PMP Practice test 2: PMP Practice Test Two Part Two

Question 1

You are a project manager for your company and you are coaching your project team on quality. The team has a desire to work quickly and catch mistakes during product testing. Based on this analysis, complete this statement: Quality is _____________, never _____________.

1. Quality is planned, never inspected in
2. Quality is expensive, defects are more expensive
3. Quality is mandatory, never optional items
4. Quality is optional, never forgotten

Answer 1

Answer: Quality is planned, never inspected in

Explanation
Quality is always planned into a project and never inspected into a project. Prevention is preferred over inspection. It is better to design quality into deliverables, rather than to find quality issues during inspection. The cost of preventing mistakes is generally much less than the cost of correcting mistakes when they are found by inspection or during usage. The other options are not valid statements about quality and inspection.

Question 2

Robert is the project manager for his company and he’s leading a large, international project. In this project, he’ll be purchasing from vendors in different countries for resources needed on the project. In his contracts with the international vendors, what must be clearly defined to alleviate any claims or litigation concerns later in the project?

1. Contract attorneys
2. Monetary unit
3. Legal jurisdictions
4. Purchasing officer for each country

Answer 2

Answer: Legal jurisdictions

Explanation
In international contracting, the legal jurisdictions under which the contracts will be administered are clearly spelled out in the contract. In most cases, the seller is an external contractor who is bound by a formal contractual relationship. Note that monetary units is often defined in the contract, but in consideration of litigation, the legal jurisdiction is the better choice for the scenario.

Question 3

You are a project manager for the HJG Project, and you’re working with your project team and several key stakeholders to identify the project requirements. As part of this activity, you need to reference a specific project management plan that will define how requirements will be planned, tracked, and reported. What project management plan should you reference?

1. Requirements management plan
2. Scope management plan
3. Project management
4. Communicaitons management plan

Answer 3

Answer: Requirements management plan

Explanation
The requirements management plan defines how the requirements activities will be planned, tracked, and reported for the project. This answer is from the PMBOK Guide, 5.1.3.2.

Question 4

You are the project manager of a new construction project for your organization. The project has just recently been chartered, and you’re working with the project team to define the project management plan, scope statement, and cost budget and other project details. Your customer has contacted you and informed you that they have several changes to the project, such as different flooring selection, larger windows, and an outdoor seating area. What should you do next?

1. Refuse the changes as the project charter has already been created
2. Complete a change request and pass the change through integrated change control
3. Ask the team to explore the changes in costs, scope, schedule, risk, and quality concerns before approving the changes for the project
4. Accept the changes and continue with project planning

Answer 4

Answer: Accept the changes and continue with project planning

Explanation
The project management plan should be baselined; that is, it is necessary to define at least the project references for scope, time, and cost, so that the project execution can be measured and compared to those references and performance can be managed. Before the baselines are defined, the project management plan may be updated as many times as necessary. No formal process is required at that time. However, once it is baselined, it may only be changed through the Perform Integrated Change Control process.

Question 5

Martha is a project manager in her organization and she is working with the project team to create a data representation of the stakeholders’ authority and interest in the project. She wants to create a salience model for the key stakeholders. In this model, all of the following attributes are used except for which one?

1. Urgency
2. Power
3. Influence
4. Legitimacy

Answer 5

Answer: Influence

Explanation
Influence is not a component of the salience model. A salience model describes classes of stakeholders based on assessments of their power (level of authority or ability to influence the outcomes of the project), urgency (need for immediate attention, either time-constrained or relating to the stakeholders’ high stake in the outcome), and legitimacy (their involvement is appropriate).

Question 6

Kelly is the project manager of the GHY Project for her organization. Management has asked Kelly to take the project scope baseline, the project cost baseline, and the project schedule baseline and create a hybrid baseline to reflect overall project performance. What should Kelly do next?

1. Inform her manager that these are three separate items that are distinct and cannot be merged to show project performance
2. Create a performance measurement baseline to show all three baselines and how the project is performing
3. Create an information radiator of all the performance requirements management has requested

Answer 6

Answer: Create a performance measurement baseline to show all three baselines and how the project is performing

Explanation
Management has asked Kelly to create a performance measurement baseline. A performance measurement baseline is an integrated scope-schedule-cost plan for the project work against which project execution is compared to measure and manage performance.

