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PMP - Classroom Testpaper With Answers PDF
PMP - Classroom Testpaper With Answers PDF
1. During Initiation, which of the following elements will be identified to determine the project
goals?
a) Key deliverables
b) Stakeholders
c) Quality
d) Vendors
Answer: (a) Key deliverables. Even though the identification of stakeholders and potential vendors
happens as part of Initiation through the identify stakeholders process this will not determine the
project goals. Key deliverables are identified to support the project goals. Quality identification
happens during planning.
2. A car manufacturing company conceptualized a new car which would be more fuel efficient,
better ergonomically designed, and satisfies the latest safety compliance. This car was recently
launched and has now moved into full-fledged production. This is an example of:
a) Operation, as the company is into car manufacturing which is an ongoing process
b) Project, as this car was conceptualized, designed, and now launched
c) Project, as it has clear scope and requirements in terms of safety compliance, fuel efficiency etc.
d) Operation, as this activity didn't create a unique product
Answer: (b) Project, as this car was conceptualized, designed, and now launched. This is a typical
scenario where project is intersecting with operation during product lifecycle, notice the word
launched. All the activities before launch of the vehicle are part of a project which is temporary
activity with a well-defined unique output. Once the car moves to production line, it becomes an
ongoing operation for the company. Refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Introduction pg. 16
4. As a part of Stakeholder Management, all of the following are acceptable management practices
to be followed by a Project Manager EXCEPT:
a) Identify all the stakeholders and capture them in project team directory
b) Ensure stakeholders' expectations are aligned and gain support for the project
c) Give preference to stakeholders over the customer in case of difference of interest
d) Communicate to the stakeholders all relevant information about the project
Answer: (c) Give preference to stakeholders over customer in case of difference of interest. In case
of differences, it should be generally resolved in favor of the customer or organization who would
use the project's product or service.
7. A Project Manager is just assigned to a project. He is involved in creating a document that would
formally authorize the project and capture initial requirements of the stakeholders. What is the
output of this process?
a) Project Management Plan
b) Project Statement of work
c) Project Charter
d) Business case
Answer: (c) Project Charter. The document is called a Project Charter, which formally authorizes the
project and provides Project Manager with the authority to apply resources to project activities.
Although the project sponsor may create the project charter, it is recommended that the Project
Manager participate in development of the project charter. Options (b) and (d) are inputs to the
process of developing project charter. Please refer PMBOK Sixth Edition Develop Project Charter pg
75.
8. Which of the following statements DOES NOT describe the essence of Integration Management
in the context of Project Management?
a) Balancing of competing objectives and the exploration of alternative actions
b) The processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate process
and project management activities within the Project Management Process Group
c) Integrating different components from the development cycle to create the final deliverable
d) Managing interdependencies among Project Management knowledge areas
Answer: (c) Integrate different components of development cycle to create the final deliverable.
Integrating different components from a development cycle to create a final deliverable is an
9. A Project Manager is going through the business case provided by the project sponsor. Which of
the following will NOT be a part of this document?
a) Business need
b) Analysis of the situation
c) Recommendation to start the project
d) Performance baseline
Answer: (d) Performance baseline. Performance Baseline is a part of the project management plan.
Refer PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Integration Management pg 31.
10. You have just been assigned as a Project Manager of a project for which a prototype was
recently delivered. The sponsor of the project calls you and gives you an overall estimate of the
project. This form of estimate is known as ____.
a) Analogous Estimate
b) Parametric Estimate
c) Heuristic Estimate
d) Three Point Estimate
Answer: (a) Analogous Estimate. Analogous Estimate (also called Top down approach) is a form of
Expert Judgment. It uses estimations from previous similar activities to estimate future durations.
The accuracy of estimates derived using this method depends on the correctness of historical
information, similarity of the historical projects (here a prototype project), and expert judgment.
11. A Project Manager who has just been assigned to a new project has been asked by his sponsor
to come up with an initial cost estimate called a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM). This would
typically fall under which range?
a) -50% to +100%
b) -25% to +75%
c) -10% to +15%
d) -100% to +50%
Answer: (b) -25% to +75%. The Rough Order of Magnitude estimate (ROM) is usually done in the
initial stages of the project when limited information is available. Budgeted estimate will be in the
range of -10% to +25% and definitive estimate will be -5% to +10%.
12. In a meeting, the Sponsor has discussed three projects with you: Project A with Net Present
Value of $55,000 and a payback period of 5 years; Project B with Net Present Value of $95,000;
and Project C with payback period of 10 years. He provides you with more information about
the projects and intends to assign you as the Project Manager for the selected project. What is
expected from you as a Project Manager, EXCEPT?
13. There are three projects A, B, and C. NPV for project A is $50,000, and for project B is $ 80,000,
and for project C is $ 40,000. In a meeting, the management unanimously has chosen projects A
and C. What is the opportunity cost of the project?
a) 80000
b) 130000
c) 90000
d) 0
Answer: (a) $80,000. Opportunity cost is the cost of giving up the opportunity by selecting a
project(s) over another, here Project B is selected.
14. A project is in the initiation stage and the Project Manager is identifying project communication
constraints. Which of the following could be a valid constraint?
a) The project could face high attrition rate
b) Management and customer expect detailed formal status reports on the project
c) Project team members would require to work from geographically different locations
d) Many stakeholders of the project would not be able to attend planned project kick off meeting
Answer: (c) Project team members would require to work from geographically different locations.
Constraints always limit project team options. Option (a) is a known risk, and (b) and (d) can be
addressed under stakeholder management by drawing consensus on the report format and
rescheduling the meeting date.
15. A Project Manager is responding to a business proposal in an overseas company. Which of the
following should he refer to as a guide to understand the business practice(s) that are allowed
and discouraged?
a) Procurement documents including contract statement of work
b) His Organization’s policies and procedures
c) Project Charter
d) PMI® code of Professional Conduct
Answer: (b) His Organization policies and procedures. Organization policies and procedures should
guide and help a Project Manager regarding decisions he makes in a foreign country. PMI's PMBOK®
Guide – Sixth Edition is a valuable reference, but it is more generic. So option (b) is better.
17. You have been assigned a large construction project and you are in the Initiation process group.
You have identified the project stakeholders using stakeholder analysis tool and defined the
high level scope of the project. During these activities you have identified a key project
limitation regarding the project location. What is the BEST option for you, in this situation?
a) Document the project limitation as a project constraint
b) Discuss the project constraint with the project sponsor and the customer
c) Document the project limitation as a project constraint and propose an implementation
approach with the sponsor and customer, if required
d) Ignore the project constraint and work towards getting approval for the project charter
Answer: (c) Document the project limitation as a project constraint and propose an implementation
approach with the sponsor and customer, if required. Once the Project Manager has identified the
stakeholders, his next activity in the Initiation process group is to identify and document project
high level risks, assumptions, constraints based on the current environment, and historical records
and propose an implementation approach for the same. Later the Project Manager will further
progressively elaborate the project charter with inputs from the stakeholders and get a formal
approval from the sponsor and the customer, if required.
18. The Project Manager is participating in development of project charter by gathering and
analyzing the stakeholders' requirements and ensuring that the project scope, milestones, and
deliverables are documented correctly. Of the following, which is NOT achieved by the sponsor's
approval of the project charter?
a) Formalize the authority assigned to the Project Manager
b) Gain commitment by the stakeholders
c) Gain acceptance for the project by the stakeholders
d) Ensure formal acceptance of the deliverables by the customer
Answer: (d) Ensure formal acceptance of the deliverables by the customer. The Project Charter is
approved by the sponsor and the customer (if required). It formalizes the authority assigned to the
Project Manager, and helps the Project Manager gain commitment and acceptance for the project.
Option (d) is correct in this scenario as formal acceptance of the project deliverables is part of the
'Validate Scope' process and performed during the Monitoring and Controlling process group.
19. Which of the following is NOT an input to the Plan Stakeholder Management Process?
a) Project Management Plan
b) Stakeholder Register
c) Stakeholder Management Plan
d) Enterprise Environmental Factors
Answer: (c) Stakeholder Management Plan. Stakeholder management plan is an OUTPUT not an
input to the process.
21. As a Project Manager of a large project with hundreds of stakeholders, which of the following is
the BEST course of action?
a) Incorporate needs of only important stakeholders
b) Incorporate needs of all stakeholders
c) Ask your manager to manage the stakeholders
d) Eliminate some of them
Answer: (b) Incorporate needs of all stakeholders. The Project Manager is required to identify all the
stakeholders and incorporate the requirements of every stakeholder.
22. As part of Stakeholder Analysis, it is important to prioritize the key stakeholders to ensure the
efficient use of effort to communicate and manage their expectations. All of the following are
the classification models available EXCEPT:
a) Power/Influence grid
b) Power/Impact grid
c) Power/Interest grid
d) Influence/Impact grid
Answer: (b) Power/Impact grid. All of the other options are models available for classification used
to prioritize the stakeholders except Power/Impact Grid. Refer PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Page
512 for more information on the multiple classification models.
23. You are the Project Manager of a software telecom development project. You and your team
are working together to create a billing software. Which quadrant of the Power/Influence Grid
will the person(s) responsible for sign-off of the deliverables fall in?
a) Keep Informed
b) Monitor
c) Manage Closely
d) Keep Satisfied
Answer: (c) Manage Closely. Since the person responsible for sign-off will have high power and his
interest in the project will be high, he will fall in the 'Manage Closely' quadrant, that is, High Power
High Interest grid. Refer PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Page 512for more information on the
Power/Influence Grid.
24. You are the Project Manager of a project in which team members have dual reporting structure.
In addition to reporting to you, they also report to their functional manager. Also the team
25. You are a Project Manager of an ambitious project in the organization. Although you have
successfully managed many critical projects before, this is a new organization and you are
working on this technology for the first time. However you hear that the company has proven
expertise on the technology and have also done a similar project in the past. In this situation,
what is the BEST option available to you?
a) Approach the Project Manager from the earlier project and take his inputs
b) Obtain historical records and guidance from the Project Management Office (PMO)
c) Involve Stakeholders, take their opinion and expertise on the project
d) Continue to manage project by your instincts until there is a major issue
Answer: (b) Obtain historical records and guidance from the PMO. Though all the options except (d)
reflect proactive nature of the Project Manager and is appropriate, the best option is to go through
historical records from the PMO. It will help you to get an objective and systematic assessment of
past projects in the organization. Remember, a project management office plays a critical role by
providing centralized management of the projects and access to policies, templates, lessons learned,
and historical records to projects.
