Take Action for Session 4 - Integration Management

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Take Action for Session 4 - Integration Management
NOTE: The following steps assume that you have followed our recommendation and you are studying
Integration Management not as the first, but as the last Knowledge Area from the PMBOK® Guide. You
first studied all the others and you are now coming back to this one.
Studying PMBOK® Guide & PMP® Exam Prep Book

Chapters to study PMBOK PrepBook

4 Project Integration Management  

4.1 Develop Project Charter  

4.2 Develop Project Management Plan  

4.3 Direct and Manage Project Work  

4.4 Monitor and Control Project Work  

4.5 Perform Integrated Change Control  

4.6 Close Project or Phase  

Additional studying - Before you take the PMP® Exam

 Read the  PMP® Examination Content Outline one more time. You received a link to this
document and were asked to read and understand this outline in the first session of this course.
The outline be can retrieved using the link below. Understand what the exam will be testing you
on.

o http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Project-Management-Professional-
PMP/~/media/PDF/Certifications/PMP%20Examination%20Content%20Outline_2010.ashx

 You should read the PMBOK® Guide one more time. Study one knowledge area per day.

 Time permitting read your PMP® Exam Prep Book one more time. Similarly, study one knowledge
area per day.

 Take another 1-2 complete sample exams.

In this Workbook

 Review and follow the advice provided in the  Exam Day Checklist.

 Study the  Types of Expert Judgment . This will help consolidate your understanding of expert
judgment from the various knowledge areas.

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  Take the  Integration Self-Assessment.

Viewing

 Watch the complimentary PM PrepCast™ L00.34  The Day of Your PMP® Exam.

o http://media.studycoachfiles.info/studycoach5/session04/L00.34_The_Day_of_Your_Exam_HR.mp4

 Watch the complimentary PM PrepCast™ L00.35  Understanding Your PMP® Score Report.

o http://media.studycoachfiles.info/studycoach5/session04/L00.35_Understanding_Your_PMP_Score_Report_HR.mp4

Answering Sample Exam Questions

 This week I will answer _______ random sample exam questions.

 This week I will take _______ sample PMP® Exam(s) and time myself.

 Keep track of your results in the Exam Score Worksheet.

My Additional Actions

 _____________________________________________________________

 _____________________________________________________________

 _____________________________________________________________

 _____________________________________________________________

 _____________________________________________________________

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Answer Sheet for Session 04 Self-Assessment
This page should be printed and completed while taking the Self-Assessment. The questions, answers,
and a detailed explanation for each question are on the following pages.

Question Number My Answer Correct Incorrect

Question 01  

Question 02  

Question 03  

Question 04  

Question 05  

Question 06  

Question 07  

Question 08  

Question 09  

Question 10  

Question 11  

Question 12  

Question 13  

Question 14  

Question 15  

Total Number

% Correct _____%

To calculate the % correct, divide the “total correct” by 0.15. Example: If you have 13 correct then calculate 13 / 0.15 = 86.6%

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Questions for Session 04 Self-Assessment
The following 15 self-assessment questions have been hand-picked from www.pm-exam-simulator.com
so that you can test your understanding of the concepts you studied this week.

Question 1: You are managing a retail store construction project. Your sponsor, who is also the
president of the Change Control Board (CCB), has sent you an email requesting a scope change.
How should you respond?
A.) Change project plans to reflect the requested change
B.) Forward the sponsor's email to the CCB for approval
C.) Fill in the change request form and have it signed by the sponsor before forwarding it to the
CCB
D.) Ask the sponsor to send you a signed change request form so that you can forward it to the
CCB

Question 2: An R&D firm catering to the shipping industry has agreed to build a customized yacht
for a client and has proposed to the client that the yacht can be built within a budget of $4 million.
The requirements are frozen and the project manager has received the go ahead to execute the
project. Soon after starting the project work, the project manager realizes that the schedule is in
control but there is a risk of the cost exceeding the budget.
The project manager calls for a meeting to identify the reasons for the increase in budget, and the
reasons for the lack of control in the scope due to changes requested by the client. These scope
changes were implemented by the technical team without approval. To address these issues,
which of the following actions should the project manager perform?

A.) Gather the details of the change and bill the client
B.) Establish a change management process and educate the team. Also, assess the impact of the
changes executed and inform the client about this impact for approval and billing purposes
C.) No action is required since the client would be happy if additional changes are executed
D.) Create a risk in the risk management system and inform the team that client changes are not to
be encouraged since there is a risk of incurring additional costs to the project

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Question 3: While working as a freelance project manager you were engaged in marketing
projects with a number of organizations. Your job was to market their services and you were given
commissions on successfully closed sales. One of the sales involved a multi-year support
contract to provide after-sales service to Sensi Corporation. You receive a 10% share on revenues
as a result of this multi-year support contract. The support only involves the marketing and sales
departments of Sensi Corp.
You recently received an offer from Sensi Corp to join them as a project manager. Your contract
will be for a period of 18 months, during which you will be managing three projects. When you
further delve into the details of these new projects, you uncover that they are for the Finance
Department, and will have no interaction with any other departments. Should you accept the role?

