PMP Cheat Sheet for Effective Study

PMP-certified professionals are recognised and appreciated by organisations worldwide - for their knowledge and understanding of the skills and techniques; to effectively manage projects within the stipulated time and set constraints.   

Skilled PMP professionals are in high demand to successfully manage and complete projects precisely. According to a PMI’s Earning Power survey, PMP-certified professionals can expect a 16% higher salary than non-certified professionals globally. Currently, there are more than 1,200,000 PMP-certified professionals worldwide.   

A PMP certification holder can expect an average base PMP salary of £55,000 a year, according to PayScale salary estimates. 

Table of Contents

1) What is PMP? 

2) What is the need for a PMP Cheat Sheet? 

3) Formulas in PMP Cheat Sheet

4) What are the Domains of PMP?

5) Conclusion

What is PMP? 

The Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate validates the certification holder's understanding and knowledge to manage and handle projects efficiently. It demonstrates the project manager's experience, skill, qualification, and competence required to deal with complex projects.  

PMP is administered by Project Management Institute (PMI). It is one of the most sophisticated certifications sought after by professionals and accepted by most industries. You can expect several growth opportunities as project management is anticipated to create many PMP job opportunities with lucrative salary packages in the years ahead.
 

 

What is the need for a PMP Cheat Sheet?  

A cheat sheet is typically a set of concise notes intended to aid one’s memory. It is most widely used by students for quick reference before examinations. The name ‘cheat sheet’ is derived by historically representing the students who would use the cheat sheets without the knowledge of a teacher or instructor. 

A PMP cheat sheet can help you with a quick review of concepts, formulas, and techniques necessary to prepare for the PMP exam at the last minute. 

Formulas in PMP Cheat Sheet  

Typically, formulas compute several kinds of values and functions. As the scope of Project Management is vast, the number of formulas to be considered is several and dependent on many factors.  

Concerning the PMP exams perspective, the following formulas are the essential PMP formulas mentioned in the cheat sheet. The PMP formulas listed below are vital to understanding those willing to appear for the PMP exam. So, let us have a look at them: 
 

SL No.	Name	Acronym	Formula
1	Future Value	FV	PV (1 + i)^n
2	Present Value	PV	FV/ (1 + i)^n
3	Target price		Target cost + Target fee
4	Point of Total Assumption	PTA	[(Ceiling price – Target price) / Buyer’s share ratio] + Target cost]
5	Communication channel		n (n -1) / 2
6	Earned Value	EV	% Complete x Budget at completion (BAC)
7	Cost Variance	CV	Earned value (EV) – actual cost (AC)
8	Schedule Variance	SV	Earned value (EV) – planned value (PV)
9	Actual Cost	AC	Actual Cost is the realised cost incurred for the work performed for a specific activity during a definite time period.
10	Cost Performance Index	CPI	EV / AC
11	Schedule Performance Index	SPI	Earned value (EV) / Planned value (PV)
12	Estimate At Completion	EAC	BAC / CPI
13		EAC	AC + Bottom-up ETC
14		EAC	AC + (BAC – EV)
15		EAC	AC + [(BAC – EV) / (CPI x SPI)]
16	Estimate To Complete	ETC	EAC – AC
17	Variance at completion	VAC	BAC – EAC
18	Estimate to complete		EAC – AC
19	To complete performance index	TCPI	(BAC – EV) / (EAC – AC)
20	Standard deviation	SD	Pessimistic – Optimistic / 6
21	Pert Formula Beta		(P + 4M + O) / 6
22	Expected monetary value	EMV	Probability * Impact
23	Risk Priority Number	RPN	Detection * Occurrence * Severity
24	Cost Plus Percentage of Cost Contract	CPPC	Cost + % of cost as a fee
25	Cost Plus Fixed Fee Contract		Cost + fee of fixed amount
26	Cost Plus Award Fee Contract		Cost + award fee
27	Cost Plus Incentive Fee Contract		Cost + incentive fee
28	Return on Investment	ROI	(Net profit / cost of investment) * 100
29	Payback period		initial investment / periodic cash flow
30	Cost-Benefit Ratio	CBR	Net present value of investment / initial investment cost

Join PMI-ACP Certification Training now to gain experience and skills in agile methodologies of project management. 

