All People Tasks 13 and 14 Flashcards
As a seasoned project manager, you realize that political awareness is gained by understanding the power relationships within the project. One of your stakeholders, Martika, has been recognized as having strong referent power. You explain to your project team this means:
A. She participates in networking and has connections and alliances
B. She has gained credibility and the respect and admiration of others
C. She is personally charming
D. She applies flattery to win favor or cooperation
Answer: B
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
Answer A describes relational power. C refers to personal or charismatic power. D refers to ingratiating power.
You recently discovered that a fellow project manager in your organization, who is PMP-certified and a close friend, is not disclosing all of the costs involved with an upcoming project. Instead, this person is constructing a WBS that does not include all the activities necessary to get the project done. What should you do?
A. Ignore it because this PMP is a friend of yours
B. Report the project manager to the PMI for unethical behavior
C. Report this activity to the stakeholders
D. Talk to this PM about the WBS to see if he can rework it to reflect actual costs on the project
Answer: D
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
The first thing you should always do is try to resolve issues like this among yourselves. By working with this PM, you may be able to avoid a serious conflict. If he or she refuses to change the WBS, you have a responsibility to go to stakeholders and voice your concerns. Based on the facts in the questions, you cannot be sure it is a breach of PMI ethics.
Project managers must be aware of many motivational theories. Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs sets forth which of the following propositions?
A. The strongest motivation for work is to provide for physiological needs.
B. Hygiene factors are those that provide physical safety and emotional security.
C. Psychological needs for growth and fulfillment can be met only when lower-level physical and security needs have been fulfilled.
D. The greater the financial reward, the move motivated the workers will be.
Answer: C
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs states that only when the lower level needs are met can you then move on to the higher levels.
As a team facilitator you need to identify ways of mentoring and coaching your team members. Which of the following is not in line with mentoring and coaching?
A. Delegating tasks to team members, setting clear deadlines and expectations.
B. Encouraging team members to take the lead on activities.
C. Transferring skills.
D. Encouraging self-organization and initiative.
Answer: A
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
Delegating tasks is not necessarily mentoring or coaching. Mentoring is working with team members (or the team as a whole) and encouraging development. Options b, c, and d are all mentoring or coaching tasks.
What kind of person is an expert in their defined and primary role but has little to no knowledge of the tasks and skills needed by adjacent team members?
A. Kanban
B. I-shaped
C. L-shaped
D. T-shaped
Answer: B
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
I-shaped skills means that one has a deep, but narrow range of specific knowledge and skills. Agile Practice Guide p. 42
As a project manager, one of the key tools and techniques in your toolbox is having a high degree of emotional intelligence. One of the primary skills of high emotional intelligence is self-regulation. Which of the following is not an element of self-regulation?
A. Trustworthiness
B. Adaptability
C. Optimism
D. Conscientiousness
Answer: C
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
The self-regulation elements include self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability and innovation. Optimism is an element of motivation, which is another key skill of emotional intelligence.
Your manager gives you instructions on how to best complete a work package. As he does so, you are periodically replying with summaries of what he just said, to ensure you understood him. This is an example of which of the following?
A. Micromanagement
B. Active listening
C. Scope verification
D. Push Communication
Answer: B
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
Active listening is when you confirm that you received and understood the message, by either repeating back what was said or asking clarifying questions.
Your team is using the Jira software tool for the first time ever to track agile projects. Everyone completed Jira training, but two of the team members are not using it properly for the current sprint, which is impacting the reliability of the information on the Kanban board feature of the tool. As the project manager who is already familiar with JJira, what was the best thing you could have done to best mitigate this issue?
A. Ensure all team members took a test to confirm their understanding of how Jira works before using it on upcoming sprints.
