PMPPracticeExam4

Question 1

As the project manager at the buyer organization, you extend a formal invitation that contains a scope of work that seeks a response that will describe the methodology and results that will be provided to your organization. This is called:

A. Request for proposal
B. Request for bid
C. Request for information
D. Invitation to bid

Answer 1

A. Request for proposal

Since you are sending out a scope of work along with the invitation, and you are giving the potential sellers the methodology of the project execution and the results, they should provide you with a proposal. Hence, this is called a Request for Proposal.

Question 2

As the manager of a small construction project, you are nearing project closing when a previously unidentified risk is identified by one of the team members. The risk could affect the project success and on time completion. What should your next action be?

A. Develop risk mitigation plans
B. Develop a workaround
C. Inform your managers about the newly discovered risk and its impacts
D. Qualify the risk

Answer 2

D. Qualify the risk

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), the next step after identifying a risk is always to perform qualitative risk analysis.

Question 3

As the project manager currently involved in the Scope Management Plan processes, you have obtained a large number of ideas during sessions to gather product and project requirements. Which of the following techniques is best suited to have these ideas sorted into groups for review and analysis?

A. Affinity diagrams
B. Brainstorming
C. Facilitated workshops
D. Mind mapping

Answer 3

A. Affinity diagrams

The affinity diagram allows large numbers of ideas to be sorted into groups for further review and analysis. It is one of the group creativity techniques used in gathering of requirements.

Question 4

A project manager must have some work done by an outside contractor. This work has a great deal of risk associated with it, and it has become very difficult to find a contractor willing to take on the job. Which of the following types of contracts would offer the greatest incentive to the contractor?

A. Cost plus fixed fee
B. Cost plus incentive fee
C. Firm fixed price
D. Cost plus percentage of cost as an award fee

Answer 4

D. Cost plus percentage of cost as an award fee

In the cost plus percentage of cost as an award fee type of contract, the contractor has the highest possible incentive.

Question 5

You are managing a design project and you should gradually submit to your customer the project deliverables including drawings and documents as they get completed. One of your designers approaches you and gives you a completed document to be submitted to the customer. When skimming through the document you realize that the document is shorter than what you expect according to your past experience. What should be your first action in this situation?

A. Call the team member for a meeting
B. Perform scope verification against the baseline
C. Perform quality control
D. Call the functional manager of your team member to make sure that the document is correct

Answer 5

B. Perform scope verification against the baseline

The purpose of scope verification is to compare the deliverable to the requirements or scope statement, WBS or WBS dictionary. The project manager might have misunderstood and it would be best to check before talking to the team member.

Question 6

Getting human resources assigned when there is no one co-located with the necessary skill sets is known as which one of the following options?

A. Negotiation
B. Procurement management
C. Virtual teams
D. Pre-assignment

Answer 6

C. Virtual teams

Virtual teams is the ability to leverage resources possessing the skills needed but who are not co-located with the project team.

Question 7

You are working in an organization which handles several projects every year. Who should be in charge of determining the project priorities in such an organization?

A. The project team
B. The project manager
C. The project management team
D. The project management office

Answer 7

D. The project management office

Since this is about the priorities of the projects compared to each other, the decision should be made by an entity that has oversight to all of the projects. Project manager, project team, and the project management team are all the entities which have authorities only within the boundaries of a specific project.

Question 8

You are managing a highway construction project. Which of the following quality tools could you implement to ensure that your project team members are completing all of the required steps during an installation procedure?

A. WBS
B. Requirements documentation
C. Checklists
D. Design of experiments

Answer 8

C. Checklists

Checklists are a simple but effective quality management tool that the project manager can use to ensure the project team is completing all of the required work.

Question 9

You are in the process of project cost estimation. Which one of the following is not required to estimate the project?

A. Risks
B. Network diagram
C. WBS
D. Change control system

Answer 9

D. Change control system

A change control system is not required to obtain estimates, but without the other three choices, you cannot develop the estimates. You need the WBS to define the activities, the network diagram to see the dependencies, and the risks to determine contingencies. (These are high-level risks, not the detailed risks we identify later in the planning process group.)

