PMP® 2026

Daily Review Sheet

All 26 ECO tasks · read cover to cover, then again tomorrow

People — 8 tasks · 33%

Process — 10 tasks · 41%

Business Environment — 8 tasks · 26%

Reference — formulas, charts, frameworks, distinctions

How to Use This

Every ECO task, condensed to what is actually testable. Built for repetition — read it cover to cover in one sitting, then again tomorrow. The goal is recognition speed, not first-time learning.

This is the content layer. The Cheat Sheet is the decision layer (how to pick between two plausible options), and the three domain guides are the depth layer. Different jobs.

180 questions · 230 minutes · ~77 seconds each · break after Q10 ( end of case study) then break after Q90. Roughly 40% predictive, 60% adaptive or hybrid.

PEOPLE — 33%

P1 · Develop a common vision

Ensure a shared vision · promote it · keep it current · find the root cause of misunderstanding.

• In agile the product owner owns the vision — the PM references and reinforces it, does not author it.
• Vision expresses purpose, goals, and value — not scope, schedule, and budget.
• Co-create, do not circulate. A vision sent for acknowledgement produces compliance; a vision built together produces ownership.
• Keep it current — a vision that no longer matches organisational strategy cannot guide decisions. Update it when strategy shifts.
• Techniques: facilitated chartering workshops · storytelling (makes abstract vision tangible) · information radiators · reinforcement at reviews and planning.

P2 · Manage conflicts

Identify sources · analyze context · implement an agreed resolution · common ground rules · rectify violations.

Leas' five levels — diagnose severity before deciding whether to act: 1 Problem to solve · 2 Disagreement · 3 Contest · 4 Crusade · 5 World War. Levels 1–3: let the team resolve it. Level 4+ (communication has broken down): intervene and de-escalate.

• Interprofessional (about the work) vs interpersonal (about the people) — different diagnosis, different handling.
• One-on-ones before the group session, stated explicitly as information-gathering, not problem-solving.
• Team charter = values, agreements, acceptable behaviour, conflict process. The answer for anticipated tension.
• Hard boundary: harassment or discrimination is beyond the PM's purview — escalate immediately, no ground rules, no mediation.

P3 · Lead the project team

Set expectations · empower · solve problems · voice of the team · support varied experience · leadership style · roles and responsibilities.

Tuckman: forming → storming → norming → performing → adjourning. Teams regress when composition changes. Virtual teams stay in storming longer (easier to withdraw remotely). Keep high-performing teams intact and bring new work to them.

• Empowerment is not a free-for-all — the leader sets boundary conditions; within them, people decide in their areas of expertise.
• Experience does not guarantee proficiency. Assess competencies across all members before designing an intervention.
• Individual-recognition culture suppresses risk-taking. Shared goals and collective rewards build psychological safety, which enables honest reporting.

P4 · Engage stakeholders

Identify · analyze · tailor communication · execute the engagement plan · optimize alignment · build trust and influence.

• Engagement levels: unaware → resistant → neutral → supportive → leading.
• Salience model: power, legitimacy, urgency. All three = top priority.
• Timeline-based mapping — some stakeholders span the project, others are phase-bound. Different question from "how much attention."
• Over-include at identification. Adding someone unnecessarily is cheap; missing someone surfaces as a late objection at an approval gate.
• Re-analyse when position changes (role, authority, budget control) or when behaviour changes over time.

P5 · Align stakeholder expectations

Categorize · identify expectations · facilitate discussions to align expectations · mentoring opportunities.

The four losing shapes: engage one side only ("work with the sponsor to adjust expectations") · adjudicate ("ask the sponsor to choose") · preserve both positions ("record each separately") · inform without reconciling ("provide a detailed plan").

• Mentoring = imparting knowledge, acting as a North Star, showing the way. Coaching = drawing the answer out of them.
• Show, do not just tell. Demonstrating beats explaining — for skeptical leadership, quick wins beat workshops.
• Align tasks to individual career goals — the lever when someone is disengaged despite clear vision and real empowerment.

P6 · Manage stakeholder expectations

Identify internal and external customer expectations · align outcomes to them · monitor satisfaction and respond.

• P5 vs P6: stakeholders disagree with each other (align) vs delivered outcomes drifting from expectations (manage).
• Meeting regulation is not meeting expectations. If customers hold standards above the regulatory minimum, compliance alone leaves them unsatisfied.
• A quality-driven approach is a legitimate answer to an expectations question — quality here means the full standard set, including stakeholder standards beyond legal minimums.
• Clarifying roles and responsibilities does not guarantee expectations will be met. Organising is not delivering.
• When users report dissatisfaction: gather feedback directly and analyse with the team. Informing without acting "weakens user trust"; logging it is "administrative, not a leadership action."

