How To Be A PMP- Tips and Technique

Sudipta Ghosh , PMP

Feb 20, 2009

What & Why PMP ?

PMP is a certification given by the organization named Project Management Institute. PMI is an
NOT-FOR PROFITE association whose primary goal is to advance the practice, science and
profession of project management throughout the world in a conscientious and proactive
manner so that organizations everywhere will embrace, value and utilize project management
and then attribute their successes to it.

Enhance your knowledge of Project Management.

Get you knowledge and skill recognized by a word recognized body PMI
Enhance the chance of projects success
It is an achievement NOT just a certification. Feel Proud

October 29, 2016

Pre-Requisites

Need To Have A Bachelor Degree

35 hrs of Project Management Class Room Training
4500 Hrs of Project Management Experience.

October 29, 2016

Steps: Process Of Certification

Complete the Pre-Requisite
4500 Hrs of Project
Management Experience

Pre-Requisite Satisfied ?

YES

Become a PMI Member

Apply for PMP Certification

from PMI Site

Review Of Application
By PMI

PMI ask to Pay the Fee

For Certifications

35 hrs of Project
Management Training
Bachelor Degree

Rejected by PMI. Money

Refund after
deducting Processing fee

NO

Is it sent by associate
within 3 Months

PMI asks to send

Copy of Degree Certificate
Copy of 35 Training Certificate
Fill up Audit form and Signed by Supervisor

YES

chosen for AUDIT

By PMI

Money Paid by Associate

YES

Review Of Audit Document

By PMI

Notification from PMI

to Schedule Exam

Schedule Exam

YES
Want to Re-schedule?
(need to do so prior to 48 hrs

Appear Exam

NO

October 29, 2016

PMP Applications Form Fill UP

Contact Address
Applicants Present Address

Contact E-Mail and Phone

Applicants present e-mail address and Phone number

Attained Education
Provide your highest degree( example: Bachelor of Engineering and detail of the institute

Requirements
PM Experience detail is in the next slide
PM Education detail is in the next slide

Certification Agreement
Agreement with PMI for certification. need to agree on the terms and conditions

Review And Submit

review and Submit your application

October 29, 2016

PMP Applications Form Fill UP PM Experience

Project Specific Information

Organization For Whom you Managed

Project Title
Project Started
Through Date
Project Role
Primary Industry

Job Title
Organization Name
Organization Address
Organization Phone number

Organization Contacts

Hours Distributions by process groups

Contact name
Contact Relationship
Contact E-Mail
Contact Phone number

Initiating Process
Planning Process
Executing Process
Monitoring and Control Process
Closing Process

Summary Project management Tasks

Examples next Slide

Up to 500 letter description of the Project

management Tasks done for the project

October 29, 2016

PMP Applications Form Fill UP PM Experience- Project

Overview
Project Specific Information
Project Title
You should provide project as per the WON definition

Project Started
Put the date when you joined the project

Through Date
Put the date when you got released from the project

Project Role
Provide the project Role ( example Project Leader, Project Manager)

Primary Industry
IT/Software

October 29, 2016

PMP Applications Form Fill UP PM Experience- Org

detail
Organization For Whom you Managed
Job Title
Provide The Job Title ( Example Sr. Project Leader, Project Manager)

Organization Name
TATA Consultancy Services Ltd.

Organization Address
Provide the TCS Delivery Center address ( Example for Kolkata GDC
TATA Consultancy Service Ltd
PLOT C BLOCK EP
KOLKATA West-Bengal-700091

Organization Phone number

Put organization phone number example TCS GDC Phone number
-91-33-66368000

October 29, 2016

PMP Applications Form Fill UP PM Experience- Contacts

Organization Contacts
Contact name
Put you TCS Manager/BRM Name

Contact Relationship
Manager/Director

Contact E-Mail
Put your Manager E-mail Address

Contact Phone number

Put your managers Cell phone number

October 29, 2016

PMP Applications Form Fill UP PM Experience- Hours

Distribution
Hours Distributions by process groups
PMI asks here to put the your project management experience in hours for different project management
process groups. Here is thumb rule you need to use here. Lets assume you are have done 1 year of
project management which you are showing as experience for the certification. You should consider you
have taken 4 weeks of leave for 1 year stint. As a result your total effort for that project comes 52-4 = 48
weeks.
You total effort in hours comes down to 48*40 = 1920 Hours. You should consider 15% of your whole effort
was not related to actual project management and you should subtract the same to derive the actual
project management effort. As a result , the actual project management effort you should show there is
1920- 15% of 1920 hours = 1620 Hrs.
This 1620 Hours need to be divided into different process group based on the tasks you have performed in
different process group. The normal distributions are as follows. Keep this distribution ready before you
start filling up PM experience part.
Once you know this distribution, fill up the approximate hours for different tasks mentioned in the form for
different process groups and make sure you total for each process group matches with the effort you
derived.

