Question 1Correct

You have been assigned to a new project, where the work is behind schedule and
the team are not working together well. The team is relatively new, and conflicts
are arising. Team members are blaming each other for work not done, and some
people are not showing up to work on the project at all. What will you do next?
Meet with the functional manager to agree on the team members’ time
requirements.
Your answer is correct
Meet with your team to set a team charter and define roles & responsibilities.
Meet with the project sponsor to gain additional funding for resources who can
work together.
Escalate the issue to the steering committee as soon as possible as a project
risk.
Overall explanation
The Standard for Project Management asks that we create a collaborative team
environment, including team agreements, definitions of roles & responsibilities,
formal committees tasked with specific objectives, and standing meetings that
regularly review a given topic. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p28, p29,
“Create a Collaborative Team Environment”
Question 2Correct
You have recently completed a project for a new product and have been asked to
manage it after its release to keep it relevant in today’s marketplace. Half of
your existing project team are rolling off to other projects soon, and your project
budget is nearly depleted. What will you do next?
Create a business case and project charter for your project sponsor to approve.
Retain as many of your current project staff to continue work on the product.
Raise a change request for your current project to add scope and continue
making changes.
Your answer is correct
Secure funding for a stable team, then use current research to form a suite of
projects to improve the product.
Overall explanation
This question is referring to product management. Product management involves
the integration of people, data, processes and business systems to develop or
maintain a product or service throughout its lifecycle. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p17-19, “ Product Management Considerations”
Question 3Correct
You are delivering a critical change and several key stakeholders in your
organisation have added seemingly unnecessary steps for you to take, with extra
approvals, reports and meetings. They are also restricting the people you need
from working on your project in a larger capacity. What will you do next?
Go directly to the people you need to avoid extra back-and-forth with the
stakeholders.
Raise a risk in the risk register on the lack of access to sufficient resources.
Your answer is correct
Communicate more often with the stakeholders and gain a deeper awareness of
their ideas and situation.
Show your stakeholders the Resource Assignment Matrix and project roles &
responsibilities.
Overall explanation
This question refers to the principle of Effectively Engaging with Stakeholders.
Stakeholders may add steps or requirements, or restrict team members if not
engaged appropriately. Communication and awareness of their ideas, through
knowledge sharing and regular meetings (ideally face to face) help. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p32, 33, “Effectively Engage with Stakeholders.”
Question 4Correct
You are managing a project team mostly made up of men. Recently Jane was
hired for her high expertise in the brands that make up your industry. You notice
she has been left out of some key meetings, and others are overlooking her
opinions. You also notice she is paid significantly less than her male colleagues.
What will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Make steps to update her pay to the same range as the others on your project,
and ask her opinion and advice specifically during each meeting (along with
others in your team).
Take the lower pay as a win for your project, as it will help keep costs low and
her colleagues don’t need to know.
Ask Jane to write down her knowledge of the industry, just in case she leaves.
No need to rock the boat – this is just how people work in this industry.
Overall explanation
This question is on Integrity and Stewardship. We should have respectful
engagement of project team members, including their compensation, access to
opportunity and fair treatment. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p25, “Be
a diligent, respectful and caring steward”.
Question 5Correct
During one of your working group meetings, a stakeholder raises the concern
that the product you are working on will be discontinued in the next five months.
You were not aware of this, and your project budget has already been approved
until the scheduled delivery, which is in five months also. What will you do next?
Keep the project going as it is – the discontinued product isn’t your responsibility.
Your answer is correct
Set a meeting with your project sponsor to share the information and a
recommendation to terminate the project.
Change the scope of the project to meet a different product so your project can
remain relevant.
Ask for additional funding to see if you can improve the product instead of
discontinuing it.
Overall explanation
This question is about delivering value – the primary motivator for a project. If
the project is no longer aligned with the business need or it seems unlikely to
provide value, the organisation may choose to terminate the effort. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p35, “Focus on Value”
Question 6Correct
You have collected the requirements for your project and are creating the scope
statement and work breakdown structure. During this process you notice some
functionality in your database system that will help a different project you are
aware of within your Project Management Office (PMO). What will you do next?
Place the feature in the other project’s backlog, and ask them to prioritise it as
soon as possible.
Raise the functionality in your risk register as a threat, with the response to
“mitigate”.
Add the scope to your project and complete it as soon as possible.
Your answer is correct
Raise the functionality in your risk register as an opportunity with the response
to “exploit”, and meet with the other project team and sponsor to discuss.
Overall explanation
Systems thinking involves taking a holistic view of how project parts interact with
each other, and external systems. Projects operate within programs, and small
systems affect larger ones. Finding a previously unknown opportunity, the next
best step is to make it known and exploit the opportunity. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p39, “Respond to System Interactions: Systems Thinking”
p125, “Opportunities”
Question 7Correct
You are working on a high profile project. Several high-ranking senior executives
want to take the credit for this initiative, while limiting the impact to their own
resources. This has led to several conflicts and a scope statement that is unclear,
leading to a risk of project failure. What will you do next?
Create a scope statement yourself to avoid further conflict.
Your answer is correct
Facilitate a discussion with the executives as a neutral third party, focusing on
agreed project goals.
Limit your project resources to the executives until they can agree on a way
forward.
Escalate the issue to the project steering committee and ask them to resolve the
problem.
Overall explanation
Leadership is not the same as authority. When senior managers suffer conflict
over priorities, neutral facilitation helps more than detailed recommendations.
Leadership acumen involves focusing a team around agreed goals, generating
consensus on the way forward, negotiating and resolving conflict, and more.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p42, “Demonstrate leadership
behaviours”
Question 8Correct
You are managing a project where the majority of the product has been planned
up-front, but an external system is needed from a vendor in partial pieces where
the requirements are unclear. Half of your stakeholders want to use a waterfall
approach, and the other half are advocating for an Agile approach. What will you
do next?
Use an Agile methodology. The fixed scope is low risk, and you can capture
changes using Agile.
Use a Waterfall methodology and ask the team to plan the uncertain scope
better.
Your answer is correct
Proceed with a hybrid method to start, with pre-planned scope but Agile
ceremonies that promote feedback.
Use a combination of Waterfall and Agile to capture all the requirements and
keep stakeholders happy.
Overall explanation
Each project is unique, and success is based on adapting to the unique context
of the project to determine the most appropriate methods. The tailoring
approach is iterative in nature and refined during the project cycle. This project
requires a hybrid of waterfall and agile, with the option to improve it over time.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p44-46, “Tailoring”
Question 9Incorrect
You are working on a project where senior users have been testing the product
as parts are released. They have found some missing requirements and defects.
Their manager is worried that the project won’t deliver a product that is fit for
purpose, without defects and within the timeframe needed. What will you do
next?
Perform some of the testing yourself to ensure a quality product.
Correct answer
Help every team member to focus on quality, from correct acceptance criteria to
a developed and tested product.
Limit testing until the very end of the project so you can do it all in one go when
the product is completely ready.
Your answer is incorrect
Increase the testing on your project and add more testing resources so no defect
goes unnoticed.
Overall explanation
Quality focuses on meeting acceptance criteria for deliverables, and satisfying
stakeholders’ expectations on product requirements. Quality is everyone’s
responsibility in an Adaptive (Agile) project. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p47-49, “Build quality into processes and deliverables.”
Question 10Correct
You are working through the risk assessment with your team, who are having
trouble coming up with ideas for risks. You decide to give them some guidance
on types of complexity that might affect your new product. What will you do
next?
Ask them to brainstorm Qualitative and Quantitative risks.
Ask them to perform the Five Whys and Ishikawa analysis.
Your answer is correct
Ask them to brainstorm around possible unwanted human behaviour, system
behaviour, ambiguity and technical innovation impacts.
Ask them to perform a retrospective to discover what isn’t working well, and
what still puzzles us.
Overall explanation
Complexity is often the result of human behaviour, system interactions, technical
innovation, uncertainty and ambiguity. Complexity can be introduced by events
or conditions that affect value, scope, stakeholders, risk and more.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p50, 51, “Navigate complexity"
Question 11Incorrect
You are working on a project where you discover a certain negative risk with a
potential impact of $2,000,000. You meet with your project stakeholders who
determine that this is within their risk appetite, provided you meet a risk
threshold of 10%. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Note the acceptable risk level as a threat of $200,000 (10%).
Correct answer
Note the acceptable risk level as a threat of $1,800,000 to $2,200,00 (10%
variance).
Note the impact as outside the acceptable risk level of $2,000,000.
Note the impact as an opportunity of $200,000 (10%).
Overall explanation
Risk appetite describes the level of uncertainty or risk your stakeholders are
willing to accept. Risk threshold is the measure of acceptable variation around an
objective that reflects the risk appetite. In this scenario a 10% variation around
$2m is $1.8m to $2.2m. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p54, “Risk”
Question 12Correct
A risk has been raised in your project around insufficient building materials. One
risk response assigned to the functional manager suggests to use a brand new
material, which has not been fully tested in a building project. Half of your
stakeholder group are happy with this risk response, but the other half are not,
and refuse to sign off on it. What will you do next?
Suggest a quantitative risk approach to give a more accurate financial impact.
Suggest they proceed with the proposed risk response, and ensure it is followed
through.
Suggest a different risk owner, as an executive may have more power to respond
to the risk.
Your answer is correct
Suggest a different risk response, as they should be timely, cost effective,
realistic, and agreed to by relevant stakeholders.
Overall explanation
This question refers to risk responses. Risk responses should be appropriate and
timely to the significance of the risk, cost effective, realistic within the project
context, agreed to by relevant stakeholders, and owned by a responsible person.
D is the best answer. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p54, “Risk”
Question 13Correct
Your project is starting to go off track due to a large amount of uncertainty in the
requirements and resources. At a significant cost, you have managed to reign in
these issues, however your project management office would like you to
brainstorm ways to improve with your team so that they do not happen again.
What will you do next?
Ask your team to increase the project Contingency Reserve, to allow for these
impacts.
Ask your team to change the project methodology from Waterfall to Agile.
Your answer is correct
Ask your team to use short feedback loops, continuous improvement, and
transparent planning.
Ask your team to check their work twice before sending it to the next part of the
process.
Overall explanation
A project team needs to embrace adaptability and resiliency with methods such
as using short feedback loops, continuous learning and improvement, regular
inspection and adaptation of project work, diverse project teams, transparent
planning, using prototypes and more. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p56, “Embrace adaptability and resiliency.”
Question 14Incorrect
As your project progresses, many of the business stakeholders are starting to
voice their concerns, to question some of the changes, and even miss key
meetings while trying to sabotage your efforts. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Communicate the vision and benefits for the change clearly, along with the
impact to their work.
Create an impact over influence chart to determine who should be engaged
appropriately.
Escalate the matter with your project sponsor, and arrange for different
stakeholders.
Your answer is incorrect
Map the current state and the proposed future state of the change for the
stakeholders.
Overall explanation
This question is on change management, which is a structured approach to
transitioning groups to a future state. Too much change or lack of understanding
can lead to resistance and change fatigue. Methods include communicating the
vision, goals and benefits of the change early, along with the impact to work
processes. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p59, “Enable change to
achieve the envisioned future state”.
Question 15Correct
You are analysing your stakeholder through an impact over influence chart and
have found more than 100 different groups of people, and over 3000 impacted
stakeholders. Other parts of your project are starting to fall behind as you try to
keep up with the large amount of people. What will you do next?
Ask your project team to engage different groups of stakeholders so everyone is
covered.
Your answer is correct
Clearly prioritise the stakeholders then engage and communicate with the highly
impacted and influential groups early and often.
Monitor the stakeholders for signs of stress and respond to groups most stressed
about the project.
Create a SharePoint page for changes that any stakeholder can gather
information from anytime.
Overall explanation
This question is about engaging stakeholders. The process includes: Identify,
Understand and Analyse, Prioritise, Engage and Monitor your stakeholders.
Where you have too many to engage effectively, prioritisation is the key. Impact
and influence are two ways, as well as Power, Beliefs, Expectations, proximity to
the project, interest and more. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p11, 12,
“Stakeholder Engagement: Prioritise and Engage”
Question 16Correct
You are managing a project which communicates to the customer using mostly
pull communication so far. When monitoring the engagement of your
stakeholders, you notice a trend that they are not clear on the impacts or
benefits of the project. You decide to add push communication to your
communication plan. What will you do next?
Create a webpage using SharePoint with all the project information, that your
stakeholders can see.
Push for more funding on your project, and communicate this to your project
sponsor.
Push your stakeholders to engage in more two-way communication.
Your answer is correct
Send a weekly email to stakeholders with a project update, including the impacts
and benefits.
Overall explanation
Push communication is sent to stakeholders, using memos, emails, status
reports, voice mail and more. Pull communication is something a customer can
pull at any time – from a bulletin, a web page, a white board, etc. (PMBOK Guide)
– Seventh Edition, 2021, p13, “Types of Communication”
Question 17Correct
You have taken over on a project with a vendor where scope and requirements
have been missed. You notice that miscommunication and mixed messages are
common. You set a meeting with your team and the vendor’s team. The meeting
is extremely important to get right. What will you do next?
Speak slowly and clearly with the vendor’s team, at a louder volume if
necessary.
Your answer is correct
Confirm they hear your message, determine if they agree, and identify nuanced
or unintended messages they may have received.
Only communicate with the vendor in writing, so you have a trail of proof if
anything goes wrong in the future.
Prepare a claim for the mishandled scope of your project through your
procurement team.
Overall explanation
This question is asking about communication. With all forms of communication,
quick feedback loops provide the information you need by confirming they heard
the message, determining if they agree, and identifying any nuances or additions
to the message they may have added or heard. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p13, “Stakeholder Engagement: Engage”
Question 18Correct
Your stakeholders seem to be engaged, however there are frequent changes to
scope and requirements, causing delays. Issues are often raised and result in
multiple rounds of feedback. You are not sure who or what could be the cause.
What will you do next?
Perform root cause analysis with your project team on the problem to brainstorm
ideas.
Raise a risk in the risk register for the project delay, and review responses with
your team.
Your answer is correct
Review the issue log, risk register and change log for the most frequent
requestors, then update your stakeholder engagement approach for those
people.
Ensure your project budget has enough contingency reserves to meet the
multiple reviews and delays.
Overall explanation
A significant number of changes or modifications to the project requirements or
scope may indicate stakeholders are not engaged or aligned with the project
objectives. A review of the project issue register or risk register can identify
challenges associated with individual stakeholders. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p15, “Checking outcomes – Stakeholder Performance”
Question 19Correct
You have been working on a project where the manager leads in a dictatorship
style. Over time, the team have stopped making suggestions, sick days and
mental health days have become more frequent, and the pace of work has
slowed. The manager comes to you for help. You suggest a servant leadership
style instead. What will they do next?
Serve the team as much as they can, ensuring their every need is met.
Your answer is correct
Focus on obstacle removal, encouragement and development opportunities.
Ensure their team are serving other team members and helping each other
succeed.
Serve the team new ways to do the work and engage them through additional
variety.
Overall explanation
Servant leaders allow project teams to self-organise when possible, and increase
levels of autonomy by passing appropriate decision making opportunities to
project team members. Servant leadership behaviours also include obstacle
removal, being a diversion shield, and development opportunities. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p18, “Distributed management and leadership.”
Question 20Correct
You have been allocated to a new project team with members from different
parts of the functional business area. It soon becomes clear that very few of
them have worked on a project before. There is also a lot of miscommunication
and re-work occurring amongst the team, which is starting to cause delays. What
will you do next?
Set a daily stand-up with your team to ensure they update what they completed.
Review the Resource Assignment Matrix with your team and ensure they are
doing their job.
Your answer is correct
Help the team set their vision and objectives, roles and responsibilities, and team
operations.
Send your team members on training in their roles to increase their capability.
Overall explanation
When project teams form across different organisations, more work may be
required up front to establish a “one-team” mindset, ensuring everyone
understands how they contribute. Team development such as establishing a
vision, clear roles & responsibilities, and a way of working are key. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p18, “Common aspects of Team Development"
Question 21Incorrect
You have collected the requirements for your project, matched them to project
scope, and broken them down into smaller parts and the activities required. In
doing this, you notice that the manager of the marketing department has added
extra scope that is unrelated to your current project. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Start an open dialogue with the functional manager, raise the incorrect scope
items and their impacts.
Override the marketing manager’s decision on scope as you are the senior
project manager.
Your answer is incorrect
Raise a change request for the additional scope and let the Change Control
Board decide.
Place the additional scope into the product backlog for the product owner to
prioritise it.
Overall explanation
Without an open dialogue, you may not know if the scope was a mistake,
previously approved, or any other reason for it being there. Positive discourse
and courage are key aspects of a winning project team culture. Others include
support, respect, celebrating success, and transparency. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p21, “Project Team Culture”
Question 22Correct
Your project team are protected by a union agreement. You notice that they
don’t know how to use the product you are improving, are slow to respond and
regularly complain about the work. Your project sponsor has had enough and
threatens to shut the project down if improvements can’t be made. What will you
do next?
Set up a new project with different team members and transfer the project work
to that team.
Your answer is correct
Set a clear project purpose and vision and pair your team with the customer to
show them how they are making a positive difference.
Tell your project team that they will lose their jobs in they don’t improve the
speed of their work.
Create a project Gantt Chart schedule and burndown chart so the project work is
transparent to all.
Overall explanation
This question calls for leadership skills, where setting a vision and purpose and
showing your team how they are making a difference can increase their intrinsic
motivation. Transferring to another team in the same company may risk the
same result, and threatening your team may embed their behaviour further.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p24,25, “Leadership Skills: Establishing
a Vision; Motivation”
Question 23Correct
During a key scope meeting, an argument arises. The business manager accuses
the technology manager of not delivering to their needs on past projects, and the
technology manager accuses the business manager of changing requirements
that impact the delivery schedule. The meeting is at risk, with the stakeholders
being closed off to any further discussion. What will you do next?
Take the side of the technology manager, as scope that impacts delivery should
be controlled.
Take the side of the business manager, as we should always deliver to the
customer’s specification.
Your answer is correct
Facilitate to keep communication respectful, focus on the issue in the present
and search for alternatives together.
Ensure they both agree to the change control process to avoid disagreements in
the future.
Overall explanation
Not all conflict is negative. How conflict is handled can either lead to more
conflict or to better decision making and stronger solutions. The PMBOK Guide
notes open and respectful communication, focusing on the issue not the person,
the present not the past, and searching for alternatives together. (PMBOK Guide)
– Seventh Edition, 2021, p29, “Conflict Management”
Question 24Correct
You are working on a project where the project team is completely distributed
around the country in multiple sites, including working from home. Some of the
project team members have not been able to contribute to the project, and there
are concerns from the program that the project will fall behind. What will you do
next?
Raise a request to the program to co-locate all your project team members as
soon as possible.
Proceed with daily stand-ups and working group meetings with any team
members in your area.
Set team leaders for each area around the country, to report back to you as the
centralised project leader.
Your answer is correct
Use technology to maintain ongoing contact with audio and video for meetings,
with a team web site to keep all project information available.
Overall explanation
This question is on distributed project teams. To improve you can use audio and
video capabilities for meetings, use technology (including messaging) for
ongoing contact, build in time to get to know remote team members, and have
an open project site for information. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p30, “Distributed project teams”.
Question 25Incorrect
You are initiating a project to a sales team where the process will change
significantly, even though the outcome of a completed sale will remain the same.
The functional manager is concerned about the change and any disruption it
might bring. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Kick off the project with multiple deliveries to deliver small parts and reduce the
change impact.
Correct answer
Kick off the project work with a single delivery at the end of the project when the
process change is complete.
Kick off the project with continuous delivery in mind, to ensure fast value to the
business.
Kick off the project using periodic deliveries, delivering value as it is ready.
Overall explanation
This question covers delivery cadence and their various benefits. A process re-
engineering project may not have any deliveries until near the end of the project
when the new process is rolled out and ready. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p34, “Delivery Cadence”
Question 26Incorrect
You are working on a project where the requirements are clear but the solution
ideas are uncertain. The product owner and the technical experts can’t be sure
which ideas will work in practice, and which ones won’t. The organisation cannot
afford to get this project wrong, as they have previously made mistakes and
customers are starting to leave. What will you do next?
Use an Incremental development approach for the project.
Correct answer
Use an Iterative development approach for the project.
Use a Predictive development approach for the project.
Your answer is incorrect
Use a hybrid development approach for the project.
Overall explanation
For development approaches, an iterative approach is used when you need to
capture ideas that might change, while still delivered in one release. Incremental
progressively delivers features (or increments), Predictive plans everything up-
front, and hybrid is a combination of predictive and adaptive. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p37, “Development approaches.” Agile Practice Guide,
2017, p18, “Characteristics of project lifecycles.”
Question 27Correct
You are working on a new product for your organisation where the requirements
are complex and are likely to change a few times as the project progresses. The
organisation also needs usable parts of the product to be released as soon as
possible to try and capture some of the market they are aiming for, away from
their competitors. What will you do next?
Recommend an Iterative development approach.
Recommend a Predictive development approach.
Your answer is correct
Recommend an Adaptive development approach.
Recommend a Hybrid development approach.
Overall explanation
Adaptive approaches are useful when requirements are subject to uncertainty
and change. A clear vision is established at the start of the project, and initial
known requirements are refined or replaced in accordance with user feedback or
unexpected events. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p38, “Adaptive
approach”
Question 28Incorrect
A new project has been kicked off in your organisation due to a recent
government inquiry into your industry, which found multiple processes with
significant regulatory oversight that need to change. The inquiry ordering these
changes has given you a due date of 10 months’ time before you start incurring
penalties. What will you do next?
Proceed, with an Agile development approach to deliver change as quickly as
possible.
Your answer is incorrect
Proceed, with a Hybrid development approach to respond to changes while
planning up front.
Correct answer
Proceed, with a Predictive methodology to ensure quality control.
Proceed, with an Iterative methodology to improve using feedback.
Overall explanation
In considerations for selecting a development approach, environments that have
significant regulatory oversight may need to use a predictive approach due to
the required process, documentation and demonstration needs. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p40, “Considerations for selecting a development
approach.”
Question 29Correct
Your organisation is moving to an Agile way of work. Your project team are
strongly opposed to using Agile as they have been burned using iterations, when
executives used the team velocity to try and force the team to work faster
instead of keeping a sustainable pace. What will you do next?
Add extra resources to your team to deliver faster and avoid executives getting
involved.
Proceed with a predictive development approach, and deal with the
consequences later.
Ask your team to work with Agile, velocity and iterations despite their
hesitations.
Your answer is correct
Suggest the team uses flow-based scheduling, with a Kanban board for visual
work.
Overall explanation
Kanban is one of the largest parts of Agile approaches, aside from other major
parts such as Lean, XP and Scrum. A flow-based scheduling approach does not
use sprints, lifecycles or velocity but optimises deliveries based on resource
capacity, and minimises waste such as context-switching and hand-offs. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p45, “Flow-based scheduling.”
Question 30Correct
Your team have not worked on projects before, and don’t know about waterfall,
agile, or any of the different models. Your project may also have requirements
that are certain or uncertain, with varying levels of risk, so are not sure which
approach to use as you begin this new project. What will you do next?
Use Waterfall and plan everything up front, so the team have more stability.
Your answer is correct
Use general phase definitions such as Feasibility, Design, Build, Test, Deploy and
Close.
