Project Management Professional (PMP®)

MODULE 1: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

TOPIC A: FOUNDATION

• Foundational project management concepts
• Project management principles
• The Agile mindset
• Tailoring – hybrid approaches, processes, and practices in project management

TOPIC B: STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

• Define strategic alignment and business acumen
• Follow guidelines for effective business decisionmaking
• Explore organizational influences on projects
• Explain how projects align with broader organizational strategy and global trends.

TOPIC C: PROJECT BENEFITS AND VALUE

• Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value
• Investigate that benefits are identified
• Evaluate delivery options to deliver value
• Execute projects with the urgency required to deliver business value
• Assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally

 TOPIC D: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

• Support organizational change
• Assess organizational culture
• Evaluate the impact of organizational change on the project, and determine the required actions
• Evaluate the impact of the project on the organization and determine the required actions

TOPIC E: PROJECT GOVERNANCE

• Establish a project governance structure
• Determine appropriate governance for a project (e.g., replicate organization governance)
• Define escalation paths and thresholds

TOPIC F: PROJECT COMPLIANCE

• Plan and manage project compliance
• Confirm project compliance requirements e.g., security, health, and safety, regulatory compliance
• Classify compliance categories Analyze the consequences of non-compliance

MODULE 2: START A PROJECT

TOPIC A: IDENTIFY AND ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS

• Collaborate with stakeholders
• Evaluate engagement needs for stakeholders
• Engage stakeholders
• Analyze stakeholders (power interest grid, influence, impact)
• Categorize stakeholders
• Develop, execute, and validate a strategy for stakeholder engagement
• Manage communications
• Analyze the communication needs of all stakeholders
• Determine communication methods, channels, frequency, and level of detail for all stakeholders

TOPIC B: TEAM FORMATION

• Empower team members and stakeholders
• Organize around team strengths
• Ensure knowledge transfer for project continuity
• Discuss project responsibilities within the team
• Outline expectations for the working environment
• Engage and support virtual teams
• Examine virtual team member needs (e.g., environment, geography, culture, global, etc.)
• Investigate alternatives (e.g., communication tools, colocation) for virtual team member engagement

TOPIC C: BUILD SHARED UNDERSTANDING 

• Lead a team
• Set a clear vision and mission
• Negotiate project agreements
• Analyze the bounds of the negotiation for an agreement
• Assess priorities and determine ultimate objective(s)
• Determine a negotiation strategy
• Participate in agreement negotiations
• Build shared understanding
• Survey all necessary parties to reach a consensus
• Support outcome of parties’ agreement
• Define team ground rules
• Communicate organizational principles with the team and external stakeholders
• Establish an environment that fosters adherence to ground rules

TOPIC D: DECIDE PROJECT APPROACH/METHODOLOGY 

• Determine appropriate project methodology/methods and practices
• Assess project needs, complexity, and magnitude
• Recommend project execution strategy (e.g., contracting, financing)
• Recommend a project methodology/approach (i.e., predictive, agile, hybrid)

MODULE 3: PLAN THE PROJECT  

TOPIC A: PLANNING PROJECTS

• Differentiation of Planning for Predictive vs Adaptive Approaches

TOPIC B: SCOPE

• Execute project with the urgency required to deliver business value
• Support the team to subdivide Project tasks as necessary to find the minimum viable product
• Plan and manage scope
• Predictive vs Adaptive approach for scope
• Determine and prioritize requirements
• Break down scope (e.g., WBS, backlog)
• Plan and manage project/phase closure or transitions
• Determine criteria to successfully close the project or phases

TOPIC C: SCHEDULE

• Plan and manage schedule
• Predictive vs Adaptive approach for schedule
• Estimate project tasks (milestones, dependencies, story points)
• Utilize benchmarks and historical data
• Prepare schedule based on methodology

TOPIC D: RESOURCES

• Build a team
• Deduce project resource requirements
• Plan and manage procurement (resources)
• Define resource requirements and needs
• Communicate resource requirements
• Manage suppliers/contracts
• Plan and manage procurement strategy
• Develop a delivery solution

TOPIC E: BUDGET

• Plan and manage budget and resources
• Estimate budgetary needs based on the scope of the project and lessons learned from past projects
• Anticipate future budget challenges
• Plan and manage resources

TOPIC F: RISKS

• Assess and manage risks
• Determine risk management options
• Iteratively assess and prioritize risks
• Plan and manage project compliance
• Determine necessary approach and action to address compliance needs (risk, legal)
• Determine potential threats to compliance

TOPIC G: QUALITY

• Plan and manage quality of products/deliverables
• Determine quality standard required for project deliverables
• Plan and manage project compliance
• Use methods to support compliance
• Measure the extent to which the project is in compliance

TOPIC H: INTEGRATE PLANS

• Integrate project planning activities
• Consolidate the project/phase plans
• Assess consolidated project plans for dependencies, gaps, and continued business value
• Analyze the data collected
• Collect and analyze data to make informed project decisions
• Determine critical information requirements
• Manage project changes
• Determine strategy to handle changed

MODULE 4: LEAD THE PROJECT TEAM

TOPIC A: CRAFT YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE

• Lead a team
• Value servant leadership (e.g., relate the tenets of servant leadership to the team)
• Determine an appropriate leadership style (e.g.,directive, collaborative)
• Distinguish various options to lead various team members and stakeholders
• Engage and support virtual teams
• Implement options for virtual team member engagements

TOPIC B: CREATE A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT TEAM ENVIRONMENT

