PMP Certification — Cheatsheets

PMBOK 8's 6 principles (quick list)

#	Principle	Rolled up from PMBOK 7

|---|---|---|

1	Adopt a Holistic View	Systems thinking + navigate complexity
2	Focus on Value	Value + stakeholder engagement + adaptability/resilience + change
3	Embed Quality Into Processes and Deliverables	Quality (refined, broadened to sustainability/compliance)
4	Be an Accountable Leader	Stewardship + leadership behaviors
5	Integrate Sustainability Within All Project Areas	New — not a merge
6	Build an Empowered Culture	Team (broadened beyond the project team)

Not merged into a principle: tailoring (now its own Guide section) and risk (now the Risk performance domain only).

(needs verification — recheck against current source: exact principle wording set by PMI.)

7 performance domains (quick list)

Domain	Embedded processes	Focus

|---|---|---|

Governance	9	Initiation, plan alignment, execution management, change control, quality assurance, sourcing, closeout
Scope	6	Requirements, scope definition/structure, validation, control
Schedule	3	Schedule planning, development, monitoring/control
Finance	4	Financial planning, cost estimating, budgeting, monitoring/control
Stakeholders	7	Stakeholder engagement + communications management
Resources	5	Resource planning/acquisition/control + "Lead the Team"
Risk	6	Risk planning, identification, analysis, response, implementation

Not carried forward as standalone domains: Development Approach and Life Cycle (moved to the Standard's life-cycle discussion), Planning (distributed across all 7 domains), Measurement (folded into monitoring-and-controlling processes, concentrated in Finance).

(needs verification — recheck against current source: process counts per domain set by PMI.)

Predictive vs. agile vs. hybrid

Property	Predictive	Agile	Hybrid

|---|---|---|---|

Planning	Upfront, detailed	Iterative, near-term detail	Mixed by project component
Change handling	Formal change control (Governance domain)	Readily absorbed	Depends on component
Best suited for	Stable, well-understood requirements	Evolving requirements	Projects with genuinely mixed needs

Exam domain structure — post-July 9, 2026

Domain	Focus	Weight	Prior weight

|---|---|---|---|

Process	Technical execution across approaches	41%	50%
People	Leading/managing teams, conflict resolution, stakeholder engagement	33%	42%
Business Environment	Value, strategy, sustainability, AI-enabled work	26%	8%

Business Environment more than tripled — the single biggest weighting shift in this exam update.

(needs verification — recheck against current source: exact weighting set by PMI's Examination Content Outline, revised independently of the PMBOK Guide.)

Exam quick facts

Property	Detail

|---|---|

Questions	185
Exam time	240 minutes
Framework basis	PMBOK 8 (6 principles + 7 embedded-process performance domains)
New question types	Case sets, drag-and-drop, graphic interpretation
Tests	Applied scenario judgment, not definition recall

(needs verification — recheck against current source: question count, exam time, and question-type mix set by PMI, current as of the July 9, 2026 exam update.)

Common scenario-response patterns

Situation	PMI-favored response