Use Agile to ensure you can respond to change while your team’s capability
increases.
Don’t use any project approach – it doesn’t matter as long as the work is getting
done.
Overall explanation
All projects will go through the general phases of Feasibility, Design, Build, Test,
Deploy and Close. Waterfall projects will do these in sequence once, while Agile
projects will do these multiple times, for each feature or increment. The
underlying principle remains the same, so it is a good place to start. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p42, “Lifecycle and phase definitions"
Question 31Correct
You a project manager in an organisation with a directive Project Management
Office, and are currently in between projects. The PMO asks you to prepare for
an upcoming project in the accounting area by meeting with the functional
manager there. You have no team, no scope or requirements and no timeline as
yet. What will you do next?
Ask the functional manager for their wish-list of improvements, so you can take
these to your PMO.
Create a project management plan so the project, scope, budget and schedule
are more clear.
Create a small backlog of work and start your first sprint, then progressively
update the backlog as the project progresses.
Your answer is correct
Progressively elaborate the vision statement and project charter to define a
coordinated approach.
Overall explanation
Before initiating a project of any sort, we start with a vision statement, project
charter or business case in order to identify a co-ordinated path to achieve the
desired outcomes. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p52, “Planning
Overview”
Question 32Incorrect
You are working on a project where part of the project delivers a high value, high
risk component. Another part of the project delivers a routine change to the
system. Your project sponsor wants to gain the business value as quickly as
possible, but your project team want to start with the work they are familiar with
first. What will you do next?
Prioritise the high risk items at the end of the project.
Correct answer
Prioritise the high risk items at the start of the project.
Use an incremental approach and deliver part of the routine and high risk work in
each sprint.
Your answer is incorrect
Plan out the work in detail and secure a scope baseline, with formal change
controls to reduce uncertainty.
Overall explanation
This question refers to the concept of the last responsible moment. Work that is
novel or risky can be prioritised at the start of the project to reduce uncertainty
with the project scope before a large investment has been made. Routine work
can be delayed until the cost of further delay would exceed the benefit. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p54, “Delivery”, paragraph 3
Question 33Incorrect
You are working on an agile project where the functional area you are delivering
to only has a high level idea of the system requirements they will need. The
functional manager suggests a Work Breakdown Structure, however your team
feel that is more for a predictive (waterfall) delivery approach. What will you do
next?
Use and create a WBS anyway, as it is just a tool.
Your answer is incorrect
Use rolling wave planning, and keep the work at a high level until you are ready
to work on it, when you can plan in detail.
Correct answer
Note the high level themes or epics, decompose them into features, and again
into user stories.
Ask the functional area for more detailed requirements before the project begins.
Overall explanation
This question refers to “decomposition” or breaking down the work. We could
use a WBS, or rolling wave planning, but for an incremental approach breaking
down the work from epics to features to user stories is a form of decomposition
that fits the delivery approach. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p54,
“Delivery”, paragraph 3
Question 34Incorrect
You are at the beginning of planning a new project, and have researched and
gathered the requirements from the area, broken them down into deliverables
and activities, which you believe could take 26 weeks to deliver. The project
sponsor is asking you for an estimate on how long the project will take. What will
you do next?
Tell the project sponsor 26 weeks.
Tell the project sponsor that you will use an iterative approach, where value is
delivered until the project stops.
Your answer is incorrect
Tell the project sponsor approximately 24 to 28 weeks.
Correct answer
Tell the project sponsor approximately 20 to 45 weeks.
Overall explanation
This question is related to estimation and range. Estimates should have a broad
range at the start of the project, starting at -25% to +75% when there is not
much information. Once the project team has a smooth delivery cadence and
experience in the product, a smaller range such as -5% to +10% can be used. A
0% range is when everything is known – and the product has been delivered.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p55, “Estimating, Range”.
Question 35Incorrect
After gathering your project requirements, project scope, and breaking it down
into activities, you need to estimate the project schedule with your team. After
some analysis and discussion, your team come up with a range of 53 to 75 days
assigned across all tasks. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
The estimate is high accuracy but low precision – ask the team to come back
with a more precise estimate.
Correct answer
The estimate is low accuracy but high precision – ensure the estimates become
more accurate as the project unfolds.
The estimate is in high confidence but low precision – proceed as is and adjust
using an incremental approach.
The estimate is in low confidence but high accuracy – allow the team to become
more confident as the project unfolds.
Overall explanation
This question is on estimates and their accuracy. The lower the accuracy, the
larger the potential range in values. Precision is different from accuracy, as it
refers to the exactness of the estimate, for example “2 days” is more precise
than “sometime this week”. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p54,
“Estimating: accuracy, precision, confidence”
Question 36Correct
You are working on a business case where you know that the industry is
undergoing a significant change at the moment, and there could be many
different impacts to your project benefits before it is delivered completely. The
project sponsor asks you for the best estimate of benefits you can give under the
circumstances. What will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Ask your team for a probabilistic estimate.
Ask your team for a deterministic estimate.
Ask your team for an absolute estimate.
Ask your team for a relative estimate.
Overall explanation
Probabilistic estimates include a range of estimates, along with the associated
probabilities within the range such as a confidence level or a probability
distribution. If the estimate is uncertain, this is the best approach. Deterministic
is a number, absolute is specific, actual numbers and relative estimates are
shown in comparison to other estimates. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p57, “Presenting estimates.”
Question 37Incorrect
You have noted nine epics for delivery as part of your most recent project. Your
team have broken down these epics into user stories, and would like to see the
effort involved for these deliverables. You ask your team to find the smallest user
story, size it with a “1”, and then determine the size of the other cards based on
how they compare to the original card. What approach are you taking?
Correct answer
Relative estimating with your team.
Deterministic estimating to determine the effort.
Absolute estimating to get an estimate with absolute certainty.
Your answer is incorrect
Probabilistic estimating with the highest probability items.
Overall explanation
This question is about estimating, and making an estimate in comparison to
other estimates is relative estimating. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p57, “Relative Estimating”
Question 38Correct
You are working on a project where a competitor is also working on a similar
feature, and being first to the market will have a significant impact on this year’s
profit. Your product owner would like to measure how quickly story cards are
being completed, once they start being developed. What will you do next?
Check the Lead time of the story cards.
Check the Gantt chart with assigned schedule activities.
Your answer is correct
Check the Cycle time of the story cards.
Check the schedule network and precedence diagram.
Overall explanation
Cycle time is the total elapsed time it takes one unit to get through a process.
Lead time is the time from when the customer makes the order (or the
requirement is noted) to the time the item is delivered or released. Schedule
network diagram is useful for finding the Critical Path, and precedence
diagramming is used to find what deliverable or activity relies on others. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p58, “Flow-based estimating”
Question 39Incorrect
You are working on a project that has recently moved to a more agile way of
work. The team have not completely taken on the Scrum approach however, and
are comfortable working with a more flow-based approach moving user stories
across a Kanban board. You are wanting to get an estimate on how much work
can be completed in the next three months, based on the team’s existing
progress. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Multiply the velocity by the number of remaining user stories.
Correct answer
Multiply the throughput of the team for the last month, by three.
Multiply the lead time by the schedule performance index.
Multiply the planned value by the actual value.
Overall explanation
Scrum uses velocity – Kanban or Flow-based estimates are developed using cycle
time and / or throughput. Cycle time is the total elapsed time it takes one unit to
get through a process. Throughput is the number of items that can complete a
process in a given amount of time. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p58, “Flow-based estimating.”
Question 40Correct
Your product owner wants to bring the next feature forward so that it is done in
parallel to the current feature, but is still released in the existing feature order.
You make the necessary adjustments to the product backlog, and decide to
adjust the product roadmap, which you have visualised as a Gantt chart. What
will you do next?
Use a schedule lead on the feature, and change the feature to finish-to-start
Use a schedule lag on the feature, and change the feature to start-to-start
Your answer is correct
Use a schedule lead on the feature, and change the feature to finish-to-finish
Use a schedule lag on the feature, and change the feature to start-to-finish
Overall explanation
A schedule lag is moving an item back, a schedule lead is bringing an item
forward. Precedence diagramming method states for Finish-to-Finish items, the
next item cannot finish until the previous item has finished. This allows the items
to be worked on in parallel, while still keeping the same delivery order. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p59, “Schedules; Lead, Lag.“ (PMBOK Guide) –
Sixth Edition, 2017, p180, “Precedence diagramming method”
Question 41Incorrect
You are working on a project where you have been completing the deliverables
in sequence, and the project work is starting to fall behind. The project sponsor
asks you to speed up the work and reduce the time for the project to be
delivered, but also makes it very clear that there is no more money to use when
speeding up the work. What will you do next?
Apply leads and lags to your project schedule.
Correct answer
Apply fast tracking to your project schedule.
Apply schedule crashing to your project.
Your answer is incorrect
Apply resource levelling to your project.
Overall explanation
Project fast tracking is a schedule compression method in which activities or
tasks that are normally done in sequence are performed in parallel. Schedule
crashing includes adding people to activities, working overtime, or paying to
expedite deliveries. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p59, “Schedules;
Fast tracking, crashing.”
Question 42Correct
After reviewing your project schedule you notice you are behind by three weeks
and the schedule will need to be compressed. Your project does not have enough
budget to crash the schedule. You check with the lead for each area and review
the schedule as to whether they can fast track their deliverables. What will you
do next?
Your answer is correct
Fast track team items with discretionary dependencies.
Fast track team items with mandatory dependencies.
Fast track team items with external dependencies.
Fast track team items based on industry regulation.
Overall explanation
When compressing the schedule, some activities cannot be fast-tracked because
of the nature of the work, others can. A discretionary dependency is based on
project preferences, and may be modifiable. External and Mandatory
dependencies usually cannot be modified. Internal dependencies may be
modifiable, except when based on specific regulatory needs. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p60, “Four types of dependencies.”
Question 43Correct
Your team are new to agile, and had previously been working with Waterfall.
Your key customer asks you for a project schedule. The project team believes
using a project schedule is from the old waterfall way of working and they
shouldn't have to create one. What will you do next?
Create a project Gantt chart to visualise the activities within the project.
Determine the project’s planned versus actual value, instead of working with a
schedule directly.
Advise the customer that we don’t need to plan ahead in an adaptive way of
work.
Your answer is correct
Ask your team to develop a high level release plan like a product roadmap,
showing the features to be included in each release.
Overall explanation
Adaptive schedule planning uses incremental planning. A high level release plan
is developed that indicates basic features and functionality to be included in
each release. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p61, “Adaptive schedule
planning.”
Question 44Correct
You are working in a project team that has recently moved to an Agile way of
work. Your business analysts want to gather the requirements, solutions, match
them to the scope and do a WBS for the whole deliverable. Your product owner
says this will take too long, and is not agile enough for their needs. What will you
do next?
Ask your team to review the scope management plan for the proper process.
Break the deliverable down into smaller pieces so you can deliver those faster.
Your answer is correct
Ask your team to timebox work on the highest priority items in the backlog,
update the estimates then reprioritise as necessary.
Review the project charter for the high level scope, and use this to begin delivery
quickly.
Overall explanation
Adaptive approaches often use timeboxes. The work is based on a prioritised
backlog. The project team determines the amount of work they can do in each
timebox, estimates the work and self-manages to accomplish the work. At this
point, the backlog may be reprioritised for the next timebox. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p62, “Timeboxes”
Question 45Incorrect
When reviewing the current progress with your project sponsor, they notice that
the system solution is missing a critical piece that will impact the benefit of the
project. The project sponsor approves this scope. Your project has a Planned
Value of $520,000 and an Actual Cost of $535,000. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Work with the PMO to unlock the project management reserves for the extra
work.
Your answer is incorrect
Ask the Product Owner to reprioritise the backlog and see if the new work will fit.
Perform the work within your normal budget as your project is on track.
Raise a change request for the changes and gain approval from the Change
Control Board.
Overall explanation
Management reserves are set aside for unexpected activities related to in-scope
work. Depending on the organisation’s policies, management reserves may be
managed by the PMO at the program or portfolio level. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p62, “Budget”
Question 46Incorrect
You are in the planning stages of an Agile project where the functional manager
and senior users have provided the high level requirements and scope. You have
been asked to put together a project team that will be able to deliver quickly.
What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Select project members from each city to ensure diversity of knowledge within
the team.
Put together a resource management plan outlining the resources required.
Ask your PMO for current available resources and assign them to the work.
Correct answer
Select a small team that can work in the same area so they can solve problems
as they arise.
Overall explanation
When planning for the team, the project manager considers the ability and
necessity for them to work in the same location. Small project teams that can
work in the same room are able to take advantage of osmotic communication
and can solve problems as they arise. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p64, “Project Team Composition and Structure”
Question 47Incorrect
You are putting together a project team to deliver an accounting system to
offices around the country. The accounting system you are moving to has not
been used by anyone in your organisation before. The project is quite high risk,
and the delivery needs to be right the first time. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Select a small team that can work in the same area so they can solve problems
as they arise.
Correct answer
Use a predictive project approach and source part of your team externally if they
have skillsets in the new system.
Train existing internal staff in the new system then have them work on the
project.
Perform a make or buy analysis on the different software options.
Overall explanation
The benefit that outside skills bring to the project are weighed against the costs
that will be incurred. With higher risk and a single delivery, a waterfall or
predictive project delivery approach is best. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p63, “Project Team Composition and Structure”
Question 48Correct
You are putting together a project plan for a change that affects nearly ten
thousand stakeholders in your organisation. You have identified the affected
stakeholders, analysed and prioritised them, and are putting together a
communication plan to ensure the right engagement is made. What will you NOT
include in your plan?
Why should information be shared with stakeholders?
What is the best way to provide information?
Your answer is correct
How can they make changes to the communication plan?
When and how often is information needed?
Overall explanation
Planning communication for the project entails considering the following: Who
needs information? Who has the information needed? Why should information be
shared with stakeholders? When and how often is information needed? What is
the best way to provide information? What information does each stakeholder
need? (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p64, “Communication”
Question 49Correct
You put together a resource plan for a large amount of physical inventory to be
purchased from overseas. You ordered the inventory during project execution,
however global supply chains were impacted and the shipment was delayed by
three months, significantly impacting your project. What should you have done
differently?
Hired a resource manager to take care of the resource tasks on your project.
Your answer is correct
Planned strategically about the timing from order to delivery to usage, managing
resource risks and their responses.
Ensured a means to track the inventory from arrival on site to the delivery of an
integrated product.
Sourced the inventory locally to reduce the impact of global supply chains.
Overall explanation
Project teams whose projects require significant physical materials think and
plan strategically about the timing from order, to delivery, to usage. This can
include evaluation of bulk ordering versus the cost of storage, global logistics
and more. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p65, “Physical resources.”
Question 50Correct
You are half way through your agile project as a Product Owner, when there is a
significant change to the project scope after it was found that the project would
not be able to deliver the benefits it had promised. You check your project
budget and there are contingency and management reserves available. What
will you do next?
Take the project scope change to the change control board for approval.
Use the available contingency reserves to make the appropriate change to
project scope.
Review the change management plan for the change control process.
Your answer is correct
Reprioritise the product backlog, including the new scope and begin work on the
highest priority straight away.
Overall explanation
Changes may occur as a result of a risk event, environment change, a deeper
understanding of requirements, customer requests and more. Project teams
should prepare a process for adapting plans throughout the project. In an Agile
team, this may take the form of reprioritising the backlog instead of a change
control process with project baselines. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p66, “Changes"
Question 51Correct
You have recently taken over on a project that is behind schedule, and slightly
over budget. You raise an issue at the steering committee meeting, where they
advise that there is no additional funding available and the project must finish on
time. You believe you can optimise the project process to try and bring the
project back on track. What will you do next?
Add additional people and resources to the project to speed it up.
Utilise the project’s contingency reserve to source the resources you need.
Perform project activities in parallel, completing multiple items at once instead of
one at a time.
Your answer is correct
Use Lean production methods to reduce non-value add activities, and
retrospectives for the team to suggest improvements.
Overall explanation
Ways of optimising the project processes for the environment include Lean
production methods, retrospectives or lessons learned, and finding where the
next best funding is spent. Adding people and resources may not always improve
things – it can also increase the complexity and communication channels.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p71, “Project Processes”
Question 52Incorrect
Your Project Management Office (PMO) is optimising all the projects within their
portfolio. They ask for your advice in tracking the type of work each team
member is doing and how long it takes, suggesting that they categorise and
record their work in addition to the work itself. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Ask your team to record and categorise their work, as gathering project data is
important.
Correct answer
Recommend an automated reporting tool where possible, as categorising their
work is NVA.
Recommend an automated reporting tool where possible, as recording their work
is VA.
Ask your team to ignore the request and focus on delivering customer value
only.
Overall explanation
The time taken to track or record time can be viewed as “non-value added”
work, that does not directly benefit the output or the receiving customer. We
should respect the PMO request, but in addition to being efficient, processes
should be effective. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p72, “Project
Processes”
Question 53Correct
You are working on an agile project as a scrum master, where the functional
manager has worked with some people in your development team before. She
approaches them directly to see if they can add a feature to the product in the
current sprint. What will you do next?
Adjust the sprint backlog to allow for the additional feature.
Adjust the product backlog to add the customer requirement.
Your answer is correct
Ask the manager to speak with the Product Owner for product priorities, then
protect the team from direct requests in the future.
Ask the manager to create a change request so it can go through the proper
process.
Overall explanation
Project Managers have a responsibility for assessing and balancing project team
focus and attention. This may involve protecting the team’s production capability
– their team health and satisfaction. In Agile, this also means being a diversion
shield for the team and removing blockers that get in the way of them making
progress in their work. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p73, “Maintaining
Project Team Focus”
Question 54Correct
Part of your project management plan is a detailed communications plan, which
has the stakeholders on the project, their communication needs, and how
information will be communicated. While this is being signed off by the project
sponsor, you receive many ad-hoc requests for information from new
stakeholders. What will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Review the communications management plan to include the stakeholders, the
information they need and their communication preferences.
Create an information radiator and ask the stakeholders to pull the information
they need.
Ignore the new requests, as you have captured all the stakeholders you need to
in your plan.
Ask the new stakeholders to review your communications management plan to
see how you are distributing information.
Overall explanation
Once collected, information is distributed as indicated in the project
management communications plan. An abundance of ad-hoc communication
requests may indicate that the communication planning was not sufficient to
meet stakeholder needs – it is a good idea to review it. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p72, “Project Communications and Engagement”
Question 55Correct
You are working on a high value construction project to include smart-home
components within multi-million dollar buildings. After completing a make-or-buy
analysis, you find that it will cost $700,000 to make the new system, or $500,000
to buy it from a vendor. You prepare a procurement management plan to
purchase it. What will you do before conducting a procurement?
Work with your project team to complete as much of the system in-house as
possible.
Your answer is correct
Work with contracting professionals to develop RFP, SOW, and terms and
conditions.
Adjust your stakeholder register to include the new vendor, and add the scope to
your work breakdown dictionary.
Work with your project team to develop an RMP, SMP, and list of resources.
Overall explanation
Prior to conducting a procurement, the project manager and technically qualified
project team members work with contracting professionals to develop the
Request for proposals (RFP), Statement of Work (SOW), terms and conditions,
and other necessary documents to go out to bid. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p74, “Working with Procurements”
Question 56Correct
A missing item has been uncovered in the project scope that your project team
cannot deliver. The item is not complex but you are unsure of which vendors
might be able to provide it. You have already reviewed your Procurement
Management Plan and are ready to move to source selection and choose a
vendor that will meet your needs. What will you do next?
Prepare a Request for Proposal for vendors to provide a solution to your needs.
Prepare a Request for Quote to determine the best price from the vendors.
Your answer is correct
Prepare a Request for Information to gather more information and viable sources
from the market.
Review the procurement management plan for your project’s procurement
process.
Overall explanation
A Request for Information is used to gather more information from the market
prior to sending out other bid documents to a set of selected vendors (like a
Request for Quote). A Request for Proposal is used where scope is complex or
the buyer is looking for the vendor to provide a solution. Request for Quote is
when price is the deciding factor. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p75,
“The Bid Process”
Question 57Incorrect
You are working on a project where part of the work is planned carefully upfront,
and another part is subject to change. You negotiate terms and conditions,
including cost, delivery and payment dates. The vendor is concerned about
confusion that might occur between the pre-planned and changeable work. What
will you do next?
Use a Firm Fixed Price contract, to ensure cost is fixed but scope can remain
flexible.
Use a time and materials contract, to ensure only the time and materials used
are paid for.
Your answer is incorrect
Adjust your project plan to suit either a predictive or adaptive approach to
reduce the confusion.
Correct answer
Use a master agreement for the overall contract, with adaptive work placed in an
appendix.
Overall explanation
For projects that use an adaptive approach for some deliverables and a
predictive approach for others, a master agreement is used and the adaptive
work may be placed in an appendix or supplement. This allows the changes to
occur on the adaptive scope without impacting the overall contract. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p76, “The Bid Process: Contracting”
Question 58Incorrect
You are working on an agile project where there are vastly differing levels of
product knowledge within your team. The scrum master suggests that you try to
gain knowledge by osmosis, because the project information may be lost when
only communicating by email. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Co-locate the team to capture the benefit of each person’s tacit knowledge.
Refer to the organisational process assets to capture the team’s explicit
knowledge.
Your answer is incorrect
Refer to the project’s knowledge management system to capture the project’s
explicit knowledge.
Create a process to capture the team’s tacit knowledge.
Overall explanation
Learning by Osmosis is capturing information from the immediate surroundings,
such as co-locating the team. Tacit knowledge is information that is not straight
forward, such as experience, insights, and practical knowledge or skill. Explicit
knowledge can be readily codified using words, a process, pictures. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p77, “Explicit and tacit knowledge”
Question 59Correct
You are working as a Product Owner, and have placed high level information
about the product in the product backlog, and the highest priority feature at the
top. Senior users informing the project are unable to clearly articulate their
requirements, and are concerned that the product will not truly meet their
needs. What will you do next?
Proceed with the highest priority item during the first sprint.
Your answer is correct
Work with the customer to create mock-ups and prototypes to discover what
works for them.
Ask your stakeholders to submit a change request and update the project scope
accordingly.
Begin breaking the work down into user stories to place in the sprint.
Overall explanation
On projects that do not have clearly defined requirements prototypes,
demonstrations, storyboards and mock-ups can be used to evolve the
requirements. In these situations, Stakeholders are more likely to take an “I’ll
know it when I see it” approach. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p83,
“Evolving and discovering requirements.”
Question 60Incorrect
You are gathering requirements for a new feature in a customer management
system. The product owner has given a user interface feature as the next highest
priority, and you are co-located with the team receiving the benefits. What will
you do next?
Show the customer team how the new user interface will look, as they will be
using it.
Communicate the requirements to developers with a coherent, logical flow of
ideas.
Correct answer
Elicit requirements into user stories using acceptance criteria that is clear,
verifiable and traceable.
Your answer is incorrect
Show the mock up or prototype to the developers and ask them to develop
based on that.
Overall explanation
Elicitation means to draw out. Well-documented requirements are Clear, Concise,
Verifiable, Consistent, Complete and Traceable. A prototype useful but may need
more information for developers to turn into a product. Clear purpose, coherent
ideas, controlling flow, concise expression and correct grammar are part of the
Five C’s of communication. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p83,
“Requirements Elicitation"
Question 61Correct
You are working in an agile team who are trying to break down the project
requirements and scope. They have created a scope statement and work
breakdown structure, but are not sure how it will work now that they are using
sprints and user stories. What will you do next?
