Tài liệu Project Management Professional-Chapter 10 docx

The Project Management Institute PMI has constantly improved the PMP examination since it was first given and will continue to improve the exam as time goes on.. This panel determined th

CHAPTER 10

What Is the PMP Exam Like?

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has constantly improved the

PMP examination since it was first given and will continue to improve the exam as time goes on April 2002 was significant because of the culmination of several factors that have had an influence on the PMP

exami-nation The Project Management Professional (PMP) Role Delineation Study

was begun in 1999 to help define the roles and responsibilities of project management professionals From this knowledge, an examination could be designed that would truly test the prospective candidates and prove that the candidates for certification could indeed competently practice the profession

of project manager A good and content-valid examination for project man-agement professionals cannot be developed unless the roles of project manag-ers and how they are practiced are clearly undmanag-erstood

In order to accomplish this, PMI hired a company experienced in these things, Columbia Assessment Services (CAS) The initial development and evaluation was completed by a panel of thirteen members considered to be subject matter experts in the field of project management These members represented a variety of fields of practice, industries, geographic locations, and, of course, both genders This panel determined that there would be six project management domains:

• Initiating

• Planning

• Executing

• Controlling

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Table 10-1 Evaluation of domains.

Domain Percent of Test Number of Questions

Professional responsibility 14.5% 29

• Closing

• Professional Responsibility

From each of the domains, a number of tasks were created, and for each of these tasks, the knowledge and skills required were determined Once this was done project managers were surveyed from various age groups, edu-cation levels, industries, regions of the world, levels of experience, and earn-ing levels

In the survey, the managers were asked to evaluate the importance of the six domains on a scale of 1 to 5 The domains were evaluated according

to importance, criticality, and frequency of use The survey results were then used to determine the number of questions in each of the domain areas that would be in the examination The results are shown in table 10-1

Domain 1: Initiating the Project

Initiating has ten tasks associated with it The PMP exam will have seventeen questions from domain 1

Tasks:

1 Two questions ‘‘Determine project goals by identifying and work-ing with project stakeholders in order to meet their requirements, specifications and/or expectations.’’

2 Two questions ‘‘Determine product or service deliverables by re-viewing or generating the scope of work, requirements, and/or specifications to meet the stakeholder expectations.’’

3 One question ‘‘Determine project management process outputs

220 Preparing for the Project Management Professional Certification Exam

by applying appropriate practices, tools, and methodologies to en-sure required product/service delivery.’’

4 One question ‘‘Document project constraints through coordina-tion with stakeholders and review of policies and procedures to ensure compliance.’’

5 Two questions ‘‘Document assumptions by determining informa-tion that must be validated or situainforma-tions to be controlled during the project in order to facilitate the project planning process.’’

6 One question ‘‘Define the project strategy by evaluating alterna-tive approaches to meet stakeholder requirements, specifications, and/or expectations.’’

7 Two questions ‘‘Identify performance criteria by referring to prod-uct/service specifications and process standards in order to ensure and/or support the quality assurance effort.’’

8 Two questions ‘‘Determine key resource requirements by referring

to deliverables in order to support planning and decision-making.’’

9 Two questions ‘‘Define an appropriate project budget and sched-ule by determining time and cost estimates in order to support decision-making.’’

10 Two questions ‘‘Provide comprehensive information by producing

a formal document to obtain an approval decision from the stake-holders.’’

Domain 2: Planning the Project

Planning has seven tasks associated with it The PMP exam will have forty-seven questions from domain 2

Tasks:

1 Eight questions ‘‘Refine project requirements, assumptions, and constraints through communication with stakeholders and/or by reviewing project documents to baseline the scope of work and enable development of the execution plan.’’

2 Seven questions ‘‘Create the Work Breakdown Structure using the scope of work, other project documents, and decomposition tech-niques to facilitate detailed project planning and the executing, controlling, and closing process.’’

