PMP Part 1

Question 1

The product owner has requested to be showing how much work there remains to be done on the project. What would be the best agile tool to display this?

Answer 1

Burndown Chart

A burn down chart displays work that remains to be done.

Question 2

The project sponsors have informed the project manager that they would like to be included in the weekly meetings along with the team members. What should the project manager update to include the sponsors in the weekly meetings?

Answer 2

Communications Management Plan

The communication management plan outlines who will be receiving what type of communications, how often they will receive them, and who will provide them. The project manager should update this plan to specify who will be attending the weekly meetings. The scope and risk management plans do not contain any information about project meetings. Project communications refer to actually communicating on a project.

Question 3

While working on a project schedule, the project manager notices that activities A, B, and C all have a duration of 4 days. The project manager also notices that activities F and G have a duration of 7 days. Activities A, C, F, and G have a slack of 1 day. Activity B is the only one on the critical path. What is the slack on activity B?

Answer 3

0 Days

If an activity is on the critical path, it will have zero slack. Non-critical path activities will have a slack of at least 1 day.

Question 4

The project team has been working very hard over the last 4 months to program the financial application and has completed it. The project manager has informed the team that the quality control team will be inspecting it next. What process group best describes what the team has done so far?

Answer 4

Executing

In the executing process group, the team completes the deliverables. During the monitoring and controlling processes, the deliverables are accepted by the stakeholders. During the planning process, the project management plan is created. During the closing process, the project or phase is brought to formal closure.

Question 5

While discussing the benefits of agile with three of the organization’s key stakeholders what would be seeing as the main benefit for conducting the project using agile methodology versus traditional methodology?

Answer 5

Agile delivers value incrementally

One of the main benefits of using agile over traditional project management, is that agile delivers value incrementally versus getting value only at the end of the project.

Question 6

The project manager is currently assigning costs to each individual activity on the project. A team member has informed the project manager that he should include additional cost just in case the software will need more testing. What best describes this additional cost?

Answer 6

Contingency reserve

Contingency reserve is what a project manager adds to the project cost baseline due to risk. Management reserve is what the company management adds to the project budget due to risk. Project and testing reserve are made-up terms .

Question 7

During a new smartphone development project, the customers are given a prototype of the smartphone for them to try. They inform you that the phone constantly reboots, and sometimes the touch screen does not work. What tool can the project team use to find the reasons for these defects?

Answer 7

Ishikawa diagram

An Ishikawa diagram, also known as a cause-and-effect diagram, is used to list the many different probabilities for a project’s defect. Assumptions analysis involves analyzing assumptions, histograms are used to show the frequency of defects, and inspections are used to see if a deliverable has met its requirements.

Question 8

While working on a project, the sponsor makes it clear that he does not want any of the team members to be overworked. This means that no team member is allowed to work overtime. The sponsor is okay with the project being delayed due to this. What technique can the project manager best implement to ensure that no team member is overworked?

Answer 8

Resource Leveling

Resource leveling is a technique used when resources are limited or over-allocated. Resource leveling ensures that no resource is assigned to more than one activity at a time, ensuring that no resource is overworked. Resource smoothing may accomplish the same task, but it only works if there is slack available on the activities. Free float is the amount of time you can delay an activity without delaying the next activity. Lag is the amount of time you need to delay an activity before the next activity starts.

Question 9

The project manager has just identified a new regulation that can possibly delay the project significantly. The project manager has added this new regulation to the risk register. What should the project manager do next with this risk?

Answer 9

Conduct a qualitative and quantitative assessment

When a risk has been added to the risk register, the project manager should conduct both a qualitative and quantitative assessment before coming up with a risk response. If the response requires adding more money, the project manager should initiate a change request requesting more funds for the project. The project manager should assess the risk before informing the sponsor of the risk.

Question 10

The project manager and the project team were able to identify a number of risks that could affect the website upgrade project. They listed all of the risks on the risk register. They will now conduct a qualitative risk analysis to prioritize the risks. What will the team look at when prioritizing the risks?

Answer 10

Probability and impact

While conducting the qualitative risk analysis, the team will rank the risks based on their probability of occurrence and impact on the project.

