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PMI PMP · 8 Essential Terms
PMP scope and schedule traps: the work breakdown structure, scope creep, critical path, total float, milestones, rolling-wave planning, and the requirements traceability matrix.
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A deliverable-oriented decomposition of project scope. Work packages are the lowest level; activities are defined from them for the schedule.
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A deliverable-oriented decomposition of project scope. Work packages are the lowest level; activities are defined from them for the schedule.
Mnemonic. The WBS is nouns: deliverables. The schedule is verbs: activities.
Exam trap. An activity list is not a WBS. If the chart is full of verbs such as test and install, it has slipped into the schedule.
Unapproved expansion of scope without a corresponding approved change to time, cost, and the baseline.
Mnemonic. Creep is extra scope that never passed through the door of change control.
Exam trap. A formally approved change is not creep, even when it adds work. The missing approval is the whole point of the term.
The longest path through the schedule network. It sets the shortest possible project duration. Activities on it usually have zero total float.
Mnemonic. The critical path is the long path, not the path with the most tasks or the most risk.
Exam trap. A shorter path with a dangerous risk is not the critical path unless its duration is the longest. Risk and criticality are different questions.
The time an activity can slip without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.
Mnemonic. Total float protects the project finish. Free float protects only the next activity.
Exam trap. Zero total float means the activity is critical in a simple network. It does not mean the activity has zero duration.
A significant point or event in the schedule. A milestone has zero duration; it marks a state, it does not perform work.
Mnemonic. A milestone is a flag in the ground, not a task wearing a flag.
Exam trap. Giving a milestone a duration turns it into an activity. If the exam shows a diamond with days on it, something is mislabeled.
Planning near-term work in detail while leaving later work at a higher level until more information exists.
Mnemonic. The wave near the boat is sharp. The wave at the horizon is a line.
Exam trap. Rolling wave is an allowed form of progressive elaboration. It is not a missing plan, and it is not permission to start near-term work with no plan at all.
A grid that links each requirement to its source and to the deliverable, test, or objective that proves it was met.
Mnemonic. Traceability answers: who asked, where did it land, and how will we know.
Exam trap. A requirements list without links is not a traceability matrix. The exam wants the thread from origin to verification, especially when scope is disputed.
Breaking scope or work into smaller, manageable pieces. On scope it produces WBS components; on schedule it helps produce activities.
Mnemonic. Decompose until the piece can be estimated, assigned, and tracked.
Exam trap. Too much decomposition creates noise; too little hides work. The trap is decomposing a deliverable into a schedule before the scope of that deliverable is agreed.