PMP Exam 1
3 sigma is equal to:
A) 99.73%
Team development would be MOST difficult in a _______ organization.
A) Weak Matrix
Which of the following activities is part of the Initiating Process group?
B) Conduct benefit analysis with stakeholders
Which of the following is NOT a project?
B) Family Weekend drives to sea coast
A project has been delivered according to the contract by the project team; however, the customer is not happy. The customer feels that the deliverable has some serious defects and is far below expectations in terms of quality and functionality. What should the Project Manager do in this situation?
B) Proceed to project closure activity
Which of the following is NOT true about a weak matrix organization?
B) The team members may not always have a home
As a part of Stakeholder Management, a Project Manager can follow all of these management practices, EXCEPT:
C) Give preference to stakeholders over customers in case of conflict of interest
Voice mail and e-mail are examples of:
C) Push communication
A project has initial budgeted cost, also called Budget at Completion (BAC), of $100,000. As the project progresses, these are the current figures: Planned Value (PV) is $20,000, Actual Cost (AC) is $25,000, and Earned Value (EV) is $15,000. What is the Estimate at Completion (EAC), assuming the current variances are atypical of the future?
A) $110,000
As a Project Manager, you are estimating the duration of your project activities using PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique). For a particular project activity, your Optimistic estimate is 14 days, Pessimistic estimate is 47 days, and Most Likely estimate is 27 days. What should be the expected duration of this activity?
A) 28.17
You have been assigned as a Project Manager of a newly initiated project and have 5 team members. There is a project sponsor (Mr. Smith) and a technical architect who will be involved only during the planning stage. This project is for an external customer. How many communication channels are possible in your project?
A) 36
There are three projects A, B, and C. NPV for projects A, B , and C are $50,000, $ 80,000, and $ 40,000 respectively. In a meeting, the management unanimously has chosen projects A and C. What is the opportunity cost of the project?
A) 80000
What is the meaning of the term 'management by objective' in project management?
A) A management philosophy that advocates establishing unambiguous and realistic objectives and conducting periodic reviews to ensure they are being met
Skills such as Performance appraisal, recruitment, retention, regulatory issues, and labor relations are considered under _______ area.
A) Administrative
You are the Project Manager of a project for which a prototype was recently delivered. The sponsor of the project calls you and gives you an overall estimate for the project. This form of estimate is known as ____
A) Analogous Estimate
A Project Manager is concerned about team building on her project. One of the mandatory things that the project manager must have for good team building is:
A) Commitment from top-level management
You are a Project Manager of a dynamic project team. Recently, there have been some changes in the team structure, and you don't know if they would positively or negatively affect the project. What is the BEST approach to address this?
A) Conduct a risk benefit analysis
A popular tool used to monitor project performance, including cost and schedule variances, and ensure that process operates within acceptable limits is called:
A) Control Chart
Your project team is involved in estimating the cost of the project as a part of project cost management. Which of the following tools and techniques will NOT be applicable for this purpose?
A) Cost Benefit Analysis
In which of the following types of contracts does the buyer have the MAXIMUM cost risk?
A) Cost Reimbursable
As a part of the Monitoring and Controlling process group, you and your project team have listed and are assessing the corrective actions in the issue register. What is the NEXT step that you will perform?
A) Determine steps to resolve issues by using appropriate tools to minimize the impact on project cost, schedule, and resources
The aim of quality is to:
A) Ensure fitness to use and conformance to requirements
Your project team has completed the project work. Which of the following is NOT done before the project is closed?
A) Ensure that the schedule baseline has been updated
A Project Manager is trying to successfully complete a project, but her role in the organization is limited and she has no control over project budget. Although she has some power to authorize decisions, she needs to seek approval on most of the major decisions. Also, her team members work only part-time on the project. The Project Manager is in a _______ organization.
A) Functional
A summary activity in a network logic diagram is often referred to as a:
A) Hammock Activity
Your customer asks for a small change in the project, which was not budgeted initially. It is a small effort compared to the total project, and you need the goodwill of the customer to be successful in a multi-million dollar gas project. What will you do?
A) Implement approved changes according to the change management plan to meet the project requirements
Performance improvements include all, BUT:
A) Improvements in amount of overtime worked
During the initiating stage, which of the following elements will be identified to meet the project goals?
A) Key deliverables
What is the key purpose of the Monitoring and Controlling process group?
A) Measure project performance in order to identify and quantify any variances and perform approved corrective actions
You are managing a large diversified project team. In the initial days of the project, the team members behaved like independent individuals and seemed reserved, learning about their roles and responsibilities. Then, as the team began to work on the project and participate in technical decisions, their trust level grew. The team members now support each other's needs and work together. According to you, which stage of team development is the team in?
