PMI CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) Examination Content Outline flashcards

The process of developing a detailed description of the project and product. It involves elaborating on the requirements gathered to create a comprehensive project scope statement.

• Creates the project scope statement.
• Refines and elaborates collected requirements.
• Forms the basis for future project work.

Memory trick: Plan, Collect, Define, Create, Validate, Control the Scope.

The process of tracking identified risks, identifying new risks, monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project.

• Continuous process throughout the project life cycle.
• Involves tracking existing risks and finding new ones.
• Evaluates the effectiveness of risk responses.

Memory trick: Monitor Risks: Always Watching, Never Sleeping.

Techniques used by business analysts to manage disagreements among stakeholders, identify common ground, and facilitate consensual decisions or acceptable compromises.

• Crucial for managing diverse stakeholder interests.
• Involves active listening, mediation, and establishing common goals.
• Aims to achieve consensus or an acceptable solution for the project.

Memory trick: Engage to CONFLICT, then RESOLVE to connect.

The business analysis knowledge area focused on defining the strategy and approach for how business analysis work will be performed on a given initiative.

• Determines which techniques and tools will be used.
• Plans for stakeholder engagement and communication.
• Establishes how requirements will be managed and prioritized.

Memory trick: Plan and Monitor to set the course, then Elicit, Analyze, and Validate with force.

The process of subdividing project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.

• Hierarchical decomposition of total scope.
• Breaks down work into work packages.
• Foundation for planning cost, schedule, and resources.

Memory trick: Plan, Define, Breakdown, Check, Control the Scope.

A component of the project management plan that describes how stakeholders will be effectively involved in the project.

• Identifies strategies and actions for productive stakeholder involvement.
• Aims to manage expectations and foster support.
• Output of the Plan Stakeholder Engagement process.

Memory trick: Identify who, Plan how to engage, Manage engagement, Monitor it all.

The process of defining how to conduct risk management activities for a project.

• Establishes the approach for risk management.
• Determines risk tolerances and thresholds.
• Defines roles and responsibilities for risk activities.

Memory trick: Risky Business: Plan to avoid the pitfalls.

A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.

• Defines the process for requirements activities.
• Covers prioritization, verification, and validation.
• Outlines how changes to requirements will be managed.

Memory trick: Scope defines the boundaries, Requirements detail the needs.

Business analysis planning involves determining the approach for performing business analysis activities on a given project. It sets the foundation for how requirements will be managed.

• Defines the 'how' of business analysis.
• Occurs early in the project lifecycle.
• Ensures a structured approach to requirements.

Memory trick: Plan Smart: Stakeholders, Methods, Approach, Resources, Tools.

A subsidiary plan of the project management plan that describes how a project team will acquire goods and services from outside the performing organization.

• Defines the procurement process from planning to contract closure.
• Covers types of contracts, metrics, and roles.
• Essential when external vendors or suppliers are involved.

Memory trick: Project Plan's Many Minds: Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Resources, Comms, Risk, Procure, Stakeholders, Baselines.

A technique used for constructing a schedule model in which activities are represented by nodes and are graphically linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.

• Uses nodes for activities and arrows for relationships.
• Supports four types of dependencies: Finish-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Start, Start-to-Finish.
• Is the basis for constructing a project schedule network diagram.

Memory trick: Precedence Diagrams: Activities in Nodes, Relationships by Lines, Sequence Unfolds.

A characteristic of a good requirement, meaning that specific criteria are defined to determine if the requirement has been met, allowing for objective verification.

• Answers 'how much,' 'how many,' 'how often,' or 'how well.'
• Essential for testing and validation.
• Reduces ambiguity and subjective interpretation.

Memory trick: SMART requirements are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.

The process of improving competencies, team member interaction, and the overall team environment to enhance project performance.

• Focuses on improving individual and team capabilities.
• Includes recognition and reward systems.
• Aims to foster a positive and productive team environment.

Memory trick: To Develop a Team, you need to RECOGNIZE their efforts and REWARD their success.

A grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package, identifying who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed (RACI) for specific tasks or deliverables.

• Maps roles and responsibilities to work packages.
• Commonly uses the RACI model.
• Ensures clear understanding of task ownership and involvement.

Memory trick: RAM maps responsibilities clearly.

The essential information and documents required to formally authorize a project and appoint a project manager.

• Business Documents (Business Case, Benefits Management Plan)
• Agreements
• Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs)
• Organizational Process Assets (OPAs)

Memory trick: Business Agreements and Org Factors are the Charter's core.

Conflict resolution in business analysis involves techniques used to address disagreements among stakeholders regarding requirements or proposed solutions to reach a consensus or acceptable compromise.

