PMP Practice Test 49 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You are managing a pharmaceutical research project that is subject to strict regulatory compliance. Mid-project, a new regulation requires additional testing that will add 4 weeks to the schedule and $50,000 in costs. The sponsor is anxious about the delay. What should you do FIRST?

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

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request with the impact analysis to the change control board for approval. In a regulated pharmaceutical project, a new regulation that adds scope, schedule, and cost is a change that must go through the integrated change control process. The FIRST action is to submit a change request with a documented impact analysis to the change control board (CCB) for approval. This ensures the change is evaluated, approved, and baselined before any work begins, preserving compliance and auditability.

Answer

Instruct the team to begin the additional testing immediately to ensure compliance

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Inform the sponsor that the project will be delayed and request more budget

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Update the risk register and issue log to reflect the new regulation

Question 2

A team member consistently misses deadlines, causing delays for the rest of the team. You have already spoken to the team member informally, but the behavior continues. What is the BEST next step?

Accepted Answer

Have a formal meeting with the team member to discuss expectations and consequences. The PM should address performance issues formally by documenting the issue and discussing it with the team member, setting clear expectations and consequences. This follows a progressive discipline approach.

Answer

Remove the team member from the project

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Escalate the issue to the team member's functional manager

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Reassign the team member to less critical tasks

Question 3

During a sprint retrospective, the team identifies that the daily standup meetings are taking too long and not focusing on impediments. Which TWO actions would help improve the effectiveness of the daily standup?

Accepted Answer

Time-box the standup to 15 minutes and use a talking stick.. Effective daily standups are time-boxed (e.g., 15 minutes) and focus on progress, plans, and impediments. Using a visual board helps keep the discussion focused.

Answer

Hold the standup without the scrum master to save time.

Answer

Extend the standup to 30 minutes to allow more detailed discussion.

Answer

Replace the standup with a written status report.

Question 4

In the middle of a project, new government regulations are introduced that affect your deliverables. Compliance is mandatory. The project is currently on schedule and on budget. What should the project manager do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to assess the impact of the regulation on the project baselines.. The PM must assess the impact of the regulation and then follow change control. Option D is correct. Option A bypasses process; Option B is premature; Option C may be needed later but not first.

Answer

Incorporate the changes to comply with the regulation immediately.

Answer

Notify the sponsor that the project will be delayed and over budget.

Answer

Consult legal to determine the exact requirements.

Question 5

You are managing a software development project using a hybrid approach. During a sprint review, the product owner requests a new feature that was not in the backlog. The team estimates it will take one week. The project is on schedule and budget. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to the change control board for evaluation and approval.. In a hybrid project, the sprint review is a feedback session, not a change implementation point. The product owner's request is a change to the project scope, and the correct first step is to submit a formal change request to the change control board (CCB) for evaluation and approval, ensuring alignment with the project's governance and baseline.

Answer

Refuse the request because the project is already on schedule and budget.

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Add the feature to the product backlog and prioritize it in the next sprint planning.

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Instruct the team to start working on the feature immediately to maintain stakeholder satisfaction.

Question 6

Your agile team has been experiencing declining velocity over the last three sprints. Retrospectives have not identified a clear cause. Several team members mention feeling fatigued and demotivated. As the project manager, what should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Schedule individual one-on-one meetings with team members to understand their concerns and identify obstacles. The first step when facing declining velocity and team demotivation is to engage directly with team members through one-on-one meetings to uncover root causes. This aligns with the PMP's servant leadership approach, where understanding individual concerns and removing obstacles is prioritized before any process or resource changes. The retrospective has already failed to identify the cause, so deeper, private conversations are needed to surface issues like burnout, interpersonal conflicts, or unclear requirements.

Answer

Add more team members to the project to distribute the workload

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Escalate the velocity drop to the steering committee and ask for guidance

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Set stricter deadlines and increase velocity targets to motivate the team

Question 7

During project execution, a team member discovers a defect in a deliverable that was completed two weeks ago. The defect is minor and can be fixed quickly, but fixing it will require rework that is not in the current sprint. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Log the defect in the issue log and decide with the team whether to fix it now or in a future sprint.. The defect should be documented in the issue log, and the team should determine whether to fix it immediately or in a future sprint based on priority. PMI emphasizes documenting and tracking issues.

Answer

Ignore the defect since it is minor and does not affect functionality.

Answer

Fix the defect immediately to avoid a potential quality issue.

Answer

Report the defect to the change control board to get approval for rework.

Question 8

Your project is executing a fixed-price contract with a vendor to develop a key module. The vendor has delivered a module that does not meet the agreed-upon quality standards. The contract includes penalty clauses for non-compliance. What is the BEST action?

Accepted Answer

Document the non-compliance, notify the vendor, and request a corrective action plan. The best action is to document the non-compliance and initiate a formal corrective action, referencing the contract terms. This follows proper procurement management and change control.

