 Run Chart: plotting the value of a variable over time to analyze the trend of a process

 Control Chart: basically a Run Chart by adding a mean, two specification limits (Upper
Specification Limit USL and Lower Specification Limit LSL) and two control limits (Upper
Control Limit UCL and Lower Control Limit LCL) to analyze whether the process is under
control

 Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) Estimate: within the range of -25% to +75%

 Preliminary estimate: within the range of -15% to +50%
 Budget estimate: within the range of -10% to +25%
 Definitive Estimate: within the range of -5% to +10%
 Final estimate: 100% accurate

 Avoid: to completely eliminate the likelihood / impact of the risks

 Do not take the PMP® Exam at all (avoid the Exam)
 Walk to the PMP® Exam Centre instead of riding a car/bus/train (avoid any traffic)
 Sleep at the door of the PMP® Exam centre the night before

 Mitigate: to reduce the impacts / the likelihood of occurrence of the risks

 Go to the Exam centre at least 1 hours earlier than the Exam time in preparation of
any traffic jam
 Live in a hotel adjacent to the Exam centre to minimize the traffic time
 Book an Exam centre in an area with little traffic jams
 Book the PMP® Exam in the afternoon away from the morning peak hours

 Enhance will increase the % of occurrence of the opportunity or to increase the benefits from the
realization of the opportunities
 Exploit will make the occurrence 100%

 Contingency Plan: the pre-developed risk response strategies to be taken if the actively accepted
risks occur
 Fallback Plan: the pre-developed risk response strategies to be taken if the primary risk
response is not effective
 Workaround: the immediate risk response strategies for unidentified or passively accepted
risks occur in order to contain the damages against the project plan (the costs dealing with
identified risks can be obtained from the management reserve upon management approval)

 Nominal Group Technique: brainstorming + group ranking / prioritization

 Brainstorming: generating as many ideas as possible in a safe environment without any
judgement from others
 Delphi technique: An information gathering technique used as a way to reach a consensus:
1. The Delphi technique requires a bunch of experts.
2. A neutral facilitator consolidates the experts’ anonymous survey responses.
3. After a few rounds of surveying, consensus is achieved!

 Push Communication: sends the message from sender to recipients; for non-urgent / non-
sensitive matters with a large pool of recipients when urgent feedback is NOT needed
 Pull Communication provides a place to get the information any time; for non-urgent / non-
sensitive matters with a large pool of recipients when feedback is NOT expected
 Interactive Communication: allows immediate feedback; for sensitive / urgent / difficult
matters

 Project Requirements are the expectations from the stakeholders that the project need to
address. The requirements are usually written in the form of capabilities (what things can be
done).
  Project Scope lists out all the work that need to be done in order to deliver products, services
and/or results that provide the capabilities to fulfil the user requirements. The scope is usually
written as the detailed activity list.
 Resource Leveling: Resource Leveling is a resource optimization technique in which the Project
Manager adjusts the start dates and finish dates of different activities in order to balance the
demand for resources vs available supply.
 Resource Leveling is always carried out first
If it is for meeting resource constraints (e.g. statutory requirements, resource
availability), Resource Leveling is employed. Resource Leveling is a necessary as the original
plan is not practical and feasible.

 Resource Smoothing: Resource Smoothing is a resource optimization technique in which the

Project Manager adjusts the timing of different activities so that the requirement for resources
does not exceed a certain pre-defined limit.
 The pre-defined limit may be statutory or a company policy, e.g. no more than 38 hours’ work
in a week
 After Resource Leveling, Resource Smoothing is used to ensure the demand for a particular
resource is more balanced over time
 If it is for better utilization of resources or achieving the desired level of efforts (e.g. 38
hours per week to allow for some buffers of resources), Resource Smoothing is
employed. Resource Smoothing is preferred but not absolutely necessary.

 Discrete Effort: Discrete Effort is work that can be planned and measured with specific output.
 also known as “Measurable Effort”
coder has already finished 500 lines of code
Non-discrete Effort: Opposite of Discrete Effort, further divided into two types:
 Apportioned Effort: the work is directly associated with a Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS) component/deliverable, usually cannot be separated from the discrete
efforts
 e.g. inspection, quality assurance, verification, validation activities
 Level of Effort (LoE): Level of Effort is supportive work that do not produce definitive
output but is measured with (passage of) time.
 the work is not associated with a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
component/deliverable
project management, meetings, administrative work, accounting, maintenance

 Free Float is the amount of time an activity can be freely delayed without affecting the early start
of the of successor activity
 Total Float is the total amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting
the overall project finish date

 Fast Tracking is the preferred method for schedule compression

 Crashing normally to be explored after Fast Tracking

 Cost Budget = Cost Baseline + Management Reserve

Cost Baseline = Cost Estimate + Contingency Reserve

 Control Limits are there to indicate whether the process/system is under control or not. Results
falling outside the Control Limits would mean the process is unstable and root cause analysis is
needed. Specification Limits are imposed by agreement with customers on strictly quality
requirements, i.e. Specification Limits must be within the Control Limits.

 Residual Risks are risks that are left over after implementing a risk response
 Secondary Risks are risks that are created directly by implementing a risk response
 Quality Control would examine the final product against the quality requirements set out in the
Quality Management Plan and report as Quality Control Measurements.
 Quality Assurance would make use of the Quality Control Measurements and other
information to re-assess whether the correct methodology and processes are used in the project
and the Quality Control process is looking at the correct/most effective metrics, etc.

 Quality Control: quality control is in the “monitoring and controlling process group” and is
concerned with the activities and measures taken to achieve quality requirements (as in the
Control Quality process).
 In simpler words, Quality Control is concerned with the quality of the
“products/deliverables“. Its major aim is to ensure the correctness of and check for defects
in the products/deliverables.
 Quality Control is a “reactive” process to inspect the products/deliverables to detect
any non-conformance in them.
 Quality Control is used to verify the quality of the product.
 Quality Assurance: quality assurance is in the “executing process group” and is a process-
based approach to ensure the processes and methodology associated with the production of the
final deliverables/products are defects free such that the deliverables/products can fulfil the
quality objectives (as in the Manage Quality process).
 In simpler words, Quality Assurance is concerned about the “processes“. Its major
aim is to avoid defects in products/deliverable at all by assessing the effectiveness of
current quality control processes and issue change requests as necessary to correct any
defects in the processes.
 Quality Assurance is a “pro-active” process involving understanding the requirements
and formulating measures (e.g. quality audit, training, etc.) to achieve the required
objectives.
 Quality Assurance is used to manage the quality of the processes.
As seen from the above, Quality Control and Quality Assurance processes are closely related and
interact with each other. The quality assurance process defines the procedures to carry out
quality control, and feedback from quality control will influence the quality assurance process. Should
defects are found from quality control processes, the information would be used by quality assurance
processes to determine any corrective/preventive measures that are needed. That’s why “Quality
Control Measurements” are an input to the Manage Quality process in the Quality Management
process group.

 Statement of Work (SOW) contains high level information of the project deliverables

 Project Scope Statement contains more details of the deliverables plus assumptions and
constraints
 Accuracy: a measure of how the measured values close to the target value
 If the measured values are accurate, they may not be precise as they can be larger or
smaller than the target value on a wide range.
 Precision: a measure of how the measured values close to each other (but not necessarily
close to the target value)
 If we say the measurements are very precise, we do not give out any hint on whether
the measurements are accurate (i.e. close to the target value).
