PMP Practice Exam 51 — 20 Questions

Question 1

Your project team is co-located, but you have noticed a lack of collaboration and trust among members. Which TWO actions would BEST help build a high-performing team? (Choose two)

Accepted Answer

Organize team-building activities to improve relationships. Team-building activities directly address the lack of collaboration and trust by fostering interpersonal relationships and psychological safety, which are foundational for a high-performing team. Option E is correct because a team charter establishes shared values, norms, and goals, providing a clear framework for collaboration and accountability, which aligns with PMI's emphasis on creating a team environment that promotes high performance.

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Assign team members to work independently on separate tasks to avoid conflict

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Immediately address any underperformance with formal warnings

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Conduct one-on-one meetings with each team member to discuss their concerns

Question 2

A new team member from a different country joins your project. They seem hesitant to speak up during meetings and often defer to others. Which TWO actions would best help them integrate?

Accepted Answer

Pair them with a buddy who can help them navigate team dynamics and norms. Pairing the new team member with a buddy directly addresses cultural unfamiliarity by providing a safe, one-on-one channel to learn team norms and communication styles, which is a core practice in cross-cultural team integration under the PMBOK Guide's 'Manage Team' process. Option E is correct because scheduled one-on-one check-ins allow the project manager to understand the team member's communication preferences and provide tailored feedback, fostering psychological safety and gradual integration without public pressure.

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Ask them to present their background and culture to the team

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Assign them a leadership role immediately to boost confidence

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Criticize their lack of participation to encourage them to speak up

Question 3

A project manager is leading a software development project using agile methodology. The team has completed 3 sprints, but the product owner is dissatisfied because the delivered features do not meet the expected business value. The team claims they followed the prioritized backlog. What should the project manager do?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a retrospective with the product owner and team to review the definition of done and acceptance criteria. The core issue is a misalignment between what the team delivered and what the product owner expects, despite following the prioritized backlog. The project manager should facilitate a retrospective to review the definition of done and acceptance criteria, as this ensures both parties have a shared understanding of what constitutes a completed, valuable feature. This aligns with agile principles of continuous improvement and stakeholder collaboration, directly addressing the root cause of the dissatisfaction.

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Create a detailed report showing the team's velocity and completed stories

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Replace the product owner with someone who has better domain knowledge

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Ask the team to add more features to the next sprint to increase value

Question 4

You are leading a virtual team across multiple time zones. During daily stand-ups, you notice that team members from one region are consistently quiet and not contributing. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Schedule a one-on-one meeting with a few members of that region to ask about their experience and any barriers. The first step in addressing a participation issue in a virtual team is to understand the root cause through direct, private conversations. This aligns with the PMP principle of 'servant leadership' and the 'People' domain, where you must first investigate barriers (e.g., time zone fatigue, cultural norms, or tool discomfort) before implementing solutions. A one-on-one meeting builds psychological safety and gathers specific feedback, which is essential for an effective corrective action.

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Implement a new communication tool to encourage engagement

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Send a team-wide email reminding everyone of the importance of participation

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Assign speaking turns to ensure everyone participates

Question 5

A project team is distributed across three time zones. Communication delays are causing misunderstandings and rework. What is the BEST way to improve team collaboration?

Accepted Answer

Create a team charter that defines communication protocols and core overlap hours. Establishing a team charter with communication guidelines sets expectations for availability, response times, and meeting times, which directly addresses the issue.

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Require all team members to work the same hours

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Assign a single point of contact in each time zone

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Implement a daily status report via email

Question 6

A key stakeholder insists on bypassing the change control process and demands that a minor scope change be implemented immediately to meet a regulatory deadline. What should the project manager do?

Accepted Answer

Explain the importance of the change control process and initiate a change request. The project manager must uphold the change control process to ensure all changes, even minor ones, are properly evaluated for impact on scope, schedule, cost, and quality. Bypassing the process could lead to undocumented changes that violate regulatory compliance or introduce risks. Initiating a change request allows the stakeholder's urgent need to be formally assessed and approved through the proper governance framework.

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Implement the change and document it later

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Refuse the request outright, stating that no changes are allowed

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Comply with the stakeholder's request to maintain a good relationship

Question 7

You are managing a hybrid project using Scrum for development and a predictive approach for regulatory deliverables. During the daily standup, two senior developers disagree strongly on the technical approach to implement a user story. The disagreement is causing tension and slowing progress. As the project manager, what should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion between the two developers to understand both perspectives and reach a consensus. In a hybrid project, the project manager must first facilitate conflict resolution among team members to maintain team cohesion and ensure progress. Option B aligns with the PMI's emphasis on servant leadership and collaborative problem-solving, as it addresses the root cause of the disagreement without bypassing the team's autonomy or escalating prematurely.

