Process for PMP

Sample Practice Questions

1. Question 1

   An organization is struggling to start an important project. The project manager has identified that the scope definition is the main item preventing the project from starting. Although most of the scope items are defined and agreed upon among the stakeholders, there are a few items that are hard to grasp and very complex to define at this stage. What should the project manager do?
   1. A. Propose that the well-defined scope items be delivered using a predictive approach and use an agile approach to deal with the complex items.
   2. B. Maintain stakeholder momentum in working on the scope definition until a full detailed scope is achieved prior to starting the project.
   3. C. Recommend splitting the project into two smaller projects in order to work exclusively in an agile environment without interference from a predictive approach.
   4. D. Update the risk register and escalate the issue to the project management office (PMO), requesting more resources be added to help define the project scope.
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: A. Propose that the well-defined scope items be delivered using a predictive approach and use an agile approach to deal with the complex items..

   Development approach is selected per the nature of the work, not per organizational habit, and a project that contains both stable and highly uncertain scope is the textbook case for a hybrid approach. Predictive delivery suits the well-defined, agreed items because their requirements will not change materially; adaptive delivery suits the complex items because iterating and getting feedback is the only reliable way to discover requirements that cannot be specified up front. Choosing hybrid unblocks the project immediately instead of holding the whole effort hostage to the hardest ten percent of the scope. This is the tailoring decision that belongs in the project management plan's development approach and life cycle description. Waiting for a complete detailed scope on genuinely complex items is analysis paralysis; some requirements can only be discovered by building something. Splitting into two projects adds governance overhead and integration risk to solve a problem that tailoring within one project already solves. Escalating and throwing resources at a definition problem that more people cannot fix does not help, and the risk register is not a substitute for choosing the right delivery approach.

2. Question 2

   A subject matter expert (SME) external to the project team provides a suggestion that will save the project delivery time. This SME has available time to support the project, but was not planned to be involved in the current agile iteration. What should the project manager do?
   1. A. Bring the SME on board immediately and discuss the implications later.
   2. B. Ask the existing team members to collaborate with the SME and complete the activity.
   3. C. Ask the SME to complete all of the necessary changes, which will save time.
   4. D. Direct the team member to ignore the SME's changes as they were not planned.
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: B. Ask the existing team members to collaborate with the SME and complete the activity..

   Agile teams own their work and their commitments, so an outside expert supplements the team rather than replacing part of it. Having the SME collaborate with the existing members captures the time saving while keeping the knowledge inside the team, which protects the team's ability to maintain the result after the SME leaves. It also respects the self-organizing team's right to decide how the work gets done within the iteration. The project manager acts as a facilitator connecting a useful resource to the team, not as a dispatcher assigning work over the team's head. Acting first and dealing with the implications later bypasses the team and ignores the effect on the iteration commitment. Handing the whole activity to an external expert removes the team from its own work and loses the knowledge transfer entirely. Ignoring a valid improvement because it was not in the plan is exactly the rigidity an adaptive approach exists to avoid.

3. Question 3

   During the sprint planning of a project, the team members have a disagreement about the comparative size of the backlog items and if they would fit into the next sprint. Considering a hybrid approach, what should the project manager do?
   1. A. Ask an external technical leader to provide input and plan the sprint.
   2. B. Remove the items from the product backlog since the size couldn't be estimated.
   3. C. Facilitate the discussion so that the team members can reach a consensus.
   4. D. Make the decision about the backlog items based on what makes more sense.
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: C. Facilitate the discussion so that the team members can reach a consensus..

   Relative sizing belongs to the people who will do the work, and disagreement during estimation is a feature rather than a defect because it exposes different assumptions about the item. The project manager acting as team facilitator runs the conversation, for example through planning poker or a wideband Delphi style round, until the team converges on a shared estimate. Consensus reached this way produces a commitment the team actually owns, which is what makes the sprint forecast meaningful. Deciding for the team would produce a number nobody believes and would undermine self-organization. An external technical leader planning the sprint strips the team of its estimating and commitment responsibility and imports assumptions from someone who is not doing the work. Items are never deleted from the backlog because they were hard to estimate; if they are too uncertain, the answer is a spike or further decomposition. The project manager overriding the team with a personal judgement is command-and-control and destroys the team's ownership of the estimate.

4. Question 4

   The change control board (CCB) has approved a change request to add a new component within a product. The operations manager discovers the change after its approval and complains that the implementation of the change will cause significant disruption to the production line. What should the project manager do first?
   1. A. Formally acknowledge the operation manager's concerns and raise a new risk that the project may deliver late and over budget due to manufacturing difficulties.
   2. B. Escalate the issue to the project sponsor, as the decision to add the component brings many benefits even though it will be disruptive to the production line.
   3. C. Lead a root cause analysis workshop with the design team to identify the failures that led to the decision to add a component that was not compatible with the production line.
   4. D. Meet with the operations manager to explain the background for the change and understand the operation manager's concerns about the change.
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: D. Meet with the operations manager to explain the background for the change and understand the operation manager's concerns about the change..

   An affected stakeholder was missed in the change impact assessment, and the immediate remedy is direct engagement with that stakeholder. Meeting the operations manager does two things at once: it explains why the change was approved, which addresses the feeling of being bypassed, and it gathers the operational impact detail the change control board never had. Only with that information can the project manager judge whether the change needs to be revisited, whether an implementation approach can avoid the disruption, or whether a genuine issue must be logged. This reflects the principle of engaging the person directly before escalating and of understanding the concern before responding to it. Logging a risk before understanding the operational impact is premature, and a disruption that is already known to be coming is closer to an issue than a risk. Escalating to the sponsor is a last resort and here it skips the conversation that would define what the sponsor even needs to decide. A root cause workshop looks backwards to assign blame for the process gap; the pressing need is the operational impact of a change that is already approved.

5. Question 5

   A senior project manager has included a junior project manager as part of the project team. During a coaching session, the junior project manager asks the senior project manager how to be efficient and reduce rework. How should the senior project manager respond?
   1. A. Use a work breakdown structure (WBS) to create a project schedule based on the project and resource requirements.
   2. B. Monitor resource allocation to ensure that team members work 8 hours per day.
   3. C. Assign project tasks to the team regardless of their skills to accomplish the project schedule.
   4. D. Schedule daily meetings with key stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of the project management plan.
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: A. Use a work breakdown structure (WBS) to create a project schedule based on the project and resource requirements..

   Rework usually traces back to work that was never clearly defined, so decomposing the scope into a WBS with discrete work packages is the structural defence against it. The WBS establishes the one hundred percent rule, meaning all the work and only the work is included, which removes both gold plating and missed deliverables. Building the schedule from those work packages, with resource requirements attached, then produces realistic activity durations rather than optimistic guesses that force redoing work later. Clear definition up front is far cheaper than correction downstream, which is the classic cost-of-quality argument. Policing hours measures presence, not output, and does nothing about the unclear scope that causes rework. Assigning tasks without regard to skill is a direct cause of defects and rework, not a cure for it. Daily meetings with key stakeholders about plan effectiveness is a heavy communication load that does not address how work is defined.

Other PMP domains

• Business Environment (58 questions)
• People (212 questions)