Project Management Professional

PMP Diploma Summary

Diploma Course # 337

Trainer: Dr. Ahmed Al Senosy

Prepared by: Eng. Mohamad Balchi

April 2024
PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Table of Contents

Overview and Projects’ Characteristics …………………………………………. 2

Creating A High-Performing Team …………………………………………………. 6

Starting the Project …………………………………………………………………….. 18

Doing the Work ………………………………………………………………………….. 40

Keeping the Team on Track ………………………………………………………….. 54

Keeping the Business in Mind ………………………………………………………. 69

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 1 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Projects’ Characteristics
Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
Projects are undertaken to fulfill objectives by producing deliverables.

Enables value
Creates a unique
Time-limited Drives Change creation for a
product, service,
business or
or result
organization

The success of the Project depends on:

• Organizational project maturity
• Project manager effectiveness
• Funding and resource availability
• Team member skill levels
• Collaboration and communication within the team and with key stakeholders.
• Understanding of the core problem and related needs.

➢ Fulfillment of project objectives may produce one or more of the following deliverables:

Unique Product Unique Service Unique Result

Unique combination
of products, Repetition Uniqueness
services, or results

Project objectives
will not be met

Project objectives Project

have been achieved End

No more Funding

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 2 of 80

 PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Projects’ Benefits
Tangible Elements Intangible Elements
Monetary assets Goodwill
Stockholder equity Brand recognition
Utility Public benefit
Fixtures Strategic Alignment
Tools Trademarks
Market share Reputation

Organizational Process Assets (OPAs)

OPA’s are plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases that are specific
to and used by the performing organization.
OPA examples include:
• Guidelines and criteria for aligning project work.
• Specific organizational standards.
• Standard templates for project work.
• Organizational communications requirements.
• Standardized guidelines, work instructions, proposal evaluation criteria, and
performance measurement criteria.
• Procedures for officially closing a project.
• Project Files, Policies, Procedures, and guidelines.
• Human Resources documentation.
• Lessons-learned repository.

Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs)

EEF’s are conditions, not under the immediate control of the team, that can influence,
constrain, or direct the project, program, or portfolio.
Examples of EEF’s might include:
• Organizational culture, structure, & governance • Company work authorization systems
• Geographic distribution of facilities & resources • Stakeholder risk tolerances.
• Government or industry standards. • Political climate and situations.
• IT infrastructure. • Organization's Communications Channels
• Existing Human Resources • Commercial Databases
• Personnel Administration • Project Management Information Systems
• Marketplace Conditions • Languages, time zones, and other
countries' holiday schedules

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 3 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Organizational Project Management (OPM):

Strategy execution framework that coordinates project, program, portfolio, and operations
management, and which enables organizations to deliver on strategy.

Portfolio Management : Collection of projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and

operations managed in a group to achieve strategic objectives.
Program Management : Group of related projects, subsidiary programs and program
activities managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from
managing them individually.
Project Management : Part of a broader program , portfolio or both.

Guidance for all Project Practitioners

1. Be a diligent, respectful, and caring steward.
2. Recognize, evaluate, and respond to system interactions.
3. Navigate complexity
4. Create a collaborative project team environment
5. Demonstrate leadership behaviors
6. Optimize risk responses
7. Effectively engage with stakeholders
8. Tailor based on context
9. Embrace adaptability and resiliency
10.Focus on Value
11.Build quality into processes and deliverables
12.Enable change to achieve the envisioned future state

From 12 Principles to Project Performance Domains

Project Performance Domain

Is a group of related activities that are
critical for the effective delivery of project
outcomes. Collectively, the performance
domains represent a project management
system of interactive, interrelated, and
interdependent management capabilities
that work in unison to achieve desired
project outcomes. As the performance
domains interact and react to each other,
change occurs.
Each domain addresses activities and
functions specific to the domain, resulting
in specific desired outcomes.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 4 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Agile Manifesto for Software Development

Agile means:
• Iterations are likely to be shorter
• Product is more likely to evolve based on stakeholder feedback
Agile Principles Features:
• Adopt a flexible, change-friendly way of thinking and behaving.
• Understand the purpose of these practices.
• Select and implement appropriate practices based on context.
• Internalize agile values, mindset and behavior.

Principles Behind the Agile Manifesto

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of
valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness
change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they
need and trust them to get the job done.
6. Face-to-face conversation is the most efficient and effective method of conveying
information to and within a development team.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users
should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12. The team reflects on becoming more effective at regular intervals, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.

Individuals and Interaction over Process and Tools

Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation
Customer collaboration over Contract Negotiation
Responding to change over Following a plan

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 5 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Creating a High-Performing Team

➢ Build a Team
➢ Define Team Ground Rules
➢ Negotiate Project Agreements
➢ Empower Team Members and Stakeholders
➢ Train Team Members and Stakeholders
➢ Engage and Support Virtual Teams
➢ Build a Shared Understanding about a Project

❖ Build a Team
Project Team: A set of individuals who support the project manager in performing the work of the
project to achieve its objectives like:
- Project Management Staff
- Project Workers
- User or Customer Representatives
- Sellers that are external companies
- Business Partners.

Project Resource Management includes:

• Estimate, acquire, and manage teams of people.
• Estimate the other resources those team members will need to carry out the work.
• Obtain the people.
• Develop the team, improve their competencies, facilitate interactions, and create an
effective teaming environment.
• Track team performance, create and execute improvements based on feedback,
resolve issues, and manage team personnel changes.

Team Member Considerations:

• Need the relevant skill sets to perform the work and produce the desired results.
• Avoid single-points-of-failure caused by a single resource having a required skill.
• Use generalizing specialists who have a core competency and general skills that can be
leveraged to support other areas of the project.
• Physical resources, such as equipment
• Access rights

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 6 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Project Stakeholders
Stakeholder: An individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive
itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, programs, or portfolio.

Interpersonal Skills to each Member

Skill Definition
Conflict Management involves intervening before a negative result from a conflict can occur
Cultural Awareness Understanding and being aware of the different cultural viewpoints and
beliefs of the individuals
Decision Making the ability to make decisions will show that you can be a strong advocate
in any decision-making process, meeting, or group.
Facilitation Skills used to lead or guide an assembled group toward a successful
conclusion
Leadership The ability to step up and guide others to achieve results
Meeting Management The ability to conduct productive meetings efficiently and effectively
Negotiation an approach used by more than one individual to come to an agreement or
resolution
Networking The interaction between people to expand their knowledge about business
topics
Observation/conversation involves watching individuals as they perform their daily tasks in an effort
to obtain first-hand knowledge of a situation or how a process is going
Servant Leadership used in agile and other types of projects, which encourages the self-
definition, self-discovery, and self-awareness of team members.
Team Building through continuous support and working collaboratively, you can enable a
team to work together to solve problems, diffuse interpersonal issues,
share information, and tackle project objectives as a unified force.

The RACI chart

RACI chart: A common type of responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) that uses responsible,
accountable, consult, and inform statuses to define the involvement of stakeholders in project
activities.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 7 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Pre-Assignment Tools
Refer to techniques used during project staffing to assess the suitability of potential team
members for specific roles. These tools help project managers choose individuals with the right
skills, knowledge, and attitude to contribute effectively to the project's success.

Attitudinal Surveys Gauge a candidate's work ethic, commitment to teamwork, and

overall alignment with the project's culture.
Specific Assessments Test job-specific skills and knowledge relevant to the project tasks
Structured Interviews Conduct standardized interviews with pre-defined questions to
objectively evaluate candidates' suitability.
Ability Tests Measure general cognitive abilities like critical thinking, problem-
solving, and decision-making.
Focus Groups Gather feedback from potential colleagues or stakeholders about a
candidate's fit for the team and project.

Diversity and Inclusion

Project teams are becoming more global and therefore more diverse :
Cultural backgrounds - Industry experiences - Spoken language
Create an environment that takes advantage of the diversity and builds climate of mutual trust.

Team Improvement objectives include:

• Enhance team knowledge and skills to reduce cost, time, and to improve quality
• Improve trust within the team to reduce conflicts and improve teamwork.
• Create a collaborative culture to improve individual and team performance and facilitate
mutual training and monitoring.
• Empower the team to be engaged in decision making and ownership of proposed solutions.

Resource Plan Management

• Identification of resources
• Acquisition of resources
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Roles: The function of the person in the project.
• Authority: Rights to use resources, make decisions, accept deliverables, etc.
• Responsibility: Assigned duties to be performed.
• Competence: Skills and capacities required to complete the desired activities.
• Project Organization Chart: Defines the project team members and their reporting
relationships.
• Project team resource management—Guidance on the lifecycle of the team resources; how
they are defined, staffed, managed, and eventually released.
• Training strategies and requirements.
• Team development methods to be used.
• Resource controls for the management of physical resources to support the team.
• Recognition Plan: How team members are rewarded and recognized.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 8 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Creating a High-Performing Team

❖ Define Team Ground Rules

Ground Rules: Clear expectations regarding the code of conduct for team members.
Ground rules include all actions considered acceptable and unacceptable in the project
management context.
Benefits:
• Sets performance and communication expectations
• Decreases risk of confusion
• Improves performance

Team Charter: A document that enables the team to establish its values, agreements, and
practices as it performs its work together.
The Team Charter includes:
• The team’s shared values.
• Guidelines for team communications and the use of tools.
• How the team makes decisions.
• How the team resolves conflicts when disagreements arise.
• How and when the team meets.
• Other team agreements (such as shared hours, improvement activities).

Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

Responsibility Respect Fairness Honesty

Guidelines to Manage and Rectify Ground Rule Violations

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 9 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Creating a High-Performing Team

❖ Empower Team Members and Stakeholders

Team Strengths:
• When forming teams, critical to understand
the skills and competencies need by
members to perform their work and produce
deliverables.
• As teams progress, leverage the team
members’ skills to improve team
performance.
• Identify team strengths and weaknesses to
organize around team strengths

Estimates
• The people doing the work should perform the estimating tasks because they have the best
knowledge of the risks , Level of effort, and Potential Pitfalls
• Traditional project managers use hours of effort. Three-point estimating is one example.
• Agile projects avoid using absolute time estimates. Story Point technique provides a unit-
less measure estimation.