26. You are managing a large and complex project which is in the planning stage. After assessing the
detailed project requirements with the stakeholders, you ask the team to create a Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS). However, since most of the team is new, you decide to brief them
on some rules of creating a WBS. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT about a Work
Breakdown Structure?
a) WBS is a list of specific activities used to accomplish the deliverables
b) WBS includes only work needed to create deliverables hence work not in WBS is not part of the
project
c) Lower level WBS components are a decomposed result of the upper level WBS components
d) WBS allows better estimation of cost, risk, and time
Answer: (a) WBS is a list of specific activities used to accomplish the deliverables. Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by
the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. It
organizes and defines the total scope. Hence, it is NOT a list of specific activities used to accomplish
the deliverables. How the work is completed (activities) can vary and change throughout the project,
but deliverables cannot change without a change request. For more information on Work
27. You are a Project Manager for an infrastructure development project and the project is to build
a multi-storey building. You have submitted your project estimates for cost and duration to the
client. You also inform the buyer that the estimates would be true provided there is already an
8ft foundation built on the site. This statement describes a/an ----------- in your project.
a) Risk
b) Constraint
c) Assumption
d) Mandatory Dependency
Answer: (c) Assumption. This is an assumption you have made about usability of existing foundation
to derive the project estimates. An assumption, by definition, is a statement that is assumed to be
true and from which a conclusion can be drawn. There may be external circumstances or events that
must occur for the project to be successful, which are categorized under project assumptions. This is
not a risk as there is no element of uncertainty involved. (Option a ) Risk, by definition, is an event
which may or may not occur in the future and if it occurs it can positively or negatively affect the
project. There is also no justification to believe that this is a project constraint. (Option b) as
constraints usually limit project options and are outside the control of the project team. Pre-
existence of a foundation for building a multi-story is also not an example of Mandatory
Dependency (Option d).
28. You are the Project Manager of a large and complex project. Your project team has finished
creating a Work Breakdown Structure for the project. However, some of the team members are
still not sure of what work is included in each of their work packages. Which of the following
documents would you suggest they go through?
a) Project scope statement
b) Project Management Plan
c) Work Break Structure (WBS) Dictionary
d) The Product Scope document
Answer: (c) Work Break Structure (WBS) Dictionary. A Work Break Structure (WBS) Dictionary
accompanies a Work Breakdown Structure and provides a description of the work to be done for
each WBS package. It provides more detailed descriptions of the WBS components such as work
description, schedule milestones, schedule activities, resources required, cost estimates, quality
requirements, acceptance criteria, etc. The project scope statement--option (a)--contains details
about the scope of the project, but it is at a much higher level and will not be helpful in this
situation.
29. You are a Project Manager, in the process of sequencing activities for your project, you create a
schedule network diagram that uses boxes called nodes to represent activities and connects
them with arrows to represent logical relationship between them. What is this popular
scheduling diagram known as?
a) Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
b) Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
30. As a Project Manager, you are in the process of identifying and documenting relationship among
project activities and you are using the Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM). Which of the
following relationships are you MOST UNLIKELY to use for this purpose?
a) Finish to start (FS)
b) Finish to finish (FF)
c) Start to Start (SS)
d) Start to finish (SF)
Answer: (d) Start to finish (SF). The Project Manager is in the process of documenting Sequence
Activities, which defines four kinds of dependencies or logical relationships between project
activities. Start to finish (SF) relationship, which denotes completion of successor activity, depends
on initiation of predecessor activity. For example, activity A has a start to finish relationship with
activity B that implies B doesn't finish before A starts. This relationship is rarely used and
uncommonly found in real life situations. An example could be a call center environment where the
previous shift doesn't finish until the next one starts.
31. As a Project Manager, you are estimating the duration of your project activities using PERT
technique (Program Evaluation and Review technique). For a particular project activity your
Optimistic estimate is 14 days, Pessimistic estimate is 47 days, and Most Likely estimate is 27
days. What should be the expected duration of this activity?
a) 28.17
b) 31
c) 43
d) 36
Answer: (a) 28.17. PERT allows the estimator to include three estimates: optimistic, pessimistic, and
most likely, given by the equation: Expected Duration = [P + 4(ML) + O]/6 where P is the pessimistic
estimate, ML is the most likely estimate, and O is the optimistic estimate. Using this method the
correct answers comes out to be 28.167 days or 28.17 days.
32. Subnetwork or fragment network templates are most useful when the project has MANY:
a) Mandatory Dependency
b) Discretionary Dependency
c) Undefined Variables
d) Identical or nearly identical deliverables
Answer: (d) Identical or nearly identical deliverables. Subnetwork or fragment network templates
are part of project schedule network template. It can be used to expedite the preparation of
networks of project activities, especially when a project includes several identical deliverables.
34. A Project Manager is managing a project which has constraints on the availability of required
resources throughout the project. As such he needs to rearrange resources in such a way that a
constant number of resources are used each month. Which of the following techniques will the
Project Manager use to achieve this?
a) Fast Tracking
b) Crashing
c) Leveling
d) Lagging
Answer: (c) Leveling. Resource leveling would be the only technique from the available options
which can help provide a constant number of resources used in a time frame. It is a project
management process used to examine a project for an unbalanced use of resources (usually people)
over time, and for resolving over-allocations or conflicts. Resource Leveling is quite important in a
maintenance project in software industry.
35. A project team is in the process of estimating the types and quantities of resources required to
perform each activity. Which of the following activities will NOT be done by the team during this
process?
a) Estimate the type and quantity of resource required to perform each activity
b) Go through the past data and Lessons Learned from previous project
c) Study the organization policies and procedures regarding staffing
d) Identify and show network dependency in the project activities
Answer: (d) Identify and show network dependency in the project activities. The project team is in
the process of Estimate Activity Resources and the activities provided as option (a),(b) and (c) are
done as part of this process. Option (d) which involves creating schedule network diagram to display
project schedule activities and logical relationship between them is part of Sequence Activities
process.
36. Which estimate technique does the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) use to
define the approximate range of activity costs?
a) Earned Value Technique
b) Parametric Estimation Technique
37. Your project team is involved in estimating the cost of the project as a part of project cost
management. Which of the following tools and techniques will NOT be applicable for this
purpose?
a) Cost Benefit Analysis
b) Reserve Analysis
c) Cost of Quality
d) Voting
Answer: (a) Cost Benefit Analysis. Reserve Analysis, option (b), is an analytical technique to
determine a reserve for budget, estimated costs, and funds for the project. It is an important
technique in the process of estimating costs. Option (c) Cost of Quality is the sum of all costs a
company invests into the release of a quality product and can be used to prepare cost estimates.
Option (d) Voting is used for decision making to get the best estimate at activity level (a) Cost
Benefit Analysis is a technique that compares positive factors or benefits with negative ones to
determine the net result of doing the action. It is a popular technique for selecting projects, but will
not be useful during the cost estimation activity level. Please refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition
Project Cost Management pg. 240 for more details.
38. The common term for an authorized time phase budget at completion (BAC) used to measure
cost performance and displayed in the form of an S curve is:
a) Earned Value
b) Cost Performance Index
c) Cost Baseline
d) Project Budget
Answer: (c) Cost Baseline. It provides a yardstick against which you can measure cost performance.
Please refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition pg. 254 for definition of cost baseline.
39. A project team is in the process of identifying quality requirements and standards for the project
and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance. The team has referred to
organizational process assets and is using tools like expert judgement and meetings. Which
process of Quality Management is the project team performing?
a) Plan Quality Management
b) Manage Quality
c) Control Quality
42. A project team is ahead of their schedule and their SPI is currently 1.4 and CPI is 1.2
respectively. The Project Manager and the team is brainstorming on the scope of next milestone
delivery. They have found that including an additional feature would enhance the usability of
the product and can be compressed in the current schedule. What should the project team do
next?
a) Add this feature in next release as long as it doesn't affect the delivery date
b) Go through the change management and analyze the impact of this additional feature
c) Discuss it with the project sponsor
d) Drop this feature as it is gold plating and customer does not need it
Answer: (d) Drop this feature as it is gold plating and customer does not need it. PMI does not
recommend gold plating and this additional feature is definitely not part of the requirement in the
contract. Though it does not affect delivery, it may involve costs or additional risk, so option (a) is
not justified. The best option would be to first evaluate the impact of this additional feature and
then discuss it with the customer. Since that is not a choice, (d) is the best answer.
43. You are a Project Manager managing a large team at diversified locations. There are many
groups within a project like architects, human resources, legal, quality engineers, etc. with their
own hierarchy and reporting structure. In order to ensure that each team member has clarity on
their own and other members' reporting structure, you decide to capture all of this information
graphically. Which of the following documents will you be using for this purpose?
a) Project Organization Chart
b) Resource Breakdown Structure
c) Organization Breakdown Structure
44. A Project Manager wants to capture information related to staff acquisition and release, training
needs, resource calendar, recognition, and rewards. Which of the following documents would
be most appropriate?
a) Project Management Plan
b) Resource Management Plan
c) Project Team Assignments
d) Issue Log
Answer: (b) Resource management plan. A resource management plan which is part of the human
resource plan describes when and how human resource requirements will be met. Option (a) project
management plan may or may not contain a resource management plan; hence (b) is a better
option. Option (c) Project team assignments is an output of the acquire project team process and
can include project team directories, memos to team members, etc. Option (d) issue log is used for
capturing project issues and is not the correct answer. Please refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition
pg. 318.
45. You are a Project Manager in a functional structure organization, hence it is important that you
negotiate suitable resources for your project from the functional manager. Which of the
following tools/documents could be a valuable asset to prove your project resource
requirements to the functional manager?
a) Staffing Management Plan
b) Network Diagram and Project Schedule
c) Resource Assignment Matrix
d) Project organization chart
Answer: (b) Network Diagram and Project Schedule. Project schedule along with network diagram
(that graphically represents the project schedule) provides the most convincing visual proof of the
resource requirements in the project and shall be used during resource negotiation by Project
Manager. Remember a project schedule is derived from a WBS, an effort estimate for each task, and
a resource list with availability for each resource, so it is granular and most accurate. Option (a)
staffing management plan provides guidelines on how human resources should be defined, staffed,
managed, and controlled. Option (c) and (d) capture the reporting structure and roles and
responsibilities of the team members, therefore they are not the best choices.
