Project Management Professional (PMP)

• Develop a common vision

  ≈ 3%55 min

  Task I.1. Help ensure key stakeholders share a vision, promote it and keep it current as things change. When people misunderstand the vision, break the situation down to find the root cause before acting.

  • Facilitate a shared project and product vision with key stakeholders using the business case, charter, vision statement or product vision board
  • Promote the shared vision so that team and stakeholder decisions trace back to the intended outcomes
  • Keep the vision current as feedback, benefits evidence and the business environment change
  • Break down situations to identify the root cause of a misunderstanding of the vision (active listening, five whys, alignment sessions) before choosing a response

• Manage conflicts

  ≈ 4%1 h 10 min

  Task I.2. Identify conflict sources and analyse the context, then implement an agreed resolution strategy. Share conflict management principles with the team and external stakeholders, and set up and enforce ground rules.

  • Identify conflict sources (priorities, schedules, resources, technical opinions, personalities, cost) and analyse the context and intensity before intervening
  • Choose and justify a resolution approach (collaborate/problem-solve, compromise/reconcile, smooth/accommodate, force/direct, withdraw/avoid) for the situation and urgency
  • Implement an agreed-on resolution strategy and communicate conflict management principles to the team and external stakeholders
  • Establish a team charter and ground rules, and manage ground rule violations promptly, privately and consistently

• Lead the project team: leadership style, empowerment and roles

  ≈ 4%1 h 15 min

  Task I.3. Set team expectations, empower the team, solve problems, represent the team’s voice and support varied experiences and perspectives. Choose a suitable leadership style and establish clear roles and responsibilities.

  • Establish team-level expectations and clear roles and responsibilities (team charter, working agreements, RACI/responsibility assignment matrix)
  • Empower the team to self-organise and make decisions while the project manager removes obstacles and represents the voice of the team to management
  • Select a leadership style (servant, transformational, situational, participative/democratic, directive, laissez-faire) that fits team maturity, urgency and approach
  • Solve team problems collaboratively and support varied experiences, skills and perspectives (inclusion, psychological safety)
  • Distinguish leadership from management and apply emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, social skill)

• Build and sustain a high-performing team

  ≈ 3.5%1 h 5 min

  Task I.3, continued. Develops and motivates the team: team development stages, motivation theories, coaching and training, recognition, virtual and multicultural teams, and handling underperformance fairly.

  • Diagnose team behaviour with team development models (Tuckman forming–storming–norming–performing–adjourning, Drexler/Sibbet) and choose the right intervention
  • Motivate and recognise team members using motivation theories (Maslow, Herzberg hygiene/motivators, McGregor X/Y, McClelland, Vroom expectancy)
  • Coach, mentor and develop skills (T-shaped/generalising specialists, cross-training, training plans) to close capability gaps
  • Lead virtual, distributed and multicultural teams (collaboration tools, time zones, cultural awareness, virtual co-location)
  • Address underperformance privately and objectively, with coaching before escalation to the functional manager

• Engage stakeholders

  ≈ 4%1 h 10 min

  Task I.4. Identify and analyse stakeholders and tailor communication to their needs. Execute the stakeholder engagement plan and build trust and influence to align stakeholder needs with project objectives.

  • Identify stakeholders continuously from initiation to closure and record them in a stakeholder register
  • Analyse stakeholders with power/interest and influence/impact grids, the salience model and the engagement assessment matrix (unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive, leading)
  • Analyse and tailor communication to stakeholder needs, and execute the stakeholder engagement plan
  • Build trust and influence stakeholders (active listening, negotiation, persuasion, early involvement) to align needs, expectations and project objectives

• Align stakeholder expectations

  ≈ 3%55 min

  Task I.5. Categorise stakeholders, identify their expectations and facilitate discussions that align them. Also covers organising and acting on mentoring opportunities.

  • Categorise stakeholders and identify their expectations, assumptions and success criteria
  • Facilitate discussions and workshops that align conflicting expectations (facilitation, consensus building, decision methods such as fist-of-five, dot voting and Delphi)
  • Organise and act on mentoring opportunities for team members and stakeholders
  • Escalate unresolved misalignment through governance only after facilitation has been attempted

• Manage internal and external customer expectations

  ≈ 2.5%50 min

  Task I.6. Identify internal and external customer expectations, keep outcomes aligned with them, and monitor satisfaction so you can respond before small gaps become escalations.

