PMP Exam Questions

A colleague is confused as to the difference between the WBS and activity list and approaches you for assistance. What response should you provided to describe the difference?

A WBS is a hierarchical representation of the deliverables that a project must produce to realize its stated benefits. The activity list documents the tasks that must be performed to create those deliverables. Both the activity list and the WBS pertain to the project's scope and are mandatorily accomplished.

In the rush to complete project planning, the project team discovered a situation that if realized, could severely impact the project's ability to meet the projected completion date. As a result, the team is developing an alternative activity sequences to be implemented if the situation materializes. This is an example of:

A contingency plan (or fallback plan) can be developed for implementation if the selected strategy turns out not to be fully effective or if an accepted risk occurs. Here the team has planned an alternative sequence of activities as a contingency.

Projects can be divided into phases to provide better management control. Collectively, what are these phases known as?

A project life cycle is the series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure.

The project management office published the list of projects that have been sponsored for the upcoming year. Which of the following are valid reasons to initiate a project?

A project may be initiated as a result of anyone of the following general factors: To meet regulatory, legal, or social requirements; to satisfy stakeholder requests or needs; to implement or change business or technological strategies; to create, improve, or fix products, processes, or services.

Your project is behind schedule, over-budget, and has firm contractual requirements regarding milestone deadlines and the total project expenditure level. Failure to meet the schedule or cost requirements will result in a significant penalty. Your sponsor has implored you that your team must meet the requirements or that your position may be in jeopardy. You have gathered your team to evaluate all potential solutions. Which of the following cannot be a solution to this problem?

Crashing the project is not an option as it requires adding resources to reduce project duration.

Your project team is aggregating the estimated costs of individual work packages to produce the project's cost baseline. In which process is your team completing work?

Once the costs have been estimated, the Determine Budget process aggregates the estimated costs of individual work packages. The total cost of the project is established, and budget approval is requested after adding contingency and management reserves to it.

You are managing a project as seller's project manager. The team has alerted you that additional work is required to complete the project. You evaluate the suggestion from your team and determine that they are correct in their assertion. Before you assign the tasks to be completed you know that you must receive authorization from the buyer. Which type of communication is the optimum choice for communicating this request?

Once the scope baseline is defined, any modifications to the scope requires a change request to be processed and approved. All change requests should be submitted in a formal written format.

In which of the following stages of team development do the team members begin to work together and adjust their behaviors and work styles?

Teams start to work together and adjust their behaviors and work styles in the norming stage of the Tuckman ladder. The five stages of the Tuckman ladder are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

Despite your efforts to diligently follow the quality management plan established, a significant defect was discovered by the customer in the product your team created. Unfortunately, the defect was discovered after full production was initiated and the product distributed globally for three months and the company was forced to recall the existing products. Which type of cost of quality is the recall cost classified as?

The cost of nonconformance is related to any money spent during or after the project to fix failures.

One of the stakeholders on your project has been identified as having high power, low urgency, and appropriate legitimacy (involvement in the project). Which classification method did you use?

The salience model classifies stakeholders on the basis of their power, urgency, and legitimacy.

The Project Management Office recommended that you utilize a salience model to complete stakeholder analysis and classify stakeholders. Using this model, by which three characteristics are you evaluating each stakeholder?

The salience model describes classes of stakeholders based on assessments of their power (level of authority or ability to influence the outcomes of the project), urgency (need for immediate attention), and legitimacy (the appropriateness of their involvement).

A member of the project team, who is a risk owner for an identified risk, has successfully initiated and implemented risk responses. The team member remains vigilant and aims to identify new risks that may have arisen due to the responses implemented. Which of the following would best assist in this effort?

A prompt list is a predetermined list of risk categories that might give rise to individual project risks and that could also act as sources of overall project risk. The prompt list can be used as a framework to aid the project team in idea generation when using risk identification techniques. The risk categories in the lowest level of the risk breakdown structure can be used as a prompt list for individual project risks.

You are the project manager of a non-profit housing project. You have worked with most of the stakeholders before. During the last project, one stakeholder submitted a large number of change requests that were deemed irrelevant and not approved. Which of the following is the best approach to manage this stakeholder?

A stakeholder is defined as anyone who is impacted by the project or can influence the project. Additionally, stakeholders cannot be removed from the project. The best approach is to involve the stakeholder actively from the start of the project to ensure the stakeholder understands the objective and plan for the project. This inclusion may reduce the amount of irrelevant change requests submitted.

Your customer has confirmed that the deliverables produced meet the acceptance criteria. What is the next step that the project manager should take?

After completing the Validate Scope and obtaining customer approval that all deliverables meet the acceptance criteria that project manager should then start the Close Project or Phase process. In starting this process, the manager should begin creating the final project report. In developing this report, the project manager will confirm that all work is complete, that all approved change requests have been implemented, and that a full summary of the project is complete.

