Congratulations on your decision to become CompTIA Project+ certified!
Because you are preparing to take the CompTIA Project+ (PK0-004) exam, you'll undoubtedly want to find out as much information as you can about the variety of best practices found in IT and other types of project management. The more information you have at your disposal, and the more hands-on experience you gain, the better off you'll be when attempting the exam.
The goal is to provide you with enough information to prepare you for the exam, but my hope for you is – aside from having letters after your name (which is great!) – that you'll learn new best practices that you can bring into your current or future projects.
You may find that some of the best practices don't align with your day-to-day projects, and that's okay! I like to think of this information as perfect-world project management. We don't live in a perfect world, so if you read through something and think to yourself that will never work in my organization, or we would never use this, that is totally okay and expected.
There will, however, be tons of great information and best practices that you can use in your projects. Talking the talk is great, but walking the walk is even better. The more you learn and implement, the smoother your projects will run. Plus, that makes it all the easier to pass your exam.
I've included review questions at the end of each chapter to give you an idea of what to expect in your exams. If you're already working in an IT project environment, I recommend that you check out these questions first to gauge your level of expertise. You can then use the book primarily to fill in the gaps in your current knowledge. This study guide will help you round out your knowledge base before tackling the exam.
If you can answer 90 percent or more of the review questions correctly for each chapter, you can feel safe moving on to the next chapter. If you're unable to answer that percentage of questions correctly, re-read the chapter and try the questions again. Your score should improve as you continue your studies.
You may also find that many of the best practices come from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). If you are not familiar with the PMBOK® Guide, it is published by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), who developed the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®) exam, the Project Management Professional (PMP®) exam, and the Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) exam, as well as many other certification-based exams for project managers.
There is more information following on where to find other certifications if you are ever interested in obtaining more in future.
For now, let's focus on your Project+ and its correlation to the PMBOK Guide®. The PMBOK Guide® contains all the best practices for predictive project management, meaning fully plan-driven. CompTIA acknowledges the guide and all the best practices but narrows everything to more of an introductory level and targets the IT industry specifically.
The material is presented from a beginner to intermediate technical level. Experience with and knowledge of different types of roles and responsibilities in small- to medium-sized projects is helpful but not necessary for the CompTIA Project+ (PK0-004) exam, which is the most up-to-date exam at the time of writing.