PMP Practice Test 12 — 15 Questions

Question 1

In a Scrum project, the team's velocity has been dropping over the last three sprints. The team members seem demotivated and are complaining about too many meetings and unclear priorities. As the agile project manager, what should you do FIRST?

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

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a retrospective to identify root causes and collaboratively implement improvements. The first step in addressing a drop in velocity and team demotivation is to facilitate a retrospective, which is a core Scrum ceremony designed to inspect and adapt the team's process. This allows the team to collaboratively identify root causes—such as excessive meetings or unclear priorities—and implement improvements, aligning with the agile principle of continuous improvement and the PMP's focus on leading the team through servant leadership.

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Set a higher sprint goal to challenge the team to improve

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Add more developers to the team to increase capacity

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Reduce the number of meetings by canceling the daily standup

Question 2

During a project's execution phase, a new regulatory requirement is discovered that will impact the project scope. The requirement is mandatory and must be implemented. What is the first action the project manager should take?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request describing the new requirement and its impact on scope, schedule, and cost. The PMBOK Guide mandates that any change impacting scope, schedule, or cost must be formally documented and processed through the Integrated Change Control (ICC) process. A change request is the first formal step to capture the new regulatory requirement, its impact on the project baselines, and to obtain approval before implementation. This ensures compliance with the regulatory mandate while maintaining project governance and traceability.

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Inform the sponsor and ask for a decision

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Instruct the team to implement the requirement immediately to ensure compliance

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Update the project management plan to include the new requirement without formal approval

Question 3

Your agile team has been experiencing a decrease in velocity over the last three sprints. During the daily standup, team members seem disengaged and mention they are unsure of the sprint goals. As the scrum master, what should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a meeting with the team to review and clarify the sprint goal and ensure alignment.. The Scrum Master's first responsibility is to ensure the team understands and aligns on the sprint goal. The disengagement and confusion about sprint goals directly indicate a breakdown in shared understanding, which must be resolved through facilitation before any other action. Addressing this immediately restores focus and can prevent further velocity degradation.

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Add more user stories to the backlog to increase team motivation.

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Ask the product owner to speak with the team about the importance of the sprint goals.

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Report the velocity drop to senior management and ask for intervention.

Question 4

Your project is using a predictive approach. A team member reports that a key deliverable is behind schedule due to an unexpected technical issue. What should the project manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Analyze the issue, determine the impact on the critical path, and evaluate options such as fast-tracking or adding resources. In a predictive (waterfall) project, the project manager must first analyze the situation to understand the root cause and impact before taking corrective action. Option B follows the PMBOK Guide's recommended sequence: assess the issue, determine its effect on the critical path, and then evaluate schedule compression techniques like fast-tracking (performing activities in parallel) or crashing (adding resources). This ensures decisions are data-driven and minimize disruption to the project baseline.

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Ask the team member to work overtime to catch up

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Escalate the issue to the sponsor for guidance

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Update the project schedule with the new completion date

Question 5

You are the project manager for a large infrastructure upgrade project. The project involves deploying new servers across multiple data centers. During the execution phase, you receive a report that one of the critical servers has failed a security compliance test. The security team states that the server must be reconfigured and retested, which will take two days. However, this server is on the critical path and any delay will push the project completion date. Your sponsor is pressing you to meet the original deadline. The project has a contingency reserve for schedule risks. What is the best course of action?

Accepted Answer

Use the contingency reserve to cover the two-day delay and inform the sponsor that the schedule will be extended accordingly.. The project has a contingency reserve specifically allocated for schedule risks, and the two-day delay caused by the security compliance failure is a known risk that the reserve is designed to cover. Using the contingency reserve allows the team to properly reconfigure and retest the server, ensuring security compliance without compromising project quality, while formally extending the schedule with sponsor awareness.

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Instruct the team to skip the retest and proceed with deployment to meet the deadline.

