APM Project Fundamentals Qualification Review Revision 2024

Project - answersA unique, transient endeavour undertaken to achieve planned objectives. Project management - answersApplication of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives. Core components of project management - answers1. Justification (why?) 2. Business Case. 3. Corporate agreement and budget. 4. Project Management Plan. 5. Communicate with stakeholders. 6. Manage risks, issues and changes. 7. Monitor progress against plan. 8. Controlled project close. Benefits of project management - answers1. Better chance of delivering desired result. 2. Efficient use of resources. 3. Satisfy stakeholders. Project environment - answers1. Circumstances and conditions in which project operates. 2. Use PESTLE or SWOT. Programme - answersGroup of related projects and change management activities that together achieve a beneficial change for an organisation. Portfolio - answers1. Grouping of organisation's projects and programmes. 2. Managed in line with strategic objectives. Project roles - answers1. Project sponsor. 2. Project steering group. 3. Project manager. 4. Project team. 5. Project office. 6. End users. Project sponsor - answers1. Wants project done and owns benefits. 2. Owns Business Case. Project steering group - answersProvides strategic direction and guidance to sponsor. Project manager - answers1. Responsible and accountable for successful delivery of project. 2. Owns Project Management Plan. Project team - answersAccountable to project manager. End users - answersReceive benefits or operate outputs. Project life cycle - four phases - answers1. Concept. 2. Definition. 3. Development. 4. Handover and closure. 1. Concept - answers1. Develop initial idea. 2. Outline business case. 3. Accept/reject? 2. Definition - answers1. Identify preferred solution. 2. Refine Business Case. 3. Develop Project Management Plan. 4. Accept/reject? 3. Development - answers1. Put Project Management Plan into action. 2. Design stage - produce necessary documentation. 3. Build stage - deliverables produced and tested against quality criteria; monitoring and control against plan. 4. Accept/reject? 4. Handover and closure - answers1. Testing of complete set of deliverables. 2. Deliverables and documentation handed over to sponsor or end user. 3. Post project review and benefits realisation review. 4. Redeploy project team. Extended project life cycle - two additional phases - answers5. Operation. 6. Termination. Stakeholder - answersOrganisations or people who have an interest or role in project or are impacted by it. Stakeholder management - answers1. Identification of stakeholder groups, their interest levels and ability to influence project. 2. Identify using PESTLE or SWOT. 3. Assess whether for/against and interest/power. Project benefits - answers1. Quantifiable and measurable improvement resulting from completion of project deliverables that is perceived as positive by stakeholder. 2. Normally has tangible value, expressed in monetary terms, that justifies investment. 3. Owned by sponsor. Benefits management - answersIdentification, definition, planning, tracking and realisation of business benefits. Benefits realisation - answers1. Practice of ensuring that outcome of project produces projected benefits. 2. Measure success of sponsor not project manager. Success criteria - answers1. Quantitative or qualitative measures by which success of project is judged. 2. Measure success of project manager. Key Performance Indicators - answersSuccess measures used throughout project to ensure it is progressing towards successful conclusion. Success factors - answersManagement practices that when implemented increase likelihood of success of project. Examples of success factor practices - answers1. Senior management commitment. 2. Clear goals and objectives. 3. Timely and clear communication. 4. Good governance. 5. Focus on business value. Communication - answersMeans by which information or instructions are exchanged. Communication plan contents - Kipling's six honest serving men - answersWhy? What? How? Where? When? Who? Team - answersGroup of people working in collaboration or co-operation towards a common goal. Types of project team - answers1. Functional team. 2. Project team. 3. Matrix team - staff report to project manager for contribution to project and to functional manager for routine aspects. 4. Contract team. Integrated project management team (IPMT) - answersMulti-disciplinary team under project manager. Four stages of team development (Tuckman) - answers1. Forming. 2. Storming. 3. Norming. 4. Performing. Belbin team roles - answers1. Plant. 2. Resources Investigator. 3. Co-ordinator. 4. Shaper. 5. Monitor evaluator. 6. Teamworker. 7. Implementer. 8. Completer. 9. Specialist. Leadership - answersAbility to establish vision and direction, to influence and align others towards a common purpose, and to empower and inspire people to project success. Situational leadership - 4 quadrants defined by directive or prescriptive behaviour - answers1. Tell - specific instructions and supervise performance. 2. Sell - explain your decisions. 3. Participate - share ideas and facilitate decisions. 4. Delegate - turn over responsibility for decisions and implementation. Business Case - answers1. Provides justification for undertaking project. 2. Evaluates benefit, cost and risk of alternative options and provides a rationale for preferred solution. 3. Output of concept phase. 4. Owned by sponsor. Business case contents - answers1. Strategic case. 2. Options and preferred option. 3. Benefits. 4. Timescale. 5. Risks. 6. Investment appraisal including life cycle costs. Scope - answersTotality of outputs, outcomes and benefits and the work required to produce them. Scope management - answersProcess whereby outputs, outcomes and benefits are identified, defined and controlled. Tools to illustrate scope of work required - answers1. Work breakdown structure. 2. Product breakdown structure. 3. Cost breakdown structure. 4. Organisation breakdown structure. 5. Responsibility Assignment Matrix. 1. Work breakdown structure - answersPackages of work to produce deliverables. Captures project scope. 