BUS402 Study Guide
| Site: | Saylor Academy |
| Course: | BUS402: Introduction to Project Management |
| Book: | BUS402 Study Guide |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Tuesday, July 1, 2025, 12:55 PM |
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Study Guide Structure
In this study guide, the sections in each unit (1a., 1b., etc.) are the learning outcomes of that unit.
Beneath each learning outcome are:
- questions for you to answer independently;
- a brief summary of the learning outcome topic; and
- and resources related to the learning outcome.
At the end of each unit, there is also a list of suggested vocabulary words.
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- Review the entire course by reading the learning outcome summaries and suggested resources.
- Test your understanding of the course information by answering questions related to each unit learning outcome and defining and memorizing the vocabulary words at the end of each unit.
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Through reviewing and completing the study guide, you should gain a deeper understanding of each learning outcome in the course and be better prepared for the final exam!
Unit 1: Introduction to Project Management
1a. Identify the terms project and project management
- How does project management differ from product management?
- How is a project different from regular day-to-day operations?
- What is the triple constraint?
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. With projects, there is a specific starting and ending point, which is different from the day-to-day operations of a business. The challenge with managing projects involves the triple constraint, which consists of delivering a product or service on time, on budget, and determining the scope of a project. The scope of a project refers to the specific work that needs to be done and includes the features and functions the final product should have.
Many people use projects, such as business owners, construction managers, creative services providers, educators, engineers, and people working in health care. When managing a project, planning, organizing, analysis, communication, and budget management are all skills that are needed.
The project manager is the person assigned to achieve the project objectives and is responsible for the project's outcome. This role is different from product management, which is focused on ensuring that a product or service is profitable and meets customers' needs over time.
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1b. Demonstrate process groups and knowledge groups
- What is the six-phase project management model?
- What are the phases of project management?
- What elements are important to consider in each phase?
- What knowledge areas are needed to be a successful project manager?
The six-phase project management model consists of defining, planning, team, communications, reviewing and exiting, and controlling. During the define phase, the project objectives are identified, costs are established, and sometimes, a feasibility study is conducted. For the plan, an initial plan is developing and is an ongoing process. The plan determines timelines, schedules, and resources needed for the project. The team is the group of people with the specialized knowledge needed to help complete the project. The building of a team is important to project success. Communication on a project should take place continuously with all stakeholders. During the control phase, the plan is constantly reviewed to make sure the project is on budget and on schedule. Sometimes, adjustments need to be made to meet the project goals. During the review and exit stage, the project team reviews the original goals, and the project is closed out.
The project lifecycle and process groups include the phases of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Within the project lifecycle, project managers must have certain knowledge areas met to be successful at managing the project. These knowledge areas include:
- Project Integration Management
- Project Scope Management
- Project Schedule Management
- Project Cost Management
- Project Quality Management
- Project Resource Management
- Project Communications Management
- Project Risk Management
- Project Procurement Management
- Project Stakeholder Management
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1c. Apply the skills needed for successful project management.
- What are the elements of the Talent Triangle?
- What skills from the Talent Triangle do project managers need to develop?
- What other skills are needed to be a good project manager?
The Talent Triangle, published by The Project Management Institute (PMI), addresses the different skills needed to be successful in project management. The main areas include business acumen, working methods, and power skills.
Business acumen is the understanding of elements like strategic planning, function-specific knowledge, and competitive analysis. Ways of working consist of the actual methods used to manage a project, such as risk management, scope management, and Agile methods. Power skills include conflict management, leadership, communication, and teamwork. All of these skills are needed to be a successful project manager.
Other qualities that make a successful project manager include trust, empathy, understanding, and the ability to build a team and develop consensus. The Project Management Institute offers several certifications that can be earned to show knowledge in project management.
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Unit 1 Vocabulary
This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.
- project
- project management model
- scope
- the Talent Triangle
Unit 2: Initiation and Planning Phases
2a. Identify the steps in project initiation
- What research might be included when writing a business case?
- What is involved in the project initiation phase?
- Why is the project charter important to the project manager?
Project initiation is the first step in project management. It involves defining a project, establishing its value, and ensuring buy-in from stakeholders. This is done by creating a business case and feasibility study, identifying stakeholders, assembling the project team, writing a project charter, establishing a budget and schedule, and obtaining official approval to move a project forward.
A business case or feasibility study aims to determine the value the project might bring and the costs associated with the project. It essentially looks at the potential value and practicality to determine if a project should move forward. Once the particular project has been chosen based on this information, the project manager will identify all those involved in the project, which can include the project team, management, and external stakeholders. The project charter is a document that officially begins a project. It includes the project purpose, objectives, scope, project team, schedule, risk management, and budget and addresses the stakeholders and specific deliverables. Ultimately, this is the guiding document for a project.
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2b. Discuss components of project planning, such as work breakdown structures and scope statements
- What aspect of project scope planning is most difficult?
- What is the purpose of a work breakdown structure?
