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PMI PMP · 8 Essential Terms
PMP process-group language: initiating through closing, the charter, progressive elaboration, and what a baseline is allowed to do.
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The process group that authorizes the project or a phase and identifies the initial stakeholders. The charter is its signature output.
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ih-NISH-ee-ay-ting
The process group that authorizes the project or a phase and identifies the initial stakeholders. The charter is its signature output.
Mnemonic. Initiating says the work may start and names who is accountable for it.
Exam trap. Initiating is not the place for the detailed schedule. If the stem is still asking whether the project should exist, you are not in planning yet.
PLAN-ing
The process group that defines scope, schedule, cost, risk, and the other plans, and then integrates them into a project management plan.
Mnemonic. Planning turns the charter's intent into a path the team can follow.
Exam trap. Plans are revised as the project learns. Progressive elaboration inside planning is not scope creep.
EK-suh-kyoo-ting
The process group that performs the work in the plan, acquires and develops the team, and carries out the procurement and stakeholder actions.
Mnemonic. Executing spends the effort the plan described.
Exam trap. A status meeting that only compares actuals to the baseline is monitoring and controlling, even if it feels like doing the work. Look for the verb: performing versus comparing.
MON-ih-ter-ing and kun-TROH-ling
The process group that tracks performance, compares it with the baseline, and recommends or approves changes, corrective actions, and defect repairs.
Mnemonic. This group watches the variance and decides what is allowed to change.
Exam trap. Do not implement a scope change inside executing because the customer asked in the hallway. The controlling process evaluates it against the baseline first.
KLOH-zing
The process group that confirms the work is accepted, closes contracts, releases people, and archives lessons and records.
Mnemonic. Closing is acceptance plus handover plus memory. It is not the party.
Exam trap. A phase can close while the project continues. The trap is waiting until the entire project ends before any closing process is allowed to run.
PROJ-ekt CHAR-ter
The document that formally authorizes the project, names the project manager, and states the high-level objectives, constraints, and success idea.
Mnemonic. The charter is the permission slip and the name on the door.
Exam trap. The charter is not the project management plan. If it already contains the full WBS and the detailed budget, the question has skipped ahead.
pruh-GRES-iv ih-lab-uh-RAY-shun
Adding detail to plans as better information arrives, while the approved baseline still changes only through change control.
Mnemonic. Elaborate the near work. Do not pretend the far work is equally known.
Exam trap. Progressive elaboration is not scope creep. Creep is unapproved growth. Elaboration is planned detail inside the authorized scope.
BAYS-lyne
The approved version of scope, schedule, and cost (and the plans that describe them) against which performance is compared.
Mnemonic. The baseline is the line you measure against, not the line you silently redraw.
Exam trap. Updating the baseline without an approved change hides variance. The exam wants the change first, then the new baseline, and it wants the old variance preserved in the record.