Project Management Professional Exam Preparation Course

Participants can assess project value and establish the rationale for initiating a project.

• Business cases linked to strategic objectives, benefits, costs, and assumptions
• Benefits management plans connecting deliverables, outcomes, measures, and ownership
• Net present value, internal rate of return, and payback calculations
• Opportunity cost and sunk cost distinguished in project selection decisions
• Feasibility assessments covering technical, financial, operational, legal, and schedule factors
• Project charter justification aligned with sponsor priorities and organisational strategy

Participants can create a project charter and coordinate integrated project decision-making.

• Project charter elements: purpose, objectives, scope, milestones, budget, and authority
• Assumption logs established before planning commitments and baseline approval
• Integrated management plans coordinating subsidiary plans, baselines, and governance
• Decision logs recording options, owners, rationale, due dates, and outcomes
• Tailoring choices documented for project size, uncertainty, regulation, and delivery approach
• Project closure criteria defined alongside transition, acceptance, and lessons learned

Participants can analyse stakeholders and plan purposeful engagement throughout delivery.

• Stakeholder register built from influence, interest, impact, expectations, and attitude
• Power-interest grids used to prioritise engagement and communication effort
• Salience model assesses power, legitimacy, urgency, and stakeholder prominence
• Engagement assessment matrices compare current and desired stakeholder commitment
• Communication methods matched to information needs, authority, timing, and sensitivity
• Escalation paths agreed for unresolved stakeholder concerns and decision delays

Participants can lead project teams using situational leadership and conflict-resolution methods.

• Tuckman team development stages guide leadership interventions and team expectations
• Servant leadership supports autonomous agile teams and impediment removal
• Conflict resolution methods: collaborate, compromise, smooth, force, and withdraw
• Emotional intelligence applied to difficult conversations, feedback, and stakeholder relationships
• RACI matrices clarify decision rights, accountabilities, consultation, and information flows
• Ground rules establish meeting conduct, escalation norms, and team commitments

Participants can define project scope and decompose work into manageable deliverables.

• Product scope and project scope distinguished through requirements and deliverables
• Requirements traceability matrices link needs, acceptance criteria, and deliverables
• Work breakdown structures decompose approved scope into controlled work packages
• WBS dictionaries define work-package boundaries, owners, assumptions, and acceptance criteria
• Scope baselines combine scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary
• Gold plating prevented through approved requirements and disciplined acceptance processes

Participants can build and analyse a realistic project schedule using network methods.

• Activity lists derived from work packages, milestones, and delivery dependencies
• Precedence diagramming method models finish-to-start, start-to-start, and lag relationships
• Critical path method identifies schedule drivers, float, and completion risk
• Three-point estimates calculate expected duration using PERT estimation
• Resource calendars identify availability constraints, holidays, and specialist capacity
• Schedule compression compares crashing, fast tracking, risk, cost, and feasibility

Participants can establish cost baselines and interpret earned value performance data.

• Analogous, parametric, bottom-up, and three-point cost estimation methods
• Cost baseline development combines estimates, contingency reserves, and time phasing
• Management reserves distinguished from contingency reserves and approved project budgets
• Earned value measures: planned value, earned value, and actual cost
• Schedule performance index and cost performance index interpreted for action
• Estimate at completion forecasts calculated using performance-index scenarios

Participants can plan quality requirements and control acceptance of project deliverables.

• Cost of quality distinguishes prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure
• Quality metrics define measurable acceptance thresholds, tolerances, and reporting methods
• Fishbone diagrams identify potential causes behind defects and process variation
• Control charts distinguish common-cause variation from special-cause variation
• Inspection and testing plans verify deliverables against documented acceptance criteria
• Continuous improvement uses Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles and lessons learned

Participants can identify, analyse and respond to project threats and opportunities.

• Risk registers record causes, events, impacts, owners, triggers, and responses
• Probability-impact matrices prioritise threats and opportunities for management attention
• Risk breakdown structures categorise technical, commercial, organisational, and external uncertainty
• Expected monetary value calculations support contingency and response decisions
• Decision tree analysis compares alternative responses under uncertain outcomes
• Monte Carlo simulation estimates schedule and cost confidence ranges

Participants can select procurement approaches and manage supplier obligations effectively.

• Make-or-buy analysis compares capability, cost, risk, capacity, and strategic control
• Contract types compared: fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, and time-and-materials agreements
• Procurement statements of work define deliverables, standards, acceptance, and responsibilities
• Bidder evaluation criteria score technical quality, price, capacity, and compliance
• Claims administration documents contract changes, disputes, evidence, and resolution routes
• Supplier performance reviews assess delivery, quality, risk, and corrective actions

Participants can design reporting and governance arrangements that support informed decisions.