46. In a project kick off meeting there is utter chaos with all the attendees talking simultaneously.
The Project Manager is not able to present his report in this noise and the stakeholders feel that
their expectations are not being met properly. Also, many of the invited attendees are not
attending the meeting. What must the Project Manager have done to avoid this situation?
a) Communicate the agenda of the meeting clearly to all the Stakeholders
b) Postpone the meeting to ensure availability of all the Stakeholders
47. You have been assigned as a Project Manager of a newly initiated project and have 5 team
members. There is a project sponsor (Mr. Smith) and a technical architect who will be involved
only during the planning stage. This project is for an external customer. How many
communication channels are possible in your project?
a) 36
b) 72
c) 28
d) Cannot be determined since project is in the initiation stage
Answer: (a) 36. This is directly based on the formula n*(n-1)/2. If n is the number of stakeholders in
the project, the total possible communication channels = n*(n-1)/2. So the project has five team
members, a sponsor, a technical architect, an external customer, and the Project Manager himself.
Thus, there are 9 people and 36 possible communication channels. Please refer to PMBOK® Guide –
Sixth Edition page 370 Plan Communications: Tools and Techniques.
49. A Project Manager is managing a short duration pilot project and has started with a risk
management planning process. He has identified new risks and arranged them based on
probability and the impact matrix. The Project Manager now proceeds to plan responses for the
risks without analyzing the risks numerically. According to you, this decision of Project Manager
is:
a) Incorrect, It is important to numerically analyze each risk so that they can be responded
properly
b) Correct, Quantitative Risk Analysis is waste of time and not required if risks are already assessed
qualitatively
c) Incorrect, Quantitative risk analysis is important. We need to calculate EMV for each risk and
later move to risk response planning
50. Which of the following elements are to be considered while developing the project schedule?
Pick the best answer.
a) Based on project deliverables
b) Based on project timeline
c) Based on Quality
d) Based on cost
Answer: (a). As per the new examination content outline, project schedule is developed based on
project deliverables rather than project timeline.
51. As part of Quantitative Risk Analysis, a Project Manager has derived four packages with the
following probability and impact. Using EMV (Expected Monetary Value) which one should he
use in the project?
a) Work package I: Probability 15% and Impact $20,000
b) Work package II: Probability 7 % and Impact $10,000
c) Work package III: Probability 7 % and Impact $15,000
d) Work package IV: Probability 15% and Impact $10,000
Answer: (a) Work package I: Probability 15% & Impact $ 20,000. EMV = Probability * Impact. If the
impact is positive, then it is opportunity and if the impact is negative then it is threat. From the given
options, all are opportunities and the one which is highest should be the right option.
52. A Project Manager is in the planning stage and is evaluating risks in the project. He wants to
improve the project's chances of success by evaluating all possible risks. As a part of risk
management planning and identification he has used a standard questionnaire to identify risks
and has identified about 20 risks in the project. What would you advise him to do before moving
to the next process, 'qualitative risk analysis?'
a) Prioritize risk by determining each of their probability and impact
b) Update project management plan and other project documents based on inputs from these risks
c) Communicate the status of identified risks to stakeholders
d) Continue to identify more risks using other tools and techniques
Answer: (d) Continue to identify more risks using other tools and techniques. As you noticed, the
project has only identified 20 risks which are rather low. Furthermore, they are only identified using
a standard questionnaire. It is also not clear whether all stakeholders were involved in the risk
Identification process. Also, risks need to be identified using various tools and techniques in 'identify
risks' process. Option (b) and (c) are not valid as risk identification process is not yet completed and
option (a) is part of 'perform quantitative risk analysis' process.
53. A project team in a software project started with risk management planning and identified new
risks. Then they conducted qualitative risk analysis using a probability and impact matrix and
54. A project team is working on a risk response strategy by evaluating every risk and coming up
with suitable response strategies. However, one particular risk with a negative impact cannot be
avoided or mitigated. Furthermore, there is no way to transfer risk by outsourcing or buying
insurance. What is the best they can do about the risk?
a) Treat it as a secondary risk and update it in Risk Register
b) Share the risk by allocating ownership to a third party
c) Accept the risk and put it in the watch list
d) Re-visit the Risk Response Strategy
Answer: (c) Accept the risk and put it in the watch list. The question suggests the team has already
explored all the alternatives, so option (d) would not provide any further solution. In this case, the
best strategy is to accept the risk and if possible plan for a contingency to be implemented if risk
occurs. Option (b) is a strategy for positive risks or opportunities. Option (a) is not true as secondary
risk is an outcome of implementing risk response strategy.
55. You are a Project Manager in a construction company and urgently require some expert welders
for a short duration. You checked their availability internally with the functional manager, but he
is not able to match the skill set required by you. You decide to acquire these resources on
contract. Which of the following is the BEST type of contract for your requirements?
a) Cost Reimbursable
b) Fixed Price
c) Time and Material
d) Cost Plus Incentive Fee
Answer: (c) Time and Material. Since the requirement is short term and the Project Manager wants
to have a brief and quick contract, a time and material contract is the best option. Time and material
contracts are most suitable for staff augmentation, acquisition of experts etc. Please refer to
PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Procurement Management pg. 472.
56. A contract type where the seller is reimbursed for all allowable costs for performing the contract
work and receives a predetermined incentives fee based on achieving certain performance
incentive is:
a) Cost Plus Fixed Fee Contract
b) Cost Plus Incentive Fee Contract
57. A Project Manager is in the process of preparing a plan that documents how the procurement
process will be managed from developing procurement documents to contract closure. He is
also going through project requirements and scope documents with the team and discussing
different contract types to decide the one most suitable for the project. According to you, which
process of procurement management is the Project Manager in?
a) Plan Procurement Management
b) Conduct Procurements
c) Control Procurements
d) Close Procurements
Answer: (a) Plan Procurement Management. The Project Manager is in the 'plan procurement
management' process and he is preparing the procurement management plan with his team.
Contract types are also important tools of this process, which is carried at the planning stage of the
project. Please refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Procurement Management pg. 466.
58. A Project Manager has used a popular cost estimating model to come up with cost estimates for
his upcoming project. However, the sponsor asks him to add 15% to the total cost estimate as
the customer always negotiates and asks the prices to be reduced by 10% to 15%. What should
be the BEST option for the Project Manager?
a) Do as the Sponsor says after all he is your senior and project sponsor
b) Recalculate the cost estimates using a more suitable technique and check the difference
between the estimates
c) Provide the Sponsor with details on cost estimation and suggest him to share the same with
customer
d) Refuse to make any changes or increase the estimated cost
Answer: (c) Provide the Sponsor with details on cost estimation and suggest him to share the same
with customer. Both option (a) and (d) are wrong because they are evasive responses to the
situation and do not help to improve it. Option (b) may not solve the problem as there is no reason
to believe that Project Manager's current estimates are flawed. The fact that customer asks to
reduce cost by 10 % indicates he does not trust the seller to quote a fair price. Option (c) provides
the customer with the details on estimating the model and cost breakup to help build trust with the
customer and negotiate a fair price.
59. A large project with a team of 150 people is in the planning stage. It spans over a duration of 3
years and is under strict budget. A Project Manager is assessing the detailed project
requirements in consultation with the stakeholders based on the project charter to establish the
key project deliverables. He sets his project quality objective per the organization capability
60. After a project management plan is prepared and approved a week ago, a project stakeholder
asks the Project Manager to correct some syntax and grammatical errors in the project
document as it could be misleading. What should the Project Manager do?
a) Refuse as these are trivial changes and can be ignored
b) Refuse as the project management plan is already discussed and approved
c) Refuse and ask the stakeholder to meet the project sponsor
d) Refuse and ask stakeholder to raise a change request that can be considered by change control
board
Answer: (d) Refuse and ask stakeholder to raise a change request that can be considered by change
control board. All changes in the project should be documented as a change request and should go
through proper change management process. Option (a) is wrong because though these are
grammatical errors, question says it could be misleading and hence they are not trivial.
61. Being a Project Manager, your project sponsor has asked you to come up with the total funding
requirements of the project. What will be the total funding requirements for your project?
a) The total of the approved budget by time period
b) The total of project budget plus anticipated liabilities
c) The total funds including the cost baseline plus any management reserves
d) The total of individual cost estimates
Answer: (c) The total funds include cost baseline plus management reserves if any. The total funds
required for the project are those included in cost baseline plus management reserves. Cost baseline
includes contingency reserves for the risk remaining after risk response planning. A management
reserve is an extra amount of funds to be set aside to cover unforeseen risks or changes in the
project, and total fund requirement for the project would include management reserves. Option (a)
and option (b) describe cost baseline and option (d) is the definition for cost budgeting.
63. You are a Project Manager who has sent a formal document that describes the procurement
item in sufficient detail to allow prospective sellers to determine if they are capable of providing
the product and details methodology and results that will be provided to the buyer. This is
called:
a) Invitation for Bid
b) Request for Proposal
c) Request for Quotation
d) Contract Statement of work
Answer: (b) Request for Proposal. A request for proposal (referred to as an RFP) is an invitation for
suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service.
An RFP requests a price but also a detailed proposal on how the work will be accomplished, who will
do it, company experiences etc. Option (a) 'Invitation for bid' requests for total price to do the work
and option (c) 'Requests for quotation' requests a price quote per item or hour.
64. Which of the following are NOT achieved by the human resource plan, created by the Project
Manager during the planning process group?
a) Defines the roles and responsibilities of the project team members
b) Includes an effective project organization structure
c) Provides guidance about how resources will be utilized and managed
d) Defines the work breakdown structure
Answer: (d) Defines the work breakdown structure. The human resource plan defines the roles and
responsibilities of the project team members to create an effective project organization structure
and provide guidance regarding how resources will be utilized and managed. A work breakdown
structure is created by deconstructing the scope and not by the human resource plan.