  • Identify internal and external customer expectations, including acceptance criteria and service levels
  • Align and maintain outcomes to customer expectations through demos, reviews and frequent feedback loops
  • Monitor customer satisfaction (surveys, review feedback, net promoter score) and respond as needed
  • Handle out-of-scope requests and gold plating by redirecting them through backlog refinement or change control

• Help ensure knowledge transfer

  ≈ 2.5%45 min

  Task I.7. Identify the knowledge critical to the project, gather it throughout the project and foster an environment where knowledge moves between people, teams and operations.

  • Identify knowledge critical to the project and distinguish explicit knowledge from tacit knowledge
  • Gather knowledge throughout the project (lessons learned register, retrospectives, knowledge repositories), not only at closure
  • Foster an environment for knowledge transfer (communities of practice, pairing, job shadowing, storytelling, workshops)
  • Plan knowledge handover to operations, support teams and future projects

• Plan and manage communication

  ≈ 4%1 h 5 min

  Task I.8. Define a communication strategy, promote transparency and collaboration, and set up feedback loops. Understand reporting requirements, create reports for sponsors and stakeholders, and support governance reporting.

  • Define a communication strategy and plan (audience, content, frequency, method; push, pull and interactive communication; sender–receiver model and noise)
  • Calculate communication channels as n(n − 1)/2 and select methods and technologies for colocated, distributed and hybrid teams
  • Promote transparency and collaboration with information radiators, and establish feedback loops
  • Understand reporting requirements and create reports aligned with sponsor and stakeholder expectations
  • Support reporting and governance processes (status reports, steering committee packs, dashboards)

About 9 h 10 min of study, lessons and core practice

• Choose the development approach and tailor delivery

  ≈ 3.5%1 h 5 min

  Task II.1, part 1. Assess the project’s needs, complexity and size. Recommend a predictive, adaptive/agile or hybrid approach and an execution strategy, tailor processes and artifacts, and define critical information needs such as sustainability.

  • Assess project needs, complexity and magnitude (requirements certainty, rate of change, risk, regulatory constraints, stakeholder availability, team experience)
  • Recommend a development approach and life cycle (predictive, iterative, incremental, agile, hybrid) using suitability factors
  • Recommend a project execution strategy and tailor processes, artifacts, cadence and ceremonies to the organisation and project
  • Determine critical information requirements, including sustainability and regulatory reporting needs

• Integrated project management plan and estimating

  ≈ 3%1 h 5 min

  Task II.1, part 2. Create and maintain an integrated project management plan, or its adaptive equivalents. Estimate work effort and resources, check consolidated plans for dependencies and gaps, and use data to make decisions.

  • Create and maintain an integrated project management plan (subsidiary plans, scope/schedule/cost baselines, change and configuration management plans) and its adaptive equivalents (roadmap, release and iteration plans)
  • Estimate work effort and resources with analogous, parametric, three-point (triangular and PERT (O + 4M + P) / 6), bottom-up and relative estimating (story points, planning poker, affinity estimating)
  • Assess consolidated project plans for dependencies, gaps and continued business value
  • Collect and analyse data, including AI-assisted analytics, to make informed project decisions

• Develop and manage project scope

  ≈ 3.5%1 h 10 min

  Task II.2. Define scope with requirements, a scope statement or a product backlog, and get stakeholder agreement. Break scope down with a WBS or epics and stories, and keep it under control without scope creep or gold plating.

  • Elicit and document requirements and define scope (project scope statement, product backlog, user stories with acceptance criteria)
  • Obtain stakeholder agreement on scope, acceptance criteria and the definition of done
  • Break down scope with a WBS, WBS dictionary and work packages, or into epics, features and user stories
  • Distinguish validate scope (formal acceptance) from control scope (managing change), and prevent scope creep and gold plating
  • Refine the backlog continuously in adaptive projects and keep the scope baseline current in predictive ones

• Help ensure value-based delivery

  ≈ 4%1 h 10 min

  Task II.3. Identify value with stakeholders, prioritise by value and feedback, and look for chances to deliver in increments. Check business value throughout the project and make sure benefits are measured.

