How GanttGrind Maps PMP Questions to the Exam Content Outline — and Why Coverage Gaps Cost You the Exam

The PMP exam is not a random draw from a bag of project management questions. It is a structured sampling plan executed against a published blueprint called the Examination Content Outline (ECO). PMI tells you exactly which domains exist, how much of the exam each domain represents, and what tasks within each domain define the scope of testable content.

Most candidates know this in the abstract. Few candidates let it drive their actual practice behavior. The result is the most common pattern in failed PMP attempts: deep preparation in some areas, serious gaps in others, and a final score that misses across every domain rather than passing clearly in any of them.

This post explains how GanttGrind structures its question bank against both ECOs, how it tracks coverage at the subdomain level, and why that matters for your exam outcome.

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Two Content Outlines, One Exam Engine

GanttGrind supports both active PMP content outlines:

• ECO 2021–2026 — The exam most candidates sitting through June 2026 will take. Three domains, 35 tasks, 180 questions, 230 minutes.
• ECO 2026 — The new outline effective July 2026. Three domains restructured with expanded Business Environment coverage, plus new focus areas in AI, sustainability, and value delivery.

Both outlines share the same three domain names — People, Process, Business Environment — but with meaningfully different weights and task structures. Preparing for the wrong one, or confusing content between them, is a real risk if you are sitting close to the July 2026 transition.

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ECO 2021–2026: Domain Weights and What They Mean for Practice Time

The 2021 outline distributes 180 questions across three domains:

These weights are not suggestions. They are the exam blueprint. A candidate who spends equal time across all three domains is systematically under-preparing for Process — which is half the exam — and over-preparing for Business Environment, which is fewer than one in ten questions.

The practical implication: if you achieve 70% readiness in Process and 95% in Business Environment, your Business Environment performance contributes almost nothing to your final score. Your Process performance almost entirely determines whether you pass.

The 35 Tasks of ECO 2021–2026

Within each domain, PMI defines specific tasks — discrete competencies that each question is intended to measure. The 2021 outline contains 35 tasks across three content area groupings per domain.

People (42%) — Team Leadership and Interpersonal Dynamics

• Team Leadership and Empowerment (30–40% of People): Building high-performing teams, servant leadership, removing impediments, developing team members
• Conflict, Stakeholders, and Training (30–40%): Conflict resolution models, stakeholder engagement strategies, training and coaching approaches
• Collaboration and Communication (20–30%): Virtual collaboration, knowledge transfer, negotiation

Process (50%) — Delivery Methodologies and Project Execution

• Planning, Scope, and Schedule (25–35% of Process): Work breakdown structures, schedule compression techniques, agile planning artifacts
• Budget, Resources, and Procurement (20–30%): Cost estimating methods, earned value management, vendor management
• Quality, Risk, and Changes (20–30%): Quality management frameworks, risk registers, integrated change control
• Governance, Artifacts, and Closure (15–25%): Project governance structures, lessons learned, transition and handoff

Business Environment (8%) — Strategic and External Alignment

• Compliance and Benefits (45–55% of Business Environment): Regulatory requirements, benefits realization frameworks, compliance frameworks
• External Changes and Org Change (45–55%): Market changes, organizational change management, strategic realignment

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ECO 2026: Restructured Weights and New Focus Areas

The 2026 outline redistributes the same three domains with notable changes:

Business Environment nearly triples in weight. Candidates preparing on 2021 materials for a 2026 exam will systematically under-prepare for what is now more than a quarter of the test.

The 2026 outline reduces task count from 35 to 26 — denser tasks with broader scope. Content areas shift to reflect emerging priorities:

People (33%) — Vision, Conflict, and Communication

• Vision and Leadership (20–30%): Strategic vision, decision-making under uncertainty, leading without authority
• Conflict and Stakeholder Management (35–45%): Stakeholder mapping and influence strategies, conflict escalation and de-escalation
• Communication and Knowledge Transfer (25–35%): Communication planning, AI-assisted communication, cross-cultural awareness

Process (41%) — Delivery Execution

• Planning and Delivery (25–35%): Hybrid methodology selection, adaptive planning, value stream mapping
• Resource, Procurement, and Finance (20–30%): Resource optimization, contract types, financial forecasting
• Quality, Schedule, and Status (25–35%): Quality gates, schedule adherence, status reporting
• Project Closure (8–15%): Lessons learned integration, product handoff, retrospectives

Business Environment (26%) — Strategic Context and Continuous Improvement

• Governance and Compliance (20–30%): Enterprise governance frameworks, audit readiness, regulatory environments
• Change, Issues, and Risk Management (35–45%): Strategic risk management, issue escalation, organizational resilience
• Continuous Improvement and Adaptation (25–35%): Retrospective-driven improvement, AI and automation impacts, sustainability considerations

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How GanttGrind Maps Questions to the Outline

Every question in the GanttGrind question bank is tagged to a specific position in the content outline hierarchy:

Domain → Topic (Task) → Subtopic → Question

This is not categorization for its own sake. The hierarchy determines how coverage is calculated and how the adaptive engine routes questions to you.