A) Norming
Which of the following processes does not have defect repair as one of the outputs?
A) Perform Integrated Change Control Process
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, what comes at the BOTTOM of the pyramid?
A) Physiological
A Project Manager is in the process of preparing a plan that documents how the procurement process will be managed: from developing procurement documents to contract closure. She is also going through project requirements and scope documents with the team and discussing different contract types to decide the one most suitable for the project. According to you, which process of procurement management is the Project Manager in?
A) Plan Procurement Management
A project team is in the process of identifying quality requirements and standards for the project. It is documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance. The team has referred to organizational process assets and is using tools like benchmarking and flowcharts. Which process of Quality Management is the project team performing?
A) Plan Quality Management
You are a Project Manager. In the process of sequencing activities for your project, you create a schedule network diagram that uses boxes called nodes to represent activities and connects them with arrows to represent logical relationships between them. What is this popular scheduling diagram known as?
A) Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
You are the Project Manager of a large team with people from diversified locations. There are many groups within a project, such as architects, human resources, legal, quality engineers, etc., with their own hierarchy and reporting structure. In order to ensure that each team member has clarity on their own and other members' reporting structure, you decide to capture all of this information graphically. Which of the following documents will you be using for this purpose?
A) Project Organization Chart
How is the role of project expeditor different from project coordinator?
A) Project coordinator has some power to make decisions
Which of the following elements are to be considered while developing the project schedule? Pick the best answer.
A) Project deliverables
John has been assigned to a project recently, and he is in the process of documenting the project charter with the project sponsor. Which of the following MUST he include in the Project Charter?
A) Project purpose or justification
A Project Manager is involved in a procurement management process in a centralized contracting environment. He is assigned a full-time contract manager who reports to him for the project. In this scenario, which of the following is usually NOT the role of the Project Manager?
A) Provide increased expertise in contracting and also guide the team on standardized company practices
At the close of your project, you measure the customer satisfaction and find that some customer needs were not fully met. Your supervisor asks you the steps you will take during your next project to improve customer satisfaction. Which subsidiary plan would you consult to determine this information?
A) Quality management plan
You are a Project Manager of a large and complex project that is partly outsourced to a third party. Under these circumstances, your planned expenditure sometimes overshoots the funding limits set for the project. As a Project Manager, how do you best handle the situation?
A) Relook and adjust the scheduling of work to smoothen out or regulate the expenditure
You are a Project Manager in an oil company and have joined a project midway. You want to understand how requirement activities and configuration management activities such as changes to the product requirement will be initiated. You want to know how impacts will be analyzed, tracked, and reported. You also want to know the authorization levels required to approve these changes. Which of the following documents will provide this information?
A) Requirements Management Plan
Ongoing project planning is also known as ____.
A) Rolling Wave Planning
The project schedule should be measured against _______ to recommend corrective and preventive actions.
A) Schedule Baseline
Which of the following is the MOST COMMON reason for conflict?
A) Schedules
As a Project Manager of a complex and relatively new technology, you have asked for an expensive training for yourself and the team from the project sponsor. Although the sponsor has agreed to your request, he asks you to start the project in the meantime. Which of the following is NOT an option for you?
A) Since you have already asked your sponsor for training, you can do nothing to enhance your skills in the meantime
Halo Effect refers to ____.
A) The assumption that a person who is good at technology will also be a good Project Manager
Your project has current CPI of 1.2 and SPI of 0.86. What does the figure indicate about the project performance?
A) The project has cost underrun and is delayed
A Project Manager is working on a highly visible project in an organization and is most concerned about project performance and progress. His cost variance is currently $150 and schedule variance percentage is -15%. Which of the following statements about the cost and schedule performance of the project is INCORRECT?
A) The project has spent more money on work accomplished than planned
A Project Manager is forced to give a contract to a preferred supplier as he has a strict deadline to meet. What could be the BIGGEST risk in this situation for the Project Manager?
A) The seller has not proven that he has required expertise and resources to take this assignment
What is the 100% rule in the Work Breakdown Structure creation?
A) The total work at lowest level adds up to the higher levels, so no work is left out and no extra work is completed
In a control chart, what does upper specification and lower specification limit (USL, LSL) signify?
A) These are based on requirements of the contract and reflect the maximum and minimum values allowed
You are managing a large project that has many stakeholders across various departments in the organization. During the planning stage, you created a communication management plan based on the project organization structure and external stakeholder requirements in order to manage the flow of project information. During project execution, one of the stakeholders contacts you and informs you that his expectations have not been completely accounted for in the project. What should be your BEST response to the situation?