Question 10

As a project manager you see that the updated project schedule shows 2 weeks delay compared to the baseline schedule. You decide to take actions to bring the project forecasted completion date back to the original planned one in the baseline. This action could be best described as?

A. Preventive action
B. Lessons learned
C. Corrective action
D. Delay analysis

Answer 10

C. Corrective action

When you find a variance between a projects actual and planned performance the best course of action is to take corrective actions. Preventive actions are taken to avoid such variances in future.

Question 11

Which of the following is not true of emotional intelligence and its benefits on projects?

A. Emotional intelligence is useful for resolving conflict.
B. Emotional intelligence is useful for directing others on how to do their jobs.
C. Emotional intelligence is useful for anticipating your team member’s actions.
D. Emotional intelligence is useful for reducing staff turnover.

Answer 11

B. Emotional intelligence is useful for directing others on how to do their jobs.

Emotional intelligence benefits conflict resolution, anticipating the actions of others, and reducing staff turnover. Directing others on how to do their jobs is a leadership style but is not a benefit of emotional intelligence.

Question 12

As a project manager you are hired by a projectized organization. You have been working on a 1-year project for nine months since you became the employee of the company. 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 further investigation, 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 son of the company CEO. What is the BEST course of action in this situation?

A. Ask upper management to formally prioritize the projects
B. Determine when resources will become available
C. Negotiate a new schedule with the other project manager
D. Use the reserve to hire contractors to complete the work

Answer 12

C. Negotiate a new schedule with the other project manager

According to the PMBOK® Guide, you should always first try to resolve conflicts internally, and you should use negotiating skills to try to come to a mutually beneficial agreement. So the best course of action is the negotiate a new schedule with the other project manager. The other options might be used as well, but only after attempting negotiation. Trying these other options first would indicate a passive management style.

Question 13

Which of the following statements is true for improving the quality of the project’s processes?

A. Preventive actions prevent defects from reaching the customer.
B. Inspection ensures avoidance of rework.
C. Preventive actions reduce the likelihood that errors will occur in the process.
D. Inspection reduces random variation in the output of the process.

Answer 13

C. Preventive actions reduce the likelihood that errors will occur in the process.

Prevention improves quality by eliminating defects from the process rather than relying on inspection after. Therefore, prevention can reduce the likelihood that errors will occur in the process. The other items refer to inspection.

Question 14

You are managing a project and you know that the first phase of the project is completed. What will you make sure that is done before starting the second phase of the project?

A. Make sure that the resources of the next phase are available
B. Recommend corrective actions to close the gap between the planned and actual progress of the project
C. Confirm that the first phase has reached its objectives and its deliverables are formally accepted
D. Check the project status against the plan

Answer 14

C. Confirm that the first phase has reached its objectives and its deliverables are formally accepted

A phase or project must be formally closed and accepted. Of course the other choices are also required to be done, but only after the closure of the first phase.

Question 15

You are weighing the different alternatives which you have in order to make a career shift. One of your alternatives is a company with a projectized organizational form. In your assessments, which one of the following would be considered as a drawback of such an organizational form?

A. The project team members have to report to many bosses
B. The functional manager has more power than the project manager
C. The team members have low loyalty to the project
D. Often the project management team has no home

Answer 15

D. Often the project management team has no home

The main drawback of the projectized organization is that at the end of the project, the team is dispersed but they do not have a functional department (‘home’) to which to return.

Question 16

During the execution of the project, as the project manager you realize that a new quality standard has been adopted by your company. Your project team will meet with the company quality department to determine how the new standard will apply to your project. This is part of which quality process?

A. Plan Quality Management
B. Manage Quality
C. Control Quality
D. Quality Update

Answer 16

A. Plan Quality Management

Even though it is occurring during the execution of the project, determining what standards to use is part of quality planning. Sometimes during the project execution or other phases we need to refer back to planning because planning is an iterative process. In planning, we determine what quality standards are applicable to the project and how to implement and control them. ‘Quality Update’ is a made up term and does not represent any of the quality management processes.

