PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Test 2 — 15 Questions

Question 1

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?

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

Accepted Answer

Update the project management plan and other relevant documents after approval. Even mandatory regulatory changes must follow the formal change control process. First, the project team must **assess the impact** (E) of the new regulation on all project aspects, including scope, schedule, and cost. This assessment forms the basis for a formal **change request** (C) which is then submitted to the Change Control Board (CCB) for review and approval. Once the change is approved, the **project management plan and other relevant documents** (A) are updated to reflect the new baseline, ensuring all stakeholders are aligned with the revised project scope and plan.

Answer

Instruct the team to start implementing the change immediately

Answer

Ignore the regulation because the project is already underway

Question 2

Your project team is experiencing low morale due to unclear roles and responsibilities. As a project manager using a servant leadership approach, which THREE actions would BEST address this issue?

Accepted Answer

Organize team-building activities to improve trust and communication. Unclear roles and responsibilities directly contribute to low morale. A servant leader focuses on empowering the team, fostering collaboration, and removing impediments. 
*   **D: Empower team members to define their own roles based on strengths** directly addresses the ambiguity by fostering team autonomy and leveraging individual capabilities, which is a core tenet of servant leadership.
*   **E: Facilitate a team charter workshop to clarify roles and responsibilities** is a proactive servant leadership action to guide the team in collaboratively defining their working agreements, including roles and responsibilities, thereby providing clarity and improving morale.
*   **B: Organize team-building activities to improve trust and communication** addresses the low morale aspect by fostering a more collaborative and supportive environment, which is essential for effective communication and eventual clarification of roles.
Options A and C are directive approaches that contradict the principles of servant leadership, which emphasizes empowerment and facilitation over control.

Answer

Assign roles and responsibilities yourself to avoid confusion

Answer

Increase supervision and hold daily status meetings

Question 3

You are leading a virtual team across three continents. Team members have expressed feeling isolated and disconnected from the project. Which TWO actions would best help build team cohesion and trust?

Accepted Answer

Schedule weekly virtual coffee chats or informal video calls for non-work interactions. Informal virtual coffee chats help build social bonds and reduce feelings of isolation in a distributed team. These non-work interactions foster trust and psychological safety, which are essential for team cohesion across different time zones and cultures. A team charter is also crucial for virtual teams as it establishes clear expectations for communication, response times, and collaboration. This clarity reduces ambiguity, prevents misunderstandings, and builds a foundation of trust and cohesion by ensuring all team members understand how to interact and what to expect from each other, thereby mitigating feelings of disconnection.

Answer

Require everyone to work the same core hours regardless of time zone

Answer

Send a weekly email newsletter with project updates and achievements

Answer

Assign a mentor to each new team member from a different region

Question 4

You are the project manager for a global team with members from different cultures. You want to build a high-performing team. Which TWO actions are MOST effective for fostering collaboration and trust?

Accepted Answer

Develop a team charter that defines ground rules for communication and decision-making. A team charter creates shared ground rules for communication and decision-making, reducing ambiguity and building psychological safety in a cross-cultural team. Regular virtual social events and informal check-ins build personal connections and trust, which are critical for high-performing distributed teams. In contrast, strict individual performance targets can undermine collaboration by creating competition; rotating roles may disrupt team cohesion; and forcing a single communication tool may ignore cultural and practical differences.

Answer

Implement a strict performance review system with individual targets

Answer

Rotate team members across different roles to increase versatility

Answer

Assign a single communication tool and require its exclusive use

Question 5

Your agile team has been experiencing conflict between two developers over coding standards. The conflict is affecting team morale and productivity. Which TWO actions should you take to resolve the conflict? (Choose TWO)

Accepted Answer

Collaborate with the team to create or update coding standards. Collaborating with the team to create or update coding standards (A) directly addresses the root cause of the conflict—ambiguity or disagreement over the standards themselves. By involving the entire team, you foster ownership, alignment, and a shared understanding, which reduces future friction. This approach aligns with the agile principle of self-organizing teams and the PMI People domain focus on collaborative conflict resolution. Facilitating a meeting between the two developers (D) is also crucial as it promotes direct communication and problem-solving, allowing the individuals to understand each other's perspectives and find common ground, which is a key step in resolving interpersonal conflicts collaboratively and at the lowest appropriate level.

