PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep

Course Description

Target Student

This course is designed for individuals who have on-the-job project management experience

regardless of whether their formal job role is project manager, who are not certified project

management professionals, and who might or might not have received formal project

management training.

The course enables candidates to develop professionally, increase their project management

skills, apply a formalized and standards-based approach to project management, and seek

career advancement by moving into a formal project manager job role, as well as to apply

for Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI)® Project Management Professional (PMP)®

certification.

Prerequisites

To ensure your success in this course, you should have experience with basic project

management concepts and have some working experience with project management. You

can obtain this level of skills and knowledge by taking the following PMI courses:

•

• Project Management Basics

•

Introduction to Project Management

Introduction to Agile

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| PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep |

Course Objectives

In this course, you will build and manage a team to plan, execute, and complete a project that is

aligned to the business environment. You will:

• Create a high-performing team.

• Plan and manage the project.

• Execute and assess the project work.

• Keep the team on track.

• Keep the business environment in mind.

The PMI CHOICE Home Screen

Logon and access information for your CHOICE environment will be provided with your class

experience. The CHOICE platform is your entry point to the CHOICE learning experience, of

which this course manual is only one part.

On the CHOICE Home screen, you can access the CHOICE Course screens for your specific

courses. Visit the CHOICE Course screen both during and after class to make use of the world of

support and instructional resources that make up the CHOICE experience.

Each CHOICE Course screen will give you access to the following resources:

• Classroom: A link to your training provider's classroom environment.

• eBook: An interactive electronic version of the printed book for your course.

• Files: Any course files available to download.

• Checklists: Step-by-step procedures and general guidelines you can use as a reference during

and after class.

• Spotlights: Brief animated videos that enhance and extend the classroom learning experience.

• Assessment: Items you can complete for your self-assessment of your level of understanding of

the course content.

• Social media resources that enable you to collaborate with others in the learning community

using professional communications sites such as LinkedIn or microblogging tools such as

Twitter.

Visit your CHOICE Home screen often to connect, communicate, and extend your learning

experience!

How To Use This Book

As You Learn

This book is divided into lessons and topics, covering a subject or a set of related subjects. In most

cases, lessons are arranged in order of increasing proficiency.

The results-oriented topics include relevant and supporting information you need to master the

content. Each topic has various types of activities designed to enable you to solidify your

understanding of the informational material presented in the course. Information is provided for

reference and reflection to facilitate understanding and practice.

Data files for various activities as well as other supporting files for the course are available by

download from the CHOICE Course screen. In addition to sample data for the course exercises, the

course files may contain media components to enhance your learning and additional reference

materials for use both during and after the course.

Checklists of procedures and guidelines can be used during class and as after-class references when

you're back on the job and need to refresh your understanding.

At the back of the book, you will find a glossary of the definitions of the terms and concepts used

throughout the course. You will also find an index to assist in locating information within the

instructional components of the book. In many electronic versions of the book, you can click links

on key words in the content to move to the associated glossary definition, and on page references in

| About This Course |

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| PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep |

the index to move to that term in the content. To return to the previous location in the document

after clicking a link, use the appropriate functionality in your PDF viewing software.

As You Review

Any method of instruction is only as effective as the time and effort you, the student, are willing to

invest in it. In addition, some of the information that you learn in class may not be important to you

immediately, but it may become important later. For this reason, we encourage you to spend some

time reviewing the content of the course after your time in the classroom.

As a Reference

The organization and layout of this book make it an easy-to-use resource for future reference.

Taking advantage of the glossary, index, and table of contents, you can use this book as a first

source of definitions, background information, and summaries.

Course Icons

Watch throughout the material for the following visual cues.

Icon

Description

A Note provides additional information, guidance, or hints about a topic or task.

A Caution note makes you aware of places where you need to be particularly careful

with your actions, settings, or decisions so that you can be sure to get the desired

results of an activity or task.

Spotlight notes show you where an associated Spotlight is particularly relevant to

the content. Access Spotlights from your CHOICE Course screen.

Checklists provide job aids you can use after class as a reference to perform skills

back on the job. Access checklists from your CHOICE Course screen.

Social notes remind you to check your CHOICE Course screen for opportunities to

interact with the CHOICE community using social media.

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| About This Course |

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1

Creating a High-

Performing Team

Lesson Time: 8 hours

Lesson Introduction

The success of your project depends on the people involved. The project team members are

vital to doing the work of the project efficiently and effectively. The stakeholders connected

to the project have the ability to help or hinder a project's success, and therefore need to be

kept engaged along the way. A key role of a project manager is the assembling and managing

of the project team and any additional stakeholders. High-performing teams have a shared

understanding of and commitment to the project, and possess the appropriate training that

empowers them to do the work. In this lesson, you will create a high-performing project

team.

