CAPM Practice Exam 4 — 20 Questions

Question 1

You are a project manager in a functional organization managing a software upgrade project. The functional managers control resources and priorities. Your project requires a senior developer from the IT department for two weeks starting next Monday. The IT functional manager informs you that the developer is assigned to an urgent operational issue and cannot be released until further notice. The project has a fixed deadline in four weeks, and any delay will impact the next phase. You have already used your influence and escalated to senior management, but the functional manager insists on keeping the developer. What should you do next?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Negotiate with the functional manager for partial release of the developer or a qualified replacement. In a functional organization, the project manager has limited authority over resources. Since the functional manager controls the developer's assignments, negotiating for a partial release (e.g., part-time work) or a qualified replacement is the most realistic next step to minimize project delay. Updating the schedule (A) would be premature without exhausting negotiation. Escalating to the CEO (B) may bypass the functional manager and damage relationships, and ordering the developer to work (D) is beyond the PM's authority in this structure.

Answer

Update the project schedule to reflect the delay and inform stakeholders

Answer

Escalate the issue to the CEO to override the functional manager

Answer

Direct the developer to work on the project despite the functional manager's order

Question 2

A project team encounters this error during deployment. Which project document should be updated first?

Accepted Answer

Issue log. An error during deployment is an issue that has already occurred, so it should be logged in the issue log for tracking and resolution. Option A is wrong because the change log is for approved changes, not for unexpected errors. Option C is wrong because the lessons learned register is updated after the project or phase, not immediately. Option D is wrong because the risk register is for uncertain events that may occur, but this error has already happened.

Answer

Change log

Answer

Lessons learned register

Answer

Risk register

Question 3

Refer to the exhibit. What is the cost performance index (CPI)?

Accepted Answer

0.83. CPI = EV/AC = 5000/6000 = 0.83. Options B, C, and D are incorrect calculations.

Answer

0.91

Answer

1.20

Answer

1.10

Question 4

During project planning, the team identifies that a key component must be custom-built by a vendor with a long lead time. The project manager wants to avoid the risk of the vendor failing to deliver. Which risk response strategy is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Transfer. Transfer is the most appropriate risk response strategy because it shifts the risk of vendor non-delivery to a third party (the vendor) through contracts, warranties, or insurance. Option B (Transfer) correctly addresses the risk by involving the vendor contractually. Option A (Accept) would involve acknowledging the risk without proactive action, which is not ideal when a specific vendor is critical. Option C (Avoid) would mean changing the project plan to eliminate the risk entirely, such as using a different component or building in-house, but that may not be feasible. Option D (Mitigate) would involve reducing the probability or impact of the risk, but transferring the risk through a contract is more direct and effective in this scenario.

Answer

Accept

Answer

Avoid

Answer

Mitigate

Question 5

A business analyst is facilitating a workshop to define the scope of a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. The project manager insists on including a feature that automates email campaigns, but the BA has identified that this feature is outside the agreed budget and timeline. The product owner supports the feature because it was requested by a key customer. What should the BA do first?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a prioritization session with all stakeholders to discuss trade-offs.. The BA should first facilitate a prioritization session with all stakeholders to discuss trade-offs because this aligns with the business analysis framework's emphasis on collaborative decision-making when scope conflicts arise. By engaging stakeholders, the BA can evaluate the feature's value against budget and timeline constraints, ensuring informed trade-offs rather than unilateral rejection or escalation. This approach maintains stakeholder alignment and avoids premature scope changes without consensus.

Answer

Reject the feature because it exceeds the budget.

Answer

Add the feature to the backlog but flag it as out of scope.

Answer

Request a budget increase from the project sponsor.

Question 6

During requirements validation, the business analyst discovers that a key requirement conflicts with an existing system constraint. The project manager wants to proceed with the requirement as-is to meet customer expectations. What should the business analyst do?

Accepted Answer

Document the conflict, analyze trade-offs, and facilitate a decision with stakeholders.. The business analyst's role in requirements validation includes documenting conflicts, analyzing trade-offs (e.g., cost, schedule, technical feasibility), and facilitating a decision among stakeholders. This aligns with the BABOK® Guide's requirement for collaborative decision-making, ensuring that the project manager's desire to meet customer expectations is balanced against the system constraint through an informed, consensus-driven process.

