PMPPracticeExam2

Question 1

As a project manager, you are using root cause analysis to determine what the potential risks might be in your project. Which process best describes the process in which you are involved?

A. Plan Quality
B. Identify Risks
C. Control Quality
D. Plan Risk Responses

Answer 1

B. Identify Risks

You are in the Identify Risks process because root cause analysis tools can help identify potential threats based on past experience of issues experienced. Root cause analysis is used in both quality management and risk management. However, the situation explained in this question refers only to the information gathering techniques of the Identify Risks process.

Question 2

You are a construction project manager. In a formal project management training you are told that you need to collect information on contract schedule, scope, quality, and cost performance along with all contract change documentation, payment records, and inspection results. You are also told by your instructor that this information can be used for lessons learned and as a basis for evaluating contractors for future contracts. Which document is your instructor talking about?

A. Claims Administration
B. Close Project or Phase
C. Inspections and Audits updates
D. Procurement Documentation

Answer 2

D. Procurement Documentation

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), to close the contract, all procurement documentation is collected, indexed, and filed. Information on contract schedule, scope, quality, and cost performance along with all contract change documentation, payment records, and inspection results are cataloged. This information can be used for lessons learned and as a basis for evaluating contractors for future contracts.

Question 3

You have just been assigned to the photo transfer project. You are beginning to meet with the stakeholders and have made some observations. You notice that the team of seven software developers has been given quite a bit of autonomy in how they conduct their work. The sponsor is pleased with the work so far, as is the business representative, who has been giving the team regular feedback on their deliverables. What methodology is the team most likely following?

A. Adaptive
B. Predictive
C. Hybrid
D. Waterfall

Answer 3

A. Adaptive

Small autonomous teams that have earned the trust of project stakeholders are characteristics of an adaptive culture. The fact that the team is receiving regular feedback is another clue that an iterative, incremental lifecycle is likely being followed.

Question 4

You are several weeks into a new project, which is one of the most visible ones in the company. You are still getting the lay of the land and meeting with various stakeholders that include suppliers, customers, functional managers, and individual contributors. At some of these meetings, you are beginning to hear talk that not everyone is pleased that this project is taking place and is being given such high priority. You realize you have some tools that might assist you in fleshing out this problem. Which one would be most appropriate for you to use?

A. The use of surveys to get feedback.
B. The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix.
C. The use of ground rules.
D. Preparing and delivering a PowerPoint presentation to all the stakeholders on the benefits of the project.

Answer 4

B. The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix.

The Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix (SEAM) enables you to plot whether stakeholders are resistant, neutral, supporting, or leading in their attitude towards the project. Based on where you would like each of these stakeholders to be, you can plot strategies to gain their support. Not every stakeholder will require a strategy, so it is important to plot where each is desired to be.

Question 5

According to the latest update of the project schedule, you realize that the project will be completed one month after the desired completion date. You have extra resources on hand and the activity dependencies are preferential. The project is not of high risk and the SPI up to now is 0.89. As a project manager, what would be your best course of action under these circumstances?

A. Make more activities concurrent
B. Leveling the resources
C. Shift some of the resources from the preferential dependencies to the external ones
D. Eliminate some of the activities which are of lower importance

Answer 5

A. Make more activities concurrent

Leveling the resources would generally increase the project duration. Removing the activities under some conditions and using the project change process (discretionary dependency) might be possible but considering that dependencies are preferential and you have extra resources the first thing could be to make more activities concurrent.

Question 6

Conflicts are common and unavoidable in projects. Which of following are the three most common sources of conflicts in projects?

A. Schedules, Cost, Resources
B. Schedules, Project priorities, Resources
C. Cost, Resources, Personalities
D. Project priorities, Resources, Cost

Answer 6

B. Schedules, Project priorities, Resources

Conflict can come from seven main sources, of which the first three account for 50%:

1. Schedules
2. Project priorities
3. Manpower/human resource availability
4. Technical opinions
5. Procedural or project administration
6. Costs
7. Personalities

Question 7

As the manager of a highly critical project, you walk into your office and receive a phone call from your client notifying you that they need an urgent review meeting about the delay that occurred in the delivery of one of the major pieces of equipment for the project. You open your e-mail and you get bombarded with the emails coming from two of your team about a conflict that started between them this morning. After a few minutes you get a phone call from one of them while the other one shows up at your office. Which conflict resolution technique would you use immediately?