P7 · Help ensure knowledge transfer

Identify critical knowledge · gather it · foster an environment for transfer.

• Selection first. Not everything needs transferring — prioritise what shaped outcomes: risk logs, key decisions, teachable moments.
• Verify by demonstration. "Training was provided" is not "training was understood." Ask them to show you how they would handle a scenario.
• Format follows audience — manuals for reference, hands-on for skill, runbooks, quick-reference cards, train-the-trainer.
• Storage is not distribution. Compiling into a central location "does nothing to push that information out."
• Build it into the timeline — before go-live, not handover week. Consider making it an acceptance criterion.
• Knowledge stewards — named owners keeping records current, eliminating single points of failure.

P8 · Plan and manage communication

Define a strategy · promote transparency · establish feedback loops · understand reporting requirements · create aligned reports · support governance.

• Plan: identify audiences → define objectives → choose channels → set frequency → plan feedback loops → document in a communications matrix (audience, content, channel, frequency, owner).
• Never let bad news reach a stakeholder from someone else first. The failure is who delivered it, not the news.
• Single source of truth — the fix when different leaders give conflicting updates.
• Transparency about *why* does not require agreement. Walking through decision criteria builds trust even among those who disagree.
• Distributed teams: documentation-first, not meeting-first. Verbal-only communication limits success when calls are hard to arrange.
• Team transparency is not project transparency. Agile ceremonies are internally transparent and reach nobody outside the team.

Information radiator — a visual surface consolidating charter summary, blockers (colour-coded), backlogs, burndown, burnup, and working agreements. Also legitimate for reinforcing recently-taught, consistency-critical knowledge.

Distributed teams: fishbowl window = a persistent video link enabling informal participation and osmotic learning (distinct from a timeboxed conference). Remote pairing = 1:1 collaboration tooling plus shared whiteboard. "A fool with a tool is just a more efficient fool" — tools without training and agreed norms fail.

PROCESS — 41%

PR1 · Integrated plan and delivery approach

Assess needs, complexity, magnitude · recommend a development approach · execution strategy · create and maintain the integrated plan · estimate effort · assess plans for dependencies, gaps, and continued value.

• Build sequence: charter and RACI → WBS decomposition → schedule → budget mirroring the WBS → risk with named owners → change control thresholds → validate with stakeholders and lock.
• Estimation: top-down/analogous early (fast) → bottom-up as detail emerges (accurate) → three-point for uncertain tasks → parametric where a unit rate exists.
• An execution strategy without a contingency plan is a Plan A with no failover. Include resource continuity planning.
• People and process risks are the most overlooked at initiation — handoffs rarely account for the receiving team's own priorities.
• The plan is living: scheduled reviews, updated dependency maps, periodic value reviews confirming alignment to business goals.

PR2 · Develop and manage scope

Define scope · obtain stakeholder agreement · break down scope.

• Scope baseline = scope statement + WBS + WBS dictionary. All three.
• The 100% rule — the WBS captures all work in scope including project management work, and nothing outside it.
• Bottom-up WBS is preferred when scope completeness is the concern — it surfaces work a top-down pass misses. Develop the WBS with the team.
• Adaptive: epic → feature → story → task, in a continuously refined backlog.
• INVEST: Independent · Negotiable · Valuable · Estimable · Small (½–2 days) · Testable.

Control Quality (is it built right? internal, first) → Validate Scope (is it accepted? customer). Be the translator between intention and impact — explain what a "small" request actually costs. If it is not in writing, it does not exist. Vagueness accepted at the offer stage is paid for later.

PR3 · Value-based delivery

Identify value components with stakeholders · prioritize by value and feedback · deliver incrementally · examine value throughout · verify a benefits measurement system · evaluate delivery options.

Value Breakdown Structure — hierarchical decomposition of deliverables where each carries its expected value as a number or percentage of total, used to prioritise. Sequence: value proposition (narrative) → VBS (quantified components) → quality control (verifies the attributes were achieved).

• Value is discovered in context, not derived from your logic. A "more efficient" shared warehouse broke a client's QA traceability. Ask what actually helps them do their job.
• Measure beyond EVM: NPS, ROI, benefits realised index, safety records, community impact.
• Value often shows as absence — no panicked calls, frictionless use. (Contrast: during a rollout, silence is a warning.)
• Saying no can be the highest-value action — refusing an unsafe shortcut protects value invisibly.

PR4 · Plan and manage resources

Define and plan resources based on requirements · manage and optimize needs and availability.