Assign activities to each of the scope items in the WBS, and place them on a
Gantt Chart.
Create a product roadmap with the team, using the lowest, most detailed part of
the WBS.
Your answer is correct
Group the work by large themes of customer value, shown as Epics, then break
them down into smaller user stories to complete in each sprint.
Ask the team to trace the requirements properly using a Requirements
traceability Matrix.
Overall explanation
One way to identify scope is identifying the themes of customer value,
associated by a common factor such as functionality, data source or security
level. These are shown as Epics, which are too big to complete in a sprint, and
have smaller user stories within them. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p84, “Scope decomposition.”
Question 62Correct
Your project team are trialling an agile way of work. The Product Owner has a
clear vision for the product. There is confusion in the team as to how much work
should be done on a user story before it is taken to the sprint review, and how
they will know a story is complete. What will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Refer to the user story acceptance criteria and your team’s Definition of Done.
Review the user story with multiple customers and senior users to ensure it is
correct.
Ask the product owner to sign off on the completed user story.
Ensure quality testing on the user story is completed and passed.
Overall explanation
Different ways to describe component completion include acceptance or
completion criteria, technical performance measures, and Definition of Done.
Quality testing will be done to the acceptance criteria, as will Product Owner sign
off. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p85, “Completion of deliverables”
Question 63Incorrect
You have been working closely with the quality manager of your project,
planning the budget for the project phase that is due to begin in the next two
months. They mention the need to budget for appraisal costs, to avoid quality
issues in the future. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Ensure there is enough for training the staff to reduce the number of errors.
Correct answer
Ensure there is enough for a quality tester to verify the deliverables against
agreed specifications.
Ensure there is enough to create a quality assurance plan.
Ensure there is enough to allow for rework or rectification when defects are
found.
Overall explanation
This question is on the Cost of Quality. Prevention costs are training or quality
planning. Appraisal costs are verification or audits. Internal failure is waste,
defects, rework. External failure is customer complaints, repairs and servicing,
warranty claims. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p89, “Cost of Quality”
Question 64Correct
Your agile project has recently had multiple quality issues. Project features have
been prioritised by the Product Owner, and broken down into user stories. What
will you do to help reduce the cost of quality issues the most?
Quality test each user story according to its acceptance criteria before release.
Advise the team that any quality defects will come out of their bonus.
Perform testing all in one go at the end, to reduce the cost of testing resources.
Your answer is correct
Ensure a “triad” of developer, tester and customer is involved during
requirements and design.
Overall explanation
This question is about the Cost of Change. The cost is least during requirements
and design, is 20x during build, 50x during test, and 150x if a defect has to be
rectified in production. If the requirements, design, and acceptance criteria is
incorrect, extra quality testing will not help. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p90, “Cost of Change”
Question 65Correct
You are working in an agile team where executives in the team you are
delivering to are asking for a large display of reports to be created every two
weeks, showing how the project is tracking and updating them on the cost and
benefits. What will you do next?
Collect the planned value versus earned value to show the executives any
variance in the plan.
Co-locate the team with the executives so they can answer any questions as
they arise.
Your answer is correct
Suggest a demonstration of the feature developed during each sprint instead,
and a burndown chart of future product features.
Create the desired reports for the executives to keep them happy.
Overall explanation
The value of measurements is not in the collection and dissemination of the
data, but is in how to use the data to take appropriate action. Agile projects
demonstrate usable value and features delivered and use live information
radiators instead of large reports to stakeholders. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p94, “Measurement Performance Domain”
Question 66Incorrect
Multiple features have been released, but they are not having the effect the
product owner believes they should. Your team are using some Key Performance
Indicators to track performance, and you agree to move to more Leading
indicators. What could you use as examples of Leading indicators for your
project?
An increase in customer usage once the feature is released, such as sales and
repeat purchasing.
Correct answer
Stakeholders who are not engaged and lack of a risk management process.
Your answer is incorrect
Velocity of the work completed each sprint and cycle time of user stories.
Variance in the schedule between planned and actual time taken.
Overall explanation
There are two types of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Leading and Lagging.
Leading predict changes or trends in the project, and include Lack of a risk
management process, stakeholders who are not engaged, poorly defined project
success criteria. Lagging indicators include work completed or schedule
variance. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p96, “Leading Indicators”
Question 67Incorrect
You are working in an agile project team that has increased in size and
complexity since the project began. In reviewing the throughput of work with
your team, you notice fewer and fewer user stories being completed, and the
roadmap of features scheduled to go live is being pushed out. What will you do
next?
Correct answer
Place a limit on the work in progress and work with the team to reduce the cycle
time.
Increase meetings with the team so everyone can collaborate together.
Ask the team to work overtime until the number of features reduces.
Your answer is incorrect
Put a Pull system in place, where the team can pull work only when they are
ready.
Overall explanation
With more work, different tasks and increased complexity, the team are likely
context switching between too many different things. Kanban aims to limit the
work in progress to avoid multi-tasking. Other things we can use are reducing
queue size and batch sizes, and reviewing process efficiency. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p99, “What to measure: Delivery”
Question 68Incorrect
You are working on an agile project where the project customer wants a reliable
way to measure the project performance, and you know you first need a
baseline. What measures will you show to your customer as part of your agile
project?
Start and finish dates.
Your answer is incorrect
Project team velocity.
Correct answer
Rate of Features completed.
Schedule and Cost variance.
Overall explanation
An agile project tracks and demonstrates actual features delivered. With a stable
team, cost is most often fixed. The schedule is also fixed, and the scope is
variable depending on what the customer wants to prioritise in the given time.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p100, “Baseline performance”
Question 69Incorrect
The product owner has worked with a team of senior users to gather feature
ideas. They now have a list of more than fifty ideas for your team to develop,
which is far too many to complete in the timeframe you have. What will you do
next?
Ask the new product owner to return to the senior users and ask for a shortened
list.
Your answer is incorrect
Start work on the smallest features first, to ensure you are delivering value
quickly.
Workshop the features with a wider audience to get a completely diverse view on
their priority.
Correct answer
Ask the new product owner to prioritize the features using Benefit-Cost, then
deliver in priority order until time or money runs out.
Overall explanation
Product Owners prioritise features based on business value. Metrics that
measure business value include Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR), planned to actual
benefits delivery, return on investment, and Net Present Value. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p102, “Business value.”
Question 70Incorrect
Your agile project team has only recently formed. The product is still unclear, and
there have been disagreements and minor conflicts over the past two weeks as
the team find their rhythm. You would like things to improve, but can’t quite
pinpoint or address the problem. What will you do next?
Hold a workshop with your team to ask them why they are unhappy.
Correct answer
Have the team complete a Mood Chart with comments, and ask for improvement
ideas at the next retrospective.
Raise the issue with their line managers, to ensure all levels are aware of and
working on the issue.
Your answer is incorrect
Have the team pair up together for their tasks, so they can learn from each
other.
Overall explanation
Measuring stakeholders can be done with a Net Promoter Score or satisfaction
score, especially with a comment, or a mood chart. Improvement ideas are
captured during retrospectives for most agile teams. Pairing is another agile
practice, but is not as relevant here. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p103, “Measuring: Stakeholders"
Question 71Incorrect
The project has faced serious impacts in getting materials, with supply chains
being disrupted and a global pandemic, and is currently three weeks behind
schedule. You take this information to the next project steering committee
meeting, where they advise they need more information on how much the
project will end up costing. What will you do next?
Use the current project budget with no deviations until it runs out.
Use the project burndown chart to see the burn-rate of accounting funds.
Your answer is incorrect
Use a regression analysis on the current rate of spending to see where the final
cost will end up.
Correct answer
Use the project’s estimate at completion to show the steering committee the
most likely final cost.
Overall explanation
This question is talking about budget forecasts. Regression analysis may work
but the best answer is the Estimate at Completion, which is the (BAC / (EV / AC).
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p104, “Forecasts”
Question 72Correct
You are working on an agile project where the project sponsor and executive
managers require lengthy reports about the project work each week. This takes
you and the project team a considerable amount of time to do, and reduces time
spent creating the actual product. What will you do next?
Reuse most of the information each week so your time spent on them is reduced.
Your answer is correct
Suggest the leaders come to the sprint review and gather what they need from
the information radiator.
Ask your project sponsor to wait until a steering committee meeting for the
information.
Share your working project schedule and budget with the executives instead of
creating the reports.
Overall explanation
Agile teams showcase actual work completed at the sprint review. Information
radiators, also known as big visible charts, are visible displays that allow anyone
to “pull” the information from. They are often “low tech and high touch” and
contain information on work completed or remaining, risks, and things like a
Kanban board and burndown chart. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p108, “Information Radiators”
Question 73Correct
You are working on a project that has planned as much as they can up-front. You
would like them to move to a more agile way of work. Currently, the work is
hidden, the team catches up only once a week in a working group, and it is hard
to see what each person is working on and keep track of it. What will you do
next?
Ask your team to report on their work in a written status update each day so you
can keep track.
Have more working group meetings so you are always up to date on what your
team is working on.
Your answer is correct
Ask the team to move their work to a central, visible task board, then have a
short meeting each day to discuss progress on the cards.
Remove the team meetings altogether and trust your team to get the work done.
Overall explanation
This question is talking about stand-ups and a Kanban board. “Task boards” are
part of the visual controls used, where an increment of work moves from To Do
to In Progress to Done. The team meets for 15 minutes each day to discuss
progress and raise any impediments. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p109, “Visual Controls: Task boards”
Question 74Correct
You are working on a hybrid project, where the majority of the work has been
planned up front. The team manages their work via a Kanban board, and report
on progress and blockers each day. As the project evolves, stakeholders have
added more and more scope to the product, with one executive raising an urgent
feature that needs to be added. What will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Limit the number of cards in the “Ready” or “To Do” column, and ask the Product
Owner to work with stakeholder requests, noting the need to swap the new item
for an existing item.
Match the number of user stories to the team’s velocity, to ensure a sustainable
pace.
Work with the stakeholder to raise a change request, and note the outcome in
the change log.
Review the impact of the scope change with the stakeholder using the WBS
dictionary.
Overall explanation
As a hybrid project using Kanban and some Agile ceremonies, the most
appropriate way to manage the work and scope is by using a WIP Limit on the
board. The Product Owner has the final say on prioritising features and scope, so
works with stakeholders to ensure they understand something may be de-
prioritised by adding a new feature. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p110, “Kanban Board”
Question 75Correct
You are working as a product owner in an agile team, where the main measure of
project success is the number of features delivered into production. Over the
past six months, the team have delivered the highest number of features your
organisation has ever seen, however customers are starting to complain about
issues and bugs in the product. What will you do next?
Ask the team to work harder in delivering more features, to fix the product
issues.
Your answer is correct
Adjust the product metrics to include customer satisfaction and quality
measures.
Add a slack card of 5 points into the sprint backlog, to deal with the technical
debt.
Remove customer comments and feedback until you have finished delivering all
the features.
Overall explanation
This question is about the Hawthorne Effect, where what we measure influences
the behaviour of our team. In this case, we measured the number of features
only, and the team delivered, but at the cost of quality and customer
satisfaction. Adding measures for those two things will balance the team’s
behaviour. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p112, “Measurement pitfalls:
Hawthorn Effect”
Question 76Correct
You have been working on a project for the past eight months. Your project team
have been approached by multiple stakeholders for reporting on various
performance measures about the project and the product area. Now, a large
amount of their time is spent on creating these reports for others. They have
escalated this issue to you. What will you do next?
Ask the project stakeholders to stop interacting with your project team.
Spend a portion of your project budget to automate the reports for your
stakeholders.
Your answer is correct
Work with the team, including the stakeholders, to only measure things that will
facilitate a decision, help avoid an issue or increase project performance.
Invite your stakeholders to your sprint reviews, so they can see a working
feature in practice.
Overall explanation
The intent in measuring and displaying data is to learn and improve. To optimise
project performance and efficiency, only measure and report information that
will allow the project team to learn, facilitate a decision, improve some aspect of
performance, help avoid an issue, or help prevent performance deterioration.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p114, “Growing and Improving”
Question 77Correct
You are working on a project where there is a significant amount of uncertainty
about the requirements. There is also a legislative change coming, and no one
knows what it will mean for your industry. As a project manager, how will you
deal with this uncertainty?
Perform additional planning for your project to improve your view on scope
management.
Hold additional retrospectives, to capture challenges and improvements from
your team.
Create a risk assessment of all possible project risks, with their risk ratings and
owners.
Your answer is correct
Gather information and prepare for multiple outcomes, and build team resilience
through processes and training.
Overall explanation
This question is about general uncertainty and risk. Uncertainty cannot be
predicted precisely, and methods for responding to uncertainty include gathering
information, preparing for multiple outcomes, using set-based design, and
building in resilience. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p118, “General
Uncertainty”
Question 78Correct
You are working on a project with a vendor where there is significant ambiguity
involved and multiple options the team could go with. Many outcomes are
possible that have varying degrees of impact to improve the situation. What will
you do next?
Your answer is correct
Use experiments and prototypes, and progressive elaboration to work your way
through it.
Ask your team for additional reporting around the different options so you can
make an informed decision.
Add all the different options into your project scope, so all your bases are
covered.
Work more closely with your senior users so they can inform you of the product
requirements.
Overall explanation
This question is on Ambiguity. There are two types of ambiguity: Conceptual
(where it is hard to understand) and situational (where there are multiple options
and outcomes). Use progressive elaboration, experiments and prototypes to
work through this ambiguity. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p120,
“Ambiguity”
Question 79Correct
You are working on a project to improve some software that has been in
production for over 17 years, and has been modified extensively over that time.
It also integrates with many other systems within your organisation. You cannot
decide which features to deliver first. How will you deal with the complexity?
List out the possible features you can deliver and prioritise them by cost over
benefit.
Your answer is correct
Simulate decoupling connecting parts to simplify the number of variables, then
reframe your view by brainstorming with a diverse set of stakeholders.
Provide an incentive for your project team for whoever can solve this complex
problem.
Form a business-case for a third party system to replace the existing, complex
system, to transfer the risk of delivery.
Overall explanation
This question is about Complexity. Methods for dealing with complexity include
Systems based – decoupling and simulation; Reframing – Diversity and balanced
views; Process based – Iterating, engaging stakeholders and using a fail safe or
error proofing. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p121, “Complexity.”
Question 80Correct
You are working on a project that requires a very particular programming skillset
that is not very common. It is also the hottest job-market the industry has seen
in two decades, people are hard to come by and leave often. The programming
language is also evolving at a quick pace. What will you do next?
Develop the product from scratch in a more common programming language.
Ask your whole team to learn the programming skillset, to cover the risk.
Your answer is correct
Use alternatives analysis to gather different options, and ensure a sufficient cost
reserve to help complete your project.
Raise a risk to your project completion, with the threat of project team member
skillsets.
Overall explanation
This question is referring to Volatility, which is an environment that is subject to
rapid and unpredictable change, including ongoing fluctuations in available
skillsets or materials. Alternatives analysis and cost reserves are ways to deal
with volatility. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p122, “Volatility"
Question 81Incorrect
Your project team have found a significant data vulnerability in one of the
features planned in your product backlog, where customer data is exposed
without password access. This feature is partially made by a third party vendor,
and the relationship is owned by a functional manager in your organisation. What
will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Avoid the risk and wait for the third party vendor to fix the vulnerability.
Transfer the risk by asking a different vendor to create a feature with no
vulnerability in their design.
Correct answer
Escalate the threat to the manager with appropriate authority to act on the
response.
Accept the risk and move on the other features so the work continues to get
done.
Overall explanation
With project risks and responses to threats, there are five main types: Avoid,
Escalate, Transfer, Mitigate and Accept. Escalation is appropriate when the
project team agrees that a threat is outside the scope of the project, or exceeds
the project manager’s authority. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p123,
“Overall Project Risk: Threats”
Question 82Incorrect
You brainstorm risk responses with your project team and project sponsor, and
decide you cannot transfer a certain high impact risk. You also cannot avoid the
risk, and there is no one in the organisation to escalate it to. Your project
sponsor agrees that you should actively accept the risk. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Develop a contingency plan that would be triggered if the event occurred.
Shift the ownership to a third party to manage the risk and bear the impact if it
does occur.
Act to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact only.
Your answer is incorrect
Take action to reduce the probability of its occurrence, and the impact of the
threat.
Overall explanation
This question is describing the various risk responses to threats. Actively
accepting a risk can include developing a contingency plan that would be
triggered if the event occurred. Passive acceptance means doing nothing. Acting
to eliminate the threat is avoiding it, escalating requires an outside manager’s
authority, shifting the ownership is transferring the risk, and mitigating the risk is
taking action to reduce the probability of occurrence or impact. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p123, “Risk: Threats”
Question 83Correct
You are working on a project to build a new customer database system for an
engineering team. In working with the requirements, you realise that this system
can also work with other teams within your organisation, and the effort to add
those teams is quite small. What will you do next?
Work with the other teams and their managers to escalate the opportunity.
Your answer is correct
Work with those other teams and their managers to exploit the opportunity.
Work with those other teams and their managers to enhance the opportunity.
Work with the other teams and their managers to accept the opportunity.
Overall explanation
When dealing with opportunities in your project there are five main responses:
Exploit is acting to ensure an opportunity occurs, Escalating is when it is outside
the authority of the project manager, sharing allocates ownership to a third party
who is best able to capture its benefit, enhancing is increasing the probability of
occurrence, and accepting merely acknowledges its existence without doing
anything further. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p125, “Risks:
Opportunities”
Question 84Correct
You are working as a product owner in an agile team, and during a recent risk
review the team have uncovered various risks that will impact your project. You
brainstorm risk responses with your team. The project customer would like them
to be mitigated as soon as possible. What will you do next?
Ask your team to work on the risk responses and get them done as soon as
possible.
Ignore the risks initially, some may dissipate over time and only the important
ones will be left.
Assign the risk responses to all stakeholders around your project team to share
the load.
Your answer is correct
Prioritise the risks by comparing the expected monetary value of the risk to the
anticipated return on investment of upcoming deliverables.
Overall explanation
Prioritising risk responses in a risk adjusted backlog is just as important as
prioritising features, to avoid negative risk impacts and technical debt.
Comparing the EMV of a risk to the anticipated ROI of a deliverable allows
product owners to incorporate risk responses into the planned work. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p15, “Checking outcomes – Stakeholder
Performance”
Question 85Correct
You are planning a project where supply chains have been impacted, and the
requirements are complex and intertwined with other areas of the business. Your
project sponsor asks you to manage these risks before the project moves to
execution. What will you do next?
Move to project execution, so you can work through risks as they happen.
Move to an agile way of work so you can deliver faster and also deal with the
complexity.
Your answer is correct
Note the risks with appropriate controls, and add a contingency reserve in the
project budget.
Assign a management reserve to your project budget and deal with the risks
before moving to project execution.
Overall explanation
Reserves are an amount of time or budget set aside to account for handling
risks. Contingency reserve is for identified risks, should they occur. Management
reserve is for unknown events such as un-planned, in-scope work. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p127, “Management and contingency reserve”
Question 86Correct
You are working on an agile project and delivering a usable feature every few
weeks. The project sponsor is from a waterfall background and is concerned that
there is not enough focus on risk. They would like to hold a regular risk review
with a wide group of stakeholders. What will you suggest instead?
There is no need for a separate meeting as risk is everyone's responsibility in an
agile team.
Your answer is correct
Use daily stand-ups to report blockers early, and fortnightly demonstrations of
the product to catch any stakeholder dissatisfaction.
Use the Kanban board to see the work and how it flows from the backlog to
"done".
Hold the risk meeting, but only with the immediate project team to avoid
unnecessary participants.
Overall explanation
In agile teams the risk review can take the form of the daily stand-up, reporting
blockers that could become threats if they continue to delay progress. Frequent
demonstrations of the product can also surface threats and opportunities, as can
retrospectives. While quality is everyone's responsibility, and the Kanban board
does visualise the work, B is the best answer. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p127, “Risk Review”
Question 87Correct
Your Project Management Office has no prescribed way of work, so are working
with a vendor who supplies an eXtreme Programming framework at a significant
cost. Your organisation is using it, but projects are still running behind schedule,
over budget, and with low customer satisfaction. What will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Tailor the approach to suit the organisation, operating environment and project
needs.
Use a waterfall approach instead, to ensure the proper planning is completed for
every project.
Switch to Scrum instead, as it is a more popular framework and has been tested
in the market.
Tighten the controls around the project environment with a more directive PMO
approach.
Overall explanation
Projects operate in complex environments that need to balance competing
demands. Tailoring is performed to better suit the organisation, operating
environment and project needs. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p132,
“Tailoring Overview”
Question 88Correct
Your Project Management Office is in the middle of a company-wide "ways of
working" transformation. They have taken a popular project framework and are
tailoring it to the organisation with branded templates and processes that meet
their existing governance requirements. You have been asked to help finalise the
process. What will you do next?
Gather feedback from the functional business areas to ensure the process meets
their needs.
Roll out the new way of working to the PMO as a pilot first, then to the rest of the
organisation.
Your answer is correct
Enable a process for tailoring based on size and complexity, and implement
ongoing improvement.
Form a working group comprised of executives and project professionals.
Overall explanation
This question is referring to the tailoring process, which is: Select the initial
development approach, tailor for the organisation, tailor for the project, and
implement ongoing improvement. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p137,
“The Tailoring Process”
Question 89Incorrect
You are a manager of a PMO in a large organisation, which has recently
undertaken a company-wide way of working transformation. You need to select
an initial development approach for your projects, which you will then tailor to
suit them further. What will you do next?
Use the framework that best engages your executive team through easy-to-use
graphics and presentations.
Select the most popular current framework to keep up with what other
organisations are doing.
Your answer is incorrect
Select multiple development approaches as a baseline for your organisation.
Correct answer
Use a suitability filter to assess the most appropriate development approach.
Overall explanation
A suitability filter tool helps project teams consider whether a project has
characteristics that lend themselves toward a predictive, hybrid, or adaptive
approach. Select one as a base, then enable the ability to tailor to your project or
organisation's circumstances. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p138,
“Select Initial Development Approach.”
Question 90Incorrect
Your organisation is starting to move to an agile way of work and they are
setting up a Value Delivery Office (VDO) to complement the existing PMO. The
executives in the area have begun working through what the function looks like
and the roles and responsibilities that might exist. They approach you for help.
What will you tell them?
The VDO is responsible for the value delivered, and owns the programs within
the organisation.
Correct answer
The VDO focuses on coaching project teams, building adaptive skills and
capabilities and mentoring sponsors and product owners to be more effective.
The VDO is responsible for agile resources such as scrum masters and product
owners to be allocated effectively to project teams.
Your answer is incorrect
The VDO creates the organisational framework to be used on each project
throughout the company.
Overall explanation
A VDO serves an enabling role, rather than a management or oversight function.
It focuses on coaching project teams, building adaptive skills and capabilities
throughout the organisation, and mentoring sponsors and product owners.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p141, “Tailor for the organisation: VDO"
Question 91Correct
You have been planning a project for the last two months, gathering
requirements and scope and assigning tasks to a schedule. As you get closer to
the execution phase of your project you need to decide what delivery approach
you will use. The requirements are likely to change, require a medium amount of
compliance, but can be released in one go. What will you do next?
