PMP Certification: Expert Guides and Resources

Passing the PMP Exam requires a deep understanding of the principles and best practices of project management. The following sections provide key exam takeaways — basically what you need to know in a nutshell — for all of the key components of project management. This cheat sheet is basically an outline of the knowledge you need to gain in order to prepare for the PMP Exam.

The PMP Certification Exam will expect you to be able to manage large projects. The larger your project, the more time you will spend managing stakeholders and their engagement level, and the more critical this process is to the success of your project.Imagine a project with city and county government, the public, the department of transportation, police, and various and sundry other stakeholders.

Motivating people is a large part of the project manager’s job. You should know the motivation theories for the PMP Certification Exam. Motivation can be difficult because not everyone is motivated by the same type of reward. Theory X and Theory Y As proposed by Douglas McGregor, Theory X and Theory Y describe two different types of workers and how they should be managed.

There are seven quality tools, known as the “7QC tools” in quality management circles. You should familiarize yourself with these for the PMP Certification Exam. Here is a brief description of each tool.Cause and effect diagram: Used to identify the root causes or contributors to a problem, error, or defect. The problem statement is the effect and the possible contributing factors are the causes.

For the PMP Certification, it’s important that you understand which stakeholders are influential, which are concerned, and which can help or harm your project and are necessary to help you develop strategies to maximize the influence of project supporters while minimizing the influence of resistors. Not all stakeholders have the same degree of influence on your project.

The PMP Certification Exam will expect you to have a working knowledge of the create WBS outputs. Here are a couple of samples of a WBS for a childcare center so you can see different approaches. This WBS is decomposed by major deliverables. This WBS is arranged by phases. Either approach to the WBS will work.

After the initial planning for the schedule has been completed, you need to determine all the work that needs to be done. For PMP Certification purposes, this is referred to as Define Activities. Define Activities. Identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.

Modern quality management is something you should have a handle on for the PMP Certification Exam. It focuses on customer satisfaction, which is generally defined as conformance to requirements and fitness for use. In other words, the product, process, and project meet the requirements, and the end result is used and useful.