  • Identify value components with key stakeholders (business case, benefits management plan, objectives and key results)
  • Prioritise work by value and stakeholder feedback (MoSCoW, Kano, cost of delay, weighted shortest job first, relative weighting)
  • Assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally (minimum viable product, minimum marketable feature, release planning) and evaluate delivery options that demonstrate value
  • Examine business value throughout the project with financial measures (NPV, IRR, ROI, payback period, benefit–cost ratio, opportunity cost)
  • Verify that a measurement system is in place to track benefits during and after the project

• Plan and manage resources

  ≈ 2.5%50 min

  Task II.4. Define and plan human and physical resources from requirements. Acquire and optimise them, and keep resource needs and availability balanced across the project.

  • Define and plan human and physical resources from requirements (resource management plan, resource breakdown structure, RAM/RACI, resource calendars)
  • Acquire resources by negotiating with functional managers and other projects, pre-assignment and virtual teams
  • Manage and optimise resource needs and availability using resource levelling, resource smoothing and capacity-based planning (velocity, WIP limits)
  • Manage physical resources and materials (just-in-time, lean inventory) and resolve resource conflicts

• Plan and manage procurement

  ≈ 4%1 h 15 min

  Task II.5. Covers procurement planning, strategy and contract type selection, negotiation, vendor and contract management, and checking that agreement objectives are met. Includes agile-friendly contracting and working with vendors on a delivery solution.

  • Plan procurement with make-or-buy analysis, a procurement strategy, statements of work and source selection criteria
  • Select contract types (FFP, FPIF, FP-EPA, CPFF, CPIF, CPAF, time and materials) and agile-friendly contracts (fixed-price increments, not-to-exceed T&M, graduated fixed price) based on risk allocation
  • Determine a negotiation strategy and participate in agreement negotiations
  • Manage suppliers and contracts: evaluate vendor performance, handle claims and disputes (negotiation first, then ADR), and verify that agreement objectives are met
  • Close procurements and collaborate with vendors to develop a delivery solution

• Plan and manage finance: budgets, reserves and earned value

  ≈ 5%1 h 30 min

  Task II.6. Analyse financial needs, quantify risk and contingency allocations, and plan spend tracking and financial reporting. Monitor variances with earned value, manage reserves and anticipate future finance problems.

  • Analyse project financial needs and build cost estimates, the budget and the cost baseline, including funding-limit reconciliation
  • Quantify risk and contingency allocations, and distinguish contingency reserves (inside the cost baseline) from management reserves (in the budget, outside the baseline, released through governance)
  • Plan spend tracking and financial reporting, and monitor variation with earned value (PV, EV, AC, CV, SV, CPI, SPI, EAC, ETC, VAC, TCPI)
  • Anticipate future finance challenges with forecasts and work with the governance process on variances beyond thresholds
  • Track finance in adaptive projects (burn rate, cost per iteration or story point, rolling-wave and incremental funding)

• Plan and optimise quality of products and deliverables

  ≈ 3%1 h

  Task II.7. Covers gathering quality requirements, planning and running quality processes, regulatory compliance, cost of quality and sustainability, ongoing quality reviews and continuous improvement.

  • Gather quality requirements for deliverables and plan quality processes, metrics and tools
  • Manage the cost of quality (prevention, appraisal, internal failure, external failure) and sustainability in deliverables
  • Distinguish quality assurance from quality control and apply quality tools (cause-and-effect, Pareto, control charts including rule of seven, histograms, check sheets, scatter diagrams)
  • Help ensure regulatory compliance and conduct ongoing quality reviews (audits, inspections, definition of done, test-driven practices)
  • Implement continuous improvement (PDCA, Kaizen, Six Sigma concepts, retrospectives)

• Plan and manage schedule

  ≈ 4.5%1 h 25 min

  Task II.8. Prepare a schedule suited to the chosen approach and coordinate with other projects and operations. Estimate tasks (milestones, dependencies, story points) from benchmarks and history, then baseline the schedule, execute the plan and analyse variance.

