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Head First PMP
A Brain-Friendly Guide to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam
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- the authors
- Table of Contents (Summary)
- Table of Contents (the real thing)
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how to use this book: Intro
- Who is this book for?
- Who should probably back away from this book?
- We know what you’re thinking.
- And we know what your brain is thinking.
- Metacognition: thinking about thinking
- Here’s what WE did:
- Here’s what YOU can do to bend your brain into submission
- Read me
- The technical review team
- Acknowledgments
- Safari® Books Online
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1 Introduction: Why get certified?
- Do these problems seem familiar?
- Projects don’t have to be this way
- Your problems… already solved
- What you need to be a good project manager
- You can’t manage your project in a vacuum
- Understand your company’s big picture
- Portfolios, programs, and projects
- What a project IS…
- A day in the life of a project manager
- How project managers run great projects
- Process Group Magnets
- Process Group Magnets Solutions
- A PMP certification is more than just passing a test
- Meet a real-life PMP-certified project manager
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2 Organizations, constraints, and projects: In good company
- A day in Kate’s life
- Kate wants a new job
- Organization Magnets
- There are different types of organizations
- The Project Manager has the most authority and power in a projectized organization.
- Kate takes a new job
- Stakeholders are impacted by your project
- Back to Kate’s maintenance nightmare
- Managing project constraints
- Kate makes some changes…
- … and her project is a success!
- Organization Magnets Solutions
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3 The process framework: It all fits together
- Cooking up a project
- Projects are like recipes
- If your project’s really big, you can manage it in phases
- Phases can also overlap
- Break it down
- Process Magnets
- Anatomy of a process
- Combine processes to complete your project
- Knowledge areas organize the processes
- Knowledge Area Magnets
- Knowledge Area Magnets Solutions
- The benefits of successful project management
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4 Project integration management: Getting the job done
- Time to book a trip
- The teachers are thrilled… for now
- These clients are definitely not satisfied
- The day-to-day work of a project manager
- The six Integration Management processes
- Start your project with the Initiating processes
- Integration management and the process groups
- The “Develop Project Charter” process
- Make the case for your project
- Use expert judgment to get an outside opinion
- A closer look at the project charter
- Two things you’ll see over and over and over...
- Plan your project!
- The project management plan lets you plan ahead for problems
- A quick look at all those subsidiary plans
- Question Clinic: The “Just-The-Facts-Ma’am” Question
- The Direct and Manage Project Execution process
- The project team creates deliverables
- Executing the project includes repairing defects
- Eventually, things WILL go wrong...
- Sometimes you need to change your plans
- Look for changes and deal with them
- Make only the changes that are right for your project
- Changes, defects, and corrections
- Decide your changes in change control meetings
- How the processes interact with each other
- Control your changes; use change control
- Preventing or correcting problems
- Finish the work, close the project
- You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here
- So why INTEGRATION management?
- Project Integration Management Magnets
- Project Integration Management Magnets Solution
- Integration Management kept your project on track, and the teachers satisfied
- Integrationcross
- Integrationcross Solution
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5 Scope management: Doing the right stuff
- Out of the frying pan...
- ... and right back into the fire
- Cubicle conversation
- It looks like we have a scope problem
- You’ve got to know what (and how) you will build before you build it
- The power of scope management
- The five Scope Management processes
- Cubicle conversation
- Collect requirements for your project
- Talk to your stakeholders
- Make decisions about requirements
- Help your team to get creative
- Use a questionnaire to get requirements from a bigger group of people
- A prototype shows users what your product will be like
- Collect requirements outputs page
- Define the scope of the project
- How do you define the scope?
- The scope statement tells you what you have to do
- Question Clinic: The “Which-is-BEST” Question
- Create the work breakdown structure
- The inputs for the WBS come from other processes
- Breaking down the work
- Break it down by project or phase
- Decompose deliverables into work packages
- Project Scope Management Magnets
- More Magnets
- Project Scope Management Magnets Solutions
- Inside the work package
- The baseline is a snapshot of the plan
- The outputs of the Create WBS process
- Cubicle conversation
- Why scope changes
- The Control Scope process
- Anatomy of a change
- A closer look at the Change Control System
- Just one Control Scope tool/technique
- Control Scope Process Magnets
- Control Scope Process Magnets Solutions
- Make sure the team delivered the right product
- The stakeholders decide when the project is done
- Is the project ready to go?
