PMP Practice Test 18 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Your agile team's velocity has dropped for three consecutive sprints. Upon investigation, you discover that the product owner has been adding unplanned work directly to the sprint backlog without consulting you or the team. What is the most appropriate action?

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

Accepted Answer

Discuss the issue with the product owner and remind them that scope changes should go through the backlog refinement process. The product owner is violating the Scrum framework by adding unplanned work directly to the sprint backlog, which undermines the team's commitment and velocity. The appropriate action is to discuss the issue with the product owner and remind them that all scope changes must go through the backlog refinement process to ensure the sprint goal remains achievable. This aligns with the PMP's emphasis on stakeholder engagement and maintaining team autonomy within agile practices.

Answer

Tell the team to accept the extra work to keep the product owner happy

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Allow the product owner to continue as they are the voice of the customer

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Immediately escalate the issue to the project sponsor

Question 2

A project manager is leading a Scrum team. The product owner frequently changes priorities mid-sprint, causing the team to lose focus and miss sprint goals. The team is frustrated. What should the project manager do?

Accepted Answer

Coach the product owner on Scrum rules and the impact of mid-sprint changes on team focus. In Scrum, the product owner should not change priorities during a sprint; the sprint backlog is frozen once the sprint starts. The project manager, acting as a servant leader, should coach the product owner on Scrum rules and explain how mid-sprint changes disrupt team focus and jeopardize sprint goals. This aligns with the PMP's emphasis on stakeholder management and agile principles.

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Add a buffer in the sprint to accommodate potential changes

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Ask the team to accommodate the changes since the product owner has authority

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor to intervene

Question 3

Refer to the exhibit. The project team uses Git for version control. The lead developer accidentally committed a bug fix directly to the main branch instead of the feature branch. What is the best course of action to maintain a clean history?

Accepted Answer

Cherry-pick the bug fix commit to the feature branch, then revert the commit on main.. It preserves a clean Git history by first cherry-picking the bug fix commit from main to the feature branch (ensuring the fix is applied where intended), then reverting the commit on main to remove the accidental change without rewriting history. This avoids merge commits or destructive operations, maintaining a linear and traceable project history.

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Revert the commit on main and do nothing else.

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Merge main into feature to include the bug fix.

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Reset main to the commit before the bug fix, then force push.

Question 4

A project team is implementing a new software feature. During testing, a critical defect is found that could delay the release. The project manager needs to determine the root cause. Which tool or technique should be used?

Accepted Answer

Cause-and-effect diagram. The cause-and-effect diagram (also known as a fishbone or Ishikawa diagram) is the correct tool for root cause analysis because it systematically maps potential causes of a defect across categories like people, process, technology, and environment. In this software testing scenario, the project manager would use it to brainstorm and visually trace the critical defect back to its underlying technical root cause, such as a coding logic error or integration failure, rather than just observing symptoms.

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Scatter diagram

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Control chart

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Delphi technique

Question 5

An executive stakeholder has been directly assigning tasks to your agile team members without going through you or the product owner. Team members are confused about priorities and the sprint goal is at risk. What is the best first step?

Accepted Answer

Request a meeting with the executive to clarify roles and the importance of adhering to the prioritization process. The first step in resolving a stakeholder bypassing the agile process is to directly address the root cause—misunderstanding of roles. Requesting a meeting with the executive allows you to clarify the prioritization process, reinforce the product owner's authority over the backlog, and protect the sprint goal without escalating prematurely. This aligns with the PMP's focus on stakeholder engagement and conflict resolution at the lowest appropriate level.

Answer

Tell the team members to ignore the stakeholder's requests

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Escalate to the project sponsor immediately

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Update the stakeholder management plan to classify the executive as 'keep satisfied'

Question 6

A project manager is leading a virtual team across four time zones. The project has entered the execution phase, and the project manager notices that team members are not collaborating effectively, and communication is becoming fragmented. What should the project manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Review and update the communication management plan and set up a shared collaboration platform with clear guidelines. The first step in resolving fragmented communication in a virtual team is to review and update the Communication Management Plan, which defines how information is shared, stored, and accessed. Setting up a shared collaboration platform with clear guidelines directly addresses the root cause—lack of structured communication channels and protocols—rather than applying a superficial or disruptive fix. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's principle of tailoring communication to the team's distributed environment.

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Send a team-wide email reminding everyone to communicate more effectively

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Require all team members to work during the same core hours

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Schedule a team-building retreat to improve relationships

Question 7

You are a project manager on a software development project using a hybrid approach. Two senior developers have a strong disagreement on the technical implementation of a critical feature. They have been arguing for three days, causing the team to fall behind schedule. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Meet with both developers separately to understand their perspectives, then facilitate a joint discussion to find a mutually acceptable solution. As a project manager using a hybrid approach, your first responsibility is to facilitate conflict resolution among team members. Meeting individually to understand each developer's perspective, then guiding a joint discussion, empowers the team to reach a consensus and preserves team cohesion. This aligns with the PMI People domain, which emphasizes servant leadership and collaborative problem-solving before escalating or imposing decisions.

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor and ask for a decision

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Reassign one developer to another task to avoid further conflict

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Make the technical decision yourself based on your own expertise

Question 8

Order the steps for closing a project or phase.

Accepted Answer

Verify deliverables → Report on project performance → Obtain sign-off → Release resources → Review lessons learned. Project closure: verify deliverables, report, obtain sign-off, release resources, and review lessons.