Set up a Predictive delivery approach with your team.
Set up an Incremental delivery approach with your team.
Set up an Agile or adaptive delivery approach with your team.
Your answer is correct
Set up an Iterative delivery approach with your team.
Overall explanation
Gathering feedback and improving over time, while delivering in one release is
an iterative delivery approach. Incremental releases increments of value (like
features), Predictive plans everything up front once then delivers in one go, and
Agile gathers feedback and releases incrementally. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p141, “Tailor for the project: Product / Deliverable”
Question 92Incorrect
You have been asked to make a process improvement in the accounting area of
your organisation. You have been assigned a small team of nine people, each
with all the skills you need to complete the project. The team is co-located, and
have unlimited access to the project customer. How will you tailor your delivery
approach?
Use a predictive / waterfall delivery approach.
Correct answer
Use an agile / adaptive delivery approach.
Your answer is incorrect
Use an incremental delivery approach.
Use a hybrid delivery approach.
Overall explanation
An agile / adaptive delivery approach works best when the team is small (fewer
than 9 – 12 people), has close access to the customer, is cross-functional and is
co-located. Predictive is best when lots of planning is needed, Hybrid is best
when there are two different approaches needed. Incremental delivers features
over time. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p142, “Tailor for the project:
Project team.”
Question 93Correct
You have been working as a project manager in an organisation for some time,
where an agile-centric delivery approach and way of work has been selected and
tailored for the organisation. Over the past few months, you notice several things
that are not working and could be improved as you begin new projects. What will
you do next?
Review the product backlog to see the flow of features going through project
teams.
Look into issues, threats and quality assurance statistics.
Your answer is correct
Suggest a retrospective with PMO leaders to determine ongoing improvement
opportunities.
Review a control chart and value stream map to see non-value-added activities
and remove waste in the process.
Overall explanation
In an agile environment, holding a retrospective to gather what is working well
and what is challenging us or could be improved is the best way to find ongoing
improvements. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p151, “Tailoring:
Diagnostics”
Question 94Correct
You have been working on a project to deliver a new customer data system, and
have noticed that the work is starting to slow down. Fewer user stories are
appearing in your sprint backlog, as they are not ready. You hold a retrospective
with your team and discover that there are long delays waiting for requirements
and acceptance criteria approvals. What will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Streamline approval decisions through fewer people (such as a Product Owner)
authorised to make decisions up to certain value thresholds.
Ask your team to place the user stories in the sprint backlog, reducing the need
for customer approval.
Note the long delays as a risk to your project, with a high likelihood as it is
currently happening.
Escalate the issue to the functional manager to ensure approvals are happening
quickly.
Overall explanation
Where there are long delays or waiting for approvals, the tailoring suggestion is
to streamline decisions through fewer people authorised to make decisions up to
certain value thresholds. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p151,
“Common situations and tailoring suggestions”
Question 95Correct
You have been assigned to take over an existing project as the previous project
manager leaves for another opportunity. In working with your team you notice
there is a large amount of work currently in progress all at once, with team
members working on multiple items at a time and constantly context-switching
between tasks. What will you do next?
Add more people to your project to get the work done at a faster rate.
Your answer is correct
Use value stream mapping and Kanban boards to visualise the work and
brainstorm solutions with your team.
Ask your team to work overtime to cover the extra work and bring it back into
line.
Review the scope of the project and reduce items with a low impact to customer
satisfaction.
Overall explanation
Where there is too much Work In Progress (WIP) or high rates of scrap, it is
recommended to use techniques like value Stream Mapping and Kanban Boards
to visualise the work, identify the issues, and propose solutions. Adding more
people can also complicate communication and processes. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p151, “Common situations and tailoring suggestions”
Question 96Correct
The product owner has prioritised the product backlog of features, and the team
creates user stories with estimates and places enough to fill a two week sprint.
You notice that the pieces being completed are being rejected by the customer
for defects and missed requirements. What will you do next?
Create the project scope from scratch with the project team and customers so it
is correct.
Have an “Iteration zero” planning sprint with your project team to set it up for
success.
Your answer is correct
Add more feedback loops such as shoulder checks, peer review, unit and system
testing.
Have less frequent customer demonstrations, so they only see the product when
it is correct.
Overall explanation
When a product is facing poor quality deliverables, the tailoring suggestion is to
add more feedback verification loops and quality assurance steps, including
things such as demonstrations and reviews, peer review, shoulder checks, pair
programming, quality audits or testing (unit, system, user, regression, and
automated). (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p151, “Common situations
and tailoring suggestions”
Question 97Correct
Your project team has started to find their rhythm, yet you notice that they seem
disengaged in their work and are dragging their feet on normal tasks. You check
your project budget and note that the team are all paid fairly for the market and
within the same range for the role. What will you do next?
Look for ways to reward team members with bonuses above their normal pay
rate.
Move team members around to different roles frequently, so they experience job
variety.
Give the team a paid day off to show how much you appreciate their work.
Your answer is correct
Establish ways for the team to grow and advance, such as career paths or
learning pathways.
Overall explanation
Frederick Herzberg conducted a study of motivational factors in working life, and
found hygiene factors (company policies, salary and the physical environment)
and motivational factors (achievement, growth and advancement). If hygiene
factors are insufficient, they cause dissatisfaction. If they are sufficient, then use
motivational factors to provide satisfaction. Paying bonuses or a paid day off
may seem like a good idea, but will fade and not address the root cause of
engagement. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p158, “Hygiene and
motivational Factors”
Question 98Correct
You are working as a project manager on a regulatory change for your
organisation. You notice that the team are not communicating as well as they
could be. You put together a plan to improve team communication by increasing
its effectiveness and richness. What will you do?
Your answer is correct
Include methods that will handle multiple information cues, facilitate rapid
feedback, and utilise natural language.
Include methods to escalate issues easily, with executives being open for
anything the team needs.
Include ways to get sign off in writing, so it can be recorded and reviewed later
when needed.
Include communication that ensures everyone gets a voice and input into
decisions.
Overall explanation
Alistair Cockburn developed a model that describes communication channels
along the axes of effectiveness and richness. Media richness includes the ability
to handle multiple information cues, facilitate rapid feedback, establish a
personal focus and utilise natural language – for example face to face
communication, or co-located teams. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p157, “Effectiveness of communication channels”
Question 99Correct
Your deliverables have been signed off by the Product Owner and are ready to be
released to the customer, which is the financial analytics team of your
organisation. The new system will be quite a change from their normal day-to-
day work. The team already have the desire to use the new system. What will
you do next?
Tell them the vision and why the change is necessary.
Your answer is correct
Use training and education to show them the new processes and systems.
Give them unlimited hands-on practice so they can get used to the new system.
Include rewards, recognition, feedback and measurement.
Overall explanation
The ADKAR model for change management has five steps: Awareness, Desire,
Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. Once people have the desire for the
change, the next step is knowledge which includes training and education for the
new processes and systems. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p161,
“ADKAR Model.”
Question 100Incorrect
You are leading a large organisational change that affects more than a thousand
people across multiple teams. You have engaged with the senior managers of
that area, created a brief vision statement that summarises the change, and
created a strategy to realise the vision. You communicate the vision throughout
the change process. What will you do next?
Release multiple usable features to the affected teams so they can get used to it
gradually.
Your answer is incorrect
Anchor the changes into corporate culture by telling success stories and
recognising people who embody the change.
Correct answer
Address the obstacles to change, including outdated processes and people
resistance.
Set goals for continued improvement on the change throughout the organisation.
Overall explanation
John Kotter’s 8-step process for leading change is a top down approach: 1:
Create urgency, 2: Form a powerful coalition, 3: Create a vision for change, 4:
Communicate the vision, 5: Remove obstacles, 6: Create short term wins, 7:
Build on the change, 8: Anchor the changes in corporate culture. After
communicating the vision comes removing obstacles. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p162, “The 8-Step Process for Leading Change"
Question 101Skipped
You are a project manager assessing the risk of future releases with your team.
You have a clear set of requirements from your customer, however there are a
range of possible correct solutions, that may or may not get the outcome the
customer needs. There are a range of known unknowns. How will you approach
this situation?
Use current best practices to make decisions.
Use emergent practices that allow you to probe the environment, sense the
situation, and respond with action.
Correct answer
Assess the facts, analyse the situation and apply known good practices.
Sense where there is some stability then take steps to try and stabilise the
situation.
Overall explanation
In the Cynefin Framework, complicated relationships exist when there is a set of
known unknowns, or a range of correct answers. In these situations it is best to
assess the facts, analyse the situation, and apply good practices. Answer B is for
complex (unknown unknowns), D is chaotic (no clear cause or effect), A is for
obvious cause and effect. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p 164,
"Cynefin Framework"
Question 102Skipped
You have been asked to initiate a project to deliver a new system. The
requirements are not clear, and it will take some work to uncover them. The
system has been used by some team members but not all and has a medium
level of uncertainty around it. How will you approach this project?
Correct answer
Release small usable features and improve your approach based on feedback.
Do additional planning up-front to ensure every component is thought of.
Split the team into two and work on different parts of the system to simplify it.
Form a business case for starting from scratch with new, easier to use
technology.
Overall explanation
The Stacey Matrix looks at two dimensions to determine complexity: uncertainty
of the requirements, and uncertainty of or within the technology. This labels a
project simple, complicated, complex or chaotic. Agile methodologies work best
in complicated and complex environments. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p165, "Stacey Matrix"
Question 103Skipped
Your project team came together from different parts of the organisation, and
were introduced formally to each other. Now you notice there is some conflict
within the team. Some people don’t respect others’ decisions, are not working
together well, and there are some personality clashes within the team. What will
you do next?
Help team members get to know each other, their names, position on the team,
and other background information.
Correct answer
Help the team understand their roles and responsibilities and form a regular
rhythm of meetings, collaboration and work.
Help the team jockey for position within the team, and foster healthy conflict.
Help the team complete the project work and disperse to work on other things
Overall explanation
This scenario describes the five stages of team development – the Tuckman
Ladder. When there is conflict and difficulty working together, the team is in the
Storming stage – we should help them understand their roles, responsibilities
and find a regular rhythm so they can move to the Norming stage. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p166, “Tuckman Ladder”
Question 104Skipped
You have formed a new project team and have worked through the purpose and
mission (the "why") of the project with them. You expanded on who is on the
project team and the skills and abilities each person brings. You would like to
foster a high performing culture before you begin project delivery. What will you
do next?
Work through changes on the project team and the project such as deliverables
and stakeholders.
Decompose the high level plan into greater detail, including a detailed schedule
or backlog.
Define a plan to achieve the project goals, including milestone schedules, release
plans and high-level budgets.
Correct answer
Clarify the goals of the team and exactly what you are here to deliver.
Overall explanation
This question refers to the Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance model. The steps
include: Orientation, Trust Building, Goal Clarification, Commitment,
Implementation, High performance and Renewal. After Orientation (the "why")
comes Trust building (the "who"), and then goal clarification (the "what"). After
that we can define a plan to achieve those goals (the "how"). (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p167, "Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model"
Question 105Skipped
Your team members have raised an issue as they believe the current project
scope will not reach the intended project goal of increasing customer retention.
You take their concerns to the Project Sponsor who controls the funding and
resources. The sponsor dismisses them and directs you to proceed with the
scope currently set. What will you do next?
Problem solve with the sponsor and find a resolution.
Compromise with the sponsor so each party gets what a part of what they want.
Correct answer
Accommodate the sponsor to maintain harmony and good will.
Force the issue so the sponsor accepts the change in requirements from the
team.
Overall explanation
Ken Thomas and Ralph Kilmann describe six ways to address conflict, depending
on the relative power between the individuals. There is confronting/problem
solving, collaborating, compromising, accommodating, forcing and withdrawing.
Since there is a desire to maintain a good relationship with the sponsor, adopting
an accommodating posture may be appropriate. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p168, 169, "Conflict Model"
Question 106Skipped
The functional manager raises a concern that they have not been engaged
correctly and the program is missing some key requirements as a result. You
believe you have captured all the items required. Your program manager asks
you to handle the situation and approach it from a win-win perspective. What will
you do next?
Escalate the decision to the steering committee to ensure your point of view is
heard.
Correct answer
Demonstrate integrity, find mutual trust, and look at the situation from their
point of view.
Choose to give some lee-way in your approach so the functional manager can
add their requirements.
Get your requirements baselined first then compete with the manager to ensure
a win.
Overall explanation
Steven Covey's principle of "Think Win-Win" shows different possible outcomes:
Win-Win, Win-Lose, Lose-Lose. A win-win approach is found when there is mature
character, trust, and the ability to approach from the other's point of view.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p169, "Negotiation"
Question 107Skipped
You have been planning a project to deliver a process change for the past four
weeks. The requirements and scope have been signed off by the business owner,
and the team moves into delivery and execution. The work has now begun, in
line with the project plan and scope. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Monitor and control the work being done to ensure it meets its goals.
Execute the project work to complete the work defined in the project plan.
Plan the project work to ensure sufficient understanding.
Formally sign off and complete the project phase.
Overall explanation
The project management process groups are Initiating, Planning, Executing,
Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing. They may be performed in sequence, or
iteratively and ongoing. As project work is executed, it needs to be monitored
and controlled. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p170, "Process groups"
Question 108Skipped
You are working as a Product Owner. While your sales and revenue have been
increasing over the past eight months, the overall profit for your product has
decreased by 17%. Your executive manager asks you to address the situation.
What will you do next?
Stop the current work and set a planning session with your team to address the
situation.
Ask your team to work overtime on the current features in your backlog and get
the work done.
Correct answer
Perform benchmarking with a similar yet non-competitive company, and add any
process improvements to your product backlog.
Look for opportunities to partner with other products in your organisation and
increase your sales further.
Overall explanation
As a product owner, your responsibility is to increase users, sales revenue and
profit for your product. If profit is decreasing while sales revenue is increasing,
the product is costing more to produce or sell. Performing benchmarking to find
gaps in your process then executing them with your team will help. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p175, "Data gathering and analysis:
Benchmarking"
Question 109Skipped
You have been given authority to manage the upcoming features your team will
release. You do not have a high enough level of expertise in the product, so you
gather senior users from the product's area to create a features list. Each
stakeholder wants their feature to be delivered first. How will you prioritise them
and move forward?
Go with the features wanted by the top level executives first, to avoid issues
later on.
Perform a MoSCoW analysis with the stakeholders.
Perform a root cause analysis and go with features that address the root cause.
Correct answer
Use a cost benefit analysis and compare the time needed to recover the project
cost.
Overall explanation
Cost to benefit, and the payback period (time to recover an investment) are the
best accepted ways to prioritise business value. Root cause analysis is better for
specific problems. Performing MoSCoW with the stakeholders may result in each
of them wanting their feature to be "Must Have". (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p175,"Business justification analysis methods"
Question 110Skipped
You are creating a business case and project charter with a small initial project
team. You have a high level feature, decomposed into smaller release
milestones, and you would like to note a high-level schedule using wideband
delphi or a high-level version of planning poker. What will you do next?
Hold a round of cards with points on them, where each team member places
their cards in the centre for the total estimate.
Correct answer
Ask subject matter experts to complete multiple rounds of estimates individually,
compare, and explain the highest and lowest estimates for each round.
Show the wideband high level range from lowest to highest for each feature.
Find the business functionality for each feature and estimate the effort based on
that.
Overall explanation
The Wideband Delphi technique asks subject matter experts to complete
multiple rounds of estimates individually, compare, and explain the highest and
lowest estimates for each round. Planning poker is a variation of wideband
Delphi. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p178, "Estimating: Wideband
Delphi"
Question 111Skipped
You have been asked to help facilitate a senior planning meeting in your
organisation. High level executives have made a presentation on the strengths
and opportunities of the organisation, painting a rosy picture. Revenue has fallen
recently, and the chief executive asks you to level out their analysis a more
complete view. What will you do next?
Add your organisation's competitors and compare their products.
Showcase the pipeline of upcoming work to be delivered in the next quarter.
Add in the background and abilities of the executive team, that will allow the
organisation to deliver.
Correct answer
Brainstorm and capture the weaknesses of the organisation and threats to the
organisation.
Overall explanation
This question is referring to SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats. Once strengths and opportunities have been
captured, a complete picture also involves the weaknesses and threats. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p175, "SWOT analysis"
Question 112Skipped
You are adding an essential feature to your product roadmap. Your team believe
they can complete the feature in six weeks, however the feature is quite large
and a bit more complicated than normal. One of your lead developers says they
worked on a similar feature in another company, and it took around four months
to complete. What will you do next?
Use relative estimating, assigning the amount of points your team agree on to
the product roadmap.
Correct answer
Use analogous estimating, and place the feature with around four months to
complete.
Use parametric estimating, and place the feature with around four months to
complete.
Use function point estimating to show the amount of business functionality in the
feature.
Overall explanation
When the effort on a feature or deliverable needs to be estimated, and there are
people who have experience delivering a similar item, you can use analogous
estimating to estimate the initial effort quickly and with a medium-level of
accuracy. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p178, "Estimating: Analogous
estimating"
Question 113Skipped
You have a prioritised product backlog of features, and have decomposed the
next feature to be delivered into user stories, small enough to complete in one
sprint of two weeks. The team would like to estimate the effort involved on those
user stories, but are unsure on how to proceed. What will you do next?
Ask each team member to add their own estimates as they complete the
acceptance criteria.
Estimate the effort for the overall feature to reduce the need for individual story
estimates.
Correct answer
Help the team perform relative estimating together, where the stories are sized
in points relative to the smallest piece.
Base the estimates on cost per hour, and add them after the work is done to
ensure it is correct.
Overall explanation
Relative estimating is the most common method for user stories, where they are
sized in comparison to the smallest piece - often in story points and often on a
Fibonacci scale of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p178,
"Relative estimating"
Question 114Skipped
You are half way through your current sprint of two weeks. The work is
progressing well, however you notice that there is not enough work ready and
elaborated for when the next sprint begins. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Hold a backlog refinement meeting and work with the team to identify the work
that could be accomplished.
Raise the issue as a blocker in the daily stand-up and ask your team to swarm
around the problem.
Raise the issue in the next retrospective and take an action for the team.
Place the cards on the Kanban board so the team can see the work and get
started.
Overall explanation
At a backlog refinement meeting, the backlog is progressively elaborated and
(re)prioritised to identify the work that can be accomplished in an upcoming
iteration. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p179, "Meetings and Events:
Backlog refinement"
Question 115Skipped
You have completed a make-or-buy analysis in your project and found that part
of your deliverable is best created by an external vendor. You work with your
project team to create the procurement strategy, source selection criteria and
statement of work. What will you do next?
Gather seller proposals, including technical details and price (separately).
Correct answer
Meet with prospective sellers to ensure all vendors have a common
understanding of the procurement.
Perform source selection analysis on what you want from prospective vendors.
Create the procurement agreement for the third party vendor to provide their
specified services.
Overall explanation
These are outputs of Plan Procurement Management. A bidder conference is
meeting with prospective sellers prior to the preparation of a bid or proposal, to
ensure all prospective bidders have a clear and common understanding of the
procurement. This meeting may also be known as contractor conferences,
vendor conferences, or pre-bid conferences. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p179, "Bidder conference"
Question 116Skipped
One of the stakeholders in your project has raised a change request, after some
of the deliverables contained defects and a missed requirement. Your project has
a formal change control process, as opposed to a more agile prioritised product
backlog. What will you do next?
Gather feedback from other stakeholders to see if they also need the change.
Note the change in the change log, then place the requested item in the next
sprint.
Correct answer
Take the change to the CCB, then communicate the decision to approve or reject
the change.
Raise the request as an issue that will affect your project schedule and budget.
Overall explanation
Where a formal change control process is in place, a Change Control Board
includes the people who are accountable for reviewing, approving or rejecting
changes to the project. The decisions made at this meeting are recorded and
communicated to the appropriate stakeholders. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p179, "Change Control Board"
Question 117Skipped
Your agile project has recently gained some new stakeholders after a
department restructure. They complain to you that they are not seeing enough
traction of work delivered through the project, and are worried it will not meet
their requirements. What will you do next?
Invite them to the daily stand up, so they can see the work that happens on a
daily basis.
Invite them to iteration planning, so they can choose what the team works on.
Invite them to the retrospective, so they can raise their issue there and come up
with a solution.
Correct answer
Invite them to the Iteration Review, so they can see the usable increment the
team delivers.
Overall explanation
The iteration or sprint review is held at the end of an iteration (usually of two
weeks) to demonstrate the work that was accomplished during the iteration to
the project customers and stakeholders. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p179, "Iteration Review"
Question 118Skipped
You have recently taken over a project. Your project team approach you to say
there is a regulatory approval that has not been granted yet, and it may block
development of your project in the next five months. You check your project
documentation but cannot see any mention of this. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Hold a risk review meeting, capture it as a risk, and ensure an adequate risk
response.
Hold a retrospective with your team to capture what challenges the team are
facing.
Adjust your product roadmap to reflect the changes to the timeframe of that
deliverable.
Escalate the regulatory approval to the project steering committee.
Overall explanation
The risk review is a meeting to analyse the status of existing risks and to identify
new risks. This includes changes to probability, impact or urgency, and
determining if responses are adequate. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021,
p180, "Risk Review"
Question 119Skipped
You are an agile project manager, and holding daily stand-ups with your team.
You notice people accusing other team members of not doing their job and there
are some tasks that are not mentioned anywhere and no one is responsible for.
The team velocity has slowed in the last three sprints. What will you do next?
Refer to the team charter, and the team roles and agreed ways of managing
conflict.
Correct answer
Raise it as an issue in the next retrospective and come to a solution with the
team.
Assign team roles to those you think are best suited.
Work with your team to size user stories correctly, so velocity improves.
Overall explanation
The agile approach is to problem solve with the team. A retrospective is a
regularly occurring workshop, similar to a lessons learned meeting, where the
team explore their work in order to improve their process and the product.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p180, "Retrospective"
Question 120Skipped
You are managing a large construction project. Due to some delays, the project
schedule has been pushed back by one week. As a result, one of the project risks
has increased slightly, but is still within the acceptable limits. What will you do
next?
Hold a risk review to update the risk response and owners.
Raise a change request for the change to the project schedule.
Correct answer
Capture the change in your project reporting and take it to the next status
meeting.
Update the sprint backlog to reflect the delayed work.
Overall explanation
A status meeting is a regularly scheduled event to exchange and analyse
information about the current progress of the project and its performance.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p180, "Status meeting"
Question 121Skipped
You are an agile project manager and your team have delivered three features to
improve a customer app over the last three months. Your product owner needs
to know if the features are having the desired effect. It is a large organisation
and there are multiple measures available. What will you do next?
Ask them to gather the team velocity and throughput over the past three
months.
Ask them to gather the Benefit-Cost Ratio over the past six months.
Correct answer
Ask them to gather the NPS over the past six months.
Ask them to gather the average app availability and uptime.
Overall explanation
A product owner prioritises features to improve usability and profitability of a
product. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures the willingness of customers to
recommend a product or service to others, and is used to gauge overall
customer satisfaction and loyalty to the brand or product. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p181, "Net promoter score"
Question 122Skipped
You are an agile project manager in an agile team developing new features for
an app. There is no Product Owner in your team. An executive stakeholder with a
high influence in the organisation approaches you and asks you to add a feature
that they like. They asked their friends, who think it is a good idea too. What will
you do next?
