CAPM Practice Test 29 — 15 Questions

Question 1

During project execution, a key stakeholder requests a change that would add a new feature. The project manager assesses the impact and finds that it will increase the project cost by 15% and extend the schedule by three weeks. The sponsor is concerned about the budget but sees the value. What should the project manager do next?

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

Accepted Answer

Submit the change request to the change control board (CCB) for review and decision.. In project management, once a change is assessed for impact, the project manager must follow the formal change control process. Since the change increases cost by 15% and extends the schedule by three weeks, it exceeds typical contingency thresholds and requires approval from the Change Control Board (CCB), which has the authority to approve or reject changes that affect baselines. Option B is correct because submitting to the CCB ensures proper governance and alignment with the project's change management plan.

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Approve the change since the stakeholder is influential and the sponsor sees value.

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Implement the change immediately to avoid delaying the project further.

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Reject the change because it exceeds the budget and schedule constraints.

Question 2

Match each communication method to its characteristic.

Accepted Answer

Interactive Communication: Real-time, bidirectional exchange of information. Interactive communication is real-time and bidirectional; push communication sends information to specific recipients without requiring a response; pull communication allows recipients to access information at their own convenience. Common confusions include swapping push and pull definitions.

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Interactive Communication: Information is sent to specific recipients

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Push Communication: Real-time, bidirectional exchange

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Pull Communication: Information is sent to specific recipients

Question 3

A project involves upgrading a legacy financial reporting system. The business analyst (BA) has been assigned to elicit requirements. The BA schedules a series of one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders, but after three interviews, the BA notices that stakeholders are providing inconsistent information. The BA suspects that some stakeholders have hidden agendas and are reluctant to share complete details. The BA recalls that the project sponsor emphasized the need for a comprehensive and accurate requirements set. The BA has limited time and budget. What should the BA do next?

Accepted Answer

Organize a facilitated workshop with all stakeholders to discuss requirements collaboratively.. A facilitated workshop is the best approach because it creates a collaborative environment where stakeholders can discuss requirements openly, helping to surface hidden agendas and resolve inconsistencies. This technique is more efficient than one-on-one interviews for building consensus and ensuring comprehensive requirements, especially given the limited time and budget.

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Continue with one-on-one interviews but ask more probing questions.

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor and ask for direction.

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Review existing documentation such as the system design specification to infer requirements.

Question 4

A business analyst discovers that two requirements conflict with each other. What is the best strategy to resolve this conflict?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a meeting with the key stakeholders to negotiate a resolution. Facilitating a meeting with stakeholders allows for negotiation and collaboration to resolve the conflict. Option A is incorrect because asking the sponsor to choose may not address the underlying concerns and could bypass stakeholder input. Option C is incorrect because leaving the decision to the development team may lead to a technical decision that doesn't consider business needs. Option D is incorrect because including both conflicting requirements without resolution could create inconsistencies, and adding a third requirement doesn't reconcile the original conflict.

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Ask the project sponsor to choose which requirement to keep

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Document both requirements and let the development team decide

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Include both requirements and add a third requirement to reconcile them

Question 5

During project execution, a key stakeholder requests a change that will increase the project scope. The project manager evaluates the impact and determines it will require additional budget and time. What should the project manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to the change control board. In predictive (waterfall) project management, any change that impacts scope, budget, or schedule must follow a formal change control process. The project manager first assesses the impact, then submits a change request to the Change Control Board (CCB) for approval before any action is taken. Implementing the change or updating baselines without CCB approval violates the control scope process defined in the PMBOK Guide.

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Implement the change and update the project plan

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Update the project baseline immediately

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Reject the change because it impacts the baseline

Question 6

A project manager is creating the project schedule. The team estimates that the optimistic time for an activity is 10 days, the pessimistic time is 30 days, and the most likely time is 15 days. Using PERT three-point estimation, what is the expected duration?

Accepted Answer

16.67 days. The PERT three-point estimate formula is (Optimistic + 4×Most Likely + Pessimistic) / 6. Plugging in the values: (10 + 4×15 + 30) / 6 = (10 + 60 + 30) / 6 = 100 / 6 = 16.67 days. This weighted average gives more influence to the most likely estimate, reflecting a beta distribution.

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18.33 days

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20.00 days

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15.00 days

Question 7

Which TWO of the following are core roles in the Scrum framework?

Accepted Answer

Product Owner. The Product Owner is a core Scrum role responsible for maximizing the value of the product and managing the Product Backlog. This role is explicitly defined in the Scrum Guide as one of the three accountabilities (alongside the Scrum Master and Developers) and is essential for the framework's operation.

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Business Analyst

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Project Manager

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Tester

Question 8

A business analyst is tasked with modeling the logical data requirements for a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. Which artifact should the BA create to show the relationships between customer entities and their attributes?