At the beginning of each lesson, you will see references to how the lesson and topic content

maps to the Project Management Professional (PMP®) Examination Content Outline

(ECO). The ECO tasks that are addressed in each lesson will be noted next to the lesson

objectives.

This lesson addresses tasks from the People domain of the PMP® Exam Content Outline

(ECO).

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, you will:

• Determine project team member requirements, appraise team skills, and maintain team

knowledge transfer. (ECO Tasks 1.2, 1.6)

• Collectively define project ground rules based on context, such as organizational rules

and team dynamics. (ECO Task 1.12)

• Determine a negotiation strategy and negotiate project agreements. (ECO Task 1.8)

• Organize around team strengths and support team task accountability. (ECO Task 1.4)

• Ensure team members and stakeholders are adequately trained. (ECO Task 1.5)

• Continually evaluate the effectiveness of virtual team member engagement. (ECO Task

1.11)

• Reach consensus and support the outcome of the parties’ agreement. (ECO Task 1.10)

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TOPIC A

PMP® Certification

The Spotlight on Earning

PDUs presentation is

available from the

Spotlight tile on the

CHOICE Course screen.

You may choose to

include it in your

instructional plans, or

you can remind students

about the tile and the

supplemental

information it contains.

The PMP® ECO

Explain that the ECO

tasks and enablers that

are addressed in each

lesson topic are noted at

the beginning of each

lesson. These

references are provided

for students who are

preparing for the PMP®

certification exam.

Enablers

Build a Team

Successful projects require teams to build the required business solution. In this topic, you will

explore the processes and practices required to build effective teams.

PMP Certification

Project Management Professional (PMP)® is the most important industry-recognized certification

for project managers. Globally recognized and demanded, the PMP demonstrates that those with

this designation have the experience, education, and competency to lead and direct projects. This

can be achieved by having the required project management experience and passing an exam, and

then maintained by obtaining Professional Development Units (PDUs). This is similar to the

Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam and professional development requirements.

Note: For a list of additional reference materials to help you prepare for the PMP exam, you can

visit https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp/pmp-

reference-list.

Note: To further explore the PDU requirements, you can access the Spotlight on Earning

PDUs presentation from the Spotlight tile on the CHOICE Course screen.

The PMP® Examination Content Outline (ECO)

The Project Management Professional (PMP®) Examination Content Outline (ECO) documents the

domains, tasks, and enablers that are addressed on the PMP® certification exam, as well as the

percentages of questions allocated to each of the exam domains.

• Domains are defined as the high-level knowledge areas that are essential to the practice of

project management.

• Tasks are the underlying responsibilities of the project manager within each domain area.

• Enablers are illustrative examples of the work associated with the task. Enablers are not meant

to be an exhaustive list but rather a few examples to help demonstrate what the task

encompasses.

To assist you in your preparation for the exam, each lesson topic starts with a list of ECO enablers

covered in that topic. Deliverables and tools that are relevant to particular tasks and enablers have

also been identified by the PMI® and listed for your reference.

Note: You can access the PMP® ECO mapping document from the Files tile on the CHOICE

Course screen.

Enablers, Deliverables, and Tools

This topic addresses various enablers from the ECO.

• Support diversity and inclusion. (ECO 1.2.2)

• Appraise teams' skills. (ECO 1.6.1)

• Determine team member requirements. (ECO 1.6.2)

• Continuously assess and refresh team skills. (ECO 1.6.3)

• Maintain team knowledge and transfer. (ECO 1.6.4)

• Discuss responsibilities within teams. (ECO 2.16.1)

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The following deliverables and tools are relevant to the enablers addressed in this topic. Some of

these might be covered in detail in other sections of the course.

Deliverables and Tools

PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep | 3

Project Teams

Deliverables

Skills list

Technology

Resource schedule

Rates

Resource assignment

Tools

RACI matrix

Pre-assignment tools

Virtual teams

Project Teams

A project team* is a set of individuals who support the project manager in performing the work

of the project to achieve its objectives. The roles of the people on the project team can include:

• Project management staff that performs activities such as budgeting, scheduling, reporting and

control, risk management, and project communications. This role may be supported by a PMO.

• Project staff that perform the work to create the project deliverables.

• Supporting experts who perform work to develop the project management plan. These roles can

include legal, logistics, engineering, testing, and so on.

• User or customer representatives who will provide requirements and accept the project

deliverables.

• Sellers that are external companies issued a contract to provide a product or service needed by

the project.

• Business partners that are external companies that provide specialized support through a

partnership.

• Business partner members that support the business partnership.