A.) As there is no overlap between your responsibilities and the marketing department, you can
accept the role
B.) Do not accept the role
C.) You were only involved in marketing activity and you have no involvement in day-to-day support
operations, so you can accept the offer
D.) The project is a temporary endeavor, while support is part of operations so you can accept the
role

Question 4: Considering project selection methods, which of the following is a Constrained

Optimization method?
A.) Review Board
B.) Cost-Benefit Analysis
C.) Linear Programming
D.) Economic Models

Question 5: You are managing a project that delivers precision instruments. You noticed that the
quality of the precision instruments produced so far has deviated from the parameters specified
in the Project Management Plan. In order to bring the identified quality defects back in line with
the specifications, which of the following would you initiate?
A.) Corrective Action
B.) Change Request
C.) What-if scenario analysis
D.) Preventive Action

Question 6: Karen is managing a design project which is in the initiating phase. Early in the
project Karen determines that the project may cause physical harm to the project team if safety
equipment is not used. Ensuring the project team's security would require procurement of
expensive safety jackets. This purchase would significantly increase the project budget and the
project would no longer be profitable. Unfortunately, there is also no corporate policy that deals
with such situations. What is Karen's best course of action?
A.) Karen should not worry about procurement during project initiation
B.) Karen must procure the safety jackets
C.) Karen must request additional funds
D.) Karen must request project termination

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Question 7: You are managing a research project with the goal of developing an inexpensive car.
The car is designed to have basic features but to also include air conditioning, power steering and
lots of storage for long drives.
While planning the project you were faced with many difficulties gathering lessons learned and
best practice documents. Similar projects were performed in other locations and the documents
were stored at those sites so you had to contact all of those sites hoping to find the documents.
Some were delivered and some not.
You will close this project in one week and want to highlight the importance of lessons learned as
well as the benefits of making lessons learned documentation centrally available within the
organization. Which of the following would you present as the best advantage for maintaining a
central lessons learned repository?

A.) Easy access to people who prepared lessons learned documents

B.) Increase knowledge and expertise within the organization
C.) Increases employee confidence in the company
D.) Helps better planning of project activities

Question 8: One of your projects had been difficult since the beginning, with your internal
customers often changing their requirements. The most difficult aspect was communication with
and control of the main supplier, who delivered almost all of his deliverables late, resulting in cost
escalation of 32% and time slippage of 2.5 months.
The project involved three internal customers, all of them specialists in their areas. They delivered
their part of the work promptly. With the exception of two negligible delays, all the deliverables
from the internal customers were sent ahead of time. Two of the internal customers were
extremely cost-conscious and delivered their part well below the anticipated cost.
Having received the final completion report, your managing director is annoyed with the main
supplier and has commented that this supplier must not be considered for any future projects of
similar nature.
You are finalizing the lessons learned document, so which of the following lessons should be
included?

A.) Always involve the managing director in the process of finalizing the supplier
B.) Discuss scope in detail with your internal customers
C.) Do not involve any external supplier in this kind of work, unless absolutely necessary
D.) Send a formal letter when you first notice that the supplier has not hit the deadlines

Question 9: A project manager has just closed the design phase for an engine development
project, which is on schedule. The next project phase is the analysis phase, but the project
manager does not know which technique to use. He is worried about the limited time available for
this phase and not having enough technical expertise to perform the analysis for the product
design. All of this could impact project success.
Though the project manager is considering an analysis technique called tetra-meshing, he wants
to find out if there have been similar instances in the past projects and what type of meshing they
applied. Which of the following is the best source for him to gather such information?

A.) Organizational Process Assets

B.) Alternative Analysis Document
C.) Project Charter
D.) Project Management Plan

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Question 10: You are managing a small housing society development project in a remote area.
Your company has performed many similar projects in urban areas and you are using one of your
previous project plans as a template for this project. You plan to progressively elaborate the
project scope as more details become available. If you need to change your project plan as a
result, how should you do it?
A.) Progressive elaboration does not require a change control procedure so you will make the
changes as required
B.) You will issue a change request each time your progressive elaboration requires a change to
the plan
C.) You should not progressively elaborate the project scope because it will lead to scope creep
D.) You may or may not use a change control procedure for changes as a result of progressive
elaboration

Question 11: Business Case : Project Charter == ? : ?

("The Business Case relates to the Project Charter, like ? relates to ?")
Determine the answer that contains the most similar relationship to the one above.

