Test 12 Flashcards
- You are leading a complex project and are currently doing some high-level planning. You want to schedule retrospectives so that each team member’s calendar gets booked. How should you schedule these events?
Correct Response
You should not schedule these events well in advance, the project team decides when to call a retrospective.
Not: At the end of each sprint.
Incorrect response: When more than a few weeks have passed since the previous retrospective.
Incorrect response: At the end of each release.
You should not schedule these events well in advance, the project team decides when to call a retrospective. Retrospectives can be scheduled on different occasions, such as the end of sprint, completion of a release, achievement of some milestone, or whenever the team gets stuck with the project work. [PMI Agile p51] (Domain: People, Task 3)
Project Performance Domain: Planning
ECO Domain: People
- You are managing a complex software development project for an external customer. You are using the waterfall approach to manage the project in line with the contractual requirements. However, you are not comfortable with this approach. You believe that customers don’t really know what they want upfront; rather, what they want emerges out of repeated two-way interactions over the course of the project. In your current situation, the waterfall approach has its emphasis on upfront requirements capture and design, followed by product development and finally the system testing. The customer will only be involved during the requirements gathering and system testing stages and will be completely out of touch during the development activities. What approach can help you mitigate the risk created by the waterfall approach:
Correct Response: Divide the project into multiple phases and organize phase gates.
NOT Adopt a hybrid life cycle.
Incorrect response: Adopt an incremental life cycle.
Incorrect response: Adopt an iterative life cycle.
In a predictive life cycle, the project planning is completed in the early phases of the project. Although the use of the waterfall life cycle is mandated by the client, the project manager can still customize the approach to obtain benefits offered by the adaptive approaches. In this case, dividing the project into multiple phases and organizing phase gates with the customer can help achieve this. [PMBOK7 p42] (Domain: Process, Task 1)
Project Performance Domain: Development Approach and Life Cycle
ECO Domain: Process
- A team is currently developing a bespoke enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for a manufacturing plant. At the start of the project that backlog was estimated to have 10,000 story points and the order of magnitude cost estimate for the project was $1M. The team has just finished the 15th iteration and has provided the following project statistics: Completed features value = $450,000; Actual costs to date = $600,000; Completed story points = 550; Planned story points = 700. What is the project’s SPI?
Correct Response: 0.79
NOT 0.75
Incorrect response: 1.33
Incorrect response: 1.27
Agile SPI = Completed story points/planned story points = 550/700 = 0.79. [PMI Agile p69] (Domain: Process, Task 5)
Project Performance Domain: Planning
ECO Domain: Process
- You are managing an enterprise solution deployment project. The end users are not happy with the solution. You decide to meet the end users and find out that they haven’t received proper training on the new system. What should you do first?
Correct Response: Update the issue log
NOT Investigate further into the issue and determine the root-cause
Incorrect response: Update the project management plan with the necessary changes
Incorrect response: Arrange additional training
The first action you must take upon identification of any issue is to update the issue log. Once this has been done, you need to carry out a root-cause analysis and take appropriate corrective actions. [PMBOK7 p185] (Domain: Process, Task 1)
Project Performance Domain: Stakeholders
ECO Domain: Process
- During a project update meeting, one of the key stakeholders expressed his displeasure over the project management approach. One percent of the produced deliverables had minor defects which required a rework. This stakeholder has been a resisting stakeholder so far. What must the project manager do to bring the future project performance in line with the approved quality requirements?
Correct Response: Investigate the root cause and identify the required corrective action.
NOT Investigate the root cause and identify the required preventive action.
Incorrect response: Ignore the complaint from the resisting stakeholder.
Incorrect response: Investigate the root cause and identify the required defect repair.
If any stakeholder—resisting or supporting—identifies any issue, it must be addressed. The defects have already been identified and fixed. The scenario is talking about an action that would bring the future project performance in line with the approved quality requirements, this is a corrective action. [PMBOK7 p272] (Domain: People, Task 1)
Project Performance Domain: Stakeholders
ECO Domain: People
- For a complex project with a loosely defined scope, which of the following contracting approaches can help an Agile team define a contractual relationship in a way that the team gets control over the expenditure while at the same time limiting the supplier’s financial risk of over-commitment?