A. Collaborating
B. Forcing
C. Compromising
D. Smoothing

Answer 7

D. Smoothing

Collaborating or problem solving is the best way to resolve conflict but not in this situation. Since you should choose a technique to deal with the conflict immediately and it’s explained that there is an urgent meeting on an important issue in your critical project that you that you need to take care of, the best method in this situation would be to delay the conflict resolution, i.e. smoothing.

Question 8

You have recently been assigned as the manager of a highly critical national project which should be finished in a very short period of time compared to the similar projects. After developing the first draft of the project network diagram you see that the project cannot be finished on time. If the network diagram cannot be changed anymore and you have extra human resources, what would be the best approach?

A. Fast tracking
B. Crashing
C. Risk analysis
D. Leveling the resources

Answer 8

B. Crashing

In this situation, leveling the resources will generally increase the duration. Since the network diagram cannot be changed, the fast tracking option is also not feasible. So crashing remains as the best option in this situation to decrease the duration.

Question 9

You have just been hired as the project manager in a large company and given the approved project charter. You know that your company always undertakes very challenging projects and your project is not an exception. What should be your first course of action?

A. Plan risk management
B. Confirm that all of the stakeholders have contributed to the scope
C. Identify project risks
D. Start developing project management plan

Answer 9

B. Confirm that all of the stakeholders have contributed to the scope

Read the question carefully. You as the project manager have not been involved in the project charter development, therefore it is your responsibility to make sure that the charter is complete and all of the stakeholders have their inputs in it before proceeding with the next step in project planning.

Question 10

As the manager of a large project, including a huge part of procurement activities, you are about to start project closure activities. All final deliverable of the project are validated. What should be your first step in project closure?

A. Start closing out contracts
B. Ensure completion of scope as per Project Management Plan
C. Start Claims Administration
D. Start Administrative Closure

Answer 10

B. Ensure completion of scope as per Project Management Plan

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), when closing the project the project manager must review all the prior information from the previous phase closure to ensure that all project work is completed and that the project has met its objectives. Since project scope is measured against the scope management plan, the project manager reviews the scope baseline (part of the project management plan) to ensure completion before considering the project closed.

Question 11

You are managing a project which is facing some minor delays in the submission of a few project deliverables. You have been asked to a meeting with the team members in charge of the delayed deliverables. Which one of the following tools do you think is the best to be used during the meeting to show the project schedule status to the responsible team members?

A. Gantt Chart
B. Project Network Diagram
C. Milestone Chart
D. Responsibility Assignment Matrix

Answer 11

A. Gantt Chart

In a meeting with team members you need a tool which shows the schedule details such as delays, completion, and timeline.

Question 12

Which one of the following items determines the acceptable range of variation of a process on a control chart?

A. Mean
B. Upper and Lower Control Limits
C. Standard Deviation
D. Specification Limit

Answer 12

B. Upper and Lower Control Limits

The control limits are set based on the company’s quality standard and indicate the acceptable range. Upper and lower control limits are usually set at +/− 3sigma.

Question 13

Which technique is not a helpful practice in creating cultural compatibility for an agile approach?

A. Active executive sponsorship
B. Management adjusting how team members are assessed
C. A focus on getting things right the first time
D. A focus on going fast but not hurrying.

Answer 13

C. A focus on getting things right the first time

A focus on getting things right the first time fits with a plan-driven rather than a change-driven approach. The other answer choices describe helpful strategies in an Agile project approach. Agile work should occur at a manageable pace.

Question 14

You have recently been assigned as the manager of a project after the previous manager quit the company. From the first meetings with the project team you discover that the morale of the team is very low. You speak to some of the team members in private and you feel that they were not given opportunities to participate in team development activities and that they did not have opportunities to grow. Which of the following is a primary factor for this situation?

A. Use of zero-sum rewards in the project
B. A poorly defined resource calendar
C. Too many hierarchical levels in the project organization chart
D. Poor communication planning

Answer 14

B. A poorly defined resource calendar

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), resource calendars identify times when the project team members can participate in team development activities. If the team members are unable to find time for such activities, it is likely that the calendar has been poorly planned out.

