PMP Certification Full Course In 10 Hours | Project Management Training | Edureka

Hello everyone, and welcome to this full course on project management. In today's fast-paced business environment, project management is essential for delivering successful outcomes on time and within budget. This critical discipline helps teams plan, execute, and monitor projects efficiently while managing risk and resource effectively. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced professional, this course covers everything from project beginning and agile methodologies to risk management and leadership strategies. With project management, you don't just complete tasks; you drive success and create lasting impact.

With that said, let's outline today's agenda for this project management full course. We will begin with "What is Project Management?", exploring its importance in planning, executing, and delivering successful projects. Next, we will dive into the Project Life Cycle, breaking down key phases from initiation to closure. We will cover the roles and responsibilities of a project manager, highlighting essential leadership and coordinating skills. Mastering project management skills is crucial to succeed in this field, so we will discuss core skills like communication, risk assessment, and stakeholder management. We will also explore project integration, scope, time, cost, quality, resource, communication, risk, procurement, and stakeholder management, ensuring a solid understanding of essential knowledge areas.

Moving forward, we will introduce agile project management, covering its principles and applications in modern workflows. For those interested in PRIN2, we will explain PRIN2 project management, including its principles, themes, and processes. We will also discuss PRIN2 certification, the latest PRIN2 7th Edition, and strategies on how to pass the PRIN2 exam. For PMP aspirants, we will guide you through PMP exam prep, comparing PMBOK 6 versus PMBOK 7 and breaking down the PMBOK 7th Edition updates. We will also compare PMP versus PRIN2 to help you choose the right path. And to enhance efficiency, we will introduce project management tools and explore the top project management certifications for career growth. Finally, we will outline a project manager roadmap that will provide insights on how to become a project manager and conclude with project manager interview questions and answers, and PMP exam questions and answers to help you ace your next certification or job interview.

But before we begin, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell icon to stay updated on the latest content from Urea's YouTube channel. Urea's PMP certification training is an authorized training partner of PMI. This PMP certification course covers PMBOK 7th Edition principles, agile, and hybrid methodologies, preparing you for the PMP exam with 36+ hours of training, real-world projects, and mock tests. It equips you with the key skills in scope, schedule, cost, risk, and quality management for roles like project manager and program manager. Also, Urea's PRIN2 Foundation and Practitioner certification training is accredited by PeopleCert on behalf of AXELOS. This course provides an in-depth knowledge of PRIN2 through principles, themes, and processes for structured project execution, featuring live sessions, mock exams, and case studies. It prepares you for project governance, risk management, and stakeholder communications. Both programs align with global project management standards, ensuring career growth. So, go check out the course link in the description box below. Now, let's get started with our first topic: What is Project Management?

Introduction to Projects. Firstly, let us understand what is a project. People have been undertaking projects since the earliest days of organized human activity. The hunting parties of our prehistoric ancestors were projects. Let me explain this with an example. They were temporary undertakings directed at the goal of obtaining meat for the community. Large, complex projects have also been with us for a really long time. The pyramids and the Great Wall of China were, in their day, of roughly the same dimensions as the Apollo project to send men to the Moon. We use the term "project" frequently in our daily conversations. For example, in a conversation, anyone could say, "My main project for this weekend is to straighten out the garage." Going hunting, building pyramids, and fixing faucets all share certain features that make them projects.

There are many written definitions of a project. All of them contain some key elements. For those looking for a formal definition of a project, the Project Management Institute defines a project as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or even a result. The temporary nature of projects really indicates a definite beginning and end. The end is reached when the project's objectives have been achieved, or when the project is terminated because its objectives will not or cannot be met, or when the need for the project no longer exists. So, a project also has distinctive attributes that really distinguish it from ongoing work or business operations. They are basically very temporary in nature; they are not an everyday business process and definitely have a start date and end date. This characteristic is extremely important because a large part of the project effort is really dedicated to ensuring that the project is completed at the appointed time. To do this, schedules are created showing when tasks should begin and end. They can last for minutes, hours, days, months, or even years.

Projects really exist to bring about a product or service that really hasn't existed before. In this sense, a project mostly is extremely unique. Unique means that this is new, that has never been done before. Maybe it's been done in a very similar fashion before, but never exactly in the same way. So, let me explain this point with an example. The Ford Motor Company is in the business of designing and assembling cars. Each model that Ford designs and produces can be considered a project. The models obviously differ from each other in their features and are marketed to people with various needs. An SUV serves a different purpose from that of a luxury car. The design and marketing of these two models are unique projects. However, the assembly of the cars is considered an operation; that is, a repetitive process that is followed for most makes and models. In contrast with projects, operations are ongoing and repetitive. They involve work that is continuous without an ending date, with the same process repeated to produce the same results. The purpose of operations is really to keep the organization functioning, while the purpose of a project is to really meet its goals and conclude. Therefore, operations are ongoing, whereas projects are unique and temporary. I hope the difference between operations and projects is clear to you.

A project obviously has goals and objectives that are supposed to be accomplished. It is these goals that really drive the project and all the planning and implementation efforts undertaken to achieve them. Sometimes projects end when it is determined that the goals and objectives cannot be accomplished, or when the product or service of the project is no longer needed and the project is cancelled.

Now that we've clearly discussed what is a project and also mentioned the differences between project and operations, let's move on and check out the project characteristics. So, when considering whether or not you have a project in your hand, there are some things to keep in mind. Firstly, you'll have to question yourself. Ask: Is it a project or an ongoing operation? Second, if it is a project, who are the stakeholders? And third question you would ask yourself is: What characteristics really distinguish this endeavor as a project?

A project has three characteristics. Firstly, as I've already mentioned before, projects are temporary in nature; that is, they have a definite start and end point. Okay? Second thing is, projects are completed when the project goals are achieved, or it is determined the project is no longer viable. So, once the end point is reached, the project is considered done. The third one is, projects are unique; that is, it is attempting to achieve something new.

Now, a successful project is one that meets or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders. Consider the following scenario: The Vice President of Marketing approaches you with a fabulous idea. He wants to set up Kiosks in local grocery stores as mini offices. These offices will offer customers the ability to sign up for car and home insurance services, as well as make their bill payments. He believes that the exposure in grocery stores will increase awareness of the company's offerings. He told you that Senior Management has already cleared the project, and he will dedicate as many resources to this as he can. He wants the new Kiosks in place in 12 selected stores in a major city by the end of the year. Finally, he has assigned you to head up this project.

Your first question should be: Is it a project? This may seem very elementary, but confusing projects with ongoing operations happens pretty often. Projects are temporary in nature; they have definite start and end dates, result in the creation of a unique product or service, and are completed when the goals and objectives have been met and signed off by the stakeholders. Using these criteria and keeping these points in mind, we can examine the assignment from the Vice President of Marketing to determine if it is really a project.

So, the first question that you would ask yourself is: Is it unique? Yes, because the Kiosks do not exist in the local grocery stores. This is a new way of offering the company's services to its customer base. While the service the company is offering isn't really new, the way it is presenting its service is. The second question is: Does the product have a limited time frame? The answer would definitely be yes. The start date of this project is today, and it will end by the end of next year. It is definitely a temporary endeavor. Third one is: Is there a way to determine when the project is completed? Yes, the kiosks will be installed, and the services will be offered from them. So, once all of these are installed and operating, the project will come to an end. The last question that you would ask yourself is: Is there a way to determine stakeholder satisfaction? And again, the answer is yes. The expectations of the stakeholders will be documented in the form of requirements during the planning processes. These requirements will be compared to the finished product to determine if it meets the expectations of the stakeholder. Now, if the answer is yes to all of these questions, then we have a project.

Now that we've discussed its characteristics with an example, let's move ahead and check out the project constraints. On any project, you will definitely have a number of project constraints that are competing for your attention. Some of them are cost, scope, quality, risk, resources, and time.

Cost is the budget approved for the project, including all necessary expenses needed to deliver the project. Within organizations, project managers have to balance between not running out of money and not underspending because many projects receive funds or grants that have contract clauses with a "use it or lose it" approach to project funds. Poorly executed budget plans can result in a last-minute rush to spend the allocated funds. For virtually all projects, cost is ultimately a limiting constraint. Few projects can go over budget without eventually requiring a corrective action.

The second constraint is scope. So, scope is what the project is really trying to achieve. It entails all of the work involved in delivering the project outcomes and the processes used to produce them. It is basically the reason and the purpose of the project.

The third constraint is quality. Quality, quality, quality is a combination of the standards and criteria to which the project's products must be delivered for them to perform effectively. The product must perform to provide the functionality expected, solve the identified problem, and deliver the benefit and value as expected. It must also meet other performance requirements or service levels, such as availability, reliability, and maintainability, and have acceptable finish and polish. Quality on a project is controlled through quality assurance, which is basically the process of evaluating overall project performance on a very regular basis to provide confidence that your project will satisfy the relevant quality standards.

Then we have risk, which is defined by potential external events that will have a negative impact on your project if they occur. Risk refers to the combination of the probability the event will occur and the impact on the project if the event ever occurs. Now, if the combination of the probability of the occurrence and the impact on the project is very, very high, you should definitely identify the potential event as a risk and put a proactive plan in place to manage the risk.

Then we have resources. You can think of resources too as a constraint, right? Because here you're required to carry out the project tasks. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition required for the completion of a project activity.

Finally, the most important constraint is time. Time is obviously defined as the time period allocated to you to complete the project. Time is often the most frequent project oversight in developing projects. This is reflected in missed deadlines and incomplete deliverables. Proper control of the schedule requires the careful identification of tasks to be performed and accurate estimations of the durations, the sequence in which they're going to be done, and how people and other resources are to be allocated. Any schedule should take into account vacations and holidays.

Now, moving on, if you know the basics of project management, I'm sure you must have come across the term "triple constraint," which traditionally consisted of only time, cost, and scope. These are the primary competing project constraints that you have to be most aware of. The triple constraint is illustrated in the form of a triangle to visualize the project work and see the relationship between the scope (or quality), schedule (or time), and cost (or resource). Your project may have additional constraints that you must face, and as the project manager, you will have to balance the needs of these constraints against the needs of the stakeholders and your project goals.

Let me explain this with an example. If your sponsor wants to add functionality to the original scope, you will very likely need more money to finish the project. Or, if they cut the budget, you will have to reduce the quality of your scope. And if you do not get the appropriate resources to work on your project tasks, you will obviously have to extend your schedule because the resources you have take much, much longer to finish the work. You get the idea, right? The constraints are all dependent on each other. Think of all of these constraints as the classic carnival game of whack-a-mole. Each time you try to push one mole back in the hole, another one pops out. The best advice here is to rely on your project team to keep these moles in place.

Now that we have discussed constraints in detail, let us talk about must-have areas of expertise in a project team. Now, by standards, we mean guidelines or preferred approaches that are not necessarily mandatory. In contrast, when referring to regulations, we mean mandatory rules that must be followed, such as government-imposed requirements. Through rules, it should go without saying that as a professional, you are required to follow all applicable laws and rules that apply to your industry, organization, or even the project. I'm sure you must be aware that every industry has some set of standards and regulations, right? Knowing which ones really affect your project before you begin your work will not only help the project to unfold smoothly but will also give you an opportunity for effective risk analysis.

Some projects require specific skills in certain application areas. Application areas are made up of categories of projects that have common elements. They can be defined by industry group (like pharmaceutical, financial, etc.), department (like accounting, marketing, legal, etc.), even in technology (like software development, engineering, etc.), or obviously management specialties (like procurement, research and development). These application areas are usually concerned with disciplines, regulations, and the specific needs of the project, the customer, or the industry.

Now, let me explain this with an example. Most government agencies have specific procurement rules that apply to projects that wouldn't be applicable in the construction industry. The pharmaceutical industry is interested in regulations set forth by government regulators, whereas the automotive industry has little or no concern for either of these types of regulations. You need to stay up-to-date regarding your industry so that you can apply your knowledge effectively. Today's fast-paced advances can leave you far behind quickly if you do not stay abreast of your current trends. And also, having some level of experience in the application area you're working in will give you an advantage when it comes to project management. While you can call in experts who have the application area knowledge, it doesn't hurt for you to understand the specific aspects of the application areas of your project.

Now that we have discussed the areas of expertise, let's move ahead and understand the project environment. So, what would be the right environment for you to accomplish the goals that you've set for your project? Now, obviously, there are many factors that really need to be understood within your project environment. At one level, you need to think in terms of cultural and social environments; that is, people, demographics, and education. The international and political environment is where you really need to understand about different countries' cultural influence, etc. Then we move to the physical environment. Here, we think about time zones, think about different countries, and how differently your project will be executed, whether it is just in your country or if it involves an international project team that is distributed throughout the world in five different countries. Of all the factors, the physical ones are the easiest to understand, and it is the cultural and international factors that are often misunderstood and ignored. How we deal with clients, customers, or project members from other countries can be very critical to the success of the project.

So, let me take an example. The culture of the United States values accomplishments and individualism. Americans tend to be informal and call each other by first names, even if having just met. On the other hand, Europeans tend to be more formal, using surnames instead of first names in a business setting, even if they know each other well. In addition, the communication style is much more formal than in the United States, and while they tend to value individualism, they also value history, hierarchy, and loyalty. The Japanese, on the other hand, tend to communicate indirectly and consider themselves part of a group, not as individuals. The Japanese value hard work and success, as most of us do. How a product is received can be very dependent on the international cultural differences. For example, back in the 1990s, when many American and European telecommunication companies were cultivating new markets in Asia, the customers' cultural differences often produced unexpected situations. Western companies planned their telephone systems to work the same way in Asia as they did in Europe and the US, but the protocol of conversation is very different, right? Call waiting, a popular feature in the West, is considered impolite in some parts of Asia. This cultural blunder could have been avoided had the team captured the project environment requirements and involved the customer. It is often the simplest things that can cause trouble, since, unsurprisingly, in different countries, people do things differently. Another example would be date formats, right? What day and month is 2/8/2019? Of course, it depends where you come from. In North America, that's February 8th, while in Europe, it's August 2nd. Clearly, when schedules and deadlines are being defined, it is most important that everyone is clear on the format used.

Project managers in multicultural projects must appreciate the cultural dimensions and try to learn relevant customs, courtesies, and business protocols before taking responsibility for managing an international project. A project manager must take into consideration these various cultural influences and how they may affect the project's completion schedule, scope, and cost.

Moving on to the next part of the session, we will be discussing about interpersonal skills. Last but not least, you also have to bring the ability into the project to manage personal relationships and deal with personal issues as they arise. Here, we are talking about your interpersonal skills. Project managers spend 90% of their time communicating, so this is one of the most important interpersonal skills: communication. This is why they must be good communicators, promoting clear, unambiguous exchange of information. As a project manager, it is your job to keep a number of people well-informed. It is essential that your project staff know what is expected of them, what they have to do, when they have to do it, and what budget and time constraints and quality specifications they're working towards. If the project staff members do not really know what their tasks are or how to accomplish them, then the entire project will grind to a halt. If you do not know what the project staff is or often is not doing, then you will be unable to monitor project progress. Finally, if you're uncertain of what the customer expects of you, then the project will not even get off the ground. Project communication can thus be summed up as knowing who needs what information and when, and making sure they have it all.

All projects require sound communication plans, but not all projects will have the same types of communication or the same methods for distributing the information. For example, will information be distributed via mail or email? Is there a shared website, or are face-to-face meetings required? The communication management plan documents how the communication needs of the stakeholders will be met, including the types of information that will be communicated, who will communicate them, and who will receive them, the methods used to communicate, the timing and frequency of the communication, the method for updating the plan as the project progresses, including escalation progress, and a glossary of common terms.

The second one is influence. Project management is about getting things done. Every organization is different in its policies, modes of operations, and underlying culture. There are political alliances, differing motivations, conflicting interests, and power struggles. Here, a project manager must understand all of the unspoken influences at work within the organization.

The next obvious skill that you must have is leadership. Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire individuals to work toward expected results. Leaders inspire vision and rally people around common goals. A good project manager can motivate and inspire the project team to see the vision and value of the project. The project manager, as a leader, can inspire the project team to find a solution to overcome perceived obstacles, to get the work done.

Moving on, we have motivation. Motivation is a constant process that the project manager must guide to help the team move toward completion with passion and a profound reason to complete the work. Motivating the team is accomplished by using a variety of team-building techniques and exercises. Team building is simply getting a diverse group of people to work together in the most efficient and effective manner possible. This may involve management events as well as individual actions designed to improve team performance. Recognition and awards are a very important part of team motivation. They are formal ways of recognizing and promoting desired behavior and are most effective when carried out by the management team and the project manager. Consider individual preferences and cultural differences when using rewards and recognition. Some people do not like to be recognized in front of a group; others really thrive on it.

Then we have negotiation. Project managers obviously must be able to negotiate for the good of the project. In any project, the project manager, the project sponsor, and the project team will have to negotiate with stakeholders, vendors, and customers to really reach a level of agreement acceptable to all parties involved in the negotiation process.

Then we finally have problem-solving. It is the ability to understand the heart of the problem, look for a viable solution, and then eventually make a decision to implement that solution. The starting point for problem-solving is problem definition. Problem definition is really the ability to understand the cause and effect of the problem. This centers on root cause analysis. If a project manager treats only the symptoms of a problem rather than its cause, the symptoms will perpetuate and continue through the project life. Even worse, treating a symptom may result in a very huge problem. Now, for example, increasing the amperage rating of a fuse in your car because the old ones keep blowing does not solve the problem of an electrical short that could result in a fire. Root cause analysis looks beyond the immediate symptoms to the cause of the symptoms, which then affords opportunities for solutions. Once the root of a problem has been identified, a decision must be made to effectively address the problem. Solutions can be presented from vendors, the project team, the project manager, or various stakeholders. A viable solution focuses on more than just the problem; it looks at the cause and effect of the solution itself. In addition, a timely decision is needed, or the window of opportunity may pass, and then a new decision will be needed to address the problem. As in most cases, the worst thing you can do is nothing.

All of these interpersonal skills will be used in all areas of project management. Start practicing now because it's guaranteed that you will need the skills on your next project.

Now, let's move ahead and discuss the history of project management. In the history of project management, we can chart all the major developments and events in the discipline as far back as there are records. Although there have been some form of project management since early civilization, project management in the modern sense began in the 1950s. So, let's start from way back to 2570 BC when the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed. The Pharaohs built the pyramids, and today archaeologists still argue about how they achieved this feat. Ancient records show there were managers for each of the four faces of the Great Pyramid responsible for overseeing the completion. We know there was some degree of planning, execution, and control involved in managing this project.

Then, in 208 BC, there was the construction of the Great Wall of China. Later still, another wonder of the world was built. Since the Qin Dynasty, construction of the Great Wall had been a large project. According to historical data, the labor force was organized into three groups: soldiers, common people, and criminals. The Emperor Qin ordered millions of people to finish this project.

Then, in 1917, we have the Gantt chart, developed by Henry Gantt, one of the forefathers of project management. Henry Gantt is best known for creating his self-named scheduling diagram, the Gantt chart. It was a radical idea and an innovation of worldwide importance. In the 1920s, one of its first uses was on the Hoover Dam project, that was started later on. In 1931, Gantt charts are still in use today and form an important part of the project manager toolkit.

Moving on to 1956, we have the American Association of Cost Engineers that was formed. Early practitioners of project management and the associated specialities of planning and scheduling, cost estimating, cost and schedule control from the AACE. In 1956, it has been the leading professional society for cost estimators, cost engineers, schedulers, project managers, and project control specialists ever since. American Association of Cost Engineers continued its pioneering work in 2006, releasing the first integrated process for portfolio, program, and project management with their Total Cost Management framework.

Then, in 1957, the Critical Path Method was invented by DuPont Corporation. CPM is a technique used to predict project duration by analyzing which sequence of activities has the least amount of scheduling flexibility. DuPont designed it to address the complex process of shutting down chemical plants for maintenance and then, with maintenance completed, restarting them. The technique was so successful, it saved the corporation $1 million in the first year of its implementation.

Then, in 1958, the Program Evaluation Review Technique was invented for the US Navy's Polaris project. The US Department of Defense's US Navy Special Projects Office developed PERT as part of the Polaris mobile submarine launch ballistic missile project during the Cold War. PERT is a method for analyzing the tasks involved in completing a project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and identifying the minimum time needed to complete the total project.

In 1962, the United States Department of Defense mandated the Work Breakdown Structure approach. The US Department of Defense created the WBS concept as part of the Polaris mobile submarine launched ballistic missile project. After completing the project, the DoD published the Work Breakdown Structure, it used, and mandated the following of this procedure in future projects of the scope and size. WBS is an exhaustive hierarchical tree structure of deliverables and tasks that really need to be performed to complete a particular project. Later adopted by the private sector, the WBS remains one of the most common and useful project management tools.

In 1965, the International Project Management Association was founded. IPMA was the world's first project management association, started in Vienna by a group as a forum for project managers to network and share information. Registered in Switzerland, the association is a federation of about 50 national and internationally oriented project management associations. Its vision is to promote project management and to lead the development of the profession. Since its birth in 1965, IPMA has grown and spread worldwide with over 120,000 members in 2012.

Moving on to 1969, the Project Management Institute (that is PMI) was launched to promote the project management profession. Five volunteers founded PMI as a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to advancing the practice, science, and profession of project management. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania issued Articles of Incorporation for PMI in 1969, which signified its official start. During that same year, PMI held its first symposium in Atlanta, Georgia, and had an attendance of 83 people. Ever since then, the PMI has become best known as the publisher of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (that is PMBOK), considered one of the most essential tools in the project management profession. Even today, the PMI offers levels of project management certification: Certified Associate in Project Management and Project Management Professional. We'll talk about PMP later on in the session.

In 1975, the PRINCE2 method was created by Simpact Systems Limited. Development of PRINCE2 was in response to an outcry that computer projects were overrunning on time estimated for completion and original budgets as set out in feasibility studies. It was not unusual to experience factors of double, treble, or even 10 times the original estimates. PRINCE2 was really an attempt to set down guidelines for the stage flow of a computer project. In 1975, the UK government's Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency adopted the method for all information systems projects.

Also in 1975, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering was released by Fred Brooks. So, in his book of software engineering and project management, Fred Brooks's central theme is that adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. This idea is called Brooks's Law. The extra human communications needed to add another member to a programming team is much more than anyone ever expects. It naturally depends on the experience and sophistication of the human programmers involved and the quality of available documentation. Nevertheless, no matter how much experience they have, the extra time discussing the assignment, commitments, and technical details, as well as evaluating the results, becomes exponential as more people get added. These observations are from Brooks's experiences while managing the development of OS/360 at IBM.

Then, in 1984, the Theory of Constraints was introduced by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his novel, The Goal. Theory of Constraints is an overall management philosophy that is geared to help organizations continually achieve their goal. The title comes from the view that any manageable system is limited in achieving more of its goal by a small number of constraints, and there is always at least one constraint. The TOC process seeks to identify the constraint and restructure the rest of the organization around it by using five focusing steps. The methods and algorithms from TOC went on to form the basis of critical change project management.

Then, in 1986, Scrum was named as a project management style. This was definitely the game-changer. You must all be aware of Scrum. It is an agile software development model based on multiple teams working in an intensive and interdependent manner. In their paper, "The New New Product Development Game," Takeuchi and Nonaka named Scrum as a project management style. Later, they elaborated on it in "The Knowledge-Creating Company." Although Scrum is intended for management of software development projects, it can be used to run software maintaining teams or as a general project and program management approach.

In 1987, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge was published by PMI. So, first published by the PMI as a white paper in 1987, the PMBOK Guide was an attempt to document and standardize accepted project management information and practices. The first edition was published in 1996, followed by a second one in 2000, and a third one in 2004. The Guide is one of the most essential tools in the project management profession today and has become the global standard for the industry.

In 1989, Earned Value Management leadership elevated to Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition. Although the earned value concept has been around in factor flows since the early 1900s, it only came to prominence as a project management technique in the late 1980s to early 1990s. In 1989, EVM leadership was elevated to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, thus making EVM an essential part of program management and procurement. In 1991, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney canceled the Navy A-12 Avenger II program because of performance problems detected by EVM. The PMBOK Guide of 1987 has an outline of earned value management, subsequently expanded on in its later editions.

In 1989, PRINCE method was developed from PRINCE2, published by the UK government agency CCTA. Projects In Controlled Environments became the UK standard for all government information systems projects. A feature of the original method not seen in other methods was the idea of assuring progress from three separate but linked perspectives. However, the PRINCE method developed a reputation for being too unwieldy, too rigid, and applicable only to large projects, leading to revision in 1996.

In 1994, the Chaos Report was first published. The Standish Group collects information on project failures in the information technology industry with the objective of making the industry much more successful than it already is, showing ways to improve its success rates and increase the value of IT investments. The Chaos Report is its biennial publication about IT project failure.

In 1996, PRINCE2 was published by CCTA. An upgrade to PRINCE was considered to be in order, and the development was contracted out but assured by a virtual committee spread among 150 European organizations. Originally developed for information systems and information technology projects to reduce cost and time overruns, the second revision became more generic and applicable to any project type.

In 1997, Critical Chain Project Management was invented. We've already discussed this. CCPM is based on methods and algorithms drawn from Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, introduced in his 1984 novel titled "The Goal." A critical chain project network will keep the resources levelly loaded but will need them to be flexible in their start times and will switch quickly between tasks and task chains to keep the whole project on schedule.

In 1998, PMB became a standard. The American National Standards Institute recognizes PMB as a standard in 1998, and later that year, by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Moving on to 2001, The Agile Manifesto was written. In February 2001, 17 software developers met at the Lodge Snowbird, Utah resort to discuss lightweight software development methods. Here, they published the Manifesto for Agile Software Development to define the approach now known by the same name. Some of the manifesto authors formed the Agile Alliance, a nonprofit organization that really promotes software development according to the manifesto's 12 core principles.

In 2006, the Total Cost Management Framework was released by AACE International. Total Cost Management is the name given by AACE International to a process for applying the skills and knowledge of cost engineering. It is also the first integrated process or method of portfolio, program, and project management. AACE first introduced the idea in the 1990s and published the full presentation of the process in the Total Cost Management Framework.

Moving on to 2008, the fourth edition of the PMBOK Guide was released. The fourth edition of the Guide continues the PMI tradition of excellence in project management with a standard that is easier to understand and implement, with improved consistency and greater clarification. The updated version has two new processes not in the previous version.

And in 2009, a major PRINCE2 revision was incorporated by the Office of Government Commerce. A major revision has seen the method made simpler and more easily customizable, a frequent request from users. The updated version asserts basic principles that contribute to project success overall. The updated method aims to give project managers a better set of tools to deliver projects on time, within budget, and with the right quality.

In 2012, the ISO 21500:2012 Guidance Standard for Project Management was released. In September 2012, to be exact, the International Organization for Standardization published ISO 21500:2012 Guidance and Project Management. It is a result of five years' work by experts from more than 50 countries. The standard is designed for use by any organization, including public, private, or community groups, and for any project, regardless of complexity, size, and duration.

In 2012, the fifth edition of the PMBOK Guide was released. The fifth edition of the Guide, published in December 2012, provides guidelines, rules, and characteristics for project management recognized as good practice in the profession. The updated version introduces a 10th knowledge area called Project Stakeholder Management and also includes four new planning processes.

In 2017, the sixth edition of the PMBOK Guide was released. And moving on, in 2021, the seventh edition of the PMBOK Guide will be released. The seventh edition, unlike the other editions, will have different performance domains. It will have additional topics like models, artifacts, and it has many other new principles that have been incorporated into it.

Now that we know the history of project management, let's move on to the next part of this session and discuss why project management.

Firstly, project management allows you to increase and work on collaboration with clear roles, responsibilities, and standardized templates. Project management helps teams to form quickly and work very well together towards a particular goal. Collaboration with other teams or business units becomes easier as everyone is speaking the same language and using the same tools.

The second reason is because of effective project planning. A well-developed project plan creates a realistic timeline, improves resource management, provides a baseline for tracking as the project progresses, and leads to accurate budget estimates. In addition, data from previous projects is a valuable input into future project planning.

The third reason is it has standardized ways of working. In the absence of a clear approach to projects, individuals will get creative and develop their own ways of working, leading to multiple styles in one organization. A standardized project approach, supported by the right tools, will increase transparency in project selection, simplify project planning with templates, help team members to move very quickly between projects, improve collaboration within and between teams, and eventually improve visibility and reporting.

The fourth reason is it allows you to successfully manage change. Change management increases the end-user adoption of a solution created by a project. Now, for example, using a company intranet or new document management software. When included in the project planning and throughout the project, change management makes it easier to deliver real business value from projects. Change management also reduces the impact of scope creep or uncontrolled changes to the project. Involving key stakeholders and users from the outset reduces the likelihood of delivering an unusable product.

Project management will also enable better risk management. Using project management processes, teams can identify potential risks well before the work even actually begins. If these risks affect the project during execution, the team is better placed to detect and address the problem as early as possible. And if project management practices are involved in the most effective manner, you can definitely see an improved quality. Project management helps to align outcomes with stakeholder expectations, gather feedback on a regular basis, and leverage new technologies to deliver better quality solutions. Documented processes also help to reduce errors and rework.

There will also be an improved reputation. In time, successful project teams gain the recognition of their colleagues and managers. Organizations also benefit from an increased standing among their competitors and future clients. Leadership is the most important aspect in project management. Project managers unite the team behind a clear vision and keep everyone motivated. Project managers can coach and mentor the team as needed so they can do their best work.

Finally, it will incorporate new organizational capabilities. Improving project management processes is not just about financial gains. Organizations can also transform internal culture and the ways of working. Modern work is best described as a set of self-managed tasks. Introducing project management really helps organizations shift to focus on goals, metrics, and processes to support the execution of these tasks.

Moving ahead, we will understand who really is a project manager. Project managers are organized, passionate, and goal-oriented people who understand what projects have in common and their strategic role in how organizations succeed, learn, and change. Basically, project managers are change agents. They make project goals their own and use their skills and expertise to inspire a sense of shared purpose within the project team. They enjoy the organized adrenaline of new challenges and the responsibility of driving business results. They work very well under pressure and are comfortable with change and complexity in dynamic environments. They can shift readily between the big picture and the small but crucial details, knowing when to concentrate on each of them. Project managers cultivate the people skills needed to develop trust and communication among all of a project's stakeholders: its sponsors, those who will make use of the project's results, those who command the resources needed, and the project team members. They also have a very, very broad and flexible toolkit of techniques, resolving complex interdependent activities into tasks and subtasks that are documented, monitored, and controlled. They adapt their approach to the context and constraints of each project, knowing that no one size can fit all the variety of projects, and they're always improving their own and their team's skills through lessons learned reviews at project completion. Project managers are found in every kind of organization as employees, managers, contractors, and independent consultants. With experience, they may become program managers or portfolio managers, and the demand for project managers is increasing exponentially all around the world. For decades, as the pace of economic and technological change has quickened, organizations have been directing more and more of their energy into projects rather than routine operations. Today, senior executives and HR managers recognize project management as a strategic competence that is indispensable to business success. They know that skilled and credentialed practitioners are among their most valuable resources.

So now, let's discuss some of the skills of a project manager. Firstly, the project manager should become a very strategic business partner. He or she must also encourage and recognize the valuable contribution of others in the project. He or she must respect and motivate stakeholders and even give them insights time to time. He must stress on integrity and accountability of the project. He or she must also be fully invested in the success of the project, and they must definitely have the talent to be able to work in the gray areas. The high level of skills and responsibilities of project managers has garnered high salaries. According to PMI's 9th Edition Salary Survey, the annual median US project manager salary was about $118,000. So, here's a list of annual median salaries by certification status and experience. As you can see, the Project Management Professional will allow you to completely skill up, and the median salary is about $111,000. PMP with less than one year of experience gives you a median salary of about $95,000. PMP between 1 to 5 years of experience gives you around $104,000. The median salary of a PMP professional with 5 to 10 years of experience will give you a median salary of $120,000. Moving on, PMP professionals with 10 to 20 years of experience should expect a median salary of about $124,000, and finally, PMP professionals with over 20 years of experience can easily expect a median salary of $133,000.

Now that we have also discussed the salary of a project manager, let's move on to the next part of the session and discuss project management tools. As you may have noticed, projects can be sometimes really complicated. You plan, schedule, and monitor to make sure all elements of the project are running smoothly. The more tools in hand, the more manageable the project and your tasks can be. Project management software can contain all the tools that are needed to help project managers and team members with every aspect of their projects. When that project management software is cloud-based, data and collaboration can happen in real time, which really provides a more accurate picture of the project and helps in decision-making. Plus, project management software often contains many of the major tools for managing projects, like the ones that we'll be talking about.

The first one is real-time dashboards. Now, project dashboards gather metrics from all parts of the project. Those numbers are then displayed in easy-to-read charts and graphs, giving managers or team members a live look at the project progress and data. Dashboards can also assist in reporting. Running a project means reporting to the project sponsors on the progress of the project. Graphs and charts can be filtered to deliver just the data you need for targeted reports.

The next tool that can really be handy in a project is online Gantt charts. These charts are great tools for planning because they display your task list graphically over a timeline. Each task has a deadline, which creates a line marking the start and finish of that particular task. These tasks can then be linked if dependent. Ideally, you can share the Gantt with your team and track their progress as they update the statuses. With some of these Gantt charts, the bar between the start and finish dates will fill in as the team works on their tasks, and if you need to change the schedule, you can simply drag and drop the bar to reflect the new due date.

The next tool is task management tools. There are several task management tools that allow you to create to-do lists for yourself and assign tasks to your team members. These tasks can sometimes have notes, files, links, and images attached that relate to the task and team members.

Can dialogue and collaborate? The task level, you can also automate email notifications to really know when a task is completed and to remind people of impending deadlines.

The next tool is time sheets and workload tools. Terms of managing the people working on the project, which can be a project by itself, there are time sheets. These are online documents that make it easy for each employee to track and record their hours worked, and they can be filed to the manager when complete for sign-off.

When it comes to managing the workload, resource allocation tools really allow you to see at a glance if you've allocated your resources properly across the project so that everyone is working and the workload is properly balanced. In some cases, you can run reports from your workload managing software, too.

Now that we've discussed some of the tools that a project manager could use to really get an insight of how well the project is doing, let's move ahead and talk about one important part of project management, that is its life cycle. So, there are three steps to do this life cycle. The first one is initiation, the second one is planning, third one is execution, and the last one is closure. We'll be talking about each of these in detail. So, whether you're working on a small project with modest business goals or a multi-departmental initiative with sweeping corporate implications, an understanding of this management cycle is essential.

The first one is initiation. First, you'll have to identify a business need, problem, or opportunity and brainstorm ways that your team can meet this need, solve this problem, or seize this opportunity. During this step, you figure out an objective for your project, determine whether the project is feasible, and identify the major deliverables for the project. Clearly, it is worth it to do what it takes to make your voice heard early before the strategy is set in stone.

There are some project management steps for the initiation phase. Firstly, undertake a feasibility study. That is, identify the primary problem your project will solve and whether your project will deliver a solution to that particular problem. The second one is identifying scope. Define the depth and breadth of the project. The third step is to identify deliverables. That is, define the product or service to provide. The fourth step is to identify project stakeholders. Figure out whom the project affects and what their needs may be. The fifth step is develop a business case. Use the criteria that I just mentioned to compare the potential cost and benefits for the project to determine if it moves forward. Finally, develop a statement of work. That is, document the project's objectives, scope, and deliverables that you have identified previously as a working agreement between the project owner and those working on the project.

Now, in the life cycle, the second step is planning. Now, once the project is approved to move forward based on your business case, statement of work, or project initiation document, you move on to the next step, that is planning phase. Now, during this phase of the project management life cycle, you break down the larger project into smaller tasks, build your team, and prepare a schedule for the completion of assignments. Create smaller goals within the larger project, making sure each is achievable within the time frame. Smaller goals should definitely have a higher potential for success.

There are some certain steps that you will have to follow in the planning phase too. The first one is to create a project plan. Identify the project timeline, including the phases of the project, the tasks to be performed, and the possible constraints that we discussed in the previous part of the session. The second step is to create workflow diagrams. Visualize your processes using swim lanes to make sure team members clearly understand their role within a project. The third one is to estimate budget and create a financial plan. This is really important. You will have to use cost estimates to really determine how much to spend on the project to get the maximum return on investment. The next step is to gather resources. Build your functional team from internal and external talent pools while making sure everyone has the necessary tools to complete their tasks. The next is to anticipate risks and potential quality roadblocks. Identify issues that may cause your project to stall while planning to mitigate those risks and maintain the project's quality and timeline. The last step is to hold a project kickoff meeting. Bring your team on board and outline the project so they can quickly get to work.

So now, moving on, you've received business approval, developed a plan, and built your team. Now is the time to get to work. The execution phase turns your plans into actions. The project manager's job in this phase of the project management life cycle is to keep work on track, organize team members, manage timelines, and really make sure the work is done according to the original plan.

There are some steps that you'll have to follow in the execution phase of the life cycle too. The first one is to create tasks and organizing workflows. Assign granular aspects of the project to the appropriate team members, making sure team members are not overworked. Then you will have to brief team members on tasks. Explain tasks to team members, providing necessary guidance on how they should be completed, and organize process-related training if required. The next step is to communicate with team members, clients, and upper management. Provide updates frequently to project stakeholders at all levels. Also, you will have to monitor quality of work. Ensure that team members are meeting their time and quality goals for tasks. Finally, manage budget. Monitor spending and keep the project on track in terms of assets and resources. If you have a properly documented process already in place, executing the project will be much easier.

Finally, in the last step of the life cycle, we have closure. Now, once your team has completed work on a project, you enter the closure phase. In this phase, you provide final deliverables, release project resources, and determine the success of the project. Just because the major project work is over, that doesn't mean the project manager's job is done here. There are still some important things to do, including evaluating what did and did not work with the project. So, he'll have to firstly analyze project performance. Determine whether the project's goals were met and the initial problems solved using a prepared checklist. Then you'll also have to analyze team performance. Evaluate how team members performed, including whether they met their goals, along with timeliness and quality of work.

Moving on, you will also have to document project closure. Make sure that all aspects of the project are completed with no loose ends remaining, and here you'll also have to provide reports to key holders. Moving on, you will have to conduct post-implementation reviews where you conduct a final analysis of the project, taking into account lessons learned for similar projects in the future. Finally, accounting for used and unused budget, you will have to allocate remaining resources for future projects. By remaining on task, even though the project's work is completed, you will be prepared to take everything you've learned and implement it for your next project.

Now that we have discussed the various project management tools, let's go ahead and check out the project principles. Now that we've discussed the life cycle, let's go ahead and talk about the project management principles. There are 12 project management principles. The first one is stewardship, where you're expected to be a diligent, respectful, and caring steward. The second principle is team. Build a culture of accountability and respect. The third one is stakeholders. You will constantly have to engage stakeholders to really understand their interests and needs. The fourth principle is value. You will always have to focus on value throughout the project. It is really important to keep up the value. The fifth principle is holistic thinking. Recognize and respond to the systems interactions. The sixth principle is leadership. Here you'll have to motivate, influence, coach, and learn. The seventh principle is tailoring, where you will have to tailor the delivery approach based on the context. The eighth one is quality. It is important to build quality into the processes and results, that is the outcome. The ninth principle is complexity. You will have to address complexity using your technical knowledge, your experience, and also the learning throughout the project. The 10th principle is opportunities and threats. You will have to address opportunities and threats throughout the entire process. 11th principle is adaptability and resilience. It is important for you to be adaptable and resilient throughout the project. The last principle is change management. You will have to enable change whenever it is required to achieve the envisioned future state.

Now that we have discussed the 12 main principles in project management, let's move ahead and check out the performance domains in project management. The first performance domain is team. The second one is stakeholders. Third one is the project life cycle itself. The fourth one is planning. The fifth one is navigating uncertainty and ambiguity. The sixth one is delivery. The seventh one is performance, and the last one is project work. So, these are all the roles and factors that contribute to the project's success.

So, let us understand what's the project management life cycle. As you know, we have been regularly using a term called initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and control, and closing. So, one side, if I look at these are my five process groups, but if I try to look at from a different perspective, initiating is something when I start my project. That stage is initiating stage. The activities which are there in initiating stage are activities such as finding out the business case, that means business reason why we are into this project, working with sponsors to get the charter document created, find out what are the customer's requirements, finding out who these stakeholders are. These are few of the activities done in initiating.

Then comes planning. Planning is like preparing a proper plan of each of those items what we have to deliver. Planning would also mean talking about the individual knowledge area plan, also working out on the three key things which is scope, time, and cost. So, we'll prepare their baseline. The baseline means approved and signed version of scope, that's scope baseline. Cost baseline is like approved costing of the project. Similarly, you have a schedule baseline, which is an approved time from the management. And the word baseline means that these are certain plans which are approved by the management, and after the baselines are done, any changes to be done in that plan will have to follow a change request process to the management. Project manager is an authorized person who can carry out those changes, but once the baselines are signed, the authority of change goes from project manager to the senior management. The particular word which we are using in a senior management who's responsible for maybe responding to the change request, that's called as Change Control Board, in short we call that as a CCB.

Once we have completed the planning, we would have a project management plan in hand, and when we are going to be in execution, we would be executing what has been planned. Sometimes it's also called as plan, do, check, act. PDCA. Check and act is like monitoring and control. Do is like do. Do means execution. P is like planning. Project management life cycle is also a kind of plan, do, check, act. That means there is a continuous improvement what is required. The monitoring and control actually, that something which is continuously going on from the time you start the project. So, in a nutshell, I'll consider the monitoring and control to be a regular feature, irrespective of what stage we are in. We would be continuously monitoring and tracking on what's getting delivered and how we are doing it. So, this is something I consider that as a regular feature.

When I talk about of the fifth line item here, which is closure. Closure means towards the end, when we are able to give the deliverables to the customer, customer is accepting the deliverables, and we are closing that project. That's the time we are referring to the closing here. Closing also would mean administrative closure, financial closure, any such open items what we are going ahead with. If there are any ambiguities between customer and project manager or the project, and you feel like that's not resolved and something which is still hovering and pending, even in closing stage, we would prefer to speak to the sponsors, document those things. If it is still maybe not getting addressed because the project has to close on the given times, so if at all there is a situation wherein with mediation also we are not able to resolve it, then we document those changes so that the PMO or the other members can deal with it if required.

Initiating, planning, executing, and closing, and in between, I'm talking about of monitoring and control, which is a continuous activity which happens. So, these are the stages which are going to be continuously going on one by one. In pharmaceutical industry, the name of the various life cycle items would be discovery, screening, preclinical development, registration, post-submission activities. So, that could be a name of the various life cycle stages. If I talk about of a software development life cycle, you will have stages such as requirements gathering, analyzing, designing, coding, testing, deployment. So, these are going to be my various stages in the software project life cycle.

If I compare the same with a construction industry, the stages of project life cycle would be feasibility, concept, detailed scope, detailed design, procurement, construction, commissioning, handover, and close. So, that means the life cycle stages are followed in every industry. However, the name could be different in each of those life cycles. When we talk about out, there may be various phases for us. So, these phases can vary from industry to industry, but what is more important when we talk about of the phases, that they may be established based on various factors in an industry, which could be from management needs, which could be from the nature of project. So, these are few factors which would be influencing the different phases. And more than anything else, they also try to use a word called phase gate. That means whenever one particular phase comes to an end, we call that as a phase gate. Gate means there is a review supposed to happen. So, there's a person standing it who would like to know why you're moving. Have you done the deliverables yet? Have you not completed the deliverables? So, the word gate in terms basically relate to end of a phase and second phase is starting up, and we would like to cross-check our deliverables, our performance, and the reason of using phase gate word is basically this helps as a decision point. I would call that as a go or no-go. Should I proceed or should I terminate? That kind of a decision is actually taken up at that level. So, every phase gate, we have a choice to relook at whether things are getting delivered as they were desired or there is something to be done separately. So, these are few things what we would be paying more importance when we talk about of project management life cycles.

When I talk about of initiating, we said initiating is the beginning. Initiating is like when project is getting final, and we are finding out various resources, we are finding out purpose of the project, why are we getting into this project, what's the benefit this can bring into our organization. That's something which is done in the initial stage itself, wherein we do mainly two activities. First is finding out the business justification and preparing a charter document, and the second is identifying who the stakeholders are. So, these are few things which are done in the beginning itself, or the initiating.

When we talk about of planning, we try to get into the details of every planning, mainly scope, time, and cost, but this is a planning to be done for all the 10 knowledge areas. Rather, we would better call that as a planning of all the 49 processes, how we are going to be using those processes, where we need to customize, what needs to be customized. I'll give you a small example. Let us talk about of a process called as plan communication management, which is part of planning. In order to understand what generally we do in this process, please ask a few questions, and you'll get to know what kind of a planning is required. Question number one: What needs to be communicated? Question two: How this needs to be communicated? Question three: Who will communicate this? Fourth: At what frequency you will communicate? Fifth: What format will you communicate? Sixth: Who should be receiving this communication? See, when I start asking all these questions, these are something what are supposed to be getting discussed in the each of the planning processes here. So, the questions what I asked are the questions we generally ask during plan communication management, and the strategies and the answers, how we are going to be doing this, who is going to be doing this, all this gets documented, and that is something which is basically the plan of my communication. We call that as a communication management plan. So, this is a maybe a rough idea for us to relate on how is the planning done for each of those processes there.

Now, how will you do control cost? How will you do control schedule? Or any of the other processes, that also gets discussed in the planning itself. So, basically, the planning process group is carrying the skeleton of how are we going to be doing the remaining set of processes as well. And of course, we try to do a deep dive in terms of gathering requirements, breaking the requirement into smaller, more manageable align items called work package, then trying to estimate it from the time perspective, cost perspective, and preparing the baselines. So, all these kind of a jobs are actually done in the planning. So, when we complete our all processes of planning, that is where we are ready with a document called as project management plan, and this becomes the basis throughout for project performance, project appraisal, and for team performance and team appraisal.

Moving next, we are clubbing monitoring and controlling and execution. And as we said, the monitoring and control is a continuous process which has to be done starting from the beginning itself. Now, the processes what we have to use for executing the project and doing a monitoring and control. Monitoring and control is to do with tracking, looking into the milestone what was agreed and how is the progress, and more than anything else, when we are into the monitoring and control, we are actually continuously looking for compliances to our project management plan. And at the same time, in monitoring and control, the one big thing what we do is like comparing our project management plan and the current progress to understand, are there any gaps? Are there any items which call for an action now? And this action could be initiated in the form of a change request. Very commonly, this is called as a CR in many of the organizations. So, the process of initiating a change request, giving it back to the Change Control Board, also is the process which is done in the monitoring control process group itself. And the deliverables what we are producing, that's part of our definition as well, that the project is supposed to be delivering unique product, service, or result. So, even verifying the deliverables are meeting customer's specifications and requirement, giving it to the customer, so that customer is accepting the deliverables, which we call that as the accepted deliverables. So, even those activities are also done in the monitoring and control.

And last, not the least, is like closure, wherein we are trying to do a formal closure of our project, including procurement, including all other activities. This generally happens in three situations. First situation: when project is coming to an end, which is I would call that as a normal closure. Second situation: when a phase is coming to an end. And third situation: when project is getting terminated in between. Then also we'll have to come to this situation. Few key activities what we do while we are in closure is basically releasing the resources. When you start your project, you may take resources from various thingss inside of your office or even from maybe few outside vendors. So, when we come to the closure, we also release the resources. And before release, we wanted to make sure any lesson learned whatever we have, which is not documented so far, we'll document and we'll try to archive these documents, ensure the payments are scheduled, and the formal sign-offs have happened with the clients and vendors. So, that's something which is done towards the closure. And finally, we might raise a project report as well. So, that's the activity which is done in the closer side.

Now, the activities what we carry out in each of those phase, this may vary from industry to industry. Let us talk about of the activities when we start. So, when you define, when you develop this kind of an activity, we call that as an initiating. Planning talks about of maybe starting from initiating till about monitoring and control. That means till such time deliverables are not handed over to the customer, all that kind of activities, I would consider that as the full planning which is going on consistently. Then comes up the execution, monitoring and control. Truly speaking, that begins when the project starts, and it only ends when the project finishes. The efforts might increase when we are towards the deployment and we are about to start delivering many things to the client. So, that's the stage maybe the resources would start going to be coming down. So, that means once we have started doing the deliverables, maybe we are very close to the monitoring and control phase. After that phase, there is a decline in terms of the resources requirement, there is a decline in terms of the total manpower requirement from that perspective. So, that's a consistent decline we have. And in the last, the stage what we call that as the closing stage, when we have delivered, we have handed over the deliverables to the customer, that's the stage we come towards closing, which is called as finish.

Now, as I said, the name of various activities or the phases would vary from industry to industry, but the basic methodology, the basic understanding that remains the same throughout. So, that's the main thing what we wanted to cover up here. And this dotted line represents the consistent monitoring which happens.

Who is a project manager? A specialist who supervises the creation, implementation, and the conclusion of projects is known as a project manager. They oversee a group of people, control consumption and resources, interact with stakeholders, and make sure that the projects are completed on time and within the budget.

As you all have understood who is a project manager, let's move on to the roles of a project manager. The role of a project manager is complex, involving a range of duties that are essential for the success of a project. A project manager performs the following crucial roles. And the first one is leadership. Being a leader is another aspect of a project manager's duties. Since this position is at the core of programmatic development, you must have strong leadership and interpersonal skills in order to promote teamwork, trust, and complete the task on time.