Estimation Techniques

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 10 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Team Task Accountability

• Encourage team members to self-organize in determining:
• The work that needs to be done
• How to perform the work
• Who should perform it
• In Agile approaches, the team commits to performing work in an iteration.
• Use Gantt charts and Kanban boards to promote visibility and collaboration

Retrospective
A Retrospective is a meeting time specifically set aside for the team to reflect on its performance
and practices, identify and solve problems.
Set the Stage – Gather and Share Data – Generate Insight – Make Decisions – Close

Creating a High-Performing Team

❖ Train Team Members and Stakeholders
Required Competencies
• Identifying the required competencies is the first aspect of developing and executing a
training plan.
• Competencies can include knowledge, skills, and other attributes.
• Different stakeholders will have different training needs.
• Team members themselves may require specific training on the customer’s business,
culture, desired outcomes, and the project’s context.

Elements of Training
Training: Activity in which team members acquire new or enhanced skills, knowledge, or attitudes.
• Training will be provided to teams, small groups, individuals.
• Covers management, technical, or other topics.
The Training Delivery models include:
• Instructor-led classroom
• Virtual classroom
• Self-paced e-learning
• Document reviews
• Interactive simulations
• On-the-job training

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 11 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Training and Coaching Plan

▪ Training should be done as close to the point of solution use as possible.
▪ Scheduling is critical to avoid delaying the overall solution deployment.
▪ Perform a gap analysis to identify missing knowledge, skills, or required attributes.
▪ A training plan for team members can include improvement in competencies or possibly
certification to benefit the project.

Training Options
Option Description
Virtual Instructor-led • Live online instructor-led training through a virtual meeting or virtual training
training environment.
• Simulated hands-on labs are often available using this option too
Self-paced e-learning • E-learning content made available to students online and generally
consumed using a browser. This can include rich-media video, simulated lab
exercises, etc.
• A benefit of the self-paced approach is scalability of the solution to a large
number of potential students
Document reviews • For simple knowledge transfer, sharing relevant documents may be sufficient

Training Cost Estimates

Content creation and editing costs Instructional costs Venue costs
Content hosting and delivery costs Courseware printing and distribution Logistics costs

Training Calendar

Project Manager needs to publish and support a specific calendar of training dates and locations

Schedule also needs to be published to the customer stakeholders

Create a mechanism for registration and sending confirmation messages

Provide class rosters and a way to capture signatures of attendees

Manage the training schedule and timing to avoid delaying the project’s delivery timeline

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 12 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Training, Coaching and Mentoring

Training Coaching Mentoring

Learn skills for use in the Learn how to apply new skills or Development of personal and
present improve existing ones professional growth through
long-term professional
relationships
• Individually or as a group • Individually or as a group • Between a novice and a
• aka “upskilling” • Puts learning into practice more experienced person
• On any topic • Internal or external to
projects or organizations

Baseline and Post-Training Assessments

Baselining provides a technique for measuring the efficacy of training

Attendees complete a pre-assessment before training

After training, a post-assessment is used to demonstrate the newly acquired levels of competence

Creating a High-Performing Team

❖ Engage and Support Virtual Teams
• Shared Goal
Virtual Team • Clear Purpose
Member Needs • Clarity on Roles and Expectations
• Project Manager must facilitate and ensure collaboration

Communication
➢ Effective Communication is the key to successful teams.
➢ The Team Charter should include communication expectations and details.
➢ This may include shared work hours for scheduling team meetings, how the team is
expected to use and not use tools like threaded discussion groups, shared document
repositories, and even webcams.
➢ A good retrospective often provides ways that a team can improve its communication,
collaboration, and use of visibility tools.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 13 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Task Boards

• Visualizes the work and enables the team and

stakeholders to track progress as work is
performed.
• Promotes visibility and maximizes efficiency.
• Examples: Kanban boards, to-do lists, procedure
checklists, and Scrum boards

Guidelines to Implement Options for Virtual Team Member Engagement

• Focus on collaboration and team norms before focusing too much on tools.
• Recognize that team formation in a virtual environment is difficult, so it’s critical to reinforce
the teams’ mutual commitments, achievements, and opportunities.
• Virtual teams require a significant amount of feedback and reinforcement of the team goals
and objectives.
• Provide opportunities for members of a virtual team to meet in person to build relationships
that will nurture their shared commitment to the project’s goals.

Calendar Tools

• Shared calendars help virtual teams plan meetings, coordinate feedback, and improve
visibility to goals and activity status

• Timeboxed Meetings:
➢ Improve Focus
➢ Encourage team to set clear agendas and objectives
➢ Helps keeps the work on track

• The team must decide how best to manage its calendar with an eye toward the goal of
visibility among the team and relevant stakeholders.

Guidelines to Continually Evaluate the Effectiveness of Virtual Team Member Engagement

Track the progress of your teams as they carry out the work and produce deliverables.

Ensure meetings like daily standups are not just status updates, but value commitments
from the team to itself.

Use videoconferencing tools.

Timebox your meetings.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 14 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Powers of Project Manager

For virtual teams, the risk of individual Important to focus on shared

Team members becoming isolated commitments vs. individual
from other team members is inherent accomplishments regarding tasks

By instilling a sense of shared Reinforce the team goals over

commitments into the team starting individual performance, and enable
with the team charter, then team teams to self-organize and be
members will adopt certain behaviors accountable for deliver
to reinforce collaboration

Creating a High-Performing Team

❖ Build a Shared Understanding about a Project
Vision
Is a desired end-state—a set of desired objectives and outcomes. Vision statement might include:

Product or Intended users or Differentiators

Key desired Key features and
Solution consumers of the from competitive
objectives benefits
Description solution approaches

Project Charter:
A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a
project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to
project activities.

Project Charter Components

▪ Purpose of the Project
▪ Measurable project objectives and related success criteria
▪ High-level requirements
▪ High-level project description, boundaries, and key deliverables
▪ Overall project risk
▪ Summary milestone schedules
▪ Pre-approved financial resources
▪ Key stakeholders list
▪ Project approval requirements
▪ Project exit criteria
▪ Assigned project manager and responsibility/authority level
▪ Name and authority of the project sponsor.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 15 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Agile Ceremonies

▪ Scrum : An agile framework for developing and Agile Ceremony

sustaining complex products, with specific roles, Sprint Planning
events, and artifacts.
Daily Standup
▪ Sprint : A timeboxed iteration in Scrum.
Sprint Review
Sprint Retrospective

Kickoff Meeting
Purpose Activities during kickoff Meeting
• Establish project context • Defining a vision statement
• Assist in team formation • Defining a team charter
• Assisting the Customer / Product
• Ensure proper alignment to the
Owner with the following:
overall project vision
• User story writing
• Estimation of effort
• Prioritization planning
• Initial product backlog

Consensus
Consensus: A decision-making process used by a group to reach a decision that everyone can
support.
▪ Fist of Five: Individuals vote by holding up five fingers for total agreement, a fist for total
disagreement, or multiple fingers for somewhere in between.
▪ Roman Voting: Individuals vote with either a thumbs up (agreement) or thumbs down
(disagreement). Consensus: A decision-making process used by a group to reach a
decision that everyone can support.
▪ Polling: Team members share their point of view and, if the team is unanimous, then they
move on. If objections are raised, the facilitator works to solve the problem.
▪ Dot Voting: Individuals use sticky dots to prioritize items in a list.

Five Fingers = Agree Fist = Disagree

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 16 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Product backlog: An order list of user centric requirements that a team maintains for a product.
Prioritization Techniques include:
▪ Kano Model
▪ MoSCoW (MSCW) Analysis
▪ Paired Comparison Analysis
▪ 100 Points Method

MoSCoW (MSCW) Analysis

source: https://www.productplan.com/

100 Points Method

source: https://www.visual-paradigm.com/

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 17 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Starting the Project

Team
➢ Determine Appropriate Project Methodology/Methods and Practices
➢ Plan and Manage Scope
➢ Plan and Manage Budget and Resources
➢ Plan and Manage Schedule
➢ Plan and Manage Quality of Products/Deliverables
➢ Integrate Project Planning Activities
➢ Plan and Manage Procurement
➢ Establish Project Governance Structure
➢ Plan and Manage Project/Phase Closure

❖ Determine Appropriate Project Methodology/Methods and Practices

Business Case Business Needs Documents

▪ Documented economic feasibility ▪ Provides the high-level deliverables.
study
▪ Written prior to the formal business
▪ Used to establish the benefits of case.
project components.
▪ Describes what needs to be created
▪ Provides a basis for authorization and what needs to be performed.
of further project activities.

Project Methodology/Methods and Practices

• Modern approach where team works collaboratively with the customer to
Agile
determine the project needs.
• The coordination of the customer and the team drives the project forward.

Predictive/Plan • Traditional approach where the project needs, requirements, and

constraints are understood, and plans are developed accordingly.
Driven
• The plans drive the project forward
• A combined approach that uses a strategy from agile or predictive for a
Hybrid
specific need.
• Project might switch approaches based on need, changing work
requirements, or circumstances

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 18 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Project Methodologies

Methodology Best Suited When

Agile • Changes are relatively easy, and waste is not costly.
• Complex environment where end product is not fully known, and user
feedback is very valuable.
Predictive / Plan Driven • Changes are expensive due to scrap and waste.
• Predictability and coordinated timing is important
Iterative • Dynamic requirements and activities are repeated until they are
deemed correct.
Incremental • Dynamic requirements, as well as frequent small deliveries.
• Speed to deliver small increments is a major goal
Hybrid • There are some costs to changes.
• Stakeholders are interested in another method, but not comfortable
to fully adopt one method.

Progressive Elaboration
The iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a project management plan as greater
amounts of information and more accurate estimates become available.

Rolling Wave Planning

An iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned
in detail, while work further in the future is planned at a higher level.
➢ Used in agile or predictive approaches.
➢ A form of progressive elaboration applied to work packages, planning packages, and
release planning.
➢ Decompose work down to the known level of detail during strategic planning.
➢ Decompose work packages into activities as work progresses.

Predictive Life Cycle

A form of project life cycle in which the project scope, time, and cost are determined in the early
phases of the life cycle.

Iterative Life Cycle

A project life cycle where the project scope is generally determined early in the project life cycle,
but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as the project team's understanding of the
product increases.