Question 17

You are in the process of conducting procurement management, and you are about to award a contract to a subcontractor for a portion of the project scope. The mentioned portion, which is described at a high level, will cost $4 million with a standard deviation of $500,000. What type of contract do you recommend in this situation?

A. Fixed Cost
B. Fixed price plus incentive fee
C. Cost-plus fixed fee
D. Cost-plus percentage of costs

Answer 17

C. Cost-plus fixed fee

The cost of this project will vary, at one standard deviation, from $3.5M to $4.5M. Since this is not insignificant, there would appear to be some ambiguity with the project definition. As there is uncertainty in the scope since it is not described in detail, we would not pick either of the fixed price options (fixed cost or fixed price plus incentive fee).

Of the two cost-plus options, you need to select the better of the two. Cost-plus percentage of costs is probably the worst type of contract to use, as there is no incentive for the seller to control costs. The only choice left is a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract.

Question 18

You just finished acquiring the members of your project team for your new project. You now need to ensure that each person is associated with a project activity and their roles and responsibilities are documented. What is the term for what this project artifact is called?

___________________________________

Answer 18

Project Team Assignments

According to page 334 of the PMBOK Guide, project team assignments are a recording of the team members and their roles and responsibilities for the project. This may be documented in a project team directory, project organization chart, and/or a schedule.

Question 19

You are leading a change-driven project, and the first iteration of the project is completed. Which TWO activities need to be complete before beginning the next iteration?

A. Planning has occurred for the next iteration.
B. The actual percent completed is compared against the baseline to understand progress performance.
C. All of the items in the iteration backlog are complete.
D. Confirm that the first iteration has reached its objectives and its deliverables are formally accepted.

Answer 19

A. Planning has occurred for the next iteration.
D. Confirm that the first iteration has reached its objectives and its deliverables are formally accepted.

In change-driven projects, the definition of “done” is agreed to in advance and the team and stakeholders meet to ensure that these objectives have been met and are acceptable. Planning on the next iteration and what to include occurs next. In change-driven projects, baselines are not established since detailed planning only occurs for the current iteration. Percent complete is not a meaningful metric in change-driven projects. In Agile, backlog items that are not complete at the end of the iteration are moved to a future iteration.

Question 20

As the manager of a construction project, you are reviewing an earned value analysis report which includes only the variance information. Schedule variance is $320,000 and cost variance is $100,000. Your guess is that the planned value of the project at this point should be $2,000,000.
It is after normal office hours, and you don’t have access to the analyst who prepared the report, though you see that the report shows an SPI of 1.16 and a CPI of 1.05. What does this information tell you about the project?

A. Your project is ahead of schedule and under budget.
B. Your project is behind schedule and under budget.
C. Your project is ahead of schedule and over budget.
D. Your project is behind schedule and over budget.

Answer 20

A. Your project is ahead of schedule and under budget.

An SPI > 1.0 means the project is ahead of schedule. An SPI = 1.0 means it is on schedule, and an SPI < 1.0 means it is behind schedule. Since the SPI is > 1 here, then it is ahead of schedule. Similarly, here for CPI, which is 1.05 and > 1.0. This means it is under budget. This can be verified by noting that there is a positive schedule and cost variance, which also indicates being ahead of schedule and under budget.

Question 21

Which one of the following options best describes the role of a sponsor in a project?

A. Contributing in the development of the project communication plan and stakeholders’ expectations management
B. Helping the development of the project management plan
C. Helping to avoid unnecessary changes to the project objectives
D. Supporting project planning activities

Answer 21

C. Helping to avoid unnecessary changes to the project objectives

The project objectives are stated in the project charter and it is the sponsor who issues the project charter. Therefore, helping to avoid unnecessary changes to the project objectives is the correct answer. Supporting project planning activities and contributing in the development of the project communication plan could be correct, but they don’t necessarily represent the best role that the sponsor can play. The project management plan should be developed by the project manager and approved by sponsor.