A) Understand his expectations and update project documents accordingly, starting with stakeholder register
You are managing a large and complex project which is in the planning stage. After assessing the detailed project requirements with the stakeholders, you ask the team to create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). However, since most of the team is new, you decide to brief them on some rules of creating a WBS. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT about a Work Breakdown Structure?
A) WBS is a list of specific activities used to accomplish the deliverables
During the project, you and your team discovered that a key project component was stolen. As this was not planned for, the team decided to launch the product without the stolen component. This is an example of:
A) Work around
As part of Quantitative Risk Analysis, a Project Manager has derived four packages with the following probability and impact. Using EMV (Expected Monetary Value), which one should he use in the project?
A) Work package I: Probability 15% and Impact $20,000
A Project Manager who has just been assigned to a new project has been asked by his sponsor to come up with an initial cost estimate called a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM). This would typically fall in which range?
B) -25% to +75%
For a project, Earned value = 600, Actual Cost = 400, and Estimate to Completion= 700. What is the estimate at completion?
B) 1100
An organization has recently started outsourcing work to a low-cost, high-value engineering center located in a different country. According to you, which is the BIGGEST value addition a Project Manager can provide to the team?
B) An exposure to cultural differences
A Project Manager has to discuss project progress and track status with the project team. Which of the following would be the MOST relevant format for this purpose?
B) Bar Chart
A project team is analyzing a major, critical defect to determine the root cause. In order to do this, the team considered various factors linked to the defect and grouped them into categories such as Machine, Method, Material, and Manpower. Which of the following tools of quality is the team using?
B) Cause and Effect Diagram
In addition to Work Performance Information, which of the following is an output of the process 'monitor communications' in Communication Management?
B) Change Request
A Project Manager is managing a project where there will be a number of persons working together. She wants to enhance the ability of the team to work together and perform as a team. One of the things she can do to enable this is:
B) Co-location
Which of the following statements describes the relationship between project phases and the project life cycle?
B) Collectively, the project phases are known as the project life cycle
During the project execution, the status report shows that an activity on the critical path is delayed. As a Project Manager, what should you do?
B) Compress the schedule
A project team is in the process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract. For this purpose, the team is using some predefined selection criteria to evaluate the bids and select the most appropriate seller. Which process of project management is the project team working on?
B) Conduct Procurements
Which of the following statements are true?
B) Contract closure and administrative closure both involve product verification
A Project Manager has worked on many challenging projects and has managed teams across the globe in the last 20 years of his career. Now, he intends to share his best practices and lessons learned throughout his professional career. The Project Manager is:
B) Contributing to the project management knowledge base
A contract type where the seller is reimbursed for all allowable costs for performing the contract work and receives a predetermined incentive fee based on achieving certain performance incentives is:
B) Cost Plus Incentive Fee Contract
Which of the following is true with respect to Plan Cost Management?
B) Develop the cost management plan
As part of 'Manage Communications' in Communication Management, which of the following analysis or information would be most relevant to a sponsor or senior management of the project?
B) Earned Value Management
A Project Manager defines a personal plan for his career and professional development every year. As a part of this plan, he goes through his project experiences and lessons learned and decides on the training needs to help him excel as a Project Manager and contribute to his organization. In this scenario, the Project Manager is:
B) Enhancing his Personal Professional Competence
Which of the following is NOT a purpose of the configuration management system?
B) Ensure all the relevant changes are communicated to the stakeholders
During the project lifecycle, a Project Manager can change the schedule baseline ONLY through:
B) Formally approved change through the change control process
One of the high-performing team members from a support group wants to move on to the technical team as she finds that work more challenging. As a Project Manager, you know that she is a valuable resource and moving her out of the support group can affect group performance. You decide to give her a hike in salary. However, the employee is still unhappy and dissatisfied. This is an example of _______ theory
B) Herzberg's
As a Project Manager of a large project with hundreds of stakeholders, which of the following is the BEST course of action?
B) Incorporate needs of all stakeholders
An assembly line in a car manufacturing plant produces 250 components in one shift. The QA randomly picks 10 of them for quality checking. This is an example of:
B) Inspection
You are a Project Manager of a software project that is in a critical phase of testing and bug fixing. An enthusiastic test engineer working on the project tells you that he found a major bug the previous night during testing. He assures you that there is nothing to worry about as he has 'patched' the code and it is working fine now. What should be your main concern about this incident?
B) It can be a case of scope creep
As a Project Manager, you have created a Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) for your project. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE about Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS)?
B) It is used for estimating resource utilization
Which of the following is NOT an example of a facilitated workshop?
