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Exam Information
Official specifications published by PMI
Exam Format
230 min
Above target in domains
Professional
Registration
$675 USD
Pearson VUE or online proctoring
Validity
3 years
Earn 60 PDUs within 3-year cycle; Complete continuing education activities; Give back through volunteering
PMP Exam Topics and Domains
PMP is organized into 3 weighted domains.
1
People
42%
Manage conflict
Conflict Resolution
- Interpret the source and stage of the conflict
- Analyze the context for the conflict
- Evaluate, recommend, and reconcile the appropriate conflict resolution solution
Lead a team
Team Leadership
- Set a clear vision and mission
- Support the team's varied experiences and perceptions
- Value servant leadership (e.g., relate the tenets of servant leadership to the team)
- Determine an appropriate leadership style (e.g., directive, collaborative)
- Inspire, motivate, and influence team members and stakeholders (e.g., team contract, social contract, reward system)
- Analyze team members' and stakeholders' influence
- Distinguish various options to lead various team members and stakeholders
Support team performance
Performance Management
- Appraise team member performance against key performance indicators
- Support and recognize team member growth and development
- Determine appropriate feedback approach
- Verify performance improvements
Empower team members and stakeholders
Empowerment and Delegation
- Organize around team strengths
- Support team task accountability
- Evaluate demonstration of task accountability
- Determine and bestow level(s) of decision-making authority
Ensure adequate training
Training and Development
- Determine required competencies and elements of training
- Determine training options based on training needs
- Allocate resources for training
- Measure training outcomes
Build a team
Team Formation
- Appraise stakeholder skills
- Deduce project resource requirements
- Continuously assess and refresh team skills to meet project needs
- Maintain team and knowledge transfer
Address impediments
Obstacle Removal
- Determine critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team
- Prioritize critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team
- Use network to implement solutions to remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team
- Re-assess continually to ensure impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team are being addressed
Negotiate project agreements
Negotiation
- Analyze the bounds of the negotiations for agreement
- Assess priorities and determine ultimate objective(s)
- Verify objective(s) of the project agreement is met
- Participate in agreement negotiations
- Determine a negotiation strategy
Collaborate with stakeholders
Stakeholder Collaboration
- Evaluate engagement needs for stakeholders
- Optimize alignment between stakeholder needs, expectations, and project objectives
- Build trust and influence stakeholders to accomplish project objectives
Build shared understanding
Communication and Understanding
- Break down situation to identify the root cause of a misunderstanding
- Survey all necessary parties to reach consensus
- Support outcome of parties' agreement
- Investigate potential misunderstandings
Engage virtual teams
Virtual Team Management
- Examine virtual team member needs (e.g., environment, geography, culture, global)
- Investigate alternatives (e.g., communication tools, colocation) for virtual team member engagement
- Implement options for virtual team member engagement
- Continually evaluate effectiveness of virtual team member engagement
Define team ground rules
Team Norms
- Communicate organizational principles with team and external stakeholders
- Establish an environment that fosters adherence to the ground rules
- Manage and rectify ground rule violations
Mentor stakeholders
Mentoring
- Allocate the time to mentoring
- Recognize and act on mentoring opportunities
Promote emotional intelligence
Emotional Intelligence
- Assess behavior through the use of personality indicators
- Analyze personality indicators and adjust to the emotional needs of key project stakeholders
2
Process
50%
Execute with urgency for business value
Value Delivery
- Assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally
- Examine the business value throughout the project
- Support the team to subdivide project tasks as necessary to find the minimum viable product
Manage communications
Communication Management
- Analyze communication needs of all stakeholders
- Determine communication methods, channels, frequency, and level of detail for all stakeholders
- Communicate project information and updates effectively
- Confirm communication is understood and feedback is received
Assess and manage risks
Risk Management
- Determine risk management options
- Iteratively assess and prioritize risks
Engage stakeholders
Stakeholder Engagement
- Analyze stakeholders (e.g., power interest grid, influence, impact)
- Categorize stakeholders
- Engage stakeholders by category
- Develop, execute, and validate a strategy for stakeholder engagement
Plan and manage budget and resources
Cost and Resource Management
- Estimate budgetary needs based on the scope of the project and lessons learned from past projects
- Anticipate future budget challenges
- Monitor budget variations and work with governance process to adjust as necessary
- Plan and manage resources
Plan and manage schedule
Schedule Management
- Estimate project tasks (milestones, dependencies, story points)
- Utilize benchmarks and historical data
- Prepare schedule based on methodology
- Measure ongoing progress based on methodology
- Coordinate with other projects and other operations
Plan and manage quality
Quality Management
- Determine quality standard required for project deliverables
- Recommend options for improvement based on quality gaps
