PMP Practice Test 35 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You are managing a portfolio of projects. One project has a high probability of missing its deadline, which will impact the organization's strategic goals. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Analyze the impact on strategic goals and communicate with the sponsor and steering committee. When a project threatens organizational strategic goals, the project manager's first responsibility is to analyze the impact and escalate to the sponsor and steering committee, who own portfolio-level decisions. Communicating early with governance ensures the right decision-makers can weigh trade-offs across the portfolio. Acting unilaterally (adding resources, cancelling) bypasses portfolio governance.

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Add more resources to the project to try to meet the deadline

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Ignore the issue because it is only one project in the portfolio

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Immediately cancel the project to reallocate resources

Question 2

Your agile project has been experiencing decreasing velocity over the last three sprints. The team is frustrated and morale is low. The product owner is pressuring for more features. What is the BEST action for the project manager to take?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a retrospective to identify impediments and improvement actions.. Decreasing velocity combined with low morale is a systemic team issue, and the agile-correct response is to surface and address root causes through a retrospective. The retrospective is the team's dedicated inspect-and-adapt ceremony for identifying impediments, process problems, and improvement actions. The project manager should facilitate this rather than impose top-down fixes.

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Ask the team to work overtime to catch up on velocity.

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Replace the underperforming team members with new resources.

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Increase the sprint length to give the team more time.

Question 3

You are managing a project using a hybrid approach. Midway through, a new regulatory requirement is introduced that will affect the project scope. The change is mandatory and must be implemented. What is the FIRST step?

Accepted Answer

Initiate a change request to formally document the new requirement and assess its impact on scope, schedule, and cost. In project management, any change to scope — even a mandatory regulatory one — must go through the Perform Integrated Change Control process. The first step is to formally document the change via a change request and assess its impact on scope, schedule, cost, and other constraints. This ensures the change is evaluated, approved, and incorporated in a controlled manner.

Answer

Notify stakeholders of the new requirement and proceed with implementation

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Instruct the team to incorporate the new requirement immediately due to its mandatory nature

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Update the risk register to reflect the new regulatory requirement

Question 4

Your project is 50% complete, and your earned value analysis shows: EV = $200,000, PV = $220,000, AC = $240,000. Based on this data, what is the most accurate assessment of the project's performance?

Accepted Answer

The project is over budget and behind schedule. With EV = $200,000, PV = $220,000, and AC = $240,000, the project has a Cost Variance (CV = EV - AC) of -$40,000, indicating it is over budget, and a Schedule Variance (SV = EV - PV) of -$20,000, indicating it is behind schedule. Both variances are negative, so the project is over budget and behind schedule.

Answer

The project is under budget and ahead of schedule

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The project is over budget but ahead of schedule

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The project is under budget but behind schedule

Question 5

Your project is a large infrastructure build. You have completed the planning phase, but the sponsor has put pressure on you to start construction before all approvals are obtained. The schedule is tight, and any delay could result in penalties. What should the project manager do?

Accepted Answer

Explain the risks to the sponsor and refuse to start until approvals are obtained. The project manager must explain the risks to the sponsor and refuse to start construction until all approvals are obtained, because starting without approvals violates compliance and could lead to legal, safety, and financial consequences. The PM's ethical duty is to ensure the project proceeds only when prerequisites are met.

Answer

Begin construction on non-critical activities while waiting for approvals

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Document the sponsor's request and begin work

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Proceed as requested by the sponsor

Question 6

In a Scrum project, the product owner wants to add a new high-priority story to the current sprint, but the sprint is already full. The team is concerned about overcommitment. What should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion between the product owner and the team to negotiate trade-offs. The Scrum Master is a servant-leader and facilitator, not a decision-maker on scope; the correct move is to bring the product owner and the team together to negotiate trade-offs. This respects the sprint goal, protects the team from overcommitment, and lets the product owner decide what to swap if the new story is truly higher priority. It also upholds the principle that scope within a sprint is fixed unless the sprint is cancelled.

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Extend the sprint duration to accommodate the new work

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Remove a lower-priority story to make room for the new one

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Add the story to the sprint and ask the team to work overtime

Question 7

You are managing a marketing campaign project. The sponsor asks you to skip the quality review of the final deliverables to meet the deadline. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Explain the potential risks of skipping the review and propose alternatives to compress the schedule without sacrificing quality.. The PMP Code of Ethics and PMBOK Guide require the project manager to prioritize quality and stakeholder interests over schedule pressure, while also not unilaterally refusing a sponsor's request. The correct approach is to inform the sponsor of the risks of skipping quality review, then propose schedule compression techniques (fast-tracking, crashing) that preserve quality. This respects the sponsor's authority while upholding professional and quality standards.

Answer

Agree to skip the review to meet the deadline as requested by the sponsor.

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Refuse the request and immediately escalate to the PMO.

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Skip the review but perform it after the deadline without telling anyone.

Question 8

Your agile project team is experiencing conflicts between two developers regarding coding standards. The conflict is affecting team morale and productivity. As the project manager, which TWO actions should you take?

Accepted Answer

Encourage the team to collaboratively define a coding standard that everyone agrees on. Option A is correct because in an agile environment, self-organizing teams should collaboratively establish their own working agreements, including coding standards, which builds ownership and reduces future conflict. Option E is correct because a project manager should first facilitate a meeting with both developers to understand their perspectives, which addresses the root cause of the conflict and supports team morale and productivity. Option B is wrong because removing developers is a punitive action that does not resolve the underlying conflict and damages team stability. Option C is wrong because imposing a standard unilaterally undermines the agile principle of team self-organization and may worsen resistance. Option D is wrong because escalating to functional managers bypasses the team's ability to resolve the issue and is premature before attempting direct facilitation.

