PMP Exam Prep - Communications Management

Where would a project manager look to find out the status of stakeholder complaints while controlling communications? - Issue log - Checklist analysis - Stakeholder register - Resource requirements matrix

Issue log

You are planning a complex multidisciplinary project. You have decided to structure the job by subteams, with each subteam leader and each subteam technical representative representing that subteam in the routine project meetings. Your project schedule SME will also attend these meetings. There are four subteams. How many communication channels will there be at the routine project meetings? 10 28 36 45

45 - At each routine meeting, the four subteams will have two representatives each. Additionally, the schedule SME and the project manager will be there, for a total of 10 meeting attendees. Using the communication channels formula, n (n - 1)/2, where n = 10, there are 45 communication channels at the meetings.

What might prevent a project manager from fully adopting a new conversation thread tracking system to replace e-mails? - Unlike e-mail, the system would create too many communication channels. - IT requires that all project communications be documented and traceable. - The medium isn't formal enough for certain communications. - A key stakeholder didn't make it through the training for the system.

A key stakeholder didn't make it through the training for the system.

When controlling communications, which situation should the project manager monitor most closely? - A subject matter expert simplifies discussions and covers only key points. - A team member likes to use humor to put stakeholders at ease. - A quality auditor asks a team member to show exactly how he performs a process. - A customer keeps asking for more reports regarding a cost variance.

A team member likes to use humor to put stakeholders at ease.

A project manager and a stakeholder are negotiating a requirement to add data tracking to an application. Doing so will add project costs and ongoing maintenance costs. What can the project manager do to reduce the risk that he, the stakeholder, and the sponsor aren't missing some important nuances? - Ask each party to explain the other persons' positions to demonstrate understanding. - Ask each party to acknowledge that the others' messages have been received. - Ask each party to explain their position to the others in a different way. - Record what each person said in meeting minutes and add it to project documents.

Ask each party to explain the other persons' positions to demonstrate understanding.

Which stakeholder would benefit from a very detailed report showing the reasons behind processes as well as why alternative processes were not selected? - Sponsor - Subject matter expert - Customer - Auditor

Auditor

Stakeholders think a team lead lacks credibility even though the only communications between the leads and the stakeholders are regular reports. In investigating, the project manager discovers that all leads use the same analyst to provide the report input data. What should the project manager do next? - Check the stakeholders for bias and unhelpful attitudes. - Check the reports for grammar and formatting issues. - Check the reports for data accuracy. - Check the reports for communication methods and models.

Check the reports for grammar and formatting issues.

What is the best tool or technique to use to help stakeholders understand the risks of miscommunications? - Communication requirements analysis - Communication models - Communication methods - Meetings

Communication models

What is an example of an enterprise environmental factor (EEF) that might be used as an input to the Plan Communications Management process? - Communication methods - Communication models - Communication technology rates - Lessons learned about communication

Communication technology rates

Where would a team member responsible for producing push communications go to find out who should get which reports? - Communications management plan - Stakeholder management plan - Push communications go to all stakeholders. - Stakeholder register

Communications management plan

A project manager needs a cost-effective method of communicating simple project instructions to many virtual team members and stakeholders. Many of the stakeholders are not technology-savvy. Which communications medium would be best for this situation? - Interactive virtual classrooms - Conference calls - In-person meetings - Videoconferencing

Conference calls

What process transforms work performance data into work performance information? - Monitor and Control Project Work - Direct and Manage Project Work - Control Communications - Manage Communications

Control Communications

Training on a software configuration project is set to occur at each local assembly plant. Due to high demand, the best trainers available are not up to speed on the latest version. If the budget and schedule are constraints, what should the project manager do? - Work with the existing team and provide on-the-job coaching. - Create an interactive virtual classroom for training the trainers. - Increase pay rates offered to acquire the right team in the first place. - Host in-person classroom training for the trainers at headquarters.

Create an interactive virtual classroom for training the trainers.

What can a project manager do to allow team members to continuously improve their work without having to directly intervene, especially when variances are within thresholds? - Give everyone quality responsibilities. - Ask stakeholders to give them direct feedback. - Produce detailed performance reports each week for self-review. - Create dashboards.

Create dashboards.

