Tools & Techniques

Expert Judgment

Expert judgment is the application of specialized knowledge or training from individuals or groups with expertise in a specific area to guide project decisions.

Data Gathering Techniques

Data gathering techniques are a family of tools used to collect information and data from various sources to support project planning, analysis, and decision-making.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a group creativity technique used to generate a large number of ideas in a short period by encouraging free-flowing, non-judgmental contribution from all participants.

Interviews

Interviews are a data gathering technique involving direct conversation with stakeholders and subject matter experts to elicit detailed information, requirements, or opinions.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are a data gathering technique that brings together prequalified stakeholders and subject matter experts for a moderated discussion to explore expectations, attitudes, and requirements.

Questionnaires and Surveys

Questionnaires and surveys are data gathering instruments that use written sets of questions to collect information from a large number of respondents quickly and efficiently.

Nominal Group Technique

Nominal group technique (NGT) is a structured decision-making method that enhances brainstorming with silent idea generation followed by group discussion and ranked voting to prioritize ideas.

Delphi Technique

The Delphi technique is an iterative, anonymous forecasting and consensus-building method where experts provide estimates or opinions in multiple rounds, with summarized feedback between rounds.

Affinity Diagrams

Affinity diagrams are a technique for organizing a large number of ideas into natural groupings or categories to identify themes and patterns.

Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is a visual technique that organizes information around a central concept, using branches to represent related ideas and sub-topics in a hierarchical, radial structure.

Data Analysis Techniques

Data analysis techniques are methods used to process, evaluate, and draw conclusions from project data to support informed decision-making and performance assessment.

Alternatives Analysis

Alternatives analysis is a data analysis technique that evaluates multiple options or approaches to determine which best meets project objectives, constraints, and assumptions.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Cost-benefit analysis is a data analysis technique that compares the expected costs of an action or decision against its anticipated benefits to determine its financial viability and value.

Trend Analysis

Trend analysis is a data analysis technique that examines project performance data over time to identify patterns and forecast future performance or outcomes.

Variance Analysis

Variance analysis is a data analysis technique that compares actual project performance to the planned baseline to determine the magnitude and cause of deviations.

Earned Value Analysis

Earned value analysis (EVA) is a data analysis technique that integrates scope, schedule, and cost data to objectively measure project performance and progress against baselines.

What-If Scenario Analysis

What-if scenario analysis is a data analysis technique that evaluates how different scenarios or conditions would affect project outcomes, enabling proactive planning for various possibilities.

Simulation

Simulation is a data analysis technique that uses mathematical models to evaluate the probability of various project outcomes by running multiple iterations with variable inputs, most commonly through Monte Carlo analysis.

Data Representation Techniques

Data representation techniques are visual methods for displaying project information in formats such as charts, graphs, diagrams, and matrices to facilitate understanding and decision-making.

Matrix Diagrams

Matrix diagrams are a data representation technique that uses a grid format to show relationships between two or more groups of factors, commonly used for responsibility assignments and prioritization.

Hierarchical Charts

Hierarchical charts are data representation techniques that use a top-down tree structure to decompose and organize information, such as the WBS, OBS, and RBS.

Logical Data Model

A logical data model is a data representation technique that visually describes the data entities, attributes, and relationships within an organization or system without regard to physical implementation.

Decision-Making Techniques

Decision-making techniques are structured methods used to select a course of action from multiple alternatives, including voting, autocratic, consensus, and multi-criteria approaches.

Autocratic Decision-Making

Autocratic decision-making is a technique where one individual, typically in a position of authority, makes the decision for the group without requiring group input or consensus.

Majority Decision-Making

Majority decision-making is a voting-based technique where a decision is accepted when it receives support from more than 50% of the group members.

Unanimity Decision-Making

Unanimity decision-making requires that every member of the group agrees on the selected decision, providing the strongest possible group commitment.

Interpersonal and Team Skills

Interpersonal and team skills are soft skills used by project managers to lead, motivate, negotiate, and communicate effectively with team members and stakeholders.

Facilitation

Facilitation is an interpersonal skill used to guide a group toward a shared understanding and decision through structured discussion, ensuring effective participation from all members.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution encompasses the techniques used to manage and resolve disagreements among project team members and stakeholders, aiming for outcomes that support project success.

Political Awareness

Political awareness is an interpersonal skill involving the understanding of organizational power dynamics, informal networks, and political factors that influence project decisions and outcomes.

Observation/Conversation

Observation and conversation are data gathering techniques that involve watching stakeholders perform their work and engaging them in informal discussion to understand their actual needs, processes, and challenges.

Prototyping

Prototyping is a requirements elicitation technique that creates a working model of the expected product before building the final version, enabling early feedback and iterative refinement.

Design Thinking

Design thinking is a human-centered problem-solving approach that uses empathy, ideation, and experimentation to develop innovative solutions that meet user needs.

Rolling Wave Planning

Rolling wave planning is an iterative planning technique where near-term work is planned in detail while future work is planned at a higher level, with details added as the project progresses.

Progressive Elaboration

Progressive elaboration is the iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a project management plan as more information becomes available and estimates become more precise.

Agile Estimation Techniques

Agile estimation techniques are lightweight methods used by agile teams to estimate the size, effort, or complexity of work items, including story points, planning poker, T-shirt sizing, and relative estimation.

Wideband Delphi

Wideband Delphi is a consensus-based estimation technique that extends the Delphi method by adding team discussion between anonymous estimation rounds to improve estimate accuracy.

T-Shirt Sizing

T-shirt sizing is an agile estimation technique that uses relative size categories (XS, S, M, L, XL) to quickly classify the effort or complexity of work items without precise numerical estimates.

Dot Voting

Dot voting (multi-voting) is a group decision-making technique where participants are given a limited number of votes (dots) to allocate among options, quickly revealing group priorities.

Force Field Analysis

Force field analysis is a decision-making and change management technique that identifies and evaluates the forces driving and restraining a proposed change to determine its feasibility and plan implementation strategies.