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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Your perfect companion to prepare for and pass the CompTIA Project+ PK0-004 exam
Key Features
- Manage project changes and deliver desired project outcomes
- Gain confidence in passing the PK0-004 exam with the help of practice questions
- Obtain insight from J. Ashley Hunt, an accomplished subject matter expert
Book Description
The CompTIA Project+ exam is designed for IT professionals who want to improve their career trajectory by gaining certification in project management specific to their industry. This guide covers everything necessary to pass the current iteration of the Project+ PK0-004 exam.
The CompTIA Project+ Certification Guide starts by covering project initiation best practices, including an understanding of organizational structures, team roles, and responsibilities. You'll then study best practices for developing a project charter and the scope of work to produce deliverables necessary to obtain formal approval of the end result. The ability to monitor your project work and make changes as necessary to bring performance back in line with the plan is the difference between a successful and unsuccessful project. The concluding chapters of the book provide best practices to help keep an eye on your projects and close them out successfully. The guide also includes practice questions created to mirror the exam experience and help solidify your understanding of core project management concepts.
By the end of this book, you will be able to develop creative solutions for complex issues faced in project management.
What you will learn
- Develop a project charter and define team roles and responsibilities
- Plan the project scope, schedule, budget, and risks
- Process change requests and work with procurement documents
- Close a formal project or phase and get an overview of Agile Project Management principles
- Create a work breakdown structure (WBS) and dictionary
- Discover best practices for identifying, analyzing, and responding to risk
- Gain important exam information and discover the next steps
Who this book is for
The CompTIA Project+ Certification Guide is for entry-level project managers who are looking for a common language and best practices in the IT project management space as well as a certification to excel in their career.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 548
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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CompTIA Project+ Certification Guide
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing
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Commissioning Editor: Vijin BorichaAcquisition Editor: Rahul NairContent Development Editor: Dattatraya MoreTechnical Editor: Nirbhaya ShajiCopy Editor: Safis EditingProject Coordinator: Kinjal BariProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Mariammal ChettiyarGraphics: Jisha ChirayilProduction Coordinator: Shraddha Falebhai
First published: September 2018
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ISBN 978-1-78953-449-8
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Foreword
Hello, readers.
There is a reason you are reading this student guide right now. Maybe you are looking to get certified, or to learn about formal project management for career advancement, or perhaps you are looking to make a career switch. I applaud all of those triggers for embarking on this journey. But how will this undertaking in project management certification affect you? That is what I'd like to share. You'll see the world with a different lens. A project management lens will help you interact with those around you, predict success or failure, mitigate major risk events, and exploit opportunities.
It is the little things that you'll learn through this journey that will change you. Take, for instance, the discussion of how organizations operate. As a project manager, you'll interact with teams that are already slammed with work. How will you get the resources you need if they don't report to you? How will you get the most out of the individuals that are involved in your project? You'll be more likely to get the team you need if you know how to negotiate for them, motivate them, get them through tough times, and then stand back when they are on a pathway to success.
You will learn how to look at metrics and detect whether you'll have cost overruns, miss a schedule milestone, or deliver as planned. Ultimately, a good project manager is a coach, a firefighter, a referee, and a mathematician all rolled into one. The role of project manager is multifaceted, challenging, and rarely the same day to day. A good project manager can completely change the dynamics of an organization for the better. I'm hoping this all sounds exciting to you! It is a rewarding profession, and we need more good project managers in this world.
If you've picked up this book, you are in good hands. J. Ashley Hunt and I have known each other and worked together for a long time. I met Ashley in 2002, in what is the infancy of the group that I run at StormWind Studios now. Ashley was a great project management instructor back then and is even better now. She is the quintessential PMP®, Project+, CAPM®, and PMI-ACP® instructor. She'll help you learn the formal information, apply that information, and not bore you to tears or force something on you that is impractical.
She is an authority you can trust, and in doing so, you can give yourself up to her as she shepherds you through this journey. As I say to all my own students, I wish you the best of luck to you in all your pursuits. Exploit this opportunity. Project management knowledge and certification can make a world of difference for your career and your organization.
Dan Young, CCIE & PMPVice President of OperationsStormWind Studios
Contributors
About the author
J. Ashley Hunt is currently the senior project management instructor at StormWind Studios for Waterfall and Agile project management. A nationally and internationally known subject-matter expert in the areas of Project Management and Professional Development, she has created training offerings for and delivered project management training to more than 10 thousand people working for enterprise clientele around the world. Ashley has developed an admirable reputation as a consultative trainer and engaging speaker in several disciplines, consistently receiving exemplary evaluations from her students and clientele. This is her second published study guide. Relevant technical experience: PMP®, Project+, PMI-ACP®, CSM, MCAS, LSSGBC certified.
Thanks go to Dattatraya More and Nirbhaya Shaji, for excellent guidance as my editors; Rahul Nair, who reached out to me to start this venture and Bob Simpson for the technical edits. Dan Young, for being the best leader I have ever worked for and with – thank you for writing the foreword! Thanks to all at Packt Publishing. Lastly, thank you to StormWind Studios for being an incredible place to work and grow professionally.
