PMP - Head First PMP - GH Flashcards
- The terms of union contracts are considered ______________ in your project plan.
A. Assumptions
B. Constraints
C. Requirements
D. Collective bargaining agreements
Answer: B
When you work with a union, then the union contract can have an impact on your project. That means you need to consider the union itself a stakeholder, and when you do your planning you need to make sure any union rules and agreements are considered as constraints.
Note Working with unions will add rules that your project must comply with, and the contract is an important tool to ensure compliance.
- A project manager is reporting the final status of the closed contract to the stakeholders. Which form of communication is appropriate?
A. Informal written
B. Informal verbal
C. Formal written
D. Formal verbal
Answer: C
All project reports must be communicated as formal written documents. Not only that, but anything that has to do with a contract definitely needs to be formal written.
- Which of the following is not a tool or technique of the Control Quality process?
A. Inspection
B. Quality audits
C. Pareto charts
D. Statistical sampling
Answer: B
Quality audits are when your company reviews your project to make sure that you are following all of the processes in your company correctly. They are a tool of the Manage Quality process.
You have just delivered a product to your client for acceptance when you get a call that some features they were expecting are missing. What’s the first thing you should do?
A. Get your team together and reprimand them for building a product that doesn’t meet user expectations.
B. Tell the client that the product passed all of your internal quality inspections and scope verification processes, so it must be fine.
C. Tell the team to start building the missing features into the product right away.
D. Call a meeting with the client to understand exactly what is unacceptable in the product and try to figure out what went wrong along the way.
Answer: D
You can’t do anything about the problem until you understand it. You should meet with the client to get a better understanding of what went wrong and why the product is not meeting their needs.
Which of the following is not a tool or technique of Estimate Costs?
A. Bottom-up
B. Parametric
C. Cost aggregation
D. Analogous
Answer: C
Cost aggregation is used to build your budget, but it is not a tool for cost estimation. Bottom-up, parametric, and analogous estimation techniques are used for both cost and time estimates.
Which of the following is not a source of information about specific project constraints and assumptions?
A. The Scope Management plan
B. Requirements documentation
C. The project scope statement
D. The scope baseline
Answer: A
The project Scope Management plan is a really important tool in your project. It tells you exactly how you’ll create the project scope, define the WBS, verify that the work has been done, and make changes to the scope. But it doesn’t tell you about specific assumptions that you and the team have made, or constraints on your project. To find those, you should look in the requirements documentation and the project scope statement.
Note The scope baseline contains the WBS and project scope statement, so you’ll find constraints and assumptions there, too!
A project manager uses a facilitator who holds a meeting to gather opinions from team members anonymously. One team member is having difficulty understanding the process that they are being asked to follow. Which of the following is NOT an effective way to handle this situation?
A. Follow up with the team member individually and work together to determine how to ensure that they have the correct skills in the future
B. Confront the issue by pausing the meeting, bring the team member to the front of the room, and explain in detail how the process works
C. Reschedule the meeting for a future time, without placing blame or pointing to any individual as a reason to move it
D. Schedule a training session for the entire team to learn and practice the facilitated process
Answer: B
Singling out an individual who is having trouble and correcting them in front of the entire team is highly demotivating, and can cause serious problems with teamwork in the future.
Joe is an excellent programmer. He was promoted to the role of project manager because he understands technology better than anyone else in the company. Unfortunately, he is having trouble doing the project management job and his projects are failing. What is this an example of?
A. Gold plating
B. Halo effect
C. Preassignment
D. Ground rules
Answer: B
The halo effect is when you put someone in a position he can’t handle, just because he’s good at another job. Just because Joe is a great programmer, that doesn’t mean he’ll be a good project manager.
When are the most expensive defects most likely to be introduced into a product?
A. When the product is being assembled
B. When the product is being designed
C. When the Quality Management plan is being written
D. When the product is being reviewed by the customers
Answer: B
The most expensive defects are the ones introduced when the product is being designed. This is a little counterintuitive at first, but it really makes sense once you think about how projects are run. If your team introduces a defect into a product while it’s being assembled, then they have to go back and fix it. But if there’s a flaw in the design, then you have to halt production and go back and figure out all the things that flaw affected. You may have to order new parts,reassemble components, and maybe even go back and redesign the product from the ground up.
Note That’s why your Quality Management processes are so focused on reviewing EVERY deliverable—not just the final product, but all of the components, designs, and specifications, too.
You are the project manager for a railroad construction project. Your sponsor has asked you for a forecast for the cost of project completion. The project has a total budget of $80,000 and CPI of .95. The project has spent $25,000 of its budget so far. How much more money do you plan to spend on the project?