Correct answer
Place the feature in the product backlog and prioritise it, using cost-versus-
benefit.
Raise a change request to add the new feature into the scope baseline.
Gather the requirements for the new feature and ask your team to elaborate on
it.
Analyse the impact to your project schedule and cost, the add the feature to
your project scope.
Overall explanation
In agile, we have a product backlog that we prioritize. Prioritization schema are
methods used to prioritize portfolio, program or project components such as
features, requirements or risks. Examples include multicriteria decision matrices,
MoSCoW, Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) and more. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p181, "Prioritization Schema"
Question 123Skipped
Your project team are gathering solution ideas for a particular customer
requirement, which is prioritised to be worked on next. The item is complicated
and they have been trying to find a way forward for the past three weeks. There
is not enough work for the upcoming sprint. What will you do next?
Start work on the item in the next sprint anyway and elaborate as the sprint
begins.
Correct answer
Arrange the right people to elaborate the issue with a spike, and timebox it to
two days.
Deprioritise the item until the team can figure out the issue.
Adjust the project schedule to reflect the extra time taken on elaboration.
Overall explanation
A spike is a short, dedicated user story to research or analyse something. A
timebox is a short, fixed period of time in which work is to be completed, often a
few days to a few weeks. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p181,
"Timebox"
Question 124Skipped
Your project team have planned the requirements, scope, schedule and cost for
constructing a new building in your organisation. An executive from another area
approaches you, as your project is funded and about to begin execution, and
asks if you can help them deliver a website as part of your work. What will you
do next?
Raise the request as an issue in your project’s issue log.
Add the website to your project scope and adjust your project scope, schedule
and cost.
Raise a change request for the added scope and review the impact to your
project schedule and cost.
Correct answer
Offer to help them create a business case for the new idea and get funding for a
new project.
Overall explanation
The scope and team required to build a website is very different from a physical
building – a new project with its own funding is the best option. A business case
is a value proposition for a proposed project that may include financial and non-
financial benefits. It typically precedes a project charter and a formal project
approval and kick-off. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p184, "Business
case"
Question 125Skipped
You are working on an agile project and are planning your product backlog for
the next three to six months. You have some high level feature ideas from
various parts of your organisation, from front-line staff to executives, to direct
customer research as well. There is currently not enough detail in each feature,
and you are not sure if any are worth proceeding with. What will you do next?
Break down each feature into Epics and user stories, then size the work with your
team.
Add all of the items into your product backlog and work on the ones from
managers first.
Correct answer
Work with the requestors and your technical experts to create a business model
canvas for each feature.
Perform precedence diagramming on each feature to determine their
dependencies.
Overall explanation
The business model canvas is a one-page visual summary that describes the
value proposition, infrastructure, customers and finances. They are often used in
lean start-up situations. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p184, "Business
model canvas"
Question 126Skipped
You are working in a new agile team, where the work has started to slow and
there is uncertainty and low team engagement. You set time to create a team
charter with your team, agree on roles and responsibilities and team cadence.
What will you do next?
Set a team goal for them to be more engaged in the work over the next three
months.
Correct answer
Create a product vision statement, showing the value you are bringing and the
“why” behind the work.
Ask the team to contribute more to all pieces of work during each team meeting.
Raise it as a people issue for your project and manage it with the project steering
committee.
Overall explanation
The project vision statement is a concise, high-level description of the project
that states the purpose, and inspires the team to contribute to the project.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p184, "Project Vision Statement"
Question 127Skipped
You are integrating a third party system as part of your project. The developers
in your project team have not worked with this system before, but they believe
the language and layout is the same and they should be able to implement it,
adding a bit of time for the uncertainty. They give a high-level estimate of five
weeks. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Note the estimate of five weeks and update the assumption log with the
technical assumption.
Don’t add the estimate, break down the integration into user stories and use a
bottom-up approach.
Check the estimate using parametric estimating, to increase its accuracy.
Gather your whole team and customers together, and estimate using wideband
delphi (planning poker).
Overall explanation
An assumption is a factor that is considered to be true, real or certain, without
proof or demonstration. A constraint is a factor that limits the options for
managing a project, program, portfolio or process. An assumption log records all
assumptions and constraints throughout the project. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p185, "Assumption log"
Question 128Skipped
Your agile project has delivered three features so far and is halfway through
delivering the latest improvement. During a brainstorming session, one of your
customers comes up with a new feature idea. You check the benefit it could
have, and it is high. The complexity is low. What will you do next?
Add money to your budget to accommodate the additional feature as soon as
possible.
Elaborate on the feature, break it down into user stories, and estimate them.
Correct answer
Place the item in the backlog and reprioritise it to be next.
Create a business case for the new feature outlining the benefit and costs
involved.
Overall explanation
A backlog is an ordered list of work to be done. Projects may have a product
backlog, a requirements backlog, impediments backlog, etc. Items in a backlog
are prioritised. The prioritised work is then scheduled for upcoming iterations.
(PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p185, "Logs and Registers: Backlog"
Question 129Skipped
One of the senior users testing your product found is was missing a key
requirement that he had assumed would be there. It was not noted in the project
scope, which has been baselined. You check the impact to cost and schedule,
raise a change request on his behalf, and take it to the change control board
where it is approved. What will you do next?
Ask your team to elaborate and turn the requirement into user stories.
Place the new requirement into the sprint backlog for the next sprint.
Add the missed requirement to the issue log and problem solve with your team
to ensure it does not happen again in the future.
Correct answer
Note the outcome in the change log and communicate it to your stakeholders.
Overall explanation
A change log is a comprehensive list of changes submitted during the project
and their current status. A change can be a modification to any formally
controlled deliverable, project management plan component, or project
document. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p185, "Logs and Registers:
Change log"
Question 130Skipped
You are working on a hybrid project to replace an aging customer system that
has just had a feature upgrade release. The senior developer raises a concern
during the daily stand-up that the system doesn’t seem to be able to connect to
some parts of the organisation after the upgrade. What will you do next?
Re-plan the project to ensure the correct scope is worked on that will connect to
the organisation.
Correct answer
Raise it in the issue log, assign it to a responsible party and work with them to
find a resolution.
Raise the concern as a risk and brainstorm risk responses with your team.
Escalate the issue to the technical manager so they can resolve it.
Overall explanation
An issue log is a current condition or situation that may have an impact on the
project objectives. An issue log is used to record and monitor information on
active issues. Issues are assigned to a responsible party for follow up and
resolution. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p185, "Logs and Registers:
Issue log"
Question 131Skipped
You are working on an agile project, where your project team have raised
multiple risks to project delivery. Some of the risks may impact your cost and
schedule significantly. Your program manager asks you to manage them using a
risk adjusted backlog. What will you do next?
Adjust your risk register to include the work not completed if the risks are
triggered.
Adjust your backlog velocity so your end date is not impacted by the raised risks.
Gather risk mitigation responses from your retrospectives and assign them to an
owner.
Correct answer
Place at least one risk response in each sprint to manage and close.
Overall explanation
A risk adjusted backlog is a backlog that includes work and actions to address
threats and opportunities. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p185, "Risk
adjusted backlog"
Question 132Skipped
You are delivering a project to a functional area in your organisation. The project
is highly complex and there are many risks to project delivery. The functional
manager would like to see the biggest risks that are assigned to her. What will
you do next?
Show her the risk adjusted backlog.
Correct answer
Show her the risk register.
Show her the risk management plan.
Show her the qualitative risk assessment.
Overall explanation
A risk register is a repository in which outputs of risk management processes are
recorded. Information can include the person responsible for managing the risk,
the probability and impact, planned risk responses, and more. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p185, "Risk register"
Question 133Skipped
Your project has been in progress for the past six months. Someone you have
not met before approaches you and says they have not been engaged
sufficiently, even though he believes his team is highly impacted by the change.
He advises he may block the project as a result. What will you do next?
Perform stakeholder engagement assessment with the stakeholder.
Add him to the stakeholder register, including his salary and interests
information.
Correct answer
Add him to the stakeholder register, including his impact and influence
information.
Raise a risk to project delivery due to the nature of his actions.
Overall explanation
A stakeholder register records information about project stakeholders, which
includes an assessment and classification of project stakeholders. We need to
know our stakeholder, ensure his details are recorded, and where he fits before
we take further action. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p185,
"Stakeholder register"
Question 134Skipped
You are a product owner on an agile project and have created a product backlog
of features in a prioritised order for delivery. You ask the team to break down the
first feature into user stories, and estimate their effort. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Create an iteration plan with your team.
Create the product roadmap with your team.
Perform a sprint review with your team.
Begin daily stand-ups with your team.
Overall explanation
An iteration plan is a detailed plan for the current iteration. It usually matches
the estimated work for the sprint to the average sprint velocity (or how many
points are usually completed). Items from the product backlog are broken down
into user stories and placed into upcoming sprints. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p186, "Plans: Iteration plan"
Question 135Skipped
You have worked with your project customer to create a list of features that will
bring the most value to them. They would like to see when some of this value
will be delivered and the expected outcomes of each. What will you do next?
Show the features at the next sprint review so the customer can see what they
look like.
Correct answer
Place the features on a release plan and show this to the customer.
Check the features against the velocity chart to see when they might be
delivered.
Place the features into the next sprint plan and show this to your customer.
Overall explanation
The release plan sets expectations for the dates, features and outcomes
expected to be delivered over the course of multiple iterations. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p186, "Plans: Release plan"
Question 136Skipped
You are in the planning stages of you project, where you need to find out exactly
what the project customer needs so you can find a solution and make it happen.
Your business analysts are new to their roles and are not sure on what their
process will be. What will you do next?
Ask the business analysts to begin writing user stories to place in a sprint.
Create the project management plan to outline how the project will be delivered.
Correct answer
Work with the business analysts to create a requirements management plan.
Create a work breakdown structure on the project scope.
Overall explanation
The requirements management plan is a component of the project management
plan that describes how requirements will be analysed, documented and
managed. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p186, "Requirements
management plan"
Question 137Skipped
You are working on a new software application with a lot of complex
interdependencies. The senior user providing and testing most of the
requirements is concerned that some of those dependencies will cause errors
upon release, if they are not checked thoroughly. What will you do next?
Ask the senior user for a written list of all his requirements, then check they are
included in the project scope.
Raise a risk on the software complexity with the project team.
Create an affinity diagram with the senior user.
Correct answer
Review the test plan with the senior user.
Overall explanation
A test plan is a document that describes the deliverables that will be tested,
tests that will be conducted, and the processes that will be used in testing. It
forms the basis for formally testing the components and deliverables. (PMBOK
Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p186, "Plans: Test plan"
Question 138Skipped
You are planning your project and have captured the requirements from the
project customer. You ask your team to plan the project scope, but they need to
see exactly what needs to be delivered and how each part relates to each other.
What will you do next?
Correct answer
Create a product breakdown structure with your project team.
Create the requirements traceability matrix with your project team.
Create the risk breakdown structure with your project team.
Create the scope management plan with your project team.
Overall explanation
A product breakdown structure is a hierarchical structure reflecting a product’s
components and deliverables. It provides an exhaustive, hierarchical tree
structure of deliverables that make up the project, arranged in whole-part
relationship. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p187, "Product Breakdown
structure"
Question 139Skipped
You have just finished breaking down the scope with your project team, that will
meet your customer’s requirements. Your program manager wishes to control
the project scope so any changes go through the proper process. What will you
do next?
Create the change management plan, to note how changes will be managed.
Correct answer
Baseline the project scope and note it in the configuration management plan.
Create the scope management plan, with a management rule minimising
changes.
Create the resource assignment matrix, limiting roles who can approve scope
changes.
Overall explanation
A baseline is the approved version of a work product or plan, where actual
performance is compared to the baseline to identify variances. Baselined items
are noted in the configuration management plan. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p188, "Baselines"
Question 140Skipped
You have planned and begun the current sprint, where the project team have
committed to delivering and releasing a particular feature. You need to see how
the team are tracking towards their sprint goal. What will you do next?
Review the team Kanban board.
Review the team velocity chart.
Correct answer
Review the sprint burndown chart.
Perform a sprint review with the team.
Overall explanation
A burndown chart is a graphical representation of the work remaining in a
timebox (i.e. an iteration or sprint). It compares the ideal trend with the items
actually completed. A sprint review demonstrates what was created during the
sprint once the sprint is complete. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p188,
"Burndown chart"
Question 141Skipped
Your agile project has recently been merged into a larger program, and the
program manager is reviewing how the project is tracking. She asks you how
much has been completed in design, but also how much has been completed in
development, testing and sign-off. What will you do next?
Show her the sprint Kanban board.
Take her through the team product backlog.
Correct answer
Show her the team cumulative flow diagram.
Show her the team velocity chart.
Overall explanation
A Cumulative Flow Diagram indicates features completed over time, separated at
each stage such as features in the backlog, then design, development, testing,
and more. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p188, "Cumulative Flow
diagram"
Question 142Skipped
The features developed by your agile team have added some complexity to your
website, delivered quickly with no time to refactor the code. You believe the user
stories are moving slower as a result, but you can’t be sure. What will you do
next?
Correct answer
Check the cycle time chart of the team.
Shadow the developers to overview the work they are doing.
View the product roadmap for proposed release dates.
Review the points in sprint backlog versus the last three sprints’ velocity.
Overall explanation
A cycle time chart shows the average cycle time of the work items completed
over time. It can be a scatter diagram or a bar chart. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p189, "Cycle time chart“
Question 143Skipped
You are working on an agile project with a full product roadmap for the next six
months. Your project team are not sure what the next feature does or how they
should turn it into user stories. What will you do next?
Review the scope baseline with your team.
Correct answer
Perform story mapping with your team.
Perform sprint planning with your team.
Perform a retrospective with your team.
Overall explanation
A story map is a visual model of all the features and functionality desired for a
given product, created to give the project team a holistic view of what they are
building and why. It can also break the feature down into user stories based on
functionality. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p190, "Story map“
Question 144Skipped
You are a program manager on a large scale agile program, where each project
team has its own scrum master. You need to know the rate at which work is
flowing through each team, so you can see if there are any blockers or issues
and whether they will remain on track. What will you do next?
Raise your query at scrum of scrums, so each team knows what they need to do.
Attend the sprint review of each team at the end of the sprint.
Review the schedule management plan for managing the schedule.
Correct answer
Review the team velocity charts, and what was committed versus completed.
Overall explanation
The velocity chart tracks the rate at which the deliverables are produced,
validated, and accepted within a predefined interval. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p190, "Velocity Chart“
Question 145Skipped
Your project has been executing for the past five months, and due to an
organisational change a new project sponsor has come on board. He asks where
the project is up to and whether it is on track. You tell him, but he wants more
information. What will you do next?
Show him the signed project charter, to ensure he honors the original project
agreement.
Show him the project management plan, including the schedule management
plan.
Correct answer
Review the status report and previous status report with the sponsor.
Invite him to the next sprint review so he can see the progress made.
Overall explanation
The status report provides a report on the current status of the project. It may
include information on progress since the last report and forecasts for cost and
schedule performance. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p190, "Reports:
Status report"
Question 146Skipped
Your agile project needs a third party vendor to help complete the work. The
product owner has multiple features on their product roadmap which may
change over time, making the scope of your project uncertain. What will you do
next?
Ask your product owner to fix the features and scope so the project is more
certain.
Correct answer
Create a cost plus incentive fee contract with your procurement team.
Create a firm fixed price contract with your procurement team.
Use the external vendor funding to create a project team in-house and complete
the project.
Overall explanation
Cost reimbursable contracts involve payments to the seller for actual costs
incurred for completing the work, plus a fee representing seller profit. They are
used when the scope is not well defined or subject to frequent change. Includes
Cost plus Award fee, Fixed Fee or Incentive fee. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh
Edition, 2021, p191, "Cost-reimbursable contracts "
Question 147Skipped
Your project is releasing a number of upgrades to a commercial building over the
next 12 months. Material costs have changed a lot recently. You need to budget
for the materials required, however the volume of materials may change
significantly as the project evolves. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Create an IDIQ contract with your supplier.
Ensure multiple suppliers are on call to provide materials, when needed.
Ensure a sole supplier for your materials, to guarantee the best price.
Create a firm fixed price contract for the materials.
Overall explanation
Indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) provides for an indefinite quantity of
goods or services, with a stated lower and upper limit, and within a fixed time
period. Fixed price will work better if the quantities are known. (PMBOK Guide) –
Seventh Edition, 2021, p191, "Agreements and Contracts”
Question 148Skipped
You have completed a make-or-buy analysis and you agree to hire a third-party
vendor to complete part of your product. You create the statement of work and
have a list of acceptable sellers that meet the source selection criteria. The work
is not complex and they understand the scope. What will you do next?
Send a request for proposal to the sellers.
Send a request for information to the sellers.
Correct answer
Send a request for quotation to the sellers.
Hold a bidders conference to ensure all sellers are on the same page.
Overall explanation
Bid documents are used to request proposals from prospective sellers. The best
answer here is Request for Quote, as we have the requirements ready. RFP is
used when the item is complex, RFI is when more information is needed. Bidder
conference is used to ensure all sellers have enough information. (PMBOK Guide)
– Seventh Edition, 2021, p192, "Bid Documents"
Question 149Skipped
Your project is new and the team have just come on board. There have been
multiple disagreements and the work is slow as they try to understand where
they fit in the project and the team. What will you do next?
Create a definition of ready and definition of done with your team.
Create a project charter with your team.
Create a project management plan with your team.
Correct answer
Create a team charter with your team.
Overall explanation
The project team charter records the team values, agreements and operating
guidelines. It establishes clear expectations regarding acceptable behaviour by
project team members. (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition, 2021, p192, "Project
team charter"
Question 150Skipped
You have created a high level view of the features your project will deliver, and
prioritised them. The development team is ready to start work, but they don't
know where to start as the information is too high level. What will you do next?
Ask the team to begin with the highest priority item first.
Correct answer
Help the team break the features down into User Stories to place in a sprint.
Hold a retrospective with the team to understand what is blocking them.
Reprioritise the features into an order that makes sense for the developers.
Overall explanation
A user story is a brief description of an outcome for a specific user. It has enough
information at a level which team members can work on an item. (PMBOK Guide)
– Seventh Edition, 2021, p192, "Other artifacts: User story”
Question 151Skipped
You are working on a project to build a new parkland for the community. The
person in charge of parkland design approaches you as they are not sure what
they are supposed to be working on. What will you do next?
Review the Project Scope Statement to see what the team is delivering.
Correct answer
Review the WBS Dictionary to see the detailed description of the scope of the
work and who it is assigned to.
Review the Requirements Traceability Matrix to see where the scope comes
from.
Review the Assumption Log, to see who we assume should do the work.
Overall explanation
The Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary is a detailed description of the Scope
of Work, broken down to the work package level (where it can be assigned to
someone to work on). It includes acceptance criteria, an assignee, cost
information, schedule information and resource requirements.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p237, “WBS dictionary”.
Question 152Skipped
You have taken over as Project Manager for a project that has had issues
delivering on time. You review the Earned Value Management and find the
corresponding SPI and CPI values are 0.86 and 1.12. You advise the project
sponsor, who asks you to bring the project back on track within the next two
months. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Apply schedule crashing to bring the project back on track.
Apply fast tracking to bring the project back on track.
Update the Risk Register and assign the risk of project failure to an executive
with the power to bring it back on track.
Reduce the project scope to bring the project back on track.
Overall explanation
The project is behind on Schedule (delivered less than 1.0), but under budget
and ahead on Cost (delivered more than 1.0). This means we have money to
spent, and we need to reduce the schedule. Of the techniques here, Schedule
Crashing throws money and resources at the project to get it done faster, and
becomes the best option presented.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022) p295, “Schedule Compression”.
Question 153Skipped
You are working on a change that includes stakeholders at all levels from front-
line workers to senior executives. After performing stakeholder analysis you and
your team group the stakeholders according to their level of influence and the
impact the change will have on them. The project sponsor asks what
engagement strategy you will use for the front-line workers. What will you do
next?
Manage them Closely
Monitor them only
Keep them Satisfied
Correct answer
Keep them Informed
Overall explanation
Analysing stakeholders using an Impact/Influence grid, you will have four
quadrants: High Influence and High Impact: Manage closely. High influence and
low impact: Keep satisfied. Low Influence and Low Impact: monitor them only.
Front-line workers in this case have a low influence but receive a high impact
from the project: Keep them informed.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022) p301, “Impact/Influence Grid”.
Question 154Skipped
You are working directly with the project sponsor, in the initial phase of a brand
new project. The project sponsor asks for your help in creating a document that
formally authorises the project, including details such as the cost-benefit
analysis, feasibility study, and high level risks. What will you do next?
Prepare a project milestone chart, and review with the project team
Prepare a Business Case, and review with the functional manager and receiving
team
Correct answer
Prepare a Project Charter, and review with the portfolio governing body for
approval
Prepare a Project Management Plan, and host a project kick off meeting to begin
Overall explanation
The Project Charter is the document that formally authorises the project. The
Business Case, cost benefit analysis and feasibility studies are inputs into this
document and process, to help provide a link between the project and the
strategic objectives of the organization.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022) p71, “Develop Project Charter”
Question 155Skipped
You are working as a Project Manager and your team is about to deliver the
completed system to the customer. During the final round of testing, the
customer points out that a major piece of functionality is missing, which should
have been in scope but was not previously thought of. What will you do next?
Deliver the system to the customer as it is with the promise to add the
functionality later.
Ask the sponsor to accept the risk and move on.
Utilise your project budget’s Contingency Reserves to add the functionality
before release.
Correct answer
Utilise your project’s Management Reserves as part of the budget to add the
required functionality before release.
Overall explanation
Management reserves are a specified amount of the project budget withheld for
management control purposes and are reserved for unforeseen work that is
within scope of the project. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p291,
“Reserve Analysis”.
Question 156Skipped
Your team have completed the work on your project and the customer has
confirmed the formal acceptance of the product that has been delivered. You set
a meeting with your team to document lessons learned, release and reassign
personnel as needed. What will you do next?
Gain final sign off on the risk report with the steering committee.
Correct answer
Archive all project information for future use by the organization.
Review project documents for any open issues or risks.
Ask the customer for a formal contract closure letter.
Overall explanation
Of all the options available, only “Archive all project information for future use by
the organization” is part of the project closure activities. Process Groups: A
Practice Guide (2022), p198, “Close Project or Phase”
Question 157Skipped
You are working as a project manager for a medium-sized software project. The
project sponsor believes that the team have not completed enough work in the
last two weeks, and comes to talk to you about it. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Review the team Burndown Chart to see the flow of work versus what was
committed.
Review the project risk register, to raise a risk on project performance.
Ask the team to work harder, putting in overtime where possible.
Tell the project sponsor to focus on their area and let you manage the project.
Overall explanation
It is best to solve problems with real data – and ensure they are real problems to
begin with. The iteration burndown chart tracks the work that remains to be
completed in the iteration backlog. It shows the variance against the work
committed from iteration planning. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022),
p277, “Iteration Burndown Chart”.
Question 158Skipped
You are working on a project that involves the renovation and removal of an old
industrial plant. When investigating the area with your team to capture the
project scope, you notice here are old chemicals left behind, which hurt your
lungs when you breath them in. What will you do next?
Accept the risk and remove the industrial plant anyway.
Mitigate the risk by asking for volunteers to deal with the chemicals.