About the reviewer
Bobby Simpson is the creator of GhostSentry.com, an access control and compliance firewall, and CIO for the accounting firm Finley & Cook. Bobby has 20 years of experience managing technical projects and infrastructure, along with policies and procedures compliant with HIPAA, PCI, and NIST. Bobby holds several technical certifications, including CISSP, CompTIA Project+, SANS GPEN, GCIA, GCIH, and Cisco+Security. He is a SANS mentor instructor and a member of InfraGard.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
CompTIA Project+ Certification Guide
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Why subscribe?
Packt.com
Foreword
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewer
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Getting your foot in the door
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
Introduction to the CompTIA Project+ Exam (PK0-004)
Why project management certification?
What will you learn?
Exam objectives (domains)
Chapters and corresponding domains
About the CompTIA Project+ exam (PK0-004) 
How to apply for the CompTIA Project+ exam
Ready for your exam?
What to expect on exam day
Study tips
Summary
Questions
Project Initiation
Defining a project
Temporary
Unique
What is a program?
What is a portfolio?
What is project management?
Waterfall project management
Agile project management
Understanding organizational structures
Three organizational structures and their elements
Functional organizations
Matrix organizations
Weak matrix
Balanced matrix
Strong matrix organizations
Projectized or project-based organizations
Project selection techniques
Creating a case for business
Decision models
Constrained optimization methods
Benefit measurement methods
Cost-benefit analysis
Scoring models
Payback period
Economic models
Discounted cash-flow analysis
Net present value
Internal rate of return
Expert judgment
Feasibility analysis
The business case
Project management knowledge areas
The role of the project manager
Summary
Questions
Project Roles and Responsibilities
An overview of stakeholder roles and responsibilities
Key stakeholders' requirements and interests
Project team roles and responsibilities
Project sponsor
The project champion
The customer
The project manager
What exactly is the project management plan?
Project coordinator
Scheduler
Project team
Project Management Office (PMO)
Change Control Board (CCB)
Functional managers
Sellers, vendors, suppliers, and procurement managers
Sellers, vendors, and suppliers
Procurement managers
The Project Management Office (PMO)
Supportive
Controlling
Directive
Creating a stakeholder matrix
Summary
Questions
Developing a Project Charter
Life cycle of a project or phase
Initiation 
Planning
Execution
Monitoring and controlling
Closing the project or phase
Common documents and process groups
Overlapping phases
Sequential phases
Adaptive or agile phases
What is agile?
Goals and objectives of a project charter
The Delphi technique
Documenting high-level requirements
High-level requirements
Criteria of a project charter
Why a charter is important
Example of a project charter
Agile project charter
Holding a kick-off meeting
Summary
Questions
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Developing a scope management plan
The importance of scope management plans
Requirement documentation
Typical categories to describe how requirements meet business needs
Requirements in agile project management
Scope statement
Scope categories
Understanding the work breakdown structure
WBS dictionary information
What is the scope baseline?
Summary
Questions
Developing a Project Schedule
Developing a schedule management plan
Schedule management plan considerations
Defining tasks
Sequencing tasks
Dependencies
Relationships
Finish-to-start relationships
Start-to-start relationships
Finish-to-finish relationships
Start-to-finish relationships
Lead and lag time
Estimating durations
Dates
The project calendar
Resource calendars
Task calendars
Effort
Duration
Analogous estimates
Parametric estimates
Three-point estimates
Reserve analysis
Developing the project schedule
Critical path
Float/slack time
Critical chain
Monte Carlo technique
Schedule compression
Fast tracking
Crashing
Optimizing resources
Leveling
Smoothing
The schedule baseline
Summary
Questions
Resource Management Planning and Communication Considerations
Resource management concepts
Human resource planning
Developing a performing team
Virtual teams
Motivational theories
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Physiological needs
Safety needs
Social needs
Esteem needs
Self-actualization
Douglas McGregor’s theory X and theory Y
X managers
Y managers
Frederick Herzberg’s theory of hygiene
David McClelland’s theory of needs
The need for achievement
The need for power
The need for affiliation
Peter Drucker’s management by objective (MBO)
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time-based
Rewards and recognition
Conflict resolution
Confrontation and problem-solving
Compromise
Smoothing
Forcing
Avoiding
Negotiating
Monitoring team performance
Communication considerations
Kick-off meeting
Summary
Questions
Budget and Contingency Plans for Risk
Estimating costs
Quality management and the cost of quality
Quality gates and governance gates
Governance gates
Creating the project budget
Tracking and reporting cost/schedule performance
Budget at completion (BAC)
Earned value (EV)
Planned value (PV)
Schedule variance (SV)
Schedule performance index (SPI)
Earned schedule (ES)
 Cost variance (CV)
Cost performance index (CPI)
Forecasting
Risk management planning
SWOT analysis
Creating the risk register
Qualitative risk analysis
Quantitative risk analysis
Expected monetary value (EMV)
Creating risk responses for threats
Avoid
Secondary risks
Residual risk events
Transfer
Mitigate
Accept
Contingent response strategy
Opportunity responses
Risk triggers
Risk owners
Issue logs
Summary
Questions