Next is organization. By creating a thorough project plan, managing resources efficiently, creating task lists, preparing for an unexpected event with backup plans, and monitoring budgets and schedules, a project manager plays a very crucial role in planning and organization. It takes their ability to carry out and finish the project successfully.

Next is communication. Effective communication is the foundation of a project manager's success. It aligns team members and stakeholders with the project objectives, promotes collaboration, manages risk, allows for continuous improvement through feedback, ensures clarity through documentation, and inspires motivation and leadership throughout the project.

Next, we have risk management. Risk management of a project manager is an active process that involves identifying, evaluating, and reducing potential risks. The project manager ensures the project's adaptability and success through the implementation of strategies and backup plans.

Finally, we have decision-making. A project manager's decision-making process is complex, involving an analysis of project objectives, risk, and available information. A project manager should navigate difficulties and balance multiple goals in order to keep the projects on track.

Now, we will move on to project manager's responsibility. A project manager is responsible for the project planning, execution, and closure. The specific responsibilities may vary depending upon the industry, organization, and the project size, but here are some of the common responsibilities of a project manager. And one of the responsibility is planning. A project manager is in charge of creating a project plan that meets the project objectives while staying within an approved budget and timeline. This blueprint will guide the project manager from start till the end. It will include the scope of the project, the resources required, the estimated time and financial requirements, the communication strategy, and the execution and documentation plan.

Next is execution. The project manager contributes to and supervises the effective finishing of each stage of the project. Again, this necessitates common, open communication among the project team members and the stakeholders.

Next, we have documentation. The project manager has to create effective methods of measuring and analyzing the project progress. Data collection, as well as verbal and written status reports, are common project documentation strategies. It is also the project manager's responsibility to ensure that all the relevant actions are approved and these documentation are kept for future reference.

Next is time management. Time management is a critical responsibility of project managers, as it is deeply linked to all the aspects of the project execution. It starts with carefully arranging the project schedules in which tasks are assigned frameworks based on the importance and dependence.

Finally, we have budget. Project managers create a budget for a project and hold to it strictly as possible. If certain aspects of a project end up costing more than expected, project managers adjust the budget and reallocate funds as needed.

As you'll have understood the roles and the responsibility of a project manager, let's move on to the importance of a project manager. The importance of a project manager comes from their key function as coordinator of project success. They act as an innovator, guiding the team towards a common goal, and as a leader, inspiring and motivating people to do their best. A project manager provides structure and organization through detailed planning, ensuring that the tasks are aligned within the project goals. The effective communication keeps the stakeholders informed and engaged, which promotes teamwork. Finally, the project manager serves as a pillar, bringing various parts together into a single unit, increasing efficiency and delivering successful project results.

Next, we will discuss the top project management methodologies. Project management methodologies basically represent different approaches of the project. Everyone has a different process and workflow. Here, we look at some of the most popular project management methodologies. And our first methodology is Waterfall's project management methodology. The most common way to plan a project is to order the tasks that lead to a final product and work on them in that order. This process is also known as Waterfall's methodology, which is the most traditional and easily understood method of project management. You must complete one task before moving to the next in a linked series of items that contributes to the overall product.

Next, we have Agile project management methodology. Agile project management is a process that values flexibility and adaptability to change. It divides projects into smaller parts and encourages cross-functional team collaboration to ensure continuous delivery of valuable outcomes.

Next, we have the change management methodology. Mechany 7s, Agile, Change Bridge, Transition are some of the essential change management methodologies for project managers. They focus on individual transition, organizational alignments, and psychological efforts. The nature of the project, the organizational culture, and the individual involved all of this influence the selection process.

And the last methodology is process-based methodology. The project management methods that look like business process management, with each approach focusing on work as the collection of processes. While project management may say that this method should be in a different list, we believe that there are still effective ways to plan and execute the project.

Now you have a clear picture of the methodologies. Let's move on to the interpersonal skills of a project manager. The interpersonal skills are essential for a project manager to efficiently lead a team, communicate with stakeholders, and navigate project dynamics. Here are some of the key interpersonal skills required for a project manager. And the first skill is conflict resolution. Identify and resolve conflict in a timely and in a helpful manner. Facilitate positive team dynamics by controlling disagreements and finding solutions that benefit the project as a whole.

Next, we have negotiation. Negotiate efficiently with team members and stakeholders. Identify mutually beneficial solutions in complex situations and to meet project objectives.

Next, we have influencing skills. Encourage and influence stakeholders to support the project's goals. Support from the team and the project as needed. Develop acceptance and alignment among different points of view.

And the last one is feedback. Offer helpful suggestions to the team members. Acknowledge and celebrate achievements. Develop a positive feedback society within the team.

As you'll have understood the methodologies, the interpersonal skills of a project manager, let's move on to the project manager salary. The project manager's annual salary in India ranges between 13 to 28 lakh rupees, whereas in the United States, it ranges between $72,000 to $100,000.

And now, we'll move to the conclusion part. Project manager's crucial roles and responsibilities include effective coordination, innovation, leadership, thorough preparation, communication, and adaptability, which ensures project success through collaboration and successful execution. Project management is a structured approach to bringing new ideas to life while ensuring they are completed within the defined parameters of time, budget, and quality. It involves a combination of skills, methodologies, and tools to guide a project to successful completion. So, project management is not only about managing tasks and resources, but also about leadership, problem-solving, and effective communication. Various methodologies like Agile, Waterfall, Scrum, etc., provide frameworks and guidelines to manage projects efficiently, which are based on specific requirements and context. Project management involves the core stages of planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing in the project life cycle. The project management skills act as the foundation for supervising a project's entire journey. You should know that they ensure the project progresses smoothly, also hits its goals, and delivers the expected results within the specified time, budget, and quality standards.

Now, let's explore the soft skills, hard skills, and technical skills that are very essential in project management. Moreover, soft skills play a very significant role in project management by enhancing interpersonal interactions, teamwork, and overall project effectiveness. Here are some of the essential soft skills that are required to develop in project management. So, under soft skills, first comes communication. So, project managers need strong communication skills to convey ideas, objectives, and expectations that are very clear to the team members, stakeholders, and clients. Here, effective communication fosters understanding, alignment, and helps in resolving conflicts efficiently.

Second comes the leadership. So, effective leadership involves inspiring, guiding, and motivating teams to achieve project goals. A good leader sets a vision, delegates tasks, resolves conflicts, and empowers the team members to perform at their best.

Third comes the problem-solving. So, it's the ability to quickly identify issues, analyze root causes, and devise effective solutions. These factors are very critical when it comes to problem-solving. So, project managers need to be adept at addressing problems that arise due to project execution, fostering a solution-oriented approach within the team.

Fourth comes the adaptability, or you can call it flexibility. So, being open to change and able to adjust plans when necessary is very crucial here. Project environments are dynamic, and their adaptability ensures the ability to respond effectively to unexpected challenges without losing sight of project goals.

Fifth comes the negotiation. So, negotiation skills are vital in resolving conflicts, managing expectations, and aligning stakeholders or team members towards common goals. Here, effective negotiation helps in reaching mutually beneficial agreements and maintaining project momentum.

Sixth on the list is the time management. So, project managers must excel in prioritizing tasks, managing deadlines, and optimizing productivity within the team. Also, effective time management ensures timely project completion without compromising quality.

Seventh comes the emotional intelligence. So, by understanding and managing emotions, empathizing with team members, and fostering a positive work environment are very essential when it comes to emotional intelligence. It also helps in maintaining team morale, resolving conflicts, and improving the overall team dynamics.

Last comes the collaboration and teamwork. So, project managers must foster a collaborative environment where team members work effectively together. Here, leveraging diverse skills and perspectives enhances problem-solving, innovation, and the overall success of the project.

Moving on, let's talk about the hard skills under project management. So, under this, first comes the technical tools mastery. It requires proficiency in project management software, for example, Microsoft Project and Asana. Also, knowing how to effectively use these tools for scheduling, task management, resource allocation, and communication streamlines project workflows.

Next comes the budgeting and cost management. It requires skills that are creating, managing, and adhering to project budgets. These include cost estimation, tracking expenses, managing funds, and ensuring financial compliance throughout the project.

Third comes the risk management. So, by identifying, assessing, and mitigating risk is very essential when it comes to project success. This skill involves understanding potential threats to the project, by evaluating their impact and devising strategies to avoid or minimize these risks.

Fourth comes the scheduling. So, by creating realistic project schedules, defining milestones, managing dependencies, and ensuring timely delivery of the project components, these are very crucial aspects when it comes to scheduling. Here, skills in scheduling involves setting achievable timelines and adapting plans as needed.

Fifth comes the quality management. Here, by ensuring project deliverables that meet established quality standards is paramount. Setting and maintaining quality expectations by conducting checks and implementing corrective actions when necessary is crucial for the success.

Sixth is the resource management. So, it allows efficiently allocating and managing project resources such as human resources, equipment, materials, and budgets. These ensure optimal utilization and successful project completion.

Seventh, we have the scope management. So, under scope management, it involves defining and controlling what's included in the project. It includes setting clear boundaries and ensuring that the project stays within those boundaries to achieve its objectives.

Lastly, we have the stakeholder management. So, it requires skills in identifying stakeholders, understanding their needs, managing their expectations, and effectively communicating with them throughout the project life cycle. So, these are very critical for the project alignment and success.

Moving ahead, let's talk about the technical skills with which are required. So, under this, first comes the domain experience. So, it requires in-depth knowledge of the specific industry or domain in which the project operates. Hereby understanding the finer details helps in making informed decisions and effectively managing the project.

Second comes the project methodologies. Here, it requires familiarity with various project management methodologies like Agile, Waterfall, and Scrum, and also knowing when and how to apply them based on project requirements and team dynamics.

Third comes the data analysis. It's the ability to analyze project data to derive insights, make informed decisions, and optimize project performance by leveraging quantitative information.

Fourth comes the reporting and documentation. It requires skills in creating comprehensive reports, documenting project progress, milestones, issues, and resolutions. These are very essential for effective communication and maintaining project records.

Fifth comes the procurement and contracts. Here, understanding procurement processes like contract management and vendor relationships, if applicable to the project, it ensures smooth operations and compliance.

Sixth is the IT and systems knowledge. So, you should have some basic understanding of familiarity with IT systems and technologies that are relevant to the project to facilitate effective communication with technical teams and ensure smooth integration.

Seventh is the legal and regulatory compliance. So, it requires awareness of legal and regulatory requirements which are relevant to the project and ensuring compliance throughout the project execution to avoid legal complications.

Finally, we have the strategic thinking. So, it's the ability to think strategically, align project goals with the organizational objectives, and make decisions that contribute to broader organizational success while ensuring the project success. Mastering these skills, it enables project managers to navigate complexities effectively, lead teams, and ensure successful project outcomes within diverse project environments.

Do you know how much a project manager is paid? According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a project manager is rupees 20 lakh 75,000 per year in India and $99,200 per year in the United States. So, organizations are constantly looking for skilled project managers to ensure that projects are successfully planned, executed, and completed.

Introduction to project management. So, project management deals with organizing and managing resources to achieve objectives within a set time frame. Project management mainly consists of five processes: initiating, initiating is basically defining and authorizing the project; planning, establishing project objectives, scope, schedule, budget, and resources; executing, carrying out the project plan by coordinating people and resources; monitoring, tracking project performance and managing changes; closing, finalizing all project activities and delivering the project.

So, now let's understand the main responsibilities of project managers. First one is defining the project scope, objectives, deliverables, and success criteria. Second, developing project plans, schedules, and timelines. Third, identifying project stakeholders. And fourth is allocating resources based on project requirements. They conduct risk assessments and also create risk management plans.

So, now let's take a look at some of the career opportunities in project management. First, project coordinator or assistant. So, this is an entry-level position that involves supporting project managers with administrative tasks, scheduling, and documentation. This role provides foundational experience in project management.

Second is project manager. Project managers are responsible for planning, executing, and finalizing projects within the budget and schedule constraints. Project managers oversee project teams, manage resources, and communicate with stakeholders to ensure successful project delivery.

Third is program manager. Program managers manage programs to achieve strategic business objectives. Program managers coordinate between projects, allocate resources, and provide oversight to ensure alignment with organizational goals.

Fourth is consultant. Consultants work for consulting firms to provide project management expertise to clients. They assist with project planning, execution, improvement, or project recovery for various organizations and industries.

Fifth role is risk manager. Specializes in identifying and managing risks throughout the project life cycle. Risk managers develop risk management plans, implement strategies, and monitor risk exposure to minimize the impact of potential threats on project objectives.

So, now let's see what a typical day in the life of a project manager might look like. So, a project manager starts the day by reviewing emails and messages to address urgent issues or requests. Then they check the project management tools to review task assessments, upcoming deadlines, and project status updates. They prioritize tasks for the day and create a to-do list or agenda. Then they stand up with the project team to discuss progress, priority, and any potential roadblocks. They then provide clarification on tasks and project objectives, address any concerns raised by the team members. They then communicate with project stakeholders to provide updates on project progress and deliverables. They schedule meetings or calls with key stakeholders to discuss project status, collaborate with stakeholders to gather feedback, requirements, or approvals for project deliverables. They then review and update the project plan and timelines, and coordinate project activities and tasks, ensuring alignment with the project objectives and timeline.

So, by the end of the day, they conduct a brief review to assess progress. They update task lists and priorities for the next day based on the current progress and communicate with the project team to provide feedback. So, isn't that exciting? So, if you love organizing and planning events, then a career in project management is your best career choice.

So, landing a career in project management involves a combination of education, hands-on experience, and continuous learning. So, here are some general steps to help you pursue a career in project management. So, the first step is to obtain a relevant degree in project management, business administration, engineering, or a related field. If you want to get started with project management, try gaining practice, practical experience through internships and entry-level positions. Look for roles that involve project coordination, administrative support, or assisting project managers in developing foundational skills and understanding project management processes.

Step three is developing skills. The best part about project management is that you do not require strong technical skills. Develop essential project management skills such as leadership, communication, problem-solving, time management, and organizational skills. These skills are critical for effectively managing projects and collaborating with team members and clients.

So, the fourth step is networking. Network with professionals in the project management field through industry events, conferences, workshops, and online forums. Join project management associations or organizations to connect with peers, learn about job opportunities, and stay updated on industry trends.

Step five is certifications. Consider obtaining certifications to enhance your credentials and demonstrate your expertise to potential employers. So, PMP is a globally recognized certification provided by the Project Management Institute to professionals who demonstrate project management knowledge and skills. PMP certification is a valuable credential for project managers seeking to validate their skills and knowledge and experience in project management and enhance their professional credibility and career prospects in the field. So, check out PMP certification offered by EduRea. This is a globally recognized Project Management Professional certification. This PMP training is live and instructor-led, which gives you extensive knowledge of project management concepts highlighted in the PMBOK Guide 7th Edition and is aligned with the latest PMP exam content outline.

PRINCE2. PRINCE2 stands for Projects in Controlled Environments and is a project management framework. The UK government developed this framework in the 1980s, and it is now a global standard for project management. PRINCE2 is considered the world's most practiced method for project management because of its popularity and ease of use. Organizations are in search of candidates who possess a PRINCE2 certification. Check out EduRea PRINCE2 certification training, which offers insights into project management frameworks by imparting a deep understanding of integrated principles, elements, themes, and processes. The PRINCE2 course curriculum is aligned with the latest 7th Edition guide, and this PRINCE2 training will help you master the PRINCE2 methodology and acquire the skills and techniques needed to ensure project success.

So, apart from PMP and PRINCE2, there are other certifications such as Certified Associate in Project Management, Agile and Scrum certifications, Certified Project Manager, and Certified Project Management Professional.

So, the last and the most important step is staying updated. Stay updated on the latest project management frameworks and tools by attending training courses, workshops, and webinars. Invest in professional development to enhance your skills in the field of project management.

So, the scope of project management is broad and plays a crucial role in achieving strategic objectives, delivering products or services, and driving business success. Leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills are essential for delivering projects that meet stakeholder expectations.

So, project integration management. Project integration management is one of the knowledge areas in the PMP project management framework. So, project management practices, project management framework, where PMP being a best practice, well accepted across the globe, has 10 knowledge areas defined, five process groups defined, and 49 processes defined in the latest edition of PMBOK. So, project integration management, being one of the knowledge areas, includes the processes and activities to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the project management process groups. Project manager is also called as project integrator. Reason being, project manager should have a full end-to-end view of the project and do necessary activities required to manage the project. By having end-to-end visibility at any given point in the project, project manager should be able to connect in terms of what needs to be done as defined, is the project progressing or not. That needs to be very much visible to the project manager, and that happens in Project Integration Management.

So, integration management basically includes various trends and emerging practices, which involves use of automated tools, use of visual management tools, project knowledge management, expanding the project manager responsibility, and many hybrid methodologies. So, tailoring considerations required while adopting the PMP project management best practice frameworks requires understanding the project life cycle of a specific project which is being done. The entire life cycle in terms of activities involved. It may be a product which is being developed. We should remember in a specific product life cycle, in a specific service life cycle, or in a specific results what we are creating, which will be becoming a result of a specific project, that itself will have a life cycle. So, introducing that product or service, you will have a project. While financing, while adding a module or modifying the capabilities of the product, you may require to initiate a project. To retire that product or services, you may require to initiate a project again. So, basically, what we are trying to indicate is, in a given product life cycle or service life cycle, there will be many project life cycles. When we say life cycle, there will be beginning, means a start date. There will be end, means end date, finish date. So, beginning to end of a project is project life cycle, where multiple such project life cycles can be there in a single product life cycle or in a single service life cycle. So, throughout that life cycle, you will come across many approaches required, like quality management approach, risk management approach, scope management required, cost management required, schedule management, procurement management. So, for all this, there should be specific approach defined as part of the planning, which will get integrated in integration management.

So, knowledge management plays a very important role in every project. So, knowledge may be related to the projects which are already done, already completed. So, those knowledge can be used for the project which is currently running and use that knowledge which is captured there here in the current project. So, that current project, you need not reinvent things or redefine something. Similarly, while doing project currently, you may require to capture the details of this project, whatever the learning you have, what went wrong, what went well, what are those processes, what are those challenges, what are those issues which has come across, and how they were resolved. So, in a way, project management itself is a change management. So, I'm saying this for

A reason every project which is being producing a specific product or service will bring the change to an environment. Mainly, so means project management introduces any project introduces a change to the environment, and project management should ensure these changes are done properly, considering the project environment and all those various different dynamics in the project environment.

Secondly, when I say change, we should also think about the change to the baselines defined for the project, which will happen while doing the projects. So, we should not get confused between these two changes: the project which is bringing a change to the environment versus the change which is happening to those baselines which is defined within the project. So, both need to be handled very carefully, and both are not the same.

Then, every initiative, every investment which is being done by an organization, that needs to be justified. So, similarly, a project will also have an investment which needs to be justified. And every project investment happens with a specific direction set by the organization. So, there will be a governing body which looks at a project to see whether this particular project is aligning to that direction, what organization governance is set. So, to ensure that, there should be a project governance.

Every project, as it produces outputs, outputs in terms of products, output in terms of services, definitely will have outcomes creating the benefits or value. In the absence of this benefit realization, in the absence of not understanding the specific benefits realization of the value, if that doesn't happen, investment on the project doesn't make any sense. So, this needs to be confirmed while taking up the project. These needs to be confirmed while the project is being delivered. These needs to be confirmed in the post-project stage as well.

The product or service which have been created as part of this project should work, should perform in such a way that benefit realization should happen.

Integration management processes. So, project integration management has around seven processes defined in PMBOK sixth edition, which is the latest one. This involves develop project Charter, which is part of the initiation process group, initiating process group defined in PMP framework. Similarly, develop project management plan is a process which is defined as part of planning process. Direct and manage Project work, manage project knowledge. These two processes are defined as part of executing process group. Monitor and control project work, perform integrated Change Control. These two processes are defined as part of monitoring and control process group, whereas close project or phase is a process which is defined as part of closing process group, defined in PMP.

So, develop project Charter, as I mentioned earlier, develop project Charter is a process which is in initiating process group. So, the aim of this process is to develop the project Charter. So, which basically means creation of a document, a formal document which has to be developed, which should be helpful in authorizing the existence of the project. Which means assignment of a project manager will happen as part of this particular process. Project Charter will be handed over to the project manager, and formal declaration of assignment of the project manager will happen. It is very important to create a project Charter before starting the project implementation, as the charter would provide a step-by-step high-level plan for the project. With the development of project, project manager gains authority over various resources that are applied to the project activities. By developing the project Charter, one will be able to establish a direct link between the organization objectives and the undertaken projects.

Develop project Charter process. The inputs to that process include business case, benefits management plan, agreements to define the initial intention for the project, then enterprise environmental factors, which are very important because a project happens in that environment, the legal, regulatory, market conditions, organization's culture, environmental conditions, social stakeholders' expectations, their behaviors, then organization process assets. So, organization process assets includes all the processes, policies, standards, templates, methods, historical information, the lessons learned from the previous project which is captured. So, all these are required while creating a project Charter.

So, tools used to develop project Charter would be expert judgment, which means involvement of those experts who are domain experts or who are very thorough about the specific topic or specific subject on which the project is being done. So, taking their inputs, taking their opinion, and then including those points whichever makes sense and whichever are required as per the suggestion into a charter. Then data gathering, data gathering from all those inputs what we mentioned, and also the details of the projects what is mentioned relating to that specific data gathering. Then interpersonal and team skills. This requires meeting with many different individuals of different capabilities and understanding, maybe stakeholders, if I say at the moment, whoever the stakeholder one knows about, connecting with them and ensuring the details of that particular project relating to that project are captured using interpersonal and team skills, and meetings can also be done to collect those details.

Outputs of this process, develop project Charter, would be project Charter itself is an output. And secondly, assumptions log. So, what are the assumptions made, considerations made while developing the project Charter, which has to be articulated.

Next process, develop project management plan. Develop project management plan is a process in a planning process group. So, this is the second process where the idea is to have a comprehensive project management plan. So, as defined in PMBOK, Project Management Body of Knowledge, 6th edition, which is the latest version, there are 10 knowledge areas, as I mentioned. So, each knowledge area creates a plan, develops a plan relating to that knowledge area, like scope management, we'll have scope management management plan, cost management, we have cost management plan, likewise each of those knowledge areas, we have a specific plans developed. But however, these plans are called as subsidiary plans. So, all these subsidiary plans will get consolidated in integration management. So, develop project management plan is a process in integration management knowledge area, which consolidates all of these subsidiary plans.

So, this is the process of developing a project management plan, which includes defining, preparing, and coordinating other plan components to finally integrate them into project management plan. The key advantage of developing a project management plan is that it acts as a road map for all the team members. So, this can become the ultimate reference while executing the project. This would provide the required direction and set the objectives clear, and the plan which is made initially would become a baseline. So, this also provides a specific direction which helps a project to move towards the goal which is defined, and with that unified goal, a project delivery can become successful.

Inputs to develop project management process would be project Charter, which is an output of develop project Charter process, which we just discussed. So, develop project Charter process is part of the integration management knowledge area. The output of that process comes as an input to develop project management plan. So, outputs from other processes, as I mentioned, every knowledge area, rest of the knowledge areas out of 10 knowledge areas create subsidiary plans. So, those subsidiary plans will come as an input to develop project management plan. Then, as I mentioned earlier, enterprise environmental factors and organization process assets will also go as an input to develop project management plan.

So, the tools used as part of develop project management plan are expert judgment, data gathering, interpersonal team skills, and meetings. Outputs of developed project management plan would be, number one, project management plan, which is a consolidation of all the subsidiary plans and detailing out and connecting those together to have an execution of the project become smoother and easier. This would be the ultimate baseline.

Next process, direct and manage Project work. So, direct and manage Project work is part of executing process group in integration management knowledge area. So, as part of this process, project management directs and manages project work, and this is an integrated process which will provide that visibility in entirety. So, execution of work will be done by the team who are assigned to do that work, but project manager himself or herself will not go and do the activity there. So, direct and manage Project work process helps in directing and managing the project work and making required changes to meet the promised goals with the correct direction and the management of the project, the probability of the project success increases while elevating the deliverable quality. So, this process is followed throughout the project life cycle.

Inputs to direct and manage Project work are project management plan, which is the output of develop project management plan process within the same area. Project documents like change log, lessons learned register, milestone list, project communications, then project schedule, requirements traceability metrics, risk register and risk metrics, risk report, approved change request. So, now you may ask the question, you may have the questions, where is this approved change request coming from when I'm to direct and manage Project work, which is the next process I'm looking at after develop project management plan? So, if you visualize the project in entirety, in some part of the project, sometime there may be some deviation which is identified by monitoring and control process while assessing or while doing an auditing, while testing, there may be some deviation which is found. So, that needs to be corrected. To correct it, a corrective action has to be taken. To do that correction, there may be a change which needs to be done, and that will go as a change request to integrated change management process, which is in monitoring and control process group. Once that change request is evaluated, that change request will be approved, and that will come as an input to direct and manage Project work to take necessary corrective action. So, preventive actions can also be in the scenario of proactive measurement which is being done or foreseeing certain things happens. So, addressing the root cause, you may require to do some changes. So, like corrective actions, preventive action, defect repair, these are happening through change approval. So, those needs to be implemented as that, as an input coming from integrated change management process. This has to be executed. That execution has to be directed and managed by project manager. Enterprise environmental factors will also come as an input, and finally, organizational process assets.

So, tools used as part of direct and manage Project work are expert judgment, then project management information system, meetings. Outputs of direct and manage Project work are deliverables, actual deliverables which is coming out, each deliverables which is as per the planned schedule, then work performance data, actual work performance data, how the project is working, how the project is executed, what is the status of it, what is being created, what is in progress at any given point in time. Issue logs. Issue logs are the ones which are used to capture all those deviations, correct measures which needs to be taken, and this is managed by project manager, a tracker which is maintained by project manager to track those issue logs during the execution. Then change requests which are raised during the execution. Some deviations are found, some corrections are to be made. To do the corrections, there may be a change request raised for the deviation. Then project management plan updates based on those changes or based on the performance which are identified, project document updates, and organization process assets updates.

So, why OPA updates or organization process asset updates? Reason being, there may be a learning, there may be a template defined that needs to go and sit in OPA, so this can be referred in any other project later or within this project as the project progresses, it can be reused referring to OPA repository.

Next process, manage project knowledge. So, manage project knowledge is a process which is included as part of sixth edition of PMBOK. So, earlier there was no specific process to manage project knowledge in the earlier editions of PMBOK. So, this is a new process which is included from the sixth edition of PMBOK defined by PMI. So, when I say knowledge, one has to keep in mind it's all about know-how. So, when we say some people, as I observed, they say knowledge is equal to information, which is not true. Information basically gives you the message, whereas knowledge provides you the actions, the steps to do something, know-how. So, in a project, you may require to define know-how, you may require to understand for resolution of something, what are the steps involved, for implementing something, what are the steps involved. So, those are defined. So, that should not be tampered. The integrity of that has to be ensured. Someone cannot just go and change those steps without any proper approval. So, those needs to be correctly ensured. A specific knowledge which has been created for a project remains. So, managing that project knowledge is very essential so that achieving the project objective as discussed, defined, and agreed would be easier, so that there is no ambiguity while executing. So, this can also be used in future learning and references. So, it is primarily done by using historical or existing organization data and updating, correcting the current knowledge whichever is there. So, that needs to be updated on a regular basis. It majorly helps in leveraging the organizational knowledge and improving the project results. So, as we discussed about, there may be something which is done during this project which are defined that needs to maintain for following. There will be something which we learned that also need to be captured and ensure that is not tampered. It is available whenever it is required in the current project as well as future projects which is being done in the organization.

So, inputs to manage project knowledge process would be project management plan, project documents like Lessons Learned register, project team assignments, resource breakdown structure, stakeholder register, and the deliverables. Deliverables which are happening during the execution of the project, unique deliverable throughout the project life cycle, maybe a milestone deliverable, then Enterprise environmental factor and organizational process asset.

Tools used as part of manage project knowledge are expert judgment, Knowledge Management tools, interpersonal and team skills, Information Management. Outputs of manage project knowledge process would be Lessons Learned register, the creation of what are the lessons which are captured and reference to those, then project management plan updates based on those learnings, then OPA updates for future reference.

Monitor and control project work. So, the Monitor and Control Project Work process is part of monitoring and controlling process group in an integration management knowledge area. So, this process helps in order to achieve the performance objectives as defined in the project management plan. This process is implemented to ensure all those deliverables which are being done in the project are according to what is defined. So, in this monitoring and controlling process, the project is tracked, reviewed, project's overall progress is reported, which enables stakeholders to get the exact idea of the project status. So, this process is performed throughout the project life cycle and it acts as a guide for the project manager to ensure that the project is on schedule, within budget, right, and also the resources utilization according to what is defined, identified, addressed are monitored, managed according to what is agreed. Similarly, stakeholder engagement, procurement, communication, scope. So, in all perspectives, the nine knowledge areas which we spoke about. So, to reiterate on those nine knowledge areas, we can remember as scope management, cost management, schedule management, resource management, quality management, risk management, procurement management, communication management, and stakeholder management. So, monitoring and control project work will have the processes in all of these knowledge areas. So, this process which is in integration management consolidates every control activities so that everything which is defined in all these nine knowledge areas are noted, monitored, checked whether are they happening as defined.

Inputs to this process would be project management plan, project documents like assumptions log, basis of estimates, cost forecast and issue logs, lessons learned register, milestone list and quality reports, risk register and report, schedule forecast, work performance information. Work performance data was input, whereas here we are seeing work performance information, which basically a processed data to in a specific context of that particular monitoring and controlling project work activity. So, other inputs may be agreement, Enterprise environmental factors, and organization process assets.

Tools used in monitoring and control project work are expert judgment, decision making, data analysis, meetings. It is very essential to collect those data, process the data, see how this particular project is being progressing, what is the current state, what was the actual one versus what is planned. So, these needs to be understood so that necessary actions can be taken moving forward in the project, whether should we do some corrections so that we can bring back the project to the track or should we continue the way it is running.

Outputs of monitoring and control Project work would be work performance reports, change requests, project management plan updates, and project document updates. So, work performance reports are created with a specific objective and context. Is this report used to discuss with the team? Is this report used to update the management? Is this report used to update the customer for review? So, based on those contexts, work performance reports are created, and templates of those are defined as part of the plan. So, change request is an output. Reason being, there may be a deviation which is found while monitoring and controlling the project work. So, to do the necessary correction of that particular deviation which is found, change request would be raised.

The process six is perform integrated change control, which is a process which takes a change request as an input and checks whether this change makes sense. So, there is something called 7 Rs of change which we discussed while doing the service management. So, that is who raise the change, what is the reason for the change, what is the return from the change, risks of change, responsibilities of change, likewise we define 7 Rs. There should be an answer to those 7 Rs. So, this process is performed to control the various change requests received throughout the project life cycle. All the change requests, approved changes, modification of final deliverable, project documents, project management plan, etc., reviewed. Performing this process helps in keeping an integrated document containing the list of changes while assessing the overall risks which might arise due to the new changes.

Inputs to the process would be project management plan, which is basically change management plan, configuration management plan, scope baseline, schedule baseline, and cost baseline. Project documents, which is basis of estimates, requirements traceability matrix, risk report, then work performance reports like resource availability, schedule and cost data, earned value reports, burnup or burndown charts, then change request, which is required for corrective action, preventive action, defect repairs, or any updates, then Enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets.

The tools used as part of perform integrated Change Control would be expert judgment, Change Control tools, decision making, and meeting. So, and lastly, data analysis.

The outputs of perform integrated Change Control would be approved change requests, project management plan updates, and project documents updates. If you look at the outputs very closely, the input was change request, whereas approved change request is an output, which means all those requests which are raised are checked, and if you recall, approved change request was input to direct and manage project, which I explained from where that particular approved change request will come as an input to direct and manage Project work. So, once it is approved, implementation has to happen. That is the reason approved change request will go back to execution process group, direct and manage Project work, and then execution happens, implementation of change happens.

Close project or phase process, which is in closing process group, where the various project activities, phases, and contracts are finalized. It provides a control environment where a project can be successfully wrapped up. The closing process includes the activities like reservation of the project information, completion of planned work, the release of involved resources, etc. But we should remember when we say close, it is not about project closure alone, so it's about phase as well. A project will have many phases. So, closing that phases, while closing that phases, close project phase, the same process is triggered.

The inputs to this process would be project Charter, project management plan, project documents, and accepted deliverables. Other inputs should be business documents like business case, benefits management plan, agreements, then procurement documents and organizational process assets.

The tools used during close project or phase process would be expert judgment, meetings, and data analysis. Output of close project or phase project would be project document updates, final product service or result transition, final report, and OPA updates. If you closely observe these list of outputs, you don't see an accepted deliverable as an output. You don't see the results of project as an output. It is a final product service or result transition, meaning the acceptance of this particular product or service or result which is created as part of the project is already shown to customer, to the stakeholders, and necessary sign-off is obtained in terms of acceptance. So, only then close project or phase process will be triggered to complete all those necessary activities required to formally declare the phase of a project or project in entirety is complete.

From scope management is one of the knowledge areas that we have out of the 10 knowledge areas that we cover as a part of PMBOK. When you prepare for PMP examination, definitely you will be referring to the latest edition of PMBOK, which is PMBOK 6th edition, and today's webinar and the training is based on the latest PMBOK, which is sixth edition itself. There are total 49 processes, there are total five different process groups that we talk about, and 10 knowledge areas. So, when you appear for the exam and when you prepare for the PMP certification, you basically study all of these. You will study 10 knowledge areas, 49 processes, and five different process groups.

One of the knowledge areas today that we're covering as a part of this webinar in terms of giving you the high-level overview is the scope management. Now, as a part of scope management, I'm sure you may have a lot of basic questions, fundamental questions around this knowledge area, which I'm sure you will be able to get answers to some of those. Largely, as you would know and you would agree, that the scope management process covers about how we define the scope on the project, how we go about controlling it, and it's more from the point of view of the kind of output that we are trying to deliver by the end of the project, what outcomes are we trying to achieve for our stakeholders, and what benefits of the project that we are trying to help our stakeholder achieve or the result or the outcome that we are working for.

If you really look at whenever we work on any project, as a result of the project, what we get by the end of the project is some deliverable. The deliverable could be in the form of some physical product that you're launching in the market, or the deliverable could be in the form of some service or some result that you're producing, and that result or that product is going to ultimately help your stakeholders achieve the outcomes that they want to achieve through that. There could be various outcomes that they want to achieve. For example, if you are launching some product in the market for your stakeholders, through which they might want to achieve customer satisfaction, so that is the outcome of the product that you are trying to work for your stakeholders. Outcomes are defined by stakeholders, deliverables are worked upon by the team, and they ensure that they produce the deliverables in line with the expectations that are agreed upon between the team and the stakeholders, and obviously, as a team, we should also be knowing the kind of benefits that the project offers to the stakeholders. That's how these three things are interlinked with each other.

Now, when we talk about scope, obviously we have to look into the product scope and the project scope. Now, there is a product life cycle and there is a project life cycle, and just to give you an idea about the product life cycle, which is definitely much, much bigger, much, much lengthier than the project life cycle. But obviously, when we produce any product, we basically undertake some project, and the outcome of that project is your product. But once you start working on that product, the product life cycle is much, much longer, and within the life cycle of a product, you might be undertaking multiple projects. So, there is a project scope. So, for example, you have a product which you have already launched in the market, and now you have undertaken a small project to build some enhancement on the top of that project. So, let's say you are introducing the CRM sales management software in the market. It's already there in the market. You have defined that scope of the product, what all things that you want to cover as a part of that product offering in the market, based on the category it serves in. For example, if it is in a sales management, then obviously you would like to build the capabilities which will help your customers utilize your product or use your product in such a way that they can fulfill their needs and requirements. So, you'll ensure that your product is capable enough to fulfill all that scope from the customer's point of view.

Now, when we talk about a project, now project you could undertake for various purposes. One of the purpose is your product is already in the market, and now you want to build some small enhancement on the top of that. So, you might undertake a small project just to build that small enhancement, and then you would complete that project within two months, three months, six months, whatever the time period that is agreed between you and the customer. So, you have a project scope. In this case, it is whatever the enhancement that you have agreed, and you have product scope, which is obviously based on the product that you're building to be launched in the market. Now, if you talk about the scope management, it will obviously cover product scope, project scope, depending on what for you're working on.

Now, let's talk about certain tailoring considerations from the scope management point of view, and this is what exactly PMI has done from the sixth edition. There are certain tailoring considerations that are being considered for each of the knowledge areas. Now, from exam point of view, as well, this is important to know what are the tailoring considerations under scope management. We always say that one size solution doesn't fit all, so we'll have to tailor the process that we are working on. So, if I have to work on a scope management, I might have to tailor the process based on the context I'm working in, and that really differs if you're working in a banking industry, if you work in FMCG industry, fast moving consumer goods, if you're working in e-commerce industry, pharmaceutical industry, manufacturing. So, in each of these industries, the kind of work that you may be working on could differ. The context is different, you're dealing with different kinds of stakeholders, so it's very important for us to tailor the process based on the context that you're working in.

So, knowledge and requirements management, how are you going to ensure that the knowledge is gathered, is documented, and based on that, you would have to then think about the kind of requirements that you would like to work upon. How are you going to validate and control your scope? Now, depending on the kind of context that you work in, you would decide in terms of defining the acceptance criteria, in terms of agreeing upon how and when my customer would accept the deliverables by the end of each phase or by the end of whatever the milestone that is agreed between you and the customers. So, we can certainly tailor around this aspect as well. You would also need to define the development approach, how would you like to build this product or project or some result or service that you are trying to produce by the end of that project. People might go by an agile way, or you would like to stick around the waterfall way, or some project life cycle or product life cycle that you would agree upon between you and the stakeholders. So, what's the development approach? And that's going to differ if you're working in research and development, the development approach could be completely different than if you're working on producing some product to be launched in the market. Stability of requirements, if the changes that are expected in the product that you're developing are very high, obviously you might not be able to just go in a traditional way. You might need to have more interactions with customer, more feedback loops, so that you can pick up those changes, you can validate your requirements more frequently, and you'll be able to manage those changes in the requirements effectively, otherwise you would have a huge impact on the architecture, on the design that you may have already created if the changes come towards late in the cycle. And of course, the governance, the complexity of project would also define the kind of governance framework that you want to establish on project, whether you would like to have got weekly meetings with your stakeholders, fortnightly discussions, escalation metrics, what kind of a governance that you want to establish on the project that you're working on. From scope point of view, definitely it's important to know how are you going to manage change on the project. We have to tailor the process based on these considerations.

Now, once you've done the tailoring of the process, then you get on to the project scope management. Now, here is a question from Satish, and he's asking about what is the difference between the PMBOK fifth edition and PMBOK sixth edition scope management process. So, I guess, as I mentioned earlier, there is no much of a difference between these two. Of course, the changes that have been done in PMBOK 6th and fifth edition from scope management point of view, of course, there are certain changes that have been done in the form of tools and techniques, in the form of certain suggestions like use of certain techniques which are additionally mentioned, which we will touch upon a bit on this webinar. But largely, you will find that the scope management is more or less intact. Of course, the tailoring considerations are added, and more importantly, what is also done in general in comparison with the fifth edition is the touch of agile. So, in each of these areas, the agile touch is given. Like from scope management point of view, I would say how do we really manage scope in agile projects and how do we do it in the predictive life cycle? So, we have got a predictive life cycle and we have adaptive life cycles, as you might have already heard about. So, traditionally, we more use the predictive life cycle. The way scope is managed in predictive life cycle is different than the way it is managed in the adaptive life cycle. So, those aspects are also covered largely as a part of this new PMBOK edition, but changes are subtle in comparison with some of the other knowledge areas. So, I hope that gives you some idea. All right, thank you for the confirmation. Let's keep moving about scope management processes.

Now, under each of these knowledge areas, you'll find various processes as a part of these knowledge areas. Talking about scope management, we start with plan scope management, and this is where largely we focus on how to plan the scope management activities on project. Collecting requirements is definitely one of the important processes where we reach out to the stakeholders to identify their needs and requirements based on the project or product that we're working on. Then, based on the requirements that we have gathered, we define scope, and we ensure that whatever is defined in the scope, we only work on those items and not something which is not part of scope. Creating WBS process certainly gives us an idea about what are the low-level activities, tasks, packages, work packages that we have to work on. Decomposition is one of the techniques that is used while creating WBS. So, creation of WBS is definitely one of the important processes within the scope management. Then we have to validate scope against the acceptance criteria that is defined between you and the customer for each deliverable that you're producing by the end of each phase in project or product life cycle. It's important to define very clearly the acceptance criteria, and then lastly, we have got control scope, and this is where we basically see how do we control effectively the changes that might happen to the scope and how do we go about managing those changes. So, these are the six processes that we have within scope management. Let's get on to each of these and we'll do a bit of a deep dive into each of these processes in terms of understanding what is it, first of all, what are some of the inputs that we have to consider, what tools and techniques can we use on that process, and what kind of output can we expect out of it.

So, let's start with the first one, which is about plan scope management, and as the name says, plan scope management is all about we have to basically define our approach, how are we going to go about managing scope on project. So, it's largely about defining that approach, like in terms of how are we going to define the product scope, how are we going to validate it against the acceptance criteria, how the scope is going to be controlled, how changes on or to the scope are going to be managed. So, all of those approaches are basically covered as a part of the scope management plan, and certainly this is one of the important documents from the point of view of if there is any confusion around like how we should manage change, then I can just go and refer to this document. Even if I'm new on project and if I wouldn't know how to do that, this document will certainly give me an idea about how I'm supposed to validate scope against the acceptance criteria. So, what is the overall approach that is being agreed between the team and customer? So, that guidance and that direction is what this provides. So, that's about the scope management.

Now, how do we really create this kind of a document? For that, we'll have to refer to certain inputs. The first is, of course, the project Charter, since we are defining the approach, it's important for us to refer to the project Charter in terms of understanding the high-level scope that is mentioned there in the project Charter. We have to also refer to project management plan. Now, project management plan is a subsidiary management plan, so it encompasses various plans, like for example, quality management plan. So, largely we refer to the quality management plan when we work on the scope management plan because quality will give you inputs about the kind of standards that you want to follow while working or creating on that product or service or some result that you're working on through that project. So, it's very important for us to refer to that, or the kind of project life cycle that you would like to follow or the development approach that is being agreed upon. So, all of that would come from there. Organizational process assets, so this will give us an idea about what kind of internal standards that you would like to follow, what kind of templates that you would refer to, etc. Enterprise environmental factors, you would refer to certain internal and external factors, like for example, if I'm building on the CRM sales management software, I would also like to look into some of the market products and see what is there in those products, and would there be any gap between what's there, what's available already, and what we would like to build. So, those market factors or the products available in the market would also have an impact on the overall plan that you're creating for managing scope.

Now, once you have a plan in place, certainly you need to be using certain tools and techniques while creating this plan itself. The first is, of course, expert judgment. You can talk to the people who have been doing this for quite a while. These people will certainly give us an idea about how to do it. Meetings, we can organize various meetings in order to engage the right stakeholders. We can also gather data and sort of do the discussions around it. So, these couple of techniques will certainly help us. And what do we expect by the end of scope management plan, really? What we get ultimately is the scope management plan is what we get as an output. So, I would know how the scope is going to be managed on this project by referring to this plan, and I would also get requirement management plan, how am I going to manage requirements on the project, right from gathering requirements, right from what kind of techniques and tools am I going to use, etc., who are the stakeholders am I going to engage. So, all of those answers would come from the requirements management plan, including the traceability of the requirements. So, that's about creating the plan.

So, once we have a plan in place, we know the approach on this project that's going to be followed when it comes to managing scope, then I start working on the next process, which is collect requirements. As a part of collect requirement process, what do I have to do really? So, this is a process where we basically ensure that we gather all the needs and requirements of customers, which will help in meeting the objectives of the project that we're working on. So, it could be manufacturing some product that you are working on, or coming up with some result or some process or some service that you're trying to launch in the market. So, all of that could be a part of the collect requirements, depending on the kind of objective that you have defined. So, this will certainly give us an idea about how to define the scope of the product on or project that we're working on. Before we define the scope, it's important to gather requirements, and in order to do that, we'll have to use certain tools and techniques. We have to refer to certain artifacts which are already created on the project by this time. So, let's get on to it. What kind of tools and techniques should we be using?

So, before we get onto the tools and techniques, first of all, we need to refer to certain artifacts, which I was just now mentioning to you about, like project Charter will help us knowing the high-level scope of the project, and of course, I would also know who are some of the stakeholders I need to reach out to. Project management plan, largely, as I said, scope management plan, requirements management plan, stakeholder engagement plan, some of these plans would be definitely useful to me while working on collecting requirements. Project documents, so I would also need to refer to certain project documents like maybe assumption log or lessons learned if there is any lesson previously learned and if I want to ensure that those mistakes wouldn't be occurring again. So, that's very important. I would also need stakeholder register, which is very important because that will give me the list of stakeholders whom I need to engage. I would also need to refer to business documents, and one of the most important document would be business case, because business case will help me in understanding the background context, how this project is going to give benefit to my customer, etc., about investment impacts, all of that. Now, most of the times, there is always the vendor engagement on the projects, something or the other. So, I would need to know the agreements, and those agreements will also give me an idea about either the kind of scope impact that would have on this project, what kind of a contribution the vendor would have on this, and stakeholders as well. Enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets would be here as well, pertaining to collect requirements, what kind of a templates do I need to use, what kind of techniques do I need to use, so all of that would come from here when I work on collect requirements. So, these are some of the inputs that I would need to refer to.

Now, what kind of tools and techniques would help me when I start gathering requirements on the project? One of the important tools would be expert judgment. So, I would reach out to people who have done this in the past. I would talk to them, I would try to understand their perspectives, their learnings, and I will definitely engage them in order to gather scope. So, maybe for example, business analyst would be one of the best examples. So, we have people who have been working in business analysis for few years, and they know how to conduct certain workshops, facilitated group workshops, or conduct surveys or interviews, etc. So, I would reach out to them in terms of gathering data. Again, there are various ways through which I do that. One of the way could be brainstorming sessions. I would conduct face-to-face interviews, and another way could be also benchmarking. So, as I said, if I'm working on a CRM software for sales management, I would benchmark it against some well-known product in the market, reputed product in the market, and to then try to find out gaps, and that will help me in analyzing the data and obviously gather more data. Decision making is definitely one of the important tools that we use, and there could be various small techniques that are used in decision making, like simple voting technique, just so that everybody's engaged, everybody's involved. There could be multicriteria decision analysis based on the various criteria, how those criteria would impact the decision, cost, quality, resource availability, so many these criteria would be available for us to refer to while making decisions. Definitely team skills and interpersonal skills, like for example, whether do we have skills in the team for conducting workshops, like nominal group technique, or observations and conversations with some senior folks, and even do we have the facilitation skills within our team members, so that facilitated workshops could be conducted, and all of that would have certainly an impact. Data representations, like affinity diagram could be one of the examples in data representation, context diagrams, prototypes. So, these are some of the techniques which will definitely help you in engaging your stakeholders from whom you'll be gathering data and of course, the requirements related requirements on the project.

All right, so what do we get by the end of collect requirement process in the form of output? You will get requirements documentation. So, requirement documentation would have whatever the template which is used in your organization, you would have that, and requirement traceability metrics. These are the couple of outputs that we can think of getting out of this process. So, requirement documentation is where all the requirements are captured, and we have traceability metrics, and that's where we try to see how do we establish traceability of that requirement through the project life cycle. So, there could be a backward traceability or forward traceability. We see to it that once we pick up that requirement from the requirement specification document, we are analyzing it, we're designing it, coding is happening, testing is happening, and then it's a part of the implementation plan, and it's deployed successfully. So, that's a forward traceability. Similarly, we can do the backward possibility as well.

Let's move on to Define scope process. So, once we have defined the requirement or scope management plan, once we've gathered requirements, then based on that requirements, we have to define scope. So, how do we do that, and what happens largely as a part of this? So, as a part of the defining scope, you would see that basically we're trying to describe what we're going to build, what we're going to create as a part of this project and product. So, whatever the product outcome or result that you're trying to achieve here, now you're going to define them together with stakeholders, and you're going to be on the same page about what it is like. And this is where where you'll also be capturing about the in-scope and out-of-scope items, what is in scope as a part of this project, what is not part of this project. So, for example, if you are producing some software, and that software is supporting only one language, which is English, so we need to be explicitly mentioning about that, or if it is supporting two languages, so we have to mention explicitly about that, and it doesn't support beyond these two languages or three languages which is being agreed between you and the customer. Acceptance criteria for each of the deliverables that we produce by the end of each phase needs to be also explicitly captured. For example, when we talk about as a part of the acceptance criteria, when you come up with the requirement specification document as one of the deliverables, so then has to be some acceptance criteria agreed between when the customer will sign off that document when it fulfills certain acceptance criteria. So, those needs to be explicitly put down here as a part of defined scope.

What do we use really when it comes to the input to defining scope process? We refer to the project Charter, project management plan, certain documents, Enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets. So, in terms of project management plan, we'll refer to scope management plan in particular, and in terms of certain project documents, few examples that I gave like assumption log, if there is any assumption around when we try to define scope, we'll have to explicitly mention about that assumption, and that really helps us, and we can also refer to requirements documentation, things like risk register, etc. So, those are also very useful to refer to while working on this process.