Correct answer
Transfer the risk by hiring a specialist external company to remove the
chemicals.
Avoid the risk by only working on areas which don’t have chemicals.
Overall explanation
This question asks that we have knowledge of risk responses. Of all the options
where genuine danger or high risk is involved, Transferring the risk to a third
party or through insurance is the best approach. Mitigating the risk (through
proper controls) would also be a good approach, but this option was not
presented here. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p304, “Strategies for
Threats”.
Question 159Skipped
During User Acceptance Testing a senior user points out a major change needed
to the project scope for it to be successful. You realise you may not have enough
money or resources to complete your project, but will need approval to increase
either. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Review the Change Management Plan for the correct change control process,
including approvers on the Change Control Board.
Review the Configuration Management Plan to find out who can configure the
scope change.
Review the Scope Management Plan to see how changes to scope should be
handled.
Review the Quality Management Plan to see rules for User Acceptance Testing
and their results.
Overall explanation
The Change Management plan provides the process for managing change
control, including the CCB. The Configuration Management Plan shows which
documents will be baselined. The Scope Management Plan shows how scope will
be defined, validated, and controlled. The Quality Management Plan is the
testing plan, showing the test roles and process. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p32, p205, "Change management plan".
Question 160Skipped
A new executive has started in the functional area you are delivering to. They
are concerned the project is not delivering what they need, and they put
pressure on you to deliver more than was originally agreed. You agree to meet
and talk through the Scope Baseline so you are on the same page. What will you
do next?
Gather the Requirements Traceability Matrix and Feature Gantt Chart.
Gather the Feature list and current Sprint backlog.
Gather the approved Scope Management Plan.
Correct answer
Gather the Project Scope Statement, WBS and WBS dictionary.
Overall explanation
The project scope statement, WBS and WBS dictionary are all part of the Scope
Baseline. Work packages and planning packages are also included. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p236, “Scope Baseline”.
Question 161Skipped
You are developing new scheduling software for your organisation, and the
project is at risk of not meeting its scheduled release date. The Functional
manager tells you they are now removing three key resources from the project
who are currently assigned to critical path tasks. What will you do next?
Submit a change request to change the project schedule.
Escalate the situation to the project sponsor.
Overturn the decision of the Functional manager.
Correct answer
Negotiate with the Functional manager and reach an agreement.
Overall explanation
Submitting a change request is only needed if the baselined schedule, cost or
scope are changing. The project sponsor may not have control over the
functional area, and escalation can come later. The Project Manager doesn’t
have the authority to overturn area resource decisions by the functional
manager. The next best step is to use negotiation, and trying to reach an
agreement first with the Functional Manager before escalating or submitting a
change request.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p335, "Perform Integrated Change
Control", p282, "Negotiation"
Question 162Skipped
You are leading a waterfall project, where there has just been a change to
government regulation. It impacts the scope of your project and requires a
change. You perform impact analysis and find that the change will use up the
project’s cost management reserves completely. What will you do next?
Raise a risk in the Risk Register, and assign an owner and risk mitigation.
Correct answer
Document a Change Request and take it to the Change Control Board.
Discuss the situation with sponsor and ask her to make the final decision.
Make the change to project scope as it is within the managed budget reserves.
Overall explanation
In this situation we are talking about the change request process. We know there
is a change to project scope, that will require a change request. We have also
performed impact analysis so we can include that in the change request and
take it to the CCB. Risks are noted before they occur – after they occur they
become issues. The Project Sponsor may be a part of the Change Control Board,
but if a CCB exists it would be inappropriate to go to them for a decision without
a Change Request. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p168, "Perform
Integrated Change Control".
Question 163Skipped
You are working on a COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) system project for your
organisation with a third party. The system provider has been getting further and
further behind in their part of delivery, and it is starting to impact your project
schedule. What will you do next?
Use your project scope contingency reserves to speed delivery of the item.
Raise an issue in the issue log and note the status.
Raise a claim to the third party for the COTS delay.
Correct answer
Review the Procurement agreement for the original timeframe and escalation
process.
Overall explanation
The process is Controlling Procurements – keeping any third party agreement
and contract under control. Agreements is one of the inputs to this process.
Claims are contested changes (including defects or missed requirements) to the
item, and the claims process may also be in the procurement contract, including
an alternative dispute resolution process if the two parties cannot agree. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p188, “Control Procurements”, p252 “Claims
Administration”
Question 164Skipped
Your project team have completed development and quality testing. You have
had the product validated and signed off with the receiving Functional Manager.
The functional manager asks you to perform variance analysis on the outcome
once the product is released. What will you do next?
Review the different products and their potential impact on the business.
Review the cost of the product versus the benefit it will bring to the business.
Review the problem the product is trying to solve, and the reasons behind it.
Correct answer
Review the forecast business benefit with the actual benefit post release.
Overall explanation
Answer A describes alternatives analysis, B describes Cost-Benefit analysis, C
describes Root Cause analysis. Answer D describes comparing the “planned”
with the “actual” performance of the product, or the variance between the two.
Among all options provided, D is the correct answer. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p312, “Variance Analysis”
Question 165Skipped
You are working as a project manager on a new kitchen product for your
organisation. The product has been through a thorough design process and has
now been developed. You have had a quality testing team check over the
product and they are happy. What will you do next?
Accept the deliverable and begin archiving project information.
Test the new product with a small amount of customers to reduce risk.
Ask the project sponsor to begin production on the new product.
Correct answer
Show the project sponsor the verified deliverable.
Overall explanation
The process of deliverable acceptance is this: Control Quality (testing) > Verified
Deliverables > Validate Scope process (with customer/sponsor) > Accepted
Deliverables. Verified deliverables are project deliverables that are completed
and checked for correctness through the Control Quality process, and they are
an input into the “Validate Scope” process. Process Groups: A Practice Guide
(2022), p345, “Verified Deliverables”.
Question 166Skipped
You have the project scope defined on your project, and have created the list of
activities needed to deliver that scope. The Project Sponsor is worried that there
will not be enough resources to complete the work. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Sequence the activities, estimate their duration, then create the schedule for the
Project Sponsor.
Ask the Project Sponsor to hire more resources so you are prepared.
Create a schedule network diagram and find the critical path.
Create a Resource Assignment Matrix to see who is assigned to the work.
Overall explanation
This scenario is describing Project Schedule Management. You have defined the
scope and the list of activities to deliver the scope. The next steps are to
sequence (or prioritise) the activities with their dependencies, estimate their
duration and then place them on a schedule assigned to resources. Doing this
will also show stakeholders the time and resources required, so they will know
whether they have enough. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p89 “Plan
Schedule Management”, p22 "Process Groups"
Question 167Skipped
Your project team have been working to create a part of a software deliverable
for two months, and an issue has just been raised where they believe it will cost
three times the current budget and time available. They have identified a few
third party vendors who specialise in this item. What will you do next?
Ask the project team to keep going – time and money has already been spent for
them to create it.
Correct answer
Create a procurement strategy and ask the project team for a Statement of
Work.
Ask the procurement team to create a fixed price contract so cost doesn’t over-
run any further.
Select a seller and award a contract so work can begin as quickly as possible.
Overall explanation
Answer A is incorrect – this indicates the Sunk Cost Fallacy – remove money
already spent from the decision. Before accepting or hiring a Third Party to do
work, you will need the outputs from “Plan Procurement Management” - a
Procurement Strategy (including the delivery method and type of contract) and
Statement of Work (including item description and requirements). Then you can
send a Request for Quote or Proposal to vendors using this information. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p215, “Procurement Documentation”.
Question 168Skipped
You are working as a Project Manager on a waterfall project, and the functional
manager approaches you to say that the project is not going well and they don’t
think the product is going to meet the requirements they agreed on. What will
you do next?
Provide a product review for the manager at the end of the next iteration.
Correct answer
Review the Requirements Traceability Matrix with the manager.
Add more scope to your project to satisfy the functional manager.
Review the Scope Management Plan with the functional manager.
Overall explanation
The requirements traceability matrix is a grid that links product requirements
from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them. This is the best option to
see whether deliverables meet the requirements. A product review is an Agile
method, but also may only provide a small snapshot of the product (completed in
an iteration). Adding more scope could be “Gold Plating” the product. The Scope
Management Plan will tell you your process of managing scope, but not the
scope itself. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p226, “Requirements
Traceability Matrix”.
Question 169Skipped
You are working on a highly complex and high profile project and are under
pressure from the customer to deliver something quickly. However the subject-
matter-experts who are providing the product requirements are still in the
process of figuring out around 70% of them due to the complexity of the product.
What should you do?
Correct answer
Ask the project team to use Rolling Wave Planning.
Ask the team to consult the Statement of Work.
Ask the project team to create a working prototype.
Ask the project team to do a Work Breakdown Structure.
Overall explanation
Rolling wave planning is an iterative technique where work in the near term is
planned in detail, while work further in the future is planned at a higher level.
This would allow something to be delivered while other work is being planned. A
statement of work is used when procuring a vendor. A prototype might help see
the working product, but only if most of the requirements are already known. A
WBS needs the high level features to break down into smaller workable pieces.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p295, “Rolling Wave Planning”
Question 170Incorrect
As a Project Manager, you are developing the approved version of the time-
phased project budget. You have created the cost estimates, and added a
contingency reserve to combat known risks. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Add the Basis of Estimates to ensure reasons for costs are known.
Update the configuration management plan to include your cost estimate.
Correct answer
Add the management reserve to create the total Project Funding Requirements.
Review the Cost Performance Index to ensure the budget remains on track.
Overall explanation
The cost baseline is the approved version of the time-phased project budget, and
it includes contingency reserves (for known risks) but excludes any management
reserves (for any unforeseen scope). The next best thing to do is to add the
management reserve to complete your budget, to create the total Project
Funding Requirements, which are derived from the Cost Baseline and is the other
output of the Determine Budget process. Process Groups: A Practice Guide
(2022), p326, “Cost Baseline”
Question 171Incorrect
You are nearing the end of a difficult project where the vendor providing the
system to your company has taken longer than anticipated. The deliverables
have been quality tested, validated and verified. Your project sponsor is keen to
finish the project and close it off. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Review the risk register and issues register for outstanding risks and issues.
Review the project management plan and approved change requests.
Correct answer
Review the procurement agreement and accepted deliverables.
Review the requirements management plan and requirements traceability
matrix.
Overall explanation
In this scenario where a procurement is involved with the closing phase of a
project, the procurement agreements and the accepted deliverables are inputs
to close the project. When project deliverables have been verified, they are
accepted by the project sponsor and you can close the project or phase. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p196, “Close project or phase”.
Question 172Incorrect
You are managing your team through difficult project, which has been made
more difficult by many team members being new and inexperienced, and not
having the right capability to get the work done. You are getting pressure from
your steering committee to improve the performance of your project. What will
you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Use Tuckman’s ladder of Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing with your
team.
Correct answer
Use co-location, a shared knowledge portal, training and team assessments.
Use conflict management, influencing and emotional intelligence to get your
team onside.
Use brainstorming and root cause analysis to get to the heart of the problem.
Overall explanation
This example is referencing the process of “Develop Team” in resource
management. Tools and techniques in this process include co-location,
interpersonal skills, communication technology, training, team assessments,
recognition and rewards, and more. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022),
p146 “Develop Team – Tools & Techniques”.
Question 173Incorrect
You have planned the scope, schedule, cost and resources with your team. You
have also identified a large number of risks within your project. You are in the
process of assigning the probability and impact to the risks when one of the risks
occurs. Your project sponsor immediately worries about a worst case scenario.
What will you do next?
Utilise the management reserve for your project to mitigate the risk.
Correct answer
Review (or create) the risk response in the risk register then use the appropriate
contingency reserve to implement it.
Your answer is incorrect
Perform a long, in-depth quantitative analysis on the risk to get the full range of
financial impacts of the risk.
Accept the risk for now, as the risk analysis is not yet complete.
Overall explanation
This scenario describes performing qualitative risk analysis, where the risk has
already occurred. Once done, risks are placed in the risk register with their
responses, and an appropriate contingency reserve is added to the work
package for these “known-unknown” risks. Process Groups: A Practice Guide
(2022), p229, “Risk Register”.
Question 174Correct
A significant change has been made to the project scope after finding a serious
system flaw. This scope change will impact the scope, cost and schedule of the
project. You analyse the impacts to each, raise an issue in the issue log and are
about to raise a change request. What will you do next?
Review the configuration management plan for the baselined project items.
Add the detail as a project delivery risk in your project risk register.
Update the change log and implement the changes required.
Your answer is correct
Check the Change Management plan for the Change Control Board members and
process.
Overall explanation
The Perform Integrated Change Control process includes a change control board
(CCB), which is a formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating,
approving, deferring, or rejecting changes to the project and for recording and
communicating such decisions. The change management plan provides the
direction for managing the change control process and documents the roles and
responsibilities of the change control board (CCB). Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p324 “Change Management Plan”.
Question 175Correct
Five major defects have been found during quality testing, resulting in the scope
changing significantly and affecting your schedule and budget. You have
analysed the impacts and raised change requests for each. The Change Control
Board has approved two changes, rejected two changes and deferred one. What
will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Record the outcomes in the change log and communicate the deferred and
rejected changes to the change requestor.
Review and re-prioritise the project scope to fit must-have items into delivery.
Raise a risk in the risk register for threats to the benefit of your project.
Raise a claim on the affected changes to give them a better chance of approval.
Overall explanation
The outcome of all Change Requests are recorded in the Change log, and
deferred or rejected change requests are communicated to the person or group
requesting the change. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p202,
"Approved Change Requests".
Question 176Correct
You are working through the scope of a newly kicked-off project, and the senior
user is unsure on how the requirements and scope come together to create a
deliverable that will work for him and the functional manager. Your program
manager suggests you use “decomposition” in this circumstance. What will you
do next?
Estimate activity resources for who is required to deliver the item.
Define the project scope for the functional manager.
Your answer is correct
Create a WBS and Define Activities in your schedule.
Create the Project Charter and Project Management Plan for a clear view of the
project.
Overall explanation
Decomposition is “breaking things down” into smaller and more manageable
parts. It is a tool and technique for both the Create WBS and the Define Activities
processes. So, among all option C is the right answer. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p266, "Decomposition".
Question 177Correct
You have been assigned to take over a project in your organisation that has gone
off track, with scope creep causing the schedule and cost to increase. You can’t
quite understand the current cadence and way of working within the team, so
you decide to find out their development approach, including any modifications.
What will you do next?
Review the Project Charter, as this was the original agreed document.
Review the schedule management plan, as this will have team cadence
schedules.
Your answer is correct
Review the Project Management Plan, as this will house the cadence approach.
Review the Stakeholder Register, for stakeholder cadence needs.
Overall explanation
The Development approach, including any modifications, is included in the
Project Management Plan. This defines whether predictive, Iterative, agile, or a
hybrid development approach will be used on the project. Process Groups: A
Practice Guide (2022), p32, "Development Approach".
Question 178Incorrect
You are working on a complex engineering project, where a significant amount of
risk has been found with your team and the customer. The functional manager
approaches to ask if she can work with your team to plan any risk responses. You
agree to help her update the Risk Register, with:
Correct answer
Risk triggers, agreed response strategies, and residual risks after mitigation.
Risk contingency reserves, quantitative analysis and financial impact responses.
The list of risks, their probability and impact, and their overall risk rating.
Your answer is incorrect
Risk owners, risk assumptions, and risk mitigations.
Overall explanation
This situation is describing the “Plan Risk Responses” process. The risk register is
updated with information like agreed-upon response strategies, triggers, warning
signs of risk occurrence, residual risks that are expected to remain because they
are deliberately accepted, and the register is an output of this process. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p122, "Plan Risk Responses".
Question 179Incorrect
Your project is nearing completion. You have monitored and controlled quality
through testing, and risks with mitigations throughout the project life. The
project sponsor is concerned that she won’t know if the product being delivered
has the desired effect on her business area once it is released. What will you do
next?
Consult the Quality Management Plan, to ensure the quality is right for the
sponsor.
Correct answer
Consult the Benefits Management Plan, and act in accordance to that process.
Your answer is incorrect
Consult the Business Case, to see the proposed benefits from the change.
Consult the Risk Register, for any remaining risks that might reduce the effect.
Overall explanation
What the sponsor is talking about here is the benefit to her business. The
Benefits Management Plan is a type of business document that describes how
and when the benefits of the project will be delivered, and process that should
be in place to measure those benefits. During closing, its reviewed to measure
whether the benefits of the project were achieved as planned. Process Groups: A
Practice Guide (2022), p203, “Benefits Management Plan”.
Question 180Correct
You are the project manager on a high profile software project that involves
automation technology not used before in your company. Because of this, your
team have no resources to complete that part of the project. The steering
committee approves outsourcing this work to a suitable vendor. What will you do
next?
Perform a make-or-buy analysis to ensure a correct decision.
Approach your procurement department for suitable contracts to proceed with,
such as Cost plus Incentive Fee.
Your answer is correct
Create the procurement statement of work and source selection criteria.
Review current agreements and change requests impacting third-party work.
Overall explanation
In this scenario we are in the beginning stages of procuring a vendor. The right
process is Plan Procurement Management, where the outputs are to create the
procurement statement of work and the source selection criteria. Other items are
the bid documents (i.e. request for proposal), and the Procurement Strategy. The
time for make-or-buy analysis has passed, with the third party approach already
being approved. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p128, "Plan
Procurement Management"
Question 181Incorrect
You are a project manager working in the initial phases of a project, and trying to
put together a document for your stakeholders to have your project approved.
You remember the Five Cs of communication from your studies, and decide to
use them here. What will you do next?
Connect each part of the communication.
Your answer is incorrect
Create a bond between the message sender and receiver.
Correct answer
Ensure clear purpose and expression directed to the needs of the reader.
Care about the subject and the person.
Overall explanation
In this scenario we are talking about the five Cs of communication: Correct
grammar and spelling, Concise expression and elimination of excess words, Clear
purpose and expression directed to the needs of the reader, Coherent logical
flow of ideas, Controlling flow of words and ideas. (PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition,
2017, p363, “Key concepts for project communications”.
Question 182Incorrect
You have been working with the stakeholders on your project for some time, and
the communication has been getting more and more tense with each interaction.
You perform a stakeholder engagement assessment and discover the majority of
your stakeholders are either resistant or neutral. What will you NOT do next?
Ensure you are listening actively with each interaction, speaking less and
listening more.
Increase your awareness of cultural and personal differences.
Your answer is incorrect
Identify, set and manage stakeholder expectations.
Correct answer
Escalate the stakeholder issue to their functional manager to bring them back in
line.
Overall explanation
In this scenario we are talking about Communication. There are four things that
support the Five Cs of communication, and they are: Listening actively;
Awareness of cultural and personal differences; Identifying, setting, and
managing stakeholder expectations; Enhancement of skills (in negotiation
coaching, and conflict resolution). (PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, 2017, p363
Question 183Correct
You have been working on a large database transfer project, when the manager
for data in your organisation identifies the aging systems as a threat to your
project. You review this with your project team and decide to perform qualitative
risk analysis on the threat. What will you do next?
Review the quality of the data that led to the risk identification.
Your answer is correct
Assign a probability of occurrence and an impact if it does occur.
Perform analysis on a range of outcomes to see the possible financial impact.
Add a risk trigger, mitigation and owner to the threat.
Overall explanation
This scenario is talking about qualitative risk analysis, which is described as the
process of prioritizing individual project risks for further analysis or action by
assessing their probability of occurrence and impact as well as other
characteristics. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p117 “Perform
Qualitative Risk Analysis”.
Question 184Incorrect
You are managing a project that has formed organically around an important
process improvement. You have been given limited resources and a very small
budget from the project sponsor. You are planning Risk Management with your
team, but you do not have the resources to complete all the necessary risk
tasks. Which step will you remove in such a project?
Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis.
Correct answer
Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis.
Your answer is incorrect
Identify Risks.
Plan Risk Management.
Overall explanation
In the PMBOK Guide, quantitative risk analysis consumes additional time and
cost. The use of quantitative risk analysis is most likely appropriate for large or
complex projects, or strategically important projects. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p120, "Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis".
Question 185Correct
You are the project manager on a waterfall project, and you have planned the
requirements, scope and schedule with your team. You now need to create the
total funding requirements for your project. What will you NOT include as part of
your total funding requirements?
Contingency amounts to account for identified risks.
Your answer is correct
Amounts for ongoing operation of the delivered product.
Aggregated estimates for project activities.
A management reserve for unforeseen scope changes.
Overall explanation
Total Funding Requirements include the cost baseline - which are the aggregated
project costs, plus the contingency reserve for any known risks, and the
management reserve for any unforeseen project scope. Process Groups: A
Practice Guide (2022), p219, “Project Funding Requirements”.
Question 186Correct
You have just taken over as project manager on a difficult waterfall project.
Multiple project stakeholders have approached you and asked to make changes
to different parts of the scope, cost and the delivery (schedule) of the project.
You are trying to figure out which items need change approval, and which can
just be done. What will you do next?
Review the Change Management Plan for the change approval process.
Refer the Scope Management Plan for scope items that need approval.
Your answer is correct
Review the Configuration Management Plan for baselined items.
Examine Requirement Traceability Matrix for the requirement requestor.
Overall explanation
The change management plan explains the change process, however it is the
configuration management plan that shows which items in your project are
baselined and need to go through the change management process. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p207, “Configuration Management Plan”
Question 187Incorrect
You are new to a project and are approached by the functional manager. No one
has been able to tell them exactly what the project is about, and what they need
to be aware of, including high level scope, schedule, risks, and who approved it
in the first place. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Check the project activity list and schedule.
Hold a sprint review to see what the team have developed so far.
Correct answer
Review the project charter and identify the stakeholder impacted by the change.
Visit the project management office (PMO) to gather organizational process
assets.
Overall explanation
The Project Charter holds the high level information you need to get up to speed,
including the project purpose, high-level requirements and deliverables,
summary milestone schedule list, project risk, stakeholders and more. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p222, “Project Charter”.
Question 188Incorrect
The project manager on your project recently left, and you agreed to see the
project through as it is nearly complete. The deliverables have been accepted,
and you just need to communicate the release to any and all affected
stakeholders in the way they agreed. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Review the Communication Management Plan for how communication is
managed.
Your answer is incorrect
Review the Stakeholder Engagement Plan for how stakeholders prefer to be
engaged.
Review the Stakeholder Register for the people you need to communicate to.
Review the Resource Management Plan for the resources affected by your
project.
Overall explanation
The communications management plan describes how project communications
will be planned, structured, implemented, and monitored for effectiveness. The
plan contains things such as Stakeholder communication requirements,
Information to be communicated, Reason for the distribution of that information
and more. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p206, “Communications
Management Plan”
Question 189Incorrect
You have been working on a project in your organisation for some time. In the
latest working group meeting, the project sponsor adds a new executive member
to the group. As soon as they arrive, they raise a new scope item that was not in
the original plan. What will you do next?
Raise a change request to change the scope baseline.
Correct answer
Update the stakeholder register with the new stakeholder details.
Your answer is incorrect
Raise an issue for the scope change in the issue log.
Update the change log with the initial details of the scope change.
Overall explanation
The stakeholder register contains identification information (i.e. name and role),
assessment information (i.e. requirements and potential for influencing), and
stakeholder classification such as impact over influence. As the stakeholder has
just joined the project, this is the very next thing you should do. The change
control process can come next, but usually not before analysing the impact to
your project. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p239, "Stakeholder
Register".
