PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Test 15 — 15 Questions

Question 1

During a project retrospective, the team identifies several obstacles that are slowing them down, including unclear requirements and lack of access to a testing environment. As a servant leader, what should you do?

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

Accepted Answer

Work with the team and relevant stakeholders to remove the obstacles. As a servant leader, your primary responsibility is to remove impediments that hinder the team's progress. By working directly with the team and relevant stakeholders to address unclear requirements and lack of access to a testing environment, you enable the team to maintain velocity and focus on delivering value. This aligns with the PMI's focus on empowering teams through proactive obstacle removal rather than deferring or delegating the issue.

Answer

Document the obstacles and review them at the next retrospective

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Prioritize the obstacles and include them in the project risk register

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Ask the team to resolve the obstacles themselves

Question 2

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 3

Your project is in the execution phase when a new regulatory requirement is discovered that impacts the project scope. The change is mandatory and must be implemented immediately. Which THREE actions should you take?

Accepted Answer

Update the project management plan and other relevant documents after approval. Option E is correct because the first step in handling any discovered change, even a mandatory regulatory one, is to perform an impact analysis on the project's scope, schedule, and cost so the CCB and stakeholders can make an informed decision. Option C is correct because all changes must flow through the Perform Integrated Change Control process, meaning a formal change request must be submitted to the change control board for review and approval before any work begins. Option A is correct because once the change is approved, the project management plan and any affected subsidiary documents (such as the scope baseline, schedule baseline, and cost baseline) must be updated to reflect the approved change. Option B is not correct because implementing a change before it has been approved through the CCB bypasses the integrated change control process, even when the change is mandatory. Option D is not correct because ignoring a mandatory regulatory requirement is never acceptable; it would expose the project to legal, compliance, and quality risks.

Answer

Instruct the team to start implementing the change immediately

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Ignore the regulation because the project is already underway

Question 4

You are leading a virtual team across three time zones. Team members have expressed feeling isolated and disconnected. Which THREE actions would best improve team cohesion and collaboration?

Accepted Answer

Schedule overlapping work hours for real-time collaboration. Option B is correct because scheduling overlapping work hours gives the distributed team a shared window for synchronous, real-time collaboration, which directly counters the isolation that arises when three time zones never interact live. Option C is correct because video conferencing adds non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and tone, fostering the personal connection and trust that text-only channels cannot provide. Option E is correct because virtual team-building activities deliberately create informal social bonds and shared experiences, which strengthen cohesion and reduce the feeling of disconnection among remote members. Option A does not belong because relying primarily on email is asynchronous and low-context, which tends to increase rather than reduce isolation. Option D does not belong because assigning all work individually eliminates the interdependence and interaction that build a cohesive team.

Answer

Encourage team members to communicate primarily via email

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Assign all work individually to minimize coordination overhead

Question 5

You are leading a software development project using a hybrid approach. During a sprint review, two senior developers have a heated argument about the technical implementation of a feature. The disagreement is causing tension among the team. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Meet with both developers separately and then together to find a solution. As the project manager, your first responsibility is to address the conflict directly using collaborative conflict resolution techniques. Meeting with each developer separately allows you to understand their technical perspectives without group pressure, and then bringing them together facilitates a solution that respects both viewpoints and maintains team cohesion. This approach aligns with the PMI People domain, emphasizing servant leadership and proactive conflict management.

Answer

Escalate the conflict to the project sponsor

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Assign the feature to a different developer

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Ask the team members to resolve it on their own

Question 6

You manage a global project team with members in three different time zones. Several team members have expressed feeling isolated and disconnected from the project. Communication has become sporadic. What is the BEST way to address this?

Accepted Answer

Schedule regular video conferences and virtual team-building activities. It directly addresses the root cause of isolation and sporadic communication by fostering synchronous interaction and team cohesion. Regular video conferences enable real-time collaboration and non-verbal cues, while virtual team-building activities strengthen interpersonal relationships, which are critical for distributed teams. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's emphasis on using communication methods that promote engagement and trust in virtual environments.

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Send a weekly email newsletter with project updates

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Assign a local team lead in each time zone

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Require all team members to work the same hours

Question 7

During a project to develop a new mobile app, a key team member has been consistently underperforming, missing deadlines, and delivering low-quality work. The team is becoming demotivated. You have had informal conversations with the team member, but performance has not improved. What should you do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Initiate a formal performance improvement plan with clear expectations and consequences. After informal coaching has failed, the next step in progressive discipline is to initiate a formal Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) with clear expectations, measurable goals, and defined consequences. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's emphasis on addressing performance issues systematically before considering escalation or removal, ensuring fairness and documentation.