What kind of tools and techniques can we use? Expert judgment is one such a technique which is used in most of the processes that we work on. It's very useful. We can

Use decision-making, like a few things that I mentioned earlier as well. Multicriteria decision analysis, kind of a thing. Data analysis, again, trying to find out what are the options that we have and how we can choose the best possible option. So, sort of alternative analysis. Interpersonal and team skills. So, this is where your facilitation skills will come into picture. Even if you want to run the meeting, you need those skills, without which you won't be able to do that. And product analysis, in order to find out what is in scope and out of the scope of the product and the one that we are building. So, we have to do the analysis of the product. What do we expect by the end of this process? By the end of this process, we should have a project scope statement with us. So, a project scope statement will define ultimately about that product or a project that we are working on and largely what we want to achieve or what we want to build in that product or the project. And certain project documents will get updated as well. Like, for example, during your experience of defining scope, if you come across any assumption, you would like to log that. You want to also update requirement documentation if, in case, there has been any change that you observed. You need to also go back and do that. Requirement traceability metrics needs to be updated because now you have identified all the requirements, put it into traceability, so you can update that if there is impact at all. And stakeholder register, based on your interaction with the stakeholder, if you come across any change, then you would need to also update that.

So, now we have defined the scope management plan. We have started gathering requirements. Based on the requirements, we have also created sort of a scope for that product or the project that we're working on. It's time now for us to break down that into smaller packages, which will make our life easy to work on. And that's part of your create WBS. So, WBS is your Work Breakdown Structure. And as a part of Work Breakdown Structure, what you try to achieve really, when we break down work into something which is more manageable, something which is easy to estimate, something which is easy to plan. And most importantly, based on this Work Breakdown Structure, we actually come up with dependencies, we come up with schedule, we come up with, you know, estimate. So, it's definitely very important for us to work upon. So, Work Breakdown Structure is one of the important processes within the project management. And we need to make sure each work package that we create is broken down at such a level that we can estimate it. It's not a large chunk of requirement, it's a small chunk of requirement. So, if you're working on a hardware part, then you should be able to break it down into the smaller, smaller components, smaller, smaller deliverables, so that you can estimate in terms of networking requirements, in terms of hardware server requirements, in terms of the other middlewares that you would need to build that. So, those needs to be very clearly defined so that we can estimate for each of these things, what's the time required, what's the money required, and then we can derive the schedule and budget out of it.

So, to do that, we need to certainly refer to certain inputs: project management plan, project documents, some of the documents which I mentioned earlier as well, enterprise environmental factors, and OPAS or organizational process assets. Like, for example, when we create WBS, there are various ways of creating WBS. So, you can have a phased way. You can divide your entire project into various phases and you can just go on, like, for example, requirement as a phase, design as a phase, development as a phase. And within each of these phases, you try to break down your scope items into the smaller, more manageable packages. So, if it is a requirement, then you would basically come up with how are you going to manage your requirements, requirement specification document. So, that is one of the deliverables. How are you going to collect requirements? What are the various techniques? Who is going to work on each of these? So, you try to define these deliverables as small as possible, which we can then assign to people later on in the form of tasks. And then, obviously, it'll be also useful when we estimate things as well.

What kind of tools and techniques can we use? I think when it comes to create WBS, there are a couple of things that we can do. Most important technique here is decomposition. Now, as the name itself says, decomposition is all about breaking down your larger piece of requirement into the smaller ones. So, whatever the scope item that you're working on, just try to break it off into the smaller pieces, which is like we call it as a work package. And that work package is small enough to be completed within maybe around 40 hours or so. So, that's a rule of 40 that they follow, but it could vary. So, it could be 40 hours to 80 hours, something which we can estimate, something which is, you know, easy to learn about. And which will also help us in the form of inputs when it comes to estimation of schedule and the budget. Expert judgment will can certainly engage certain into this and take the views as well.

What we get by the end of this, we'll get scope baseline. And what we will get is the project documents updation. So, project documents will get updated. The scope baseline is something which is very important because you would baseline your scope. Now, we use a lot of different tools on the project. You might be using MS Projects. You might be using, for example, Clarity. There are certain tools that are available, or simple people might be doing it in the Excel spreadsheets as well. So, once we baseline the scope, that any change over and above would be considered as a new requirement, and it has to go through the Change Control Board, etc., whatever the process that is being agreed between you and the customer. And, uh, the project documents again, some of the documents that I've already mentioned to you, could be assumption log, or could be the stakeholder list. So, those will get updated as a result of this.

So, if we have to just quickly summarize what we've covered, we started off with scope management plan as one of the processes. We defined it and we created that. Now, we know the approach on the project about managing scope. Then we started off with how are we going to collect requirements on the project, what kind of inputs we can refer to, what kind of tools and techniques we can refer to, etc. Based on that, we define scope of the project. So, I have a scope baseline now, and I also have a traceability metrics, etc. Now, all this information is going to be really useful when I do the next process, which is about validating scope. So, validating scope is all about understanding whatever the deliverables that I have completed, whether those deliverables meet acceptance criteria or not. So, there is something called as the acceptance process. And this acceptance process will certainly help us in increasing the probability of final product, service, or result acceptance. And this is clearly defined between you and the customers for each delivery that we are producing, what is the acceptance criteria. So, if it is a high-level design document that I'm producing on the project, when would my customer accept that, or when would my customer approve that high-level design document? So, I move on to the low-level design document if you're working in a waterfall way. So, validate scope is important process from that point of view.

What we can use as a part of input? Of course, we need to refer to project management plan, especially scope, requirement, and the scope baseline. These three things are important from validate scope point of view. So, I would refer to the requirement management plan and the scope baseline. Of course, project documents, like there are certain documents that we can refer to here, for example, lessons learned document, or if I have got a quality reports, or certain requirement documentation. And most importantly, traceability metrics, I'll refer to the traceability matrix as well. Then I would have verified deliverable, which is the one that you have actually produced and verified, and work performance data. So, work performance data would have the actual progress of the work that you're making on the project. Typically, work performance data is captured in the tool that you're using. So, if you're using MS Projects, or if you're using Clarity, whichever the tool that you're using, your actual work performance data is captured. So, what's your planned activities and what's your actual activities that you have completed? So, all this data is captured as a part of that.

What kind of tools and techniques can be used here? Especially in validating scope, you would have few things, couple of things at least that you can use. One is about inspection. So, you are actually inspecting that, okay, there are certain acceptance criteria that are given by the customer, and I have already produced the deliverable. So, does it really meet the acceptance criteria or not? So, I'm doing the regular inspections, which will actually help me in getting closer and closer to the acceptance criteria of the deliverable that I'm producing. And obviously, decision-making techniques would certainly help in terms of getting opinion from people as well.

What do I get out of this? I would get accepted deliverable by the end of this process. I would know whether my customer have already accepted it, considering that this meets acceptance criteria or not. Work performance information. So, work performance information will be one of the output, as I mentioned earlier, it will come from the tool. If there is any change at all during the review, during the inspection, typically what happens, you're showing that deliverable to the customer, and you're trying to show that how it meets the acceptance criteria. But there could be change. There could be, like, based on what you have shown to the customer, customer might just suggest you a few changes. So, that might be a part of your change request, which will follow the change request cycle. And certain project documents will get updated, like lessons learned document, or requirements document, or even for that matter, requirement traceability document would also get updated if required. So, this is what we can expect out of validate scope process.

So, now that we have done, like, we have come up with the plan, we have gathered requirements, we have defined the scope, we also validated requirements. It's important now for us to control that, so that the scope creep can be avoided. Scope creep avoidance is very important, and that's where the project manager role comes into picture, ensuring that the scope is defined so well that there is no need, or the scope creep doesn't happen. So, let's talk about last and the most important process, which is about control scope. As a part of control scope, we'll look into first of all, what is it really? This comes as a part of the monitoring process. And this is where we try to monitor status of the project and product scope, and whatever the changes that are there, needs to be incorporated to the scope baseline, which is maintained throughout the project. As we've discussed already, that once we have defined the scope, we have to also come up with the scope baseline, right? So, once it is baseline, once it is agreed, over and above if there is any change, it has to go through a change process. So, that's the part of your control scope and monitoring.

What kind of inputs I need to refer to for this? I would need, of course, the project management plan. I would need project documents, work performance data, and OPAS. So, all of these we have already discussed earlier as well. So, like, for example, in this case, project documents, like I would need lessons learned documents, which would be very useful to me. And are certain tools and techniques which will be useful, like data analysis. I would do the trend analysis, for example. I would also be able to do the alternative analysis, etc. And based on that, what I will get as a part of the control scope is the work performance. So, work performance, this is where I will come to know about what's the kind of progress that I'm making on the project. Is it in line with what I have planned, or is it like I'm behind the schedule, or ahead of the schedule, or how am I doing? Since we're talking about scope, then how am I doing with respect to the scope change requests? If there is any new change that the customer would like to introduce, so that'll definitely be the output, which will go to the process where the change is going to be processed. Project management plan will get updated if required. Project documents might get updated. Stakeholder register, or for that matter, assumption log, traceability metrics. So, any of these documents, wherever there is impact as a result of the control scope process, would need to be updated.

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Now, as you all know, project schedule is very, very important, especially from the point of view of the project manager, because the project manager is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the project is delivered within the schedule. And hence, as I mentioned earlier, that the schedule management is one of the most important knowledge areas that we have within the 10 knowledge areas that we talk about. So, apart from the other knowledge areas that we cover as a part of the project management trainings, like Risk Management, or for that matter, Stakeholder Management, Resource Management, etc., one of the important one is definitely the project schedule management. In this webinar today, what we will talk about is basically within the schedule management, what are some of the important tools and the techniques that we can use in order to manage the schedule effectively, in order to derive and develop the schedule of the project effectively. So, we will take a look at those skills, tools, and techniques that are required. And apart from that, we will also look into the monitoring and controlling aspects of the project, because as I mentioned, that once we get started with the project activities, it's very, very important for us to ensure that we control and manage those activities effectively in order to deliver the project within the agreed schedule. We will definitely talk about how to do the monitoring and controlling of the scheduling activities. Not only that, we will also understand the importance of timely completion of the project, and in order to achieve that, how we can approach the schedule management activities in an organized manner, so that we will have a better control over the schedule that we have derived. So, we are going to actually go through all the processes within the schedule management at a high level, and feel free to ask if you have any questions during this [Music] webinar.

So, let's get started with the high-level overview of the schedule management. So, talking about the project schedule now, it's important for us to understand few aspects around the schedule management. First is, of course, the scheduling methods. There are various scheduling methods that we use. Now, when we talk about scheduling, as you know, that we approach the project scheduling in a very systematic manner. When we refer to the PMBOK, while working on the projects, because PMBOK has prescribed and has given the various guidelines and has given various principles for doing the effective schedule management. There are certain scheduling methods which are also being given to us, and they are available to us, which we can refer to while working and deriving the project schedule. So, project information will definitely is going to be one of the important factors while deriving the project schedule, because that's going to be the input for us when we arrive at the project schedule. So, if you look at this information, whatever you see on the slide, like, like this, the project information is input, based on which we can derive the schedule using the scheduling tools, and with the right set of skills that you possess as a project manager or as a part of the project that you're working on, then you will be able to derive the project schedule effectively. So, there are these aspects, there are these components when we work on the schedule management, we need to have enough information about the activities, about the phases, about the milestones, about the project background context, etc. And then, once we have that, we can apply the right scheduling tools, which we are going to talk about very soon, and there are certain scheduling methods which we can use as well, in order to approach the deriving of the schedule in a very, very organized manner. So, that's how it typically happens on the project. What we get at the end is basically the plan. So, when we actually begin working on the schedule management activities, one of the important part is coming up with the schedule model. So, that's where we essentially capture the various dates of the key milestones, of the key activities, and we come up with a schedule model, which can be then tracked across the project life cycle. So, all these things are very, very important from schedule management point of view, and if these things are in place, then you will be able to effectively manage the schedule of the project.

Let's just talk about the tailoring aspect of the schedule management. Now, if you see the PMBOK 6th Edition, it definitely focuses more on the tailoring aspect of the process, and that's definitely very important. As a consultant, when we go to the organizations and when we try to work with those teams, one of the important responsibility that we have is how we can tailor the existing process in order to make it more effective, in order to make it in such a way, tailor it in such a way that the project teams can find it very easy to implement. So, some of the tailoring aspects we will talk about. So, when we talk about the scheduling process, particularly, one of the factor we need to take into consideration is the life cycle approach. So, there are various life cycles of the project that we talk about. It could be adaptive life cycle, predictive life cycle, or hybrid life cycles, or we have the iterative and incremental life cycle. So, which project life cycle typically you are going to adopt to, or you're going to basically apply, or which is that approach of the, or for the project life cycle, have you really chosen, or have you agreed as a team? So, that's one of the important inputs which needs to be considered. Availability of the resources will actually help us in tailoring the process, especially with respect to the schedule, because we need to come up with, we need to have the resource calendar in place, we need to do the resource smoothening activities, we also need to do the resource leveling activities. So, for that, all we need to know what is the resource availability. Technology support also has an important role to play. So, if you have a better technology in place, then obviously while doing the estimation of the activities, you would factor that in. So, if you're working on an IT project, for example, and if you have the right set of automation tools in place, if you have a continuous integration, continuous delivery pipeline in place, then obviously that will make that much easier doing those activities with respect to release management, or with respect to deployment of the software package from one environment to the other environment. So, that will have an impact on the duration of the activities. And various project dimensions, which could be from the customer's point of view, it could be from the scope point of view, or it could be other angles of the project, or dimensions of the projects that we talk about. So, these things needs to be taken into consideration, especially with respect to coming up with the project [Music] schedule.

Now, talking about the various processes on the schedule part of the project, let's just first understand the various processes that are involved as a part of the schedule management. It starts with planning, and that's how typically it happens. If you pick up any knowledge area, one of the important things that we should be doing is the planning. And once we have a plan in place, that will make it that much easier for us to then just stick to the plan, or just refer to the plan and, uh, execute the schedule management activities. So, once we have a plan in place, we try to understand what activities are involved into this project. So, whichever the project that you are working on, it could be research and development project, it could be an IT product development project, or it could be any manufacturing project that you're working on. So, what are some of the activities that are involved into the project? So, you come up with the list of those activities. Once we have a list of activities, we need to understand the sequencing of those activities. And this is where we take into consideration the dependencies, what is the dependency of one activity over other, and for that, at times, we need to factor in various assumptions, and all that needs to be also documented. So, hence, the next process is sequence activities, followed with which, once we have a list of activities, once we know the sequencing of the activities, then we can certainly come up with the duration that is required to complete that activity. So, if it is requirement gathering as a phase within the IT project, and we have activity of conducting the requirement gathering workshop, so once we know the sequencing of this activity, then we can certainly be able to estimate the duration that is required to perform the requirement of gathering workshop. So, that's how typically it happens. And then, once we put together all the activities and we estimate activity duration of each of the activities that we have listed down, we just put it together and we can just roll it up, or we can just total it up in order to come up with the project schedule. Once we have a schedule in place, it's important for us then to continuously monitor and control that schedule. So, it's a very, very logical sequence of the schedule management processes. We start with planning, and we end with controlling the plan, controlling the schedule that we come up with.

Now, what we'll do is, we will understand these processes bit in more detail. Now, we have a training program on PMP, that's where we discuss all these processes in depth, and we spend hours together on just understanding the schedule management activities. So, as I said, this is one of the important knowledge areas, and definitely this knowledge area consumes good amount of time within the PMP training program as well. So, on this webinar, we may not be able to achieve or cover these topics with the same depth of knowledge, but we will certainly be able to cover in terms of width, and what all is there at a high level from the basic fundamentals perspective. So, starting with the planning part, whenever we come up with the planning aspect of the schedule management, the way this whole thing is organized, I'm sure by now, some of you may be knowing that we have certain inputs that we consider for each of the processes that we work on. There are always certain inputs that we consider, and then there are certain tools and techniques that we need to use, and what we get by the end of the process is some output. So, we have also organized these slides in the similar manner. So, for each of these processes, we will be understanding what are some of the key inputs for the process, what are some of the tools and techniques that we can use in order to effectively work on that process, and, uh, what we can expect by the end of that process. So, let's just get started with the first process within the schedule management, which is plan schedule management.

Starting with the planning aspect, just understanding the background of this process. So, this is the process where we will be coming up with the plan for schedule management. So, what all activities we should be performing as a part of the schedule management is what is documented here. What are the procedures with respect to those activities? What policies we should be adhering to? What kind of a schedule model, for example, we should be following? What kind of a estimation technique we should be following? So, all those things needs to be certainly captured as a part of this plan. So, we will definitely be able to do the effective planning, we'll be able to develop, manage, execute, and control the project schedule, if all those things are documented effectively. Like, for example, what is going to be my approach when it comes to the sequencing of activities, right? So, I can document that approach. What is going to be the estimation technique that I should be using? Is it the PERT technique that I'll be using, or is it the bottom-up estimation that I'll be using, or should we be using on the project estimation, the analogous estimation, or should we be using the expert judgment, etc.? So, collectively as a team, we actually agree to that and we document it, we put it together in the plan. Now, this also gives guidance, this also gives direction on the project. While working throughout the project, we need to refer to the plan wherever we are stuck, or if in case the project manager is not available, if team wants to refer to the plan and get going, I think this is the document that we can look forward to. So, plan is very important.

Now, to starting with the inputs for each of these processes, as I mentioned, let's understand for planning part, what kind of input that we can look forward to. Certainly, when we do the project management, as a part of the scheduling part, it's important for us to know the scope. Now, we are coming up with the schedule, remember that we are working on the project, and we are coming up with the project schedule. Now, in order to do that, we need to know the list of activities, we need to know the sequencing of the activities, we need to estimate those activities. Now, for that, we need to obviously know what is the project scope. And any other information which you might get from the various documents on the project, could be the project charter is one of the important input that we can refer to, that will also give us an idea about some of the key milestones. Suppose, when am I supposed to be completing the requirement specification document? When am I supposed to be completing the high-level design or the low-level design or the build activities? What is a date by which when I should be taking up the UAT sign-off or the business acceptance testing or user acceptance testing sign-off, etc.? So, those are some of the key milestones on the project that I should be aware about, which will come from the project charter. Now, apart from that, there are also few more things that we need to be aware about while working on the scheduling aspect of the project. So, before I move ahead, I can see here question, and this, uh, question is from Rajit, and he's trying to understand about the various factors which will affect the plan. All right, that's great. Thank you for that question, and this is a good question, definitely. As I mentioned when we started with this session, some of the factors that we mentioned what will affect the deriving of the schedule of the project. So, when we talk about the planning part, these are some of the factors which are going to really affect, which are your input factors. If you talk about the overall schedule of the project, as I mentioned, the resource availability will affect, the motivation of the resources will affect, the kind of technology that you're using will also affect, the dimensions of the projects that I mentioned, like scope of the project, the time, the budget, the risks, etc. So, those things will also affect. So, these factors will certainly have an impact on deriving the overall schedule of the project. So, I hope that answers your question, right? Thanks for the confirmation.

So, coming back to now the planning part of the schedule management, the other area of the input that we talk about is enterprise environmental factors. So, there are certain factors as an organization, there are certain internal and external factors which will have an impact. One of the example could be the cultural aspects of the organization. How is the overall culture and the structure of the organization? Is it too hierarchical structure? How is the general culture? Is it too inclusive, or is it too much process-oriented? Is it autocratic? So, what kind of a leadership style generally it is followed? So, some of these aspects will also have an impact. Resource availability. What kind of a project management software are you using? There are various examples of the PM software. Some of you may be already using software like maybe there are software from the Microsoft, so MS Project could be one of the example, or there is Primavera, or Clarity is there from CA. So, there are various such software which are there for managing the project, for managing the schedule. So, which one are you using, or the commercial aspects that are published on the project. So, some of these things will have an impact as well as inputs to the planning part. Apart from that, there is something called as OPAS, which is nothing but organizational process assets. Now, you'll find the enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets will have an impact, or will be the input factors in many processes, almost in all the processes. So, if you talk about OPAS, OPAS will give us a lot of data about the historical information about the projects. So, very, very useful, especially if you are implementing the techniques like analogous estimation, historical estimation, or parametric estimation. This data will be very, very useful to refer to. Or if you want to refer to the plan, what kind of a template are we going to use for schedule management plan? So, that template will come from the OPAS. So, these are some of the inputs that we can look forward to.

What kind of a tools and techniques can we use? Expert judgment. So, we can engage people who have got previous experience of doing the schedule management and take their inputs. We can analyze the data. We can analyze the data, and this data could be basically the alternative analysis. So, for example, make or buy decisions. So, if we have the problem statement, if you have the context of the project, then obviously the kind of solution that is being agreed, that will also have an impact on the planning that you're doing for the schedule management. So, we have to analyze the data. Or reserves analysis could be one example. So, management reserves. How would those be put into the plan? Or for that matter, certain buffers that we come up with. So, how do we go about doing or putting that while working on the plan? So, we have to analyze the data, and that actually helps. Meetings could be very simple, yet very, very important tool that we use on the project. And meetings, we need to know when to conduct the meetings, whom to invite for the meetings, and how we can engage all the stakeholders effectively in order to come up with the plan for doing the schedule management.

Now, what do we get at the end of this process? Is obviously, we'll get the schedule management plan. So, schedule management plan will essentially have some of the important aspects like the schedule model. What is my project schedule model? So, as I mentioned, the project schedule model is nothing but my project schedule with some of the key dates, some of the key milestones, some of the key activities included into that. Level of accuracy. What kind of level of accuracy should I consider? So, is it like, and that's something which needs to be agreed by everybody, all the stakeholders. So, when I'm doing the estimation, would it be okay with the 10% plus or minus as far as the estimation of the activity duration is concerned, or should it be 20%, or should it be just 5%? So, depending on the project, depending on the stakeholder agreement, you come up with the level of accuracy that's required. Unit of measurement. What are we doing in the estimation? Is it in hours? Is it in person days? What is that unit that you're going to use? Control threshold. So, as I said, that when we come up with the estimation, so we need to know that how much should be the threshold, how much should be the upper limit or the lower limit which we can still withstand, with which we can still live with, you know, in the variations. So, we should be knowing that, like in level of accuracy, we say what is the confidence level with which we are planning this activity. Similarly, control threshold will have the positive and negative in terms of plus or minus control threshold for the schedule of the project. So, it could be maybe plus 10 and the minus 10% schedule variations are allowed, okay, or is fine to basically something which we know everybody is agreed that control threshold of 5% plus or minus, or 10% plus or minus is something that could be absorbed. Then the project schedule model maintenance. So, this is where we talk about the monitoring part of it. So, how we can monitor the schedule, how we can come up with the variances and monitor it effectively. And organizational procedures links. So, that will come from your OPAS and that will be a part of OPAS later as well. Rules of performance measurements. How are we going to do the performance measurement on the project? How are we going to, from where this data will come? Release and iteration length. So, if you are working in small iterations, so we can also agree upon whether iteration should be 3 weeks or 4 weeks or what should be the duration. Reporting formats. If you're using any tool, so should it be automated, or how it should be? So, that talks about the planning aspect of the project. So, that is the first process.

Now, we moving to the next process, which is about defining activities. So, once we have the plan in place, how are we going to approach the schedule management and what's my plan for doing that, then I can get started with the first activity, which is my defining activities. That's another important process that we need to work bound. So, this is the process where we come up with the various activities by referring to the scope of the project. So, once I have a scope in place, obviously what I would be doing is referring to the scope, I will come up with some of the key deliverables of the project, I will break them down into the smaller work packages, and those will be then broken further down into the activities. Then each of these activities can be then estimated. So, if it is the requirements, then requirements would be broken down into the various smaller activities. So, I can certainly be able to share with you a very quick example which will help us in relating it better as well. So, as you can see on the screen here, so if it is a project management as one of the phase that we are working on, so we could be performing various activities. It could be identifying the focus group targets, or perform the focus group meetings, or conduct surveys. So, these are some of the activities that we have agreed upon. So, I have a work package by the name project requirements. Now, project requirement is further broken into various activities. This is what essentially this talks about defining activities. So, one of the thing that we use here, the technique that we use here is a decomposition. We decompose these work packages into the smaller activities, which will then help us in estimating better.

What input can we use in terms of defining activities? First is, of course, we refer to the project management plan in order to understand the approach that we are going to use on defining activities. We will also be able to refer to some of the internal and external factors, like if there is some commercial information available which is published, and I can refer to that information in order to come up with the estimation. So, that could be one factor. It could be the PMIS, which is Project Management Information System. So, it could be MS Project, or it could be Primavera, or it could be Clarity, whichever the tool that you are using. Under OPAS, I can refer to some of the processes, how we can do the activity decomposition, for example, or how I can refer to some of the past knowledge on this project. So, there could be the knowledge repositories which I can refer to, which will give me some insights into doing the activity definitions, as well as some planning informal planning activities could also be scheduled. So, that's the input.

What kind of a tools and techniques I can think of when I define the activities? I can certainly take opinions of the experts who can give us idea about how we should be breaking down these work packages into activities, how I can define the work packages, etc. Decomposition is a technique which I told you about. So, I can break down this work package into the various activities. So, requirement is broken down into various activities, as I took this example. Similarly, we can also use a technique called as rolling wave planning. Now, rolling wave planning and something called as a progressive elaboration goes hand in hand. So, as we go ahead working on the project, things starts unfolding, and we keep keep on getting more and more information about the phases, about the milestones, about the requirements, scope, etc. So, rolling wave plan is nothing but like whatever the information that I have today, based on that, I do a bit of a detailed planning for next one month or two months, and the information that I may not be having in detail maybe after two months or after three months, or for next three months, I would do the high-level planning. So, the detailed planning for 1 month or 2 months, or maybe a 3 month, okay, or could be just for 15 days, and then high-level planning for rest of the time period. So, that's nothing but my rolling wave planning. So, that's another technique which we can use. Meetings again, something which is very useful always.

What do we expect by the end of defining activities process? The first thing is, of course, we will come up with a list of activities, like the one that I showed you. So, if I have a requirement as a work package, then I can break down that into various activities. What I would get by the end of this process is the list of activities. The another thing is activity attributes. Every activity will have its own attributes. So, for example, if it is identify focus group targets is an activity, then I would need to put some attributes around this. It could be assumptions for this activity, start date, end date, dependencies of succeeding preceding activity, etc. So, those things will be a part of the attributes of the activities, and those attributes will certainly help us in estimating in the duration as well as we go ahead. Milestone list. For each of these projects, we'll have key milestones, like by the end of the project requirement phase, what I will get is project requirement finalized or signed off, or requirement specification document. So, that's my milestone. So, when I prepare this document, that is going to be my milestone. So, I need to know the list of milestones. The change request. So, since I'm referring to the scope, I'm decomposing the scope, I'm getting into the scope in a very deep detailed manner, so that means while interacting with the stakeholders and the customers, I would also be able to sometimes get the change requests, whatever is missing to be added. So, that might come as change request, which we need to deal with. Project management plan will also get updated with the respect to if there is anything that needs to be changed, if there is any specific learning, we just go back and update the plan as well. So, that's the defining activity.

So, just to quickly summarize, we started with the project schedule management as one of the important knowledge areas. So, I told you that schedule management starts with planning the schedule management for the project. Once we have a plan in place, that's where we define the approach of doing the schedule management. Then we come up with the list of activities as a part of the define activity process. So, once we have a list of activities, then the next logical thing will be sequencing them, and that is what is done as a part of sequence activities process. So, let's get into the sequence activity process quickly.

So, in this process, as the name says, this process is all about just putting together the activities and just sequencing them. So, we need to understand the dependencies and relation between the activities. So, sometimes, as I mentioned, we need to factor in the constraints around activities, we need to factor in the assumptions. So, all of that will be a part of your sequencing activities. Now, while doing this, while sequencing the activities, what should I refer to as input? The first thing, of course, the plan. So, that will give me the approach about how am I going to sequence activities. So, that's why plan is important. We also need to refer to the scope baseline, obviously, because ultimately these activities are broken down based on the kind of scope that we're working on. Project documents, like activity attributes. So, when I'm sequencing activities, I need to understand the various aspects about the activity. So, those are nothing but the attributes. So, I need to know the assumption for each of the activity, I need to know the complexity of each of the activity, okay, I need to know the preceding and the succeeding activity, I need to know the other aspects related to that activity, so that I can sequence them as well. So, activity list, obviously, is important. Assumption log, as I mentioned, around the activities and the milestones, so that I can sequence the activity accordingly to achieve that milestone. Under EF, or enterprise environmental factors, we can also use PMIS tools, as I mentioned, like Clarity, or Workbench could be another one for again sequencing the activities. Scheduling tool could be used, specifically there are certain scheduling tools like Workbench could be one of the example. And organizational work authorization system. So, that will give you an idea about who's going to work on what. So, that's another area which we can explore. Under OPAS, we can refer to some of the templates for sequencing activities if they're already defined, and we can also get access to various project files which will give you a lot of inputs while working through this.

And what kind of tools and techniques can we use while sequencing activities? The most important one here is Precedence Diagramming Method. So, as a part of Precedence Diagramming Method, we should be able to put these activities into sequence by using the activity on node or activity on arrow kind of a methods. And I can just quickly show you how the Precedence Diagramming Method looks like, just for you to get an idea. So, as you can see here, the Precedence Diagramming Method, this is where we basically put the activities on node, and, uh, we just sequence them, and we put it in a diagrammatic manner, so that we would know how the activity flows one by one, and, uh, the overall flow of the activities, the flow of the work. And at the same time, that actually helps us in understanding dependencies and sequencing them better. Dependency determination. So, that's another important aspect. And leads and lags. So, leads and lags are nothing but if I'm saying that I have got a lead over the activity, that means I can actually start that activity by 3 days or two days early. But sometimes there are lags. So, that means I have to wait for that activity to start. So, for activity to start. So, if you take a very quick example of, let's say, painting a house. So, when you paint the house, you need to first remove the flakes of the old paint, and unless that is removed, you can't really start the painting activity. So, can I say that in order to remove those flakes, I would need 3 days? So, I can't start the painting activity. At least we need to wait for 3 days there. So, there is a lag for painting, which is a succeeding activity. In order to start that succeeding activity, I need to wait for at least 3 days. So, that is my lag. And sometimes there are activities which we can start in parallel as well. So, one of the quick example could be, you're working on high-level design, and the low-level design. So, you have high-level design in hand, but I'm sure, you know, you can also start working on the low-level design. So, that means you have got a lead, and you can actually start 3 days early or two days early. So, those things also actually helps later on when we decide about fast tracking and crashing of the project, and I'm going to talk about that as we proceed.

What we get by the end of it? Obviously, we should be getting the list of activities which are sequenced. So, project schedule network diagram is what we should be getting. And as a result.

of any changes or as a result of any new learning. Even we update the project documents. So that's what we can certainly expect. So I'm just going to show you very quickly the project network diagram so that you'll get a fair idea about how the network diagram looks like. And yeah, in fact, this could be one of the examples of the way network diagram is drawn. So you'll get it from the tool itself these days because there are effective tools which can give you the network diagram which will then help us in calculating the critical path, etc. So that was about sequencing part of the activities which we can do by using the PDM or precedence diagram method. So that is something which is very, very useful method.

All right, so moving to the next process which talks about estimate activity duration. So when we estimate the activity duration, now we have a list of activities, we have also sequenced those activities and created the network diagram. That's where we are. And now we have to estimate the activity duration. So this is where essentially we come up with the time period required for each of the activities. So if I have this list of activities, then I can easily come up with the time period that is required for conducting surveys or for preparing the market research findings. I would need maybe 12 hours or for consolidate analyze data, I would need maybe 18 hours. So I would be able to come up with the estimation for each of these activities in whatever the unit that's agreed and that's basically agreed and put and captured in the plan. And therefore, as a part of the inputs, one of the thing that is required is the project management plan, which will give us an idea about schedule management plan.

So there is a question here before I proceed. And this question is from Sheel and she's asking that why project management plan is mentioned over here and why not the management plan only? Okay, that's a good question. And and I have seen that some people have a bit of a confusion sometimes around this. So one thing that we need to understand when we say the project management plan, it comprises of all the other subsidiary management plans. And those subsidiary management plans could be the schedule management plan, scope management plan, risk management plan, resource management plan. So all these plans put together becomes your project management plan. So when I say project management plan, it will definitely comprise of the schedule management plan as well. So that's the that's the point over here. So we would need to refer to the project management plan, which will essentially give us an access to the schedule management plan as well. So I hope that gives you an idea about why usually you find that as one of the inputs. Okay, thank you for the confirmation.

Moving to the next part, which is another input is of course some of the documents which we need to refer to, like activity attributes, because when I'm doing the estimation, I need to refer to the characteristics, the attributes of the activities. List of activities, any assumption around the activity will help. Any past lessons will help while estimating the duration. Of course, the list of milestones which will help us, right? If I know this particular milestone has to be completed by this particular date and I need to then find out whether I can fit that into the schedule or not. Project team who will be actually doing the estimation as well. And apart from that, under the Enterprise environmental factors, I'm just going to give you some of the examples. Could be productivity metric, which we can certainly refer to. Productivity metric will help us in coming up with the estimation for the activities. So if I know that the market research data analysis previously took us maybe 18 hours, now on this project also it could take 18 hours at least, right? So that kind of a productivity analysis or the productivity metric actually helps us in understanding the productivity of the employees, of the team members, and that will certainly give give us input while doing the estimation. Another thing could be the location of the team members. So it could also have an impact. The location of the team members, the time zone differences would also be having an impact. Under OPs, project calendar needs to be referred to. Scheduling methodologies, we also need to refer to what is the scheduling methodology that we're going to use really. And there are various methodologies that we're going to touch upon very soon. So that time you'll be able to cover those.

In terms of technique, tools and technique for doing the estimation, one of the important tool is of course expert judgment, which is very, very simple yet very powerful tool that we can use. Another is analogous estimation. This is where we compare it with the previous project and we estimate the ongoing project. Parametric estimation is based on the various parameters of the project. And a very quick example of the parametric estimation, if we have to take like let's say you're working on a software project and there are certain parameters that we can think of. One of thing could be database connections or input validations. So if I know that input validation is a medium complex task and for that usually it takes 1 hour if it is medium complex. So if I have three such tasks to perform, I can easily say that that will take 3 hours. So based on these parameters, I can actually come up with the estimation. Three-point estimation is also called as the Program Evaluation and Review Technique or PERT. So this is where we factor in the most likely, pessimistic, and optimistic estimation. So all these three estimations are put together and the activity duration is derived out of that. And then of course, the meetings, that's where we engage all the stakeholders. Data analysis also helps us, the previous data analysis or for that matter, even factoring in various constraints of the project and analyzing the data. So those things also really gives us an idea about the various aspects of the scheduling decision making techniques. So there are various options that are explored when we are doing the scheduling. We can actually think of the various decisions. So make or buy decision could be one such example. So if I have to buy this solution as is, how long would it take? And if I have to build this completely, how long would it take? So make and buy decision. Bottom up estimation is what we have been talking about here, when we decompose the work package into smaller activities and we estimate each of the activity, we just total it up from the bottom up and then we derive the project schedule.

Now, what do we expect by the end of the activity duration? So obviously, we should be expecting the duration estimates for each of these activities. Rolled it up at a project level, we get a duration of the project. Basis of estimates. So why are we estimating what we are estimating? So what is the basis of the estimation? So we can certainly document as much as possible. When I'm saying that the data analysis of the market research would take 18 hours, so why is it so? What is the basis for that? So maybe I have factored some resources with some skills, maybe I have factored, maybe I assumed probably that all the data is available and there is no dependency on anybody. So what are those assumptions? What are those those considerations for estimating? So that's my basis of estimation. Then in almost all the processes, you'll find project documents getting updated based on the new information or based on the changes that you might be receiving as a part of the project.

So just to connect you back, what all we covered so far. So we started with the schedule management plan, we created a plan, then we started with coming up with the list of activities, then we sequenced those activities, we created the network diagram, etc. And then we started estimating the activity duration for each of these activities. So once we do that, then obviously we can come up with the schedule. So let's understand how to come up with the schedule as a part of the develop schedule process. So this is where we actually derive the project schedule based on whatever the work that we have done so far and by referring to the schedule model as well. What kind of input can we think of? The first thing is of course the plan, because plan always gives us the approach for each of these processes. What is the approach that's decided on the given project? And that's why we need to keep referring to the plan. And since we are deriving the schedule, we need to refer to the scope baseline as well. The other documents, the project documents like the attributes of the activity, assumption log, milestone list, etc. So those documents will be very useful here. Agreements. Now we are talking about developing a schedule. So if you are engaging any third party, we have certain agreements with them. So we need to also take them into consideration so that we'll factor in those contractual commitments while developing the schedule.

Now let's move on to the other factors like Enterprise environmental factors. So we also need to refer to some of the communication channels or scheduling tools which will actually help us in doing these things, maybe in a bit professional way, bit swiftly as well. So I did mention some of the examples of the scheduling tools as well. Communication channels. So for example, if you are engaging the third party vendors, if you are engaging the various stakeholders, how are you going to communicate to them? What is the communication channel which is agreed upon? So that's another thing. Also the scheduling methodology, some of them which we already covered.

What kind of tools and techniques can we use while developing schedule? The first is of course the network analysis. So we do the schedule network analysis. I also showed you the network diagram. So once we do the network analysis, we actually come up with the schedule. That's the minimum time that is required to complete this project. What are some of the critical tasks that needs to be performed? And that's also a part of your critical path method. So critical path method, as I mentioned to you, that if the network diagram is created, that critical path is nothing but the path of the activities which we need to complete one by one where there is no float. So you will not get any extra time to perform those activities. So all those activities need to be performed based on the estimated time that you have estimated for those activities. So that is also the minimum time that is required for you to complete the project. So that's your critical path. There could be more than one critical path, and it's important for us to know those critical paths on the project. Data analysis. So again, we did speak about data analysis as a technique. Resource optimization. So how I can utilize the resources effectively in order to be productive on the project. The another technique would be PMIS, use of the project management information systems. If you are not using it already, leads and lags. I did mention about and schedule compression. At times we might need to use the schedule compression techniques like fast tracking and crashing. So fast tracking is a technique where we actually start working on the activities in parallel. So if you are a bit behind the schedule and you want to fast track, what you do is that you identify the activities which you can start working on in parallel. So you do that. Crashing, on the other hand, puts more people on the activities. Crashing might increase risk on the project. So we need to do, we need to monitor it very, very closely. But those are some of the schedule compression activities which we discuss in detail in the PMP training program. Agile Release Plan. So if you are working in an agile way, we can also come up with the release plan. It could be quarterly release or a monthly release, or you may even deploy it or release it in production by the end of every sprint, depending on your technical readiness, depending on your technical excellence, as well as the kind of team members that you have on the project.

Now, what do we expect by the end of develop schedule? Obviously, we should be expecting the project schedule. So let's take a quick look at what do we expect. The first thing is going to be schedule baseline. So we come up with the project schedule. This project would need maybe 6 months to complete or one year to complete or whatever the schedule that you have come up with and whatever the unit that you have agreed in which you have to present. The other thing is the schedule data. So you have a data of the milestones, you have a basis of estimation, you have the sequencing of activities. So all this is nothing but your scheduling data that you have. The project calendar. So you would know the key milestones and the key dates to be referred to. Track project management plan updates on a regular basis with any change requests, if with any new learning, we need to do that. Yeah.

So we just spoke about the change requests as well. So once we have the project schedule in place, now it's very important for us to control that. And this is what is covered as part of the control schedule as a process. So control schedule talks about now, since we have the list of activities, we have sequenced them, we also came up with the duration for each of these activities, we have also come up with the resources that are going to work on those activities, we also factored in various things like schedule constraints, we have done the analysis, etcetera of those things, and we come up with even the schedule model which is giving us an idea about various important dates and the key milestones as well. So how we can control that? So in order to control the project schedule, it's important for us to first refer to some of the things like the project schedule management plan itself, as well as the scope baseline. The another thing that we need to refer to is the list of project documents. So what are some of those documents? So it could be the activity list, it could be assumption log, it could be milestone list. So some of these documents will be very important for us to refer to. Another area is the OPA. So OPA will give you an idea about monitoring and reporting methods. So what are those monitoring and reporting methods? Are you going to do the any statistical analysis or quantitative analysis of the data or is it going to be just the qualitative analysis by taking the feedback? The formal and informal ways of doing the controlling as well. So that could be another quick example. Work performance data is very important because once you start performing or working on those activities, then you need to come up with the data which will give you an idea about what was planned and what is achieved. So that's planned versus actual data is nothing but your work performance data.

What kind of a tools and techniques can we use? Data analysis, which we did discuss. Critical path method, which we did cover as well. PMIS, which is Project Management Information System, which will give you some of the readymade metrics in order to monitor the schedule effectively. Resource optimization for ensuring that the schedule is managed effectively. Schedule compression. So again, schedule compression, we've covered a bit on that as well. And lead and lags. So again, lead and lags, we can certainly factor in. And what we get by the end of the control schedule activity is the work performance information, which is nothing but what was my planned schedule, what is my actual schedule, which will help me in deriving whether I am ahead of the schedule, whether I'm behind the schedule of the project, or how am I performing. Schedule forecast. So based on the trend, then I can actually forecast whether would we be able to complete this project within the given schedule or would we go ahead of the schedule or would we go, you know, behind the schedule? What would be the case? So we can forecast it for next 6 months or 3 months or whatever the time period that you have to forecast. Change requests. So how we can factor in those change requests, maybe as a part of the change request management process. Project management plan will also get updated as a result of that. And certain documents like assumption log, the lessons learned, etcetera will also get updated.

So now let us look at what is Project Cost Management is all about. So when we say Project Cost Management, we need to understand it basically includes about the cost which gets incurred, the expanding value of the monetary investment which is being done by the organization. So Project Cost Management basically includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs. So the project can be completed within the approved budget. This requires a detailed cost management plan. So where the cost of the resources which is required to be used in the project has to be assessed and understood, estimated and budgeted, which provide the details of how to plan, manage and control the project cost in relation to the cost baseline and the cost variances. So project cost management plan is one of the subsidiary plan in project management plan. So techniques like earned value management are used to check how the cost performance is happening throughout the project. So primarily project cost management is concerned with cost of resources needed to complete the project activities and it will consider the effects of project decisions on the subsequent recurring cost of using, maintaining, and supporting the product, service, or results of the project.

So now further to understand what is cost management is all about, the overview of it. So we need to look at what are the tailoring considerations made while doing the project cost management. So the tailoring considerations includes knowledge management, estimating and budgeting, earned value management, use of agile approach, and governance. When I in knowledge management, so it is very important for an organization to have a formal knowledge management and financial database repositories that project manager is required to use that is readily accessible so that right decisions can be made, taken at the right time. When is estimating and budgeting, it requires to look at understanding, approximating what is the amount of money which is going to incur in that particular project and accordingly the money, the monetary resources has to be allocated to the project based on that. Project will be delivered and project manager should ensure the project will be delivered within that budgeted value, monetary value which is allocated to the project. So earned value management is a technique what is used to check how the project management relating to cost management, in specific schedule management, as well as scope management, how it is performing comparison with the baselines of these triple constraints defined in the baselines of the project. Using Agile approach, which means depending on what kind of approach is required for the project scenario, so use of agile approach will be considered accordingly. Not necessarily that agile approach should be applicable to all the projects which is being done. So governance, governance when we say it's all about an authority one which sets the directions and it is very essential to have such directions set so that necessary controls are established through policies, procedures, and guidelines.

So next type of cost we come across involves fixed cost, variable cost, direct cost, indirect cost, and sunk cost. When I say fixed cost, so these are the costs that do not change throughout the project life cycle. For example, if a construction of a road is happening, the excavators and bulldozers are fixed cost. Whereas when I say variable cost, so the cost of this varies throughout the project. For example, hourly labor cost, cost of material would vary as the project progresses. So indirect cost and direct cost, if you look at that, direct and indirect cost, direct cost refers to that cost which clearly assign to the project on the labor, materials which are directly involved in the project. When I a indirect cost, it is basically speaks about the cost involved in administration, basically overhead cost like indirect materials, utilities, tax, insurance, property repairs, etc. So sunk cost basically refers to that cost which cannot be recovered after incurring it. For example, cost which has been incurred while paying a rent for the project facility which is being utilized for doing the project, that cannot come back, that is called sunk cost. So analyzing various different types of cost will become very essential so that estimation, approximation, and allocation of budget and also this understanding of the cost will also help in making right decisions, justifying whether we need to include such costs or not in the projects.

Further, let us go and look at understanding cost management processes. So cost management processes includes basically four processes: Plan Cost Management, Estimate Cost, Determine Budget, and Control Cost. When I say Plan Cost Management, Plan Cost Management, Estimate Cost Management, and Determine Budget are part of planning process group, whereas Control Cost falls under monitoring and controlling process group. Now let us look at Plan Cost Management. So Plan Cost Management is the process of defining how the project's cost will be estimated, budgeted, managed, monitored, and controlled. So it is the initial process of cost management where one has to define how the cost of the project will be looked at after estimation, that needs to be monitored, how are you going to monitor and control, what is that particular cost it goes and incurs for a given project. So generally the techniques like WBS, Work Breakdown Structure, which is basically done in scope management, is considered. And when you do work breakdown structure, basically the technique of decomposition is used to break down the product into multiple levels, and cost will be allocated from the bottom level of the WBS, and it is bottom up estimate, you consolidate upwards. So many techniques are used to do that like expert judgments, analogous estimation, parametric estimation, three-point estimation, PERT estimation. So these estimations includes basically the labor utilized, the material utilized, the equipment what is used as part of the project. All this will become a cost components. So this process, Plan Cost Management process, gives a rough outline of the number of resources involved and shows the optimum path to the manage the project cost throughout the project life cycle. Inputs to this process includes project charter, project management plan, basically schedule management plan and risk management plan, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets. The tools and techniques which are used for Plan Cost Management process would be expert judgment, data analysis, and meetings. The output of this process should be cost management plan. So cost management plan is one of the subsidiary plans where this particular plan will go and get solid it into a bigger plan along with the other subsidiary plans. So when I say other subsidiary plans, we need to think about the scope management plan, schedule management plan, quality management plan, likewise we have a nine knowledge areas means nine subsidiary plans, and all of these are consolidated in integration management knowledge area, and you will have a full plan consolidated.

Next process is Estimate Cost. When I say Estimate Cost, it is a process of developing an approximation of cost of resources needed to complete the project work. So this is the second process in the project cost management after the cost management plan that helps in estimating the cost of the resources required for project completion. Since cost is an important variable that ensures project success, one has to be very careful while producing the estimated amount of total project cost. So throughout the project life cycle, this process is performed at periodical intervals. A project manager uses various methods to estimate cost depending on amount of information available. So inputs to this process is project management plan, like cost management plan, quality management plan, scope baseline, project scope statement, work breakdown structure, WBS dictionary, project documents like Lessons Learned register, project schedule, resource requirement, risk register, then enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets. The tools used as part of this particular process, Estimate Cost, would be expert judgment, where involvement of the experts, mainly financial experts, experts who understand that particular project domain and the cost of it. So analogous estimation, where consideration of historical information in terms of what was the estimation in the earlier project, how much it took to deliver this or do this activity or to acquire some resources, based on that you would do the estimation. Parametric estimation, extension of analogous estimation, where the parameter of current scenario is considered along with the historical information and estimation is done. Bottom up estimation, as I mentioned earlier, you will have a work breakdown structure. At the bottom of the work breakdown structure, you're going to look at what are the resources required to accomplish that particular features, functionality, or output, at the same time looking at what activities are involved, what effort is involved, and estimating based on that. Then once it is done at the lower level of WBS, that will be consolidated upwards. Once it is consolidated at the higher level of the WBS, one will have a entire estimation for the project. So next is three-point estimation, where the estimation of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates are taken and average of that is obtained. So this requires a lot of discussion with an experts, the one who think that without any issues, what could be the estimation, considering what are the issues which would occur, and what is that optimally I can accomplish. So pessimistic, optimistic, and most likely view are taken while taking the average of it. So data analysis, checking on all the data what is available relating to this project and resources of this project, deliverables of this project, and analyzing to estimate it. Then project management information system, so this helps to provide lot of information and also a methods and approaches which would help in terms of estimating the cost. So decision making, means decision making techniques involves a lot of exercise in terms of involving various different experts or maybe the people who are involved in the delivery, people who understand the technology, people who understand the dynamics associated with that project, and facilitate that discussions and make the decision. So output of this process includes cost estimates, basis of estimates. When we say basis of estimates, why are we saying it is so much? So if you estimate a cost for certain particular activity to be completed, why are we saying so much of estimate? What is the reason? So justifying that, so basis of estimate provides you that details. Then project documents updates.