Answer

Escalate directly to the project sponsor.

Answer

Modify the requirement to avoid the constraint without informing stakeholders.

Answer

Accept the project manager's decision and proceed.

Question 7

Which THREE of the following are tools and techniques used in the Control Schedule process? (Select exactly 3.)

Accepted Answer

Performance reviews. Performance reviews (B) are a tool and technique in the Control Schedule process used to compare actual schedule performance against the baseline, often through earned value management (EVM) metrics like schedule variance (SV) and schedule performance index (SPI). This helps identify deviations and trigger corrective actions.

Answer

Rolling wave planning

Answer

Critical path method

Question 8

A project manager is leading a software development project. The business analyst has identified that the current requirements gathering process does not align with the enterprise's business analysis framework. The team is experiencing frequent scope changes and rework. What should the project manager do first to address this issue?

Accepted Answer

Review the enterprise's business analysis framework and adjust the requirements process to comply with it.. The project manager must first ensure the requirements gathering process aligns with the enterprise's business analysis framework. This alignment is a foundational step to reduce scope changes and rework, as the framework defines standard practices, templates, and governance for requirements management. Without compliance, any change control or documentation updates will be ineffective because the underlying process itself is non-conforming.

Answer

Immediately implement a change control process to manage scope changes.

Answer

Train the business analyst on the project's requirements gathering techniques.

Answer

Update the requirements documentation to include a traceability matrix.

Question 9

During requirements elicitation, a business analyst (BA) observes that key stakeholders are reluctant to share information due to a previous project's failure. The BA needs to build trust. Which technique should the BA use to encourage open communication?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a workshop with ground rules to ensure respectful dialogue.. Facilitating a workshop with ground rules establishes a structured, respectful environment that directly addresses trust issues. Ground rules create psychological safety by setting clear expectations for behavior, which encourages reluctant stakeholders to share information openly. This technique is specifically designed to rebuild trust in a group setting after a project failure.

Answer

Conduct one-on-one interviews to gather individual perspectives.

Answer

Distribute a survey to collect anonymous feedback.

Answer

Organize a brainstorming session to generate ideas freely.

Question 10

A medium-sized software company is developing a new mobile application. The project manager, Alex, has a team of 10 developers and 2 testers. The organization uses a hybrid approach combining waterfall planning for the overall phases and agile for individual iterations. In the first iteration, the team committed to completing 20 user stories. During the sprint, two developers left the company, and the remaining team members had to pick up their tasks. The product owner is concerned about the delivery date. Alex needs to communicate the impact to stakeholders. What should Alex do first?

Accepted Answer

Re-estimate the remaining user stories using the new team capacity to determine the impact on the schedule.. Before communicating delays or taking corrective actions, Alex must first understand the impact of the reduced capacity on the iteration and overall project. Re-estimating the remaining stories based on the new team capacity provides a data-driven basis for revising the schedule and communicating realistic expectations. Option A is correct. Option B (immediately informing of delay) is premature without analysis. Options C and D are reactive and may not be feasible or effective.

Answer

Immediately inform the project sponsor that the release date will be delayed.

Answer

Ask the remaining team members to work overtime to make up for the lost capacity.

Answer

Add more developers from another project to the team.

Question 11

During a sprint review, the team demonstrates a new feature to stakeholders. One stakeholder says, 'This isn't what we wanted. We need a completely different approach.' The product owner is upset because the feature took two weeks to build. The team is frustrated because they followed the product owner's specifications exactly. The Scrum Master observes that the product owner did not involve stakeholders during the sprint and based the user stories on assumptions. The product owner wants to add the rework to the next sprint. However, the team's capacity is already full. The Scrum Master needs to help the team and product owner recover. What should the Scrum Master do first?

Accepted Answer

Coach the product owner to collaborate with stakeholders during the sprint to validate assumptions early. The root cause is lack of stakeholder involvement during the sprint. The Scrum Master should encourage the product owner to engage stakeholders regularly, perhaps by showing early increments or holding more frequent demos. Adding rework without adjusting scope will cause the team to fail the next sprint. Blaming the team is inappropriate. Instead, the product owner should renegotiate the sprint goal with the team.

