PMTraining CAPM Mock Exam Lite 7

Your current software development project is seriously lagging behind schedule. Your recent change request for the extension of time has been turned down and you are being pressured to deliver on time. At this stage, you are left with the option of crashing the project. You are concerned that crashing the project might over-allocate resources and want to apply resource leveling and smoothing to the crashed schedule. Which of the following statements regarding Resource Leveling and Resource Smoothing is correct?

Resource Leveling can cause the project's critical path to change, while Resource Smoothing doesn't alter the project's critical path. Resource Leveling can cause the project's critical path to change, while Resource Smoothing doesn't alter the project's critical path.

According to the Agile Manifesto, project teams should continuously review the project processes to determine their effectiveness and optimize them. An Agile team implements this principle through:

Retrospectives. Retrospectives help the team learn from its previous work on the product and its processes.

You are managing a project that has a task to translate several pages of a document into Spanish. This is similar to a project done last year when a document was translated into German. You are not sure how long it will take to translate into Spanish, so you look at the project plan from the German translation and use that activity duration for your current project. What type of estimating is this an example of?

Analogous Estimating. This is an example of analogous estimating, because you went back to an old schedule of a similar project to get the estimate. Parametric estimating would be correct if you used the number of words translated.

Mark is the manager of a project to install 600 new desktop computers at a budgeted estimate of $60,000. He estimates the project duration as 30 days. After five days, Mark finds that he inaccurately estimated his team's capabilities. His team has now completed the installation of 150 desktops. The Actual Cost is $10,000. What is the Estimate at Completion (EAC)?

40000 The Budget at Completion (BAC) = $60,000 (given). The Actual Cost (AC) = $10,000 (given). The Earned value (EV) = (150/600)*60,000 = $15,000 since 150 desktops have been installed. CPI = Earned Value / Actual Cost = 15,000/10,000 = 1.5. The project manager has underestimated the team's capabilities in his original estimate hence the current CPI can be used as an indicator of future cost performance. In this case, the calculation for EAC is: EAC = BAC/CPI = 60,000/1.5 = 40,000.

Which of the following is the method of collaboratively creating acceptance test criteria that are used to create acceptance tests before delivery begins?

ATDD. Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATTD) is the method of collaboratively creating acceptance test criteria that are used to create acceptance tests before delivery begins.

You are asked to provide a reasonably accurate estimate—without spending much money creating it—for a project to create material safety data sheets (MSDS) for a chemical company. This project is similar to one your company closed last year. You have decided to gather the project team members from the previous project to discuss and come up with an estimate for your management team. This is an example of what type of estimating?

Analogous Estimating The estimate will use expert judgment (past team members) and data from a prior project. Not much money should be spent creating the estimate. This is an example of analogous estimating.

You are working on a waste management project that, upon completion, will be turned over to the local municipality for steady-state operation. Parking of trucks and other vehicles has become a serious problem because no parking area was allotted to you on the main dumping site. As a result, your trucks are parked on nearby roadsides. One of the fleet supervisors informs you that close to the main site, there is a large tract of land a local charity owns. Many locals park their cars on this tract of land. What should you do?

Ask the supervisor to get contact information of the local charity. You must not use someone's property without permission, even if others are doing the same thing. The best option is to call the charity and ask for their permission.

You are helping a project team benefit from earned value management technique for an upcoming major project. The project team has no prior experience with this and you are conducting a series of training sessions so that the team comes up to speed prior to the project commencement. In the earned value management technique, the cost performance baseline is:

Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) The cost performance baseline is an authorized time-phased budget at completion (BAC). It is used to measure, monitor, and control overall cost performance on the project. In the earned value management technique, the cost performance baseline is referred to as the performance measurement baseline (PMB).

You have recently been hired in a company to lead the central PMO of the organization. You have recently found out that project teams usually generate a big number of improvement ideas during retrospectives but fail to implement these during the iterations. Which of the following recommendations can help the teams in the current situation?

Capture no more than three items to improve at each retrospective. When there is slow or no improvement in the teamwork process, it is recommended to capture no more than three items to improve at each retrospective. Ask the servant-leader to help the team learn how to integrate those items, however daily stand-ups are not status reporting meetings.

The project management team has determined that there are some changes to the scope of the project. According to the PMBOK® Guide, who is responsible for reviewing, evaluating, and approving documented changes to the project?

Change Control Board (CCB) The Change Control Board is a group of formally constituted stakeholders responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying or rejecting changes to the project.

