PM Basics
These three constraints are commonly balanced when managing competing project demands: what is delivered, when it is delivered, and how much funding is used.
What are scope, schedule, and cost?
This deliverable-oriented breakdown organizes the total scope of the project into smaller, more manageable components.
What is the Work Breakdown Structure, or WBS?
This is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.
What is a risk?
In Scrum, this is a fixed-length timebox during which the team creates a potentially releasable increment.
What is a sprint?
This technology can help PMs summarize meetings, draft status updates, identify patterns, and support decisions, but still requires human judgment and validation.
What is artificial intelligence, or AI? (Will accept LLMs)
This is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
What is a project?
This artifact links requirements to their origin and helps confirm that approved requirements are delivered and tested.
What is the requirements traceability matrix?
This person is assigned responsibility for monitoring a specific risk and helping ensure the agreed response is carried out.
Who is the risk owner?
This prioritized list contains features, fixes, technical work, and other items needed for the product.
What is the product backlog?
This practice integrates development, security, and operations so security is built into delivery rather than treated as a final checkpoint.
What is DevSecOps?
This is a unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that must be produced to complete a process, phase, or project.
What is a deliverable?
This schedule method identifies the longest path through the project and helps determine the shortest possible project duration.
What is the critical path method?
In Agile risk management, the acronym ROAM stands for these four categories used to track risks.
In Agile risk management, the acronym ROAM stands for these four categories used to track risks.
This event is held at the end of the sprint to inspect the increment and gather feedback from stakeholders.
What is the sprint review?
In federal or regulated project environments, this focus ensures required rules, policies, security controls, and obligations are identified, monitored, and addressed.
What is compliance?
This is the approved version of a work product, such as scope, schedule, or cost, that is used as a basis for comparison and changed only through formal control procedures.
What is a baseline?
In earned value management, this cost efficiency measure is calculated as earned value divided by actual cost.
What is the Cost Performance Index, or CPI?
This tool helps prioritize risks by evaluating how likely they are and how much impact they may have.
What is a probability and impact matrix? (Will also accept risk matrix)
This delivery approach combines predictive planning with agile, iterative, or incremental delivery methods.
What is a hybrid approach?
Rather than only asking whether a project finished on time and on budget, modern project management also asks whether the project delivered this to customers and stakeholders.
What is value?
This approved document describes how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled, and closed.
What is the project management plan?
This estimating technique uses optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates to calculate an expected duration or cost.
What is three-point estimating?
This quantitative risk analysis technique uses repeated simulations to forecast the probability of different project outcomes.
What is Monte Carlo analysis?
This leadership approach focuses on supporting the team, removing impediments, and helping others succeed rather than commanding task-by-task execution.
What is servant leadership?
While AI can summarize meetings, draft project plans, and generate status reports, the quality of its output depends heavily on this skill of providing clear, specific instructions and context.
What is prompt engineering?