CAPM Practice Questions 2 — 50 Questions

Question 1

A project manager is creating a project scope statement for a predictive project. Which element is typically included in the project scope statement?

Accepted Answer

Project constraints. The project scope statement typically includes project constraints, such as budget, schedule, and resource limitations, as well as assumptions, deliverables, and acceptance criteria. Constraints are a key element because they define the boundaries within which the project must be executed. The scope statement documents what is in and out of scope, and constraints are part of that documentation.

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Activity list

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Risk register

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Work breakdown structure

Question 2

A project manager is initiating a project to develop a new mobile application. The business environment is highly uncertain, and requirements are expected to evolve frequently. Which business analysis framework is most appropriate for this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Agile (Scrum). Agile (Scrum) is the most appropriate framework for a project with high uncertainty and evolving requirements because it embraces change through iterative development and frequent feedback. Scrum's empirical approach allows the team to adapt to new requirements at the end of each sprint, delivering value incrementally. Waterfall, PRINCE2, and Six Sigma are more predictive or process-oriented and do not handle frequent changes well. Therefore, Agile (Scrum) is the best fit.

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Waterfall

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PRINCE2

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Six Sigma

Question 3

A business analyst needs to gather input from a large number of geographically dispersed stakeholders about their preferences for a new system. The project has a limited budget and timeline. Which elicitation technique is most efficient in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Survey / Questionnaire. A survey or questionnaire is the most efficient elicitation technique when gathering input from many geographically dispersed stakeholders under budget and time constraints, because it can be distributed simultaneously to all participants at minimal cost and requires no travel or scheduling coordination. It scales linearly in cost per additional respondent, unlike interviews or focus groups.

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Focus groups

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One-on-one interviews

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Observation

Question 4

During the planning phase of a predictive project, the project manager notices that the project schedule does not include all required deliverables. What is the most appropriate action to address this gap?

Accepted Answer

Review the work breakdown structure (WBS) to ensure all deliverables are represented.. The WBS decomposes the project scope into deliverables and work packages; if the schedule is missing deliverables, the root cause is likely an incomplete WBS. Reviewing the WBS ensures all deliverables are identified and represented before updating the schedule. This aligns with the PMBOK principle of verifying scope before schedule development.

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Update the schedule to include the missing deliverables directly.

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Request a change to the project charter to accommodate the missing deliverables.

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Review the scope statement and add more resources to the project.

Question 5

A company uses Scrum with two-week sprints. The team's velocity is 30 story points per sprint, and they have a well-refined product backlog. However, stakeholders frequently introduce urgent, high-priority requests mid-sprint, which the Product Owner accepts because of stakeholder pressure. As a result, the team is overcommitted each sprint, often leaving 40% of planned work incomplete. The Product Owner is frustrated because promised features are delayed, and the team feels demotivated due to constant interruptions. The Scrum Master has been asked to intervene. What is the best course of action for the Scrum Master?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate stakeholder negotiation to limit mid-sprint changes and reinforce the importance of the sprint goal.. The Scrum Master's primary role is to protect the Scrum framework and facilitate collaboration. By negotiating with stakeholders and reinforcing the sprint goal's importance, the Scrum Master addresses the root cause—uncontrolled scope changes—without violating Scrum principles. This approach preserves the team's focus and velocity, preventing overcommitment and demotivation.

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Instruct the Product Owner to defer all mid-sprint changes to the next sprint.

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Add a capacity buffer to each sprint to accommodate unexpected requests.

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Implement a change control board to approve all mid-sprint changes.

Question 6

Which THREE of the following are tools and techniques used in the Control Schedule process?

Accepted Answer

Variance analysis. Variance analysis is a tool and technique in the Control Schedule process because it compares planned schedule performance (e.g., baseline dates) against actual results to identify deviations. It uses metrics like Schedule Variance (SV) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) from earned value management to quantify schedule health and trigger corrective actions.

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Cost-benefit analysis

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Reserve analysis

Question 7

An Agile team consistently completes only about 70% of the planned work each sprint. Which action is most likely to improve the team's ability to meet commitments?

