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Saturday, November 15, 2025

Book for PMP Exam Prep: I Want To Be A PMP, 2nd Edition – Updated with PMBOK7 Content


I’m pleased to announce the public availability of the book for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) exam preparation, updated with PMBOK7 content. 

'I WANT TO BE A PMP - The Plain and Simple Way to be A PMP',
updated with PMBOK7 Content

The book continues to remain in the second edition, but with this extensive update with respect to PMBOK7 and Process Group Practice Guide. PMBOK7 is added as another management way, i.e., a principle-based approach to manage projects. It’s a separate and dedicate chapter of the book. 

With this update, the I Want To Be A PMP book, is now fully aligned with:

  • PMBOK Guide, 7th and 6th editions
  • Process Groups (PG) – A Practice Guide from PMI
    • Very similar to PMBOK Guide, 6th edition
  • Agile Practice Guide from PMI 
  • A list of reference books (latest, see here)

Now, few important questions first, which I usually receive while interacting with aspiring PMPs.

Question – 1: Is the PMBOK Guide, 8th edition available? When it'll be effective?

Answer: Yes. It’s available this month – November, 2025. 

It’ll be effective later next year (2026). It’s almost one year away. You’ve sufficient time to prepare for the PMP exam. You need not wait 1 year to prepare.

Question – 2: Why should one go with this book?

Answer: It has the addition of principle-based approach to project management. PMBOK8 has also a principle-based approach. In addition, there are a lot of commonalities with PMBOK8 when you combine PMBOK6 and PMBOK7. Hence, it'll help you going forward.

Question – 3: Is PMBOK7 content coming in the PMP exam in 2024/25?

Answer: I’ve frequently informed that PMBOK7 content in the actual PMP exam is not high! In fact, a recent PMP Success Story confirmed so. Earlier, another PMP Success Story wrote on it. However, it's good to know PMBOK7 content.

Question – 4: Are the courses of PMP 35 Contact Hours and PMP Live Lessons getting updated?

Answer: Yes, both the above courses are being updated now. They will be available with PMBOK7 content.  

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Now, the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition (PMBOK7) has 12 principles, 8 performance domains along with a number of models, methods and artifacts (MMAs). This book incorporates them with special emphasis on the areas, where you might face questions.

Since the release of I Want To Be A PMP book in 2021 with Agile content (see here), the book has seen multiple success stories. You can read the success stories here. 

Writing a book is not easy. For enabling me to write this book, I want to thank Shreya A S, Ashita Singh, Shalini Pathak, Amodh Sinha, Shivakumar Viswanathan, Varun Amirthakumar, Kumari Varsha Goel, Rohit Kumar Pandey, Bibhuti Bhusan Bagha, Ram Babu, Bhavani Sankar, V Satya Viswanadha Raju, Poornima Nagaraja, Tanushree Bhoi, Prasad Ramamurthy Kadambi, Rahul Nagle, Vinny Dsilva, Kavita Nambiar, Sarayu Gajendra, Shams Ul Haq, Vishwa Deepak Tiwari, Sandip Kumar Nath, Annarao Patil, Sandeep Jacob, Ansuman Mishra, Shubhra Rishi, Adinarayana Murthy Bhuvanagiri, Masood Ahmed, and Lakshmi Narayan Dash.

They not only became PMPs, but also wrote their success stories. Very few people do that. Usually, less than 5% write. But that’s important as they believe, one day, you can be a PMP, too.

The book has also seen continuous internal updates from 2021. 

Key Features - I Want To Be A PMP, 2nd Edition with PMBOK7

  • Fully aligned with PMBOK7, PMBOK6, Process Groups – A Practice Guide and Agile Practice Guide.
  • A number of Yogic Tips to crack the PMP exam – specifically related to the PMBOK, 7th edition. This includes inputs from the many successful PMP, who have shared their success stories. 
  • A number of Revision Tips and Practice Questions to prepare for the PMP Exam. It links back to the various Knowledge Areas (from PMBOK6 and Process Group Guide) and Agile Project Management area (from Agile Practice Guide).
  • Chapter-end Practice Questions and Answers, with specific reference to the PMBOK, 7th edition.
  • Interaction-diagrams to make you understand with respect to the PMBOK7 content. 
  • Highly simplified language. The book focuses on what you need to know for the PMP exam and written in an easily understandable way. 

Overall Content of the Book

  • Number of Chapters: 16 (+2)
  • Number of Pages: ~1,000 (approx.)
    • Excluding pages for questions, number of pages: ~600 (approx.)
  • Number of Tips and Revisions: Numerous
  • Number of Questions: Numerous
  • Updated with latest PMBOK Guide, 7th edition and Process Group Practice Guide
  • Price and Access: Please refer to this page (1st book in the list):

Updated Book Index

To know the breakdown content of the book, please check the below index (partial one). The detailed index is part of the book.