Question 22

You are a project manager, and you have sub-contracted some of the project work to another company. Through an independent review, you uncover that the process the subcontractor uses to report its progress is highly inefficient. Through which process and activity have you found this?

A. You are in the Control Quality process and have performed process analysis.
B. You are in the Control Quality process and have performed a quality audit.
C. You are in the Control Procurements process and have performed a procurement audit.
D. You are in the Validate Scope process and have performed a quality audit.

Answer 22

C. You are in the Control Procurements process and have performed a procurement audit.

Procurement audits review the procurement processes per the contract. Audit observations should be brought to the attention of both the buyer and seller’s project manager. Process analysis and audits are not part of Control Quality nor Validate Scope.

Question 23

During the Plan Procurement process you are performing the make-or-buy analysis. Apart from the costs, which one of the following options will convince you to do the work yourself instead of hiring another company to do it for you?

A. There is a lot of proprietary data
B. You do not need control over the work
C. You have the required expertise, but not the required resources
D. You have very limited resources in your company

Answer 23

A. There is a lot of proprietary data

It is generally better to do the work yourself if using an outside company means you have to turn over proprietary data to the other company.

Question 24

As the project manager you have just made a change to the project. What should be your next course of action?

A. Update the project management plan and project documents
B. Inform the stakeholders about the impacts of the change
C. Submit a change request to the change control board
D. Evaluate the impacts of the change

Answer 24

A. Update the project management plan and project documents

After the change is implemented the project management plan and project documents need to be revised, in order to reflect the change in the project. Since the change has already been made, all of the other options should have already been done.

Question 25

According to the the PMBOK® Guide, which of the following is not a part of the Executing process group?

A. Acquire resources
B. Develop team
C. Manage communications
D. Cost budgeting

Answer 25

D. Cost budgeting

Cost budgeting is not a part of the Executing process group. Cost budgeting is done during the Planning process group.

Question 26

A project manager has increased the project costs by $200,000, but he has completed the project 4 weeks earlier that it was planned. What activity is best described in this situation?

A. Critical path method
B. Resource leveling
C. Budgeting
D. Schedule compression

Answer 26

D. Schedule compression

Schedule compression means shortening the duration of the project through assigning more budget or resources.

Question 27

As a project manager, you have just been assigned to a new project, and you have received the approved project charter from the sponsor. What is the first thing that you will do now?

A. Start the planning phase by developing the project scope statement
B. Start developing the project management plan
C. Analyze the project risks and issues
D. Make sure that the project benefits are identified and agreed upon by the key stakeholders

Answer 27

D. Make sure that the project benefits are identified and agreed upon by the key stakeholders

Of course, the first thing after the project initiation phase finishes is to start planning and to create the project scope statement and project management plan. But since you are just handed the project charter, and there is no mention of an emergency situation in the question or the fact that you have had input to the project charter, the wisest thing to do is to make sure that key stakeholders understand what the project benefits are, and that these are well documented within the charter or benefits management plan.

Question 28

You are the project manager on a large IT project and have noticed the project team can’t easily find the right information to make good decisions, and there is a lot of confusion about which versions of documents are the most up-to-date. You are also having a tough time integrating the various processes. As a result you suggest improvements be made to which of the following?

A. Work Breakdown structure (WBS)
B. Configuration management systems
C. Reporting systems
D. Project Management Information Systems (PMIS)

Answer 28

D. Project Management Information Systems (PMIS)

The Project Management Information System (PMIS) is the collective system that consists of tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and disseminate the outputs of the project management processes. The key to this questions is that it is talking about various systems such as reporting, configuration management (version control), and integrating the processes. Configuration management systems and reporting systems are partially correct (both of those systems are included in the PMIS), but PMIS is more correct.

Question 29

You are managing a design project and one of the project deliverables had a major defect. You have involved the project management team and project engineering team in investigating the situation. The project management team believes that the reason for the defect is lack of proper software used to create the deliverable, and the engineering team believes that lack of correct input information has created the defect. You decide to use a fishbone diagram to address the root of the problem. In which part of the quality management process group are you involved?

