Project Management Academy Mock Exam

9/17/2020 Project Management Academy
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MY ACCOUNT PROJECT PLANNER CLUB PDU
Final Score = 53%

Process Group Breakdown
Closing = 43%
100
Executing = 69%
Initiating = 50%
69%
Monitoring = 44% 75
Planning = 51% 50% 51%

43% 44%
50
25
0
Closing Initiating Planning
Executing Monitoring
Knowledge Area Breakdown

Communications Management = 63% 100
86%
Cost Management = 47%
75%
Framework = 75% 75 63% 62%
Integration Management = 59% 59%
54%
Procurement Management = 27% 50
47%
Quality Management = 54% 35%

29%
27%
Resource Management = 86% 25
20%
Risk Management = 62%

Schedule Management = 35% 0
Scope Management = 29%
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Stakeholder Management = 20%

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Show All Questions Show Incorrect Questions Show Correct Questions
Question: 1 ( Correct - You answered: D )

A key stakeholder comes to you with what you believe to be a major change to the project. You only have one week of buffer in your
plan and your project absolutely cannot be late. What should you do?
A. Inform the stakeholder that due to the tight schedule you cannot make the change
B. Issue a change request immediately and let the change control board decide
C. Begin working on the change, because this is a key stakeholder and you should keep her happy
D. Analyze the impact of the change
Planning - Integration Management
The first thing you should do in this case is analyze the impact of the change. You must always analyze the impact before you
issue a change request. Choice A is incorrect, because you don't yet know the impact - it might turn out the change can be done
in less than one week.
Question: 2 ( Correct - You answered: B )

A major problem with your organizational structure is that when the project is finished, the team often has no other work to do and
must be let go. What type of organization structure does this refer to?
A. Balanced Matrix
https://projectmanagementacademy.net/portal/user/testing.php 1/36
B. Project-oriented
C. Functional
D. Weak Matrix
Executing - Framework
In a Project-oriented (sometimes called Projectized or composite/hybrid) organizational structure the project team reports to only
one boss and is tasked with working solely on the one project. One major problem with this type of structure is what to do with
the team members when the project is completed. One way this is handled is to terminate the employment of all team members.

A project manager is faced with two team members who have a conflicting view of how the work on the project should be done. The
project manager sits down with the two team members and calmly discusses the options and benefits to each method. At the end of
the meeting they come up with a solution that both agree to. This is an example of what?
A. Compromise
B. Collaborating
C. Forcing
D. Withdrawal
Executing - Resource Management
This is an example of collaborating, also known as problem solving. With collaborating you discuss all options and work through
the problem. With compromise you just meet in the middle without much real discussion.
Question: 4 ( Correct - You answered: C )

All of the following are included in the Roles and Responsibilities section of the Resource Management Plan except which one?
A. Role
B. Authority
C. Ownership
D. Competence
Planning - Resource Management
Roles and responsibilities are part of Resource Management Plan. Remember the Resource Plan includes 9 major things:
Identification of Resources, Acquiring Resources, Roles and Responsibilities, Project Organization Charts, Project Team
Resource Management, Training, Team Development, Resource Control, and Recognition Plan. The Roles and Responsibilities
addresses Role, Authority, Responsibility, and Competency.
Question: 5 ( Incorrect - You answered: D )

All of the following are maturity levels of CMMI except?
A. Optimizing
B. Effectiveness
C. Defined
D. Quantitatively managed
Monitoring - Quality Management
The five maturity levels are Initial, Managed, Defined, Quantitatively managed, and Optimizing.
Question: 6 ( Correct - You answered: A )

All of the following are tools and techniques of Acquire Resources except for which one?
A. Networking
B. Pre-Assignment
C. Virtual Teams
D. Negotiation
Networking is a tool and technique of Develop Human Resource Plan, which comes before Acquire Resources.

Which of the following are tools and techniques of Manage Team?
A. Virtual teams
B. Training
C. Team Performance Appraisals
D. Interpersonal Skills
Virtual teams, Training and Team performance appraisals are used during the Develop Team process.

All of the following are true regarding Risk Audits except for which one?
A. The frequency with which they are conducted should be specified in the Risk Management Plan.
B. They may be conducted during routine project review meetings or via special risk audit meetings.
C. The format of the audit and its objectives should be open and flexible, such that they can be adapted as the audit is
in progress.
D. They examine and document the effectiveness of risk responses in dealing with identified risks and their root causes.
Monitoring - Risk Management
The format of the audit and its objectives should be clearly defined before the audit is conducted.

All of the following occur during the closing process group, except which one?
A. Release or reassign personnel
B. Validation of scope
C. Create lessons learned
D. Conduct regression analysis
Closing - Integration Management
Remember that the validate scope process takes place during monitoring and controlling. All of the other answer choices are
done during closing.

All of the following processes are designed to identify, analyze and/or address specific risks, except for which one?
A. Plan Risk Management
B. Identify Risks
C. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
D. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
Executing - Risk Management
The Risk Management Plan is not designed to address specific risks (though it may include risk categories). Rather, it sets forth
the ways in which the project team will go about managing risk.

An important aspect of success criteria is that it should be quantifiable. Which of the following is an example of quantifiable success
criteria?
A. The product has high quality
B. A ten percent reduction in production costs
C. The customer is happy with the results
D. An increase in stakeholder satisfaction
Initiating - Framework
Quantifiable means measurable, and thus is typically numeric. The only answer choice that can be accurately measured is
choice B, because it has a number in it. All of the other answer choices are subjective.
Question: 12 ( Incorrect - You answered: C )

As the new project manager for the Better Beach Bicycle Company, you and the project team are reviewing the WBS which was
created by the previous project team. After the project was postponed indefinitely, the previous project manager and project team
were released. You notice that the lowest level nodes of the WBS do not include a list of activities. Which of the following is true?
A. You realize that the previous project team did not finish the WBS since it should have included the required activities.
B. This is OK since the lowest level of the WBS should be the work package level.
C. You realize that the previous project team did not finish the WBS since it should have included the required resources.
D. This is OK since the previous team was using rolling-wave planning therefore the lowest level of the WBS is the work
package level.
Planning - Scope Management
A WBS is a hierarchical decomposition down to the work package level. A WBS never includes resources or activities lists.
Rolling-wave planning starts with a completed WBS and is not used to create one.

As time passes in a project, which of the following does not happen?
A. Cost of change increases
B. Risk increases
C. Stakeholder influence decreases
D. Cumulative project spending increases
Monitoring - Framework
As time passes in a project the cost of change increases, risk decreases, and stakeholder influence decreases. Cost of change
increases because as time passes if you make a change it will likely require rework. Risk decreases because as time passes
you complete more work and thus your uncertainty goes down. Stakeholder influence decreases, because you gather
information from stakeholders at the beginning of the project and as you go forward you are executing according to the plan
rather than according to the whims of the stakeholders.
Question: 14 ( Incorrect - You answered: B )

Controlling risk should be a continuous effort throughout your project, and should always receive close attention. Which of the
following is not true about controlling risk?
A. Risk identification and monitoring are the responsibilities of the entire project team.
B. It involves making sure sufficient contingency reserves are in place given the risks which remain.
C. Risk mitigation is a risk response planning technique associated with opportunities that seek to increase the
probability of occurrence or impact of a positive risk.
D. Residual risks are risks that remain after risk responses have been implemented.
Risk mitigation seeks to lower the probability of a negative risk occurring, and soften the impact if it does occur. It is only used for
negative risks (threats).

Cost of Quality is defined as?
A. Money spent during the project to avoid failures and divided into two categories: Prevention and Appraisal
B. All costs over the life of the project associated with quality and divided into two categories: Conformance and
Nonconformance
C. Money spent during and after the project to avoid failures and divided into two categories: Internal and External
D. A qualitative measurement that calculates the expected monetary value of quality control measures using the formula COQ
= impact x probability x cash flow
Planning - Quality Management
Money spent to avoid failures is the Cost of Conformance, while money spent addressing failures is the Cost of Non
Conformance. Expected monetary value can be used to calculate conformance and non-conformance costs; however it is a
quantitative calculation, not a qualitative.

Defects found late in the project are _____ ?
A. Easy to fix
B. Expensive to fix
C. Catastrophic to the project
D. The project manager's fault
Monitoring - Framework
As time passes in a project, defects become more expensive to repair. Also remember that stakeholder influence and risk
decrease as time passes.

Developing an accurate project schedule is an important part of the planning process. You have used the Critical Path Method to
ensure that you identify the critical path within your schedule network. Which of the following statements is true?
A. The project schedule is often a graphical representation showing activities, start and finish dates and is used to
show what has actually happened with regards to the scheduled work
B. The project schedule is often a graphical representation showing the approved activities, start and finish dates and is used
to compare what has actually happened
C. The project schedule is always a Gantt Chart generated from a computer program
D. The project schedule is generated by a computer
Planning - Schedule Management
The project schedule is often a graphical representation showing activities, start and finish dates and is used to show what has
actually happened with regards to the scheduled work. The baseline is described in Answer B. Answers C and D are there as
distractions, as we can build a schedule with the use of software.

Everything has been going smoothly on your project until this morning. A fire broke out at the job site as a result of a lightning strike
from a very unusual thunderstorm and has destroyed quite a bit of the work completed to date. You review your Risk Management
Plan and do not find any mention of this type of occurrence. This is an example of:
A. Poor risk planning which failed to identify this as a risk
B. An unidentified risk which will most likely be covered by a management reserve
C. A risk which should have been identified during qualitative analysis
D. An unidentified risk which will be covered by a contingency reserve
Planning - Risk Management
Management reserves are for responding to unidentified risks. It is impossible to identify all risks, therefore some will remain
unidentified. Contingency reserves are for responding to identified risks.

Formal approval has been provided for your project, and you are asking around to see who else might be impacted by your project.
What process group are you in?
A. Initiating
B. Planning
C. Executing
D. Monitoring and Controlling
Initiating - Integration Management
The question is describing the Identify Stakeholders process, which is part of the Initiating process group.

Grace is a project manager for Cosmic Systems. When Grace is out of the office she doesn't trust her employees to get work done
and when she is in the office, she is always looking over their shoulders. What type of manager is Grace?
A. Psychotic
B. Theory X
C. Theory Y
D. Theory Z
Theory X managers believe that workers are lazy and don't naturally want to work and thus must be watched constantly. Theory
Y managers believe that workers naturally work hard and thus can be left alone to do their jobs. While choice A may be true, it's
not a PMBOK Guide definition and we'll leave it to the medical professionals to make that diagnosis.

In a meeting with the project stakeholders you are presenting a performance report which was produced using the following data:
EAC = 350, BAC = 300, ETC = 200 and AC=150. Variances to date are expected to continue. You are asked by the project sponsor
if it's possible for you to complete the project within your original cost performance baseline, and if so, at what efficiency rate would
you need to perform. What is the best answer to this question?
A. Because the BAC is less than the EAC, you will complete the project under budget
B. Because the EAC is more than the BAC, you will complete the project over budget
C. You can still complete the project within budget, if your Cost Performance Index is at or above 1.14 the rest of the
way
D. You do not have enough data to answer this question
Monitoring - Cost Management
To Complete Performance Index (TCPI) is the optimal cost performance that must be achieved to meet the original budget or
BAC of 300. TCPI = (BAC-EV) / (BAC-AC). We are not given the value of EV, however, we can solve for it. Since we know that
variances to date are typical, we use the EAC = BAC/CPI formula to solve for CPI. Our equation looks like this: EAC = BAC / X.
To solve for X, we simply divide BAC (300) by EAC (350) to get a CPI of .86. Now that we have solved for CPI, we can calculate
EV since we know the formula for CPI is EV/AC. Thus, CPI = X / AC. Filling in the numbers, we get .86 = X / 150. So we multiply
150 X .86 to get EV of 129. Now we can finally perform the TCPI calculation, which is (300-129)/ 300-150) = 171/150, which
yields a TCPI of 1.14

In a strong matrix organization the role of the project manager is best described as?
A. Expediter
B. Full-time
C. Coordinator
D. Part-time
Planning - Framework
In a balanced matrix, strong matrix, and project-oriented organizational structure, the role of the project manager is full time.
According to the PMBOK Guide, in a functional organization, the role of the project manager is part-time and is more like a
project coordinator or project expediter.
Question: 23 ( Incorrect - You answered: A )

In which of the following processes would it be most helpful for you as a project manager to employ data gathering techniques?
A. Develop Project Charter and Estimate Costs
B. Define Scope and Define Activities
C. Collect Requirements and Identify Risk
D. Create WBS and Control Scope
Collecting requirements and identifying risk both rely heavily on information gathering techniques. In both processes, it is
important to extract as much information as possible (to ensure that all necessary requirements are captured, and to ensure all
potential risks are identified).

In which of the following team-building stages does the team begin to work together and build good working relationships?
A. Storming
B. Performing
C. Forming
D. Norming
Tuckman's 5 stages of team development are Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. Forming is where the
team is initially brought together; Storming is where the team has disagreements; Norming is where the team begins to work
together; Performing is where the team reaches optimal performance; and Adjourning is where the team disbands.