A. $59,210
B. $80,000
C. $84,210
D. $109,210
Answer: A
This question is asking you to create a forecast using estimate to complete (ETC), which uses CPI to project how much money is likely to be spent for the rest of the project. The first step is to plug the numbers into the formula EAC = BAC / CPI, which yields EAC = $80,000 / .95 = $84,210. That’s how much money you’re likely to spend on the project. Now you can figure out ETC = EAC – AC = $84,210 – $25,000 = $59,210.
Which of the following best describes decomposition?
A. Waiting for a task to expire so that it can break down into smaller tasks
B. Taking a deliverable and breaking it down into the smaller work packages so that it can be organized and planned
C. Categorizing work packages
D. Dividing work packages into deliverables that can be planned for
Answer: B
Decomposition is the main tool for creating the WBS. It just means breaking the work down into smaller and smaller pieces based on how your company does the work until it is small enough to categorize and organize hierarchically.
Which is the best definition of quality?
A. A product made of very expensive materials
B. A product made with a lot of care by the team who built it
C. A product that satisfies the requirements of the people who pay for it
D. A product that passes all of its tests
Answer: C
Quality Management is all about making sure that the product you are building conforms to your customer’s requirements. If you have done a good job of gathering and understanding those requirements, all of the measurements you take on your project should help you see if what you are building will satisfy your clients in the end.
Which of the following is NOT a Project Constraint?
A. Quality
B. Scale
C. Time
C. Cost
B. Scale
A project manager is running a data center installation project. He finds that his stakeholder is angry that he’s run over his budget because the staff turned out to be more expensive than planned. The stakeholder’s unhappy that when the project is over, the servers won’t have as much drive space as he needs. Which of the following constraints was not affected by this problem?
A. Quality
B. Resource
C.Time
D. Cost
C. Time
Which of the following is NOT an example of operational work?
A. Building a purchase order system for accounts payable
B. Submitting weekly purchase orders through a purchase order system
C. Deploying weekly antivirus software updates
D. Yearly staff performance evaluations
A
You’re managing a project to build a new accounting system. One of the accountants in another department really likes the current system and is refusing to be trained on the new one. What is the BEST way to handle this situation?
A. Refuse to work with him because he’s being difficult
B. Appeal to the accountant’s manager and ask to have him required to take training
C. Get a special dispensation so that the accountant doesn’t have to go to the training
D. Work with him to understand his concerns and do what you can to help alleviate them without compromising your project
D. Work with him to understand his concerns and do what you can to help alleviate them without compromising your project
Which of the following is used for identifying people who are impacted by the project?
A. Resource list
B. Stakeholder register
C. Enterprise environmental factors
D. Project plan.
B. Stakeholder Register
Your manager asks you where to find a list of projects that should be managed together.
What is the BEST place to find this information?
A. Project plan
B. Project charter
C. Portfolio charter
D. Program charter
D. Program Charter
You want to know specifically which business goal a group of projects and programs is going to accomplish. Which is the BEST place to look for this information?
A. Project plan
B. Project charter
C. Portfolio charter
D. Program charter
C. Portfolio
A project coordinator is having trouble securing programmers for her project. Every time she asks her boss to give a resource to the project he says that they are too busy to help out with her project. Which type of organization is she working in?
A. Functional
B. Weak matrix
C. Strong matrix
D. Projectized
A. Functional
A project manager is having trouble getting customer feedback on her project. Even though she knows the product won’t be complete for several months, the company guidelines say she should release an early version and get feedback from end users. Which type of organization is she working for?
A. Functional
B. Virtual
C. Hybrid
D. Projectized
Answer: C
The project manager in this scenario is working for a hybrid organization. She used predictive methods to understand that her project won’t be completed for several months and is about to use adaptive methods to get early feedback on the unfinished product.
The project manager for a construction project discovers that a new water line is being created in the neighborhood where he’s managing a project. Government regulations require that a series of forms for city environmental changes need to be filled out before his team can continue work on the project. This is an example of:
A. A portfolio
B. A program
C. An enterprise environmental factor
D. A project
D. A Project
You’re a project manager working on a software engineering project. Your manager is asking you to write down your performance goals for the year and measure them for your next performance evaluation. What leadership style is your manager using?
A.Charismatic
B Interactional
C.Transactional
D. Performance
C. Transactional
Which of the following is not a stakeholder?
A. The project manager who is responsible for building the project
B. A project team member who will work on the project
C. A customer who will use the final product
D. A competitor whose company will lose business because of the product
\
D.