A.) Product Analysis : Define Scope

B.) Define Activities : Activity List
C.) Quality Metrics : Quality Checklists
D.) Project Charter : Stakeholder Register

Question 12: Your company provides specialized IT support services for firmware upgrades. Your
country's government has passed regulations stating that firmware of all telecommunication
equipment must be upgraded to support IPv6. The government has approached your company to
upgrade the firmware of all installed equipment at the major airports in the country. For your
company, this project is a result of which of the following:
A.) Market demand
B.) Strategic opportunity
C.) Customer request
D.) Legal requirement

Question 13: You have just replaced a project manager who was managing a city street light
installation project. The project is in its execution phase. You notice that your team is painting
each lamp post after the installation. However, painting the lamp posts is not in your project
scope of work. There is also no official documentation about the painting of lamp posts. Which of
the following may explain why this gold plating activity is being performed?
A.) The previous project manager did not perform the Monitor and Control Project Work process
B.) The previous project manager did not perform the Integrated Change Control process
C.) The previous project manager did not perform the Validate Scope process
D.) Painting in this scenario is not gold plating

Question 14: You have just taken over a medical research project for your company. The project is
in the execution phase and one of the first things you notice is that there is no Project Charter.
What will be your next step?
A.) You will issue a Change Request
B.) You will consult the Project Management Plan
C.) You will create the Project Charter
D.) You will ask your sponsor to create the Project Charter

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Question 15: You manage a project for a design firm. A colleague is requesting the release of
some of your resources to his project, because these resources have critical technical skills that
both projects need. You analyze the situation critically and because your deliverables have
already been handed over to the customer you decide that you can release the resources early to
help with the other project.
However, the customer informs you later that same week that some of the deliverables require
changes because they did not comply with the acceptance criteria. Unfortunately the only
resources with the skills to perform the rework have already been released to the new project and
are no longer available to work on your project. Which of the following did you fail to perform,
which could have helped you to rework the deliverables on time?

A.) Release of resources after administrative closure

B.) Identification of acceptance criteria
C.) Managing issues through issue log
D.) Apply expert judgment

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Answers for Session 04 Self-Assessment

Question Number Correct Answer

Question 01 C

Question 02 B

Question 03 B

Question 04 C

Question 05 B

Question 06 D

Question 07 B

Question 08 B

Question 09 A

Question 10 D

Question 11 D

Question 12 C

Question 13 A

Question 14 B

Question 15 A

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Answers & Explanations for Session 04 Self-Assessment
The following 15 self-assessment questions have been hand-picked from www.pm-exam-simulator.com
so that you can test your understanding of the concepts you studied this week.

Question 1: You are managing a retail store construction project. Your sponsor, who is also the
president of the Change Control Board (CCB), has sent you an email requesting a scope change.
How should you respond?
A.) Change project plans to reflect the requested change
B.) Forward the sponsor's email to the CCB for approval
C.) Fill in the change request form and have it signed by the sponsor before forwarding it to the
CCB
D.) Ask the sponsor to send you a signed change request form so that you can forward it to the
CCB
Correct answer is C

Explanation: The intent of this question is to make you think about who fills in a change request,
what type of support you as the PM should give to your sponsor and how "pushing back" may
affect your relationship with the sponsor.
Let's analyze the available answers: All change requests must of course be properly documented
before they are processed via the integrated change control process. You therefore cannot change
the project plan without proper processing, even if the request comes from the project sponsor.
Similarly, you cannot treat the email as a proper change request because it is a form of informal
written communication. It must first be "converted" to a change request.
Could you send the email back to your sponsor and ask him to send you a completed change
request form that you then send to the CCB? Yes, that is a possibility, but how will that affect your
relationship with the sponsor? How would this affect your reputation with the sponsor?
The best out of the four available answers is therefore that you yourself fill in the request based on
the sponsor's email. This makes the most sense, because you need to be involved in the process
of analyzing and documenting the effect that the change has in the project. You not only have the
relevant data but also the required perspective and project know-how to make this assessment.
The reason why we feel that this is the best out of the four answers is because the PM should
support any requester in filling in a change request. Especially in the case of a request coming from
the sponsor. Sponsors are usually busy executives and pushing it back may not be a smart thing to
do. The PMBOK® Guide doesn't specifically address this situation. All it says is that a change
request must be filled in, but not by whom. In this case the requester is the sponsor and he has
already documented his request (in a way) in an email. It doesn't make sense to ask him to fill in
the form first and then you will consider it. This is the moment when you put on your "servant
leader" hat.
If you want to break this down into a "hard" rule, then the following may be applied:

 Requester is a key stakeholders: PM provides support

 Requester is non key stakeholder and PM deems this to be a critical/valuable request: PM
provides support
 Requester is non key stakeholder and PM deems this to be a non-critical/non-valuable
request: Requester should fill in the form

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 The ideal situation is of course when the requester fills in the change request himself or herself, but
remember that the goal of this question was to make you consider all options and all angles. This
question is just as much about Stakeholder Management as it is about Integrated Change Control.
Reference: PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition, page 96

Question 2: An R&D firm catering to the shipping industry has agreed to build a customized yacht
for a client and has proposed to the client that the yacht can be built within a budget of $4 million.
The requirements are frozen and the project manager has received the go ahead to execute the
project. Soon after starting the project work, the project manager realizes that the schedule is in
control but there is a risk of the cost exceeding the budget.
The project manager calls for a meeting to identify the reasons for the increase in budget, and the
reasons for the lack of control in the scope due to changes requested by the client. These scope
changes were implemented by the technical team without approval. To address these issues,
which of the following actions should the project manager perform?