Jeff is a senior engineer on your project. During a progress review meeting you come across a potentially disastrous risk to your
project. Jeff tells the team that he has a fix to avoid the risk and ensure everything goes smoothly. Everyone trusts Jeff's advice,
because he has a lot of experience handling these types of technical risks. What kind of power does Jeff have?
A. Formal
B. Expert
C. Legitimate
D. Referent
There are 14 types or sources of power. Some of these include formal/legitimate, expert, reward, referent, and
punishment/penalty. Jeff derives his power from his vast amount of experience, thus he is using Expert power. Positional (aka
Formal /Legitimate) power is derived from your position or title. Referent power is derived from your charisma or how well others
like you.

Lines of authority, team member responsibilities, and loyalties can be blurred in a balanced matrix environment. You should do all of
the following during the Develop Team process except for which one?
A. Schedule a regular meeting with the functional supervisors of each team member to ensure they remain authorized
to work on the project until their responsibilities are completed
B. Meet with the functional supervisors of each team member to discuss strategies for coordinating performance appraisals
and feedback
C. Develop a training plan and schedule to ensure that team members receive the appropriate training needed to enhance their
competencies
D. Establish a set of ground rules regarding acceptable behavior
A meeting with functional supervisors to ensure team members are authorized to work on a project is done during the Acquire
Resources process, and not on a recurring basis.

McClelland's Theory of Needs states that people fit into categories and are motivated by three types of needs. Managers should
determine which of the 3 categories an employee fits into and manage them accordingly. Which of the following is not one of
McClelland's 3 needs?
A. Money
B. Power
C. Affiliation
D. Achievement
McClelland's Theory of Needs states that people are either motivated by power, affiliation, or achievement. Managers should
determine which category an employee falls into and manage them accordingly.

Once you have completed deliverables during execution, you perform quality control to check for correctness. Once it is determined
that the deliverables are correct, what are the deliverables then called, and which process will they proceed to next?
A. Deliverables, Close Project
B. Verified deliverables, Validate Scope
C. Accepted deliverables, Close Project
D. Validated deliverables, Quality Assurance
While the PMBOK Guide says that Control Quality and Validate Scope can occur in parallel, the ITTO's make it clear that
deliverables go from execution to CQ, then to validate scope, and finally to close project or phase.

One of your vendors has not completed the work required on the project and you have exhausted all other options to resolve the
dispute. Which of the following is not an appropriate option?
A. Lawsuit
B. Arbitration
C. Mediation
D. Procurement audit
Monitoring - Procurement Management
If you have exhausted all other options to resolve the dispute, then your procurements specialists may consider mediation,
arbitration, or even a lawsuit to resolve the dispute. A procurement audit is just a structured review of the entire procurement
process as a whole, and would not be helpful to resolve a dispute.

Parametric estimating is best described as which of the following?
A. A weighted average method of estimating costs or durations
B. Using a previous project to calculate the cost or duration, making adjustments for known differences
C. Using a statistical relationship to a past project (such as cost per unit) to calculate the cost or duration
D. Breaking an activity down into smaller components that are easier to estimate, then aggregating the costs or durations
Parametric estimating is when you use a statistical relationship (such as cost per unit) to calculate the cost or duration. Choice A
describes three-point estimates (PERT), choice B describes Analogous estimating, and choice D describes bottom-up
estimating.

A diagram used to break a problem down into discrete branches could be identified by all of the following names except which one?
A. Branch or tree diagram
B. Why-why diagram
C. Ishikawa diagram
D. Fishbone diagram
Executing - Quality Management
A diagram that is used to break down a problem into discreet branches is called a Fishbone, Ishikawa, Cause-and-Effect or a
Why-why diagram.

One of the key factors in managing project quality is decision-making. All of the following describe product-related quality decisions
except which one?
A. Decisions about evaluating the level of stakeholder satisfaction
B. Decisions related to risk associated with resolving defects in the final product
C. Life-cycle cost evaluation decisions
D. Making a choice about different implementation scenarios or suppliers
Answers A through C are all factors that relate to making product-based quality decisions. Choosing between different
implementation scenarios or suppliers is a project-based decision. See Page 293 of the PMBOK Guide.

Project Scope Validation involves all of the following except?
A. Formalized acceptance of completed project deliverables
B. Reviewing deliverables with the customer or project sponsor
C. Verifying the correctness of project deliverables
D. Verifying the completion of project deliverables
Monitoring - Scope Management
Verifying the correctness of deliverables is part of the Control Quality process, whereas the total completion of the deliverables is
determined via Validate Scope.

Regarding change, the project manager's attention is best spent doing which of the following?
A. Informing the sponsor and stakeholders of changes
B. Tracking and recording changes
C. Building relationships with the change control board members
D. Preventing unnecessary changes
Monitoring - Integration Management
As a project manager you should try to be proactive and prevent changes as much as possible, thus choice D is the correct
answer.

Stakeholders are best described as?
A. People who ask you to do more work
B. People who are actively involved in or affected by the project
C. People who approve the project
D. People to whom you report about project performance
Initiating - Stakeholder Management
The definition of a stakeholder is anyone who is actively involved in, or anyone who is positively or negatively affected by, the
project. Not all stakeholders ask you to do work on the project, and not all stakeholders necessarily approve the project - that
would be determined in your Project Management Plan. Finally, not all stakeholders will receive reports regarding project
performance (the Communications Management Plan would outline who receives what information, how frequently, etc.)

Susan has just been appointed as the project manager for a software project and realizes that no WBS has been created and the
project is entering the construction phase. What should she do?
A. She should report this to senior management and start work on the construction phase
B. She should get details from WBS Dictionary to create the WBS
C. The WBS should be created first and then construction work started
D. She should refuse to manage the project without a WBS
The problem here is that the WBS had not been prepared. The correct choice C states that she should first create a WBS and
then start the construction phase. Choice A talks about reporting the matter to senior management but that does not solve the
problem. Choice B talks about finding information from the WBS Dictionary, but the WBS dictionary is dependent on the WBS.
Choice D is also wrong as it talks about refusing to manage the project, which does not solve the problem. Moreover, the role of
project manager is one of a proactive problem solver. Finally, while we may have preferred an answer such as "allow preliminary
construction to occur while simultaneously creating the WBS," the exam will force us to choose from the responses given even
when none of them are a preferred or ideal response to the given situation.

The assurance that a product, service or system meets the needs of the customer is?
A. Verification
B. Justification
C. Association
D. Validation
Verification is the evaluation of whether or not a product, service, or system complies with a regulation, requirement,
specification, or imposed condition. Justification would be the support and reason for doing the project.

The project team is using a white board with post-it notes showing the activities being worked on for the near term activities only.
What is being used?
A. Lean Six Sigma
B. CMMI
C. Status board
D. Kanban
Kanban is a method for managing knowledge work with an emphasis on just-in-time (JIT) delivery (current work) while not
overloading the team members (all of the work), using visual components such as white boards. Lean Six Sigma is a
methodology to improve results by eliminating the seven kinds of waste. CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is a
process improvement framework to help organizations build capability in their people and processes, with five maturity levels.
Status board is not a PMI term.

There are several versions of the project scope statement floating around. Unfortunately, there is no version denoted on the
documents so it is creating a lot of confusion as to which document is most up to date. Where would you go to find out which
document is the correct version?
A. WBS
B. Change control board
C. Project management plan
D. Configuration management system
The configuration management system tracks changes to key documents in the project. Anytime a change is made to important
project documents, an entry is made in the configuration management system.

Two of your team members are arguing over a technical issue on your project. You suggest that they put their differences aside and
offer to take them both to lunch. Which conflict resolution technique did you use?
A. Withdrawal
B. Compromise
C. Collaborating
D. Smoothing
This is an example of smoothing, which occurs when you try to gloss over the issue or change the subject. As a good project
manager this is not your best option, because the problem still exists and will likely come up again. The better option would have
been to collaborate, which would involve sitting down, discussing options, and trying to solve the problem. Withdrawal is where
one party shuts down or walks away from the conversation. Compromise is where both parties give something up and meet in
the middle.

Two of your team members, Jane and Carlos, are arguing about a design issue. Jane tells Carlos that if he doesn't do things her
way, she won't help him with any of his project tasks anymore. This is an example of?
A. Compromise
B. Forcing
C. Smoothing
D. Withdrawal
This is an example of forcing. Jane is forcing Carlos to do things her way.

Upon reaching the project constrained end date of your new inventory control software project, you realize some high business value
requirements have not been completed and will not be in your release. Which of the following did you most likely not do effectively?
A. Involving all of the right stakeholders to identify the requirements
B. Completing and using a product backlog
C. Following the stakeholder engagement strategies with the project team
D. Performing quality assurance
The key words "constrained end date" denotes a time-boxed or agile approach most likely using sprints. In Agile, a product
backlog is used to identify, estimate, and prioritize by business value all of the requirements for the project. A is not correct
because the requirements have been identified, just not all implemented. C may have helped to better prioritize, but not the best
answer. D is incorrect because quality assurance is auditing the processes and control quality measurements to ensure the
project is effectively following the plan, and for implementing process improvements.

What form of communication should a customer use to document acceptance of the project deliverables?
A. Informal verbal
B. Formal written
C. Formal verbal
D. Informal written
Formal acceptance should always be formal written.

What is the main purpose of the WBS dictionary?
A. It contains additional information about each WBS component
B. It provides a framework for how to create the WBS
C. It tracks time and cost on a project
D. It contains additional information about each activity
The main purpose of the WBS dictionary is to store additional information about each WBS component. This can include things
like work package name, ID, responsible organization, schedule milestones, quality requirements, cost estimates, required
resources, code of accounts identifier, etc.

What is the purpose of a RACI matrix?
A. Displays the relationship between work packages and team members
B. Defines communication channels
C. Authorizes work to begin
D. Speeds up the project schedule
RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. It is a type of Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM).
The purpose of a RACI matrix is to show the relationship between work packages (or activities) and team members.

What is the term you would use to describe the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the successor activities?
A. Critical path method
B. Free float
C. Total float
D. Lag
Free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the successor activities. Total float is the amount of
time an activity can be delayed without delaying the entire project.

When might it be appropriate to re-baseline a project?
A. Never, since baselines are used to measure progress against the plan
B. After receiving approved budget updates
C. After a corrective action
D. After receiving updates to the cost management plan
You should re-baseline a project after receiving approved budget updates, since they would affect the Cost Baseline. The Cost
Management Plan describes how costs will be managed, regardless of the baseline. Corrective actions should be tracked
against the baseline.

When should you identify the stakeholders?
A. At the start of the project
B. At the start of the planning process group
C. At the start of the project and the start of each phase
D. After gathering the requirements
Remember you should perform the PMBOK Guide processes for each phase. Technically choice A is also correct, but choice C
is a better answer because it includes choice A. Remember to choose the more inclusive answer when faced with this type of
situation.

When should you perform the Monitor and Control Project Work processes?
A. As each deliverable is completed
B. As soon as all deliverables are completed
C. Immediately after direct and manage project execution
D. Continuously throughout the project
Remember that you do monitoring and controlling throughout the entire project.

When working as a project manager there are many things around you that can impact the project's ability to be successful, including
the corporate culture, infrastructure, marketplace conditions, the number and type of resources available, workplace attitudes, etc.
These are referred to as?
A. Organizational process assets
B. Enterprise environmental factors
C. Lesson learned
D. Constraints
The question lists just a few of the many enterprise environmental factors listed in the PMBOK Guide.

Where would you document project assumptions, constraints and exclusions?
A. Requirements document
B. Project management plan
C. Project charter
D. Project scope statement
The project scope statement includes the product scope description, product acceptance criteria, project deliverables, project
exclusions, project assumptions, and project constraints. The project charter and requirements document does have some
information about assumptions and constraints (however it is limited), but the only place you would find project exclusions is the
scope statement.

Which of Maslow's hierarchy of needs involves the need for friends, family and affiliation? Also, what is the level just below that?
A. Social, Safety
B. Social, Esteem
C. Esteem, Social
D. Esteem, Self-actualization
The rung on Maslow's pyramid that is marked by an individual's need for friends, family, and affiliation is the Social level. The
level just below that is Safety. The 5 levels in order from bottom to top are physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-
actualization.

Which of the following best defines high quality?
A. A product that doesn't have any documented defects
B. A product that lasts for 25 years
C. A product that passes all quality tests
D. A product that satisfies the quality requirements
The correct answer is D. The definition of high quality is a product that meets the agreed upon quality requirements and
standards. Choices A, B and C are incorrect because they can all be true and at the same time quality can be low. Just because
a product passed the tests and no defects were found does not mean it is high quality - perhaps the tests were designed poorly
and as a result no defects were found. Choice B may sound good, but what if the product was supposed to last longer than 25
years?

Which of the following best describes a scatter diagram?
A. Displays the relationship between independent and dependent variables
B. Shows the risks facing the project and the sensitivity to each
C. Shows the relationship between causes and defects
D. Has an upper limit and a lower limit and shows process deviations
Scatter diagrams graphically show the relationship between 2 variables. Choice B is describing a tornado diagram. Choice C is
describing a Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram. Choice D is describing a control chart.

Which of the following best describes the primary purpose of the project charter?
A. It defines the project scope
B. It authorizes work to begin on the project
C. It completely describes the work to be done on the project
D. It describes the business case and reason for doing the project
The main purpose of the project charter is to grant formal authority for work to begin on a project. The charter may include some
aspects of the other answer choices, but choice B is the best answer.