• Manage project artifacts
• Determine the requirements (what, when, where, who) for managing the project artifacts
• Validate that the project information is kept up to date (i.e., version control) and accessible to all stakeholders

TOPIC C: EMPOWER THE TEAM

• Lead a team
• Support diversity and inclusion (e.g., behavior types, thought process)
• Inspire, motivate, and influence team members/stakeholders (e.g., team contract, social contract, reward system)
• Empower team members and stakeholders
• Determine and bestow level(s) of decision making authority

TOPIC D: SUPPORT TEAM MEMBER PERFORMANCE

• Support team performance
• Appraise team member performance against key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Support and recognize team member growth and development
• Determine appropriate feedback approach
• Verify performance improvements
• Promote team performance through the application of emotional intelligence
• Assess behavior through the use of personality
• Analyze personality indicators and adjust to the emotional needs of key project stakeholders

TOPIC E: COMMUNICATE AND COLLABORATE WITH STAKEHOLDERS

• Manage communications
• Communicate project information and updates effectively
• Confirm communication is understood and feedback is received
• Lead a team
• Analyze team members and stakeholder’s influence
• Engage stakeholders
• Engage stakeholders by category
• Collaborate with stakeholders
• Optimize alignment between stakeholder needs, expectations, and project objectives
• Build trust and influence to accomplish project objectives
• Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value
• Apprise stakeholders of value gained by the projects

TOPIC F: TRAIN TEAM MEMBERS AND STAKEHOLDERS

• Build a team
• Appraise stakeholder skills
• Ensure team members/stakeholders are adequately trained
• Determine required competencies and elements of training
• Determine training options on training needs
• Allocate resources for training
• Measure training outcomes
• Mentor relevant stakeholders
• Allocate the time for coaching mentoring (stakeholders)
• Recognize and act on coaching mentoring opportunities

TOPIC G: MANAGE CONFLICT

• Manage conflict
• Interpret the source and stage of the conflict
• Analyze the context for the conflict
• Evaluate/recommend/reconcile the appropriate conflict resolution solution
• Define team ground rules
• Discuss and rectify ground rule violations
• Build shared understanding
• Investigate potential misunderstandings
• Break down situations to identify the root cause of a misunderstandings

MODULE 5: SUPPORT PROJECT TEAM PERFORMANCE

TOPIC A: IMPLEMENT ONGOING IMPROVEMENTS

• Continuous Improvement
• Plan Continuous Improvement Methods, Procedures, and Tools
• Assess CI framework
• Plan CI methods, procedures, tools
• Recommend/Execute CI steps

TOPIC B: SUPPORT PERFORMANCE

• Manage communications
• Communicate project information and updates
• Confirm communication is understood and feedback is received
• Empower team members and stakeholders
• Support team task accountability
• Evaluate demonstration of task accountability
• Build a team
• Continuously assess and refresh team skills to meet project needs
• Maintain team and knowledge transfer
• Engage and support virtual teams
• Continually evaluate effectiveness of virtual team member engagement
• Manage project artifacts
• Continually assess the effectiveness of the management of the project artifacts
• Determine appropriate project methodology/methods and practices
• Use iterative, incremental practices throughout the project life cycle (e.g., lessons learned, key stakeholder engagement, risk)

TOPIC C: EVALUATE PROJECT PROGRESS

• Plan and manage scope
• Monitor and validate scope
• Plan and manage schedule
• Measure ongoing progress based on methodology
• Modify schedule, as needed, based on methodology
• Coordinate with other projects and other operations
• Plan and manage budget and resources
• Monitor budget variations and work with governance process to adjust as necessary
• Execute project with the urgency required to deliver business value
• Examine the business value throughout the
• Plan and manage quality of products/deliverables
• Recommend options for improvement based on quality gaps
• Continually survey project deliverable qualitym

TOPIC D: MANAGE ISSUES AND IMPEDIMENTS

• Manage project issues
• Recognize when a risk becomes an issue
• Attack the issue with the optimal actions to achieve project success
• Collaborate with relevant stakeholders on the approach to resolve the issues
• Address and remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team
• Determine critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team
• Prioritize critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team
• Use network to implement solutions to remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team
• Re-assess continually to ensure impediments, obstacles and blockers for the team are being addressed

TOPIC E: MANAGE CHANGES

• Evaluate and address external business environment changes for impact on scope
• Survey changes to external business environment (e.g., regulations, technology, geopolitical, market)
• Assess and prioritize impact on project scope/backlog based on changes in external business environment
• Recommend options for scope/backlog options (e.g., schedule, cost changes)
• Continually review external business environment for impacts on project scope/backlog
• Manage project changes
• Anticipate and embrace the need for change (e.g., follow change management practices
• Execute change management strategy according to the methodology
• Determine a change response to move the project forwards

MODULE 6: CLOSE THE PROJECT/ PHASE

TOPIC A: PROJECT/PHASE CLOSURE

• Negotiate project agreements.
• Verify objective(s) of the project agreement are met.
• Plan and manage project/phase closure or transitions.
• Validate readiness for transition (e.g., operations team or next phase)
• Conclude activities to close out the project or phase (e.g., final lessons learned, retrospectives, procurement, financial, resources)

TOPIC B: BENEFITS REALIZATION

• Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value
• Document agreement on ownership for ongoing benefit realization
• Verify measurement system is in place to track benefits.

TOPIC C: KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

• Ensure knowledge transfer for project continuity.
• Confirm the approach for knowledge transfers