B. Coach and mentor team members as they begin to use Jira.
C. Ask team members to refer to the online help tools within the Jira product for assistance.
D. Extend the duration of the sprint to allow for extra learning curve time with Jira.
Answer: B
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
While all answers are helpful to some extent, the best answer is to provide coaching and mentoring on Jira as team members begin using it. Answer D is the least helpful since agile sprint durations are typically time-boxed based on how many user stories/story points can be completed in that timeframe, not because of tool learning curve time.
As a project manager you will have to possess many skills to aid in the successful delivery of your projects. Which of the following critical skills is often the hardest to master?
A. Interpersonal Skills (Soft Skills)
B. Communication Skills
C. Organization Skills
D. Technical Skills
Answer: A
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
Soft skills are often the most difficult to master, such as tailoring your management style to best accommodate the widely varying personalities of your team members. This is because these skills encompass project-specific leadership, influencing, and effective decision-making - all techniques that vary widely depending on culture and other project factors.
You’ve just accepted a new project management assignment. The project is for a customer in a Middle East country. You’ve requested a local business analyst and two other project team members from that country to be part of your team. The remaining team members are from your country. You know that the best way to ensure the project team doesn’t get bogged down in cultural differences and hold up project progress is to:
A. Perform team-building exercises using video conferencing to allow team members to get to know each other and get to the performing stage of team development as soon as possible
B. Provide diversity training for all the team members to make them aware of cultural differences and teach them to function effectively as a team despite these differences
C. Establish your role as project manager as the first order of business and require compliance to company policies
D. Require project team members to read and sign the organization’s diversity policy.
Answer: B
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
Diversity training is the best way to ensure team members will learn to recognize and deal with cultural difference among the members. Because training is an important part of the develop project team process, this would be a good area to address at the outset. Team-building exercises conducted via video conference are unlikely to have the desired effect, and in any case, do not address the cultural diversity matters you are concerned with.
A colleague has approached you for some expert advice. Her division is implementing Agile methods to their projects and wants to know if you will be able to offer her guidance and coaching during her first project. Which of the following are not examples of mentoring and coaching in this situation?
A. Offer to be an Agile Coach to lead her through the various Agile ceremonies.
B. Be present at the daily standups and offer guidance when needed.
C. Advise her on things that have gone well and not so well on prior projects.
D. Tell her which tasks to perform next throughout the project.
Answer: D
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
Mentoring and coaching is advising and encouraging stakeholders to take the initiative and ask questions when needed. Simply telling someone what to do is delegating, not coaching. PMI Authorized PMP Exam Prep Student Guide/ Page 237
As a team facilitator, an important interpersonal skill is understanding the emotions of others and being able to control your own emotions. One of the components of Emotional Intelligence is Self-Awareness. Which of the following would be an example of Self-Awareness?
A. Remaining cool under pressure.
B. Recognizing how your emotions might be affecting your performance.
C. Acknowledging your own errors and mistakes.
D. Setting tough goals and driving hard to get results.
Answer: B
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
Recognizing how your emotions affect performance is Emotional Awareness, a component of Self-Awareness. Remaining cool under pressure is Self-Control, whereas Acknowledging your errors is Trustworthiness (both Self-Regulation). Setting tough goals is an Achievement Drive, a component of Motivation.
You are a project manager working for a large systems integrator firm, which is contracted to deliver a large mission-critical project for one of its key clients. Past history has demonstrated repeated difficulties with personalities and cultural clashes between members of the two firms, to the point that hostilities are now routinely expected on subsequent new projects. This became very apparent when you brought the team together to create the Team Charter, where considerable anger was expressed by members representing the client. Which tool/technique would best help handle this difficult situation?
A. Nominal group technique
B. Political awareness
C. Emotional intelligence
D. Transparency
Answer: C
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
While all are valid interpersonal and team skills, emotional intelligence will be key to help stabilize the personality and cultural differences between the two parties, since much of the reactions are emotionally based.