Incremental Life Cycle

An adaptive project life cycle in which the deliverable is produced through a series of iterations
that successively add functionality within a predetermined time frame. The deliverable contains
the necessary and sufficient capability to be considered complete only after the final iteration.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 19 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Agile Life Cycles

A project life cycle that is iterative or incremental. Also referred to as change-driven or adaptive.

Starting the Project

❖ Plan and Manage Scope

Project Scope: The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified
features and functions. “Project scope” may include product scope.
Product Scope : The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.
➢ Predictive - The scope baseline for the project is the approved version of the project
scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and associated WBS dictionary.
➢ Agile - Backlogs (including product requirements and user stories) reflect current project
needs.
➢ Measure completion of project scope against the project management plan.
➢ Measure completion of the product scope against product requirements.

Scope Management Plan

A component of the project management plan or program management plan that describes how
the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and validated.
▪ Should include processes to prepare a project scope statement.
▪ Enables the creation of the WBS from the detailed project scope statement.
▪ Establishes how the scope baseline will be approved and maintained.
▪ Specifies how formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables will be obtained.
▪ Can be formal or informal, broadly framed or highly detailed.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 20 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Requirements Management Plan

A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will
be analyzed, documented, and managed.
Components include:
▪ How requirements activities will be planned, tracked, and reported
▪ Configuration management activities such as how version control of project documents
and changes to the product will be initiated, how impacts will be analyzed, how they will
be traced, tracked, and reported, and what authorization level is required to approve
these changes.
▪ Requirement's prioritization process, which defines how project requirements will be
analyzed and prioritized.
▪ Product metrics that will be used and the rationale for using them.
▪ Traceability structure stating which requirement attributes will be captured on the
traceability matrix.

Project Requirements: The agreed-upon conditions or capabilities of a product, service, or

outcome that the project is designed to satisfy.
• High-level requirements might be documented in the project charter.
• Project manager must verify all requirements are determined and documented.
• Provide the foundation for building the WBS

Guidelines for Collecting and Eliciting Project Requirements

• Review the scope management plan.
• Review the requirements management plan.
• Review the stakeholder engagement plan.
• Review the project charter.
• Review the stakeholder register.
• Use tools and techniques such as interviews, focus groups, facilitated workshops, group
creativity techniques, and so on.
• Document the requirements and the requirements traceability matrix.

Elicitation Technique
Document Analysis: A technique used to gain project requirements from current documentation
evaluation.
Questionnaires: Written sets of questions designed to accumulate information from many
respondents quickly.
Benchmarking: The comparison of actual or planned products, processes, and practices to
those of comparable organizations to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and
provide a basis for measuring performance.
Interview: A formal or informal approach to elicit information from stakeholders by talking with
them directly.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 21 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Elicitation Technique / Decision Making

Unanimity Majority Plurality Autocratic

Elicitation Technique / Data Representation

Mind Mapping Affinity diagram

Elicitation Techniques
Focus Groups Observation Facilitated Workshops

Requirements Documentation
Business requirements Stakeholder requirements Solution requirements

Project requirements Transition requirements Requirements Assumptions,

Dependencies, and
Constraints

Project Scope Statement

The description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints.

Guidelines to Develop a Project Scope Statement

• Review the scope management plan for the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the
project scope.
• Review the project charter for the high-level project description and product characteristic and
project approval requirements.
• Review the requirements documentation.
• Review the OPAs.
• Use tools and techniques such as expert judgment, product analysis, alternatives generation, and
facilitated workshops to define the project scope.
• Document the project scope statement and update any project documents, as needed.

Scope Tools and Techniques

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 22 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Product Analysis
A tool to define scope that generally means asking questions about a product and forming
answers to describe the use, characteristics, and other relevant aspects of what is going to be
manufactured.
• Product breakdown • Systems analysis
• Requirements analysis • Systems engineering
• Value engineering • Value analysis

Work Breakdown Structure WBS

A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to
accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.

WBS dictionary
A document that provides detailed deliverable, activity, and scheduling information about each
component in the work breakdown structure.
The WBS dictionary might include any of the following:
• Resources required to complete the work • Code of account identifier
• Cost estimations • Description of work
• Quality requirements • Assumptions and constraints
• Acceptance criteria • Responsible organization
• Technical references • Schedule milestones
• Agreement information • Associated schedule activities

Scope Baseline
Is the approved version of a scope statement, WBS, and its associated WBS dictionary, that can
be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to
actual results.
Scope baseline components can include:
• Project scope statement
• WBS : Work package and Planning package
• WBS dictionary

User Stories
• Projects deliver value.
• User stories help teams focus on that value provided to the user.
• User stories frame who is to benefit from the work of the team.
• Framing the user’s desire as a story instead of a detailed requirement or specification
enables the team to focus on the user and what they value.

Tools and Techniques for Verifying the Scope

Definition of Done Definition of Ready Acceptance Criteria Validate Scope

Iteration Reviews Variance Analysis Trend Analysis

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 23 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Starting the Project

❖ Plan and Manage Budget and Resources

Cost Estimates: Developing an approximation of the cost for each activity in a project.
Cost should include:
• Direct labor • Materials
• Equipment • Facilities
• Services • Information technology
• Contingency reserves • Indirect costs
➢ Logical estimates provide basis for making sound decisions and they establish baselines.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Estimating Techniques

Technique Advantages Disadvantage
Analogous Can ensure no work is inadvertently Can sometimes be difficult for lower-level
estimating omitted from work estimates. managers to apportion cost estimates
Bottom up Is very accurate and gives lower-level May be very time consuming and can be used
estimating managers more responsibility. only after the WBS has been well-defined.
Parametric Is not time consuming. May be inaccurate, depending on the integrity
estimating of the historical information used.

Budget Estimates
• Estimating the project budget consists of aggregating the estimated costs of individual
activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline.
• This budget contains all the funding needed to complete the project as defined in the scope
baseline and the project schedule.
• The project cost performance is then measured against this Cost Baseline.

Cost baseline
The approved version of the time-phased project budget, excluding any management reserves,
which can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for
comparison to actual results.
• Time-phased budget
• Monitors and measures cost performance
• Includes a budget contingency
• Varies from project to project

Funding limit reconciliation

The process of comparing the planned expenditure of project funds against any limits on the
commitment of funds for the project to identify any variances (gaps) between the funding limits
and the planned expenditures.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 24 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Budget Planning
BURN RATE : The rate at which the project consumes financial resources, representing negative
cash flow. Burn rates are often used by agile projects to budget costs for planned iterations /
sprints / increments.

Guidelines to Determine a Budget

• Review the cost management plan.
• Review the resource management plan.
• Review the scope baseline for project scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary.
• Check the project schedule for type, quantity, and duration of resources.
• Review the risk register to consider any risks that may impact cost estimation.
• Review the EEFs.
• Review the OPAs.
• Use appropriate tools and techniques.
• Document the project budget, creating a cost baseline.
• Understand project funding requirements or cash flow to enable the project.
• Update project documents, as needed.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 25 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Starting the Project

❖ Plan and Manage Schedule

Project Schedule
An output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations,
milestones, and resources.

Processes involved in Project Schedule Management include:

• Plan Schedule Management • Define Activities
• Sequence Activities • Estimate Activity Durations
• Develop Schedule • Control Schedule

Schedule Management Pan

A component of the project or program management plan that establishes the criteria and the
activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.
• Describes how activities will be defined and progressively elaborated.
• Identifies a scheduling method and scheduling tool to be used.
• Determines the format of the schedule.
• Establishes criteria for developing and controlling the project schedule.

Components of the Schedule Management Plan:

• Project schedule model used
• Accuracy of activity duration estimates
• Units of measure to be used
• Organizational procedure links used with the WBS
• Control thresholds to be used for monitoring schedule performance
• Rules of performance measurements to be used
• Reporting formats to be used
• Process descriptions to explain how schedule management processes are to be documented
throughout the project.

For Agile / Adaptive Projects

➢ Total project timeline may be developed.
➢ Individual activities scheduled iteratively.
➢ There are two main iterative approaches:
1. Iterative Scheduling with backlog.
2. On-demand Scheduling

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 26 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

1- Iterative Scheduling with Backlog

• Progressive elaboration (rolling wave) techniques used to schedule activities
• Uses a specific time window, often two weeks
• Requirements defined in user stories
• Stories prioritized
• Selected based on priority and time box
• Remaining stories added to backlog
• Constructed later based on their priority
• Delivers business value early and incrementally
• Allows changes/adaptations during entire project
• Does not work well when there are complex dependency relationships

2- On-demand Scheduling
• Team members “Pull” work from a queue when available.
• Dose not use traditional schedule.
• Based on Kaban and Lean methodologies.
• Provide Incremental business value.
• Leaves out work for team members.
• Works when best when activities can be divided into equal amounts.
• Dose not work well when there are complex dependency relationships.

Project Activities
Activity : A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project.
▪ A work package is the lowest level of the WBS.
▪ An activity is a smaller component of a decomposed work package.
▪ A task is used when referring to project management software.

Milestone: A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio.

Activity Dependency
▪ An activity dependency is a logical relationship that exists between two project activities.
▪ Relationship indicates whether the start of an activity is contingent on an event or input from
outside the activity.
▪ Activity dependencies determine the precedence relationships.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 27 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Types of Activity Dependency

Dependency Description
Mandatory A relationship that is contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work
Discretionary A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best practices within a
particular application area or an aspect of the project where a specific
sequence is desired.
External A relationship between project activities and non-project activities.
Internal Contingent on inputs within the project team’s control.

Precedence Relationship
A logical dependency used in the precedence diagramming methods.
• The logical relationship between activities that describes the sequence in which the
activities should be carried out.
• Each activity has a start and finish date.
• Precedence relationships are always assigned to activities based on the dependencies of
each activity:
▪ Predecessor activity drives the relationship and, most often, occurs first.
▪ The relationship drives successor activity.

Activity Duration Estimate

Activity Duration Estimate : The quantitative assessment of the likely number of time periods
that are required to complete an activity.

Elapsed Time: The actual calendar time required for an activity from start to finish.

Effort: The number of labor units required to complete a scheduled activity or WBS component,
often expressed in hours, days, or weeks. Contrast with duration.