Note: The members of the project team are also part of the stakeholder group; however, not all

stakeholders are part of the project team. Generally, the project team is internal to the

organization and actively participates in doing the project work. The stakeholder group is the

larger group of people and organizations that can influence, or is affected by, the outcome of a

project. For example, fans of the local sports team are stakeholders in the project to build a new

sporting arena, but they are not part of the project team.

As a critical part of Project Resource Management, you need to be able to do the following:

• Estimate, acquire, and manage teams of people.

• Estimate the other resources those team members will need to carry out the work.

• Obtain the people.

• Develop the team, improve their competencies, facilitate interactions, and create an effective

teaming environment.

• Track team performance, create and execute improvements based on feedback, resolve issues,

and manage team personnel changes

Note: Glossary definitions for terms indicated in blue italic text with an asterisk are taken from,

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project

Management Institute Inc., 2017 and Agile Practice Guide, Project Management Institute Inc.,

2017.

Project Team Composition

Project team composition can vary based on organizational culture, location, and

scope. Composition refers to the team's makeup and how the team members are brought together

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Lesson 1: Creating a High-Performing Team | Topic A

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Project Team Member

Requirements

Project Stakeholders

or combined on the team. For example, they can be a dedicated team in which most of the project

team members are assigned to work on the project full-time, or they can be part-time team members

who work on a project in addition to their regular work. Often, organizations have a mix of these

two formats. The project team generally comprises the project manager, project management team,

and other individual team members. The individual team members perform project work and might

not be involved in the management side of the project. The project team contains people from

different groups who possess knowledge on specific subjects or have unique skill sets to carry out

project work.

Project Team Member Requirements

In order for the team to meet its objectives, it will need enough of the relevant skill sets to perform

the work and produce the desired results. In most cases it is preferable to avoid single-points-of-

failure, where only one resource has a needed skill to perform a particular type of work. One trend is

to make use of what are called generalizing specialists, who have a core competency but have general

skills in other areas that can be leveraged as needed by the team to support its objectives.

In addition to the team members themselves, you will need to identify the other physical supports

that the team members will require to be able to perform (equipment, access rights, etc.). The Plan

Resource Management process encompasses both planning for the team members and for the

physical resources those team members will require to perform.

Project Stakeholders

Stakeholders for a project, as the name implies, have a stake in the project and its deliverables. The

Project Manager needs to be able to identify the stakeholders, plan stakeholder engagement, manage

the stakeholders, and monitor the stakeholder engagement.

A stakeholder* is an individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive

itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio.

Stakeholders may or may not be actively involved in project work and could affect or be affected by

a decision, an activity, or an outcome of a project. Stakeholders take on a variety of roles and

responsibilities on a project, and can include members of the project team, customers, end users,

and many other individuals and groups of people. Managing stakeholders' influence and engagement

throughout the project will have a large impact on a project's outcomes and success.

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PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep | 5

Figure 1-1: Stakeholders and the project.

Stakeholders may have competing interests, needs, priorities, and opinions. They may have

conflicting visions for the project's outcomes, so managing them carefully is an important part of

the project manager's role. Project managers must identify the internal and external stakeholders of a

project as early as possible, learn what their needs are, and secure their participation in defining the

project's parameters and success criteria. Although it may be difficult to negotiate a consensus early

in the project, it is far less painful and costly than getting to the end of the project only to learn that

someone's needs were not met or were misunderstood.

Stakeholder Identification

Stakeholders should be identified early in the project so that their needs and expectations can be

met. They are also the people best able to help the project succeed, as they have a specific interest in

the project objectives and its success. It is important to identify project stakeholders regularly and to

analyze and document relevant information regarding their interest, involvement, interdependencies,

influence, and potential impact on project success.

The identified stakeholder list should be reviewed and modified as needed throughout the project as

changes occur. Documents like the Business Case and Benefits Management Plan should describe

lists of the stakeholders.

Once created, the communications management plan and stakeholder engagement plans should

describe the stakeholders and the planned engagement model. As the project progresses, Change

Logs, Issue Logs, or Requirements documents can also unearth additional stakeholders. The

Stakeholder

Identification

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Lesson 1: Creating a High-Performing Team | Topic A

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Skills List

stakeholders lists may be affected by different organizational environment factors. Existing

templates and stakeholder lists from previous projects may be useful.

Skills List

There are a variety of interpersonal skills* that each member of the project team will need to

establish and maintain relationships with other people. Although all of the skills are relevant to you

and your project team, some of the skills will be more germane at particular times of the project.

Regardless of when you use these skills, it's important for you to understand them and how they can

be used.

The following table provides a description of skills that will be helpful as you build the project team.