Answer

Remove the product owner from the project to prevent future miscommunication

Answer

Blame the team for not clarifying requirements during the sprint

Answer

Add the rework to the next sprint and ask the team to work overtime

Question 12

You are a business analyst on a project to replace the legacy inventory system with a cloud-based solution. The project is using a predictive lifecycle, and the requirements specification has been baselined. During the design phase, the vendor informs you that a key feature (real-time reporting) cannot be implemented within the current budget because it requires additional licensing. The feature is critical to the business case's expected cost savings. The project manager wants to descope the feature to stay within budget. As the business analyst, what is the most appropriate action?

Accepted Answer

Perform a cost-benefit analysis of including the feature versus descoping it, and present options to the sponsor.. The business case must be reassessed; if the feature is critical, the impact on expected savings must be evaluated and the case updated. Option A undermines the business case. Option B is a quick fix. Option C escalates without analysis.

Answer

Escalate the issue to the program manager and ask for a decision.

Answer

Agree to descope the feature and update the requirements document accordingly.

Answer

Request additional budget from the sponsor to cover the extra licensing cost.

Question 13

A distributed agile team has members in three different time zones. They use Scrum with two-week sprints. The daily Scrum is held at 9:00 AM Eastern Time, which is inconvenient for the team members in India (7:30 PM) and Australia (11:00 PM). The team is struggling with communication and frequently misses the daily Scrum. The product owner is not attending anyway, but the development team members from remote locations feel left out. The Scrum Master wants to improve the situation. The team has decided to try alternating the time of the daily Scrum. However, the product owner insists that the team should all be available at a fixed time. The remote developers are becoming disengaged. What should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Rotate the daily Scrum time each sprint to share the inconvenience fairly. The core of the problem is the meeting time. The Scrum Master should advocate for the team and suggest rotating the time to accommodate everyone, ensuring that the whole team can attend. Having two separate daily Scrums would break the team cohesion. Recording the meeting doesn't allow for live interaction. Moving to email updates eliminates the event's purpose.

Answer

Replace the daily Scrum with a daily email status update

Answer

Hold two separate daily Scrums: one for each time zone region

Answer

Enforce the fixed time rigidly and ask remote members to adjust their schedules

Question 14

Which TWO of the following are techniques used for requirements elicitation?

Accepted Answer

Benchmarking. Benchmarking and focus groups are both elicitation techniques used to gather requirements from stakeholders. Pareto analysis and decision tree are used for analysis, and SWOT is for strategic planning.

Answer

Pareto analysis

Answer

Decision tree

Answer

SWOT analysis

Question 15

You are a project manager for a construction project to build a new office wing. The project is in the execution phase. The team reports that the foundation work is behind schedule because of unexpected soil conditions that require additional stabilization. The project plan had a contingency reserve for such issues. The project sponsor is concerned about the delay and asks you to compress the schedule to recover. The project has a fixed completion date and cannot be delayed. After analyzing the schedule, you find that there is float on some non-critical paths, but critical path activities are already resource-loaded. What is the BEST course of action to address the delay while keeping the project on track?

Accepted Answer

Use crashing by adding more resources to the critical path activities, including overtime and additional crews.. Crashing is the correct technique because the critical path activities are already resource-loaded and the schedule must be compressed without changing scope. By adding more resources (e.g., overtime, additional crews) to critical path tasks, you directly reduce their duration, which shortens the overall project timeline. This aligns with the fixed completion date and the need to recover from the delay caused by unexpected soil conditions.

Answer

Use the contingency reserve to hire additional workers for the foundation.

Answer

Apply fast-tracking by overlapping the foundation work with subsequent structural work.

Answer

Reduce the scope of the office wing to shorten the schedule.

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT a purpose of the project charter?

Accepted Answer

Define the detailed project schedule.. The project charter is a high-level document that authorizes the project, identifies the sponsor, and provides high-level requirements. It does not include a detailed project schedule; that is developed later in the project planning process group, specifically within the Develop Schedule process. Therefore, option A is correct because defining the detailed project schedule is not a purpose of the project charter.

Answer

Identify the project sponsor.

Answer

Authorize the project manager.

Answer

Provide high-level project requirements.