A. Manage quality
B. Analyze quality
C. Plan quality
D. Control quality

Answer 29

D. Control quality

The situation described in the question is about quality control. While the project team is in fact analyzing the situation, ‘analyze quality’ is a made up term and is not the title of a project management process.

Question 30

You are a project manager and your team is executing the work packages to create a software package. Two of the project’s stakeholders have just asked for changes that each says should be the number one priority. What would be the BEST thing to do?

A. Assign someone from the team to prioritize the changes
B. Prioritize the changes without involving the team
C. Have the project team meet with the stakeholders to decide which change is most easily made, and prioritize that one first
D. Deny both changes since you are in project execution

Answer 30

B. Prioritize the changes without involving the team

Prioritizing the changes is the job of the project manager. The project team should not meet with the stakeholders because you do not want to distract the team at this point—they should be doing the work. Someone from the team should not prioritize the changes because it is the project manager’s responsibility. And changes cannot automatically be ignored simply because you are in execution.

Question 31

As the project manager you are in the project schedule management knowledge area. Which one of the following processes includes asking the team members about the time estimates for their activities and reaching agreement for the calendar date of each activity?

A. Develop schedule
B. Sequence activities
C. Define scope
D. Estimate activity durations

Answer 31

A. Develop schedule

The last thing that happens in all of the mentioned things in this question is reaching agreements on the calendar dates of activities, and this is an output of the develop project schedule process. The rest of the choices should also be done before developing the schedule, but since developing schedule is performed after all other activities, this process helps define the calendar date for activities.

Question 32

You are assigned as the manager of a highly important project in your organization. You have only been given 10 resources and there are no more resources available in the company. The project should be completed in a period which is half the time that will take you to complete the project with the available resources. Due to the project’s high priority, management does not accept any change in the project required completion date. What will you do in this situation?

A. Relax some quality requirements to accelerate the project work
B. Provide the available resources with some training to increase their performance
C. Ask your available resources to work overtime
D. Look for any part of the scope that can be cut

Answer 32

D. Look for any part of the scope that can be cut

Overtime is never the first resort to solve such problems because the project manager loses credibility and performance by using overtime. This would likely create a cost impact on the project, or impact other projects or other work. Providing training is a good idea, but there’s no indication in the question that the resources lack skills which will help them work with better performance. Relaxing quality requirements is not viable, as it’s not ethical and professional to deliberately deliver low quality work. In this situation the only remaining viable option would be to look for any part of the scope that can be cut.

Question 33

As the project manager you are working with your team to perform the Control Scope process. The variance analysis has resulted in a change request to the scope baseline. This change request will be processed for review and disposition in which project management process?

A. Control Quality
B. Perform Integrated Change Control
C. Monitor and Control Project Work
D. Validate Scope

Answer 33

B. Perform Integrated Change Control

Analysis of scope performance is done as part of the Control Scope process. Determining the cause and degree of variance relative to the scope baseline is an important aspect of this activity (called Variance Analysis). However, change requests that result from this activity, like any other change requests, are processed in the Perform Integrated Change Control process.

Question 34

Your project has just passed its finish date and the customer has accepted the completed project scope. However, the lessons learned which are required according to your company’s project management procedures are still under preparation. What is the status of the project in your opinion?

A. The project is complete because the customer has accepted the deliverables
B. The project is complete because the finish date has already passed
C. The project is incomplete until all project and product deliverables are complete and accepted
D. The project is incomplete because the customer might have new requirements

Answer 34

C. The project is incomplete until all project and product deliverables are complete and accepted

A project is complete when all work, including all project management work, is complete and the product of the project, not just deliverables, accepted.

Question 35

When should quality audits be conducted?

A. At the closure of the project
B. At regular intervals throughout the project life cycle
C. Only in the executing phase
D. At the end of each project phase

Answer 35

B. At regular intervals throughout the project life cycle

Quality audits should be performed throughout the project life cycle.