Answer

Ignore the conflict and hope it resolves on its own

Answer

Reassign the developers to different teams

Answer

Escalate the conflict to the project sponsor

Question 6

A new team member has joined your project and seems reluctant to share ideas during meetings. You suspect they are experiencing cultural adjustment issues. Which TWO actions would best help integrate them into the team? (Choose TWO)

Accepted Answer

Encourage a safe environment where all ideas are welcomed without judgment. Creating a psychologically safe environment encourages open communication and reduces the fear of judgment, which is critical for team members experiencing cultural adjustment. Pairing them with a senior team member provides a trusted resource for guidance, helps them navigate cultural nuances, and fosters a sense of belonging and support. Both actions align with the PMI Talent Triangle's 'People' domain, emphasizing emotional intelligence, team building, and effective stakeholder engagement.

Answer

Ask them directly why they are not participating

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Assign them a complex task to prove their abilities

Answer

Require them to present an idea in the next meeting

Question 7

Your agile team has been struggling with low morale and lack of motivation. As a project manager using servant leadership, which THREE actions would be most effective in improving the situation?

Accepted Answer

Identify and remove obstacles that are hindering the team's progress. Servant leadership prioritizes the growth and well-being of the team, which directly impacts morale and motivation. A: Identifying and removing obstacles is a core tenet, as it reduces frustration, enables the team to progress, and demonstrates the leader's support. D: Empowering the team to make decisions fosters autonomy and ownership, which are powerful intrinsic motivators and central to self-organizing agile teams. E: Regularly acknowledging and celebrating achievements builds a positive team culture, reinforces good work, and makes team members feel valued, significantly boosting morale and motivation. Options B and C are less effective; monetary incentives (B) are extrinsic and often not sustainable for long-term motivation in agile, while stricter metrics (C) are a command-and-control approach that would likely further decrease morale.

Answer

Offer monetary incentives for meeting sprint goals

Answer

Set stricter performance metrics to push the team to improve

Question 8

A project manager is leading an agile team that has been self-organizing for several sprints. Recently, the team's performance has declined, and the project manager suspects the team is not fully empowered to make decisions. The project manager wants to empower the team. Which TWO actions should the project manager take?

Accepted Answer

Trust the team to resolve their own conflicts without intervention. Empowering a self-organizing agile team requires trusting them to handle their own interpersonal dynamics, including conflict resolution (Option A). When the project manager intervenes in conflicts, it undermines the team's autonomy and can reduce their sense of ownership, which is critical for sustained high performance in agile frameworks. Additionally, empowering the team involves encouraging them to make decisions about their technical approach and how they assign tasks (Option C), as these are core aspects of a self-organizing team's autonomy and accountability.

Answer

Step in to make decisions when the team is struggling with a difficult issue

Answer

Assign a senior team lead to oversee team decisions

Answer

Provide additional training on agile practices

Question 9

You are managing a global virtual team. Team members have reported feeling isolated and disconnected from the project's goals. Which TWO actions would best help improve team cohesion and engagement?

Accepted Answer

Establish a team charter that includes communication norms and collaboration expectations. The correct answers are B and C. Option B: Establishing a team charter with communication norms sets clear expectations, which is crucial for virtual teams to align and feel connected. Option C: Regular virtual team-building activities and informal catch-ups foster personal connections and reduce feelings of isolation, improving engagement. Option A is wrong because rotating hours may not be feasible due to personal commitments and can lead to burnout. Option D is wrong because daily status reports can feel like micromanagement and may not improve actual cohesion. Option E is wrong because implementing a tool without training can cause confusion and frustration, hindering collaboration.

Answer

Ask team members to rotate their working hours to overlap with all time zones

Answer

Require daily status reports from each team member

Answer

Implement a new collaboration tool without providing training

Question 10

During a project retrospective, the team identifies that their velocity has plateaued due to excessive context switching and unclear priorities. Which THREE actions should the project manager take to address these issues?

Accepted Answer

Work with the product owner to prioritize the backlog and reduce ambiguity. Option A: Working with the product owner to prioritize the backlog and reduce ambiguity directly addresses 'unclear priorities' and helps reduce context switching by providing clear focus for the team. Option D: Limiting Work in Progress (WIP) is a key agile practice to reduce multitasking and 'excessive context switching,' allowing the team to focus on completing items before starting new ones. Option E: Shielding the team from external interruptions and unnecessary meetings directly tackles a major cause of 'excessive context switching,' allowing the team to maintain focus and improve productivity.

Answer

Add more features to the sprint backlog to increase challenge

Answer

Increase the sprint length to give the team more time to complete work

Question 11

You are the project manager for a global, virtual team. Which TWO actions would be MOST effective in building trust and collaboration among team members?

Accepted Answer

Schedule regular video calls where team members can share personal updates and non-work-related topics. Option A fosters psychological safety and interpersonal bonds through personal sharing and non-verbal cues, which are critical for building trust and reducing isolation in virtual teams. This aligns with the PMI Talent Triangle's emphasis on emotional intelligence and team building. Option B provides the essential infrastructure for effective collaboration, enabling shared understanding, transparency, and efficient real-time communication, which are foundational for productive teamwork and can indirectly build trust through shared progress and clarity in a virtual environment.