Question 15

You are a junior project manager, currently performing schedule controlling activities. You approach one of your experienced colleagues for advice on how to reanalyze the project and predict the project’s remaining duration. She tells you to analyze the sequence of activities with the least amount of scheduling flexibility. Which technique is she referring to?

A. Gantt chart
B. Critical path method
C. Resource leveling
D. Precedence diagramming method

Answer 15

B. Critical path method

The Gantt chart is only a representation of the project schedule, not an analysis method. The precedence diagramming method is a diagramming technique that deals with the relationship between activities, not schedule flexibility. Resource leveling is used to smooth the use of the resources over a period of time. The only option that deals with schedule flexibility is the critical path method which uses activity floats.

Question 16

Tom is managing a project and he has scheduled a number of training programs for his team. However, he knows that apart from planned training, unplanned training also takes place in a number of ways. Which of these is not one of the ways in which unplanned training can happen?

A. Conversation
B. Online
C. Observation
D. Project performance appraisals

Answer 16

B. Online

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), scheduled training occurs as stated in the Human Resource plan and could include online, classroom, on-the-job, etc. Unplanned training, however, takes place through conversation, observation and project performance appraisals conducted during the controlling process of managing the project team.

Question 17

As the project manager, you are reviewing the control chart related to one of the project deliverables, and you find seven data points in a row on one side of the mean. What should be your next action?

A. According to the rule of seven this is normal and no action is required
B. Modify the mean
C. Perform the quality measurements again to make sure about the data points correctness
D. Find an assignable cause

Answer 17

D. Find an assignable cause

This is an example of the application of the rule of seven in control charts. If you have seven data points in a row on the same side of the mean, statistically the mean has shifted, calling for action to correct the problem. Therefore, the first action is to find the cause of the errors.

Question 18

As the manager of a large construction project you are currently conducting a meeting with the project management team to decide on a procurement contract. There are opposing views among the team members on the type of contract that best suits your situation. Which one of the following types of contracts have the most cost risk for your organization as a buyer?

A. Cost plus percentage of costs
B. Fixed price incentive fee
C. Time and materials
D. Cost plus award fee

Answer 18

A. Cost plus percentage of costs

In a cost plus percentage of costs contract, the buyer pays all costs while the costs are not limited. In a fixed price type of contract, the buyer has the least cost risk, as any cost overruns are borne by the seller.

Question 19

As a project manager you are approached by one of the project stakeholders asking for a change in the project work breakdown structure. The stakeholder brings enough reasons to show that the change does not affect the project time or cost. What is the best action for you in this situation?

A. Ignore the change and ask the stakeholder to formally request a change
B. Since there are no time and cost effects, implement the change
C. Raise the change to your management
D. Look for other impacts that the change may have

Answer 19

D. Look for other impacts that the change may have

Even though it may not directly affect the time or cost of the project, you need to look at all the impacts of a change on other project constraints. The change may increase risk, reduce quality, etc. As a project manager the best thing to do is to know all of the impacts of a change before taking any other action.

Question 20

As a project manager, Tom is currently involved in the Control Procurements process. According to the records, one of the vendors has not delivered the items on time. The root-cause analysis shows that the problem was in the proposal evaluation activities that could have been done more accurately. What should Tom do at this point?

A. Update Procurement Documentation
B. Update Organizational Process Assets
C. Conduct Procurement Audits
D. Update Procurement Contracts

Answer 20

B. Update Organizational Process Assets

Lessons learned are a part of Organizational Process Assets. The Project Manager should update this with the procurement experience so that future projects can benefit. Organizational Process Assets Updates are an output of Control Procurements.

Question 21

All of the followings are examples of the cost of nonconformance except?

A. Warranty costs
B. Rework
C. Inspection
D. Penalties

Answer 21

C. Inspection

Costs of non-conformance are costs incurred when a project fails to meet the required level of quality. Failure costs are also called costs of poor quality. Costs of non-conformance are categorized into 2 groups:

1.) Internal failure costs — Before releasing product to customer. Includes costs to rework, fix defects, wastage due to internal errors, and unnecessary advertising.

2.) External failure costs — After releasing product to customer. Liability and penalties cost, warranty costs, cost of developing and distributing fix, support calls, and damage control costs.

