Role of the Project Manager Quiz Flashcards
- You have just replaced a project manager midway through a project. While reviewing the project library, you discover that a payment of USD $1.5 million dollars was made without proper authorization. Company policy requires that all payments over USD $1 million be approved by the appropriate functional manager. Upon closer examination, you discover that the functional manager required for this approval was on vacation. The project CPI is at 1.17 and if work continues at the current pace, eight major deliverables will be submitted two weeks ahead of schedule. This may result in the opportunity to further crash the project and complete the project considerably below its anticipated cost. What should you do?
Notify the appropriate management immediately
Explanation: Notify the appropriate management about the improper payment authorization. Once notified, management can determine what the next steps should be. Project managers are required by PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to follow all rules, policies, and processes, and to report the errors of others to the appropriate management. Failure to report this to management before making plans to handle the situation is against the PMI code. [PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct]
- You are managing an ERP system design and development project for your organization. The team spent months collecting business and system requirements before the scope was agreed and signed off. The development effort took over a year in isolation and no significant issues were witnessed during the unit, integration and performance testing stages. However, during user acceptance testing you found out that some of the organizational processes have now changed and the system is now incompatible with the current business requirements. Fixing these issues will require an additional eight months for development and testing. Who is at fault here?
The project manger
Explanation: The scenario makes it clear that the product was developed using a pure waterfall lifecycle where the requirements were defined upfront and the development was later done in isolation. On waterfall-based projects, the project manager is ultimately accountable for the project’s success and failure (On Agile-based projects, the whole team shares the accountability). [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, page 51]
- You have recently become the project manager for a construction project. You are a new hire in your company and are unaware of the organizational project management standards. Which of the following can help you get a head start on your project?
Communicate with other project managers in your organization
Explanation: Reviewing the PMBOK® Guide or developing the charter will not help you come on board with your organization’s work standards. Further, reviewing the lessons learned from you past similar projects won’t help since you are a new hire in the company and your past projects are not with this organization. The best way is to talk to other project managers in the company and get their expert opinion. [PMBOK® 6th edition, Page 58]
- You are new to project management, but you have been managing a small project successfully. Now, management has given you another project to manage, something you are excited about. However, the new project is growing exponentially every day. You have also learned that a project manager you work with managed a similar project last year. What should you do?
Obtain historical records and get guidance from the project manager
Explanation: The historical records will give you an understanding of the prior project; however, you should also obtain guidance from the project manager. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 58]
- You are managing the upgrade of your firm’s billing system. Midway through the project you have realized that the business requirements have changed and a new solution to the problem, originally thought to be solved by the outcome of your project, will be required. You have already consumed a lot of resources on this project. What should you do?
Notify the sponsor and discuss your concern.
Explanation: Although you haven’t been officially notified of the change of business requirements, you don’t have to wait for it if you have any concerns or doubts regarding the alignment of the project objectives to the business objectives. Abruptly killing the project is not a project manager’s call. You should consult your project sponsor and discuss your concern as they are accountable for aligning the project goals with the business goals. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, page 60]
- You are leading a project team in a matrix organization. You have found out the project team members are frequently distracted by their functional managers for petty tasks and the team responds by prioritizing that work on top of the project work. In this case, the functional managers are using which of the following powers to get their work done?
Reward-oriented
Explanation: Probably you are working in a weak-matrix organization. In such organizations, the functional managers enjoy the reward-oriented powers (e.g., ability to give praise, monetary, other desired items). The rest of the choices do not seem relevant. [PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition, Page 63]
- You are the manager of a project your company is running in another country. The product this project will produce needs extensive testing and approval from local authorities before it can be sold in that country. To help accomplish this, the documentation to be prepared for the local authorities must be in their native language. This task has required hiring several local consultants to develop the documentation. The local consultants have worked with other companies on similar projects. They have a relaxed approach to working, and you are concerned this may affect your project schedule. What is the best way to handle this situation?