Note: As you can see in the above index, the PMBOK7 content has been highlighted as *** NEW *** with its content towards the end. When you go through the book, you’ll get a deeper understanding of it. 

For price, payment and access, you can refer to the below link:

https://www.managementyogi.com/p/books.html


If you are want to buy or have any queries on  this book, please send a mail to managementyogi@gmail.com. 



Book  for PMP exam:
PMP LIVE LESSONS - Guaranteed Pass:


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Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Agile on the Fly! Mastering Real-Time Sprint Operations with MS Project Agile (2)


In the first part of this article (read here), we understood the following:

  • Our Current Sprint State
  • Performing Activate/Inactivate Operation
  • Performing Delete Operation
  • Performing Add Operation

In this part, we will check certain additional operations, which are crucial as you manage your Sprint hands-on. There are many other operations, which you - the Scrum Master or Product Owner - have to perform in your Scrum project. Detailed, hands-on videos are part of the Mastering MS Project Agile course. See here.

We will start with the modify operation. 

Performing Modify Operation

As you proceed with your Sprint, you are also likely to perform several edit or modify operations, such as duration, resources, start date, and end date, among others. This can be done by simply double-clicking on the Card (work item) in the Current Sprint Planning Board view and changing the necessary fields. 

As shown for the featured item of Create a new user, I first double-clicked on the corresponding card, and then I can change the resources in the popped-up Task Information dialog box. You can change multiple fields with this option. 

You can also select the card, right-click and choose the Information option from the drop-down list to see the Task Information dialog box. 

Performing Move Operation

Not every work item included in the Current Sprint will be completed. It’s highly possible that some of the items are not started or are partially complete. In such a case, the items are to be moved into the next Sprint. This is one of the rules in the Scrum framework (see here). Note that the incomplete feature items don’t count toward velocity (see here). 

To move a work item into the next Sprint, again you can use the Current Sprint Board view. Select the work item (Card) and use the Move to Next Sprint command from the list. 

When you use this command, the item will be moved into the immediate next Sprint, not any other! To be sure, you can verify it in the Sprint Planning Sheet view, which is for all the Sprints in the project. Keep in mind that once a work item is complete, it won’t be visible in the Current Sprint Board or Current Sprint Sheet view. This is because of the Sprint Planning Filter (see here).  

As shown in the above figure, the feature Edit an existing user is now part of Sprint 2. Earlier, it was part of Sprint 1.

As it’s moved into the next immediate Sprint, the board status is maintained as Next up. The % Complete value for this work item will also be preserved. Your team can work on this item in the next Sprint. 

Performing % Complete Change Operation

While the % Complete mapping is done for the various workflow states in the Board, it’s not written on stone. For example, in our case the % Complete Mapping is %, 10%, 50%, and 100% for Sprint Backlog, Next up, In progress and Done, respectively. 

It’s possible that you may want to change this % Complete for a particular work item. This can be done by opening the Task Information dialog box and changing the % Complete value in the General tab. This is shown below. 

As shown, for the work item, I’ve changed the % Complete to 20%, in place of the default 10%. You can cross-check this % complete update in the Current Sprint Sheet view.  

While you changed the % Complete value to 20%, notice that the Board Status is not changed, and it still remains in the Next up workflow state.

Demonstration and Key Points

Now, let’s demonstrate what we have learned so far, along with some key points to remember while adjusting a Sprint in progress. I’ve prepared the below video [duration: 5m: 29s] for this purpose. For the best experience, you may want to go full screen in HD mode and plug in your earphones.



Conclusion

In some of the cases, it’s possible that while performing these operations, resources may be overallocated. You can quickly solve overallocation using the Team Planner view available with MS Project Online Desktop client, which has the Agile features.

Projects, like human beings, are living entities. Just as every human being changes, so does a project. If the environment is high-churn, then humans must rapidly adapt and adopt, and so does a Sprint project.

This article outlines certain key operations to adjust a Sprint project. I hope it gives you the understanding to perform various operations within a Sprint, the confidence to conduct any operation in a Scrum project, and brings value to your work.

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This article was first published by MPUG on March 14, 2023. This an updated version. 


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Sunday, November 09, 2025

Agile on the Fly! Mastering Real-Time Sprint Operations with MS Project Agile (1)


A Sprint is a mini-project within a larger Scrum project, and it's usually timeboxed for two to four weeks. Though timeboxed, a number of things can change within these weeks. In fact, adjustment of a Sprint in progress is the norm, not the exception. 

