The PMP Exam Questions - Part 3 - Overall Guidelines for Answering Questions

Below are a number of important rules to remember for this exam. We suggest that you copy these over to a piece of paper and read it regularly. Make sure with each question that you think or refer back to these rules and the ones in Part 1 and 2.

1. The project manager is empowered and has ultimate authority and accountability for a project.
2. Projects should be strategically aligned with the high-level strategic objectives of the organization.
3. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) forms the basis of all estimating and project planning.
4. Project Managers spend 90% of their time communicating.
5. Planning is the most important of all the Project Management processes. Projects don’t fail at the end, they fail at the beginning.
6. The Project Team must be involved early in the Planning process and in all major decisions.
7. Lessons Learned and Historical Records are essential inputs to just about every Project Management process especially Planning.
8. Project Stakeholders and their needs/expectations are very important and should be well managed and balanced.
9. Administrative closure and Scope Verification are essential considerations with just about every project management process.
10. Adding out-of-scope extras (also called “gold plating”) to please project stakeholders adds no value and is strongly discouraged.
11. The Project Manager and Team should be pro-active, monitoring risk events, looking for difficulties early-on in the process and be on the lookout for new risks and manage them appropriately.
12. Quality is planned in and not inspected in – i.e. more inspections do not solve quality issues.
13. The closer to the beginning of a project, the more influence management (not the project manager) has on the project scope and changes.
14. The project team must be involved in almost all problem solving and planning decisions.
15. Administrative closeout must be performed at the end of each project life cycle phase.
16. Project changes should be expected, planned for and well-managed.
17. Estimating must be done by the people who will do the work.
18. Project baselines must be saved for performance assessments during execution.
19. Problem solving should be handled by the project manager and team.
20. Issues should be elevated to Senior Management only when they cannot be resolved within the team.
21. Effective project communication is all important!

In the PM-Mentor Master Class you will find more details.