- How is a Gantt chart similar and different from the work breakdown structure?
After a project has been formally approved, the project planning begins. One of the most important aspects in the planning phase is scope planning. Project scope planning is concerned with the definition of all the work needed to successfully meet the project objectives. The project manager will consider the project requirements, which are the characteristics of the final deliverable, such as the features the product should have.
Once a project manager knows the requirements, they can begin to create a work breakdown structure. A work breakdown structure is a tool that breaks down the project into smaller, more easily managed pieces to help understand the activities needed to meet the project requirements. It allows the project manager to see what needs to be done but also estimate how long items will take and what dependencies are part of the project. A dependency means one piece of work that must be completed before another is started. A Gantt chart can also be used, which is a type of bar chart to illustrate a project schedule.
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Unit 2 Vocabulary
This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.
- business case
- dependency
- Gantt chart
- project charter
- project initiation
- project scope planning
- work breakdown structure
Unit 3: Executing and Monitoring Phases
3a. Identify the methods and processes involved in managing project risk
- What are the different methods that can be implemented to manage risk on a project?
- In what situations might a project manager accept a risk, and what plans might they make to mitigate a risk?
- Why do project managers concern themselves with managing risk in terms of the triple constraint?
During the executing and monitoring phases of project management, understanding the risks and planning for those risks is important. Project risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, affects at least one project objective. Risk management focuses on identifying and assessing the risks to the project and managing those risks to minimize the impact on the project. There are no risk-free projects because there are an infinite number of events that can hurt the project. Risk management is not about eliminating risk but about identifying, assessing, and managing risk.
There are four main ways to manage project risk as a project manager. The project manager can avoid the risk, which means to prevent it from happening. They can mitigate the risk, which means taking some sort of action that won’t cause as much damage to the project if it occurs. Transferring the risk is to pay someone else to accept the risk, such as by buying insurance. Accepting the risk means you know the risk could happen, and the project manager plans ways to manage the risk should it occur.
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3b. Identify methods for procurement and quality assurance
- How does quality management relate to meeting stakeholder expectations?
- What methods might be used to measure quality?
- What is procurement management, and what is involved in this process?
Quality in project management is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements. There are many ways to measure quality, such as through the use of statistics. Of course, the goal in project management is to ensure the quality meets the expectations of the client or customer. Many companies will use a cost-benefit analysis which means to look at how much the quality of activities will cost versus how much value is expected. They can also use cause and effect diagrams, such as the fishbone method, to help understand the root cause of quality problems. A fishbone diagram is a means for visually assessing cause and effect by identifying a particular outcome and working backward to assess the interaction between causes in the process and the outcome.
Procurement management in project management is the process of getting the materials needed to complete a project. It involves researching and selecting vendors, managing contracts with those vendors, and ensuring the items received meet quality standards. This is an important part of project management because, for example, if a raw material needed for a project isn’t delivered on time, it can impact the project schedule.
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3c. Apply methods to identify and manage stakeholders
- What are internal and external stakeholders?
- How are stakeholders managed?
- What can occur if stakeholders are not properly managed?
Stakeholders include anyone with an interest in a project, and different stakeholders may be managed differently. If stakeholders are not identified properly, the project and its outcomes cannot address all the stakeholders’ expectations and concerns. Incomplete elicitation of the requirements from stakeholders might leave some key requirements out of the equation, putting the project and its outcomes in danger.
Internal stakeholders might include the project sponsor, team members, company owners, and management. External stakeholders might include customers, suppliers, government agencies, and any user outside of the organization. To effectively manage both types of stakeholders, project managers will often create a stakeholder register, which is a document that lists all external and internal stakeholders, with a plan on how often and what method will be used to communicate with them about the project progress.
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3d. Identify methods to manage project change
- What types of changes are often made to projects?
- Why do project changes need to be documented?
- What might occur if a formal change request process is not implemented?
In most projects, it is likely that changes will need to occur, such as changes to team members, schedule or budget. Project managers can’t just make a change, though, there needs to be a process in place to manage project changes. This process is called change control. When considering making a change to a project, the project manager must consider the triple constraint, and how the project will be impacted by the change.
The change process usually starts with a change request, which is a document that either the project manager or the client must complete. This formalizes the change process and provides needed documentation throughout the lifecycle of the project.
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3e. Identify techniques for project monitoring and reporting
- What quantitative methods are used to monitor projects?
- Why is it important for project managers to monitor projects?
- What questions can be answered using earned value management (EVM)?
The monitoring and controlling phase of a project occurs throughout the lifecycle of the project. This process ensures everything is on track such as the scheduled activities and the budget. One of the most useful ways for project monitoring is to use a method called earned value management (EVM). Earned value management is a quantitative monitoring technique that uses metrics and indexes to assess performance. It compares the performance baselines to actual figures.