65. You are the Project Manager for a big project and quality is top priority for this project. You have
devoted most of the project time for creating the quality management plan. What is the
advantage of the quality management plan?
a) Prevents the defects from reaching the customers
b) Guarantees improvement in project quality
c) Provides a systematic approach for meeting the project's quality goals
d) Provides conformance to customer's testing methodology
Answer: (c) The purpose of quality management plan is to provide an approach for meeting the
project's quality goals. Preventing defects from reaching customers is in Quality control. Plan does
not guarantee project quality. Conformance to customer's testing methodology may not be
66. A Project Manager is trying hard to successfully complete a project, but his role in the
organization is limited and he has no control over project budget. Although he has some power
to authorize decisions, he needs to seek approval on most of the major decisions. Also, his team
members work only part-time on the project. The Project Manager is mostly in which kind of
organization?
a) Functional
b) Projectized
c) Composite
d) Strong Matrix
Answer: (a) Functional. The Project Manager has limited authority and no control on project budget.
Also, his team members are not allocated full time on project work. The Project Manager is hence
working in a functional organization structure.
67. How is the role of project expeditor different from project coordinator?
a) Project coordinator has some power to make decisions
b) Project coordinator acts primarily as Staff assistant
c) Project coordinator role is that of communication coordinator
d) Project coordinator can control project budget
Answer: (a) Project coordinator has some power to make decisions. The only difference between
the role of coordinator and expeditor is that the former has some power to make decisions and may
report to high level management, while the latter acts as a communication coordinator, that is,
monitors and reports the status of the project to the senior management. Option (b) and (c) are true
for both the roles of coordinator and project expeditor, whereas option (d) is false statement.
68. You are working on a critical project for a large enterprise. The project has a major milestone
delivery next week and is in final testing phase. The project team is working on two critical
showstopper bugs, which are parts of the deliverable as the project faces many serious issues.
One of the senior members of the project has put up his resignation and the outsourced
component which was scheduled for delivery next week may be delayed. Additionally, the
current performance indices are CPI 1.09 and SPI is 1.90. What is the MOST critical issue faced
by the project?
a) Cost and Schedule
b) Delay in third party component
c) Resource Movement
d) Testing defects
Answer: (d) Testing defects. This question exemplifies a typical scenario when a Project Manager
needs to integrate information and make a decision from many choices. Since both CPI and SPI are
more than one, cost and schedule are in control. Delay in third party components is a risk which may
or may not occur. Furthermore, there is no information to suggest it will delay the milestone
release. The Project Manager can plan for proper knowledge transfer to minimize the effect of
69. All of the following are enterprise and environmental factors that can influence direct and
manage project work EXCEPT:
a) Stakeholder risk tolerance
b) Organizational culture and structure
c) Project Management Information System (PMIS)
d) Standardized guidelines and work instructions
Answer: (d) 'Standardized guidelines and work instructions' is a part of Organizational Process
Assets. Refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Integration Management pg. 90.
71. Which of the following processes does not have defect repair as one of the outputs?
a) Perform Integrated Change Control Process
b) Control Procurements
c) Monitor and Control
d) Control Schedule
Answer: (a) Perform integrated change control process. Defect repair is due to change request.
Change request is the input for perform integrated change control process and can be the output for
the remaining options.
72. You are a Project Manager of a software project which is in a critical phase of testing and bug
fixing. An enthusiastic test engineer working in the project tells you that he found a major bug
the previous night during testing. He assures that there is nothing to worry as he has 'patched'
the code and it is working fine now. What should be your main concern from this incident?
a) Nothing, it shows proactive approach of the team member and should be appreciated
b) It can be a case of scope creep and all prior documents need to be changed
c) It shows disrespect to the project management authority as the team member didn't ask his
opinion
d) The patch or bug fix may not work correctly in all scenarios
73. You are a Project Manager in an oil company and have joined a project midway during
execution. You want to understand how requirements activities, configuration management
activities such as changes to the product requirement will be initiated, impacts analyzed,
tracked and reported as well as the authorization levels required to approve these changes.
Which of the following documents will provide you this information?
a) Requirements Management Plan
b) Integrated Change Control
c) Project Charter
d) Project Scope Statement
Answer: (a) Requirements Management Plan. Requirements management plan documents how
requirements will be analyzed, documented, and measured in the project. It also includes
configuration management activities such as how changes to the product requirement will be
initiated, impacts analyzed, tracked and reported as well as the authorization levels required to
approve these changes. Option (b) Integrated Change Control is a process required for effective and
efficient change management. Refer to PMBOK® Guide – 6th Edition Project Scope Management pg.
137.
74. To acquire and manage the project team, which of the following plans or documents should be
referred?
a) Resource management plan
b) Procurement management plan
c) Project charter
d) Resource management plan and procurement management plan
Answer: (d) As per the new examination content outline, not only the procurement management
plan, but resource management plan should also be considered.
75. An Instrument measuring thickness of a screw of 15 mm diameter gives the following readings
16.001 mm, 16.00015 mm, 16.0003 mm, and 15.900 mm. Assuming the instrument is capable of
measuring up to the third place decimal, what BEST can be concluded on performance of the
instrument?
a) The instrument is accurate and precise
b) The instrument is not accurate but precise
c) The instrument is accurate but not precise
d) The instrument is neither accurate nor precise
Answer: (b) The instrument is not accurate but precise. Precision means the values of repeated
measurements are clustered and have little scatter. As the name suggest, accuracy means how close
76. You are a Project Manager in a leading manufacturing company and managing a critical project
for the company. Your project is facing severe cost constraints and you cannot delay the delivery
date of the product. After consulting stakeholders and the customer, you decide to lower both
the quality and grade of the product. The decision to lower the quality and grade of the product
is?
a) Wrong; as a grade and quality should never be compromised in a product.
b) Wrong; as grade can be compromised but not quality
c) Wrong; as quality can be compromised but not grade
d) Correct; as both grade and quality can be compromised as per project need
Answer: (d) Correct; as both grade and quality can be compromised as per project need. Remember
triple constraints and real life project constraints. Though it is not advised to compromise on quality
and grade, the Project Manager and team are responsible for managing the tradeoff in quality and
grade of the delivered product in specific scenarios. But it should be approved and agreed by the
customer and stakeholders. Refer to Project Quality Management PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition pg.
271.
77. A project is in the execution stage when the customer comes back with an additional feature to
be added in the forthcoming milestone delivery. The project team has assessed the impact of
the change by performing Integrated Change Control. The Project Manager should:
a) Hold a meeting with customer explaining why it is not good option to incorporate change
requests during project execution
b) Create a change Request and proceed for review by Change Control Board
c) Review Quality Management Plan and evaluate the effect of the additional feature on Quality
d) Notify stakeholders affected by change
Answer: (c) Review Quality Management Plan and evaluate the effect of the additional feature on
quality. Quality needs to be considered whenever there is a change in a triple constraint. If you
choose option (d) you are quite close. The stakeholders should then be informed as part of change
management. Option (b) is already completed by the project team as a part of Integrated Change
Control.
78. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, what comes at the BOTTOM of the pyramid?
a) Safety
b) Social
c) Esteem
d) Self Actualization
Answer (a) Safety. Maslow and other theorists might be referenced on the PMP exam and it is
important to get familiar with them. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is displayed as a pyramid and
displays the five levels of human need from bottom to top. These are: Physiological, Safety, Social,
Esteem and Self Actualization.
80. Of the following reasons which one is the MOST COMMON reason for conflict?
a) Schedules
b) Personalities
c) Technical Beliefs
d) Administrative policies and procedures
Answer: (a) Schedules. The most widely accepted common reasons for conflict in a team are:
Schedules, Priorities, Resources, Technical beliefs, Administrative policies and procedures, project
costs and Personalities (they are in order of most common to least common).
81. In order to achieve the project deliverables, the project manager has to manage task execution
based on project management plan. In doing so, which of the following elements should be
considered?
a) Budget and schedule
b) Leading and developing the project team
c) Quality and cost
d) Acquiring the team
Answer: (b). As per the new examination content outline, it is by leading and developing the project
team. Earlier it was based on budget and schedule.
82. You are managing a large diversified project team. In the initial days of the project, the team
members behaved like independent individuals and seemed reserved, learning about their roles
and responsibilities. Then as the team began to work on the project and participate in technical
decisions, their trust level grew. The team now supports each other’s needs and works together.
According to you, they are in which stage of team development?
a) Norming
b) Performing
c) Forming
d) Adjourning
83. Which of the following is NOT a tool or technique used in ‘’develop team’’ process?
a) Training
b) Interpersonal and Team Skills
c) Colocation
d) Conflict Management
Answer: (d) Conflict management. All the other options, such as (a) training that enhances team
member's skill, (b) interpersonal skills or soft skills that improve understanding and increase
cooperation, and (c) colocation that places team members physically close to each other, help in
developing the team. Conflict management is a technique used in manage team process. Please
refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Resource Management source pg. 345.
84. You have delivered many complex and technically challenging projects in the past and have won
respect and appreciation for your work from the customer and senior managers in the
organization alike. Which form of power are you using?
a) Formal (Legitimate)
b) Reward
c) Expert
d) Referent
Answer: (d) Referent. This an example of Referent form of power derived from respect and
appreciation. There are several types of power a leader uses namely: Formal authority (legitimate
power): ability to influence through the authority to direct, based upon position in the hierarchy of
the organizational structure or the perception of official empowerment to issue orders. Reward
power: ability to influence based upon direct or indirect control over positive consequences one
desires to gain, such as raises in compensation, bonuses, promotions, choice assignments, or other
perks. Penalty (coercive) power: ability to influence based upon direct or indirect control over
negative consequences one desires to avoid, such as the lack of raises in compensation, bonuses,
promotions, choice assignments, or other perks. Expert power: ability to influence based upon
expertise or special knowledge considered important to the work at hand. Referent power: ability to
influence based upon respect, loyalty, admiration, affection, or a desire to gain approval.