Monitoring and Controlling Project Work
Quality control
Histograms
Fishbone diagram
Pareto diagrams
Run chart
Scatter charts
Validate scope
Integrated change control
Types of change
Corrective actions
Preventative actions
Defect repair
Scope change
Change control process
Other causes of change
Procurement management
Contract types
Fixed price
Fixed price incentive fee (FPIF)
Fixed Price Economic Price Adjustments (FPEPA)
Cost reimbursable
Cost plus fixed fee (CPFF)
Cost plus award fee (CPAF)
Cost plus incentive fee (CPIF)
Time and material (T&M)
The roles in procurement
The project manager and procurement
Single source
Sole source
Conducting procurement
Screening system
Weighting system
Contract administrator/agreement coordinator
Partner-centric procurement documents
Letter of intent
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
Breach of contract
Service Level Agreements (SLA)
Purchase Order (PO)
Nondisclosure agreement (NDA)
Cease-and-desist letter
Warranty
Controlling procurement
Seller surveys
Procurement audit
Closing procurements
Waivers
Summary
Questions
Formal Project or Phase Closure and Agile Project Management
Project or phase closure 
The four categories of project endings
Extinction
Addition
Integration
Starvation
Phase closure
Formal acceptance of the deliverable
Administrative and team closure
Lessons learned and final reporting
Overview of agile project management
Introduction to the Scrum framework
Transparency
Inspection
Adaptation
Key Aspects of a Scrum Project
The product backlog
User stories
The sprint
The Scrum team
The Product Owner
The development team – how
Scrum Master – servant-leader
Sprint planning
The process of Sprint planning
A Scrum board
Daily Scrums
Reviews 
Retrospectives
Hybrid or tailored project management
Types of hybrid agile frameworks
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
LeSS
LeSS levels
Enterprise Scrum
Values of enterprise Scrum
Questions
Assessments
Chapter 1 – Introduction to the CompTIA Project+ Exam (PK0-004)
Chapter 2 – Project Initiation
Chapter 3 – Project Roles and Responsibilities
Chapter 4 – Developing a Project Charter
Chapter 5 – Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Chapter 6 – Developing a Project Schedule
Chapter 7 – Resource Management Planning and Communication Considerations
Chapter 8 – Budget and Contingency Plans for Risk
Chapter 9 – Monitoring and Controlling Project Work
Chapter 10 – Formal Project or Phase Closure and Agile Project Management
Other Book You May Enjoy
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Preface
Congratulations on your decision to become CompTIA Project+ certified!
Because you are preparing to take the CompTIA Project+ (PK0-004) exam, you'll undoubtedly want to find out as much information as you can about the variety of best practices found in IT and other types of project management. The more information you have at your disposal, and the more hands-on experience you gain, the better off you'll be when attempting the exam.
The goal is to provide you with enough information to prepare you for the exam, but my hope for you is – aside from having letters after your name (which is great!) – that you'll learn new best practices that you can bring into your current or future projects.
You may find that some of the best practices don't align with your day-to-day projects, and that's okay! I like to think of this information as perfect-world project management. We don't live in a perfect world, so if you read through something and think to yourself that will never work in my organization, or we would never use this, that is totally okay and expected.
There will, however, be tons of great information and best practices that you can use in your projects. Talking the talk is great, but walking the walk is even better. The more you learn and implement, the smoother your projects will run. Plus, that makes it all the easier to pass your exam.
I've included review questions at the end of each chapter to give you an idea of what to expect in your exams. If you're already working in an IT project environment, I recommend that you check out these questions first to gauge your level of expertise. You can then use the book primarily to fill in the gaps in your current knowledge. This study guide will help you round out your knowledge base before tackling the exam.
If you can answer 90 percent or more of the review questions correctly for each chapter, you can feel safe moving on to the next chapter. If you're unable to answer that percentage of questions correctly, re-read the chapter and try the questions again. Your score should improve as you continue your studies.
You may also find that many of the best practices come from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). If you are not familiar with the PMBOK® Guide, it is published by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), who developed the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®) exam, the Project Management Professional (PMP®) exam, and the Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) exam, as well as many other certification-based exams for project managers.
There is more information following on where to find other certifications if you are ever interested in obtaining more in future.
For now, let's focus on your Project+ and its correlation to the PMBOK Guide®. The PMBOK Guide® contains all the best practices for predictive project management, meaning fully plan-driven. CompTIA acknowledges the guide and all the best practices but narrows everything to more of an introductory level and targets the IT industry specifically.
The material is presented from a beginner to intermediate technical level. Experience with and knowledge of different types of roles and responsibilities in small- to medium-sized projects is helpful but not necessary for the CompTIA Project+ (PK0-004) exam, which is the most up-to-date exam at the time of writing.
