Certification Guide

Menu
Explore Courses

Your Project Management Cheat Sheet: Deliver Success Every Time 🚀

By /

Project management can feel like juggling chainsaws—exciting, but high-risk. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting, having a quick Project Management Cheat Sheet can keep your projects on track and prevent costly missteps.

Here is your essential, condensed Project Management Cheat Sheet covering the core phases, key tools, and crucial metrics of successful project management.

Phase 1: Initiation & Planning (The Blueprint)

This phase sets the stage. Without a solid foundation here, the entire project is unstable.

A comparison table showing four key project management concepts — Project Charter, Stakeholder Register, Scope Statement, and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) — with their definitions and importance in managing projects effectively.
Key Project Management Documents — their purpose, definitions, and why each is essential for successful project execution.

 

Phase 2: Execution & Monitoring (The Engine)

This is where the real work happens. Focus on communication, tracking, and risk response.

🛠️ Key Tools & Techniques

  • Communication Plan: Defines who needs what information, when, and how. Always over-communicate critical updates.
  • Risk Register: A living document listing potential risks, their probability/impact, and the planned mitigation (reducing impact) or contingency (what to do if it happens) responses.
  • Kanban/Scrum Board: Visual tools (physical or digital) used to track task progress (To Do, In Progress, Done). Tip: Limit WIP (Work In Progress).
  • Issue Log: Used to formally document, track, and resolve problems or roadblocks that occur during execution. Issues are materialized risks.
A table summarizing essential project performance metrics—Schedule Variance (SV), Cost Variance (CV), Burn Down Chart, and Budget at Completion (BAC)—with their formulas and purposes in project management.
Key performance metrics every project manager should track to measure cost, schedule, and progress effectively.

 

Phase 3: Closure (The Hand-Off)

Don’t skip this! Formal closure ensures the client accepts the deliverable and the team learns from the process.

A table listing key project closure action items—Formal Acceptance, Lessons Learned, Resource Release, and Final Report—along with their descriptions and purposes in project management.
Essential project closure activities that ensure a smooth handoff, proper documentation, and complete wrap-up of the project lifecycle.

 

Agile/Scrum Snapshot (The Flexible Approach)

If your project uses an Agile approach, remember these core elements:

  • The Trinity: Product Owner (What to build), Scrum Master (How to build), Development Team (The builders).
  • Sprints: Short, time-boxed iterations (usually 2-4 weeks) where a fixed set of work is completed.
  • Daily Stand-up (Daily Scrum): A 15-minute meeting where each team member answers: 1) What did I do yesterday? 2) What will I do today? 3) Do I have any roadblocks?

 

Golden Rule of PM: The Triple Constraint ⚖️

Remember that every project management effort is balanced by three interconnected constraints. You can’t change one without affecting the others.

If you try to…

Table showing the project management triple constraint — how changes to time, cost, or scope impact the other two factors.
The Triple Constraint model explains how adjusting one element — time, cost, or scope — directly affects the others in project management.

 

Keep this Project Management Cheat Sheet handy to quickly reference best practices and make informed decisions, ensuring you keep your projects on time, on budget, and on track for success!

Scroll to Top

🎉 THANKSGIVING DAY OFFER 🎉
All Self-Paced Courses
Just $99!

Featured Courses:

PMP · LSSGB · LSSBB · Conflict Management
+ more