Three-Point Estimation
PERT is based on a probability distribution; therefore, we can calculate a standard deviation:
(P - O) / 6 = PERT Standard Deviation
Triangular Distribution (average) = E = (O + M + P) / 3
BETA Distribution (PERT average) = E = (O + 4 M + P ) / 6

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 28 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Schedule Presentation Formats

1- Gantt Chart
Gantt chart: A bar chart of schedule information where activities are listed on the vertical axis,
dates are shown on the horizontal axis, and the activity durations are shown as horizontal bars
placed according to start and finish dates.
• Shows start and end dates,
duration, and order.
• Shows precedence relationships.
• Shows percentage completion and
actual progress.
• Used to present project status to
the project team and management.

2- Milestone Chart
• Provides the summary level view of a project’s milestones.
• Uses icons or symbols.
• Useful for upper management, who are not interested in fine details.

3- Project Schedule Network Diagram with Dates

• Assigns start and finish dates to activities.
• Communicates the project status in terms of activity precedence relationships

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 29 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Critical Path:
The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines
the shortest possible duration.

Critical Path Activity:

Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule.

Total Float:
The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date
without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.

Smoothing
• Adjusts the activities of a schedule model to keep resource requirements within predefined
resource limits and within free and total floats.
• Does not change the critical path is not changed nor delay the completion date.
• This method may not be able to optimize all resources.

Levelling
• Adjusts start and finish dates based on resource constraints
• Goal is to balance demand for resources with available supply.
• Use when shared or critically required resources have limited availability or are over-
allocated
• Can change the critical path.

Schedule Compression Techniques

Crashing
• Shortens schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources e.g.
overtime, additional resources
• Works only for activities on the critical path
• Does not always produce a viable alternative and may result in increased risk and/or cost.

Fast-tracking
• Perform activities in parallel to reduce time
• May result in rework, increased risk, and increased cost

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 30 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Starting the Project

❖ Plan and Manage Quality of Products/Deliverables

Quality : The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.

Standard: A document established by an authority, custom, or general consent as a model.
Regulations: Requirements imposed by a governmental body. These requirements can establish
product, process, or service characteristics, including applicable administrative provisions that
have government-mandated compliance.

Quality Management Plan

Contains the followings:
▪ Quality Standard
▪ Quality Objective
▪ Quality Roles & Responsibility.
▪ Quality Control Approach

Cost of Quality
All costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing nonconformance to
requirements, appraisal of the product or service for conformance to requirements, and failure to
meet requirements.

Quality Metrics : A description of a project or product attribute and how to measure it.

Tolerance : The quantified description of acceptable variation for a quality requirement.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 31 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Quality Control Tools

Data Gathering Data Analysis Data Representation

▪ Checklists/Check Sheets ▪ Performance Reviews ▪ Cause-and-Effect Diagram

▪ Statistical Sampling ▪ Root Cause Analysis ▪ Control Charts
▪ Questionnaires and ▪ Histograms
Surveys ▪ Scatter Diagrams

Cause and Effect Diagram

Fishbone diagrams, why-why diagrams, or Ishikawa diagrams Breaks down the causes of the
problem statement identified into discrete branches, helping to identify the main or root cause of
the problem.

Scatter Diagram
▪ A graph that shows the relationship between two variables.
▪ Demonstrates a relationship between any element of a process, environment, or activity on
one axis and a quality defect on the other axis.

Pareto Chart
A histogram that is used to rank causes of problems in a hierarchical format.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 32 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Starting the Project

❖ Integrate Project Planning Activities

Project Management Plan Components

Project Management Plan Tools and Techniques

▪ Expert judgment
▪ Data gathering
▪ Interpersonal and team skills
▪ Meetings

Project Management Information System (PMIS)

PMIS An information system consisting of the tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and
disseminate the outputs of project management processes.
PMIS example: Microsoft Project

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 33 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Factoring in Dynamic Change

Disciplined Agile (DA): A hybrid tool kit that harnesses
hundreds of agile practices to devise the best “way of
working” (WoW) for your team or organization.
Scrum of Scrums: A technique to operate Scrum at scale
for multiple teams working on the same product,
coordinating discussions of progress on their
interdependencies, and focusing on how to integrate the
delivery of software, especially in areas of overlap.
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): A knowledge base of integrated patterns for enterprise-scale
lean-agile development.

Agile Vs SAFe

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 34 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Starting the Project

❖ Plan and Manage Procurement

Procurement Strategy
Procurement is the acquisition of goods and services from an external organization, vendor, or
supplier to enable the deliverables of the project.
Make-or-buy analysis: The process of gathering and organizing data about product
requirements and analyzing them against available alternatives including the purchase or internal
manufacture of the product.
Make-or-buy decisions: Decisions made regarding the external purchase or internal
manufacture of a product.

Procurement Management Plan

A component of the project or program management plan that describes how a project team will
acquire goods and services from outside of the performing organization.
• Specifies the types of contracts that will be used
• Describes the process for obtaining and evaluating bids
• Mandates the standardized procurement documents that must be used
• Describes how multiple providers will be managed

Source Selection Criteria

A set of attributes desired by the buyer which a seller is required to meet or exceed to be selected
for a contract.

Qualified Vendors
• Vendors approved to deliver products, services, or results based on the procurement
requirements identified for a project.
• The list of qualified vendors can be created based on historical information about different
vendors.
• If the required resources are new to the organization, market research can help identify
qualified resources.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 35 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Traditional Contract Types

Fixed Price:
- Firm Fixed Price (FFP).
- Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF).
- Fixed Price with Economic Price Adjustments (FPEPA).

Cost-Reimbursable:
- Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF). - Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF). - Cost Plus Award Fee (CPAF).

Time and Material (T&M)

Agile Contract Types:

- Emphasize value delivered. - Fixed-price increments
- Not-to-exceed time and materials. - Graduated time and materials
- Early cancellation option. - Dynamic scope option
- Team augmentation. - Multi-tiered structure

Delivery Solution
The goal of procurement is the delivery of procured goods or services by the supplier to the
procuring organization.

Solution Delivery Phase:

➢ Planning and analysis
➢ Detailed design
➢ Implementation or installation
➢ Testing
➢ Training
➢ Handover
➢ Support and maintenance

Control Procurements Process

The process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance, making
changes and corrections as appropriate, and closing out contracts.

Contract Change Control System

The system used to collect, track, adjudicate, and communicate changes to a contract.

Types of Contract Changes:

- Administrative Changes - Contract Modification
- Supplemental Agreement - Constructive Changes
- Termination of Contract

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 36 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Legal Concepts When Managing Disputes

➢ Warranty
➢ Waiver
➢ Breach of contract
➢ Cease and desist (C&D) letter

Closing Procurements
• A written notice is usually provided from the buyer to the seller once the contract is complete
• Usually documented in the terms and conditions that were specified in the contract and the
procurement management plan.
• Procurements can be closed at any time throughout the life of the project, not necessarily at
the end.

Starting the Project

❖ Establish Project Governance Structure

Project Governance:
The framework, functions, and processes that guide project management activities to create a
unique product, service, or result to meet organizational, strategic, and operational goals.
Components of the framework can include:
- Project success and deliverable acceptance criteria.
- Process to identify, escalate, and resolve issues.
- Relationship between project team, organizational groups, and external stakeholders.
- Project organization chart with project roles.
- Communication processes and procedures.
- Processes for project decision-making.
- Guidelines for aligning project governance and organizational strategy.
- Project life cycle approach.
- Process for stage gate or phase reviews.
- Process for review and approval of changes above the project manager's authority.
- Process to align internal stakeholders with project process requirements.

Project Phase
A collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more
deliverables.
• Produce one or more deliverables
• Can be performed sequentially or can overlap
• Outputs from one phase are generally inputs to the next phase

Phase Gate
A review at the end of a phase in which a decision is made to continue to the next phase, to
continue with modification, or to end a project or program.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 37 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Starting the Project

❖ Plan and Manage Project/Phase Closure

Several important activities occur during closeout:

▪ The planned work is completed.
▪ Project or phase information is archived.
▪ Project team resources are released to pursue other endeavors.
▪ In addition, all invoices are paid, contracts are closed out, and project lessons learned
are discussed and documented.

Close Project or Phase Criteria:

Any one of the following events can result in closure.
• The project or phase successfully met its completion objectives.
• The requirements changed during execution to the point where the project is no longer feasible.
• Adequate funding is no longer available to complete the requirements.
• Significant risks are encountered that make the successful completion of the project impossible
• The organization no longer needs the project deliverables.
External factors arise that do away with the need for the project.
Examples of these factors include:
• Change in laws or regulations.
• Merger or acquisition that affects the organization.
• Global or national economic changes.

Acceptance Criteria:
A set of conditions that is required to be met before deliverables are accepted.

Definition of Done (DoD):

A team’s checklist of all the criteria required to be met so that a deliverable can be considered
ready for customer use.

Final Report:
A summary of the project’s information on performance, scope, schedule, quality, cost, and risks.

Close-Out Meetings
Sessions held at the end of the project or phase.
Involve : • Discussing the work • Reviewing lessons Learned
May include stakeholders, team members, project resources, and customers.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 38 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Close Project or Phase Activities:

These activities are part of the Close Project or Phase process and are typically included in the
project management plan and in the WBS, under the project management function.
• Acceptance of deliverables or products by customer.
• Transition of deliverables or product to customer.
• Notify enterprise and organizational functions; update OPAs.
• Prepare final report.
• Conclude external obligations, including legal, regulatory, contractual e.g., transfer of
liability, closure of all accounts in the financial system.
• Archive project information.
• Release resources (human, financial and physical assets).

Finalizing Contracts
Archiving contracts means collecting, indexing, and filing:
▪ Contract Schedule
▪ Scope
▪ Quality
▪ Cost performance
▪ Contract Change documentation
▪ Payment records and financial documents
▪ Inspection results
▪ “As-built” documents, manuals, troubleshooting and technical documentation.

Final Report: Summary of project or phase performance result

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 39 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Doing The Work

Team
➢ Assess and Manage Risks
➢ Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
➢ Manage Communications
➢ Engage Stakeholders
➢ Create Project Artifacts
➢ Manage Project Changes
➢ Manage Project Issues
➢ Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Project Continuity

❖ Assess and Manage Risks

Risk : An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or
more project objectives.