Getting your foot in the door
CompTIA's goal in putting together the Project+ (PK0-004) exam is to call attention to the multiple methodologies and best practices involved in project management.
There are many other certification types that are proprietary, such as the following:
The CAPM through the PMI,
www.pmi.org
The
Project Management Professional
(
PMP
) through the PMI,
www.pmi.org
Axelos PRINCE2 Foundational exam,
https://www.axelos.com/certifications/prince2
Although many of these certifications have numerous experience requirements to sit the exam, CompTIA Project+ does not. However, it is a great jumping-off point and shows you are working toward your goals. The content itself is not company-specific or partial to any one set of processes over another.
After passing the exam, you can take your new knowledge and apply it based on your organizational best practices and processes as needed.
Who this book is for
In a world that is becoming more focused on technology, understanding project management across multiple industries is an essential career skill. CompTIA Project+ certification proves that you have the knowledge and skills to solve business problems in virtually any business environment running small- to medium-sized IT projects on a regular basis. If you are a new project manager or a seasoned project manager in the field of IT, certification can help you become more competitive and employable.
Certification also shows dedication to your organization and your career trajectory. Research shows that people who study project management best practices get hired or promoted more often than those who do not. Job applicants with high school diplomas or college degrees who included project management coursework or certifications on their resumes fared consistently better in job interviews and were hired or promoted more often.
Testing for certification can be an invaluable competitive advantage for IT project management professionals.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introduction to the CompTIA Project+ Exam (PK0-004), is an overview of what to expect from the CompTIA Project+ certification process and the steps to help you with certification. It also provides a practice exam to test your knowledge.
Chapter 2, Project Initiation, will help readers learn about how projects are defined based on different organizational structures and introduce the different project selection techniques that are used to charter a project.
Chapter 3, Project Roles and Responsibilities, will describe the variety of stakeholders who could be involved in any type of project and will define the responsibilities they may undertake.
Chapter 4, Developing a Project Charter, will describe the different process groups found on projects or phases and provide information on how key deliverables and high-level requirements are determined based on a business case and stakeholder engagement.
Chapter 5, Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), will provide the ability to accurately plan other areas such as the schedule, budget, and procurement.
Chapter 6, Developing a Project Schedule, will review defining and sequencing tasks to best determine durations. Once the schedule is put together, the critical path can be determined and a schedule baseline can be set.
Chapter 7, Resource Management Planning and Communication Considerations, will cover the best practices for selecting team members and advice on how to create a cohesive team.
Chapter8, Budget and Contingency Plans for Risk, will review how project budgets are created and why setting a baseline is so important. It is also necessary for most projects to understand how risk events can help or hurt your project financially.
Chapter 9, Monitoring and Controlling Project Work, will cover how to monitor your project work and make changes to bring performance back in line with the plan and provide best practices to help you keep an eye on your projects and close them out successfully.
Chapter 10, Formal Project or Phase Closure and Agile Project Management, talks about how closing out a project or phase in a formal manner is important for the tracking of lessons learned and for finalizing anything left of project work or deliverable transition. It is also important to know that project management isn't a one-size-fits-all situation, therefore there may be a need to tailor best practices using a more agile approach.
To get the most out of this book
Answer the chapter review questions at the end of each chapter. Check your score and review the items you missed before moving on to the next chapter. It may take two times through to truly be ready for the exam. This guide is more than an exam prep book; it is an overview of all best practices that may be necessary in any given project at any given time. To get the most out of this book, be sure to place yourself in a variety of different situations that may occur on your projects and ask yourself whether you could use the recommended best practices or even tailor them to suit your unique project needs. While having a certification is excellent for your career, it is also important to be able to walk the walk.
Read and re-read the chapters you find the most difficult and look online for other practice exams you can study from.
No study guide is designed to mimic the exact questions on the exam and you will not see the exact questions from this guide on your exam. It is merely a way to test and solidify knowledge.
I hope you enjoy the content and I wish you the best of luck in your studies and all future endeavors!
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Conventions used
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Introduction to the CompTIA Project+ Exam (PK0-004)
In this chapter, we'll provide an overview of the CompTIA Project+ exam (PK0-004), how to apply for the exam, and some study tips to get you started. You'll also have an assessment test at the end of this chapter to see where your knowledge lies and areas to target for further study. While this information is readily available online in a variety of places, this overview will provide you with all of the information you need to know in one place.
This chapter covers the following:
The CompTIA Project+ exam
How to apply for the exam
What to expect on exam day
Study tips
Assessment test
Why project management certification?
Project management has been around since the dawn of time. Imagine trying to figure out the best way to build a fire for the very first time or how to catch a dinosaur without getting hurt! Humans have always found ways to improve how things are done. Think of ancient Greece and Rome, and imagine the artistic creations and the building of incredible architecture; in a lot of cases, people were creating better ways of doing battle and organizing their troops. All of those are projects.
