Tools & Technique Groupings in PMBOK 6th Ed. for PMP Exam

If you have ever been through the PMBOK Guide, you will notice that a lot of the tools and techniques repeat itself a lot. So in this video, we are going to break down all of the common tools and techniques, plus the groupings, plus all of the ones that you may see on your upcoming PMP exam. And if you haven't done so already, make sure you sign up for our free course at examspm.com/free where you will learn the exact tactics on how to pass your PMP exam within the next 6 weeks. All right, now let's get started. So within the PMBOK Guide, some of the tools and techniques you'll see within the 49 processes will be grouped. Here are the groupings: data gathering, data analysis, data representation, decision-making, communication skills, and interpersonal and team skills. And here are all of the tools and techniques that are not categorized. So within this video, we are going to go over all of these tools and techniques, and you will learn when to use them and what they they mean. Let's start out with data gathering. There are 9 data gathering tools and techniques, and data gathering techniques are used to collect data and information from a variety of different sources. Now let's dive in deeper. Benchmarking is our first type of data gathering. In this type of data gathering, benchmarking is the comparison of actual or planned products, processes, and practices to those of comparable organizations in order to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring performance. In other words, you are comparing what you have to what other people have in the organization or maybe external organizations in order to see where you are better than them and where they are better than you. Our next form of data gathering is brainstorming. Brainstorming is when you get your project team together and you're just trying to come out with as many ideas as possible without filtering anything out. Checklist is when you have a structured list where you can go through this with your team and using this list and all the items on this list, it can help you gather more data as you go through this meticulously to make sure that nothing is missed. Focus groups is our next form of data gathering and focus group is an elicitation technique that brings together pre- qualified stakeholders and subject matter experts to learn about their expectations and attitudes about a proposed product, service, or result. Interview is when you interview key stakeholders to find out what their requirements are or to gather other types of information with them. So this is usually done one-on-one, and so it's in a more intimate setting where people can tell you more intimate details that they may not be so used to doing in a group setting. Market research is when you go out and you conduct research on competitors and what's out there in the market. So you want to take a look at the market landscape, where the market is going, what competitors are out there, and what kind of products do they offer. Questionnaires and survey is a written set of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from a large number of respondents. Statistical sampling is choosing a particular part of the population in order to inspect it because it may be too much for us to sample every single one of our widgets that we just produced. So we have to choose a small sample just to test on the quality of them. So again, that was in 9, tools and techniques, specifically under data gathering. Another grouping of tools and techniques you'll see in the PMBOK Guide is data analysis, and data analysis techniques are techniques used to organize, assess, and evaluate data and information. So under data analysis is a number of techniques that you can use specifically and tailor for specific situations. Now let's dive deeper into all of the techniques that fall under data analysis. Starting with alternative analysis. Alternative analysis is a technique used to evaluate identified options in order to select the option or approaches to use to execute and perform the work of the project. In other words, you will assess all of the options you have and choose the best one to move forward with. Assumptions and constraints analysis. So assumption is a factor that you assume to be true but you don't have any concrete proof that it could be true. A constraint is a limitation that you may have on your project. So assumptions and constraints analysis is analyzing the assumptions and constraints that you may have on your project. Cost of quality is including all of the cost of conforming plus all of the cost of non-conformance together to give you the total cost of quality. So cost of conformance includes all of your costs to eliminate errors from the end product, such as testing or inspection, and cost of non-conformance includes costs such as bad reputation or warranty cost. So this is a cost that you incur for bad quality getting into the hands of the actual customer. And when you're evaluating your cost of quality overall, you want to include both the cost of conformance plus the cost of non-conformance or failures. Cost-benefit analysis is a financial analysis tool used to determine the benefits provided by a project against its cost to make sure that the benefits outweigh the costs before you move on with a decision. The decision tree analysis is another data analysis tool and technique. This is a diagramming and calculation technique for evaluating the implications of a chain of multiple options in the presence of uncertainty. Document analysis is the process of gathering information and reviewing it to determine the accuracy and completeness of That information. EVM stands for Earned Value Management, and EVM analysis is a methodology that combines scope, schedule, and resource measurements to assess project performance and progress. The influence diagram is a graphical representation of situations showing causal influences, time ordering of events, and other relationships among variables and outcomes. Make