A project manager runs into a problem with her project’s contractors, and she isn’t sure if they’re abiding by the terms of the contract. Which knowledge area is the BEST source of processes to help her deal with this problem?
A. Cost Management
B. Risk Management
C. Procurement Management
D. Communications Management
C
You’re a project manager for a construction project. You’ve just finished creating a list of all of the people who will be directly affected by the project. What process group are you in?
A. Initiating
B. Planning
C. Executing
D. Monitoring and Controlling
A. Initiation
You’re a project manager working in a weak matrix organization. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Your team members report to functional managers
B. You are not directly in charge of resources.
C. Functional managers make decisions that can affect your projects.
D. You have sole responsibility for the success or failure of the project.
Answer: D
In a weak matrix, project managers have very limited authority. They have to share a lot of responsibility with functional managers, and those functional managers have a lot of leeway to make decisions about how the team members are managed. In an organization like that, the project manager isn’t given a lot of responsibility.
Which of the following is NOT a project?
A. Repairing a car
B. Building a highway overpass
C. Running an IT support department
D. Filming a motion picture
C
A project manager is running a software project that is supposed to be delivered in phases. She was planning on dividing the resources into two separate teams to do the work for two phases at the same time, but one of her senior developers suggested that she use an agile methodology instead, and she agrees. Which of the following BEST describes the relationship between her project’s phases?
A. Sequential relationship
B. Iterative relationship
C. Constrained relationship
D. Overlapping relationship
B
Agile development is a really good example of an iterative approach to project phases. In an agile project, the team will typically break down the project into phases, where they work on the current phase while planning out the next one.
Which of the following is NOT true about overlapping phases?
A. Each phase is typically done by a separate team.
B. There’s an increased risk of delays when a later phase can’t start until an earlier one ends.
C. There’s an increased risk to the project due to potential for rework.
D. Every phase must go through all five process groups.
B.
You’re the project manager for an industrial design project. Your team members report to you, and you’re responsible for creating the budget, building the schedule, and assigning the tasks. When the project is complete, you release the team so they can work on other projects for the company. What kind of organization do you work in?
A. Functional
B. Weak matrix
C. Strong matrix
D. Projectized
D
Which process group contains the Develop Project Charter process and the Identify Stakeholders process?
A. Initiating
B. Executing
C. Monitoring and Controlling
D. Closing
A
The first things that are created on a project are the charter (which you create in the Develop Project Charter process) and the stakeholder register (which you create in the Identify Stakeholders process). You do those things when you’re initiating the project.
- You’ve just received a change request. This means:
A. The project charter is complete, but the work cannot begin yet because you need to make a change to the scope baseline.
B. You are in the Direct and Manage Project Work process, and you can implement the change now.
C. The change needs to be approved before it can be implemented.
D. There is a defect in a deliverable that must be repaired.
C. The change needs to be approved before it can be implemented.
This is really a question about inputs and outputs. There’s only one process that takes “change requests” as an input, and that’s Perform Integrated Change Control. That’s where your changes get approved. The otheranswers all refer to other processes: A is about building a baseline (which is part of Develop Project Management Plan), while B and D are both about Direct and Manage Project Work.
- Which of these is not an input to Develop Project Charter?
A. Enterprise environmental factors
B. Project management plan
C. Agreements
D. Business documents
Answer: B
The Project Management plan is created in the Develop Project Management Plan process, which happens after Develop Project Charter. Develop Project Charter is the very first process on any project, and the inputs in answers A, C, and D exist before the project started. The Project Management plan is created during the project.
- What is the output of Direct and Manage Project Work?
A. Approved change requests
B. Project Management processes
C. Deliverables
D. Forecasts
Answer: C
The whole reason for the Direct and Manage Project Work process is to actually do the project work, and the deliverables are the products or services that are created by the project. Don’t get fooled by answer D—even though the work is performed in Direct and Manage Project Work, the information about how that work is performed is turned into forecasts in Monitor and Control Project Work.
- You’re managing a graphic design project. One of your team members reports that there is a serious problem, and you realize that it will cause a delay that could harm the business of the stakeholders. Even worse, it will take another two days for you to fully assess the impact—until then, you won’t have the whole story. What is the BEST way to handle this situation?
A. Create a change request document and submit it to the change control meeting.
B. Pull out the project charter and show them that you have authority to make decisions.
C. Meet with the stakeholders and tell them that there’s a problem, and you need two more days to get them the information they need.