In the industrial age, project management was applicable to building tall edifices, ships, and trains and utilizing new machinery to improve commerce and quality of life. Now, we are in the technological age and even though we are still building tall edifices, trains, planes, and automobiles, we are finding new types of projects that need their own best practices.
Many project management best practices have stood the test of time, such as scheduling, budgeting, resourcing, and determining what the result will be. The reason they have stood the test of time is because they work.
Our use of tools and best practices will need to be adapted so they work for technological projects, such as protecting your organization with cyber security, installing servers or software development, and help-desk management. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to project management in any industry, and most of the time our organizational processes and enterprise environment influence our projects the most.
But what if you had multiple tools and knowledge at your disposal to adapt and adjust as needed to meet the demands of your projects? What if you could adapt those best practices to conform to your organizational processes and industry? Then it wouldn't matter whether you were trying to catch dinosaurs, building the Colosseum, or building a data center. You could pick and choose what would work. That is the beauty of learning best practices. On top of that, if you can prove you know those best practices through certification, now you have some project management clout in your back pocket!
The CompTIA Project+ exam is designed for people like you: professional people who have set best practices based on their organization but are looking for a common language to use, those who need tools and best practices that have been proven over and over again to work but are adaptable to your environment.
Having one or multiple project management certifications shows your willingness to learn, try new things, and improve your organization's projects, which in turn provides value to the organization. Congratulations for taking the first step to career improvement!
Project management is in high demand globally. Project managers make anywhere from $70,000 to $150,000 based on their location and what types of projects they work on. Every organization has an IT department and even if you don't have a lot of experience yet, going into the career of project management without a lot of bad habits is greatly appreciated by organizations. So, don't worry if you're just starting out, because the CompTIA Project+ exam was designed for you.
Everything you will cover in this guide will prepare you for not just certification and passing an exam, but my hope is that it will also give you the tools you can use right away on your current or future projects.
You may see some things in this guide and on your exam that don't necessarily align with your organization's best practices or simply won't work in your current environment. That is totally okay! You will need that information to answer questions correctly on your exam, and maybe as you progress in your career you'll find a need for some of those skills.
What will you learn?
Everything we will cover can be found on CompTIA's exam content outline overview on the CompTIA website (https://www.comptia.org/).
You'll want to review the topics that are tested on and how each topic weighs as far as your score is concerned. The following is an overview of the skills you will learn in this guide and an overview of the exam information. All chapters have review questions to help target your exam studies, plus you'll gain an understanding of the best study tips to pass the exam the first time. When you review the exam content outline on the CompTIA website, you'll see it is broken down into several categories:
Project basics
Project constraints
Communication and change management
Project tools and documentation
All exam questions fall under these domains or categories. The following section shows everything we will cover in this guide, along with the correlating domains found on the CompTIA website.
Exam objectives (domains)
Here are the list of things that we will cover in this guide:
Domain
% of Exam
1.0 Project Basics
36%
2.0 Project Constraints
17%
3.0 Communication and Change Management
26%
4.0 Project Tools and Documentation
21%
Total
100%
Chapters and corresponding domains
Here the details of the chapters and the corresponding domains that they cover:
Chapter 1: Introduction to the CompTIA Project+ Exam (PK0-004)
Understanding what CompTIA is and the value of Project+ certification
How to apply for the Project+ exam
Having a good understanding of the best study tips and tricks to pass the exam the first time
Review question types pertaining to the chapters to help target your studies
Chapter 2: Project Initiation
Project basics
Defining organizational structures and influencing factors on projects
Recognizing the different knowledge areas that can be utilized on projects
Understanding the role of the project manager including skills like communication and problem solving
Project constraints
Understanding the development of a business case and how projects are selected
Chapter 3: Project Roles and Responsibilities
Project basics
Defining the different roles on a project team and what each role is responsible for
Understand the different types of PMO and why they are important to the project
Project basics, communication, and change management
Understanding the importance of managing stakeholder needs and interests on the project
Project tools and documentation, communication, and change management
Creating a stakeholder matrix and determining a strategy for managing stakeholder engagement
Chapter 4: Developing a Project Charter
Project basics
Understanding the different types of life cycles and process groups in project management
Project constraints
Knowing the necessary information to build a comprehensive project charter
Project constraints, project tools, and documentation
Listing the steps to gain formal approval of the project charter
Project communication and change management
Recognizing the elements of an effective kickoff meeting
Chapter 5:Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Project Constraints, Project Tools, and Documentation
Recognizing the importance of creating a scope-management plan
Identifying acceptance criteria and performance measurements
Developing a scope statement
Developing a work breakdown structure and WBS dictionary
Chapter 6: Developing a Project Schedule
Project Basics and Project Constraints
Creating and navigating a network diagram
Understanding different techniques to estimate duration
Project Basics
Identifying the different types of resources that can affect duration
Review the importance of a schedule baseline
Project Basics, Project Tools, and Documentation