Answer

Organize a one-time team-building workshop at the start of the project

Answer

Rotate meeting times so each time zone is inconvenienced equally

Answer

Require all team members to participate in daily informal chat sessions

Question 12

During a project review, you discover that the project is 15% over budget at the midpoint. After analysis, you find that the cost overrun is due to underestimation of testing effort and one team member's inefficiency. Which TWO actions should you take to address the situation?

Accepted Answer

Have a private conversation with the underperforming team member to understand challenges and provide support. The project is over budget due to two distinct issues: underestimation of testing effort and team member inefficiency. For the team member's inefficiency, a private conversation (Option B) is the most appropriate first step. This allows the project manager to understand the root cause—be it a skill gap, unclear requirements, or personal issues—and provide targeted support, aligning with PMP's emphasis on servant leadership and coaching over immediate punitive or training actions. For the underestimation of testing effort, reviewing the estimate basis (Option C) is critical to understand the source of the error and improve future planning. Simultaneously, using earned value management (EVM) to forecast the final cost (also Option C) is a standard PMP practice for assessing project performance, identifying variances, and predicting the project's financial outcome, which is essential for informed decision-making regarding the budget overrun.

Answer

Apply contingency reserves to cover the cost overrun

Answer

Reduce the project scope to bring costs back in line

Answer

Immediately enroll the team member in an advanced testing training course

Question 13

Your project team includes members from different departments, and there is a conflict between two team leaders over resource allocation. One leader insists their tasks are higher priority. Which THREE actions should you take to resolve this conflict?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a meeting with both leaders to discuss priorities and find a compromise. As a project manager, a structured approach to conflict resolution is essential. First, review objective data such as the project schedule and resource allocation plan (E) to understand the facts of the situation. Then, facilitate a collaborative meeting with both leaders (C) to discuss priorities, leverage the objective data, and work towards a compromise. This aligns with the PMP's 'Manage Conflict' process, emphasizing collaborative problem-solving. If, despite these efforts, the conflict cannot be resolved at your level, then escalation to the appropriate management (D) is the next necessary step.

Answer

Immediately involve the project sponsor to enforce a decision

Answer

Make a decision yourself based on which tasks contribute more to the project objectives

Question 14

During a sprint review, the product owner requests a significant scope change that would add two new features. The team estimates this would extend the sprint by one week. You are the Scrum Master. Which THREE actions should you take?

Accepted Answer

Ask the product owner to prioritize the new features against existing backlog items. As a Scrum Master, your role is to uphold Scrum principles and facilitate effective communication. 
1.  **Option A (Prioritize)**: The Product Owner is responsible for the Product Backlog and its prioritization. By asking the PO to prioritize new features against existing backlog items, you ensure that the most valuable work is addressed first and that the integrity of the sprint goal and the team's commitment are maintained. New work should not disrupt an ongoing sprint.
2.  **Option D (Communicate Impact)**: Significant scope changes, even if not immediately accepted into the current sprint, have potential implications for future sprints and the overall release plan. The Scrum Master facilitates transparency by ensuring that stakeholders are aware of these potential impacts, helping to manage expectations.
3.  **Option E (Add to Product Backlog)**: Any new features or significant requests should be formally added to the Product Backlog. This ensures they are properly refined, estimated, and prioritized by the Product Owner for consideration in a future sprint, adhering to the structured flow of work in Scrum.

Answer

Instruct the team to start working on the new features immediately

Answer

Agree to extend the sprint by one week to accommodate the changes

Question 15

A project team member with critical technical skills has been consistently delivering work late and with errors. You have had informal conversations with them, but performance hasn't improved. Which TWO actions should you take next?

Accepted Answer

Provide additional training or mentoring to the team member. Providing additional training or mentoring (C) addresses potential root causes like lack of skill or understanding, aligning with the PMI People domain's emphasis on developing team members through coaching and support. This is a constructive next step after informal conversations have not yielded improvement. Working with HR to create a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) (E) is a formal and structured approach to address persistent performance issues when informal methods have failed. A PIP sets clear expectations, provides a framework for support (which can include training/mentoring), and outlines consequences, aligning with progressive discipline principles in team management. Both actions represent appropriate and progressive steps in managing team performance after informal discussions have proven ineffective.

Answer

Assign all critical tasks to other team members

Answer

Immediately replace the team member with a contractor

Answer

Ignore the issue, hoping the team member will self-correct