Question 36

As a member of the company board you are involved in choosing the projects to be carried out among the available alternative projects. The cost of choosing one project and giving up another one is called?

A. Opportunity cost
B. Sunk cost
C. Overhead cost
D. Fixed cost

Answer 36

A. Opportunity cost

The definition of opportunity cost includes the cost of choosing one project and giving up another, and thus it is the best answer.

Question 37

Who is responsible for organizing training of the new staff on a project?

A. Human resources department
B. Training department
C. Functional managers
D. Project manager

Answer 37

D. Project manager

The project manager is responsible for arranging any project-specific training required to address the project needs.

Question 38

All of the following options can be derived from the Estimate Costs process except which one?

A. Assumptions made during the estimate costs process
B. Preventing inappropriate changes from being included in the cost baseline
C. Range of the possible project costs
D. The cost risks associated with the estimated work

Answer 38

B. Preventing inappropriate changes from being included in the cost baseline

This question is asking, ‘When you finish estimating costs, what do you have?’ Preventing inappropriate changes from being included in the cost baseline is more correctly part of the cost management plan and the change control system.

Question 39

During the requirements gathering phase of the international cloud e-commerce project, your boss asks you to find out if the product will be subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and, if so, what the implications are to the project. Why is your boss asking this question?

A. She feels that this will be a popular feature.
B. She knows that a competitor is offering it and doesn’t want to be outdone.
C. She is trying to drive up the price of the contract.
D. She is attempting to determine if this is a compliance requirement and what would occur with noncompliance.

Answer 39

D. She is attempting to determine if this is a compliance requirement and what would occur with noncompliance.

The GDPR is a European data privacy regulation that requires firms to prove compliance. Since this is an international project, your boss is right to consider that it may represent a requirement for the project and should be investigated further. Since it is a regulation, compliance does not provide a competitive advantage. Therefore, its popularity and whether your competition is in compliance is immaterial. It may or may not add cost to the project.

Question 40

As a project manager you are involved in contract negotiation for subcontracting a part of the project work. The most important thing to focus on in contract negotiations is:

A. To negotiate a deal that both parties are comfortable with.
B. To negotiate the lowest price possible for your company.
C. To make sure legal counsel or the contract administrator has approved your negotiating points.
D. To maintain the integrity of the scope.

Answer 40

A. To negotiate a deal that both parties are comfortable with.

The most important thing to focus on is to create a deal that everyone feels good about. Negotiating the lowest price possible sounds like a good choice, but the lowest possible price might not be fair to your seller, and that could lead to the failure of the project in the future. Maintaining the integrity of the scope is important, but that is not the primary focus of negotiations. Making sure that legal counsel has approved your negotiating points may or may not be necessary depending on the situation.

Question 41

Who owns the quality of the software in a change-driven, agile project?

A. The developer who wrote the software
B. The quality team
C. The Scrum Master
D. The cross-functional team

Answer 41

D. The cross-functional team

On an agile project, quality is owned by the entire cross-functional team.

Question 42

A new project has been defined in your company to improve the quality of the concrete utilized in all of the construction projects currently under execution at the company. As the project manager you are asked to prepare the project management plan. Considering the project and situation which one of the following you should prepare first?

A. A project management plan
B. A project scope statement
C. A quality management plan
D. A quality improvement plan

Answer 42

B. A project scope statement

As in any other project, the first part of the project management plan to be prepared is always the project scope statement. The fact that this is a quality improvement project in nature does not change the best practices that are used in project management!

Question 43

All of the followings should be done to close a project except which one?

A. Update the project management plan
B. Obtain customer final acceptance on the project deliverables
C. Review project documents to ensure their completeness
D. Gather the feedbacks from the project team

Answer 43

A. Update the project management plan

Project closure occurs at the end of the project (as opposed to at the end of a phase), so the project management plan would not need to be updated. However, if the question was asking about the closing of a particular project phase, then the project management plan could also be updated.

Question 44

All of the following are the purposes of the project charter except for which one?