In completing the Estimate Activity Resource process, you lead your team in evaluating the impacts of utilizing full-time vs. part-time employees. Which type of analysis is being conducted?

Alternative analysis weights the impact of competing options to select the optimal option for the project.

As part of the yearly strategic planning meeting, the department leadership team has developed a list of 15 potential projects. Each project brings the opportunity of delivering unique value propositions for the organization. By what means should the leadership team evaluate, prioritize, and select the projects to charter?

An organization's business needs may be based on market demand, technological advance, legal requirements, government relations, or environmental considerations. Typically, the business needs and cost-benefit analysis are contained in the business case to justify the pro

Due to a recent merger, your company has increased its headcount by 25%. The influx of new individuals makes the process of stakeholder identification more difficult. Which of the following activity should the team not engage in while completing stakeholder analysis?

Analyzing the communication requirements of stakeholders is not a part of stakeholder analysis. This will be done as part of developing the communication management plan.

Although your project is progressing well on the cost front, the project is facing delays that are impacting the project's end date. You decide to shorten the schedule. Which of the following activities would you not perform while crashing the schedule?

Crashing is a way to shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources. Crashing increases the cost to be incurred (trading cost performance for improvement in schedule performance). Reducing duration estimates does not comprise crashing.

A project manager has just started a new project and is leading an initial meeting with the sponsor and other key stakeholders. The vice president of marketing is a key stakeholder and wants to know when the project will be completed and how much it will cost. The team has not finalized the scope, cost, or schedule baselines. When pressed for an answer, the project manager provides an estimate while providing a range of potential outcomes. Which technique did the project manager use to provide the estimate request?

At this stage, he can only provide a rough order of magnitude estimate, also known as ballpark estimate. It is a very high-level and rough estimate. As the estimation process is completed and the budget is fully defined the project manager will be able to provide a more specific estimate. The rough order of magnitude will be become tighter.

The project team is currently being audited to confirm that they are following the established processes required to produce outputs that meet the specified requirements and expectations. During which process is this activity being performed?

Auditing processes is an activity performed as part of Manage Quality process.

Which estimating technique, in which estimates of individual lower-level activities are aggregated, requires significant resources and time, but can also be very accurate?

Bottom-up estimating aggregates estimates of individual lower-level activities, starting at the work package level, to create estimates for each component of the WBS.

To deliver your project faster you have decided to crash multiple critical path activities. Giving this decision, what action must be taken?

By crashing the project, you are adding additional resources to complete project work. The costs of these resources must be incorporated into the cost estimate.

As a new project manager, you have been surprised by the volume of change requests submitted and approved. Additionally, you have become adept at explaining the flow of change requests through the project processes. For what reason are change requests an output of 4.3 Direct and Manage Project work and approved change requests are an input?

Change requests can be generated by any stakeholder. Change requests are often identified and developed by the project team in the Direct and Manage Project Work process. The change requests are evaluated in the Perform Integrated Change Control process. Those approved flow directly to the Direct and Manage Project Work process as inputs to be implemented.

Which of the following terms defines the tool and technique that involves creating a shared workspace to improve a team's communication and performance levels?

Colocation refers to creating a shared workspace to break down barriers that inhibit better communication and team work.

Which of the following is an example of a cost of nonconformance?

Cost of quality shows the cost of nonconformance as rework, scrap, liabilities, warranty work, and lost business.

A work package was scheduled to cost $10,000 to complete and should have been finished by today. As of today, the actual expenditure is $12,000 and half of the work has been completed. What is the cost variance?

Cost variance is calculated using the equation: Cost Variance (CV) = Earned Value (EV) - Actual Cost (AC). In this example, CV = 5,000 - 12,000 = -7,000. The Actual Cost (AC) is provided ($12,000), but the Earned Value must be inferred from the statement within the question. By stating that half of the work has been completed, you can infer that the EV is $5,000. Remember, EV is the value of the work that "is done". The total value of all of the work is $10,000, therefore half of that would be equal to $5,000.

You are a project manager and have just finished decomposing the work package. What should you do next?

Defining the activities is the next step once the work packages have been decomposed.

Donald is currently leading his project team in the completion of the implementation phase of a project to upgrade a manufacturing plant with new equipment. Despite his efforts to influence spending decisions, he laments that the project may miss the defined deadline as he does not have control over the allocation and management of the project budget. In which of the following organizational structures is Donald working?

Donald is operating in a functional structure. In functional structures, functional managers have the highest authority on labor allocation and spending decisions. In comparison, the project managers are not responsible for the project's budget in a functional structure.

You have requested the project coordinator assure that the project work being completed is in aligned with the WBS structure. Critical to that analysis is the determination that the required work is complete and that no superfluous work is executed. Which is the proper technique that was used to decompose the project work for each project deliverable initially?