What would make for the most effective presentation to a customer? - Bold presentation that glosses over negative points - Detailed presentation that shows proofs for all points - Glossy presentation that states only what the customer wants to hear - Dynamic presentation that focuses only on key points

Dynamic presentation that focuses only on key points

What is the most important factor to consider when selecting a report generation system for a project that may require agile changes based on rapidly changing enterprise environmental factors? - Ease of producing ad hoc reports - Communication model selection - Ability for the least savvy stakeholder to produce reports - Proposal evaluation techniques

Ease of producing ad hoc reports

A project is complex, and team roles vary considerably. Some team members have complained during their project performance appraisals that they missed a key metric because the team reports were too detailed. What can the project manager provide to resolve this situation? - Dashboards - Graphics and visual aids to existing reports - Interactive virtual classrooms - Meetings

Dashboards

Which is an administrative task for project managers in the area of communications management? - Assessing team members' communication abilities - Improving personal presentation skills - Developing communications networks - Customizing communications for an executive audience

Developing communications networks

What tool or technique can the project manager use to tailor work performance information to be more pertinent if stakeholders are complaining it is too hard to interpret? - Issue log - Work performance data - Expert judgment - Decomposition

Expert judgment

What is an example of noise in a communication? - Expert using technical jargon - Receiver indicating that the message was received without indicating understanding - Sender having to repeat a message in a different manner - New video chat technology

Expert using technical jargon

What is a good way to signal acknowledgment but not necessarily comprehension or agreement in a face-to-face conversation? - Repeating back what was said - Eye contact - Written summary - Encoding thoughts

Eye contact

What is the most important communication dimension for a project manager when handling conflict resolution with a customer who thought a team lead was rude? - Horizontal - Formal - Official - External

Formal

When discussing a sensitive matter about a team member's personal life with the head of HR, what combination of communication dimensions would be most appropriate? - Informal and official - Formal and official - Formal and unofficial - Informal and unofficial

Formal and unofficial

On a midsize project with a tight deadline, which is a good way of compressing the planning portion of the schedule for project communications management? - Omit the Project Communications Management Knowledge Area if the project manager feels communications are relatively straightforward. - Standardize on one communication medium, format, and formality level that all stakeholders can use. - Plan communications management during the Executing Process Group in parallel with the first set of activities. - Gather information needs and preferred communication types and formats at the same time you are gathering the project requirements from each stakeholder.

Gather information needs and preferred communication types and formats at the same time you are gathering the project requirements from each stakeholder.

What is especially important when the project manager is working with virtual team leads? - Regulating nonverbal communications to maintain cross-cultural respect - Asking for acknowledgment to ensure that the message was understood as intended - Getting feedback to ensure that the intended message is being received - Using an appropriate level of formality for these horizontal communications

Getting feedback to ensure that the intended message is being received

A project has 14 stakeholders, and everyone shares information with each other as needed or desired. What is a threat or opportunity of this arrangement over one where fewer people are allowed to communicate with each other? - Better opportunity for getting accurate information to all stakeholders - Higher impact if a stakeholder forgets to communicate with another stakeholder - Better opportunity for collaboration and integration among stakeholders - Higher probability of an important stakeholder being offended by a communication

Higher probability of an important stakeholder being offended by a communication

What communications medium has a high risk of becoming a source of noise for some project team members because many communications seem urgent even when they are not important? - Videoconferencing - Instant messaging - Worksheets - E-mails

Instant messaging

What is an enterprise environmental factor (EEF) that could affect whether a project can take advantage of a system to produce automated transcripts of virtual meetings? - Whether meetings are scheduled or impromptu - Required meeting minutes format - Meeting record keeping policy - Languages spoken

Languages spoken

What is a valuable insight that can be gained from studying the sender-receiver communication model (the basic communication model)? - If the receiver objects to the sender's message, the sender needs to explain it again in a new way. - Communication breakdowns almost always occur on the receiver's end. - People's perspectives have a strong impact on how messages are understood. - Natural communication flow requires thinking of how to respond as the other person is speaking.

People's perspectives have a strong impact on how messages are understood.

What is a good practice for an efficient, formal, and official interactive communication? - Always communicate to the entire team to avoid misunderstandings. - Present just the key points and ask the receiver to acknowledge understanding. - Present the main metrics as well as any other metrics that were collected. - Always provide the context as well as supporting facts.

Present just the key points and ask the receiver to acknowledge understanding.