B) Just in Time (JIT)
Completion of project phase is also referred to as:
B) Kill Point
In order to achieve the project deliverables, the project manager has to manage task execution based on project management plan. In doing so, which of the following elements should be considered?
B) Leading and developing the project team
A senior technology manager in the organization wants to know the project status with respect to major deliverables and key external interfaces. Which format should the project manager use in his performance report to capture this graphically?
B) Milestone Chart
The primary communication skill the Project Manager will use when working with the functional manager is:
B) Negotiation
You are a Project Manager in an organization with a functional structure; hence, it is important that you negotiate suitable resources for your project from the functional manager. Which of the following tools could be a valuable asset to prove your project resource requirements to the functional manager?
B) Network Diagram and Project Schedule
You are a Project Manager of an ambitious project in an organization. Although you have successfully managed many critical projects before, this is a new organization and you are working on this technology for the first time. However, you hear that the company has proven expertise on the technology and has also done a similar project in the past. In this situation, what is the BEST option available to you?
B) Obtain historical records and guidance from the Project Management Office (PMO)
A Project Manager is responding to a business proposal from an overseas company. Which of the following should he refer to as a guide to understand the business practice(s) that are allowed and discouraged?
B) Organization policies and procedures
As part of Stakeholder Analysis, it is important to prioritize the needs of key stakeholders to ensure efficient use of effort to communicate with them and manage their expectations. Which of the following is NOT a classification model?
B) Power/Impact grid
A car manufacturing company conceptualized a new car that will be more fuel efficient, ergonomically designed, and that satisfies the latest safety regulations. This car was recently launched and has now moved into full-fledged production. This is an example of:
B) Project, as this car was conceptualized, designed, and has now been launched
A Project Manager has submitted a formal document that describes the procurement item in sufficient detail. This document allows prospective sellers to determine if they are capable of providing the product and details methodology and results that will be provided to the buyer. What is this called?
B) Request for Proposal
A Project Manager wants to capture information related to staff acquisition and release, training needs, resource calendar, recognition, and rewards. Which of the following documents would be most appropriate?
B) Resource Management Plan
In making an investment in a project, investors require compensation for:
B) Sacrifice of immediate use of cash for consumption or other investments and possibility of inflation and risk
An instrument that has a screw of 15 mm diameter gives the following readings: 16.001 mm, 16.00015 mm, 16.0003 mm, and 15.900 mm. Assuming that the instrument is capable of measuring up to the third place decimal, what BEST can be concluded about the performance of the instrument?
B) The instrument is not accurate but is precise
Customer satisfaction should be measured at the end of the project to maintain long-term relationships. Which of the following is NOT always an aspect of customer satisfaction?
B) The project is profitable
While monitoring and controlling the projects, why is it necessary to manage changes to the project by following the change management plan?
B) To align project goals with business needs
After a high-level management meeting, the manager chairing the meeting asks the Project Manager to document and communicate the action items to all the stakeholders. The Project Manager is part of a ______________ organization structure.
B) Weak Matrix
A step-by-step instruction guide on how to complete work or procedure is called:
B) Work Instruction
Your client has terminated your project before it has been completed. Which of the following is true?
B) You must work with the team to document the lessons learned
A cost reimbursable contract has an estimated cost of $20,000. If the seller beats the cost, 80% of the savings will go to the buyer and 20% will go to the seller. If the actual costs come in at $18,000, what is the final price?
C) $18,400
A project has a project manager, a sponsor, a human resource specialist, a quality analyst, and seven team members. How many communication channels are possible in the project?
C) 55
A project team is working on a risk response strategy by evaluating every risk and coming up with suitable response strategies. However, one particular risk with a negative impact cannot be avoided or mitigated. Furthermore, there is no way to transfer the risk by outsourcing or buying insurance. You feel this risk is of low ranking. What is the best the team can do about the risk?
C) Accept the risk and put it in the watch list
You are a Project Manager for an infrastructure development project, and the project involves building a multi-storey building. You have submitted your project estimates for cost and duration to the client. You also inform the buyer that the estimates would be true provided there is an 8ft foundation built on the site already. What does this statement describe in your project?
C) Assumption
A Project Manager wants to present project performance reports of his project. Which of the following formats should he use?
C) Bar Chart
A Project Manager wants to qualify for the PMP examination. However, while going through the eligibility criteria, he finds that he falls short of the required experience by a small margin. He discusses this with a certified PMP professional and mentions that he is planning to lie about his experience as it is a very small margin. The PMP professional is not convinced and warns him that he should not provide false information at any point during the PMI Certification Program as it can result in:
C) Both of the above are true
In negotiations, what is a fait accompli tactic?