Question 7

You are a project manager for your company, a startup technology company. Your project needs to purchase 30 laptops from a vendor and management has authorized you to manage the entire procurement decision and transaction as there is no procurement officer in your company. In this scenario, what type of purchasing are you participating in?

1. Direct purchasing
2. Project purchasing
3. Vendor-based purchasing
4. Decentralized purchasing

Answer 7

Answer: Decentralized purchasing

Explanation
For smaller organizations or startup companies and those without a purchasing, contracting, or procurement department, the project manager may assume the purchasing authority role to negotiate and sign contracts directly (decentralized purchasing). For more mature organizations, the actual procurement and contracting functions will be carried out by a separate department with the specific role to purchase, negotiate, and sign contracts (centralized purchasing).

Question 8

Ned is a project manager in his organization and you are serving as a project management consultant on Ned’s project. Ned insists that his project needs a high-quality grade of material for the project work to be successful. You advise that quality and grade are often misunderstood. What’s the difference between quality and grade?

1. Grade is the level of satisfaction the workers require from materials, while quality is the ability of the materials to deliver upon their satisfaction
2. Quality is about having the best product, while grade is about having the correct products
3. Quality is how well the materials fulfill requirements. grade is ranking or categorization of the materials
4. Actually, Ned is correct. Quality and grade are now considered to be the same term in the PMBOK guide, sixth edition

Answer 8

Answer: Quality is how well the materials fulfill requirements. grade is ranking or categorization of the materials

Explanation
Quality and grade are not the same concepts. Quality as a delivered performance or result is “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements” (ISO 9000 [18].). Grade as a design intent is a category assigned to deliverables having the same functional use but different technical characteristics. The project manager and the project management team are responsible for managing the trade-offs associated with delivering the required levels of both quality and grade. While a quality level that fails to meet quality requirements is always a problem, a low-grade product may not be a problem.

Question 9

Beth is a project manager in her organization and she’s working with her project sponsor to define the levels of risk in a new project. Beth wants to discuss the project resilience and the unknowable-unknowns in the project. These risk events can only be recognized after they have occurred in the project. What term is best assigned to these type of risk events that attack project resilience?

1. Uncertain risk
2. Negative risk
3. Emergent risk
4. Apparent risk

Answer 9

Answer: Emergent risk

Explanation
The existence of emergent risk is becoming clear, with a growing awareness of so-called unknowable-unknowns. These are risks that can only be recognized after they have occurred. Emergent risks can be tackled through developing project resilience. Apparent risks and uncertain risks are not valid risk management terms. Negative risk isn’t technically a risk management term, but it’s often used to describe risks that threaten project objectives.

Question 10

Charles is the project manager of a large construction project for his city. He has been asked to provide a method for public scrutiny into the working and progress of the project. Which one of the following is the best example of transparency into the progress of the project work for communications and public relations with the city residents?

1. Webcams on the job site
2. Status reports and information on a project website
3. Financial reports and data updated weekly
4. Status reports mailed to the city residents

Answer 10

Answer: Webcams on the job site

Explanation
A trend in infrastructure and commercial construction projects is the use of technology including web cameras (webcams) to improve stakeholder communications and relations. During construction, one or more webcams are installed on the site, with periodic updates to a publicly available website. The progress on the project can be viewed on the Internet by all stakeholders. Video data can also be stored, allowing analysis if a claim arises. Some projects have discovered that the use of webcams minimizes disputes relating to the construction work on site, as the webcam has recorded the events, so there should be no disagreement about the facts of the matter.

Question 11

Joan is a project manager in her organization and she is working with the project team to create the risk management plan. Joan wants to create a structure to show the decomposition of project risks in a hierarchical approach for the potential sources of risks in the project. What type of chart should Joan create with her project team?

1. Risk burnup chart
2. Risk decomposition map
3. Risk burndown chart
4. Risk breakdown structure

Answer 11

Answer: Risk breakdown structure

Explanation
A common way to structure risk categories is with a risk breakdown structure (RBS), which is a hierarchical representation of potential sources of risk. An RBS helps the project team consider the full range of sources from which individual project risks may arise. This can be useful when identifying risks or when categorizing the identified risks. The organization may have a generic RBS to be used for all projects, or there may be several RBS frameworks for different types of projects, or the project may develop a tailored RBS. Where an RBS is not used, an organization may use a custom risk categorization framework, which may take the form of a simple list of categories or a structure based on project objectives.