You have recently developed a new traffic monitoring system for the city government. The product passed the user acceptance in the test environment. However, when the system was migrated to the production environment, you found out that the existing infrastructure is not fit for purpose. What should you do now?

Check your contractual responsibilities regarding the existing infrastructure upgrade. The first thing you need to do is to check your contractual obligations regarding the existing infrastructure upgrade. That way you will know if the performance lapse was on your side or the client's. Once this is determined, you need to work with the client to agree on the way forward which might require a change request.

You are managing a construction project for a government agency. Both the client and your project team agrees that a number of change requests are expected during the course of the project. Timely and effective project communications are critical for the success of this project. Which of the following will allow you to communicate all approved and rejected changes to the stakeholders consistently?

Configuration management system. A configuration/change management system, including change control processes, provides a mechanism for the project management team to communicate all approved and rejected changes to the stakeholders consistently.

You are a project manager for an automotive parts company. Your organization was hired to produce clutches for an exotic car company. This will involve the design and production of custom clutches. During the course of the project, as you review a quality control statistics chart that examines every clutch produced for the month, you notice several cases where the spring component of the clutch is expanding with too much force and is falling outside the upper control limit. Which type of Quality Control tool are you most likely using?

Control charts. Control charts graphically display the interaction of process variables on a process. Control charts have three lines: a center line which gives the average of the process, an upper line designating the upper control limit (UCL) and showing the upper range of acceptable values, and a lower line designating the lower control limit (LCL) and showing the lower range of acceptable values. Points that fall outside of this range are evidence that the process may be out of control.

You are analyzing and automating end-to-end business processes for a manufacturing facility. It is critical that you form a team that includes practitioners with all the skills necessary to deliver valuable product increments. What kind of team you should look for?

Cross-functional team. Selection of the right team members depends on a number of factors. However, a critical requirement of an Agile team is to have cross-functional team members. A cross-functional team includes practitioners with all the skills necessary to deliver valuable product increments.

Selection of the right project management approach is dependent on the team size in which of the following Agile approaches?

Crystal. The selection of an appropriate method from the Crystal Family is based on the team size.

You are the manager of a project your company is running in another country. The product this project will produce needs extensive testing and approval from local authorities before it can be sold in that country. To help accomplish this, the documentation to be prepared for the local authorities must be in their native language. This task has required hiring several local consultants to develop the documentation. The local consultants have worked with other companies on similar projects. They have a relaxed approach to working, and you are concerned this may affect your project schedule. What is the best way to handle this situation?

Develop a communications plan to ensure that all team members understand the project schedule and dependencies. Working with project teams with resources who speak different languages, work in different shifts and come from diverse cultures requires a solid communications plan to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, and behaviors that may be considered culturally disrespectful. The PMI Code of Ethics requires project managers to foster an atmosphere of respect and mutual cooperation.

Mary has just assigned Thomas as project manager of an upcoming railway construction project. She hands an approved project charter to Thomas. Once Thomas thoroughly reviews the project charter, what should he do next?

Distribute the charter to all key project stakeholders and ensure common understanding. Upon the receipt of the approved project charter, it is the project manager's responsibility to inform all key stakeholders of the approved project charter and to ensure common understanding of the key deliverables, milestones, and their roles and responsibilities. This is also mentioned in the PMP examination content outline as one of the project manager's task during project initiation.

A variation between story points completed and the story points planned on a burndown chart can indicate a number of things. Which of the following is usually not a cause of such variations?

Duration of the iteration. Duration of the iteration should not have any effect on the variation as iterations with both shorter and longer iterations can face variations. Variations can occur due to either underestimation or waste. Multi-tasking, and team unavailability can cause waste. Large and complex stories can be underestimated.

As project manager, you find you are constantly dealing with conflict among your team members. Everyone argues over sharing available project resources, so you plan to use a conflict resolution method to alleviate the tension among team members. What conflict resolution method is not recognized by the Project Management Institute?

Elaboration Elaboration is not one of the five conflict-resolving methods that are recognized and endorsed by the Project Management Institute (PMI). The five methods recognized and endorsed by PMI include Forcing, Smoothing, Compromising, Collaborating and Withdrawing.

You are managing the construction of a new plant for a manufacturing facility. Recently you presented some deliverables to your customer for inspection that were rejected due to some environmental concerns. As a result, your customer has requested that government environmental hearings be held prior to site preparation for any new construction site released for work. What kind of dependency is this?

External dependency This is called an external dependency. It involves a relationship between project and non-project activities.