TOTAL HOURS

1620
Distributions

TOTAL %

100

INITIATION(%)

PLANNING(%)

7
113.4

EXECUTION (%)

25
405

CONTROL (%)

35
567

25
405

CLOSURE (%)

8
129.6

October 29, 2016

PMP Applications Form Fill UP- Tasks Performed

Summary Project management Tasks
This section is required to fill up by mentioning different project management tasks done for the project. It allows you to put 500
characters. It is required to be very specific and mention only the important tasked which has been done for the projects. Those tasks
should be following PM BOK terminology. The sample tasks are mentioned below

Initiation

Planning

Execution

Documenting Constraints

gathering requirements

Acquiring final team

Documenting Assumptions

Cost Estimating

Documenting Product
Description

Evaluating Products

Guiding and Coaching

Team

Assisting to create Project

Charter

Documenting
Job/Position
descriptions
Preparing Project Plan
decomposition of tasks

Monitor &
Controlling
Reporting Project
performance
organizing quality
control audits

Resolving Issues
Verifying scope
gathering And
approving timesheets
Implementing Change
Request

Monitoring Risks

Closing
Conducting
performance
review for team
members
Updating Lesson
learnt
Archiving Project
Document
Reporting Final
performance of
the project

documenting the
requirements

October 29, 2016

PMP Applications Form Fill UP PM Education

PM Education detail
This is where you need to put the detail for the mandatory training required for PMP certification. Once you put the
detail in application, you would not be able to change it. Be Careful while putting it.
Course

Title

PMP Training and Certification Program

Institute Name
TCSL PMP-SIG

Course Start Date

Put Course start date

Course End Date

Put Course End date

Hours
Put total hours for the training course

Qualifying Hours
Put total hours you have attended

October 29, 2016

Study materials
Rita Mulcahy PMP
Exam Prep

PMBOK

PMBOK

Rita Mulcahy PMP

exam Prep

TCS Materials

PM Fast Track

Solve PM Fast Track

as Real Exam

TCS
Materials

Read PMBOK first. It may look very dry initially. Read Ritas Exam prep book. Read PMBOK again. You will definitely understand it better now.
Mark lines what you feel important in RED color. Identify and mark what you do not understand as well. Read Ritas Exam prep again . Come back
To PMPOK and clear what you what not clear on last run. Once you feel comfortable, Start solving PM Fast track tests. Take it seriously and
Complete each exam as real exam. Evaluate your exam and make a note of your mistake made.

October 29, 2016

Knowledge Area
Knowledge Area

Integration Management

Scope Management

Time Management

Cost Management

Quality Management

Human Resource Management

Communication Management

Risk Management

Procurement Management

Professional Ethics

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Integration Management

Read and Understand the content of the following documents from PMBOK
Project Charter , Preliminary Project Scope statement, Project Management Plan.
These are input of many different processes going forward. It will help you to understand the reason why this is
input.

Get the concept of Enterprise Environmental Factor and Organizational Process

Asset from PMBOK.
These are input to many different processes going forward . You need to understand what are the actual factor and
asset that will be used for any particular process where those two are used as INPUT

Understand the concept and relationship of the processes from PMP EXAM
PREP Rita Mulcahy book.
Rita Mulcahy exam prep book give good explanation of the relation between processes of this knowledge are and
outside this knowledge. You need understand it and get more detail knowledge from PMBOK.

Understand the concept of PROCESS OF MAKING CHANGE and by heart the

steps.
This is extremely important to understand it. there are will be many situation based question in the exam for
making different changes, these steps will really help to answer all correctly.
Tips

to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Project Management Methodology and PMIS are tool and technique for all processes.

Expert judgment is tool and technique for all processes except Direct and Execute Project work.

Once PM plan is developed , it is input to all processes in Inegration management process.

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Scope Management

Read and Understand the content of the following documents from PMBOK
Project Scope Management Plan, Project Scope Statement.
These are input of many different processes going forward. It will help you to understand the reason why this is
input. By heart the content of Project Scope Statement.

