JEOPARDY ANYONE?

If you truly know something, you should be able to express it in your own words. Putting the language of PMBOK into simple English will help you to quickly get a grasp of many of the more challenging concepts.  I find using the format of the game show Jeopardy works for me.  In other words, instead of expressing the definition as a statement I express it as a question.  Here are a few examples dealing with one of your favorite subjects, Earned Value Management.

Estimate at Completion (EAC) At the current rate, what is the estimated cost of the project at completion? (formula: BAC / CPI = EAC)

Estimate to Complete (ETC) If the project performance continues at this rate, what is the amount of money estimated to complete the project? (formula: EAC – AC = ETC)

Variance at Completion (VAC) What is the amount of money the project varies over or under budget at completion? (formula: BAC – EAC = VAC)

I find that this technique is especially effective when it comes to understanding EVM and other formulae. Give it a try and tell me what you think. 

Remember, "know what you know"…

IF YOU LIKED THAT...

My last post explained how to determine communication channels. Well if you liked that, you are going to love this. It's like having an "ace up your sleeve". You may recall that the problem I presented was:

You have 5 members on a project team. One more member is added to the team. How many additional communication channels are added to the project? Be careful, the key word is additional.

You can use the formula I shared with you yesterday to solve this problem but here's a faster way to solve it. Whenever a new member is added to the project team the number of additional communication channels is equal to the number of existing team members. That's it. 

In this example, there are 5 existing team members so when you add a new member, additional channels will be 5. Isn't that wonderful, no math was required. Trust me it works.  Try a few using the formula [N*(N-1)]/2 and compare answers.  This can be a time saver when taking the exam. 

Let's go one step further. If the question states that two new members are added merely add the new team members one at a time and using the same technique as above.

Here’s how it works:

1.)    If project has 5 members, and you add one more, the number of additional communication channels is 5.

2.)    Now the number of team members becomes 6.

3.)    If you add an additional team member, the communication channels becomes 6.

4.)    Therefore, if two new members are added, the number of channels increases by 11 (5 + 6 = 11). 

How about that? Why even a fifth grader can do this...

WHAT WE'VE GOT HERE...

"What we've got here is failure to communicate." That famous quote from the movie Cool Hand Luke haunts me whenever I teach a class.  There's always something that you wish you had included or taught differently.  Well communication channels (how fitting) is a subject that I did not cover to my satisfaction.  You will find excellent treatment of it in the John Phillips book titled "ALL-IN-ONE, CAPM/PMP Project Management Certification Exam Guide" Chapter 10.  and on the video that comes with the book (Chapter Ten Video - Communications Management).

Test Question Example:

You have 5 members on a project team. One more member is added to the team. How many additional communication channels are added to the project?

a. 1
b. 3
c. 5
d. 7

You can solve this question by calculating the difference in the number of communication channels "before" and "after" adding the new member, using the formula [N*(N-1)]/2.

Communication Channels "before" = [5*(5-1)]/2 = 10
Communication Channels "after" = [6*(6-1)]/2 = 15
Increase in communication channels = 15 - 10 = 5