Question 22

As a project manager of a challenging software development project, you are in the middle of project execution when one of your team members approaches you and notifies you about a problem that has just happened and that was not included in the risk register. What would be your first action in this situation?

A. Inform your management
B. Add this problem to the project risk register
C. Create a workaround
D. Redo the Identify Risks process to find out other risks which might have been neglected

Answer 22

C. Create a workaround

Since this is problem that has occurred and not a risk, there’s no need to add it to the risk register. The Identify Risks process will need to be redone, but since this is a problem, the first action is to come up with a solution for it. Creating a workaround is a solution. You might need to inform management as well, but this is reactive, not proactive, and not the first thing you should do.

Question 23

You are assigned as the manager of a construction project and the project sponsor has provided you with a draft project charter and immediately asks you to provide a preliminary analysis of the risks on the project. Which of the following would BEST help this effort?

A. Resource plan from the project planning process
B. Project scope statement from the project planning process
C. A conversation with a team member from a similar project that failed in the past
D. An article from PM Network Magazine

Answer 23

C. A conversation with a team member from a similar project that failed in the past

Since the only document that you have is the project charter, you are still in the project initiating phase and none of the planning documents have been generated yet. So the project scope statement and the resource plan are not correct answers. The magazine article could be correct if it was mentioned that the article gives some applicable insights, particularly about the risks involved in your project.

Question 24

You are asked by your management to provide an estimation of the costs of a new residential building project using the costs of an earlier residential building project that your company had carried out as the basis for your estimation. What type of estimation is this called?

A. Analogous Estimating
B. Bottom-up Estimating
C. Activity-based Estimating
D. Parametric Estimating

Answer 24

A. Analogous Estimating

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), analogous estimating is a technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data from a similar activity or project.

Question 25

A project manager is performing Reserve Analysis as a technique in one of the project management processes that he is currently working on. Which of these is likely to be that process?

A. Estimate Reserves
B. Plan Costs
C. Determine Budget
D. Develop Schedule

Answer 25

C. Determine Budget

Reserve Analysis is one of the techniques which is used in more than one process. Three processes of Estimate Costs, Determine Budget, and Control Costs are the Cost Management processes that use this tool.

Question 26

Knowledge management involves the recording and transferring of experiences and skills to the organization in order to achieve project objectives. Both explicit and tacit knowledge are important for this purpose. One of the advantages of tacit knowledge is that

A. It is open to interpretation
B. It can be readily shared
C. It can be readily codified
D. It has context built in

Answer 26

D. It has context built in

Tacit knowledge, which is the information and belief system a team member has within their minds and realm of experience, is not documented or codified and must be drawn out by others in order to utilize that knowledge. Therefore, unlike explicit knowledge, which is written down, it is more difficult to share. However unlike explicit knowledge, which lacks context and can therefore be open to interpretation, tacit knowledge has context built into it. Refer to section 4.4 of the PMBOK® Guide for additional info.

Question 27

As a software development project manager, you are approached by one of the software developers telling you that he has added additional features to the end product which were not required in the scope. He also mentions that adding those features did not take any extra time or cost. What should be your action in this situation?

A. Carefully review and understand the new features
B. Implement change control process
C. Ask the software developer to remove the extra features
D. Ask the team member to issue a change request for the extra features

Answer 27

A. Carefully review and understand the new features

As the project manager you are responsible to evaluate the situation before making any decision about the change. This is the first step of the integrated change control. After a complete review of the new features you can realize the possible impacts of the change in terms of quality, risk, etc. on the project.

Question 28

Your team is involved in selecting a seller for one of the important systems of the project. Two of your team members have a conflict over selecting the seller. One of them believes that you should choose company X while the other argues that company Y should be awarded the contract. Which one of the following will you refer the team to make the decision?

A. Seller proposals
B. Source selection criteria
C. Project management plan
D. Procurement documents

Answer 28

B. Source selection criteria

The source selection criteria are the primary tools for evaluating potential sellers and should be used by the entire team in order to make a selection.

Question 29

You are managing a project which is suffering many changes since the initiation. You had to process a lot of changes and you did not have enough time to do anything else. Which one of the followings best describes what you should do in such a project?