85. A new Project Manager takes over a project during the execution phase. One of the main issues
faced by the project is that the customer complains of poor visibility on the project. What
should be his first step towards resolving the issue?
a) Have a discussion with the customer to understand why he feels the project lacks visibility
b) Hold a discussion with the team members who have been in this project since beginning to
understand customer specific communication needs
86. You are managing a large project which has many stakeholders across various departments in
the organization. During the planning stage, you created a communication management plan
based on the project organization structure and external stakeholder requirements in order to
manage the flow of project information. Now while executing the project, one of the
stakeholders contacts you and informs you that his expectations are not accounted for in the
project. What should be your BEST response to the situation?
a) Understand his expectations and update project documents accordingly starting with
stakeholder register
b) Since the stakeholder analysis is already completed and all the other stakeholders have been
present and addressed work towards fulfilling their expectations, the same cannot be repeated
for this particular stakeholder
c) Go through the stakeholder analysis with the team as there might be more unidentified
stakeholders in the project
d) Inform this stakeholder that he will be included in all project communications and he can raise
his concerns whenever he feels his requirements are not being addressed
Answer: (a) Understand his expectations and update project documents accordingly starting with
stakeholder register. Managing stakeholder expectations and establishing an effective
communication with them is one of the most critical activities for project success. The Project
Manager should update the project documents according to the requirements of the stakeholders.
Option (b) is incorrect as all the stakeholders in the project need to be identified and their
expectations managed throughout the project. Option (c) is incorrect as there is no reference in the
question to suggest that more stakeholders might have been missed in the project. Option (d) is
incorrect approach. The Project Manager should proactively manage stakeholder expectation in the
project.
87. A software project run in an IT company has 14 stakeholders and is in the final testing stage
when the technical architect leaves the project and two new test engineers join in. What is the
change in the potential communication channels of the project?
a) Communication channel would remain unaffected by change in team members.
b) Number of communication channels will increase by 13.
c) Number of communication channels will increase by 26.
d) Number of communication channels will increase by 14.
88. Which of the following types of organizations would have the most complex communication
management?
a) Functional Organization
b) Projectized Organization
c) Matrix Organization
d) Ad hoc Organization
Answer: (c) Matrix organization has combination of both functional and projectile characteristics as
project members are from across the organization. This makes the communication more complex
and challenging as team members not only need to communicate within their project team but
across different horizontal departments and vertical domains. Note: There is no word for ad hoc
organization in the PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition.
89. You are Project Manager of a software project that has finished the design stage and is moving
to the implementation stage. At the end of design phase, you got the document reviewed;
tracked and closed the defect logs. Also as part of the design stage review and kick-off for the
implementation phase, you checked current SPI and CPI and revisited the risks. What did you
forget to do?
a) Identify new risks for the next stage and update risk register
b) Take corrective and preventive actions from design review so that defects can be minimized
c) Conduct an impact analysis of the defects found during the design review
d) Communicate project stage review findings to all the stakeholders
Answer: (d) Communicate project stage review findings to all the stakeholders. Remember the
Project Manager needs to communicate project progress to stakeholders at all the major
milestones. Option (a) would have been addressed during revisiting the risk as part of kick off
meeting, whereas Option (b) and (c) are not mandatory activities and may not be required in every
project.
90. In which of the following types of contracts does the buyer have the MAXIMUM cost risk?
a) Cost Reimbursable
b) Fixed Price
c) Time and Material
d) Cost Plus Fixed Fee
Answer: (a) Cost Reimbursable. In a cost reimbursable type of contract, the buyer has the maximum
risk because the total cost of the project remains unknown. This is usually used when the buyer is
not able to come up with complete contract statement of work and has limited understanding.
91. A cost reimbursable contract has an estimated cost of $20,000. If the seller beats the cost, they
will share the savings. 80% will go to the buyer and 20% will go to the seller. If the actual costs
come in at $18,000, what is the final price?
a) 18000
b) 18200
c) 18400
d) 18600
Answer: (c) $18,400. For this question, Target price = $ 20,000; Actual cost = $ 18,000; Sharing ratio
= 80/20; Actual cost to buyer = $18000 + ($20,0000-$18,000)*20% = $18,400
92. A project team is in the process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a
contract. For this purpose they are using some predefined selection criteria to evaluate the bids
and select the most appropriate seller. Which process of project management is the project
team working on?
a) Plan Procurement Management
b) Conduct Procurements
c) Control Procurements
d) Proposal Evaluation
Answer: (b) Conduct Procurements. The activities are part of the 'conduct procurement' process,
which includes obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract based on
selection criteria for selecting qualified sellers. Although they are working on proposal evaluation,
Option (d) is not a process, but a tool.
94. A Project Manager is forced to give a contract to a preferred supplier as he has a strict deadline
to meet. What could be the BIGGEST risk in this situation for the Project Manager?
a) The seller has not proven that he has required expertise and resources to take this assignment
b) The Project Manager didn't get chance to evaluate other vendors who could be better
c) The seller may not fulfill the evaluation criteria to bid for the project
95. Your company is bidding for a major project from Company X. You have a friend in Company X
and he requests your help in evaluating the proposals. What action should you take?
a) Accept the friend's request and work impartially while helping on the proposal evaluation
b) Accept friend's request and take care of your company's interest while helping on the proposal
evaluation
c) Reject friend's request
d) Ask your Manager's opinion
Answer: (c) Reject friend's request. This is a clear situation of conflict of interests and the Project
Manager should reject the request.
96. As a Project Manager of a complex and relatively new technology you have asked for an
expensive training for yourself and the team from the project sponsor. Although the sponsor has
agreed to your request, he asks you to start the project in the meantime. Which of the following
is NOT an option for you?
a) Since you have already asked your sponsor for training, you can do nothing to enhance your
skills till that time
b) Visit PMO and Organization project database to go through lessons learned from previous
projects
c) Talk to fellow Project Managers who have executed similar projects in the organization
d) Join Organization or library to gain access to journals featuring the technology
Answer: (a) Since you have already asked your sponsor for training, you can do nothing to enhance
your skills till that time. Doing nothing is the worst option because there is always something that
can be done to enhance your skills and knowledge.
97. A Project Manager has worked on many challenging projects and managed teams across the
globe in last 20 years of his career. Now, he intends to share his best practices and lessons
learned throughout his professional career. The Project Manager's act can be BEST defined as:
a) Enhancing his professional skills by evaluating his experience and strengths
b) Project Manager is contributing to the project management knowledge base
c) Capturing his professional stint in an autobiography
d) Informing others about project management principles and helping the profession grow
Answer: (b) Project Manager is contributing to the project management knowledge base. The
Project Manager is sharing the lessons learned and best practices and contributing to the project
management knowledge base.
99. Which of the following is an example of smoothing as part of promoting interaction among
stakeholders?
a) Project Manager keeps himself aloof and uninvolved from team conflicts and lets the team
handle it themselves
b) Project Manager calls the troublemakers and tries to resolve their problems through discussion
c) Project Manager downplays the difference of opinion saying the difference lies only in
perception
d) Project Manager takes side of the more experienced resource as he is more valuable to the
project
Answer: (c) Project Manager downplays the difference of opinion saying the difference lies only in
perception. Smoothing is a technique in which Project Manager emphasizes agreement rather than
difference of opinion and option (c) is the correct choice.
100. A Project Manager defines a personal plan for his career and professional development
every year. As a part of this plan, he goes through his project experiences, lessons learned, and
decides on the training needs to help him excel as a Project Manager and contribute to his
organization. In this scenario the Project Manager is:
a) Contributing to the Project Management knowledge base
b) Enhancing his Personal Professional Competence
c) Helping his organization through his project success
d) Putting project's need before his own and taking decisions in the best interest of the project
Answer: (b) Enhancing his Personal Professional Competence. This is an example of Project Manager
working on enhancing his skill(s) that indirectly helps his organization, the correct choice is definitely
option (b).
101. Team development would be MOST difficult in which form of the organization
structure?
a) Weak Matrix Organization
b) Projectized Organization
c) Tight Matrix
d) Balance Matrix Organization
102. An organization has recently started outsourcing work to a low cost, high value,
engineering center located in a different country. According to you, which is the BIGGEST value
addition a Project Manager can provide to the team?
a) An introduction to the applicable laws in the country
b) An exposure to cultural differences
c) Communication management Plan
d) Competency in speaking foreign language
Answer: (b) An exposure to cultural differences. Today's project team operates in a global
environment and work on projects is characterized by cultural diversity. Only those Project
Managers who realize that cultural differences are a resource to be fully utilized can survive in the
international project business. Although other options are beneficial, exposure to cultural
differences is critical and the biggest value-add to a project's success.
103. One of the high-performing team members from a support group of the project team
wants to move onto the technical team as he finds that work more challenging. As a Project
Manager you know that he is a valuable resource and moving him out of the support group can
affect group performance. You decide to give him a hike in salary. However, the employee is still
unhappy and dissatisfied. This is an example of which theory?
a) Maslow's Theory
b) Herzberg's theory
c) McGregor's theory
d) Expectancy theory
Answer: (b) Herzberg's theory. Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory was developed by Frederick
Herzberg, a psychologist who found that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction acted independently
of each other. This two Factor Theory states that there are certain factors in the workplace that
cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction. Two-factor theory
distinguishes between: Motivators (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility) which give
positive satisfaction, arising from intrinsic conditions of the job itself, such as recognition,
achievement, or personal growth, and Hygiene factors (e.g. status, job security, salary, and fringe
benefits) which do not give positive satisfaction, although dissatisfaction results from their absence.
These are extrinsic to the work itself, and include aspects such as company policies, supervisory
practices, or wages/salary. Essentially, hygiene factors are needed to ensure that an employee is
satisfied. Motivation factors are needed to motivate an employee to higher performance. In this
question, the Project Manager has only changed the hygiene factors without any change in the
motivation factors and hence the employee remains unhappy and dissatisfied.
104. A Project Manager is preparing for the next milestone release when he realizes that he
has missed an important feature in the project requirements plan. If implemented, this feature
would take at least one person a week of effort. What should be his next step to address this?
107. Your customer asks for a small change in the project, which was not budgeted in the
project. It is a small effort as compared to the total project and you need the goodwill of the
customer to be successful in this multimillion dollar gas project. What will you do?
a) Implement approved changes according to the change management plan to meet the project
requirements
b) Since you need to maintain goodwill, you agree to incorporate the change
c) Speak to the sponsor for his consent
d) Tell the customer to keep it as a secret and not inform the sponsor about this change to be
implemented
Answer: (a) Implement approved changes according to the change management plan to meet the
project requirements.