Navigate critical path methods and how schedule-compression works
Chapter 7: Resource Management Planning and Communication Considerations
Project Tools and Documentation
Using matrix, hierarchical, and text-based documentation to determine resource needs
Project Basics
Recognizing different conflict-management techniques and when they are appropriate
Reviewing team-building and motivation techniques
Project Basics, Project Tools, and Documentation
Determine ways to monitor team performance throughout the project
Chapter 8: Budget and Contingency Plans for Risk
Project Basics
Demonstrating different ways to estimate costs based on the situation
Project Constraints, Project Tools, and Documentation
List the typical information found in a cost baseline
Project Basics, Project Tools, and Documentation
Using earned value formulas to track performance
Project Constraints
Best practices for identifying, analyzing, and responding to risk
Chapter 9: Monitoring and Controlling Project Work
Communication and Change Management
Understanding the change-control system and how to process changes through formal change-control systems
Project Tools and Documentation
Understanding the procurement process and the different types of contracts
Reviewing how sellers are selected and the project manager's role in procurement
Chapter 10: Formal Project or Phase Closure and Agile Project Management
Project Basics
Identifying best practices for closing out a project
Understanding different project-ending types
Understanding the basics of Agile project management
Hybrid project management
Project Tools and Documentation
Learning how to create
lessons learned
Preparing a final project report
About the CompTIA Project+ exam (PK0-004)
The CompTIA Project+ exam will rotate through different questions across multiple test takers, however the number of questions and the basics of a passing score are the same globally, as are the domains and the scoring weight. Here is some information about the test:
Number of questions
: Maximum of 95
Type of questions
: Multiple choice
Length of test
: 90 minutes
Recommended experience
: Minimum of one year of managing, directing, or participating in small- to medium-scale projects
Passing score
: 710 (on a scale from 100–900)
How to apply for the CompTIA Project+ exam
While the steps for gaining your Project+ certification may seem fairly easy, it's important to know what those steps are, so you can begin to prepare for your exam. The following steps will help guide you through the process:
Review the exam objectives
Practice for the exam by answering the practice questions at the end of every chapter
After you have studied for the exam, review and answer as many sample questions as you can to prepare for exam day
Ready for your exam?
There are several steps involved in preparing to take your exam. The following information will walk you through the process:
Purchase your voucher from the CompTIA website and then find a testing center and schedule your exam at a nearby location. It's possible there will be an in-home remotely-proctored exam if a location can't be found near you.
Pearson VUE are the proctors for in-person exams, so you will need to create an account on their site as well. Visit
https://home.pearsonvue.com
to do that.
Once you have an account, you will be able to buy a voucher (if you haven't obtained one through the CompTIA website already); choose a testing center near you and schedule your exam.
Pearson VUE also offers scheduling via phone if you are having trouble scheduling online.
From the CompTIA Project+ page, you can navigate to all of the information to pay for and schedule your exam.
What to expect on exam day
Here is what you can expect on exam day:
Show up a few minutes early so that you can sign in. You will be asked to provide two forms of identification, and to leave your belongings in a locker provided by Pearson VUE. The proctor will give you something to write on and something to write with, and then walk you to your computer station.
The exam will be computer-based with one question presented on the screen at a time. You will easily be able to navigate the exam by using the
Next
and
Back
buttons.
You also have the ability to mark questions for later review in case there's a question you're not sure of or that you cannot answer.
You may have a short tutorial on how to navigate and mark questions before you begin your exam.
For any questions that involve formulas, you will have access to a calculator built into the question, so you don't have to do any math in your head. Yay!
The exam will present you with situational questions and will ask you to put yourself in the shoes of a variety of positions on a project team. The majority of the questions are written from the project manager's perspective, but be prepared to understand all of the roles on the project team.
You may find that some questions have two or more correct answers. Do your best to select all that apply. It is also likely that you will get questions that contain extraneous information that doesn't pertain to the correct answer.
Once you submit your exam, you will find out within a minute whether you have passed your exam, and Pearson VUE will give you a certificate proving you have passed.
Your certification is good for life without the need for continuing education credits or future retakes of newer versions of the exam.
CompTIA will mail you your certification shortly after. You may want to buy a frame for it. It's a big accomplishment and you should be very proud!
Study tips
Here are some study tips to help you prepare for the exam:
Take and retake practice exams until you score approximately 85-90% several times in a row. Be aware that the practice questions in your student guide will not be the same questions you will get on your exam as there is a test pool of thousands of questions.
You never know which questions you will get on your exam. You could be sitting next to someone taking their Project+ exam and they would have a different pool of questions to answer. The content is aligned to the domains and exam content outline, but it is presented in different ways.
The exam itself is not adaptive, so the pool of questions you get when you sit down will not change based on your knowledge of one topic over another.
I highly recommend that you use these practice questions as a way to solidify the information rather than to rote memorize it, as you will find the actual exam questions will differ.
If you find yourself memorizing the answers to the questions in this guide without actually knowing why an answer is correct or incorrect, it may be helpful to test yourself with additional practice exams that present the information in a different way.
CompTIA can also provide you with a couple of free questions via request from their website, and they offer a paid service called
CertMaster Practice
.