• Essential for managing diverse stakeholder needs.
• Aims for mutually acceptable solutions.
• Often involves negotiation and mediation techniques.

Memory trick: CAN'T AVOID CONFLICT, so COMPROMISE, ACCOMMODATE, NEGOTIATE, or COLLABORATE.

A risk response strategy where actions are taken to reduce the probability of a threat occurring or to reduce its impact if it does occur.

• Involves proactive steps to lessen risk exposure.
• Does not eliminate the risk entirely, but reduces its severity.
• Examples include redundant systems, additional testing, or choosing more reliable suppliers.

Memory trick: ARTEM: Avoid, Reduce, Transfer, Exploit, Mitigate.

A risk response strategy that involves developing a plan for what to do if a specific risk event occurs. It's a proactive approach to address risks that are not avoided or fully mitigated.

• Prepares for potential risk realization.
• Often includes fallback plans or workarounds.
• Distinct from general mitigation, as it's a 'what if' scenario plan.

Memory trick: Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate, Accept, and Plan for Contingencies.

Alignment ensures that a requirement directly supports and contributes to the project's objectives and the organization's strategic goals. Misaligned requirements can lead to wasted effort.

• Links requirements to business objectives.
• Prevents scope creep from irrelevant features.
• Ensures value delivery.

Memory trick: Requirements must be CLEAR, COMPLETE, CONSISTENT, and ALIGNED to be SMART.

The process of reviewing all change requests, approving changes, and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the project management plan.

• Ensures only approved changes are incorporated.
• Involves reviewing, approving, and managing changes.
• Aims to maintain project integrity and alignment with objectives.

Memory trick: Always Control Changes, Integrate Decisions Swiftly.

A document that links requirements to other requirements, design elements, test cases, and business objectives, ensuring all requirements are accounted for and aligned.

• Provides a clear audit trail for requirements.
• Helps manage scope, risk, and change.
• Ensures business value is delivered by connecting requirements to goals.

Memory trick: Trace the matrix to connect the dots, ensuring no requirement gets lost in the plots.

The process of ensuring the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met.

• Evaluates the effectiveness of communication activities.
• Identifies gaps or inefficiencies in the communication flow.
• May lead to updates in the communications management plan.

Memory trick: Communicate Clearly: Plan, Distribute, Monitor, Adjust.

A requirements elicitation technique that involves reviewing existing documentation to understand the current state, identify business rules, and uncover potential requirements.

• Cost-effective and can be done before stakeholder engagement.
• Helps identify 'as-is' processes and existing constraints.
• Can provide a baseline for discussions with stakeholders.

Memory trick: Elicit by Interview, Observe, or Analyze documents for a true view.

The process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations, address issues, and foster appropriate stakeholder involvement.

• Aims to increase support and minimize resistance.
• Requires continuous communication and conflict resolution.
• Relies on regular review of the stakeholder register.

Memory trick: Before you act, KNOW your audience and their connections.

The expected total cost of completing all work on a project or work package.

• Calculated based on project performance to date and assumptions about future performance.
• Different formulas exist depending on assumptions about future performance.
• Provides a forecast for the total project cost.

Memory trick: EAC: Estimate how much money you'll need to Finish (BAC) based on how you're doing (EV, AC).

A tool used in stakeholder analysis to compare the current engagement level of stakeholders with their desired engagement level. It helps in identifying gaps and developing strategies to move stakeholders to the desired level of support.

• Compares current vs. desired engagement.
• Helps identify engagement gaps.
• A key input for developing engagement strategies.

Memory trick: Power, Salience, Cube, Engagement: Assess them all.

The process of breaking down, refining, structuring, and organizing elicited requirements to make them clear, unambiguous, and actionable.

• Involves modeling, prioritizing, and specifying requirements.
• Transforms raw elicited information into structured requirements.
• Helps identify gaps, inconsistencies, and conflicts.

Memory trick: First Elicit the data, then Analyze to make it clearer.

A risk response strategy where actions are taken to reduce the probability or impact of a threat, or to increase the probability or impact of an opportunity.

• Aims to lessen severity or likelihood of risk.
• Does not eliminate the risk, but reduces its effect.
• Examples include backup plans, enhanced testing, training.

Memory trick: Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate, Accept – ATM's for Risk.

Budget or schedule amounts added to the cost or schedule baseline to account for identified risks (known-unknowns).

• Part of the project's cost and schedule baselines.
• Used to mitigate the impact of specific, identified risks.
• Estimated using quantitative risk analysis methods.

Memory trick: Reserves: Contingency for Knowns, Management for Unknowns.

The ability to track a requirement from its origin through its development and specification, linking it to design, code, and test cases.

• Provides an audit trail for requirements.
• Helps impact analysis for changes and defect resolution.
• Ensures all requirements are implemented and tested.