Which of the following best describes the purpose of integrated change control on a project?
A. To prevent changes from occurring
B. To help the project manager make tough decisions
C. To provide a framework to approve, reject, and manage changes
D. To foster a better team environment
The correct answer is choice C. The main purpose of the Perform Integrated Change Control process is to provide a framework
to approve, reject, and manage changes on a project. Choices A and D might be desirable, but they are not the main purpose of
Perform Integrated Change Control. Choice B is also incorrect. Project Managers often have to make tough decisions, but
unfortunately integrated change control is not designed for that.
Which of the following best describes the purpose of the WBS?
A. It organizes the project team and shows reporting structures
B. It assigns work to individual team members
C. It makes the project easier to plan and oversee
D. It describes the business value to be delivered by the project
The correct answer is choice C. The WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the work to be completed on a project and the main
purpose is to make time and costs easier to estimate. Choice A describes the purpose of a project organization chart. Choice B
describes a Work Authorization System. Choice D describes the Project Charter.

Which of the following best describes the Validate Scope process?
A. It ensures the WBS is completely defined.
B. It involves formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables.
C. It is used to determine the correctness of the deliverables.
D. It is a key part of the requirements analysis process.
Scope Validation typically occurs near the end of the project, and involves formalizing acceptance of the completed project
deliverables. In other words, it ensures the project deliverables meet the documented project requirements. Verifying the
correctness of the deliverables is a function of the Control Quality process.

Which of the following communication methods is email considered to be?
A. Push
B. Pull
C. Interactive
D. Electronic
Planning - Communications Management
Email is a push communication.

Which of the following could be considered a key performance indicator (KPI)?
A. Number of internal defects
B. Estimated effort variance to actual effort
C. Scheduled deliverable dates variance to actual dates
D. All of the above
Executing - Integration Management
Anything we identify and agree on to determine project performance.

Which of the following does not contain any information about the project requirements or the characteristics of the product?
A. Requirements documentation
B. Project charter
C. Requirements management plan
D. Project statement of work
Remember that a management plan is a how-to document. The requirements management plan describes how you will go
about collecting/handling requirements, but it does not contain actual requirements. The project statement of work contains
information about the characteristics of the product, the project charter includes high-level requirements, and the requirements
documentation contains the detailed requirements.

Which of the following does not require formal written communication?
A. Updating the project management plan
B. Making changes to a contract
C. Scheduling a meeting
D. Responding to inquiries from a regulatory body
Executing - Communications Management
All answer choices require formal written communication except scheduling a meeting. Remember updates to project plans and
almost anything to do with contracts will require formal written communication.

Which of the following is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be completed on a project?
A. SOW
B. WBS
C. Scope statement
D. Network diagram
The definition of the WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be completed on a project.

Which of the following processes would be used to oversee the resource for the project like equipment, facilities and materials?
A. Monitor and Control Project Work
B. Control Resources
C. Manage Resources
D. Manage Team
Answer A may be correct, but it is not the most correct. The question is asking specifically about the oversight of non-human
resources. Answer D is about managing the team members. Answer C is not a process at all. Only the Control Resources
process deals with physical resources such as equipment, facilities and material.

Which of the following is not a result of performing stakeholder analysis?
A. Understanding who might impact or might be impacted by the project
B. Determining a strategy for how to best manage various stakeholders
C. Understanding who will be responsible for completing the work
D. Understanding stakeholder attitudes
Remember stakeholder analysis is done at the beginning of a project - at that point we don't know what work is required yet, so
how could we assign responsibility? Choice A is the main reason for doing this process and is documented in the stakeholder
register. Choice B and D are included in the stakeholder management strategy, which is the other output of this process.

Which of the following is not a category of waste, according to Lean Six Sigma?
A. Re-estimating
B. Transportation
C. Waiting
D. Over-processing
The seven kinds of waste are defects, overproduction, transportation, waiting, inventory, motion, and over-processing.

Which of the following is not an output of Direct and Manage Project Work?
A. Deliverables
B. Work performance data
C. Change requests
D. Work performance reports
Choices A, B and C are outputs to the Direct and Manage Project Work process. Also, remember that work performance reports
come out of monitoring and controlling processes.

Which of the following is not done when conducting contract closure?
A. Ensuring there are no outstanding claims regarding the contract
B. Ensuring invoices have been paid
C. Review of the seller's current progress compared to the contract
D. Ensuring all contractual obligations have been met
Choices A, B and D all occur during the contract closure exercise. Choice C refers to the Tool and Technique called Data
Analysis (Performance Reviews), which could effect better seller performance while the procurement is ongoing but would not
be helpful after the work is completed.

Which of the following is not included in configuration management?
A. Automatic change request approvals
B. Controlling changes to project deliverables
C. Communicating changes to those performing the affected work
D. Identification of the functional and physical attributes of the project deliverables
Choices B, C, and D are all part of configuration management, as further outlined on pages 118-119 of the PMBOK Guide.
Change requests are not and should not be automatically approved.

Which of the following is not part of the project closure process?
A. Analyzing phase exit criteria
B. Verifying that product requirements were met
C. Transfer the deliverables to operations
D. Gather lessons learned
Choices A, C, and D are all true of the closing process. You do not verify requirements were met during project closure.
Verification that the requirements were met would be part of the Validate Scope process, which is done in Monitoring and
Controlling. The output of that process, Accepted Deliverables, would then become an input to the closing process.

Which of the following is not used to create the document that will be used to gain formal authorization to start the project?
A. Business case
B. Templates
C. Contract
D. Scope statement
The question is asking for the inputs of the develop project charter process. These include the business documents (includes
business case), agreements (includes contracts), enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets (includes
templates). The scope statement is created later during the planning process.

Which of the following is true about the Procurement Statement of Work?
A. It outlines the items to be provided via the procurement
B. If the project is internal, it is written by the project manager after receiving the Project Scope Statement
C. It is written by the seller as the response to a RFP
D. It is written by the buyer in response to a RFQ
Planning - Procurement Management
A Statement of Work (SOW) is a narrative description of the products or services to be delivered. For internal projects, it is
written by the project sponsor. While an RFQ could include an SOW, it would be provided along with it and not as a response.

Which of the following processes does not result in updates to the Risk Register?
A. Identifying lessons learned in risk management during project closure
B. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
C. Plan Risk Responses
D. Monitor and Control Risks
Lessons identified during closure would not be captured in a Risk Register, which is used to document and track risks during
project performance. The remaining answers all have risk register updates as outputs.

Which of the following should be done during the Develop Project Charter process?
A. Identify risks and their risk responses to ensure the project plan is as stable as possible
B. Decompose the scope of the project into more precise deliverables and activities to allow for the most accurate and
confident estimate
C. Perform a benefit analysis to validate project alignment with the organization's strategy and ensure the expected
business value is doable
D. Ensure all stakeholders have been identified with the appropriate strategies defined for engaging them effectively
A is done in the Identify Risks and Plan Risk Responses processes, although some risks could have been identified during the
develop project charter process. B is the Create WBS and Define Activities processes. D is the Identify Stakeholders and Plan
Stakeholder Management processes.

Which of the following statements is true regarding risk management?
A. Risks are events that have occurred on a project, and may be helpful (opportunities) or hurtful (threats)
B. Risks might be opportunities to the project objectives, but only risks that are threats to the project objectives need to be
considered
C. Risks that are perceived more as rewards to the organization than negative consequences should be accepted
D. Project risks are uncertain events
Risks are always uncertain events and need to be considered whether they are positive or negative. Even risks that involve
perceived rewards should be analyzed.

Which of the following types of conflict resolution is considered a win-lose?
A. Smoothing
B. Punishment
C. Forcing
D. Collaborating
Forcing is a win-lose, because one party forces their view onto another party. The party doing the forcing gets exactly what they
want, but the other party gets none of what they want. This is a bad way to handle conflicts. Smoothing is a lose-lose, because
the issue is simply avoided and will likely come back up later. Punishment is not a conflict resolution technique, but is merely a
form of power. Collaborating is where you problem solve the issue to find a solution that works best for the parties and the
project as a whole (this is the best way to handle conflict).

Which of the following would be considered a defect?
A. A work package that does not meet the requirements, but is later deemed acceptable by the customer
B. A mistake made by a team member
C. A system component that meets specifications, but the broader system it belongs to does not work properly
D. Any change request
Remember a defect is any deliverable that does not meet the documented requirements. Choice A clearly is the only choice that
matches this description. Just because a customer later decides that it is acceptable does not negate the fact that it did not meet
the requirements, and therefore is a defect. In choice C, even if the deliverable doesn't work properly, if it meets the
requirements then it is not defective. Change requests are not necessarily derived from defects.

Which of the following would be most helpful in determining the total duration of your project?
A. Schedule Management Plan
B. WBS
C. Project Schedule Network Diagram
D. Scope Statement
The project schedule network diagram displays the relationships among activities (dependencies), and would therefore be the
most helpful in determining the total duration of the project. The schedule management plan would tell you how to go about
schedule planning, but it would not contain information about project duration. The WBS and scope statement would contain
information about project scope, but lack sufficient detail about individual activities to determine the project duration.

Which of the following would not be included in the Communication Management Plan?
A. Reporting structures within the organization
B. Escalation path for resolving issues
C. Stakeholder communication requirements
D. Reasons for information distribution
Choice A is the correct answer because it is not part of the Communication Management Plan. Reporting structures are defined
in the Human Resource Plan. Choices B, C, and D could all be found in the Communication Management Plan.

Which of these represents the range of a rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimate if the base point is $100,000?
A. $90,000 to $110,000
B. $75,000 to $125,000
C. $75,000 to $175,000
D. $10,000 to $190,000
Planning - Cost Management
According to the PMBOK Guide 6th edition, page 241, a rough order of magnitude (ROM) is a range of -25% to + 75%.

Who is responsible for approving the Project Management Plan?
A. Project manager and stakeholders
B. Project manager and sponsor
C. Project manager, sponsor and key stakeholders
D. Sponsor only
Planning - Integration Management
The Project Management Plan is the master plan from which the project will be executed. It is the responsibility of all parties
(project manager, sponsor, and key stakeholders) to approve the Project Management Plan.

Who is the most appropriate person to approve the project charter?
A. Customer
B. Sponsor
C. Stakeholders
D. Project manager
The sponsor is typically responsible for approving the Project Charter, though the PMBOK Guide states only that it should be
issued by the initiator or sponsoring entity.

Who manages the integration tasks on a project?
A. Project manager
B. Project team
C. Sponsor
D. Stakeholder
Integration is one of the primary responsibilities of the project manager.

Who theorized that quality was a management issue 85% of the time and by the time things got down to the line employee it was too
late?
A. Kaizen
B. Deming
C. Pareto
D. Crosby
W. Edwards Deming theorized that quality was a management issue 85% of the time and by the time things got down to the line
employee it was too late. He is also the father of Total Quality Management (TQM). Kaizen is the Japanese word for continuous
improvement. Pareto is a type of chart. Philip Crosby believed in conformance by design and zero defects.

You are having a disagreement about an important design issue with another colleague. Before you can seriously discuss the issue,
your colleague says she would prefer to not talk about it at this time. What is the best way to describe how the colleague handled this
situation?
A. She used a win-lose strategy
B. She used forcing to resolve the dispute
C. She withdrew
D. Collaboration would have solved this problem for all
This is an example of withdrawing, which could be appropriate in certain situations even though it is a lose-lose type of
response. Forcing involves one person using authority or influence to choose the outcome, and thus is a win-lose strategy. While
collaboration is a desirable strategy, it cannot solve all conflicts and won't be appropriate in some cases.

You are a project manager of a project close to completing delivery of the final product when an important stakeholder contacts you
about a requirement that seems to be missing from the project scope. You schedule a meeting with them to discuss the specifics of
the requirement and the possible options for handling it. During the meeting the conversation becomes somewhat heated when the
stakeholder demands to know when the requirement will be completed. What is the ideal way to handle this situation?
A. Use the conflict resolution technique of Smoothing to examine the alternatives and identify a win-win solution
B. Explain that any details on whether the requirement is approved or might be completed would be made by the CCB
and assist them in completing a Change Request
C. Recognize the stakeholder as a resistor and leave the meeting room to avoid further conflict with a stakeholder
D. Agree to personally handle their request to ensure that it is completed as soon as possible to avoid any further conflict
The CCB must review and approve all Change Requests. Explaining this fact and then assisting with the completion of the
Change Request is the best way to handle this. The technique of Smoothing does not involve examining alternatives and is not
win-win. Withdrawing during a conflict is never the best option. Agreeing to personally handle the request and to ensure it's
completed as soon as possible sets an unrealistic expectation that it is already approved.

You are a project manager overseeing the construction of a new shopping mall. As part of risk planning you compiled and reviewed
zoning regulations to help ensure that your project would not be interrupted by any regulatory problems, however, the information
reviewed was out of date. As it turns out, you have unknowingly exceeded the new maximum height restrictions for structures in that
area. You must now seek a variance from the local government authorities, and if it is refused, your project could be shut down.
Which of the following could have helped avoid this situation?
A. Setting aside higher risk reserves
B. Performing better risk data quality assessment
C. Doing a more thorough job of collecting requirements
D. Doing a more thorough job of identifying negative stakeholders
Risk data quality assessment helps ensure that the underlying information used to evaluate risk is valid, and in this case the
information used (the outdated regulations) were no longer valid. Without solid information, risk planning is useless. Had the
reliability of the regulations been examined more thoroughly, this would not have happened.