A.) Gather the details of the change and bill the client
B.) Establish a change management process and educate the team. Also, assess the impact of the
changes executed and inform the client about this impact for approval and billing purposes
C.) No action is required since the client would be happy if additional changes are executed
D.) Create a risk in the risk management system and inform the team that client changes are not to
be encouraged since there is a risk of incurring additional costs to the project
Correct answer is B
Explanation: Remember that a fixed price project should have the scope defined and agreed upon.
If any changes in the scope are requested then the changes should follow the change
management process, where the impact of the changes are assessed and the changes are
approved before they are implemented. Since the client has requested the change, the first thing
the project manager should do is to establish a change management process within the project.
After educating the team, the project manager should ensure that the impact analysis of the
changes is performed and that this impact is communicated to the client for formal approval and
billing. Establishing a change management process will prevent any unapproved changes from
impacting the project objectives in terms of schedule or cost deviations.
Reference: PMBOK® Guide Fifth Edition, page 94 - 96

Question 3: While working as a freelance project manager you were engaged in marketing
projects with a number of organizations. Your job was to market their services and you were given
commissions on successfully closed sales. One of the sales involved a multi-year support
contract to provide after-sales service to Sensi Corporation. You receive a 10% share on revenues
as a result of this multi-year support contract. The support only involves the marketing and sales
departments of Sensi Corp.
You recently received an offer from Sensi Corp to join them as a project manager. Your contract
will be for a period of 18 months, during which you will be managing three projects. When you
further delve into the details of these new projects, you uncover that they are for the Finance
Department, and will have no interaction with any other departments. Should you accept the role?

A.) As there is no overlap between your responsibilities and the marketing department, you can
accept the role
B.) Do not accept the role
C.) You were only involved in marketing activity and you have no involvement in day-to-day support
operations, so you can accept the offer
D.) The project is a temporary endeavor, while support is part of operations so you can accept the
role

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 Correct answer is B
Explanation: The question is trying to trick you into believing that there is no real conflict of interest
between your revenue share income and the new PM position offered. However, there is a
POTENTIAL for a conflict of interest and according to the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional
Conduct we also try to avoid anything that might be potentially construed as a conflict of interest.
Put yourself into the shoes of of the CFO who is the head of the Finance Department. How would
you react if you learned that one of the project managers in your department is receiving a revenue
share from other departments? Wouldn't that look suspicious to you?
Also remember that the offered contract is for the Finance Department, which is the department
that is going to pay out the 10% that you receive in revenue from the other contract. So even
though you may have no contact to the other departments in your PM role, you work in the
department that handles the money you receive. Again, that can look very suspicious.
And even though everything may be 100% correctly handled, this could all be misinterpreted and
we therefore have to consider this as a potential conflict of interest and you should not accept the
role.
Reference: PMI Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct, Responsibility

Question 4: Considering project selection methods, which of the following is a Constrained

Optimization method?
A.) Review Board
B.) Cost-Benefit Analysis
C.) Linear Programming
D.) Economic Models
Correct answer is C

Explanation: Linear Programming is an example of a Constrained Optimization method. This

method is based on a mathematical approach. Other such methods are non-linear programming,
integer programming, and dynamic programming.
Did you get this question wrong? Then don't worry too much about it. The Constrained
Optimization method is a somewhat obscure tool that can be used for project selection. This
question was placed here to "stump" you and ask a question that is somewhat "unexpected" and is
outside of the regular knowledge required for the PMP Exam.
We did this, because PMI constantly changes and adds questions. So be prepared that you may
come across questions on your "real" exam that ask about tools and techniques that you have
never heard before. The correct approach to such questions is to simply do your best and make a
selection. Do not leave them unanswered, simply because you are unsure. You must answer all
questions without fail.

Reference: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/project_selection_method.htm

Question 5: You are managing a project that delivers precision instruments. You noticed that the
quality of the precision instruments produced so far has deviated from the parameters specified
in the Project Management Plan. In order to bring the identified quality defects back in line with
the specifications, which of the following would you initiate?
A.) Corrective Action
B.) Change Request
C.) What-if scenario analysis
D.) Preventive Action
Correct answer is B

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 Explanation: This is a trick question!
It is asking you to address the "identified quality defects", meaning that it is asking you to fix the
problems we have found on the already produced precision instruments. This is done by initiating a
"defect repair" for your nonconforming products. But since "defect repair" is not available as an
answer, "change request" is the best answer you can select.
"Preventive action" would be correct, if the question asked to you to ensure that future project work
will be according to your project management plan, in a situation where a specific trend in
production is noticed.
"Corrective action" would be correct, if the question asked you to realign current performance of the
process to your project management plan.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide Fifth Edition, page 85