EVM can help answer questions at any point, such as: Are we delivering more or less work than planned? When is the project likely to be completed? Are we currently over or under budget? What is the remaining work likely to cost? What is the entire project likely to cost? How much will we be over or under budget at the end of the project? What is driving the significant cost and/or schedule variances?
Project managers will use EVM throughout a project lifecycle to continually monitor project progress.
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Unit 3 Vocabulary
This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.
- change control
- change request
- cost-benefit analysis
- earned value management
- external stakeholders
- fishbone diagram
- internal stakeholders
- quality
- procurement management
- project risk
- risk management
- stakeholders
Unit 4: Closing Phase
4a. Identify necessary steps to close out a project
- Why do some project managers avoid the activities in the project closing phase?
- What are the advantages of documenting lessons learned after a project?
- What is a post-project review process?
Project close is the final stage of a project management life cycle, where project activities are finalized. The key activities in project completion are gathering project records, disseminating information to formalize acceptance of the product, service, or project, and performing project closure. During this phase, any contracts with vendors should be closed out, the project team is released, final payments are made, and post-project evaluations occur. Many organizations also have a lesson-learned meeting or session which is documented so they can learn from previous challenges and apply them to the next project.
In project closing, documents are archived in a way that others can access them, and usually these documents include the project charter, scope statement, original budget, change documents, and lessons learned. Depending on the team and project, there is often a celebratory meeting or social event once the project is closed.
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4b. Identify tools used in project management;
- What are the differences between Agile and traditional waterfall project management methods?
- What types of projects might be used for Agile vs traditional waterfall methods?
- What technology tools can be used for project management?
Agile is an iterative short project management process focused on customer feedback and satisfaction. In such processes, the customer is allowed to verify that the features are being developed as they want and to suggest improvements. Agile is different from the traditional Waterfall project management approach in that waterfall methods are rigid and tend to work best when the project manager knows the requirements of the project from the beginning. Agile is often used for projects where all constraints may not be known, and therefore, the project needs to be managed using a flexible process.
Many organizations, depending on the type of project, use a mix of traditional waterfall approaches and Agile methods to meet their needs.
Project managers will use a variety of tools for project management including project management software, visualization methods, and artificial intelligence (AI).
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Unit 4 Vocabulary
This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.
- Agile
- project close
- Waterfall
Unit 5: People Skills for Successful Project Management
5a. Identify methods to be effective when working with individuals and in groups
- What role does emotional intelligence have in a project manager’s ability to lead a project team?
- How does understanding personality profiles help the project manager when working in teams?
- How does the diversity of team members impact the problem-solving ability of the team?
An effective project manager knows how to work with individuals and groups in many different situations. An important quality to consider as a project manager is the level of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, and apply emotion in a variety of situations. The elements of emotional intelligence include self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and relationship management.
Understanding personality types, such as DISC and Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, can help project managers better understand others and themselves, which leads to better teamwork. When we consider managing teams with different personalities and strengths, we should consider using team-building tactics and implementing strong leadership skills to complete a successful project.
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5b. Identify necessary communication skills in project management
- What are the different tools that can be used to communicate information about a project?
- What are the differences between synchronous and asynchronous communication?
- What are some situations where synchronous communication is best?
Communication is key to a successful project. Synchronous communication is a type of communication where all parties in the communication are taking part at the same time. For example, video meetings, face-to-face meetings, or phone calls. This type of communication is usually best when a decision needs to be made, or when the project manager expects emotions to be high about a certain issue. Asynchronous communication is one where the parties are not all involved at the same time, which can include emails and text messages. This method is best for informational purposes, or to answer quick questions. Choosing the right types of communication for a variety of situations as a project manager is important.
There are many communication methods project managers may use, many involving technology. For example, the use of word processing software, spreadsheets, diagramming software, and a variety of project management software may be used to communicate during the project phases.
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5c. Explain methods for resolving conflict
- What are the different types of conflict that can occur on a project?
- Why are different methods used for resolving conflict in different situations?
- What is political behavior, and how can it impact a project?
Conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values, and/or interests between people working together. Conflict in teams takes many forms and can be minor, causing only brief disruption, or major, threatening the team's ability to function and attain its goals. Conflict in project management is important to manage because serious conflicts that are left unresolved can impact the triple constraint. Substantive conflict is a type of conflict that can arise about performance, different views of how to approach a task, or different ideas about the quality of a project. Affective conflict is interpersonal related, such as conflict resulting from different personalities. Conflict that is talked through and resolved can create a better product or service, and while we may often think of conflict as bad, conflict can be positive and constructive. There are many methods that can be implemented to resolve conflict in teams, and the best approach depends on the situation and what you, as the project manager, hope to accomplish.
Politics often occurs on projects. Politics (in this, the business and project management context) refers to the struggle to acquire power. Political behavior in organizations and on projects is not always negative, but something the project manager should be aware of.
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Unit 5 Vocabulary
This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.
- affective conflict
- asynchronous communication
- conflict
- emotional intelligence
- politics
- substantive conflict
- synchronous communication