Trigger Condition : An event or situation that indicates that a risk is about to occur.

Primary components include:

• A measure of probability that the risk event will occur.
• The impact of the risk occurring on a project.

• Positive Risks : Risks that produce a positive project outcome.

(Also referred to as opportunities)
• Negative Risks: Risks that have a negative impact on the project.
(Also referred to as threats).

Risk Management Plan Components

▪ Risk Strategy
▪ Methodology
▪ Roles and responsibilities
▪ Funding
▪ Timing
▪ Contingency Reserves
▪ Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)
▪ Risk Categories
▪ Stakeholder risk appetite
▪ Probability and impact.
▪ Probability and impact matrix

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 40 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Risk Identification Tool

Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS): Documents what sources a project risk.

Risk Tolerance: The maximum amount of risk, and the potential impact of that risk occurring, that
a project manager or key stakeholder is willing to accept.

Risk Appetite: The degree of uncertainty an organization or individual is willing to accept in

anticipation of a reward.

Qualitative Risk Analysis: Technique used to determine the probability of occurrence and the
impact of each identified risk.

Fundamentally Risky:
• Agile projects include risks in user stories and
as part of backlog work items.
• Teams discuss risks at planning meetings,
during the normal course of work.
• Teams place risks in a risk register, use
information radiators to ensure visibility and a
backlog refinement process that includes
constant risk assessment.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 41 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Probability and Impact Matrix:

Use numeric values and/or colors.
If using numbers, multiply them to give a probability impact score – this makes evaluating relative
priority easier! This is NOT a quantitative evaluation.
Impact

Pr
o
ba
bi
lit
y

Quantitative Risk Analysis Methods

▪ Simulations
▪ Sensitivity analysis
▪ Decision tree analysis
▪ Influence diagrams
▪ Expected monetary value (EMV)

Positive Risk Strategies

Escalate Exploit Enhance Share Accept

Negative Risk Strategies

Escalate Avoid Transfer Mitigate Accept

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 42 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Contingency Plan:
A risk response strategy developed in advance before things go wrong; it is meant to be used if and
when identified risks become reality.
➢ Allows a Project Manager to react quickly and appropriately to the risk event, mitigating its
negative impact or increasing its potential benefits.
➢ May include a fallback plan for risks with high impact.

Guidelines to Determine and Implement Risk Responses

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 43 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Doing The Work

❖ • Execute Project to Deliver Business Value

Creating a Culture of Urgency

▪ Establish and Cultivate that urgency in your culture as an ongoing task.
▪ Lead by communicating the project's importance and vision.
▪ Commit to and be accountable for striving towards that vision.
▪ Represent the voice of the customer to create relevancy and personalize the value.

Business Value
The net quantifiable benefit derived from a business endeavor. The benefit may be tangible,
intangible, or both.
Business value can be:
• Financial • Improvements • New customers • First to market • Social • Technological

Product Roadmap:
Serves as a high-level visual summary of the product or products of the project.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

MVP: The smallest collection of features that can be included in a product for customers to
consider it functional. In Lean methodologies, it can be referred to as "bare bones" or "no frills"
functionality.
▪ An MVP allows all stakeholders to see and experience some form of project outcomes.
▪ MVP provides inspiration to the team and ignites shorter-termed urgency and a sense of
accomplishment.

Minimum Business Increment (MBI)

MBI: The smallest amount of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the
business.
▪ MBI is more viable when an MVP might be disruptive to the users and business, especially
when a primary preliminary product to gauge interest is unnecessary.
Advantages of MBI:
• Enables project team to deliver bits of value sooner.
• Helps team validate whether or not improvement has been captured.
• Enables team to build on that success or pivot as needed incrementally.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 44 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Doing The Work

❖ Manage Communications

Project Communications
• Internal or external stakeholders
• Formal or informal message content and format
• Hierarchical focus—senior management or peers
• Official or unofficial—annual reports or reports to other governing bodies compared to
project team communication
• Written or oral—tone, inflection, and nonverbal gestures are influential

Communication Management Plan

A Communication Management Plan is a document that outlines how communication will be
managed, executed, and controlled within a project or organization.
▪ It serves as a roadmap for effective and efficient communication throughout the project
lifecycle.
▪ The plan identifies key stakeholders, defines communication objectives, determines the
appropriate communication channels, and establishes the frequency and format of
communication.

Components of the Communications Management Plan

• Stakeholder communications requirements
• Information to be communicated, including language to be used
• Reason for the distribution of the information
• Time frame and frequency of information distribution
• Person responsible for the communication
• Person responsible for the release of confidential information
• People who will receive the information
• Methods or technologies to convey the information
• Time and budget allocated for communication
• Escalation process for issues that need visibility
• Method for updating the communications management plan
• Glossary of common terminology
• Flowcharts of information flow
• Any communication constraints due to regulation or policies

Communication Requirements Analysis

The analytical technique to determine the information needs of the project stakeholders through
interviews, workshops, study of lessons learned from previous projects, etc.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 45 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Communication Types

Communication Models
A description, analogy, or schematic
used to represent how the
communication process will be
performed for the project.

Communication Methods
A systematic procedure, technique, or process used to transfer information among project
stakeholders.

Interactive Involves communication between multiple people performing multi-

directional information exchange
PUSH Involves sending information to a receiver. It ensures that the information
has been distributed but does not guarantee that it has reached the receiver
PULL Involves receivers accessing information whenever required

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 46 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Doing The Work

❖ Engage Stakeholders

Stakeholder Categories
• Sponsors • Customers and users
• Sellers • Business partners
• Organizational groups • Functional managers • Other stakeholders

Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

▪ Develop a strategy to involve each project stakeholder based on needs, expectations,
interests, and potential impact on the project.
▪ Strategy can be used to effectively involve stakeholders throughout the project’s lifecycle.
▪ Enables the right-level of management to the number of stakeholders.
▪ Enables development of appropriate management strategies to engage stakeholders.
▪ Creation and maintenance of relationships between the project team and stakeholders.

Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix

A matrix that compares current and desired stakeholder engagement levels.

C = Current engagement level D = Desired engagement level

Guidelines to Develop, Execute, and Validate a Strategy for Stakeholder Engagement

Review the Project Management Plan

Review the Stakeholder Register

Review Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs)

Review Organizational Process Assets (OPAs)

Use tools and techniques such as expert judgment.

Hold meetings with experts and the project team

Use analytical techniques to classify the level of engagement

stakeholders..
Document the Stakeholder Engagement Plan

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 47 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Doing The Work

❖ Create Project Artifacts

Project Artifact:
Any document related to the management of a project. The project team will create and maintain
many artifacts during the life of the project, to allow reconstruction of the history of the project
and to benefit other projects.
Artifacts are living documents and updated to reflect changes in project requirements and scope.

Project Artifact Characteristics

Configuration Management:
A tool used to manage changes to a product or service being produced as well as changes to any
project documents, and is used to :
• Control product iterations.
• Ensure that product specifications are current.
• Control the steps for reviewing and approving product prototypes, testing standards, and
drawings or blueprints.

Configuration Management System

A collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to
these artifacts.

Version Control: A system that records changes to a file in a way that allows you to retrieve
previous changes made to it.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 48 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Doing The Work

❖ Manage Project Changes

Change Management Plan

A component of the project management plan that establishes the change control board,
documents the extent of its authority, and describes how the change control system will be
implemented.
It should answer the following questions:
• Who can propose a change?
• What exactly constitutes a change?
• How to evaluate the impact of the change on the project's objectives?
• What steps are necessary to evaluate the change request before approving or rejecting it?
• When a change request is approved, what project documents must be amended to record the
actions necessary to effect the change?
• How will these actions be monitored to confirm that they have been completed satisfactorily?

Causes of Project Changes

• Inaccurate initial estimates
• Specification changes
• New regulations
• Missed requirements.

Change Control System

A set of procedures that describes how modifications to the project deliverables and
documentation are managed and controlled.
Change control systems can include:
• Forms • Tracking methods • Processes
• Approval levels required for authorizing or rejecting requested changes.

Change Control Board (CCB)

A formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or
rejecting changes to the project, and for recording and communicating such decisions.

Change Control Strategy

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 49 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Approved Change Requests:

Requests that have been received and approved in accordance with the integrated change
control plan and are ready to be scheduled for implementation.
Approved changes can include:
• Corrective Action—adjusts the performance of the project work with the project
management plan.
• Preventive Action—ensures the future performance of the project work with the project
management plan.
• Defect repair—modifies a non-conformance within the project.
• Update—modifies a project document or plan.

Guidelines to Manage Project Changes

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 50 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Doing The Work

❖ Manage Project Issues

Issue: A current condition or situation that may have an impact on the project objectives. In
other words, it is an action item that the project team must address.
Common areas include:
• Scope change control • Schedule Control
• Cost control • Project variance analysis
• Quality • Risk
• Procurement • Communications

Risks and Issues

Risks Issues
Focused on the future Focused on the Present
Can be positive or negative Will always be negative
Is documented in the Risk Register Is documented in the Issue Log
Response is called a “risk response” Response is called a “workaround”

Issue log : A document where information about issues is recorded and monitored. It is used
to track problems, inconsistencies, or conflicts that occur during the life of the project and
require investigation in order to work toward a resolution.

Issue Resolution
• As issues arise, promptly add them to the issue log.
• Each issue should have an owner who is responsible for tracking the progress of the
workaround and reporting back to the project manager.
• The due date should be realistic, and every reasonable attempt should be made to meet it
• Issues should be a regular topic of every status meeting, with the goal to keep the number
of open issues to a manageable number.
• Don’t hesitate to escalate an issue to the project sponsor if it begins to have a major effect
on the project.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 51 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Doing The Work

❖ Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Project Continuity

Types of Knowledge
Explicit Knowledge that can be codified using symbols such as words, numbers,
knowledge and pictures.
This type of knowledge can be documented and shared with others.
Tacit Personal knowledge that can be difficult to articulate and share such as
Knowledge beliefs, experience, and insights.
This type of knowledge is essential to provide the context of explicit
knowledge.