- Scopecross
- The project is ready to ship!
- Scopecross
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6 Time management: Getting it done on time
- Reality sets in for the happy couple
- Meet the wedding planner
- Time management helps with aggressive time lines
- Time Management Magnets
- Time Management Magnets Solution
- Use the Define Activities process to break down the work
- Tools and techniques for Define Activities
- Rolling wave planning lets you plan as you go
- Activity Magnets
- Activity Magnets Solution
- Define activities outputs
- The Sequence Activities process puts everything in order
- Diagram the relationship between activities
- Network diagrams put your tasks in perspective
- Predecessors help you sequence your activities
- Leads and lags add time between activities
- Create the network diagram
- Rob and Rebecca have resource problems
- What you need to estimate resources
- Estimating the resources
- Figuring out how long the project will take
- Estimation tools and techniques
- Create the duration estimate
- Back to the wedding
- Bringing it all together
- Question Clinic: The “Which-comes-next” Question
- One thing leads to another
- Use the Critical Path Method to avoid big problems
- How to find the critical path
- Finding the float for any activity
- Float tells you how much extra time you have
- Figure out the early start and early finish
- Figure out the latest possible start and finish
- Add early and late durations to your diagrams
- Take a backward pass to find late start and finish
- Let’s take some time out to walk through this!
- Crash the schedule
- Fast-tracking the project
- What-if analysis
- Other Develop Schedule tools and techniques
- Outputs of Develop Schedule
- Influence the factors that cause change
- Control Schedule inputs and outputs
- What Control Schedule updates
- Measuring and reporting performance
- Control Schedule tools and techniques
- Control Schedule Magnets
- Timecross
- Another satisfied customer!
- Control Schedule Magnets Answers
- Timecross solution
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7 Cost management: Watching the bottom line
- Time to expand the Head First Lounge
- The guys go overboard
- Lounge conversation
- Introducing the cost management processes
- What Alice needs before she can Estimate Costs
- Other tools and techniques used in Estimate Costs
- Let’s talk numbers
- Now Alice knows how much the Lounge will cost
- Lounge conversation
- The Determine Budget process
- What you need to build your budget
- Determine budget: how to build a budget
- Question Clinic: The Red Herring
- The Control Costs process is a lot like schedule control
- A few new tools and techniques
- Look at the schedule to figure out your budget
- How to calculate Planned Value
- Earned Value tells you how you’re doing
- How to calculate Earned Value
- Put yourself in someone else’s shoes
- Is your project behind or ahead of schedule?
- Are you over budget?
- The Earned Value Management formulas
- Interpret CPI and SPI numbers to gauge your project
- Forecast what your project will look like when it’s done
- Meanwhile, back in the Lounge
- Once you’ve got an estimate, you can calculate a variance!
- Finding missing information
- Keep your project on track with TCPI
- A high TCPI means a tight budget
- Party time!
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8 Quality management: Getting it right
- What is quality?
- You need more than just tests to figure out quality
- Once you know what the product is supposed to do, it’s easy to tell which tests pass and which fail
- Quality up close
- Quality vs. grade
- “An ounce of prevention…”
- Plan Quality is how you prevent defects
- How to plan for quality
- The quality management plan gives you what you need to manage quality
- Inspect your deliverables
- Use the planning outputs for Perform Quality Control
- The seven basic tools of quality
- Pareto charts, flowcharts, and histograms
- Run charts and scatter diagrams
- More quality control tools
- Question Clinic: The “Which-One” Question
- Quality control means finding and correcting defects
- Trouble at the Black Box 3000tm factory
- Introducing Quality Assurance
- A closer look at some tools and techniques
- More ideas behind quality assurance
- Qualitycross
- The Black Box 3000tm makes record profits!