Each project deliverable is decomposed into its most fundamental components with the lowest level being the work package. The total of the work at the lowest levels of a WBS should roll up to the higher levels so that nothing is left out and no extra work is performed. The method of assessing if this was a completed assessment is called the 100 percent rule.

The team has decided to use a mathematical modeling approach to select the best of several alternative courses of actions related to risk. Which technique is the team utilizing?

Expected monetary value analysis is a statistical concept to calculate the average outcome when the future includes scenarios that may or may not happen. A common use of this type of analysis is a decision tree analysis.

Your company is the seller on a fixed price contract. Which of the following would you keep a close watch on and prevent changes to during the project?

Fixed price contracts place financial on the seller. For this reason, the seller must monitor that the scope does not increase. Changes to the scope, if any, must be accompanied by changes in the schedule and cost.

When managing a project, which of the following best describes the preferred method by which to help positively address conflict between individual team members?

If conflict escalates, it is the project manager's responsibility to facilitate a satisfactory resolution to the issue. The most appropriate approach to take is to address the issue early and usually in private. This allows the opportunity for the parties involved to work through their issues without the interference or pressure of external factors or other team members. Additionally, the Manager should use an approach that is both direct and collaborative approach. This helps to create the conditions where common ground can be found, and a positive work relationship can be fostered.

You are managing a corporate training system project. Each month, you present a project performance review to the senior management stakeholders, including the project sponsor. Which of the following will not be part of the information presented?

If there is an issue with a team member's performance, it will be discussed in private with the relevant manager or leader. It is not appropriate to discuss team member performance in senior stakeholder meetings.

Under which contract type is the seller reimbursed for all allowable costs and potentially receives a fee based on achieving performance objectives?

In a cost-plus-incentive-fee contract, the seller is reimbursed for all allowable costs for performing the contract work and receives a predetermined incentive fee based on achieving certain performance objectives as set forth in the contract.

A project manager established a time and material contract with a vendor to supply two resources to complete engineering design work. The two resources were projected to work for 12 months at a total cost of $180,000. However, due to delays, requirement modifications, and rework caused by poor quality the project took longer than originally projected. At project completion, the two resources have been on the project for 18 months with a total cost of $250,000. What action could the project manager have taken to eliminate the risk of the cost overage incurred on this contract?

In order to have a better control on the time and material contract, a spending and time limits should have been included in the contract.

A new project manager was unsure which technique she should use to come up with a cost estimate for her project. She reviewed the company's estimation guidelines and decided that parametric estimating is the best choice. Which of the following represents the technique utilized?

In parametric estimation, you use statistical relationships between historical data and other factors to come up with an estimate. So, $300 per day for expert resources would be the use of parametric estimating. Using project cost summed up from each activity's estimate is bottom-up estimating. Using project cost distributed down to each activity is top-down estimating. Using lessons learned from a previous project is analogous estimating.

What is the most appropriate tool used during the Conduct Procurement process to evaluate the reasonableness of submitted proposals?

Independent estimates provide a cost estimate that can be used to compare prospective sellers' cost estimate. Since it is independent, it is expected to be free from bias.

Project stakeholders are concerned that the risk related to currency fluctuations could potentially erase all potential project benefits. Which of the following risk types are the stakeholders concerned with?

Individual project risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives. Project Risk Management aims to exploit or enhance positive risks (opportunities) while avoiding or mitigating negative risks (threats).

You are a new project manager and have been assigned to estimate a project's costs. You go to a senior project manager who has been working in the company for 10 years and ask for his advice. He tells you to increase your cost estimate by 25% because the management always cuts a project's budget by 25% before approving the project. Given the advice provided, what action should you take?

Inflating task estimates is a bad practice as it hides the actual estimate and thus weakens the control. Threatening that you will not manage the project will likely result in your removal from the project and maybe even from the company. The purpose of a contingency reserve is to provide funds for known risks. A high reserve will raise eyebrows and unnecessary questions and must be justified. With a 25% of budget added to contingency, it will be extremely difficult to justify. The actual cost estimate should be presented with an explanation of what the impact on the project will be if the budget is cut.

A member of your team has completed a deliverable and has marked it for review. While reviewing the deliverable, you notice that it has a number of mistakes. What is the next best thing to do?

It is best to follow a sequential approach before escalating the matter. Discussing the issue with the team member may bring out the reasons for these mistakes. It could even reveal a faulty understanding on the project manager's part. The issue, if indeed is a mistake by the team member, must be escalated only if it is of a reasonably high severity. Audits may be initiated when such issues frequently arise, and the integrity of the work delivered is in question.

Early in a project, you realize that the number of stakeholders listed on your stakeholder register is significantly smaller than other projects of similar size and scope that you have completed in your company. Which of the following documents could be most helpful in identifying new project stakeholders?

It is important to understand and include the stakeholders affected by your project. Referencing the change log may help identify groups and individuals that are impacted by the project. The reason for this is that the change log often highlights unanticipated issues or opportunities. These issues and opportunities will often identify stakeholder previously not included or considered.