Next process would be Determine Budget. So Determine Budget is the process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages and establishing the authorized cost baseline. So this is the third process in cost management knowledge area. So this involves the activities, a task summed up to identify what is that particular cost baseline would be. So cost baseline of the budget include all the authorized funds that are essential for project execution. So the budget basically includes various reserves of contingency. When I say contingency, we're speaking about the risk. So risk identification has to happen, which happens in Risk Management knowledge area. So risk identification, assessing and analyzing the risk, and also defining the risk responses. Once that is done, what cost it incurs while doing it, that will be put as a contingency reserve along with all the efforts cost or material cost which has been consolidated upwards in WBS structure, and then adding contingency reserve to it will become cost baseline. Above this, there will be management reserve, where project manager cannot utilize the management reserve based on the willingness, but it is kept with certain calculation done by the management to see to that project will go with the way it is planned. So any unforeseen circumstances which is not even identified, unknown risk management reserves would be used. So including contingency reserve and all the project cost, consolidated cost baseline. So this cost baseline is authorized. It is an authorized time-phased budget that is used as the initial point for monitoring and calculating the project performance and progress. So this is done through earned value management. So this process is executed at a specific points in the project which are generally predefined. The inputs to this project would be project management plan, basically cost management plan, resource management plan, scope baseline, project documents that is basis of estimates, cost estimates, projection schedule, risk register, then business documents which is business case, benefits management plan, then agreements, which is basically that agreement which is done with the suppliers or which is done with any of the customers. So those are considered because you may be acquiring a specific product, service, or you are producing a specific product or services for your consumer. So these needs to be understood in what terms the project is being worked. Then enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets. So the tools used for this particular process, Determine Budget, is expert judgment, historical information review, data analysis, cost aggregation, funding limit reconciliations. When you say cost aggregation and funding limit reconciliations, one has to ensure all the fund flow, how is that happening, what is the current condition of this fund flow in the organization, that needs to be understood. And also based on the schedules of the project, money needs to be organized. The incoming money flow, outgoing money flow in the name of cost and revenue, that needs to be checked so that necessary investment which is required for project is available or not is understood. So this requires working with finance in specific. Financing means the allocation of the budget, at the same time ensuring that flow happens, the money which is allocated comes in. Outputs of Determine Budget process would be the cost baseline, then project funding requirements, and project documents updates.

So next process would be Control Cost. So Control Cost is a process of monitoring the status of project to update the project cost and managing changes to the cost baseline. So this is the final process which is in monitoring and control process group. So this is primarily concerned with measurement of variances of the actual cost from the proposed baseline. So various methods and procedures are implemented here to track the project performance and expenses against its progress rate. Meanwhile, all the variances are recorded and compared with with actual baselines. If any necessary corrections are required, those will be done through raising change request. So control cost process will be responsible for explaining the reasons for variance and further assist the project manager in taking corrective actions to incur minimum cost or cost according to what is budgeted or planned. So inputs to this process involves project management plan that is cost management plan, cost baseline, performance measurement baseline, project documents, then project funding requirement, work performance data, and then organizational process assets. The tools used for control cost process would be expert judgment, data analysis, to complete performance index, and project management information system. So output of this process would be work performance information, cost forecast, change request, project documents updates, and project management plan updates.

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Project Quality Management. Under this topic, as we were talking about, we will be discussing about the various processes that are involved into managing quality on the project. But before get onto the processes that we have, let's quickly understand about quality management. Now, as we all know, quality is all about whether we are producing the outcome of the project in the form of product or result or the service that we you're producing by the end of that project, is it fit for use or not? Is it fit for purpose or not? Does it meet the customer requirements or not? So ultimately, we need to make sure that we check on that. So whether that project meets the needs it was originally created to meet, and that is what is ensured by the quality management. It also ensures that all project activities that are necessary for designing, planning, implementing a project are effective and efficient, and that is ensured by following the quality management as one of the important plans that we create on the project.

So let's understand a bit more around quality management as a concept when we work on the project. So there are few things that we need to definitely make sure we are doing as a part of the quality. One is of course the verification. A continuous verification is what is expected by the team and the project manager. Like for example, a simple verification could be a traceability metric. We ensure to have a traceability metrics on the project so that we verify the requirements that we have gathered from the customers. Are we incorporating those while doing designing, while doing coding, while doing testing, while deploying, etcetera? So that simple verification really helps us, and it's just not the backwards traceability, but also the forward stability that we ensure that we are doing. So that's a quick example of the verification. Precision. Now, whenever we talk about quality, we also to ensure that it should be precise. Precision is all about doing it consistently, and when we do consistently right, it actually ensures the precision. Now, we must have heard about these terms like precision and accuracy. So accuracy is when we actually hit the target, we are accurate. But when we hit the target 10 times consistently, we are not only accurate, but also we are precise, and that is what reflects in the quality. So whatever the outcome that we are producing in the form of that process or even for that matter, the result or a service that we are producing, we need to make sure that it's not only accurate, but also it is precise, so that we are consistently producing the same outcome in the form of product, service, or a result that we are committing to the customer. So accuracy and precision definitely are two important facets that we talk about always under quality. Tolerance. There is something called as a tolerance, and we set the tolerance limits, and we come up with sort of a control chart in order to understand the outcome that we are producing. Does it fit into the tolerance limits or not? So we have upper specification limits and we have lower specification limits, and the product that we producing in the form of outcome of the process or a project, we make sure that it fits into the tolerance limit. Anything above that, my customer wouldn't accept. And if there are too many such things that I'm producing which are not accepted by the customer, obviously it's going to cost me, and that's going to be the cost of quality, which we will talk about later as well. Validation. So continuous validation and verification, as we were talking about, is something which is integral part of the maintaining quality and ensuring quality while we're working on any project. So whatever the requirements that customer has given us, once we build that feature, we need to make sure that that feature is validated as per the acceptance criteria given by the customer, and we'll talk more about some of these aspects around quality.

So quality management overview is what we're going to start with at the moment. Now, when we talk about the overview in terms of understanding the quality, we also need to understand the various trends and emerging practices that we talk about in quality these days. Starting with the customer satisfaction. Now, customer satisfaction is ultimately one of the goals that every organization would strive to achieve through the product, service, or the results that are getting produced as an outcome of the project that we work on. So even we talk about as a part of the project constraints these days, apart from quality, schedule, and the other constraints like risk, resources, one of the important thing is also around customer satisfaction. Are my customers satisfied with the outcome that I'm producing or not? And if they're not satisfied, then we need to really find out the reasons for customer satisfaction. First of all, whether I'm really checking my customers are happy or not? Am I conducting the customer surveys, feedbacks, and interviews? Am I incorporating the feedbacks that I'm getting back into the process of developing that product, service, or result or not? So there are various things that we need to ask to ourselves as a team. Continual Improvement. Continual Improvement should be always at the heart of the quality. The reason being, it's about the consistently improving the way we are doing things, right? The way the process is running, or for that matter, are we challenging the status quo? How am I improving on a daily basis? There could be various ways through which we can do that. It could be implementation of a Kaizen methodology or a Six Sigma or lean way of working, etcetera. But continual improvement is definitely one of the important things that teams needs to ensure that we do. Management Responsibility. Now, as we just mentioned that quality is everyone's responsibility, so how come we miss on management? Ultimately, management is the one who is going to empower the project teams. Management is the one is going to ensure that the teams have got enough resources to build the product. So if that is not done properly, then obviously it's going to have an impact over quality. Management should also help teams in removing the impediments, bottlenecks that are there within what we are producing and not achieving the quality. So that is where management would come into picture. Mutually Beneficial Partnership with Suppliers. When we talk about producing any product, I guess without having the partnership with suppliers, it's just not possible. Now, when we partner with our suppliers, we need to make sure that it's a mutually beneficial partnership. We need to make them partner into what we are producing and not just treat them as some third party vendors. So that's the change in the mindset that we need to bring out in order to get maximum out of this partnership and the relations.

So let's keep talking about some of the tailoring considerations that we should be taking into consideration while working on the quality management. Now, all the processes of quality management, they needs to be applied in a tailored or a customized way in order to make them unique to the project that you're working on. Because as we know, project is unique endeavor, we produce a product or service or a result out of that project, and it's unique in itself. So let's talk about how and where can we do this kind of a customization or process tailoring. PIMBO 6th edition specifically talks a lot about process tailoring. Let's take a few examples. For example, policy compliance and auditing. Now, whichever the project that you're working on, you have to do the customization or tailoring around the way you're working, considering the compliance requirements or audit requirements. Like for example, I still remember when I was working on a project where we had to comply with SOX compliance. That means the requirements were completely different over there, like we had to take the code freeze approvals at least 14 days before we put code into production environment. That was something very unique to that compliance requirement, and that was audited as well. So we had to really retain those audit trails and had to retain those evidences which we can then produce when the audit is conducted. So that's a very quick example which may not be required again on all the projects.

So here is a question here from Ramesh and the question is around what is SOX compliance? All right, so I understand from where this question has come. So I did mention a bit about SOX. Now, SOX compliance is just one example. Those are basically the regulations that are divided by US governments. So those companies who are registered under US, any of the stock exchange, let's say New York Stock Exchange, so we need to furnish all the data which actually goes into profit and loss statement or which goes into accounting, and we need to make sure that all this data is furnished to the US government for audit and for review. And SOX came in after the frauds that we may have heard about, like for example, Enron or WorldCom, those kind of frauds that have happened during early 2000s. And after that, US Government launched SOX. Of course, this training is not around SOX really, but you can read more about that. But just very quickly to answer your question, that is just one of the regulations that we talk about today. But if you're working in healthcare industry, you might have to face different regulation. If you work in insurance, there are different regulations. If you are working in banking, there are different regulations. So what's important is to acknowledge those and see how I can tailor my process in order to adhere to those regulations. The second aspect is around standards and regulatory compliance. Sometimes there are certain mandatory standards that are to be followed. So we need to ensure that we are adhering to those mandatory standards. If we haven't already considered as a part of the project. Continual Improvement. Challenging the status quo where various methodologies these days are popular when it comes to continual improvement, and I'm sure some of those methodologies you may have already used yourself. Agile is a best example. Agile really helps us improve on a continuous basis because we do retrospections, we gather lessons learned, we implement the improvements out of that. Kanban is another methodology, Six Sigma is another one, Lean is there, so many of them. Our simple Kanban way of working also helps us in continuously improve ourselves. Stakeholder Engagement. Since we talk about quality, and ultimately all these requirements that we work on any project comes from the stakeholders. So we have to engage them throughout the project and not just at the beginning of the project or towards the end of the project. So tailoring around these aspects would really help us gain a competitive advantage or would gain in terms of getting the better outcome of the project.

Now let's talk about the quality management process. So far, I just introduced you the topic. We just spoke about what is quality, what are the different aspects around quality, we also spoke about why the tailoring is required when we work on the quality, etcetera. Now let's actually get into the process part. As I mentioned to you, there are 49 different processes within PIMBO 6th edition, and there are 10 different knowledge areas. We also have five different process groups. We are picking up quality management processes for you in today's training. Now, this is just the gist of it. I would really encourage you to enroll for the course in order to get more detail around Quality Management. In webinar today, we are just taking and learning about a very high level aspects around quality. But when we do the deep dive, while delivering training, we actually cover in detail around various things that we're supposed to be talking around in quality. So let's talk about now the process. There are three processes as a part of quality management. It starts with planning part. We have to plan quality. We can't just ignore that. We have to manage quality once we put your plan in place. That's where we decide high level approach, what's my commitment to manage quality on my project? And once I give that commitment through this plan, then I have to execute that plan, and that execution is about managing quality. And once I start executing, I have to also check whether I'm executing it as per the plan or not, and that's where the control aspect comes into picture. So we have planning quality management, managing quality, and control quality, three processes that are embedded as a part of the quality management. Let's start with the first one, which is Plan Quality Management. Now, as like any other knowledge areas, whenever we covered, we always talk about what are the inputs to that process, what are the tools and techniques that we use, and what output do we expect out of that. Similarly, we will also be talking about what are the inputs. So before we getting onto the input part, let's just talk about a bit. What is plan? So planning quality management is all about identifying what are the key requirements in terms of the quality. You know, it could be with respect to the standards that we're going to follow, it could be with respect to the commitments that we're giving. How are we going to maintain quality, manage quality on the project? What's the approach that we're going to follow in terms of ensuring quality is built in this product? So in general, this is going to really provide you with some guidance, and this will give some direction. So even if the project manager is not there one fine day, and if somebody wants to look into what is the quality that we're going to maintain on this project, so they can easily refer to this plan and learn about this approach. So how are we going to manage the quality, verify the quality throughout the project is what is maintained and mentioned in this plan. Typically, we create the plan at the beginning of the project itself, and quality management plan would then become a part of your project plan when we actually begin working.

Let's now get started off with some of the inputs to the quality management and we will go one by one, probably starting off with of course the project charter. So when we start talking about the planning part, we need to refer to the project charter because project charter will certainly give us an idea about those initial high level requirements that will come from the project charter. And as we just now understood about quality, that it's about fit for use, fit for purpose, and it's about ensuring that we deliver the requirements that we have agreed upon with customers. So those initial requirements will certainly come from the project charter. We would

Also know which are those stakeholders who I need to engage while creating the plan, etc. The other is the project management plan itself. Few things we have already captured over there. And anyways, the quality management plan is a subsidiary plan of the project management plan, that means we have to refer to that for sure. Project documents, we need to also refer to different project documents while working on the quality part. And the project documents, obviously, we need to make sure that these project documents that we are referring to are something like, for example, assumption log. So I need to know what are some of the assumptions that I need to factor in while working on the planning quality aspects. Then we also need to know how are we going to establish traceability metrics on the project. How are we going to capture risks? For example, what about the stakeholder register? Can I have access to that so that I can update if required? So those are some of the examples of the documents that we talk about here. And apart from that, there are two inputs always we talk about in almost all processes, and that's enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets. They could be like, for example, as a part of assets, there could be certain templates that I need to use. There could be certain, in terms of enterprise environmental factors, I would also compare the quality with that which comes out of the commitment that I'm going to give as a company in the market. So there are certain general guidelines that are available that I would refer to as well. So these are some of the inputs that we talk about.

Let's now talk about some of the tools and techniques when we plan quality into the project. So starting with expert judgment. Expert judgment is one of the tools and techniques that we talk about here. And as you would agree, expert judgment is all about engaging my SMEs into getting inputs from them. And probably we need to also take into consideration the tailoring aspect. So on this project, based on the experience of these people, what do I need to do? So something which is very easy to do as well as very valuable.

Data gathering. Data gathering is definitely another tool which is very useful. We can gather data through various ways. One of the example could be benchmarking. I can compare the quality with what's published in the market. It could be through various publications or something which is even, for that matter, the standards that are there. So I can compare it with the past. I can compare it with the standards or the competition as well. So that's kind of a benchmarking, right? I need to be right up to the competition in the market. So if it is not there, then how can I improve ourselves in terms of the quality outcomes that we are producing? Brainstorming is a simple data gathering technique that helps us in generating the data and the ideas, etc. I can also conduct interviews with few people in order to gather data. So these are some of the examples.

Data analysis. So once we gather data while putting the plan for quality, I need to also ensure that I do analysis of the data that I have gathered. For that, I might have to use different techniques like, simple could be cost-benefit analysis. Can I just check the cost of quality? What is the benefit am I going to get out of that? At the same time, what is the cost of implementation of the quality requirements against the benefit? As I just mentioned, or cost of quality in itself, which will cover your cost of conformance, cost of non-conformance. Now, as we know, cost of conformance is all about in order to make sure the quality is built in, what is the cost that is required? So for that, quality assurance or the audits or different things that I'm going to use on the project, it could be reviews, etc. What's the cost that is required for that? And non-conformance cost could be very high at times. One of the best examples could be the Volkswagen scam of the emission that we know. The kind of amount that the Volkswagen had to bear is like huge. That's cost of non-conformance, I would say, because it not only affects the cost but also it affects the reputation of the company as a whole. So that could be another example, and we will talk many more such examples in our training.

Decision making is another thing. So as a part of decision making, again, it's pretty straightforward, right? We have to make decisions between the options that are available. So we'll also look into some tools that we can use in order to make decisions as well in the actual training.

Data representation. So once we gather data, we can actually represent that data through various ways. Like, for example, we can create a simple flowchart of the data that I have gathered. So let's say I have gathered some data from the process, I can just put together in a flowchart, or I can create some sort of a logical data model, or even for that matter, some metrics diagrams. All of that really helps us in visualizing things. I think mind map could be one of the simplest examples. We just put together what's there on mind in a particular format, in a particular way, and that really helps us in representing the data.

Test and inspection planning would certainly involve our considerations about various testing things that we're going to do in order to, of course, inspect the product, in order to ensure that we inspect the deliverable or service that we are giving to our customers. And there could be various ways, as we all know, like Alpha and Beta releases that we do in the market these days, or the various inspections that we do, or for that matter, the field test could be another simple example.

And then we have meetings, which is pretty straightforward to understand. So these inputs in terms of the different tools and techniques would certainly help us in putting together the plan. Obviously, what do we expect by the end of this? We certainly expect the outcome of this process would be the quality management plan itself. We'll also be able to gather some quality metrics. In terms of now, we can certainly think of as a part of the quality metric, we can think of various things. What kind of a quality metric that you want to capture on your project? And that quality metric would certainly help you in ensuring that you are tracking the quality. So it could be, for example, the defect data, it could be defect age, it could be the defects per release, etc., etc. So that could be just one quick example. Project management plan will get updated with this outcome, and even the project documents, like I have given you examples of assumption log or reliability metrics or stakeholder list that we're creating, so that might also get updated as a result of this.

So this covers our plan quality management. We saw what are the inputs, we saw tools and techniques, and we also covered the outcomes that we can get in the form of different outputs of this process.

Of course, let's now talk about manage quality. So as a part of quality management, we have plan quality, and then the second part is about manage quality. It's all about execution. Now, since we have a plan in place, it's time for us to execute that plan. Let's talk a bit about it. It's all about translating that plan into your executable quality activities. So whatever we have committed to through this plan, now we have to execute that. It will also help us in making sure that the quality policies are embedded into the project, and that is certainly the responsibility of the management to make sure that all the teams are ensuring that embedding of the quality policies into their project plans, etc. It also helps us in improving the probability of meeting the quality objectives, and not only that, identifying the ineffective processes and cause of poor quality. So it's all about identifying those aspects and fixing those aspects, act upon those gaps. So when we have started executing on the plans, we would certainly be able to come to know about these things.

So let's do a bit of a deep dive and starting with, of course, the inputs. So let's start talking about inputs to manage quality, and we'll of course talk about the first input, which is the project management plan in itself. Now, what will come out of the project management plan is the quality management plan, because quality management plan is the subsidiary management plan, which is a part of your project management plan. So that will come in.

Project documents. So as we've already spoke about the various examples of the project documents that we can think of. And not only that, now project documents, I've already gave you a few examples like it could also include like assumption log, I've told you, or for that matter, the traceability metrics or the stakeholder list, etc.

And the next one is about the OPAS and EFs, what we talk about. But in this case, specifically, we'll be talking about the OPAS. So what is organizational process assets? So when we talk about the manage quality, we would need to factor in lot of different assets that might have been created. Those needs to be used. As I gave you example of certain standards, templates, those we need to adhere to when we work on any of the organization. So we need to always refer to that. Usually, the central team within the organization working for quality ensures that these assets are being communicated across to all the teams so that teams start using them.

So let's get started with the next aspect about managing quality, which is tools and techniques. What kind of tools can we use? Starting with the tools for data gathering, which we already discussed about the kind of tools that we can use for gathering data like interviews and brainstorming sessions, etc. We can talk a bit on the data analysis tools. What kind of analysis can we do? So once we gather data, now this data is about once we start executing your plan, some data gets generated on the project. That data needs to be captured. That data needs to be then analyzed. We could do alternative analysis. We could analyze various documents that are there on the project. We could do simple process analysis in order to find out the opportunities for us to improve that process, or importantly, we could also undertake a root cause analysis, because now we are executing the plan, we might come across certain issues. To find out why that particular issue has occurred, let's find out the root cause of that issue so that it'll not occur again.

Audits is another important thing that we always do as a part of the manage quality. I hope audits are pretty straightforward thing. It could be internal audits, it could be external audits. So depending on the kind of audits that are conducted in your organization.

Decision making is something again pretty straightforward. We make decisions based on the kind of data that we've gathered. And the design for X, design for X is all about design for excellence, or we call it as DFx. Now, this is basically a set of technical guidelines. Now, those technical guidelines could be applied during the design phase while we build the product, and that really helps us in optimizing few things around obviously the design. Like there are lots of things that are evolving around design. So design thinking could be one such example. So design for excellence, we is all about those technical guidelines, all the practices. Like one of the simple thing that we do is simply design, we keep design simple so that we can evolve later. Now, this will certainly help us to improve the characteristics of the product that we are working on, like for example, cost reduction, or we talk about quality improvements, or better performance, right? Or the customer satisfaction. Lot of these things that we can think of. So those could be achieved while ensuring that some of the technical guidelines are followed. For example, if you talk about the performance, and if you do not incorporate the technical guidelines into the design itself, then how would you be able to expect a better performance of the product once you develop that application, put it into production, and then if the performance is what is one of the expectation, and that you miss to factor in into design, it's going to affect the performance.

Data representation. Now, how do we represent data? We've already spoke about it, various ways through which we can represent the data like flowcharts, process diagrams, etc., that we spoke about.

Problem solving skills. Again, various ways through which we can solve problems is what it covers about. So we'll be talking about in detail in the training when we conduct, how do we do that.

And the quality improvement methods. There are various quality improvement methods which I did mention to you some of them at for example, Plan-Do-Check-Act, something which was introduced by Deming, and Six Sigma is another example, or Kaizen for that matter, or continuous improvement. So all those things really helps us in achieving better quality outcomes.

Now, since we talk about manage quality, what do we expect as outcome of the manage quality process? We would get quality reports. Now, quality reports again, as we spoke a bit on it, as far as the metric is concerned, but in this case, we basically talk about how we can put this data that we're getting during execution of the quality plan into some format. Now, that format could be sort of a graphical format, or some numeric, some qualitative stuff that we can put together that will actually help us in providing lots of information which we can refer and take corrective decisions, and that corrective decision will in turn help us in meeting the quality expectations. So this would also include, for that matter, some of the quality management issues that get escalated to the next level, or for that matter, some of the improvements that are suggested, the corrective actions that we have taken, or for that matter, the kind of rework that requires to be done, for that matter, even few things that I mentioned to you earlier like defect data, or the bug repair that was done, or the kind of inspection that is done and the outcome of that, etc. And even you can summarize all the findings and put it together. So that essentially includes your quality reports.

And there could be certain organizational process assets in order to provide sort of templates, how to produce these test evaluation documents. Now, test and evaluation document is all about like what are some of the achievements of the quality objectives that we can put together like, for example, checklists or detailed requirement traceability metrics. Now, those are like test and evaluation documents, right? Traceability metrics is one good example. Checklist is one of the best examples that we always talk about. Those really helps us in evaluating things.

Change requests. Now, change request might get initiated as a result of the progress that we are seeing, and that change request then needs to be incorporated back into to the project.

Project documents will get updated, the ones that I mentioned earlier, and project management plan would also get updated if there is any change that we come across.

So this covers entire outcomes or the outputs that we expect out of the manage quality process. So we saw planning part of quality, that's where we give commitments to our customers by putting things into planning the approach, etc. And then we start executing on that through the manage quality process. And then we are going to talk about the next important process, which is about controlling quality. Now, this is the process where we basically talk about now, how can we make sure what we are doing is it in line with the process or not? So it's about monitoring and recording the results. So we've started executing the plan, now we started getting some outcomes. It's important for us to record the results of those outcomes and we monitor it whether it is as per the quality management activities or not. If there is any gap, we need to act upon those gaps. So in a way, it is going to help us assessing the performance in order to ensure the project outcomes are complete, correct, and meet customer expectations. Not only that, it'll also verify that the project deliverables and work meet the requirements specified by key stakeholders for final acceptance. So there has to be a continuous verification and validation that needs to be happening as a part of the control quality as well, right?

So let's get started with control quality aspects. Of course, we'll start with inputs. We can't miss the input project plan in itself. And project plan would also give you the quality management plan for us to refer to. That's where we have already mentioned about how are you going to do control quality activities. So we can refer to those.

Project documents. The one that I've already mentioned to you, some of those documents we need to refer to and also needs to update later.

Approved change request. Again, we need to check whether that approved change request is incorporated, or if it is incorporated, if there is any gap, etc. So if at all there is any approved change request.

Deliverables. Now, those deliverables could be the ones that I have already verified on the project. So those verified deliverables, that means I have tested those deliverables, I verified those deliverables as per the customer requirements. So that is what it covers.

And the work performance information. So work performance information will be nothing but the data that gets generated when once we start executing the plans. So how are we performing against the plan? How are we with respect to the schedule or quality or for that matter, budget, etc.

Enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets is something which is standard, which will really help us in referring to certain things that are there at an organizational level.

And then we talk about certain tools and techniques which will help us in performing these tasks. So let's talk about what are those.

One is data gathering. We did speak about some of the examples of how do we gather data. So that's one thing.

Testing product and evaluations. So since we're talking about controlling quality, we need to make sure that we verify the deliverables against the customer specifications that are given. So this verification and validation needs to be happening on a continuous basis. Not only that, we also need to make sure that including the approved change, we have tested as per the expectations. So this is something which is an ongoing process as a part of the control quality, that's ongoing activity.

Data analysis. So once we gather data out of these techniques, it's time for us to analyze that data and draw actions which will help us in, of course, taking the corrective and the preventive actions. Like, for example, the outcome that we are producing, is it within the control limits or not? What are the tolerance limits, the upper specification, lower specification limits, and the outcomes that I'm getting, are they falling within those or not? So lot of data that I'm generating out of the implementation of the quality commitments. Now it's time for us to analyze the data.

Inspection. So I need to regularly go on inspecting and adapting as well. So various opportunities through which we can do the inspection. So for that, whatever you have committed, how are you going to do the inspection? That would be a part of your plan. So you can refer to that.

And you would also represent that data again. Data representation, we already covered the various ways through which we do that.

And of course, the meetings. So those are the tools and techniques that we can use as a part of control quality.

And let's let's move on to the outcomes. What do we expect by the end of this? We certainly expect quality control measurements. So we ensure that we've got the quality control measurements in place.

Verified deliverables. So whatever the deliverables that are committed at that phase or at that point in time on the project, we have verified those against the requirements that are given by the customers.

Work performance information. In itself, how are we performing against the plan?

Change requests.

Project management plan would get updated as a result of that, including the project documents.

So this is what we can expect in the form of outcome. So this covers the control quality aspects as well. So we started with the quality management plan, then we looked into how we can manage quality overall, and then how would we control quality. So in today's webinar, our focus was around quality and how we can maintain quality on the project by implementing these three processes as a part of the quality management. So when we ensure that we are implementing these processes as a project manager, as a team, in a way, we are assuring our customer that what we are building in the form of that product, service, or a result is fit for your use and is as per the expectations that are given by you. So that confidence we can give it to the customer by implementing this quality management processes, and that will certainly make the team give the results to the team which can deliver repeatedly, not just one time, and some team which is also predictable. So that predictability and repeatability is something that is really important, and that gives a lot of trust on the team as well.

So this was just the gist of quality management. We have covered it at a high level. We do a deep dive when we deliver the PMP training program. We get into each of these tools and techniques, inputs, and the outcomes much in more detail. In fact, and we also take lot of different examples as a part of this. But in this webinar, we have just given you the introduction to Quality Management as a part of the Quality Management Knowledge Area within PMBOK 6th Edition.

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So project Resource Management. PMP defines 10 knowledge areas. One of the knowledge areas is Project Resource Management. When we say Project Resource Management, we should look at understanding what are the resources required for managing the project, and then acquiring those resources and managing throughout the project life cycle. So for this, we need to understand what Project Resource Management is all about. When I say resource, resource can be human resource, resource can be a technology resource, resource can be any resource which is required for a project to be done. Now, when we say scope, for example, you will define a scope for a deliverable which will come as an output of a project. Similarly, while defining the project, we should also define the scope of those resources which are required to deliver that result. So Project Resource Management includes the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project.

So Resource Management overview. This includes the trends and emerging practices. When I say Resource Management methods, so we know the dynamics associated with various different resources. So we acquire the resources based on what kind of project we are doing. In common, the kind of resources, human resources, we will have in every projects. For example, if you say IT project, you need human resource. If you say civil construction project, you need resources. But the dynamics with this human resources changes based on the what kind of skills and capability and experiences that resource will have in a given project. Similarly, when I say IT project, you need to work on applications, you need to work on network devices, infrastructure components. But when I say civil constructions, you are not working with those IT components, instead we are speaking about cement, brick, sand, etc. So even quantifying those resources and acquiring those resources and utilizing those resources in a given project is very essential. So dynamics of those resources has to be understood and accordingly it has to be handled.

So in specific, when we say human resources, emotional intelligence plays a very important role for a project manager to have to use during the project management. So this requires an effort from a project manager to pretend certain roles. For example, when we say leadership, we speak about authoritarian leadership, laissez-faire leadership, participative leadership. So when to be authoritarian, when should you behave authoritatively, when should a project manager be participative, when should the project manager should become laissez-faire, means delegate and allow team to work on it and then review it. So this requires a lot of influencing thoughts while engaging with the people, especially the project team members, what we are speaking about, while engaging with the customers, while engaging with suppliers, while engaging with sponsors. These transactions needs certain emotional influence as well, for which emotional intelligence may be required.

So self-organizing team as a buzzword which comes across whenever we speak about agile, mostly. But however, today with the changing needs of the business where the quick response is required to go to market, at the same time, when we go to market quickly, the operation needs to respond to it, manage it the way the user wants it. User may have queries. Ultimately, the experience of the users makes sense only then value realization happens. So because of that enablement across the organization, right from the teams who are in the project as well as who are managing that particular product or services is required. For that, many organizations have thought about self-organizing team where the team is owning their product or services in entirety rather than one individual or one specific specialist owning it.

Then with the advancement of technology today, movement of skills who are distributed across various different regions may not be needed. So there may be virtual teams, a distributed teams who will work together with the help of the technologies. This also comes up with a lot of challenges because teams are not in front of the project manager always. So this requires a specific approach towards managing those resources which the project manager should understand and deal with.

So tailoring considerations while doing resource management is to mainly understand the diversity of resources, as I mentioned, based on the various different capabilities, various different geographical locations. The physical equation is another consideration. So because culture changes, people come from different backgrounds. Then industry specific resources, project specific, industry specific. So as for the industry, as for the projects, again, the thought processes, the dynamics associated with the resources will change. The management requirement of the resources itself will differ.

Acquisition of team members. So when you actually start a project, when execution starts, you are ready to ramp up the team members. So identification of the right skills and capabilities. Before that, one has to define the clearly articulating roles and responsibilities in a project organization structure, and accordingly, team members has to be acquired. So interestingly, you cannot get a resource, especially human resource, who are tailor-made to the project. So they need to be trained, inducted, educated about the project, and make them to become ready for the project execution. So as the project progresses, managing this team, engaging with this team, and making things delivered in time as defined in schedule within the cost needs to be ensured by engaging with the team.

So life cycle approaches. As I already mentioned, a product will have a life cycle. Similarly, project itself will have a life cycle. So when I say product life cycle, product life cycle is bigger than a project life cycle. So we use a project to introduce a product. We initiate a project to bring in new features, functionality to the existing product. We initiate a project to improve something. We initiate a project to retire a specific product or services. So we need to visualize that life cycle of a product. At the same time, what would be the life cycle of this project which is going to introduce something to that environment? So in a way, project itself is a big change management because it introduces the change to the environment. So project itself will have a life cycle. When we say that a beginning and end, temporary end over, that's what PMP says. It has a specific start, specific end. From this start to end, there is a life cycle for project, which is part of an entirety of a product life cycle or service life cycle. So according to what kind of products are we creating, what kind of projects we have taken, is that improvement project or creation of new product or services, or to introduce the features and functionality to the existing product or services, or to retire a product or services, depending on that, which life cycle of the specific product or services projects are initiated, and accordingly, it has to be dealt with.

So Resource Management processes. So Resource Management processes are distributed across various process groups. When I say Plan Resource Management, Estimate Activity Resources, they fall under Planning process group. Acquire Resources, Develop Team, and Manage Team are part of Executing process group. And Control Resources is a process which is part of Managing and Control process group.

So Plan Resource Management. The first process in Planning process group in Resource Management knowledge area. So Plan Resource Management is the first and the initial step of the Project Resource Management knowledge area. While planning for resources, one is to understand what kind of resources are required and how are we going to engage. If it is human resource, engage and manage. If it is not a human resource, any other resources, how are we going to manage technology resources or the facilities resources in the facilities. So this involves various aspects like defining the process of estimating, acquiring, managing, and using physical and human resources. So this process is usually performed only once or a few predefined points throughout the project life cycle to help in establishing the way of approach and level of management required for managing resources. So every resource needs to be assessed, understood, what kind of resources is required, and how are we going to manage this has to be clearly articulated to manage it as the project progresses. So these aspects are majorly influenced by the type and complexity of the project.

So inputs to this process would be Project Charter, Project Management Plan, Project Documents. When I say Project Charter, we know that Project Charter is created in Initiating process group, so which provides the basic details and that comes as an input to Planning process group. One of that process where Project Charter coming as an input is Plan Resource Management. Project Management Plan, which basically Quality Management Plan, Scope Baselines, which comes from Integration Management. And then Project Documents like Project Schedule, Requirements Documentation, Risk Registers, Stakeholder Registers. And further input can be Enterprise Environmental Factors and Organizational Processes Assets. The tools used as part of Plan Resource Management is Expert Judgment, Data Representation, Organizational Theory, and Meetings. When we say experts, all those specialized people who are having a specific experience in terms of managing resources, a specific resource, and various different data considerations. And since we're speaking about Resource Management, we should also look at what kind of organization structure required for this project, and there should be meetings, engaging with the people, discussion should happen.

Outputs of Plan Resource Management are Resource Management Plan, then Team Charter, and then Project Documents Updates. When I say Resource Management Plan, we are going to understand from it what are the approaches we have to manage the resources and what kind of team structure we would have. So what dynamics are involved with it. So this particular plan will go and get consolidated into plan which is integrated in Integration Management. This is one of the subsidiary plans.

Process Estimate Activity Resources. So when I say Estimate Activity Resources, the details of activities are already captured in Schedule Management. So when we say Scope Management, for example, so Scope Management provides Scope Baseline. While deriving that Scope Baseline, Work Breakdown Structure is created as part of it. Further, you will identify an effort activities for those WBS elements, and this happens in Schedule Management. So referring to that Schedule Management for the WBS element for which efforts are estimated here, you need to look at what kind of resource and in what quantity is required. So Estimate Activity Resources will be doing the planning of estimating the activity resources based on the WBS structure defined. So in this process, the resource required for the project along with the type and quantity of tools, equipments, raw materials, and supplies are being estimated. This process is generally executed after specific time intervals throughout the Project Life Cycle. With this, one can pinpoint that what type of resources project needs and in what amounts, means quantity, and what should be their characteristics in order to finish the project successfully.

So Estimate Activity Resources. This can be done only after creation of WBS structure and also Schedule Management sequences which activity has to be done after what. So because of this sequencing, while estimating the resources, one should also enable to know when is this resources required, not just what resource, at what quantity, and also when, because of the Schedule Management which is working parallel to Resource Management.

Inputs to this process: Project Management Plan, which includes Resource Management Plan and Scope Baseline. Then Project Documents, which involves Activity Attributes, Activity List, Assumption Log, Cost Estimates, Resource Calendars, Risk Register. Enterprise Environmental Factors: Resource locations, resource availability, because we should know what is available resource in the organization so that they can be allocated to the project. Organization Process Assets, which includes policies and procedures and historical information. The tools used as part of Estimate Activity Resources are Expert Judgment, Data Representation, Organizational Theory, and Meetings.

Outputs: Resource Requirements, Basis of Estimates, Resource Breakdown Structure, and Project Document Updates. So resource requirements against the activity which needs to be done, and there should be an explanation why so much of resource is estimated, that is Basis of Estimation. Resource Breakdown Structure provides the details relating to the WBS structure, what we have, how the resources are connected, how the resources are related, because we need also link it to organization structure.

Acquire Resources. This is the process which happens in Executing process group. So this process deals with collecting the various human resources, facilities, tools, equipments, supplies, and raw materials required to deliver the project. So human resources are identified and onboarded. Facilities, tools, equipments, and supplies are procured which are required to be used in the project. So this process helps in outlining and guiding the selection process of the project resources and then assigning them to their specific activities or tasks. Thus, it is performed at periodic intervals throughout the Project Life Cycle and helps in preventing running out of so appropriate number of resources as quantified in estimating resources.

Inputs: Project Management Plan, which includes Resource Management Plan, Procurement Management Plan, Cost Baseline. Project Document like Project Schedule, Resource Calendars, Resource Requirements, Stakeholder Registers. Enterprise Environmental Factors, which is existing information on organizational resources, marketplace conditions, organization structure, then geographical locations where exactly one needs the resources, where is that resource available. OPAS, Organizational Process Asset, which includes policies and procedures, historical information, and Lessons Learned Repository.

Tools would be: Decision Making, Interpersonal and Team Skills, Pre-assignment, and Virtual Teams. When I say Decision Making, so one needs to finalize which resource with what features and functionality, those needs to be identified before you acquire and confirm. Interpersonal and Team Skills, because there needs certain discussion, certain engagement required when you procure or when you onboard a human resource. Pre-assignment, maybe one in the team in the organization with the specific skills which are matching with the organization or project required skills, so assigning those resources. Virtual Teams, if teams are spread across various different locations.

So output of this process should be: Physical Resource Assignment, means the resources are acquired, they are onboarded. Project Team Assignments, you have a team to work now, so the team is assigned, the members are assigned to the given role. Resource Calendars, specifying where exactly the resources are available. Change Requests, if any change required in the structure or the kind of resources. Then Project Management Plan Updates, Project Document Updates, EF Updates, and then OPA Updates.

Develop Team process. So as you acquire a human resources, you may require to educate them in terms of what is that expected out of them in a given project and what is their role. An individual may have a specific skills and capability, that's okay, that's about specific skills and capability, but what is expected out of that particular individual with that specific skills and capability in this project, what is the deliverable from that individual. So this process purely concentrates on the development of team bonding and assigning them with rewarding work, future opportunities, and career development. So someone working in a project, if that is not contributing to their further future career progression, they may not be very motivated because of that. So one needs to give that visibility as well as the member to the project is onboarded. This will help in enhancing the overall team performance by improving team members' competencies, interactions, and the environment. So this process is performed throughout the project life cycle and intensifies teamwork, improves interpersonal skills of the individuals, motivates the team, and reduces iterations. So this requires providing lot of insights toward the project, what is that they are going to deliver, and how that will contribute to their progression in their career in a positive way. So these visibility should be there.

So this requires an induction when team is onboarded. There is brainstorming which happens, maybe team members may not know each other, so one has to ensure a facilitation has to be done so that team will know each other so that they can start performing.

Inputs: Project Management Plan, which is basically Resource Management Plan. Project Documents like Lessons Learned Register, Project Team Assignments, Resource Calendars, Team Charter. EF: Enterprise Environmental Factors, which is Human Resource Management Policies, Team Member Skills, Competencies and Specialized Knowledge, Geographical Distribution of Team Members. Whereas OPAS: Organizational Process Assets, that is historical information and lessons learned repository.

The tools used as part of Develop Team would be: Colocation, Virtual Teams, Communication Technology, Interpersonal and Team Skills, Recognition and Rewards, Training, Individual and Team Assessments, Meetings. When we say Colocation, people exist in various different locations in the globe. So there needs lot of interactions. So formal communication should be increased there so that the transaction, the clarity which needs to be provided to the team will be easier and more and more connects. Even when you work with the team which is sitting next to you, since you are present, that effort to connect may not be required. So because it will be happening naturally. But whereas team doesn't exist in front of the project manager, it requires a lot of effort to connect, to keep that communication channels open always. So Virtual Teams, I mean, similar dynamics as we saw Colocations. So Communication Technology, using appropriate communication technology to connect with the teams. So Interpersonal and Team Skills, which as we spoke about emotional intelligence, as we spoke about laissez-faire or authoritarian approaches or participative approaches required. So while engaging with the teams, it's very essential the project manager should possess that leadership traits, leadership qualities to connect with the team and influence them. So Recognition and Rewards, so recognition and rewards helps to motivate. So this will also help in terms of showing the quick wins happening in the project. So providing the training whenever is required on the specific areas, maybe a soft skills, maybe technology specific, maybe specific skill acquiring. So training has to be given and enable the team.

Individual and team assessments. Meetings.

Outputs of Develop Team process would be: Team Performance Assessments, Change Requests, Project Management Plan Updates, Project Document Updates, EF Updates, and OPA Updates.

Manage Team. So Manage Team is a process where each and every team member performance is monitored and tracked. It is very essential to understand how the individuals are performing, how the resources are performing. Based on that, necessary actions need to be taken to correct if there is any deviations. If things are going fine, there should be a motivation to the team and also tracking their problem areas which are identified and the issues are resolved and feedbacks are given on regular basis. So this process is generally performed throughout the Project Life Cycle and helps in influencing team behavior, managing the conflicts, and resolving recurring issues. Very essential to engage with the team. The team which is just given a task and left may not tend to accomplish the results what is required. They need the directions every now and then. One has to sit and evaluate those performances and give the necessary feedbacks and also platforms for them to acquire those skills and capabilities to perform better.

Inputs to this process: Project Management Plan, which is Resource Management Plan. Project Documents that is Issue Log, Lessons Learned Register, Project Team Assessment, Team Charter, Work Performance Report, like physical or electronic representation of work performance information. Team Performance Assessments, the project management team makes ongoing formal or informal assessments of the project team's performance, so that one will get that visibility. So that accordingly necessary changes can be done. Enterprise Environmental Factors, which is basically Human Resource Management Policies. Then Organizational Process Assets, like certificates of appreciation, corporate appraisals, and other organizational prerequisites.

Tools used as part of this process would be: Interpersonal and Team Skills, Project Management Information System. So PMIS, which captures all the details of the project, resources details, deliverables details, skill details, and then the way project is progressing. So this data can be utilized to give that insight to the project team and make them to progress further.

Outputs of this process would be: Change Request, Procurement Management Plan Updates, Project Document Updates, and EF Updates.

Control Resources. So Control Resources, the process in Monitoring and Control process group. So in this process, the project manager ensures that the resources that are assigned and allocated for the project activities are available as needed. They also monitor their estimated usage versus actual usage. So you quantify the resources when you estimate. These are the number of resources which are required at any given point in time, because we took that estimating the resources based on what activities are identified and how they are sequenced. So we refer to that scope and schedule accordingly, estimation happened. So in actual scenario, is that utilization is happening accordingly, or is there any variations, increased or decreased? Subsequently, if any deviations found, necessary corrective actions needs to be taken for that. That corrective actions needs to be triggered.

So Control Resource process is implemented throughout the Project Life Cycle and helps in ensuring that necessary project resources are deployed to the correct places at the correct time and are released when the project comes to an end. So this is about Control Resources.

Inputs to process: Project Management Plan, basically Resource Management Plan. Project Documents that is Issue Log, Lessons Learned Register, Physical Resource Assignments, Project Schedule, Resource Breakdown Structure, Resource Requirements, Risk Register. Work Performance Data, which would contain the data on project status such as number and types of resources that have been used. Agreements made within the context of project, which are basis for all resources who are external to the organization. OPA, that is policies regarding resource control and assignment, escalation procedures for handling issues within the performing organizations, lessons learned repository from previous similar projects.

Tools: Data Analysis, Problem Solving, Interpersonal Skills, PMIS.

Outputs of Control Resource process would be: Work Performance Information, Change Request, if any deviations found, Procurement Management Plan Updates, and then Project Document Updates.

Project Communication Management. When we say the word term, the communication, it's all about conveying certain message, meaning passing message from one entity to another entity. So Project Communication Management involves sender, means basically many stakeholders within the project, many stakeholders outside the project with whom project manager has to communicate. At the same time, within the project, project team will communicate. So project communication, the moment we say that, we need to understand what are the communication requirements in the project, and then communication has to be done complying to those communication management plans defined. So Project Communication Management focuses on that aspects, the importance of communication to make the project successful. So Project Communication Management is all about understanding what is the project communication needs are, and then communicating accordingly. Project Communication Management includes the processes necessary to ensure that the information needs of the projects and its stakeholders are met through development of artifacts and implementation of activities designed to achieve effective information exchange.

So Communication Management overview. While communicating, when we say communication, there are lot of ways the communications are done. Verbal communication, written communication. In these two, you can also think about formal verbal, for formal written, informal verbal, informal written. So these four types of communication, four combinations which we saw just now, formal verbal, informal verbal, formal written, informal written. So what is formal verbal, what is informal verbal, what is formal written, what is informal written, this needs to be very clearly articulated. And using the trends and emerging practices also is very important, which is inclusion of stakeholders in project reviews, inclusion of stakeholders in project meetings, increased use of social computing, social platforms, multifaceted approaches to communication. So these dynamics has to be understood. And as the practices evolve, as the need of the market changes, as the dynamics of the environment changes, communication requirements also changes. The way you communicate, one communicates also changes. So one needs to understand those dynamics and accordingly communication has to be done so that communication requirements are fulfilled. So while communicating, looking at those communication needs, one is to ensure the communication happens as needed by the stakeholders. So who are the stakeholders that needs to be identified?

So if we look at the overall framework, the 10 knowledge areas, five process groups, and 49 processes, the way they are distributed, we see in Initiating process group, there are only two processes, one process in Integration Management and other process in Stakeholder Management. So what happens there is in Integration Management process, which is Project Charter, which is getting.

The project manager assignment happens once the project manager is assigned and authorized. The immediate next job, the first job for the project manager, is to go and meet stakeholders. Identify stakeholders.

So, once the stakeholders are identified, stakeholders' communication requirements have to be understood. Identification of stakeholders is not a one-time job; it has to happen throughout the Project Life Cycle, and their communication requirements have to be understood. So, location, physical location of the stakeholder, communication requirement of the stakeholder, the technology which needs to be used for communication, the platforms which needs to be used for communication, the language, the knowledge management required for communication has to be understood.

So, why do we need to have knowledge management when we do communication? Because whenever there is specific knowledge about a specific domain area, the individual who is having the domain knowledge and the maturity of that individual in that domain may be high, maybe medium, or low. So, while speaking with those individuals of specific maturity level in a specific domain area, the discussion should align to that. So, there cannot be a discussion which is happening, the communication which is happening, which would not make any sense. It should not look immatured, or it would not look like it is not even understood. So, one needs to understand who is the receiver of the communication. So, based on that, the articulation of the communication should happen. Based on that, the frequency of the communication should happen. Based on the vocabularies used, it has to be chosen. So, all this needs to be considered while tailoring the communication during the project.

So, communication management processes. So, communication management process, there are three processes defined in the communication management knowledge area: Plan Communications Management, Manage Communication, and Monitor Communications. Even though it looks like only three processes, the dynamics associated with communication management is not simple. It is not very objective always; it is very subjective many times. The communicator versus the person who is receiving, the language, the maturity, the vocabularies, the time of communication, the template used, the channel used, all these play an important role during the communication. Similarly, when we plan for communication management, considerations to all of this should be there. While managing communication, yes, there is a defined approach, defined template, defined information which that communication carries. Even after that, the dynamics of the situations has to be understood while communicating, and there should be room for the communicator to understand that and do the necessary modifications, maybe in language, maybe in additional details which are being given, maybe the tone in which if it is an oral communication, the selection of those specific words and vocabulary, while doing a written communication, and is it should be written in caps, or it's okay if it is not caps, that needs to be understood. The way the flow of thoughts happens during the communication, even that needs to be understood. So, all these are individual qualities which have to be built.

Now, the project manager will have a challenge in this regard if the project manager is not sensitive about these aspects. Now, as the communication happens, monitoring the communication should happen. But when you monitor the communication, it doesn't mean all those additional aspects, the qualities which are looked at while communication, you don't have a scale to measure those. But however, the frequency of communication, the content of communication, the objective of communication, templates used for communication, only those can be checked. Are these used as per the plan? Otherwise, one would not even know what is being communicated. Is that communication management plan complied with or not? That will not be visible. So, communication management is very important, and 90% of the times, a project manager spends his or her time communicating throughout the project life cycle. So, by this itself, one can understand how important the communication is during the project.

The first process in project communication management is Plan Communication Management. So, Plan Communication Management process is the initial process of the project communication management knowledge area. In this process, a systematic and effective way, the plan is developed for the activities involved in project communication. It majorly makes use of information like the requirement of each and every stakeholder and teams, organizational assets available, and the project needs. Project Communication Management Plan also involves the list of stakeholders, their communication requirements, and these communication requirements keep changing as the project progresses. There are a lot of stakeholders who will get added to whom the communications has to be made, and at the same time, the dynamics of the communication will also change in terms of what kind of communication has to be sent at what part of the project. During the starting, in the initiating part of the project, the communication needs may be different. While execution is happening, as the project progresses and peaks, communication requirements differ. Maybe the frequency of communication will change, the number of stakeholders to be communicated will change, and that keeps varying. So, communication management is very dynamic. So, those dynamics has to be considered while planning Communications Management. So, creation of templates can also be done so that the more frequent communications like weekly updates, monthly updates, fortnightly updates, so that can have specific templates to the specific set of stakeholders.

Inputs to Plan Communication Management includes Project Charter, Project Management Plan which includes Resource Management Plan and Stakeholder Engagement Plan, project documents like requirements documentation and stakeholder register, Enterprise Environmental Factors, and Organizational Process Assets. So, tools used during project communication management are expert judgment, communication requirement analysis. While discussing with stakeholders, one needs to understand what are the communication requirements that needs to be analyzed, that needs to be checked. Then technology which are used for communication, data representation, communication models, communication methods, interpersonal and team skills, then meetings. So, looking at the number of tools which are looked at for communication management itself emphasizes on the point how important the communication would be. Many projects may fail just because of wrong communications, misunderstood communications. It is very essential to ensure communication management is planned carefully and that is executed accordingly.

Outputs of Plan Communication Management would be Communication Management Plan, Project Management Plan updates, and project document updates.