Understand the concept of the processes from PMP EXAM PREP Rita Mulcahy
book.
Rita Mulcahy exam prep book gives excellent explanation of the processes of this knowledge area. You will fully
understand the concept if you read the Ritas Book. But there are many minute information and detail available in
PMBOK which you need to remember. Such as content of WBS dictionary, WBS, Product Scope, Project Scope.

Understand the difference between Scope Verification and Quality Control

This is difference is given in Ritas Book. Understand the key features of that two processes.

Tips

to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Scope Definition TT is SEAP (Stakeholder Analysis Expert Judgment Alternatives Identification, Product
Analysis)
Inspection is the only Tool and Technique for Scope verifications.
Requested changes is the output of all scope management processes except Scope Planning
scope control tool&Technique are CRVC( Change control system, Replanning, Variance analysis,
Configuration Management System.
Major output of documents from Integration Management become input to Scope planning

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Time Management

Read Ritas Book First for this chapter

Read Rita Mulcahy book first. Solve all the problems.

Come back to PMBOK and read each of the Tool & Technique for each processes . Schedule development Tool and
Techniques are extremely important.

Important Topic To Cover.

Difference between Lead and Lag

Difference between different dependencies

Different format of project schedule and utility to different people

Different types of Float

Different type of estimation technique and their comparisons

PERT formula and few numerical

Tips to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Schedule Control TT are P3SVS ( Progress reporting PM software , Performance Measurement ,Schedule Change
control System, Variance analysis, Schedule comparison Bar charts )
Activity Definition TT are DEPaRT (Decomposition , Expert Judgment ,Planning component,, Rolling wave planning, Templates )
Activity definition process generates activity attributes and it gets updated by all other processes

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Cost Management

By Heart the content of the following documents from PMBOK
Project Cost Management Plan, Activity Cost Estimate Supporting Detail

Read Earn Value Analysis from Ritas Book.

Solve all the problem given there by yourself after studying the theory.

There are many financial teams not mentioned in PMBOK are given in Ritas
Book.
Understand all those terms and practice some numerical wherever applicable

Read this chapter along with Time Management Chapter

Many important planning sequence concept will be clear. Ritas Process chart related to Planning Process Group will be
more clear

Tips to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Requested changes are output of all three processes

Cost Estimating tools and technique are similar to Duration estimating

The Set, Project Scope statement ,WBS and WBS dictionary are input to both cost estimating and cost
budgeting process .

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Quality Management

Read and Understand the content of the following documents from PMBOK
Project Quality Management Plan, Process Improvement Plan.

Understand the difference between activities done in three difference processes of

quality management
Ritas book explain is very good. It is given in chart format. There will be situations given in the question and it will ask
you to understand which process you are in.

Understand the difference between Process Analysis and Quality Audit

Those two are explained in PMBOK. Understand the difference from PMBOK.

Tool and Technique very Important

Read and understand each tool and technique of quality management processes. Remember them with an example for
each case.

Tips to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Process Improvement Plan is important output of Quality Planning and input to Quality Assurance.

There are 4 outputs of Quality Planning which start with Quality.

Quality Metrics is the input to both Quality Control and Quality Assurance but Quality checklist is the in of quality
control only

Tool and Technique for Quality Planning is ABCDC

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Human Resource Management

Read and Understand the content of the following documents from PMBOK
Project Staffing Management Plan, Enterprise Environmental Factor and Organizational Process Asset required for
Human Resource Planning, Different Types of Organization Charts

Important topic to cover.

Tool and Techniques for all processes
Problem solving approach
Conflict Management
Conflict Resolution technique and examples
Theories of Human Resources- Maslow, Macgregor, Motivational agents.

Tips to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Team Performance Assessment is the only output of Develop Project Team process

Its output input are very closely linked. All three output of Human Resource Planning goes as input to Acquire
Project team Process. The output of Acquire Project Team goes as input to Develop project Team process.

The input of Manage Project Team consists of output of other 3 HR Management Processes

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Communication Management

Read and Understand the content of the following documents from PMBOK
Project Communication Management Plan, Communication Requirement Analysis, Communication Technology
analysis.

Important Topic to Cover.

Communication Model
Communication Channel
Communication Method
Communication Blocker

Tips to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Requested changes are output of all three processes

Cost Estimating tools and technique are similar to Duration estimating

The Set, Project Scope statement ,WBS and WBS dictionary are input to both cost estimating and cost budgeting
process.