You have identified the need to leverage contractors to complete work on your project and are now arranging a vendor conference. Which of the following activities would be inappropriate to conduct during the vendor conference?

It is not appropriate to brainstorm alternate solutions with potential bidders during the bidder conference. It is the bidder's responsibility to provide solutions. The vendor conference is held to ensure that all bidders have the same, common understanding of the project's details and requirements.

The project team meetings have historically been chaotic, undisciplined, and unsuccessful in delivering the value the project manager needs. In the previous meeting, the team demonstrated disrespect in the form of talking over each other, showing up late, and not paying attention to the information presented. Which of the following rules could the project manager leverage to help rectify this situation?

Lack of participation and decorum indicate that rules for meeting management have not been established. Many topics being discussed also indicate that an agenda for the meeting has not been set.

After drafting the initial draft of the project schedule network diagram, your team began refining the document to include the lead and lag relationships between activities. Which of the following best describes the different visual impact that lead and lag have on the diagram?

Lead and lag define the start time of each activity in reference to the activities that occur directly before (predecessor) and after (successor), respectively. Lead is the amount of time a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor. Lag is the amount of time a successor activity can be delayed to a predecessor.

In your first meeting with your project team you inform them that you operate with a hands-off leadership style. You ensure the team that you are always available for advice, but otherwise you allow the team to make their own decisions. Which leadership style are you utilizing?

Leadership that embody the laissez-faire style allow their team to make decisions and establish their own goals.

You are the project manager of a fertilizer plant extension project, and you are reviewing the schedule developed for your project. Your goal is to determine the project end date based on schedule analysis of the least flexible activities. Which tool are you using to perform this analysis?

Least-flexible activities in a schedule are the activities on the critical path. These are non-flexible activities, because any change in these activities will change the end date of the schedule. Therefore, you are using the critical path method. PDM in itself does not show flexibility of activities without critical path information; it shows the relationship between activities. PERT analysis uses three estimates to find the duration of each activity, and it does not show which activities are least flexible.

Which of the following is not an example of a project?

Managing production should be a part of ongoing operations. The other choices are projects because they describe a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.

Which written document monitors the responsible party for resolving specific problems and concerns by a target date?

Managing stakeholder engagement may result in the development of an issue log, which is updated as new issues are identified and current issues are resolved.

Which of the following is not an objective of the Control Cost process?

The cost baseline is established in the Determine Budget process during the Planning Process Group, not in the Control Cost process.

A project manager prepared the statement of work and developed the procurement management plan. She also has the bid package ready for distribution to the sellers. Which process does she go through next?

Plan Procurement Management is the process in which the procurement management plan is developed, and the bid package is prepared. After that, in the Conduct Procurements process, sellers' responses are solicited, a seller is selected, and the contract is awarded.

You are a project manager leading your team through the process of evaluating and classifying the current engagement levels of each stakeholder. You have identified a stakeholder who is aware of the project but is unsupportive of the work or outcomes of the project. Within which engagement category should you advise your team to classify this stakeholder?

Resistant stakeholders are aware of the project but resistant to any changes that may occur as a result of the work or outcomes.

Leveraging the resource management plan and the project schedule your team is involved in the Acquire Resources process. Due to the nature of the organization and the project at hand, this involves negotiating with functional managers to obtain access to the team members necessary to complete the project. You have been unable to obtain full access to any specific resource. Instead, each team member has distinct times, shifts, and days when which they are available. On which document will your team record these limitations to resource availability?

Resource calendars document the time periods that each project team member is available to work on the project.

Your sponsor has informed you that the project you have been assigned has a significant amount of uncertainty and that you must be able to adjust the schedule and project plan to adjust as the project develops. Given this information, which tool or technique would you use in the Define Activities process to allow for the flexibility in planning needed?

Rolling wave planning is an iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near-term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a higher level. It is a form of progressive elaboration. Therefore, work can exist at various levels of detail depending on where it is in the project life cycle.

Your team has identified that a key stakeholder has an engagement level below the desired level defined in the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix. The team is unsure of the reasons why the stakeholder engagement plan established is not having the desired impact. Which data analysis technique would you suggest that the team use in this situation?

Root cause analysis can be used to determine the basic underlying reason that a stakeholder engagement plan is not having the planned impact.

You have been assigned as project manager for a human resources process improvement project. While performing stakeholder analysis, you identified one stakeholder who is an expert in the domain knowledge that has been marked as high risk for the project. Additionally, you learn that while this stakeholder has high interest in the project, he has low influence due to the fact that his position in the organization does not have direct involvement with your project. Which would be the best approach in managing this stakeholder?

Since he is highly interested, he should be kept informed on project progress; and because he is an expert in domain knowledge, he should be solicited for opinion and feedback on estimation, planning, risks, and issues. Due to his low influence, this stakeholder does not need to be managed closely. Sending only the regular project reports will satisfy his high interest but will not benefit the project.