C) Claiming an issue has already been decided and therefore cannot be changed
A project is in the final stage of testing when it receives a major change request from the customer. This would delay the final delivery of the project by 2 weeks. What should the Project Manager do NEXT?
C) Communicate the implication of the change to the customer
An organization has created a special project team to handle a critical project. The team members of this project are dedicated full-time to the project and are pulled from different functional departments. They also have their own set of operating procedures. This organization structure is MOSTLY:
C) Composite
The common term for an authorized time-phased budget, which includes the Budget at Completion (BAC), used to measure cost performance, and displayed in the form of an S-curve is:
C) Cost Baseline
You have been assigned to a large construction project, and you are in the "Initiating" process group. You have identified the project stakeholders using a stakeholder analysis tool and defined the high-level scope of the project. During these activities, you have identified a key project limitation regarding the project location. What is the BEST option for you in this situation?
C) Document the project limitation as a project constraint and propose an implementation approach to the sponsor and customer, if required
In a meeting, the Sponsor has discussed three projects with you: Project A with Net Present Value of $55,000 and a payback period of 5 years; Project B with Net Present Value of $95,000; and Project C with payback period of 10 years. He provides you with additional information about the projects and intends to assign you as the Project Manager for the selected project. As a Project Manager, you are NOT expected to:
C) Engage in deceitful practices
A large project with a team of 150 people is in the planning stage. It will span over a duration of 3 years and is under strict budget. A Project Manager is using the project charter to assess the detailed project requirements in consultation with the stakeholders and to establish the key project deliverables. He sets his project quality objective based on the organization capability baseline set by the quality policy. However, one of the stakeholders refuses to accept this and asks him to reduce the quality objective as it will help cut down cost of quality of the project. He also refuses to approve the project if the Project Manager does not agree to his suggestion. What should the Project Manager do?
C) Explain to the stakeholder that the quality policy is used to set quality objectives for all the projects in the organization and they need to abide by it
A new Project Manager takes over a project during the execution phase. One of the main issues faced by the project is that the customer complains of poor visibility on the project. What should be his first step toward resolving the issue?
C) Go through the communication management plan to understand customer communication requirements and assess whether they are being addressed properly
Risk Breakdown Structure is an example of:
C) Hierarchical representation of risks according to risk categories
Which of the following CANNOT be considered an indicator of a team's effectiveness?
C) Increased staff turnover rate
Which of the following statements DOES NOT describe the essence of Integration Management in the context of Project Management?
C) Integrating different components from the development cycle to create the final deliverable
Which of the following Quality Theorists advocated the 80/20 principle ?
C) Joseph Juran
A Project Manager is managing a project that has constraints on the availability of required resources throughout the project. He needs to rearrange the schedule in such a way that a constant number of resources are used each month. Which of the following techniques should the Project Manager use to achieve this?
C) Leveling
A Project Manager has taken up a project midway and is going through project schedules and status reports. He realizes that the previous Project Manager has inaccurately calculated the project status and that the project would definitely miss the next milestone. What should the Project Manager do in this case?
C) Look at the project schedule again to find alternatives to meet the schedule
A Project Manager is preparing for the next milestone release when he realizes that he has missed an important feature in the project requirements plan. If implemented, this feature would take at least one person a week of effort. What should he do to address this?
C) Look for alternatives to reduce the impact of change
You are the Project Manager of a software telecom development project. You and your team are working together to create a billing software. Which quadrant of the Power/Influence Grid will the person(s) be responsible for sign-off of the deliverables?
C) Manage Closely
Which of the following types of organizations would have the most complex communication management ?
C) Matrix Organization
Tom always delivers his projects on time and within budget. He believes that his success can be explained by the fact that he makes all of the project decisions himself and then enforces those decisions with an iron hand. His management style is best described by:
C) McGregor's Theory X
During an informal gathering with stakeholders of the project, the Project Manager overhears one stakeholder expressing dissatisfaction over the project's progress reporting and communication. How should the Project Manager respond?
C) Meet face-to-face with the complaining stakeholder to understand his concern and update it in the issue log
When is the cost highest in the project life cycle?
C) Midway during the project
As a Project Manager, you have instructed your project team to update the organizational process assets, including the "lessons learned" database and risk management template of future projects, based on project audit findings. You are in _______ process of project management.
C) Monitor Risks
Measuring project performance using appropriate tools and techniques in order to identify and quantify variances and corrective actions is part of _______ process group.
C) Monitoring and Controlling
You are a Project Manager, and your team recently encountered a major change in the project. This change was evaluated for its impact on the triple constraints and went for approval to the Change Control Board (CCB). The CCB, which is comprised of important stakeholders of the project, approved the change. The project documents were updated through the configuration management system. What should the project team do NEXT?