• RACI — Responsible (does it) · Accountable (owns it — only one) · Consulted (two-way) · Informed (one-way).
• Levelling adjusts the schedule to resource constraints and can move the end date. Smoothing works within float and cannot. Calculate float first.
• Agile requests squads, not individuals — intact teams with a known velocity. Predictive draws named people from a pool.
• Capacity must subtract standing non-project work (support, break-fix, vulnerability management) before commitments.
• PI planning spans ~5–6 sprints: review features → write stories → assign points → commit against historical velocity.
• Matrix conflict: the functional manager owns the person's time — direct conversation first, not escalation, not silent redistribution.
• Plan for holidays, vacation clusters, and whether redundancy exists for critical roles.

PR5 · Plan and manage procurement

Plan and execute procurement · select contract types · evaluate vendor performance · verify agreement objectives · negotiate · determine strategy · manage suppliers and contracts.

• FP-EPA — long-duration contracts exposed to inflation or commodity movement; a defined index adjusts price.
• MSA with appendices — when a vendor is doing more than the contract anticipated and the term is expiring, this adds work without renegotiating the whole agreement. Fixed price is wrong if scope is still expanding.
• Input-based (client specifies headcount → client carries calculation risk) vs output-based (client specifies service level → provider carries it). A separate axis from how payment scales.
• RFI = market intelligence · RFQ = price for well-defined items · RFP = seller proposes an approach.
• Screen on capability first, negotiate price second.
• Vendor evaluation: define success → choose metrics from those success factors → baseline (contractual vs actual if no history) → track → analyse and communicate. KPIs are an input to a structured evaluation, not a substitute for one.
• Negotiation: understand interests, not just positions. When deadlocked on one variable, widen the set — terms, schedule, volume, duration.

ADR escalation order: negotiation (parties only) → mediation (neutral facilitates, parties decide) → arbitration (neutral decides, binding) → litigation (last resort).

PR6 · Plan and manage finance

Analyze financial needs · quantify risk and contingency · plan spend tracking and reporting · anticipate challenges · monitor variations within governance · manage reserves.

• Sunk cost is irrelevant. Decide on remaining cost against remaining benefit.
• NPV higher is better · IRR higher is better · payback shorter is better · BCR above 1.
• Scenario-based budgeting — optimistic, realistic, pessimistic, reviewed on a cycle. The right answer under genuine volatility.
• Hidden costs: cost of delay · distrust tax (late payment → prepayment demanded next time) · panic cost (emergency-rate approvals) · idle cost (equipment, accommodation, salaries during downtime).
• Define signal thresholds in advance — e.g. invoice pending >7 days triggers automatic escalation.
• CPI also detects billing inconsistency (senior rates billed for junior work).
• Available funds never substitute for change control. Newly discovered scope is a baseline change regardless of which pot pays.

PR7 · Plan and optimize quality

Gather quality requirements · plan processes and tools · execute the plan · ensure regulatory compliance · manage cost of quality and sustainability · ongoing reviews · continuous improvement.

• Quality = meets requirements. Grade = category of features. Low grade can be fine; low quality never.
• Prevention over inspection. Recurring defects → root cause analysis and process improvement, never more inspectors or more test cycles.
• Cost of quality: prevention and appraisal (conformance) vs internal and external failure (non-conformance). External failure is the most expensive.
• Establish metrics and targets first — audits and delegation are "helpful when paired with clear metrics," not substitutes for them.
• Control chart: spec limits come from the customer, control limits from the process. Rule of seven — seven consecutive points one side of the mean = investigate.
• Tools: Ishikawa/fishbone · five whys · Pareto (vital few) · histogram · scatter · benchmarking · PDCA and Kaizen.

PR8 · Plan and manage schedule

Prepare a schedule for the approach · coordinate with other projects · estimate tasks · use benchmarks and historical data · create and baseline the schedule · execute the plan · analyze variation.

• Crashing adds resources → costs more. Fast-tracking overlaps activities → riskier. Read the stem's constraints as elimination filters.
• Critical path = longest sequence of dependent activities; zero float.
• A schedule of only finish-to-start dependencies is destined to be delayed — build deliberate overlap.
• Decompose properly. "Migrate the data" hides downtime, QA testing, and error correction. SMEs compress familiar processes into one line.
• Velocity stabilises after several sprints. Do not forecast from early-sprint velocity.
• Factor holidays, vacation periods, known absences, and external parties with a delay history.

PR9 · Evaluate project status

Develop metrics and analysis · identify and tailor artifacts · ensure they are created, updated, and accessible · assess progress · measure and update metrics · communicate status · assess artifact-management effectiveness.