Accepted Answer

Break down user stories into smaller, more granular items.. When a team consistently completes only about 70% of planned work, the most likely cause is that user stories are too large or poorly understood, leading to inaccurate estimates and incomplete work. Breaking stories into smaller, more granular items improves estimation accuracy, increases transparency, and allows the team to finish more items within a sprint, thereby improving their ability to meet commitments. This is a core Agile practice for improving predictability.

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Increase the team size to add more capacity.

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Add a buffer to the sprint backlog for unexpected work.

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Reduce the sprint length to one week.

Question 8

During a predictive project, a team member reports that a critical path activity is behind schedule by two days. To recover the schedule, the project manager should first:

Accepted Answer

Perform schedule compression analysis. The project manager should first perform schedule compression analysis because it is the analytical technique used to evaluate options for recovering a delayed schedule. Schedule compression includes both crashing and fast-tracking, so it allows the PM to compare alternatives and choose the best recovery approach rather than committing prematurely to one method. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's emphasis on analysis before action in the Control Schedule process.

Answer

Fast-track the project

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Add resources to the critical path

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Accept the delay and update the baseline

Question 9

During a requirements elicitation meeting, stakeholders provide conflicting information about the desired functionality. What is the best course of action for the business analyst?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion to resolve the conflict and reach consensus. The business analyst's primary role is to facilitate stakeholder collaboration and resolve conflicts through structured discussion, ensuring that requirements are accurate and agreed upon before development begins. This aligns with the BABOK guide's emphasis on using techniques like workshops or brainstorming to achieve consensus, which prevents costly rework later.

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Document the conflicting information as is and proceed with development

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Escalate the issue to senior management for a decision

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Ask the project manager to decide which stakeholder is correct

Question 10

A government IT project is being managed using a predictive lifecycle. The project must comply with numerous regulatory standards, including data privacy and security. The project manager developed a comprehensive quality management plan that includes regular quality audits by an independent team. At the first milestone quality audit, the auditor identifies three non-conformances related to documentation and testing procedures. The project manager is under pressure from the sponsor to stay on schedule. The project manager needs to address the non-conformances effectively while minimizing schedule impact.

Accepted Answer

Perform root cause analysis and implement corrective actions for the non-conformances.. Performing root cause analysis and implementing corrective actions directly addresses the non-conformances while allowing the project to continue, minimizing schedule impact. This approach aligns with quality management principles in predictive projects, where non-conformances must be corrected to meet regulatory and quality standards. It also avoids unnecessary work stoppage and re-baselining, which would have larger schedule and cost implications.

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Immediately halt all work until the non-conformances are resolved.

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Ignore the non-conformances and proceed with the schedule, as they are minor.

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Re-baseline the quality management plan to eliminate the problematic requirements.

Question 11

During Sprint Planning, the team realizes the password reset story involves a third-party email service that has not been integrated yet. The team has no experience with that service. What is the best action?

Accepted Answer

Create a time-boxed spike to research the integration.. The team has no experience with the third-party email service, and integrating it involves unknown technical risks. A time-boxed spike (Option B) is the best action because it allows the team to research the integration within a defined timebox, reducing uncertainty before committing to the story in a Sprint. This aligns with the Scrum principle of managing risk through validated learning, not through guesswork or scope changes.

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Accept the story and figure it out during the Sprint.

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Add more developers to the team for this Sprint.

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Remove the story from the Product Backlog.

Question 12

At the daily stand-up meeting, a team member consistently arrives 10 minutes late, causing the meeting to start late. What is the best agile practice to address this?

Accepted Answer

Have the team discuss the issue and agree on a new start time, with a commitment to start promptly.. Agile teams are self-organizing and address impediments through open team discussion and collective agreement rather than external enforcement. Having the team discuss the lateness issue and agree on a start time with a commitment to start promptly respects the team's autonomy and addresses the root cause collaboratively. This is consistent with Scrum values of openness, respect, and courage.

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Impose a fine for lateness to discourage the behavior.

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Escalate the issue to management to enforce punctuality.

