Business Environment Tasks: Support Org Change Flashcards
You are currently developing a model that would help your organization in determining its level of maturity in project management. To which of the following does this refer?
A. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
B. Project Management Information System (PMIS)
C. OPM3
D. Project Management Research
Answer: C
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
OPM3 (Organizational Project Management Maturity Model) helps organizations determine their level of maturity in project management. OPM3 is a globally-recognized best practice standard for assessing and developing capabilities in Portfolio Management, Program Management, and Project Management.
You are the project manager and your company consistently completes projects for other companies. Within your organization the project managers have the highest level of authority on a project. You are likely operating within what type of organizational structure?
A. A functional structure
B. A weak matrix structure
C. A project-oriented structure
D. A company using an ISO 9000 program
Answer: C
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
In a project-oriented organizational structure, the project manager has the highest authority level and will often perform projects for various organizations.
What two agile tools can be used to track and display organizational change in a transparent and appealing way and improves the likelihood of success.
A. Kanban and Backlog
B. Change log and requirements traceability matrics
C. Kanban and requirements traceability matrics
D. Backlog and requirements traceability matrics
Answer: A
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
In an evolving organization, the change process can be treated like a separate agile project. Changes can be tracked with a combination of backlog and kanban. The Agile practice guide discusses best practices on pp. 84-86.
You are a project manager in a weak matrix organization. A new functional manager seems confused about the difference between projects and operations and has asked for your input. Which of the following would not be applicable to projects in weak matrixed organizations?
A. Constrained by limited resources
B. Planned, executed and controlled according to stakeholder needs
C. Create a unique product or service
D. Led by the functional manager since it is a weak matrixed organization
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end, as opposed to operations, which are ongoing. A project is also constrained by limited resources, and it is planned, executed, and controlled. Answer D is the correct answer here because who manages the project does not determine if it is a project or not, regardless of the organizational structure.
You are the Project Manager for an organization that embraces changes to the business environment. More than likely what type of organization do you work for?
A. Functional
B. Weak Matrix
C. Tight Matrix
D. Project-oriented
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
Most likely, this would describe Projectized. That is not to say that Functional or Weak Matrix does not embrace change. Both Functional and Weak Matrix normally refer to ongoing operations type work with few projects, whereas Projectized organizations only work on projects. Projects are all about change, and so that would be the best answer. Remember you will not always get perfect answers (or perfect questions for that matter), you have to choose the best out of an ambiguous situation. Tight matrix refers to the team being co-located (not a type of organization). PMI Authorized PMP Exam Prep Student Guide/ Page 275
Your organization has been working to mature the project management culture and new leadership approaches. In addition to building up a culture where timely feedback and participation are important, it is also looking to build a culture of efficiency so time is not wasted in the decision making process nor in the production of too much detail in supporting documentation. Among other methods, MBO is being considered as a possible approach. Which of the following is true of Management by Objectives (MBO)?
A. The supervisor establishes performance objectives.
B. The supervisor sets the general objectives and the subordinate reviews and agrees to them.
C. Objectives do not need to be quantifiable.
D. The supervisor and the employee jointly establish performance objectives.
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
Management by Objectives (MBO) is a necessity in every area where performance and results directly affect the survival and growth of a business. MBO emphasizes the importance of participative goal-setting, self-control, and self-evaluation. While this is not a PMBOK term, it is a commonly-used term in project management and thus could be tested on the exam.
You are managing an agile project in a functional organizational structure. To whom are the team members most loyal?
A. Project manager
B. Functional department
C. Project sponsor
D. End user or customer
Answer: B
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
The team members in a functional organizational structure report to a functional manager and will thus be most loyal to their functional department.
You are the project manager on an agile team that has completed six out of a planned eight 2-week sprints that will make up the first release of your company’s new automated project resource request system. Since there is only a month left to go before the system will be available for all end users in the company, you will need an Implementation/Rollout Plan. Which of the following items is typically not included in such a plan?
A. Training plan for end users
B. Product demonstration schedule
C. List of all end users by department and job function
D. Strategies for handling resistance to adoption and utilization of the new system
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
How resistance to adoption and utilization will be handled is included in a (Organizational) Change Management Plan. This plan differs from the Change Management Plan that is a component of the Project Management Plan, which addresses how project or product change requests will be handled throughout the project life cycle. An Organizational Change Management Plan addresses how the organization deals with sponsorship, cultural, capacity, maturity and resistance issues. This is the people side of change which many project implementations trigger–especially when they dramatically change the way the company conducts its business, and people have to change their behaviors accordingly.
Your organization has just adopted agile as a project methodology. Several critical changes will affect your role as Project Manager. What will be key to your success in the adoption of the new methodology?
A. Understanding the agile terms
B. Documenting all mistakes so you can get the organization to change back to the way things were
C. Having an agile mindset
D. Getting access to new software and tools required to produce agile project artifacts
Answer: C
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
See almost any page in the Agile practice guide
You have been working on a 1-year project for nine months. The project is ahead of schedule when one of the functional managers tells you the resources committed to the project are no longer available. After checking further, you discover the company has another project that just started and is using the resources committed to your project. You believe the new project is not critical, but the project manager is the daughter of a board member. What is the best course of action in this situation?