or buy analysis is the process of gathering and organizing data about the product requirements, analyzing them against available alternatives, and making a decision as to whether you purchase this from a third party or you make it internally in-house. Performance reviews is a technique that is used to measure, compare, and analyze actual performance of work in progress on the project against the baseline. So what you plan to do against what you actually did in order to see whether your performance was good or bad. Performance evaluation techniques is the process of reviewing proposals provided by the supplier to support contract award The regression analysis is an analytical technique where a series of input variables are examined in relation to their corresponding output results in order to develop a mathematical or statistical relationship. The reserve analysis is an analytical technique to determine the essential features and relationships of components in the project management plan to establish a reserve for the scheduled duration, budget, estimated cost, or funds of a project. So in other words, the reserve analysis looks at how much time and how much budget do you have remaining, and is the reserve enough to cover you for the remainder of the project? Risk data quality assessment is a technique to evaluate the degree to which the data about the risk is useful for risk management. Root cause analysis is sometimes also called the fishbone analysis. Essentially, you have the problem at the head of the fishbone, and then you will draw multiple quote-unquote bones or lines representing the different causes of the problem, and you will systematically eliminate each of the lines or quote-unquote bones in order to find out what is the root cause of the problem. So the official definition is It is an analytical technique used to determine the basic underlying reason that causes a variance or defect or a risk. You may also have multiple root causes that causes this variation or defect. Sensitivity analysis is an analysis technique to determine which individual project risk or other sources of uncertainty have the most potential impact on your project outcomes. This is done by correlating variations in the project outcomes with variations in elements of the quantitative risk analysis model. A simulation is an analytical technique that models the combined effect of uncertainties to evaluate their potential impact on objectives. Stakeholder analysis is a technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into consideration throughout the project. Essentially, you're taking a look at who your stakeholders are and what is their stake on the project. So how much power do they have, and are they negative or positive influences on the project, and what you should do or how should you manage them throughout your project. The SWOT analysis is an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an organization, project, or option. Trend analysis is an analytical technique that uses mathematical models to forecast future outcomes based on historical results. Variance analysis is a technique for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline actual performance. What-if scenarios is the process of evaluating scenarios in order to predict their effect on the project objectives. So I know that was a long list, but here's a recap again. That was all of the tools and techniques that fall under data analysis. Now let us move on to data representation. Data representation techniques are graphical representations or other methods used to convey data, and information. Now let's take a look at the specific techniques that fall under data representation. The first one is affinity diagrams. You can think of affinity diagrams as brainstorming with categorizations. The more specific official definition for affinity diagrams is it is a technique that allows large numbers of ideas to be classified into groups for review and analysis. Cause and effect diagram is a decomposition technique that helps trace an undesirable effect back to its root cause. A control chart is a graphical display of process data over time against an established control limit. So if you go over the upper control limit, the process is out of control, or if you go below the lower control limit, then you know the process is out of control. So essentially, you will plot all of your data points onto this chart and it will tell you if you are within the allowed variation limits. Now, one exception to this is if you have 7 points or more in a row above the upper control limit or 7 points in a row or more below the lower control limit, and this is called the rule of 7 because statistically speaking, it's very, very rare that you'll get 7 points in a row above the upper control limit or 7 points in a row below the lower control limit. So even if all the points are still below the upper control limit or above the lower control limit, it is still deemed out of control, and this is called the rule of 7. A flowchart is a depiction in a diagram format of the inputs, process actions, and outputs of one or more processes within a system. Essentially, it allows you to see which components are to what and what actions need to be performed and what is the final output of a system. A histogram is a bar chart that shows the graphical representation of numerical data. A matrix diagram is a quality management control tool used to perform data analysis within the organizational structure created in the matrix. The matrix diagram seeks to show the strength of relationships between factors causes, and objectives that exist between the rows and columns that form the matrix. Mind mapping is a technique used to consolidate ideas created through individual brainstorming sessions into a single map to reflect commonalities and differences in understanding and to generate new ideas. Probability and impact matrix is a grid for mapping the probability of occurrence and of each risk and its impact on project objectives if that risk