Question 11

While working on a large multinational project, you identify some of the positive and negative stakeholders. What process group are you currently engaged in?

Answer 11

Initiating

The process of identifying stakeholders is part of the initiating process group.

Question 12

While working on a large utility project for a major metropolitan area, the project manager has noticed that there is no change control board to approve changes for the project. What would be the best step for the project manager to take in this scenario?

Answer 12

Establish a change control board for the project

Since this is a large project that will affect a large population, it would be best to establish a change control board for the project to have the changes reviewed and approved. On a very small project, the project manager may ask the sponsor to approve or deny changes. The project manager’s main job is to document and assess changes to the project.

Question 13

While working on a project, the CEO of the company has informed you that he would like to terminate the project and have you work on a few others projects. What kind of influence does this best represent?

Answer 13

Upwards

Upwards influence is for stakeholders above you such as senior management. Downward influence is for those below you such as team members. Sideways influence is for those who are your peers such as other project managers. Outwards influence is for those who are external, such as vendors.

Question 14

Managing a project can be a very complex task that involves identifying and managing all the stakeholders on the project. The project manager spends 90% of their time doing what important task?

Answer 14

Communications

Communications generally take up 90% of the project manager’s time. This generally includes various types of meetings, discussions, negotiation, and problem solving. A project manager does not determine how much an activity will cost or how long it will take; that is generally done by a subject matter expert.

Question 15

The project planning has been completed for the office renovation project. The project management plan has been approved by the sponsor and senior management. What would the project manager do next?

Answer 15

Hold a kickoff Meeting

A project kickoff meeting is generally done after planning a large project to bring the team together and inform them of the project requirements. There is no need to inform senior management, as they approved the plan.

Question 16

While constructing a roof for a large building, the project team has identified the risk of a snowstorm. Due to the region in the country and the time of the year, the team has decided to take no action or preparations for the snowstorm. What risk response strategy is the team using?

Answer 16

Acceptance

Acceptance is a risk response where you will take no action against the risk. All other choices involve taking some kind of action.

Question 17

The project manager and the project team are currently assessing various ways of responding to a particular risk. The project involves reconstructing part of their current office building, and they’re worried about a hurricane hitting and damaging the materials or parts of the unfinished building. The best response they came up with was to purchase insurance in case a hurricane does hit. What kind of strategy is this?

Answer 17

Transfer

When a risk is transferred, it is usually transferred to another company, such as by purchasing insurance or hiring a consultant. Avoidance is used to eliminate a risk by going down a different path. Mitigation is used to reduce the probability and/or impact of a risk. Risk acceptance means doing nothing about the risk.

Question 18

While working on a large project, the project manager originally counted 12 stakeholders. A new requirement and six more stakeholders were added to the project. How many communication channels are on this project?

Answer 18

153

To get this answer correct, you will have to use the communications channels formula, which is N(N-1)/2. Since there are 18 stakeholders, the formula is 18(18-1)/2 = 153.

Question 19

A major portion of a large construction development project was completed by a contractor. The contractor has completed all the work listed in the agreement but also completed other work the contractor felt had to be done. The contractor is asking for more money that was not listed in the agreement, and the project manager feels that what they’re asking for is too much for the additional work that was completed. What should the project manager do next?

Answer 19

Contact claims administration

When there is a dispute between a buyer and a seller for additional funds, the dispute should be resolved by going to the claims administration, who can then facilitate the dispute. The other choices will not resolve the dispute between the buyer and the seller.

Question 20

When selecting a project, the company looks at different factors that could impact their selection. What document best identifies the need for a project?

Answer 20

Business case

The business case is used to show the benefits of the project. The project charter is used to authorize the project. The project management plan outlines how to execute, monitor and control, and close the project. The project benefits report is a made-up term.

Question 21

While constructing a new office space, the sponsor has requested the project manager complete the project sooner. While analyzing the work, the project manager has noticed that some of the work can start before the predecessor work is done. What can the project manager do in this scenario to complete the project sooner?

Answer 21

Add lead times between project activities

A lead is an overlap between project activities. This means that work will start before the predecessor work is done. Lag time will add a delay between activities. Slack is the amount of time you can delay an activity without delaying the project. Reserves are the additional time added to the activities for risk.

