PMP Exam - January 2, 2021

Hello! I get lots of questions about the January 2021 PMP exam change. Here’s the scoop:

• This course has been updated to reflect the new PMP Exam domains
• Starting January 2, 2021, the PMP exam will reflect the new exam content.

What is changing?

Project management professionals need more diverse skills and approaches than ever before. The PMP is evolving just like the profession – and the new exam will focus on three new domains:

• PEOPLE – emphasizing the skills and activities associated with effectively leading a project team
• PROCESS – reinforcing the technical aspects of managing a project
• BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT – highlighting the connection between projects and organization strategy

Content that spans the value spectrum, including predictive, agile, and hybrid approaches, will be included across the three exam domains. The best way to understand what is included in the exam is to review the updated Exam Content Outline.

Expect to see:

More approaches to delivering outcomes. The exam will cover both predictive (approximately 50%) and agile/hybrid (approximately 50%) approaches to project management.

Domains aligned to real-life practices. The number of domains will be reduced from five to three.

Why is the PMP exam changing?

Every 3 - 5 years, we conduct research to understand how the profession has progressed, the impact of emerging trends, and how the responsibilities of project managers have changed. The last research was conducted in 2015 and resulted in the current PMP® Exam Content Outline.

January 2, 2021, PMP® Exam Content Outline provides the framework of what you can expect on the PMP Exam after 30 June 2020.

Here are the domains and tasks included in the PMP Exam Content Outline:

Domain I: People—42%

Task 1 Manage conflict

· Interpret the source and stage of the conflict

· Analyze the context for the conflict

· Evaluate/recommend/reconcile the appropriate conflict resolution solution

Task 2 Lead a team

· Set a clear vision and mission

· Support diversity and inclusion (e.g., behavior types, thought process)

· Value servant leadership (e.g., relate the tenets of servant leadership to the team)

· Determine an appropriate leadership style (e.g., directive, collaborative)

· Inspire, motivate, and influence team members/stakeholders (e.g., team contract, social contract, reward system)

· Analyze team members and stakeholders’ influence

· Distinguish various options to lead various team members and stakeholders

Task 3 Support team performance

· • Appraise team member performance against key performance indicators

· • Support and recognize team member growth and development

· • Determine appropriate feedback approach

· • Verify performance improvements

Task 4 Empower team members and stakeholders

· Organize around team strengths

· Support team task accountability

· Evaluate demonstration of task accountability

· Determine and bestow level(s) of decision-making authority

Task 5 Ensure team members/stakeholders are adequately trained

· Determine required competencies and elements of training

· Determine training options based on training needs

· Allocate resources for training

· Measure training outcomes

Task 6 Build a team

· Appraise stakeholder skills

· Deduce project resource requirements

· Continuously assess and refresh team skills to meet project needs

· Maintain team and knowledge transfer

Task 7 Address and remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team

· Determine critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team

· Prioritize critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team

· Use network to implement solutions to remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team

· Re-assess continually to ensure impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team are being addressed

Task 8 Negotiate project agreements

· Analyze the bounds of the negotiations for agreement

· Assess priorities and determine ultimate objective(s)

· Verify objective(s) of the project agreement is met

· Participate in agreement negotiations

· Determine a negotiation strategy

Task 9 Collaborate with stakeholders

· Evaluate engagement needs for stakeholders

· Optimize alignment between stakeholder needs, expectations, and project objectives

Build trust and influence stakeholders to accomplish project objectives

Task 10 Build shared understanding

· Break down situation to identify the root cause of a misunderstanding

· Survey all necessary parties to reach consensus

· Support outcome of parties' agreement

· Investigate potential misunderstandings

Task 11 Engage and support virtual teams

· Examine virtual team member needs (e.g., environment, geography, culture, global, etc.)

· Investigate alternatives (e.g., communication tools, colocation) for virtual team member engagement

· Implement options for virtual team member engagement

· Continually evaluate effectiveness of virtual team member engagement

Task 12 Define team ground rules

· Communicate organizational principles with team and external stakeholders

· Establish an environment that fosters adherence to the ground rules

· Manage and rectify ground rule violations

Task 13 Mentor relevant stakeholders

· Allocate the time to mentoring

· Recognize and act on mentoring opportunities

Task 14 Promote team performance through the application of emotional intelligence

· Assess behavior through the use of personality indicators

· Analyze personality indicators and adjust to the emotional needs of key project stakeholders

Domain II Process—50%

Task 1 Execute project with the urgency required to deliver business value

· Assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally

· Examine the business value throughout the project

· Support the team to subdivide project tasks as necessary to find the minimum viable product