Lessons Learned

Considerations of Lessons Learned

• Scheduling lessons learned
• Conflict management lessons learned
• Vendor lessons learned
• Customer lessons learned
• Strategic lessons learned
• Tactical lessons learned
• Other aspects of lessons learned

Lessons-learned register : A project document used to record knowledge gained during a project
so that it can be used in the current project and entered into the lessons-learned repository.

Lessons-learned repository: A store of historical information about lessons learned in projects.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 52 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Project Responsibilities Within the Team

The Project Manager has several interpersonal skills that are used to manage knowledge.
These include:
• Leadership to communicate the organization’s vision and inspire the project team to focus
on the goals of the project.

• Facilitation to effectively guide a group to a successful solution to a problem.

• Political awareness to keep the project manager aware of the organization’s political
environment.

• Networking to facilitate relations among project stakeholders so that knowledge is shared

at all levels.

Knowledge Transfer Approach

Knowledge transfer consists of connecting individuals, in person or virtually, to share tacit
knowledge and collaborate together. Techniques include:
• Networking.
• Facilitating special interest groups.
• Meetings, seminars, and various other types of in person and virtual events that encourage
people to interact and exchange ideas and knowledge.
• Training that involves interaction between attendees.
• Work shadowing and reverse shadowing provide a more individualized method to the
exchange of specialized knowledge.

Learning Goals
• Assess and manage risks.
• Execute the project with the urgency required to deliver business value.
• Manage communications.
• Engage stakeholders.
• Create project artifacts.
• Manage project changes.
• Attack issues with the optimal action to achieve project success.
• Confirm approach for knowledge transfers.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 53 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

KEEPING THE TEAM ON TRACK

Team
▪ Lead a Team
▪ Team Support Performance
▪ Address and Remove Impediments
▪ Conflict Manage
▪ Collaborate with Stakeholders
▪ Mentor Relevant Stakeholders
▪ Apply Emotional Intelligence to Promote Team Performance

❖ Lead a Team

Vision and Mission

The project manager is the visionary leader for the project:
• Educating the team and other stakeholders about the value achieved or targeted.
• Promoting teamwork and collaboration
• Assisting with project management tools and techniques
• Removing roadblocks
• Articulating the project’s mission

Leadership Skills
➢ Conflict management
➢ Cultural awareness
➢ Decision making
➢ Facilitation
➢ Meeting management
➢ Negotiation
➢ Networking
➢ Observation/conversation
➢ Servant Leadership
➢ Team building

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 54 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Leadership Traits
• Strong personal ethics, integrity, and trustworthiness.
• Interpersonal skills (communicator, collaborator, motivator, …etc.).
• Conceptual and analytical skills
Leadership ≠ Management
Leadership : Guiding the team by using discussion and an exchange of ideas
Management : Directing actions using a prescribed set of behaviors

Leadership Styles
Style Characteristic
Direct Hierarchical, with project manager making all decisions
Consultative Leader factors in opinions, but makes the decisions
Servant Leadership Leader models desired behaviors
Consensus/Collaborative Team operates autonomously
Situational Style changes to fit context and maturity/experience of team

Tailoring Considerations
▪ Experience with project type
▪ Team member maturity
▪ Organizational governance structures
▪ Distributed project teams

Servant Leadership
A type of leadership commonly used in Agile which encourages the self-definition, self-discovery,
and self-awareness of team members by listening, coaching, and providing an environment which
allows them to grow.
1. Facilitate rather than manage.
2. Provide coaching and training.
3. Remove work Impediments.
4. Focus on accomplishments.

Growth Mindset
As conceived by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck and colleagues, a growth mindset is a belief
that a person's capacities and talents can be improved over time.

Salience Model
A classification model that groups stakeholders based on their level of authority, their immediate
needs, and how appropriate their involvement is in the project.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 55 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Power Grids
Power/interest grid: Groups stakeholders on the basis of their levels of authority and interest in
the project.
Power/influence grid: A classification model that groups stakeholders on the basis of their levels
of authority and involvement in the project.

Reward and Recognition Plans

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 56 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

KEEPING THE TEAM ON TRACK

❖ Support Team Performance

The Project Manager’s Role

Centralized Model:
• Ensures alignment of due dates — project deliverables, project life cycle and benefits
realization plan
• Provides a project management plan.
• Ensures creation and use of appropriate knowledge to/from the project.
• Manages project performance and changes to project activities.
• Makes integrated decisions about key changes that impact the project.
• Measures and monitors progress and takes appropriate action.
• Collects, analyses, and communicates project information to relevant stakeholders.
• Ensures completion of all project work and formally closes each phase, contract, and the
project as a whole.
• Manages phase transitions when necessary.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

A set metric used to evaluate a team’s performance against the project vision and objectives. KPIs
can use the SMART acronym.

Team Culture and Empowerment

▪ In projects, the team is the most important part and must be unified.
▪ Empowering the team to make decisions in a timely manner increases the team’s
responsibility to deliver a product with complete ownership.
▪ Interfering with the team is disruptive and reduces motivation.
▪ Encourage the team to foster team collaboration and decision making.
▪ The team should be included in:
• Clarifying and prioritizing requirements
• Splitting requirements into tasks
• Estimating the effort

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 57 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Performance Assessment Tasks

Purpose of Assessment:
• Improve interaction between team members.
• Solve Issues.
• Deal with Conflicts.
• Improve skills and competencies of team members.
• Increase team cohesiveness.
• Comparing performance to goals.
• Reclarifying roles and responsibilities.
• Delivering positive as well as negative feedback.
• Discovering unknown or unresolved issues.
• Creating and monitoring individual training plans.
• Establishing future goals.

Guidelines to Measuring Performance

Tailor performance measurement to the project context and stakeholders:
▪ Scope :
• Percentage of work completed • Change requests
▪ Schedule :
• Actual duration of work against projected start and finish dates
▪ Budget :
• Actual costs • Check procurements are sufficient for needs
▪ Resources :
• Team allocations/availability/procurement
• Performance appraisals – team, including vendors
• Contract management
▪ Quality :
• Technical performance • Defects
▪ Risk : • Risk register

Monitor Scope
• Measure completion of project scope against the scope baseline.
• Check user stories and DoD against customer feedback and product requirements.

Measure Throughput, Lead and Cycle Time

▪ WIP - Measure of work in progress but not completed
▪ Lead time - Length of time work item goes through entire process
▪ Cycle time - Length of time work item is being worked on
▪ Throughput - Number of items entering or exiting the system.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 58 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Physical Resource Management

Means physical resources (not human): • Equipment • Materials • Facilities • Infrastructure
Review performance usage to date, including:
• Ensures assigned resources are available “just in time” and released when no longer needed
• Ensures physical resources assigned are available as planned
• Monitors planned vs actual utilization of resources
• Monitoring expenditures
• Identifying and dealing with resource shortage/surplus promptly
• Ensuring resource use and release
• Informing stakeholders of issues with relevant resources
• Influencing factors that can create changes in resource utilization
• Managing changes as they occur
Changes that impact schedule or cost baselines must be approved through Perform
Integrated Change Control.

Evaluate and Manage Quality

Project Manager uses Control Quality process to:
• Verify that deliverables meet functional and non-functional requirements.
• Identify and suggest improvements.
• Verify alignment with compliance requirements.
• Give feedback on any identified variances.
• Identify potential approaches to cure defects or other noncompliance.
• And continuously monitors quality reports and recommendations!

In Agile Projects:
▪ Team, customer, and product owner are responsible for setting and meeting quality goals
and metrics.
▪ Feedback from iterations continuously monitor quality
▪ Measure performance of quality with:
• Service-level agreements (SLAs)
• KPIs
• Contractual measures
• Quality methods/frameworks — e.g., Lean Six Sigma

Verify Deliverables
Project team verifies deliverables based on quality standards and requirements :
• Quality metrics
• Tolerance

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 59 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Monitor Risks
GUIDELINES
• Enable decision-making based on current information about overall risk exposure and
individual risks
• Continuously monitor status, probability and impact
• Identify new risks
• Reassess current risks
• Close outdated risks
• Perform on a regular basis
• Continuously improve risk effectiveness

QUESTIONS TO ASK
• Are project assumptions still valid?
• Have risks changed or been retired?
• Are risk management policies and procedures being followed?
• Have contingency reserves been modified?
• Do we need a risk audit?

Review your Reserves

Reserve Analysis
A method used to evaluate the amount of risk on the project and the amount of schedule and
budget reserve to determine whether the reserve is sufficient for the remaining risk.
▪ Establishes the amount of contingency and management reserves needed
▪ Is performed throughout the project
▪ Compares the amount remaining to determine if adequate
▪ May be communicated with a burndown chart

Team Development Stages

Making initial Team members Team begins to Team is working at Team members
judgments about begin to assert work productively, optimum complete their
the skills and themselves and without worrying productivity and is assigned work and
personal qualities control emerging about personal collaborating shift to the next
of their issues acceptance or easily, project or assigned
teammates, as control issues communicating task
well as worrying freely, and solving
about how they its own conflict
personally will be problems
viewed by the rest
of the team.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 60 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Earned Value Management (EVM)

EVM: A methodology that combines scope, schedule, and resource measurements to assess
project performance and progress.
Important to understand the monetary value of work contribution.

Control Costs
Cost Variance (CV) = Earned Value (EV) – Actual Cost (AC)

Schedule Variance (SV) = Earned Value (EV) – Planned Value (PV)

Cost Performance Index (CPI) = Earned Value (EV) / Actual Cost (AC)

Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = Earned Value (EV) / Planned Value (PV)

Estimation At Completion (EAC) = Budget At Completion(BAC) / Cost Performance Index (CPI)

Estimation To Completion (ETC) = Estimation At Completion (EAC) - Actual Cost (AC)

Performance Reports
▪ Information Radiators
▪ Burndown Chart
▪ Burnup Chart
▪ Earned Value Management Reports
▪ Variance Analysis Reports
▪ Work performance reports
▪ Quality Reports
▪ Dashboards
▪ Task Boards

Value Stream Mapping

A lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze, and improve the flow of information or
materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 61 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

KEEPING THE TEAM ON TRACK

❖ Address and Remove Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers

Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers

Impediment: An obstacle that prevents the team from achieving its objectives.
Impediments : reference situations, conditions, and actions that slow down or hinder progress.
(For example, the team not coming to a decision on a file saving location.)