Be careful about old or incorrect brain dumps on the internet as there are multiple websites that have exam information. Do your research before selecting sites that provide additional practice questions.
Make sure that you read everything carefully! If you don't read carefully, you may miss a better answer or the nuance of the question itself.
Use this study guide to review all pertinent information, best practices, and suggested processes. You may find if you are already working on projects that you do not need to utilize what is suggested as a best practice in a student guide and on the exam. The reason for this may be because of your organizational processes and your enterprise environment.
Remember project management is not a one-size-fits-all situation. You may learn some new best practices that you want to incorporate in your day-to-day, and you may learn some best practices that are not relevant in your day-to-day. The best advice is to learn the content as it's presented to pass your exam and then determine ways where you can incorporate the recommended best practices into your current or future projects.
Summary
In this chapter, you reviewed all the necessary information about the CompTIA Project+ exam as well as study tips, and why certification is beneficial to your career. It's never a bad idea to reread this chapter after you finish your studies to remind yourself what to expect. Use the domain review as a guide to focus your studies prior to your exam. It's a great checklist for a knowledge review. The assessment test is a great overall gauge of current knowledge and where you should focus as you move forward.
In Chapter 2, Project Initiation, we will cover project initiation, review the definition of a project, program, and portfolio. Then, we will cover different organizational structures that will impact how a project is managed. We will also review different project selection techniques, development of a business case, and your role as a project manager.
Questions
Below you will find a baseline assessment test to see what areas to focus on while studying. Don't worry if your score is lower than you might like. You are just starting this journey! It's less about your score and more about areas to focus on, or even to observe what best practices are different from your day-to-day. These questions are a good cross-section of what you can expect on your exam. You can find the answers to these questions at the Back Matter section of the book under Assessments. Good luck!
While controlling quality on your projects you will monitor repetitive activities and plot sample variance measurements to determine if the product is in control (which is defined by being plus or minus three standard deviations of the mean). Which tool and technique does this describe?
Scatter diagram
Statistical sampling
Pareto chart
Control charts
You've prepared the following analysis for two different projects for review by the selection committee. Project A's payback period is 8 months and its NPV is -27,000. Project B's payback period is 10 months and its NPV is 150,000. Which project should the selection committee pick?
Project A, because its NPV is lower than Project B's
Project B, because its NPV is highest and there is more than six months difference between payback periods
Project B, because its NPV is a positive value
Project A, because its payback period is shorter than Project B's payback period
Who should always issue the project charter?
A person internal to the project's organization
A project initiator or sponsor
A low-level manager of the performing organization
A high-level manager of the performing organization
Standards and regulations concerning the work of the project should be taken into consideration during the planning process. All of the following are true regarding standards and regulations except:
Standards and regulations are one of the elements included in the enterprise environmental factors and are part of planning for quality
Regulations are approved by a recognized body and employ rules and guidelines that should be followed
Regulations are typically imposed by governments
Standards are not mandatory
Which of the following is the best description of a project charter?
It describes both the project scope and the product scope at detail level.
It authorizes the project and the use of organizational resources to meet project requirements.
It breaks down the project scope over several steps to describe the project on work package level.
It describes all activities which are necessary to create the project deliverables.
At the beginning of project execution, you notice there are different opinions between team members relating to project work and deliverables, and to the level of overall complexity. What should you do first?
Give your team members some time to develop a common understanding of the project scope and product scope. Upcoming interface problems may be resolved later.
Use the risk management processes to identify and assess risks caused by misunderstandings and develop a plan with measures in order to respond to them.
Organize meetings to identify and resolve misunderstandings between team members in order to avoid interface problems, disintegration, and costly rework early in the project.
Use interviews in private with each individual team member to inform them of your expectations and your requirements in an atmosphere of confidence.
During execution of your project, you have observed that a team member is being isolated by other team members. Which is a wrong approach in such a situation?
The interpersonal relationships between team members are their private issue. You should not interfere.
You should apply team-building measures to improve the team's effectiveness.
You should try to get feedback from the isolated team member to understand the situation.
You should try to get feedback from the other team members to understand the situation.
Change-control systems serve all of the following purposes except?
Track the status of change requests
Define the level of authority needed to approve changes
Control scope-creep completely
Document the procedures that describe how to submit and manage change requests
A project has undergone a major scope change, which increased cost and work levels. What does this mean for earned value data?
The cost baseline will be updated, and the new baseline will be the basis for future earned-value analysis.
As baselines should generally not be adjusted, the project is due to exceed its budget from now on.
There are several reasons to change a baseline, but not scope changes. The project will exceed its budget.
Earned-value analysis becomes useless after a scope change, the technique should not be used any more.
During your project planning, you have determined that you will need to compress your schedule to meet a customer's schedule constraints. You have moved some activities to be performed in parallel instead of sequentially to compress the critical path. What technique have you used?
Crashing
Fast -Tracking
Schedule Compression
Resource Leveling
Project Initiation
In this chapter, you will learn about how projects are defined based on different organizational structures, as well as different project-selection techniques that are used to initiate a project.