3 Six questions ‘‘Develop the resource management plan (Human Resources, Procurement, etc.) by identifying resource requirements and obtaining commitments from internal, external, and procured sources to complete all project activities.’’

4 Six questions ‘‘Refine project time and cost estimates by applying estimating tools and techniques to all WBS tasks in order to deter-mine project baseline, schedule, and budget.’’

5 Six questions ‘‘Establish project controls by defining the required correct processes, measures and controls to manage project change, communications, procurement, risk, quality, and human resources

to facilitate project executing and controlling processes, and to en-sure compliance with generally accepted industry standards.’’

6 Seven questions ‘‘Develop a formal and comprehensive project plan by integrating and documenting project deliverables, accep-tance criteria, processes, procedures, risks and tasks to facilitate project executing, controlling and closing processes.’’

7 Seven questions ‘‘Obtain project plan approval by reviewing the plan with the client and other required stakeholders to confirm project baselines prior to proceeding with project executing proc-esses.’’

Domain 3: Executing the Project

Executing has five tasks associated with it The PMP exam will have forty-seven questions from domain 3

Tasks:

1 Ten questions ‘‘Commit project resources in accordance with the project plan to ensure that all activities are performed.’’

2 Nine questions ‘‘Implement the project plan by authorizing the execution of project activities and tasks to produce project delivera-bles.’’

3 Eleven questions ‘‘Manage project progress by ensuring that activ-ities are executed as planned in order to achieve the project objec-tives.’’

4 Nine questions ‘‘Communicate project progress by producing

222 Preparing for the Project Management Professional Certification Exam

project reports to provide timely and accurate project status and decision support information to stakeholders.’’

5 Eight questions ‘‘Implement quality assurance procedures by per-forming project control activities to meet project objectives.’’

Domain 4: Controlling the Project

Controlling has eight tasks associated with it The PMP exam will have forty-six questions from domain 4

Tasks:

1 Seven questions ‘‘Measure project performance continually by comparing results to the baseline in order to identify project trends and variances.’’

2 Four questions ‘‘Refine control limits on performance measures by applying established policy in order to identify needs for corrective action.’’

3 Seven questions ‘‘Take timely corrective action by addressing the root causes in the problem areas in order to eliminate or minimize negative impact.’’

4 Five questions ‘‘Evaluate the effectiveness of the corrective actions

by measuring the subsequent performance in order to determine the need for further actions.’’

5 Seven questions ‘‘Ensure compliance with the change manage-ment plan by monitoring response to change initiatives in order to manage scope.’’

6 Four questions ‘‘Reassess project control plans by scheduling peri-odic reviews in order to ensure their effectiveness and currency.’’

7 Six questions ‘‘Respond to risk event triggers in accordance with the risk management plan in order to properly manage project outcomes.’’

8 Six questions ‘‘Monitor project activity by performing periodic inspections to ensure that authorized approaches and processes are followed or to identify the need for corrective action.’’

Domain 5: Closing the Project

Closing has five tasks associated with it The PMP exam will have fourteen questions from domain 5

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1 Four questions ‘‘Obtain final acceptance of deliverables by obtain-ing formal approval from appropriate stakeholders to achieve closeout.’’

2 Two questions ‘‘Document lessons learned by surveying project team members and other relevant stakeholders to use for the bene-fit of future projects.’’

3 Three questions ‘‘Facilitate administrative and financial closure in accordance with the project plan in order to comply with organiza-tion and stakeholder requirements.’’

4 Three questions ‘‘Preserve essential project records and required tools by archiving them for future use to adhere to legal and other requirements.’’

5 Two questions ‘‘Release project resources by following appropriate organizational procedures in order to optimize resource utiliza-tion.’’

Domain 6: Professional Responsibility

Professional responsibility has five tasks associated with it The PMP exam will have twenty-nine questions from domain 6

Tasks:

1 Eight questions ‘‘Ensure individual integrity and professionalism

by adhering to legal requirements and ethical standards in order to protect community and all stakeholders.’’