Obstacles : reference barriers that should be able to be moved, avoided, or overcome with some
effort or strategy. (For example, the construction crew is unable to arrive at the worksite before
permits are signed.)

Blockers : reference events or conditions that cause stoppages in the work or any further
advancement. (For example, the company has halted the use of any products in a certain firm
until a new contract is signed.)

Daily Standup
A brief, daily collaboration meeting in which the team reviews progress from the previous day,
declares intentions for the current day, and highlights any obstacles encountered or anticipated.
Also known as a Daily Scrum.
• Conducted at the start of working hours.
• Presence of all team members involved in the Sprint is mandatory.
• During the meeting, these questions are answered:
• What has been done since the last meeting?
• What needs to be done before the next meeting?
• What does anyone need help with?

Backlog Assessment
▪ Impediments and obstacles may block work or planned efforts.
▪ Assess product backlog, scheduled activities, and other lists of work items in reference to
the hindrances.
▪ Evaluate the impediments against the pending work.
▪ The team and business stakeholders must assess the backlogged work in terms of value and
priority.
▪ Backlog assessment and refinement can explore alternatives to overcome or avoid the risk,
such as removing the work item or blockage.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 62 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

KEEPING THE TEAM ON TRACK

❖ Manage Conflict

The Project Manager’s Role

• Managing conflict is a responsibility of all stakeholders.
• The PM heavily influences the direction and handling of conflict.
• Interpersonal and team skills help to ensure positive results when handling conflict.
• In agile projects, the PM facilitates conflict resolution while the team is empowered to resolve conflicts.
• As a servant leader, a PM assists in the removal of impediments or sources of conflict.

Causes of Conflict
• Competition
• Differences in objectives, values, and perceptions
• Disagreements about role requirements, work activities, and individual approaches
• Communication breakdowns

Conflict Management
▪ Application of one or more strategies to deal with disagreements.
▪ Effective conflict management leads to improved understanding, performance, and
productivity.
▪ Ineffective conflict management leads to :
- Reduced productivity - Poor performance
- Animosity - Destructive Behavior
▪ Use various conflict resolution methods

Conflict Management Approaches

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 63 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

KEEPING THE TEAM ON TRACK

❖ Collaborate with Stakeholders
Project Stakeholders
▪ Customers ▪ Government
▪ Suppliers ▪ Employees
▪ End users ▪ Manager
▪ Community ▪ Sponsors

Stakeholder Identification
Analyze and document relevant information regarding stakeholder interest, involvement,
interdependencies, influence, and potential impact on project success.
Available Tools and Techniques
• Expert judgment • Two-dimensional grids
• Data gathering • Power/interest grid
• Questionnaires and surveys • Power/influence grid
• Brainstorming • Impact/influence grid
• Data analysis • Stakeholder cube
• Stakeholder analysis • Directions of influence
• Document analysis • Meetings
• Stakeholder mapping

Stakeholder Register : A project document including the identification, assessment, and

classification of project stakeholders.

Stakeholder Engagement Plan

A component of the project management plan that identifies the strategies and actions required
to promote productive involvement of stakeholders in project or program decision making and
execution. It could contain :
• Desired and current engagement level of key stakeholders.
• Scope and impact of change to stakeholders.
• Identified interrelationships and potential overlap between stakeholders.
• Stakeholder communication requirements.
• Information to be distributed to stakeholders.
• Reason for the distribution of that information & the expected impact to stakeholder engagement.
• Time frame and frequency for the distribution of required information.
• Method for updating and refining the stakeholder engagement plan.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 64 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Collaboration Activities
• Stakeholders collaborate daily in a project.
• Frequency of engagement is based on mutual needs and expectation.
• Nearly constant engagement is common.
• Activities that encourage regular collaboration include:
▪ Daily stand-up meetings
▪ Co-locating teams for face-to-face communication
▪ Scheduled sessions, such as milestone reviews, backlog grooming sessions, and
project update meetings
• Determining and optimizing collaboration activities is an ongoing team effort spearheaded
by the project manager.

Guidelines for Facilitating a Meeting

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 65 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

KEEPING THE TEAM ON TRACK

❖ Mentor Relevant Stakeholders

Coaching and Mentoring

• Coaching and mentoring others helps them become more proficient team members.
• Raising the abilities of the team increases their output and their value.
• Increasing the knowledge base and the skill sets of all project stakeholders promotes more
successful and effectively managed projects.
• With limited time and resources, you must make sacrifices on how to mentor others.
• Start mentoring the relevant stakeholders in a project and expand from there throughout the
organization.

Transformation Skills:
1. The organization, business, and the world are constantly changing and evolving.
2. Supporting the transformation requires patience and compassionate mentoring.
3. Most noticeable in teams transforming from one project management approach to
another.
4. In today’s digital world, the skill set being used today may be obsolete or limited tomorrow.

Determining Relevant Stakeholders

▪ When refining the backlog, mentoring the product owner on grooming best practices.
▪ When onboarding a new project team member, guiding her on processes used by the team.
▪ When a team member must purchase material for the project, showing them the
procurement best practices and process for the organization.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 66 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

KEEPING THE TEAM ON TRACK

❖ Apply Emotional Intelligence to Promote Team Performance

Emotional Intelligence
EI helps you understand your emotions and those of others to help minimize conflict.

Personal Skills Interpersonal Skills

Self-awareness Social skills
Self-regulation Empathy
Motivation

Self-awareness Elements
➢ Emotional awareness
➢ Accurate self-assessment
➢ Self-confidence

Self-Regulation Elements
➢ Self-control
➢ Trustworthiness
➢ Conscientiousness
➢ Adaptability

Motivation Elements
➢ Achievement drive
➢ Commitment
➢ Initiative
➢ Optimism

Empathy Elements
➢ Understanding others
➢ Service Orientation
➢ Developing others
➢ Leveraging diversity
➢ Political awareness

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 67 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Social Skills Elements

➢ Communication
➢ Building bonds
➢ Collaboration and Cooperation
➢ Change Catalyst
➢ Conflict Management
➢ Influence
➢ Leadership
➢ Team Capabilities

Organizational Theory:
The study of how people, teams, and organizations behave.
Purpose of organizational theory
➢ Maximize efficiency and productivity.
➢ Solve problems.
➢ Motivate people.
➢ Meet stakeholder requirements.

Common Organizational Description

Theorists
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Places the needs of an individual in a pyramid or triangle
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y people generally do not like to work, Theory Y is essentially
the opposite: people Theory X states that want to work.
McClelland’s Achievement Theory Achievement relates to success, power to influence other
people, and affiliation to belonging to a team.
Herzberg’s Motivation Theory Hygiene factors and Motivating factors success in the
workplace.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 68 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

KEEPING THE BUSINESS IN MIND

▪ Manage Compliance Requirements

▪ Evaluate and Deliver Project Benefits and Value
▪ Evaluate and Address Internal and External Business Environment Changes
▪ Support Organizational Change
▪ Employ Continuous Process Improvement

▪ Manage Compliance Requirements

Compliance Requirements
▪ Most projects have aspects of their solutions that are subject to legal or regulatory
constraints.
▪ The requirements for compliance must be identified, tracked, and managed throughout the
project.
▪ Might include requirements for specific practices, privacy laws, handling of sensitive
information, and many other areas.

Configuration Management System

➢ Used to track and record the project’s deliverable components, including a description and
the defined key attributes.
➢ Compliance information, including proof of validation that each deliverable meets
identified compliance requirements.
➢ Allows for tracking, versioning, and control.
➢ Handed over with the deliverables so customer can continue to track in their configuration
management system.

Execution Reports:
Project manager regularly creates execution reports. These include information about:
• Project activities • Deliverable status • Overall progress

• Important to include status of risks, including compliance-related risks

• Actions to be taken to manage the risks
• Testing and validation activities
• Audits
• Any other actions to verify deliverable compliance

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 69 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Variance Analysis
Project managers create regular reports on project variances and any actions taken to control the
project to keep it on track.

Variance Analysis should detail:

▪ The variance identified
▪ Plans for bringing the project or deliverable back into compliance
▪ Any proposed changes required to meet compliance requirements

Compliance Five Best Practices

1- Documentation: Updated compliance needs and risks
2- Risk planning: Prioritize compliance in risk planning
3- Compliance council: Includes quality/audit specialists & relevant legal/technical specialists
4- Compliance audit: Formal process
5- Compliance stewardship: It’s your responsibility!

Nonfunctional Requirements
Type Considerations
Availability • How and when is the service available?
• If the service were to become unavailable, how quickly can it be restored to working?
Capacity • What level of service performance, speed, and throughput is required?
• Given the number of stakeholders using the service, is there enough supply to meet
demand?
Continuity • If there were a disaster of some kind, how quickly could the service be recovered to
support operations
Security • How well is the service and its information protected from security risks and threats?
• How do you guarantee the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information?

Sign-offs and Approvals

Identify the necessary stakeholders authorized to sign-off and approve on deliverables.
• The solution and its deliverables must meet compliance requirements.
• Sign-off and approval can happen throughout the project or at completion.
• After testing and validating deliverables, a compliance sign-off provides the following benefits:
• Early warning of potential threats to compliance.
• The ability to capture variances and determine a course of action.
• Remediate issues to avoid:
• Negative impact on the project timeline
• Cost overruns
• Increased project risks

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 70 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Escalation Procedures
• When noncompliance issue is identified, determine if it’s within the tolerance level for the
project manager to handle.
• If yes, the project manager and team work together to propose a resolution.
• If beyond the tolerance level, then escalate the issue for adjudication.
• For all compliance requirements, identify the stakeholder responsible for reviewing the
noncompliance issue and determine how the team will proceed.
• These procedures should be defined during project and risk planning.

Guidelines to Analyze the Consequences of Noncompliance

To identify and manage legal, regulatory, and other compliance requirements, the project
manager needs to:
• Define the legal, regulatory, and other constraints, and define the business rules that
constrain the project solution and improve the likelihood of compliance.
• Define parts of the potential solution subject to compliance requirements, the scope of the
compliance requirement, and the stakeholders responsible for reviewing, approving, and
signing-off on the component’s compliance.
• Track and manage the review and approval activities related to compliance requirements.
• Track and manage the risks and risk responses related to compliance requirements

Audits
• Conducted by a team external to the project, such as an internal audit team or PMO.
• Used to verify compliance with organizational policies, processes, and procedures.
• Possibly used to verify implementation of change requests.
• Designed to accomplish the following:
• Identify that all good and best practices are being used.
• Identify any nonconformity, gaps, and shortcomings.
• Share good practices from other projects in the organization or industry.
• Proactively offer improvements to improve productivity.
• Highlight contributions to lessons learned.