You are a project manager producing several identical components for an aerospace project. You are supposed to be producing 2
units per month worth $250,000 per unit. After 3 months you have only produced an average of 1.2 units per month. You use a
formula to determine what the difference is between what you planned to do and what you actually got done. What is the formula you
used?
A. SPI
B. CV
C. SV
D. VAC
The questions is talking about calculating a schedule variance (SV), which is the difference between what you produced (your
Earned Value) and what you were supposed to complete (Planned Value).

You are a project manager who has recently had a team member leave because of an illness. While searching for a replacement you
identify a person who has been a stakeholder of the project and has the correct skills you were looking for. You decide she will be the
perfect replacement for the lost team member and hire her. Your team has recently come to an agreement as to how the team will
operate and lately has been requiring less external supervision. What is the next stage of development your team will enter after the
new team member comes on board?
A. Since they are requiring less external supervision they are about to enter the Performing stage
B. The addition of a new team member will cause the team to enter the Storming stage
C. Because the new team member has been involved as a stakeholder on the project the team will repeat the Norming stage.
D. The addition of the new team member will cause the team to enter the Forming stage.
According to Tuckman's 5-stage model of group development, anytime a new member joins the team, the process starts anew
with the Forming stage.

You are analyzing quality results looking for a relationship between defects and their causes. Which of the following is the
appropriate tool you should use?
A. Tornado diagram
B. Ishikawa diagram
C. Control chart
D. Histogram
The question is describing cause and effect analysis, for which you would use an Ishikawa diagram (also known as a fishbone
diagram or cause and effect diagram).

You are at a conference and the speaker is going through Shewhart and Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. What is this cycle
designed to achieve?
A. Cost reductions
B. Continuous improvement
C. Project team training
D. Scope Validation
Shewhart and Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is designed to bring about constant improvement to quality (or Kaizen, in
Japanese).

You are called to a bidder conference to bid on part of a telecommunications project. Your job as project manager will be to manage
the hardware installation piece of the project. At the conference you see a former colleague that is bidding on the wiring part of the
job. You know that the integration between the wiring and the hardware can be a bit tricky and all firms competing for these two
pieces of work will have to pad their bids due to the increased risk. You decide to work with your former colleague and submit one
combined bid that is lower than other. This is an example of what type of risk response strategy?
A. Mitigating
B. Transferring
C. Sharing
D. Exploiting
This is an example of sharing. The new job you are bidding on is an opportunity. You decide to share the opportunity with your
former colleague's company to ensure you get the work. Both companies will benefit from getting the job.

You are in the planning phase of a project to build a shopping mall in a small community in a nearby town. You have used bottom-up
estimating to determine costs for each activity and have created a cost baseline. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Bottom-up estimating is the most labor intensive and not quite as accurate as parametric estimating.
B. You have completed the Estimating Costs process and will use the cost baseline to begin the Determine Budget process
which will create the budget performance baseline used to measure future project performance.
C. Bottom-up estimating is the most labor intensive and is more accurate than parametric estimating.
D. You have completed the Determine Budget process and will use the cost baseline to begin the Establish Budget process
which will create the budget performance baseline used to measure future project performance.
Bottom-up estimating takes the most time but is the most accurate since it aggregates the cost of every activity. There is no
budget performance baseline.

You have completed all project work and are asked what items remain in order for the project to be formally closed. What is the
correct order of events?
A. Get formal acceptance, write lessons learned, close the contract, release the team
B. Release the team, get formal acceptance, write lessons learned, close the contract
C. Close the contract, write lessons learned, release the team, get formal acceptance
D. Close the contract, get formal acceptance, release the team , write lessons learned
You always need to retain the team members at least long enough to get formal acceptance and document the lessons learned.
Thus the only acceptable answer is choice A.

You are in the process of executing your project and need to know when it will be completed. You have the following activity
durations on your project: A=6, B=15, C=11, D=8, E=14, F=5, G=4. You also know that D is dependent on A and B. Task F is a
successor of D, E, and G. Task C is a predecessor of task E and G. Which of the following is the critical path?
A. A-D-F
B. B-D-F
C. C-E-F
D. C-G-F
Monitoring - Schedule Management
For this question you could draw out the schedule network diagram based on the information provided. However, since the only
thing we need to calculate is the critical path, we can take a shortcut and just add up the possible durations and choose the
longest duration path, which is C-E-F or 30 days.

You are in the process of executing your project and need to know when it will be completed. You have the following activity
durations on your project: A=8, B=14, C=6, D=6, E=12, F=6. You also know that D is dependent on A and B. Task F is a successor of
D and E. Task C is a predecessor of task E. Based on this information what is the critical path and what is the float of task A?
A. Critical path is BDF and the float of task A is 6
B. Critical path is ADF and the float of task A is 0
C. Critical path is CEF and the float of task A is 0
D. Critical path is BDF and the float of task A is 2
For this question you need to draw out the schedule network diagram based on the information provided. You would have the
following paths: A to D, B to D, C to E, D to F and E to F. You would then need to use the durations provided to do a forward and
backwards path analysis. The end result is that the critical path is BDF and the float of task A is 6.

You are in the process of installing a new heating and air system in your office building when you realize that because of the way the
exhaust fan is situated, winds of over 30 MPH will cause the AC unit to not vent or work properly. You decide to not change anything
and continue as planned. What strategy did you choose?
A. Exploit
B. Accept
C. Transfer
D. Mitigate
Since you have chosen to not do anything different, you have decided to accept the risk.

You are in the process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance, and making changes/corrections to
your contracts. What process are you performing?
A. Plan procurements
B. Monitor procurements
C. Control procurements
D. Conduct procurements
During control procurements you manage procurement relationships, monitor contract performance, and make
changes/corrections to your contracts. Your goal is to ensure that your vendors meet their contractual obligations.

You are in the process of wrapping your project up. Which of the following should you consult to determine when and how to release
the team?
A. Resource Management Plan
B. Project Team Resource Management
C. Scope Statement
D. Activity List
Monitoring - Resource Management
The project team resource management section of the overall Resource Management Plan contains guidance on resource
management (which contains information about how and when the staff is released). Neither the Activity List nor the Scope
Statement address the release of team members.

You are looking at data points on a control chart in real time and notice 7 consecutive points above the mean, but within the control
limits. What is this called and what does it mean?
A. This is called assignable cause and it means you have identified a defect
B. This is called common cause and it means the variation is predictable
C. This is called quality assurance and it means you are doing your job
D. This is called the Rule of 7 and it indicates a process is out of control
If you identify 7 consecutive data points on a control chart that are above the mean and within the control limits, then that
indicates your process is out of control. The same is true of 7 consecutive data points below the mean and within the control
limits. This is called the Rule of Seven.

You are managing a complex project to deploy and integrate a new telecommunications system for a state government at various
locations throughout the state. The project has been ongoing for over a year, and you are proceeding well. Your SPI is 1.1 and your
CPI is 1.2. The state's auditors have recently announced they will arrive at your headquarters next week to inspect all financial
records as part of a governmental oversight effort. In addition to the actual documents, they want to know about the procedures
governing the collection, storage and retrieval of the information. Which of the following will assist you in answering these questions?
A. Project Funding Requirements
B. Resource Management Plan
C. Project Scope Statement
D. Communications Management Plan
Monitoring - Communications Management
The Communications Management Plan addresses not only the dissemination of project information, but also the processes by
which information is gathered, stored and retrieved.

You are managing a complex project to overhaul a water treatment plant. You are trying to report key information to the stakeholders,
but are having trouble compiling all of the relevant data. You have multiple budget reports in various formats, some of which are out
of date, and they are housed in various locations. The work performance data is similarly scattered amongst various documents, and
is difficult to interpret. Which of the following would best assist you in communicating the key information to the stakeholders?
A. Project Management Information System
B. Communications Technology
C. Communications Management Plan
D. Issue Log
Monitoring - Stakeholder Management
The Project Management Information System, which is a tool and technique of Manage Communications, is used to record,
store and distribute information about the project. In this case, they would help you organize the information so it can be readily
provided to stakeholders.

You are managing a construction project and there is a chance of a strike at one of your subcontractors which would delay your
project. Which of the following is not a correct statement about risk response strategies?
A. You decide not to use that vendor and do the work yourself, which would be an example of avoidance.
B. If the strike happens, your team will work overtime once the delivery arrives to make up for the lost time. This is an example
of mitigation.
C. You decide to use another vendor, which would be an example of sharing.
D. You decide to do nothing, which would be an example of acceptance.
The risk in this question is a negative risk. Sharing only takes place with a positive risk. Choices A, B, and D are all accurate
statements about risk response strategies.

You are managing a database design project and just realized that there is a major flaw in your design. Your team determines that
fixing the design flaw will result in two additional weeks of work, along with a 10% increase in costs, but has no significant impacts on
other project constraints. Not fixing the flaw, however, would result in a major security vulnerability that is unacceptable to the
customer. What should you do next?
A. Fix the flaw immediately
B. Inform the customer of the design flaw
C. Create a change request
D. Determine the impact of the change
In this question, you have simply identified a design flaw. Even though the team may come up with the impacts to fixing the
design flaw, the first step is to create a change request. You should not begin fixing the problem, as suggested in choice A, until
you get approval. Choice B is also inappropriate, because it is not the next step. You should get the change approved first, and
then inform the customer of the new plan. The steps in the change process are 1) prevent change if possible; 2) identify the
change (document it with a change request) 3) determine the impact, 4) Issue the change request to the change control board
for review; 5) perform integrated change control (get CCB to approve); If change is approved: 6) update the project documents,
7) notify stakeholders of the change and get their buy-in, and 8) manage the project per the new plan.

You are managing a datacenter infrastructure project. You have spent $250,000 out of a total budget of $600,000. You have
completed 30% of the work thus far, but according to the schedule you should have completed 40% of the work. All work items carry
the same value. Which of the following best describes the situation?
A. Your project is over budget and behind schedule
B. Your project is over budget and ahead of schedule
C. Your project is under budget and behind schedule
D. Your project is under budget and ahead of schedule
This is an EVM question. The amount spent is the Actual Cost (AC). The work completed (30%) is the same as Earned Value
(EV). The work you were supposed to complete (40%) is the Planned Value (PV). To answer this question you simply need to
plug in the numbers and calculate CV and SV. CV = EV - AC or $180,000 - $250,000 = ($70,000), which means your project is
over budget. SV = EV - PV or $180,000 - $240,000 = ($60,000), which means your project is also behind schedule.

You are managing a graphic design and print project. There is a 30% chance that the paper you are using will be too thin and you'll
have to reprint the presentation, which will cost you an extra $5,000. There is also a 20% chance that the high capacity ink cartridges
you are using will last you longer than you expect, which will save you $1,000. What is your Expected Monetary Value (EMV)?
A. $4,000
B. $200
C. -$1,300
D. -$1,500
EMV is calculated by taking event #1 with a loss of $5,000 and multiplying it by the 30% probability to get negative $1,500. For
event #2, you multiply the savings of $1,000 times the 20% probability to get positive $200. Add the two events and you get
-$1,300.

You are managing a highway construction project and you are trying to determine if the project is ahead of or behind schedule.
Which of the following would be most helpful?
A. The schedule baseline
B. Scope of user stories
C. Work performance information
D. Reserve analysis
Work performance information, which includes key schedule performance indicators such as SV and SPI, would be most helpful
because it provides performance information relative to established baselines.

You are managing a large construction project and need to make changes to the contract. Once the changes are complete, you need
to make sure that the three shift mangers understand the changes and feedback is received. What type of communication method
should you use?
A. Interactive Communication
B. Push Communication
C. Pull Communication
D. Communication Styles Assessment
Interactive communication allows all parties to exchange information this would allow the PM to make sure understanding is
achieved. Push and Pull are useful but the question asked for feedback

You are managing a large software project for a bank and are about 50% done with the work when a new stakeholder is identified. It
turns out the stakeholder will be highly impacted by the new software project. You have a tight deadline and the requirements are
already firmly set. What should you do?
A. Ignore the stakeholder
B. Meet with the stakeholder to inform her of your project
C. Meet with the stakeholder to gather her requirements
D. Find someone to blame for not identifying the stakeholder earlier
The correct course of action would be to meet with the stakeholder and document her requirements. You might get lucky and
already have all of her requirements taken into consideration. If time permits and the change is approved, you may still be able
to incorporate her requirements. At the very least, you have engaged the stakeholder and attempted to satisfy her needs. Simply
informing the stakeholder of your project and not gathering her requirements, as suggested in choice B, would not be
appropriate either.