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Request additional funds from the management reserve to hire external consultants to resolve the issue faster.

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Implement schedule compression techniques such as fast tracking to recover the two days.

Question 6

During a large infrastructure project, the sponsor requests that the project manager skip the final round of user acceptance testing (UAT) to meet the regulatory deadline, stating that the system has passed all previous tests. What should the project manager do?

Accepted Answer

Explain the risks of skipping UAT and propose a formal change request to the schedule or scope. The project manager must protect the project from risks that could compromise quality or regulatory compliance. Skipping UAT, even after successful earlier tests, could miss critical integration or user-specific defects that only emerge in a production-like environment. The correct action is to explain these risks to the sponsor and initiate a formal change request to adjust the schedule or scope, ensuring any decision is documented and approved through the change control process.

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Delay the deadline by two weeks to conduct UAT as planned

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Conduct a shorter UAT with only critical test cases to save time

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Agree to skip UAT to meet the deadline as the sponsor has authority

Question 7

You are managing a project using a hybrid approach. The project has a fixed-price contract with a customer. Midway through, the customer requests a significant scope change that would increase the contract value. The change request is approved by the CCB. What must the project manager do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Update the project management plan and baselines, and communicate the approved change to all relevant stakeholders.. After a change is approved by the CCB, the project manager must first update the project management plan and baselines (scope, schedule, cost) to reflect the approved change, then communicate the change to all relevant stakeholders. This ensures that the project's performance measurement baselines are aligned with the new scope and cost, and that all stakeholders are aware of the updated plan before work begins. In a hybrid approach with a fixed-price contract, updating the contract is a separate procurement process that occurs after the baselines are updated and communicated.

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Inform the team of the approved change and update the work packages accordingly.

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Proceed with the change immediately to avoid delays.

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Update the contract with the new scope and cost, and then start the work.

Question 8

You are managing a construction project that is behind schedule. The project has non-critical activities with significant float. A key supplier has informed you that a critical component will be delayed by two weeks, impacting the critical path. You have already used up all schedule contingency. What should you do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Implement crashing by adding resources to critical path activities, after evaluating cost and benefit. With all schedule contingency exhausted and the critical path impacted by a two-week delay, the next step is to implement a schedule compression technique. Crashing involves adding resources to critical path activities to reduce duration, but it must be done after evaluating cost-benefit trade-offs to ensure the additional cost is justified by the time saved. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's guidance on using crashing when fast tracking is not feasible or has already been applied.

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Immediately fast track remaining critical path activities to make up the two weeks

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Request the sponsor to approve additional budget for overtime on all activities

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Update the risk register and accept the two-week delay as a residual risk

Question 9

You are managing a project using a predictive approach. A team member has been consistently missing deadlines, causing delays for the rest of the team. You have already had an informal conversation about expectations. What should you do next?

Accepted Answer

Schedule a private meeting to discuss the issue and create a performance improvement plan. After an informal conversation has already taken place, the next step in progressive discipline within a predictive (waterfall) project is to schedule a private meeting to formally address the issue and collaboratively create a performance improvement plan (PIP). This aligns with the PMI People domain's emphasis on conflict resolution and team development, ensuring the team member is given a clear opportunity to improve before any escalation or removal.

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Escalate the issue to the team member's functional manager

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Reassign the team member's tasks to other team members

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Remove the team member from the project

Question 10

You are leading a virtual team across three time zones. A team member from the offshore location has been consistently missing deadlines, causing delays. When you inquire, the member says they are overloaded with work from another project. What is the best course of action?

Accepted Answer

Discuss the situation with the member and their functional manager to resolve the workload conflict. The root cause is a resource conflict across projects, which is a functional management issue. As a project manager, you must collaborate with the team member and their functional manager to negotiate priorities and workload balance, rather than unilaterally escalating or replacing the resource. This aligns with the PMI principle of 'engaging with stakeholders' and the 'manage team' process, where addressing resource constraints through negotiation is the first step before considering administrative actions.