Question 6: Karen is managing a design project which is in the initiating phase. Early in the
project Karen determines that the project may cause physical harm to the project team if safety
equipment is not used. Ensuring the project team's security would require procurement of
expensive safety jackets. This purchase would significantly increase the project budget and the
project would no longer be profitable. Unfortunately, there is also no corporate policy that deals
with such situations. What is Karen's best course of action?
A.) Karen should not worry about procurement during project initiation
B.) Karen must procure the safety jackets
C.) Karen must request additional funds
D.) Karen must request project termination
Correct answer is D

Explanation: Karen must make decisions and take actions based on the best interests of the
company and the project team's safety. She therefore has to buy the jackets if the project is
executed but she should only execute the project if the project is profitable for the company.
As the project is only in initiation, procurement of these jackets cannot take place yet. Karen also
knows that buying the jackets will bring the project into "the red" (not profitable). Therefore, the only
logical step is to request that this project be terminated, as there is no sense in performing a project
at a loss.
By the way: Asking for more funds will also not help. It just increases the amount of money that she
is allowed to spend without getting here out of the minus.

Reference: PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, Responsibility

Question 7: You are managing a research project with the goal of developing an inexpensive car.
The car is designed to have basic features but to also include air conditioning, power steering and
lots of storage for long drives.
While planning the project you were faced with many difficulties gathering lessons learned and
best practice documents. Similar projects were performed in other locations and the documents
were stored at those sites so you had to contact all of those sites hoping to find the documents.
Some were delivered and some not.
You will close this project in one week and want to highlight the importance of lessons learned as
well as the benefits of making lessons learned documentation centrally available within the
organization. Which of the following would you present as the best advantage for maintaining a
central lessons learned repository?

A.) Easy access to people who prepared lessons learned documents

B.) Increase knowledge and expertise within the organization

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 C.) Increases employee confidence in the company
D.) Helps better planning of project activities
Correct answer is B

Explanation: Increase knowledge and expertise within the organization: This is correct because the
intent of creating lessons learned documents is to pass experience gained from one project to the
next project. Having a central lessons learned repository will do so across the whole organization.
Easy access to people who prepared lessons learned documents: Incorrect because resources
change over time. A central repository does not give you access to project managers who no
longer work for the company.
Increases employee confidence in the company: Employee confidence is a result of a lot of factors.
It would be incorrect to categorically state that a centralized lessons learned repository is a factor.
Helps better planning of project activities: This is correct but it's only the second best available
answer. Lessons learned documents will indeed help you to plan better, but they will also help you
improve in many other areas of managing your projects and not just planning.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide Fifth Edition, page 104, 544

Question 8: One of your projects had been difficult since the beginning, with your internal
customers often changing their requirements. The most difficult aspect was communication with
and control of the main supplier, who delivered almost all of his deliverables late, resulting in cost
escalation of 32% and time slippage of 2.5 months.
The project involved three internal customers, all of them specialists in their areas. They delivered
their part of the work promptly. With the exception of two negligible delays, all the deliverables
from the internal customers were sent ahead of time. Two of the internal customers were
extremely cost-conscious and delivered their part well below the anticipated cost.
Having received the final completion report, your managing director is annoyed with the main
supplier and has commented that this supplier must not be considered for any future projects of
similar nature.
You are finalizing the lessons learned document, so which of the following lessons should be
included?

A.) Always involve the managing director in the process of finalizing the supplier
B.) Discuss scope in detail with your internal customers
C.) Do not involve any external supplier in this kind of work, unless absolutely necessary
D.) Send a formal letter when you first notice that the supplier has not hit the deadlines
Correct answer is B

Explanation: The scenario says that the requirements and scope were changed frequently by the
internal customers. This could have been avoided if more focus had been placed on scope
management. Therefore, discussing scope in detail with your internal customers will address the
root cause and is the best answer. If all the requirements from internal customers are frozen for
future projects, the supplier may deliver on time and within cost.
The question doesn't mention whether the supplier was sent a letter or not, so you can't be sure.
The managing director, who is apparently the sponsor here, should not be routinely involved in this
type of project work. Finally, there is no harm involving outside help, as long as it is required, cost
effective or provides availability.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide Fifth Edition, page 104

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Question 9: A project manager has just closed the design phase for an engine development
project, which is on schedule. The next project phase is the analysis phase, but the project
manager does not know which technique to use. He is worried about the limited time available for
this phase and not having enough technical expertise to perform the analysis for the product
design. All of this could impact project success.
Though the project manager is considering an analysis technique called tetra-meshing, he wants
to find out if there have been similar instances in the past projects and what type of meshing they
applied. Which of the following is the best source for him to gather such information?