A. Determine if changes are needed. Notify the stakeholders who are affected by the changes and list all of the changes in the scope management plan.
B. Determine whether the changes are needed and whether they are beneficial to the project. List all of the changes in the scope management plan.
C. List all of the changes in the project charter, notify the project stakeholders who are affected by the changes and ensure that you have their sign off on the changes.
D. Determine whether a change is needed and whether it is beneficial to the project, and notify the stakeholders who are affected by the change.

Answer 29

D. Determine whether a change is needed and whether it is beneficial to the project, and notify the stakeholders who are affected by the change.

You never list changes in the scope management plan or in the project charter. As the project manager you need to make sure that changes are needed and beneficial and also to make sure that the stakeholders get notified.

Question 30

You are a software development project manager and currently you are in the process of developing the project risk management plan. Which of the following is not part of such a plan?

A. Risk probability
B. Methodology
C. Risk categories
D. Impact Matrix

Answer 30

A. Risk probability

The contents of the risk management plan according to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition) are methodology, roles & responsibilities, budgeting, risk categories, definition of risk probabilities and impacts, probability & impact matrix, revised stakeholders tolerances, reporting formats, and tracking. Basically the risk management plan describes how risk management will be structured and performed on the project. It does not identify individual risks or the probability of their occurrence.

Question 31

You have just been assigned to manage a new change-driven project to create a website for one of the company’s best customers. Your team of five is experienced with this project approach and with the customer, although they are starting on the same day as you are. Based on your expertise, what would be the best leadership style you should employ with the team?

A. Directing
B. Laissez-Faire
C. Servant Leader
D. Coordinator

Answer 31

C. Servant Leader

Servant Leadership is the best approach for a change-driven project and when the team is experienced. They can be best served by your ability to remove obstacles for them and play interference with other managers and potential distractions.

Question 32

You are managing a software development project budgeted at $360,000 according to the earned value analysis report which you have on your desk. As of today, you have spent $110,000, and the earned value is $120,000. According to your earned value figures, your SPI is 0.8. Which one of the following options best describes your project status?

A. Not enough information
B. On schedule
C. Behind schedule
D. Over budget

Answer 32

C. Behind schedule

EV= $120,000
AC= $110,000
PV= $150,000
SPI= EV/PV
SPI= 120,000/150,000
SPI= 0.8
Since SPI is less than 1, we can conclude the project is behind schedule.

Question 33

Tom is a project manager managing a bridge construction project for the first time. He has set up a series of interviews with various stakeholders to gather some experiential and historical information on some of the risks. Which process is Tom most probably involved in?

A. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
B. Plan Risk Responses
C. Identify Risks
D. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis

Answer 33

D. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis

Such meetings or interviews are usually done as part of Qualitative Risk Analysis. This method draws on experiential learning and historical data to quantify the impact of risks on project objectives. Read the question carefully. It mentioned that the purpose of the interviews is to gather information about some risks, not to discover some risks.

Question 34

Which of the following project management processes covers formal completion and handover of the final product/service?

A. Close Project or Phase
B. Control Procurements
C. Validate Scope
D. Contract administration

Answer 34

A. Close Project or Phase

Close Project or Phase is the process of finalizing all activities across all of the Project Management Process Groups to formally complete the project or phase.

Question 35

The project charter provides the project manager with some benefits and information. Which one of the following is most important for the project manager?

A. Project authority
B. The formal role of ‘Project Manager’
C. The project sponsors list
D. High level project scope

Answer 35

A. Project authority

The project charter formally authorizes the existence of a project, and provides the project manager with the authority.

Question 36

Which one of the following statements is correct?

A. Validate scope is primarily concerned with correctness of deliverables.
B. Control quality is primarily concerned with acceptance of the deliverables.
C. Validation of scope can only be done at the end of the project.
D. Control quality is generally performed before scope validation, but these two can be performed in parallel.

Answer 36

D. Control quality is generally performed before scope validation, but these two can be performed in parallel.

Validate scope is primarily concerned with acceptance of deliverables while control quality is primarily concerned with correctness of the deliverables. Control quality is generally performed before scope validation but these two can be performed in parallel. Validate scope can be done at the end of each project phase in the project life cycle and at other points throughout the project as part of M&C, i.e. validate scope is done multiple times in the project.

Question 37

What is the most appropriate guideline for managing documentation artifacts at the start of your agile project?