Question 22

The project team and the project manager held a meeting to discuss a few issues related to the project. The meeting was very productive and led to most of the issues being resolved. A few weeks later, one team member brought up one of the issues that was resolved in the previous meeting as being unresolved. The project manager reviewed the meeting documentation and determined that the issue was resolved, but the team member may not have known about the resolution. What could the project manager have done differently to prevent this miscommunication?

Answer 22

Distribute detailed meeting minutes

While all the choices should be done for meetings, in this scenario, the project manager may have failed to distribute the meeting minutes. That would explain why a team member didn’t think an issue was resolved during the meeting.

Question 23

The project team is currently having disagreements about the program and methods they would use to implement a few of the features in the product backlog. What role should the agile project manager be doing during this scenario?

Answer 23

Coach them to a resolution

During the storming phase of the Tuckman’s letter, the agile project manager should be coaching the team to support constructive disagreement. Let the team find the best methods to resolve their issues.

Question 24

While working on a complex web design project, the manager has received a change request from a senior stakeholder to fix a problem with the current intranet server. The project manager has determined that this change is outside the scope of the project and is not covered by the work listed in the project charter. What should the project manager do next?

Answer 24

Inform the stakeholder that this change request should be considered a new project

Although all change requests should be considered by the project manager, they should be related to the project work. No change should be approved if it is outside the scope of the project charter, since that would not be considered work within the current project.

Question 25

The agile project team has decided to do one of the features from the product backlog. The single feature will take six weeks to complete and will be reviewed by the customer. What actions should the agile project manager take next?

Answer 25

Inform the team that 6 weeks is too long and they will need to decompose that feature into smaller increments.

In agile iterations should be no more than one to four weeks. Features the takes longer than should be decomposed into smaller features that can fit within a time box of one to four weeks.

Question 26

The project manager and team have decided to hire a contractor to complete the installation of the servers for the system’s upgrade project. The terms of agreement have the contractor being paid on a monthly basis until the work is done. What process will the contractor payments be made in?

Answer 26

Control procurement

Control procurement is when the agreement has already been signed and the contractor is completing the work, and the contractor should be paid according to the terms in the contract. Plan procurement management is done to select what needs to be procured and how to conduct the procurement. Conduct procurement is done to select a seller and award a contract. Manage procurement is not a PMBOK process.

Question 27

A project manager wants to ensure that the new cell phone the project is creating will beat or match the performance of new cell projects by other companies. What tool would be the best for the project?

Answer 27

Benchmark

Benchmarking is a tool in plan quality that is used to compare best practices to other projects, either within or outside of the organization. Plan quality is a process, not a tool. Meetings are tools used by the project manager to interact with the project team and solve problems. Collecting requirements is a process, not a tool.

Question 28

While working on the web design project, the change control board approved a change to the layout of the menu. What process should the project manager conduct next to ensure the change is implemented?

Answer 28

Direct and manage project work

Once a change has been approved, it is then moved to the direct and manage project work process for implementation. Verify scope is done when all the deliverables are completed and require stakeholders’ acceptance. Update project management plan and change log are not processes.

Question 29

The sponsor would like a report about the resources that are being used on the project. He would like to see them broken down by different categories to make them easier to understand. What process will the project manager use to create this?

Answer 29

Estimate activity resources

The process of estimate activity resources will output the resource breakdown structure, which is a hierarchal breakdown of resources by their categories and types. No other choice will output this project document.

Question 30

While monitoring and controlling a project, the project manager has been comparing the work performance data to the project management plan to see if there are any variance. What process did the project manager finish to get the work performance data?

Answer 30

Direct and manage project work

Work performance data is an output of the integration process of direct and manage project work.

Question 31

While managing a datacenter development project, the project manager has noticed there are many conflicts between the team members on the project. When managing a conflict in a project, what would be the best role for the project manager?

Answer 31

Facilitator

When managing conflicts in a project, the project manager should facilitate a satisfactory resolution for the conflict. The other roles are made-up terms.