What are the Domains of PMP?  

There are three key domains of PMP listed below: 

Domain 1: People 

This domain concentrates on creating a high-performance team.   

The lessons under this domain cover the following: 

1) T-shaped Skills 

2) Focus groups  

3) RACI 

4) Ground rules/Social contract 

5) Project charter vs. Team charter 

6) Absolute time estimates vs. Relative measure  

7) Face-to-face communication in a virtual team, Fishbowl window 

8) User Story, Definition of Ready, Acceptance Criteria, Definition of Done 

9) Resource management plan  

10) Training, Paring, Mentoring, Baselining 

11) Five stages of the Tuckman model: 

12) Four Agile ceremonies 

13) Four backlog prioritization techniques 

14) Four techniques to get consensus 

15) Four codes of ethics 

16) Two techniques for establishing a shared vision 

Domain 2: Processes 

Scope 

1) Scope Baseline 

2) Scope creep 

3) Requirement Management Plan vs. Scope Management Plan 

4) Elicitation Techniques: Decision-making techniques, Mind mapping vs. Affinity Diagram, Prototypes vs. Storyboarding 

Schedule 

1) Types of activity dependencies 

2) Types of relationship 

3) Schedule formats and compression techniques 

4) Resource levelling, Resource smoothing 

Cost 

1) Cost baseline vs. Funding requirement  

2) Funding limit reconciliation 

3) Three estimate types and techniques 

4) Three elements of activity cost 

Quality 

1) Cost of Quality 

2) Verification 

3) PMP Audit 

4) Five Quality measurement tools 

Integration  

1) Project baseline and Subsidiary plans 

Procurement 

1) Four legal concepts 

2) Three contract types 

3) Bidder conferences 

4) Source selection criteria 

5) Negotiation, Alternative Dispute Resolution 

Risks 

1) Positive risks (Opportunities) vs. Negative risks (threats) 

2) Risk Breakdown Structure 

3) Contingency plan, Fallback plan 

4) Positive risk response strategies 

5) Negative risk response strategies 

6) Probability and Impact matrix 

Changes: 

1) Causes of Changes 

2) Components of approved changes 

3) Deliver change management process flowchart 
 

Communications 

1) Communication methods 

2) Stakeholder communication requirements and escalation process 

3) Sources of noise in the communication model 

Stakeholders 

1) Stakeholder engagement plan, matrix, and approaches 

2) Stakeholder register vs. stakeholder management plan 

3) Five engagement levels in the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix 

Domain 3: Business Environment 

1) Three types of PMO (Project Management Office)  

2) Four common compliance categories 

3) Four common benefit management techniques 

4) Four Types of Organisational Structures 

5) Organisational Process Assets vs. Enterprise Environmental Factors 

6) Kaizen vs. Deming cycle (P-D-C-A or P-D-S-A) 

7) Tolerance and Escalation procedures 

And finally, to keep the team on track, you need to learn and understand the following PMP concepts. 

1) Four characteristics of servant leadership 

2) Five Elements of Emotional Intelligence: 

3) Four Organisational Theories: Maslow, McGregor, McClelland, Herzberg  

4) Three stakeholder classification tools: Power grid, Salience mode and Stakeholder cube 

5) Six performance report types 

6) Value Stream Map 

7) Halo effect 

Conclusion 

A PMP cheat sheet is a concise sheet which serves a limited purpose to brief the concepts and help you review on a tight schedule. You can brush up on the formulas at the last minute of PMP exam preparation and make sure you revise and remember them. Anyways, you must learn the concepts in detail and use cheat sheets only as referral material to ensure you don't miss out on any essential information related to the exam syllabus. 

To get certified with project management professional training, join the PMP Training Course now!