Task 2 Manage communications

· Analyze communication needs of all stakeholders

· Determine communication methods, channels, frequency, and level of detail for all stakeholders

· Communicate project information and updates effectively

· Confirm communication is understood and feedback is received

Task 3 Assess and manage risks

· Determine risk management options

· Iteratively assess and prioritize risks

Task 4 Engage stakeholders

· Analyze stakeholders (e.g., power interest grid, influence, impact)

· Categorize stakeholders

· Engage stakeholders by category

· Develop, execute, and validate a strategy for stakeholder engagement

Task 5 Plan and manage budget and resources

· Estimate budgetary needs based on the scope of the project and lessons learned from past projects

· Anticipate future budget challenges

· Monitor budget variations and work with governance process to adjust as necessary

· Plan and manage resources

Task 6 Plan and manage schedule

· Estimate project tasks (milestones, dependencies, story points)

· Utilize benchmarks and historical data

· Prepare schedule based on methodology

· Measure ongoing progress based on methodology

· Modify schedule, as needed, based on methodology

· Coordinate with other projects and other operations

Task 7 Plan and manage quality of products/deliverables

· Determine quality standard required for project deliverables

· Recommend options for improvement based on quality gaps

· Continually survey project deliverable quality

Task 8 Plan and manage scope

· Determine and prioritize requirements

· Break down scope (e.g., WBS, backlog)

· Monitor and validate scope

Task 9 Integrate project planning activities

· Consolidate the project/phase plans

· Assess consolidated project plans for dependencies, gaps, and continued business value

· Analyze the data collected

· Collect and analyze data to make informed project decisions

· Determine critical information requirements

Task 10 Manage project changes

· Anticipate and embrace the need for change (e.g., follow change management practices)

· Determine strategy to handle change

· Execute change management strategy according to the methodology

· Determine a change response to move the project forward

Task 11 Plan and manage procurement

· Define resource requirements and needs

· Communicate resource requirements

· Manage suppliers/contracts

· Plan and manage procurement strategy

· Develop a delivery solution

Task 12 Manage project artifacts

· Determine the requirements (what, when, where, who, etc.) for managing the project artifacts

· Validate that the project information is kept up to date (i.e., version control) and accessible to all stakeholders

· Continually assess the effectiveness of the management of the project artifacts

Task 13 Determine appropriate project methodology/methods and practices

· Assess project needs, complexity, and magnitude

· Recommend project execution strategy (e.g., contracting, finance)

· Recommend a project methodology/approach (i.e., predictive, agile, hybrid)

· Use iterative, incremental practices throughout the project life cycle (e.g., lessons learned, stakeholder engagement, risk)

Task 14 Establish project governance structure

· Determine appropriate governance for a project (e.g., replicate organizational governance)

· Define escalation paths and thresholds

Task 15 Manage project issues

· Recognize when a risk becomes an issue

· Attack the issue with the optimal action to achieve project success

· Collaborate with relevant stakeholders on the approach to resolve the issues

Task 16 Ensure knowledge transfer for project continuity

· Discuss project responsibilities within team

· Outline expectations for working environment

· Confirm approach for knowledge transfers

Task 17 Plan and manage project/phase closure or transitions

· Determine criteria to successfully close the project or phase

· Validate readiness for transition (e.g., to operations team or next phase)

· Conclude activities to close out project or phase (e.g., final lessons learned, retrospective, procurement, financials, resources)

Domain III Business Environment—8%

Task 1 Plan and manage project compliance

· Confirm project compliance requirements (e.g., security, health and safety, regulatory compliance)

· Classify compliance categories

· Determine potential threats to compliance

· Use methods to support compliance

· Analyze the consequences of noncompliance

· Determine necessary approach and action to address compliance needs (e.g., risk, legal)

· Measure the extent to which the project is in compliance

Task 2 Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value

· Investigate that benefits are identified

· Document agreement on ownership for ongoing benefit realization

· Verify measurement system is in place to track benefits

· Evaluate delivery options to demonstrate value

· Appraise stakeholders of value gain progress

Task 3 Evaluate and address external business environment changes for impact on scope

· Survey changes to external business environment (e.g., regulations, technology, geopolitical, market)

· Assess and prioritize impact on project scope/backlog based on changes in external business environment

· Recommend options for scope/backlog changes (e.g., schedule, cost changes)

· Continually review external business environment for impacts on project scope/backlog

Task 4 Support organizational change

· Assess organizational culture

· Evaluate impact of organizational change to project and determine required actions

· Evaluate impact of the project to the organization and determine required actions