A project manager has used the affinity diagram method to review and group a large number of errors being reported on the project. He is planning to analyze further and identify the root cause of errors. Within which process is the project manager?

Since the project manager is reviewing a large number of errors and trying to find their root causes, he is performing the Manage Quality process. The primary objective of the Manage Quality process is quality assurance.

The project team has completed all deliverables defined in the statement of work. Despite your strong belief that the deliverables produce meet the unambiguous statement of work and well-defined deliverables, the buyer expresses displeasure and states that he is unhappy with the product. How should the contract be treated in such a case?

Since the work was completed as specified and the deliverables were provided, the work should be considered complete. The level of customer satisfaction cannot impact the completion and closure of a contract. It is too late to cancel or put the contract on hold, as the work is already complete.

While leading a large multi-phased project involving resources in four countries, your company has completed an acquisition to acquire a competitor. The integration of the acquired company has added new two divisions that you believe may be impacted by the output of your project. You believe that one of the divisions will be heavily impacted while the other will have register minimal impact. Your team has recently completed the gate check of phase two and has commenced phase three of the project. Given the changes to the corporate environment, what would be the appropriate next step that must be conducted?

Since there has been movement / changes in the stakeholder community, it is best to identify and prioritize stakeholders and their engagement needs to maintain optimum support for the project. The risk outlook for the project may also have changed. It would be prudent to follow the identification of new stakeholders with an analysis of risk as well.

While leading a large multi-phased project involving resources in four countries, your company has completed an acquisition to acquire a competitor. The integration of the acquired company has added new two divisions that you believe may be impacted by the output of your project. You believe that one of the divisions will be heavily impacted while the other will have registered minimal impact. Your team has recently completed the gate check of phase two and has commenced phase three of the project. Given the changes to the corporate environment, what would be the appropriate next step that must be conducted?

Since there has been movement / changes in the stakeholder community, it is best to identify and prioritize stakeholders and their engagement needs to maintain optimum support for the project. The risk outlook for the project may also have changed. It would be prudent to follow the identification of new stakeholders with an analysis of risk as well.

The project charter has been approved and the core team members have begun identifying project stakeholders. What kind of information about stakeholders does stakeholder analysis identify and relate to the purpose of the project?

Stakeholder analysis is a technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interest should be taken into account throughout the project. It identifies the interests, expectations, and influence of the stakeholders and relates them to the purpose of the project.

You are part of a large team in the early stage of a project to redesign a commercial HVAC system to meet the expansion of a corporate headquarters building. You are facilitating a session to document the high-level business needs of the project and to define the product that is intended to satisfy those requirements. Which process are you and the team performing?

The Develop Project Charter is the process of developing a document that formally authorizes the existence of a project. Among other information, the high-level project purpose, measurable objectives, and requirements are defined in the project charter.

After obtaining sponsor support for the charter, identifying the project stakeholders, and planning for the project you held a project kick-off meeting. The meeting was attended by both key stakeholders and the project team and lead by both the Project Sponsor. You were pleased with the enthusiasm that the Project Sponsor was able to generate in speaking directly to the group and emphasizing the importance that the project would play in the growth of the company. In the days after the meeting you acknowledge that maintaining high levels of support from the stakeholders is paramount to the project's success. Which of the following processes will you use throughout the project's lifecycle maintain the current level of support?

The Manage Stakeholder Engagement process is designed to use communication to foster the appropriate stakeholder involvement. Additionally, this process is used to adjust stakeholder engagement based on previous interactions with them, as well as implement the plans for approaching stakeholders that the team in yet to engage.

Your team has calculated that your project has a TCPI value of 1.45. Given this realization, what is the most appropriate action for you to take?

The TCPI value of 1.45 indicates that the performance of all future project work must significantly improve for the project to achieve the originally defined management goal. The most appropriate action would be for the team to analyze all future work and define methods by which they can achieve improved performance.

As an experienced project manager, you understand the importance of developing a detailed stakeholder register. Your team has started populating the stakeholder register using the approved charter and business case document and have provided the initial draft of the register to you for your review. After questioning the team on the process that they used to develop the initial draft, you remind them that they forgot to utilize one key document to find potential stakeholders. Which document did your team forget to analyze to find potential stakeholders?

The benefits management plan describes the expected plan for realizing the benefits claimed in the business case. It may identify the individuals and groups that will benefit from the delivery of the outcomes of the project and are thus considered as stakeholders.

The project manager has been unable to resolve a dispute with a seller over compensation related to a scope modification. The seller believes that the scope is extra work and not part of the signed contract. What action could the project manager take next to rectify the issue?

The best option to resolve any dispute with the seller is to go through alternative dispute resolution. These techniques are negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and litigation.