D. Update the lessons learned and add it to your organizational process assets.
Answer: C
When you get a question about communication, look for the answer that provides the most complete, honest, and up-front information, even if that information won’t necessarily solve the problem or make everyone happy.
- You’re a project manager on a construction project. The electrician has started laying out the wiring, when the client comes to you with a change request. He needs additional outlets, and you think that will increase the cost of the electrical work. What is the first thing you do?
A. Refuse to make the change because it will increase the cost of the project and blow your budget.
B. Refer to the Project Management plan to see how the change should be handled.
C. Consult the contract to see if there is a clause.
D. Make the change, since the client requested it.
Answer: B
All changes must be handled using the change control system, which is a set of procedures that is contained in the Project Management plan. There is no way to tell from the question what specific steps will be in that change control system—answers A, C, and D are all possible ways to deal with changes, depending on the situation. The only way to know for sure what to do is to follow the change control procedures in the Project Management plan.
- The work authorization system:
A. Ensures that every work package is performed at the right time and in the proper sequence
B. Authorizes the project manager to spend money on work
C. Is a set of processes and tools that aids the project manager in effectively guiding the project to completion
D. Is a formalized, written description of how to carry out an activity.
Answer: A
This is a just-the-facts-ma’am question, and answer A is the actual definition of the work authorization system. (This term is used in the PMBOK® Guide—technically it’s not specifically defined there, but you might still see it on the exam.)
- You’re the project manager at a telecommunications company. You recently had stakeholders approach you with changes. You figured out that the changes would cost additional time and money. The stakeholders agreed, you were given additional time and budget, and the changes were approved. Now you have to incorporate the changes into the project. What do you do next?
A. Modify the project charter to include the changes.
B. Use the project management information system to make sure the work is performed.
C. Make sure to track your changes against the project’s baseline so you know how much they eventually cost.
D. Incorporate the changes into the baseline so you can track the project properly.
Answer: D
The first thing you do after a change is approved is to update the baseline. If you chose answer C, don’t feel bad—it’s easy to get a little mixed up about what a baseline is used for. The whole purpose of the baseline is to figure out whether your project has deviated from the plan. But a change isn’t a deviation from the plan! A deviation is accidental, while a change is done on purpose. That’s why it’s so important to get the change approved: that way, everyone knows about it, which means that you can plan for it. And updating the baseline is how you do that planning.
Note You use the baseline to protect yourself from nasty surprises…and an approved change is not a surprise.
- You are a project manager on a software project. When you planned the project, your enterprise environmental factors included a policy that all changes that cost over 2% of the budget need to be approved by the CFO, but smaller changes could be paid for by a management contingency fund. One of your stakeholders submitted a change request that requires a 3% increase in the budget. Your company has an outsourcing effort, and you believe that a small change to the way that the change is requested could allow you to take advantage of it and cut your costs in half. What is the BEST way to handle this situation?
A. Work with the stakeholder to figure out how to reduce the cost of the change by a third.
B. Request approval from the CFO.
C. Refuse the change because it is over 2% of the budget.
D. Document the change request, since all changes must be documented.
Answer: B
When your company has a policy, you need to follow it and not try to work around it. Also, don’t get fooled by answer D—the question said that a change request was submitted, so it’s already documented. The exam could contain tricks like that!
Note The important stuff in this question is all in the second and third sentences. The outsourcing detail is a red herring.
- You’re on the project selection committee. You’re reviewing a document that describes the strategic value of a potential project and its benefits to the company. What’s this document called?
A. Project charter
B. Business case
C. Benefit measurement method
D. Contract
Answer: B
This is a business case—it describes the benefits of doing a project and can be used to decide whether it’s worth it for your company to do the work. Sometimes the benefits will be about gaining capabilities, not just money.
Note:
There will be questions on the exam where there are two valid answers but only one BEST answer.
- One of your team members has discovered a defect in a deliverable and has recommended that it be repaired. Which of the following is NOT true:
A. The project charter has authorized you to perform the work.
B. Your project is in Monitor and Control Project Work process.
C. The defect repair must be approved before the deliverable can be repaired.
D. You must update the Project Management plan to document the defect.
Answer: D
Defects do not need to be documented in the Project Management plan. Take a look at the other answers—do you understand why they are correct? Answer A is simply the definition of the project charter; it doesn’t have anything to do with the defect, but it’s still true. When you’re performing the Monitor and Control Project Work process, you need to make sure defect repairs are approved before you change the deliverables, so answer B is true as well. And as far as answer C goes, that’s the whole purpose of the Perform Integrated Change Control process: to approve defect repairs, changes, and preventive and corrective actions!
