Project Management Professional (PMP) Flashcards

There are two 10-minute breaks during the exam.

The exam is delivered through Pearson VUE, either at a physical test center or online via OnVUE with a remote proctor.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) governs the PMP credential and sets its exam content, eligibility, and renewal requirements.

The exam is organized into 3 domains: People, Process, and Business Environment.

Domain I, People, accounts for 33% of exam items, covering leading and managing project teams.

Approximately 40% of items represent predictive approaches, while the remaining 60% are divided between adaptive/agile and hybrid approaches.

The exam has 180 total questions; 170 are scored and 10 are unscored pretest questions used to evaluate future exam items.

Candidates are given 240 minutes to complete the exam.

PMI does not publish a numeric passing percentage; results are proficiency-based, with performance reported per domain as Above Target, Target, Below Target, or Needs Improvement.

Candidates need 36 months (3 years) of project leadership experience with a four-year degree, or 60 months (5 years) with a high school diploma or associate degree.

Project management experience must have been accrued within the last 10 years before application.

Candidates need at least 35 hours (or contact hours) of project management training or education, often called the '35 contact hours' requirement.

Eligibility review can take up to 24 hours to process before a candidate can schedule the exam.

Certification holders must earn and report 60 professional development units (PDUs) within each 3-year renewal cycle.

A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work into smaller, manageable components called work packages, used to organize and define project scope.

The sequence of dependent activities that determines the shortest possible project duration; any delay on the critical path delays the entire project.

Predictive approaches plan scope, schedule, and cost in detail upfront and execute in a linear sequence, while adaptive approaches use iterative, incremental delivery that welcomes evolving requirements throughout the project.

The measure of work actually completed, expressed in terms of the budget authorized for that work, used to assess project performance against the plan.

The project is over budget — actual costs are exceeding the value of work performed.

The project is behind schedule — less work has been completed than was planned by this point.

A project document that records identified risks, their characteristics (probability, impact, category), and planned responses, updated throughout the project.

The charter formally authorizes the project and names the project manager with initial authority, while the project management plan is the detailed, evolving document defining how the project will be executed, monitored, and closed.

A responsibility assignment matrix that clarifies roles on project activities as Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed.

The interdependent relationship among scope, schedule, and cost, where changing one typically affects the others, often balanced alongside quality.

A recurring team meeting held at the end of an iteration to reflect on what went well, what didn't, and how to improve the process going forward.

The iterative process of continuously improving and detailing a plan as more specific information and more accurate estimates become available as the project progresses.

It defines strategies and actions to promote productive involvement of stakeholders in project decisions and execution based on their needs, interests, and potential impact.