C) Notify the stakeholders affected by the change
What is the name of PMI's organization maturity model for project management?
C) OPM3
A Project Manager is in the 'Control Procurements' process when his sponsor asks him to terminate the contract. What should the Project Manager do NEXT?
C) Proceed with Procurement Audit
A Project Manager has just been assigned to a project. He is involved in creating a document that would formally authorize the project and capture initial requirements of the stakeholders. What is the output of this process?
C) Project Charter
A project is in the initiating stage, and the Project Manager is identifying project communication constraints. Which of the following could be a valid constraint?
C) Project team members would be required to work from different geographical locations
A Project Manager has used a popular cost estimating model to come up with cost estimates for his upcoming project. However, the sponsor asks him to add 15% to the total cost estimate as the customer always negotiates and asks the prices to be reduced by 10% to 15%. What is the BEST option for the Project Manager?
C) Provide the sponsor with details on cost estimation and suggest that she share this with the customer
You are a Project Manager for a big project, and quality is a top priority. You have devoted a lot of the project time to the creation of the quality management plan. What is the advantage of the quality management plan?
C) Provides a systematic approach to meet the project's quality goals
Your company is bidding for a major project from Company X. You have a friend in Company X, and he requests your help in evaluating the proposals. What action should you take?
C) Reject the friend's request
During the closing, final acceptance of the deliverables is one of the important activities. Who is supposed to give final acceptance? Choose the best answer.
C) Relevant stakeholders
A Project Manager has just finished a Gantt (bar) chart representing the project schedule. Which of the following documents does NOT get updated?
C) Resource Leveling
A project is in the execution stage. The customer comes back with an additional feature to be added in the forthcoming milestone delivery. The project team has assessed the impact of the change by performing Integrated Change Control. The Project Manager should:
C) Review Quality Management Plan and evaluate the effect of the additional feature on quality
Trend analysis is often performed using:
C) Run Chart
A Project Manager notices that the seller has discontinued sending the weekly status report, which is part of their contract. The Project Manager understands that the seller is under tremendous pressure to meet the next milestone deliverables and has been otherwise communicating the project status periodically. What should the Project Manager do in this scenario?
C) Send a formal, written communication regarding the issue of irregular status reports
Which of the following is NOT an exit criterion?
C) Stakeholder analysis
Which of the following is NOT an input to the "Plan Stakeholder Engagement" process?
C) Stakeholder engagement plan
As a Project Manager, you are assigned to a project that will be outsourced. The next step is to organize a formal bidding process and select the vendor for the project. You own stock in one of the vendor companies that participated in the bidding process. What is the BEST course of action for you?
C) Tell your manager and remove yourself from the vendor selection committee
Which of the following is an example of smoothing as part of promoting interaction among stakeholders?
C) The Project Manager downplays the difference of opinion, saying the difference lies only in perception
A project with a CPI Index of 0.96 indicates:
C) The project has cost overrun for work completed so far
You are a Project Manager, and your project sponsor has asked you to come up with the total funding requirements of the project. What will be the total funding requirements for your project?
C) The total funds, including the cost baseline and any management reserves
Which of the following is NOT a justifiable reason to terminate a project?
C) There is serious personal conflict between two senior project members, and this is affecting the work
Which estimate technique does the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) use to define the approximate range of activity costs?
C) Three Point Estimate Technique
You are a Project Manager in a construction company and urgently require some expert welders for a short duration. You checked their availability internally with the functional manager, but the functional manager is not able to match the skills required. You decide to acquire these resources on contract. Which of the following is the BEST type of contract for your requirements?
C) Time and Material
A work authorization system is a:
C) Tool used to notify team or contractors that they may begin work on a project or work package
You are the Project Manager of a large and complex project. Your project team has finished creating a Work Breakdown Structure for the project. However, some of the team members are still not sure of the kind of work included in each of their work packages. Which of the following documents would you suggest they go through?
C) Work Break Structure (WBS) Dictionary
A project has faced some unforeseen events that have affected its performance with respect to cost and schedule. However, they are not bound to continue in the future. What is the value of Estimate at Completion (EAC)? Here, BAC is Budget at completion, AC is Actual Cost, CPI is Cost Performance Index, and EV is earned Value.
D) AC + (BAC-EV)
What does the Kaizen theory state?
D) Apply continuous small improvements to reduce costs and ensure consistency
The Project Manager has obtained final acceptance of the project deliverables by the customer. Which of the following is NOT an activity of the "project closing" process?
D) Assess old risks and update risk register
Which of the following is NOT an example of contributing to the project management knowledge base?