When you start a practice session, GanttGrind does not just pull random questions. It accounts for:

1. Domain weight — Process questions appear more frequently than Business Environment questions in proportion to their exam weight
2. Topic coverage — Within each domain, subtopics you have not seen or have consistently missed get prioritized
3. Mastery state — Topics where your accuracy is high get fewer questions; weak areas get more until mastery improves
4. Recency — Topics you have not touched in recent sessions get reintroduced to counter forgetting

The result is practice that mirrors the actual exam distribution rather than giving you whatever is easiest or whatever you gravitate toward.

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The Coverage Problem Most Candidates Don't See

Here is the most common gap pattern in under-prepared PMP candidates:

1. The candidate practices heavily on scenario questions they find intuitive — often People domain, where interpersonal dynamics translate from lived experience
2. They develop strong People mastery and feel confident
3. They under-practice Process subtopics that feel dry — earned value management, contract types, integrated change control
4. On exam day, 90 of 180 questions are Process, and the gaps show up across every content area

GanttGrind's readiness score is designed to surface this before it costs you the exam. The score is not a simple average of questions answered. It is a domain-proportional weighted composite that penalizes coverage gaps regardless of where they appear.

Specifically: if you have 80% mastery in People and 40% mastery in Process, your overall readiness does not average to 60%. It weights the Process deficit at 50% of the final number — because that is what the exam does. Low mastery in a high-weight domain tanks the composite score and keeps it depressed until that domain improves.

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Why Subtopic Coverage Matters as Much as Domain Coverage

The second layer of the coverage problem operates within domains. Candidates who practice "Process questions" often gravitate toward planning and scheduling scenarios — the content most represented in training materials. But the Process domain spans four distinct content areas with meaningfully different question styles:

• Planning questions test decomposition logic and schedule compression techniques
• Procurement questions test contract type selection and vendor management judgment
• Risk questions test qualitative versus quantitative risk analysis and response strategies
• Closure questions test organizational knowledge transfer and benefits realization measurement

Practicing only familiar Process sub-areas produces inflated apparent mastery. GanttGrind's coverage calculation accounts for this by tracking mastery at the subtopic level and flagging domains where you have wide variance — strong in some subtopics, untested in others.

A domain where you have answered 200 questions in one subtopic and zero in another is not a domain where you have 50% coverage. It is a domain with a concentration risk. GanttGrind treats uncovered subtopics as explicit gaps rather than averaging them away.

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Choosing Your ECO: The Practical Decision

If you are sitting for the PMP before July 2026, you are almost certainly taking the ECO 2021 exam. If you are sitting after July 2026, you are taking ECO 2026. If your exam is in June or July 2026, confirm your appointment date against PMI's transition announcement.

GanttGrind keeps both content outlines fully available with separate question banks, separate domain-weight calculations, and separate readiness tracking. You elect your ECO in settings, and everything — adaptive routing, readiness score, domain breakdown, coverage metrics — scopes to that outline.

If you are unsure or taking the exam near the transition, you can practice both ECOs and switch your elected variant at any time. Coverage and mastery are tracked separately per ECO.

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Practical Coverage Benchmarks

Based on the exam structure, these are reasonable preparation targets before scheduling your exam:

The 75% coverage threshold corresponds to having meaningfully engaged with the breadth of the content outline. The 65% mastery threshold corresponds to the approximate passing score range. The two full exam simulations ensure you have experienced the pacing, question distribution, and cognitive load of a real 180-question, 230-minute session.

GanttGrind surfaces all of these metrics in your dashboard and flags when you are below threshold so you can direct practice before scheduling.

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The Summary

The PMP exam has a published blueprint. Every question comes from somewhere specific in that blueprint. Your preparation either covers that blueprint proportionally or it does not — and if it does not, the gap shows up in your score report.

GanttGrind's question bank is structured against both ECOs at the subtopic level. The adaptive engine routes questions proportionally to ECO weights. The readiness score weights your performance proportionally to those same weights. The coverage tracker identifies gaps before they cost you the exam.

You do not have to reverse-engineer the content outline to prepare for it. You just have to practice — and let the data tell you where the gaps are.

Start a practice session →