  • Prepare a schedule for the selected approach: activities, milestones and sequencing (FS, SS, FF, SF; leads and lags; mandatory, discretionary, external and internal dependencies)
  • Apply the critical path method (forward and backward pass, total and free float, near-critical paths) and compress the schedule by crashing or fast-tracking
  • Estimate with benchmarks, historical data and story points, and plan releases and iterations from team velocity
  • Baseline the schedule, coordinate with other projects and operations, and analyse variation (SV, SPI, burndown and burnup charts, milestone slippage)

• Evaluate project status: metrics and artifact management

  ≈ 3%55 min

  Task II.9. Develop and reconcile project metrics, and tailor and manage artifacts so they stay accurate and accessible. Assess progress and communicate status honestly.

  • Develop project metrics and KPIs, and reconcile metrics with baselines or the backlog
  • Identify and tailor the artifacts a project needs (plans, logs, registers, backlogs, boards), and make sure they are created, reviewed, updated, documented and accessible
  • Assess current progress with dashboards, information radiators, variance and trend analysis and forecasts
  • Communicate project status transparently (no ‘watermelon’ green-outside, red-inside reporting) and continually assess how well artifacts are being managed

• Manage project or phase closure

  ≈ 2%40 min

  Task II.10. Obtain stakeholder approval of completion and set the criteria for closing a project or phase. Check readiness for transition, then finish closure: lessons learned, procurements, financials and resources.

  • Obtain project stakeholder approval of project completion and formal acceptance of deliverables
  • Determine criteria to close a project or phase successfully, including premature termination
  • Validate readiness for transition to operations or the next phase (handover, training, support model, documentation)
  • Conclude closure activities: final lessons learned and retrospective, closing procurements and financials, releasing resources and archiving records

About 12 h 5 min of study, lessons and core practice

• Define and establish project governance

  ≈ 3%1 h

  Task III.1. Establish structure, rules, procedures, reporting, ethics and policies using organisational process assets. Define success metrics and set escalation paths and thresholds.

  • Describe and establish the project’s governance structure, rules, procedures, reporting, ethics and policies using organisational process assets (OPAs) within enterprise environmental factors (EEFs)
  • Define success metrics and link them to benefits and organisational strategy
  • Outline escalation paths and tolerance thresholds (sponsor, steering committee, change control board, PMO), and decide what the project manager may resolve without escalating
  • Work within PMO types (supportive, controlling, directive; value management office) and phase gates in predictive and hybrid projects

• Plan and manage project compliance

  ≈ 3%55 min

  Task III.2. Confirm and classify compliance requirements (security, health and safety, sustainability, regulation). Identify threats to compliance and the consequences of breaching it, then choose actions and measure compliance.

  • Confirm compliance requirements (security, health and safety, sustainability, data protection and AI use, industry regulation) and classify compliance categories
  • Determine potential threats to compliance and analyse the consequences of non-compliance (legal, financial, reputational, safety)
  • Use methods that support compliance (audits, checklists, compliance criteria in the definition of done, training, segregation of duties)
  • Determine the actions needed to address compliance gaps and measure the extent to which the project complies

• Manage and control changes

  ≈ 3.5%1 h

  Task III.3. Run the change control process, communicate the status of proposed changes, implement approved changes and keep documentation current. Covers both predictive integrated change control and adaptive backlog-based change.

  • Execute integrated change control in predictive projects (change request, impact analysis, CCB or sponsor decision, baseline update)
  • Manage change in adaptive projects through backlog refinement and product owner prioritisation, and in hybrid projects by matching the control to the component
  • Communicate the status of proposed changes and maintain the change log
  • Implement approved changes, update project documentation, and respond correctly to unapproved changes, scope creep and direct requests from senior stakeholders

• Remove impediments and manage issues

  ≈ 2.5%45 min

  Task III.4. Evaluate, prioritise and remove impediments, obstacles and blockers. Recognise when a risk has become an issue, and work with stakeholders to resolve issues.

  • Evaluate the impact of impediments and prioritise and make them visible (impediment board, daily stand-up, issue log)
  • Determine and apply an intervention strategy to remove or minimise impediments, and reassess continually until blockers are cleared
  • Recognise when a risk becomes an issue, then implement the planned response or a workaround
  • Collaborate with relevant stakeholders on how to resolve issues, escalating only when resolution is beyond the team’s authority

• Plan, identify and analyse risk

  ≈ 2.5%1 h

  Task III.5, part 1. Develop a risk management plan, identify risks (including security and sustainability risks) and maintain the risk register. Analyse risks qualitatively and quantitatively in predictive and adaptive settings.