This chapter will also cover how different knowledge areas influence unique projects and define the role of the project manager. This information is important to understand so you can begin a project effectively based on the circumstances of the organization and your own leadership abilities.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
Defining a project
Understanding organizational structures
Project-selection techniques
Project management knowledge areas
The role of the project manager
Defining a project
What exactly is a project? A project is something that is temporary and unique, which could literally mean anything from the building of the Colosseum in Rome all the way to building a new data center or upgrading hardware or software for your organization. A project doesn't necessarily have to produce anything that's tangible. It could be a product, service, or result. You may very well be updating a process in your organization or perhaps reorganizing your help desk. These would be considered projects as well.
Businesses are concerned with making money and often projects are undertaken for that very reason, whether it's to develop a new product, service, or result or to simply improve business practices to save the organization some money.
There are two phrases that define a project:
Temporary
Unique
Temporary
It may not always feel like it, but all projects have a beginning and an end. Some projects last a couple of weeks, while others could be considered mega projects and last for years in a global environment. No matter what, a project will always end. It may have been completed successfully or not. Some projects are even canceled due to budgetary constraints, a change in the market, or because the business need no longer exists
Because projects are temporary, they are not to be confused with operations, which are ongoing. An example of operations may be the day-to-day work necessary to keep an organization running smoothly. That could be anything from an automated payroll system in the human resource department or other functional departments, such as sales or marketing, that go about their daily work with very few changes.
Occasionally departments in an organization will run projects based on the internal needs of the department. For example, if your human resource department decides to upgrade their payroll system, that would be outside of normal business operations, and therefore it is a project. They may even assign someone from within their department to help manage the project.
In our example, it makes sense that once the payroll system is up and running and utilized regularly, it is then considered a part of operations because the project life cycle has ended.
Unique
Projects produce a product, service, or result that can be considered unique. You may be thinking that you run multiple similar IT projects all the time-an install on Monday, patches on Tuesday, a data center upgrade here, and a help desk revamp there. It all seems like there isn't anything unique about it. Trust me, there is! We'll review different stakeholders and team roles in Chapter 3, Project Roles and Responsibilities, but until then I would imagine that you are working on multiple projects with different people who have different wants and needs.
Upgrading to the next version of an operating system is a project because even though it's one Windows system over another, different departments may be scheduled differently in a roll-out and therefore there are different unique stakeholders with a unique result: from the old operating system to a new operating system. It may seem that there is nothing unique about your organization's projects and your day-to-day work. But if you think of it this way, everything is based on a specific scope of work, differing schedules, possible risk events, budgeting for materials and equipment, managing a team of people, and so on.
There is always a reason why an organization takes on a project. Sometimes it's due to a customer request, a demand in the market, updates to meet regulatory compliance, or even for the social welfare of a group or groups. The ability to manage stakeholder needs and produce the result for which the project is being undertaken is what projects and project management is all about.
Another term describing projects is progressive elaboration. This is a fancy term for planning for what you know today and updating it as you learn more information. Elaborating in a progressive manner. All projects evolve this way; even if you know what the result is supposed to be, you may not have all of the information needed to plan everything out in the beginning.
What is a program?
A program is a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way. Lots of organizations run programs because they can accomplish multiple deliverables or output and have a set group of best practices that can be applied to all of them. Think about it this way. If you were building data centers at 15 locations, there are some standard approaches you would use at every location. This may include the process by which you order or transport materials, similar (if not the same) types of resources, and how you create your process flow charts. Even if you had 15 project managers working at each location, there are some best practices that are applicable across all projects.
You might be wondering how these projects could be considered unique since everything sounds the same, but remember you are at different locations.
Different stakeholders have different needs for their data storage, different thoughts about the final result, different risk events, and even different scopes of work. One data center could be much larger than another and have different configurations. All these items make each project unique, but similar enough that best practices and processes can be shared and implemented across the program.
What is a portfolio?
A portfolio is a group of unrelated projects or programs. Organizations that run portfolios are typically large organizations with multiple products or services, or a rapidly-growing organization needing large updates or process-integration in their departments. You could have one department creating the latest, greatest software, while another could be improving the sales process, and still another installing a data center at every global location. Some are temporary and unique projects, while others may be part of a program. It isn't outside the realm of possibility to assume that organizations that run portfolios are typically multi billion-dollar global corporations.
Another way to look at portfolios is to imagine a stock portfolio. It could be a variety of different items, such as a 401k, annuity stocks, and tiered bond structures. You would have a portfolio manager who understands everything in the portfolio, even though everything is different for each client. Some can be managed as a one-off, such as a 401k (project), some are managed in a coordinated fashion, such as a group of related tech stocks (program), but either way you need the portfolio manager to keep an eye on the entire thing to manage your money correctly.
Another way to identify a portfolio is in an organization that would like to achieve a strategic objective such as reducing its carbon footprint, or improving its brand recognition.
The portfolio manager would have a dashboard across multiple unrelated projects or programs that contribute to meeting the strategic objective.