Manage Communication is a process which happens while communications happens throughout the Project Life Cycle. So, this process we see as part of the executing process group, where this process manages the communication throughout. Means, communication happens throughout the Project Life Cycle, which mainly aims to collect, create, distribute, store, retrieve, manage, monitor, and finally dispose of the information related to the project appropriately and timely manner. So, it is performed throughout the Project Life Cycle in order to provide an effortless and efficient flow of information from the project team to stakeholders and vice versa. So, this process also helps in identifying different aspects of effective communication along with the most suitable methodologies, technologies, and techniques.

Inputs to Manage Communication process would be Project Management Plan which is Resource Management Plan, Communication Management Plan, Stakeholder Engagement Plan, then project documents like change log, issue log, lessons learned registers, quality report, risk report, stakeholder register, work performance reports which can be presented as dashboards, heat reports, stoplight charts, or other representations. EFs and OPAs. Tools used to manage Communications would be project reporting, communication technology, project management information systems, meetings, communication skills, communication methods, interpersonal and team skills.

Outputs of Manage Communication process would be project communications. Are project communications happening the way it is planned or not? Project Management Plan updates, project document updates, and OPA updates.

So, the next process would be Monitor Communication. Monitor Communication is part of the monitoring and controlling process group. So, Monitoring Communication process is the final process of the communication management knowledge area. This process ensures that all the information needs and requirements of the project and the involved stakeholders are met by its completion. It is performed throughout the Project Life Cycle and helps in optimizing the flow of the information as per the communication management plan and stakeholder engagement plan. So, inputs to Monitor Communication would be Project Management Plan that is Resource Management Plan, Communication Management Plan, Stakeholder Engagement Plan, project documents like issue log, lessons learned register, project communications are used, work performance data on actual performance of the project. EFs and OPAs. Tools used would be expert judgment, data analysis, project management information system, interpersonal and team skills, meetings. Whereas outputs of Monitor Communication process would be work performance information about communication, change request if there is any deviation, Project Management Plan updates, and project document updates.

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Before we get into risk management, we should understand what is risk. So, every project, every business, every investment done by an organization will be having certain kind of risks. So, those risks needs to be managed. So, what is risk? Risk refers to an uncertainty. Uncertainty of something, maybe positive or negative, which resides in the future. If that occurs, which becomes an issue to resolve. So, the moment it occurs, there will be some impacts. If it is a negative impact, we call it as a threat. If it is positive, we call it as an opportunity. So, negative risk, which has a negative impact, which needs to be the impact of those needs to be reduced or that needs to be eliminated or reduce the probability of that occurrence by taking necessary actions, or become ready. Yes, there is a risk, I cannot do anything about it. To reduce the impact of that risk, I will become ready to do something when it occurs. So, if it is positive risk, I will take the advantages of that, I exploit that risk, I enhance. So, these are the kinds of responses you will get into. So, project risk management focuses on risks which are associated with the project which are undertaken.

So, project risk management, as defined in PMP, includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, response implementation, and monitoring risk of a project. So, identification of risk, analyzing the risk, managing the risk, responding to the specific kind of risk is not a one-time job. This needs to happen throughout the Project Life Cycle. When we assess to take up a project, we identify risks. When we initiate a project, when we start the project, we identify risks. When we progress as part of the project, Project Life Cycle, we identify risk. So, new new risks are identified, and identified risks are kept analyzed at the various different parts of the Project Life Cycle because the impact and probability of the risk, if not probability, at least impact of the risk would vary as the project progresses based on in what part of Project Life Cycle we are assessing it at that given point in time. There would be variation of the risk. For example, when I begin a project, a risk like deliverables, deliverables uncertainty, it is high when I start the project. But as I progress, I'm ending towards the same risk, the impact will be less because the deliverables have happened in various different phases and already those are checked and tested. There is no associated risk with them in terms of a validation perspective, accomplishing that result perspective, because majority of the deliverables have already happened. Only few deliverables will be pending as you progress towards the end of the project. So, risk will be less at the end of the project. Middle of the project may be moderate, maybe high, definitely not low. So, likewise, for any specific risk we identify at a given point of a Project Life Cycle, associated risk which we identified and assessed, the impact of that risk would vary positively, means increases, impact will increase, or impact would decrease.

So, risk management overview. Here we are going to look at trends and emerging practices related to the risk. So, risk can be looked at like non-event risk, project resilience, integrated risk management. Now, when I say risk of something which fails, yes, that is an event. An event has occurred. So, that risk we associate as an event which is associated with risk. A power failure risk event, a deliverable did not happen event risk. So, then what is this non-event risk? Now, if you say I wanted to accomplish these results, and these are all the benefits which has to be realized out of it, and that realization doesn't happen, that is not an event. So, because that benefit is not realized, the investment is not making sense. Now, this is not an event which occurred. So, benefit realization happens as the product which comes as an output of a project should result, should come as an outcome, that is not happening. It is not an event, it is a non-event risk. People who has specific skills and capabilities were unable to deliver properly, it is not an event. The performance of the individuals is not happening the way it is required, non-event risk. So, likewise, by generic statement of risk or the definition of risk, we say an uncertain event for a risk, but there are risks which exist which are non-event risks as well, which needs to be identified.

Then projects resilience. Whenever a project fails, whenever there is a degradation of performance, how will a project recover? What is that ability? Project as a whole could able to recover from it and move on smoothly further to accomplish the ultimate results. So, these needs to be planned very well. Integrated risk management. So, as we know, in PMP framework, we have integration management. So, integration management provides an integrated view of the entire project where risk management will also go and get into that, get integrated into the ultimate project management plan. So, risk management plan across the Project Life Cycle needs to be looked at, and it should have a bigger picture. It is not one or two risks only, positive or negative risk. It's about all the risks which are identified, assessed throughout, and managed together. There should be a risk register to capture all of this. That is the reason there is a dedicated risk management knowledge area defined in PMP framework.

So, tailoring considerations would be size of the project, complexity of the project, importance of the project, and approaches for various different things which are adapted and adopted for the project. So, as the size and complexity of the project varies, obviously the impact to the projects because of certain failures will be varying. When I say importance of the project, the deliverable of the project, how important is for my business? If I'm doing a project to enhance the capability of the people in general, then that is important to the business perspective, but it does not have a time target. It is a continual exercise for organization. But I am getting into a specific new project and I need people's competency should be improved. Now, I have a specific point in time before which I should have that capability, otherwise I will lose on that opportunity. So, likewise, my tailoring consideration in the projects in terms of what is that I'm going to deliver, what is that benefits the people who are investing on this project, what is the return they would get, unless that is visible, we cannot say how important the project is. Then approaches defined would be based on what kind of technology is used, what kind of deliverables required, what kind of environment we are into, what are the outputs which should come out of a project, what would be the outcome of the project. As you define all of this, when the direction is set clearly, accordingly one can take an approach. So, people can adopt a predictive life cycle project management, adaptive life cycle project management, which is basically a waterfall versus agile approaches, two different approaches which we can broadly mention about.

So, risk management processes. So, risk management processes includes Plan Risk Management, Identify Risks, Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis, Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis, Plan Risk Responses. So, all the processes one to five are part of planning process group. Implement Risk Responses will be part of executing process group, and Monitor Risk will be part of monitoring and control process group.

So, Plan Risk Management, which is the first process in this knowledge area, focuses on defining how to conduct risk management activities for a project. This process helps in ensuring that the degree, type, and visibility of risk management are proportionate both to the risk and the importance of the project to the organization and other stakeholders. So, it is performed once or at the predefined points in the Project Life Cycle. But however, even though it is defined in the planning process group, here in the framework, planning for the risks should be integrated one, which should be applicable to any given scenario of the project. But however, if there is any modification for this as we progress in the project required, that can be done.

Inputs to Plan Risk Management process would be Project Charter, Project Management Plan, project documents, Enterprise Environmental Factors, and Organizational Process Assets. Tools would be expert judgment, data gathering, meetings. Whereas outputs would be Risk Management Plan.

Identify Risk. Identify Risk is a process which identifies the individual project risk as well as the sources of overall project risks. So, when I say sources, we're speaking about the causes of that risk and documenting those risks and all the associated details, describing why should I consider this as a risk, why am I saying it is a risk, that needs to be described. So, this process helps in documenting an existing individual project risk and the sources of overall project risk. It also helps in bringing together the information using which the project team can respond appropriately to identified risks. This process is performed throughout the project. So, one has to keep identifying the risk throughout the Project Life Cycle.

So, input of Identify Risk process would be Project Management Plan, project documents, agreements, procurement documentation, EFs and OPAs. Whereas tools used as part of Identify Risk process would be expert judgment, data gathering, data analysis, interpersonal and team skills, prompt lists, and meetings. The outputs of Identify Risk process would be Risk Register, Risk Report, and project document updates.

The next process for us is Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis. So, Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis is a process of assessing and analyzing the identified risks qualitatively. So, this helps in prioritizing the project's risks for further analysis or action by assessing their probability of occurrence and impact as well as other characteristics. So, this process prioritizes the individual projects risks. So, and also look at major benefits of this process, that is a focus effort on high priority risks. This process is performed regularly throughout the project life cycle.

Inputs to this process includes Project Management Plan, project documents, EFs and OPAs. The tools used are expert judgment, interpersonal and team skills, data gathering, data analysis, risk categorization, data representation, and meetings. So, the output of this particular process, Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis, would be project documents updates.

So, Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis. So, further, as after doing qualitative risk analysis, if a risk also needs to be analyzed quantitatively, so one can conduct quantitative risk analysis. So, this process numerically analyzes the combined effect of identified individual project risks and other sources of uncertainty on overall project objectives. The main benefit of this process is that it quantifies overall project risk exposure, and it can also provide additional quantitative risk information to support risk response planning. This process is not required for every project, but where it is used, it is performed throughout the project. So, where should we use this quantitative risk analysis? Wherever the project size is big, where the project is complex.

So, inputs to this particular process would be Project Management Plan, project documents like assumptions log, basis of estimates, cost estimates, cost forecast, duration estimates, milestone lists, resource requirements, risk registers, and schedule forecast. So, Enterprise Environmental Factors as well as OPAs. Tools used as part of this particular process would be expert judgment, data gathering, interpersonal and team skills, representation of uncertainty, then data analysis. The output is project documents updates.

So, Plan Risk Responses. So, as we identify the risks and then analyze them qualitatively and quantitatively, so we know positive risk or negative risk, what kind of impact each of those risks would have. So, how are we going to get benefit of positive risk? How are we going to reduce the impact of negative risk? So, this requires planning risk responses. So, this process helps in developing options, selecting strategies, and agreeing on actions to address overall project risk exposure as well as to treat individual project risks. This also identifies appropriate ways to address overall project risk and individual project risk. This process also allocates resources and inserts activities into project documents and the project management plans as needed. So, this is performed throughout the Project Life Cycle.

So, now inputs to Plan Risk Responses would be Project Management Plan which involves Resource Management Plan, Risk Management Plan, and Cost Baseline. Then project documents which is Lessons Learned Register, Project Schedule, Project Team Assignments, Resource Calendars, Risk Register, Risk Report, Stakeholder Register, EFs and OPAs. Tools tools involves expert judgment, data gathering, interpersonal and team skills, strategies for threats, strategies for opportunities, then contingency response strategies, strategies for overall project risk, data analysis, and decision making. The outputs of this process would be change request, PMP updates, that is Project Management Plan updates, and project documents updates.

Implement Risk Responses. So, as we plan for risk responses, it is very essential for us to look at implementation of that responses. So, this process considers all those risk responses planned, what is defined already, and accordingly it will implement. So, this process of implementing agreed upon risk responses, that is to ensure that agreed upon risk responses are executed as planned in order to address overall project risk exposure, minimizing the individual project threats and maximizing overall project opportunities. So, process helps in implementing agreed upon risk responses, as I mentioned earlier.

So, now once we are ready, we are making ourselves ready to respond to the risk scenario. Some of the risks you cannot even able to reduce by doing the risk response plan implemented. If power going off in between while you're playing presentation or conducting a training, so that will impact the training. So, how will you ensure the power is available always? So, you will go for UPS, that is a response plan what you made. So, UPS cannot give the backup more than 2 hours, 3 hours, let us assume that you will have a generator. So, that if power fails, UPS will take care immediately, then you go and switch on the generator, which will generate the power and load on the UPS would come down, and UPS is always in the loaded condition, so that even generator fails, UPS will take care for some time. But there will be some scenarios where fuel will not be available, so generator cannot run. So, such risks are called residual risks, which we will accept because we implemented this UPS as well as generator. It is quite obvious, these two introduce additional risk, risk associated with UPS itself, risk associated with generator itself, we call it as a secondary risk. So, in this case, what we did was, before the occurrence of the risk, we implemented the risk responses. But there will be some scenario where you cannot implement the risk responses, you should yourself make ready to handle those scenarios. What if the building collapses? What if earthquake happens? What if flooding happens? So, you will have a contingency plan defined. So, contingency plan you can implement, or else looking at the impact kind of thing, you'll make yourself ready, let it go, I have other modes of operating my business and move forward or make my project successful.

So, inputs to this particular process would be Project Management Plan, project documents, and OPAs. Tools used as part of this particular process is expert judgment, interpersonal and team skills, project management information system. Output should be project document updates and change requests.

Monitor Risk process. Monitor Risk process, which is part of monitoring and control process group defined in PMP, this process mainly monitors the implementation of agreed upon risk response plans, tracking identified risks, identifying and analyzing new risks, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project. So, this process helps in enabling the project decisions to be based on current information about overall project risk exposure and individual project risks. So, this is performed throughout the Project Life Cycle.

So, input to this process would be Project Management Plan, project documents, work performance data, and work performance reports. Tools used as part of this particular process would be data analysis, audits, as well as meetings. Outputs: work performance information, change request, PMP updates, that is Project Management Plan updates, project documents updates, and OPA updates.

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So, let us come to the project procurement management. So, firstly, we need to understand when we say procurement management, every project involves procurement. So, when we take up a project, when an organization decides, we need to take up a project, organization decides, should we really invest on this or not? That is the first decision organization made. Once the decision is made, there are many things which are used as part of the project to deliver that output, to create that output, to create that result. So, while doing it within the project, there are lot of things which are created. At the same time, creation is fine, the deliverables which happens throughout the Project Life Cycle is fine. But at the same time, organizations would also decide some of the deliverables which goes into output, I don't make, instead I will procure. Or maybe certain facilities required, certain resources required, organization would decide, I will not make it myself, I will not manage it directly, I will give it to the supplier, let the supplier give it to me. So, lot of procurements involved. Raw materials are procured, the environment where project is being done, that environment I may not have. So, I may get into a place where I will lease it, or I will have resources on a time and material basis for a specific duration, a specific tool, a specific instrument. So, I procure. Another similar scenario is, I as an organization don't do this project. So, instead I give this project to the some of the experts, the organization which has expertise in this area. So, if my business is a retail, I sell products, but I don't know anything about civil constructions. So, I need to have a facility where I'm going to have my particular retail office or retail store. Now, I need to have this construction. So, I'm not expert in that. So, I will give it to an expert, an organization which has an expertise in this. So, I'll procure. So, any procurement involved in the project which is there, anyways at various different levels, procurement happens. So, PMP considers the specific focus which is required and helps project manager to understand what is involved in procurement management.

So, procurement management is basically focuses on ensuring purchasing and acquiring products or services and are the results required from outside the project team. We are not creating this. So, we don't create because we do not want to focus on that area. Let us give it to someone else. Let me say I'm a car manufacturer, an automobile manufacturing company, who integrate various different parts of the car and then sell. I don't manufacture the engine because I do not want to have creating that facility, create that plant of manufacturing, and I do not want to invest because I don't have an expertise. Instead, I have an organization which is very good, having good expertise, and take that engine manufactured by them and integrate into my car. So, I'm procuring that engine. I have given that creation of that engine, producing that engine to some organization, and I'm procuring it. That is one possibility. So, procurement, when I say, we may also go for human resources for temporary period. Human resources, if you can think about a civil construction project, a concrete mixer can be one which is outsourced to me. I'm procuring on a time and material basis. That is also another possibility. Raw material required for my project, I am procuring. So, it's all about identifying all those resources, the products or services for my project, and what is that I'm going to procure, what is that I'm going to make myself, one has to decide on that. Once the decision is made, then actual procurement happens. So, we will see how, what is that exactly PMP speaks about it.

Now, project procurement management has various different considerations to make before going on procuring. So, this includes understanding the trends and emerging practices. So, advances in the various different tools. So, which tool should I use as part of this project, which makes sense to me, which helps in terms of accomplishing the results required, and what is the risk involved effectively? How I'm going to do the risk management? What are the methodologies, what are the approaches we have? So, when I procure, is there any risk involved? When I do it myself, is there a risk involved? When I compare both the risks, which one is better? So, we need to analyze that. Then changing contracting processes. As we know, there is a changing demand in the market, the mindset of the consumers are changing rapidly, and the way we contract, the way we establish the contract is also changing, so that it should accommodate the changing need of the market condition. Then logistics and supply chain management, the one which is there with me versus what needs to be established. Then technology and stakeholder relations. Now, a lot of transactions involved with the stakeholders, the engagement which has to happen while procuring because decisions has to be made while procuring, involvement of the stakeholders happens, and involvement of technology today. So, today we cannot imagine any specific industry or any specific organization or any specific operations or project which is happening in the absence of technology. So, what would be the right technology which is appropriate to my project, that needs to be considered, and then engagements which happens while doing the procurements.

So, we need to have a tailoring considerations while doing procurement, which includes complexity of procurement. Complexity of a procurement maybe because of the technology involved, because of the geographies, various different geographies, the team size, the kind of project I'm doing, and the region where I'm doing it. It may be a legality of that particular geography, the mandatory things which I need to comply with while I do the procurement in that region. Then physical location, as I mentioned. Then governance and regulatory environment, which I cannot miss, which I cannot shy away from considering it. I have to consider those and I should do within it. I should consider like tax structure, can I ignore it? No. Registration requirements, I cannot ignore, which are the basic requirements to have before I do the procurement. Then availability of contractors. So, in not every region you will have the resources. In some of the cases, you may require to bring it from the different region altogether, maybe from different state or different city or from different country altogether. So, many organizations outsource set of it to certain organization, as I was mentioning about the car scenario, so outsourcing that engine manufacturing to some other manufacturing company, or in IT scenario, outsourcing like outsourcing to different country, so that they will do it for me remotely, they will do the work, like organizations which are in the different country developing a specific application for me, monitoring an application for me, while I produce something here as part of the project. So, lot of such outsourcing which would happen because of non-availability of certain skills, capability. Another scenario would be the cost of resources in the local region versus cost of resources in different region, that will also become outsourced to different countries.

The various different processes involved in procurement management would be Plan Procurement Management, Conduct Procurements, and Control Procurements, mainly three processes. So, Plan Procurement Management is the process in planning process group, whereas Conduct Procurement is in executing process group, and Control Procurement is in monitoring and control. So, when I say Plan Procurement Management, this has to help in terms of planning my procurement. I need to make the decisions mainly, I need to provide the necessary guidelines, set directions to conduct the procurements, and then based on that, you will control. So, you monitor and control the procurements the way it is conducted in reality versus what is being planned.

So, moving to Plan Procurement Management, which is a process in planning process group. So, in procurement management knowledge area, in this process, one will document the project procurement decisions, specifying the approach and identifying the potential sellers. So, in this process, you you need to document various procurement decisions, specifying procurement approach and identification of potential and quality sellers. So, once this process is executed, predefined points in Project Life Cycle will be understood, visualized, and that will help in deciding whether this needs to be acquiring goods or services from outside or not. Should we make or buy? Such decisions as to be made. It should provide that guidelines in case there is a need. It also helps in identifying which resources has to be acquired and when. That clarity should be provided in Plan Procurement Management.

Inputs to Plan Procurement Management process is Project Charter, Business documents which is Business Case and Benefits Management Plan which are mainly referred to, then Project Management Plan that is Scope Management Plan, Quality Management Plan, Resource Management Plan, Scope Baseline which are already consolidated in Project Management Plan updated, then project documents which involves Milestone List, Project Team Assignments, Requirements Documentation, Requirements Traceability Metrics, Resource Requirements, Risk Register, then EFs and OPAs. Now, Plan Procurement Management tools and techniques used involves expert judgment, data gathering, data analysis, source selection criteria or source selection analysis, meetings. Then output of this process would be Procurement Management Plan, then procurement strategy, bid documents, procurement statement of work, source selection criteria, make or buy decisions. So, many gets confused to see make or buy decision as an output of something. They look that as an action, but basically the decisions what is made, what should I procure, what I should not, something which I consider in the project, should I buy or make myself? So, these decisions are made. That comes as an output. Then independent cost estimates, change request, project document updates, and OPAs, organizational process assets updates.

The next process is Conduct Procurement. When we say Conduct Procurement, it is quite obvious, we need to understand it is an action which is happening in execution. So, there is a plan which is set already. So, to that plan, there should be an action which happens. Conduct Procurement is the process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding the contract. So, this is the process which is in executing process group. So, when we say Conduct Procurement, the actions required to identify a specific seller, finalize, okay, this is the seller, and then establish the contract with that particular seller and then do the procurements. So, selection of seller should happen. Agreements needs to be established, which is very essential to do the procurement.

So, the inputs to this process involves Project Management Plan that is Scope Management Plan, Requirements Management Plan, Communication Management Plan, Risk Management Plan, Procurement Management Plan, Configuration Management Plan, Cost Baseline. If You observe very closely, procurement management plan is an output of a process within the same knowledge area is one of the inputs to Conduct Procurement. Then project documents which involves Lessons Learned Register, Project Schedule, Requirements Documentation, Technical Requirements relating to the seller, Risk Register, Stakeholder Register, then procurement documents like bid documents, procurement statement of work, independent cost estimates, source selection criteria. So, these are very essential when you go and identify a seller and discuss, engage, clarify if at all any doubts that particular seller, probable seller, a bidder would have. Then further the inputs list goes with like seller proposals, which actually comes as a response to Request for Proposal, maybe organization would float an RFP, Request for Proposal from sellers who are interested. Seller proposals which comes in, then EFs and OPAs, appropriate one for procurement like local laws and regulation, economic environment, marketplace conditions, information on relevant experience, any agreement which are already in place, consideration of that contract management system. Then OPAs, like list of preferred sellers, organizational policies, organizational templates and guidelines, financial policies and procedures.

So, taking this as an input, this process conducts the procurement by using the tools and techniques like expert judgment, advertising. Advertising which is required to invite a probable seller to respond to the request for proposal, then data analysis, bidder conferences. Bidder conferences are held to clarify any doubts, any clarifications which are there with a specific seller before they submit the response to the RFP, a proposal before they submit. Then interpersonal and team skills, which are essential while conducting procurement.

So, outputs of this process, Conduct Procurement, would be selected sellers, identified sellers, the finalized one, then agreements which are established with those selected sellers, the change request. So, change request may be an output here, not initially when you do the conduct procurement, later as the project progresses, maybe some additional deliverables may be required from a specific seller, so may raise for a change request, or maybe some clauses has to be changed in the agreement, you would raise a change request. That is possible as this process happens throughout the Project Life Cycle. Maybe change of the seller itself, the partner itself, or the one who is supplying certain things, change of that itself is required. Change request can be raised. Then PMP updates, project document updates, and OPA updates.

Next process is Control Procurement. So, Control Procurement is part of monitoring and control knowledge area, which is a process meant for ensuring the procured relations are managed as defined. The contract performance, as we defined in the contract versus the actual performance are checked. Then appropriate necessary modifications are made to bring it back to the required one. So, this process is performed throughout the Project Life Cycle, and it helps in ensuring that performance of both the involved parties, that is buyers and sellers, is up to the project requirement as stated in legal arrangements, legal agreement.

Inputs to this process involves Project Management Plan, project documents, agreements, procurement documents. So, now when I say Project Management Plan, it's quite obvious I need to see what was actually planned and how it is exactly done. So, requirements management plan, risk management plan, change management plan, schedule baseline. Project documents when I say, assumptions logs, lessons learned register, milestone list, quality reports, requirements documentation, requirements traceability metrics, risk and stakeholder register, and agreements which are established between the seller and buyer, and any procurement documents which are decided along with them, approved change requests. Then work performance data, organizational process asset, and Enterprise Environmental Factors. The tools used as part of Control Procurement process would be expert judgment, claims administration, data analysis, inspection and audits. The outputs of this process is closed procurements, work performance information, procurement documentation updates, change request if at all any deviation is identified, then update to Project Management Plan, project documents, and OPA, organizational process assets.

So, this concludes the basic understanding one should have while doing procurement.

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So, when I see stakeholder, we need to understand the dynamics associated with the stakeholder. Who will become the stakeholder for a project and why should we engage with the stakeholder and why should we do whatever is required to be done with the stakeholder, which is very essential for us to look at it very carefully because there will be stakeholders who are main decision makers, who can entirely influence the project and make or break the project. There will be stakeholders who will have nothing to do with this particular project, but they may create noise. There may be stakeholders who will get impacted because of the project. So, likewise, with various different relationships, various different alignment, there will be stakeholders for every given project. So, project stakeholder management needs to be understood in terms of what is stakeholder management is all about, why should I manage a stakeholder. So, PMBOK PMB defines the project stakeholder management as identification of the stakeholders, like people, groups, organizations who would impact, get impacted, who would influence, get influenced, and analyze what are the expectations of various different stakeholders identified, and how their involvement will impact, influence, impacted or influenced to the project and to the stakeholders, and create and develop appropriate strategies to effectively engage with stakeholders, so that stakeholders engagement or stakeholders involvement benefits the project. It should not take away the project's objectives. So, it should complement to the project. So, project stakeholder management is a very important knowledge area. And as we know, I think communication in a project management, project manager, the amount of time the project manager spends, around 90%, that is very essential. This itself says the kind of involvement a project manager should have, the sensitivity a project manager should have while looking at the stakeholder involved for a project, the way they impact the project.

So, stakeholder management overview involves considerations of various trends and emerging practices related to stakeholder management. So, as part of this, we need to identify all the stakeholders. Being a project manager, so identification of all the stakeholders involves all those who are involved in the project, who are internal to the project, and who are external to the project, who doesn't involve in the project directly. So, one has to identify all of those stakeholders. Then ensuring that all team members are involved in stakeholder engagement activities at which various different levels and in various different capacities. So, one has to review the stakeholder community regularly and the dynamics, the transactions associated with it. Then consulting with stakeholders, engaging with stakeholders is very essential. Then capturing the value of effective stakeholder engagement. So, did we really create that value which is looked up to by a stakeholder, or is that creating that value what is expected? If I say customer as a stakeholder, the value associated with is different. If I say my team member is a stakeholder, the dynamics differs. If I say competition to an organization is a stakeholder, dynamics differs. The supplier or a partner with my organization and my project dynamics differs. The family members of the people who are working in the project, the team members dynamics differs. So, there will be stakeholders where a project manager should engage, involve directly. There will be stakeholders where a project manager need not involve directly to manage them. Maybe team members would involve. There will be stakeholders or anyone in the project team need not involve with those stakeholders. So, likewise, understanding who are the stakeholders, how are they going to impact the project, how are they going to get impacted, influenced, and how are they going to influence, and what is the distance they have from the project to make any impact to the project or get impacted. So, this visualization is important so that appropriate engagement can happen with the stakeholders so that required value can be created, project objectives can be achieved.

So, this involves the tailoring considerations like stakeholders diversity. When I say stakeholder diversity, already mentioned where exactly the stakeholder would exist. So, every stakeholder comes up with a different background, different authority, different ability to influence capabilities they come up with. So, that diversity needs to be acknowledged first, understood. One cannot ignore it. It is very sensitive one. Then complexity of stakeholder relationship. The moment if I say stakeholder, obviously there's lot of intellect, emotions which are involved. The swing in these aspects which happens regularly. So, that is not visible directly. So, one needs to be sensitive about it. For a given context, even though there is an engagement plan defined, there is some interpersonal skills required for the person who is engaging with the stakeholder. So, accordingly, whenever there is an information need to be put, the message has to be put to someone having sensible to that scenario, that message has to be given, and also the relationship needs to be managed. Communication technology. So, various communication technology today, every business organization use, and project management or project environment also has it. So, this also plays an important role. So, a communication channel, a technology used to communication can also create noise. That noise which is there in the communication, the choice of words also, the choice of vocabulary also plays a role in communication which would give a different meaning to the different stakeholders. So, when for example, when I give a report, when I review, if I am doing that with a sponsor, I would give it a different template and different content which is presented certain way, whereas I'm doing the same review with my team members as a project manager, the content, the template would vary, and the message what needs to be conveyed also varies. So, the language needs to be used varies, the technology platforms, the channels which needs to be used varies. So, these variations, deviations has to be properly understood. Only then you will have an effectiveness in terms of handling stakeholders.

Then the processes of stakeholder management. So, there are around four processes. So, Identify Stakeholder, which is in initiating process group. Plan Stakeholder Engagement, which is in planning process group. Manage Stakeholder Engagement, which is in executing process group. Monitor Stakeholder Engagement, which is in monitoring and controlling process group. So, all these processes are very essential. So, if you closely observe this, I said Identify Stakeholder process is in initiating process group. So, if you look at the entire knowledge areas of the one which is defined in PMP, if you look at very closely, this is the only knowledge area where you see a process in initiating process group, other than integration management. So, in initiating process group, there are only two processes, one in integration management and other one is in stakeholder management. So, if you visualize the project, the way it flows in a Project Life Cycle, identification of stakeholder happens immediately after developing the project charter. The first job of a project manager is to identify the stakeholders, go sit with the stakeholders, create the stakeholder register, have the details of the stakeholders. So, this is the first process and only knowledge area other than integration management which has a process in initiating process group.

Let us look at the first process, Identify Stakeholders. So, Identify Stakeholder is a process in initiating process group, as I mentioned, which is basically focuses on identifying all the project stakeholders, not once, regularly throughout the Project Life Cycle, and documenting the relevant information required to understand about the stakeholders, like interest of the stakeholders, involvement requirement of a stakeholder, interdependency, ability to influence, the impact or influence or impacted influenced to these terms, how is this specific stakeholder is related. The project stakeholders are regularly identified, analyzed throughout the Project Life Cycle. So, it cannot happen at once. So, stakeholders in the projects keeps changing. You

May onboard new supplier, so you have a new stakeholder. You may have a person who onboarded into a project, like a team member. There is a resignation which has happened. There is a change in the team member. There is a movement of team member right in the customer organization. There may be a change in the point of contact to this project. Reasons may be various. So, understanding these dynamics of change of stakeholders regularly, identifying the stakeholder, and updating the stakeholder register is very essential. So, identifying stakeholders is not a process which happens once in the entire project life cycle. It will happen throughout the project life cycle.

Inputs to this process involve project charter, business documents, project management plan, then project documents, agreements, enterprise environmental factors, and organization process assets. So, these details like project charter, because it is in the same process group, business documents, because based on that a specific project charter is defined, and that also tells who are the primary stakeholders. And if at all any project documents are available, like change log, issue log, requirements documentation, that will also help. So, project management plan, basically which helps in terms of basic plan whichever is available at that point in time, also tells what this project is all about and how the project is supposed to progress. Any established agreements will also help in going and speaking to that particular stakeholder. So, EFs and OPAs, obviously to understand what is there in that particular environment, which helps, which guides, or which becomes a reference while going and identifying the stakeholders.

Then tools used during identification of stakeholder would be expert judgment, data gathering, data analysis, data representation, and meetings. So, the output of this process is, it is obvious, that is stakeholder register. So, stakeholder register, which captures all the details of that identified stakeholders in terms of the position, the authority, the ability to influence, and the proximity of the stakeholder relating to the project, in what distance the stakeholder is. Then next output would be change request. If at all any change to the stakeholder register, in terms of new stakeholder has to be added, some stakeholders needs to be removed, so change request is required. Then project management plan updates and project document updates.

Next process is plan stakeholder engagement. So, plan stakeholder engagement is the process which will have all those approaches which are involved in terms of engaging with stakeholders, their needs, expectations, interest, potential impact on the project. So, this process is part of planning process group. So, in this process, various approaches are curated in order to involve the stakeholders on the basis of the needs, interest, expectations, and impact and influence what they have into the project. So, this is performed at the periodic intervals throughout the project life cycle and whenever the new stakeholder is identified. So, even then you need to understand, do this, how am I going to engage with this particular stakeholder?

The tools and techniques involved will be various. Like, as I mentioned earlier, when a stakeholder involved and people are involved, it is very essential for us to have an appropriate engagement plan. So, while having an engagement plan defined, so we need to consider certain things which are required to understand who is the stakeholder first. So, accordingly, the input should be project charter, project management plan, project documents, like we see assumptions log, change log, issue log, project schedule, risk register, stakeholder register. But one point I want to mention here, many times when I conduct training, especially in stakeholder management, I keep getting the question like, this process is in planning process group, but we are speaking about assumptions log, change log, issue log, which project manager refers throughout the project life cycle. So, how is that coming in? So, we need to understand this process, including identify stakeholder process, doesn't happen only once in the particular project life cycle. These are repetitive. As the particular stakeholder changes, update should happen to the stakeholder register. As you update to the stakeholder register, it is essential to create that plan, that engagement plan. So, you are updating that plan as well. That happens throughout the project life cycle. Maybe almost like you reach the end of the project, even then you may require to have a different stakeholders. So, that is a continued exercise throughout the project life cycle. Continually you need to update.

The other set of inputs should be agreements, EFs and OPAs. The tools and techniques used for plan stakeholder engagement process would be expert judgment, data gathering, data analysis, decision making, data representation, and meetings. The outputs of this process is quite obvious, is stakeholder engagement plan, which will tell who is the stakeholder, what are the expectations. It will have the details, what are the engagement requirements, when should I meet, why should I meet, what is the objective of engaging with the stakeholder, and what transaction should happen with that stakeholder, how frequently, how often that engagement should happen. That also needs to be addressed in stakeholder engagement plan.

So, next process which is in executing process group, that is manage stakeholder engagement. So, manage stakeholder engagement is the process of communicating and working with stakeholders so that their expectations are met, their issues whichever occurs during the project life cycle are addressed, resolved. Then involvement of the stakeholders will be according to such that organization or project is helped to accomplish the objective of the project. So, they are in the complimenting engagement. So, various steps are taken for establishing that better communication and maintaining the good relationship with the stakeholders. So, along with this, their concerns, their issues are addressed, and appropriate stakeholders involvement is fostered as well. So, it is performed throughout the project life cycle, as I mentioned. So, this should help a project manager in terms of ensuring there is increased support from a particular stakeholder.

Now, we need to understand one thing. When I say manage stakeholder, when we identify stakeholder and when we plan for that engagement, we need to ensure the engagement happens accordingly. So, if I assume a stakeholder who is high in terms of authority, the power, and has high interest in this project, now that particular stakeholder definitely is a decision maker for this project, who can influence things. So, we cannot ignore such stakeholders. One has to engage with the stakeholder very closely, update, review with them very closely. At the same time, certain stakeholders, what we think about, may be in different state altogether. So, their active involvement may be required, but they are unaware of this project. So, you may require to involve them, push them, pull them, whatever the approach you take, interpersonal skills which you have, interpersonal and team skills, you need to engage with them, create that awareness, and ensure they are in the project, actively involved. So, likewise, various different stakeholders who will have a different set of state of existence. When I say state of existence, they may be in the unaware state, they may be in the resistant state, they may be neutral, they may be supportive, they may be leading. So, whatever the state they are in, so you need to decide what state they are supposed to be in this project, what is the required state versus what is the state they are. So, this engagement should help in in terms of pulling them back to the required one, required engagement, or required state of existence for the stakeholder. A team member cannot be in a resistive state or unaware state. Definitely, team member should be in supportive, not in neutral as well. Supportive means the person should be doing the job. So, those dynamics are associated with stakeholder, which needs to be understood very carefully.

The inputs to this process involves project management plan, which is communication management plan, risk management plan, stakeholder management plan, and change management plan. Then project documents, which is change logs, issue logs, lessons learned register, stakeholder register, EF and OPA. So, culture plays a very important role when is a stakeholder within an organization. Now, the way the people, the stakeholders engage with themselves, the way they conduct, the way they communicate among themselves, the way they treat, all this plays very important role. So, being a project manager, being sensitive to this, so you may require to influence that culture which makes or which is required for a specific project's success. So, you cannot just do away with that culture, you may require to influence those.

So, tools used for this would be expert judgment, communication skills, interpersonal team skills, ground rules which has to be set for certain transactions, and then meetings. Outputs, output involves change requests, project management plan updates, and project documents updates.

So, next process is monitor stakeholder engagement. So, monitor stakeholder engagement is the process in monitoring and controlling process group, which is the process of monitoring project stakeholder relationship and tailoring strategies for engaging stakeholders through modification of engagement strategies and plans. So, as part of this process, the relationships of project stakeholders are monitored, and various strategies are tailored in order to engage with the stakeholder using engagement plans and strategies. The process is performed, has to be performed throughout the project life cycle, and this will help increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the implied stakeholders engagement activities. It is a critical process. The success of a stakeholder engagement can ensure a success of project because there are decision makers, there are stakeholders who are doing activities in the project. Their active involvement is very essential for those stakeholders who needs to be involved. So, understanding that is very essential, and accordingly you have defined that engagement plan, and you need to ensure it happens accordingly, the objectives are achieved. It's very essential.

So, inputs to this process should be project management plan, which involves resource management plan, communication management plan, stakeholder management plan. Project documents, like issue logs, lessons learned register, project communications, risk register, stakeholder register, work performance data, EF and OPA. Then tools used as part of this process would be data analysis, communication skills, decision making, data representation, ground rules, and then meetings. Outputs of this process includes work performance information, change request. If at all any deviations found in terms of the way the engagement happened, the way the objectives are accomplished. Now, change request in stakeholder engagement. So, if you look at it very carefully, earlier in any knowledge area, when you speak in the entire framework, what we have discussed, whenever we say change request, we spoke about adding something, removing something, modifying something. But in this case, when we raise a change request, it also involves some approach what I have defined versus the approach with work I I require to update. That also, which is a specific dynamics which involves here, especially stakeholder engagement. Then project management plan updates and project documents updates would be the outputs for monitor stakeholder engagement.

So, that's all about stakeholder management knowledge area defined in PMI's PMP, that is PMBOK. I think this will provide certain insight towards stakeholder engagement, but in real time, it is more than what is told here, which requires lot of sensitivity, lot of involvement, a lot of understanding of the dynamics of that environment. I hope this provided you certain insights which helped you to understand what stakeholder management is all about.

What is agile project management? Agile project management is an iterative approach to software development projects that guarantees input and do immediately acted upon, and responsive changes are made at each level of sprint or product cycle. This enables the project teams to use agile project management approaches to operate swiftly and collaboratively with a project's deadline and budget. Many agile project management approaches were created with software in mind, however, the underlying agile ideals and agile project concepts may be applied to a wide range of teams, from product teams to marketing teams. So, if we give a proper definition to it, then agile project management is a collaborative, iterative project management approach that incorporates continuous testing and responsiveness to change.

Next, why agile project management? Going back as far as 1970s, software teams discovered that the highly organized, heavy-weighted traditional project management approaches, such as waterfall, just weren't cutting it when it came to the way they needed to work. Numerous post-failure analysis highlighted that there were two consistent fault areas: that is, projects utilization was little, if any, formal overarching management methodology. Secondly, projects were applying the methodology, but not necessarily one best suited for software development. These pressures led to the development of agile, delivering a managed approach to a software development without a conventional procedural emphasis and compartmentalization. Agile focuses on iterating through product requirements, encouraging continuous improvements, and responding quickly to changing requirements from aspect of a team mentally rather than an individual level. Today, we can see there is 90% of the significant growth in agile adoption within the companies, and around 50% of the respondents who had focused on the agile methodology had delivered the best results. Around two-thirds of the respondents identified the strongest positive impact from the agile adoption.

So, if you talk about the principles of agile project management, so there are around 12 key principles of agile project management that everyone of us should be knowing. So, firstly, satisfy the customer. The number one priority is customer satisfaction through the early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Next is welcome changing requirements. Welcome changing developments, even in late development. Agile processes harness change to customers' competitive advantage. Next, deliver working software frequently. It means from couple of weeks to couple of months, within a presence of shorter time scale. Collaborate daily. Business people and developments must work together daily throughout the project. Next is motivated individuals. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. Face-to-face conversation. The most efficient and the effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is the face-to-face conversation. Working software is the primary measure of progress. So, agile processes processes to promote sustainable development, that is, the sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain the constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence. You must have continuous attention to technical excellence and good design, enhance agility. Simplicity is the art of maximizing the amount of work not done. That is very essential. The best architectures, requirements, and design emerge from the self-organizing teams. And finally, at regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

So, these are the 12 principles that agile project management follows and encourage you to deliver iterations quickly and often, because it is better for the thing to exist in a flawed reality than in a perfect theory. So, what are the steps involved in agile project management? In agile project management, as you can see this diagram here, there are five steps that agile project management follows. First is the requirements, then you design, then you develop, and then once you develop your project, it goes ahead with the testing, and once your test is done, we deploy. It is ready to be deployed. So, based on this, we have the agile project management framework. So, let's see how does agile project management works. So, here you can see there are five phases based on which the agile project management work.

So, first phase is envision phase. The envision phase is the initial phase within the agile project management framework. In general, after approval of business case, the agile key members are involved in the envision phase, where they collaborate to create a compelling vision for a project. A vision phase identifies customers' vision of project, decides the key capabilities required in the project, set the business objectives of the project, identifies the quality objectives of the project, and identifies the right participant and stakeholders of the project, and plans how a team will deliver the project. After this, we come to the next phase, that is spectacular phase. In spectacular phase, the product vision into a backlog of requirement is translated to overall approach. The overall approach to meet the requirement is realized, and a high-level release plan for the product is presented. So, there are two key activities that happens in spectacular phase. So, first activity is that the team must come up with at least an initial understanding of the requirement for the project. So, each feature will be further broken down into one or more user stories for the team to discuss and estimate. So, there are two key activities that happens in spectacular phase. The first activity is the team must come up with at least at least an initial understanding of the requirements for the project. Each feature will be then broken down into one or more user stories for the team to discuss and estimate. They must make sure that the requirements also have to be prioritized, so that the team knows in what order to start working on them. The second aspect is to determine a high-level milestone based on the plan that spectacular it would take to create those features. This planning happens at multiple levels, such as release level, wave level, and iteration level.

After spectacular phase, we go into an explore phase, that is the third phase of the agile project management framework. So, as the name is suggested, in this phase, team members explore various alternatives to implement and fulfill the requirements of the project. In this phase, work deliveries and testing takes place. Here, the product vision needs to be transformed to release plan and then to the respective iteration plan. The team works in an iterative manner in the explored phase, that means they take a subset of the product's feature or a story and accept it into a plan for the iteration, then it will be processed to work on the development for the stories. It goes hand in hand with the adapt phase, wherein the team learns from the experiences of the development and the feedback from the customers.

So, next is the adapt phase. In adapt phase, the agile team reviews the result of the execution, the current situation, performance of the team against the plan, and adapt as per the requirement. Adaptation can be changing the approach to the project management, changing the process, or changing the environment, or changing the project's objective, and so on, as to the requirements of the customers. So, taking feedback, acknowledging it, and adapting to the situation based on the feedback is the major work of this phase.

So, at last is the close phase. This is the last phase within the agile project management framework. It concludes the project in an ordered manner, capturing the project's key lessons. So, this was all about the agile project management framework, how it works. So, which in all companies are adapting the agile project management? So, as per the recent research, 71% of the companies use agile approaches, among which Cisco, Ericsson, IBM, Microsoft are the major users of the agile project management. Lastly, agile project management tools. So, some of the best agile project management tools are RoHub, Rick, Smartsheet, ActiveCollab, and many more.

In the rapidly changing environment of project execution, whether you are launching a new product, implementing a system, or organizing an event, effective project management is critical to success. Consider if you have a vision, goals, and committed team, but without a structured approach, projects can and quickly show failure, resulting in delays and cost overruns and dissatisfied stakeholders. This is where a project management methods comes into play. They provide a systematic framework for project planning, execution, and control. And among the many methodologies available, Prince2 stands out. But why? What makes Prince2 a preferred choice in certain situations? Prince2 is not one size fits all solution. Rather, it excels in situations requiring clarity, organization, and adaptability. Assume you have been assigned a complex project that demands a thorough understanding of roles and responsibilities, as well as a step-by-step guide to navigating confusions. Prince2's structured approach does exactly that, offering a customized approach for managing projects of various sizes, complexities, and making it an invaluable asset for organizations aiming for successful project delivery.

Before we dive deeper into our discussion, I would like to take a moment to highlight Edua's certificate program. If you're looking to enhance your skills and validate your knowledge, Edua offers industry-recognized certifications that can boost your career. Edua's Prince2 certification training teaches you everything about managing projects successfully. It covers principles, elements, and themes, and also processes, following the latest seventh edition guide. By the end, you will be Prince2 Pro with the skills to ensure project success. So, please check out our Edua website for all other certifications which you require and consider taking your expertise to the next level with Edua.

So, now let's understand what is Prince2. Prince2, it is nothing but a project in controlled environments. Prince2 is a globally recognized process-based project management methodology designed to provide a structured and scalable approach to a project execution. And also originating in the UK, it offers a structured and scalable approach to a project execution, and it is developed by UK government in 1980s. Prince2 provides a systematic framework for achieving project success. Basically, Prince2 project management methodology is built around three primary components. First one is seven principles, which direct the basic philosophy of project execution. And then seven themes, which addresses important issues like risk and quality. And the third one is seven processes, which details the methodical approach to project management. These three components create a robust and adaptable framework for achieving project success. Come, let's understand them in brief.

The seven Prince2 principles are: continued business justification, learn from experience, and then defined roles and responsibilities. After that, manage by exception. Moving forward, we have focus on products, and finally, tailor to suit the project environment. Come, let's understand them in brief. First one is continued business justification. This principle guarantees the project's justification and validity from the beginning. It includes regularly examining and verifying that the project remains in line with the goals of the company. Next one is learn from experience. This principle encourages the application of lessons learned from previous projects. Frequently evaluate and document project management practices and outcomes. And then we have defined roles and responsibilities. This principle ensures that everyone involved in in the project has their own roles and responsibilities clearly defined. This clarity assures accountability, reduces conflict, and helps avoid confusions. Following this, we have managed by stages. According to this concept, the project should be divided into manageable stages or phases, each with its own set of goals and deliverables. Better monitoring, control, and flexibility is responsible to changes are made possible by this. After this, we have manage by exception. This principle states that project manager has authority to decide on daily basis within predetermined bounds. Significant problems or departures from predetermined tolerances, however, need to be brought up with the higher authorities for resolution. Moving forward, we have focus on products. Place a focus on project product definition and delivery. In this way, the project goals are met, and the final product is guaranteed to meet a quality standards. And finally, we have tailor to suit the project environment. This principle highlights how Prince2 is flexible and can be customized to fit the unique requirements and features of the project. Because of its adaptability, organizations can use a Prince2 in a variety of settings with success. I hope you are clear with the seven principles of Prince2.

Now let's understand seven themes in brief. Before that, let us know what are the seven themes. First one is business justification, and then organization, quality, plans. After that, risk. Moving forward, we have change, and finally, progress. Let's understand them in brief. First one is business justification. This theme ensures that the project continues to make sense for the business and stay on course with the organization goals. In other words, we can say it should continue to yield benefits that are beneficial to the organizations. And the second one is organization. This team ensures the efficient communication and accountability with the project team by clearly defining and establishing roles and responsibilities and reporting structures. Next one is quality. The theme emphasizes the significance of delivering a product that makes a quality standards and aligns with the project's objectives, and also ensuring that the product meets the set standards and aligns perfectly with the project goals. And then we have plans. This theme shows the value of making plans, saying that doing so, it is similar to charting our courses. We lay out objectives, allocate responsibilities, and plan ahead for probable obstacles to create a thorough project road map. And after that, we have risk. The focus of this theme is on identifying, evaluating, and controlling project risk, while taking preventive actions to reduce unfavorable effects and also to keep the project on schedule. It is essentially our approach to anticipating and overcoming obstacles. Moving forward, we have change. This theme highlights how to handle modifications to the requirements or project scope in order to maintain project alignment with its goals. It places a strong emphasis on impact assessments and necessary adjustments. And finally, we have progress. According to this theme, tracking and monitoring the project's advancements in relation to the plan is necessary. It places a strong emphasis on resolving problems, highlighting accomplishments, and identifying problems, deviations. In basic terms, it's how we monitor the project's progress and guarantee the flexibility and proactive management to ensure success.

Now let's see the seven processes of Prince2. First one is starting up a project, and then directing a project. Moving forward, we have initiating a project, and then controlling a stage, managing project delivery, managing a stage boundary, and finally closing a project. Now we'll understand them in brief. First, first one is starting up a project. This process determines the project's viability by outlining its goals, objectives, and methodology. Let's understand them in brief. First one is starting up a project. This process determines the project's viability by outlining its goals, objectives, and methodology. Prior to proceeding, it ensures that the required resources and commitments are in place. And the second one is directing a project. This important procedure states that to give a project board members critical decision points, guaranteeing alignment with the company goals, and also it involves deciding with knowledge and permitting crucial project phases. And the next one is initiating a project. This thorough procedure maintains to improve a project's plan by carefully outlining its implementation, control, and management. It involves creating an extensive project budget, schedule, and risk management strategy. And then we have controlling a stage. According to this ongoing process, it concentrates on routine project management tasks within a phase. It entails regular reporting to upper management, issue management, and delegating process monitoring. Moving forward, we have manage product delivery. According to this practical approach, it guarantees the creation and delivery of project products. It entails accepting, carrying out, and delivery work packages, while making sure they adhere to required standards of quality. Then we have managing the stage boundary, so-called USB. According to this transitional process, it represents the end of one project phase and gets ready for the next. In light of the lessons discovered, it helps reviving the project plan, business case, and risk management strategy. And the last one is closing a project, also called as CP. This process concludes by stating that it guarantees a methodical project closure by assessing the project's performance and relation to predetermined goals. It helps preparing closure notifications, getting formal acceptance of project deliverables, and carrying out an extensive project performance evaluation. I hope you clearly understood about how all seven principles, seven themes, and seven processes are important to become a successful project manager.