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Cancel the daily stand-up until the team member arrives on time.

Question 13

Drag and drop the steps for performing risk management planning in the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Plan Risk Management, then Identify Risks, then Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis, then Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis, then Plan Risk Responses. Risk management follows the sequence: planning, identification, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, and response planning.

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Identify Risks, then Plan Risk Management, then Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis, then Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis, then Plan Risk Responses

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Plan Risk Management, then Identify Risks, then Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis, then Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis, then Plan Risk Responses

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Plan Risk Management, then Identify Risks, then Plan Risk Responses, then Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis, then Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis

Question 14

In a predictive project, the project manager needs to estimate the cost of each work package with a high level of accuracy. Which technique is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Bottom-up estimating. Bottom-up estimating involves estimating the cost of individual work packages or activities at the lowest level of the WBS and then aggregating them upward to obtain the total project cost. Because it builds from detailed, granular estimates, it provides the highest level of accuracy and is the preferred technique when the project manager needs precise cost figures for each work package. It is most reliable when the WBS is well-defined and the scope is stable, which is typical in predictive projects.

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Parametric estimating

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Expert judgment

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Three-point estimating

Question 15

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.

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

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

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

Question 16

A business analyst is performing a cost-benefit analysis for a proposed system upgrade. The upgrade costs $50,000 upfront and saves $15,000 per year in operational costs. The project has a 5-year horizon. What is the payback period in years?

Accepted Answer

3.33 years. The payback period is the upfront cost divided by the annual savings: $50,000 ÷ $15,000 = 3.33 years. This is the time required for cumulative savings to equal the initial investment. It is a simple, undiscounted measure that ignores the time value of money and any cash flows beyond the payback point.

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5.00 years

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4.00 years

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0.33 years

Question 17

During a requirements workshop, two key stakeholders disagree on a critical requirement. The project manager asks the business analyst to facilitate a resolution. Which approach is most effective?

Accepted Answer

Use a prioritization matrix to evaluate trade-offs.. A prioritization matrix enables objective comparison of requirements based on predefined criteria such as value, cost, and urgency, facilitating a data-driven consensus. Option A is wrong: asking the sponsor to decide bypasses stakeholder collaboration and may not address the underlying disagreement. Option B is wrong: proceeding with both requirements can lead to scope creep and resource conflicts. Option C is wrong: a vote may not resolve deep disagreements and can alienate minority stakeholders.

Answer

Ask the project sponsor to decide.

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Document both requirements and proceed with both.

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Hold a vote among all stakeholders.

Question 18

During project execution, a key team member leaves the company. The project manager needs to quickly reassign tasks to maintain progress. Which document should be consulted first to understand the team member's current responsibilities?

Accepted Answer

Resource management plan. The resource management plan documents how project resources are acquired, managed, and released, and it includes role assignments, responsibility matrices (RAM/RACI), and team member responsibilities. When a team member departs, the PM consults this plan first to identify exactly what that person was accountable for before reassigning work. It is the authoritative source for 'who does what' on the project.

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Project schedule

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Stakeholder register

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Communications management plan

Question 19

Refer to the exhibit. The team wants to pull a new item into In Progress. What should they do first?

Accepted Answer

Move an item from In Progress to Done.. In a Kanban system, WIP limits are constraints that must be respected — the team cannot simply pull a new item into In Progress when the column is already at its limit. The correct first action is to finish existing work by moving an item from In Progress to Done, which frees a slot and allows the new item to be pulled. This preserves flow, exposes bottlenecks, and honors the pull-based discipline central to Kanban.

Answer

Ignore the WIP limit and pull the item.

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Increase the WIP limit for In Progress.

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Add the item to To Do.

Question 20

In a predictive project, the project sponsor requests a scope change that will significantly increase the project cost. The project manager should FIRST:

Accepted Answer

Evaluate the impact of the change on the project constraints. When a scope change is requested, the project manager must first evaluate the impact on project constraints (cost, schedule, quality, etc.) before proceeding. Updating the charter or rejecting the change without evaluation is premature.

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Reject the change as it impacts budget

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Update the project charter

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Implement the change immediately