Different stakeholders might require dissimilar outcomes from a project. An integral component of stakeholder management is managing these competing expectations throughout the project from initiation to closure. Which of the following management techniques can help in this situation?

Facilitation The project manager must use facilitation skills to arrive at a consensus toward project objectives. Scheduling regular stakeholder update meetings and engaging them throughout the project lifecycle is the ideal way to manage stakeholders' varying expectations.

You have just been assigned a new project. As an Agile project leader, which of the following should be your first focus?

How you can create a team that is cross-functional and 100% dedicated. As an Agile project leader, first focus on how you can create a team that is cross-functional and 100% dedicated to one team. Even if it means just getting key team members to work and communicate together on a daily basis, that is a step in the right direction toward agility.

You are managing a data center upgrade project with an extremely tight schedule. The project plan assumed 24/7 access to the facility. However, access to the facility for upgrades is repeatedly denied to the project team. You have recently submitted a change request for an extension to the project deadline and budget. However, you have been asked to provide a root cause analysis of the problem. What do you think might be the potential root cause of the problem?

Inadequate project planning. There was a major assumption that didn't come true. This should have been planned better and you should accept this responsibility. You cannot blame the stakeholders or the project schedule in this case.

George is the project manager managing an ERP implementation project for a client organization. Given the complexity of the project, George must rely on tailored project management processes and tools. However, at the same time, George needs to be agile and quickly adapt to requested changes. According to the Agile Manifesto, which of the following should take preference over the project management processes and tools?

Individuals and interactions. According to the Agile Manifesto, individuals and interactions are valued more than processes and tools. The rest of the choices, like processes and tools, are valued less in an Agile setting.

Two of the major electricity suppliers in the city have recently been merged together. You are working as a consultant for the newly formed organization and reviewing and consolidating its processes and procedures. A key requirement of this project is to keep key project stakeholders informed and engaged with the project. There are numerous ways available to you to share project information among the project stakeholders. Which of the following is the most efficient communication method?

Interactive communication. Interactive communication is the most efficient form of communication as it requires multidirectional exchange of information.

A seller was notified they were one of the selected sellers based on their proposal. The seller immediately circulated an internal newsletter stating they had just been awarded a large contract for a period of five years. Would the newsletter be factually correct?

It is likely that the newsletter is factually incorrect. A selected seller is one whose proposal is judged to be in a competitive range. It does not mean they have the work. The newsletter will probably be factually incorrect. A selected seller is one whose proposal has been judged to be in the competitive range based on bid evaluation. The seller would have negotiated a draft contract that could become the actual contract when the award is made.

Tom has been hired by a strict functional organization as a project management expert. He has been asked to develop various project document templates for the organization. Tom wants to produce the stakeholder register template as his first deliverable. Which of the following is not a typical component of a stakeholder register?

Lessons learned from the past projects. Lessons learned from past projects can be consulted by the project manager whenever needed. These lessons learned are the organizational process assets. However, this information is not directly updated in the stakeholder register.

On your current project that you are executing for one of your most prestigious clients, a client-side project coordinator has been assigned by the client organization. All project communication to the client needs to go through this contact. The project team has identified that the point of contact doesn't seem to care much about the project and seems indifferent to the success of the project. What needs to be done first?

Meet with the team and understand why the team believes that the point of contact is disengaged. The team has raised an issue and you need to take these up to the point of contact. However, before you do so, you need to understand the reasons why the team believes that the point of contact has become disengaged. Unless you have specific examples to quote, there is no point discussing this with the point of contact.

Your project team is trying to digitize a manual business workflow. The project has already taken a couple of years without any significant releases. Frustrated with the project's progress, the user department has already started developing their own tools to support their manual processes. With every new tool introduced by the user department, the scope of your project increases as now you have to include this newly added functionality into your design; creating a never-ending problem of scope creep. How should you handle this situation?

Meet with the user group, understand their concerns and reach an agreement on the way forward. Rather than taking any extreme measures, you should first try to resolve the issue. It is recommended that you meet with the user group, understand their concerns and reach an agreement on the way forward.

A project team was assembled to develop organizational policies and procedures using an Agile approach. The team members were selected from various departments in order to form a cross-functional team. The members coming from operations were responsible for the development, while the members coming from support were responsible for the validation of the policies and procedures. The team members were assigned to work part-time on this project, while they continued to work in their respective departments for the rest of the time. Is this team representative of a typical Agile team?