Question 12

Ken is a project manager in his organization and he working with the project team to create the project network diagram for an IT implementation project. His team has identified the tasks of launching the new web server and shutting down the old web server. The team wants to make sure that the new web server is up and running before turning off the older web server. If the new server is the successor activity and the older web server is the predecessor what’s the relationship type between these two tasks in the scenario?

1. FF
2. LC
3. SF
4. SS

Answer 12

Answer: SF

Explanation
Start-to-finish (SF) is a logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started. The new web server (successor) has to start before the old web server can be shut down (predecessor).

Question 13

You are a project manager for the JHK Project for your organization, and you’re working with the project team to build the project network diagram. Your project team has identified a series of tasks that must happen in a specific order, but this order will cause the project duration to increase. What’s the best description on the ordering of these tasks in this scenario?

1. Work logic
2. Constrained logic
3. Hard logic
4. Soft logic

Answer 13

Answer: Hard logic

Explanation
This is an example of hard logic, also called mandatory dependencies. Mandatory dependencies are those that are legally or contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work.

Question 14

Your organization has asked you, a project manager, to work with a business analyst to create a business case for a proposed project. All of the following items are reasons why a business case may be created except for which one?

1. Market demand
2. Legal requirement
3. Profit and loss
4. Organizational need

Answer 14

Answer: Profit and loss

Explanation
Profit and loss is not a reason why a business case may be created. Business cases are created as a cause of market demand, organizational need, customer request, technological advance, legal requirement, ecological impact, and social needs.

Question 15

Mike is the project manager of the AQA Project for his company. His BAC is $2,345,000, and he is currently 25 percent complete with the project, though he is supposed to be 30 percent complete. In the project so far, Mike has spent $612,000. Some changes have been added to the project will cost an additional $125,000 and now reflect Mike as being 20 percent complete. What is the CPI of the project considering these new changes?

1. 0.67
2. 0.81
3. No change
4. 0.75

Answer 15

Answer: 0.81

Explanation
The CPI is now .81 because the added funds to the BAC and the reduction in total project completion cause the CPI to change.

Question 16

Consider a project manager that has identified a risk in her project. The risk has a 20 percent chance of happening but will cost the project $450,000 if it happens. What’s the expected monetary value of this risk in a project?

1. ($90,000)
2. $450, 000
3. $90,000
4. 0.9

Answer 16

Answer: ($90,000)

Explanation
The expected monetary value of the risk is found using the formula of probability times impact. In this scenario it is .20 times $450,000. Note this is a negative risk, so the answer is -$90,000.

Question 17

You are a project manager for the HJG Project and you’re working with the project team to address the testing and control quality processes for your project. Management has requested that zero defects escape from the project and strict quality control processes must be implemented. One of the team members asks why they can’t just address any defects found by the customer as they come up. Of course, this isn’t a good practice for many reasons, but one of the best reasons is which one of the following choices?

1. Errors found by customers is the most expensive approach
2. Its not what management has requested
3. Customers may not be able to readily identify all the defects
4. Its embarrassing to the organization and hurts the organization

Answer 17

Answer: Errors found by customers is the most expensive approach

Explanation
Usually, the most expensive approach is to let the customer find the defects. This approach can lead to warranty issues, recalls, loss of reputation, and rework costs.

Question 18

Mary is the project manager for her organization, and she is a project manager for a new agile project. Management has asked Mary to show them the detailed project scope statement in this project. Mary reports that in agile projects there is not a detailed project scope. Management then wants to know where the project requirements are documented. What should Mary do next?

1. Show management the project scope management plan
2. Show management the product backlog
3. Show management the Scrum statement
4. Show management the project WBS

Answer 18

Answer: Show management the product backlog

Explanation
In an agile project, scope is defined and redefined throughout the project. In agile approaches, the requirements constitute the backlog.

Question 19

A project manager has been warned by her manager that overtime in the project work is not allowed as this is driving project costs. The project manager elects to utilize resource leveling heuristics for the project team. What is likely to happen to the project with this modification? (Choose the best answer.)

1. The team will log all hours worked on the project
2. The project duration will increase
3. Costs will be constrained to the project budget
4. Team members will work fewer hours

Answer 19

Answer: The project duration will increase

Explanation
Resource leveling heuristics establishes a rule for the project team on how many hours they can work on the project per day or per week. When applied, the team is constrained to a maximum hours worked per time period, so that causes the overall duration of the project to increase because there are few working hours per day on the project activities.