Question 17

You are the business analyst for a project developing a mobile banking application. The project is in the requirements elicitation phase. One of the key stakeholders, the head of security, is on an extended leave and will not be available for three weeks. The project timeline is aggressive, and the project manager insists on completing requirements gathering within two weeks to stay on schedule. You have held initial interviews with other stakeholders, but the security requirements are critical because the app will handle sensitive financial data. The quality assurance lead suggests using a survey to collect security requirements from the security team, but the security team members are reluctant to provide input without their manager's approval. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Document assumptions about the security requirements and proceed with the rest of the elicitation, planning to validate with the head of security upon their return.. When a key stakeholder is unavailable, it is a recognized practice to document assumptions about their requirements and plan to validate later. This keeps the project on schedule while acknowledging the risk. Conducting a survey may face resistance, delaying elicitation. Delaying the entire project is not justified for one stakeholder. Using existing documentation is useful but may not capture all needs.

Answer

Delay all requirements elicitation until the head of security returns to ensure complete and accurate security requirements.

Answer

Use existing security policies and industry standards as a proxy for the security requirements without further elicitation.

Answer

Conduct a survey of the security team members to gather their requirements despite their reluctance.

Question 18

A project manager is using a predictive approach for a construction project. The team has completed 40% of the work, but the actual cost is $500,000 against a planned value of $450,000. The project manager calculates the cost performance index (CPI) and schedule performance index (SPI). Which conclusion is correct?

Accepted Answer

The project is over budget and behind schedule. The project has completed 40% of the work, so the earned value (EV) is 40% of the total budget. With actual cost (AC) of $500,000 and planned value (PV) of $450,000, the CPI = EV/AC = (0.4 * BAC)/500,000. Since AC > PV and EV < PV (because only 40% of work is done vs. 45% planned), both CPI and SPI are less than 1.0, indicating the project is over budget and behind schedule.

Answer

The project is over budget but ahead of schedule

Answer

The project is on budget and on schedule

Answer

The project is under budget and ahead of schedule

Question 19

An agile team is using a burndown chart for the first time. After six days of a two-week sprint, the burndown chart shows that the remaining work has increased compared to the previous day. The team is confused. They had completed several tasks, but new tasks were added to the sprint backlog after the sprint started. The product owner says the additions were urgent and necessary. The development team is frustrated because they feel the sprint goal is at risk. The Scrum Master must address this situation. What should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Ask the product owner and team to renegotiate the sprint scope, either removing some planned work or deferring the new work to the next sprint. The Scrum Master should facilitate a negotiation between the product owner and the development team to re-evaluate the sprint backlog. In Scrum, the sprint backlog can be clarified or renegotiated with the product owner, but the sprint goal must remain achievable. By asking the team and product owner to either remove planned work or defer the new tasks, the Scrum Master protects the sprint goal and maintains team focus, which is the core responsibility of the Scrum Master in an agile framework.

Answer

Instruct the team to ignore the burndown chart and focus on delivering the original sprint goal

Answer

Explain to the product owner that the sprint backlog is frozen once the sprint starts and cannot be changed

Answer

Manually adjust the burndown chart to show the completed tasks and hide the additional work

Question 20

A business analyst is assigned to a project that aims to streamline the supply chain process in a manufacturing company. The project has a tight deadline, and the project sponsor wants to use a proven framework to ensure efficiency. During the initial analysis, the analyst finds that the current process has many manual handoffs and inconsistent data formats. Several cross-functional teams have conflicting priorities. The sponsor asks for a recommendation that balances structure with flexibility. As the business analyst, which approach should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Use the BABOK guide as a framework to define business analysis activities and deliverables.. The BABOK guide provides a structured yet flexible framework for business analysis activities and deliverables, which is suitable for streamlining processes with cross-functional teams and conflicting priorities. Option A (Six Sigma DMAIC) is more focused on defect reduction and standardization, which may be too narrow for this project's needs. Option C (Prince2) is a project management methodology, not a business analysis framework. Option D (Waterfall) is too rigid and does not accommodate the need for flexibility in a complex process improvement project.

Answer

Adopt a Six Sigma DMAIC approach to reduce defects and standardize processes.

Answer

Follow the Prince2 methodology for project management and business analysis.

Answer

Implement a pure Waterfall approach with strict phase gates.