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Ignore the issue and hope performance improves naturally

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Escalate to the functional manager to request a replacement

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Remove the team member from the project immediately to protect team morale

Question 8

You are managing a construction project using a traditional approach. The sponsor asks you to skip the quality inspection phase to save two weeks and meet an aggressive deadline. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Explain the risks of skipping quality inspections and discuss alternatives to meet the deadline. As a project manager, your first responsibility is to address the sponsor's request professionally by communicating the risks of skipping quality inspections—such as potential rework, safety failures, and cost overruns—and then collaboratively exploring alternatives (e.g., parallel testing, reduced sampling) to meet the deadline without compromising quality. This aligns with the PMP's emphasis on stakeholder engagement and proactive risk management, not blind compliance or refusal.

Answer

Agree to skip the inspections to satisfy the sponsor's request

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Refuse outright because quality cannot be compromised

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Proceed with inspections but report that they were completed

Question 9

Your agile team's velocity has dropped for the past three sprints. During the retrospective, team members mention they are overburdened with work from other departments. The project manager is not the team's direct manager. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Work with the functional managers to reduce the team's external workload. The correct first step is to address the root cause of the velocity drop—the team's overburden from external work. As the project manager lacks direct authority, you must collaborate with the functional managers who control the team members' assignments to negotiate a reduction in external workload. This aligns with the PMI principle of servant leadership and removing impediments, which is the immediate priority before adjusting plans or escalating.

Answer

Re-estimate the backlog to reflect the lower velocity

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Ask the team to work faster and increase their hours

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Report the velocity drop to the project sponsor

Question 10

A new regulatory requirement has been discovered that affects your project's deliverables. The project is halfway through its schedule. What should the project manager do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to assess the impact on scope, schedule, and cost. D is correct because the PMBOK Guide mandates that any change, including a new regulatory requirement, must first be processed through a formal change request to evaluate its impact on scope, schedule, and cost. Since the project is already halfway through its schedule, the project manager must follow the integrated change control process to ensure the change is assessed before any action is taken. This prevents unauthorized changes that could disrupt project baselines.

Answer

Ignore the requirement because the project is already underway

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Inform the team to start incorporating the new requirement immediately

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Update the project management plan directly to include the change

Question 11

You are managing a large project with multiple stakeholders. One executive stakeholder has been bypassing you and giving direct instructions to the team, causing confusion. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Meet with the stakeholder privately to clarify the communication plan and request they go through you. The PM must first address the stakeholder directly to reinforce the established communication plan and authority structure. Bypassing the PM violates the project's governance and can lead to scope creep, conflicting priorities, and team confusion. A private meeting allows the PM to professionally assert their role as the single point of contact for the team, as defined in the communications management plan.

Answer

Tell the team to follow the stakeholder's instructions

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Update the communication plan to include the stakeholder's direct involvement

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Report the stakeholder to the project sponsor

Question 12

Your project is running 15% over budget at the midpoint. The variance is due to unforeseen technical challenges. You have identified a potential solution that would reduce costs but might affect scope. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Analyze the impact of the solution on scope, schedule, and cost, then present a change request to the CCB. The PMBOK Guide requires that any potential solution affecting scope must first be analyzed for its impact on the triple constraint (scope, schedule, cost) before submitting a formal change request to the Change Control Board (CCB). This ensures that the decision is based on objective data and follows the established change control process, which is critical when the project is already over budget due to unforeseen technical challenges.

Answer

Ask the sponsor for additional budget to cover the overrun

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Continue as planned and hope to recover the budget later

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Implement the solution immediately to control costs

Question 13

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 14

You are forming a new project team with members from different departments. To ensure a shared understanding of team values and expectations, what should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a team charter workshop to define roles, responsibilities, and norms. The first step in forming a team is to establish a shared understanding of values, expectations, and operating norms. A team charter workshop (D) brings members together to collaboratively define roles, responsibilities, decision-making processes, and ground rules. This proactive approach builds ownership and clarity, which are essential for high performance. It aligns with PMBOK's emphasis on developing the team and creating a collaborative environment.

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Send a team introduction email with the project plan

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Assign individual tasks and let the team figure out collaboration

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Conduct a team-building event

Question 15

A risk that was identified and in the risk register has occurred. The risk response plan involves outsourcing a component, but the vendor is now unable to deliver on time. What should the project manager do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Implement the fallback plan or contingency reserves as defined in the risk register. The risk has materialized and the risk response plan (outsourcing) has failed. The project manager must immediately execute the pre-defined fallback plan or use contingency reserves as documented in the risk register. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's guidance on implementing risk responses when the primary response is no longer viable.

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Wait to see if the vendor can resolve the issue

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for guidance

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Reassign the work to an internal team