D) Briefing a friend, an aspiring Project Manager about PMP® exam merits and PMI® organization
You are working on a highly visible project for which it is critical to have accurate cost estimates. While reviewing cost estimates for the project, you notice that one of the WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) work packages is estimated at almost 25% higher than two other similar WBS work packages. What should you do in this case?
D) Call the WBS owner to discuss the basis for estimating the work package
A Project Manager is in the process of comparing actual performance to the scope statement to determine variances, evaluate possible alternatives, and take the appropriate action. Which of the following will NOT be an output of this process?
D) Change Control Meetings
Which of the following is not a process under procurement management?
D) Close procurements
You are a Project Manager of a software project that has finished the design stage and is moving to the implementation stage. At the end of the design phase, you got the document reviewed and you tracked and closed the defect logs. Also, as part of the design stage review and kickoff for the implementation phase, you checked current SPI and CPI and revisited the risks. What did you forget to do?
D) Communicate project stage review findings to all the stakeholders
A project team in a software project started with risk management planning and identified new risks. Next, it conducted qualitative risk analysis using a probability and impact matrix and thereafter completed the 'plan risk response' process. What is an important step that the team needs to complete before moving to risk monitoring and control?
D) Communicate the status of identified risks and response strategy to stakeholders
Your project is expected to be delayed by 6 days from the scheduled final delivery date. Your current CPI is 1.5, and the project risks are low. You also have many discretionary dependencies on the project. You don't have access to any more resources for the project. Which of the following would be the BEST alternative to bring the project back on schedule?
D) Complete some activities concurrently
You work in a pharmaceutical company, and your client has shared some confidential information with you. A medical university requests you to share the information about the client for their research. What should you do?
D) Contact your client and seek permission to disclose the information
A Project Manager is in the planning stage and is evaluating risks in the project. He wants to improve the project's chances of success by evaluating all possible risks. As a part of risk management planning and identification, he has used a standard questionnaire to identify risks and has identified about 20 risks in the project. What should he do before moving to the next process, "qualitative risk analysis"?
D) Continue to identify more risks using other tools and techniques
You are a Project Manager in a leading manufacturing company, and you are managing a critical project for the company. Your project is facing severe cost constraints, and you cannot delay the delivery date of the product. After consulting stakeholders and the customers, you decide to lower both the quality and grade of the product. The decision to lower the quality and grade of the product is _______.
D) Correct, as both grade and quality can be compromised according to project need
A Project Manager is managing a short duration pilot project and has started with a risk management planning process. He has identified new risks and arranged them based on probability and the impact matrix. The Project Manager now proceeds to plan responses for the risks without analyzing the risks numerically. According to you, this decision of the Project Manager is:
D) Correct. This is a short duration project, and the Project Manager might skip Quantitative Risk analysis if he feels it does not assist in the Risk Management process.
Which of the following is NOT true about the resource management plan created by the Project Manager during the planning process group?
D) Defines the work breakdown structure
A project team is ahead of its schedule, and its SPI and CPI are currently 1.4 and 1.2 respectively. The Project Manager and the team are brainstorming about the scope of the next milestone delivery. They have found that including an additional feature would enhance the usability of the product and can be compressed in the current schedule. What should the project team do next?
D) Drop this feature as it is gold plating and the customer does not need it
An activity that does NOT require work or time and is inserted simply to show dependency between activities is called:
D) Dummy Activity
Which of the following factors is MOST critical to achieving customer satisfaction?
D) Ensure that the project satisfies all the requirements given by the customer
The Project Manager is participating in the development of a project charter by gathering and analyzing the stakeholders' requirements and ensuring that the project scope, milestones, and deliverables are documented correctly. Which of the following is NOT achieved by the sponsor's approval of the project charter?
D) Ensuring formal acceptance of the deliverables by the customer
In a project kickoff meeting, there is utter chaos, with all the attendees talking simultaneously. The Project Manager is not able to present his report due to the commotion, and the stakeholders feel that their expectations are not being met properly. Also, many of the invited attendees are not present. What must have the Project Manager done to avoid this situation?
D) Establish ground rules for the meeting and communicate the rules to all the attendees
During the testing phase in the project, a senior manager, who is also an important stakeholder in the project, tells you that he no longer wishes to receive weekly status reports. Instead, he wants periodical project performance reports. What should your response be to his request?
D) Follow his instructions and update project documents, including communication management plan, accordingly
A network diagram drawing method that allows loops between activities is:
D) Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT)
Sub network or fragment network templates are most useful when the project has MANY:
D) Identical or nearly identical deliverables
A project team is in the process of estimating the types and quantities of resources required to perform each activity. Which of the following activities will NOT be done by the team during this process?