Question 20

Beth is the project manager for her organization, and she’s meeting her project sponsor to discuss the competency level of the project team. Bill, the project sponsor, is worried that some of the project team members are new to the skills required in the project and he wants to know Beth’s strategy for these team members. What should Beth do next?

1. Some team members will liekly be released from the project
2. Some team members will require more oversight than others
3. All team members will be trained on the skills needed to ensure equal understanding
4. All team members will be managed with the same level of oversight

Answer 20

Answer: Some team members will require more oversight than others

Explanation
The project manager needs to be sensitive to both the willingness and the ability of team members to perform their work and adjust their management and leadership styles accordingly. Team members with low-skill abilities will require more intensive oversight than those who have demonstrated knowledge and experience.

Question 21

As a project manager, you need to have emotional intelligence. This means that you can recognize and improve inbound and outbound emotional competencies. Which two are examples of inbound emotional intelligence competencies?

1. Self-management and self-awareness
2. Self-management and relationship management
3. Relationship management and self control
4. Self-management and self-control

Answer 21

Answer: Self-management and self-awareness

Explanation
The project manager should invest in personal EI by improving inbound (e.g., self-management and self-awareness) and outbound (e.g., relationship management) competencies. The other choices are not valid answers for this question.

Question 22

When two people are communicating via a web conference what component of the communication model is represented by the Internet?

1. Encode/Decode
2. Medium
3. Transmit message
4. Host

Answer 22

Answer: Medium

Explanation
In this scenario, this Internet is the medium to carry the message between the senders and receivers. Recall that the medium is the component of the communication model that carries the message between the two parties.

Question 23

You are the project manager of the JJ Project, and you and the project team are defining the project activities and sequencing for a project. The team has identified an activity, framing the building, which can’t begin until the concrete pad has adequately cured. The team is concerned that the concrete will take longer than usual due to the humid summer to cure so an extra two days may be needed before the framing can begin. What should you do next?

1. Schedule the concrete to dry on a Friday with two days of lead for the framing activity
2. Schedule the framing to start on a Monday and pour the concrete on a Friday
3. Schedule the framing to start after the concrete is poured, but with two days of lag
4. Schedule the framing to start two days after the concrete is poured

Answer 23

Answer: Schedule the framing to start after the concrete is poured, but with two days of lag

Explanation
The best choice to schedule the framing to begin as soon as the concrete is poured as a finish-to-start activity, but with two days of lag. The option to schedule the concrete to be poured on a Friday and the framing to start on a Monday is a tempting choice, but this doesn’t accommodate any shifts in the schedule. Should a delay happen upstream from this activity, then the delay wouldn’t be built into the schedule. By adding lag time, which is waiting time, then the delay would stay between the concrete and the framing activities.

Question 24

Nancy is a project manager in her organization and she’s working with the project team to plan communications management. Robert, the project sponsor, tells Nancy that he’ll be glad when this planning activity is over because he doesn’t like planning and would rather get to the project execution. Nancy tells Robert that the communications planning activity will happen whenever new stakeholders are identified in the project and one other factor. When else should communications planning definitely happen in a project?

1. During project procurement
2. At the end of the project
3. At the start of each project phase
4. When risks are identified

Answer 24

Answer: At the start of each project phase

Explanation
An effective communications management plan that recognizes the diverse information needs of the project’s stakeholders is developed early in the project lifecycle. It should be reviewed regularly and modified when necessary when the stakeholder community changes or at the start of each new project phase.

Question 25

Consider a project that is running behind schedule. The project manager has elected to utilize fast-tracking to reduce the overall duration of the project. Which one of the following statements best describes fast-tracking characteristics?

1. Fast-tracking removes all float in the project to reduce project duration but can increase project risks
2. Fast-tracking allows phases to overlap to reduce project duration but can increase project risk
3. Fast-tracking removes all float to reduce project duration but can increase project cost
4. Fast-tracking adds labor to the project work but can increase project costs

Answer 25

Answer: Fast-tracking allows phases to overlap to reduce project duration but can increase project risk

Explanation
Fast-tracking allows phases to overlap, but this can introduce risk in the project as successor phases may be affected by defects in predecessor phases they are currently overlapping.