)
• Use network to implement solutions to remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team (1.7.3)
• Re-assess continually to ensure impediments, obstacles and blockers for the team are being addressed (1.7.4)
5E Manage Changes
• Evaluate and address external business environment changes for impact on
scope
• Survey changes to external business environment (e.g., regulations,
technology, geopolitical, market) (3.3.1)
• Assess and prioritize impact on project scope/backlog based on changes in
external business environment (3.3.2)
• Recommend options for scope/backlog options (e.g., schedule, cost changes) (3.3.3)
• Continually review external business environment for impacts on project scope/backlog (3.3.4)
• Manage project changes
• Anticipate and embrace the need for change (e.g., follow change management practices (2.10.1)
• Execute change management strategy according to the methodology (2.10.3)
• Determine a change response to move the project forward (2.10.4)

Close Project/Phase

This lesson addresses tasks from the Process domain of the PMP Exam Content Outline.

6A Project/Phase Closure
• Negotiate project agreements
• Verify objective(s) of the project agreement is met (1.8.3)
• Plan and manage project/phase closure or transitions
• Validate readiness for transition (e.g., operations team or next phase) (2.17.2)
• Conclude activities to close out project or phase (e.g., final lessons learned, retrospectives, procurement, financial, resources) (2.17.3)
6B Benefits Realization
• Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value
• Document agreement on ownership for ongoing benefit realization (3.2.2)
• Verify measurement system is in place to track benefits (3.2.3)
6C Knowledge Transfer
• Ensure knowledge transfer for project continuity
• Confirm approach for knowledge transfers (2.16.3)