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Obtain sign-off → Release resources → Verify deliverables → Report on project performance → Review lessons learned

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Review lessons learned → Verify deliverables → Report → Obtain sign-off → Release resources

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Verify deliverables → Obtain sign-off → Report → Release resources → Review lessons learned

Question 9

Your hybrid project team consists of five local members and three remote members in different time zones. Recently, the remote team members have been missing daily stand-up meetings, and their task completion rate has dropped. When you ask, they say they feel disconnected and their input is often overlooked during the meetings. What should the project manager do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Adjust the meeting schedule to rotate times and use video conferencing with collaboration tools to ensure remote members can contribute. It directly addresses the root cause of disconnection and overlooked input by rotating meeting times to accommodate different time zones and using video conferencing with collaboration tools to foster inclusion. This aligns with the hybrid project management principle of adapting communication methods to ensure all team members can actively participate, which is a key leadership responsibility in the People domain.

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Cancel the daily stand-ups and use asynchronous communication instead

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Record the stand-up meetings and share the recordings with remote members

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Remind the remote team members of their responsibilities and the importance of attending meetings

Question 10

During a sprint retrospective, the team identifies that the daily standups are too long and not adding value. They suggest implementing a timebox of 15 minutes and a strict 'three questions' format. What should the scrum master do?

Accepted Answer

Support the team's decision and help enforce the new format in future standups. The Scrum Master is a servant-leader who empowers the team to self-organize and improve its processes. By supporting the team's decision to timebox standups to 15 minutes and enforce the 'three questions' format, the Scrum Master fosters continuous improvement and team ownership, which is a core agile principle. The team's suggestion directly addresses the identified waste (too-long standups) and aligns with the Scrum Guide's recommendation for a focused, timeboxed daily Scrum.

Answer

Escalate to the product owner for approval

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Overrule the suggestion because the scrum master is responsible for facilitating standups

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Ignore the suggestion because the team has already discussed it and no action is needed

Question 11

On a large-scale project, you have a team member who is technically skilled but consistently fails to complete tasks on time, affecting the team's morale. You have had informal conversations about this, but there has been no improvement. What should you do next?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a formal performance review, document the issues, and create a performance improvement plan with clear expectations and timelines. As a project manager, you must follow a progressive discipline process. After informal conversations failed, the next step is a formal performance review to document the issues and create a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) with clear expectations and timelines. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's emphasis on managing team performance through structured feedback and corrective actions, ensuring fairness and legal defensibility.

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Replace the team member with a more reliable resource

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Ignore the issue as the team member is technically strong

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Reassign all critical tasks to other team members

Question 12

During a sprint planning meeting, the product owner proposes a user story that the team feels is too large to complete in one sprint. What is the best approach?

Accepted Answer

Break the story down into smaller, more manageable stories that can be completed within the sprint.. In Agile, user stories that are too large for a single sprint are called 'epics' and must be decomposed into smaller, independently valuable stories that fit within the sprint's timebox. Breaking the story down ensures the team can deliver a potentially releasable increment by the end of the sprint, maintaining velocity predictability and adhering to the sprint's fixed duration.

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Ask the product owner to remove the story from the sprint backlog.

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Include the story as is and let the team work on it across multiple sprints.

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Estimate the story with a high point value and accept that it may spill over.

Question 13

During a project status meeting, an executive stakeholder interrupts and instructs a team member to change a deliverable without going through change control. The team member looks to you for guidance. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Politely interrupt the executive and explain that changes must go through the formal change control process, then schedule a meeting to discuss the request. The project manager must uphold the change control process to protect the project's scope, schedule, and budget. By politely interrupting the executive and explaining the need for formal change control, you demonstrate leadership and adherence to the PMBOK Guide's principles. Scheduling a follow-up meeting ensures the request is properly evaluated through the integrated change control process, preventing unauthorized changes that could lead to scope creep.

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Note the request and discuss it with the executive after the meeting

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Send an email to the executive after the meeting explaining the change control process

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Allow the team member to follow the executive's instruction to maintain stakeholder satisfaction

Question 14

A project has a critical path of 120 days with a standard deviation of 5 days. The project sponsor wants to know the probability of completing the project within 130 days. Using the normal distribution, what is the approximate probability?

Accepted Answer

97.5%. The critical path duration is 120 days with a standard deviation of 5 days. Completing within 130 days is 2 standard deviations above the mean (130 - 120 = 10, 10/5 = 2). In a normal distribution, approximately 95% of data falls within ±2 standard deviations, so the probability of being at or below +2σ is 50% + (95%/2) = 97.5%.

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95%

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84%

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68%

Question 15

During a project's execution phase, a key stakeholder requests a change that would add a new feature. The project manager estimates the impact: 2 additional weeks to schedule and $15,000 to budget. The project currently has 0 schedule reserve and $5,000 contingency reserve. What should the project manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Document the change request and conduct a formal impact analysis. The PMBOK Guide mandates that all change requests must be formally documented and analyzed for impact before any approval or rejection. Even though the project has a contingency reserve, the change introduces a new feature, which is a scope change requiring a formal change control process. The project manager must first document the request and conduct a thorough impact analysis to assess alternatives, risks, and stakeholder implications before deciding on the change.

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Approve the change using contingency reserve and inform the stakeholder

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Implement the change immediately since the stakeholder is key

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Reject the change because there is insufficient reserve