PMP Exam Prep - Resource Management

Which is a key way to minimize job dissatisfaction by design in the project resource management plan? - Ensure that roles have an authority level that matches their responsibilities. - Ensure that roles have autonomy, mastery, and creativity. - Ensure that competencies are assessed for risk in the risk register. - Ensure that competencies are always greater than responsibilities.

Ensure that roles have an authority level that matches their responsibilities.

What process do you do after you have placed activities into the proper sequence? - Define Activities - Estimate Activity Resources - Develop Schedule - Estimate Activity Durations

Estimate Activity Resources

A project manager derives his authority on a project from his extensive background with the buyer organization. What type of power is this project manager using? - Legitimate - Referent - Expert - Affiliation

Expert

What is the primary barrier to unplanned training aimed at developing specific team competencies? - The change control board rejects the request. - Team members resist the work interruption. - The training must involve coaching during ongoing work. - The project manager is not an experienced trainer.

The change control board rejects the request.

What can a project manager do to show respect to a team member who has a differing opinion on the direction of the project and thus influence that person to accept a third option? - Use observation and conversation to find out flaws in the person's plan. - Express your method in a new way that helps them better understand your position. - Express that person's opinion and its merits back to him or her. - Ask team members who support your position to talk to the team member.

Express that person's opinion and its merits back to him or her.

How is progressive elaboration used when developing a human resource management plan? - Integrating information from the project management plan into the HR management plan - Acquiring team members for Planning prior to finalization of the charter - Developing a human resources administration function in the project management office - Feeding updates to schedules and budgets as acquisition plans become more definite

Feeding updates to schedules and budgets as acquisition plans become more definite

Everyone on the team already knows that Jim is a hard worker who helps others selflessly whenever possible. What should you do? - Politely ask him to stick to the scope and stop doing extra work. - Give him a monetary bonus tied to going above and beyond in the future. - Give him a friendly smile since he already knows his work is appreciated. - Give him a public acknowledgment in front of the entire team.

Give him a public acknowledgment in front of the entire team.

What is an input to the Manage Project Team process that comes from the Manage Stakeholder Engagement process? - Activity resource requirements - Issue log - Work performance reports - Change log

Issue log

A project manager decides that in the interests of fairness, any team member who merits a reward will get a gift certificate to a steakhouse. What might be a result of this policy? - It may create conflict because not every member gets a gift certificate. - It will be a source of job satisfaction since no one can say it isn't fair. - It may make some people feel less appreciated than if there were no gift at all. - It will reduce job dissatisfaction for all team members due to its fairness.

It may make some people feel less appreciated than if there were no gift at all.

Which reward might actually create job dissatisfaction? - Jennifer, a trainer, is asked to come to a software team party. - Mary is rewarded if all of her team members pass a certification exam. - Joe can go to a training event, but only if Mary succeeds in getting all of her people certified. - Joe gives Ron a small cash reward for getting done early even though Ron wasn't expecting a reward.

Joe can go to a training event, but only if Mary succeeds in getting all of her people certified.

A project manager is new at an organization and wants to start networking. Which is the best way to get this process going? - Listen to the needs of anyone you come into contact with and offer to help if you can. - Informally discuss one need you have with each person you come into contact with. - Make yourself likeable by smiling and praising each person in some way. - Make a list of your needs and ask others to help you cross things off your list.

Listen to the needs of anyone you come into contact with and offer to help if you can.

What might be a good unit of measure to indicate a team's effectiveness at being respectful and efficient in interactions? - Number of team issues resolved by the project manager - Types of ideas team members have put forward to change current plans - Poll of team members to see if they think they are in Tuckman's performing phase - Number of team members who have dropped objections to the team methodology

Number of team issues resolved by the project manager

What tool or technique can a project manager use when a team member is just starting to go off track and may yet be successful? - Work performance reports - Observation and conversation - Project performance appraisals - Team performance assessments

Observation and conversation

A project manager wants to provide a reward to a team member who has a critical role but is scheduled to be rolling off the project soon. The project manager has no extra budget for a monetary reward. What would be the best reward to motivate this team member? - Extend the team member's time on the project. - Give the team member praise regardless of current performance level. - Offer to help with networking for future opportunities. - Complete some of the team member's activities.

Offer to help with networking for future opportunities.

The project budget specifically excludes monetary rewards for individual excellence. What input can the project manager use when trying to find creative ways to motivate and inspire individual excellence? - Enterprise environmental assets - Interpersonal skills - Work performance reports - Organizational process assets

Organizational process assets

What Tuckman stage is a team in if they move from independence to the ability to get more done as a whole than they could get done individually? - Norming - Forming - Performing - Storming

Performing

Gathering performance information through the Control Resources process can be used to verify what? - Physical resource utilization - Stakeholder engagement - Contract parameters - Team resource utilization

Physical resource utilization

What is a war room? - A room specified for resolving team conflicts. - A room set aside for team-building activities. - A training room. - A common meeting room for team members to interact and communicate.

