Becoming a PMP® Certified Professional

A study guide to mastering project management for the PMP® exam

J. Ashley Hunt

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781838989309
• eBook ISBN: 9781838985912
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Computer Science

Pass the PMP 2021 exam with confidence with the help of practical and up-to-date coverage of project management practices from the 6th edition of the PMBOK® Guide

Key Features

• Written by J. Ashley Hunt, an experienced PMP® trainer with over 20 years of project management experience
• Learn with the help of PMP® practice tests, exam tips, and best practices from the PMBOK® Guide
• Effectively plan core project work aspects such as scope, cost, quality, procurement, and communication

Book Description

One of the five most prestigious certifications in the world, the PMP® exam is said to be the most difficult non-technical certification exam. With this exam guide, you'll be able to address the challenges in learning advanced project management concepts.

This PMP study guide covers all of the 10 project management knowledge areas, 5 process groups, 49 processes, and aspects of the Agile Practice Guide that you need to tailor your projects. With this book, you will understand the best practices found in the sixth edition of the PMBOK® Guide and the newly updated exam content outline. Throughout the book, you'll learn exam objectives in the form of a project for better understanding and effective implementation of real-world project management tasks, helping you to not only prepare for the exam but also implement project management best practices. Finally, you'll get to grips with the entire application and testing processes in PMP® and discover numerous tips and techniques for passing the exam on your first attempt.

By the end of this PMP® exam prep book, you'll have a solid understanding of everything you need to pass the PMP® certification exam, and be able to use this handy, on-the-job desktop reference guide to overcome challenges in project management.

What you will learn

• Understand how to fill out the exam application and what to expect on the day of the exam
• Get a comprehensive overview of project management processes, knowledge areas, and project execution
• Explore project and organization structures and other factors influencing projects
• Manage risk, scheduling, and cost using expert tips and insights
• Acquire and manage resources and communication in project work
• Monitor and control projects from planning to execution
• Discover professional responsibility, study tips, and what's in store for certified project management professionals

Who this book is for

If you are an experienced project manager looking for a common language and best practices in the project management space and want to achieve the PMP certification to accelerate your career growth, this book is for you. A minimum of 3 to 7 years of experience in leading and directing projects for a variety of industries will be useful.

Section 1: Introduction to Project Management and People

In this part, we will take a deep dive into the exam experience and provide an overview of project management best practices. Then, we will begin to suss out project selection methods and what happens prior to a project kicking off. Once that has been done, a project charter can be created and we can begin to identify who the stakeholders are for the project we have been assigned to. Since the new exam is 50% Agile best practices, understanding Agile life cycles and team roles is an integral section for review. The last chapter in this section focuses on people and how a project manager can create and lead a team successfully.

This section comprises the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, Introduction to the PMP® Exam
• Chapter 2, Introduction to Project Management
• Chapter 3, Pre-Project Initiation
• Chapter 4, Charters and Stakeholders
• Chapter 5, Introduction to Agile Considerations
• Chapter 6, Creating and Leading a Team

Chapter 1: Introduction to the PMP® Exam

Congratulations on deciding to begin your journey toward your Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification! In this chapter, we'll explore an overview of this study guide and what to expect before you take the PMP® certification exam, as well as answer some of the most common questions about the certification process. Much of this information can be found online at the Project Management Institute's (PMI)® website (www.pmi.org), as well as numerous other sites.

This information is important to understand before diving into the content that you will be tested on so that you can avoid having to search for the correct information. This guide is based on the Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – 6th Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017 and is for the current PMP® exam's content outline beginning January 2, 2021.

Reference

The Project Management Professional (PMP), the PMBOK Guide and the Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), and the Agile Practice Guide are a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

In this chapter, you will cover the following topics:

• An overview of the PMP® exam process
• How to apply for the exam
• What to expect on exam day
• Study tips
• Assessment test

Why get a Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification?

Above and beyond the fact that the PMP® is the most prestigious non-technical certification in the world, the certification is also proof of a lot of hard work, project management experience, and passing a very difficult exam – not impossible, but difficult. Why even enter it? Having one or multiple project management certifications shows your willingness to learn, try new things, and improve your organization's projects, which in turn provides value to the organization. Congratulations on taking the first step toward career improvement! Currently, project management is in high demand globally, and that growth shows little chance of slowing down. Project managers make anywhere between $70,000 and $150,000 annually, based on their location and targeted project management categories.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to project management in any industry and much of the time, our organizational processes and corporate cultures influence our projects the most. But what if you had multiple tools and knowledge at your disposal to adapt and adjust as needed to meet the demands of your projects? What if you could adapt those best practices to conform to your organizational processes and industry? That would provide you with the knowledge and flexibility to determine what tools your project needs and allow you to make determinations and adjustments when certain techniques aren't working in your current environment.

You may see some things in this guide and in your exams that will not align with your organization's best practices or simply won't work in your current environment. That is totally okay! You will need that information to answer questions correctly in your exams and maybe as you progress through your career, you'll find a need for some of those best practices down the line.