Now let's understand the benefits of Prince2. First one is structured approach. This guarantees the project management coherence and precision. Second one, proactive risk management. This reduces the problems by early detection and resolution of risks. And the third one is clearly defined roles and accountability. This improves accountability by clearing up any confusions regarding roles. Then quality assurance uses established procedures to guarantee project outcomes of the highest caliber. And then we have effective communication. Encourages open and regular communication with the stakeholders. And the next benefit is adaptability. This allows for flexibility by scaling to different project environments. And then we have continuous improvement. This promotes experience-based learning for continual improvement. And finally, globally recognized. Generally acknowledged and supported worldwide, providing benefits for a range of project requirements.

Now we will look into the role of Prince2 project manager. The first one is overall responsibility. It ultimately in charge of organizing, carrying out, and effective conclusion of the project. And then applying Prince2 principles. This uses Prince2 principles to keep the project justified and in line with the business goals. And then we have clear communication. Promotes open and honest communication between all parties involved in order to keep everyone informed and involved. And then risk management. This recognizes, evaluates, and proactively manages the project risk in order to reduce the adverse effects. And fifth one is quality assurance. This verifies that project deliverables adhere to the goals and specified quality standards. And next one is adaptability and flexibility. This showcases project management flexibility by modifying Prince2 to fit particular project requirements. And then we have decision making. Makes important choices to effectively guide the project, especially during the directing a project process. And finally, team leadership. Guides and inspires the project team, while outlining duties and responsibilities to ensure smooth cooperation.

What is Prince2? Project in controlled environment is what Prince2 stands for. Prince2 is a project-based methodology that helps with developing the fundamental knowledge and ability needed to succeed as a project manager. The Prince2 project management methodology offers a structured framework for managing projects. It is based on seven principles, seven themes, and a set of processes. Now you know what exactly is Prince2. Now let us know more about Prince2. Prince2 is recognized as the most widely used project management methodology. Prince2 is the tool that many organizations require project managers to have. According to 88% of the project managers, Prince2 has helped them in their work because it is designed to assist both experienced and beginner project managers in moving forward in their career.

Now let's move on to the main topic, the seven principles of Prince2. The Prince2 principles, the most widely used methodology, are designed to contribute to the project's success without causing any problems for the management. The subject method and the product description serves as the project's final stage. Here are the seven principles of Prince2, and our first principle is continued business justification. Projects require a valid business case to justify their creation and expansion. The business justification is reviewed on a regular basis throughout the project to ensure its validity. Cost, benefits, risk, and alignment with organizational objectives should all be considered while developing the business case. Projects that need a clear business justification are at risk for being cancelled or failing to provide value.

Next, we have learn from experience. Prince2 encourages a systematic record of knowledge learned from previous projects. Lessons learned are documented and shared within the organization to help guide future projects. Learning from both success and failure allows project teams to improve progress, avoiding the same mistakes and improving project outcomes. Lessons learned are integrated into project planning and executed to promote continuous improvements. Moving on to defined roles and responsibility. Prince2 defines specific roles and responsibility for project management team. The project manager is in charge of the overall project delivery, while the project board provides oversight and decision-making authority. Clear roles and responsibility promotes accountability, enable effective communication, and streamline decision-making process. Each role has a specific responsibility, ensuring that everyone has understood their role and contributes to the project's success. Moving on to manage and stages. Projects are divided into manageable stages, each with their own goals, outcomes, and review points. Managing the project in stages improves control, risk management, and decision-making. At the end of each stage, a review is conducted to evaluate progress and determine whether to move on to the next stage. Stage boundaries allow you to re-evaluate the project's life and make changes based on new information.

Next, we have manage by exception. Prince2 establishes limits for critical parameters such as time, cost, quality, scope, and risk. Project managers are given the authority to make day-to-day decisions within these parameters. If tolerances are expected to be violated, a report called exception is generated, requesting action from the management to resolve this issue. Managing by exception enables senior managers to focus on decisions while giving project managers the authority to handle routine tasks. Next, we have focus on products. Prince2 highlights the importance of defining and delivering high-quality products throughout the project life cycle. Products are tangible outcomes, results, or documents that help to achieve product objectives. Product descriptions specify the characteristics, quality standards, and acceptance requirements for each product. By focusing on products, project teams ensure that deliverables meet the high-quality standards and are in line with the stakeholders' requirements. And our last principle is tailor to suit the project environment. Prince2 is flexible and can be customized to meet the unique requirements, characteristics, and constraints of each project. Tailoring entails selecting and implementing Prince2 principles, themes, processes, and techniques in a manner that is appreciated. While tailoring, consider project scope, level of detail, industry, and legal constraints. Tailoring ensures that Prince2 remains relevant and applicable across a wide range of projects and environments, maximizing its effectiveness in achieving successful results. These principles, taken together, form a strong framework for project management, guiding professionals in applying Prince2 methodologies to achieve project success in controlled environments.

Now you have a clear picture of the seven principles of Prince2. Let's move on to the seven themes of Prince2. Prince2 defines seven themes that represent aspects of project management that must be addressed constantly throughout the project life cycle. These themes ensure the key elements of project management continue to be addressed and managed. Here are the seven principal themes, and our first theme is business case. The business case theme focuses on establishing and maintaining the reason for carrying out the project. It entails defining the project objectives, anticipated benefits, costs, risks, and the reason for investing resources. The business case is reviewed and updated on a regular basis to ensure that the project remains on track and in line with the organization objectives.

Next, we have organization. The organizational theme determines the project structure, responsibilities, roles, and reporting lines. It entails defining the key stakeholders, assigning project roles such as project manager and project board, and establishing communication channels. Clarity in project organization promotes accountability, effective communication, and decision-making throughout the project. Moving on to quality. The quality theme focuses on ensuring that the project products and outcomes meet the specific requirements and quality standards. It entails determining the quality and acceptance requirements for each product, implementing quality assurance and control processes, and also monitoring and reviewing the product quality throughout the project. Quality management aims to prevent defects, errors, and rework, resulting in products that meet the stakeholders' expectations. And our next theme is plans. The plans theme entails creating and maintaining plans that direct how a project should be carried out, monitored, and controlled. It entails developing various levels of plans, such as project plans, stage plans, and team plans, and also outlining activities, resources, and schedules. Plans serve as a road map for project delivery, allowing for effective resource management and timely decision-making based on planned progress.

Moving forward, we have risk. The risk theme focuses on identifying and managing potential risks to the project objectives. It entails systematically identifying potential risks, assessing their likelihood and impact. Risk management seeks to minimize the negative effects of uncertainty on projects while maximizing opportunities for project success. Next, we have change. The change theme focuses on the need to manage changes to the project scope, requirements, plans, and baseline documents. It entails establishing change control, evaluating proposed changes, and carrying out approved changes in a controlled manner. Change management ensures that changes are thoroughly evaluated, authorized, and communicated to stakeholders in order to manage change and maintain project alignment. And our last theme is progress. The progress theme focuses on tracking and controlling the project's performance against the baseline plan. It entails tracking progress, assessing deviations from the plan, identifying issues and errors. Progress monitoring provides visibility into the project status, helping in resource and risk management, and allowing for timely decision-making to keep the project on track. These seven themes provide an extensive structure for managing key aspects of project management throughout the project life cycle, ensuring that projects are effectively planned, executed, monitored, and controlled to achieve their goals.

Now we will discuss about the seven processes of Prince2. Prince2 is a set of processes that guides project management from beginning to closure. These processes provide a step-by-step approach to project management, ensuring that tasks are completed on a regular basis. Below are the seven Prince2 processes. Our first process is starting a project. Starting up a project process is a pre-project phase that evaluates the project's flexibility and visibility. Appointing the project management team, defining the project objectives, preparing the project brief, and establishing the project management approach are all important steps. The process produces the project brief, which consists of a high-level overview of the project, as well as the start of the plan.

Moving on to directing a project. Directing a project involves authorizing project initiation, execution, and closure. Provide ad hoc direction as needed, approve stage or execution plans. And our next process is initiating a project. Beginning a project process sets a solid foundation for the project and ensures that all stakeholders understand and agree on its objectives, scope, and approach. Key activities include identifying the project management approach, developing detailed plans, and from start and following phases, conduct risk assessment and creating project initiation documentation. The PID summarizes the key project information, such as business case, project organization, and management strategy, and it is used as a reference throughout the project.

Moving on, we have controlling the stage. Controlling a stage process focuses on managing the work at each stage of the project. Authorizing the stage, tracking progress against the stage plan, dealing with issues and risks, and reporting to the project board are all critical tasks. The project manager is in charge of the stage's day-to-day operations, ensuring that the work is completed as planned. Next, we have manage product delivery. Managing product delivery process coordinates the creation and the delivery of the project products. Accepting work packages from the project manager, ensuring that the work is completed in accordance with the specification, providing feedback on completed work, and arising issues as needed are all critical activities. Team managers oversee the production and the delivery of the products within their areas of expertise, ensuring that they meet the quality standards and arrive on time.

Then we have managing the stage boundary. Managing a stage boundary process takes place at the end of each stage and focuses on planning the next stage and obtaining approval to move forward. Key activities include reviewing current stage performance, updating the project plan to the next stage, preparing the stage end reports, and obtaining project board approval to move forward to the next stage. This process ensures that the project remains on track within the objectives and that any necessary changes are made before moving onto the next phase. And our last process is closing a project. Closing a project process establishes the project closure, while also ensuring that all activities are completed and the project objectives are met. Key activities include ensuring that all products have been delivered and accepted, conducting project reviews, preparing the project closure notification, and transferring the project products to the operational environment. Once the project closure activities are completed, the project is formally closed, and resources are made available for additional projects. These seven processes provide a structured approach to project management, ensuring that projects are effectively planned, executed, monitored, and controlled to achieve their goals in a controlled environment.

I hope now you have a clear picture about the seven principles, seven themes, and seven processes. Now let's move on to the certification. Prince2 project in controlled environment provides a structured certification program to evaluate individual project management skills using the Prince2 methodology. Prince2 Foundation and Practitioner certification course, which is provided by Edua. Edua Prince2 certification training provides insights into project management framework by teaching a thorough understanding of integrated principles, elements, themes, and processes. The Prince2 syllabus aligns with the seventh edition guide. Our Prince2 training will help you master the Prince2 methodology, the skills, and the techniques needed to ensure project success.

So, there are four two levels of certification in the Prince2 project management methodology. So, the first one is Prince2 Foundation. This is the entry-level certification that provides a basic understanding of the Prince2 principles, themes, processes, and terminology. It is suitable for individuals who want to gain a foundational knowledge of the framework. There are no prerequisites for the certification. Anyone can take up the certification, and the exam duration is 60 minutes for 60 questions, and 55% is the pass mark. So, the second one is Prince2 Practitioner. Prince2 Practitioner extends the knowledge acquired at the foundational level and makes sure an individual has the practical skills to enable you to apply the method in a live working environment. The exam duration is 150 minutes for 68 questions, 55% is the pass mark. The third level is the Prince2 Agile Foundation. Prince2 Agile Foundation certification is designed for individuals who want to demonstrate the understanding of how to apply Prince2 principles in an agile context. The Prince2 Agile Foundation exam tests candidates on their knowledge of both Prince2 and agile concepts. The exam duration is 60 minutes for 50 questions, and 55% is the pass mark. So, the fourth level is Prince2 Agile Practitioner. The Prince2 Agile Practitioner exam is usually scenario-based, testing candidates on their ability to apply Prince2 Agile concepts in real-world project scenarios. To be eligible for the Prince2 Agile Practitioner exam, candidates typically need to have passed the Prince2 Agile Foundation exam or hold another relevant qualification. The exam duration is 150 minutes for 50 questions, and 60% is the pass mark.

So, what are the benefits of Prince2 certifications? First of all, global acceptance. Prince2 certifications are widely recognized and respected globally. Having a Prince2 certification establishes a common standard for project management knowledge and skills. Industry relevance. Prince2 is used across various industries, including IT, construction, finance, and healthcare. So, holding a Prince2 certification makes professionals relevant and adaptable to different sectors. Career advancement. Prince2 certifications open doors to career opportunities across various domains. Many organizations prefer project managers with Prince2 certifications. Higher pay. Certified Prince2 professionals are paid higher salaries compared to their non-certified counterparts. The certification demonstrates expertise and adds value to the individual's skills. Flexible. Prince2 certifications are flexible and adaptable methods that can be tailored to any project, regardless of size, purpose, or industry. Prince2 certifications offer a valuable investment in professional development and can significantly enhance a project manager's career prospects.

So, next let's see some job opportunities that you can get into if you possess a Prince2 certification: Project Manager, Product Manager, Operations Manager, Risk Manager, IT Project Manager, Implementation Manager, and Prince2 Consultant. So, what do you think are the skills that you gain through Prince2 certifications? You get to learn all the concepts, approaches, structures, and frameworks used by several project managers, and the certification covers the principles, themes, and processes of project management, and it provides a framework for managing projects from start to finish, and covers aspects such as project planning, risk management, and quality management. You also learn how to plan, analyze, supervise, and execute the projects properly. Nowadays, having Prince2 is necessary to get a job as a project manager because 88% of project professionals claim that Prince2 helped them in their careers. Prince2 ensures that the timeline and budget of a project are managed effectively. Prince2 certification is definitely worth investing time and money. Prince2 certifications have a 98.9% pass rate, so your Prince2 certification is closer at hand.

In the bustling halls of a well-known company, there was a dedicated worker named as Sam. Even though Sam was highly respected for his hard work, he found it challenging to cope up with growing confusions in project management. Within the polished walls of the company, Sam experienced a colleague named as Alex, a seasoned project manager. Seeing the worry lines on Sam's face, then he asked, "Have you ever heard of Prince2?" Alex inquired, his words carrying a weight of experience. Then Sam said, "Prince2? What's that?" Feeling a mixture of curiosity and desperation, with a knowing smile, Alex invited Sam, saying that, "Come, let me make you understand how Prince2 can transform the way we manage projects in this esteemed company."

So, now why to choose this Prince2? The first reason to choose Prince2 is structured approach, which means a clear understanding of roles, responsibilities, and procedures is ensured by Prince2, an approach to project management that is well-defined and structured, and that promotes project success. And the next one is flexibility and adaptability. Prince2 is flexible and scalable, supporting a range of project sizes and types by providing the opportunity to customize its principles to meet the particular requirements of each one. And the third one point is boost your project success rate. The strong methodology of Prince2 enhances project success by placing a strong emphasis on careful planning, risk management, and ongoing improvements. And the fourth one point is is never stop learning. Prince2 encourages an environment where learning never stops, allowing project managers to grow and change as a result of every project's information gained. And the last reason is that helps in becoming a better project manager. Project managers can improve their planning and execution skills by using the structured framework that Prince2 offers.

So, now what is Prince2? Prince2 is a structured, project-based project management methodology that focuses on organization and control throughout a project's life cycle. It divides projects into manageable stages with defined processes and roles, ensuring well-organized, controlled, and desired outcomes. Before we dive deeper into our discussion, I would like to take a moment to highlight Edua's certification program. If you're looking to enhance your skills and validate your knowledge, Edua offers industry-recognized certifications that can boost your career. Edua's Prince2 certification training provides you a comprehensive understanding of project management framework, aligning with the latest 7th Edition guide, and also enabling mastery of the methodology and acquiring the necessary skills for project success.

Now let's understand features of Prince2. First one is process-oriented approach, and the second one is risk management focus, and the third one is defined roles and responsibilities.

Next, adaptability, and finally, product-based planning. Let's see the benefits of using PRINCE2. First, one is higher success rates, and then effective communication, and that enhanced control and visibility.

Now, let's understand the reasons for the updated version of PRINCE2. A combination of factors led to the evolution of PRINCE2 into its updated version, which is like the seventh edition. This includes the changes in consumers and corporate perspectives, updated government regulations, evolving ethical values, and then shifting environmental landscapes. Increased concerns about climate change, and then technological advancements, and finally, the adoption of new working methodologies like remote and hybrid practices. Additionally, the revised version recognizes the growing significance of soft skills, especially leadership, in line with the modern requirement that people acquire these qualities. The People's Integrated Element was introduced to reflect this emphasis on improving interpersonal skills.

Come, let's see what has changed in PRINCE2 seventh edition. First one is renaming of themes to practices. PRINCE2 sixth edition renamed the seven themes to practices, with some names slightly changed. The new practices include business case, organization, quality, plans, risk, issues, and progress, replacing the previous seven themes. And the next one is people integration. PRINCE2 seventh edition emphasizes a people-centric approach, recognizing the crucial role of individuals in project success and emphasizing interpersonal skills and collaboration. This means they are giving more importance to people, and the success of a project depends a lot on how well individuals work together. So, now the new approach focuses on improving communication skills and teamwork in the project.

Next one is sustainability dimension. The introduction of sustainability in project management emphasizes the need to consider environmental and social impacts in contemporary organizational requirements, which means they have added a new aspect called sustainability. This implies they now look at how projects impact the environment and society. It's a way to make sure projects are in line with today's organizational needs, considering the effects on nature and communities.

And next one is digital and data management. The PRINCE2 7th edition adapts to the evolving needs of project management professionals by incorporating innovative digital and data management strategies, and also integrating modern technologies into project management practices, which means project managers are adopting smarter methods to manage information and technology in projects. Due to its increasing sophistication of project management and the need to stay updated with the latest methods.

Let's understand what's not changed in PRINCE2. In the seventh edition of PRINCE2, there have been some significant changes, but the core principles and the key concepts that define it have largely remained the same, with only some terminology changes. First one is principles. In the seventh edition, renaming of principles to ensure continued business justification and defined roles, responsibilities, and relationships to emphasize the new people element. And second one is processes. In the seventh edition, minimal changes in processes, with some activity name changes or additions. Notably, responsibilities within each process are simplified into a single RACI matrix, enhancing overall PRINCE2 practices.

Let's discuss the differences between PRINCE2 sixth edition and PRINCE2 7th edition. In the sixth edition of PRINCE2, terminology changes were focused on themes such as change. However, in the seventh edition, the focus shifted to practices. Next, principles. In the sixth edition, principles remained unchanged. In contrast, in the seventh edition, two principles were renamed, with a particular emphasis on the people element. Next, the RACI matrix of processes. In the sixth edition, there was one RACI matrix per activity. Conversely, the seventh edition streamlined responsibilities with a single RACI matrix per process. The seventh edition introduced sustainability as a new dimension, which was absent in the sixth edition. Next, while in the sixth edition, it recognized individual roles, whereas in the seventh edition, it emphasizes a people-centric approach, and also highlighting the interpersonal skills. Lastly, in the PRINCE2 7th edition, it incorporated an innovative approach to digital and data management, whereas in the sixth edition, this aspect was not specified.

Let's see the different job roles that PRINCE2 certified candidates can acquire. PRINCE2 qualifications are highly valued in various project management and related fields, making them essential for those seeking to qualify for in-demand jobs in a project and controlled environment. First one is project manager, and then business analyst, change manager, program manager, IT project manager, and finally, service delivery manager.

According to Project, approximately 16.5 million project managers are working around the globe, and out of these millions, about 1 million have catapulted their careers into new heights. How, you ask? They are PRINCE2 certified. Being PRINCE2 certified isn't just a badge; it's a gateway to perks like higher salaries, enhanced project outcomes, and significant professional development. It's a game-changer in today's fiercely competitive landscape. But how can I be one of these success stories? How do I conquer the PRINCE2 exam and stand out? If you're having similar kinds of questions running inside your head, then you just clicked on the right video to get your answers. So, with vibrant excitement and a passionate spirit, Edukpa welcomes you all to our YouTube channel, and this time, we will be diving into the world of PRINCE2 certification, exploring the various strategies and answering the most crucial question: how to pass the PRINCE2 exam?

Let's have a look at PRINCE2 exam levels. There are two main levels of PRINCE2 certification: PRINCE2 Foundation and PRINCE2 Practitioner. Coming to PRINCE2 Foundation, this level tests your knowledge and understanding of the PRINCE2 method. It assesses whether your knowledge and understanding of the method are sufficient to be able to work effectively with or as a member of a project management team working within an environment supporting PRINCE2. The eligibility criteria for PRINCE2 Foundation exams are straightforward, and there are no formal prerequisites. Individuals interested in taking the PRINCE2 Foundation exam can do so without needing a specific qualification or prior experience.

Moving to PRINCE2 Practitioner, this level tests your ability to apply PRINCE2 to running and managing a project within an environment supporting PRINCE2. The exam is more complex, featuring scenario-based questions. To set for this exam, you must have passed one of the several recognized qualifications, including PRINCE2 Foundation. The practitioner certification is evidence that you can apply this methodology in a real-world situation.

Now, let's move to the course curriculum of PRINCE2. PRINCE2 consists of seven principles, seven themes, and seven processes. Now, let's have a look at the seven principles. The seven principles are: continued business justification, learn from experience, defined roles and responsibilities, manage by stages, manage by exception, focus on products, and tailor to suit project environment. Coming to seven themes, they are: business case, organization, quality, plans, risk, change, and progress. Now, let's have a look at seven processes. So, the seven processes are: starting up a project, initiating a project, directing a project, controlling a stage, managing product delivery, managing stage boundaries, and lastly, closing a project.

PRINCE2 Foundation is a closed-book, multiple-choice exam with 60 questions, and you must get 55% correct to pass, which is 33 out of 60. The foundation certification is a prerequisite for practitioner certification. The percentage of questions on each topic you can see in the following figure: Key Concepts 3%, Principles 8%, People 14%, Practices 60%, Processes 15%.

Coming to PRINCE2 Practitioner exam, it is important to note that it follows an open-book format, allowing candidates to refer to relevant materials during the test. The duration of the exam spans 150 minutes, during which the participants are required to answer 68 questions. Each question carries one mark, resulting in a total of 68 marks for the entire examination. In order to successfully pass the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam, candidates must achieve a minimum of 38 marks, corresponding to a passing percentage of 55% or higher.

By now, I hope that you all got familiarized with the PRINCE2 exam. Now, let's quickly dive into some tips and tricks to pass the exam. Albert Einstein once said, "Live for today, learn from yesterday, and dream for tomorrow." Keeping this into our heads, let's categorize tips and tricks into tips and tricks before the exam, tips and tricks during the exam, and tips and tricks after the exam. So, let's start with tips and tricks before the exam.

Tip number one: practice with sample papers. We have two official AXELOS Foundation mock exam papers and two official AXELOS Practitioner mock exam papers, which makes a total of four mock papers. Solving these mock papers will help you to familiarize yourself with the format and type of questions that will be asked.

Tip number two: develop a study plan. Create a realistic study plan that covers all the key areas of PRINCE2. Allocate more time to the topics that are more challenging for you. Along with that, have regular study sessions. Consistently dedicating your time to study will improve your retention and understanding.

Tip number three: use diverse study materials. In addition to the official manual, use study guides, e-learning modules, video tutorials, and practice exams to diversify your learnings. You can also refer to a PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner certification course, the link to which is in the description box below.

Tip number four: get familiar with your PRINCE2 manual. The PRINCE2 manual is your primary study resource. Understand its structure, key themes, principles, and processes. Knowing your PRINCE2 manual well is an advantage in the practitioner exam because it's an open-book test. Being familiar with your manual helps you to find the answers quickly.

Now, let's discuss some tips during the exam. Tip number one: read the questions carefully. This tip might sound very basic, but surprisingly, most of the candidates miss this out. They read the first couple of words and the last couple of words in a sentence, and then they let their brain fill the difference. For example, check this question out: "What is the aim of PRINCE2 Quality theme?" Many candidates read this as "What is PRINCE2 Quality theme?"

Tip number two: focus on the keywords. Paying close attention to the specific terms used in the questions is crucial for understanding the requirements of each question. For example, check this question out: "Which of the following is not an objective of the closing of project process in PRINCE2?" Many of the candidates miss the "not" in the above question.

Tip number three: answer every question. There is no penalty for wrong answers, so answer every question, even if you're unsure of the correct answer. You never know when your luck comes into your favor. But our luck cannot come into our favor every time, so here is tip number four: review your answers if time allows. Review your answers, especially if you're very uncertain or had to guess. Reviewing your answers provides a valuable opportunity to catch any potential error or oversight. This meticulous review can enhance your overall performance and boost your chances of success in the PRINCE2 exam.

Tip number five: don't panic and manage your time effectively. In the PRINCE2 Foundation exam, you have got 60 questions to tackle in 60 minutes, so you have got a minute per question. Some are quickies, taking just 10 to 15 seconds, leaving you with extra time. Use those spare 45 to 50 seconds wisely for the tougher ones.

Now you're done with the exam, and now let's dive into some tips and tricks after the exam. Tip number one: learn from experience. Regardless of the outcome, reflect on what you have learned from the preparation process and the exam experience. Whether you succeed or face challenges, each attempt is an opportunity for growth. Identify areas for improvement, adjust your study strategy, and approach future exams with enhanced insights for a more confident performance.

Tip number two: prepare for retaking if necessary. If you don't pass on the first attempt, use the experience to identify areas for improvement and plan your next attempt. Consider it as a stepping stone. Analyze the feedback and tailor your study approach for a more focused and successful retake. Remember, success hinges on meticulous preparation, a profound understanding of PRINCE2 methodology, coupled with strategic test-taking approaches significantly elevates your odds of acing the exam.

Firstly, we will have to really understand what is the PMP exam. Without really understanding what this exam is, we can't really talk about how to prepare for it. PMP, firstly, stands for Project Management Professional. It is the world's leading project management certification. Now, including predictive, agile, and hybrid approaches, the PMP proves project leadership experience and expertise in any way of working. It supercharges careers for project leaders across industries and really helps organizations find the people they need to work smarter and perform better. You can take a PMP certification exam at home or in your office when it fits your schedule.

So, research indicates that employers will need to fill nearly 2.2 million new project-oriented roles each year through 2027. This means highly skilled project managers are in very much demand. PMP certification is designed by project professionals for project professionals and validates that you are among the best, highly skilled in three main areas. The first one is people, emphasizing the soft skills you need to effectively lead a project team in today's changing environment. The second area is process, where you're reinforcing the technical aspects of successfully managing projects. The last one is business environment, where you're highlighting the connection between projects and organizational strategy. PMP certification validates that you have the project leadership skills employers seek. The new PMP includes three key approaches: the first one is predictive or waterfall, then you have agile, and finally, hybrid. You have to gain a competitive edge, prove you work smarter, make your goals a reality, and earn the PMP today.

Now that we know what is the PMP certification, we will understand why choose only the PMP exam. Firstly, the PMP adds great value. CIO magazine ranked the PMP as the top project management certification in North America because it demonstrates you have the specific skills employers really see dedication to excellence and the capacity to perform at the highest levels. PMP also delivers benefits. The median salary for project professionals in North America is 25% higher than those without it. And finally, the PMP proves you work smarter. It shows you have the skills to drive business results and increase your organization's impact in the office and around the world. As I've already mentioned, the median salary for PMP holders in the US is 25% higher than those without PMP certification, according to PMI's most recent project management salary survey. There are also more than 1 million PMP certification holders worldwide. They have earned universally recognized knowledge. So, these are two of the major reasons as to why you need to write the PMP exam today. Firstly, you get a higher salary, which is advantageous for you, and secondly, it is a universally recognized certification program, so it's not just confined to one place. This is exactly why the PMP exam is so important.

Now, the next question that would pop up is: how to get your PMP? Now, earning your PMP certification is a commitment, and that is why it is so valuable. First question is: do you have real-world project management experience that leads to success? If yes, great, you've finished the hardest part. You have to make sure you meet some of the following sets of PMP certification requirements. The first one is: you will need a four-year degree. So, once that has been satisfied, then you will have to check you have been leading projects for at least 36 months. If you have surpassed that too, then the last requirement is you will need 35 hours of project management education or training. Either that, or you will have had to clear the CAPM certification. So, either one of these is required.

So, if you do not have a four-year degree, that's okay. You can also have a high school diploma or an associate's degree, but along with that, you will need to have 60 months of leading projects. So that is one disadvantage. If you have a high school diploma or an associate's degree, you must have experience of 60 months leading projects. So, once that is done, so there are some steps that you will need to follow to get on your way to your PMP certification. The first step is to apply to take your exam. You validate your project management experience and education in this step and apply to your exam. Step two is to take your PMP exam. So, here you will have to understand what to expect on the big day and how to prepare to pass. All of the preparation part happens in step two. And the third step is to maintain your certification. It is really, really important to engage in continuous professional development in order to remain certified. So, these are the three major steps. They seem quite simple, but it isn't. It takes months of preparation. It takes months of dedication, especially if you're working full-time. So, all of that you need to balance. You need to learn how to balance.

And moving on to the exam fee, that is the cost of the exam. If you're a member of the Project Management Institute, that is the PMI, it is relatively much lesser, that is, it is ₹23,45. But if you're a non-member, it is almost double the price, that is, ₹42,863.

Now that we've discussed the requirements for the PMP exam and also the steps as to how you could get started with it, let's move ahead to the main part of this session and discuss the exam content outline. So, as I've already mentioned previously, the exam identifies the proportion of questions from three different domains. The first one is the People domain, the second one is Process, the third one is Business Environment. The People domain consists of 42% of items on the test, and they are divided into different tasks. So, Domain 1 has 14 tasks, and we will be discussing each of these tasks in detail.

The first one is manage conflict. Here you will have to interpret the source and stage of the conflict, analyze the context for the conflict, and even evaluate or recommend or reconcile the appropriate conflict resolution solution. The second task is to lead a team. You need to set a clear vision and mission, support diversity and inclusion, value servant leadership, determine an appropriate leadership style. Basically, you will have to inspire, motivate, and influence team members or stakeholders. This way, you can analyze team members and stakeholders' influence, also keeping in mind to distinguish various options to lead various team members and stakeholders.

In task three, you have to support team performance. That is, you'll have to appraise team member performance against key performance indicators. You will have to basically support and recognize team member growth and development, determine appropriate feedback approach, and verify performance improvements. In task four, you have to empower team members and stakeholders. That is, organize around team strengths, support team task accountability, evaluate demonstration of task accountability, basically determine and best out levels of decision-making authority.

In task five, you will have to ensure team members or stakeholders are adequately trained. That is, you'll have to determine required competencies and elements of training. You will also have to determine training options based on training needs, allocate resources for training, and finally, measure training outcomes. In task six, you will have to build a team. That is, appraise stakeholder skills, deduce project resource requirements, continuously assist and refresh team skills to meet project needs, and also maintain team and knowledge transfer.

Moving on to task seven, you will have to address and remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team. You will have to prioritize critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team. That is, you will have to use networks to implement solutions to really remove these blockages that you have in your team. You'll also have to reassess continually to ensure impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team are being addressed regularly. In task eight, you have to negotiate project agreements. That is, analyze the bounds of the negotiations for agreement. You will also have to assess priorities and determine ultimate objectives, verify that the objectives of the project requirements are met, participate in agreement negotiations, also determine a negotiation strategy.

And task nine, you have to collaborate with stakeholders. That is, evaluate engagement needs for stakeholders, optimize alignment between stakeholder needs, expectations, and project objectives. That is, you have to build and influence stakeholders to really accomplish project objectives. In task ten, you have to build shared understanding. That is, you'll have to break down situations to identify the root cause of a misunderstanding if it ever occurs. You'll have to survey all necessary parties to reach consensus, support the outcome of party's agreement, and investigate potential misunderstandings.

In task eleven, you have to engage and support virtual teams. That is, you'll have to examine virtual team members' needs, investigate alternatives for virtual team member engagement, implement options for virtual team member engagement, and continually evaluate the effectiveness of team member engagement. In task eleven, you have to define team ground rules. That is, you'll have to communicate organizational principles with the team and external stakeholders. Basically, you have to create an environment that fosters adherence to the ground rules and manages and rectifies ground rule violations. In task thirteen, you will have to mentor relevant stakeholders. That is, allocate the time to mentoring and also recognize and act on mentoring opportunities. Finally, in task fourteen, you'll have to promote team performance through the application of emotional intelligence. That is, you'll have to assess behavior through the use of personality indicators and analyze personality indicators and adjust to the emotional needs of key project stakeholders.

Now that we have discussed the first domain, we'll move on to the second one, that is Process, that takes up 50% of items on the test, and here we have about 17 tasks, and we'll be discussing each of these tasks in detail. So, the first task here is to execute project with the urgency required to deliver business value. Here you will have to assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally, examine the business value throughout the project, and support the team to subdivide project tasks as necessary to find the minimum viable product.

In task two, you will have to manage communications. You'll have to analyze communication needs of all stakeholders, determine communication methods, channels, frequency, and level of detail for all stakeholders, communicate project information and updates effectively here, and also confirm communication is understood and feedback is received. In task three, you will have to assess and manage risks. This is basically determining risk management options and iteratively assessing and prioritizing risks.

In task four, you engage with stakeholders. That is, analyze them, categorize them, and engage stakeholders by each of their categories. You will also have to develop, execute, and validate a strategy for stakeholder engagement. In task five, you'll have to plan and manage budget and resources. This is really important, that is, you'll have to estimate budgetary needs based on the scope of the project and lessons learned from past projects. You'll have to anticipate future budget challenges, monitor budget variations, and work with governance to adjust as necessary. That is, you'll have to plan and manage your resources accordingly.

In task six, on the other hand, you will have to plan and manage schedule. Here you'll have to estimate project tasks, utilize benchmarks and historical data, prepare schedule based on methodology, measure ongoing progress based on methodology, and modify schedule as needed based on it. Task seven, on the other hand, helps you plan and manage quality of products and deliverables. You can determine quality standards required for project deliverables, recommend options for improvement based on quality gaps, continually survey project deliverable quality.

In task eight, you plan and manage scope. That is, determine and prioritize requirements, breakdown scope, and finally, monitor and validate scope. In task nine, you integrate project planning activities. Here you consolidate the project or phase plans, assess consolidated project plans for dependencies, gaps, and continued business value, analyze the data that has been collected, collect and analyze data to make informed project decisions, and determine critical information requirements.

In task ten, you manage project changes. You anticipate and embrace the need for change, basically determine the strategy to handle that change, execute change management strategy according to the methodology, and finally, determine a change response to move the project forward. In task eleven, you plan and manage procurement. You define resource requirements and needs, communicate resource requirements, manage suppliers or contracts, plan and manage procurement strategy, and finally, develop a delivery solution.

Task twelve allows you to manage project artifacts. Here you will have to determine the requirements for managing the project artifacts, validate that the project information is kept up to date and accessible to all stakeholders, and continually assess the effectiveness of the management of the project artifacts. In task thirteen, you will have to determine the appropriate project methodology and methods and practices. Here you will have to assess project needs, complexity, and magnitude, recommend project execution strategy, recommend also a project methodology or approach, basically use iterative incremental practices through the project life cycle.

In task fourteen, you will have to establish project governance structure. That is, determine appropriate governance for a project and define escalation paths and thresholds. In task fifteen, you manage project issues. That is, recognize when a risk becomes an issue, attack the issue with the optimal action to achieve project success, and collaborate with relevant stakeholders on the approach to resolve the issues. Task sixteen ensures knowledge transfer for project continuity. You discuss project responsibilities within the team, outline expectations for working environment, and confirm approach for knowledge transfer. Finally, in task seventeen, you plan and manage project or phase closure or transitions. Here you determine criteria to success, close the project or phase, validate readiness for transitions, and conclude activities to close your project or phase.

Moving on to the last domain, we have Business Environment that takes up 8% of the items that come in your exam. Here you have just four tasks. The first one is to plan and manage project compliance. Here you will require to confirm project compliance requirements, classify compliance categories, determine potential threats to compliance, and use methods to support compliance. That is, analyze the consequences of non-compliance, determine the necessary approach and action to really address compliance needs, measure the extent to which the project is in compliance.

In task two, you evaluate and deliver project benefits and value. Here you investigate that benefits are identified, document agreement on ownership for ongoing benefit realization, verify measurement system is in place to track benefits, and evaluate delivery options to demonstrate value, appraise stakeholders of value gain process. In task three, you evaluate and address external business environment changes for impact on scope. That is, you survey changes to external business environment, access and prioritize impact on project scope or backlog based on changes in external business environment. Here also you recommend options for scope or backlog changes, continually review external business environment for impacts on project scope or backlog. Finally, in task four, you support organizational change. That is, you assess organizational culture, evaluate impact of organizational change to project, and determine required actions. You also evaluate impact of the project to the organization and determine required actions.

Now that we have discussed the PMP content outline, we will understand ways to properly prepare for this exam. The first thing you'll have to do is move forward with confidence. So, there are five ways project management professionals commonly tackle the exam prep process. The first step is to envision the finish line. Create a clear mission statement spelling out why earning the PMP is important to you, and review it to stay motivated throughout the prep process. You will have to plan to regularly study in the weeks or months ahead of the big day. You'll have to also create a study schedule that integrates work and family obligations. Share your goal with others so they can help you stay on track. Seek support from your boss. See if your organization will allow you to study during work hours.

The second step is to tour the terrain. Learn more about the exam's 180-question format. Questions will be a combination of MCQs, multiple responses, matching, hotspot, and limited fill-in-the-blank. You can also closely review the PMP Exam Content Outline below, available in 16 translations, which details knowledge areas covered in the PMP Exam Content Outline that we just discussed. You will have to create a course of action. This is by finding the most useful exam prep resources. Check out the local PMI chapters that can help you find a study group or members willing to guide you. Also, an authorized training providers to help you prepare for the exam, and also many practice exams can be found online or as part of formal training courses.

Fourth step would be to hit the books. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, that is the PMBOK Guide, is a go-to reference book, but the exam isn't only based solely on this. Many PMI members lean on PMP exam prep books. You can head on to projectmanagement.com for more recommendations. Finally, the fifth way is to join the club. Project professionals are eager to provide advice and encouragement. You can check out projectmanagement.com where there are plenty of blog posts and community discussions which are devoted to exam prep challenges and advice. PMI's LinkedIn Project Professional Group is also a great place to post a question about the exam prep process when you've hit a wall. You can also check out the local PMI chapters. These can be another resource when you need a hand.

With this, we move on to the next part of this session, where we'll be talking about PMP Exam Day Essentials. Now that you have made the investment to earn the Project Management Professional certification, it is time to make the commitment to prepare for and pass the exam. Carving out time and securing the proper materials to study requires discipline and focus. As a project professional, you have got what it takes. Firstly, to pad your schedule, visit the test center in advance so you know precisely how to get there. Find the room immediately on test day. Arrive 30 minutes early so you have time to relax before you start your exam. The second advice would be to know your limits. 230 minutes is the time allocated for exam completion. There'll be two 10-minute breaks for computer-based tests. No scheduled breaks for paper-based exams. And third one is to make sure you have your ID, which is valid and government-issued. It should include your photo and your signature, and you don't really have to carry your calculator because you have it built into computer-based tests. Scratch paper and pencils or erasable boards and markers are provided by the test administrator, so again, you don't have to really carry them. And you will find out if you passed before you leave. That is, results are completely computer-based testing, so it will be out immediately after your exam.

Now that we've discussed some of the exam day essentials, let's check out the tips to prepare for PMP. So, the first and the most recommended tip would be for you to opt for a certification training. Edukpa's PMP online course gives you extensive knowledge of project management concepts highlighted specifically in the PMBOK 6th Edition guide and is aligned with the latest PMP exam content outline. If you're someone who's interested in taking up the PMP exam, this certification training is perfect for you. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and register today.

A brief history of PMBOK. It all began way back in the summer of 1969 when the Project Management Institute was founded by a group of people. In 1975, PMI describes its objectives, and since then, it has stood true to it. It has also been instrumental in bringing order and guidance to project management practices. In the 1980s, though efforts had begun to standardize project management practices, procedures, and approaches, and put them together as a reference for project managers to consider, that is the genesis of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, in short, PMBOK Guide, which has so far undergone six editions. The seventh edition of the guide builds on the standard and is structured not around knowledge areas and ITTOs, but around project performance domains, a group of related activities that are critical for the effective delivery of project outcomes. The PMI's Project Management Body of Knowledge, or PMBOK Guide, has basically two parts. The first one is the Standard for Project Management. PMI has affirmed that it will continue its affiliation with the two standard bodies, ISO and ANSI. As with previous PMBOK Guides, PMB7 will continue the new PMI standard for project management. This will eventually carry the American National Standards Institute designation. The second important part is A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, a collation of what PMI considers to be the core body of knowledge it expects all professional project managers to know. Until now, it has been the basis for its principal examinations and qualifications, Project Management Professional and Certified Associate in Project Management. In the future, it will be more of a framework for applying the standard with a wide range of knowledge that PMI will store in its new online repository, PMI Standards Plus. So, this is basically the purpose of the PMBOK.

Now that we know why the PMBOK has been really created and what are its parts, let's move ahead and really understand its history. So, the first version of PMBOK was released in 1996. Although the efforts to put together processes and guidelines to treat project management as a profession began in 1981, and a rough draft of the Project Management Body of Knowledge was published in 1987, it had eight sections with five to six pages in each. The updated version came to be known as PMBOK Edition 1 in the year 1996. This Edition was basically an extended version of a white paper titled "Ethics, Standards, and Accreditation Committee Final Report," which was later on published in the year 1983. Then there was the second PMBOK Edition that was released in 2000. While this Edition corrected errors in the first Edition, it also included newer practices being involved in the world of project management. Remember, while some level of agile project management efforts were going on during this time, it wouldn't be until the sixth edition that some amount of agile guidelines would make their way into PMBOK. This Edition had nine knowledge areas, 39 processes, and 211 pages. Then, moving ahead, the PMBOK Edition 3 was released in the year 2004. By now, you must have noticed a certain pattern that a new version has been released every four years once. Sounds sensible, right? Especially with project management as a profession slowly gathering recognition and being looked at as a skill to be developed. PMI began to standardize the process of basing information in PMBOK as generally recognized as good practice used on most of the projects most of the time.

By now, you must have probably noticed the pattern: a new version of the PMBOK is released every four years once, which sounds pretty sensible, especially with project management as a profession slowly gathering recognition and being looked at as a skill to be developed. PMI began to standardize the process of basing information in PMBOK as generally recognized as good practice used on most of the projects most of the time. Here, the words "generally recognized" means that the knowledge and practices described are applicable to most projects most of the time, and there is consensus about their value and usefulness. The words "good practice" means that there is general agreement that the application of the knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques can enhance the chances of success for many projects. As you can imagine, PMBOK began to be accepted and used by many professionals to guide their thinking and action on their projects. Here, the process count jumped to 44.

Moving on to the next edition, we have the PMBOK Edition 4, which was released in the year 2008. One could say this Edition gave birth to the current edition, that is, the sixth edition, which has the structure of PMBOK. The six constraints: scope, schedule, budget, quality, resources, and risks were introduced in this Edition. Process names were formalized into the current verb-noun format, that is, "validate scope," "control quality," you get the idea. A couple of the processes were deleted, a few were added, and a few more were merged into fewer processes. Count here reduced from 44 to 42. It count reduced from 599 to 517. In 2011, an interesting shift happened where 30% of the questions were changed to confirm the latest 2011 role delineation study. Then came PMBOK Edition 5 in 2013. Not four years later, but this time, five. Every rule has an exception, and for PMBOK, it was the year 2009. This guide saw some of the jarring changes. Some of the processes were moved under proper knowledge areas. Communications Management KA was split into Communications Management and a new KA, Stakeholder Management. Overall process count moved to 47, and here we had 10 knowledge areas with ITTO jump to 619. The guide put on some weight to 589 pages. Again, this was an exercise of not just adding more relevant information into the mix, but also making sure that the processes and the placements made sense. Still, if you were studying for the exam during that time, you would be very much happier when Edition 6 arrived.

Then PMBOK Edition 6 was released in the year 2017. This was the first time ever that the agile word, as well as agile practices-based content, is introduced in PMBOK. Moreover, PMBOK 6 Edition 7 is here, not waiting for four years this time. So, PMI's research found that in the past 10 years, technology and software are driving innovation, and they are also creating new business models and new ways of working. There is a stronger focus on outcomes now than deliverables.

Now let us talk about PMBOK and its 7th edition. PMBOK, as we all know, is a short version of Project Management Book of Knowledge Guide, which lays the foundation of project management. It contains the complete collection of processes, best practices, terminologies, and guidelines that are globally accepted as golden standards within the project management industry. That is why PMBOK Guide is often regarded as the Bible of Project Management. The seventh edition of the guide builds on the standard and is structured not around knowledge areas and ITTOs, but around project performance domains, a group of related activities that are critical for the effective delivery of project outcomes.

Now that we've understood the PMBOK's history and how the seventh edition has come into the picture, let's move ahead and talk about why does PMBOK really change? The impetus for updating the PMBOK Guide has been building for several years. Rapid enhancements in technology and the need for organizations and practitioners to more quickly adapt to changes in the market has caused it to evolve. Practitioners are now tasked with identifying the right delivery approach to get the job done and deliver value. To make sure the PMBOK Guide 7th Edition remains relevant, it must reflect this flexibility and assist the practitioner in managing the project at hand to deliver outputs that enable envisioned outcomes. If PMI wants to remain relevant and continue to meet the needs of customers and the professional community, they have to update its approach to both the standard and the guide portion. It is a great responsibility to ensure the PMBOK Guide is relevant and meets the needs of all customers in a swiftly changing landscape. So, the new edition is very different from previous editions in several significant ways.

Now let's move ahead and discuss some of the aspects influencing PM7. Primarily, as you might have guessed, in view of the new syllabus introduced in 2019, the agile and hybrid project management approaches make their way to mainstream content of the guide, along with the existing predictive delivery approach. But this is not the fundamental change that is really influencing PMBOK. PMBOK 7 firstly moves away from a process-oriented approach to a principles-oriented approach, thus supporting any type of project delivery. You guessed it right, the word "principles" has a stamp of agile paradigm. You could say that the thinking from which PMBOK comes now has been shifted. It has become much, much broader. Another mark change is a shift in scope to address project delivery in addition to project management. The idea seems to be more action-focused or practitioner-friendly. Also, the focus is on project outcomes than just the project deliverables. One could say that PMBOK scope is not widened to just include the project management approaches, but it really also focuses on the project outcomes.

Now there are two fundamental aspects that really influence the changes in PMBOK 7. The first one is the value delivery system, and the second one is the project delivery principles. So, the value delivery system is the holistic system through which projects deliver business value. Business value is the tangible and intangible benefits received by customers, employees, and partners of the business, and projects are the main vehicle that delivers business value by achieving business objectives of the organization. The seventh edition of the Standard for Project Management, on which PMBOK is based on, shows how good strategy leads to intended business value in the organization, and this is done through defining organizational strategies that really help identify business objectives, which then eventually turn into actionable initiatives. The system that enables this flow in a smooth and predictive manner would be the value delivery system to be built in the organization, and this is made possible by the efficient propagation of information and feedback through the predefined challenges. The value delivery system comprises portfolios, projects, programs, operations, and uses a governance system to really manage issues and eventually support decision-making capabilities.

The next aspect that is influencing PMBOK 7th edition is Project Delivery Principles. These are basically the whats and whys of project management that guide the thinking and behavior of people involved in project delivery, so they can really apply their efforts towards a strong project outcome. There are 12 principles defined in the Standard for Project Management. The first one is: be a diligent, respectful, and caring steward. The second one is: build a culture of accountability and respect. The third one is: to engage stakeholders to understand their interests and needs. Fourth one is: to focus on value. The fifth one is: to recognize and respond to systems interactions. The sixth one is: to motivate, influence, coach, and learn. The seventh one is: tailor the delivery approach based on context. The eighth one is: to build quality into processes and results. The ninth one is: to address complexity using knowledge, experience, and learning. The tenth one is: to address opportunities and threats. The eleventh one is: to be adaptable and resilient. The twelfth and the last one is: to enable change to achieve the envisioned future state.

So now let's move ahead to the most important part of the session: PMBOK 6 versus PMBOK 7 in terms of general approach. PMBOK Guide 6 is very prescriptive, not descriptive. It really emphasizes on how, not what or why. But as we've already discussed, in the seventh edition, it focuses on principles to guide mindset, actions, and behaviors that are reflected in bodies of knowledge for project delivery, agile, lean, customer-centered design, and much more.

The next difference is based on the basis of design. So, in the sixth guide, there are specific processes that convert inputs to outputs using certain tools and techniques, so it is basically more process-focused. Whereas the seventh one has domains of interacting, interdependent areas of activity with performance outcomes, as well as an overview of commonly used tools, techniques, artifacts, and much more, basically focuses on project outcomes in addition to deliverables.

The next difference is based on the project environment. The project environment is internal and external on both of these books, so that's one similarity between PMBOK 6 versus 7. The next difference is based on the project application. So, in the sixth guide, most projects can be implemented most of the time, but in PMBOK Guide 7, the principles can be implemented in any of the projects. That's the beauty of it.