- Continually survey project deliverable quality
Plan and manage scope
Scope Management
- Determine and prioritize requirements
- Break down scope (e.g., WBS, backlog)
- Monitor and validate scope
Integrate project planning activities
Integration Management
- Consolidate the project/phase plans
- Assess consolidated project plans for dependencies, gaps, and continued business value
- Collect and analyze data to make informed project decisions
- Determine critical information requirements
Manage project changes
Change Management
- Anticipate and embrace the need for change (e.g., follow change management practices)
- Determine strategy to handle change
- Execute change management strategy according to the methodology
- Determine a change response to move the project forward
Plan and manage procurement
Procurement Management
- Define resource requirements and needs
- Communicate resource requirements
- Manage suppliers and contracts
- Plan and manage procurement strategy
- Develop a delivery solution
Manage project artifacts
Information Management
- Determine the requirements (what, when, where, who) for managing the project artifacts
- Validate that the project information is kept up to date (i.e., version control) and accessible to all stakeholders
Determine project methodology
Methodology Selection
- Assess project needs, complexity, and magnitude
- Recommend project execution strategy (e.g., contracting, finance)
- Recommend a project methodology and approach (i.e., predictive, agile, hybrid)
- Use iterative, incremental practices throughout the project life cycle (e.g., lessons learned, stakeholder engagement, risk)
Establish project governance
Governance Structure
- Determine appropriate governance for a project (e.g., replicate organizational governance)
- Define escalation paths and thresholds
Manage project issues
Issue Management
- Recognize when a risk becomes an issue
- Attack the issue with the optimal action to achieve project success
- Collaborate with relevant stakeholders on the approach to resolve the issues
Ensure knowledge transfer
Knowledge Management
- Discuss project responsibilities within team
- Outline expectations for working environment
- Confirm approach for knowledge transfers
Plan and manage closure/transitions
Closure Management
- Determine criteria to successfully close the project or phase
- Validate readiness for transition (e.g., to operations team or next phase)
- Conclude activities to close out project or phase (e.g., final lessons learned, retrospective, procurement, financials, resources)
3
Business Environment
8%
Plan and manage compliance
Compliance Management
- Confirm project compliance requirements (e.g., security, health and safety, regulatory compliance)
- Classify compliance categories
- Determine potential threats to compliance
- Use methods to support compliance
- Analyze the consequences of noncompliance
- Determine necessary approach and action to address compliance needs (e.g., risk, legal)
- Measure the extent to which the project is in compliance
Evaluate and deliver benefits and value
Benefits Realization
- Investigate that benefits are identified
- Document agreement on ownership for ongoing benefit realization
- Verify measurement system is in place to track benefits
- Evaluate delivery options to demonstrate value
- Appraise stakeholders of value gain progress
Evaluate external business environment changes
External Environment Analysis
- Survey changes to external business environment (e.g., regulations, technology, geopolitical, market)
- Assess and prioritize impact on project scope/backlog based on changes in external business environment
- Recommend options for scope/backlog changes (e.g., schedule, cost changes)
- Continually review external business environment for impacts on project scope/backlog
Support organizational change
Organizational Change Management
- Assess organizational culture
- Evaluate impact of organizational change to project and determine required actions
- Evaluate impact of the project to the organization and determine required actions
How do I earn this certification?
Passing PMP earns the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. It sits in the Project Management track.
Next Level Options
- PgMP - Program Management Professional For those managing multiple related projects
- PfMP - Portfolio Management ProfessionalFor senior practitioners aligning projects with strategy
Alternative Paths
- PMI-ACP - PMI Agile Certified PractitionerSpecialization in agile methodologies
- PMI-RMP - PMI Risk Management ProfessionalSpecialization in project risk management
- PMI-SP - PMI Scheduling ProfessionalSpecialization in project scheduling
- PMI-PBA - PMI Professional in Business AnalysisBridge between project management and business analysis
- PMI-CP - PMI Construction ProfessionalIndustry-specific certification for construction
- PMI-PMOCP - PMI PMO Certified ProfessionalFor PMO managers and practitioners
- DASM - Disciplined Agile Scrum MasterAgile at scale certification
- DASSM - Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum MasterAdvanced agile leadership
Practice with Precision
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How to study for this exam?
The most effective way to prepare for PMP is by using the PlanetCert Simulator to practice questions and review detailed explanations.
What's changed on this exam?
Current Status
- ACTIVE
- Last content update: 2021-01-02
Updates
- Microsoft Project Online 2024 Scheduling and resource management questions • Release date: 2024-06-01
- Jira Align Latest Agile portfolio management concepts • Release date: Continuous
- Monday.com Work OS 3.0 Visual project management techniques • Release date: 2024-05-01
Who should take this exam?
- Experience leading and directing projects
- Familiarity with PMBOK Guide
- Understanding of both predictive and agile approaches
- Cross-functional team leadership experience