A.) Organizational Process Assets

B.) Alternative Analysis Document
C.) Project Charter
D.) Project Management Plan
Correct answer is A

Explanation: The project manager is trying to find other, similar projects to see what approaches
they have used. Alternatives analysis, project charter and project management plan are all
documents that are created within the current project. He needs to step outside and look into the
Organizational Process Assets specifically in the organizational database. This is the location
where the project manager can get details on lessons learned best practices, alternatives used in
various situations etc.
By the way: It isn't necessary for you to understand what tetra-meshing is or how it works to
correctly answer this question because the question only asks where he can go look to see what
others have done in his situation.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide Fifth Edition, page 27

Question 10: You are managing a small housing society development project in a remote area.
Your company has performed many similar projects in urban areas and you are using one of your
previous project plans as a template for this project. You plan to progressively elaborate the
project scope as more details become available. If you need to change your project plan as a
result, how should you do it?
A.) Progressive elaboration does not require a change control procedure so you will make the
changes as required
B.) You will issue a change request each time your progressive elaboration requires a change to
the plan
C.) You should not progressively elaborate the project scope because it will lead to scope creep
D.) You may or may not use a change control procedure for changes as a result of progressive
elaboration
Correct answer is D

Explanation: Because of the potential for change, the project management plan is iterative.
Progressive elaboration involves continuously improving and adding detail to a plan as more
information and more accurate estimates become available. Progressive elaboration allows a
project team to manage to a greater level of detail as the project evolves.
Progressive elaboration is a well-accepted project management technique. Whether or not you
adopt a change control procedure for changes that result from progressive elaboration depends on
the type of change required. Minor changes will not require change control. Significant changes
that require adjustments to the project baselines should use the change control procedure.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition, page 55

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Question 11: Business Case : Project Charter == ? : ?
("The Business Case relates to the Project Charter, like ? relates to ?")
Determine the answer that contains the most similar relationship to the one above.

A.) Product Analysis : Define Scope

B.) Define Activities : Activity List
C.) Quality Metrics : Quality Checklists
D.) Project Charter : Stakeholder Register
Correct answer is D

Explanation: This question is intentionally designed to take you outside of the "comfort zone" of
how PMP Exam questions are usually phrased. The idea was to make you stop dead in your tracks
as you are going through the exam and to teach you that you sometimes just have to take a guess.
What you should have done is this:

 Read the question and realize that this is a difficult question to answer.
 Realize that you only have 1.2 minutes for each question and that figuring this one out is
going to take much longer.
 Mark the question for review and move on to the next one.
 Come back to this question later and try to answer it.
 Realize again, that you probably don't know the answer and that it's going to be difficult to
figure out.
 Make a guess and just pick one of the 4 available answers.

The three biggest mistakes that people make in answering this question are to:

 Spend too much time on it.

 Start opening their books (you don't have the books with you on the real PMP Exam).
 Leave the question unanswered.

Remember that it is important to answer all questions on the PMP Exam even if you have to guess.
If you don't select an answer your response is wrong. If you guess, you have at least a 25%
chance of being right.
So... how do you find the answer to this question? To answer the question you need to first identify
the relationship between the Business Case and the Project Charter. Then you need to identify the
two items that have the most similar relationship from the four available answers.

What is the relationship in the question?

 Business Case : Project Charter = "The business case is an input to the Develop Project
Charter process, which produces the Project Charter."

What are the relationships in the available answers?

 Product Analysis : Define Scope = "Product Analysis is a tool and technique of the Define
Scope process".
 Define Activities : Activity List = "Define Activities is the process that produces an Activity
List".
 Quality Metrics : Quality Checklists = "Both Quality Metrics and Quality Checklists are
outputs of the Plan Quality process".

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  Project Charter : Stakeholder Register = "The Project Charter is an input to the Identify
Stakeholders process, which in turn produces the Stakeholder Register".

As you can see, the relationship in "Project Charter : Stakeholder Register" is most similar to the
one we are looking for and therefore the correct answer.
Do you feel that this question is too difficult, that it is not a "real" PMP exam question and that it is
impossible to answer correctly? We agree 100%. The reason that this question was created was to
give you the experience of coming across an unusually difficult question and forcing you to take a
guess. Therefore, when you take the PMP Exam, be prepared because you may encounter a
question that you just don't know how to answer. Remember what you have learned here and take
a guess.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition, pages 66, 393

Question 12: Your company provides specialized IT support services for firmware upgrades. Your
country's government has passed regulations stating that firmware of all telecommunication
equipment must be upgraded to support IPv6. The government has approached your company to
upgrade the firmware of all installed equipment at the major airports in the country. For your
company, this project is a result of which of the following:
A.) Market demand
B.) Strategic opportunity
C.) Customer request
D.) Legal requirement
Correct answer is C

Explanation: This is a tricky scenario and the answer is at first a bit surprising. Let's look at this
from the point of view of both the government and your company:

 The government approached your company to do this project because they are bound by
their own regulations. So for the government, this project was initiated as a result of their
own legal requirement.
 For your company, however, the project is initiated by a customer request.