Accepted Answer

An entity-relationship diagram. The entity-relationship diagram (ERD) is the correct artifact because it specifically models logical data requirements by showing entities (e.g., Customer, Order) and their attributes (e.g., CustomerID, Name) along with the relationships between them (e.g., one-to-many). This directly addresses the task of modeling data for a CRM system, where understanding how customer data relates to other entities is critical.

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A context diagram

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A user story map

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A use case diagram

Question 9

Refer to the exhibit. A BA is analyzing this network firewall rule set for a web application. Which statement is true about the configuration?

Accepted Answer

All ports are open to the local network.. The firewall rule set permits all ports from the local network (e.g., 10.0.0.0/8), meaning all traffic originating from the local network is allowed. Option B is incorrect because the rule set only includes defined inbound rules, not all communication channels. Option C is irrelevant to firewall configuration. Option D is incorrect because SSH (port 22) is restricted to the local network, not the entire internet.

Answer

The matrix includes all communication channels.

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The project sponsor and the project manager receive status reports from all team members.

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SSH access is allowed from the entire internet.

Question 10

A business analyst is evaluating whether a proposed solution aligns with the organization's strategic goals. Which business analysis technique should be used?

Accepted Answer

SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is the correct technique because it directly evaluates how a proposed solution aligns with the organization's strategic goals by examining internal capabilities and external market factors. This technique helps the business analyst determine whether the solution leverages organizational strengths and opportunities while mitigating weaknesses and threats, ensuring strategic fit.

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MoSCoW analysis

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Gap analysis

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Feasibility study

Question 11

Before approving a major IT system upgrade, the steering committee wants to understand whether the proposed solution is technically feasible and aligns with the organization's strategic goals. The business analyst should recommend conducting which type of analysis?

Accepted Answer

Feasibility study. A feasibility study assesses technical, economic, and operational viability before committing to a project. A business case is built after feasibility; ROI analysis is part of the business case; SWOT analysis is for strategic positioning.

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Business case development

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Return on investment (ROI) analysis

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SWOT analysis

Question 12

A business analyst is working on a project to develop a mobile banking application. During the requirements analysis phase, the BA creates a set of user stories and acceptance criteria. The BA then conducts a peer review with the development team. The team points out that the stories are too large and vague to estimate. The BA needs to refine the requirements to make them actionable. The project is using an agile methodology with two-week sprints. What should the BA do?

Accepted Answer

Split the large user stories into smaller, more specific stories with acceptance criteria.. In agile methodologies, user stories must be small enough to fit within a single sprint and provide clear, testable acceptance criteria for estimation and development. Splitting large, vague stories into smaller, specific stories with acceptance criteria directly addresses the team's inability to estimate, enabling accurate sprint planning and incremental delivery. This aligns with the INVEST principle (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable) for effective user stories.

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Add more detail to the existing user stories and acceptance criteria.

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Create a prototype to clarify requirements and then rewrite stories.

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Ask the development team to re-estimate the stories as they are.

Question 13

A startup is adopting Scrum for the first time. During the Sprint Review, stakeholders request many changes to the product increment. What is the best way for the Scrum Master to handle this?

Accepted Answer

Ask the Product Owner to add the changes to the Product Backlog for prioritization in future Sprints.. In Scrum, the Sprint Review is a time for stakeholders to inspect the increment and provide feedback, but changes cannot be made to the current Sprint as the Sprint Goal and scope are fixed. The Product Owner is responsible for managing the Product Backlog, so the best action is to capture these change requests and have the Product Owner add them to the Product Backlog for future prioritization. This ensures the Development Team remains focused on the current Sprint Goal and that changes are evaluated against business value and priority in upcoming Sprints.

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Let the Development Team decide which changes to implement immediately.

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Add the changes to the current Sprint Backlog immediately.

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Ignore the feedback since the Sprint is complete.

Question 14

A project manager is leading a software development project. The team has completed the first iteration and is reviewing the lessons learned. Which output of the Manage Project Knowledge process should the project manager update with the lessons learned from this iteration?

Accepted Answer

Lessons learned register. The Manage Project Knowledge process produces the lessons learned register as its primary output. This register is a project document where the project manager records lessons learned from each iteration, including the first one. The lessons learned register is later updated and becomes an input to organizational process assets at the end of the project or phase.

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Project documents updates

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Organizational process assets updates

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Project management plan

Question 15

In a predictive project management approach, which TWO artifacts are components of the project management plan?

Accepted Answer

Schedule baseline. The schedule baseline (option A) is a component of the project management plan as it represents the approved schedule model used to measure performance. The work breakdown structure dictionary (option D) is also a component, as it provides detailed information about each WBS element and is part of the scope baseline, which is a key component of the project management plan. In predictive (waterfall) project management, both baselines are formally integrated into the plan and are subject to change control processes.

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Lessons learned register

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Requirements traceability matrix

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Project charter