• Metric selection depends on the shape of the schedule. Due dates clustered at the end → hours worked and interim milestones, not completion counts.
• Data → information → reports. Raw performance data is analysed into CV/SV/forecasts, then packaged.
• Dashboard cadence: no less than weekly. Central, living, and consulted daily by the PM.
• At closure, review the status process itself — was the cadence right, was a metric never used, was a needed one missing.
• Leading indicators predict (team engagement, sentiment). Lagging indicators confirm (defect density, post-release satisfaction). "Anticipate" in the stem means leading.
• Vanity metrics count activity, not value. When a metric is actively misleading, revise it — do not supplement it.
• Criteria are not metrics. Metrics operationalise criteria. And over-measurement dilutes focus just as vanity metrics do.

PR10 · Manage project closure

Obtain stakeholder approval of completion · determine closure criteria · validate transition readiness · conclude closing activities.

1. Formal acceptance — verify against the acceptance criteria in the charter and scope statement; final review with sponsor and stakeholders confirming no open issues remain (this is legal protection); signed documentation.
2. Verify closure criteria from the plan — performance metrics, financial reconciliation, procurement closed, documentation finalised.
3. Transition — knowledge transfer sessions, configuration and support documentation, access credentials reassigned.
4. Retrospective — lessons learned workshop, documented into the organisational repository.
5. Administrative closure — closure report (performance, variances, risks and how resolved, achievements, remaining recommendations), archive, mark closed, release resources, recognise the team.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT — 26%

BE1 · Define and establish governance

Structure, rules, procedures, reporting, ethics, and policies through OPAs · escalation paths and thresholds · success metrics beyond the triple constraint.

• OPAs are internal — use and update them. They include codes of ethics. EEFs are external — adapt to them (internal or external in origin).
• Five steps: clarify decision rights → establish escalation paths → set oversight → define documentation requirements → communicate governance (a published chart nobody understands is not governance).
• Steering committee = advisory, senior, decides beyond team authority. Project board = monitors, tactical decisions. Stage gates = phase checkpoints. RACI = accountability.
• PPM hierarchy: project governs constraints · programme governs shared outcomes and benefits realisation · portfolio governs strategic priorities via OKRs. Three or more overlapping projects contributing to one outcome → form a programme.
• Threshold breach removes your discretion — follow the governance path regardless of how sensible an in-house fix seems.
• Metrics are defined at initiation, not deferred to a later stage gate.

BE2 · Plan and manage compliance

Confirm requirements · classify categories · determine threats · use methods to support compliance · analyze consequences of noncompliance · measure the extent of compliance.

• The fourth category produces the unexpected failures — equipment can be certified, legal, and refused because the crew does not trust it.
• Compliance always outranks schedule, cost, and sponsor pressure. "Low probability of getting caught" is not a consideration.
• Compliance-driven changes still go through change control. Mandatory ≠ pre-approved.
• Proportionality — rigour of verification scales to size, complexity, and risk. The obligation itself never scales.
• Sustainability is a first-class compliance category — ESG: environmental, social, governance.
• Measure continuously; silence is not evidence of compliance. Checklists before milestones, direct stakeholder confirmation, documented exceptions.
• When noncompliance occurs: document → inform the client early and honestly with a proposed correction → execute and adjust.
• Schedule explicit time for auditors after testing. Compressing verification is how noncompliance reaches the customer.

BE3 · Manage and control changes

Anticipate and embrace change · determine strategy · execute the strategy · manage the change process.

• Impact analysis covers scope, cost, and schedule together — never cost alone.
• EV analysis measures against an existing baseline; it cannot evaluate a proposed change. Use impact analysis instead.
• Every change goes through the process regardless of who requested it — including the sponsor and the CEO.
• The PM does not approve or reject. Submitting with a recommendation to reject is authority overreach; so is declaring a change infeasible.
• Verbal approval is not approval.
• Hybrid: adaptive backlog items are reprioritised by the product owner; changes to baselined predictive deliverables need a change request. Agreed constraints still need change control.

BE4 · Remove impediments and manage issues

Determine critical impediments and issues · prioritise · use options to resolve · reassess continually.

• Detect early: daily "what could stop us today?" · the silence audit (three days of "all good" plus a flat burndown = hidden blocker) · a visible red column.
• Strategies: eliminate · mitigate · accept · escalate · exploit (rare — the blocker opens a better path).
• Escalation trigger: daily loss exceeds the sponsor's tolerance, or the team cannot resolve it within 48 hours.
• Every blocker gets one owner, one next action, one deadline, one status. "If it is not logged it does not exist; if no one owns it, it will not move."
• MoSCoW — must · should · could · won't.