Remember that you don't own the airports nor the equipment installed there so you don't have a
legal requirement to update the firmware. The government, on the other hand, owns the
airports/equipment and is therefore asking you to perform this update. In this case, the government
is a customer like any other customer and you are doing this project as result of their request.
Reference: PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition, page 69

Question 13: You have just replaced a project manager who was managing a city street light
installation project. The project is in its execution phase. You notice that your team is painting
each lamp post after the installation. However, painting the lamp posts is not in your project
scope of work. There is also no official documentation about the painting of lamp posts. Which of
the following may explain why this gold plating activity is being performed?
A.) The previous project manager did not perform the Monitor and Control Project Work process
B.) The previous project manager did not perform the Integrated Change Control process
C.) The previous project manager did not perform the Validate Scope process
D.) Painting in this scenario is not gold plating
Correct answer is A

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 Explanation: This is clearly an example of gold plating. Gold plating is extraneous work that a
project team performs without approval, even if it enhances the project. If the previous project
manager had properly performed the Monitor and Control Project Work process he would have
noticed the gold plating activity and stopped it.
Gold plating is related to an issue in scope management so you may be tempted to select Validate
Scope. Validate Scope, is the process of formalizing the acceptance of completed project
deliverables. It is possible to catch gold plating at that point, however, that would be much later.
Monitor and Control Project Work is the best answer in order to get clarification on the issue
sooner. Should a change request then be required that is where Integrated Change Control comes
in.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition, page 88

Question 14: You have just taken over a medical research project for your company. The project is
in the execution phase and one of the first things you notice is that there is no Project Charter.
What will be your next step?
A.) You will issue a Change Request
B.) You will consult the Project Management Plan
C.) You will create the Project Charter
D.) You will ask your sponsor to create the Project Charter
Correct answer is B

Explanation: As the Project Charter does not exist, "You will create the Project Charter" and "You
will ask your sponsor to create the Project Charter" seem to be reasonable choices. However, you
are new to the project and it is already in the execution phase (meaning that Initiating and Planning
are complete and signed off). Your immediate reaction to the statement, "one of the first things you
notice is that there is no Project Charter," should be to ask yourself, "Why is there no Project
Charter?" and determine the reason.
The correct action in this scenario is to first consult the Project Management Plan to determine
what really happened on the project. Once you have established the reason for the missing Project
Charter, you can then take the next logical step.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition, pages 71, 76, 77

Question 15: You manage a project for a design firm. A colleague is requesting the release of
some of your resources to his project, because these resources have critical technical skills that
both projects need. You analyze the situation critically and because your deliverables have
already been handed over to the customer you decide that you can release the resources early to
help with the other project.
However, the customer informs you later that same week that some of the deliverables require
changes because they did not comply with the acceptance criteria. Unfortunately the only
resources with the skills to perform the rework have already been released to the new project and
are no longer available to work on your project. Which of the following did you fail to perform,
which could have helped you to rework the deliverables on time?

A.) Release of resources after administrative closure

B.) Identification of acceptance criteria
C.) Managing issues through issue log
D.) Apply expert judgment
Correct answer is A

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 Explanation: The question is asking you to identify the activity that could have helped perform the
rework on time. It's tricky because none of the answers are "perfect" and you need to select the
"best" one:

 The scenario clearly states that you analyzed the situation critically. You have therefore not
failed to apply expert judgment to the situation. (Your judgment may have been wrong, but
you did apply it.)
 Identification of acceptance criteria cannot help perform rework on time.
 Managing issues through an issue log will also not improve your chances of performing
rework on time.

Therefore, the only action that could have helped you to perform the rework on time would have
been to not release the resources in the first place. If you had waited to release them until after the
administrative closure of the project was completed (= end of project) then your resources would
have been available.
Obviously, the best action would have been to release the resources with a provision to get them
back on short notice in case that rework needed to be done on any deliverables. But that answer
isn't available for this question, so you needed to think this through from a PMBOK® Guide
perspective and select the one that would have helped you.

Reference: PMBOK® Guide Fifth Edition, pages 100, 101

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Exam Day Checklist
 Eat light, nourishing meals. You would be surprised how many people skip a meal or two and then
go into the exam tired. That’s usually a prescription for failure.

 Stay away from caffeine and alcohol

 Do a 30-minute review of your study notes.

 Dress comfortably.

 Bring the following with you:

o The PMI® exam eligibility letter / email.

o The test appointment confirmation.

o Two forms of ID (at least one must be a government photo ID.)

o Sweater or light jacket

o Snacks and water

o Foam earplugs

 Review the test taking strategy you completed in the Stakeholder Management workbook.

 Drive to the test center. Plan on arriving at least half an hour early.

