Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals!

Shivshanker Shenoy
PMP
Founder of www.PMExamSmartNotes.com

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Copyright notice
Copyright 2013 by PMExamSmartNotes.com.
All rights reserved.
Feel free to email, tweet, blog, and pass this ebook around the web ... but please dont alter any of its contents when you do. Thanks!

Notice of Liability
The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information contained
in this book is given without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor PMExamSmartNotes.com will be held liable for
any damages to be caused directly or indirectly either by the instructions contained in this book, or by the software or hardware products
described herein.

Acknowledgements
All the images used in this study guide are available under Creative Commons license and credit is mentioned below individual images.

Trademark Notice
PMI is a registered trademark and service mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
PMP and CAPM is a registered certification mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
PMBOK is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 2

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Foreword

Whenever you had to study a 'heavy' book, did you wish for a simpler guide just to get the gist of the subject?
Something like a crash-course guide that you could go through and get a handle on the stuff?
I always thought about and looked for such resources whenever I had to study a new subject (the reason I love
Wikipedia). It was a similar feeling I had when I took up PMBOK book to study.
And when I was in a position to prepare a short guide, there was no time to waste.
So here is this guide in front of you. The very fact that you have decided to read this would mean that you might be
one of these
(a) seriously preparing for PMP or CAPM exam
(b) performing the duties of a project manager (project practitioner)
(c) simply curious to know about a systematic way of project management
You will not be disappointed.
Even the basic form of the foundation guide came to well over 200 pages, so I decided to split it into modules. One
covering project management basics and one each for the 10 knowledge areas, so you can pick up the one you wish
to understand and run through it easily.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 3

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

This guide, of course, comes to you free of cost. The only aim of this guide is to provide you with a quick and succinct
account of project management concepts from PMBOK.
For all the details of concepts highlighted in this book, do visit www.PMExamSmartNotes.com blog. It will make your
exam preparation a breeze, I promise!
PS: This study guide is best viewed in 100% (or 1:1) resolution. Zooming out beyond this may slightly blur some of
visual representations.
Before moving to the content, I would like to take a moment to recommend a fast-track study resource I have used, which 1. ...saves you a ton of time on PMP or CAPM exam study
2. ...lets you study anytime, anywhere while traveling, eating, waiting in the queue you get the idea. Learn on PC or on
your smartphone!
3. fulfils the mandatory requirement to appear for the exam: 35hr project management education. This alone is
your return on investment!
4. saves you money as compared to contact classes out there that can cost as much as $2000+!
I am talking about PMPrepCast by Cornelius Fichtner!. You can view couple of sample chapters at Exam Resources section on
the blog. I do get a small commission if you use this link to purchase, but it doesnt increase your purchase price. If you dont
want to give the commission its perfectly fine but I still highly recommend this study resource, and the direct link you can use
is http://www.project-management-prepcast.com.
Thank you in advance, should you decide to invest in this study resource through this link! Click on the image below.
PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 4

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Click here to check if you are entitled for a discount!

Ace the exam!

Shiv Shenoy
PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 5

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Table of contents

Exam

Developing a Charter of the project .................................................................................................................................................... 9

Developing a Project Plan .................................................................................................................................................................. 11
Getting project work done................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Overseeing the project work ............................................................................................................................................................ 16
Controlling changes to project .......................................................................................................................................................... 18
Closing the Project or a phase of the project ..................................................................................................................................... 21

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 6

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Project Integration Management

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 7

Image credit: scubasteveo

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Project Integration Management knowledge area contains processes that are like backbone of project management.
Spending enough time on this knowledge area to understand the nuances is worth every bit of it.
Although many of the processes seem sequential, in reality they may overlap each other. Managing all these
processes together and 'keeping tab on all that is happening' is project manager's challenge.

Developing a Charter for

the Project
This project management activity creates a document
Project charter - that formally authorizes you as a Project
Manager to work on this project. It also documents, at a high
level, what customer wants. It will have other information
such as high-level milestone dates and any foreseen
constraints.
An approved Project Charter formally initiates the project
and authorizes the project manager to use resources to
Image credit: Archives New
achieve project objectives. Assigning a project manager to the
Zealand
project right when project charter is created is of great advantage for the project manager. Earlier she is part of the
team more control she will have on managing the project and its constraints.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 8

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

What is an Agreement?

Exam

An agreement is an intent do certain work between two parties. This is done by mutual consent between the two
parties, and has an offer of payment made by one party to the other party for the work done. Any of SLA (service level
agreement), LOI (letter of intent), contract, email or verbal commitment can be an Agreement.

