General PMI Themes

The following are the General PMI Themes you must remember from the PMP Exam Perspective.

1. The project manager is ultimately responsible and accountable for the project.
2. Projects should be aligned and prioritized with the organization's strategic direction.
3. The earlier in the project lifecycle, the more risk for the project and the more influence management (and stakeholders) have on it.
4. Historical records and lessons learned are very valuable.
5. Stakeholder management is an ongoing, continuous process throughout the project lifecycle.
6. The success or failure of a project is determined during project planning. (A badly planned project seldom succeeds)
7. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a “must-have” for any project manager and serves as the basis for most project planning.
8. The people who will do the work (The Team) should estimate the work.
9. The most important task and skill of the project manager is effective project communication. (A manager spends nearly 90% of time communicating)
10. The project team should be involved in all project-planning activities.
11. The project plan is an all-encompassing document and must contain cost and schedule baselines in order to determine project performance during execution.
12. Project changes will occur. Changes should be expected, planned for, and well managed when they occur. (Using Change Management. Never should you accept a change from any stakeholder without taking the change through the Change Control Board. No Matter how influential the stakeholder is, just accept his request and take it through change control before implementation. That is the right process and most importantly will help you in the long run to keep track of all the changes that came in during your project execution)
13. Earned value is the best project-controlling technique. (Do you remember the formulae??)
14. The project team should solve its own problems and resolve its own issues whenever possible. (If they can’t, you are always there to intervene but give them a chance to do it themselves. It would be a good learning opportunity for them)
15. Quality is planned into a project, not inspected in.
16. Risk management is an ongoing, continuous process performed by the entire project team.
17. Preventing a risk event is always preferred to mitigating a risk event.
18. Closing processes (administrative closure) should occur at the end of each project phase, not just at the end of the project.
19. “Lessons learned” describe the knowledge the team and stakeholders gained by actually performing the project and are an invaluable source of project management information.
20. “Lessons Learned” must be captured throughout the life of the project and not just during closure. (You might forget some important lessons that you learnt during planning by the time your project reaches the closure phase)

Exam Trivia:

You might wonder why you need to involve your team in estimation or project planning. Think this way, if your manager asks you how much time you need to complete a piece of work and you say “5 days” and he agrees. Will you or will you not try to finish the work in 5 days? You will because, you own the estimate and since your manager respected your decision of 5 days, you respect him by finishing the work within the time you wanted. This is the kind of ownership every responsible team member must take and the kind of respect you as a project manager must show your team.

Other PMI Themes:

Project Framework
Project Initiation
Project Planning
Project Execution
Project Monitoring & Controlling
Project Closure
Ethics & Professional Responsibility