2 Three questions ‘‘Contributing to the project management knowl-edge base by sharing lessons learned, best practices, research, etc within appropriate communities in order to improve the quality of project management services, build capabilities of colleagues, and advance the profession.’’

3 Five questions ‘‘Enhance individual competence by increasing and applying knowledge to improve services.’’

4 Five questions ‘‘Balance stakeholders’ interests by recommending approaches that strive for fair resolution in order to satisfy compet-ing needs and objectives.’’

224 Preparing for the Project Management Professional Certification Exam

5 Eight questions ‘‘Interact with team and stakeholders in a profes-sional and cooperative manner by respecting personal, ethnic, and cultural differences in order to ensure a collaborative project man-agement environment.’’

Types of Questions on the Exam

All of the questions on the PMP exam are multiple choice There are only four choices for each question, and there are two hundred questions This means that you will only have an average of 1.2 minutes per question This

is not a lot of time, but it is usually enough if English is your native language, that is Otherwise, you may have some problems with the timing of the exam

The best approach to the exam is to go through it rapidly, answering all of the questions that you are certain about I can remember doing this on the old PMP exam and realizing that at the end of the process I was not sure

of any of the answers When you are done with those, go back and answer the questions that you skipped This will take advantage of any information that you can learn as a result of answering the questions you know If you definitely know the answer to a question, then you also know that the other answers are wrong for that question This information may allow you to answer a question that you skipped earlier Be sure to answer every question

on the exam There is no subtraction for wrong answers Only the right answers are counted

The trend in the PMP examination is to use questions that are ‘‘situa-tional’’ in nature This means that the questions will be more like the word problems you had in your high school math classes These are the kind that

go something like this: If Joe has four apples and Sally has three oranges, what time will the train from Chicago meet the train from New York? This

is thought to test the candidate PMP more thoroughly in the competence of project management and less in the area of rote memorization This has been accomplished While the other project management organizations around the world may be critical of PMI not using the interview methods that so many other organizations favor, PMI has achieved the recognition of the International Standards Association, ISO 9000: 2000 certification for the process of certifying PMPs This means that the process that PMI uses does what it is supposed to do, and it does act to select project management professionals from those who are not qualified

PMI uses the Angoff modified technique for constructing the ques-tions This means that a large number of PMPs are used in the process First, PMPs are trained to write questions for the exam These questions are reviewed by committees of PMPs and finally are given to an independent professional who reviews the questions again for construction and ambiguity Once the questions are reviewed, they are submitted to another group

of PMPs who are asked to rate the questions in terms of whether they think

a question tests a person seeking the PMP certification who is ‘‘minimally qualified.’’ Each question is evaluated this way

Although there is a passing grade for the exam, it is not going to neces-sarily be the same from year to year PMI rates the difficulty of each question

on the exam A mixture of questions of varying difficulty are then selected

so that the difficulty of each version of the exam is about the same Each question on the exam is given to a group of PMPs who are asked the ques-tion, ‘‘What is the probability that a minimally acceptable candidate will answer this question correctly?’’ The probabilities are summarized, and each question receives a difficulty rating So, if you take the exam with one set of questions and then take it again a year later with a different set of questions, the difficulty rating for the whole exam should be about the same, even though you have a different set of questions The passing grade for each exam should be about the same as well, but this is not necessarily the case The questions fall into three categories ‘‘Recall questions’’ are similar

to what most of the questions on the PMP exam used to be like These questions give you a definition and then different items, one of which is the item whose definition was stated The ‘‘application questions’’ ask you to pick out what a project manager should do under the situation described The ‘‘analysis questions’’ require you to take the information offered and,

by looking at the relationships between the various pieces of information, come up with the correct answer

You can expect that for most of the questions two of the four answers are easily discarded, and the remaining two will often be difficult to separate into the right and wrong answer