You are managing a large software upgrade project and your team has moved beyond planning and is now performing the work. You
only have one team member capable of performing the necessary system testing, and she is being temporarily diverted from your
project to another. You have therefore adjusted the schedule so that all testing will be done at once, when she returns, rather than at
scheduled intervals as previously planned. What tool and technique have you used?
A. Resource Leveling
B. Pre-Assignment
C. What-if Scenario
D. Fast-tracking
Executing - Schedule Management
Resource Leveling is a type of Resource Optimization a tool and technique used where a resource is over-allocated or where a
critical resource will only be available for a certain time period. Here, your schedule activities need to change in light of the
limited availability of this team member. Note that Resource Leveling may cause the original schedule to be extended.

You are managing a manufacturing project and want to improve quality. Which of the following categories would inspections and
destructive testing loss fall under?
A. Prevention costs
B. Appraisal costs
C. Internal failure costs
D. External failure costs
Appraisal costs are costs incurred to test the product. Prevention costs are costs incurred to build quality into the product, such
as proper training and equipment. Internal failure costs are costs incurred prior to handing the product over to the customer,
such as scrap and rework. External failure costs are costs incurred once the product is in the customer's hands, such as
warranty work, legal liabilities and lost business.

You are managing a project and a team member comes across a major risk. Based on the team member's assessment the risk has a
fairly high probability of occurring and carries a big impact. What should you do first?
A. Call a team meeting to discuss the risk.
B. Transfer the risk by hiring an external vendor to do the work.
C. Reprimand the team member for even bringing up the risk.
D. Document the risk in the risk register.
The first thing you should always do when you identify a new risk is add it to the risk register. You may very well want to call a
meeting quickly, but the first thing you should do is document that the risk exists by putting it in the risk register. You would not
transfer the risk, as suggested in choice B, until you had documented it and done some analysis. Obviously choice C is not
correct - you always want an open policy for identifying risks.

You are managing a project and one of your vendors submits a deliverable that you feel is incomplete. He disagrees and insists that
his work is done and refuses to do any further work on it. How should you handle this situation?
A. Accept the work as completed
B. Have a mediator help resolve the issue
C. File a lawsuit to force the vendor to complete the work or pay you damages
D. Involve your procurement specialists, then refer to applicable claims administration procedures
This is a conflict related to a contract. The appropriate course of action is to use the claims administration procedures set forth in
the contract, which define how to handle these types of conflicts (after involving the procurement specialists).

You are managing a project at a water treatment plant. Your team is having conflicts about things like who takes meeting minutes,
what time to arrive at work, inappropriate work language, and meeting etiquette. Which of the following would help resolve these
issues?
A. Projectized organization structure
B. Rewards and recognition
C. Ground rules
D. Sensitivity training
Executing - Stakeholder Management
Ground rules help the team understand what behavior is acceptable and what is not. Ground rules could help to resolve, or
better still - prevent - the issues listed in the question.

You are managing a project for a pharmaceutical company to develop a new flu vaccine that could save millions of lives. Which of
the following would you use if you wanted to analyze actual versus planned results?
A. Status report
B. Results from variance analysis
C. Trend report
D. Forecast report
Results from variance analysis are used to compare planned versus actual results. Status reports typically look at status for the
current period. Trend reports show performance plotted over time. Forecasts try to predict the future project performance.
You are managing a project for the development of a new medical device and have completed all of your planning. As the work is
commencing, a new regulation is issued by the FDA, effective immediately, which requires some additional steps to be performed in
the development of this device. What is the best way to proceed?
A. Stop the work to which the new regulation pertains, issue a change request, and proceed with the other work that
is unaffected by the change
B. Stop all work and issue a change request based on the new requirements
C. Stop all work and go back to the planning processes to implement the needed changes
D. Continue completing the work as planned, and notify the sponsor of the new regulation
Here, you need to comply with the regulation, so the work which is affected by the new regulation needs to stop temporarily. You
will need to issue a change request and follow change control procedures to implement the new change. You would not
necessarily need to stop all work, however, as this could be devastating to your project schedule, budget, resource availability,
etc.

You are managing a project that is on a very tight schedule and budget. You are asked to pass along key information in a simple
report that will describe how well your project is performing relative to the baselines set. Which of the following would be the most
helpful to include in your report?
A. Issues log
B. Lessons learned
C. SPI and CPI
D. Total costs incurred and time spent on the project work to date
While it might seem helpful to pass along the information from answer choice D, it does not paint a clear picture of the project's
progress relative to the baselines. D is an example of work performance data, which is important for a project manager to track
but does not refer back to the planned baselines. SPI and CPI, which are examples of work performance information, show our
progress relative to the baselines and thus are a better way to communicate project progress.

You are managing a project that is under budget and behind schedule. You have plenty of slack in non-critical path activities and you
feel it's too risky to make changes to dependencies. Which of the following is your best option to get the project back on schedule?
A. Crashing
B. Fast-tracking
C. Resource leveling
D. Critical chain method
Your best option given the circumstances is to crash the project. With crashing, you will add resources to critical path activities,
thus exchanging potentially higher costs for faster delivery. You should know that fast-tracking is not an option here because you
are told it's too risky to change dependencies and that's exactly what fast tracking does (working on activities in parallel).
Resource leveling attempts to smooth out resources, primarily to prevent people from being overworked, and often will result in
longer schedule duration.

You are managing a project that requires the use of many outside contractors. You are verifying that these contractors are
performing the work as agreed, ensuring they are paid as agreed, managing necessary changes to the contracts as needed, and
resolving disagreements with the contractors as they arise. All of the following are outputs of this process except for which one?
A. Closed Procurements
B. Organizational Process Asset Updates
C. Change Requests
D. Selected Sellers
D. Selected Sellers is an output of Conduct Procurement this questions describes Control Procurement. Note Closed
Procurements are an output of the Control Procurements Process, as well as the remaining answers B. and C.

You are managing a project that will move your 200-person office across the country. All your requirements have been established
and you are currently sitting in a meeting with several key stakeholders performing documentation reviews, assumptions analysis,
and information gathering techniques. Which process are you performing?
A. Identify risk
B. Collect requirements
C. Perform quality assurance
D. Monitor and control project work
The 3 tools listed in the question are examples of tools listed for the identify risk process. During this process you usually sit
down with stakeholders and try to find risks. The tools and techniques for the Identify Risk process are Data Analysis, Data
Gathering, Interpersonal and Team Skills, Prompt Lists, Meetings, and Expert Judgment.

You are managing a project that will move your company's data to a new state-of-the-art data center. The biggest risk your team has
identified is the risk of losing important customer records data during the move. Fortunately, most of the data is also stored on paper
forms. However the cost to input the records would be very high. To address this risk you create a backup of the entire customer
database as of last week, and purchase an insurance policy to pay for the cost to input data for the past 7 days. Which types of risk
response strategy are you using?
A. Mitigate and transfer
B. Mitigate and enhance
C. Mitigate and share
D. Mitigate and avoid
Creating a backup of the data is an example of mitigation. Mitigation in this context is a plan you'll implement if things go wrong,
to make sure the impact is minimized. The insurance policy is an example of transfer. The risk of the cost to input that data is
being transferred to a third party.

You are managing a project that will produce the next new supercomputer. As each new unit is produced your team is taking
measurements and recording them in a control chart. Which of the following results should you be least concerned with?
A. A data point that is just above the upper control limit
B. Seven consecutive data points above the mean, but within the control limits
C. A data point that is just below the lower control limit
D. Several data points falling well above and below the mean, but within the control limits
Choice D is describing a random pattern of measurements that fall on either side of the mean. This is not a cause for concern to
the project manager. Choice B, where 7 points fall consecutively on one side of the mean, should be of concern since this
means your process is out of control. Choices A and C are both problems as well, since both represent data points that fall
outside the control limits (meaning the process is out of control).

You are managing a project to build a bridge across the bay. The previous project had cost overruns because the project team
underestimated the winds and harsh weather conditions on the bay. From which of the following should you derive this historical
information?
A. Organizational process assets
B. Records management system
C. Project management software
D. Enterprise environmental factors
The lessons learned documentation from the prior project is part of the organizational process assets. The term records
management system only applies to procurements, at least with PMBOK Guide terminology. Project management software is a
tool used in cost and Schedule Management. Enterprise environmental factors are the environmental factors surrounding your
workplace that are usually intangible, and the windy conditions are an example. The information documenting this, however, is
part of your OPA.

You are managing a project to construct a new football stadium. You know that you will need to hire out much of the work to other
companies because it is such a large job, and also because other companies can perform certain aspects of the work more
efficiently than your own company can. You want to reach out to as many contractors as possible so that you can get the best work
done at the best price. Which of the following would be least helpful to you in accomplishing this?
A. Bidders Conference
B. Advertising
C. Analytical techniques
D. Performance Reviews
Executing - Procurement Management
Answers A-C are tools and techniques of Conduct Procurements which would all help you reach out to potential contractors and
find the right one for your job. Performance Reviews don't come into play at this stage, however. They are used during Control
Procurements - after you have a contract in place - to ensure the seller is performing as expected.

You are managing a project to create a musical presentation for a holiday play. You are told that one of the requirements is that you
must deliver all items by December 15 - the date the play will take place. Where would you document the December 15 deadline?
A. In the charter, because it is a project constraint
B. In the WBS, because it is a deliverable
C. In the requirements documentation, because it is a requirement
D. Both A and C
While deadlines are always considered constraints, this is an example of Project Requirements, which is a classification used on
page 148 of the PMBOK Guide. Deliverables are typically things you would actually hand over to the customer.

You are managing a project to develop a new medical device, and are meeting with the customer so she can inspect the device and
confirm that it meets all requirements. What are you doing?
A. Control quality
B. Validate quality
C. Validate scope
D. Close project or phase
The purpose of the Validate Scope process is to inspect each deliverable and gain formal acceptance from the customer. Control
Quality is concerned with ensuring the correctness of the deliverable. Close Project or Phase is concerned with closing out the
project as a whole. There is no such thing as validate quality.

You are managing a project to develop a new mobile phone. Even though it's not in the requirements, you decide to add a feature
allowing the phone to be used in any country without changing the SIM card. Which of the following best describes what has
occurred?
A. Scope creep
B. Gold plating
C. Prototypes
D. Alternatives identification
Adding undocumented features to a product is called gold plating. Scope creep is where stakeholders or customers continuously
add requirements to the project. Prototypes are a technique used in collect requirements. Alternatives identification is the
process of identifying different ways to complete the work on a project.

You are managing a project to install 6 new robots in a manufacturing facility. Your primary vendor has just completed its work and
you also just received an invoice for its last deliverable. Which of the following tools would be the most helpful to you?
A. Claims administration
B. Records management systems
C. Prequalified seller list
D. Inspection
The question is telling you that your vendor just sent you a bill, thus you need to pay the vendor. You should check the
deliverables against the Procurement metrics before you above of the final payment; therefore, the most helpful procurement
tool is Inspection.

You are managing a project to install a new robot at a car manufacturer. You are very comfortable with the installation, but the
electrical is not your team's area of expertise. You decide it is too big of a liability to do the electrical work yourself and hire a
subcontractor to do it for you. This is an example of what?
A. Delegation
B. Transference
C. Avoidance
D. Mitigation
This is an example of the risk transfer response strategy. When you take a risk and transfer it to a third party, this is called
transferring your risk.

You are managing a project which is wrapping up. One of your team members, Luke, comes to you to voice some frustrations about
his role in the project. He feels that his job on the project was never clearly established, and that he was never provided with any
concrete goals. If this is true, you may have done a poor job with which of the following?
A. Team Performance Assessments
B. Roles and Responsibilities
C. Team-Building Activities
D. Communication Methods
Roles and responsibilities area component of the Resource Management Plan. The question suggests poor planning was done
for project resources.

You are managing a project with the following EVM metrics: AC = $24,000, EV = $30,000 and PV = $28,000. Which of the following
statements is true?
A. The project is over budget and ahead of schedule
B. The project is within budget and behind schedule
C. The project is over budget and behind schedule
D. The project is within budget and ahead of schedule
For this question you need to calculate CPI and SPI, which will tell you if you are over/under budget and if you are within/behind
schedule respectively. CPI = EV / AC = $30,000 / $24,000 = 1.25 thus your project is within budget. SPI = EV / PV = $30,000 /
$28,000 = 1.07 thus your project is ahead of schedule.

You are managing a research project and have just received a change from the customer that will be cheap to implement and will
only take a few days of extra time. What is the first thing you should do?
A. Ask your manager for approval
B. Go to the change control board
C. Evaluate the impacts to the other project constraints
D. Implement the change immediately
The first thing you should do is evaluate the impact to all of the project constraints. It's very possible that the change could
impact quality negatively or have an impact to one of the other project constraints, such as resources, risk, etc. Once you
identify the full impact to the project, you can issue a change request to get approval from the change control board. You would
never implement the change immediately as choice D suggests.

You are managing a software development project that is behind schedule. Which of the following statements about scheduling is not
true?
A. Fast tracking allows you to do two project phases in parallel to speed up the project delivery.
B. Crashing a non-critical path activity will help to speed up the project delivery.
C. Precedence diagramming method (PDM) allows you to have four types of logical relationships, and is more flexible than
arrow diagramming method (ADM).
D. Critical path method will help you understand which activities to manage.
Crashing a non-critical path activity will do nothing to speed up the project delivery. As a project manager you should focus your
attention on critical path activities, because speeding those up will shorten the schedule. All of the other answer choices are
accurate statements.