A. Ensure that there is sufficient detail on the user stories in the sprint backlog so that work can begin.
B. Ensure that there is sufficient detail for each user story in the product backlog so that work can begin.
C. Ensure that each user story for the project has been reflected in the product backlog.
D. Ensure that there is sufficient detail for each user story so that each is roughly equivalent in size.

Answer 37

A. Ensure that there is sufficient detail on the user stories in the sprint backlog so that work can begin.

The best guideline is to ensure that there is sufficient detail on the user stories in the sprint backlog so that work can begin. User stories for the entire project do not need to be created nor described in detail for work to begin. Only those user stories that will be in the next iteration require sufficient detail. User stories do not need to be similar in size.

Question 38

What is the critical path with reference to the following network diagram?

Diagram with A-F
A to D to F = 4+10+8 days
B to C to D to F = 5+7+10+8 days
B to C to E to F = 5+7+8+8 days

Answer 38

B-C-D-F

There are 3 different paths in the diagram and we can calculate their duration as:

A-D-F = 4 + 10 + 8 = 22 days
B-C-E-F = 5 + 7 + 8 + 8 = 28 days
B-C-D-F = 5 + 7 + 10 + 8 = 30 days
Among the above mentioned paths, B-C-D-F has the longest duration. A-D-E-F which is mentioned as an answer choice is not actually a complete path because activity D is not a predecessor of activity E.

Question 39

Which one the following is not a benefit of quality audits?

A. Creating quality metrics
B. Identify all nonconformities, gaps, and shortcomings
C. Identify all good and best practices being implemented
D. Confirm the implementation of approved change requests

Answer 39

A. Creating quality metrics

Quality metrics are an output of the Plan Quality process and an input to the Manage Quality process. The other choices are all benefits of quality audits.

Question 40

Tom is a construction project manager and recently approached an insurance company to insure the project against the possible damages of storms that are predicted to happen in the winter. Which risk response strategy is Tom undertaking?

A. Avoid
B. Accept
C. Mitigate
D. Transfer

Answer 40

D. Transfer

Risk Transference is a risk response strategy that shifts the impact of a threat to a third party, together with ownership of the response. Taking out insurance or a warranty transfers the risk from the owner to the other party.

Question 41

Your project team developed a team charter at the start of the project, which is now midway to completion. The charter included a list of ground rules involving decision-making, meeting etiquette, and interpersonal behavior. At a recent meeting, one of the team members began to belittle the idea of another member, causing a heated discussion and everyone leaving the meeting. As the project manager, what should you do?

A. Meet with the team member who caused the disruption and advise them that this behavior was not appropriate.
B. Call another meeting to continue the topics on the agenda.
C. Tell the supervisor of the disruptive employee that he is negatively impacting the project.
D. Remind the team that they have a team charter and allow them to work the issue out.

Answer 41

D. Remind the team that they have a team charter and allow them to work the issue out.

This question is about accountability. A team charter that is created by the team means that the team is accountable for enforcing it. They may need a reminder that this is the purpose of the charter, and they need to be trusted to hold themselves to it.

Question 42

You are managing a project with a lot of different detailed activities. The project is within budget and the SPI according to the latest earned value report is 1.2. The project risk review meetings are held according to an organized schedule and you are satisfied with the risk management activities of the project. However, you get notified by two different stakeholders that some of the project status reports are not accurate. Which tool will you use to verify whether there is a problem?

A. Root-cause analysis
B. Inspection
C. Observations
D. Quality audits

Answer 42

D. Quality audits

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), a quality audit is a structured, independent process to determine if project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes, and procedures. In this specific case you need to do quality audits to make sure that your team is doing the project reporting in accordance with the project policies and standards.

Question 43

Which one of the following is not an input to the initiating process group?

A. Historical project schedules
B. Lessons learned database
C. Project scope statement
D. Company culture

Answer 43

C. Project scope statement

The project scope statement is an output of the planning process group, so it cannot be available as an input to the initiating process group. The other options are among the Enterprise Environmental Factors or Organizational Process Assets which are inputs of the initiating process group.

Question 44

You are manager of a project and after a periodic project schedule update, the scheduler working on your team comes to you with the following list of activities. He also mentions that the project is faced with 2 weeks of delay and as a corrective action he proposes to change the sequence and perform activity H concurrent with activity G, instead of after it. What would be your reaction?

