PMI-ism.doc 1/6 Recurring Themes — PMI®ism to for the PMP® Examination “PMI®ism” is a term I coined to refer to the items PMI stress on the exam that most project managers do not know. PMI®ism are not stressed and sometimes not even mentioned in all editions of PMBOK® Guide! Those who write questions on the exam know what most project managers do wrong. This knowledge helps them to write questions that weed out those who should not be PMP®. Understand PMI® will help you pick the best answer from what seems like more than one correct answer. Review this list again just before you take the exam and make sure you understand the PMI®ism. 1. There is a basic assumption that you have records (historical information) for all previous projects that include what the work packages were, how much each work package cost, and what risks were uncovered. These are now referred to in the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition as part of organizational process assets. You are probably thinking that you don’t have such information in real life or you may just said “That’s a good idea!” For the examination, assume that you have them for all projects and that you create them for existing projects. Organizational process assets are inputs to many Project Management Processes. Why would PMI® stress historical records? They are exceedingly valuable (like diamond) to the project, the team, the performing organization and even the customer. 2. Project cost and schedule cannot be finalized without completing Risk Management. 3. PMI® stresses the fact that a project manager must work within the existing systems and culture of an organization. They call these Enterprise Environmental Factors and they are inputs to many Project Management Processes. 4. The word “task” is not used in the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition. There are work packages, activities and/or schedule activities. 5. The term GANTT Chart is not used, only bar chart PMI-ism.doc 2/6 6. You must understand the sequence of all the Project Management Processes, such as what to do FIRST, what is the NEXT thing to do, and so on. 7. A project manger’s job is to focus on preventing problems, not to deal with them. How much time you spend on doing this everyday? If you spend all your time dealing with problems, you are not a great project manager. You should have planned the project to address the problems or to prevent the problems you knew would be coming. 8. Percentage complete is almost meaningless value to a project. Project manager should not spend time collecting useless information. It is better to control the project and know the status through other useful actions. 9. A great project manager does not hold meetings where you go around the room asking all attendees to report their status. Such meetings are generally, but not always, a waste of time; as such information can be collected by other more effective ways. There are more important topics for team meetings. 10. A project manager has authority and power. She can say “NO!” and work to control the project to the benefit of the customer. 11. The project must be completed on time and on budget and meet all the project objectives; otherwise this is the project manager’s fault 12. Delays must be made up by adjusting future work. 13. The Project Management Plan is approved a bought-in, realistic and agreed upon 14. The Project should be managed by the Project Management Plan. 15. Make sure you know all the actions required to create a real Project Management Plan. 16. Project Management Plan is not just a bar chart, or a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) created in a bar chart, or a list of bar charts. PMI-ism.doc 3/6 17. Most project managers have never developed a Project Management Plan that contains all the items listed in and recommended by PMBOK® Guide Third Edition. Make sure you are familiar with what goes into a Project Management Plan and what components to be included. 18. If possible, all the works and all stakeholders should be identified before the project begins. 19. Stakeholders are involved in the project and may help identify and manage risks. They are involved in team building and their expectations are taken into account while planning the project and in the Communications Management Plan. 20. Many people fail the examination as their vision of what a project manager is and what she should do is different from that mentioned in the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition. They always do not exercise the power and perform the activities described in the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition. Others fail the examination because they think the project manager is supposed to plan the project on her own and TELL everyone what to do. 21. All roles and responsibilities MUST be clearly assigned to specific individuals on the project. Such responsibilities may include things like attending what kind of meetings, as well as project work. Lack of clear assignment is the major complaint of team members. Think about it a litter more. 22. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the foundation of a project planning and should be used on every project. 23. You cannot get something for nothing. A change in scope MUST be evaluated for impact on the “triple constraints”. Project Manager MUST has enough data about their project to do such analysis. 24. Project managers can save generally management skills listed in PMBOK® Guide Third Edition. 25. PMI® does not accept gold plating of deliverables. 26. The definition of “kick-off meeting” used in the examination may be different from a “kick-off meeting” in your existing and previous projects. PMI-ism.doc 4/6 27. Project manager MUST be proactive. Correct answers indicate that the project manager MUST discover problems as early as possible, find the root cause, look for changes, prevent them, etc. 28. Planning is very important and all projects MUST be well planned. 29. Project manager should always plan before they do, such that there should be Management Plans for the nine Project Management Knowledge Areas. Usages of all the plans are fully discussed throughout the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition, and yet most people have never been taught, nor do they create them before. Look for Management Plans in each chapter and make sure you have understood all of them. 30. Project manager should always follow the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle stressed in Project Quality Management. 31. All changes must flow through the change request processes and Integrated Change Control. 32. Although it is often called “triple constraints”, project manager must manager MUST manage more than three things, they are Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Risk and Customer Satisfaction. Any change to one of them must be evaluated the impact to all other areas, this is also a part of Integrated Change Control. 33. Think BIG, the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition always talks about what is needed for a large project. Therefore, many of the items described in the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition are inappropriate for some small projects, maybe yours. Make sure you understand why the processes and work described in the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition would be necessary on larger projects in order to pass the examination. Just forget what you have been worked for small projects. 34. If you do not manage cost on your projects, you should pay more attention on Project Cost Management. 35. Most organizations have a Project Management Office (PMO) and this office has very important authority over the project. PMI-ism.doc 5/6 36. Project manager should decide which processes listed in PMBOK® Guide Third Edition should be used on each project 37. Project manager should be assigned during Project Initiating Process. 38. Notice how many times Corrective Action and Preventive Action are mentioned in the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition. They are there as most project managers spend most of their time dealing with problems in stead of preventing them. Make sure you understand these two concepts extremely well. 39. Many project managers do not plan their projects properly, so the work they are doing during the project going is vastly different from what really should be done and different from what is mentioned in the PMBOK® Guide Third Edition. Make sure you check your knowledge of what activities are included in the Project Executing and Project Monitoring and Controlling Process Groups that the examination will give you the most trouble in these areas 40. There is a basic assumption on the examination that you have organization’s policies for project management and that you will adapt them for use on your projects. These may include Project Management methodologies, Risk Management procedures, and Quality Management procedures. Therefore assume you have them when you take the examination. 41. Project manager has some Human Resource responsibilities that you might not be aware. 42. Project manager should recommend improvements to the performing organization’s standards, procedures and processes. Such recommendations are expected and welcome by management. 43. Quality should be considered whenever there is a change to any component of the “triple constraints”. 44. Quality should be checked before an activity or work package is completed. 45. Project manager must spend time trying to improve quality. PMI-ism.doc 6/6 46. Project manager must determine metrics to be used to measure quality before the project work begins. 47. Project manager must put in place a plan for continually improving processes. 48. Project manager must make sure the authorized approaches and processes are followed 49. Some of the quality activities could be done by a Quality Assurance or Quality Control department. 50. Project manager are required to understand that people must be compensated for their work. 51. Project manger should create a reword system during Planning Process Group. 52. You should spend time documenting who should do what. 53. If not specially mentioned, project in the examination is assumed to be managed in a matrix organization environment, such seemingly easy topics as motivational theories and powers of the project manager become quite serious on the examination. 54. All roles and responsibilities on the project MUST be clearly assigned and closely linked to the Project Scope Statement. 55. Lessons learned, as a part of historical record is extremely important in the examination, project manager must update all the lesson learned, achieve and consolidate into Organization Process Assets before close the project.