108. During the project, you and your team discovered that a key project component was
stolen. As this was not planned for, the team decided to launch the product without the stolen
component. This is an example of:
a) Work around
b) Risk Transfer
109. During the project execution, the status report shows that an activity on the critical path
is delayed. As a Project Manager, what should you do?
a) Deliver incomplete activity
b) Compress the schedule
c) Reduce the scope
d) Stop the project execution
Answer: (b) Compress the schedule. Of the options listed, compressing the schedule is the best
option.
110. As a Project Manager, you are assigned to a project that has been outsourced. The next
step is to organize a formal bidding process and select the vendor for the project. You own stock
in one of the vendor companies who participated in the bidding process. What is the BEST
course of action for you?
a) Get the vendor company selected for the project
b) Keep the information to yourself
c) Tell your manager and remove yourself from the vendor selection committee
d) Ask other members of the selection committee to select your vendor company
Answer: (c) Tell your manager and remove yourself from the vendor selection committee.
111. Which of the following is NOT a tool or technique for the conduct procurements
process?
a) Bidder’s Conference
b) Advertising
c) Negotiation
d) Contract Types
Answer: (d) Contract types. All the stated options are tools and techniques for the conduct
procurements process except contract types, which is a technique for the plan procurements
process.
112. The Project Manager has discovered that two team members have a disagreement over
the procurement of the project component. The Project Manager suggests that the team
members compromise. The team members are also willing to resolve the conflict. Who should
decide the best course of action?
a) Sponsor
b) Customer
c) Project Manager
d) Team members
Answer: (d) Team members. The team members should resolve the issue on their own.
115. Herzberg divided motivation factors into two classes: satisfiers and dissatisfiers.
Examples of satisfiers are:
a) Vacation time
b) Work satisfaction, fringe benefit
c) Plush offices space, performance based salary raise
d) Sense of personal achievement, work satisfaction
Answer: (d) Herzberg's satisfiers are sense of personal achievement, work satisfaction, and others.
116. A Project Manager is concerned about team building on her project. One of the
mandatory things that she must have to have good team building is:
a) Commitment from top level management
b) Colocation of team members
c) Establishment of clear negotiated goals
d) Open discussion of poor individual performance
Answer: (a) Commitment from top level management. For team building, it is essential that there is
support from the top level management.
117. A Project Manager is managing a project where there will be a number of persons
working together. She wants to enhance the ability of the team to work together and perform
as a team. One of the things she can do to enable this is:
a) Cohabitation
b) Colocation
c) Staffing plan
d) WBS
Answer: (b) Co-location. Co-location involves placing many or all of the most active project team
members in the same physical location to enhance their ability to perform as a team.
119. Which of the following is NOT a purpose of the configuration management system?
a) Ensure all the project team members have the latest version of the project document
b) Ensure all the relevant changes are communicated to the stakeholders
c) Maintain consistency of product's performance and its functional attributes
d) It includes Configuration identification, Configuration status accounting, and Configuration
verification and audit
Answer: (b) Ensure all the relevant changes are communicated to the stakeholders. This is a part of
communication management. All the other options (a) (c) and (d) are completed as part of the
configuration management system. Refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Integration
Management pg. 379.
120. A project is in the final stages of testing when it receives a major change request from
the customer which would delay the final delivery of the project by 2 weeks. What should the
Project Manager do NEXT?
a) Create a change request and go through the change management process
b) Evaluate the impact of the change
c) Communicate the implication of the change to the customer
d) Adjust the project management plan and baseline
Answer: (c) Communicate the implication of the change to the customer. The next step is to
communicate the impact on the final delivery to the customer and get his approval, especially
because it affects the final delivery date of the project. Option (a) and (b) are already completed by
the team as they have already assessed the impact of the delay on schedule. Option (d) will come
after customer approval.
121. You are a Project Manager and your team recently encountered a major change in the
project. This change was evaluated for its impact on the triple constraints and went for approval
to the Change Control Board (CCB). The CCB is comprised of important stakeholders of the
project who approved the change. The project documents were updated through the
configuration management system. What should the project team do NEXT?
a) Explore options to reduce the effect of change
b) Adjust the project management plan and baselines
c) Notify the stakeholders affected by the change
d) Prevent the root cause of change
122. A Project Manager working on a critical deliverable encounters a major change that
affects the schedule baseline, along with the next milestone deliverable. This change cannot be
accommodated within current project management plan. What is the BEST option for the
Project Manager?
a) Avoid the change as it gravely affects the project deadline
b) Explore options to reduce the effect of change
c) Communicate the implication of this change request to the customer
d) Seek an approval from change control board or project sponsor
Answer: (d) Seek an approval from change control board or project sponsor. Changes that affect the
project management plan and performance baseline are generally not in the purview of the Project
Manager and needs approval from the change control board or project sponsor. Option (a) is not a
wise move, and the fact that the change cannot be accommodated within the current management
plan proves that option (b) was completed. There is no data to support that this change request
originated from the customer, so option (c) is not the best option as the change could have an
internal origin. It is best to first seek approval from the project sponsor.
123. Measure project performance using appropriate tools and techniques in order to
identify and quantify any variances and corrective actions task is which part of the process
group?
a) Planning
b) Executing
c) Monitoring and controlling
d) Closing
Answer: (c). This is part of M&C. This task is slightly changed from the previous examination content
outline. Earlier, in addition to the task mentioned it was supposed to be informed to the
stakeholders as well. Now, inform stakeholders has been taken out as this is part of executing.
124. A Project Manager is in the process of comparing actual performance to the scope
statement to determine variances, evaluate possible alternatives, and take the appropriate
action. Which of the following will NOT be an output to the process?
a) Work Performance Information
b) Updates in Organizational Process assets
c) Change Requests
d) Change Control Meetings
Answer: (d) Change Control Meetings. The project team is in the 'control scope' process. Change
control meetings is a tool from the 'perform integrated change control' process. Option (b),(c) and
125. During the project lifecycle, a Project Manager can change the schedule baseline ONLY
through:
a) Customer defined change in the schedule
b) Formally approved change through the change control process
c) Corrective action based on Performance Report
d) In rare event of project showing high deviation from the baseline
Answer: (b) Formally approved change through the change control process. The schedule baseline
can only be changed after it is formally approved by the stakeholders and executed through the
change control process.
126. For a project Earned value = 600, Actual Cost = 400, Estimate to Completion= 700. What
is the estimate at completion?
a) 1200
b) 1100
c) 1300
d) 300
Answer: (b) 1100. The formula for Estimate to Complete (ETC) = Estimate at Completion (EAC) -
Actual Cost (AC). Estimate at completion = Estimate to complete + Actual cost, that is, 700 + 400
=1100.
127. Your project is expected to be delayed by 6 days from the scheduled final delivery date.
Your current CPI is 1.5 and the project risks are low. You also have many discretionary
dependencies on the project. You don't have access to any more resources for the project.
Which of the following would be the BEST alternative to bring the project back on schedule?
a) Reduce number of resources from an activity
b) Complete activities that involve external dependencies first
c) Remove few activities from the project
d) Complete some activities concurrently
Answer: (d) Complete some activities concurrently. Since the project has low risk and there are
many discretionary dependencies, it is best to plan to do more activities concurrently. Option (a)
wouldn't help in bringing project back on schedule. Option (c) is not suggested as removing activities
may affect the project negatively. Option (b) is not the best option as there is no rationale to believe
that activities with external dependencies are in the critical path, and finishing them first would
reduce project duration. Also external activities by definition describe activities that are not in
control of Project Manager and it may not be at discretion of Project Manager to finish them first.
128. A Project Manager has to discuss project progress and track status with the project
team. Which should be the MOST relevant format for this purpose?
a) Milestone Chart
b) Bar Chart
c) WBS
d) Schedule Baseline
129. A project is severely delayed and Project Manager is trying his best to bring it back on
schedule. To expedite the work, he has added more resources and working overtime to
complete the project earlier. All of the following could be a possible outcome of project crashing
EXCEPT:
a) Increase in Project Cost
b) Increase in Project Risk
c) Decrease in morale of team members
d) Increase in rewards and recognition
Answer: (d) Increase in rewards and recognition. PMI doesn't advocate rewarding team members if
they need to work overtime due to poor planning. It is important to reward only desirable behavior.
However, crashing a project could result in higher project cost and/or risks and/or lower team
morale.
130. Which is the most important parameter against which project schedule should be
measured to recommend corrective and preventive actions?
a) Schedule Baseline
b) Work Performance Measurement
c) Earned Value Technique
d) Variance Analysis
Answer: (a) Schedule Baseline. Schedule baseline is an important and effective yardstick that acts as
a benchmark to determine project status. Meeting schedule baseline is one of the measures of
project success.
131. What is the Estimate at Completion (EAC) assuming the current variances are atypical of
the future. A project has initial budgeted cost also called Budget at Completion (BAC) as
$100,000. As the project progresses, these are the current figures: Planned Value (PV) $20,000.
Actual Cost (AC) $25,000. Earned Value (EV) $15,000.
a) $110,000
b) $90000
c) $100000
d) $115000
Answer: (a) $110,000. Recall that BAC is Budget at Completion, which is the initial budgeted cost. In
this case, it is 100,000 USD. Note that EAC = AC + (BAC - EV) when current variances are thought to
be atypical of future. Hence, EAC = $25,000 + ($100,000 - $15,000) = $110,000.
133. You are working on a highly visible project for which it is critical to have accurate cost
estimates. While reviewing cost estimates for the project you notice that one of the WBS (Work
Breakdown Structure) work packages is estimated almost 25% higher than two other similar
WBS work packages. What should you do in this case?
a) Reduce the estimate but add an additional budget in management reserve
b) Reduce the estimate but add an additional budget in contingency reserve
c) Trust your team to come up with accurate estimates as they already had many team discussions
d) Call the WBS owner to discuss the basis for estimating the work package
Answer: (d) Call the WBS owner to discuss the basis for estimating the work package. It is always
important for you as Project Manager to first understand the reason for deviation before taking an
action.
134. Your project has current CPI of 1.2 and SPI of 0.86. What does the figure indicate about
the project performance?
a) The project has cost underrun and is delayed
b) The project has cost overrun and is delayed
c) The project has cost underrun and is ahead of schedule
d) The project has cost overrun and is ahead of schedule
Answer: (a) The project has cost under run and is delayed. CPI > 1 indicates cost of completing the
work is less than planned, but SPI < 1 indicates they are behind the schedule.
