Project Management Professional (PMP) is a highly sought after certification program which caters to individuals who want to avail of project management job roles in different companies. The certified individuals take the lead and organize the teams working under them to work according to detailed and planned schedules, contribute to the production process according to the timeline and finish the final deliverable by the deadline. The managers ensure that the quality does not fall short of the client’s expectations and bring further profitable ventures to the company.
But project initiation and delivery are not the be-all and end-all of life for project managers. These professionals also have to take into account various processing components, methodologies, and factors into account while making informed decisions. While these terms and concepts are not entirely obvious to a layman, they can be very important for any aspirant who wants to pass the PMP examination.
Here we go with important terms in PMP Certification
1. PROGRAMS
Programs are collections of related projects which are aimed at achieving an entire line of products. These are major ventures for any company because these take up lost of resources and time. Equally taxing is the management of each project and the teams working under these projects. A team of project managers themselves works under Program Managers Professionals (PgMPs).
2. PORTFOLIOS
Portfolios are a set of programs and projects that help the company to advertise all their product lines in one brochure. These usually cover one big chunk of a firm’s business. Considering the massive size of these aggregates compared to projects and programs, there exist Portfolio Management Professionals (PfMPs) who take care of coordinating the release of each product in the entire set.
3. BASELINE
The project baseline is the basic idea of a plan that the project managers map out for the team at first. This covers the first routine that is made keeping in mind the schedules of teams working on the project. The managers take feedback from the workers and make this draft. However, not everything goes according to plan, and the managers have to make changes to the base plan. This helps to analyze the deviation that occurs between the actual implementation model and the baseline by Sprintzeal.
4. PHASES
Phases are various sections of the production procedure, which are separated by kill points. Each phase has to be finished within a planned deadline, and teams work to stick to these plans. When a project reaches a kill point, the implementation of the specific phase is properly analyzed, and from there, the managers can decide whether the teams can move on to working on the next phase.
5. LIFECYCLE OF THE PROJECT
The project lifecycle is the entire flowchart model of various project phases organized to give the most optimal results to a firm. The lifecycle arranges the phases in a sequential manner to be followed one after another. Sometimes various phases are also grouped together to be worked upon simultaneously.
6. ITTOs
The ITTOs (Inputs, Tools, Techniques, and Outputs) are critical components that are needed for the execution of any project. This includes inputs that are required for the production process, the tools that are employed in the processing stage, the techniques, and skills necessary for configuring the product to be market-ready and finally achieving the output and final deliverable itself.
7. PROJECT CONSTRAINTS
Project constraints are nothing but the limitations any project faces during production. These limitations can be physical, like labor and capital productivity, marginal efficiency, and resources. Or they can be more conceptual and abstract like timing, mental strain, and work environment. Project managers put a lot of effort into calculating these constraints and finding the maximum output possible in the current situation of the firm.
8. REGULATIONS
Regulations are the guidelines that project managers have to follow while designing project plans and team schedules. These are a part of production constraints as well, but they help in maintaining healthy work environment and employee welfare. Sometimes these regulations are designed by the government for fair usage policies of resources and economic level playing field.
Companies have to make use of many such terminologies while working with their project teams and doing variance analysis of what they primarily aimed to achieve and what they actually obtained from the project in the end. This is why PMPs need to be proficient in this sort of conceptual vocabulary during their training period so that they can qualify the examination with ease, which tests both knowledge and experience of the candidate.