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Assign the story to another developer who can work without conflict

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Make the technical decision yourself based on your experience

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for a decision

Question 8

Your Agile team's velocity has dropped for the third consecutive sprint. The team cites increasing technical debt and unclear requirements. As a servant leader, what is the BEST course of action?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a retrospective to identify root causes and collaboratively develop an improvement plan. As a servant leader, the best course is to facilitate a retrospective to collaboratively identify root causes of the velocity drop, such as technical debt and unclear requirements, and then develop an improvement plan. This aligns with the Agile principle of continuous improvement and empowers the team to address issues at their source rather than applying top-down fixes.

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Reduce the scope of the project to match the current velocity

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Ask the team to increase their velocity by working overtime

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Schedule additional daily standups to increase communication

Question 9

A project manager is closing a phase of a large project. What is the most important activity to perform during phase closure?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a lessons learned session with the team and document findings.. Conducting a lessons learned session and documenting findings is the most important activity during phase closure. This ensures that knowledge gained from the current phase is captured and can be applied to improve processes in subsequent phases or future projects. In the context of managing technical aspects, this includes documenting technical decisions, architectural changes, and integration issues that arose during the phase, which directly informs the technical planning for the next phase.

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Release all project resources to new assignments.

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Update the project management plan for the next phase.

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Obtain formal acceptance of deliverables from the customer.

Question 10

In a large-scale project, the project manager notices that sprint velocity has been declining over the last three sprints. The team is demotivated and blaming each other for missed commitments. What should the project manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a retrospective to identify root causes and collaboratively develop improvement actions. The first step in addressing declining sprint velocity and team demotivation is to facilitate a retrospective. This aligns with the PMP's focus on servant leadership and collaborative problem-solving, allowing the team to identify root causes (e.g., technical debt, unclear requirements) and co-create improvement actions, which restores ownership and morale.

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Reassign tasks to the highest-performing team members

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Replace the Scrum Master with a more experienced one

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Meet with the product owner to reduce the scope of upcoming sprints

Question 11

You are the project manager for a multinational corporation that is launching a new software product. The organization's strategic goal is to increase market share in emerging markets by 15% within the next two years. The project has completed the planning phase, and you are about to start execution. During a stakeholder meeting, the product owner insists on adding a feature that is popular in developed markets but has not been validated for emerging markets. The product owner argues that this feature will differentiate the product, but the development team estimates it will add three months to the schedule and increase costs by 20%. The sponsor is concerned about the budget and timeline. You have reviewed the business case, which does not mention this feature. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a cost-benefit analysis and assess alignment with the strategic goal. If it does not align, recommend against it and proceed with the original scope. If it aligns, submit a change request.. It follows the PMI framework for managing scope changes: first, evaluate the proposed feature against the business case and strategic goal (increasing market share in emerging markets by 15% within two years). A cost-benefit analysis will determine if the feature delivers value in the target market; if not, the recommendation is to proceed with the original scope. If it does align, a formal change request is required to adjust the baseline schedule and budget, ensuring the sponsor and other stakeholders can make an informed decision.

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

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Accept the feature because the product owner is responsible for the product vision.

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Add the feature to the backlog and proceed as requested to satisfy the product owner.

Question 12

A key stakeholder has been bypassing the project manager and giving direct instructions to team members, causing confusion about priorities. What should the project manager do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Schedule a meeting with the stakeholder to discuss the importance of following the communication plan.. The first step in resolving stakeholder interference is to address the issue directly with the stakeholder through a meeting, reinforcing the communication plan established during project planning. This aligns with PMI's principle of proactive stakeholder engagement and conflict resolution at the lowest appropriate level, ensuring clarity on roles and reporting structures without escalating prematurely.

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Update the stakeholder management plan to include this stakeholder.

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Report the stakeholder's behavior to the project sponsor.

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Instruct the team to ignore any instructions from the stakeholder.

Question 13

Which THREE of the following are key inputs to the Develop Schedule process?

Accepted Answer

Resource requirements. Resource requirements (e.g., people, equipment, materials) are key inputs to the Develop Schedule process. They define the availability and capacity constraints that directly affect activity durations and the sequencing of work, enabling the creation of a realistic project schedule.

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Risk register

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Cost baseline

Question 14

You are managing a project using a hybrid approach. The team has a mix of senior and junior members. A senior developer is consistently dominating pair programming sessions, leaving the junior developer passive. The junior's performance is declining. What is the BEST action?