  • Develop a risk management plan (methodology, roles, risk appetite and thresholds, probability and impact definitions, reporting)
  • Identify risks (brainstorming, SWOT, checklists, assumption and constraint analysis, prompt lists such as PESTLE) and write cause–risk–effect statements in the risk register
  • Analyse risks qualitatively (probability–impact matrix, urgency, proximity) and quantitatively (expected monetary value, decision trees, Monte Carlo simulation, sensitivity/tornado analysis)
  • Handle risk in adaptive projects (spikes, risk-adjusted backlog, short feedback cycles, risk burndown)

• Respond to, monitor and communicate risk

  ≈ 2.5%1 h

  Task III.5, part 2. Choose and carry out responses for threats and opportunities, assign owners, triggers and contingency plans, monitor and control risk, and communicate risk status and impact.

  • Select responses for threats (escalate, avoid, transfer, mitigate, accept) and opportunities (escalate, exploit, share, enhance, accept)
  • Assign risk owners, define triggers, contingency and fallback plans, and identify residual and secondary risks
  • Execute the risk management plan, including responses for security and sustainability risks, and monitor and control risks (risk reviews, audits, reserve analysis, trend analysis)
  • Communicate the status and impact of risks to stakeholders and update the register and reserves

• Continuous improvement

  ≈ 2%40 min

  Task III.6. Use lessons learned, keep continuous improvement processes up to date and feed improvements back into organisational process assets.

  • Use lessons learned from past and current projects to improve decisions throughout the project
  • Help ensure continuous improvement processes are updated (retrospectives, Kaizen, PDCA at team and organisational level)
  • Update organisational process assets (templates, checklists, estimating data, lessons learned repository)

• Support organisational change

  ≈ 2%45 min

  Task III.7. Assess organisational culture, evaluate how organisational change affects the project, and decide the actions needed so that people adopt the project’s outcomes.

  • Assess organisational culture (hierarchy, risk tolerance, agile maturity, decision style) and its effect on the project
  • Evaluate the impact of organisational change (restructuring, mergers, new leadership, new processes) on the project and determine the actions required
  • Support people through change with change models (ADKAR, Kotter’s eight steps, Lewin’s unfreeze–change–refreeze, Bridges’ transition model, the Satir change model)
  • Plan adoption, training and transition activities so that the organisation realises the intended benefits

• Evaluate external business environment changes

  ≈ 2.5%45 min

  Task III.8. Scan for changes in regulation, technology, geopolitics and the market. Assess and prioritise their impact on scope and backlog, and keep reviewing the environment throughout the project.

  • Survey changes in the external business environment (regulation, technology including AI, geopolitical, economic, market, social) using PESTLE-style scanning
  • Assess and prioritise the impact of external changes on project scope, backlog, risks and the business case
  • Continually review the external environment and update risks, backlog and plans
  • Recommend project adjustments (reprioritise, pivot, pause or terminate) when external change undermines the business case

About 7 h 50 min of study, lessons and core practice

• PMP exam technique: PMI mindset, case sets and graphic items

  ≈ 1.5%1 h

  A repeatable method for situational PMP questions. Covers the PMI mindset rules, FIRST/NEXT/BEST qualifiers, case-study reading strategy, interpreting charts and interactive items, and a pacing plan with break checkpoints.

  • Apply the PMI mindset to situational items: assess and analyse before acting, collaborate before escalating, follow the agreed process, protect the team and focus on value
  • Decode FIRST, NEXT, BEST and MOST qualifiers and eliminate options that skip steps, escalate too early, break process or avoid the problem
  • Work case-study sets efficiently: skim the questions first, map facts to tasks and keep answers consistent with the case data
  • Interpret graphic-based items (burndown/burnup charts, cumulative flow diagrams, earned value S-curves, network diagrams, risk heat maps) and answer matching, hotspot and pull-down items precisely
  • Pace 180 questions in 240 minutes with section checkpoints, flag-and-review discipline and no blank answers

About 1 h of study, lessons and core practice