Taking the Exam

The first thing you must do is get a good night’s sleep the night before the exam Don’t eat a lot of sugar the morning of the exam Eat a good breakfast Try to do things in the way that you do them every day If you are used to drinking coffee, then do not deprive yourself on the day of the exam

226 Preparing for the Project Management Professional Certification Exam

Get there in plenty of time to take the exam If you are using public transportation, be sure to allow for waiting time for the bus or train If you are driving, be sure to allow enough time for traffic delays You want to be there with enough time to calm yourself and prepare mentally for what will

be a tough four hours A very good friend of mine was totally relaxed about the exam In fact, she was so relaxed that she forgot to go take it The proctor phoned her an hour after the exam started and told her that she had not shown up for the exam She decided to take the exam and rushed over to the exam site Unfortunately, the proctor could not stay, and she had to take the exam in two-and-a-half hours instead of four She passed But not every-one can do that Better to be there early, relax, go over your critical notes, and take the exam in a relaxed manner

There is a fifteen minute tutorial before the exam, and there will be some papers to sign This activity is not counted as exam time Take the time to go through the tutorial It will stop you from making mistakes with the computer that could lose you valuable time in the exam The four-hour exam time is just the time for answering questions on the exam

You are allowed one break during the exam This break can be up to one hour in length, and the timing of the exam will stop for the break Once you are back at the exam work station, the exam time will continue until the four hours have been completed or you have finished the exam When you are finished, the proctor will grade your exam, and you will be told whether you have passed or not

My suggestion for remembering formulae and such if you are having trouble memorizing is to bring the formulae to the exam written on a card Before the exam, look over the card and leave it outside the examination room You do not want someone to see you inside the room with something like that When you get into the exam room, recall the formulae and write them on the approval scrap paper This is a good idea if you are a person who has trouble memorizing things and when under pressure gets signs and the order of variables mixed up

Use of Practice Questions

In the last section of the book I have included nearly three hundred practice questions Each of these is answered, and the answers are annotated The questions should give you a good idea of what the exam will be like I suggest taking several questions from each section and trying to answer them in the same amount of time PMI will give you, that is, 1.2 minutes per question

Alternatively, you can take several of the questions and answer them after reviewing each of the chapters in the book on the subject of the

ques-tions The questions are organized by the Guide to the PMBOK knowledge

areas plus another section for the professional responsibility questions I did not mix the questions as they will be on the actual examination, because I thought it would be more helpful to be able to review at least some of the questions at the end of each chapter The questions on the actual exam that you will take will be randomized; if you have just answered a question from the planning domain about scheduling, the next question may be from any other knowledge area or project management domain

Many people think that the best way to pass the PMP exam is to prac-tice on the questions from various sources This has two major problems One is that the questions that you are likely to get your hands on are ques-tions that someone other than PMI made up These quesques-tions will certainly not have the rigorous inspection that PMI has given the questions on the actual exam Security around the exam is very tight None of the questions that are actually on the exam are likely to come into your hands Prior to the changes in the exam effective April 2002 many of the questions on the exam were one-line type questions Many of the practice questions you will see are mostly of this type Practicing them for the exam will not help you when you take the actual exam You will find that the questions on the actual exam are longer and require you to do quite a bit of analysis and answer the question, ‘‘What would a project manager do in this situation?’’

The second and most important thing is that practicing on the exam questions will not give you a good knowledge of project management It will give you only knowledge of the questions you practice with PMI has gone

to extreme lengths to make the exam something that will separate project management professionals from those who are not This it does very well It does it well enough that the certification process is itself confined by the International Standards Organization, ISO 9000; 2000 The exam tests your real knowledge and professionalism I feel that it actually does a good job of testing your competence as well

The practice questions are a good way to test your knowledge, but I do not think that they are the only way A solid understanding of the principles and methods of project management is extremely important to passing the PMP exam The use of practice questions gives you some idea about the style and form of the questions, and this is something you need to know Using the questions as the principle way of preparing for the exam is a serious mistake and will generally earn you a failing grade