Memory trick: Trace the path to find the truth, from requirement's birth to its youth.

The process of reviewing all change requests, approving changes, and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the project management plan.

• Ensures only approved changes are implemented.
• Maintains the integrity of project baselines.
• Involves a Change Control Board (CCB) for complex projects.

Memory trick: Change Control: Review, Approve, Integrate, Don't Deviate!

The process of gathering information from stakeholders and other sources to understand their needs and expectations for a solution.

• Involves direct interaction with stakeholders.
• Aims to discover underlying needs, not just stated wants.
• Uses various techniques like interviews, workshops, and observation.

Memory trick: Elicit for the initial spark, then Analyze to make it stark.

The process of translating the quality management plan into executable quality activities that incorporate the organization's quality policies into the project. It focuses on processes to ensure deliverables meet quality standards.

• Ensures project processes and deliverables comply with quality standards.
• Often involves quality audits and process analysis.
• Aims to improve processes and prevent defects.

Memory trick: Plan for Quality, Manage the Quality, Control the Quality.

A technique used to estimate activity duration or cost by taking a weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates.

• Formula: (Optimistic + 4 * Most Likely + Pessimistic) / 6.
• Provides a more realistic estimate by accounting for uncertainty.
• Particularly useful for activities with high uncertainty.

Memory trick: Estimate durations, but remember the 'OPM' formula for accuracy.

A component of the project management plan that describes how the project scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and validated.

• Provides guidance for all scope-related activities.
• Defines processes for scope definition, validation, and control.
• A key output of the Plan Scope Management process.

Memory trick: Plan for Scope, Schedule, Cost, and more, all in one core.

A quality management principle that emphasizes designing quality into the process and product from the start, rather than relying on inspection to find defects after they have occurred.

• More cost-effective in the long run.
• Reduces the likelihood of defects.
• Proactive approach to quality management.

Memory trick: Quality is PURE: Prevention, User focus, Responsibility, Everyone's role.

A schedule network analysis technique to determine the longest path through the project network diagram, representing the shortest possible project duration.

• Calculates earliest and latest start/finish dates.
• Identifies critical activities with zero float.
• Used to determine overall project duration.

Memory trick: CPM finds the core path, PERT handles uncertainty. What's the shortest time?

The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project budget and managing changes to the cost baseline. It ensures that expenditures do not exceed the authorized funding.

• Monitors cost performance.
• Manages changes to the cost baseline.
• Involves documenting and communicating cost variances.

Memory trick: Plan, Estimate, Determine, then Control the Costs.

The process of leading and performing the work defined in the project management plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project's objectives.

• Occurs during the executing process group.
• Integrates various project processes to produce deliverables.
• Key outputs include deliverables, work performance data, and change requests.

Memory trick: Chart the course, Direct the work, Monitor progress, Control changes, Close it down.

The process of creating, collecting, distributing, storing, retrieving, and the ultimate disposition of project information in accordance with the communications management plan.

• Focuses on the actual exchange of information.
• Ensures information is delivered to the right audience, at the right time, in the right format.
• Aims to keep stakeholders informed and manage their expectations.

Memory trick: Plan what to say, Manage how you say it, Monitor if it works.

A graphical representation of the flow of data through an information system, showing how data is input, processed, stored, and output.

• Uses symbols for processes, data stores, external entities, and data flows.
• Helps understand system boundaries and interactions.
• Can be leveled to show increasing detail (Context, Level 0, Level 1, etc.).

Memory trick: Model the FLOW of data to know how it goes.

The process of finalizing all activities across all Project Management Process Groups to formally complete the project or phase.

• Formalizes project or phase completion.
• Includes activities like administrative closure and contract closure.
• Results in formal acceptance and transition of deliverables.

Memory trick: Closure: Lessons Learned, Final Report, Product Handed Over, Contracts Closed.

A Business Requirements Document (BRD) is a formal document that captures the business needs, objectives, and high-level scope of a project from a business perspective. It serves as a foundational agreement.

• High-level overview of project purpose.
• Defines what the business wants to achieve.
• Precedes detailed technical specifications.

Memory trick: BRDs are BIG PICTURE, SRS are SPECIFIC, and User Stories are SMALL.

The process of confirming that the defined requirements accurately reflect stakeholder needs, align with business objectives, and meet quality standards and regulatory compliance.

• Occurs after requirements have been elicited and analyzed.
• Involves formal review and approval by stakeholders.
• Aims to prevent errors and rework later in the project.

Memory trick: Elicit, Analyze, then Validate to ensure the vision's not faded.

A risk response strategy that involves changing the project plan to eliminate the threat entirely or protect the project objectives from its impact.