Answer

Remove the developers from the project to avoid further conflict

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Decide on a coding standard yourself and enforce it

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Escalate the conflict to the functional managers of the developers

Question 9

Your project is using a hybrid approach. During a sprint, the team realizes that a critical dependency from another project will not be ready on time, impacting the critical path. The dependency was not identified in the risk register. What is the BEST action?

Accepted Answer

Add the dependency to the issue log, assess the impact on the schedule, and engage the other project manager.. Because the dependency was not in the risk register, it is a newly discovered issue; the correct first step is to log it in the issue log, assess its schedule impact, and engage the other project manager who owns the dependency. This follows the PMBOK approach of documenting, analyzing, and coordinating before taking corrective action. It also respects the fact that the other project manager controls the dependency's delivery.

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Crash the schedule by adding resources to the dependent task.

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Escalate to the project management office for resource reallocation.

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Ask the team to find a workaround to bypass the dependency.

Question 10

You are managing a project using a predictive approach. A key stakeholder requests a minor change that does not affect the critical path but will add two days to the schedule. The team has some idle time. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to the change control board for evaluation.. In a predictive project, any change to the project baseline (scope, schedule, cost) must go through the integrated change control process. Even if the change is minor and the team has idle time, it still requires a formal change request to the change control board (CCB) for evaluation. This ensures that the impact is properly assessed and documented. The project manager should not unilaterally approve changes.

Answer

Tell the team to implement the change and update the schedule later.

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Refuse the change to protect the schedule baseline.

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Approve the change since it is minor and the team can absorb the delay.

Question 11

During a sprint planning meeting, the product owner wants to add a high-priority user story that the team believes is too large to complete in one sprint. What should the team do?

Accepted Answer

Work with the product owner to break the story down into smaller, manageable pieces. In Agile/Scrum, large user stories that cannot be completed in a single sprint are typically split into smaller, independent stories that deliver incremental value. The team should collaborate with the product owner to decompose the story into manageable pieces that fit within the sprint's capacity. This preserves the sprint goal, maintains sustainable pace, and allows for continuous delivery of value. Option C is the correct answer because it aligns with Agile principles of collaboration and iterative delivery.

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Accept the story and work overtime to complete it

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Ask the product owner to attend the daily standups for this sprint only

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Refuse to accept the story because it is too large

Question 12

During a sprint retrospective, the team identifies that velocity has dropped due to too many interruptions. What agile technique should the Scrum Master recommend to address this?

Accepted Answer

Implement a Work in Progress (WIP) limit to reduce multitasking. The core issue is that interruptions cause multitasking, which reduces velocity by increasing context switching and preventing work from finishing. A WIP limit directly addresses this by capping the number of items in progress, forcing the team to finish work before starting new tasks. This reduces multitasking, improves flow, and typically increases throughput. The Scrum Master should recommend this as a proven agile/lean technique to manage interruptions and stabilize velocity.

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Add buffer time to each task estimate

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Conduct more frequent retrospectives

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Increase the sprint duration to accommodate interruptions

Question 13

As a project manager, you want to motivate your team to achieve high performance. Which TWO techniques are most aligned with PMI's recommended practices for motivating team members?

Accepted Answer

Provide opportunities for professional development and learning. Option A is correct because PMI's recommended practices for motivating team members emphasize providing opportunities for professional development and learning, which addresses intrinsic motivation and growth needs. Option E is correct because public recognition of individual and team achievements is a core PMI-recommended motivational technique that reinforces desired behaviors and boosts morale. Option B is not marked correct because while stretch assignments can develop people, PMI frames motivation primarily around recognition, growth opportunities, and a supportive environment rather than simply increasing task difficulty. Option C is not marked correct because penalty systems are punitive and contradict PMI's emphasis on positive, trust-based motivation. Option D is not marked correct because monetary bonuses tied to early milestone completion are a transactional incentive, not the primary PMI-recommended motivational practice.

Answer

Assign more challenging tasks to stretch their capabilities

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Implement a penalty system for missed deadlines

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Offer monetary bonuses for early completion of milestones

Question 14

You are managing a project to deploy a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. During user acceptance testing, the quality assurance team identifies several critical defects that must be fixed before go-live. The project is already behind schedule. What should the project manager do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Prioritize fixing the critical defects and update the project schedule and stakeholders on the new timeline. When critical defects are found during UAT and the project is behind schedule, the project manager should prioritize fixing the defects and then update the schedule and stakeholders on the new timeline. This addresses the quality issue while keeping stakeholders informed, which is essential for managing expectations and obtaining necessary approvals.

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for a decision on whether to delay

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Proceed with go-live and fix defects in a later release

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Ask the team to work overtime to fix defects without changing the go-live date

Question 15

Your agile project has experienced a drop in velocity for the past three sprints. The team is frustrated. Which TWO actions should the project manager take to address this?

Accepted Answer

Work with the team to remove any impediments they are facing. Option A is correct because in agile the project manager (or Scrum Master) serves the team by identifying and removing impediments, which directly restores the team's ability to complete work and recover velocity. Option B is correct because a retrospective is the agile ceremony designed to inspect the last sprints and surface the root causes of the velocity drop, enabling the team to define and own corrective actions. Option C is wrong because imposing stricter deadlines is a command-and-control tactic that increases pressure and typically lowers quality and morale rather than fixing the underlying cause. Option D is wrong because replacing team members disrupts the team's formed working relationships and does not address systemic causes of declining velocity. Option E is wrong because lengthening the sprint merely dilutes the symptom and violates the principle of keeping a consistent, sustainable cadence.

Answer

Set stricter deadlines to motivate the team

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Replace underperforming team members with more experienced ones

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Increase the sprint length to give the team more time