Moving on to the next difference is based on its target audience. So, as you can see, in PMBOK 6, it's primarily for project managers, whereas in 7, it is for anyone who is involved in the project, with a specific focus on team members and team roles, including project lead, sponsor, and product owner. In terms of change in degree, there is an incremental revision based on previous editions in the PMBOK Guide 6 Edition, but in the seventh edition, it is a principle-based to reflect the full value delivery landscape. Finally, in terms of tailoring guidance, in the sixth edition, it references to tailoring but no specific guidance about this tailoring, whereas in the seventh edition, you have specific tailoring guidance that has been provided within the book.

Now that we have discussed the major differences between the sixth edition and 7th edition, let's move ahead and talk about when is this book really releasing. So, PMI informed that PM7 will be available from 1st August 2021, and you will be able to get a copy from PMI, Amazon, and all the good booksellers that are available online in your country. The full price of the PMBOK 7th Edition will be $99.

The Project Management Body of Knowledge is a comprehensive guide that outlines the fundamental practices and principles of project management. It serves as a foundational reference for project managers, practitioners, and organizations worldwide, offering a framework to effectively manage projects across various industries and sectors. PMBOK was developed by the Project Management Institute. The PMBOK Guide initially emerged in the 1980s. Over time, it has undergone several revisions and updates to reflect the evolved landscape of project management practices, methodologies, and industry best practices. The evolution of PMBOK standards can be traced through its various editions, with each edition incorporating new insights, methodologies, and feedback from project management professionals globally. As project management itself has evolved, the PMBOK has expanded to encompass a broader spectrum of project management knowledge, tools, and techniques. This modern edition combines the Standard for Project Management and the PMBOK Guide, presenting two principles of project management and eight performance domains crucial for successful project outcomes. Also, do check out Edukpa's Project Management Master Program, designed by industry experts, offers a complete education in project management. Our range of courses lets you earn 60+ PDUs, keeping your PMI certification active while giving you flexibility in your learning journey. This program helps you gain expertise across domains to become a certified Project Management Professional following PMBOK 7th Edition's best practices. Join our project management training now to enhance your skills.

Now let us go through the key knowledge areas.

The PMB guide typically covers key knowledge areas essential for successful project management, including project integration management, in which it helps coordinate and integrate various project elements. Then, project scope management; it helps defining, managing, and controlling project scope. Then, project schedule management; it helps in planning, scheduling, and controlling project timelines. Afterwards, we have project cost management; it helps in estimating, budgeting, and controlling project costs. And then, we have project quality management, which helps in ensuring project deliverables meet quality standards. And the next key area is Project Resource Management; it helps in managing human and physical resources for the project. Then, project communication management; it helps in handling project communications effectively. And the next key area is Project Risk Management; it helps in identifying, analyzing, and mitigating project risks. Then, project procurement management; procuring goods and services for the projects. And finally, we have project stakeholder management, which helps in managing relationships with project stakeholders.

Now, let's move on to understanding what the PMO guide is. The PMO Guide, 7th Edition, represents a significant shift in approach from its predecessor. Unlike the previous edition that focused on processes and knowledge areas, the seventh edition emphasizes principle-based project management. It aims to provide a flexible framework that adapts to various project types, methodologies, and approaches.

Now, let's discuss the key updates and changes in the seventh edition. The first update is a principal-centric approach. The 7th edition introduced 12 principles that form the foundation of successful project management. This principle guides practitioners in making decisions and navigating complexity throughout the project life cycle.

Next, tying and flexibility. Unlike previous editions that followed a more prescriptive approach, the seventh edition emphasizes the importance of tying project management practices based on the project's unique characteristics, context, and needs. It acknowledges that one size does not fit all in project management.

Then, we have domains. Instead of knowledge areas, the knowledge areas in the previous edition have been replaced by eight performance domains. They are: stakeholders, team and resource management, life cycle management, project planning, delivery and control, work measurement, performance and value, and then governance. And finally, complexity and uncertainty.

Next update is the inclusion of agile and hybrid approaches. The seventh edition integrates agile and hybrid methodologies more explicitly. It focuses more on the importance of iterative and adaptive approaches in modern project management practices.

Next, focus on value delivery. Emphasis is placed on delivering value throughout the project life cycle, aligning with organizational objectives and ensuring that projects contribute to strategic goals.

And then, we have updated content and terminology. The language and terminology have been revised and updated to align with current industry practices and to improve clarity and understanding.

Next, digital transformation and technology. The seventh edition acknowledges the role of technology and digital transformation in modern projects. It addresses how technology can impact project management practices and outcomes.

Next, emphasizes on leadership skills. The importance of leadership and interpersonal skills for project managers is highlighted, recognizing their role in driving project success.

The PM Book standards are shaped by various factors and principles to ensure a comprehensive and effective framework for project management. Several key components and principles influence the guidelines provided in the PMB Book Guide, include: industry best practices. PMB Book standards are informed by established industry best practices. They integrate insights and lessons learned from successful project management approaches across various sectors and industries.

Next, global input and expertise. The standards are developed with input from a diverse range of project management professionals, practitioners, academics, and experts from around the world. This collaboration ensures that the guidelines consider diverse perspectives and experience in project management.

Then, continuous improvement. PMB Book standards undergo continuous refinements and updates to reflect emerging trends, technological advancements, and evolving practices in the field of project management. This principle ensures that the guidelines remain relevant and up-to-date.

And then, we have flexibility and adaptability. The PMB Book standards recognize the need for flexibility and adaptability in project management. They provide a framework that can be tailored and applied to various project types, sizes, complexities, and industries. This adaptability allows practitioners to customize approaches to suit specific project needs.

Next, alignment with organizational objectives. The guidelines emphasize the importance of aligning project management practices with an organization's strategic goals and objectives. This alignment ensures that projects contribute to the overall success and objectives of the organization.

Next, principle-based approach. The PMB Book standards are guided by a set of principles that serve as a foundational value for effective project management. These principles include aspects like accountability, integrity, transparency, stakeholder engagement, and continuous improvement.

Next, integration of knowledge areas. The PMB Book standards integrate various knowledge areas, including scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risk, procurement, and stakeholder management. They emphasize the interconnectedness of these areas and how they contribute to overall project success.

And finally, we have emphasis on professional ethics. The guidelines highlight the importance of ethical behavior and professional conduct in project management. They emphasize adhering to ethical standards, integrity, and responsibility in managing projects and interacting with stakeholders.

These components and principles collectively shape the PMO guidelines, providing a comprehensive and standard framework for project managers and practitioners to effectively plan, execute, monitor, control, and close projects while adhering to industry-recognized standards and best practices.

Now, let's understand the key distinctions in PM Book 7th Edition. First, based on the approach: in the sixth edition, it emphasized process-based methodologies, whereas in the seventh edition, it shifted to a principle-based approach, focusing on two guiding principles for project management.

Next, performance domain versus knowledge areas. The sixth edition was structured around 10 knowledge areas (e.g., scope, time, and cost), whereas the 7th edition is organized into eight performance domains, focusing on broader aspects like stakeholder management, governance, and value delivery.

Next, based on flexibility and tailoring. The sixth edition had a more prescriptive approach, whereas in the seventh edition, it advocates for greater flexibility, tailoring project management approaches based on project context and needs.

Then, the sixth edition briefly touched on agile methodologies, whereas the seventh edition integrates agile and hybrid methodologies more explicitly, acknowledging their significance in modern project management practices.

Next, the sixth edition focused on project deliverables and processes. The seventh edition puts a strong emphasis on delivering value throughout the project life cycle, aligning projects with strategic objectives.

Let's not dive into a detailed comparison of PMP versus PRINCE2 certification to help you understand how they differ and which might be the best fit for your career. As previously mentioned, the PMP stands for Project Management Professional, and PRINCE2 stands for Projects in Controlled Environments. The Project Management Institute, a well-known organization in the United States that focuses on project management standards and practices, created the Project Management Professional certification. Whereas the UK government initially developed PRINCE2 to help manage public sector projects. Axelos later took over the management and development of the PRINCE2 certification framework.

So, now that we understand where the certification comes from, so let's dive into their focus areas. The PMB certification covers a wide range of project management practices that can be applied across various industries. It's designed to be versatile, making it useful whether you're working in IT, construction, or healthcare. Whereas PRINCE2 provides a more structured approach with clearly defined steps and stages. It's especially useful for large projects where managing each phase meticulously is very important.

Now, keeping these focuses in mind, let's explore the methodologies that each certification follows. The PMP methodology is based on PMI's PMB Guide, which includes ten knowledge areas such as scope, time, cost, and risk management, and five process groups such as initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing. Whereas PRINCE2 uses a process-based methodology. It has seven principles, seven themes, and seven processes that guide you through the project life cycle from starting a project to closing it.

Now, let's discuss the certification levels in PMP and PRINCE2. So, there is just one level in PMP certification. You either pass and become PMP certified, or you don't. Whereas PRINCE2 offers two levels of certification: Foundation and Practitioner. The Foundation level is for beginners, while the Practitioner level is for those who want to apply PRINCE2 principles more deeply in their project.

Now that we know about the certification levels, so let's discuss what is actually required to get certified. To take the PMP exam, you need either 36 months of project management experience if you have a bachelor's degree, or 60 months if you don't, plus you need 35 hours of project management education. For PRINCE2, you can take the Foundation exam with no previous experience. So, to move on to the Practitioner level, you must pass the Foundation exam and demonstrate your understanding of PRINCE2 methodologies.

Let's also consider how this certification tests your knowledge. So, the PMP exam consists of 180 questions, and you have 230 minutes to complete it. The passing score is not officially published, but it's generally around 61% to 65%. Whereas the PRINCE2 Foundation exam has 60 questions, and you have 1 hour to finish it. The Practitioner exam is more advanced with 70 scenario-based questions, taking 2.5 hours, and the passing score for both is around 55%.

Now that we have discussed the examination process, so let's discuss the core principles behind each certification. The PMP focuses on 10 knowledge areas such as project integration management, project scope management, project time management, as well as cost, quality, resource, communication, risk, procurement, and project stakeholder management. PMP certification also covers five process groups, as previously discussed, from initiating the project, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing the project. On the other hand, PRINCE2 is built on seven principles such as continued business justification, learn from experience, defined roles and responsibilities, manage by stages, manage by exceptions, focus on products, and tailor to suit the project environment. And it covers seven themes such as business case, organization, quality, plan, plans, risk, change, and progress. And it also covers seven processes such as starting up a project, initiating a project, directing a project, managing a stage boundary, controlling a stage, managing product delivery, and closing a project.

So, moving forward, it's important to consider the overall approach each certification takes. The PMP approach is process-oriented and adaptable, making it suitable for various industries and project types. Whereas PRINCE2 is more structured and process-driven, which is ideal for complex and larger projects, especially in a controlled environment.

Now, let's look at where this certification are best applied. The PMP is versatile and can be applied to projects in many industries, including IT, construction, and healthcare. Whereas PRINCE2 is best suited for large-scale projects or programs, often in government or enterprise settings. Lastly, let's discuss the strengths of each certification. PMP is recognized worldwide for its comprehensive approach, flexibility, and adaptability. Whereas PRINCE2 offers a clear structure, detailed processes, a consistent methodology, and strong documentation.

Now that we have covered the differences between PMP and PRINCE2, let's discuss about the cost of each certification. So, to obtain the PMP certification, there's an exam fee involved. So, for PMI members, it is ₹23,280 in India and $45 in the US. And for non-members, it is ₹45,100 in India and $575 in the United States. And now, moving on to PRINCE2 certification cost. PRINCE2 Foundation certification cost in India is ₹39,184.92, and in the US, the cost of PRINCE2 Foundation certification is $680. Whereas the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam cost in the US is $755.

Now, let's take a look at the available purchase options for preparing for your PRINCE2 exam in India. So, for exam prep, for those who prefer self-study, this package is priced at ₹39,140, and it includes the official ebook and exam voucher but does not have interactive learning or other advanced features. And for e-learning, this is a step up for learners who want a more interactive experience. For ₹94,657, you get everything included in the exam prep package, plus interactive e-learning and auto-mark sample papers. And in e-learning plus, this is the most comprehensive package designed for those who want maximum preparation. So, for ₹1,14,226, you get all the features of the e-learning package, along with a free exam retake and an official mock exam to ensure your readiness. And each option has its own benefits, so you can choose the one that best suits your study preference and budget.

Now that we have covered the cost of PMP and PRINCE2 certification, so let's explore the benefits each offers and how they can enhance your career in project management. The benefits of PMP certification include: global recognition. The PMP certification is widely recognized across industries and offers career growth opportunities in various sectors. And the next benefit is better earning prospects. So, most often, professionals who have a PMP certification are attached to bigger paychecks and better job placements. Next, extensive skill set. It provides deep knowledge of processes and practices in project management, as well as tools that help a professional manage complex projects. Next, versatility. The PMP certification is not limited to a single methodology. It covers predictive, waterfall, and agile methodologies, making it the most adaptable standard approach for the majority of industries. So, with PMP, you are equipped to handle any project, showcasing your adaptability and preparing for any challenge.

Now, let's discuss some of the benefits of PRINCE2 certification. And it includes: structured approach. The PRINCE2 methodology is clear, process-based, and defined stages, thus ensuring project consistency and success. Next is scalability. It can be used on projects ranging from size to complexity, and projects of any complexity level are perfectly handled in a very flexible way inside its structured framework. Next is the validation. PRINCE2 is highly recognized, particularly in the UK, Europe, and Commonwealth countries. Its strong reputation as a foundational learning system for public and government sectors validates your choice of certification. And then we have accessibility. As we have already discussed, the PRINCE2 Foundation course does not require prerequisites or experience, which makes it open to entry-level and senior professionals as well.

All right, now that we have covered the benefits of each certification, so let's dive into some of the key tips to help you decide between PMP and PRINCE2. So, these tips will guide you based on your industry, career goals, and project type, and more. So, the first tip is: evaluate your industry first. Consider your industry. If you work in IT, healthcare, or finance, PMP might be the better choice, since it's highly recognized worldwide across these sectors. And on the other hand, if you work in government or the public sector, especially in Europe, PRINCE2 could be more beneficial. It's widely adapted in these fields and offers a structured approach that's perfect for large organizations.

Next is: think about your long-term career goals. So, PMP is incredibly flexible and works across any industries, making it a strong choice if you're looking for global opportunities. Whereas PRINCE2, however, is the best choice if projects are broken into stages with clear control mechanisms. So, if you're aiming for roles that require you to manage highly structured projects, then PRINCE2 might be the better fit.

Now, let's talk about the type of projects you usually handle. So, PMP is versatile and can adapt to both traditional waterfall and agile environments, making it suitable for a wide range of projects. Whereas PRINCE2 is tailored for projects that require a lot of documentation and a process-oriented approach. So, if you often manage complex, document-heavy projects, then PRINCE2 might be more aligned with your needs.

Another important factor is the certification requirements. PMP demands significant project management experience and education, making it a more challenging but rewarding certification. PRINCE2, however, offers a Foundation level with no prerequisites, which makes it more accessible, especially if you are just starting out in project management.

Next, recognition is also key. So, PMP is globally recognized, which means it's highly respected across many countries and industries. So, PRINCE2, while also respected, is particularly strong in the European Union and the UK and Commonwealth countries. So, if you're planning to work in these regions, PRINCE2 could give you a local edge.

Lastly, let's compare the cost and time investment. As we have previously discussed, the cost and duration of PRINCE2 Foundation are generally less expensive and do not require previous experience. And PRINCE2 Practitioner costs more than the Foundation but requires passing the Foundation exam first. Whereas PMP has varying costs based on PMI membership status and has specific experience and education requirements. So, if you're looking for a faster entry into project management certification, PRINCE2 might be the way to go.

So, there you have it: six key tips to help you choose between PMP and PRINCE2. Remember, the right certification depends on your specific career path, industry, and personal goals. So, whichever you choose, both certifications are valuable and can significantly boost your project management credentials.

With the help of project management tools, teams can plan, monitor progress, and complete tasks more quickly and effectively. They also improve collaboration and streamline workflows. So, these tools provide a wide range of functionalities, from scheduling and task assessment to reporting and analytics, enabling teams to effectively manage resources, collaborate, and produce positive results.

So, now let's explore these must-have tools and see how they can transform your project workflows. First in the list, we have Asana. Asana is an application for managing projects on the web and mobile. It's simple to start using but strong enough to handle your whole business. It offers many features to suit your organization and also track work in a way that matches each team's way of working, promoting clear communication among teammates.

So, now let's explore some of the features offered by Asana. The key features of Asana include project management functionalities like projects, project view, tasks, custom fields, and status updates. It also offers capabilities for goals and reporting, such as goals, reporting, dashboards, and portfolios, along with workflows and automation tools like rules, forms, and bundles, and many more features.

So, now let's have a look at the pricing details of Asana's plans. The Personal plan is free forever. And then the Starter plan is $10.99 per user per month, billed annually, or $13.49 billed monthly. Next, the Advanced plan is $24.99 per user per month, billed annually. Pros of Asana tool are: Asana's user-friendly interface makes task management easier for teams. Also, the versatile collaboration tool; it improves team communication and productivity by providing a range of collaboration features like task assignment, file sharing, and comments.

Now, let's move on to the next tool that is Trello. Trello is a web tool for managing projects. It's used by startups and big companies alike, offering a visual way for teams to work together. It's really flexible and easy to use, keeping track of both big and small details using a Kanban-style approach.

Now, let us talk about some of its key features. It provides multiple views; observes your team's projects from various perspectives and angles. Next, automation and Butler; streamline tasks and workflows through automated actions with Butler automation. And then, Power-Ups; enhance team capabilities by connecting their preferred tools to Trello plugins, and many more. The pricing details for Trello's plans are: Free plan is $0 per month. Standard plan is $5 per user per month, billed annually. And next, Premium plan is $10 per user per month, billed annually. And they also have an Enterprise plan, which is $17.50 per user per month, billed annually. Pros of Trello include: user-friendly interface that is easy to use and visually intuitive. It also provides flexibility; it is adaptable to various project management needs and allows customization and integrates with various tools.

Up next, we have Wrike. Wrike is a flexible tool for managing projects and teamwork, aimed at making workflows smoother and boosting productivity. It provides complete visibility and control over tasks, helping teams work faster and more efficiently, whether they are together or remote. The key features include: comprehensive dashboard for better oversight, visual task process analytics, and more. Next, efficient automation to cut down on manual labor and boost productivity. Define and implement automated workflows. Next, versatile mobile and desktop apps with an extensive application experience. Work without a hitches from any location. Wrike offers three pricing plans: The Free plan is $0 per user per month. The Team plan at $9.8 per user per month. And the Business plan, the most popular one, is priced at $24.80 per user per month.

Next tool in the list is Jira. Jira serves as a widely used project management tool, particularly recognized for its bug and issue tracking capabilities. This platform enables streamlined planning, tracking, and management of agile software development projects. Its customization options for workflow and team collaboration cater to agile methodologies, fostering a focus on delivering value efficiently through adaptable scrum boards. And some of the key features of Jira tool include: timelines; it effectively manages work using powerful agile boards. Next, scrum; it facilitates scrum methodologies for project management. Then, Kanban; offers Kanban boards for visual task management. And then, reports and insights; it provides comprehensive reports and insights for project tracking. The pricing details for Jira plans include: Free plan, $0 per user. Then, Standard plan is $8.15 per user. Premium plan is $16 per user.

Following Jira, the next project management tool we are going to explore is monday.com. monday.com is a flexible project management tool that is well known for its user-friendly interface and adaptable processes. It provides a platform for collaboration that helps teams to effectively plan tasks, track progress, and increase overall output. Because of its flexibility, project management can be carried out more efficiently and effectively across a range of industries and team sizes. The key features of monday.com tool include: dashboards; obtain real-time insights to simplify decision-making. Then, we have Gantt; visualize project milestones and dependencies. They also have integration, automation, Kanban boards, files, and forms. Now, let's have a look at the pricing details. The Free plan is free forever for up to two seats. Then, the Basic plan is $8 per seat per month. And then they have this Standard plan that is $10 per seat per month.

The next tool is Smartsheet. Smartsheet is a dynamic collaboration and project management tool that is well known for its adaptability and simplicity of use. It provides interfaces that resemble spreadsheets so that teams can plan, monitor, automate, and report on work in real time. Because of its adaptability to a wide range of industries, it offers a platform that can be customized to meet different project management requirements. Top features of Smartsheet include: activity log, administration control, attachments, API access, automation, and many more. Then, moving on to pricing details. The Free plan costs $0 and it is for one user, up to two editors. Then, the Pro plan costs $7 per user per month, billed yearly, and a maximum of 10 users, unlimited viewers. And then, going to the Business plan that costs $25 per user per month, billed yearly, minimum 3 users, and limited editors.

The next project management tool in our list is ClickUp. ClickUp is a unique project management tool designed to accommodate the various requirements of teams in different industries. Well known for its flexibility, it offers a wide range of tools and a programmable workspace that enables teams to work together productively, monitor progress, and complete tasks on time. With an array of features and an easy-to-use interface, it serves teams of all sizes with the goal of streamlining processes and increasing output. Some of the key features include: task management that customizes tasks to suit projects of any scale. Then, document creation; craft visually appealing documents linked directly to tasks. Then, goal tracking that monitors work progress aligned with strategic objectives. And then, visual collaboration; it transforms teams' ideas into vibrant visual collaborations on whiteboards. The pricing details for ClickUp: it is free forever, that is best for personal use. Next, it is Unlimited, best for small teams, and it costs $7 per member per month. And then they also provide a Business plan that is best for midsize teams that costs $12 per member per month.

The next tool in our list is Kissflow. Kissflow is an enterprise-level low-code platform made to work with a range of user roles, simplifying workflow automation and application development without requiring a lot of coding knowledge. This platform allows various business requirements, enabling teams to automate procedures, optimize workflows, and create unique applications that meet their unique needs. And some of the key features include: app builder, process builder, bots, governance, and integration, and many more. The pricing details for Kissflow is: the Basic plan starts at $1,500 per month, and it is limited features, simple use cases, and allows internal users only. Then, Enterprise plan provides custom pricing and provides all features, complex use cases, and allows internal and external users.

The next project management tool is ProofHub. Proofhub is a robust project management platform renowned for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive functionalities that enhance team collaboration and streamline project workflows across various industries and team sizes. The core features of ProofHub include: task management that organizes and tracks tasks efficiently, Gantt charts to visualize project timelines and dependencies, forms to create and manage forms for data collection, then project templates to access pre-designed project templates for quick setup, and reports to generate and analyze project reports. And finally, announcements that share important updates and information with the team. And they have many more features. Moving on to the pricing details: Essential plan starting at $45 per month, which is unlimited users and core features included. Then, they also provide Unlimited Control plan starting at $89 per month. It allows unlimited users and advanced features included. And the top 10 project management tool is Adobe Workfront. A flexible tool for managing projects, Adobe Workfront centralizes tasks, resources, and workflows together with features like task management, workflow automation, and comprehensive reporting. It improves collaboration and speeds up project planning. After being purchased by Adobe, it will be integrated with the Adobe suite, especially in the Adobe Experience Cloud's marketing and creative project management areas. The key features include: work automation, goal alignment, scenario planning, budget and expense management, workflow management, and proofing and approvals.

So, talking about the first certification that we have in our list is PPM, which is Professional in Project Management. So, talking about this, the PPM certification is a trademark of GQM. This basically comprises of project management modules, which includes how to plan, execute, and control and complete the projects. That entire details are going to be mentioned or covered in this certification. Now, the requirement for this is, if I talk about, you have to complete the e-course. The cost is $100 and $340 basically for the next attempt. The questions you're going to get is 150, and the validity is going to be five years for the certification. Then you have to renew.

The next one that we have in our list is MPM, MPM basically stands for, as you can see on my screen as well, which is Master Project Management. So, what exactly MPM is? So, MPM course has been designed to include presentations, practical exercises, highly interactive group sessions, intended for professionals like program managers, executive directors, PMO managers, and directors, etc. Now, talking about the requirement that we have is, you basically require a minimum three years of master project experience plus you should have some training on that. And in this, the questions that you get is only 20, and the duration is 35 minutes, and again, the cost is the same like the last one, which is $134, and the validity is five years.

Now, the next one that we have in our list is APM, so APM stands for Associate in Project Manager. So, basically, APM certificate is an entry-level project management certification that demonstrates that an individual possesses the necessary entry-level project management knowledge. So, here the requirement that we have is e-course completion. You have to complete the e-course, and the number of questions which are being asked is 50, and duration is 60 minutes, and the cost for this is $200, and validity is two years.

Next one that we have is, you know, Certified Project Manager. So, this is basically a project management certification for individuals who have basic project management knowledge. The good thing is that in this case, there is no prerequisite that is required. Here you get 120 questions, you have to cover in 80 minutes. It's valid for a lifetime. The cost is $735.

Next one is ACP, which is Agile Certified Practitioner. So, basically, here the candidate is going to utilize the agile practices in project management, wherein he's going to showcase their increased professional adaptability through agile tools and techniques. Now, the requirement for this is that it requires 21 hours in agile practices, and you basically get 120 questions that you have to cover in 180 minutes. The cost is $445 and $495 for the next attempt, and the validity is 3 years.

Next one that we have in the list is PRINCE2. So, PRINCE2 basically, you know, it's a path which basically defines the roles and responsibilities which need to be performed by every team member who is going to be managing the project. So, whether it's a junior member or a senior member, it's going to provide for each and every team member. And the requirement for this is like, you should have a basic knowledge, but not that such a specific prerequisite. The number of questions which are being asked are 75, you have to answer in 60 minutes. It's valid for 3 to 5 years depending on the region, plus cost varies with the region as well.

Now, one thing I want to share with you before we move on, the structured learning at EduReka. So, if you're highly interested to take the course from us, what is going to be the structured learning? How the entire course structure, how the entire learning is going to look like? Let's take a look on that. So, in the very first class, you're going to learn about PMP certification, you know, what exactly is PMP, how to get a certification. You're going to get the hands-on on that. Then after that, the next class, you're going to learn how to create a high-performing team and the perspective hands-on. And then, in the third class, you are going to learn about how to start a project, the perspective hands-on. And then, in the next class, you will learn about how to do the work with the hands-on. And in the next class, you will learn about keeping the team on work, how to do the hands-on. The last class, you will learn about how to keep the business environment in mind with the hands-on. And at the end, you're going to become the superhero who is going to have a cape like this, just kidding, you're going to be a superhero with the knowledge.

Now, talking about the other certification that we have in the list is the CompTIA certification, which is again one of the renowned certifications as well. So, the CompTIA Project+ certification provides business professionals with both the inside and outside of Information Technology. So, to have the certification, there is no such prerequisite. You get 90 questions, and you have to answer in 90 minutes. So, one minute for every question. Cost is $329, valid for three years.

Next one that you have is CSM, which is Certified Scrum Master. So, the CSM certification is designed to provide students with a strong foundation in Scrum. So, basically, it delivers people with certain kinds of skills that they can have to make it a success organization. Now, if you talk about the requirement, in order to get the certification, you should have completed the course of CST or CSC. Where the questions are being asked is 50, duration is 60 minutes. The cost is only $29 because you are going to pay already in the past certification that you're going to have for CST or CSC, and the validity is two years.

Next one that we have is CAPM, which is Certified Associate in Project Management. So, this is basically a certification program which is intended to demonstrate candidates' understanding of the fundamentals, terminology, and process of effective project management. Now, in this case, the only requirement which is very simple is to have 23 hours of program management education. And in this case, you're going to get a little bit more questions, like 150 questions that you have to answer in 90 minutes. And the cost of this is $225 or $300 depending on it's a new order, the renewal, and the total validity is 3 years.

And here, the one which is like a top in the ladder that we have is PMP, Professional Project Management. So, PMP certification is a widely recognized certification that is basically utilized a lot, wherein we are using it at so many places. So, wherein if you are becoming a project manager, you want to even become a program manager or TPM as well, Technical Program Manager, which is again one of the other highest-paid jobs as well. So, you can easily get, you know, this certification. At the same time, this certification is highly recognized. If you have this certification, it's going to be like a cherry on the top for you. So, wherein you can easily get the advantage, wherein you can easily get a high package as compared to others who have not cleared the certification and all. So, these are some of the primary advantages that we get here for PMP.

So, talking about PMP, one of the again other advantages this is that if you're going to have it in a resume, you're going for the job, you're going to get much more preference as compared to others. So, basically, in the case of PMP, what exactly is this? Is a globally acknowledged professional certification program in project management which legalizes a professional education, their experience, skill, and competency required to lead and direct projects. Even like, for example, if you're going to give you, you know, give an interview, and you have this certification on your table, then other people who are trying to apply for the job, they are not going to get that much preference that you're going to get. So, in other words, if there are 10 resumes in front of HR, and then like one person has the certification, they're going to pick up this candidate first. The reason is because it's expected that if you already have a certification, then you know how to handle the project efficiently, what can be the shortcomings, what can be the downfalls, how you can cope up with, what kind of challenges you can get, and how you how to recover from all those challenges. So, all those kinds of things are basically covered in this certification. So, that's why the HR who is going to take the interview, they will expect that even the interviewer who is going to take the interview, they will expect that you already have a good knowledge about it. So, that basically is the PMP certification.

Now, talking about the requirement, here in this case, since this is like in the ladder as well, so here in this case, you require 35 contact hours of project management education. The number of questions which are being asked are 200, and you have to ask in 240 minutes. And the cost is $45.535 depending on it's a new or a renewal, and the validity is 3 years. So, one thing I want to share before we move on that PMP is again one of the vital certifications. Many companies want to give preference to it because here what they feel is like that the person who had the knowledge can, you know, take over the business. In addition to that, they also believe that if you're going to have this certification, you can also help in growing the company. That's when certain cases, companies also sponsor you, like they bear the cost of this.

A project road map is a tool for outlining project tasks, achievements, and outputs on a timeline. Its primary goal is to provide a high-level glance of the overall project plan and explain its phases. It also contains important scope, risk, and resource management information. Because it serves as a guide, the project road map is an excellent communication tool for keeping stakeholders informed throughout the project life cycle. It is an overall document that explains the project strategy and why it is being implemented. As a result, the project manager can use the project road map to ensure that everyone involved in the project understands the plan.

Now, let us take a look at who is a project manager. A project manager is a professional who is in charge of planning, executing, and overseeing the completion of a project within specific parameters, such as scope, time, and budget. They connect resources, manage stakeholders, and reduce risk to ensure project success. In addition, a project manager frequently acts as the primary point of contact for the project team and stakeholders, enabling communication and alignment throughout the project life cycle.

As we are clear with who is a project manager, now let us discuss about the skills required for a project manager. If in the field of project management, success is dependent on a set of core skills that enable leaders to deal with difficulties and drive results. The essential skills include: communication skills. Project managers require strong verbal and written communication skills in order to effectively communicate deals and direction and provide updates to team members, stakeholders, and clients. Clear communication helps meet everyone's expectations, resolve conflicts, and keep all project stakeholders up-to-date on project progress.

Next, we have managerial skills. The best project management skills are risk management and the ability to estimate the budget so that the project stays on track, is completed on time, and has no project overruns. Knowing everything about your industry, including project management tools, strategies, and progress.

Next, we have business skills. Project managers need business knowledge to understand how project deliverables and objectives add value and benefits to the organization, customers, and employees. This understanding allows project managers to make informed decisions, arrange tasks, and effectively allocate resources to ensure successful project outcomes.

Next, we have problem-solving skills. Project managers need problem-solving skills to identify issues, analyze root causes, and implement effective solutions. Strong problem-solving skills allow project managers to reduce risk, address problems quickly, and keep the project on track.

And the last one is adaptability. Project managers should be adaptable and flexible to deal with changing requirements, unexpected difficulties, and shifting priorities. The ability to adjust plans, transfer resources, and turn strategies as needed is essential for successfully navigating unknowns and delivering results in spite of changing circumstances. Project managers also benefit from knowing project management methodologies such as agile and waterfall.

Now, we are clear about the skills required for a project manager. Let's move on to the roles of a project manager. Project managers deal with their project teams, guiding and directing them to achieve the project objectives. They make essential choices about the project scope, resource allocation, and risk management, ensuring that the project stays on track and meets the organizational goals. Project managers are in charge of developing complete project plans that outline the scope, schedules, budget, and resources needed for successful project execution. They set up tasks, set priorities, and create timelines for ensuring that the project runs smoothly and effectively to achieve project objectives. Project managers must navigate complex stakeholder relationships and balance interests. Project managers identify potential risks and uncertainties that affect the project objectives and create measures that reduce their impacts. Project managers manage project closure activities, such as completing outcomes, obtaining client approval, and documenting lessons learned. Lastly, they carry out post-project examinations to assess performance, identify areas for improvement, and document guidelines for future projects. Overall, a project manager is in charge of managing all aspects of the project from start to finish in order to deliver successful results that meet the stakeholders' expectations and goals.

Now, we'll move on to the main part: project manager road map. Developing a plan to become a project manager requires a combination of education, experience, and skill development. Here's a road map outlining the essential steps to become a successful project manager. First is education and certification. Obtaining a bachelor's degree, while not always required, a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Project Development, Engineering, or a related field can serve as a solid foundation. Certification: Obtaining a relevant certification can greatly improve your qualifications and authority as a project manager. EduReka offers the Project Management Master Course. EduReka's Project Management Master program is designed by industry experts to provide students with a thorough education in project management. Our well-researched project management course allows you to earn 60+ PDUs while keeping the PMP certification active, and you can customize your own learning path.

Next, we have gain relevant experience. Start with entry-level positions. Begin your career by working in entry-level positions on project teams or in relevant fields to gain valuable experience. Seek internship and cooperative education opportunities can improve hands-on experience in project management settings. Volunteer for cross-functional projects within your organization to gain experience with various aspects of project management.

Then, we have build a network. To establish a professional network as an aspiring project manager, begin by defining your career objectives in the field. Create an online profile or LinkedIn profile and join project manager groups to build an online presence and network with professionals. Attend industry conferences, meetups, and networking events to connect with like-minded people and grow your network.

Next, we have demonstrate leadership. As a project manager, you must demonstrate leadership through an array of actions and behaviors. To begin, the project vision and direction should be clearly defined, with objectives and demands communicated to the team. Effective communication is important. As a team leader, you must ensure that the team members understand their roles and responsibilities and provide guidance and support as needed. Encouraging collaboration and creating a positive team environment are also important aspects of leadership.

Moving on, we have develop a portfolio. Creating a project manager portfolio entails selecting a variety of projects, gathering relevant documentation, writing clear case studies highlighting accomplishments, and sharing the portfolio through professional channels with regular updates to ensure relevancy.

Next, we have seek employment opportunities. To find jobs as a project manager, define your objectives, update your resume, use job search platforms and networks, prepare for interviews, consider contract work, stay current, and be active.

Lastly, we have master the interview. Thorough preparation is essential for a successful project management interview. Investigate about the company and the role. Learn more about your project objectives and challenges. Familiarize yourself with typical project management methodologies, tools, and networks. Prepare examples from your experience to demonstrate successful project outcomes, effective team management, and dealing with challenges. During the interview, demonstrate passion, confidence, and professionalism while asking thoughtful questions about the position and the company.

Following these steps and actively investing in building and nourishing your professional network will allow you to make valuable connections, gain insights, and assess opportunities to help you advance your career as a project manager. I hope now you have a clear picture about the project manager road map. Let's move on to the salary of a project manager. How much is a project manager paid? According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a project manager is ₹20,75,000 per year in India and $99,200 per year in the United States. Organizations constantly seek skilled project managers to ensure the successful planning, execution, and completion of projects.

Now, we will discuss about how can I have a successful project manager career. Our first point is enhance technical and soft skills. Begin with entry-level positions and advance through more complex projects. Obtain relevant certifications such as PMP or CSM. Connect with professionals in the field. Navigate challenges with flexibility. Clear and timely communication is critical. Encourage and trust team members' abilities. Identify and mitigate risks. Concentrate on meeting project objectives and stakeholder satisfaction. Stay current, learn, and improve your approach.

Now, we will take a look at who can switch to a project manager role. Many professionals from various backgrounds are able to rise to the position of a project manager if they have the necessary skills and experience. Some common backgrounds that lend themselves well to the transition into project management are: technical roles; engineers, IT specialists, software developers, and other technical professionals.

Next, we have business and management; individuals with business or management degrees and experience in areas such as operations, finance, and marketing. Then, we have healthcare; healthcare professionals such as nurses, doctors, or administrators have experience managing patient care processes. Lastly, operations and logistics professionals with experience in operations, supply chain management, or logistics are familiar with managing workflows and resources.

So, let's understand what a project manager does. A project manager is responsible for planning, executing, and overseeing a project from its start to completion. As I mentioned earlier, the primary responsibilities include defining project goals, creating a detailed project plan, allocating resources, managing the project team, monitoring progress, and ensuring that the project is delivered within the specified time frame and budget. Project managers also play a crucial role in risk management, problem-solving, and communication between stakeholders. Ultimately, they are accountable for the successful outcome of the project, meeting objectives, and delivering the desired results.

Next, moving on to the types of project managers, and they are: technical project manager; so they specialize in managing projects related to technology or specific technical solutions. Next, construction project manager; so they focus on overseeing construction projects, ensuring they are completed on time and within budget. The next type is IT project manager; so they handle projects related to Information Technology, software development, and system implementations. Next, marketing project manager; they manage and coordinate marketing campaigns and initiatives. The next type is product manager; they focus on managing the development and launch of new products.

Now, let's go through the steps to become a project manager. First is the education. A degree in project management, business administration, engineering, or a similar field might be something you should think about obtaining. Specific project management programs are offered by certain colleges and organizations, but a lot of project managers have different educational backgrounds, and real-world experience frequently counts just as much as formal education.

Next, gain experience. Begin by working in roles that involve project-related activities. This could include working as a project coordinator, assistant, or a team member. Seek chances to assume leadership roles in the areas of project planning, execution, and monitoring.

Next, develop essential project management skills. We have communication. Communication is essential because you will need to convey information clearly to team members and stakeholders. Leadership skills are essential for guiding a team, and resources, timelines, and tasks can all be managed more effectively with organizational skills. Next, problem-solving abilities are useful for dealing with obstacles that may arise during a project. So, along with the soft skills, hard skills and technical skills are very crucial for a project manager. So, some of the hard skills and technical skills that...

Are required to become a successful project manager are technical tools. Mastery, so proficiency in project management software like, for example, Microsoft Project ASA, is very crucial. Next, budgeting and cost management skills in creating, managing, and adhering to project budgets are fundamental. The next skill is risk management, so identifying, assessing, and mitigating risk is essential for project success. Next, domain expertise, having in-depth knowledge of the specific industry or domain in which the project operates, is essential. Then, we have project methodologies, so getting familiarity with various project management methodologies like Agile, Waterfall, or Scrum, and knowing when and how to apply them based on project requirements and team dynamics is very important. Then, data analysis, ability to analyze project data to derive insights, make informed decisions, and optimize project performance by leveraging quantitative information is very important.

The next step in becoming a project manager is to consider obtaining a top certification. You can consider obtaining project management certifications to improve your credentials. The Project Management Professional and Certified Associate in Project Management certifications are also widely accepted. So, these certifications frequently require a combination of education, experience, and passing a certification exam. So, do check out the PMP certification training course by Edureka, globally recognized in project management. So, our live instructor-led training covers key project management concepts from PMBOK Guide 7th Edition, aligned with the latest PMP exam content outline. So, enroll now to learn the universal language of project management. Additionally, take a look at Edureka's Project Management Master Program, crafted by industry experts to offer learners an extensive education in project management. Advance your project management skills by enrolling in training sessions now and unlock your full potential along with the certification. Networking is very important, so attend industry events, join project management organizations, and network with experts. So, networking can provide useful insights, mentorship opportunities, and job leads. Then, apply for project management positions. Look for entry-level project management positions or roles that allow you to gradually advance into a project management role. Highlight your relevant experience, skills, and certification on your resume. Then, continued learning. So, at lastly, don't forget to stay up to date on industry best practices, emerging trends, and new project management tools and methodologies. Continuing education and professional development contribute to long-term success in the field.

Let's now take a look at how much project managers typically earn in India. Project managers earn an average annual salary ranging from 11 to 25 lakhs. While in the United States, the average yearly salary for a project manager is $105,000. So, let us start with the easy interview questions. So, the first question is, how will you define a project? Now, as per the Project Management Institute, a project is known as a temporary endeavor with a definite beginning and a definite end. To explain this in simple terms, a project can be defined as a sequence or a series of tasks that should be completed to obtain the end result. A project could range from simple to complex. It could be handled by one team or many teams, but every project will have these listed characteristics. First, it will have a defined life cycle, which is basically a start date and end date. Next, it will have an iterative task which leads to predefined action. The third characteristic is a project always creates a new end product. So, this is about projects. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what is a project charter? Now, a project charter is a document which includes all the details about the project. It mainly includes information about the scope, objectives, and the individuals who are involved in the project. It also includes the roles and responsibilities of each project member. This project charter acts as a contract between the sponsors, key stakeholders, and the project team. So, I guess you have some idea about what is a project charter. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what are the techniques that you use to collect project requirements? Now, before we talk about the techniques used to collect project requirements, let us first understand what is project requirement. So, project requirement can be defined as what stakeholders expect from a project or from the product of the project. So, all these requirements should be collected in a project and also managed properly. Now, some of the important techniques that you can use to collect project requirements are gathering the data, analyzing the data, observing the performance of individual team members, and then organizing or grouping of requirements or ideas, and then prioritizing the requirements and working on them first, and last one is prototyping. So, these were some of the techniques that you can use to collect project requirements. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what is project management? Now, this is a very basic question. You can answer this by saying, project management is a discipline that helps in implementing various processes, methods, knowledge, skills, and experience for achieving the objective of a unique project. Now, project management is nothing like the usual management. One key factor we differentiate these two are that project management has a final deliverable and a definite timeline, whereas the usual management is an ongoing process. Also, a project manager must always follow the 6P rule of project management, which is: Proper planning prevents poor project performance. So, this was about project management. So, now let us move on to our next question.

So, next question is, explain the project management life cycle process. This question can be asked right after the previous question. Now, the project management life cycle is a series of various activities that are crucial for accomplishing project objectives or targets. This helps in structuring the efforts and simplifying them into a series of logical and manageable steps. The project management life cycle consists of four simple phases. The first phase is initiation. It's the first and the most vital step in the life cycle of a project where the initial scope of the project gets defined and the resources are committed. This process group ensures the success of your project. The next phase is planning. In this process group, an appropriate level of detail is noted down for the project to plan time, cost, and the resources needed. It estimates the work needed and to also manage the risk effectively. The next phase is executing. Now, this process group consists of the processes which are used to complete the work defined in the project management plan. It's all about achieving the project's objective. It involves tracking, reviewing, and regulating the performance of the project. Also, if you need to identify potential problems quickly and take corrective actions. And the final phase is closure. Now, this process group is an important part of project management which is performed to finalize all the project activities to complete the project. This means finishing all activities across all process groups, disbanding the project team, and signing off the project with the customer using the project closure report. So, this was the life cycle of a project management process. Now, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what are the most important skills that a project manager should possess? So, these are some of the skills that a project manager should have. So, firstly, he or she should have good communication skills, next leadership, and then team management, negotiation, personal organization, and also risk management. So, these are some important skills that every project manager should possess. With this said, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what quality should a project manager have? Now, this question is kind of similar to the previous questions, but these talks about the quality that the project manager should have. So, project managers should be good at listening, observing, and learning. They should understand the client's needs and what they want. They should also know their team members and their personalities. They should take opportunities to learn some new skills and also help out around the workplace. And finally, they should try to master the tools that their company uses. So, these are some of the qualities that every project manager should have. Now, moving on to our next question.

Our next question is, explain the different types of leadership styles. Now, leadership is a quality that every project manager should possess. Every leader has his own leadership style to guide the team. The leadership style refers to a leader's characteristics and behavior while directing, motivating, guiding, and managing its team members to bring the best out of them. So, in a project, they hold the responsibility to motivate others for better performance, creation, and innovation. There are basically four types of leadership styles, and your leadership style should be situational, depending on the type of team you're working in and the importance of the task involved in the project. So, the four types of leadership styles are delegate, supportive, directing, and coaching. With this said, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, how would you decide what is an ideal project? Now, before you decide on what is your ideal project, you must consider the following questions. These questions will help you in narrowing down your choices while making sure that your productivity maximizes. So, the first question is, what type of work do you enjoy the most? Next, ask yourself, how much you want and are allowed to show your creativity. After that, the next question is, under what type of deadlines do you work the best? Next, how comfortable are you with trying out new things on a project? Next, do you prefer to always receive full credit for your work? And if you are okay with working as part of your team, or you prefer to work alone? Now, based on these questions, then you can decide what is your ideal project. So, now moving on to our next question.

Our next question is, when will you consider that your project is off track, and what will be your steps to ensure that it finishes within the given timeline? So, firstly, to detect whether your project is on track or falling behind the agreed timeline, you must check the following pointers. First, is the budget under control or not? Next, you need to check if the project scope keeps on changing. And next, you should check if the original goals are still present or not. And if the answer for all these pointers are true, your project is definitely off track, and you must take immediate action to bring it back on track. Few steps that you might take are: you can discover the root cause, you can put in more time and effort to catch up, then you can try to follow the original goal or vision, next you can readjust the resource management according to the project requirements, and finally, you can keep open communication with the clients and the stakeholders. So, these were some of the steps that will ensure you that you finish the work within the given timeline. So, let us move on to our next question.

And next question is, what is the difference between risk and issues? Well, one of the most prominent differences is issues are more present-focused, whereas risks are more future-focused. Next, issues always tend to be negative in nature, and risks could be either positive or negative. The next difference is issues are generally documented in an issue register, whereas risks are generally documented in a risk register. The last difference is the response to an issue will be an issue workaround, whereas the response to risk is based on risk response planning. So, these were some of the differences between risk and issues. Now, let us move on to the next question.

Our next question is, why does a project manager need to be proactive? Now, a project manager has a higher chance of finding out the risks and implementing solutions in order to minimize them. Being proactive lets them have more control over the project's tasks and resources. They can keep a better track of all the tasks and issues to work towards implementing small changes and improvements for higher productivity and efficiencies. They can organize frequent meetings for developers to talk about the problems, brainstorm solutions, share best practices, and so on. A project manager also has to compare the actual cost and the time spent on tasks on a weekly basis with the planned numbers. So, these were some of the reasons that why a project manager needs to be proactive. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what are the different communication styles used in the project? Now, the type of communication you use in a project will completely depend on the type of project you're working on and the type of team you have. But the types of communication styles that a project manager uses are written, electronic, face-to-face, and responsive. These are some of the different communication styles used in the project. So, now let us move on to the next question.

Our next question is, what do you understand by time and material contract? Now, this is a type of contract that is a hybrid contractual agreement containing aspects of both cost reimbursement and fixed price contract. Time and material contracts resemble the cost reimbursable type arrangement, but they have no definite end. This contract is generally used in projects whose accurate project size cannot be estimated or when it is expected that the project requirements would most likely change. So, this was about the time and material contract. Now, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what will you do if any of the customers are not happy with the quality or the result of the project by the end of the project? Now, you can answer this question by saying, to handle an unhappy customer, you must show the customers that you value them. Next, you need to understand why they're not happy and figure out what modifications they need. You should also try to incorporate the modifications as soon as possible, and if this does not work, then try to convince and explain the customers that the project fits in with the agreed scope. So, these are some of the steps that you can take to handle any unhappy customer. So, now let us move on to the next question.

Our next question is, what are the steps that you will take to do risk planning? So, there are five important steps in risk planning. The first one is identifying risks. This step includes identifying and describing all the possible risks that might affect your project and its results. So, to avoid this, make a note of all the possible risks, and during this step, you can start to prepare a project risk registry, which is a register to keep all the details of all the possible risks. The next step is to analyze the risk. Once risks are identified, the next step you should take is to analyze the likelihood and consequences of each risk. Now, this is a very important step because you will understand the nature of the risk and its effects on the project goals and objectives. We should also input all this information into your project risk registry. The next step is to prioritize your risk. Now, after analyzing all the possible risks, it is time for you to evaluate and prioritize the risks by determining the risk magnitude. The risk magnitude can be calculated as a combination of likelihood and consequences. So, on top will be the risks which have the most chances of occurring and whose consequences are bad for the project, and vice versa. You should also add this risk ranking to your project risk registry. The fourth step is to treat the risk. During this step, you analyze the highest-ranked risks and plan strategies to treat or avoid them. You can create risk prevention and reduction strategies and also plan for emergencies in this step. You then add these risk treatment measures for the highest-ranking or the most serious risks to your project risk registry. This step is also referred to as risk response planning. And finally, the fifth step is to monitor and review the risk. Now, this is a step where you review your project risk registry and with the help of it, track, review, and monitor the risks. So, these were the steps that you will take to do risk planning. Now, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, customer or development team, which one is the most important for a project manager? Now, you can answer this by saying, both the teams are equally important as both of them are customer-oriented. The development team works on developing products for the customers, while the customer team works on helping the customers with the products. A product manager should invest equal time with both teams and understand the requirements, solve the problems in order to increase the chance of productivity. Both the teams are interdependent on each other, so a project manager should focus equally on both teams. So, now with this said, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what methods will you use to deliver the results you are looking for? Now, the answer for this question will change for every individual, but before you go to the interview, learn about the company, understand how the company carries out its job. So, according to that, answer this question. But some of the points you can use here is, first of all, analyze and plan all the work to be done. Next, clearly understand and communicate the work properly. Following that, you can use project collaboration tools to increase the productivity of the tasks, and you can conduct weekly meetings and take updates, and if there is any problem, you can solve it, and you can prioritize the higher priority tasks and complete them first. Next, you can come to the low priority tasks. So, these are some of the methods that you can use to deliver the results. So, now let us move on to our next question.