Emphasis on what Knowledge Area can encourage stakeholders to be fully involved and supportive? - Executing - Initiating - Project Communications Management - Project Integration Management

Project Communications Management

Where would the project manager look for notes on the information needs and preferred communication types and technologies of the project's subject matter experts (SMEs) when beginning an analysis of their communication requirements? - Stakeholder register - Requirements management plan - Project communications - Human resource management plan

Stakeholder register

In agile and adaptive project environments, there is a crucial need for efficient communications. Which of the following approaches improves communications efficiency? - Increasing the number of stakeholders - Providing all team members with smart phones - Instant messaging services - Project team based in same physical location

Project team based in same physical location

For projects subject to high levels of change and variability, communication with management and stakeholders is of paramount importance. Which of the following approaches will promote this goal? - Longer project design phase - Project postmortem debriefing - Self-organizing teams - Regular stakeholder reviews

Regular stakeholder reviews

What is commonly a reason why project managers cannot rely only on position power when using communication to achieve project objectives? - Virtual team levels of expertise - Stakeholder authority levels - Information reporting systems - Communication technologies

Stakeholder authority levels

Some stakeholders have made excuses to the project manager that they never got the documents they were supposed to review, even though the project manager can look in her sent e-mail box and see that the files were sent successfully. How should the project manager remedy this situation? - Switch everyone from e-mailed documents to a project document portal. - Use a computer worksheet to track who got sent what files. - Tell the stakeholders that this is an error on their end and they need to fix it. - Use voice mail to tell each stakeholder when documents are e-mailed.

Switch everyone from e-mailed documents to a project document portal.

When a team member responsible for an activity reiterates what needs to be done and there is an obvious flaw in his or her understanding, what is a likely result if the receiver corrects this error? - The flaw will be resolved without schedule risk or residual risk. - The flaw will be resolved without schedule risk, but residual risk remains unless there is another round of communications. - Correcting the flaw will impact the schedule and create residual risk. - Correcting the flaw will impact the schedule, but there will be no residual risk since the communications were successful.

The flaw will be resolved without schedule risk, but residual risk remains unless there is another round of communications.

What is a risk of using computer spreadsheets for doing some automated calculations and ratios in a report? - They are poor for complexity. - The results cannot be shared with multiple persons. - They cannot be filtered or sorted easily. - They can be error-prone.

They can be error-prone.

For a small project, a one- or two-page communications management plan might be drafted to accomplish what objective? - To ensure that the right communications are made to the right audience - To place all stakeholders on an organizational chart showing direct and indirect reports - To list each of the stakeholders with their contact information - To sort out the complex interactions between multiple stakeholders

To ensure that the right communications are made to the right audience

When analyzing project communications needs, what is important for the project manager to consider? - Length of the project - Project budget - Overall size of the project - Total number of communication channels

Total number of communication channels

When deciding on the level of complexity of information or the amount of confidential information to disclose, what is the primary decision factor on a project where no one needs formal security clearances? - What is necessary and sufficient to complete all assigned activities - What is recorded in the stakeholder register as the authority and capability levels - What is recorded as the formality level for the stakeholder - What is needed to give the person context and additional motivation

What is necessary and sufficient to complete all assigned activities

Project meetings - are in person, face-to-face interactions only. - are a way to communicate information. - do not need to be planned nor documented. - are most effective when held even when not necessary.

are a way to communicate information.

Communication planning should occur - during project management plan development. - just before starting work on the WBS. - when there is time to get it started. - Planning for communication is not necessary

during project management plan development.

Your project has several subprojects. Within these, one is schedule-critical and a second is near-critical. These two subprojects require the majority of your attention. Additionally you have one subproject with considerable total float, and the sponsor and your management have decided that it should be staffed by several persons of limited job experience so they can obtain some on-the-job training. This last subproject is entering a project phase where several work packages have been contracted to outside suppliers. Before each of these suppliers starts work, you should - direct each supplier to develop a communication plan for each of their internal milestones and submit it for subproject team review and approval. - inform each supplier that this particular subproject is not schedule-critical and that you are willing to entertain milestone slippage contract change requests. - meet with the supplier and the involved/affected subproject team members and determine who has the authority to communicate for both parties. - ask each team member to develop a likely schedule of supplier activities.

meet with the supplier and the involved/affected subproject team members and determine who has the authority to communicate for both parties.