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Risk Management

Read and Understand the content of the following documents from PMBOK
Project Risk Management Plan, Probability Impact Definition and Probability Impact matrix

Understand the changes to the Risk Register across different process of Risk
Management
Risk Register is prepared as a part of Risk Identification process and gets updated in different successive
processes of risk management. It is required to remember the changes to the risk register across different
processes.

Important Topic To Cover

Information gathering Techniques

Relationship of PERT and Risk Analysis

Quantative risk analysis modeling technique.

Risk Response Strategies

Risk Monitoring and Control tool and technique

Difference of Reserve analysis in Risk and Cost knowledge area

Tips to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Risk Register is created in Risk Identification and gets updated after all Risk processes.
Risk Register is the only output of Risk Identification, Qualitative Risk Analysis ,Quantitive Risk Analysis
Process

Planning Meetings & Analysis is the only TT for Risk Management Planning.

October 29, 2016

Highlight Of Area- Procurement Management

Read and Understand the content of the following documents from PMBOK
Project Procurement Management Plan, Project Contract Management Plan and Contract

Important Topic To Cover

Tools and Technique of the SELECT SELLER Process

Different Types of Contract and their applicability

Comparison of different types of contracts.

Different Types of Procurement documents

Different Evaluation criteria

Procurement Audit and why it is required

Tips to Remember ITTO( INPUT-TOOLS-TECHNIQUE-OUTPUT)

Procurement Management Plan is NOT the input of Contract Administration process.

Contract Management Plan is the input of that process.
Contract Documents are output of Plan Contracting Process
Contract which is output of Select Sellers process is input to Contract Administration
Procurement Management Plan is output of Plan Purchases and Acquisitions.
Contract Closure Procedure is output of Integration Management Close Project and is an input to
contract Closure process.
Procurement Audits is done in Contract Closure process

October 29, 2016

Materials on the Web

Provider

URL

Free Test
Questions

Ajith Namboothiri

www.ajithn.com

Certification.about.com

certification.about.com
getpmp.com

20

GetPMP
Head First Labs

www.headfirstlabs.com

200

MeasureUp

www.measureup.com

PMConnection

www.pmconnection.com
www.pmexam.com

10

PMExam.com

PMPQuest.com

www.pmpquest.com

12

PM Study

www.pmstudy.com

50

PMTI

www.4pmti.com
www.pmzilla.com
www.preparepm.com

Pmzilla
PreparePM

ProXalt
Tutorials Point

www.proxalt.com
www.tutorialspoint.com

180

20

15

Comment
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Excerpt from an offering
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Simulates online a test
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Order their free Daily Digest
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New site (3-2008), the number
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200 free questions after
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165

High quality questions, which

simulate the real test very
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Visitors are invited to
contribute with further
questions. Number of
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20

Registration required.

200

October 29, 2016

Face The Exam- Tips

Reach Early
Reach to prometric center at least 45 minutes earlier than your exam start time. Carry photo Identify proof for
address and signature.

Finish Tutorial quickly

Before exam, you will be given self-service tutorial to explain the navigation to complete the exam for 15 mins.
Those are easy as we are IT professional. Finish it up quickly but do not press the END button. It will start the exam
immediately. Preserve this time for Memory dump

Memory Dump
As you saved time from your tutorial, you should use this time to write down whatever you remember such as
formulas, important terms, values in a paper given by promertric center. These are extremely useful while your are in
the middle of exam

50/60 Rule
try to finish at least 50 question in each 60 mins. If you can make more thats good but you should not fall back from
this speed.

Not Too Much For MARK FOR Review

Put questions where you are really doubtful as MARK FOR REVIEW. Total number of such question should not be
more than 30 because on an average people get only 30 min to review.

October 29, 2016

Face The Exam- Tips

Answer what you read already
if you read the question and thought about it but you are not sure about the answer, you should select a answer at
that point of time. But DO mark it For REVIEW. This will make sure you have taken your chance if you do not find time
latter to come back to this question again. If you have time, you can always come back to the question and attempt it
again.

Handle Lengthy Question carefully.

There will be at least 10 questions in the exam which are really lengthy. There could be different approaches to handle
those questions.
-- ignore it initially and do not even spend time to read it on your first run. Complete those once you are done with your
all questions.
--read the last line of question, look at the options in the answer and look for point in the rest part of the question what
you need to know to find out the correct answer.

Read Question carefully.

There are many words in the questions such as NOT, LEAST,MOST which can change your answers abruptly. For each
question , please make sure you are really emphasizing on those words while choosing your answer.

October 29, 2016

ALL THE BEST!!

October 29, 2016