occurs. The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix is a matrix that compares the current and desired stakeholder engagement levels. So here again is a recap of all of the data representation tools and techniques. As you can see, they are graphical in nature because they're representing the data that you're trying to convey. So our next source of grouping of tools and techniques is decision-making. Let's take a closer look now. Decision-making is how you can make decisions on your project. More specifically, you will need to use multi-criteria decision analysis, and this is a technique that utilizes a decision matrix to provide a systematic analytical approach for establishing criteria such as risk levels, uncertainty, and valuation to evaluate and rank many ideas. So in layman's terms, you will have the different options that you are trying to assess between, and then you will have the criteria that are important to you, and you will weigh each of the different options that you have against the criteria that you will have. Then in the end, you will sum up all of the score and the decision is with the highest score will then win, and that's the decision that you will move forward with. So it is an analytical way, an objective way to make decisions. And then we also have voting inside of decision-making. So there are a number of ways that you can make a decision within your project. There's dictatorship, where one person makes the final decision and that person has all of the power. Then you have plurality, which means that the largest group will win, or the largest group of people who vote for a specific decision will have their way. Then you have majority. Majority means that at least 50% or more of the group has to agree with the decision before that decision can be made. And lastly, we have unanimity, which means that everyone on the team has to agree with the decision before that decision can move ahead. So that's the different types of voting that you can have on your project. Here again are the different techniques specific to decision-making. They are the multi-criteria decision analysis and voting. Moving on to our next group of tools and techniques, we have communication skills. These are the soft skills that you need as a project manager to manage your team and your stakeholders. So the first one that we have is feedback. We have to receive feedback from our stakeholders when we're presenting our end deliverables to them, and we also have to give feedback to our team members and also contractors or other vendors on our project in order to let them know how well their work has been going. And it's really an art because you want to balance between giving them constructive criticism as well as complimenting them on their work as well. So it is also your job as a project manager to motivate them as well as give them feedback as well. Presentations is what you present to your stakeholders at the end or interim about what you have accomplished so far. You may also need to make presentations periodically throughout your project to update stakeholders on what you have accomplished so far. Now let's move on to our last grouping of tools and techniques, and they are interpersonal and team skills. So this includes much more of the EQ side of things, so the soft skills that you need as a project manager in order to be successful. Interpersonal and team skills include the skills used to effectively lead and interact with team members and other stakeholders. So this is another umbrella term that we see in the PMBOK Guide, that comprises of a number of specific techniques, including active listening, communications styles assessment. This is a technique to find out what is the preferred communication method, format, and content that your stakeholders want. Conflict management. So it is unavoidable to have conflicts happen on your project between team members, and you have to be able to have management systems in place to resolve these conflicts before they become big issues. Cultural awareness— you may have people from all around the world on your project, and you need to be aware of the cultural differences between different countries. Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, assess, and manage the personal emotions of yourself or other people or groups of people as well. Facilitation is where you manage or facilitate a group in order to reach consensus or to resolve a problem. Meeting management is the ability to lead and make sure that the meeting stays on track and no one hijacks your meeting, which can happen pretty often when you're managing a large and complex project with stakeholders with different demands. Nominal group technique is a technique that enhances brainstorming with a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further brainstorming or for prioritization. So in other words, you will have all of your ideas that came from your brainstorming session, and everyone will be asked to rank the ideas that the team came up with in order to figure out which one will be the most important one and which one will be the least important one. Leadership is another interpersonal and team skill. Networking and political awareness as well. So in other words, what you can see from the interpersonal and team skills list is that this is the soft skills you need as a project manager in order to successfully manage your project. So here again are the groupings of the common tools and techniques that you will see from the PMBOK 6th Edition guide. The 6 major groupings you'll see are data gathering, data analysis, data representation, decision-making, communication skills, and Interpersonal and team skills. Be aware that you'll get a few questions on your PMP exam that will be based on this chart here, so it's a great idea to be really familiar with this. And if you haven't done so already, make sure you sign up for a free class with Examspm at www.examspm.com/free, and I can't wait to help you get your PMP certification within the next 6 weeks. Thank you so much for joining us.