Project Management Institute (PMI)^® Project Management Professional (PMP)^® Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)^® Certification (u2)

This Nugget provides an overview of Project Management as defined in the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK^® Guide) Fourth Edition. Project Management consists of Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resource, Communication, Procurement, Risk and Integration Management.

PMBOK Guide is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

This Nugget reviews and compares the Project Life Cycle and Project Management. The Project Life Cycle consists to the actual steps and work required to complete the project, such as designing and building a new building, while Project Management, the subject of this Nugget series focus on ensuring that the building is delivered on time, on budget to specifications.

This Nugget reviews the steps necessary to define the project’s scope – what it is that the project is to accomplish. Proper scope definition is critical to overall project success as the scope is the foundation for all other project management activities, time, cost, resource plan, etc. This Nugget will review the steps required to: Collect the Requirements, Define the Scope and Create the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS is key to accurately defining the scope as it identifies all the work, and only the work required to complete the project.

This Nugget, the first of 2 on Project Time Management is focused on identifying and scheduling the work that is required to development the project schedule. This Nugget is focused on identifying the Work Breakdown Structure (the complete list of tasks to be completed to deliver the project’s scope). Next the tasks are sequenced by identifying the predecessor/successor relationships between the tasks. Then the estimates of time to complete the tasks are developed and the resources required to complete the work are identified. Finally, all this information is combined using project management software and the project schedule is developed.

This Nugget, the first of 2 on Project Cost Management is focused on developing the project costs and summarizing these costs into a time based project budget. Detailed costs for each WBS element: resource, material and fixed costs, are developed and assigned to the project. With this accurate forecast of the total project cost, the project budget is developed aligning the projects’ cash requirements with overall organizational financial management requirements.

This Nugget provides a demonstration on using Microsoft Project (MSP), a common Project Management software package. This Nugget demonstrated how MSP supports the Scope, Time and Budget management aspects discussed on the previous Nuggets.

This Nugget is focused on the soft skills required to be an effective Project Manager in terms of managing and motivating the project team members. This starts with the development of the Human Resource Plan identifying the resourcing requirements for the project. Next, the Nugget is focused on building and developing the team by working with the organizational resourcing group to assign team members to the project and develop the training plans necessary to ensure the team members have the necessary skills to complete their task assignments. And, finally, the Nugget reviews the techniques necessary to manage the team during project delivery.

This Nugget, the second of 2 focused on Project Communications Management ensures that the Communications Plan documented in the previous Nugget is put into action. The key to project communications is Communicate, Communicate and Communicate, and if you aren’t sure the message has been heard, Communicate one more time. This Nugget reviews the process for developing and distributing the weekly and monthly project status reports ensuring that the right information is distributed at the right time in the right format to the right stakeholders.

This Nugget is the second of three focused on Project Risk Management. This Nugget picks up the risk events identified in the last Nugget and reviews the quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques to be applied to determine the likelihood and impact that the risk event would have on the project should it occur. The purpose of these analysis techniques is to eliminate the “less important” risks to allow for the focusing on the top risks which would have the most significant negative impact on the project. With these top risks identified, the Nugget then focused on developing the project’s response to the risk, do we eliminate, avoid, transfer or accept the risk and its impact on our project.

This Nugget is focused on ensuring effective Procurement practices take place on your project. Techniques for Procurement Planning, Conducting Procurements, Administering Procurement and Closing Procurement are reviewed in this Nugget. Effective Procurement practices are critical to the success of a project as a failed procurement, could in fact result in project failure. Procurement Management is effectively creating one or more sub-projects which deliver a specific sub-set of the overall project scope. This Nugget reviews the techniques for ensuring that good procurement practices, consistent with your organizational procurement policies are in place to purchase the good, services and products that your project requires.

This Nugget provides a detailed review of the Earned Value Analysis technique. Earned Value Management is an often unknown and misunderstood Project Management technique. This Nugget provides the in-depth review of the Earned Value principles necessary to ensure that you can correctly answer the Earned Value questions on the exam.

This Nugget provides an overview of how to implement a Project Management Office (PMO). This Nugget reviews the different types of PMOs typically implemented, the benefits of having an effective PMO in place and typical steps to implementing a PMO.

This Nugget focuses on the key steps in the Project Planning process group: Develop Project Management Plan, Collect Requirements, Define Scope, Create WBS, Define Activities, Sequence Activities, Estimate Activity Resources, Estimate Activity Durations, Develop Schedule, Estimate Costs, Develop Budget, Plan Quality, Develop Human Resource Plan, Plan Communications, Plan Risk Management, Identify Risks, Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis, Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis, Plan Risk Reponses, Plan Procurements and Plan Procurements. Project Planning encompasses work from all the knowledge areas and is the most critical stage in successful project delivery. Without a full and complete project plan in place, the project doesn’t have a definable target. This Nugget summarizes the work identified in the previous Nuggets required for Project Planning.

This Nugget focuses on the key steps in the Project Monitoring and Control process group: Monitor and Control Project Work, Perform Integrated Change Control, Verify Scope, Control Scope, Control Schedule, Control Budget, Perform Quality Control, Report Performance, Monitor and Control Risks, and Administer Procurement. Project Monitoring and Control is where the Project Management activities take place to ensure that the project is delivering to the conditions defined in Project Planning. Project Monitoring and Control also defines the remedial actions to take to bring the project back on track, when deviations are detected. This Nugget summarizes the work identified in the previous Nuggets required for Project Monitoring and Control.

This Nugget reviews the expectations that PMI has on all Project Managers acting with professionalism and adhering to appropriate social responsibility. While there are no longer specific questions on the PMP^® exam related to Project Management Professionalism and Social Responsibility, the principles discussed in this Nugget are now "woven" into the other exam questions.

PMP is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.