Question 32

The project manager has decided that most of the stakeholders on the project would like to reference the status reports for the project on the company’s internal website on their own time. This would make it easier for them, as it is very difficult to schedule a meeting with all of them at once. What type of communication best describes this?

Answer 32

Pull communications

Pull communication is done when stakeholders access the communications on their own time, usually through a web portal. Push communication is when communication is given to the stakeholders such as in an email. Interactive is when stakeholders are communicating in real time such as through a phone call. Technical communication is a made-up term.

Question 33

The project team has just started to code the redesigned accounting application when a key stakeholder asks for the application in order to include a very specific report to the company’s expenses. The stakeholder has submitted a change request to the project manager. What would be the most important input to consider for this change request?

Answer 33

Work performance reports

Work performance reports is an input to the process of performing integrated change control, as it will show the overall status of the project. The other choices are not inputs to this process.

Question 34

While compiling all the work performance information into the work performance report, a project manager notices that the SPI of the project is .6 and the CPI is .7. What action should the project manager take next on this project?

Answer 34

Create a change request to correct the project

In this scenario, an SPI of .6 and a CPI of .7 indicate that the project is behind schedule and over budget. The project manager should initiate change requests to correct the budget and schedule of the project. Informing the sponsor of only a delay or being over budget is just half of what’s wrong with the project.

Question 35

The project manager has acquired the project team members and is starting to work with them to complete the project work. During this process the project manager has utilized a variety of rewards and recognition theories to keep the team motivated. What is the output of this process?

Answer 35

Team performance assessment

The process being completed in this question is develop team. The output is team performance assessments. All other choices are tools in this process.

Question 36

Agile project conduct planning at multiple points in time as the scope is refined and change over the project lifecycle. This is known as?

Answer 36

Rolling wave planning

Rolling wave planning is when planning is done at multiple points in time as data becomes available.

Question 37

The team is concerned with the quality of the product about to be created by the project. What statement about quality management is true?

Answer 37

Low-grade, high quality is okay

A low-grade, high-quality project is acceptable. The grade just represents the number of features a project had. Low quality is never okay. Prevention leads to less inspection.

Question 38

The project team has just assigned costs to each of the activities on the project. They will now use these costs to find the overall budget of the project. What tool can the project team use to complete this task?

Answer 38

Cost aggregation

If the activities have been assigned costs, then the process of estimate costs has been completed. The next process would be to determine budget and use the cost aggregation tool to integrate all the activities into the overall budget of the project. The tools of bottom-up estimation and parametric estimation are not used to determine a budget. You do not need an expert in order to aggregate costs; maybe to help determine the costs, but not to aggregate them.

Question 39

The project manager is having a very difficult time collecting the requirements from the customers. The customers are having a difficult time putting the requirements into logical groupings. What tool can best help them group the requirements?

Answer 39

Affinity diagrams

An affinity diagram is used to group large numbers of ideas to be analyzed. A prototype is a functional model of a product given to customers for their feedback. Decomposition is a tool used to break work down into more detailed activities. The requirements documentation would be the output of the process of collect requirements, not a tool.

Question 40

While analyzing the budget of a project, the project manager notices that the current CPI of the project is .93 and the SPI is 1.1. What best describes what is taking place on this project?

Answer 40

Crashing

Crashing involves adding more resources to a project to decrease the schedule. In this scenario, the project is 7% over budget but is 10% ahead of schedule. Fast tracking and resource leveling generally do not increase costs. Best tracking is a made-up term.

Question 41

While working on a project with a budget of $5,000, the project manager determines that the earned value on the project so far is $1,750. So far, the project team has spent $2,900. What should the project manager report as the status of the budget?

Answer 41

The project is over budget by 60%

In this situation, you would need to find out the CPI of the project, which is EV/AC. That would equal 1750/2900 = .6. A CPI of .6 represents that the project is 40% over budget. Remember that if the CPI is 1, then the project is on budget. Anything under 1 represents being over budget, and anything over 1 represents being under budget.

Question 42

The project manager is currently reviewing all of the meetings that took place over the past few weeks to ensure that it was done according to the communication management plan. What process is the project manager currently conducting?

