What's changed: Initial version (chapter 5, s1-s3)
5.1Project Management
Learn, on the foundation of the PMBOK body of knowledge, scope management via WBS, schedule management via arrow diagrams, PERT, and the critical path (earliest/latest start dates and date arithmetic), cost management via EVM (PV/EV/AC, SV/CV, SPI/CPI, EAC), and the management areas of quality, risk, procurement, and stakeholders, worked as level-3 calculation problems.
Project management is the discipline of quantitatively managing a project so it finishes as planned. In the AP morning exam, date arithmetic on arrow diagrams (the critical path, earliest/latest start dates) and EVM cost and progress metric calculations are recurring calculation domains. Applying the formulas mechanically is not enough--understanding why each formula holds is what lets you handle exam variants that simply change the numbers.
5.1.1PMBOK and WBS
- PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) is an internationally recognized standard guide that systematizes project management knowledge, organized into knowledge areas such as scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, procurement, and stakeholders.
- WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) hierarchically decomposes a project's deliverables and work down to manageable units (work packages). It is used to exhaustively surface scope and forms the basis for estimation, progress tracking, and staff assignment. Decomposing too coarsely produces large estimation error, while decomposing too finely raises management overhead, so stopping at an appropriate level is a practical judgment call.
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