- Qualitycross
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9 Human resource management: Getting the team together
- Mike needs a new team
- Cubicle conversation
- Get your team together and keep them moving
- Figure out who you need on your team
- The staffing management plan
- Get the team together
- Human Resourcecross
- Cubicle conversation
- Develop your project team
- Develop the team with your management skills
- Your interpersonal skills can make a big difference for your team
- Lead the team with your management skills
- Motivate your team
- Stages of team development
- How’s the team doing?
- Cubicle conversation
- Managing your team means solving problems
- Conflict management up close
- How to resolve a conflict
- The Cows Gone Wild IV team ROCKS!
- Question Clinic: The “Have-A-Meeting” Question
- Human Resourcecross Solution
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10 Communications management: Getting the word out
- Party at the Head First Lounge!
- But something’s not right
- Anatomy of communication
- Get a handle on communication
- Find out who your stakeholders are
- Stakeholder Analysis Up Close
- Tell everyone what’s going on
- Get the message?
- More Distribute Information tools
- Let everyone know how the project’s going
- Take a close look at the work being done
- Now you can get the word out
- Communicationcross
- People aren’t talking!
- Count the channels of communication
- It’s party time!
- Question Clinic: The Calculation Question
- Communicationcross
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11 Project risk management: Planning for the unknown
- What’s a risk?
- How you deal with risk
- Plan Risk Management
- Use a risk breakdown structure to categorize risks
- Anatomy of a risk
- What could happen to your project?
- Information-gathering techniques for Identify Risks
- More Identify Risks techniques
- Where to look for risks
- Now put it in the risk register
- Rank your risks
- Examine each risk in the register
- Qualitative vs. quantitative analysis
- Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
- First gather the data…
- … then analyze it
- Calculate the Expected Monetary Value of your risks
- Decision tree analysis uses EMV to help you make choices
- Update the risk register based on your quantitative analysis results
- How do you respond to a risk?
- It isn’t always so bad
- Response planning can even find more risks
- Add risk responses to the register
- You can’t plan for every risk at the start of the project
- Monitor and Control Risks is another change control process
- How to control your risks
- More risk monitoring and control techniques
- Question Clinic: The “Which-is-NOT” Question
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12 Procurement management: Getting some help
- Victim of her own success
- Calling in the cavalry
- Contract Process Magnets
- Contract Process Magnets Solutions
- Ask the legal expert
- Anatomy of a contract
- Start with a plan for the whole project
- Make or Buy Magnets
- Make or Buy Magnets Solutions
- The decision is made
- Types of contracts
- More about contracts
- Figure out how you’ll sort out potential sellers
- Contract Magnets
- Get in touch with potential sellers
- Pick a partner
- Two months later…
- Keep an eye on the contract
- Stay on top of the seller
- Close the contract when the work is done
- Contractcross
- Kate closes the contract
- Question Clinic: BYO Questions
- Contract Magnets Solution
- Contractcross Solutions
- + 13 Professional responsibility: Making good choices
- + 14 A little last-minute review: Check your knowledge
- + 15 Practice makes perfect: Practice PMP exam
- + Index
Learn the latest principles and certification objectives in The PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition, in a unique and inspiring way with Head First PMP . The second edition of this book helps you prepare for the PMP certification exam using a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. You'll find a full-length sample exam included inside the book.
More than just proof of passing a test, a PMP certification means that you have the knowledge to solve most common project problems. But studying for a difficult four-hour exam on project management isn't easy, even for experienced project managers. Drawing on the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory, Head First PMP offers you a multi- sensory experience that helps the material stick, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.
This book will help you:
Learn PMP's underlying concepts to help you understand the PMBOK principles and pass the certification exam with flying colors
Get 100% coverage of the latest principles and certification objectives in The PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition, including two new processes: Collect Requirements and Identify Stakeholders
Make use of a thorough and effective preparation guide with hundreds of practice questions and exam strategies
Explore the material through puzzles, games, problems, and exercises that make learning easy and entertaining
Head First PMP puts project management principles into context to help you understand, remember, and apply them -- not just on the exam, but also on the job.
Your free to read time expires in minutes. After that you have to pause for an hour.
Test the closed alpha on paperc.com
Book Details
Authors
Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman
Categories
Computers > Certification guides > General
Publishers
Publication year : 2009
License: All rights reserved ©
Times read: 4,240