What is a Statement of Work (SOW)?

Statement Of Work defines, at a high level, the work to be done, pricing and the expected timelines. Some of the
points covered in Statement of Work are given in this mind map -

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 9

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

What is a Business Case?

This is an internal document. The organization that takes up the project has to decide whether it makes business
sense to do this project. Business case should list the benefits that organization will get, if any, apart from monetary
gains such as leadership in the domain or future business prospects. If similar project have been executed earlier,
those lessons can be employed to execute this project in an efficient way. In such scenario outcome is more certain
and organization has better chances of success with this project.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 10

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Developing a Project plan

Exam

...is very important project management activity. This produces the blueprint by which entire project is going to be
managed.
Project plan contains subsidiary plans Change management plan
Communications management plan
Configuration management plan
Cost management plan
Human resource management plan
Process improvement plan
Procurement management plan
Quality management plan
Requirements management plan
Risk management plan
Schedule management plan
Scope management plan
Stakeholder management plan
Project management plan also contains the three
important baselines Cost baseline
Scope baseline

Image credit: Lars Plougmann

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 11

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

o WBS
o WBS dictionary
o Project scope statement
Schedule baseline

Exam

Develop Project Management Plan is the master process, if it can be said so, of PMBOK's 47 processes. Inputs to this
project management activity are the output from each of the subsidiary planning processes such as Risk management,
Communications management and Human Resource management. As you can imagine project management plan will
be the last document to be finalized in the planning process.
Before we move on, let us look at a common perception, which is that a Project Schedule IS the Project Plan.
It is not.
A schedule can be considered as a supplementary tool to manage project work, and the project management plan is
the primary project document that covers all aspects of project such as communication, risk, procurement, cost,
resources.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 12

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Getting the Project Work done

...is the project management activity under which project work defined in the project management plan (activities in
the project schedule) is carried out. Approved change requests are also implemented under this process.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 13

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

What does a project produce?

Project deliverable.

And something else

defects!
In spite of team's best efforts to produce
flawless deliverable, the testing team finds
defects. Upon analysis, you may decide to
make changes to some of the steps in
producing deliverable. At times, you may
also discover that customer is not happy
with some aspects of the deliverable.
When that happens you raise a change
request, get it approved and implement
those changes. Hence approved change
requests are one of the inputs to Direct
and Manage Project Work process.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 14

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

What else can lead to a change request?

These are some of the reasons for change requests
Team did not clearly understand what customer wanted
At detailed level of requirements, team made few assumptions and did not verify them with the customer
Team did understand what customer wanted, but while it was at work customer changed some of her expectations
and the end result was not to her satisfaction
After customer saw the deliverable, she figured out that it was not exactly what she had in mind in the first place.
Now she wants some changes in the output produced.
Based on quality control team's recommendations some of the steps needed to be changed to produce better
quality output
Whenever any of these happen, first, the required changes are identified and documented. Then its impact on project
constraints are analyzed and change requests are run through the change control board (CCB). CCB may decide to
approve or reject the change requests based on their impact on project constraints and objectives.
During the course of project execution several change requests may come up (we will see how this happens in
Monitor and Control Project Work process). Each of these will be looked at to assess their impact on six constraints time, scope, costs, quality, resources, risk. Only approved change requests are considered to work upon.
Change requests can happen due to these reasons - Preventive action, Corrective action, Defect repair, and
Customer requested changes.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 15

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Overseeing the Project work

...is responsible for figuring out whether work is on course, whether deliverables meet quality requirements, whether
costs are within threshold limits and whether team members are happy and doing their work well.
Have you observed how a Formula-One
race is intensely monitored by the Race
Director and staff, and driver's actions
are controlled by means of continuous
feedback?
Race control lies at the very heart of
Formula-One, with features essential to
allow the F1A Race Director and his staff
to make right decisions to keep things
safe and on schedule.
CCTV screens help quickly detect
location problems. Timing data
information feed is given to teams, and
Race Director gets lot of additional

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 16

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

information such as pit lane speed trap allowing him to ensure that all sessions are run safely. There is constant
telephone and radio contact with principal marshal's posts, safety car, medical response car and medical center, so
that in case of a major problem Race Director can remain in full contact of the situation.
F1 is an excellent example of close monitoring and controlling of an event, taking control of situations quickly when
things go wrong and bringing proceedings back on track.
It is not too different from how monitoring and controlling is done on a project.
You successfully prepared the project management plan and got into execution phase. Now in order to ensure
smooth sailing, all activities of project
work must be monitored constantly.
Any deviation from set expectations of
work has to be caught and set right.
Constant course correction is very
essential on a project. In spite of best
efforts, things may and will go wrong,
like Murphy's law.
Project has too many variables and
constraints for everything to go exactly
as per the plan.