In the last quarter of each fiscal year, your company requires that all future projects be evaluated prior to starting the chartering process. The evaluation process requires the submission of a summary of projected cost-benefit analysis and a potential impact on customer satisfaction. As you prepare to submit the information for your next project, what is the name of the document that you will submit to validate from a business standpoint whether your project is worth the required investment?

The business case or similar document describes the necessary information from a business standpoint to determine whether the project is worth the required investment.

You work for a large airline manufacturer that is attempting to initiate a project that will utilize recent technological advances to upgrade the safety of the electrical system on their newest line of aircraft. The Director of Engineering captured the projected benefits of the project in the business case document and tasked you in drafting the project charter. After submitting the charter for review, you are informed that the boundaries described in the charter and the business case are unaligned. What is the most appropriate action to take next?

The business case provides the justification for the project and hence all documents further created depend on the business case. The project charter must be altered.

As projects evolve, the Identify Stakeholder process must be continually assessed to ensure that the stakeholder register contains an accurate and comprehensive list of stakeholders. After the initial time that the process is utilized, which of the following is a key input that will often initiate the need to utilize the Identify Stakeholders process?

The change log is an input to Identify Stakeholders, as it may introduce new stakeholders or change the nature of an existing stakeholder's relationship with the project.

Your company has assigned you to lead a project to develop a line of high-quality construction tools to be used by industrial pipefitters. Due to an increase in the cost of transportation your company has mandated that all materials be sourced from companies within the state. Following this mandate, you establish a contract with a local firm to provide steel for the project. While the cost is well below what was originally projected, the company is unable to guarantee that the steel they provide will meet the high-quality standard 100% of the time. Given this reality, what type of cost should you expect to increase?

The cost of nonconformance will likely rise as the use of lower quality materials will cause higher defect rates. The cost to fix customer complaints and defects is considered a cost of nonconformance.

You are in the steering committee meeting presenting your project's latest performance report. You just presented that the CPI is 1.1 and the SPI is 0.87. Which of the following is the next logical piece of information you should share?

The cost performance index (CPI) and schedule performance index (SPI) show the project's progress against the plan. The next logical piece of information should be the estimate to complete (ETC) and estimate at completion (EAC) which define the forecasted project completion values.

You are a newly hired project manager working in the quality division of a large power generation company. During your first week, your senior manager provided you with a presentation deck he prepared detailing a proposed project that included a description of the project, the cost-benefit analysis, a high-level Gantt chart listing activities, and a summary of potential team members. He recommended that you start working on the project immediately in order to make a good impression upon the organization. What is the most appropriate action to take next?

The cost-benefit analysis and other information provided is ideal information to use in a project charter. The charter must be completed and approved by the sponsor before the project is authorized to commence. The starting point for all project activities is the approval of the project and the authorization to use organizational resources (option C) through a project charter.

The project team is using numerous methods to gather requirements and define the project scope. To simplify the process, the project manager would like to utilize a standard methodology to manage the scope. What should the project manager do next?

The creation of a scope management plan will clearly define the standards that will be followed in establishing, managing, and controlling the scope.

The project team is finalizing the creation of the requirements documentation and requirements traceability matrix. What is the next process that the team should complete?

The creation of the requirements documentation and requirements traceability matrix occurs in the Collect Requirements process. The next process to complete is the Define Scope process. It is in this process that the extensive list of requirements developed in Collect Requirements are pruned to define the list to define the list of essential requirements that the team will deliver.

Your team is using the critical path methodology to help optimize the schedule efficiency of the required activities. Which of the following options defines a limitation of the critical path method that must be considered?

The critical path method (CPM) is used to estimate the minimum project duration and to determine the amount of schedule flexibility that exists within the logical network paths of the schedule model. This method considers activity sequences and durations in the process but does not consider resource availability.

After completing the first round of cost estimates, you share the results with a group of engineers who have experience in completing similar projects. While you hoped that the engineers would confirm the estimates, you are shocked when they provide you a lengthy written response detailing multiple issues. These issues highlight fundamental facts that stand in conflict with what your team used to calculate the costs. What is the most appropriate action that you should take next?

The feedback from the engineers highlights potential issues in the logical foundations used to create the cost estimates. These fundamental facts should be included in the basis of estimates and assumption log. The proper action is for the team to evaluate the validity of the responses and make the appropriate changes to the cost estimates.

A project manager finds two of her team members in disagreement over the proper testing approach. As a servant leader committed to solving conflict using a problem-solving approach, which of the following would be the most appropriate action to take?

The focus of the project manager should be on helping to develop a productive decision that resolves the issue for both parties. Facilitating the discussion shows respect for the team members different opinions and helps to guide the two to finding a solution.

Due to the success of the first phase of your project, the four-phase construction project that you are leading has been authorized additional engineering support. This addition in support has increased your team from the original six team members during the requirement gathering phase to eleven in the design phase. How many additional channels of communication were added in the design phase?

