PK0-004 Exam Topics
Project Basics 36%
Summarize the properties of a project.
- Temporary
- Start and finish
- Unique
- Reason/purpose
- Project as part of a program
- Project as part of a portfolio
Classify project roles and responsibilities.
- Sponsor/champion
- Approval authority
- Funding
- Project charter
- Baseline
- High-level requirements
- Control
- Marketing
- Roadblocks
- Business case/justification
- Project manager
- Manage team, communication, scope, risk, budget, and time
- Manage quality assurance
- Responsible for artifacts
- Project coordinator
- Support project manager
- Cross-functional coordination
- Documentation/ administrative support
- Time/resource scheduling
- Check for quality
- Stakeholder
- Vested interest
- Provide input and requirements
- Project steering
- Expertise
- Scheduler
- Develop and maintain project schedule
- Communicate timeline and changes
- Reporting schedule performance
- Solicit task status from resources
- Project team
- Contribute expertise to the project
- Contribute deliverables according to schedule
- Estimation of task duration
- Estimation of costs and dependencies
- Project Management Office (PMO)
- Sets standards and practices for organization
- Sets deliverables
- Provides governance
- Key performance indicators and parameters
- Provides tools
- Outlines consequences of non-performance
- Standard documentation/templates
- Coordinate resources between projects
Compare and contrast standard project phases.
- Initiation
- Project charter
- Business case
- High-level scope definition
- High-level risks
- Planning
- Schedule
- Work breakdown structure
- Resources
- Detailed risks
- Requirements
- Communication plan
- Procurement plan
- Change management plan
- Budget
- Execution
- Monitor and control
- Risks/issues log
- Performance measuring and reporting
- Quality assurance/governance
- Change control
- Budget
- Closing
- Transition/integration plan
- Training
- Project sign off
- Archive project documents
- Lessons learned
- Release resources
- Close contracts
Identify the basics of project cost control.
- Total project cost
- Expenditure tracking
- Expenditure reporting
- Burn rate
- Cost baseline/budget
Identify common project team organizational structures.
- Functional
- Resources reporting to functional manager
- Project manager has limited or no authority
- Matrix
- Authority is shared between functional managers and project managers
- Resources assigned from functional area to project
- Project manager authority ranges from weak to strong
- Projectized
- Project manager has full authority
- Resources report to project manager
- Ad hoc resources
Given a scenario, execute and develop project schedules.
- Work breakdown structure
- Scheduling activities
- Determine tasks
- Determine task start/finish dates
- Determine activity/task durations
- Determine milestones
- Set predecessors
- Set dependencies
- Sequence tasks
- Prioritize tasks
- Determine critical path
- Allocate resources
- Set baseline
- Set quality gates
- Set governance gates
- Client sign off
- Management approval
- Legislative approval
Identify the basic aspects of the Agile methodology.
- Readily adapt to new/ changing requirements
- Iterative approach
- Continuous requirements gathering
- Establish a backlog
- Burndown charts
- Continuous feedback
- Sprint planning
- Daily standup meetings/ SCRUM meetings
- SCRUM retrospective
- Self-organized and self-directed teams
Explain the importance of human resource, physical resource, and personnel management.
- Resource management concepts
- Shared resources
- Dedicated resources
- Resource allocation
- Resource shortage
- Resource overallocation
- Low quality resources
- Benched resources
- Interproject dependencies
- Interproject resource contention
- Personnel management
- Team building
- Trust building
- Team selection
- Skill sets
- Remote vs. in-house
- Personnel removal/replacement
- Communication issues
- Conflict resolution
- Smoothing
- Forcing
- Compromising
- Confronting
- Avoiding
- Negotiating
Project Constraints 17%
Given a scenario, predict the impact of various constraint variables and influences throughout the project.
- Common constraints
- Budget
- Scope
- Deliverables
- Quality
- Environment
- Resources
- Requirements
- Scheduling
- Influences
- Change request
- Scope creep
- Constraint reprioritization
- Interaction between constraints
- Stakeholders/sponsors/management
- Other projects
Explain the importance of risk strategies and activities.
- Strategies
- Accept
- Mitigate
- Transfer
- Avoid
- Exploit
- Risk activities
- Identification
- Quantification
- Planning
- Review
- Response
- Register
- Prioritization
- Communication
Communication & Change Management 26%
Given a scenario, use the appropriate communication method.
- Meetings
- Kick-off meetings
- Virtual vs. in-person meetings
- Scheduled vs. impromptu meetings
- Closure meetings
- Email
- Fax
- Instant messaging
- Video conferencing
- Voice conferencing
- Face-to-face
- Text message
- Distribution of printed media
- Social media
Compare and contrast factors influencing communication methods
- Language barriers
- Time zones/geographical factors
- Technological factors
- Cultural differences
- Interorganizational differences
- Intraorganizational differences
- Personal preferences
- Rapport building/relationship building
- Tailor method based on content of message
- Criticality factors
- Specific stakeholder communication requirements
- Frequency
- Level of report detail
- Types of communication
- Confidentiality constraints
- Tailor communication style
Explain common communication triggers and determine the target audience and rationale.
- Audits
- Project planning
- Project change
- Risk register updates
- Milestones
- Schedule changes
- Task initiation/completion
- Stakeholder changes
- Gate reviews
- Business continuity response
- Incident response
- Resource changes
Given a scenario, use the following change control process within the context of a project.
- Change control process
- Identify and document
- Evaluate impact and justification
- Regression plan (Reverse changes)
- Identify approval authority
- Obtain approval
- Implement change
- Validate change/quality check
- Update documents/audit documents/version control
- Communicate throughout as needed
- Types of common project changes
- Timeline change
- Funding change
- Risk event
- Requirements change
- Quality change
- Resource change
- Scope change
Recognize types of organizational change.
- Business merger/acquisition
- Business demerger/split
- Business process change
- Internal reorganization
- Relocation
- Outsourcing
Project Tools & Documentation 21%
Compare and contrast various project management tools.
- Project scheduling software
- Charts
- Process diagram
- Histogram
- Fishbone
- Pareto chart
- Run chart
- Scatter chart
- Gantt chart
- Dashboard/status report
- Knowledge management tools
- Intranet sites
- Internet sites
- Wiki pages
- Vendor knowledge bases
- Collaboration tools
- Performance measurement tools
- Key performance indicators
- Key performance parameters
- Balanced score card
- SWOT analysis
- Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed (RACI) Matrix
Given a scenario, analyze project centric documentation.
- Project charter
- Project management plan
- Issues log
- Organizational chart
- Scope statement
- Communication plan
- Project schedule
- Status report
- Dashboard information
- Action items
- Meeting agenda/meeting minutes
Identify common partner or vendor-centric documents and their purpose.
- Request for Information
- Request for Proposal
- Request for Quote
- Mutually binding documents
- Agreements/contract
- Non-disclosure agreement
- Cease and Desist letter
- Letter of Intent
- Statement of Work
- Memorandum of Understanding
- Service Level Agreement
- Purchase Order
- Warranty