No; the team members are not 100% dedicated to the project.. Agile teams are cross-functional and they do follow Agile approaches, but they are also supposed to be 100% dedicated to the project work. In this scenario, the project team is not 100% dedicated, which is not representative of a typical Agile team. However, it must be noted that while this condition is desirable, it sometimes cannot be met.

At a division project status meeting, all attendees receive a dashboard of cost metrics for each project, and each project manager is presenting the status of his or her project. The metrics for one project show an AC of $1100, an EV of $998, and an EAC of $1099. However, the project manager is reporting an ETC of $354. What do you do?

Notify the appropriate management there is a calculation error. If ETC is being reported, then EAC should be AC + ETC. You must notify the appropriate management that there is a calculation error. Project managers are required by the PMI Code to accept ownership of their own errors and to report to the appropriate management any errors they have observed being made by others.

The sponsor of your facilities upgrade project has left the company to join another organization. Several weeks later, you are reviewing the business case for the project, and you find that there are several inconsistencies between what is stated in the business case and what is described in the project scope. Further research shows that the business case as a whole is based on inaccurate information. What do you do?

Notify your project stakeholders immediately. Notify your project stakeholders immediately. They can determine the best path forward. An incorrect business case could have a serious impact on the usability of the final output of your project, or it could even impact the company's strategic goals. Failure to point out this error to the appropriate management is a violation of the PMI Code of Ethics.

Your organization has been awarded a contract by a major US oil company to build 500 US-style houses and 10 office buildings in a Middle Eastern country so that its American employees feel more like home when working abroad. There is a lack of workforce in this country skilled in US-styled construction. You cannot take the entire construction crew from the US to the site for this entire project due to cost constraints. Which of the following is LEAST recommended?

Outsource the project to local subcontractors and make US-style construction part of their contractual obligations. If there is a shortage of a specific skill in the market, you need to determine ways you can meet the requirement. You cannot shrug the responsibility off your shoulders by outsourcing the project to multiple subcontractors and making US-style construction part of their contractual obligations, especially when you know that the local market is not skilled in US-style construction.

You are currently evaluating a number of project management software products for your organization. Each product has its pluses and minuses. However each product offers similar features in regards to project schedule development and tracking. The technique most commonly used by project management software packages to construct a project schedule model is:

Precedence diagramming method (PDM) Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) is used to create project schedule and sequencing project activities, establishing dependencies and coming up with a schedule network diagram. This is typically done using project management software. This is a prerequisite to apply the Critical Path Method (CPM) that determines the minimum project duration and the project's critical path. It should be noted that although PDM is not explicitly discussed in the PMBOK, the PMBOK lists CPM as one of schedule management techniques. It should also be noted that without a network diagram (using PDM as a technique) we can't apply the critical path method.

An Agile team can only finish one story at a time. To complete a large feature that contains several stories, the team may not complete that entire feature until several more time periods have passed. Which of the following tools can help the team show its completed value?

Product backlog burnup chart. The team can show its completed value with a product backlog burnup chart. The rest of the choices are quality management tools.

You have been successfully managing a construction project for over eight months. Today you received an email from your company's PMO inviting you to present your project's performance at the company's headquarters in two days. Due to the short notice, rather than creating a performance report from scratch, you are now collecting a number of existing project artifacts so that you can quickly put together a performance report. Which of the following is not an example of data that may be presented in a performance report?

Project charter The project charter is not a valid response. The other choices are data that can be presented in a work performance report.

A project manager that has been managing an airport hangar refurbishment project has recently been fired and you have been appointed as the new project manager. The project is way behind schedule and over budget. When you analyzed the project's issue register, you realized that a number of project activities have external dependencies that were not considered during project planning. How should you resolve this issue?

Re-visit project planning processes and re-plan the project. If the project plan is flawed and invalid, you must re-plan the project. It appears that not only the project scope was incorrectly defined; the project risks and assumptions were ignored as well.

The organization's strategy provides a strategic direction and performance parameters for identifying, selecting, and delivering the right mix of projects. If it is determined that some of the CEO's favorite projects do not fully align with the business objective, the PMO manager must:

Recommend a realignment of the project objectives. Honoring the CEO's desires and executing the project is against the PMI's Code of Ethics since the project manager knows that some of the projects are not fully aligned with the strategy. Terminating the project is an extreme and should not be the first consideration. The project manager must make a recommendation to realign the project objectives with the organizational strategy since value to the business can only be delivered when projects remain aligned with the strategic direction of the organization.

You are the project manager for a project and have just entered the third year of a scheduled four-year project. You need to evaluate new risks that have arisen since the project began. What agenda item do you need to add to your next team meeting?

