PMP Practice Test 3 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A team member has been consistently late completing tasks. When you discuss this, they mention personal issues affecting their work. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Offer support, such as adjusting workload or providing resources. Show empathy and explore solutions together. Option A ignores the human aspect. Option B is punitive. Option D escalates prematurely without trying to resolve at the team level.

Answer

Escalate to human resources for disciplinary action

Answer

Reassign the tasks to another team member

Answer

Document the issue in the performance report

Question 2

During a project, a risk you identified in the risk register occurs. Your response plan was to mitigate by purchasing backup equipment. However, you discover the backup equipment is not available due to a supplier issue. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Implement the contingency plan or develop a new response given the change in circumstances. The correct first action is to implement the contingency plan if one exists, or develop a new response (Option C). When a risk occurs and the planned mitigation fails, the project manager should immediately apply the fallback plan or create an alternative response. Option A (escalating to sponsor) is premature because escalation should be considered only after response options are exhausted. Option B (adding a new risk) is not the immediate action; addressing the current risk takes priority. Option D (updating the risk register) is insufficient without taking proactive steps to handle the realized risk.

Answer

Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for guidance

Answer

Add a new risk to the risk register about supplier reliability

Answer

Update the risk register to reflect that the mitigation is ineffective

Question 3

Your agile team has a high turnover rate. New members are joining frequently, and the team's performance is declining. What should you do as a servant leader?

Accepted Answer

Implement a structured onboarding process and assign mentors to new members. As a servant leader on an agile team, your primary responsibility is to remove impediments and foster an environment where the team can thrive. A structured onboarding process with assigned mentors directly addresses the performance decline by accelerating the integration of new members, ensuring they understand team norms, tools, and processes, which stabilizes velocity and reduces disruption.

Answer

Ask HR to hire more experienced contractors to stabilize the team

Answer

Conduct a retrospective to identify why people are leaving

Answer

Reduce the team's workload until the new members are up to speed

Question 4

During the closure phase of a project, the customer is satisfied with the deliverables but refuses to sign the formal acceptance document, citing minor issues that were not part of the original scope. What should the project manager do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Meet with the customer to understand the concerns and negotiate a path to acceptance. The PM should first attempt to resolve the minor issues through negotiation and follow the project's change control process if needed. Formal acceptance is crucial for project closure, so the PM should work with the customer to address concerns without gold-plating.

Answer

Escalate the issue to the project sponsor immediately

Answer

Accept the refusal and close the project without formal sign-off

Answer

Instruct the team to fix the minor issues free of charge to obtain sign-off

Question 5

During a sprint review, a stakeholder expresses dissatisfaction with a deliverable's feature, claiming it does not meet their needs. The product owner disagrees, stating the feature was built exactly as specified. What is the BEST next step?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a meeting between the stakeholder and product owner to clarify the requirements. The core issue is a misalignment between the stakeholder's needs and the product owner's interpretation of the requirements. The best next step is to facilitate direct communication between the stakeholder and product owner to clarify the requirements, ensuring that the team has a clear, shared understanding before any changes are made. This aligns with the PMP's emphasis on stakeholder engagement and conflict resolution through collaboration.

Answer

Ask the product owner to reprioritize the backlog and add the modification

Answer

Thank the stakeholder for the feedback but proceed with the current deliverable

Answer

Instruct the team to modify the feature to satisfy the stakeholder

Question 6

Your project team is distributed across three time zones. You notice that team members from one location often dominate discussions during daily stand-ups, while others remain silent. As a result, collaboration is suffering. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a session to create a team charter that includes agreed-upon communication practices and meeting etiquette. The correct first step is to facilitate a team charter session because it establishes agreed-upon communication practices and meeting etiquette, addressing the root cause of unequal participation by creating a shared framework for collaboration. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's emphasis on team charter development as a proactive, collaborative tool to define norms and expectations, rather than imposing top-down solutions or avoiding the issue.

Answer

Ask the quieter team members to speak up more during meetings

Answer

Assign a rotating facilitator for each stand-up to ensure equal participation

Answer

Switch to asynchronous communication tools to avoid time zone conflicts

Question 7

You are managing a project where a key team member has been consistently missing deadlines. This has caused delays in dependent tasks. The team member has good technical skills but seems overloaded. What is the best course of action for the project manager?

Accepted Answer

Have a one-on-one meeting with the team member to discuss the challenges and offer support.. The PM should first understand the root cause of the missed deadlines. Option B is correct because it addresses the issue through communication and support.

Answer

Formally document the missed deadlines and issue a warning to the team member.

Answer

Reassign the team member's tasks to others to avoid further delays.

Answer

Replace the team member with a more productive resource.

Question 8

During a project, a new government regulation is enacted that directly affects your project's deliverables. The regulation requires additional testing and documentation, which will increase costs by 10%. What is the first action you should take?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to assess and incorporate the new regulation. The first step is to analyze the impact on the project and then submit a change request to formally address the regulatory requirement.

Answer

Immediately implement the required changes to ensure compliance

Answer

Ignore the regulation because it was not part of the original scope

Answer

Update the risk register and inform the sponsor of the impact

Question 9

Your project is behind schedule due to an unexpected delay from a key supplier. The critical path analysis shows that the total float is now negative. What is the BEST course of action?

Accepted Answer

Crash the schedule by adding resources to critical path activities. Crashing the schedule involves adding resources to critical path activities to compress the schedule, which is appropriate when float is negative.

Answer

Reduce project scope by eliminating non-essential deliverables

Answer

Update the risk register and inform stakeholders of the delay without taking action

Answer

Immediately apply fast tracking to overlap activities on the critical path

Question 10

A new government regulation is announced that will impact your project's deliverables. The regulation requires additional compliance testing that was not in the original scope. The project is currently on schedule and within budget. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to formally assess and incorporate the new requirements. The PMBOK Guide mandates that any new requirement, especially one imposed by an external regulation, must first be formally documented and assessed through a change request. This ensures the impact on scope, schedule, budget, and quality is evaluated before any action is taken, maintaining control over the project baseline. The regulation introduces additional compliance testing, which is a technical scope change that requires a formal integrated change control process to update the project management plan and technical specifications.

Answer

Add the testing tasks to the project schedule and continue

Answer

Immediately implement the necessary changes to comply with the regulation

Answer

Inform the sponsor and ask for more budget and time