A. It states the product acceptance criteria
B. It states the high level stakeholder requirements
C. It establishes the project
D. It authorizes the project manager

Answer 44

A. It states the product acceptance criteria

The product acceptance criteria is included in the project scope statement, but the other options are all purposes of the project charter.

Question 45

You are in an internal meeting with the project team when the person in charge of the project procurement informs you that you need to buy an item which has a single-source seller. A single-source seller means what?

A. There is only one seller the company wants to do business with
B. There is only one seller in the market
C. There is only one qualified seller
D. There is a seller that can provide all aspects of the project procurement needs

Answer 45

A. There is only one seller the company wants to do business with

A single-source seller means there is only one seller the company wants to do business with. The answer of only one qualified seller is incorrect as it describes a “sole source” seller. Also, there may be multiple sellers that can satisfy the project needs and just because there is only one seller in the market does not mean the seller can adequately fulfill the project needs.

Question 46

According to the PMBOK® Guide, many organizations treat contract administration as an administrative function separate from the project organization. What is the title of the individual responsible for managing the contract?

___________________________________

Answer 46

Contract Administrator, Procurement Administrator

Either Contract Administrator or Procurement Administrator are acceptable answers. The latter is a term that PMI now uses, though Contract Administrator has been used in the past. The project manager is responsible for the work stated within the contract, but the contract itself is the PA’s responsibility.

Question 47

Match each activity with the correct process.

Activities
- Identifying resource shortages or surpluses
- Performing a make-or-buy analysis on resources required
- Verify team’s performance improvements
- Appraise the team member against key performance indicators
- Create a team charter

Processes
- Develop Team
- Manage Team
- Plan Resource Management
- Estimate Activity Resources
- Control Resources

Answer 47

• Identifying resource shortages or surpluses (Control Resources)
• Performing a make-or-buy analysis on resources required (Estimate Activity Resources)
• Verify team’s performance improvements (Manage Team)
• Appraise the team member against key performance indicators (Develop Team)
• Create a team charter (Plan Resource Management)

Develop Team: Appraise the team member against key performance indicators

Manage Team: Verify team’s performance improvements

Plan Resource Management: Create a team charter

Estimate Activity Resources: Performing a make-or-buy analysis on resources required

Control Resources: Identifying resource shortages or surpluses

Question 48

A project manager is doing detailed estimation of the project. In this case which type of estimating is most likely being used?

A. Parametric
B. Bottom-up
C. Analogous
D. Three point

Answer 48

B. Bottom-up

Bottom-up refers to estimating based on the details of the activities.

Question 49

Your project is 25% complete when you discover that the budget at completion (BAC) is no longer viable. You try to come up with a forecasted estimate at completion (EAC). What index can you use to look at the calculated projection of cost performance that must be achieved on the remaining work?

A. Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
B. To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)
C. Earned Value (EV)
D. Cost Performance Index (CPI)

Answer 49

B. To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)

According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), the to-complete performance index (TCPI) is a measure of the cost performance that is required to be achieved with the remaining resources in order to meet a specified management goal, expressed as the ratio of the cost to finish the outstanding work to the remaining budget. TCPI is the calculated cost performance that must be achieved on the remaining work to meet a specified goal such as the BAC or EAC.

Question 50

You as the project manager observe that a team member is repeatedly completing tasks with errors, resulting in rework. On investigation of the team member’s past track record, it is established that the individual does not have a skill gap. What would be your first action in this situation?

A. Ask for a replacement from the functional manager
B. Adjust the schedule to provide for extended durations for tasks assigned to the individual
C. Report the non-performance to the functional manager
D. Discuss the concern with the individual to figure out the cause

Answer 50

D. Discuss the concern with the individual to figure out the cause

The cause of non-compliance to expected performance levels needs to be established before any other action is taken. The situation requires the project manager to investigate and establish the cause of the problem before evaluating the alternatives stated in the other three choices. Discussing with the resource is the first step that the project manager can take to understand the root cause of the poor performance.