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Types of Expert Judgment
Expert Judgment
Knowledge, as the intangible asset of intellectual capital, has now become the primary source of wealth
and power in business and society in general. This mostly displaces the tangible assets industrial capital
of plant, equipment, energy, and financial capital. Business management and leadership must be
rethought to account for the different and surprising characteristics of knowledge, the new primary capital.
In the field of project management this intellectual capital is called expert judgment. Expert judgment is
the most commonly referenced technique within the PMBOK® Guide, which emphasize the importance of
using available knowledge to the benefit of projects.
Expert judgment can be expressed in two forms:
o Qualitative — A textual description of the expert’s assumptions in reaching an estimate, reasons
for selecting or eliminating certain data or information from analysis, and natural language
statements of physical quantities of interest (e.g., "the system performs well under these
conditions.")

o Quantitative — Probabilities, ratings, odds, uncertainty estimates, weighting factors, and

physical quantities of interest (e.g., costs, time, duration, etc.).
Expert judgment can be viewed as a representation, a snapshot, of the expert’s state of knowledge at the
time of response to the technical question [1]. Thus, expert judgment can and legitimately should change
through time as the expert receives new information. In addition, because the judgment reflects the
expert’s knowledge and learning, the experts can validly differ in their judgments.
Sources of Expert Judgment
The following table provides a sampling of the various forms of expert judgment. This table is not
designed to be all encompassing but to act as a catalyst for thought to help identify the sources of
knowledge available to your projects.
o Academia
The use of college deans and professors is an excellent way to gain credible academic-based
insight into your project. The information could be based on a an industry subject such as the
impact of using global resources on a project to something specific to the college itself such as
the time it takes to scan papers for plagiarism.

o Customers
Customers are an excellent source of knowledge when it comes to their own business and its
processes. Conducting individual and group interviews with your customer’s groups can provide
invaluable insight into how things really work and what it really takes to get the job done.

o External consultants
External consultants can be a great resource because invariably they bring a wide variety of
experiences to the discussion. What is important to understand is that as with all sources of
expert judgment, there could be a wide variation in the opinions of external consultants so it is
advisable to rationalize the data against other sources of expert judgment.

o Family
Clearly the project dictates whether or not a family member is a good source of expertise but
nonetheless don’t forget to consider those that nearest and dearest to you.

o Friends
Although this is similar to family members, friends can be excellent sources of information
because of the diverse background that they invariably have. Caution should be taken to ensure

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 a high degree of integrity is maintained and that the information you get isn’t simply ‘what you
want to hear’ and is indeed based on the friend’s professional experiences.

o Government officials
Federal, state, and local government officials and employees can be excellent sources of
knowledge due to the immense exposure they have to resources typically well beyond our own.
It’s important to understand that getting a government official to act as an expert can be
complicated so be prepared for a possible flood of ‘red tape’.

o Industry analysts and groups

Industry analysts and groups are a unique source of information because their constituency is
comprised of many companies and key contacts within those companies. As a result, not only
are the analysts well versed in the respective industry, they have access to a wide range of other
sources of expert judgment.

o Local business network

Invariably in most cities there are a wide variety of local business networks that focus on specific
industries (e.g. construction, software development, financial and banking services, etc.). These
business networks typically hold frequent meetings for its members and the public. As a result,
not only might there be a potential expert in the membership but perhaps a guest speaker at one
of the meetings would also serve the project well.

o Online networking sites

Often finding an expert isn’t so much about having an existing relationship but more about
knowing where to go to find them. The growing popularity and importance of social networking
sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have positioned them as a great way to reach out
to find the expert for your particular project.

o Published authors
Although anyone today can self-publish their own positions it is important that when seeking an
expert in this case you should focus on authors who have been published by established media
companies. This is important to ensure you have a high degree of credibility for the expert you
engage to help.

o Seasoned, experienced professionals

Not every expert needs to be a published author or someone with a PhD. Sometimes the expert
is the person who has spent their career down in the trenches and knows the subject matter
inside and out because they have spent a lifetime tearing it down and rebuilding it.

o Stakeholders
Stakeholders are stakeholders because they have a vested interest in the success of the project.
The reason they do is often because they have direct and intimate knowledge of what the project
encompasses. Don’t be afraid to reach out to this important demographic, they will respect you
for knowing enough to ask for help from them.

o Subject matter experts (SMEs) within your organization

We all know the ‘go to’ person in our companies, you know, the person who has been around for
decades, the person who wrote the manual, the one that we all know that when they are sick or
on vacation no one messes with the system they work on. That person is a deeply valuable
source of information because of the legacy of information they have and the ‘been there, done
that’ experiences they bring to the project.

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 o Trade associations
Although trade associations are simply organizational entities they often are founded and run by
people who have committed a lifetime of work on the particular trade. In addition to that, they can
direct you to others in the association’s membership who can be called on to assist.
[1] Keeney, R.L. and von Windterfeldt, D. (1989). On the Uses of Expert Judgment on Complex Technical Problems, IEEE
Transactions on Engineering Management, 36, 83-86.

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Version History of this Weekly Workbook
Version Date Comments
1.00 2014-04-30 Original

Copyright and Disclaimer

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