• Communications management plans specify audiences, messages, channels, frequency, and ownership
• Information radiators display backlog status, milestones, risks, and delivery metrics
• Steering committee packs present decisions, exceptions, forecasts, and required actions
• Stage-gate reviews test readiness against evidence, criteria, approvals, and tolerances
• Issue logs distinguish current problems from uncertain future risk events
• Escalation thresholds define when project authority requires sponsor intervention

Participants can evaluate change requests and maintain control of approved baselines.

• Change requests assess scope, schedule, cost, risk, quality, and benefits impacts
• Change control boards review evidence, alternatives, authority, and implementation consequences
• Configuration management identifies product versions, records, status, and audit requirements
• Baseline changes update approved plans without obscuring historical performance data
• Impact analysis traces proposed changes through dependencies, contracts, and stakeholder commitments
• Change logs communicate approvals, rejections, implementation owners, and completion dates

Participants can apply Scrum roles, events and artefacts to adaptive project work.

• Agile values and principles guide adaptive planning and customer collaboration
• Scrum accountabilities distinguish Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers
• Product backlogs order work by value, risk, learning, and dependency
• Sprint planning establishes sprint goals, selected backlog items, and delivery forecasts
• Definition of Done sets shared quality, integration, testing, and acceptance expectations
• Sprint reviews and retrospectives inspect outcomes, feedback, process, and improvement actions

Participants can manage workflow using Kanban metrics and adaptive estimation techniques.

• Kanban boards visualise workflow states, policies, blockers, and work ownership
• Work-in-progress limits expose bottlenecks and encourage flow-based team decisions
• Lead time and cycle time measure delivery speed and process stability
• Cumulative flow diagrams reveal queue growth, blocked work, and capacity imbalance
• Story points and planning poker estimate relative effort and uncertainty
• Velocity trends support release forecasting without treating estimates as commitments

Participants can design a hybrid delivery approach suited to project uncertainty and controls.

• Hybrid models combine predictive governance with iterative product development cycles
• Tailoring criteria assess uncertainty, complexity, regulation, stakeholder access, and team maturity
• Rolling-wave planning details near-term work while preserving longer-term milestones
• Release roadmaps connect strategic outcomes, product increments, dependencies, and funding
• Adaptive scope management protects priorities while controlling budget and schedule boundaries
• Governance cadence aligns agile reviews with formal approval and reporting requirements

Participants can account for organisational, regulatory and benefits factors in project decisions.

• Organisational process assets influence planning methods, approvals, templates, and lessons
• Enterprise environmental factors shape constraints, culture, regulations, and resource availability
• Compliance requirements translated into deliverables, controls, evidence, and acceptance criteria
• Benefits realisation tracking assigns measures, owners, review points, and corrective actions
• Organisational change impacts assessed across people, processes, systems, and operations
• Project outcomes reviewed against strategic alignment, sustainability, and intended value

Participants can answer scenario-based PMP questions using structured judgement and time management.

• Situational question clues identify project phase, delivery approach, and decision authority
• Answer options screened for escalation, collaboration, analysis, and preventive action
• PMI mindset distinguishes root-cause analysis from premature corrective action
• Predictive, agile, and hybrid question patterns compared using decision criteria
• Time budgeting allocates review time across 180 examination questions
• Formula questions solved using earned value, communication channels, and risk calculations

Participants can assemble a coherent project case using aligned planning and control artefacts.

• Charter, benefits plan, and stakeholder register aligned around project objectives
• Scope baseline, schedule network, budget, and resource assumptions reconciled
• Risk responses integrated with contingency, escalation, and management reserve decisions
• Governance calendar combines reporting, reviews, approvals, and change-control milestones
• Hybrid delivery choices justified against uncertainty, product needs, and organisational controls
• PMP-style decisions documented with evidence, rationale, and expected stakeholder outcomes

Participants can build, review and present a complete PMP-style project management case with justified decisions.

• Complete project case integrates charter, scope, schedule, budget, risk, and governance
• Stakeholder engagement strategy addresses competing interests, conflict, communication, and escalation
• Predictive, agile, or hybrid approach justified using documented tailoring criteria
• Performance scenario analysed through earned value, issue management, and forecast actions
• Change request evaluated through impact analysis, authority, baseline, and stakeholder consequences
• Capstone presentation defends project decisions using PMI principles and examination logic