Accepted Answer

Coach the senior developer on effective mentoring techniques and the importance of allowing the junior to contribute. The root cause is the senior developer's behavior, not the junior's ability. Coaching the senior on effective mentoring techniques addresses the imbalance directly, fostering a collaborative environment where the junior can actively participate and learn. This aligns with the PMP's focus on servant leadership and team development in a hybrid approach, where pair programming relies on balanced contribution for knowledge transfer and code quality.

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Ask the junior developer to speak up more during pairing

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Reassign the junior developer to work independently on simpler tasks

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Pair the junior developer with a different senior developer

Question 15

You are managing a hybrid project with a critical deliverable due in two weeks. Two senior developers on your team have a strong disagreement over the technical approach. They have stopped speaking to each other, and the team's progress has stalled. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Meet with each developer separately to understand their perspectives and facilitate a joint discussion. As a project manager, your first responsibility in a conflict is to understand each party's perspective individually and then facilitate a collaborative resolution. This approach aligns with the PMP's 'Manage Conflict' process, which emphasizes direct, respectful communication before escalating or imposing solutions. By meeting separately and then jointly, you address the root cause—the technical disagreement—while preserving team cohesion and ownership of the solution.

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Enforce a team policy that all technical decisions must be approved by you

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for resolution

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Reassign the work to other team members to avoid further conflict

Question 16

You are the project manager for a multinational project with team members from diverse cultural backgrounds. You notice that some team members are hesitant to speak up during meetings due to cultural norms. Which TWO actions would best foster an inclusive environment?

Accepted Answer

Use round-robin or other structured techniques to ensure each person has an opportunity to contribute. Structured techniques like round-robin ensure every team member has an equal opportunity to contribute, directly addressing cultural norms where speaking up unprompted is discouraged. This method creates a safe, predictable space for participation without putting individuals on the spot, fostering inclusivity by respecting diverse communication styles.

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Provide language training to non-native speakers

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Require each team member to speak at least once per meeting

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Encourage open discussion and let the most vocal members lead

Question 17

A project team member, who is a key technical expert, has been consistently missing deadlines. The project manager has already discussed the issue informally, but performance has not improved. What should the project manager do next?

Accepted Answer

Have a formal meeting to discuss the issue and create a performance improvement plan. After informal discussions have failed, the project manager should follow a structured performance management process. Having a formal meeting to discuss the issue and create a performance improvement plan (PIP) documents the problem, sets clear expectations, and provides a timeline for improvement, which aligns with the PMI's emphasis on addressing performance issues systematically before considering escalation or replacement.

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Escalate the issue to the team member's functional manager

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Replace the team member with a more reliable resource

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Assign a mentor to help the team member catch up on missed deadlines

Question 18

You are the project manager for a government IT project. Midway through, a new regulation is enacted that requires additional data privacy controls. The team estimates this will add 4 weeks to the schedule and increase costs by 10%. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to the change control board to incorporate the required changes. When a new regulation impacts a project, the project manager should follow the formal change control process. The first step is to assess the impact and submit a change request to the change control board (CCB) for review and approval. This ensures compliance while maintaining proper governance. Option A is wrong because implementing changes without approval bypasses change control. Option B is wrong because ignoring regulations exposes the organization to legal risk. Option C is wrong because stopping the project is an extreme measure that should only be considered after evaluating alternatives.

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Instruct the team to start implementing the new controls immediately

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Ignore the regulation until the project is complete to avoid delays

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Recommend stopping the project until the regulation is clarified

Question 19

During a sprint retrospective, a team member complains that the daily standups are too long and unproductive. Several others agree. What is the BEST action for the Scrum Master to take?

Accepted Answer

Ask the team to propose improvements to the standup format and agree on changes. The retrospective is the appropriate place to discuss process improvements. The Scrum Master should facilitate a discussion to modify the standup format based on the team's feedback.

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Enforce a strict 15-minute timebox for future standups

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Cancel the daily standups and replace them with written status reports

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Move the standup to a later time when team members are more focused

Question 20

Your agile project is in its third sprint. The product owner has been pressuring the team to deliver more features each sprint to meet stakeholder expectations. Sprint velocity has dropped for two consecutive sprints, and the team seems demotivated. As the project manager, what should you do?

Accepted Answer

Coach the product owner on agile principles and facilitate a discussion on sustainable pace and prioritization. The root cause of the velocity drop and team demotivation is a mismatch between stakeholder pressure and the team's sustainable pace. As the project manager, you must coach the product owner on agile principles—specifically that velocity is a measure of capacity, not a target—and facilitate a discussion to reprioritize the backlog so the team can deliver value without burnout. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's emphasis on servant leadership and protecting the team from external pressure.

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Add more developers to the team to increase capacity

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Extend the sprint duration to allow more time for feature completion

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Ask the team to work overtime to catch up on the backlog