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Assign additional resources to help the member complete tasks

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Replace the team member with someone who can meet deadlines

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Issue a formal warning to the team member about performance expectations

Question 11

Your project is in the executing phase, and you receive a formal complaint from a team member that another team member is consistently late to daily standups and not completing tasks on time. This is causing friction in the team. You have discussed this with both individuals, but the behavior continues. What should you do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Document the issue in the issue log and escalate to the functional manager with a request for performance improvement.. The project manager has already attempted direct resolution with the team members, but the behavior persists. The next step is to formally document the issue in the issue log and escalate to the functional manager, who has authority over performance management. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's process for managing team conflicts and performance issues during the executing phase, where the project manager does not have direct authority to impose disciplinary actions.

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Immediately remove the late team member from the project to restore team harmony.

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Schedule a team-building workshop to improve collaboration.

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Ask the team to resolve the conflict themselves during the next retrospective.

Question 12

Your project is using a hybrid approach. A key stakeholder requests a significant scope change that would affect the critical path. The change request has been submitted and approved. What should the project manager do next?

Accepted Answer

Update the project management plan and baselines to reflect the approved change. In a hybrid project, once a scope change is approved, the project manager must update the project management plan and baselines (scope, schedule, cost) to formally integrate the change. This ensures all future work aligns with the new approved scope and maintains traceability. Option D is correct because it follows the Perform Integrated Change Control process, which requires updating the plan and baselines before implementation.

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Wait until the next sprint planning to introduce the change to the team

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Notify the sponsor and update the risk register

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Inform the team about the change and ask them to adjust their work accordingly

Question 13

A critical vendor informs you that they cannot deliver a key component on time due to a raw material shortage. The component is on the critical path. You have identified this risk in the risk register with a medium probability and high impact. The planned response was to accept the risk. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Evaluate the current situation and determine if the accept response is still appropriate or if a different response is needed; submit a change request if necessary. The first step when a risk materializes is to reassess the situation against the existing risk response. Since the planned response was 'accept,' you must evaluate whether acceptance is still viable given the new reality. If not, you need to select a different response (e.g., mitigate or avoid) and submit a change request to formally adjust the project plan. This aligns with the PMBOK® Guide's iterative risk management process, where risk responses are revisited when triggers occur.

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Escalate to the project sponsor for decision

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Immediately crash the schedule by adding resources to the critical path

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Inform stakeholders that the project will be delayed by the duration of the component shortage

Question 14

Your project team includes members from diverse cultural backgrounds. During a meeting, you notice that some team members are not contributing ideas, while others dominate the discussion. What should you do to foster inclusive participation?

Accepted Answer

Establish a team charter with ground rules that encourage equal participation. Establishing a team charter with ground rules is a proactive, collaborative approach that addresses cultural differences in communication styles. It creates a shared agreement on meeting norms, such as turn-taking or idea-sharing methods, which fosters inclusive participation without singling out individuals. This aligns with the PMP's focus on leading diverse teams through agreed-upon processes rather than imposing top-down rules.

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Allow the meeting to proceed naturally as it is a cultural difference

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Require each team member to speak at least once per meeting

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Privately ask the dominant members to speak less

Question 15

Your project is running 15% over budget at the midpoint. The sponsor asks you to reduce costs by cutting the testing phase from three weeks to one week. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to reduce testing and analyze the impact on quality and risks. The PMBOK Guide requires that any change to the project baseline, including scope, schedule, or budget, must follow the formal integrated change control process. The first step is to submit a change request to analyze the impact on quality, risks, and other constraints before making a decision. This ensures that the sponsor and stakeholders understand the trade-offs, such as increased defect risk or rework costs, before approving the reduction.

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Agree to reduce testing, as the sponsor has authority over the budget

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Refuse the request, stating that testing is essential for quality

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Implement the reduction immediately to save costs, then document it later