PMExamSmartNotes.com
- Fast PMPactivities
Exam Preparation
Working
Professionals! | 17
Figure: project management
feed intoforeach
other

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Controlling changes to the project

Salient points of change request are -

Image credit: Custom_Cab

A change request may be raised by

any stakeholder of the project

It must be documented and added

into change management / configuration
management system

Only approved change requests are

taken up for implementation

A change request may be due to

preventive action, corrective action, defect
repair or scope change requested by the
customer

Changes requested by customer may

affect project constraints resulting in
changes to baselines

First thing to understand is that the entire change control project management activity is the responsibility of project
manager. Although any stakeholder can raise a change request, even verbally, project manager must document it

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 18

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

first. She should estimate its impact on project cost, schedule and any other constraints and then document it as well.
This information is used during change control meetings.
Change Control Board (CCB) is formed to address change requests. The structure of the board, role and
responsibilities are determined during planning stage, and is accepted by all stakeholders. CCB consists of different
stakeholders from the team as well as outside the team, including customer.
The aim of having this board is to ensure that all
involved parties understand each suggested change
and assess impact well, before taking a decision to
either accept or reject or even delay the suggested
change. Now it is not a mandatory requirement to
form a Change control board, or CCB. In some
projects, the power to accept or reject a change
request is given to the project manager, sponsor
and/or customer. The decision to form a CCB is a
result or organizational practices, nature of projects
and in certain cases insistence of the customer.
Since a change request may result changes to cost,
schedule and scope baseline, there may be impact
on risks or even delivery dates. Hence, it is prudent
to have a committee of stakeholders to formally go
over change requests and make an informed
decision of accepting, rejecting or delaying change

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 19

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

request implementation. Project manager must convey the decisions to stakeholders using predefined
communication channels.
The figure here shows how change requests are initiated and implemented.
Perform Integrated Change Control project management activity is very crucial in order to deal with any deviation
from the plan during execution.
This course-correction exercise on the project is effective only when change control meetings are held regularly. It is
also important for project manager to update subsidiary plans and baselines as soon as changes are approved.

Closing a Project or
phase of a project
You have produced deliverables as per requirements, have had
testing team validate them, have fixed all the bugs found, revalidated the deliverables, and finally had customer verify them.
Now it is time to formally close the phase, or project.

Image credit: secretlondon123

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 20

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

As a project manager, you would ensure that ALL project management activities are completed before the project of
phase is closed.

Project manager does administrative closure

When a project or phase is complete project manager has to ensure that the project's product, service or result
(remember 'PSR') is transferred to next phase or to production and, if necessary, to the Operations team.
Project manager also needs to write all the successes, failures, root causes, and lessons learnt during project
execution into the Organizational Process Assets. Why is this necessary? So that subsequently other project managers
can take precautions to avoid certain pitfalls based on other's mistakes.
Project manager should also archive all project documents such as scope, cost and schedule baselines, risk registers,
subsidiary plans, and performance metrics.

PMExamSmartNotes.com - Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals! | 21

Foundation Guide for PMP/CAPM Certification

Exam

Fast PMP Exam Preparation for Working Professionals!

Download FREE eBooks for other Knowledge Areas from the blog!

About Shiv
Shiv Shenoy has worked over 15 years in technical, management and mentoring roles for
Software Services and Product Development companies in Enterprise, Web and Mobile
domains. He has helped several start-ups to conceptualize product idea, build prototype and

take it to the market with version 1.0 and beyond. He mentors professionals on project-,
product- and technology management.
Shiv is a passionate techno-manager, blogger, mentor, photography enthusiast and painter.
Shiv helps working professional that are hard pressed for time sail through PMP and CAPM

project management certification courses, by turning his own exam notes into easily
understandable, scientifically prepared, and simplified content that he publishes on the blog
PMExamSmartNotes.com

Connect with Shiv at LinkedIn

and on PMESN at- Facebook,
and
Twitter.
PMExamSmartNotes.com
Fast PMP ExamGoogle+
Preparation
for Working
Professionals!

| 22