You are managing an IT project for a law firm. You are using a computer program to analyze your risks. The program does random
iterations to compute probability distributions. What tool are you using?
A. EVM analysis
B. Monte Carlo analysis
C. Sensitivity analysis
D. Probability and impact matrix
Monte Carlo analysis is a computer-based program that does thousands of random iterations to compute probability distributions
for risk on a project.

You are managing the construction of a new underwater pipeline, and you must hire pipe-fitters to perform large pieces of work. You
have received responses from various companies to your procurement documents, which you are analyzing. You are interested in
one company in particular, because it offered a price which was lower than most. You are unfamiliar with this company, so you obtain
from it a list of references and follow up with them. They all have excellent things to say about this company, and so you award it the
contract. Which of the following best describes your contact with the references?
A. Source Selection Criteria
B. Independent Estimates
C. Proposal Evaluation Technique
D. Procurement Negotiations
Obtaining references and following up on them would be an example of a Proposal Evaluation Technique - it helps you evaluate
the proposal and select the seller. It is a tool and technique of Conduct Procurements. Answer A is incorrect because this would
refer to the criteria that you have designated as being important. An output of Plan Procurement Management, Source Selection
Criteria is an input to, but not a tool and technique of, Conduct Procurements.

You are managing the implementation of a new accounting software at your company. Two of your stakeholders have a
disagreement as to when to do the kickoff meeting. One wants to do it before planning begins and the other wants to do it at the end
of planning. One stakeholder is senior to the other, however, and so she insists that it will be done at the beginning, and closes the
issue. This is best described as which of the following?
A. Withdraw/Avoid
B. Force/Direct
C. Force/Avoid
D. Withdraw/Direct
Here, the more senior stakeholder used forcing to get what she wanted. Forcing is a win-lose situation because one person gets
everything he or she wants, and the other person gets none of what he or she wants.

You are managing the manufacture of a new line of cars. The cars must be tested in many ways, but one especially important test is
the crashworthiness test. The cars your team put through the tests performed well and met all requirements. Because you had to
crash so many cars, however, your project came in well over budget. Which of the following items did you likely fail to consider fully?
A. Control Charts
B. Cost of Quality
C. Reserve Analysis
D. Quality Metrics
Cost of Quality considers the money needed to ensure the quality objectives are met, and it is therefore a tool and technique of
Plan Quality. Here, the Quality Management Plan would have designated that a particular number of cars be crash tested
(statistical sampling), however, the associated costs were not fully included in the budget.

You are measuring quality on your project. Which of the following confidence levels equals 3 and 6 sigma, respectively?
A. 99.999% and 99.73%
B. 95% and 99.999%
C. 99.73% and 99.999%
D. 68% and 95%
Sigma (also known as standard deviation) represents variation from the mean. Sigma percentages are as follows: 1 sigma =
68%, 2 sigma = 95%, 3 sigma = 99.73%, 6 sigma = 99.999%.

You are meeting with the quality assurance (QA) manager to discuss the results of the quality audit of your project. The QA manager
informs you that your team has been following quality procedures that are not particularly helpful, and as a result might be increasing
the likelihood for defects. The QA manager recommends revisions to the quality procedures. You feel that the team is following the
quality policies that were originally set forth, and they are doing a good job. How should you handle this situation?
A. You should make a note in your lessons learned document
B. Go to the functional managers of your team members and ask them to ensure the team members follow the new procedures
suggested
C. You should analyze the suggested procedures, then submit a change request
D. Do nothing because your team is already doing a good job
The correct course of action when you identify a possible change is to analyze the impact of the change and then present a
change request to the change control board. Choice B might very well be the end result of this, but it's important to take your
change request to the change control board for approval. Choice D is obviously not a good way to handle this (even though it
might be your first instinct).

You are performing quality control on a project. Which of the following would you not use in this process?
A. Audits
B. Inspection
C. Cause and effect diagram
D. Pareto diagram
Quality audits are not part of the Control Quality process. You use Quality Audits during the Mange Quality process.

You are planning a new project to remodel the manufacturing floor of your company. The R&D department has just released a new
product for manufacturing and is scheduled to begin shipping to the distribution channel in 90 days. Because of the tight schedule
you are concerned that you may miss delivering some requirements which will specifically help the manufacturing process for the
new product. What is the best way to reduce the chances of this happening?
A. Create a Requirements Traceability Matrix to ensure that all approved business value requirements are delivered at
the end of the project
B. Create a product oriented WBS and use product analysis to ensure that all of the high-level descriptions of the new product
are translated into tangible deliverables
C. Develop a clearly defined Integrated Change Control process that will efficiently handle any changes if missing requirements
are discovered later on
D. Use major deliverables as the first level of decomposition in your WBS and then ensure the associated work packages are
clearly defined.
A Requirements Traceability Matrix is the best way to reduce the chances of this happening since it's specifically designed to
link requirements to their origin and trace them through the project life cycle, ensuring their delivery. Since the re-model of the
manufacturing floor is a result and not a product, product analysis wouldn't typically be used. While Integrated Change Control
would help to handle changes found later, your objective is to reduce the chance of them being missed in the first place. A
deliverables-oriented WBS would not be the best way to track requirements.

You are preparing a weekly status report and want to include a forecast for your project. Which of the following would be most
helpful?
A. CPI and SPI
B. CV and SV
C. PV and AC
D. VAC and EAC
This question is asking you which metrics would be most helpful for forecasting. The only 2 metrics listed that relate to the future
are VAC (variance at completion) and EAC (estimate at completion). All of the other answer choices have metrics that calculate
current or past values on the project.

You are putting together a plan to handle procurements on your project. Your organization typically prefers to do as much work as
possible in-house, in part because procurements on some past projects ran well over budget and the stakeholders are especially
cost conscious. Your schedule will not allow you to perform all of the necessary work in house, however. Generally speaking, which
of the following contract types should you use?
A. Firm Fixed Price (FFP)
B. Fixed Price with Economic Price Adjustment (FP-EPA)
C. Cost plus fixed fee (CPFF)
D. Time and Material (T&M)
The seller has the most risk under a Firm Fixed price (FFP) contract. In this type of contract the seller is required to do all of the
work for a set price. Regardless of what happens with materials costs, delays, etc., the seller must complete the work for the
fixed price in the contract. This is appropriate here because the stakeholders will not want to accept the cost risk associated with
other types of contracts, and this gives them security in knowing exactly what they will spend.

You are reviewing a control chart for your project. Which of the following best describes out of control?
A. One data point above the mean
B. One data point above the upper control limit
C. One data point within the control limits
D. Seven or more data points above or below the mean but within the control limits
Choice B is the correct answer. A data point that falls above or below (outside) the control limits on a control chart would be out
of control. Choice D is not out of control, because the Rule of Seven holds that the 7 data points must fall consecutively on one
side or the other of the mean.

You are six months in to a project expected to take one year. Your stakeholders are asking for certain performance measurements to
be provided, such as CPI and SPI. You must set aside a week of your time to gather the information needed to produce these
measures, which has caused you to postpone other important meetings and work you needed to accomplish during this time. How
might you have avoided this?
A. Spending more time planning the schedule
B. Providing performance measurements weekly, starting when planning begins
C. Gathering and organizing the work performance information as it becomes available
D. Crashing the project with additional resources to help compile this information
The facts state that you lack the information necessary to provide the figures requested. You should have been gathering and
analyzing this information as it became available. Had you done so, this should be a fairly easy request to accommodate, and
should not materially affect your own schedule. Note that the Communications Management Plan helps outline how project
information will be organized and stored, as well as communicated.

You are sub-dividing the deliverables of the project to make the project easier to manage and estimate. What are you doing?
A. Developing the project scope
B. Creating the WBS
C. Defining activities
D. Building an affinity diagram
The purpose of creating the WBS is to make the project easier to manage and estimate. The WBS is a deliverables-oriented
breakdown of the project work.

You are submitting a status report to your external customer. Which communication approach should you use?
A. Mass Communication
B. Interpersonal communication
C. Networks and social computing communication
D. Scrum status reporting systems (SSRS)
Monitoring - Communications Management
Interpersonal Communication is the best approach offered as an answer to this question. Answers A and C are approaches but
would not always be appropriate for a formal status report. Answer D is a made up term.

You are taking measurements and plotting the results on a control chart. What process are you performing?
A. Manage quality
B. Control Quality
C. Plan quality
D. Monitor and control project work
Remember that Control Quality is when you do the actual testing and measurement. Manage quality is when you audit the
process to make sure you are following the correct quality policies and procedures. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the types
of charts and graphs you would use in both of these processes - sometimes that is your only clue.

You are testing quality on your project and you want to see if your results violate the Rule of 7. Which of the following would be
appropriate for this?
A. Ishikawa diagram
B. Control Chart
C. Pareto diagram
D. Tornado diagram
Control charts have upper and lower control limits, along with a mean value in the middle, to determine whether a process is out
of control. If 7 consecutive data points fall on one side or the other of the mean value, then the Rule of 7 is implicated and the
process is considered out of control.

You have just produced a cost baseline. Which process have you just finished?
A. The Estimate Cost process, which is the process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages
B. The Determine Budget process, which is the process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or
work packages
C. The Plan Cost Management process, which is the process of developing an approximation of the monetary resources
needed to complete the project.
D. The Estimate Cost process, which is the process of developing an approximation of the monetary resources needed to
complete the project.
The Determine Budget process creates the cost baseline. The Estimate Cost process focuses on costs of activities and work
packages which are eventually rolled up during the Determine Budget process. The Plan Cost Management process outlines
how costs will be planned, managed and expended, etc., but does not actually estimate costs themselves.

You are the project manager at a healthcare services company. Two of your team members are having a disagreement that they
cannot resolve, and it is beginning to affect the entire project team's performance. Which technique should you use if your main goal
is to develop a solution that all agree to?
A. Collaborating
B. Avoiding
C. Smoothing
D. Forcing
Collaboration involves hearing different opinions and thoughtfully working through the problems to find solutions that are
agreeable to all. Avoiding just puts the problem off until later. Smoothing is where you make everyone feel good, but dodge the
real issue.

You are the project manager for a highway construction project. Your sponsor has asked for an updated project forecast. The project
has spent $100,000 of the total budget of $400,000 and has a CPI of .85. The cost variances you have experienced thus far are
expected to continue. How much more money will you spend on your project?
A. $470,588
B. $370,588
C. $240,000
D. $340,000
This question is asking you to calculate estimate to complete (ETC). The formula for ETC is EAC - AC. So you must first
calculate EAC by using the formula BAC / CPI. $400,000 / .85 = $470,588. Now you can calculate ETC as EAC - AC = $470,588
- $100,000 = $370,588.

You are the project manager for a retail clothing company and are responsible for setting up new stores. One of your team members,
Bob, has been acting up lately. He often times is in a bad mood and has been creating a lot of conflict. You hear a rumor that he is
having some personal issues with his spouse, but that is no excuse for his behavior. How should you approach this situation?
A. Call an intervention so the entire team can tell him how his behavior has impacted the team
B. Send him an email informing him that his behavior is inappropriate
C. Schedule a one-on-one meeting to discuss the issue in private
D. Set up a meeting with Bob and his wife to try to help them resolve their differences
The first thing you should always do when there is a behavior or performance problem with one of your team members is to
discuss it one-on-one in private. While interventions might be great for drug and alcohol problems, they are not appropriate in
the workplace. Email is too impersonal and you always want to discuss performance issues face to face. Meeting with Bob and
his wife is obviously inappropriate.

You are the project manager for an accounting project. You have requested 2 senior-level auditors to assist you on your project, but
the accounting director assigns 2 very junior team members that lack the necessary skills to complete the work. How should you
respond?
A. Go to the accounting director's manager and ask for the senior resources you need.
B. Do the best you can with the junior team members.
C. Ask your manager to talk with the accounting director.
D. Call a meeting with the accounting director, so that you can explain more clearly the need for senior resources on
your project.
The appropriate course of action is always to try to resolve the issue directly with the person you have the problem with, thus
choice D is the correct answer. You should never go to outside parties, as suggested in choices A and C, until you have first tried
to resolve the issue yourself. Choice B is clearly wrong, because you know the junior resources are not up to the task.

You are the project manager for the Green Thumb Landscaping Company working on a firm fixed priced contract for a customer who
is also a personal friend. The installation of the lawn has completed slightly ahead of schedule. The customer notices that you have
some leftover grass that will have to be discarded after the project completes, and asks if you can install it in a location that is not
part of the original project. What is the most appropriate response to this?
A. You agree to install the grass since it would be discarded anyway, you are ahead of schedule, and it only takes about an
hour to complete.
B. You politely decline the request since he is a friend and it could be construed as a conflict of interest.
C. You agree to install the grass after submitting a change request and receiving approval.
D. You develop a charter for a new project to install the grass as requested.
The nature of the request or your relationship with the customer is not a reason to circumvent the change control process. Any
change request should be considered using integrated change control.