Risk re-assessment. A risk reassessment is a technique that involves reevaluating project risks and identifying new risks that arise as the project moves forward. These risks are evaluated and placed in the risk register.

Robert is managing a robotic process automation project. A number of project risks were identified during a risk review meeting and corresponding risk management strategies were planned. Robert now wants to assign a risk owner for each project risk for which a risk response action is planned. Where must he update this information?

Risk register The assigned risk owners are documented in the risk register.

Carole is managing a hotel refurbishment project. She has identified her project's key stakeholders. Carole now wants to expand this list of stakeholders and convert it to a comprehensive list of project stakeholders. What should Carole do?

Seek expert judgment from the identified key stakeholders. The project manager is responsible for stakeholder identification; this cannot be delegated to the project sponsor. Identifying and analyzing the key stakeholders is not enough to ensure the success of the project. Other project stakeholders can be identified by interviewing the stakeholders who are already identified.

A company is looking for an experienced project manager to manage a large construction project. You meet all the requirements for the position except for one: The organization is looking for a certified PMP with five years of experience, but you have just four years of experience managing similar projects. What is the best way to fill out your application?

Show how you meet the requirements but include your actual years of experience. For project management professionals, honesty is the best policy. You should never mislead others about your experience in the field or your knowledge of the project management processes.

You are auditing the project management processes of an internal project and found out that although the processes are properly defined and being followed, the reason for the team's poor performance is inappropriate team coordination and lack of communication. Which of the following statements about team-building activities is incorrect?

The objective of team-building activities is to help team members work individually and effectively. The objective of team-building activities is to help team members work together and not individually.

You are a project manager who is in charge of a technical documentation project. The project is 30 percent complete after two months and has cost $53,000. The budget for the project is $90,000 and is scheduled to last six months. How is the project performing?

The project is behind schedule and over budget. CPI = EV/AC. CPI = (90,000*30%)/53,000 = 27,000/53,000 = 0.51 (i.e., over budget). SPI = EV/PV. SPI = 27,000/(90,000*0.33) = 27,000/29,970 = 0.9

You are helping a project team put together a proposal for a government agency RFP. The client has requested you to suggest a preferred contract type. Some of the team members are not sure between a cost-reimbursable contract and a time-and-materials contract. What similarity exists between a cost-reimbursable contract and a time-and-materials contract?

They are open-ended. Time-and-materials contracts resemble cost-reimbursable contracts in that both are open-ended.

Sheila is the project manager of a website development project. After a detailed discussion with the project management team, she decides to create an informal, broadly framed quality management plan. What would your comment on this be?

This is fine. The project requirements determine the style and detail of the quality management plan. The quality management plan may be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed. Its style and detail are determined by the requirements of the project as defined by the project management team.

Your company has recently won a bid to construct some underground tunnels for a new metro project in the city. The project site contains a network of interconnected geysers and hot springs. These network paths cannot be accurately mapped due to the complexity of the terrain and available technology. Which of the following is the best approach to be used on this project?

Use an incremental life cycle. Since the scope cannot be accurately defined upfront on the project, delivering the project in small increments is recommended. Predictive and Agile approaches will most likely not help in this situation.

A planning technique used to provide products, services, and results that truly reflect customer requirements, by translating those customer requirements into the appropriate technical requirements for each phase of project product development, is:

Voice of the Customer. The correct response is Voice of the Customer. This is one of the non-proprietary approaches to quality management. In this planning technique, the customer's requirements are exactly met in the finished product during each phase of the project.

Pair programming is a development technique in which two developers work together to develop a product. Pair programming is a technique used in which of the following Agile frameworks?

XP Pair programming is an Agile software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. One, the driver, writes code while the other, the observer or navigator, reviews each line of code as it is typed in. The two programmers switch roles frequently. Pair programming is one of the XP techniques.

You have just started leading a World Bank healthcare development project in a developing country in which it is customary to offer lunch when a project is initiated. Although your team members are willing to accept the offer, you decide to refuse the offer since you know the PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct does not allow you to accept gifts. Which of the following statements about your decision is correct?

Your decision is wrong because you should obey the norms and customs of others as long as you do not favor them. Although the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct does not allow gift-taking, project managers should respect the norms and customs of others as long as they do not show favoritism based on those norms. Therefore, in this situation, your decision is incorrect because you should respect the norms and customs of others as long as you do not favor them. The PMI code of conduct applies to both local and international projects.