Answer

Accept the module and plan to fix it internally to avoid conflict

Answer

Terminate the contract and find a new vendor

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Immediately invoke the penalty clause and withhold payment

Question 9

Your project is 40% complete and running 15% over budget due to unforeseen technical challenges. The project sponsor suggests reducing scope by removing non-essential features to meet the budget. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Analyze the impact of the proposed reduction and submit a change request to the CCB. The project manager should follow the formal change control process to evaluate the impact of reducing scope and obtain approval from the change control board (CCB) before making changes.

Answer

Update the project charter to reflect the new scope without further approval

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Reject the sponsor's suggestion because scope reduction always leads to project failure

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Agree with the sponsor and immediately instruct the team to stop work on non-essential features

Question 10

A new regulatory requirement has been introduced that affects your project's deliverables. The requirement must be implemented within two months. Your project is currently in the execution phase. Which THREE actions should you take?

Accepted Answer

Update the project management plan and baselines after approval.. Since the requirement is mandatory, you must assess its impact, submit a change request to incorporate it, and update the project management plan accordingly. Ignoring or delaying is not acceptable.

Answer

Ask the team to implement the change without documentation to save time.

Answer

Ignore the requirement until the next project phase.

Question 11

In an agile project, the team has been working on the same product backlog for several sprints. During sprint planning, the product owner introduces a new high-priority user story that will require the team to reprioritize existing work. What is the BEST approach?

Accepted Answer

Discuss the new story with the team and the product owner, and if accepted, remove a lower-priority story of equivalent size. In agile, the product owner can change priorities, but the team should assess the impact on the sprint goal and capacity. The best approach is to discuss the new story and its priority, and then adjust the sprint backlog accordingly, possibly removing lower-priority items.

Answer

Reject the new story because the sprint has already started

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Put the new story in the product backlog for a future sprint

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Add the new story to the sprint backlog and ask the team to work overtime to complete everything

Question 12

Your hybrid project uses a fixed-price contract with a vendor. The vendor notifies you that they cannot deliver a critical component on time due to a labor shortage. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Review the procurement contract to understand terms, penalties, and remedies. The contract is the governing document; the PM should review it to understand remedies and obligations.

Answer

Escalate to the project sponsor for a decision

Answer

Immediately find a replacement vendor

Answer

Accept the delay and adjust the project schedule

Question 13

During a sprint review, the product owner rejects a user story because it does not meet their expectations, even though the team followed the acceptance criteria. The team is frustrated. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a meeting between the product owner and the team to clarify the acceptance criteria and align expectations. The immediate conflict stems from a misalignment between the acceptance criteria and the product owner's expectations. As a servant leader, the first step is to facilitate a meeting between the product owner and the team to clarify the acceptance criteria and ensure a shared understanding, which directly addresses the root cause of the frustration without escalating or ignoring the issue.

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Ask the team to rework the story based on the product owner's feedback without further discussion

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Appeal to the project sponsor to mediate the disagreement

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Add the story back to the product backlog for future prioritization

Question 14

During project execution, you notice that the project's cost performance index (CPI) is 0.9 and schedule performance index (SPI) is 0.95. The project is currently 50% complete. Which THREE actions should you take?

Accepted Answer

Communicate the current performance and planned corrections to stakeholders. The PMBOK Guide requires the project manager to communicate performance data and planned corrective actions to stakeholders as part of the Monitor and Control Project Work process. With a CPI of 0.9 (10% cost overrun) and SPI of 0.95 (5% schedule delay) at 50% completion, transparency is essential to maintain trust and enable informed decision-making. This aligns with the Manage Communications process, which ensures timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, and disposition of project information.

Answer

Request additional budget from the sponsor to cover the cost overrun

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Crash the project schedule without considering cost impact

Question 15

You are managing a software development project using Scrum. During the sprint review, the product owner praises the team's work but mentions that a key stakeholder is unhappy because an expected feature was delivered with limited functionality. The feature was completed according to the sprint backlog, but the stakeholder had not communicated their detailed expectations. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Schedule a meeting with the stakeholder to clarify expectations and discuss how to incorporate their feedback into the product backlog. The correct first step is to engage the stakeholder directly to understand their detailed expectations and then work with the product owner to incorporate that feedback into the product backlog. This aligns with PMP principles of stakeholder engagement and adaptive scope management in Agile. Since the feature met the sprint backlog but not the stakeholder's unstated needs, the gap is a communication issue, not a delivery failure. Addressing it through backlog refinement ensures the team can prioritize the work transparently without bypassing Scrum processes.

Answer

Add the missing features to the next sprint without formal approval to satisfy the stakeholder immediately

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Update the issue log and move on, since the team delivered the scope as planned

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor as a risk that the stakeholder may reject the deliverable