2. Product breakdown structure - answersHierarchy of deliverables required to be produced on project. 3. Cost breakdown structure - answersCosts assigned to work packages using WBS. 4. Organisation breakdown structure - answersReporting structure and lines of communication, i.e. who is doing what. 5. Responsibility Assignment Matrix - answersDerived from WBS and OBS. Schedule - answersTimetable showing forecast start and finish for activities in project. Schedule management - answersProcess of developing, maintaining and communicating schedules for time and resource. Time management tools - answers1. Network diagram. 2. Gantt chart - visual representation of project's activities against a calendar. Network diagram - answers1. Link tasks according to dependence. 2. Forward pass determines early starts and finishes. 3. Backward pass determines latest starts and finishes. 4. From these, float is determined. 5. Total float and free float (what's left if any used). Critical path - answers1. Shortest time in which project can be completed. 2. Determined by longest path through network, which is sequence of activities with no float. Resources - answers1. Items required to undertake work including people, finance and materials. 2. Consumable and re-usable. Resource management - answersAcquisition and deployment of internal and external resources required to deliver project. Resource smoothing - answersUse of float to keep within time, used when project is time limited. Resource levelling - answersMake project longer, used when project is resource limited. Quality - answersFitness for purpose or degree of conformance of outputs of process or process itself. Quality management - answersEnsuring outputs, benefits and processes by which they are delivered meet stakeholder requirements and are fit for purpose. Quality processes - there are four - answers1. Quality planning. 2. Quality assurance. 3. Quality control. 4. Continuous improvement. 1. Quality Planning - answers1. Prepares to achieve quality requirements of stakeholders expressed as acceptance criteria. 2. Produces Quality Management Plan. 2. Quality Assurance - answers1. Provides confidence to stakeholders that quality requirements will be achieved. 2. Independent of project. 3. Quality control - answersInspection, testing and measuring project deliverables to ensure they conform to specification, are fit for purpose, and meet stakeholder requirements. Estimate - answersAn approximation of project time and cost targets refined through project life cycle. Estimating - answersUse of tools and techniques to produce estimates. Estimate funnel - answersGets narrower as we proceed from concept through to closure. Types of estimate - answers1. Comparative. Top-down, historical. 2. Parametric. Top-down, statistical model. 3. Cost breakdown structure. Bottom-up. Risk event - answersUncertain event or set of circumstances which should it or they occur would have an effect on the achievement of one or more project objectives. Project risk - answersExposure of stakeholders to consequences of variation in outcome. Project risk management - answersProcess that allows individual risk events and overall project risk to be understood and managed proactively, optimising project success by minimising threats and maximising opportunities. Risk management process - answers1. Initiate - Risk Management Plan. 2. Identify. 3. Assess probability and impact. 4. Plan response - mitigation and contingency. 5. Implement response. Procurement - answersProcess by which products and services are acquired from external provider for incorporation into project. Procurement strategy - answers1. Make or buy? 2. Single or several suppliers? 3. Selection. 4. Types of contract and pricing. 5. Ensure optimum risk is passed to supplier without compromising procurement. Project Management Plan - answers1. Brings together all plans of project. 2. Reference document for managing project. 3. Output of definition phase. 4. Owned by project manager. Project Management Plan contents - answers1. Alignment with organisation's strategic objectives. 2. Project scope definition. 3. Success criteria. 4. Constraints. 5. Schedule and milestones. 6. Resource requirements. 7. Budget and cost estimate. 8. Risk management. 9. Issues management. 10. Change management. 11. Communication management. Information management - answersCollection, storage, dissemination, archiving and appropriate destruction of project information. Information reporting - answersPresents information in appropriate format including to stakeholders. Change control - answers1. Evaluates change to project scope. 2. Process through which all requests to change the baseline scope, defined in PMP, are captured, evaluated, and then approved, rejected or deferred. 3. Important because any change is potential threat to success of project. Configuration management - answersTechnical and administrative activities concerned with creation, maintenance, controlled change and quality control of scope of work. Issues - answers1. Major problem that requires escalation. 2. A formal issue occurs when tolerances of delegated work are predicted to be exceeded or have been exceeded. 3. Outside control of project manager and escalated to sponsor. Review - answersCritical evaluation of a deliverable, business case or P3 (project, programme or portfolio) process. 1. Project evaluation review - answersReview of project's performance at predefined points in project life cycle. 2. Gate review - answersFormal point in project where its expected worth, progress, cost and execution plan are reviewed and decision made whether to continue to next phase. 3. Audit - answersSystematic, retrospective examination of whole or part of project or function to measure conformance with predetermined standards. 4. Post project review - answers1. Documents learning for future usage. 2. Undertaken after project deliverables handed over and before final closeout, intended to produce lessons learned that will enable continuous improvement. 5. Benefits realisation review - answersUndertaken after a period of operations of the project deliverables, to establish whether project benefits have been realised.