Develop a communications plan to ensure that all team members understand the project schedule and dependencies
Explanation: Working with project teams with resources who speak different languages, work in different shifts and come from diverse cultures requires a solid communications plan to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, and behaviors that may be considered culturally disrespectful. The PMI Code of Ethics requires project managers to foster an atmosphere of respect and mutual cooperation. [PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct]
- You have recently started working as a project manager for a public school construction project. Your analysis shows that the cost estimate for the project seems to be unreasonable, and it could take at least 25 percent more funding to complete the project. What should you do if your sponsor wants to undertake the project with another project manager in case you refuse to accept it?
Submit detailed facts to the supervisor supporting your argument
Explanation: Project managers have the responsibility to present truthful and accurate information regarding costs, schedules, and resources. Submit the facts that substantiate your argument. If your argument is valid, then the sponsor might agree with you. Talking to customers is not appropriate. Continuing the project might cause it to fail. It is inappropriate to resign from the project without presenting the facts. [PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility]
- You are the design lead on a construction project. You have recently identified some constraints that might force you to change some of the designs having a direct impact on the project budget. If you want to take this up to the project sponsor, which of the following will be the best approach?
Escalate this to the project manager and have them arrange the meeting with the sponsor.
Explanation:
The project manager is responsible for the communications between the project sponsor, team members and other stakeholders. If the design lead needs to escalate something to the project sponsor, it should be through the project manager. [PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition, Page 53]
- A skilled project manager should have the necessary expertise to identify appropriate project management approaches (traditional vs. Agile) and tailor the tools, techniques, and methods for each project. What are these skills called?
Technical project management skills
Explanation:
This is an example of technical project management skills. [PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition, Page 58]
- You are currently developing project management guidelines for a recently established PMO. You are required to recommend good project management practices that can be applied to all organizational projects regardless of a project’s size and complexity. As a guiding principle, a project can be authorized by any of the following except:
The project manager
Explanation: Projects are authorized by someone external to the project such as a project sponsor, project management office (PMO), or portfolio steering committee. A project manager does not authorize the project. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 77]
- You are managing a storage capacity upgrade project at your organization’s data center. The project charter has been authorized and the project has been officially kick-started. You are currently planning the project starting with the scope definition. During this phase of the project, who should control the project?
Project Manager
Explanation: Once the project manager is assigned to the project, he should be in control. However, it is the sponsor who ultimately has the responsibility of ensuring that the project is completed successfully. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 51]
- Debby has been working as a project manager for a company that designs precision instruments for research labs. Her company is in the process of bidding on a project of the Food and Drug Administration. According to the FDA requirements, all bidders must have successfully completed three projects of similar size and scope. Although Debby’s company has experience in designing research instruments, it lacks the required experience to perform this project. What should Debby do in this situation?
Since the company lacks the required experience, the company is not qualified to bid
Explanation: Bidding on a project without meeting the qualification requirements is against the PMI code of conduct. Project managers must not bid on any work that their organization is not qualified to perform. A project manager must not do this knowingly. Hence, Debby must not bid on this project. [PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct]
- You have recently joined an organization as project manager. You have noticed that the project team is self-organizing and does not require much supervision from you. As a result, you are allowing the team to make their own decisions and establish their own goals. Which of the following represents your leadership style?
Laissez-faire
Explanation: This is laissez-faire leadership style also known as a hands-off style. [PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition, Page 65]
- Marvin has worked for a retail company as a project manager. With his positive thinking and strong managerial skills, he turned many potentially disastrous projects into successes. Because of his expertise, his employer’s senior executives offered him a group project manager position for a newly started environmental project. However, Marvin learned that, in his newly assigned project, he might have to offer bribes to obtain government licenses. What should Marvin do in such a situation?
Reject the offer because project managers should not engage in an unethical conduct
Explanation: Project managers must adhere to the code of ethics and professional conduct. They must maintain fairness and honesty. Since the new job requires some illegal and unethical activities, Marvin must reject the offer. [PMI code of Ethics and Professional Conduct]