Answer 42

Monitor communications

Monitor Communications is where the project manager analyzes the project communications with the project management plan to ensure the communications are done according to the plan. Plan communication management is done to create the communication management plan. Manage Communications is where a project manager actually communicates with the stakeholders according to the plan. Conduct Communications is not an actual process.

Question 43

While measuring quality on a project, the project team decided to just measure the quality as pass/fail. The team has determined that this is the best method because the deliverables are mostly functions that will need to produce a correct result. What best describes this measurement?

Answer 43

Attribute sampling

An attribute sample is a measurement that is usually pass/fail or good/bad. Statistical sampling is a measurement that is not just pass/fail; it also has a middle ground, such as good, very good, bad, or very bad. Statistical independence means that an outcome of two events cannot affect each other, and mutually exclusive is a term that is used when two events cannot happen at the same time.

Question 43

The project team has completed the scope baseline and has started to break down each of the work packages in into individual activities. What process should the team do next?

Answer 43

Sequence activity

After the team has created the activity list in the process of define activity, the next process should be sequencing the activities. This should be done before the team develops a schedule. Creating WBS and defining scope will come before defining activities.

Question 44

The project manager is informed that a manager in the finance department has requested to be included in the weekly status updates on the project. What document should the project manager update immediately?

Answer 44

Stakeholder register

The stakeholder register can be updated at any point during the project. The register contains a list of all stakeholders and their contact information, communication requirements, and impact on the project. Once this is done, then the project manager can update the communication management plan to add the new stakeholder. This is a change, not an issue on a project, so there is no need to update the issue log. The risk register keeps track of the risk on the project. Project communications are the actual communications taking place during the project.

Question 45

A project manager is having difficulties communicating with the project team; there always seem to be misunderstandings and conflicts. What interpersonal and team skills should the project manager improve on?

Answer 45

Active listening

Active listening helps to reduce misunderstandings and improves communications and knowledge sharing. Selective listening and passive listening are not terms used in PMBOK. The lessons learned register is not an interpersonal and team skills tool.

Question 46

Which of the following is a method that will be used to conduct frequent verification and validation that can be done every second on the project?

Answer 46

Pair programming

Pair programming is defined as when one programmer writes the code another inspects the code as it’s been written. This leads to the codes being inspected in seconds.

Question 47

While working on a project, the project manager asks to incorporate more of the user feedback into the deliverables. In an agile project, where do the customers give the team feedback on the product?

Answer 47

Sprint review

During a sprint review, the customers review the partially finished product and give the team their feedback. A sprint planning meeting is held to determine what requirements will be met in the next sprint. A retrospective is conducted to capture the lessons learned from the sprint. Feedback release is a made-up term.

Question 48

The project team is currently working on a project to upgrade all the servers across the organization. Before they are able to get the financial server, the vendor calls and says the server delivery has been delayed 2 weeks. What documents should the project manager update immediately?

Answer 48

issue log

The issue log is used to keep track of all issues in the project. The delay of a server will mean the project might be delayed, so it should be entered into the issue log immediately. After that the project manager might implement a change request to extend the schedule baseline and update the project management plan. The work breakdown structure does not show work by time.

Question 49

While installing the new virtual server, the team discovers a new method that they can use on this project and future projects that can get the installation done in about half the time. This new method involves prepping the server image and cloning the machines. What is the best project document for the team to update?

Answer 49

Lessons learned register

Any time new knowledge is gained on a project, it should be added to the lessons learned register to be used throughout the project and on future projects. The risk register is used to list all the risks that can affect the project and how the project team would respond to them. Opportunity and knowledge management registers are made-up terms.

Question 50

A project manager is having a very difficult time negotiating with a functional manager. The project manager would like to have Peter, the system administrator, work on the project full time, but the functional manager needs Peter full time to work on the servers throughout the day in case one goes down. After a few days of negotiating, the project manager has determined that he will have Peter from Monday to Wednesday, and the functional manager can have Peter on Thursday and Friday. Although this solution is not the most ideal scenario for the project manager and functional manager, it will have to work for now. What conflict resolution technique was used?

Answer 50

Comprimising

Compromising is when both sides in a conflict give up something to come up with a solution. Smoothing is when the problem is pushed aside, and forcing is when one side completely wins and the other side completely loses. Problem-solving is the best way, but that would require both sides to come up with a solution in which they both win.