Guidelines to Measure the Compliance of a Project

• Use QA outputs to confirm deliverable and process compliance and identify the needs for
corrective actions.
• Establish project tolerances and enable the project manager to either initiate corrective
actions or to quickly escalate noncompliance outside of the tolerances.
• Establish a clear Quality Management Plan and execute it on an ongoing basis to identify any
noncompliance issues as early as possible.
• Establish where external audit teams can confirm and validate use of appropriate processes
and procedures and how audit results can enable the team to identify improvements.
• Leverage effective QA tools and techniques to assess quality deliverables and identify
improvements, corrective actions, or defect repairs required.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 71 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Keeping the Business in Mind

▪ Evaluate and Deliver Project Benefits and Value

PMI Talent Triangle

The PMI Talent Triangle reflects the skills needed by today’s project professionals and
changemakers as they navigate the evolving world of project management.

Ways of Working
Mastering diverse and creative ways (predictive, adaptive,
design thinking) to get any job done
Power Skills
The critical interpersonal skills required to apply influence,
inspire change and build relationships
Business Acumen
Effective decision-making and understanding of how projects
align with the big picture of broader organizational strategy and
global trends.

Strategic Plan : A high-level business document that explains an organization’s vision and
mission plus the approach that will be adopted to achieve this mission and vision, including the
specific goals and objectives to be achieved during the period covered by the document.

Some Agile projects use a goal-setting framework such as OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that
describes the organization’s objectives and desired key results.

Know the External Business Environment

Use frameworks or prompts to understand external factors that can introduce risk, uncertainty, or
provide opportunities and affect the value and desired outcomes of a project:
• PESTLE: Political, economic, socio-cultural, technical, legal, environmental
• TECOP: Technical, environmental, commercial, operational, political
• VUCA: Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity

How OKRs Help Deliver Business Value

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is a goal-setting framework used by individuals, teams, and
organizations to define measurable goals and track their outcomes. It helps clarify investment
ideas and the metrics used to measure success.
• Start with organizational objectives
• Decide key desired results
• Refine further with objectives and key results (OKRs):
• Objectives are goals and intents
• Key results are time-bound and measurable milestones under these goals and intents

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 72 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Value Analysis
Value analysis is the process of examining each of the
components of business value and understanding the cost of
each one.

The goal is to cost-effectively improve the components to

increase the overall business value.

Benefits Management Plan

Component Description
Target benefits The expected tangible and intangible business value to be realized
from the project
Strategic alignment How the benefits align with the business strategies of the organization
Timeframe When the benefits (short-term and long term) will be realized, usually
by project phase
Benefits owner The person or group that monitors, records, and reports the benefits
Metrics The direct and indirect measurements of the realized benefits
Risks The risks associated with achieving the targeted benefits

Benefits Owner
Works with project manager/team lead during the project to ensure planned benefits are
managed as they are delivered.
▪ Assists in transitioning the requested benefits to the receiving organization.
▪ Ensures that measurement metrics and methods are established and monitored.
▪ Reports to management on the realized results (value) of the delivered benefits.

In traditional projects, benefits owner may be a business analyst, sponsor or operations manager
In Agile projects, the product owner is responsible for making sure project work reaps benefits for
the organization.

Release Management
• Agile projects have the ability to convert high-value capabilities into delivered solutions early.
• The Product Owner defines the initial capabilities that make up the Minimum Business
Increment (MBI).
• In traditional projects, release occurs at the end when everything is done.
• The MBI offers enough of the high-value aspects of a solution to start using it and benefit from it.
• Define an approach for subsequent releases driven by the following:
• Availability of a set of features or capabilities.
• Organizational tolerance for changes.
• A time cadence for subsequent releases.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 73 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Benefit Cost Analysis

A systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives used to
determine options which provide the best approach to achieving benefits while preserving savings.

• Frequently used to compare potential projects to determine which one to authorize.

• Goal is to select the alternative whose benefits outweigh costs by the largest amount.
• Alternative should not be chosen when costs exceed benefits.
• The accuracy of the cost and benefit estimates determines the value of the benefit-cost
analysis.

▪ Return on Investment (ROI) : A financial metric of profitability that measures the gain or loss
from an investment relative to the amount of money invested.

❖ Present Value: The current value of a future sum of money or stream of cash flows given a
specific rate of return.

The PV formula is:

❖ Net Present Value (NPV) : The present value of all cash outflows minus the present value of all
cash inflows.

❖ Internal Rate of Return (IRR) : The interest rate that makes the net present value of all cash
flow equal to zero.

NPV and IRR are financial tool that is used in capital budgeting.

❖ Net Promoter Score (NPS) : Measures a customer's willingness to recommend a provider's

products or services to another on a scale of -100 to 100.
NPS = % of Promoters – % of Detractors
Higher score indicates customer delight and willingness to recommend the solution.

Decision Tree Analysis : A diagramming and calculation technique for evaluating the
implications of a chain of multiple options in the presence of uncertainty.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 74 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Keeping the Business in Mind

Evaluate and Address Internal and External Business Environment Changes

Internal Business Environment

Organizational changes can dramatically impact the scope of a project.
Project manager and project sponsor need to have visibility into business plans, reorganizations,
process changes, and other internal activities.
Internal business changes might cause:
▪ Need for new deliverables
▪ Reprioritization of existing deliverables
▪ Elimination of deliverables no longer required

External Business Environment

PESTLE is an acronym to identify the external business environment factors that can affect the
value and desired outcomes of a project.

Update Baselines
• In traditional project plans, the completed initial plan is the baseline.
• As changes occur in the project, the baseline should be updated to reflect any new requirements

Product Owner Duties

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 75 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Scrum Master Duites

Updated Roadmaps
▪ Swimlane roadmaps provide high level visibility to the overall project tasks, deliverables,
and milestones.
▪ Roadmap should reflect changes made to the backlog.

Governance Board
Also Known as Project Board or Steering Committee
• Provides project oversight
• May include project sponsor, senior managers and PMO resources
• May be responsible for:
• Reviewing key deliverables
• Providing guidance for project decisions

Projects that use Scrum or SAFe® use intermediary governance boards to liaise between the
project and organizational governance.

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 76 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Keeping the Business in Mind

▪ Support Organizational Change

Organizational Cultures and Styles

▪ Code of conduct
▪ Operating Environments
▪ Shared vision, believes, and Expectations.
▪ Risk Tolerance
▪ Regulations, Policies, and Procedures
▪ Motivation and Reward System
▪ View of Leadership, Hierarchy, and Authority

Change Management
A comprehensive, cyclic, and structured approach for transitioning individuals, groups, and
organizations from a current state to a future state in which they realize desired benefits. It is
different from project change control, which is a process whereby modifications to documents,
deliverables, or baselines associated with the project are identified and documented, and then
are approved or rejected.

Change Management Framework

“Organizational change requires individual change”
The ADKAR® model names five milestones an individual must achieve in order to change
successfully:
• A – Awareness of the need for change
• D – Desire to support the change
• K – Knowledge of how to change
• A – Ability to demonstrate new skills and behaviors
• R – Reinforcement to make the change stick

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 77 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Plan for Change

▪ Define the knowledge transfer, training and readiness activities required to implement the
change brought by the project.
▪ Include an attitudinal survey to find out how people are feeling
▪ Create an informational campaign to familiarize people with changes
▪ Be open and transparent about potential effects of the changes
▪ Consider creating a rollout plan.

Roll Out Plan

Once a change is approved and built, the project manager needs to plan for its successful
implementation. Roll out plans enable the project manager to define:
• The knowledge transfer
• Training,
• And readiness activities required to implement the change.

Organizational Structures
• Affects resource availability
• Affects how projects are conducted.
Main structures include:
• Functional • Projectized • Matrix • Composite

Relative Authority in Organizational Structures

Relative authority is the project manager’s authority relative to the functional manager’s authority
over the project and the project team.

Project Management Office (PMO) :

A management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and
facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.
PMO Type Definition
Supportive PMOs Provide a consultative role to projects by supplying templates, best practices,
training access to information, and lessons learned from other projects.
Controlling PMOs Provide support and require compliance through various means. Compliance
may involve adopting project management frameworks or methodologies; using
specific templates, forms, and tools; or conforming to governance.
Directive PMOs Take control of the projects by directly managing the projects. A relatively small
number of PMOs fall into this category

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 78 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Keeping the Business in Mind

▪ Employ Continuous Process Improvement

Continuous Improvement:
Continuous Improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes.
➢ Effort can look for small incremental improvements or large breakthroughs.
➢ Institute of Quality Assurance definition includes improving business strategy, business
results, and customer, employee, and supplier relationships.
➢ A business strategy that is developed at the organizational level for projects to adopt and use.
➢ Might be implemented by an organization’s PMO.

Continuous Improvement Approaches

Agile project management contains small development cycles that are used to develop the
product by feature and receive client feedback on each feature.
Kaizen Approach
• Many small changes or improvements.
• Small changes less likely to require major expenditures of capital.
• Ideas come from workers—not expensive research, consultants, or equipment.
• All employees should continually improve their own performance.
• All are encouraged to take ownership of their work to improve motivation.

Continuous Improvement Tools

▪ Lessons Learned Register is an important component of each project.
• Use it as a source of improving the processes in other projects.
• Avoid filing it away at the end of a project and not referring to it.

▪ Retrospectives
• Common in agile projects at the end of each iteration.
• Help the team look back at an iteration and plan improvements for the next one.

▪ Experiments provide a way to improve team efficiency and effectiveness.

• Some techniques include AB testing and team feedback to identify improvements.
• Perform experiments one at a time to isolate the results.

The End

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 79 of 80

PMP Diploma Summary Course#337 , April 2024

Prepared by : Eng. Mohamad Balchi Page 80 of 80