Bottlenecks by source. Sponsor silence: diagnose first — overload (streamline the approval process), disengagement (reframe around what they care about), or anxiety (bring in SMEs to make it safe to decide). Procedural change: pilot on small projects first. The PM: degraded response time, being the only person anyone approaches, or second-guessing everything — the last of which is fixed by revisiting the charter and business case, not gathering more opinions.

BE5 · Plan and manage risk

Identify · analyze qualitatively and quantitatively · determine and implement responses · monitor · manage reserves.

• When a risk materialises: review the register → does a planned response exist? → verify it fits actual conditions → update if not → implement. A planned response is not automatically the right response.
• A known risk occurring as anticipated does not put viability in question.
• Agile is not a risk management approach. Iterating does not manage risk; retrospectives and standups are opportunities that must be used deliberately.
• Quiet risks: agreement without commitment · absent local leadership · training as a checkbox · organisational fatigue · fear of speaking up · delayed decisions ("indecision creates risk as much as bad decisions do").
• Silence as a warning: no errors ≠ no problems; no questions ≠ no confusion. Treat inactivity as the loudest signal and verify informally.
• Secondary risk arises from a response; residual risk remains after it. Backup plans only work if tested.

BE6 · Continuous improvement

Continually assess process effectiveness · improve the team's processes and the organisation's.

• Register vs repository: raw lessons from this project, living · validated, organisational, authoritative. The register feeds the repository. "Validated recommendations" in a register is a bait phrase.
• Consult the repository at kickoff, not only feed it at closure. Owned by the PMO or VDO.
• Sequence: quality objectives → define metrics → assess baseline → select tools (root cause analysis, value stream mapping, PDCA).
• Improvement must change the artifact — the template, the SOP, the governance plan — and the change must be communicated, not just filed.
• Two failure modes: candid retrospectives with no follow-through, and improving alone (a delay the PM reads as planning may be a resource constraint from the functional manager's view).
• Assign a guardian for a newly changed process — someone shielding it from drift and exceptions.

Lean waste — TIMWOODS: transportation (handoffs lose information) · inventory (unfinished work) · motion (project switching) · waiting · overproduction (features nobody needs) · overprocessing (analysing before needed) · defects · skills underutilised, including knowledge held by one person with no way to share it.

BE7 · Support organizational change

Assess organisational culture · evaluate the impact of change on the project and vice versa · recommend and facilitate adaptation.

• Collect → interpret → act. Surveys and interviews gather; cultural and political awareness tools interpret; only then design interventions. Forwarding raw data "abdicates responsibility." A stakeholder map shows structure, not dynamics.
• The resource management plan contains the cultural assessment framework — do not judge an artifact by its title.
• Implementation: core team → timeline → communicate why → update SOPs → training → discuss regularly → pilot before rollout → assign post-implementation ownership for 6–12 months.
• Evidence over assertion — present data as fact, let people see the change in action, secure agreement before proceeding.
• Major organisational change (acquisition, merger, strategy shift) = escalate immediately. The decision is above your authority.
• Named: ADKAR · OPM3 · VUCA.

BE8 · Evaluate external business environment changes

Survey changes to the external environment · assess and prioritise impact on scope and backlog · recommend options · continually review the external environment.

• PESTLE — political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental. SWOT for internal-external positioning.
• Monitoring is continual, not a one-time scan, and it is collaborative — stakeholders see slices of the environment you do not.
• Scenario planning is the tool when multiple distinct external risks could materialise together.
• Re-validate the business case when the environment shifts. Assess impact first, then present options.
• EEFs generate opportunities, not only threats — and realising them often requires a separate project, which is why programme and portfolio links matter.
• Exception to analyse-first: where an obligation is established and severity is high, act.

REFERENCE

Earned value

EV always comes first. Cost uses AC, schedule uses PV. Subtract for a variance, divide for an index. Positive or above 1.0 is good.

Charts

Agile frameworks

Roles: product owner owns the vision, backlog, and prioritisation · scrum master facilitates and removes impediments · the team decides how the work gets done. Ceremonies: planning (what we commit to) · daily standup (coordination and blockers) · review (demonstrate, gather feedback) · retrospective (process quality — applies to predictive too).

Distinctions

The mindset that scores

• Servant leader on an empowered team. Collaboration is foundational, not one option among several.
• Assume you have authority to act and a supportive organisation unless the stem says otherwise.
• The answer is almost never do nothing, wait and see, or hope it improves.
• Both premature yes and premature no are wrong when neither has been assessed.
• Compliance, safety, and ethics always outrank schedule, cost, and pressure.
• Report the truth, explain the variance, present a plan.