D) Identify and show network dependency in the project activities
A project has been severely delayed, and the Project Manager is trying his best to bring it back on schedule. To expedite the work, he has added more resources and has asked them to work overtime. Which of the following could NOT be a possible outcome of crashing a project?
D) Increase in rewards and recognition
Which of the following is NOT a tool used in the conduct procurements process?
D) Independent cost estimates
Which of the following is NOT true with regard to ROI (Return on Investment)?
D) It is the time when cumulated net income is equal to the investment.
You are the Project Manager of a project in which team members have dual reporting structure. In addition to reporting to you, they also report to their functional manager. Also, the team members are expected to do the project work along with department work. You are working in which form of organization?
D) Matrix
During the audit, you realize that many of the risks were not identified during the planning stage, so you decide to reassess project risks. Which process are you in?
D) Monitor Risks
A software project run in an IT company has 14 stakeholders and is in the final testing stage. At this point, the technical architect leaves the project and two new test engineers join. What is the change in the potential communication channels of the project?
D) Number of communication channels will increase by 14.
A project is terminated unexpectedly by the sponsor midway during the execution phase. What should the Project Manager do FIRST?
D) Perform scope verification to verify level of completion
A Project Manager is going through the Project Statement of Work provided by the project sponsor. Which of the following will NOT be a part of this document?
D) Performance Measurement Baseline
As part of the project closure, a project team wants to collate the lessons learned to update the organization's knowledge base. These records should be updated in:
D) Project Archive
Which of the following is NOT a technique used in develop team process?
D) Project management information system
You have delivered many complex and technically challenging projects in the past and have won respect and appreciation for your work from the customers and senior managers in the organization. Which form of power are you using?
D) Referent
After a project management plan is prepared and approved, a project stakeholder asks the Project Manager to correct some syntax and grammatical errors in the project document as they could be misleading. What should the Project Manager do?
D) Refuse and ask the stakeholder to raise a change request that can be considered by the change control board
To acquire and manage the project team, which of the following plan or documents should be referred to?
D) Resource management plan and Procurement management plan
A heuristic is a ____.
D) Rule of Thumb
A Project Manager working on a critical deliverable encounters a major change that affects the schedule baseline and the next milestone deliverable. This change cannot be accommodated within the current project management plan. What is the BEST option for the Project Manager?
D) Seek approval from change control board or project sponsor
Herzberg divided motivation factors into two classes: satisfiers and dissatisfiers. Examples of satisfiers are:
D) Sense of personal achievement, work satisfaction
Which of the following is NOT an enterprise or environmental factor that can influence, direct, and manage project work?
D) Standardized guidelines and work instructions
As a Project Manager, you are in the process of identifying and documenting relationships among project activities. You are using the Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM). Which of the following relationships are you UNLIKELY to use for this purpose?
D) Start to Finish (SF)
The Project Manager has discovered that two team members have had a disagreement over the procurement of the project component. The Project Manager suggests that the team members compromise. The team members are also willing to resolve the conflict. Who should decide the best course of action?
D) Team members
You are working on a critical project for a large enterprise. The project has a major milestone delivery next week and is in the final testing phase. The project team is working on two critical showstopper bugs that are affecting the project. One of the senior members of the project has resigned, and the outsourced component that was scheduled for delivery next week may be delayed. Additionally, the current performance indices are 1.09 (CPI) and 1.90 (SPI). What is the MOST critical issue faced by the project?
D) Testing defects
A Project Manager has signed a contract with the buyer and project is moving toward completion. At this stage, the Project Manager realizes that he has missed an important functionality in the product and the contract needs to be changed to accommodate that. How should the Project Manager proceed to resolve this?
D) The Project Manager should raise a formal change order that is signed by both the parties to incorporate the change
You are heading a software development project team that has many new members working for the first time. You ensure that the team diligently gets its work products reviewed by an external reviewer and closes the defects before moving to the next stage. However, the last few review reports have captured a high numbers of defects, including many careless mistakes. According to you, what is the root cause of the problem?
D) The team is not doing proper self-review before submitting the work
Documentation of lessons learned is important in any project and forms the main input to organizational process assets. In fact, continuous improvement of the project management process cannot occur without lessons learned. This process is completed by the project team and is BEST done:
D) Throughout the project, and finalized during project phase closing
A project is in the final testing stage and is approaching a critical deadline. Two senior members of the team who have already had disagreements throughout project execution are caught up in a deadlock. The Project Manager has earlier tried his best to sort out their differences but it hasn't worked. What is the BEST the Project Manager can do in this situation?
D) Use an Autocratic approach and make a decision that is best for the project
Which of the following is an example of external failure cost?
D) Warranty cost