In an environment with rapid changes (see here) in requirements and technological uncertainties, a number of areas such as scope, resources, risk, and even business priorities may change. Agile/Scrum, after all, is all about change. In fact, one of the principles in the Agile manifesto states: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.

Note: The content of this article has been taken from Mastering MS Project Agile course. See here. It's world's only hands-on, in-depth course to master MS Project Agile.

For a project executed in Agile mode, one can have the following:

  • Addition, removal, or modification of work items within a Sprint, i.e., changes to the Sprint Backlog.
  • Refinement of Release Plan (see here for release planning), i.e., change in features for the Sprints within a Release.
  • Refinement of the (Product) Backlog (see here), i.e., addition, removal, movement, or replacement of backlog items, which can be features or stories.
  • Rolling-wave planning (see here) for upcoming Sprints, as the current Sprint draws to a closure, among others.

In this article, we will specifically learn how to adjust a Sprint which is in progress. We will see the following real-time Sprint operations:

  • Activate/Inactive Operation
  • Delete Operation
  • Add Operation
  • Modify Operation
  • Move Operation
  • % Complete Change Operation

If you’re working hands-on with MS Project to manage your Scrum project, these operations are vital to know. So, let's start with our Current Sprint State.

Current Sprint State – Timeline View

The current situation for our Sprint is shown in the Timeline view of MS Project Agile. Our Sprint is of two weeks duration from September 11, 2023 to September 24, 2023.

As shown in the above figure:

  • There are 3 items to be delivered: Login to the online trading system, Create a new user, and Edit an existing user, which are 50%, 50%, and 10% complete, respectively.
  • The Sprint event of Sprint 1 Planning is 100% complete, along with four Daily Scrums. These are indicated with a tick mark for the events.
  • Our status date is September 18, 2023, which is one week after the Sprint begins on September 11, 2023.

As we proceed, we will perform several operations. These are important to know if you are really working in a Project with multiple Sprints. As any real-world Agile practitioner would tell you, all these operations may happen.  

However, before you proceed, there are important instructions you need to know before starting, which are mentioned in the below video [duration: 2m:38s].


Next, let's us see our current Sprint board to understand the status date and various workflow items available in respective workflow states.

Current Sprint State – Current Sprint Board 

The current situation for our Sprint is shown in the Current Sprint Board view. 


As shown, several items are either complete (shown with a tick mark on the Cards) or progressed as on the status date, i.e., one week into the Sprint. 

The % Complete of features and Scrum events for the entire Sprint can be seen in the below Current Sprint Sheet view. You have to add this column.

As shown above:

  • The features Login to the online trading system and Create a new user are 50% complete, whereas the feature Edit an existing user is 10% complete. 
  • A number of Daily Scrums are complete.
  • The Sprint Planning event is also complete.

Now, we will proceed with various operations.

Performing Activate/Inactivate Operation

When you try to inactivate a task in any column state, except in the Sprint Backlog state, MS Project software won’t allow it to function! The reason is simple – you can’t inactivate a work item, which is activated and in progress.  

A work item (or task) can be inactivated by going to the Task tab, then Schedule group, and using the Inactivate command. It’s highlighted in the below figure. 

Now you may be wondering how to inactive such a work item. You have to take it back to the Sprint Backlog state to inactivate. This can be done either in the Current Sprint Planning Board or the Current Sprint Planning Sheet view. 

As you can see, the work item is inactivated because of the column state (Sprint Backlog), and the % completion. 

Performing Delete Operation

While you can’t inactivate an in-progress task, you are allowed to delete it. You can do so by selecting the work item in the column (workflow) state, right-clicking and using the Delete Task command. This is shown below. 

But then the MS Project software will pop up a soft message for you, unlike the hard message shown for inactivation we saw earlier.   


As shown for the selected feature item of Edit an existing user, when the delete command is pressed, a message pops up. This message wants you to confirm that you really want to delete it. 

If you proceed, the work item will be fully removed from all the views. In other words, the backend database completely removes the work item. Hence, be careful! 

Performing Add Operation

This is another operation that MS Project Agile practitioners use. While scope addition during the Sprint is not encouraged, it’s very likely to happen in the real world. Even though you may not want your scope to expand, new tasks related to a feature might come up anyway, and those must be added. 

You can add a new task by going to the Current Sprint Sheet view, right-clicking, and using the Insert Task command. Notice that as you add a new work item, the default Board Status used will be Sprint Backlog. 

You can also add the new work items using the Gantt Chart view or the using the New Task command of the Current Sprint Board view. After you add a new work item and associate the resources (see here) to it, it can be properly visualized in the Current Sprint Board view with the needed fields. This is depicted below.


This article continues into part 2. See here.

In the next part, we have additional operations for a Sprint in progress. 
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