You are the project manager for the Regional Railroad project. The project is to build a railroad linking the east side of your city with
the downtown area. Part of the project will be to remodel the existing downtown train station. You are preparing a review of the
current project performance and have the following measurements: PV = 250, AC = 350, EV = 300. What do you know about this
project?
A. SV is a positive number which means you have completed more work than you had planned to date.
B. SV is a positive number, which means you are under budget.
C. SV is a negative number which means the project is ahead of schedule.
D. ETC is a positive number, which means the project will finish over budget.
SV is a positive number and is calculated as EV - PV which is 300 - 250 = 50. A positive SV means that the project is ahead of
schedule, meaning you have completed more work to date than planned. It does not mean you are under budget, however.

You are the project manager of a large global project that has team members spread out across several countries in multiple time
zones. Several of the team members in India have been complaining about the limited health benefits provided by your company and
that they are not able to pay for the care they need given their lower salaries as compared to project team members in the United
States. Lately they have been somewhat slow to respond to your e-mail requests for status updates and have even missed a few
meetings. The most likely explanation for this is?
A. McGregor's Theory-X
B. Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory
C. McGregor's Theory-Y
D. McClelland's Theory of Needs
Herzberg theorized that pay and benefits act as de-motivators, and if they are inadequate, employees cannot be motivated.
McGregor's Theory-X and Theory-Y theorize that employees inherently dislike work and are self-motivated, respectively.
McClelland's Theory of Needs says people are motivated by either 1) achievement, 2) affiliation, or 3) power.

You are the project manager of a marketing intelligence project and you are 75% of the way through the project. At this point in the
project you likely cannot change that much, as it's almost complete. A new chief marketing officer (CMO) has been hired at your
company and he will obviously be affected by your project. What should you do?
A. Complete the project and show the CMO the results when you are finished
B. Meet with the CMO to discuss his requirements
C. Add the CMO to the weekly status report distribution list
D. Stop all work on the project until you get approval from the new CMO to continue
Executing - Stakeholder Management
The appropriate response is to meet with the CMO to discuss his requirements. You should not ignore the new CMO, a key
stakeholder on your project, as suggested in choice A. Also, simply adding him to the weekly status report distribution list in
insufficient - you need to understand his requirements, even if most or all of them cannot be met at this late stage. Choice D is
improper --you should continue working on your project and try to schedule a meeting with the new CMO as soon as possible.

You are the project manager of a project that is under a CPIF contract. You are reviewing the following data: BAC = 37,500, EAC =
35,000, AC =25,000, EV = 27,500, and PV = 27,500. Which of the following statements is true at this time?
A. The project should come in under budget and you would therefore be reimbursed for all costs, plus receive a
percentage of the cost savings as per the contract.
B. The project should come in over budget and you will therefore not be reimbursed for all costs.
C. The project should come in on budget and therefore you will only be reimbursed for costs, with no additional commission or
penalty.
D. The project should come in on budget and you would therefore be reimbursed for all costs, and receive a fixed sum as a
reward
The contract is a Cost Plus Incentive Fee and the Estimate at Completion is $2,500 less than the Budget at Completion. The
project should therefore finish under budget, so A is the correct answer because it allows for the savings to be shared (which is
what the CPIF contract provides for).

You are the project manager of a project whose stakeholders are risk averse and cost sensitive. During the decomposition of the
WBS into activities, you identify a work package that would benefit from using a subcontractor to perform it. Which of the following
statements describes the most likely reason for this?
A. Your team has the experience to do the specific work but it would be less expensive to use a subcontractor to accomplish
the work.
B. Your team is not very experienced with this specific type of work and it would be less expensive to use a
subcontractor to accomplish the work.
C. You identify the work package as having a high risk of failure therefore using a subcontractor would transfer the risk.
D. You identify the work package as being very costly to complete therefore using a subcontractor would be more economical.
Because the stakeholders are both risk adverse and cost sensitive, B would be the best choice since it reduces risk and cost.
Remember you must choose the best answer, and that will always be the one that most closely aligns with all the facts provided.

You are the project manager of an industrial manufacturing project. During project execution, a team member comes to you because
he is unsure what work he needs to complete on the project. Which of the following documents contains a detailed description of the
project's deliverables and the work required to create those deliverables?
A. Project Scope Statement
B. WBS
C. Activity List
D. Requirements documentation
The Project Scope Statement is a detailed description of the project's deliverables and the work required to create those
deliverables.

You are the project manager overseeing the construction of a new aircraft carrier. The construction involves fitting various
components together at the shipyard, and it must be done in a particular order. Unfortunately, certain components have been
assembled at the shipyard, but your project team cannot install them because other necessary tasks have not yet been completed,
and because you currently lack the resources needed to install them. The components cannot be kept at the shipyard, and thus, you
will incur substantial costs for moving and storing them until they can be installed. You want to ensure that this doesn't occur again
on this project, so you should carefully review which of the following?
A. Requirements Documentation
B. Resource Documentation
C. Project Schedule Network Diagram
D. Procurement Management Plan
The problem here is one of sequencing activities. The components should not have been assembled so soon, as they cannot be
installed nor can they be stored where they are. The Project Schedule Network Diagram - an output of Sequence Activities -
should be re-visited to verify that future activities are properly sequenced so this problem does not re-occur.

You are trying to determine how best to reward your team for a job well done. Where would you find this information?
A. Recognition plan
B. Resource management plan
C. Stakeholder Engagement Plan
D. Cost management plan
Rewards and recognition are included in the Recognition Plan, which is technically part of the Resource Management Plan.
However, the more precise answer is the Recognition Plan. On the PMP exam always choose the more precise answer when
asked where certain information would be contained. See Page 319 of the PMBOK guide.

You are using the risk register and trying to find the risk score for each identified risk. Which of the following is not a tool and
technique of this process?
A. Risk data quality assessment
B. Expected Monetary Value (EMV) analysis
C. Risk categorization
D. Probability and impact matrix
First, you must know what process this question is referring to, which is Qualitative Risk Analysis. The keyword Risk Score
should have tipped you off. Choice B, Expected Monetary Value (EMV) analysis, is not part of Qualitative Risk Analysis. EMV is
done during Quantitative Risk Analysis. The other answer choices are tools and techniques of Qualitative Risk Analysis (along
with risk probability and impact assessment, risk urgency assessment and expert judgment).
You are working as a project manager and are currently looking at a chart that shows you the type and number of resources that you
need over a period of time. Your goal is to smooth out your resources so you can avoid the peaks and valleys. What type of chart are
you looking at?
A. Control chart
B. Resource histogram
C. Resource calendar
D. Staffing management plan
The question is describing resource leveling, which is the process of smoothing out resource utilization over time. You would use
a resource histogram (bar chart) to do resource leveling.

You are working as a project manager for an advertising project. Your inputs include deliverables, work performance data, checklists,
and approved change requests. What PMBOK Guide process are you working on?
A. Control Quality
B. Perform Integrated Change Control
C. Manage Quality
D. Close Project or Phase
Based on the list of inputs provided the only possible answer is choice A, Control Quality. The checklists should have tipped you
off that it involved quality. Plus we need the deliverables and approved change requests during Control Quality so that we can
perform tests on them to make sure they were completed correctly.

You are working as a project manager on a construction project and you have identified a risk that you will run out of plywood
because the building has odd angles and that will result in 20% more scrap than normal. You decide to go to the supply house and
buy 20% more plywood than originally planned. Which strategy are you using?
A. Avoidance
B. Mitigation
C. Transference
D. Acceptance
This is an example of mitigation. By purchasing the extra materials you minimize - but do not totally avoid -- the risk of running
out. Often times mitigate will sound like a backup plan. It is not transference because you are not transferring the risk to a third
party. It is not avoidance, because you are not changing the plan (instead you are just adding a backup plan). Usually avoidance
will involve implementing an alternate plan, such as using a different material where the scrap can be reused.

You are working as a project manager on a construction project. You determine that there is a 40% risk of a flood during a critical
period in the project. If the flood occurs it will damage $40,000 worth of equipment. It will also cost an extra $10,000 to drain the
water out of the construction site. You also note that there is a 35% chance that having a small amount of rain will help the
landscaping around the construction site, which will save you $10,000 in irrigation costs. What is the EMV?
A. -$16,500
B. -$23,500
C. $40,000
D. $50,000
To calculate Expected Monetary Value (EMV), we multiply the probability of occurrence times the impact if the event does occur.
We then aggregate the expected totals for each scenario to get an overall EMV. In this case, we take the cumulative impact of a
flood (a $50,000 loss in total) and multiply it by the 40% probability of occurrence ($-50,000 x .4) to get a $20,000 expected loss.
For the other scenario we take the $10,000 gain and multiply it by the 35% probability of occurrence (10,000 x .35) for a $3,500
expected gain. Then we add the $20,000 expected loss and the $3,500 expected gain (-$20,000 + $3,500) for a net expected
loss of $16,500 (Overall EMV = $-16,500).

You are working on a fixed price contract and have spent $120,000 so far out of the total contract price of $120,000. You estimate
there is still another $20,000 of work to complete the project. Because you are under contract, your company will have to pay all
remaining costs to complete the project, without any further contribution from the buyer. Which of the following best describes this
situation?
A. The project is over budget
B. The project has reached the point of total assumption
C. The project is losing money
D. The project is not a success
The best answer choice is B. This is the book definition of point of total assumption. All of the other answer choices might be
true, but the question asks for the BEST choice and the PMBOK Guide answer is what you should choose. Note that Answer A
is included within Answer B, making B more inclusive and therefore the best" answer."

You are working on a large construction project as a project manager and have just found an opportunity to save a lot of money on
your project. Which of the following is an example of exploiting the opportunity?
A. Partnering with another company to take advantage of the opportunity
B. By changing your project approach to ensure that you achieve the full benefits of the opportunity
C. Hiring workers in another country to work long hours in poor conditions for very low pay
D. By taking out an insurance policy to reduce your project costs
Exploiting means you actively go after the opportunity. Choice A is describing sharing. Choice C is using the term exploit in its
typical, day-to-day meaning, which is not generally how you should answer terminology - driven questions on the Project
Management Professional(PMP) exam. Choice D is describing transferring, which is a negative risk strategy and should not be
used for opportunities.

You are working on a project for a non-profit organization and are putting together the schedule. You have managed 3 similar
projects in the past, and decide to base your time estimates on the actual durations from the most recent project. What scheduling
tool and technique are you using?
A. Analogous estimating
B. Decomposition
C. Three Point Estimating
D. Rolling wave planning
The question describes analogous estimating, which is used during the Estimate Activity Durations process to help create
duration estimates. Here you will essentially plug in the number from the past similar project (making adjustments for known
differences as needed). This is a quick and easy method, but it yields the least accurate estimate.

You are working on a project in a weak matrix organization. Who has the authority over budgets in this type of structure?
A. Sponsor
B. Functional manager
C. Project manager
D. Customer
Planning - Framework
In a weak matrix organization, the functional manager has the authority.

You are putting together information for your stakeholder to present at a meeting you have next week. You have developed several
charts and graphs, including the baseline data to support your conclusions about how the project is performing, which you will use to
present with. These charts and graphs are best characterized as which of the following?
A. This is work performance data, and it is classified communication
B. This is work performance reports and it is classified as communications
C. This is work performance information and it is classified as personal communication
D. This is work performance data and it is classified as communication
Communication and Communications are different. Communication is the act of exchanging information. Communications is the
means by which information can be exchanged, in this case a meeting as well as physical charts and graphs. The fact that these
charts and graphs are developed from the baseline data means that these are work performance reports, which is defined as the
physical or electronic representation of the work performance information.

You have a contract with a construction vendor that has a force majeure clause in it. Under which of the following circumstances
would the clause not take effect?
A. A category 5 hurricane making landfall
B. Mass rioting breaks out
C. Act of terrorism
D. Poor economic conditions
Initiating - Procurement Management
Force majeure is a common clause in contracts that essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an
extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, or an event described by
the legal term 'Act of God' (such as flooding, earthquake, or volcanic eruption), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their
obligations under the contract.

You have a disagreement with a stakeholder over the technical approach to your project. Where should you document this?
A. Status report
B. Risk register
C. Issues log
D. It should not be documented
Monitoring - Stakeholder Management
Issues are any point or matter in dispute. A disagreement over the technical approach used on your project would be an issue,
thus it should be documented in the Issues Log.
You have identified some potential defects on your project related to a design issue and decide to take actions to reduce the
probability of negative consequences. What are you doing?
A. Problem solving
B. Workaround
C. Preventive actions
D. Corrective actions
Preventive actions are by definition actions taken to reduce the probability of negative consequences. These are not corrective
actions because no defect has occurred yet.

You have just been informed that you have been selected as the new project manager for the XYZ Widget project, which is on a very
tight schedule. You recall that previous projects for this customer did not go as smoothly as planned with respect to both the budget
and schedule so there is a lot of pressure to meet expectations on this new project. Which of the following should you do first?
A. Schedule a kick-off meeting to begin brainstorming with your project team to review the schedule and to understand any
issues or concerns that may immediately arise
B. Ask for a copy of the Project Charter so you can review who the major stakeholders are, what the high level
budget, schedule, and requirements are and verify your authority as the project manager
C. Immediately begin identifying requirements in order to get a jump on the schedule since your primary concern is ensuring
that the expectations of the project and the customer are fully met this time
D. Review the Project Scope Statement to ensure you fully understand all of the requirements and criteria for success and then
schedule a meeting to begin identifying stakeholders
A project is not officially authorized until the Project Charter has been created, so no other activities should be started until it has
been created. Since you have already been identified as the project manager the Project Charter has already been created. The
Scope Statement would not be created until after you have defined all of the requirements.