Having a set of best practices that have been proven over and over again to work but that are adaptable to your environment is one of the main reasons why the PMP® certification exists. Throughout this guide, you will find that I compare perfect-world project management to real-world project management. The reason I'll be doing this is to help solidify content in a way that may resonate with your current experiences. Those experiences are potentially not a perfect world. I know, right? I've been there – actually, I'm still there! Where is this perfect world and how do I get there? I feel your pain.

There will be concepts that will need to be adapted to suit your current projects, and therein lies the importance of The PMBOK® Guide – 6th Edition. It isn't a step-by-step handbook; it is a guide to determining what will work within your own unique projects and what will not. Much like when you travel with a tourist guidebook filled with all sorts of things you could see and do, you have decisions to make along the way. Should we see this site or that site? You can't see them all, so you will need to decide what worked for your own unique travel experience. Project management is quite similar. Should we do this or that? The answer to that question depends on many different situations, industries, corporate cultures, and the like. Sometimes, you just wing it in the real world and hope it works.

What will you learn about?

Everything covered in this guide is based on the PMP® exam content outline. You may have heard that the exam changed, and that is true! The exam content outline was most recently updated in June 2019 and influences the exam that began in January 2021. The reason the exam content outline was updated is due to the diligence of the Project Management Institute (PMI)® to make sure that the most up-to-date best practices that are being utilized around the world are found in your exams. They do this by performing a Role Delineation Study after the updates to The PMBOK® Guide are made. That allows them to really survey project managers and determine what needs or doesn't need to be covered in the exams and how to better align this with the real-world aspects of best practices. These studies inevitably change the exam content outline but not the PMBOK® Guide at this time. There are rumors of the 7th edition coming to a bookstore near you. If I had to guess, I would say 2021 will be the year. I could be wrong, so always check the PMI® website for the most up-to-date information.

You'll want to review the topics that you'll be tested on and what each domain weighs as far as your score is concerned. The following is an overview of what you will learn in this guide, and all the chapters in this book contain review questions pertaining to that chapter's content to help target your exam studies. This will also provide you with an understanding of the best study tips and tricks you'll need to pass the exam the first time around.

Who is this book for?

There are some very specific requirements you'll need to have met if you wish to sit the PMP® exam and if you can go through the following questions and say to yourself, "yep, that sounds like me," then you are well on your way to a PMP® certification:

Still with me?

Good!

Take a look at the following questions. If you say "nope, that isn't me" to any of these questions, then this book is also for you:

If you answered no to the preceding questions, then we are moving in the correct direction.

Note

By the way, if you are new to project management, there may still be a way to use this book for certification. That certification is the Certified Associate in Project Management certificate, or CAPM®. The CAPM® was designed for project coordinators who also need to be able to understand the techniques and concepts to best assist the project manager. It's a different exam but you could use this guide to help you prepare, as the content is the same, but the exam content outlines are not. Be sure to check the CAPM® section at www.pmi.org to download a copy for your exam.

The PMP® exam is based on the best practices and processes found in The PMBOK® Guide – 6th Edition and other study materials. The exam is scored on three domains – people, process, and business environment – and that is also how the study guide is presented. The PMBOK® Guide – 6th Edition is presented in the order of the different knowledge areas found in most projects and includes topics such as scope, schedule, resources, and risk.

The process chapters are a comprehensive review of all the topics that can be found for all of the scope processes, all of the schedule processes, and so on. The issue most learners have with that way of learning is that they can't see the project through the trees. They can't put all the pieces of the puzzle together because they just don't see how they all fit together. It's kind of like mixing multiple metaphors – it just doesn't make a lot of sense to learn that way.

Instead, I want you to imagine putting together a puzzle you have never seen before. Some of it looks familiar, but you don't have the puzzle box and a picture of success to begin putting everything together. It would be really difficult to do that. Is it easy to put corners with corners and color-code piles? Sure. Could you put it all together without anything to reference? I'm guessing no – unless you are a jigsaw puzzle champion...

Table of contents

• Becoming a PMP® Certified Professional
• Contributors
• Preface
• Section 1: Introduction to Project Management and People
• Chapter 1: Introduction to the PMP® Exam
• Chapter 2 :Introduction to Project Management
• Chapter 3: Pre-Project Initiation
• Chapter 4: Charters and Stakeholders
• Chapter 5: Introduction to Agile Considerations
• Chapter 6: Creating and Leading a Team
• Section 2: Project Management Processes
• Chapter 7: Scope Management
• Chapter 8: Schedule and Cost Management
• Chapter 9: Quality Management
• Chapter 10: Resources and Communication Management
• Chapter 11: Risk Management
• Chapter 12: Procurement Management
• Chapter 13: Stakeholder Engagement
• Chapter 14: Integration Management
• Section 3: Revision
• Chapter 15: Next Steps and Study Tips
• Chapter 16: Final Exam
• Assessment
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