137. A Project Manager is working on a highly visible project in an organization and is most
concerned about project performance and progress. His cost variance is currently $150 and
schedule variance percentage is -15%. Which of the following statements about the cost and
schedule performance of the project is INCORRECT?
a) The project spent more money on work accomplished than planned
b) The project has overestimated the amount of time needed for the activity
c) The Project has faced some unplanned or planned setbacks which has affected the schedule
d) The project is doing favorably cost-wise but is lagging in schedule
Answer: (a) The project spent more money on work accomplished than planned. Since cost variance
for the project is positive, it means its Earned Value > Planned value and hence the project has
achieved more than planned in terms of cost. However, the negative value of the schedule variance
% denotes that the project is lagging in terms of planned schedule objectives. [Schedule Variance %
is defined as = [(Earned Value - Planned value)/Planned Value]. This could be due to overestimation
(option b) or unplanned activity affecting the schedule (option c). Similarly option (d) is also a
correct statement as discussed above.
138. In a control chart, what does upper specification and lower specification limit (USL, LSL)
signify:
a) These are based on requirements of the contract and reflect the maximum and minimum values
allowed
b) They are set by PM and stakeholders to reflect points for corrective action in case they are
crossed
c) These are usually +/- 3? limits based on normal distribution
d) These are used to monitor cost and schedule variances
Answer: (a) These are based on requirements of the contract and reflect the maximum and
minimum values allowed. This is a typical question where all the options are correct about control
charts. However, specification limits are usually specified by the customer and are part of the
contractual requirements. To avoid confusion between specification and control limits, always
remember specification limits specify the imposed limits beyond which a product may not be
accepted. To have a stable and predictable process, it should operate within control limits. Stable
and predictable process control limits should lie within the specification limits. Please Refer PMBOK®
Guide – Sixth Edition Project Quality Management pg. 304.
140. A popular tool used to monitor project performance including cost and schedule
variances and ensure process operate within acceptable limit is called
a) Control Charts
b) Run Charts
c) Pareto Chart
d) Flowchart
Answer: (a) Control Charts. Control charts, also known as Shewhart charts or process-behavior
charts is a popular tool used to monitor project performance including cost and schedule variances
and ensure the process operates within acceptable limits. Don't confuse them with option (b) run
charts that are often used to show trends over a finite period of time relative to an average. Please
refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Quality Management pg. 304 for more details.
141. A project team is analyzing a major, critical defect to determine the root cause. In order
to do this, they considered various factors linked to the defect and grouped them into Machine,
Method, Material, Manpower etc. Which of the following tool of quality is the team using?
a) Histogram
b) Cause and Effect Diagram
c) Control charts
d) Flowchart
Answer: (b) Cause and Effect diagram. Cause and effect diagram, also called Ishikawa diagrams or
fishbone diagrams, are used to determine the root cause of a problem by identifying and grouping
its potential causes. Please refer to PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Quality Management pg.
294 for more details.
142. Which of the following can NOT be considered as an indicator of a team's effectiveness?
a) Improvements in skills that allow team to perform assignments more effectively
b) Improvement in competency that helps the team perform better
c) Increased staff turnover rate
d) Increase in team cohesiveness and trust
143. During the testing phase in the project, a senior manager who is also an important
stakeholder in the project tells you that he no longer wishes to receive weekly status reports.
Instead, he can be sent periodical project performance report. What should be your response to
his request?
a) Make the manager understand that since he is a major stakeholder and project is in critical
stage, status reports will be important to know project progress
b) Continue to send him status report to keep your project visibility high
c) Follow communication management plan and send reports as earlier decided
d) Follow his instructions and update project documents including communication management
plan accordingly
Answer: (d) Follow his instructions and update the project documents including communication
management plan accordingly. This is part of the effective and efficient communication strategy i.e.
providing only information that is needed. Senior management may not be interested in every
status report of the project. Refer PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Chapter Project Communications
Management pg. 359.
146. During an informal gathering with stakeholders of the project, the Project Manager
overhears one stakeholder expressing dissatisfaction over the project's progress reporting and
communication. What should be the Project Manager's best response?
a) Ignore the incident; anyways the stakeholder was not directly and formally addressing the
Project Manager
b) Call a meeting of all the Stakeholders to address their concerns on the project
c) Meet face to face with the complaining stakeholder to understand his concern and update it in
the issue log
d) Confront the stakeholder demanding why he never approached you if he was dissatisfied with
project reporting
Answer: (c) Meet face to face with the complaining stakeholder to understand his concern and
update it in the issue log. This is the best approach to resolve the problem proactively. Even if the
Project Manager is not able to immediately solve the issue, tracking it through the issue log would
show his commitment and build trust. Option (a) is not advisable as Project Manager is expected to
proactively look for and avoid any issues in the project. Option (b) There is no indication that many
stakeholders have similar concern and hence this may not be applicable. Option (d) will do nothing
to resolve problem at hand.
147. A senior technology manager in the organization wants to know the project status with
respect to major deliverables and key external interfaces. According to you, the Project Manager
should use which of the formats in his performance report to capture this graphically?
a) Project Schedule Network Diagram
b) Milestone Charts
c) Bar Charts
d) S curve
Answer: (b) Milestone charts are most suitable as they capture project status with respect to
important milestone deliveries. Option (a) can also be applicable but it is more detailed and not the
best choice.
148. As part of the audit findings, you realize that many of the risks were not identified
during the planning stage, so you decide to reassess project risks. Which process are you in?
a) Identify Risks
b) Plan Risk Management
c) Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
d) Monitor Risks
Answer: (d) Monitor Risks. You can identify new risks during both risk identification and risk
monitoring and control processes. Since these new risks are an outcome of risk assessments, risk
audits and periodic risk reviews, it is part of risk monitoring and control. Refer PMBOK® Guide –
Sixth Edition Project Risk Management pg. 453.
150. A project is delivered per the contract by the project team; however, the customer is
not happy. The customer feels that the deliverable is far below his expectation in terms of
quality and functionality and has some serious defects. What should the Project Manager do in
this situation?
a) Talk to the project sponsor to discuss the issue
b) Proceed to project closure activity
c) Discuss the issues with customer and find ways to resolve the same
d) Brainstorm with technical experts, stakeholders, and team members to understand issues in the
project
Answer: (b) Proceed to project closure activity. Since the project is delivered per the contract, the
Project Manager has already fulfilled his obligation and he can move to project closure activity. A
contract is a legal document and once signed it represents a mutually binding agreement that
obligates the seller to provide a specified product and the buyer to provide monetary compensation.
In this case, the deliverable was as per the contract and there is no objective evidence to believe
otherwise.
151. A Project Manager who has contracted a project, notices that the seller has
discontinued sending the weekly status report, which is part of their contract. The Project
Manager understands the seller is under tremendous pressure to meet the next milestone
deliverable and has been otherwise communicating the project status periodically. What should
the Project Manager do in this scenario?
a) Ignore the incident as the seller is anyway updating him with project status periodically
b) Give the seller time till next milestone delivery and then bring up the issue informally
c) Send a formal, written communication regarding the issue of irregular status reports
d) Terminate the project contract
Answer: (c) Send a formal, written communication regarding the issue of irregular status reports.
Any deviation from the contract is a breach and the response to a breach must be by issuing a letter,
formally notifying the breach. If the Project Manager doesn't send an official notice of breach, his
company could lose their right to claim breach later. Option (d) termination is too harsh a reaction
and not called for in this situation.
153. A Project Manager has taken up a project midway and is going through project
schedules and status reports. He realizes that the previous Project Manager has inaccurately
calculated the project status and per the current situation the project would definitely miss the
next milestone. What should the Project Manager do in this case?
a) Call the previous Project Manager and ask him for explanation
b) Inform the customer and stakeholder about the impeding delay
c) Relook the project schedule to find alternatives to meet the schedule
d) Wait for the next milestone date to arrive to report the delay
Answer: (c) Relook the project schedule to find alternatives to meet the schedule is a positive and
proactive approach, which helps to minimize the impact of the problem.
154. A Project Manager wants to qualify for the PMP® examination. However, while going
through the eligibility criteria he finds that he is falling short of the required experience by a
small margin. He discusses this with a certified PMP® professional and mentions that he is
planning to make up the gap in experience as it is a very small margin. His friend however is not
convinced and warns him that he should not provide false information at any point during the
PMI Certification Program, as it can result in:
a) Revocation of his PMI membership
b) Revocation of his PMP® certification
c) Both of the above are true
d) There will be no impact
Answer: (c) Both of the above are true. Falsification of any information directly or indirectly related
to all aspects of the PMI Certification Program can result in both revocation of PMI Membership and
PMP Certification of a candidate.
156. A Project Manager wants to present project performance reports for his project. Which
of the following formats should he use?
a) Pareto Chart
b) Responsibility Assignment Matrix
c) Bar Chart
d) Control chart
Answer: (c) Bar Chart. A bar chart also known as a Gantt chart is a chart that depicts progress in
relation to time, often used in planning and tracking a project. Though they are weak planning tools
and do not help organize the project as effectively as a Work Breakdown Structure or network
diagram, a bar chart is an effective tool for project progress reporting and control.
157. While monitoring and controlling the projects, why is it required to manage changes to
the project by following the change management plan?
a) To satisfy customer
b) To align business needs
c) For Project requirements
d) To satisfy sponsor
Answer: (b). As per the new examination content outline, it is to ensure project goals remain aligned
with business needs.
159. An assembly line in a car manufacturing plant produces 250 components in one shift.
The QA randomly picks 10 of them for quality checking. This is an example of:
a) Quality Audit
b) Inspection
c) Process Control
d) Process Analysis
160. As a part of the Monitoring and Controlling process group, you and your project team
have listed and are assessing the corrective actions in the issue register. What is the NEXT step
that you will perform?
a) Determine steps for unresolved issues by using appropriate tools to minimize the impact on
project cost, schedule, and resources
b) You have already listed the corrective actions and now it is the customer's responsibility to
decide the resolutions
c) Follow the Change control method
d) Communicate the corrective actions to the stakeholders
Answer: (a) Determine steps for unresolved issues by using appropriate tools to minimize the
impact on project cost, schedule, and resources. Even if you have listed the corrective actions, the
next task is to get them implemented and initiate the resolution of the unresolved issues.