Question 190Correct
Your project team have been complaining about poor stakeholder engagement in
a certain part of the organisation for some time. It is now impacting the project
schedule and you may need to use your contingency reserve to crash the
schedule and bring it back on track. What will you do next?
Review the cost management plan and access the appropriate contingency
reserve.
Your answer is correct
Perform root cause analysis on the problem with your team.
Raise the engagement as a risk and escalate it immediately to the functional
manager.
Change the way of working to agile to increase stakeholder engagement.
Overall explanation
Root cause analysis is an analytical technique used for identifying root causes of
a problem and solving them. We won’t access a contingency reserve until we’ve
properly analysed the impact to our project. Risks must also go through the
process of analysis, assignment and mitigation before deciding to escalate as a
response. Changing the way of work won’t magically increase engagement
straight away. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p295, “Root Cause
Analysis”.
Question 191Correct
You are delivering a brand new product line into your organisation, partly
utilising a third party system. You have been working with the functional
manager and her team to gather their expert judgement throughout
development, when they raise a concern that the third party system has a high
chance of being discontinued and losing support in the next 12 months. What will
you do next?
Your answer is correct
Update the Risk Register.
Update the Issue Log.
Ignore the concern, you can still deliver the product without the system.
Escalate the concern to the project sponsor.
Overall explanation
What we are describing here is a Risk, to the delivery of the product and its
benefits. A risk can get discovered at any point of time in the project, and all
identified risks can be recorded to Risk Register throughout the life cycle of the
project. One of the outputs to Identifying Risks is the updated Risk Register.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p115, “Identify Risks”
Question 192Correct
You have joined a car manufacturing company as a new project manager. Senior
Management have asked you to take the necessary steps that will enable you to
kick-start a project in a corresponding area for designing a new electronic
dashboard. What will you do next?
Review the marketplace conditions and current industry standards.
Create a cost benefit analysis and feasibility study for a business case.
Your answer is correct
Gather the high level requirements, scope, milestones and risks for a project
charter.
Start the project through a kick-off meeting immediately, and begin gathering
resources.
Overall explanation
This question is describing the Initiating phase of a project. Develop Project
Charter is the first step in the Initiating phase. It is a document that formally
authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the
authority to apply organizational resources to project activities, and includes a
summary milestone schedule; high-level project description and key
deliverables, overall project risk and more. Process Groups: A Practice Guide
(2022), p22, "Process Groups", 222, “Project Charter”.
Question 193Correct
Your project team have just finished defining the scope of the project. They have
matched the scope to the original requirements on a Requirements Traceability
Matrix. The team cannot agree on what to do next. What will you ask them to
do?
Ask your quality team to verify the scope so your project can proceed.
Approach the project sponsor for acceptance of the project scope.
Break down the scope into activities and place them on a project schedule.
Your answer is correct
Review the Scope Management Plan for direction on creating the Work
Breakdown Structure.
Overall explanation
The order of Scope Management processes in project planning are: Collect
Requirements, Define the Scope, Create the WBS. The process for creating the
WBS should be outlined in the Scope Management Plan, which outlines the
process for creating the scope statement, WBS, Scope Baseline, and how scope
is accepted. Validating scope is done by the accepting customer (or sponsor)
after quality testing verifies them. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p77,
"Planning Process Group"
Question 194Incorrect
You have just taken over a project that is approximately half-way through, and
has used around 75% of its budget. A change to one of the features has been
requested after extensive user acceptance testing, and your project team cannot
agree on what to do next or whether changes should be made. What will you do
next?
Your answer is incorrect
Check the Change Management Plan for details on how to make changes.
Check the Requirements Traceability Matrix for how the requirements should be
traced.
Blame the previous project manager loudly for not having a process to deal with
this situation.
Correct answer
Check the Scope Management Plan for details on how to manage the scope.
Overall explanation
The change management plan defines the process for managing change on the
project. The scope management plan documents how the project and product
scope will be defined, monitored and controlled, verified and validated. The
requirements traceability matrix is a grid that links product requirements from
their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p82, "Scope Management Plan".
Question 195Correct
You have been asked to work on a process improvement within your team. Your
manager has secured a developer to assist you with automating the process
once it is streamlined, but you will need to make sure they understand the
process thoroughly, including the criteria to test the automation against. What
will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Gather your team and the developer and create a flowchart together.
Gather your team and create an affinity diagram together.
Gather your team and the developer and perform a cost-benefit analysis for the
automation.
Gather your team and create a quality management plan together.
Overall explanation
A flowchart shows the process flow from start to finish, including decision points
and people, departments or systems involved. It is also a Tool for Plan Quality
Management. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p273, "Flowcharts".
Question 196Correct
You are working on a new project where the design and project work, including
all the scope and cost have been planned up front. However, part of the project
relies on a vendor creating a new add-on for your project, which will be subject
to multiple changes as the core product is created. What project development
lifecycle approach will you recommend to the team?
A Predictive or Waterfall approach, as the work is planned up-front.
An Iterative approach, as changes will need to be made before the final delivery.
An Incremental approach, so you can deliver parts continuously and align them.
Your answer is correct
A Hybrid approach combining pre-planned activities, iterations and ceremonies
that promote collaboration and feedback.
Overall explanation
A hybrid life cycle is a combination of a predictive and an adaptive life cycle.
Those elements of the project that are well known or have fixed requirements
follow a predictive development life cycle, and those elements that are still
evolving follow an adaptive development life cycle. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p15, "Project and Development Lifecycles“
Question 197Incorrect
The project you are managing has defined the scope and created the Scope
Baseline with the Scope Statement, WBS and WBS dictionary. The project
sponsor is concerned that project planning is taking too long, and would like to
see the project plan finished. What is the next best action you should take?
Create the project budget, including contingency and management reserves.
Correct answer
Define and sequence activities and estimate their durations.
Create the Resource Management Plan
Your answer is incorrect
Review the project charter for the high level project scope, schedule and costs.
Overall explanation
You cannot create the budget without knowing the activities to create the scope,
their durations, and the resources required to perform them. The next best
action is to define and sequence activities and estimate their durations. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p89, "Plan Schedule Management"
Question 198Incorrect
You are working on a project charter for the initiating stage of a new project that
will deliver a new data system. You approach your enterprise data team and ask
them for an estimate to deliver these changes, however your project sponsor
believes a third-party vendor will provide the best solution. What will you do
next?
Create the project charter and let the steering committee decide.
Correct answer
Perform make-or-buy analysis with a payback period.
Your answer is incorrect
Ask the enterprise data team for their lowest quote to ensure they win.
Take an agile approach to the project and deliver it in increments.
Overall explanation
Make or buy analysis is used to decide between two or more options in delivering
a project, with one of those options being your own organisation. It may include
a payback period (initial outlay versus ongoing costs for each), Net Present
Value, Cost Benefit analysis and more. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022),
p213, “Make or buy decisions”.
Question 199Correct
You are working on a project where the functional manager is unhappy with the
changes being brought about to his part of the organisation. He argues
constantly, misses key meetings, demands multiple sign-offs to slow progress
and more. The project sponsor asks you to go for a win/win approach to this
conflict. What will you do next?
Smooth and accommodate the manager, emphasising areas of agreement.
Your answer is correct
Collaborate and problem solve with the manager.
Compromise and reconcile with the manager.
Force and direct the manager, pushing your viewpoint and the expense of
others.
Overall explanation
This is a question on managing conflict. Smoothing and accommodating is
lose/win. Compromising and reconciling may sound nice, but you both give up
something and it ends in a lose/lose. Forcing your viewpoint is win/lose at the
expense of others. Only problem solving and collaborating can end in a win/win.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p258, “Conflict Management”.
Question 200Correct
You are working on a large multi-year project. You realise that the estimates
from a year ago are extremely inaccurate, and the project is off track. You would
like to try a different approach that gives a high level view of future work, and a
detailed view of near-term work. What will you do next?
Recommend a Decomposition approach.
Recommend the process in the Schedule Management Plan.
Recommend an Iterative approach to development.
Your answer is correct
Recommend a Rolling Wave Planning approach.
Overall explanation
Rolling Wave Planning is when you plan near-term work in detail, and future work
at a high level. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p295, “Rolling Wave
Planning”.
Question 201Incorrect
You are in the initiating stages of a project working for a car manufacturer. Their
vehicles have been losing market share due to the high price of fuel, and the
organisation wants to build more fuel efficient cars. You have been asked to put
together a business case outlining the various options, with a specific order to
perform benchmarking. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Find which competitor products have been benchmarked for future production.
Correct answer
Compare the specifications of popular branded fuel efficient cars available in the
market with your products.
Create a project charter to use as a benchmark for your future project
management plan.
Benchmark your current Scope, Cost and Schedule to use as values for project
performance.
Overall explanation
Benchmarking involves comparing actual or planned products, processes, and
practices to those of comparable organizations to identify best practices,
generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring
performance. The organizations compared during benchmarking can be internal
or external. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p249, “Benchmarking”.
Question 202Correct
When reviewing the project performance with your team, you notice the
following: 1) Activity A, on the critical path, is delayed by 5 days. 2) Activity B,
not on the critical path, is delayed by 10 days. 3) Activity C, on the critical path is
delayed by 3 days 4) Activity D, not on the critical path, is delayed by 7 days.
Where will you ask the team to focus their efforts on first, and then in which
order, to bring the project back on track?
Activity A, Activity B, Activity D, Activity C.
Activity B, Activity D, Activity A, Activity C.
Your answer is correct
Activity A, Activity C, Activity B, Activity D.
Activity B, Activity A, Activity D, Activity C.
Overall explanation
Tasks on critical path should be addressed first, as they are critical to the project
schedule. After that, items that are delayed by the most should be addressed as
soon as possible. This makes C is the most reasonable choice. (PMBOK Guide) –
Sixth Edition, 2017, p210, “Critical Path method”.
Question 203Incorrect
As your project begins, it becomes clear the most of the business analysts,
developers and testers are not familiar with system they will be modifying. The
Project Sponsor asks you to address this as a potential future quality issue, and
asks you to add a series of training sessions for the team, with associated cost.
What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Add it as Appraisal Costs, and take the change request to the CCB for approval.
Correct answer
Add it as Preventive Costs, and take the change request to the CCB for approval.
Add it as Internal Failure Costs and take the change request to the CCB for
approval.
Add it as Sunk Costs and take the change request to the CCB for approval.
Overall explanation
This is the Cost of Quality. Appraisal cost is the cost of auditing or checking the
work. Internal failure costs are defects caught before release. Sunk cost is the
money already spent on something, while making future decisions. Preventative
costs is the bets answer here, as through training we are preventing future
quality issues.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p261 “Cost of Quality”.
Question 204Correct
You have finished project planning. All baseline documents are approved and the
project team is ready to begin project execution or delivery. Your team have
planned and estimated the activity resources required. What will you do next?
Define with the team how to estimate, acquire, manage, and use team and
physical resources.
Estimate team resources and the type and quantities of materials, equipment,
and supplies necessary to perform project work.
Your answer is correct
Obtain team members, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and other
resources necessary to complete project work.
Monitor the planned versus actual utilization of resources and taking corrective
action as necessary.
Overall explanation
After planning and estimating resources comes acquiring resources during
project execution. Acquiring resources is described as: Obtaining team members,
facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and other resources necessary to
complete project work. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p22 “Process
Group Mapping”, p143 “Acquire Resources”.
Question 205Correct
You have been working on a large waterfall project for some time, and one of the
business analysts working with you has shown interest in taking on higher duties
and moving into a project management role. What advice will you give them?
To keep improving as a business analyst and become the best they can be.
To ensure they can create a Project Charter and Project Management Plan.
Your answer is correct
To work on their soft skills, knowledge in ways of working and value
prioritisation.
To work on their contract and procurement skills for hiring and vendors.
Overall explanation
The new Project Manager Talent Triangle includes Power Skills (soft skills and
communication), Ways of Working skills (the ability to choose and refine a way of
working), and Business Acumen (making good decisions, prioritizing with cost
and benefits).

Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p58, "Project Manager Competencies"

Question 206Correct
You are working as a project manager in an organisation with a new Project
Management Office. They advise all project managers to fulfil their numerous
roles within their sphere of influence, including the Project, the Industry, and
their professional discipline. What is your responsibility when it comes to the
Organisation?
Your answer is correct
Proactively interact with other project managers for demands on the same
resources, funding, and alignment of project goals to the organisation.
Communicate within your project consistently and predictably.
Ensure an understanding of changing market niches and standards.
Educate other professionals in the organisation regarding the value of project
management.
Overall explanation
This is talking about the Project Manager's Sphere of Influence. Being proactive
with other project managers for resources and funding is the influencing within
Organisation. Communicating within your project is the Project sphere of
influence. An understanding of market niches is the Industry sphere of influence.
Educating other professionals is influencing "Across Disciplines." Process Groups:
A Practice Guide (2022), p53, "The Project Manager's Sphere of Influence"
Question 207Correct
You have just joined an organisation, and are about to be allocated to an existing
project, delivering a new Human Resources system. You have heard that the
project is behind its delivery milestones, and it is over budget by $40,000 so far.
There are multiple stakeholders with differing needs. What will you do first?
Create a project management plan, outlining the processes for each phase of the
project.
Perform a stakeholder engagement assessment, to see who is sabotaging the
project.
Your answer is correct
Start by understanding how the organisation works, including its politics and
power.
Meet with the project sponsor to understand why the project is off track.
Overall explanation
Being new to the organisation and to the project, the best thing you can do first
is to understand the internal Enterprise Environmental Factors of politics, power,
and how to get things done. You are not yet on the project, so Stakeholders are
not your first concern. An existing project will have a Project plan that you can
review. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p63, "Politics, Power and
Getting things done"
Question 208Correct
You are working in an organisation where a large change is happening to
multiple departments. You have been asked to manage this change as a project,
and allocate people within your project team with sufficient leadership skills.
What will you NOT look for in potential candidates?
People who build trust, balance opposing goals and apply persuasion and conflict
resolution.
People who give feedback constructively and accept feedback constructively.
People who can describe the products, goals and objectives of the project.
Your answer is correct
People who ensure the work is done their way, to ensure the fastest approach.
Overall explanation
The qualities and skills of a leader include: integrity, being a visionary, being
collaborative and using influence appropriately. They do not include dictatorships
or doing things their own way without feedback from the team. Process Groups:
A Practice Guide (2022), p60, "Qualities and Skills of a Leader"
Question 209Incorrect
You have started as a junior project manager on an internal process
improvement project within your existing team. Your program manager asks that
you be aware of and use the various forms of power available to you. What is the
best type of power available to you in this situation?
Correct answer
Informational power.
Your answer is incorrect
Situational power.
Positional power.
Punitive or coercive power.
Overall explanation
These are the different types of power. As a junior project manager you have
limited ability to discipline others, or provide rewards. As the change is in your
existing team, the best action here is informational power, as you will have
existing expert judgement from within your team. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p63, "Politics, Power and Getting things done"
Question 210Incorrect
You are working on a new waterfall project where the scope and cost have been
planned up front. As the project progresses, you notice several tasks going off-
track and falling behind. Luckily these tasks are not on the critical path, have
several days of float available, and you can adjust their dates without affecting
the overall project. What technique are you using to keep your project on track?
Correct answer
Resource smoothing.
Resource levelling.
Your answer is incorrect
Schedule fast tracking.
Schedule crashing.
Overall explanation
Resource smoothing is when we use available float to adjust a task, without
affecting the overall schedule. Resource Levelling is moving tasks further out, in
sequence instead of parallel. Schedule Fast tracking is performing tasks at the
same time in order to reduce the overall time. Schedule crashing is adding cost
and resources to try and reduce the schedule time. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p291, “Resource Optimisation"
Question 211Incorrect
About a third of your project team have worked on a similar project in the past.
They have gathered requirements and created a high level scope. It is time to
estimate the size and effort involved, however the customer believes things are
taking too long and would like to see some progress as soon as possible. What
will you do?
Ask the customer to wait so you can plan the project properly.
Estimate the scope using parametric estimating.
Your answer is incorrect
Break the high level scope into smaller parts using a WBS.
Correct answer
Estimate the scope using analogous estimating.
Overall explanation
Analogous estimating uses information regarding resources from a previous
similar project as the basis for estimating a future project. It is used as quick
estimating method and can be used when the project manager can only identify
a few top levels of the WBS. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p246,
“Analogous Estimating”.
Question 212Incorrect
You have been asked to monitor the changes to a product before completing
your next project phase. You review the control chart. The data is within the
upper and lower limits. You have an upward trend of four data points, and six
points above the average line. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Proceed with the next phase, as the process is within control.
Your answer is incorrect
Delay the next phase and rework the current release, as the process is out of
control.
Ask the project sponsor to validate the released deliverable.
Proceed with quality testing to verify the created deliverables.
Overall explanation
The rules for control charts indicate a process is out of control if: Seven or more
points above the centre line, five or more points in one direction (trend), any
point outside the control limits. This process is within those guidelines. The
Certified Six Sigma Green Belt Handbook, p404, “Control Chart Interpretation”
Question 213Correct
You are in the process of planning the resources required for your project. Work
on your project has not started, as your team are not sure what they should be
doing. You decide to create the resource management plan with your team.
What output do you specifically need from this plan?
Stakeholder Register, to identify and classify people involved in the project.
Project Charter, with the high level roles & responsibilities for the project.
Requirement traceability matrix, with who requested and signs off on each
requirement.
Your answer is correct
Roles & responsibilities, with Role, Responsibilities, Authority and Competence.
Overall explanation
The specific output as part of Planning Resource Management is Roles &
Responsibilities, with their role details, Authority and Competence. Stakeholder
register captures people involved with the project but not necessarily project
team members and their roles. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p228,
“Resource Management Plan”.
Question 214Correct
A quality assurance manager has been hired externally to test the project and
manage defects. She executed the process in the quality management plan with
her testing team, where they found a high number of low impact defects. You
need to see where the biggest impacts are. What will you do next?
Your answer is correct
Use a histogram to show the most common defects.
Use a flowchart to show the most common defects.
Use a matrix diagram to show the most common defects.
Use an affinity diagram to show the most common defects.
Overall explanation
This scenario asks for data representation of the most common item, meaning a
histogram will be best. This is like a bar chart counting the number of each item,
in this case, defects. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p274,
“Histograms”.
Question 215Incorrect
The project you are working on has recently started and the team has come
together from many different parts of the organisation, each with their own
agenda. There are lots of small conflicts within the team and little work getting
done. The program manager asks you to use your positional power to resolve
these conflicts as the team starts to find its rhythm. What will you do?
Your answer is incorrect
Withdraw from the conflicts so the team can work through them.
Correct answer
Force a decision for the conflicts.
Smooth and accommodate all sides in the conflicts.
Problem Solve the conflicts with the team.
Overall explanation
Using positional power is forcing your viewpoint at the expense of others, and
mostly offers win-lose solutions. This approach mostly works to resolve conflicts
in a quick frame of time. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p258,
“Conflict Management”
Question 216Incorrect
During your project working with a third party vendor, your company was taken
over by another, larger company, and the project management office and its
policies were changed. The project customer has already formally accepted the
deliverables, the project has completed delivery and is ready to be closed. What
will you do next?
Refer to the Project Charter for the project exit criteria.
Your answer is incorrect
Refer to the scope management plan for deliverables’ acceptance.
Correct answer
Review and close outstanding agreements and procurement documentation.
The project cannot be closed as the project outcomes need to be measured and
accepted.
Overall explanation
Inputs into “Close Project or Phase” include the accepted deliverables (already
accepted), agreements and procurement documentation. Project exit criteria is
more about when to continue or stop a project (i.e. meeting benefits or stopping
due to cost). Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p196, "Close Project or
Phase".
Question 217Incorrect
One of your stakeholders with a very high influence within the company has
raised an urgent change that they want to be implemented within the next two
weeks. You check the change management plan and see that changes can be
approved by the project manager. You raise a change request and review the
impact to the project schedule and cost. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Review the configuration management plan to see which documents are
baselined.
Review the schedule earned value reports for your project.
Correct answer
Decide on the changes, approve the changes, and track the changes.
Review the Requirement Traceability matrix for requirement acceptance and
sign off.
Overall explanation
Earned value reports on cost or schedule variance are an input to the change
control process. You have already asked for these. As the project manager can
approve change requests on this project, the steps are to decide, approve and
track the changes once the impact has been determined. Process Groups: A
Practice Guide (2022), p250, “Change Control Tools”.
Question 218Correct
You are in the process of measuring the outcome of one of your deliverables on
the business. The data shows that you are quite far away from your ideal target
value, but the range of results is very close together. Based on these results,
what will you do next?
The process has high precision but low accuracy. The equipment should be
adjusted.
Your answer is correct
The process has high precision but low accuracy. The deliverable process should
be improved.
The process has high accuracy but low precision. The equipment should be
replaced.
The process has high accuracy but low precision. Additional features should be
added.
Overall explanation
This question asks the difference between accuracy and precision: Accuracy
refers to how close a measurement is to the true or accepted value. Precision
refers to how close measurements of the same item are to each other. In PMBOK
examples, if an estimate is not accurate, we need a large estimate range to
capture it. Precision is also described as how precise the outcome is - two days is
more precise than “sometime this week.” (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition,
2021, p54, “2.4 Estimating”
Question 219Incorrect
In the last few months, your project team have had a large amount of conflict,
finding their role and place within the team. They are starting to work together
and adjust their work habits and behaviours to support the team. As a leader,
what will you do next?
The team are in the performing stage, work with them to maintain as they move
towards adjourning.
The team are in the forming stage, work with them to find their roles and work
through the coming conflict.
Correct answer
The team are in the norming stage, work with them to become performing.
Your answer is incorrect
The team are in the storming stage, work with them to normalise their role in the
team.
Overall explanation
These are the Tuckman stages of team development. A team that has moved
through conflict (storming) and is starting to work together is in the “Norming”
stage of team development. Help them use this and move into “Performing” so
they can truly deliver great outcomes. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022),
p149, “The Tuckman Ladder”
Question 220Correct
You have used a project charter and statement of work to create a project
management plan. You present the plan to key stakeholders, including the
project sponsor and you sense a high level of dissatisfaction by the customer
executives. They do not believe the project will produce the results they had
expected. What should you do next?
Request a written statement from the customer, detailing their concerns.
Proceed as normal. Your project plan will produce a convincing product for the
customer.
Arrange a change request, re-plan your project where necessary and go ahead
with the project work.
Your answer is correct
Work together with your customer to create a narrative Scope statement
outlining the deliverables.
Overall explanation
A collaborative and direct approach, combined with the proper outputs of
Defining Scope such as the scope statement including description, deliverables
and acceptance criteria. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p221, “Project
Scope Statement"
Question 221Incorrect
You have planned, executed and monitored a project to completion. The
customer has just received the finished product and you would like to close the
project. The customer advises you that they are not happy with the received
product, that your team didn’t listen when they raised quality concerns, and they
are raising a claim against your company. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Raise a change request for their proposed changes and update your project plan.
Call their bluff: take the claim to a dispute, then an appeal if necessary.
Correct answer
Review the claims process in the contract and negotiate with them to settle the
claim.
Review the earned value report for any impact to the schedule and cost of your
project.