A. Determine when resources will become available
B. Ask upper management to formally prioritize the projects
C. Use the reserve to hire contractors to complete the work
D. Negotiate a sharing of the resources with the other project manager
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
According to the PMBOK Guide you should always try to resolve conflicts internally and should use negotiating skills to try to come to a mutually beneficial agreement.
You are a project manager who works on contract for several different organizations. Each organization you work for varies in its organizational structure, and you have found that some structures are much easier for you to operate in than others. In particular, you like to have full control over resource allocation, and it does not particularly bother you that the team members may not have a job to go back to at the project’s conclusion, as you have found they largely work on a contract basis as well. In which type of organization would you ideally want to work?
A. Functional Organization
B. Weak Matrix
C. Strong Matrix
D. Project-oriented Organization
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
Project managers have the highest level of authority in a project-oriented organization, however, the down-side is that the project manager and his or her team may not have a steady job to return to after the project concludes.
Your project’s primary constraint is time. One of your key stakeholders, who is a major contributor on this project, is demanding the schedule be lengthened. He held his department picnic last weekend, and three of his staff members came down with the flu. The team members he’s assigned to your project (who didn’t contract the virus) must now do double duty and help support the department functions until their co-workers get well. Your customer will not agree to a schedule change. Which of the following statements is false given the facts in this question?
A. The project manager has the weakest amount of power and authority in this type of organization.
B. The project manager should try to resolve the problem such that it doesn’t affect the project schedule.
C. This company’s organizational structure is functional, since the department manager is responsible for assigning resources to the project.
D. The project manager should work with the stakeholder to resolve the problem and negotiate with the customer to change the schedule.
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
When problems arise on a project, they should be resolved in favor of the customer whenever possible. This organization is a functional organization, as the department manager is responsible for assigning resources, which means the project manager lacks authority to do what D suggests.
Company culture, organizational structure, infrastructure, and marketplace conditions are all examples of which of the following?
A. Enterprise Environmental Factors
B. Organizational Process Assets
C. Project constraints
D. Project Knowledge Areas
Answer: A
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
Think of Enterprise Environmental Factors as sort of the world we work in. These items are not necessarily unique to your organization, and they impact how you must approach your project work.
A project manager in Detroit is having difficulty getting the engineers in his company’s Detroit office to complete design documents for his project. He has sent numerous requests to the VP of Engineering (also in Detroit) for assistance in getting the design documents, but so far his efforts have been unsuccessful. What kind of organization does this project manager work in?
A. Strong Matrix
B. Tight matrix
C. Functional
D. Projectized
Answer: C
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
The clue to this question is the project manager’s low authority, which implies a functional organization. The PM must appeal to the head of the engineering department rather than making his request directly to the team members. In both a strong matrix and projectized organization, the project manager would have sufficient authority to directly manage the engineers. A tight matrix refers to co-location of a project team.
Your company just won a major new project. It will begin in three months and is valued at $72,600,000. You are the project manager for an existing project. What is the first thing you should do once you hear of the new project?
A. Ask management how the new project will use resources
B. Resource level your project
C. Crash your project
D. Ask management how the new project will affect your project
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
As you work on a project you need to constantly reevaluate the project objectives and how the project relates to other concurrent projects. Is your project still in line with corporate objectives? If the other project will impact yours, you need to be proactive and work on options now.
You are the Project Manager of a hybrid project that is implementing a business change to your organization that Senior Management announced some months ago. You are ready to move the solution into production and need to document the knowledge transfer, training, and readiness activities required to implement the business change. Where would this be documented?
A. Roll Out Plan
B. Implementation Plan
C. Project Management Plan
D. Change Management Plan
Answer: A
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
These items are documented in the Roll Out Plan. The Project Management Plan contains the subsidiary plans, baselines and some additional documents; and the Change Management Plan documents procedures regarding change control. The Implementation plan documents procedures needed to implement the full solution, whereas the roll out plan documents procedures for moving into production.
You are a project manager new to a functional organization. You have mainly worked in projectized organizations and are concerned that you will not fit in with the organizational culture. Your sponsor explains to you that one of the advantages of a functional organization is:
A. Project team members are usually loyal to the project, not a functional manager.
B. Project team members are usually loyal to the project manager.
C. Project managers usually yield a great deal of formal authority in a functional organization.
D. All of the employees report to one manager and have a clear chain of command.
Answer: D
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
Advantages for employees in a functional organization are that they have one supervisor and a clear chain of command exists. None of the other choices are representative of a functional organization.
What two agile tools can be used to track and display organizational change in a transparent and appealing way, which improves the likelihood of success.
A. Kanban and Backlog
B. Change log and product vision
C. Sprint reviews and Retrospectives
D. Planning Poker & Roman Voting
Answer: A
Business Environment - Task 4 - Support Org Change
In an evolving organization, the change process can be treated like a separate agile project and one can track change with a combination of backlog and Kanban. The Agile practice guide discusses best practices on p 84-86.
