CAPM Timed Practice Test 2 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A project manager is reviewing the project's cost performance. The actual cost (AC) is $50,000, the earned value (EV) is $45,000, and the planned value (PV) is $60,000. What is the cost variance (CV)?

Accepted Answer

-$5,000. Cost variance (CV) is calculated as EV minus AC. Here, EV = $45,000 and AC = $50,000, so CV = $45,000 - $50,000 = -$5,000. A negative CV indicates the project is over budget, which matches option C.

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$5,000

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-$15,000

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$10,000

Question 2

A project team is experiencing frequent changes in requirements. The project manager wants to minimize disruptions. Which approach is best to manage changes effectively?

Accepted Answer

Establish a change control board and process.. Option B is correct because a formal change control board (CCB) and a documented change control process provide a structured, consistent method for evaluating, approving, and implementing changes. This minimizes disruptions by ensuring that only approved, impact-assessed changes are introduced, preventing ad-hoc modifications that can destabilize the project scope, schedule, and budget.

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Freeze requirements after initial sign-off.

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Let the team implement changes as they come.

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Communicate changes to stakeholders after implementation.

Question 3

A project manager is estimating activity durations for a software development project. The team has historical data from similar projects, but the current project involves new technology that could cause delays. Which estimating technique should the project manager use to account for uncertainty?

Accepted Answer

Three-point estimating. Three-point estimating (C) is correct because it explicitly accounts for uncertainty by using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates. The new technology introduces unknown risks, making the triangular or PERT distribution ideal for modeling the potential delay range.

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Parametric estimating

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Analogous estimating

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Bottom-up estimating

Question 4

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 5

In Kanban, the team is experiencing frequent bottlenecks at the testing stage. Which practice should they adopt to improve flow?

Accepted Answer

Limit the WIP at each stage, especially testing.. In Kanban, limiting Work in Progress (WIP) at each stage is a core practice to expose bottlenecks and improve flow. By capping the number of items allowed in testing, the team prevents work from piling up, forcing them to finish existing tasks before pulling new ones. This directly addresses the frequent bottlenecks by making the constraint visible and actionable, enabling the team to focus on completing testing rather than starting more work.

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Increase the batch size of work items.

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Conduct daily stand-up meetings.

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Add more testers to the testing phase.

Question 6

During the requirements elicitation for a new software system, the business analyst (BA) conducts a series of interviews with stakeholders. After the first interview, the BA realizes that the questions are too technical and the stakeholders are struggling to provide clear requirements. What should the BA do to improve the elicitation process?

Accepted Answer

Revise the interview questions to be more open-ended and focus on business outcomes.. Option B is correct because the BA's questions are too technical, causing stakeholders to focus on implementation details rather than their actual needs. By revising questions to be open-ended and focused on business outcomes, the BA shifts the conversation from 'how the system should work' to 'what business problem needs to be solved,' which is the core of effective requirements elicitation. This approach aligns with the BABOK's principle of understanding stakeholder needs before defining technical solutions.

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Continue with the same questions but provide a glossary of technical terms.

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Replace interviews with a review of existing documentation.

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Reduce the number of stakeholders to only those with technical backgrounds.

Question 7

A software development team is transitioning from a plan-driven approach to Scrum. The Product Owner is enthusiastic but struggles to break down the product backlog into small, independent items. The team frequently encounters dependencies between user stories, causing delays in sprints. What is the best course of action for the Scrum Master to address this issue?

Accepted Answer

Coach the Product Owner on how to split user stories to minimize dependencies.. The Scrum Master's primary responsibility is to coach the Product Owner and the team on Scrum practices. In this scenario, the root cause is the Product Owner's inability to decompose user stories into small, independent items, which creates dependencies. By coaching the Product Owner on effective story splitting techniques (e.g., using vertical slicing, splitting by workflow steps, or by acceptance criteria), the Scrum Master directly addresses the source of the problem, enabling the team to deliver value incrementally without cross-story delays.

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Have the team self-organize to handle dependencies by assigning a dependency owner.

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Increase the sprint duration to allow more time to resolve dependencies.

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Ask developers to manage dependencies during the sprint by coordinating with other teams.

Question 8

Which TWO are Scrum artifacts? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Product Backlog. The Product Backlog is a Scrum artifact because it is an ordered list of everything that is known to be needed in the product, serving as the single source of requirements for any changes to be made. The Sprint Backlog is also a Scrum artifact, as it comprises the Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint plus a plan for delivering the product Increment and realizing the Sprint Goal. Both are explicitly defined in the Scrum Guide as the three artifacts (along with the Increment).

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Kanban Board

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User Story

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Gantt Chart

Question 9

During project execution, a key stakeholder requests a change that would add a new feature to the product. The project manager evaluates the impact on scope, schedule, and cost. According to the change management plan, which step should the project manager take first?

Accepted Answer

Analyze the impact of the change on the project constraints. Option A is correct because the change management plan requires the project manager to first analyze the impact of the proposed change on scope, schedule, and cost before any further action. This analysis provides the necessary data to determine whether the change should be submitted to the CCB for approval. Skipping this step would violate the defined change control process.

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Submit the change request to the change control board (CCB) for approval

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Implement the change and document it later

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Reject the change because it was not part of the original scope

Question 10

A project manager is defining the business analysis approach for a new product development project. The stakeholders are distributed across different time zones and have varying levels of availability. The project manager needs to ensure that requirements are elicited efficiently and that all stakeholders have an opportunity to provide input. Which business analysis framework should the project manager recommend?

Accepted Answer

Agile framework. The Agile framework is the correct choice because it emphasizes iterative development, frequent stakeholder collaboration, and adaptive planning, which are ideal for a project with distributed stakeholders across time zones. Agile practices such as daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and backlog refinement allow for efficient requirements elicitation and ensure all stakeholders can provide input asynchronously or during synchronized ceremonies, accommodating varying availability.

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Lean framework

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Six Sigma framework

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Waterfall framework