Everyone on your brand new agile team has gone through Jira tool training. Since you have prior experience using the tool, you are mentoring other members of your team who are using it for the first time. Some of your team members are still having difficulty grasping the use of some of the functions and the benefits they provide, since they’ve never applied them in real-world settings. You share some of your personal experiences with Jira from live projects from your past to help reinforce learning. What kind of knowledge have you shared?
A. Tacit knowledge
B. Procedural knowledge
C. Explicit knowledge
D. Experience knowledge
Answer: A
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
Tacit knowledge is often difficult to express, usually shared in the form of stories. By explaining examples of past projects using Jira, that is what you have just done in this case. Explicit knowledge is words, pictures, drawings, maps–tangible materials that people can see, feel and touch. Procedural and experience knowledge aren’t official terms in the PMI universe for types of knowledge, though they are commonly used terms in various companies and industries.
__ knowledge is words, pictures, drawings, maps–tangible materials that people can see, feel and touch.
Explicit knowledge is words, pictures, drawings, maps–tangible materials that people can see, feel and touch.
Another project manager, who is an expatriate, has a family emergency and must leave. He has asked you to fill in for him during a team meeting to discuss a minor problem with the project. He has already distributed a detailed agenda and provided you with a copy. When you attend the meeting, several members of the team are laughing about the absent project manager’s habits. Your company does not have a formal diversity policy but does have ground rules. What should you do?
A. Because your company does not have a written diversity policy, there is nothing you can do.
B. Report the incident to the other project manager
C. Hold the meeting as if nothing happened
D. Begin the meeting with a discussion of diversity and professional behavior, and follow up individually as needed with those persons making such comments
Answer: D
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
You should address the improper comments and reinforce the Team Charter’s ground rules, assuming one exists.
You are using a flow-based agile methodology on your current project. Mark, a team member, would like to be a Project Manager one day. You have set up a time with Mark to mentor him so that one day he can achieve his goals. In this situation, you are acting as ____?
A. Effective leader
B. Scrum leader
C. Servant Leader
D. A jerk pawning off your work onto another team member
Answer: C
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
In the Agile environment, the PM acts as a servant leader. Mentoring is one of the responsibilities of a servant leader in the Agile Practice Guide on p. 37.
You notice that the performance of one of your team members has been deteriorating recently. Issues are found with his tasks and his resolution to those issues are not of the highest quality. Everyone else on the team has noticed that he is quieter than normal and sometimes comes across as being a little moody. You decide to sit down with him privately and ask what is going on. After some encouragement he finally tells you that he has been under a lot of stress in his private life and things are taking a toll. You tell him not to worry and advise him to take a few days off to recharge. Which Emotional Intelligence trait are you showing?
A. Collaboration and Cooperation
B. Leadership
C. Empathy
D. Motivation
Answer: C
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
Empathy is understanding others and acting accordingly, which best describes the situation here. Collaboration, Cooperation and Leadership are considered Social elements of Emotional Intelligence. Motivation is a separate element of Emotional Intelligence. PMI Authorized PMP Exam Prep Student Guide/ Page 242
You are working with a junior project manager, coaching him on his first major project. He is planning to close the project and says that as part of closing, he will archive records, hold a lessons learned session, release resources, and close procurements. You advise him:
A. Someone in contracts, procurement or legal closes contracts, not typically the PM
B. He should set up a meeting with the vendor to close the contract formally
C. He should set up a meeting with the vendor and sponsor to close the contract formally
D. He should consult the contract management plan to see whose responsibility it is to close contracts
Answer: A
People - Task 13 - Mentor Stakeholders
According to the PMBOK Guide, project managers rarely close contracts. There is no such document as a contract management plan, but there is a procurement management plan.
What kind of person has a defined a primary role but has the versatility, skillset, or knowledge to help other team members when and where necessary?
A. Kanban
B. I-shaped
C. L-shaped
D. T-shaped
Answer: D
People - Task 14 - Emotional Intelligence
Agile Practice Guide p. 42