The next question is, work from home has become the new normal in the post-COVID world. Now, how well are you prepared to manage a remote team? You can answer this question by saying, you're very well prepared to manage a remote team. Then you can talk about a few points on how you will manage a remote team. Some of the pointers that will help you answer this question is, you can have a well-organized workspace, you can have clear communication with your team members, you can conduct weekly meetings to discuss project updates and address any problems regarding the project. Then you can prioritize the important tasks first and work on them. Next, you can use project collaboration tools to improve the productivity of the tasks and also the teams. So, these were the easy questions. Now, let us move on to our intermediate questions and answers.

The first question here is, what is stakeholder analysis and power interest grid used for? Firstly, stakeholder analysis is a technique used for identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing potential stakeholders who might be associated with the project in some way or another. It can also be defined as a process that should take place before the project begins, where you identify or analyze the stakeholders and group them according to various factors like interest in the project, their contribution to the project, and their influence to the project. This helps in determining how to prioritize and communicate with different stakeholders. So, this was stakeholder analysis. Now, a power interest grid is used to classify the stakeholders according to the power over the project and the interest on their results, and based on these two criteria, you can allocate a position for them in each of the power interest grid. So, for stakeholders in the higher power and the higher interest grid, they should be managed very closely, and for stakeholders in the high power, low interest quadrant, we should put efforts to keep them satisfied, but as they have low interest, you should not always disturb or bother them. Next, for stakeholders in the low power, high interest quadrant, we should keep them informed about all the project updates, and for stakeholders in the low power, low interest quadrants, they should just be given the least priority. You can just put minimum effort to them and just monitor them in case the position on the grid changes to something more significant. So, this was about stakeholder analysis and power interest grid. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, how to prioritize tasks in a project? Now, prioritizing tasks in a project is very important. It helps in ensuring successful and timely completion of your project. Now, in order to prioritize the tasks, you should follow the below pointers. The first one is, you should list the tasks and responsibilities. Next, you need to distinguish between urgent and important. Next, you need to assess the values of each task and according to them, order the tasks by estimated efforts. You should also stay flexible and you should be ready to adapt and also know when to say no. So, these are some of the steps that will help you prioritize your tasks in a project. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what is a WBS and how does it help in preparing a good plan? Now, WBS stands for Work Breakdown Structure, which is very important in preparing a good plan. Now, as the name suggests, WBS is breaking up a project work into smaller and manageable parts, which are known as work packages. WBS helps in preparing a good plan as it is integrated with cost, scope, and schedule baselines, which ensures that the project plans are going as planned. So, instead of planning for the entire project, it would be easier and more efficient to break down the project into parts and then plan for those individual parts. So, it'll be easier to plan, and even when there is a problem, it is easier to identify and solve the problem. A good WBS plan helps to achieve optimal results and leads to the development of a robust and accurate plan. So, this was about WBS. Let us move on to the next question, which is, how to handle a difficult stakeholder involved in a project? Since stakeholders hold a high authority and are an integral part of a project, having their consent is very important, but sometimes they can be a little difficult to handle. In such cases, you should accept the authority without fighting. You should remove all the negative emotions and understand the issues. You should ask for advice and listen to them. You should be tactful and honest with your decisions and praise them and try to establish a connection. And finally, you should improve your communication with them. So, these are some of the steps you can take to handle difficult stakeholders who are involved in your project. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what are the tools mostly used for improving the process activities? So, some of the majorly used tools in the industry are comparing and baselining a process, flowcharting, followed by value stream mapping, and then we have cause and effect analysis, and last, we have hypothesis testing. So, these are some of the tools which are commonly used for improving the process activity. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, how will you manage the team members who are not working to their full potential? To bring the best out of your team members, you must try to avoid any type of emotional confrontation with the team and stakeholders. You should encourage them to think and act on their own ways, which will help your team members in developing their decision-making abilities. Next, you should develop the performance tolerance threshold. Following that, you should strengthen the potential of the weak employees by surrounding them with stronger employees. Next, you should understand what motivates your employees and show your employees where they fit in the company's mission and vision. And then you should arrange a proper follow-up process and reward and appreciate their improvement to encourage them more. And finally, you should be ready to let them go if there is no scope for improvement. So, with this said, let us move on to our next question.

The next question is, being a project manager, how will you gain your team's agreement for results? Now, trust and agreement are key factors to facilitate proper communication and coordination in a team, which brings out the best outcome. So, to gain agreement from your team members, you must keep expectations clear from the very beginning. Next, you should build achievable milestones so that they don't feel pressured. Next, you should collaborate and maintain team trust throughout the project and agree on terms with the team and ask their opinions as well. Next is, you should schedule frequent accountable meetings and establish outcome results and consequences. And finally, you should clear out any conflicts among team members as soon as it arises. So, these were some of the steps as a project manager you can take to gain your team's agreement for results. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Question: What is the formula for calculating the 3-point estimating method? Now, there are two ways in which you can calculate the 3-point estimation. The first one is by triangular distribution, where you can calculate E by adding P + M + O / 3. Now, P stands for pessimist, O stands for optimist, and M for most likely. The second formula for calculating the 3-point estimating method is beta or PERT distribution, which is E is equal to pessimist + 4 times of most likely + optimist divided by 6. So, these were the two ways you can calculate the 3-point estimating method. So, now let us move on to the next question.

Our next question is, what is the difference between risk impact and risk probability? Now, risk probability is the chance that a risk will occur, whereas risk impact is the cost when a risk does occur. So, here's a table of risk probability versus risk impact in which you can see there are four categories. The first one is high impact and low probability. Next, we have high impact and high probability. And third, we have low impact and low probability. And finally, we have low impact and high probability. Now, as a project manager, you should focus more on high impact and high probability risks and less on low impact and low probability risks. So, this was the major difference between risk impact and risk probability, and also tells you about how they're related. Now, let us move on to the next question.

Our next question is, explain the triple constraint triangle in project management. Now, the triple constraint triangle is a combination of three key components which acts as the most significant restriction of any project. So, the three constraints in this model are time, cost, and scope. Now, each of these constraints forms the vertices of a triangle with quality as a center factor. So, this was about the triple constraint triangle in project management. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what are the major types of risks you might encounter in a project? So, here's a list of the most frequently encountered risks in a project. First, we have cost risks, then schedule risks, performance risks, resource risks, technology risks, market risks, legal risks, strategic risks, governance risks, operational risks, and external risks. So, these are some of the major types of risks you might encounter in a project. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, you'll be using quality assurance and quality control for ensuring the quality of your final deliverables. Now, what is the difference between them? This question can also be asked as, what is the difference between quality control and quality assurance? So, well, quality control is used to verify the quality of the output, and quality control is done in the end with a check if the end product meets the expected standards, and it is a strategy for detection. Whereas quality assurance is a process of managing the quality. It is done throughout the execution and development process, and it is a strategy for prevention. So, you see, quality control is done at the end, and quality assurance is done during the process. So, this is the major difference between quality control and quality assurance. So, with this said, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, how does organizational structure influence resource acquisition? Well, an organization's structure determines a lot of factors that influence resource acquisition, such as the level of project management, the organization's environment, the communication between the team members, and how the project manager works with the team, and many more factors. Now, talking about a few points on how organizational structure influences resource acquisition are: the first one is by project management. Now, during the process of your project management, your organization structure can either be a tight structure where all the steps that you take are managed very closely, or a loose structure where there are not many rules and a little liberty in performing the task. The next point is communication. Now, the communication between the team members to complete a project is greatly impacted by the organization structure. There should be good communication between team members and also inter-department communication. It will create a friendly environment where people can share their ideas and suggestions, which in turn helps in the proper flow of the project. The next factor is chain of command impact. Now, this means the hierarchy of an organization. The organization structure should be in such a way that when a higher authority communicates a requirement, it should be well understood and followed by the project managers and their subordinates correctly. Also, the project manager should know their subordinates so that it can pick the right people for the particular task. So, this was about how organizational structure could influence resource acquisition. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, Define planned value, actual cost, and earned value. First, talking about planned value, planned value is a budget which is authorized to an activity of work breakdown structure. This planned value can be allocated in various phases over the lifetime of a project. So, to calculate the planned value, use the relationship: Planned Value = BAC * Planned Percentage of Complete. Next, talking about earned value. Now, earned value is a measure of work performed or the budget authorized for that work. In simple words, it's the budget authorized for completion of the work. And to calculate the EV, we should use the relationship: Earned Value = Total Percentage of the Work Completed * BC. And finally, talking about the actual cost. Now, actual cost is a cost which is incurred for the completion of work or the task during a specific time period. In simple words, the cost you incur while you're completing the work in which EV is measured. Now, actual cost can be measured as it is related to planned value, which is budgeted, and earned value, which is measured. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what is effort variance? Effort variance in simple terms can be defined as the difference between the planned effort and the actual effort required to undertake the task. And to calculate the effort variance, you can follow this formula: Effort Variance = (Actual Effort - Planned Effort) / Planned Effort * 100. So, this is about effort variance. Now, let us move on to the next question.

What is the critical path method? Critical Path Method or CPM is a resource utilization algorithm which is used for scheduling project activities. So, this algorithm is used to create a structure in which the tasks are executed. To construct a CPM, it should include the following things: first, a list of all the tasks that have to be completed for the project. Next, the dependency between these tasks to understand which task is dependent on which task, and finally, the time estimate to complete these tasks. And based on these criteria, you can prioritize the tasks which have to be performed on priority. So, these were the intermediate interview questions. So, now let us move on to the advanced interview questions and answers.

The first question in advanced interview questions is, what is the importance of maintaining a requirement traceability matrix? Requirement Traceability Matrix or RTM is a document which ensures that all the requirements that are defined for a particular system are linked to each and every point during the verification process. RTM also ensures that they are tested with respect to various test parameters and protocols. The importance of maintaining a requirement traceability matrix is that RTM can be defined as a powerful planning tool which helps in determining various factors like the required number of tests, what are the types of tests required, and whether these tests can be automated, done manually, or whether an existing test can be reused. Also, using the RTM, you can get results in the most effective test execution, which provides a report of an overall defect status, focusing majorly on business requirements. So, this is why you should maintain a requirement traceability matrix. So, now let us move on to the next question.

The next question is, what are the processes and process groups in the project management framework? A process in the project management framework is defined as a way of doing tasks that are involved in the successful completion of the project. These processes define the actions to be taken along with the sequences. There are around 49 processes in the project management framework embedded in various process groups. Now, process groups are a collection of processes that are applicable through various stages of a project. There are five process groups in which 10 knowledge areas and 49 processes are mapped into the five process groups: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and then closing. So, with this said, let us move on to the next question.

Our next question is, what is RAID in project management? Now, RAID in project management stands for Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies. These are very important items that a project manager must have knowledge about. So, risks are the potential problems that can either have a positive or negative impact on the project, resulting in a deviation of the final result from the original plan. Next, actions. Actions are the last that you perform throughout the project. And then we have issues. Issues are the hurdles that you might face in the course of the project which must be successfully resolved, or it might cause the project to fail. And finally, decisions are the charges of action or task in the project. Now, let us move on to the next question.

Our next question is, what are the things you should track while managing a project? Now, not a single methodology. Some of the things you need to track while managing a project are strategic goals and core values of your organization, key business drivers of your project, next, any constraints in the project or any stakeholders involved in the project. We should also measure the risks that might occur and the level of complexity of the project, and finally, I should track and estimate the size and cost of the project. So, now let us move on to our next question.

The next question is, explain Ishikawa or fishbone diagram. Now, fishbone diagram is also known as a cause and effect diagram or Ishikawa diagram. It is a visualization tool that is used to categorize the potential causes of a problem in order to identify its root causes. A Japanese quality control expert named Kaoru Ishikawa invented this fishbone diagram in order to help employees to avoid solutions that will merely address the symptoms of a much larger problem. You can see the fishbone diagram over here. What will be the effect of the options? So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, explain the entire team forming process you follow for your team. So, there are development stages of a team which consist of forming, storming, performing, and adjourning. So, let us talk about the steps one by one. First, we have forming. So, in this stage, the entire group unites for the first time, with the focus to build relationships with the team members and to clarify the mission of the project. Next, we have storming. Now, in this stage, team members get more comfortable in sharing their opinions with the team, and there is the possibility of internal conflicts within the group. After this, we have performing, and by this stage, the team members learn to trust and accept each other. Each of the team members become competent, autonomous performers, and is able to handle the decision-making process without anyone's supervision. And finally, we have adjourning. Now, this is the final step of the team forming process, which takes place after the project completion. In this stage, the team is broken up and resources are released. So, this was the team forming process you should follow for your team. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what is Pareto Principle analysis? Pareto Principle analysis is a strategic technique for decision-making. It is basically used for the selection of a limited number of tasks which can bring a significant overall effect. This principle follows the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, and states that 80% of the results should come from 20% of the actions. Now, this helps in prioritizing the work, especially in large projects with a number of small tasks. So, this was about Pareto Principle analysis. Now, let us move on to our next question.

Which is, how does the RACI Matrix help in resource management? Every individual in a project should understand his or her responsibility. Each team member's role can be defined using a RACI Matrix. Now, RACI stands for four roles which stakeholders may portray in a project. It maps out who is Responsible, who is Accountable, who must be Consulted with, and who should be Informed. Just to explain this better, Responsible defines who is completing the task. An Accountable defines who is making decisions and taking actions on the task. And Consultant means who will be communicated with regarding the decisions and tasks. And Informed defines who will be updated on decisions and actions taken during the project. With the RACI Matrix, there'll be no role or task-related ambiguity among the team members. So, this is how RACI Matrix helps in resource management. So, with this said, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what kind of bid documents can be used for procurement management? Now, let us first understand what is a bid document. Now, a bid document is a document that comprises of a proposal, which is often made through a bidding process. It can either be done by a person or a company and will include what are the important factors like delivery schedule, the availability of the product, the prices, and so on. So, the different types of bid documents that are used for procurement management are: Request for Proposal or RFP. Now, RFP is a document which is used by buyers to specify all their purchasing needs and any supporting requirements which will help the sellers understand what are the needs of the buyer. Next, we have Request for Quotation. Now, RFQ is a formal document used as a request for price quotation and to specify all the requirements for certain processes clearly. But the major difference between RFQ and RFP is that RFQ is a relatively smaller document, and it only provides the specification of the item to be purchased and a request for a quotation, which is unlike RFP. The next bid document is Request for Information. Now, RFI is used to seek information on various aspects from the future buyer. RFI can contain questions asking about information about the bidder, such as the financial statement for the last 10 years, details of the processes of the organization, details of past accomplishments, and so on. The next bid document is Invitation for Bid. Now, this invitation for bid is a document which is used for inviting potential bidders to come and participate in the bidding process. And next, we have Request for Bid. Now, RFB is used to obtain financial bids for specific purchases from a selected group or set of suppliers. And next, we have Purchase Order. A purchase order is an order raised for favoring a supplier for regular purchases. And finally, we have Contract or Agreement. Now, contract or agreement can be described as a mutual agreement between the two parties, that is, the buyer and the seller. So, these were some of the types of bid documents that are used for procurement management. So, now let us move on to the next question.

Our next question is, what is a Decision Support System and how many types of decision support systems are there? DSS or a Decision Support System is an information application which basically provides the user relevant information which it has collected from a variety of data sources. This DSS can help by providing information which leads to better decision-making. Now, a decision support system is made up of three different parts. The first one is knowledge base. Now, this contains all the information which are basically collected from both internal and external sources. Next, we have software system. Now, this is composed of a model management system. Now, a model is basically a simulation of a real-world system with a goal of understanding how the system works and how it can be improved. And finally, we have user interface. The primary goal of a decision support system's user interface is to make it easier for the user to change the data that is stored on it. So, this is about decision support system. Now, let us move on to the next question.

Name the 10 key knowledge areas as mentioned in the PMBOK Guide. Now, all the project management processes in the PMBOK are divided into 10 areas, which are: Project Integration, Project Scope Management, Project Time Management, Project Cost Management, Project Quality Management, Project Human Resource Management, Project Communication Management, Project Risk Management, Project Procurement Management, and Project Stakeholder Management. So, these were the 10 key knowledge areas as mentioned in the PMBOK Guide. So, now let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, explain the principle of Six Thinking Hats. Now, the Six Thinking Hats is a very interesting way of understanding an issue from a variety of perspectives. You can only think from six different perspectives, or you and your team members could do this. Now, each of the six hats represents a different point of view. Let us talk about them one by one. First is the white hat. Now, a person who has the white hat will only talk about the information you have to consider it both from within and outside the scope of the discussion. Next, we have the red hat. A person who has the red hat should express their thoughts or feelings. The red hat signifies emotion. You can express emotions and feelings and share likes, dislikes, loves, and hates. The objective here is to address the credibility of emotions that are a part of certain discussions. Next, we have the black hat. A person who has a black hat is responsible for identifying any mistakes or roadblocks. They can be judgmental, think about everything that could go wrong, think about the worst-case scenarios so others can find a solution for it. And then we have the yellow hat. The yellow hat symbolizes brightness and optimism. A person who wears this hat should think of positive aspects related to a subject as much as possible. They should also encourage the other team members. And fifth, we have the green hat. A person wearing the green hat should come up with new innovative ideas. They should be creative. They should know all the information problems and come up with new ideas that will solve the problems and help in better productivity. The main purpose of wearing this hat is to generate as many new ideas as possible. And finally, we have the blue hat. Now, the blue hat hat is a thinking hat. It is all about thinking. It is the hat which ensures the Six Thinking Hats guidelines are observed. They decide the agenda and timeline, how long does the session last, when do you need to wear a particular hat, and for how long. So, basically, the group's controller should wear the blue hat for that session. So, this was the principle of Six Thinking Hats. With this said, let us move on to our next question.

Our next question is, what are the DMAIC and the DMADV methodologies? So, firstly, DMAIC and DMADV are methodologies which are designed so that a business process will be more effective and efficient. First, talking about DMAIC, it stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. DMAIC is limited to improving existing processes. It does not address anything regarding the design of new products, services, or processes. D in DMAIC stands for defining a problem which all output has to be improved, customer, and the processes associated with that problem. Next, M stands for measuring the data to make a baseline for improvement. Next, A stands for analyzing the data to find the main cause for the defect. And then I stands for improving the process by trying out different ideas and solutions. And finally, C stands for controlling process implementation to sustain the improvements. Now, talking about DMADV, it stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify. DMADV, unlike DMAIC, is majorly focused on the process of designing new products, services, or processes. D in DMADV stands for defining design goals. Next, M stands for measure and identify the characteristics that are critical for the quality. And then A stands for analyzing the data to find the best design. Then D stands for planning and designing the product, service, or processes. And finally, V stands for verifying if the designed product works well as planned under real-time and simulated conditions. So, this was about DMAIC and DMADV methodologies. So, now let us move on to our final question.

What is the PDCA cycle? PDCA cycle stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle. It is a four-step problem-solving technique which is used to improve business processes. It was originally developed by an American physicist named Walter H. Shewhart. It is a cycle which means it keeps iterating or repeating these four steps. The first step is Plan.

Steps include planning a project in such a way that it defines clearly what the project goals are and what are the best ways to work towards the goal. It is basically setting up a framework for all the operations that should be done.

The second step is to execute the actions which are planned. This due stage can be broken down into parts. The first part includes assigning the task to the individual and training them. The second part includes the actual process of doing the work. And the third part is noting down the progress and insights for future evaluation.

Next, the third step is check. This step is used to check if the project objectives are met. It also includes checking if the completed project addresses both successes and failures. So, if there are any failures, further changes have to be made.

Next, the fourth step is to act. This step includes performing any corrective actions that were needed after the evaluation in the previous step. Now, this cycle can be repeated until you get the optimal results.

Let's get started with the first question. There are some basic questions. There are certain scenario-based questions. On top of that, we have also a few questions which are identified where we'll be solving some of the examples that will be asked in the PMP examination. So, let's let's get started with the first question.

The first question to you all is: Define project scope. So, when you define project scope, there are various options that we can think of. The first option is: It is design of experiments that is used to complete the project work. It is the combination of cost and the schedule which is required to complete the project work. It is a description of the required work that is necessary to complete the project. It is a description of the required work and resources that are needed to complete the project.

So, if you talk about the scope of the project when we define while working on the project, it's definitely the description of the required work that is necessary to complete the project. Now, please understand that sometimes these options could be a bit confusing. When you'll appear for the PMP examination, you'll find out of the four options, two options are very, very close. Here also, you'll find that the option number third and the option number fourth, they appear to be very close. But here, definitely there is a difference that if you see the fourth option, it says it is the description of the required work and resources that are needed to complete the project. But if you talk about project scope, it doesn't talk about the resources needed. Project scope talks about only the work to be performed on the project. So, resources needed will need to be determined based on the project scope, and that is definitely covered as a part of the scope management process. So, the answer is the third answer here.

Moving to the next question, it talks about what is a program. Now, we did cover this as a part of the training, as well as you all know. We have options here: Program is a very large and complex project, a collection of projects which have common resources, a collection of sub-projects having a common goal, and a collection of sub-projects having a common customer.

Now, if you remember what we discussed and learned about program, it basically talks about the collection of projects which have common resources. So, if you take a look at the different levels that we talk about, so it all starts by having a clear-cut strategy at an organization level, and that might be within some portfolio. Then your portfolio gets divided into various programs, and within a program, you'll find different projects. So, ultimately, it is a set or it is basically a collection of projects, and these projects are basically segregated under the common goal under that portfolio that we talk about. So, that's nothing but your program. So, therefore, the correct answer is: A program is a collection of projects which have common resources.

Let's move ahead to the next question. Which of the following comprises the Project Life Cycle? So, we discussed about Project Life Cycle which comprises of various phases. I'm sure you will agree that here the answer is phases. The Project Life Cycle and product life cycle is different. Within a product life cycle, you may be doing various projects. There are multiple projects that are involved, and to launch that product, you may have undertaken a project because, as we saw in the definition of the project, by the end of the project, what we get is a product or service or some outcome that we get. So, definitely we undertake a project in order to produce a product. But the product life cycle is different altogether. It's a pretty longer life cycle, and you may undertake various projects within a life cycle of a product. But Project Life Cycle will have various phases. Phases like, if you take an example of software delivery life cycle, then you would agree that we start with initiation, then we start gathering requirements, then we analyze those requirements, we design them, we build them, we test them, and then we deploy. So, there are various phases that are involved as a part of the Project Life Cycle. Milestones are going to be part of the various phases. By the end of the phase, we achieve some milestone. And estimation is one of the activities that we perform when we break down our scope item into various activities, and we estimate that activity in terms of duration, in terms of cost, and then that actually helps us in determining the overall budget for the project and for that matter, the duration as well. And activities, as we just discussed, the phase can get split into various activities as we go on performing them. All right. So, a Project Life Cycle will have various phases into it.

Let's move to the next question. Being the project manager of the ABC project, you have allowed subsequent project phase to begin even before the predecessor phase completes. Which of the following relates to this scenario? Now, there are concepts like crashing and fast-tracking. While working on the project, we have to take certain corrective decisions and certain preventive decisions. So, one of the decisions that we take considering the way progress has been going on on the project, of course, by analyzing various metrics, we take decisions like, let's fast-track the project or crash the project. So, when we say fast-track, we actually start activities in parallel. And when we say crashing, we actually put more resources to the activity so that we can complete that activity fast. But of course, crashing has its own disadvantage, and it actually increases a lot of project risk, plus most importantly, since in crashing you're actually putting more resources, that means there is more cost involved. So, apart from risk, the cost involvement is also on a higher side. And therefore, usually on the project, people go for fast-tracking. So, that's what exactly is mentioned in this scenario. So, this covers the fast-tracking scenario. Of course, risk management is definitely nowhere near, and tandem scheduling is given just sometimes to confuse the participants. So, the correct answer is fast-tracking.

Moving to the next question. The person or group providing the resources and support for the project, program, or portfolio, and is also responsible for enabling success, is called as who is that person who is really involved into so many such activities? Is it the project manager? But if you see, the project manager may not be involved at a portfolio level or may not be involved at a program level. What about senior manager? Senior manager is just a designation, right? Is that really the role that we're talking about here, or is that really a person that we're talking about here? What about the sponsor and the clients? There are two other options that are given. But if you see from the project point of view, the appropriate answer here is the sponsor, because sponsor is the one who is actually going to provide you all the resources and support that is required. Sponsor is the one who actually gives you the project charter and thereby empowers you to use the resources on the project. And therefore, it's a sponsor who is ultimately the one who is going to provide the resources and support for project, program, and portfolio.

The next question is: Which of the following cannot be the part of group activity techniques? Now, there are various group activity techniques that are conducted, and I'm sure some of you can recall the ones that we covered as a part of this training, like brainstorming, affinity diagram, nominal group technique. You may have already been a part of some brainstorming session. So, brainstorming session could be done to solve a problem or think creatively, come up with various ideas, etc. And once we have a list of ideas, then what we do essentially, we use affinity diagram, right? We just try to group the ideas, whichever the ideas which belong to a particular category, we try to group them by creating the affinity diagram. Nominal group technique builds on that, and nominal group technique actually helps us in involving participants a bit more and getting inputs from the participants in order to shortlist the best possible idea. So, these three things are definitely going hand-in-hand with the group creativity technique. But one thing looks to be completely odd here, which is vendor bid analysis. And therefore, it's very clear now that if this question, if you read, sometimes this question could be very confusing because I have seen people do not read it clearly, and we might just miss that word "not". So, if you read it carefully, it says which of the following cannot be the part of the group activity technique. So, some of these questions are very tricky because I have seen sometimes if you miss that "not", then you may answer it wrongly. And because we're talking about here which is not a part of the group activity technique, and that's now very clear after our discussion that it's the vendor bid analysis.

Moving from here, we'll go to another scenario-based question. Being the project manager of the thermal power plant project, you need to manage the construction of an administrative unit building. Which of the following technique will you use to quickly estimate and decide the use of historic estimate and expert judgment? Now, if you recall the estimation techniques that we had gone through, we had gone through several estimation techniques like bottom-up estimation or the PERT formula, etc., and other examples which are mentioned here on the screen, like analogous estimation, parametric, historical, expert judgment. Analogous estimation talks about basically building on the historical information that you already have in the organization, maybe as a part of the organizational process assets. Every organization will have its process assets. As a part of that, they build a lot of information within the organization which is very useful when we do the estimation. Now, expert judgment is asking some of the SMEs, some experts, about their opinion in terms of the estimation. Historical estimation, we again compare it with the historical information about the project that is available, similar kind of a project, similar complexity, similar size, etc. Parametric estimation here is what we talk about the various parameters which are units, and then we try to understand the number of units that are required. Like in software, for example, I have seen people using various levels of skill at the expert level in the team member. For example, if I have got expert skill, so how long that expert skill member takes to code a particular complexity of the code? So, we divide a code complexity to low, medium, and high, and we've got different levels of skill levels, right? So, these are the various parameters I'm taking into consideration, and based on that, I'm estimating how long would it take for that developer to complete the coding activity. All right. Similarly, analogous estimation. This is where we factor in a couple of things. One is, of course, historical information that is available in the organization. On the top of that, we ask experts. Why do we ask experts? Because that historical information may not be enough to come up with a very clear estimation. Of course, analogous estimation itself is a high-level estimation, and it's very useful when we have to go back to the client with some number. And in order to be a bit better in terms of what we are estimating, in analogous estimation, what we do is historical estimation and the expert judgment is in a way combined. So, we try to gather information of the similar kind of a project that is done in the past, and we also take opinion from the expert. So, we combine that and then we go back to the client with the estimation. So, therefore, the answer is the analogous estimation.

Let's now take one example and try to solve that. So, this question is about calculating the Schedule Performance Index. So, this question is: What is the Schedule Performance Index of a software development project where earned value is $6,000, planned value is $5,000, and actual cost is $4,000? So, to solve this, what we'll do is, we'll take a quick look at the numbers and we'll of course use the formula just so that we can do it quickly. I have copied that entire question over here in the Excel sheet so that we can calculate it. And what I would suggest is, when you will actually do it in the examination, I would suggest to one thing: when you enter into the exam and when you'll get the blank sheet of paper, the first thing that you'll be doing is try to translate whatever you remember, all the formulas that you'll remember, on that piece of paper and keep it ready so that during the sums, when you actually solve these various examples, then you should not struggle to recall the formula. All right. So, let's presume that you have already jotted down all the formulas like this, okay? So, all the key formulas you have already jotted down something like this, all right? So, like present value or for that matter, various estimation formulas like PERT or standard deviation, variance, etc., or for that matter, the other formulas which will be helpful to you in calculating the earned value analysis, cost variance, schedule variance, right? Or estimate at completion, estimate to complete. So, all these are some of the key formulas that we're talking about: variance at completion, schedule performance index, cost performance index. Sometimes there could be a question on TCPI, which is to complete performance index. Again, we need to understand which approach should I be using. Is it based on the estimate at completion, or is it based on the budgeted completion? So, accordingly, we'll have to use the formula. Similarly, for total float, what is the formula? Communication channels, you can expect one question on communication channels. Likewise, these are some of the key formulas which are expected to be written down when you reach there. The first thing that you'll be doing is that you'll be actually putting these formulas down on a piece of paper so that these formulas will be ready when you will try to solve the questions.

So, this is the question where we are trying to calculate the SPI, which is Schedule Performance Index, of a software development project. Now, I just refer to this sheet where I have jotted down all the formulas, and I pick up the formula which is required for Schedule Performance Index, which is Earned Value divided by Planned Value. That means, to get the Schedule Performance Index, I need to have Earned Value, I need to have Planned Value. So, I first check into the question: Do I have these two values to calculate SPI? So, when I take a look at the question, I see here, this is pretty straightforward question that way. So, I have got Earned Value, which is $6,000, and I have Planned Value, which is $5,000. So, that means calculating SPI will become just a straightforward affair. So, what do I do? I just divide Earned Value by Planned Value. So, I get 1.2. So, SPI of 1.2, that means my planned value, my earned value is more than the planned value, which is definitely a good situation to have. SPI and CPI, which is Cost Performance Index, and Schedule Performance Index should be more than one. If it is more than one, then it is good. That means we are ahead of schedule. So, the answer to this question is 1.2, and we are ahead of schedule, which is definitely a good situation to be in when we are working on the project. So, with that quick example, let's move on to some other topic.

Now, the question on costing. The question is: Cost Baseline is the output of which of the following? So, there are various processes that we have to work through when we work on the PMP certification preparation, and just to let you know, just so that you know, you would agree in terms of the number of processes that we have to understand and go through. So, we have got various such processes, right? So, we have process groups like initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, closing, and we have knowledge areas. There are 10 of them, starting with integration management to the stakeholder management, and there are total 49 processes within these process groups and the knowledge areas. So, this particular question is referring to the cost baseline. So, that means this should be a part of the cost management. So, under cost management, if you take a look at, we've got certain processes that we have to work on, like Plan Cost Management, Estimate Costs, Determine Budget, and Control Costs. These are the four processes which make the project cost management. Now, what are the options given here? So, Cost Baseline is output of what? So, one is Plan Cost Management. So, Plan Cost Management is the process in itself, right? So, as we see here, Plan Cost Management is one process option, which is fine. Second is Estimate Cost. Estimate Cost is another option that is there. Determine Budget. Okay, that's another process. And Control Cost. That means the option contains all the four processes. So, then confusion arises. Now, if you apply here logic, it's pretty straightforward that I'm talking here about cost baselining. So, I will be doing baselining only when I will determine budget, which is based on the activity and the duration. If you remember, since we are talking about cost here, so obviously we're talking about the money part. So, we're talking about a cost estimation here based on the activities. So, if you think logically, then obviously we don't do that as a part of the planning. So, in Plan Cost Management, we are just creating the plan. In Estimate Cost process, we'll be focusing on estimating cost for each of the activities that we have divided our WBS into. Determine Budget. So, Control again, we don't do. Control part will not involve coming up with the cost baseline. So, that means the option that I see correct here is Determine Budget. So, I'll be able to work on the Determine Budget only when I have the cost for each of the activities, and I just sum them up, the cost for each of the activities in order to determine budget, and then I'll get Cost Baseline. So, that means Cost Baseline output should come from Determine Budget. So, that's how I look at it when I try to solve questions. So, I hope that hint must have given you some idea about how we can go by. So, we have got two options here: either you know the exact answer, or we have to then go on eliminating the different options that are given. So, if you just go on eliminating the options, then we arrive at the right option.

So, let's then move on to the next question here. This is based on some other topic which we haven't touched yet. So, this talks about leadership theories, etc. Which among the following is not valid according to McGregor's Theory X? So, if you remember our discussion about the various leadership theories, one of the theory that we covered as a part of this training was McGregor's Theory X, so which focuses on few things. It focuses on employee self-motivation. And if you recall that discussion, so we have got Theory X and we have Theory Y. So, if you talk about these two things here, you will agree that we are talking about the employee self-motivation as a part of Theory X. So, again, this is pretty straightforward, and if you just recall some of the key points under the McGregor's Theory, you should be able to answer this question very, very clearly. So, here the option, the last option is the correct option. Theory X will talk about employees are self-motivated. So, if you take a look at McGregor's theory, in fact, let me just take a look at this. Some of the examples we have already taken as a part of this training, and some examples will be taking up as we go ahead. All right. So, if you talk about the various theories that we covered as a part of the training, you would agree that one of the theory that we spoke on is McGregor's Theory X. So, just recall the discussion that we had and try to remember it by some techniques that what Theory X talks about, some of the key points, and then that should certainly be able to help you in answering it. I have seen that usually on the leadership theories, the questions are very, very straightforward.

So, from there, now we'll move to the another question. This is a scenario-based question. Now, in the examination, you'll be asked scenario-based questions, straightforward questions, and of course, there will be examples to solve as well. So, what we are taking here as a part of this session is a combination of all this. Being a project manager, you need to manage a project where there will be a number of persons working together. If you want to enhance the ability of the team to work together and perform as a team, which of the following things you would need to do maximum? The ability of the team. So, you're talking about here team working together. So, in order to enhance the ability of the team to work together, or maybe the high-performance team, or maybe the team which is able to deliver the better outcome, so for that, I'm sure you will agree that the collocation is the best option because work breakdown structure has nothing to do with the ability of the team here. Staffing plan is just about plan, but we are expecting action over here. Cohabitation is too extreme, I don't think so we need to get into that. So, here the straightforward answer is collocation. When people, when the team members are collocated, sitting together, talking to each other, they'll be able to establish good rapport, good bonding, and they'll be able to start performing as a team. They'll be able to go through the team formation phases of forming, storming, norming, performing, and finally adjourning. So, those team formation phases, they could be able to go through, and the ability of the team could be then developed faster.

Let's move to the next question. What is the role of the Change Control Board? So, one of the process that we talk about is the Change Control process, and as a part of that, there is a Change Control Board which needs to be established. So, let's go through the options. The first option talks about assessing the impact of the change on project objectives. Second is defining requirements for the customer. Doing performance appraisal for team members involved in implementing change. Encouraging team members to raise more change requests. I think this is pretty straightforward. I'm sure you'll agree that Change Control Board will be involved into assessing the impact of change on the project objectives. That's the primary responsibility of the Change Control Board. They will understand the impact on cost, impact on schedule, impact on architecture, impact on design, impact on the other aspects of the project, and based on that, the decision will be made whether to accept that change or reject.

Now, let's take a look at the another question here. This talks about being the project manager on an STP project, you decide to respond to identified risk by contracting out work. Which of the following will lead to the minimum risk of buyer? Now, here we are talking about different contracts. If you talk about various contracts, you will agree that we have various contracts like, let's take a look at some of the contracts that we covered as a part of this training, and even for that matter, from the risk point of view, which contract will pose more risk? So, we have a buyer and a seller. So, from the buyer point of view, which, now here the question is from the buyer point of view. So, if you are a buyer, then which contract will pose more risk? So, as a buyer, you'll find that risk is low here, and risk is very, very high when you go ahead. So, here, if you read the question again, you will realize, being the project manager on an STP project, you decide to respond to an identified risk by contracting out. Which of the following will lead to the minimum risk of buyer? So, if you see the minimum risk on buyer is going to be the firm fixed price contract. There are other contracts also which we covered, right? Cost Plus percentage of cost, or Cost Plus fixed fee, or Cost Plus incentive fees. But if there is a fixed fee or fixed price, then obviously on the buyer, the risk is very, very low because risk is actually borne by the seller by developing whatever is the scope item within that fixed price. So, that's how you can look at this question. So, firm fixed price is the right answer here.

Next question is: For which process the Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix is prepared as a part? So, which process will involve the Stakeholder Assessment Matrix here? There are various options. The first is Identify Stakeholder. Second is Manage Stakeholder Engagement. Third is Control Stakeholder Engagement. Third and the last is Plan Stakeholder Management. Now, we are talking about here the Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix. So, as a part of this, if you see, this can't be done during the first, which is Identify Stakeholder. This can't be done when we are managing the stakeholder. It has to be ready before that. This can't be done as a part of control. Again, it has to be ready before that. So, the best way to develop that is during planning. So, when we are planning the stakeholder management, that time we should come up with the Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix, right? So, this assessment matrix will help me in identifying the "as is" state of a stakeholder, and then I can come up with a "to be" stage. So, as a stage of the stakeholder could be, he is resistant, he is not really pro-change, and then I have to move from the resistant state to the state where he can start cooperating, he can start responding, he can start engaged, he can start involving in the project. So, this particular assessment metric needs to be prepared as a part of the planning the stakeholder management itself. So, the correct answer is Plan Stakeholder Management.

Next question talks about: Being a project manager, you need to spend a significant amount of time in communications. Which of the following option contains the three basic elements of a communication model? Now, think from the communication point of view. Another easy question to score. We have options like: verbal, non-verbal, written. The another option is: sender, receiver, message. Next is: text, drawing, picture. The last is: manager, worker, instruction. So, obviously, as a project manager, if you talk about, I'm sure the last two options you can still easily eliminate. Out of the next two options, if we talk about here the communication mode, so when we talk about communication mode, we are talking about the sender, receiver, and the message. So, coding, encoding, and the actual message which is transmitted. So, we've already covered this as a part of the communication management itself. So, sender, receiver, and the message is the right answer over here.

Next question is: Suppose you are assigned as the project manager of a 30-month project which is in the executing phase. What will be the best way to resolve a conflict among the technical experts in your team? So, this question basically focuses on the conflict resolution techniques, etc. So, various options are there. You are resolving the conflict. The options are: find the root cause of the disagreement, resolve the conflict in favor of the senior most tech expert, hire an external consultant to enforce this decision, remove this technical work from the scope of the project work. So, I think some of the options we can easily eliminate, right? We can't remove the scope of the work, so that option has gone. Can we hire an external consultant for this? Really, I mean, people will not trust the external consultant to solve the conflict. So, obviously, that option is kind of ruled out. What about resolving conflict in favor of the technical expert? That's against the values of the organization and for that matter, the team, and you know, in general as well. So, the only option that is left is to find the root cause of the disagreement and confront it. As we mentioned earlier, confrontation is the best technique to solve conflict and disagreements.

Next question: While estimating the cost of work in a very new technology, being a project manager, with which of the following will concern you the most? If you take a look at some of these options, you're new to the technology and you're trying to estimate how long would it take. So, what will concern you the most? First is, of course, lack of quality policy. I don't think so that's relevant really. Lack of communication management plan, again, doesn't seem to be relevant from estimation point of view. Internet connection not reliable. All right. So, that's completely outlier here. Lack of historical information. I agree, the lack of historical information because if I'm working on something which is completely new to me, I rely on the organizational process assets, and if there is a similar kind of a project done in the past, I might just use analogous estimate and based on that, quickly estimate about the project.

Let's take an example now. A different question where we'll try to solve some example, and the example is like this: A road project was planned to be completed in 8 months. Calculate the schedule variance when the earned value information at the end of sixth month is given as the budgeted completion, which is $8,000, actual cost was $12,000, percentage completion was 100%. Now, this is interesting. Let's try to solve this particular example. So, I have already copied that into this Excel sheet so that we'll be able to do the calculation. Now, if you take a look at this, we're trying to solve here, what are we trying to solve here? We're trying to identify the schedule variance. So, the first thing that I will do is, I will refer to my list of formulas that I have written and try to come up with what is the formula for schedule variance. So, schedule variance is Earned Value minus Planned Value, right? So, what is Earned Value? Earned Value is nothing but what is my actual completion percentage to the budgeted completion. So, my planned budget is here $8,000, and what is my actual completion, 100%? That means my earned value. Can I say that my earned value and actual completion is 100%? That means that my earned value is equal to BAC. So, BAC is equal to my earned value. The another option is Planned Value. So, how can I calculate my Planned Value? The Planned Value was planned completion percentage. So, my planned completion percentage, how would I calculate that? So, I was supposed to complete this project in 8 months. However, I did it in just 6 months. That means, as per my original plan, I was supposed to be completing 75% of the project by now. So, 75% of the BAC comes to $6,000. So, can I say that is my Planned Value, $6,000? So, now I have got my Planned Value, which is $6,000, and I've got my Earned Value, which is my Budget at Completion because I have completed the project 100%. So, I earned the value there. So, $8,000 minus $6,000 is $2,000. So, $2,000 is my schedule variance. So, this is how I can calculate the schedule variance in this scenario.

Let's take another example. What will be the incentive amount for a contractor who is working on a Cost Plus Incentive Fee contract? The project's target cost is $5,000 with a target fee of $800, minimum fee is $500, and the maximum fee is $1,000. Also, the buyer-seller share ratio is 80-20 with an actual cost of $6,000. So, this is the number. Now, if you recall the formula, so again, you'll make sure that you'll write down the formula in the beginning itself so that you would have the formula at least ready. So, what we are talking about here is calculating the incentive. So, this particular contract, take a look at this contract, this is Cost Plus Incentive Fee contract. Now, in this particular contract, what we do? So, we have a buyer and a seller. So, buyer will get into this contract with the seller, and the buyer will reimburse the cost to the seller, whatever the actual cost that is involved. On the top of that, some incentives are paid. Now, there are chances that seller might just take the advantage of this. So, in order to ensure that this contract is balanced up and to make sure that the project cost is controlled, at the same time, the project is also completed within time or ahead of time, there are certain elements that are attached to this, and those elements are nothing but either we pay the incentives or we penalize the seller, or at the same time, if we complete the work ahead of schedule, then we of course also pay the incentives. So, how the incentive calculation is done? Let's take a look at this. So, before that, you must have realized here, there are certain numbers already given. So, target cost is given, target fee is given. Let's take a look at some of these numbers. What are they basically? So, if you talk about sharing ratio, 80-20 sharing ratio, the sharing ratio is buyer to seller. So, 80% is for buyer, 20% is for the seller. It's always buyer to seller ratio, remember that. So, this is how the ratio is shared between buyer and a seller. Target cost, cost is the expected cost. So, how much the project would cost? So, that's the expected cost of the project. Target fee, again, the expected fee that the seller will get. So, seller is primarily working to get the fee in doing the project, plus there is expectation of an incentive fee. Now, what is a maximum fee? This is basically the maximum incentive the seller can expect to get. Of course, it's going to be associated with the performance and the sharing ratio, which is 80-20 in this case. Minimum fee is, of course, the minimum incentive fee the seller will get for meeting the requirements set in the contract. And there is, of course, a formula which we just now covered. So, formula talks about, so we have all these numbers. We have target cost, we have target fee, we have minimum fee, maximum fee, and we have got a buyer-seller ratio as well as the actual cost. So, to calculate incentive, what we have basically, the formula is Target Cost minus Actual Cost into Seller's Sharing Ratio. To calculate the incentives, what do we do? So, I've got a target cost which is $5,000, and my actual cost is $6,000, which is not a good scenario. If you see, what is my target cost? The project is going to cost me $5,000, that was expected in the beginning. But what is actual cost? Actually, it costed $6,000. And if I minus this, I'm getting, of course, minus $1,000. And on the top of that, the seller ratio is 20%. What I get as a part of incentive is minus $200 in this case. So, the answer to this question is minus $200 because my actual cost is more than the cost of the expected cost that I've put in the beginning of the contract. Now, you could go ahead and try to arrive at the final fee also for doing that. You can just add the target fee. So, target fee which is $800. So, if you add that, then you can give final fee of $600. Or you can also come up with a final reimbursed cost. How much would it be? So, from the contract point of view, I will have to give the seller the actual cost plus the incentive fee. The final incentive fee, actually, incentives are minus $200, but the final incentives are coming to $600 by adding the target fee. So, that $600 plus I have to pay the actual cost. That means the final reimbursement cost will be $6,600. But the incentives are actually minus $200. So, that's how I look at things in this case. So, what is important here is understanding these terms, and of course, you need to have the formula handy so that we can solve this question.

Moving from there to the next question. This question is about: Which of the following resource histogram shows but a responsibility assignment matrix does not? If you talk about resource histogram and the responsibility assignment matrix, so there are few options that are given here, but the correct answer is time, because you'll find that the responsibility assignment matrix will not cover up the time. It will talk about activities, its interrelationships, and whom that activity is assigned to. The histogram will talk about the time. So, that's the difference you'll find here.

Moving to the next question. Which of the following is used to display sensitivity analysis? Now, when you do the sensitivity analysis, is we need to do this when we work on the project risks, etc. So, when we do the sensitivity analysis, one of the thing that we use is a tornado diagram, and tornado diagram actually helps us in doing the sensitivity analysis. So, when we do the tornado diagram, that is more relevant. I'm just going to give you a brief idea about this one. So, when you work on the risk, one of the diagrams or one of the thing that we work on is the tornado diagram. So, if you compare the other options, the more relevant is the tornado. But you could get confused with the sensitivity diagram. There is nothing like a sensitivity diagram as such that we draw here. Data flow are definitely not relevant because data flow diagram objective is different altogether, that's not for sensitivity. Decision tree is again, the objective is different. So, those two options are ruled out very clearly. There could be a confusion between sensitivity diagram and a tornado diagram, but sensitivity diagram, as I mentioned, there is nothing like a sensitivity diagram as such. So, the only correct option is tornado diagram here when we do the sensitivity analysis. So, you can read more on this, and we did cover this as a part of training as well.

Let's take another example here to solve. This example helps in calculating SPI. Now, if you take this example bit closely, you'll find that what all things are given here. So, if SPI is 0.75, CPI is 0.8, that means you are actually spending more money than budgeted, and you're also behind the schedule on this project. Then which of the following report is correct? Schedule variance, cost variance, TCPI. Now, if you take a look at schedule variance example, cost variance example, the one option is to calculate schedule variance, cost variance, right? So, we need to also take a look at whether we have enough information or not. So, SPI is nothing but Earned Value divided by the Planned Value. The CPI is nothing but Earned Value divided by the Actual Cost. So, you can put them into these formulas and try and calculate that. And the TCPI is another option over here. But if you take a look at the example of the TCPI, we might not have everything to calculate the TCPI. I have already told you about TCPI, so there are two options to calculate that. So, based on the BAC and based on the estimate at completion, but here we are talking about not having enough data. And therefore, the option is the last one, which is the project is likely need more money than planned to complete. So, as I mentioned, considering this particular progress, definitely project needs more money because none of these outputs will be correct when you will calculate it actually. All right. So, sometimes you'll find this kind of a confusing option that are given, and if you don't get your calculations right, sometimes those calculations are not relevant, not required. Sometimes enough information is not given in the example itself in order to calculate some of these variances. So, in that scenario, we need to apply our mind and see what else is it there.

Let's move to the next question then. According to PMI, project management processes are organized into which of the following order of process groups? So, I had taken you through the process groups already, so I'm sure it must have been very clear. Now, the answer is the third one. We talk about initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. So, I did cover the process group processes and the knowledge areas. So, you can relate to that. The other things are very clear-cut, the ones that we need to eliminate. So, such questions you should get it right in order to score in the exam. We can't afford to miss on these questions actually.

Let's move to the next question then. What is the Japanese method of Modern quality management called, which relies on continuing small improvements involving everyone from the top management to the lowest level of worker in the organization? Now, if you talk about Kanban, Kanban really talks about making things visible, big visible charts, making process explicit, all of that. So, it's about signboards. It doesn't talk about the small improvements. If you talk about Deming Cycle, which is PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), so that's another way altogether, and PDCA is nothing but Deming Cycle only. So, the only option that is left is the Kaizen, and Kaizen is nothing but the small improvements.

So, moving on then. Herzberg divided motivation factors into two classes: satisfiers and dissatisfiers. Which of the following are examples of satisfiers? So, if you take a look at some of these options, you'll find that from Herzberg's Theory point of view, sense of personal achievement and work satisfaction is what will satisfy the workers more. It's not about plush office space or performance-based salary. It's not about work satisfaction or fringe benefits. It's not about vacation time, assignment of personal staff assistance, etc. It's about the personal achievement and the work satisfaction as per Herzberg.

With this, we come to an end of our project management full course. And if you enjoyed listening to this full course, please be kind enough to like it, and you can comment on any of your doubts and queries. We will reply to them at the earliest. And do look out for more videos and playlists, and subscribe to the EduR YouTube channel to learn more. Thank you for watching and happy learning.