A common meeting room for team members to interact and communicate.

After comparing current project performance information to that of similar past project, the project manager determines that the project is not performing as expected. This is most likely a result of which of the following? - Too much oversight - A gap in resource availability - Too little oversight - Insufficient stakeholder input

A gap in resource availability

What is an input to the Estimate Activity Resources process that can be added only in a later progressive elaboration because it may not be available in the first iteration of Planning? - Alternative analysis - Resource breakdown structure - Activity attributes - Activity cost estimates

Activity cost estimates

What documents help form a feedback loop between the time management and resource management Knowledge Areas as the schedule is progressively elaborated? - Activity resource requirements, project staff assignments, and resource calendars - Enterprise environmental factors updates, organizational process assets updates, and team performance assessments - Team performance assessments, change requests, and work performance reports - Activity duration estimates, project staff assignments, and work performance reports

Activity resource requirements, project staff assignments, and resource calendars

What should the project manager do if the knowledge, skills, and abilities of a team member hired during Executing are superior to what was planned? - Progressively iterate the project management plan schedule and budget. - Add the potential schedule and cost impact to the risk register. - Assign this person to a harder role. - There is no need for action.

Add the potential schedule and cost impact to the risk register.

Due to market scarcity, the project manager has been unable to find team members with the required level of competencies and had to accept members with lower competencies. The schedule is a higher priority than the budget. Many of the team members do not start right away. What should the project manager do? - Progressively elaborate the schedule and budget to smooth resources and thus get the schedule done on time at the cost of more staff. - Put in a change request to train team members before their required start dates. - Progressively elaborate the schedule to extend the search for team members with higher competencies. - Put in a change request to reduce scope or quality targets.

Put in a change request to train team members before their required start dates

What process output might be used to show that the organization may need to hire or contract with some additional market analysts? - Resource breakdown structure - Resource optimization techniques - Work breakdown structure - Requirements traceability matrix

Resource breakdown structure

Where would a project manager look to find information on resource constraints that might limit the options available for a requirement to send personnel through a training course before project kickoff? - Requirements documentation - Organizational process assets - Resource breakdown structure - Resource calendars

Resource calendars

A project manager is having difficulty staffing a specialist team role. When he finally finds an acceptable contractor, this person is still only minimally qualified. The role is needed for an activity on the critical path scheduled to start very soon. What should the project manager do next? - Move the activity to later in the project and keep looking for a better candidate. - Acquire a second minimally qualified team member for this activity. - Revise the risk register and activity durations. - Revise the work breakdown structure and roles and responsibilities.

Revise the risk register and activity durations.

IT projects are often subject to high variability, and therefore require an agile approach. What type of team structure best suits the need for focus and collaboration? - Dispersed - Self-organizing - Large - Virtual

Self-organizing

What part of the project resource management plan is time-phased? - Project organization charts - Roles and responsibilities - Staffing management plan - Organizational theory

Staffing management plan

What step can the project manager take to generate an atmosphere conducive to strong teamwork? - Keep the team focused on work activities rather than nonproductive time. - Stand up to the project sponsor when he or she suggests unrealistic plans or changes. - Structure the project so team members have few decisions to make. - Have just one event for team building, but put it early in the project.

Stand up to the project sponsor when he or she suggests unrealistic plans or changes.

A team member is working on a critical path activity that must be done in a very precise sequence with no room for innovation. The project manager personally supervises and directs the team member. The team member seems to have low morale and a bad attitude. According to Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, what can the project manager do to reduce job dissatisfaction? - Stop supervising the team member so closely. - Recognize the team member's efforts in the next team meeting. - Give the team member the chance to take paid training related to the work. - Help the team member follow the process but be creative in other ways.

Stop supervising the team member so closely.

What is the best reason to spend a half day during a team-building session on having people figure out their own Myers-Briggs personality inventory types and share them? - Team members can understand each other's roles, authorities, and responsibilities. - Team members can make themselves better understood and liked. - Team members can better understand each others' communication needs. - Team members can determine each other's location in the organizational hierarchy.

Team members can better understand each others' communication needs

A previous project manager used the parametric method to estimate activity resources, and, at this point in the project, the variances are considered too great to continue using the estimates. What method should the new project manager use to estimate resources for the remaining work to be done? - Analogous estimating - Triangular estimating - Expert judgment estimating - Bottom-up estimating

Bottom-up estimating

What can a project manager do to reduce job dissatisfaction among team members in the Develop Project Team process? - Provide challenging work assignments that allow for creativity in processes. - Clearly discuss ground rules up front and apply them consistently. - Create virtual teams for better colocation. - Refine the communication model and provide multiple communication options.