Question 51

A company has completed building a new datacenter. The project has many changes that were submitted to the change control board. Most changes were approved, and some were not. Which of the following is not a purpose of the change control board?

Answer 51

Deny changes whenever possible

The change control board’s purpose is to manage changes to the project, which include assessing changes and stopping unnecessary changes. The change control board is not there to deny changes unless it has been assessed and deemed unnecessary in the project.

Question 52

In what process does a project manager determine the approach they will use to involve the stakeholders to meet their expectations?

Answer 52

Plan stakeholders engagement

During the process of plan stakeholder engagement, the project manager will develop an approach to involve the stakeholders to meet their expectations, interest, and potential impact on the project. Identify stakeholders is establishing who the stakeholders are on the project and what their interests will be their interest. Plan communications is to create a plan to ensure that all stakeholders are receiving the correct communications. Manage stakeholders engagements is done to communicate with the stakeholders to meet their needs.

Question 53

The project team has been brought together for the first time to work on the network upgrade project. They were able to learn about the functions they will be doing on the project and what their roles will be. What will the team do next, according to Tuckman’s ladder?

Answer 53

Storming

The team is currently in the forming stage and will move next to the storming stage. The stages are forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

Question 54

The project team is currently working on an advertising project. They have completed a few of the activities, which includes writing the script for the commercial. Once the team completes an activity, what should they do next?

Answer 54

Update work performance data

Once work is done on a project, the team should update the work performance data. This will include the status on the work such as when it was completed or started. The project manager will take the work performance data and create the work performance information and report, which will then be given to all the other stakeholders. You should not close the project or phase until all work has been completed and accepted.

Question 55

A project manager is currently working with the team to complete the office redesign project when a sponsor tells him to finish it 2 weeks sooner. The project manager will need 4 new people to join the team to complete the work sooner. What technique is best described in this scenario?

Answer 55

Crashing

Crashing is a scheduled compression method where you add more resources to complete the project sooner. Fast tracking is about running activities in parallel. The critical path method is about creating a network diagram and finding the critical path.

Question 56

While planning the risk responses for a construction project, the project manager and project team have decided they will have to choose a new electrical contractor due to the fact that the recommended contractor has legal issues with the local building department. The legal issues could cause the project to be delayed. What risk response does this represent?

Answer 56

Avoid

Avoidance is when you go down a different path all together. The risk is eliminated and cannot happen. Since they choose another contractor, they cannot get delayed by that particular contractor. Acceptance is taking no action against the risk and accepting the outcome. Mitigation is done to reduce the risk probability and/or impact. Exploit is for a positive risk that will ensure the risk takes place.

Question 57

While working on a project, the project team has encountered a problem that has halted the project work. The team is unable to come up with a solution and would like to have an outside company come in and finish the rest of the project. What should the project team do next?

Answer 57

Create a request for proposal

A request for proposal is used when there’s a problem on the project, and this solution is not easy to determine. This is generally a formal request made by project vendors to understand how they would rewrite the scope statement. Conducting a bidder conference will not come up with solutions to the problem with the project. A request for quotation is made to understand how a vendor develops satisfied requirements and how much it will cost.

Question 58

The project team has identified a number of risks that could affect the project. One risk in particular is that the permit to build the foundation has shown up late. They have ranked this risk as the most important in the project since it will cause the largest delay. What process best describes this ranking?

Answer 58

Qualitative risk analysis

A qualitative risk process is done to rank the risk that has been identified in the identify risk process. Quantitative risk analysis is done to assign a value to the risk. Plan risk management is done to create the risk management plan, which will document how to conduct all the risk management processes.

Question 59

The project team has finished 60% of the deliverables when management informs the project manager that the project will be canceled immediately and the team will be reassigned to work on a new project that management feels is more important. What should the project manager do right away?

Answer 59

Inform the project team, consuct a lesson learned session, and formally relaase the team from the project

If a project is terminated before completion, the project manager should immediately move to the close project or phase process and formally close the project. The other choices do not involve the activities in the close project or phase process.