The formula to determine the number of communication channels is: Number of channels = N (N-1)/2, where N is the number of stakeholders. To solve this question, first calculate the communication channels that existed when the team consisted of six team members, Number of Original Channels = 6(6-1)/2 = 15 channels. The next step is to calculate the communication channels for a team of eleven team members, Number of Final Channels = 11(11-1)/2 = 55 channels. Taking the difference between the two valued determines the total increase in the number of communication channels. # of Channels that have been added = (55-11) = 40. Remember that the communication channel calculation includes the Project Manager in the N value.

Within which Executing process are the risk responses that were selected during Plan Risk Responses put into action to achieve the risk response result?

The implement risk responses process is designed to implement the approved risk responses when needed.

The influence-impact grid is one of multiple data representation tools and techniques used to display and group stakeholders visually. The information deduced from this grid helps to inform and create which key output of the Identify Stakeholder process?

The influence-impact grid is an example of a data representation tool used in the Identify Stakeholders process to map stakeholders. The information deduced from using this tool helps to inform the creation and update of the stakeholder register document.

You are currently leading your team in the third of four phases of a large industrial machinery installation process. In your most recent meeting with the sponsor she remarked that the team has shown significant improvement in their ability to accomplish the work activities in the face of intense schedule and cost pressure. The sponsor then asks you to provide insight into what the improvements can be attributed to. You respond that the team has placed a significant focus on documenting the facts surrounding scenarios that caused issues early in the project and now references the document religiously when similar situations present themselves. Which of the following documents has the team used?

The lessons learned register is the document that is used to record the information related to scenarios that caused issues on the project. The question states that the unit has improved over time. This means that the team has improved processes and delivery capabilities. Such improvements can only be made when deficiencies in current practices are identified and improved upon (learning lessons and taking steps to implement the learning).

You are the project manager of a network replacement project for a 40-floor office building. You plan to hire a contractor to replace the cables. The work must be completed in such a way to have minimum to zero disruption to the tenant organizations during business hours. Due to the complexity and risk inherent in this constraint, you believe it necessary that a firm with significant experience and a track record of success be contracted. You contacted the procurement department to develop a list of firms that have the capability to do the work. What should the procurement department do next?

The next appropriate action that the procurement department should take is to create a list of qualified sellers. This is a shortlist of all sellers who have the capability to perform the work. Inviting only sellers with the capability to perform the work helps to reduce the amount of time to complete the Conduct Procurements process. It is only after the select has been selected that a contract is negotiated. The evaluation criteria are established before a list of firms is to be created based on those criteria. Solicitation packages will be sent out after the list is available.

Having recently obtained approval from the Project Sponsor for your project charter, you schedule a 2- hour session with core members of your project team. Your intention in the session is to facilitate the team in identifying and categorizing the individuals and groups that will be impacted both positively and negatively from the delivery of the outcomes of the project. Which process is being performed?

The process of identifying stakeholders is being performed.

Mid-execution, senior stakeholders were involved in a heated debate, which concluded in the decision to approve a change request to reduce the quantity of work to be performed. It is generally believed that while the nature of the product features will be reduced the overall impact as perceived by the customer will suffer minimal negative deterioration. You have also deduced that the conditions that the deliverable meets have not been modified. As the project leader, you have been instructed to update the scope statement to reflect the changes. Which of the following components would you update?

The project scope statement comprises the scope description, description of deliverables, the acceptance criteria and project exclusions. Changes to scope, and in this case, a reduction in scope generally impacts the scope description (reducing the scope), description of deliverables (reducing the number of deliverables), and the project exclusions (adding previously in-scope items to this list of exclusions). The detail that the conditions that the deliverable must meet have not been modified informs you that the acceptance criteria wouldn't undergo change.

Your project has identified resource allocation issues that require corrective actions. A subject matter expert on your team recommends that prompt action must be taken or there will be an 80% risk that the project will miss a key schedule milestone. What is the appropriate action to take?

The proper action is to create a change request and submit it through the Integrated Change Control process.

In creating the quality management plan for your project your team defined the need for multiple quality audits to ensure that the high-quality standards have been maintained. Which of the following statements best describes the characteristics of a proper quality audit?

The proper approach to ensure that a quality audit is effective is to ensure that the audit is conducted by individuals independent of the project and that the criteria by which they use to evaluate the project is well-defined.

The project manager of a large web development project is using a pull-based / on-demand scheduling technique to define the features to be built and the necessary activities to be performed to execute the work. The team is completing a sprint to complete a collection of activities related to the user interface of the site. During execution, a programmer developed a great idea for an additional feature that the team believes will dramatically improve the functionality of the site. Your team is eager to implement the upgrade. What is the most appropriate action for the project manager to take?

The question states usage of pull-based / on-demand scheduling. On-demand scheduling does not rely on a schedule that was developed previously for the development of the product or product increments but rather pulls work from a backlog or intermediate queue of work to be done immediately as resources become available. Regardless, of how valuable the upgrade is the correct decision is to place the upgrade into the backlog. The feature can be evaluated and selected to be completed in the next iteration of work.

