90+ Commonly Confused Concepts for PMP Certification

Recently I started a discussion in PMP Cert Online Study Group on the topic - Commonly Confused Concepts (for the PMP and CAPM Certification Exams). The topic resonated really well with forum members and within couple days, we had 75 items on the list. In this post, I’m sharing that list with you. The list is meant to serve as a “checklist” for PMP and CAPM aspirants.

If you are preparing for the PMP or CAPM exam, my humble advice to you is to make sure that you understand these concepts well, before you go for the exam.

Survey of most confusing concepts for PMP/CAPM

I realize that not every item on the list would be confusing to every one. Therefore, I have set up a survey for you to vote for the items that you find most confusing. The result of the survey would serve as a guideline for those preparing for the exam.

Many of the concepts have been explained on this blog previously and I’ve linked the items to the respective posts. Answers to many others can be found in the PMBOK Guide itself. Regarding the remaining items, I’ll address the ones which receive a significant number of votes. You can also expect to see many of these items on BrainBOK in the form of sample questions and flashcards.

Please take the quick survey below and let me know what topics you find most confusing. You can select only one item at a time, but feel free to submit the form multiple times if you have multiple topics that you find confusing.

List of Commonly Confused Concepts for PMP and CAPM

PMP Flashcards

All the items listed below, plus many more, are now covered in BrainBOK PMP Flashcards. BrainBOK can help you save weeks of preparation time, and make your preparation more enjoyable, efficient and effective.

Here’s the list of commonly confused concepts:

1. Accepted Deliverable vs Validated Deliverable
2. Accountability vs Responsibility
3. Accuracy vs Precision
4. Activity vs Work Package
5. Administrative Closure vs Contract Closure
6. Analogous Estimating vs Parametric Estimating
7. Attribute Sampling vs Variable Sampling
8. Audit vs Inspection
9. Authority vs Power
10. Budget vs Estimate
11. Business Partner vs Seller
12. Business Risk vs Insurable or Pure Risk
13. Change Control vs Configuration Control
14. Change Control vs Perform Integrated Change Control
15. Close Phase vs Close Project
16. Common Cause vs Special Cause
17. Concurrent Engineering vs Fast Tracking
18. Contingency Reserve vs Management Reserve
19. Control Account vs Code of Account
20. Control Account vs Planning Package
21. Control Account vs Work Package
22. Control Limit vs Specification Limit
23. Control Scope vs Validate Scope
24. Corrective Action vs Defect Repair
25. Corrective Action vs Preventive Action
26. Cost Baseline vs Cost Budget
27. Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) vs Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Contract
28. Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF) vs Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF) Contract
29. Cost-Benefit Ratio vs Benefit-Cost Ratio
30. Crashing vs Fast tracking
31. Create Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) vs Decomposition
32. Critical Path Method vs Critical Chain Method
33. Direct Costs vs Indirect Costs
34. Discrete Effort vs Apportioned Effort vs Level of Effort
35. Distribute Information vs Report Performance
36. Duration vs Effort
37. Duration vs Elapsed Time: Elapsed time includes non-working days whereas duration does not include non-working days.
38. Earned Value vs Planned Value
39. Earned Value vs Actual Cost
40. Earned Value Management (EVM) vs Expected Monetary Value (EMV)
41. Enhance vs Exploit
42. Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs) vs Organizational Process Assets (OPAs)
43. Estimate at Completion (EAC) vs Estimate to Complete (ETC)
44. Fallback Plan vs Workaround
45. Forward Pass vs Backward Pass
46. Free Float vs Total Float
47. Functional Organization vs Projectized Organization
48. Gold Plating vs Scope Creep
49. Grade vs Quality
50. Histogram vs Pareto Chart
51. Known Unknown vs Unknown Unknown
52. Lead vs Lag
53. Logical Relationship vs Precedence Relationship
54. Master Schedule vs Milestone Schedule
55. Negative Risk or Threat vs Positive Risk or Opportunity
56. Personal Power vs Positional Power
57. Product vs Deliverable
58. Product vs Result
59. Product Scope vs Requirements
60. Progressive Elaboration vs Rolling Wave Planning
61. Project Buffer vs Feeding Buffer
62. Project Calendar vs Resource Calendar
63. Project Coordinator vs Project Expediter
64. Project Life Cycle vs Product Life Cycle
65. Project Management Plan vs Project Documents
66. Project Management Process Group vs Knowledge Area
67. Project Management Process Group vs Project Phase
68. Project Performance Appraisal vs Team Performance Assessment
69. Project Quality vs Product Quality
70. Project Schedule vs Schedule Baseline
71. Project Schedule vs Schedule Model
72. Project Scope Statement vs Statement of Work
73. Project Scope vs Product Scope
74. Project Team vs Project Management Team
75. Qualitative Risk Analysis vs Quantitative Risk Analysis
76. Quality Assurance vs Quality Control
77. Control Quality vs Validate Scope
78. RACI vs RAM
79. Residual Risk vs Secondary Risk
80. Resource Leveling vs Resource Loading
81. Resource Leveling vs Resource Smoothing
82. Risk Threshold vs Risk Tolerance
83. Role vs Responsibility
84. Schedule Performance Index (SPI) vs Cost Performance Index (CPI)
85. Stakeholder vs Shareholder
86. Subproject vs Subnetwork
87. Tool vs Technique
88. Verification vs Validation
89. Value Analysis vs System Analysis
90. Work Performance Information vs Performance Reports
91. Work Performance Information vs Work Performance Measurements

I hope I’ve not left you more confused than what you were before reading this post :) If you have other items that you would like to see on the list, post them in the comments section below.

Special thanks to everyone who contributed to this list. I could not have done it alone. It is an example of great teamwork. w

Image credit: Flickr / a God’s Child