• Eliminates the cause of the risk.
• Can involve changing scope, schedule, or strategy.
• Most effective for high probability, high impact threats.

Memory trick: Avoid the monster, Mitigate its bite, Transfer the burden, or Accept the fight.

A schedule compression technique that involves performing activities or phases in parallel that would normally be performed sequentially. This can shorten the project duration but often increases risk and may result in rework.

• Changes sequential activities to parallel.
• Shortens project duration.
• Increases risk and potential for rework.

Memory trick: Fast Track parallel, Crash with more resources.

A stakeholder analysis tool that classifies stakeholders based on their level of authority (power) and their level of concern (interest) regarding the project outcomes.

• Helps determine appropriate engagement strategies.
• Categorizes stakeholders into four quadrants: High Power/High Interest, High Power/Low Interest, Low Power/High Interest, Low Power/Low Interest.
• Aids in prioritizing stakeholder management efforts.

Memory trick: Power/Interest: High-High Manage Closely, High-Low Keep Satisfied, Low-High Keep Informed, Low-Low Monitor.

The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality activities to assess performance and recommend necessary changes.

• Focuses on product/deliverable correctness.
• Identifies defects and causes of unsatisfactory performance.
• Outputs include quality control measurements, verified deliverables, change requests.

Memory trick: Plan how to assure, then control to endure quality.

The process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract.

• Involves bidder conferences, proposal evaluation, and negotiation.
• Key output is awarded contracts/agreements.
• Occurs during project execution.

Memory trick: Plan to buy, Conduct the buying, Control the buy, Close the buy.

The process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline.

• Prevents scope creep.
• Ensures all changes are processed through the change control system.
• Maintains the scope baseline.

Memory trick: Scope Control: Keep the project within its fences.

The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications based on the information needs of each stakeholder or group, available organizational assets, and the needs of the project.

• Determines what, when, by whom, with whom, and how information will be communicated.
• Includes identifying communication methods and technologies.
• An output is the Communications Management Plan.

Memory trick: Planning Communications: Who, What, When, Where, Why, HOW to talk.

The project charter is a high-level document that formally authorizes a project, providing its purpose, objectives, and assigning the project manager, but not typically detailed financial justification.

• Authorizes the project.
• High-level purpose and objectives.
• Identifies key stakeholders.
• Often relies on a separate business case for detailed justification.

Memory trick: Charter authorizes, not calculates every financial detail.

In a functional organization, the project manager typically has a limited role, often acting as a project coordinator or expediter, with little formal authority over resources.

• Relies heavily on negotiation and influence.
• Formal communication channels are crucial.
• Functional managers retain ultimate control over resources.

Memory trick: Functional PM Persuades, Prioritizes, and Plans.

A detailed description of the project and product scope, including objectives, deliverables, requirements, acceptance criteria, and explicit exclusions, establishing a common understanding of project boundaries.

• Defines project and product scope in detail.
• Lists objectives, deliverables, and requirements.
• Includes acceptance criteria.
• Explicitly states project exclusions.

Memory trick: The Scope Statement is the detailed map of what's in and what's out.

Key documents and information required to create the comprehensive Project Management Plan.

• Project Charter: Provides high-level project information.
• Outputs from other processes: E.g., requirements, risk list.
• Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs): Organizational culture, market conditions.
• Organizational Process Assets (OPAs): Templates, policies, historical information.

Memory trick: Charter's content fuels the plan's creation.

The Monitoring and Controlling process group involves tracking, reviewing, and regulating the progress and performance of the project; identifying any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiating the corresponding changes.

• Tracks, reviews, and regulates project progress
• Identifies variances from the project management plan
• Takes corrective and preventive actions
• Manages changes to the project

Memory trick: I Plan, Execute, Monitor, Close.

A formal document that authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

• Officially authorizes the project.
• Gives the project manager authority.
• Establishes initial project objectives and high-level requirements.

Memory trick: The charter is the key to unlock project resources and officially start.

The process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs/expectations, address issues, and foster appropriate stakeholder involvement.

• Requires continuous monitoring and adaptation.
• Stakeholder Register is a key input and is updated throughout.
• Engagement strategies must be flexible.

Memory trick: Register, Plan, Engage, Monitor, Adapt.

A project life cycle approach where the scope, time, and cost are determined early in the project life cycle, and changes are tightly controlled.

• Detailed upfront planning.
• Sequential phases (e.g., waterfall).
• Low tolerance for change.
• Suitable for stable requirements.

Memory trick: Predictive plans everything, Adaptive adapts to anything.

The first process group in project management, focused on defining and authorizing a new project or a new phase of an existing project.

• Authorizes the project or phase.
• Defines initial scope and objectives.
• Identifies key stakeholders.

Memory trick: I Plan Every Morning Control and Close