You have just completed the work on your project. All of the following must be completed before the project is closed out except
which one?
A. Get formal acceptance of the deliverables from the customer
B. Document revised risk strategies for all remaining risks to the project
C. Verify that the product acceptance criteria has been met
D. Verify that the scope has been completed
Choices A, C, and D must all be done before completing and closing out a project. You do not need to document revised risks,
because when a project is complete the risk has passed. Remember risk is a future event, so when the project closes out there
should be no further risk to the project. There may be risk to the product or to future related projects, but that would be
something else entirely.

You have just received formal authorization to start your project. What should you do next?
A. Start work on the project
B. Develop the project charter
C. Collect the requirements
D. Identify any other stakeholders who may be impacted and discuss the Charter with them
If you just received formal authorization, then that means you already have a project charter and it has been approved. The next
step would be to identify other stakeholders who weren't part of its development and ensure they understand the project goals
and expectations. Collecting requirements would come later in planning and you wouldn't start work (i.e. executing) until you
have finished planning.

You have noticed that a few of your team members have personal animosity against each other, but it has not hindered their
performance or affected the team. Who is responsible for addressing this problem in the first instance?
A. The team members in question
B. The whole team
C. The project manager
D. The project champion
Such problems should ideally be resolved by the team members themselves so long as the team and the work are not being
affected. If that fails, the PM will have to become more actively involved. The project champion is not necessarily part of the
team but is someone who helps garner and sustain support for the project.

You have recently scheduled several meetings with individuals from your project team to review items in the issue log and resolve
them by developing corrective actions. What is the best description of this process?
A. This is part of the Manage Stakeholder Engagement process to ensure that stakeholder needs are being met
B. This is part of the Direct and Manage Project Work process to ensure that stakeholder needs are being met
C. This is part of the Manage Team process to ensure that project goals are met
D. This is part of the Manage Quality process to ensure that any issues that have arisen during Control Quality are being
managed
Meeting with your individual project team members to discuss the issue log would be part of the Manage Team process (which is
why Issue Logs are a tool for that process). If it was related to stakeholders they would be invited to the meeting. Perform
Quality Assurance does not use an issue log.

You have the following activity cost estimates: Optimistic = $1,000, Pessimistic = $2,400, Most Likely = $1,400. What is the
estimated activity cost using a beta distribution?
A. $1,400
B. $1,500
C. $1,600
D. $2,400
This question is asking you to use the beta distribution (aka PERT) formula for 3-point estimates, which is: (O + 4ML + P) / 6 =
($1,000 + 4x$1,400 + $2,400) / 6 = $1,500.

You have two key stakeholders on your project that are always arguing. If one makes a suggestion, the other disagrees even if it's a
good idea. Which technique might help them be more receptive to the other person's ideas when the ideas are being reviewed in a
group discussion?
A. Influencing
B. Focus groups
C. Brainstorming
D. Team building exercises
The best way to handle this situation would be to utilize the Interpersonal and Team Skill of Influencing. This includes the ability
for the project manager to understand and articulate the various points and positions; their ability to be persuasive; their
awareness of, and consideration for, various perspective in a given situation; and being able to gather relevant information to
address issues and reach agreements while maintaining mutual trust. Team building exercises are aimed at more than two team
members. Brainstorming and focus groups are used in other processes.

You identify a risk to your project and come up with a risk response strategy to mitigate the risk. However, after implementing the
response strategy there is still some risk that remains. What is this called?
A. Left-over
B. Contingent
C. Secondary
D. Residual
Risk that remains after you implement your risk response strategy is called residual risk. You don't necessarily need to have a
response strategy for residual risk, because your initial risk response strategy should encompass your best possible approach.

You just delivered a product to your customer when you receive an email informing you that the end result is unacceptable. The
customer says that a crucial component is missing, but you know that component was not in the original plan. Also, the product
passed all quality tests. How should you respond?
A. Repair the product to include the missing component at no charge to the customer, because the customer is always right.
B. Perform the work and bill the customer for the added cost.
C. Meet with the customer to document the missing component, and then issue a change request to complete the
required work.
D. Inform the customer that since the product passed all quality tests and passed scope verification, it is complete.
The correct answer in this situation is choice C. Before you do anything that involves a deviation from the original plan, you
should document the change and issue a change request. Only after the change request has been approved should you begin
working on it. Because of this, choices A and B are clearly incorrect. Choice D is also incorrect. Just because a product passed
the quality and scope verification processes does not mean the product will meet the customer's approval. Something clearly
was missed here and thus you should work to try and resolve it.

You know that a small portion of your project work will have to be performed by contract workers from an external organization,
however, you cannot currently create a precise statement of work for this procurement. Which type of contract would be best suited
for this situation?
A. Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF)
B. Fixed Price (FP)
C. Cost Plus Percentage of Costs (CPPC)
D. Time and Materials (T&M)
Planning - Procurement Management
Time and materials contracts are best used in cases where precise statements of work cannot be readily prescribed. They are
most commonly used for staff augmentation, as indicated in the facts of this question. You should consider using a not to exceed
clause to help prevent runaway costs when using this contract type.
You were recently promoted to a project manager position in your company. Your team members follow your lead simply because
you are the PM. What kind of power is this?
A. Expert
B. Positional or Legitimate
C. Referent
D. Reward-oriented
This is Positional power, which is the power derived from your title or position in the company. For more on the type of power see
PMBOK Guide, page 63.

Your change control board (CCB) has just approved a change request. What is the next thing you should do?
A. Analyze the impact of the change
B. Inform stakeholders of the change approval
C. Update the project plan to reflect the change
D. Manage the project based on the approved change
The first thing you should do after a change request is approved is update the project documents. Once the documents are
updated, then you can inform the stakeholders. After that you can go back to work and manage the project based on the
approved change. Choice A is clearly wrong, because you always analyze the impact of a change prior to submitting a change
request (that is likely the first question you will be asked by the CCB - what's the impact to your project?).

Your company has won a contract to oversee the expansion of a major highway in your area. The project had been discussed for
several years, and due to constant changes in the political climate, the controversial project was hard to get off the ground. The
project has drawn criticism from nearby residential landowners, environmental groups, and taxpayers who deem it too expensive.
Moreover, some environmental studies suggest that the subsurface in some areas may be inadequate to sustain the road, which
may result in expensive detours being built around those spots. You are working on your Risk Management Plan. What is the best
way to proceed?
A. Set aside reserves to cover the costs of these risks and others that have been identified
B. Conduct a feasibility study to determine whether the project should go forward under these circumstances
C. Document each category of risk in the Risk Management Plan to help ensure all risks are properly identified
D. Ask the Sponsor to assign an independent project team to assess and handle project risk
The Risk Management Plan should contain risk categories, which will help you systematically identify risks as you move through
risk planning. A risk breakdown structure may be used to show risk categories, and this would be part of the Risk Management
Plan. Remember, since you are working on the Risk Management Plan, you have not yet documented specific risks, as
suggested in choice A.

Your current project involves a large group of stakeholders, some of whom are geographically dispersed. You are worried that it may
be very difficult to ensure that they are properly informed of the project status. Which of the following would be the best overall
approach to this?
A. Gather information such as roles, departments, interests, etc. and identify the potential impact or support each stakeholder
could generate.
B. Plan project communications to ensure expectations are properly managed by promptly distributing information
designed to keep all stakeholders properly informed.
C. Distribute weekly status reports to each of the stakeholders to ensure they do not miss any important updates to the project
status. Additionally, schedule a weekly conference call with them to discuss their concerns and any issues that may have
arisen.
D. Analyze stakeholder interests using quantitative and qualitative techniques to ensure stakeholder relationships can be
leveraged to build coalitions and partnerships.
Plan communications includes all of the items listed in Answer B, so it's the best overall approach in this situation.

Your manager gives you instructions on how to best complete a work package. As he does so, you are periodically replying with
summaries of what he just said, to ensure you understood him. This is an example of which of the following?
A. Micro management
B. Active listening
C. Scope verification
D. Push Communication
Active listening is when you confirm that you received and understood the message, by either repeating back what was said or
asking clarifying questions.

Your project has some procured components in it. About half of the procured deliverables have been completed and accepted. One
of your team members stumbles across the seller not following your organizations standards in the development of the deliverables.
Even though the deliverables work, they will all have to be re-created following the standards. Which of the following would not help
in preventing this situation?
A. An in depth review of the first deliverable for not only if it is working, but also for following the standards
B. Inviting the seller to the project team laser tag event as part of the project kick off
C. Establishing in the contract that the development standards must be followed, and providing those standards
D. Ensuring the procurement statement of work was completely communicated and understood with the seller project team
Although B might help with building the vendor relationship, it would not help in setting expectations of the development
standards.

Your project has the following schedule network paths: A-D-F-H, B-D-F-H, C-E-F-H, and C-E-G-H. Tasks have the following
durations: A=10, B=8, C=6, D=4, E=12, F=6, G=3, H=4. What is the duration of the critical path?
A. 22
B. 24
C. 25
D. 28
The critical path is the chain of activities with the longest combined duration. In this case it is path C-E-F-H, with a duration of 28
days.

Your project involves creating a new type of car seat for children that meets federal safety standards. During the test phase a
problem is discovered with the amount of force that the car seat can withstand, and testing is halted. It is determined that the car
seat does not meet the minimum safety standards. Which of the following statements best describes this situation?
A. The cost of performing the test is called an appraisal cost, and the additional costs which may be incurred include
re-work or scrap.
B. This is an example of a cost of non-conformance.
C. This is an example of an external failure cost.
D. The problem was discovered during Perform Quality Assurance using a Control Chart when a safety standard variable went
out-of-control.
Costs associated with testing a product are called appraisal costs. Here, the car seat did not meet the requirements, so the car
seats must either be fixed (re-work) or discarded (scrap). B and C incorrectly describe the type of costs incurred, while D
incorrectly states that the problem was detected during Perform Quality Assurance.

Your project is behind schedule. Which types of dependencies would you look at to fast-track your project?
A. Hard
B. External
C. Mandatory
D. Soft logic
Fast tracking involves taking activities that were sequential and doing them in parallel. The only activities you can re-arrange are
those that have some flexibility. These are called preferred logic or soft logic dependencies.

Your project has not completed initiating but has a strong likelihood of being selected for this fiscal year. Which of the following is not
something you should do at this point in time?
A. Document the reason for doing the project
B. Define how and when the work will be executed to accomplish the project objectives
C. Identify project success criteria
D. Document high-level risks
All choices are done during the initiating process group when developing the Project Charter, except for choice B. You would not
do choice B until after the project has been formally selected and you plan it out.

Your project team does not understand the fundamentals of project management. You feel this has the potential to harm your project.
You decide to put together a half-day training session to teach PMBOK Guide basics. Which of the following have you achieved by
having this training?
A. Develop your project team
B. Avoid Risk
C. Acquire Resources
D. Analyze Risk
This is an example of developing your project team because you are enhancing the team's overall competencies and skills. Note
that B is incorrect because avoiding a risk means taking it off the table completely, but project failures could still occur
notwithstanding the training.
Your project was suddenly terminated after a major design flaw was found in one of the components that you delivered to the
customer. What should you do next?
A. Stop work, document the lessons learned, and then release the team
B. Offer the customer box seat tickets to a professional sporting event and try to get him to reinstate your contract
C. Keep the team working on the project to fix the problems and try to get the project reinstated
D. Stop work and release the team immediately
If your project gets terminated early you should immediately stop work and document the lessons learned. After the lessons
learned are documented you can release the team. Choice B is suggesting a bribe, which is not appropriate. Choice C is not
correct either; you should not work on the project if it is canceled. You need your team to document the lessons learned so
choice D is incorrect.

Your team is reviewing the entire procurement process to look for successes and failures. What are you doing?
A. Documenting lessons learned
B. Conducting an audit on the procurement
C. Procurement Performance Review
D. Decomposition
Closing - Procurement Management
The process of reviewing the entire procurement process to look for successes and failures is the book definition for
Procurement Audits.

You are reviewing the status of identified risks while managing a project that requires demolition and other high-risk activities. You
want to ensure you understand the specific divisions of risks between your organization and external organizations you have
engaged to perform those high-risk aspects of the project work. To which of the following items should you refer?
A. Procurements Management Plan
B. Risk Management Plan
C. Probability and Impact Matrix
D. Agreements
In this case you have used procurements to bring on other organizations to handle the high-risk aspects of the project work (an
example of the "transferring" technique for handling threats). In order to understand exactly what risks the outside organization
has assumed, and to identify any risks they may not have assumed, you should look at the agreements in place with each
organization. If there are risks which the outside organizations have not assumed, you need to make sure you have a proper
plan in place to address them. While the Risk Management Plan would speak broadly about what types of risks should be
transferred, it would not necessarily help you determine the detailed information you are seeking here.
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9/17/2020 Project Management Academy

MY ACCOUNT PROJECT PLANNER CLUB PDU

Final Score = 53%

Planning = 51% 50% 51%

Knowledge Area Breakdown

Quality Management = 54% 35%

Risk Management = 62%

Stakeholder Management = 20%

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