Correct Response: Decomposing the scope into fixed-price micro-deliverables.
NOT Aggregating the scope into a time & materials contract.
Incorrect response: Aggregating the scope into a fixed-price contract.
Incorrect response: Decomposing the scope into cost-reimbursable macro-deliverables.
A fixed price contract will hedge the buyer’s risk but will not limit the supplier’s financial risk. On the other hand, a time & materials or a cost-reimbursable arrangement will not give the buyer any control over the cost. The recommended approach is to decompose the project scope into fixed-price micro-deliverables, such as user stories. For the buyer, this gives more control over how the money is spent. For the supplier, it limits the financial risk of over-commitment to a single feature or deliverable. [PMI Agile p77] (Domain: Process, Task 8)
Project Performance Domain: Planning
ECO Domain: Process
- Which testing approach requires system-level testing for end-to-end information, unit testing for the building blocks, and, in between, determines if there is a need for integration testing?
Correct Response: Test at all levels.
NOT Continuous integration.
Incorrect response: Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD).
Incorrect response: Behavior Driven Development (BDD).
“Test at all levels” employs system-level testing for end-to-end information, unit testing for the building blocks, and, in between, determines if there is a need for integration testing. [PMI Agile p56] (Domain: Process, Task 7)
Project Performance Domain: Planning
ECO Domain: Process
- A team is performing a complex Agile project for the first time and going through a steep learning curve. Which Agile events would you recommend to be frequently scheduled?
Correct Response: Retrospectives
NOT Daily stand-ups
Incorrect response: Iteration planning
Incorrect response: Spike
The single most important practice is the retrospective because it allows the team to learn about, improve, and adapt its process. Retrospectives help the team learn from its previous work on the product and its process. For a team new to Agile, frequent retrospectives are recommended. [PMI Agile p62] (Domain: Process, Task 7)
Project Performance Domain: Planning
ECO Domain: Process
- Regardless of the type, complexity and nature of a project, all projects may benefit from application of some golden project management principles. For example, what action decreases the risk of a project failing to meet its goals and objectives?
Correct Response: Active management of stakeholders
NOT Discouraging changes to the initial project scope
Incorrect response: Acquiring more than required resources
Incorrect response: Fast-tacking the project schedule to finish the project before deadline
Changes are inevitable. Acquiring more than required resources will put a strain on the budget and might compromise the project’s financial goals. Fast-tracking always introduces risk to the project. However, active management of stakeholders almost always guarantees a decrease in project risk. [PMBOK7 Standard p31-33] (Domain: People, Task 9)
Project Performance Domain: Stakeholders
ECO Domain: People
- You are a project manager for a computer security project and have gathered your team to begin identifying risks for your current project. All the following are methods that you can use to gather information for this purpose except:
Interviewing
Brainstorming
Risk Register
Checklists
Correct Response: Risk Register
NOT Checklists
Incorrect response: Interviewing
Incorrect response: Brainstorming
The risk register is not an information gathering technique used for identifying risks. It is a repository for information gathered during risk identification. The other choices are valid information gathering techniques, i.e., tools and techniques of the Identify Risks process. [PMBOK7 p122-127] (Domain: Process, Task 3)
Project Performance Domain: Uncertainty
ECO Domain: Process
- The testers on the software development project you are managing have said repeatedly that the processes required to certify each release are overkill and are actually much more work than is required. The project is slightly ahead of schedule. What do you do?
Correct Response: Implement a continuous improvement program for testing processes.
NOT Do nothing. Full testing is required for quality assurance.
Incorrect response: Explain to the team why the testing processes are required.
Incorrect response: Advise the testers that they can test the software anyway they wish, as long as the documented requirements are met.
Implementing a continuous program to optimize, add, or remove testing processes is the best choice. Project managers are bound by the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to follow all processes and policies in place. However, where processes are not as effective as they could be, formal changes are acceptable. [PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct] (Domain: Business Environment, Task 1)
Project Performance Domain: Prof. Responsibility
ECO Domain: Business Environment
