The Ultimate Project Management Cheat Sheet

Project management is an important skill in the world of business right now. People who know how to manage projects or are successful project managers in the US can make anywhere from $65,000 to $95,000 per year as an entry-level project manager to $132,145 with a few years of experience.

These are average figures, and actual salaries can vary based on experience, industry, location, and employer.

If you are someone who is studying to be a project manager or is an entry-level project manager looking for resources, our "Project Management Cheat Sheet" can serve as a useful guide to your journey.

It talks about the core components, methodologies, and essential practices that define successful project management.

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The Foundation PM Skills

Effective project managers possess a blend of leadership, technical, and interpersonal skills. Key attributes include:

Leadership: Guiding and motivating the project team, setting vision, and inspiring commitment.
Team Management: Building cohesive teams, fostering collaboration, resolving conflicts, and optimizing individual strengths.
Problem-Solving: Identifying issues, analyzing root causes, and developing effective solutions to keep the project on track.
Decision-Making: Making timely and informed choices, often under pressure, that align with project objectives.
Communication: Clearly conveying information to stakeholders, team members, and clients, ensuring transparency and understanding. This includes active listening, negotiation, and presenting information effectively.
Critical Thinking: The ability to analyze information objectively and make reasoned judgments.
Adaptability/Flexibility: The capacity to adjust to changing project requirements, unexpected challenges, and evolving environments.
Time Management: Efficiently organizing and prioritizing tasks to meet deadlines.
Negotiation Skills: The ability to reach agreements and resolve disputes effectively with stakeholders and team members.
Risk Management Acumen: The foresight and ability to identify, assess, and mitigate potential risks.

Key Terms and Concepts

Understanding fundamental project management terminology is crucial for clear communication and effective execution:

Project Scope: This refers to the defined boundaries, objectives, deliverables, features, functions, tasks, and resources required to complete a project. It sets the limits of what the project will and will not deliver.
Stakeholder: Any individual, group, or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project. This includes clients, team members, sponsors, suppliers, and even the public.
Deliverables: The tangible or intangible outputs of a project, such as a product, service, or result. These are the specific items that the project aims to produce.
Milestone: A significant point or event in a project schedule, indicating the completion of a major phase or a set of deliverables. Milestones are often used to track progress and celebrate achievements.
Baseline: The approved version of a work product (e.g., scope, schedule, budget) that can only be changed through formal change control procedures. It serves as a reference point for comparing actual performance.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): (As mentioned in the cheat sheet's "Project Planning + Scheduling" section) A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. It breaks down complex projects into smaller, more manageable components.

The Project Lifecycle

Projects typically follow a structured lifecycle, ensuring systematic progression. The cheat sheet outlines the five core process groups from the Project Management Institute (PMI):

Initiation: This initial phase defines the project's purpose, scope, and feasibility.

Define Objectives: Clearly articulate what the project aims to achieve.
Identify Stakeholders: Determine who has a vested interest in the project.
Assess Feasibility: Evaluate whether the project is viable given available resources, time, and constraints. This phase often results in a Project Charter, which formally authorizes the project.

Planning: This crucial phase involves developing a detailed project plan.

Develop Project Plan: Create a comprehensive roadmap outlining scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, and communication strategies.
Define Scope: Elaborate on the project's boundaries and deliverables based on the project charter.
Allocate Resources: Assign necessary personnel, equipment, and materials to project tasks.

Execution: This phase puts the project plan into action.

Implement Plan: Carry out tasks and activities as outlined in the project plan.
Coordinate Tasks: Manage team efforts and dependencies between different work streams to ensure smooth progress.
Monitor Progress: Continuously track the project's advancement against the plan.

Monitoring/Controlling: This ongoing phase tracks progress, measures performance, and adjusts as needed to keep the project on track.

Assess Performance: Measure actual progress against planned baselines.
Implement Corrections: Take corrective actions to address deviations and bring the project back on track.
Manage Changes: Control changes to the project scope, schedule, and budget through formal change control processes to prevent scope creep.

Closure: This final phase formally ends the project.

Meet Objectives: Verify that all project objectives have been achieved and deliverables are accepted.
Conduct Final Review: Evaluate the project's success, document lessons learned, and gather feedback for future projects.
Handover Deliverables: Formally transfer the project's outputs to the client or operations team.
Release Resources: Disband the project team and release any allocated resources.
Update Organizational Process Assets: Document project data, processes, and lessons learned for future reference.
Celebrate Success: Acknowledge the team's efforts and achievements.

Essential PM Tools

Project management tools are indispensable for streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency:

Project Management Software Platforms: Comprehensive solutions like Workcamp that support various PM functions from planning to tracking. Examples also include ClickUp, Asana, monday.com, Wrike, and Microsoft Project
Collaboration Platforms: Tools designed to facilitate communication and teamwork among project members, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.
Gantt Chart Tools: Visual timelines depicting project tasks, their durations, and dependencies, crucial for visualizing the project schedule.
Kanban Boards: Visual systems for managing work by illustrating workflow and limiting work in progress, often found in tools like Trello and Jira.
Communication Apps: Platforms for real-time messaging, video conferencing, and file sharing to ensure seamless information flow.
Risk Registers: Documents or modules within tools that detail identified risks, their potential impact, likelihood, and planned mitigation strategies.
Budgeting and Financial Tracking Tools: Software or modules to manage project costs, track expenditures, and ensure financial compliance.
Performance Reporting Tools: Features within PM software that generate reports on project progress, budget status, and other key metrics.