Clearly discuss ground rules up front and apply them consistently.

When a project is subject to high variability, which of the following can help a team adapt to changes, increase productivity and improve problem solving? - New equipment - Collaboration - Extra work shifts - Strict hierarchies

Collaboration

Which process ensures that the appropriate physical resources are assigned to a project when they are required? - Develop Team - Control Procurements - Estimate Activity Resources - Control Resources

Control Resources

What is the most important tool to apply to understand a performance gap so that project performance appraisals examine root causes rather than just symptoms? - Explaining expectations - Expert judgment - Conversation - Tuckman's ladder

Conversation

A project is underperforming, and after a thorough examination of the process(es), a project manager has decided on two course of action: updating machinery and engaging an alternative supplier. What is a key consideration to keep in mind in order to ensure the project still meets its own and organizational objectives? - Change requests - Lessons learned register - Team assignments - Cost-benefit analysis

Cost-benefit analysis

What is indicated by a hierarchical organizational chart that shows a solid-line relationship between a project manager and a team member and a dotted-line relationship between a finance department manager and the team member? - The team member is being cross-trained to work on a future finance project. - The team member is obligated to keep the finance manager informed but no more. - The finance manager has full authority over this team member's project duties. - The finance manager could assign the team member to do some operational duties.

The finance manager could assign the team member to do some operational duties.

In the early stages of a project, various team members suggest different ways of doing things, and this is counterproductive. What can the project manager do to best resolve this situation? - Tell the team members that all project management activities and processes are already determined so there is no need for any discussion. - Spend a day discussing ground rules, processes, policies, and procedures to normalize everyone's behavior. - Adopt the team members' suggestions by holding a round of progressive elaboration. - Do an activity where each idea is put on a note card, team members rate them, and, after several rounds, the highest rated ideas are discussed.

Do an activity where each idea is put on a note card, team members rate them, and, after several rounds, the highest rated ideas are discussed.

A project manager delegates work to team members by clearly explaining the desired result and any necessary processes to follow. The manager explains the consequences of failure in any constraint, but then team members self-manage. What organizational theory does this project manager likely follow? - Theory X - Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory - Maslow's needs hierarchy - Theory Y

Theory Y

A team member notes that his name is listed alongside another team member at the same level of an organizational chart and that both report to the same team lead. What can the team member conclude from this information? - They have the same level of authority. - They have the same competency levels. - They have the same levels of accountabilities. - They have the same role.

They have the same level of authority.

What project manager action can maximize efficiency in the area of project resources without harming team building or morale? - Use coaching and avoid formal training. - Time assignments to project needs. - Keep expectations broad and general. - Wait to assign additional resources until the need is more apparent.

Time assignments to project needs.

At each team meeting team members are asked to identify new risks and state how their impressions of the project's progress. What purposes might these agenda items serve? - To update the risk register and the issue log - To identify naysayers on the project so they can be reassigned - To take the place of risk and conflict management - To update the risk register and serve as ongoing team building

To update the risk register and serve as ongoing team building

What method can a project manager use to address shortages or surpluses to maintain the efficient flow of resources? - Refer to seller proposals - Track resource expenditures - Compile resource lists - Change requests

Track resource expenditures

What should the project manager do next after acquiring the last of the project team members? - Start team-building activities. - Finalize the project charter. - Start working on the communications management plan. - Update the resource calendar.

Update the resource calendar.

A project manager decides to use multi-criteria decision analysis when selecting team members for a project to develop a pharmaceutical drug manufacturing facility. Quality is paramount. How can the project manager reduce the risks of poor quality? - Use weighting to promote candidates with the best quality records. - Pair the analysis with time-phased acquisition to have time to find high quality candidates. - Use expert judgment to find the candidates who have the best quality records. - Use pre-selection to get some persons you trust on the project before the analysis.

Use weighting to promote candidates with the best quality records.

If all members of the project team are to be internal employees and nothing will be outsourced, is there any need to check enterprise environmental factors (EEF) when developing the project resource management plan? - Yes, because internal opportunity costs are an EEF - No, because they are needed here only to find external contractor scarcity and cost - Yes, because the organization's recruiting and training processes are an EEF - Yes, because the internal personnel performance measurement criteria are an EF

Yes, because internal opportunity costs are an EEF

A responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) is - a grid to show the project resources assigned to each work package. - a useful tool to track resources and hours worked on a project. - a grid to show the durations for each resource assigned to a project. - a hierarchical chart.

a grid to show the project resources assigned to each work package.

Virtual team members on a project - are not needed for project planning. - have a shared goal with little or no time spent face to face. - are not able to effectively communicate. - are generally managed by a functional manager rather than a project manager.

have a shared goal with little or no time spent face to face.