Activity - B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I
Float - 4-0-3- 2-0-0-5-0

A. This will help all of the delay to be recovered, so accept the proposal
B. This will help you spend less resources, so accept the proposal
C. It might affect activity I, so reject the proposal
D. This does not have any effect on the critical path, so reject the proposal

Answer 44

D. This does not have any effect on the critical path, so reject the proposal

According to the list of activities, activity H has float and is not critical. Therefore, changing its sequence to perform it sooner will not change the project finish date. The best way is to complete the critical activities earlier.

Question 45

You are managing an IT project for an external client. The project is ahead of schedule and your next activities are testing and hand over. Which one of the followings will you be more concerned about in this situation?

A. Time schedule
B. Performing quality control
C. Generating performance reports
D. Validate project scope

Answer 45

D. Validate project scope

You are close to performing the final product handover to the external client. Scope validation deals with acceptance by the customer. Without this acceptance, you will not be able to move into the next project phase.

Question 46

As the product owner of an agile social media app project, you noticed that a competitor has just released an exciting new feature for their app. You realize that this feature will be well-received. What action should you take?

A. Add this feature to the product backlog and reprioritize the product backlog.
B. Add this feature to the current sprint backlog and reprioritize the sprint backlog.
C. Create a change request for this feature
D. Update the work breakdown structure to include the new feature.

Answer 46

A. Add this feature to the product backlog and reprioritize the product backlog.

Agile projects, such as Scrum, do not utilize a formal change control procedure since doing so would slow the team down. The product owner instead is authorized to approve changes. They would not add this feature to the sprint backlog, however, since the team is already committed to the scope for the current sprint. Therefore, adding the feature to the product backlog and reprioritizing the backlog is the best answer.

Question 47

A project manager is trying to plan for a contingency reserve as part of the cost estimates for the project. Which of these would be an incorrect way to plan for contingency reserves?

A. Plan for contingency reserve as a percentage of the estimated cost.
B. Use quantitative analysis methods to arrive at the contingency reserve.
C. Start with a zero value for contingency reserve.
D. Plan for contingency reserve as a fixed number.

Answer 47

C. Start with a zero value for contingency reserve.

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), the contingency reserve may be a percentage of the estimation, a fixed number, or may be developed by using quantitative analysis methods such as a Monte Carlo simulation. Therefore, it would be incorrect to start with a zero value for contingency reserves.

Question 48

As a project manager you are reviewing a report of the actual cost of the completed work packages. You realize that a few work packages are completed with an actual cost which is substantially lower than their budgeted cost. You will immediately do all of the following actions except?

A. Try to find ways to increase the actual costs
B. Make sure that proper resources are utilized
C. Make sure that the scope is properly done
D. Make sure about the quality of the work

Answer 48

A. Try to find ways to increase the actual costs

All of the incorrect answer choices refer to possible root causes of a variance in the costs. If any of these proves to be the root cause, then the corrective action might result in increasing the actual costs. However, trying to find ways to increase the actual costs is not the first thing to do.

Question 49

You are a project manager and your company has just completed an unexpected round of layoffs. Morale is low, and human resources are tighter than ever. Your project is now behind schedule because of the loss of resources. Overtime work will be required of everyone for the next several weeks in order to close the gap. One of the critical resources on your project has an upcoming vacation that was approved and scheduled months ago. However, without this resource you will be unable to get back on schedule. What do you do?

A. Notify the project stakeholders of the situation immediately
B. Find another resource
C. Compress the schedule further
D. Cancel all vacations

Answer 49

A. Notify the project stakeholders of the situation immediately

An unexpected loss of project resources due to company downsizing that results in a schedule slip must be communicated to project stakeholders immediately. It would be unfair to penalize the resource by cancelling his vacation simply because it is the easiest way to get back on schedule. Finding other resources by the project manager also doesn’t seem to be possible in this situation.

Question 50

As the project manager you are negotiating a contract with a seller. You want to go in for a fixed price type of contract. Which other terminology could be used to refer to the fixed price type of contract?

A. Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee contract
B. Time and material contract
C. Lump sum contract
D. Cost-Plus-Fee contract

Answer 50

C. Lump sum contract

A fixed price contract is synonymous with a lump sum contract. This type of contract involves a fixed total price, or a lump sum, for a well-defined product.