Overall explanation
The claims handling process is outlined in the procurement contract, and the
preferred way to handle claims is to settle the claim through negotiation. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p252, “Claims administration”
Question 222Incorrect
You are in the process of creating a project charter for your part of the
organisation, to try and gain resources for an automated process improvement.
The project sponsor is also the functional manager in charge of the resources for
the area. She rejects your project charter, noting that you have outlined
everything you want from her team, but nothing about what her area will get in
return. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Rework the project charter to include the benefits management plan and success
measures.
Escalate the charter to the project sponsor’s manager, as this project is
important.
Ask the project sponsor to work Agile, and start delivering a minimum viable
product (MVP).
Your answer is incorrect
Begin work on the Requirements Management Plan, as this will show the sponsor
how their requirements will be added and tracked.
Overall explanation
The Project Charter will ideally have the project Benefits Management Plan
(including the target benefits, their strategic alignment, and timeframe for
realising them). This may include success measures such as return on
investment (ROI) or Payback Period (PBP). Process Groups: A Practice Guide
(2022), p34, “Project Success Measures”
Question 223Incorrect
You are working on a complex, high-value project to replace the
telecommunications system across your organisation. You have created a
Request For Quote for vendors to respond to, including source selection criteria
and a statement of work, and you have selected a seller based on multiple
vendor responses. What will you do next?
Record the new vendor in your Stakeholder Register, and begin engaging them
to deliver the project.
Draft an appropriate contract such as Fixed Price Incentive Fee, and proceed
with the implementation.
Your answer is incorrect
Place the approved RFQ in your procurement management plan, and proceed
with delivery of the project.
Correct answer
Approach organisational senior management for approval to award the contract.
Overall explanation
Final approval of complex, high-value, high-risk procurements will generally
require organizational senior management approval prior to award. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p238, “Selected Sellers”.
Question 224Incorrect
You have been planning your project using a waterfall methodology, and need to
estimate the resources required with your team. Your project management office
recently stopped using third parties or offsite workers and mandated resources
to be onsite only. You review the activity list based on your project scope and
realise that some essential project resources currently work offsite. What will you
do next?
Discuss available options with the Project Sponsor.
Correct answer
Perform alternatives analysis on the impact of both onsite and offsite workers for
your project.
Update the resource management plan with the onsite worker mandate.
Your answer is incorrect
Update the resource calendar with the available people, locations and dates
before baselining your project plan.
Overall explanation
All of these are good options. However, the best option is alternatives analysis as
part of all these things, which assists in providing the best solution to perform
the project activities, within the defined constraints. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p246, “Alternatives Analysis”.
Question 225Incorrect
You have been working on a project where your organisation wanted only onsite
workers, while you believed the project needed specific skills that were only
available offsite. You worked through the various options and agreed to use the
onsite workers available. As your project progresses however, it becomes clear
that it is not being done to specification and you really do need the offsite
workers. The project is going off track. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Update the issue log, and the resource calendar with the resource requirements.
Negotiate with your Project Sponsor for the onsite workers immediately.
Correct answer
Gather work performance data from your team, and raise a change request.
Raise a risk in the risk register, and brainstorm risk responses with your team.
Overall explanation
This question is referring to the tools, techniques and outputs used when
“Monitoring and controlling resources.” These include Work Performance Data as
an input and Change Requests as an output. While we can negotiate, gathering
the evidence first is best. A Resource Calendar is for the days current resources
are available.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p181, “Control Resources”.
Question 226Correct
You are working on a very high risk infrastructure project that is critical to your
organisation. The team are experienced in this area after working on this project
for the past 12 months. During a working group meeting, they mention they are
stuck and cannot implement part of the project. You raise an issue in the issue
log and decide to problem solve with your team. What will you do next?
Escalate the problem outside your team, as they clearly cannot move forward.
Review the lessons learned register for lessons to past similar problems.
Your answer is correct
Define the problem with data, identifying the root cause, and generating possible
solutions.
Raise a risk to project delivery and note the impact and likelihood of the risk.
Overall explanation
This question asks for an approach to solving quality problems. We know the
team are experienced in this area – going outside the team may complicate
matters with people less familiar. Various problem solving methods generally
include defining the problem with data, finding the root cause, and generating
solutions to choose from and test. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022),
p287, “Problem Solving".
Question 227Correct
You are creating a high level project charter which has now been approved. The
Project Sponsor expects you to get to work straight away, but you do not know
who to approach or who is available to help you deliver this project. What will
you do next?
Your answer is correct
Identify stakeholders with an organisational breakdown chart, and include this in
your project plan.
Create a RACI or Resource Assignment Matrix so your team know what is
expected of them.
Review and update the resource calendar with resource working days and start
dates.
Review the high level stakeholders in the project charter and begin your project.
Overall explanation
The next step after creating the project charter is to Identify Stakeholders, with
one way (of many) being an organisational breakdown chart. There is no point in
updating resource calendars or creating a RACI when you don’t know who is
involved yet. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p274, “Hierarchical
charts, OBS”, p22, “Process groups.”
Question 228Correct
You have been assigned to address the fast-moving competition that is rapidly
taking market share from your company. Your executive manager advises you
the company only has around 12 months before jobs will be lost, but there are
currently no projects to address these concerns. As a project manager, what will
you do next?
Ask the executive manager to come up with project ideas to address the
situation.
Perform benchmarking against various companies for process improvement
opportunities.
Create a project charter with high level scope, milestones and cost for approval.
Your answer is correct
Create a project business case, including business need, situation analysis and
solution options.
Overall explanation
Before a project charter can be created and a project begins, it needs a Business
Case to determine how the project will address the business goals, including the
need, analysis of the situation, and various options to address them.
Benchmarking is also a good answer, but not as complete as the business case.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p27, “Benefits Management and
Business Documents”.
Question 229Correct
You have just started work in a project that has been in development for the past
six months. You notice it has been through a large amount of project steps that
you are unfamiliar with, such as concept development, feasibility study,
commissioning, milestone review and more. These don’t match the normal
phases of design, build and test. What will you do next?
Advise the project to reduce and update its phases, for less admin and faster
delivery.
Advise the project to adhere to the normal project phases of Design, Build and
Test as per the PMBOK Guide.
Your answer is correct
Adhere to the project’s phases, and familiarise yourself with the organisation’s
process.
Remove phases altogether and work through the waterfall delivery in one big
release.
Overall explanation
We are referring to Project Phases, but also Enterprise Environmental Factors.
Each organisation can be different, with different politics, ways of working,
governance and approvals. The best immediate course of action is to adhere to
these EEFs and familiarise yourself with the organisation best practice. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p16, “Project Phase”
Question 230Correct
The project management office is looking to you for help in hiring and coaching
new project managers, and they ask you to interview the next candidate for roles
in upcoming projects. In speaking with the candidate, they do not have any
industry experience. What will you do next?
Ask them whether they prefer waterfall or agile, to see if they work the same
way as your organisation.
Ask them whether they would like a different job within the company, with less
focus on industry experience.
Ask them if they can dictate and command a team to get fast results.
Your answer is correct
Ask them what their focus on a project would be: the schedule, selected financial
reports, or the issue log.
Overall explanation
Part of the skills of a qualified project manager are: Ways of working, Power
skills, and Business acumen. The top focuses for leading project managers were
the schedule, financial reports and the issue log. While a dictatorship can get fast
results, it is often at the expense of team psychological safety and performance
over the long term.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p58, “Project Manager Competencies"
Question 231Incorrect
Your project charter has recently been approved, and you are gathering the
customer requirements that will form the basis of your project. The project
customer advises they have been burned by previous project deliveries in the
past, where the project did not deliver what they really needed. What will you do
next?
Create an initial list of requirements as part of a solid requirements management
plan.
Correct answer
Call a focus group with customer experts and brainstorm requirements with
them.
Perform benchmarking between the area process and external organisations.
Your answer is incorrect
Create a requirements traceability matrix to ensure requirements are tracked
properly.
Overall explanation
This question focuses on the tools and techniques you will use when collecting
requirements. Brainstorming, Interviews, Focus groups, questionnaires and
benchmarking are all noted. Given the customer has had difficulties in the past,
the best option is direct collaboration: focus groups and brainstorming. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p83, “Collect Requirements, Tools &
Techniques”
Question 232Incorrect
Your deliverables have recently been quality checked by a specialist testing
team, and passed with flying colours. You take them to the Project Sponsor for
approval so you can move to project closure. The project sponsor accepts all the
deliverables except two. One she notes as a defect, and one as a missed
requirement. What will you do next?
Make the changes as soon as possible to avoid further delays.
Your answer is incorrect
Raise an issue in the issue log, as this will delay your project.
Correct answer
Raise a change request for the items, along with the reasons for non-acceptance
of those deliverables.
Proceed as normal to project closure – you have delivered them as per the
project needs.
Overall explanation
For the completed deliverables that have not been formally accepted, change
requests are raised along with the reasons for non-acceptance of those
deliverables. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p169, “Validate Scope:
Outputs, Change Requests”
Question 233Incorrect
You have gathered the customer requirements with your team, and are finishing
the creation of the scope statement. You need to baseline the project scope to
ensure future changes are tracked as necessary. What will you do next?
Take the Scope Statement to the project sponsor and steering committee for
approval.
Ask the project sponsor to approve the Project Charter and project management
plan with the included high level scope.
Your answer is incorrect
Update the configuration management plan with the scope statement as a
baselined document.
Correct answer
Create a Work Breakdown Structure and WBS Dictionary with your team.
Overall explanation
The Scope Baseline includes the: Scope Statement, WBS, WBS dictionary and
Work packages. As we have already created the Scope Statement, the next best
step is to create these things as inputs into the Scope Baseline. Process Groups:
A Practice Guide (2022), p236, “Scope Baseline”.
Question 234Incorrect
You have been planning your project using a waterfall methodology. The project
team have collected the requirements from the customer, who is eager to begin
work as soon as possible. You set a meeting with the business analysts in your
team to create the Scope Statement based on these requirements. What will you
do next?
Correct answer
Include the Scope description, deliverables, acceptance criteria and exclusions.
Include the Scope description, Work Breakdown Structure and WBS dictionary.
Include the Scope Management Plan, Statement of Work, and Requirements
Traceability Matrix.
Your answer is incorrect
Include the Project Charter, Project Management Plan, and Accepted
Deliverables.
Overall explanation
The project scope statement includes: the Scope description, deliverables,
acceptance criteria and exclusions. The scope baseline include the scope
description, WBS and WBS dictionary. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022),
p221, “Project Scope Statement”.
Question 235Incorrect
You have been assigned to a project that is behind schedule. Some of your team
approach you and ask what they should be working on. You check with your
team and one of your senior analysts recommends you work together to create
the Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary. What will you do next?
Create a scope breakdown with unique identifier, description, and acceptance
criteria.
Correct answer
Work with the senior analyst to create a Responsibility Assignment Matrix
instead, and coach them on the difference between a RAM and WBS Dictionary.
Gather the project scope and break it down into smaller work packages.
Your answer is incorrect
Create a scope breakdown with unique identifier, description and resource
requirements.
Overall explanation
A Responsibility Assignment Matrix is the best approach, showing the project
resources assigned to each work package. It is used to illustrate the connections
between work packages, or activities, and project team members.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p293 “Responsibility Assignment
Matrix”
Question 236Incorrect
The project charter has been approved, you have identified the stakeholders you
will be working with and who will be impacted. As the project progresses, you
notice multiple stakeholders who seem to be actively trying to sabotage your
project and efforts. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Review the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix and invite feedback
from the people who are resistant.
Remove the people who seem to be slowing your project from your project team.
Escalate the problem stakeholders to their functional managers for disciplinary
action.
Your answer is incorrect
Review the Impact over Influence matrix to determine how to engage with the
stakeholders.
Overall explanation
Assessing stakeholder engagement and gathering their feedback is the best
answer. Using an Impact over Influence chart to see who holds the most
influence may help you, however this question involves determining which
stakeholders are at risk, and then using communication, interpersonal and team
skills to engage them. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p300,
“Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix”.
Question 237Incorrect
Your project involves nearly a dozen teams who are dispersed around the
country at different sites, with thousands of impacted stakeholders. The
executives in these areas are concerned with the changes the project will bring,
and are starting to push back on your planning efforts. What will you do next?
Create the project charter, and arrange for sign off by the executives.
Correct answer
Create the communications management plan to ensure their communication
needs are met.
Raise a change request for the project, and arrange to co-locate all the teams.
Your answer is incorrect
Create the requirements traceability matrix, so you can trace the executives’
requirements back to the scope you deliver and keep them engaged.
Overall explanation
The project is already in progress so assume the Project Charter has been
approved. The communications management plan contains stakeholder
communication requirements and is the current plan for collecting, creating, and
distributing information in a timely manner. It identifies the team members,
stakeholders, and the work involved in the communication process. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p206, “Communications Management Plan”
Question 238Incorrect
A number of risks have been raised on your project. You perform qualitative
analysis to get a subjective risk rating, but your project customer is not satisfied.
They would like you to perform additional qualitative risk analysis, beyond
impact and likelihood. What will you analyse next?
Your answer is incorrect
Simulation, Sensitivity analysis, Decision tree analysis.
Cost of Failure, Cost of Appraisal, Cost of Prevention.
Executive needs, Political needs, Promotion needs.
Correct answer
Urgency, Proximity and Strategic impact.
Overall explanation
As part of qualitative risk analysis, other risk parameters you might measure risk
by include: Urgency, Proximity, Dormancy, Manageability, Controllability,
Detectability, Strategic Impact and Propinquity. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p247, "Assessment of Other Risk Parameters”
Question 239Incorrect
One of the risks on your project is significantly large, and could seriously impact
your company if it ever came about. It has captured the attention of high ranking
executives, who have each proposed a response and thinks theirs is the best.
You decide to solve the argument with a Decision Tree. What will you do next?
Rate the risks for their probability and impact to get a risk rating for each.
Note each of the options on a vertical bar chart for their impact sensitivity on
cost.
Correct answer
Note the various response options with their cost impact, and their probability of
occurrence.
Your answer is incorrect
Perform a simulation of each of the responses against multiple criteria to test
their impact.
Overall explanation
A Decision Tree shows various options with their benefit or cost, and various
(often uncontrollable) outcomes with their probability of occurrence. This allows
you to choose the path with the least cost and the least probability of impact.
Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p264, “Decision Tree Analysis”
Question 240Incorrect
You have recently become a project manager for a large organisation and you
are not sure what to expect. Your colleague tells you that the organisation is
large enough to have a substantial project management office, and it is a
directing PMO. What will you do next?
Collaborate with the other project managers in the PMO to find a project that
suits your skillset.
Get started on a business case in your work area to initiate a project.
Correct answer
Await to be assigned to a project by the PMO.
Your answer is incorrect
Review the project management frameworks, templates and tools mandated for
use by the PMO.
Overall explanation
There are three types of Project Management Offices. Supportive, with templates
and guidelines, Controlling, with adherence to frameworks and templates, and
Directive, with a high degree of control where they directly managing the
projects and assign project managers who report to the PMO. Process Groups: A
Practice Guide (2022), p48, "Project Management Office"
Question 241Incorrect
The project customer approaches you as they are worried that the project is not
delivering fast enough. You review the project schedule and cost so you can see
how the project is tracking. The Actual Cost is $648,000. The Earned Value is
$601,000. The Planned Value is $629,000. What will you tell them?
The project is ahead of schedule and over budget.
Your answer is incorrect
The project is ahead of schedule and under budget.
Correct answer
The project is behind schedule and over budget.
The project is behind schedule and under budget.
Overall explanation
This question is about earned value analysis.
Schedule Variance = EV – PV = -$28,000 (behind schedule)
Cost Variance = EV – AC = -$47,000 (over budget)

Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p271, “Earned Value Analysis”

Question 242Incorrect
The people and resources involved in your project are currently costing a large
amount of money, and your project sponsor comments about it frequently. You
check how the project is tracking. Planned Value is $840,000. Earned Value is
$795,000. Actual Cost is $755,000. What will you do next?
Your answer is incorrect
Utilise the project contingency reserves to bring the project schedule back on
track.
Raise a change request to reduce the project scope and bring the cost back on
track.
Reduce the project resources to bring the project cost back on track.
Correct answer
Add more resources to bring the project schedule back on track.
Overall explanation
Schedule Variance = EV – PV = -$45,000 (behind schedule) Cost Variance = EV –
AC = $40,000 (a surplus, therefore under budget) Despite the Sponsor’s
comments, the project is behind schedule but under budget, so we can add more
resources and cost to the project to bring the schedule back on track. Process
Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p312, “Variance Analysis”
Question 243Correct
Team members from parts of the organisation have been assigned to your
project at an agreed level of 50% availability. As the project progresses, you
notice they are being pulled back into their normal roles. You also notice that
your project is falling behind schedule. What will you do next?
Talk with the project steering committee, and arrange for more resources to
assist your project.
Your answer is correct
Talk with functional managers. Negotiate clear and written assignments with
reliable scheduling priorities.
Raise a risk to project delivery and assign it to the functional managers to
mitigate.
Raise an issue in the issue log, and raise it at the next project working group.
Overall explanation
This question refers to interpersonal and team skills and negotiation. The best
way to approach a problem is directly, clearly and collaboratively with the
functional managers involved. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p258,
"Conflict Management.”
Question 244Incorrect
You have been planning a project with the manager of a functional area who
needs to increase their profit by 57% in the next three years. You are helping
him put together a business case. He has come up with 18 different project ideas
to reach the goal but will take approximately seven years. The manager pushes
you to find a way to do them in three. What will you do next?
Correct answer
Work with the manager to prioritise the ideas based on impact and cost, and
note those ranked ideas in the business case.
Advise the manager that good things take time to deliver.
Add the appropriate amount of cost for extra resources to your project plan to
get the work done.
Your answer is incorrect
Set a meeting with the functional area experts and ask them to pick the top
ideas for delivery.
Overall explanation
The project business case includes “Analysis of the situation,” which includes
decision criteria by which the various courses of action may be assessed, output
in ways such as required, desired and optional. Process Groups: A Practice Guide
(2022), p27, “Benefits Management and Business Documents”.
Question 245Correct
Your project charter has been approved and your stakeholder analysis reveals
multiple impacted highly paid executives with the power to influence your
career. As you approach some of these stakeholders, they raise their concerns
about the project, how it is progressing, and what it involves. What will you do
next?
Perform an Impact over Influence analysis on all your stakeholders.
Your answer is correct
Create your project management plan and review its detail regularly with the
impacted or influential stakeholders.
Circulate the signed project charter to anyone who needs convincing that the
project is needed.
Reduce your communication with most stakeholders – they can’t resist what they
don’t know about.
Overall explanation
Developing the project management plan involves creating a comprehensive
document that defines the basis of all project work and how the work will be
performed. Reviewing this with stakeholders regularly will assist with their
engagement. This step also comes after the Project Charter and identifying
Stakeholders in PMBOK Knowledge Mapping. Process Groups: A Practice Guide
(2022), p78, “Develop Project Management Plan”
Question 246Correct
You have just created your project management plan and are reviewing it with
your stakeholders. It includes the subsidiary plans of scope management,
schedule, cost, resources and quality. Some of your stakeholders raise concerns
that they cannot see what needs to be baselined, or how to measure the project
performance and changes. What will you do next?
Advise your stakeholders the information they need is in the subsidiary plans.
Meet as often as needed with your project stakeholders to increase their
engagement and acceptance of your project.
Show them the project budget timeline with costs projected on a schedule.
Your answer is correct
Create the configuration management plan, change management plan and
performance measurement baseline with your team, and include them in your
project plan.
Overall explanation
The Configuration Management Plan (what needs to be baselined), Change
Management Plan (how to process changes) and the Performance Measurement
Baseline (an integrated scope-schedule-cost plan to measure against) are all
additional parts of your Project Management Plan. Process Groups: A Practice
Guide (2022), p207, “Configuration Management Plan.”
Question 247Incorrect
Part of your project work needs to be outsourced to a supplier. You are asked to
ensure that cost for the outsourced portion of the project does not exceed $1.2
million, and if the work comes in under cost and ahead of schedule, you may
provide additional money to the supplier. What sort of contract will you work with
your procurement office to prepare?
Create a Firm Fixed Price contract for the seller.
Correct answer
Create a Fixed Price Incentive Fee contract for the seller.
Create a Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract for the seller.
Your answer is incorrect
Create a Cost Plus Award Fee contract for the seller.
Overall explanation
Fixed Price Incentive Fee contracts include financial incentives tied to achieving
agreed-upon metrics, and a price ceiling is set where all costs above the price
ceiling are the responsibility of the seller. Cost Plus Award Fee is based on a
broad range of subjective factors instead. Process Groups: A Practice Guide
(2022), p330, “Fixed price Incentive Fee”
Question 248Incorrect
You take the completed scope to your project sponsor for them to accept. The
Project Sponsor advises she cannot accept the deliverables as she doesn’t know
the outcomes of testing, and whether the scope met her requirements or needs
further changes. What will you do next?
Set a meeting with the Project Sponsor directly to address their concerns.
Your answer is incorrect
Review the Requirements Traceability Matrix and show the Sponsor how each
requirement is met by project scope.
Correct answer
Review the Quality Report together with your testing leader, and note which
items may need change requests.
Review the Change Requests for the project, to show the Sponsor whether any
corrective actions needed to be made.
Overall explanation
The Quality Report includes corrective actions recommendations (including
rework, defect/bugs repair, 100% inspection, and more); and the summary of
findings from the Control Quality process – perfect to review to show the sponsor
the state of deliverables before they accept them. This report may also be the
basis for change requests. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p224,
“Quality Reports”
Question 249Incorrect
Multiple unforeseen events have happened that have set your project behind
schedule, and in trying to bring it back on track you have spent a considerable
amount of money. Now the project sponsor has threatened to stop the project
unless they can see how much the project will cost them by the time it is
finished. What will you do next?
Perform Reserve Analysis on the remaining contingency and management
reserves.
Correct answer
Create a project Estimate at Completion and compare it to the Budget at
Completion.
Your answer is incorrect
Create the To Complete Performance Index with your project team to meet your
project goal.
Review the Cost Performance Index (CPI) to see how the project cost is tracking.
Overall explanation
As the project progresses, the project team develops a forecast for the estimate
at completion (EAC) that may differ from the budget at completion (BAC) based
on the project performance. If it becomes obvious that the BAC is no longer
viable, the project manager should consider the forecasted EAC. Process Groups:
A Practice Guide (2022), p208, “Cost Forecasts”
Question 250Correct
Your project plan includes an estimate of how long the project will take (via a
project schedule), how much it will cost and the resources that will be required.
The Project Sponsor believes that the project can be done with around 34%
fewer resources, which will save them some money and keep their area within
budget. What will you do next?
Dismiss the Sponsor’s comments as uneducated, and proceed with your plan as
it is.
Reduce the resources in your project plan so the project can meet your
Sponsor’s expectations.
Your answer is correct
Create a basis of estimates with your project team and review this with your
Sponsor to agree on a way forward.
Raise a risk to your project delivery in the Risk Register, if the plan goes ahead
with fewer resources.
Overall explanation
The basis of estimates should provide a clear and complete understanding of
how the estimates are made, including assumptions, constraints, and ranges.
This will help the Project Sponsor understand the reasoning behind it and agree
on the best way forward. Process Groups: A Practice Guide (2022), p202, “Basis
of Estimates"