161. What is key purpose of the Monitoring and Controlling process group?
a) Measure project performance in order to identify and quantify any variances and perform
approved corrective actions
b) Perform preventive actions so that no variances ever occur in the project life cycle
c) To conduct daily status meetings
d) None of the above
Answer: (a) Measure project performance in order to identify and quantify any variances and
perform approved corrective actions. Option (b), preventive actions should be identified and
implemented during this process group but they will not ensure no variances will take place
throughout the project life cycle. Option (c), conducting only daily status meetings will not assist in
monitoring and controlling the project.
162. A project is terminated unexpectedly by the sponsor midway during the execution
phase. What should the Project Manager do FIRST?
a) Update process and templates based on lessons learned
b) Create and Distribute final report of project performance
c) Analyze and document success and effectiveness of the project
d) Perform scope verification to verify level of completion
Answer: (d) Perform scope verification to verify level of completion. A Project Manager should first
perform the project scope verification process to establish and document the level and extent of
project completion. Option (a), (b), (c) would follow later.
163. A Project Manager has just finished a Gantt (bar) chart representing the project
schedule. As a result, all of the following documents get updated EXCEPT:
a) Resource Requirement
b) Risk Register
c) Resource Leveling
164. Documentation of lessons learned is important in any project and forms the main input
to organizational process assets. In fact, continuous improvement of the project management
process cannot occur without lessons learned. This process is completed by the project team
and is BEST done at:
a) The end of project completion stage before contract closure
b) Whenever the project implements any corrective action as part of Audit closure
c) As a part of corrective and prevention action on recommendation of the QA
d) Throughout the project, finalized during project phase closing or project closing
Answer: (d) Throughout the project, finalized during project phase closing or project closing. Lessons
learned should be documented all through the project execution and not at the end of the project.
This would make the activity more efficient. Also other projects can use inputs from lessons learned
sooner.
165. A Project Manager is in the 'Control Procurements' process when his sponsor asks him
to terminate the contract. What should the Project Manager do NEXT?
a) Revisit the Proposal Evaluation technique to understand issues with seller
b) Update Records Management System
c) Proceed with Procurement Audit
d) Arrange Vendor conferences to invite new proposals to the contract
Answer: (c) Proceed with Procurement Audit. All contracts must go through formal closure no
matter whether they finished successfully or terminated. As a part of the closure procedure, a
procurement audit should be done to review procurement processes from plan purchases to
contract administration and identify success and failure.
166. All of the following could be a justifiable reason to terminate a project EXCEPT:
a) Project doesn't fulfill organizations' objective any longer
b) Project funding is in serious trouble due to financial meltdown in the company
c) There is serious personal conflict between two senior project members affecting the work
d) The project is no longer commercially viable
Answer: (c) There is serious personal conflict between two senior project members affecting the
work. A project is created with definite set of objectives and it should be terminated only in extreme
situations. Option (a), (b) and (d) are all plausible reasons of project termination. But option (c) is a
conflict situation which is inevitable in a project environment and not a justifiable reason for project
termination. A Project Manager is expected to resolve conflicts in a project using techniques like
establishing team ground rules and using solid management practices like communication planning.
168. The Project Manager has obtained final acceptance of the project deliverables by the
customer. Which of the following is NOT an activity of project closing process?
a) Collate lessons learned and update the organization's knowledge base
b) Distribute the final project report to all the stakeholders
c) Transfer ownership of deliverables to assigned stakeholders
d) Assess old risks and update risk register
Answer: (d) Assess old risks and update risk register. This activity is executed as part of the
monitoring and controlling process group. All the other options (a), (b) and (c) are activities
performed as part of the project closing process group.
170. Procurement documentation is an input to the contract closure procedure. It includes all
of the following EXCEPT:
a) Technical documentation
b) Warranties
c) Payment record
d) Contract closure procedure
Answer: (d) Contract closure procedure.
173. At the close of your project, you measure the customer satisfaction and find that some
customer needs were not fully met. Your supervisor asks you what steps you took on your
project to improve customer satisfaction. Which subsidiary plan would you consult to determine
this information?
a) Quality management plan
b) Communications management plan
c) Resource management plan
d) Risk management plan
Answer: (a) Quality management plan. Customer satisfaction is about making sure that the people
who are paying for the end product are happy with it. Customer satisfaction is an important part of
modern quality management.
174. Your client has terminated your project before it is complete. Which of the following is
true?
a) You must stop all work and release the team immediately
b) You must work with the team to document the lessons learned
c) You must keep the team working on the project to give your senior management time to talk to
the client
d) You must update the project management plan to reflect this change
Answer: (b) You must work with the team to document the lessons learned. Even if a project is shut
down before the work is completed, you still need to document the lessons learned and add them
to the organizational process assets.
175. Your project team has completed the project work. All of the following must be done
before the project can be closed EXCEPT:
a) Ensure that the schedule baseline has been updated
b) Get formal acceptance of the deliverables from the customer
c) Make sure the scope of the project was completed
d) Verify that the product acceptance criteria have been met
Answer: (a) Ensure that the schedule baseline has been updated.
176. Which of the following Quality Theorists is associated with the 80/20 principle?
a) W Edwards Deming
b) Philips Crosby
c) Vilfredo Pareto
180. A network diagram drawing method that allows loops between activities is:
a) Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
b) Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
c) Program Evaluation and Review technique (PERT)
d) Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT)
Answer: (d) Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT).Graphical Evaluation and Review
Technique (GERT) are network analysis techniques that allow for conditional and probabilistic
treatment of logical relationships (that is, some activities may not be performed). The drawing
181. An organization has created a special project team to handle a critical project. The team
members of this project are full-time dedicated to the project and are pulled from different
functional departments. They also have their own set of operating procedures. This organization
structure is MOSTLY:
a) Simple
b) Functional
c) Composite
d) Matrix
Answer: (c) Composite. This is an example of a composite form of organizational structure. Some
organizations fall somewhere between the fully functional and pure matrix, and even a fully
functional organization can create a special project team to handle critical project. The team
members of this project are full-time dedicated to the project and are pulled from different
functional departments. They also have their own set of operating procedures and may operate
outside standard reporting structure.
182. What is the 100% rule in the Work Breakdown Structure creation?
a) The total of work at lowest level adds up to the higher levels, so no work is left out and no extra
work is completed
b) 80% of the problems can be attributed to 20% of the causes
c) WBS must be detailed enough to cover 100% of the work since beginning of the project
d) WBS must contain 100% deliverables both internal and external
Answer: (a) The total of work at lowest level adds up to the higher levels so no work is left out and
no extra work is completed. WBS should be both exhaustive and complete to capture only the work
required to be completed and nothing more. Refer PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition Project Scope
Management pg. 156.
184. What is the meaning of the term 'management by objective' in project management?
a) A management philosophy that advocates establishing unambiguous and realistic objectives and
conduct periodic review to ensure they are being met
185. Which framework or methodology is used to reduce the wastages in the system?
a) CMMi
b) Six Sigma
c) OPM3
d) Just in Time (JIT)
Answer: (b) Six sigma is used to reduce the deviation from the expected value. This in turn reduces
the wastages.
186. A Project Manager working in a weak matrix organization will NOT have which of the
following challenges?
a) Communications will be more complex
b) The team members may not always have a home
c) The team members may get directions from multiple people
d) Team members may not report to the Project Manager
Answer: (b) In a matrix organization, communications will be more complex, the team members will
likely get directions from within their functions as well as from the Project Manager and the team
members may not report into the Project Manager. The team members not having a home is a
challenge on projectile organization matrix.
187. An activity which does NOT require work or take time and is inserted simply to show
dependency between activities is called:
a) Milestone Activity
b) Critical Activity
c) Hammock Activity
d) Dummy Activity
Answer: (d) Dummy Activity. A dummy activity is usually used in the Arrow Diagramming Method
(ADM) and is inserted simply to show dependency between activities and does not require work or
take time. Option (c) Hammock Activity is a schedule (project management) or project planning term
for a grouping of subtasks that 'hangs' between two end dates it is tied to. For example, subtasks
which are not related in the hierarchical sense of a Work Breakdown Structure or subtasks which are
not related in a logical sense of a dependency where one subtask must wait for another.
188. Which of the following factors is MOST critical to achieving customer satisfaction?
189. Which of the following is NOT an example of contributing to the project management
knowledge base?
a) Writing an article of project management best practices
b) Writing a book on your experiences as a Project Manager and lessons learned
c) Giving a session on Risk Management methodologies to fellow Project Managers
d) Briefing a friend and aspiring Project Manager about PMP exam merits and PMI organization
Answer: (d) Briefing a friend and aspiring Project Manager about PMP exam merits and PMI
organization. Option (d) is helpful but does not contribute to project management knowledge base
like all the other activities.
194. In which of the following areas are the following skills considered - Performance
appraisal, recruitment, retention, regulatory issues, and labor relations?
a) Administrative
b) Project Management
c) Accounting
d) General Management
Answer: (a) Administrative. Skills such as performance appraisal, recruitment, retention, regulatory
issues, and labor relations are considered as administrative rather than management.
195. During the closing, final acceptance of the deliverables is one of the important activities.
Who is supposed to accept? Choose the best answer.
a) Customer
b) Sponsor
c) Relevant stakeholders
d) Operation team
Answer: (c). As per the new examination content outline, it is relevant stakeholders who give final
acceptance. Earlier it was sponsor and or customer.
196. Which of the following statements describes the relationship between project phases
and the project life cycle?
a) The project life cycle contains the iterative incremental elements inside a project phase
b) Collectively, the project phases are known as the project life cycle
c) The project life cycle is regarded as a sequence of project activities while phases are defined to
control the overlapping of activities
d) The project life cycle contains the repetitive elements inside a project phase
Answer: (b) Collectively, the project phases are known as the project life cycle.
198. In making an investment in a project, investors require compensation for which of the
following?
a) The risk-free rate of return plus a risk premium plus a premium for inflation
b) Sacrifice of immediate use of cash for consumption or other investments, possibility of inflation
and risk
Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) ― Sixth Edition.
PMP, PMI, and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.