Item

Description

Conflict management

Cultural awareness

Decision making

Facilitation

Leadership

Meeting management

Negotiation

Conflict management involves intervening before a negative result

from a conflict can occur. Successfully managing conflicts

throughout a project's life cycle can be challenging. As a project

manager, you will be the point person for any conflict that arises.

You will determine how it will be handled. The goal is to try to

increase any positive outcomes of a conflict so it can be viewed as a

learning experience.

Understanding and being aware of the different cultural viewpoints

and beliefs of the individuals on your project team can help reduce

miscommunication and misunderstandings.

Decision making can be a very important skill to use when working

with others to come up with a result. In the business world,

decisions are usually produced by a group of individuals.

Demonstrating that you have the ability to make decisions will

show that you can be a strong advocate in any decision-making

process, meeting, or group. Decision making can be broken up into

a series of phases, including:

• Defining the problem

• Generating potential solutions

• Planning for solution actions

• Putting ideas into action

• Planning for solution evaluations

• Evaluating the outcomes and processes

Facilitation techniques are skills used to lead or guide an assembled

group toward a successful conclusion such as making a decision or

finding a solution.

The ability to step up and guide others to achieve results.

Leadership abilities are gained through experience, building

relationships, and taking on initiatives.

The ability to conduct productive meetings efficiently and

effectively will be useful when gathering the necessary information

for developing the project charter.

Negotiation is an approach used by more than one individual to

come to an agreement or resolution. Being able to successfully

negotiate will have a huge impact on how you resolve issues and

conflicts that arise during the course of a project.

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PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep | 7

Item

Networking

Observation/conversation

Servant leadership

Team building

Description

The interaction between people to expand their knowledge about

business topics. It can take place in an organization, industry, or

professional environment.

A technique that involves watching individuals as they perform

their daily tasks in an effort to obtain first-hand knowledge of a

situation or how a process is going.

A type of leadership used in agile and other types of projects, which

encourages the self-definition, self-discovery, and self-awareness of

team members by listening, coaching, and providing an

environment which allows them to grow. Servant leaders facilitate

the team’s work, remove any work barriers, educate stakeholders on

the processes being followed, and celebrate the team’s

accomplishments.

Building a strong team can be challenging, but through continuous

support and working collaboratively, you can enable a team to work

together to solve problems, diffuse interpersonal issues, share

information, and tackle project objectives as a unified force. The

team mentality is extremely effective and can be a powerful tool in

achieving project objectives.

Reference: Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project

Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Page 80

The RACI Chart

A RACI chart* is a common type of Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) that uses

responsible, accountable, consult, and inform statuses to define the involvement of stakeholders in

project activities. RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. The RACI

matrix helps identify who is responsible for making decisions and how the people responsible are

supported. RACI is generally used to provide clarity on the roles and responsibilities assigned to

each project team member. The RACI chart is also called a RASI chart, where "S" stands for

"Support."

The RACI Chart

The Spotlight on RACI

Chart Creation

presentation is available

from the Spotlight tile on

the CHOICE Course

screen. You may choose

to include it in your

instructional plans, or

you can remind students

about the tile and the

supplemental

information it contains.

Figure 1-2: A sample RACI chart.

Reference: Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project

Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Page 317.

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Lesson 1: Creating a High-Performing Team | Topic A

8 | PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep

Note: For more information, check out the Spotlight on RACI Chart Creation presentation

from the Spotlight tile on the CHOICE Course screen.

Team Skill Appraisal

Pre-Assignment Tools

Diversity and Inclusion

Team Skill Appraisal

Assessments of the team members and the team holistically enable the team to identify its strengths

and weaknesses, and to help assess opportunities for improvement, build trust, and establish

communications mechanisms. These may help to better identify:

• Team preferences

• Aspirations

•

• Decision making processes

•

Information processing and organization

Interactions with other team members

Pre-Assignment Tools

There are a number of tools and techniques to support skills appraisals. These may include:

• Attitudinal surveys

• Specific assessments

• Structured interviews

• Ability tests

• Focus groups

Diversity and Inclusion

Project managers are often asked to work on projects with a global scope, or at least a broadly

diverse project team, with members from different cultural backgrounds, industry experiences, or

who even speak in different languages. The project team may adopt a project "team language" that is

different from their native language. The project manager should seek to create an environment that

takes advantage of this diversity and builds a team climate of mutual trust. Team development

objectives might include:

•

•

• Creating a collaborative culture to improve individual and team performance and facilitate cross-

Improving team knowledge and skills to reduce cost and time and improve quality.

Improving trust to raise team morale, reduce conflict, and improve teamwork.

training and mentoring.

• Empowering the team to participate in decision making and own the solutions they create.

Note: Tuckman's...