Project Management Certifications

Certifications validate expertise and open doors to career advancement:

PMP (Project Management Professional): The most globally recognized certification by PMI, demonstrating extensive experience and knowledge in leading and directing projects.
PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments): A widely used process-based method, particularly popular in the UK and Europe, focusing on controlled and well-defined project management.
CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management): An entry-level certification from PMI for those new to project management, demonstrating foundational knowledge.
Scrum Master: Certifications (e.g., Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM)) demonstrating proficiency in facilitating the Scrum Agile framework.
AgilePM: A certification from the DSDM Consortium focusing on Agile project management principles and practices.
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP): Another PMI certification validating an individual's ability to apply Agile principles and practices.
Program Management Professional (PgMP): A PMI certification for experienced project managers looking to manage complex, multiple related projects (programs).
Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP): A PMI certification for professionals responsible for managing multiple portfolios for an organization, aligning them with strategic objectives.

PM Approaches (Methodologies)

The choice of methodology significantly impacts project execution:

Traditional/Waterfall: A linear, sequential approach where each phase must be completed before the next begins. It is ideal for projects with well-defined, stable requirements and minimal expected changes.
Agile: An iterative and flexible project management methodology that emphasizes collaboration, customer feedback, and continuous adaptation. It is best suited for projects with evolving requirements or high uncertainty.
Scrum: An Agile framework that uses short iterations (called "sprints," typically 1-4 weeks) to deliver incremental value, featuring daily stand-ups and continuous feedback loops.
Lean: A methodology that focuses on minimizing waste and maximizing value through continuous improvement and flow, aiming to create more value with less effort.
Hybrid Approaches: Combining elements of different methodologies (e.g., Waterfall for initial planning, Agile for execution) to suit specific project needs, offering flexibility and control.
Kanban: A visual system for managing work flow, often used with Agile methodologies. It uses a "Kanban board" to visualize work items, limit work in progress, and maximize efficiency.
Critical Path Method (CPM): (As mentioned under Project Planning + Scheduling) A project modeling technique for analyzing task dependencies and identifying the longest sequence of tasks that determine the project's minimum completion time.
PRINCE2: (As mentioned under certifications) A highly structured, process-driven methodology that provides clear roles and responsibilities, often used in government and large organizations.

Important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs are crucial for measuring project success and making data-driven decisions:

Project Timeline Adherence: Tracking whether tasks and phases are completed on schedule, often measured by schedule variance.
Budget Compliance: Monitoring actual spending against the allocated budget, measured by cost variance and cost performance index (CPI).
Stakeholder Satisfaction: Assessing the contentment of all project stakeholders with the outcomes and processes, often through surveys or feedback sessions.
Team Productivity: Measuring the efficiency and output of the project team, potentially through task completion rates or velocity (in Agile).
Risk Mitigation Effectiveness: Evaluating how well identified risks are managed and their potential impact is minimized, often tracked through a risk register.
Quality Metrics: Measuring the quality of deliverables, such as defect rates, bug counts, or compliance with quality standards.
Resource Utilization: Tracking how effectively project resources (human, equipment, materials) are being used.
Scope Creep Index: A measure of unauthorized or uncontrolled changes to the project's scope, indicating potential project instability.
Earned Value Management (EVM) Metrics: A powerful set of metrics including Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI), which provide an integrated view of scope, cost, and schedule performance.
Return on Investment (ROI): For business-focused projects, measuring the financial benefits gained in relation to the project costs.

Project Planning + Scheduling Essentials

Effective planning and scheduling are the backbone of project success:

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): A hierarchical breakdown of project tasks, decomposing the project into smaller, manageable components. This provides a clear, structured view of all project work.
Critical Path Method (CPM): Identifies the longest sequence of dependent tasks, determining the shortest possible project completion time. Managing tasks on the critical path is crucial for meeting deadlines.
Resource Allocation: Assigning and managing the availability of human resources, equipment, and materials to project tasks. This includes resource leveling and smoothing.
Milestone Setting: Defining significant points in the project schedule that mark major achievements or phases. Milestones serve as key checkpoints for progress.
Schedule Optimization: Techniques to adjust the project schedule to meet deadlines, reduce costs, or optimize resource utilization, often involving crashing or fast-tracking.
Gantt Chart: (As described under PM Tools) A visual timeline depicting project tasks, their durations, and dependencies, crucial for visualizing the overall project schedule and progress.
Risk Register: A comprehensive document that details identified risks, their potential impact, likelihood, and planned mitigation strategies, along with a responsible owner.
Communication Plan: Outlines how project information will be disseminated to stakeholders, including frequency, format, and responsible parties, ensuring transparent and effective communication.
Quality Management Plan: Defines how quality standards will be met and verified throughout the project lifecycle, including quality assurance and quality control activities.
Cost Estimation: The process of approximating the monetary resources needed to complete project activities, including direct and indirect costs.