The project deliverables and project work are currently defined at a level that is too large for the team to clearly understand how they will efficiently manage their completion. What action should the Project Manager take to help his team?

The requirements and project work must be decomposed into smaller and more manageable parts. This process should be conducted until the work is defined at a level at which the cost and duration can be effectively managed.

You have assigned a junior team member with the responsibility of tracking the condition of all requirements across the project life cycle. Which document should this individual use to record this information?

The requirements traceability matrix is a grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them. The requirements traceability matrix provides a means to track requirements throughout the project life cycle, helping to ensure that requirements approved in the requirements documentation are delivered at the end of the project.

The project team is uncertain as to the total project scope. You have recommended that they start by analyzing the scope statement. Which of the following information will the team not find in the scope statement?

The scope statement defines clear boundaries for the project. In defining these, the scope statement highlights the product characteristics (product scope), the verifiable products, results, and capabilities to be produced (product scope); and the criteria that must be met before deliverables are accepted (acceptance criteria). The project scope statement does not contain information related to the work packages within the project. Work packages will be defined later when creating the work breakdown structure in the Create WBS process.

After reviewing the bid submitted, the project team deliberated over which sellers to award the contract. One member recommended a seller who is highly reputed in the industry, another member recommended a seller that has worked for the company several times in the past, and a third member insists that the seller who has the lowest bid should be awarded the contract. What action should the project manager take in order to select the seller to award the contract?

The seller selection criteria should be reviewed to select the seller to whom to award the contract. The other three choices can be considered if one or all of these are part of the seller selection criteria.

After defining the activities required to complete the work defined in the scope baseline your team promptly began sequencing activities. What critical output must they produce from this process?

The team is completing the sequence activity process. The key output of this process is the project schedule network diagram, which is a graphical representation of the logical relationships, or dependencies, between project schedule activities.

What is the lowest level of the WBS at which the cost and activity estimates for the work can be reliably estimated and managed?

The work package is the work defined at the lowest level of the WBS for which costs and duration can be estimated and managed.

You have recently taken over a project that is in the planning process group. You learn that all subsidiary plans have been developed and the team is currently in the process of subdividing project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components. Which process is the team currently conducting?

There are four scope management processes within the planning process group. The Create WBS process is designed to subdivide project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.

You are working on creating the project charter for a standard PC image development project. You have identified that the image must be ready for deployment by the end of the year, and the project must be executed with internal resources only. Which section within the charter will you capture these conditions?

These are constraints on the project as they set boundaries for the project. Constraints are a central component of the project charter.

The last step your team is completing in the determine budget process is the establishment of the periodic funding requirements. From which component should your team derive the funding requirement schedule?

Total funding requirements and periodic funding requirements are derived from the cost baseline. The cost baseline will include projected expenditures plus anticipated liabilities. Funding often occurs in incremental amounts that are not continuous and may not be evenly distributed.

In a recent stakeholder meeting it was asked if the project's performance had improved, deteriorated, or remained constant over time. The team was not able to provide a satisfactory answer. After leaving the meeting what action should project manager take?

Variance analysis is a technique for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance.

Your project management office is involved in tailoring project management processes to fit the organization's unique needs. Which of the following best describes the activities that the team will perform while customizing the integration management processes?

While tailoring integration management processes you would need to consider how lessons learned will be made available for future projects, when and how benefits should be reported and how knowledge is to be managed.

The change control board has rendered decisions on four key change requests that have significant impact to the schedule and cost baselines. Upon receiving the approved change requests, you update the appropriate project documents and plans and provide a status update to stakeholders. You have most recently directed your project team to begin the process of implementing the changes that have been approved. Within which process is your team now performing these actions?

While the process Perform Integrated Change Control approves, rejects, or defers change requests, it is the Direct and Manage Project Work process that implements approved changes.

To find ways to improve your project, you develop the idea of selectively integrating the use of virtual teams. Despite your enthusiasm for the idea, your sponsor believes that virtual teams offer little to no value to the project. Additionally, your sponsor admits that he has never seen a virtual team in practice and requests that you submit a short report detailing the projected benefits that the project will receive. Which of the following would you not include in your report to convince the sponsor?

Working with virtual teams does not offer the possibility of reducing the schedule. In fact, there could be a possibility of investing additional time in planning and controlling activities for teams spread across different geographies. All other options are valid benefits of virtual teams.

You been given control of a medical research project that will have distinct teams completing work across two regions. You are nearly finished with calculating the approximate amount of physical and human resources the project will require in each region. Which Project Resource Management process will you complete next?

You are currently completing the Estimate Activity Resources process in the Planning Process Group. Once completed, the next Resource Management process to complete is the Acquire Resources process. It is in this process that you use the approved budget to obtain the necessary resources to complete the project by the project schedule defined.