PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Test 20 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Your project is in the execution phase when a key risk event from the risk register occurs: a critical team member resigns unexpectedly. You need to minimize the impact on the project. Which THREE actions should you take?

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

Accepted Answer

Implement the planned risk response from the risk register. Option B is correct because when a risk event that was already identified in the risk register actually occurs, the project manager should execute the pre-planned risk response (e.g., a contingency plan) rather than improvising, which minimizes impact and leverages prior analysis. Option C is correct because capturing the departing member's tacit knowledge through structured knowledge transfer (documentation, shadowing, handover sessions) preserves critical project information and reduces disruption before access is lost. Option D is correct because reassigning the work to available team members and adjusting the schedule is a practical corrective action that keeps the project moving while accounting for reduced capacity. Option A is not appropriate as an immediate action because requesting a project extension from the sponsor is a last resort and does not itself minimize impact; the team should first apply the planned response and re-plan. Option E is not appropriate because immediately hiring a like-for-like replacement is typically slow, costly, and not guaranteed, and it ignores the more immediate need to execute the risk response and transfer knowledge.

Answer

Inform the sponsor and ask for a project extension

Answer

Immediately hire a replacement with the same skills

Question 2

Your agile team has been experiencing a decline in sprint velocity over the past three sprints. During the retrospective, the team identifies unclear requirements and frequent interruptions as root causes. Which TWO actions should you take to address these issues?

Accepted Answer

Work with the product owner to improve user story refinement and ensure acceptance criteria are clear. Option C is correct because unclear requirements are best resolved upstream through better backlog refinement: collaborating with the product owner on user story refinement and explicit acceptance criteria gives the team a shared Definition of Ready and reduces mid-sprint ambiguity that erodes velocity. Option D is correct because frequent interruptions directly consume the team's capacity and break flow; establishing a policy to shield the team during the sprint (e.g., routing requests through the Scrum Master or product owner and deferring non-urgent work to the next sprint) protects focus and stabilizes velocity. Option A is wrong because overtime is unsustainable, degrades quality, and masks the systemic causes rather than fixing them. Option B is wrong because adding members mid-stream increases coordination overhead and onboarding cost (Brooks's Law) without addressing unclear requirements or interruptions. Option E is wrong because shortening the sprint does not resolve unclear requirements or interruptions and may simply compress the same problems into a shorter cadence.

Answer

Ask the team to work overtime to compensate for lost velocity

Answer

Add more team members to the next sprint to increase capacity

Answer

Reduce the sprint length to increase accountability

Question 3

You are the project manager for a hybrid software development project. During a sprint review, two senior developers get into a heated argument about the technical approach for a critical feature. The argument is delaying the review and making other team members uncomfortable. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Call a brief break, then meet privately with the two developers to facilitate a resolution. As a project manager in a hybrid environment, your first responsibility is to address the conflict directly and privately to de-escalate the situation without disrupting the sprint review. By calling a brief break and meeting privately with the two developers, you facilitate a resolution using conflict management techniques, which aligns with the PMI's emphasis on servant leadership and stakeholder engagement. This approach preserves team morale and allows the review to continue productively after the issue is resolved.

Answer

Ask both developers to stop arguing and continue the review

Answer

Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for resolution

Answer

Cancel the sprint review and reschedule it for the next day

Question 4

Your agile project team has been consistently delivering high-quality work, but sprint velocity has dropped over the last three sprints. The team reports feeling overworked and demotivated. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a retrospective to identify root causes and collaboratively develop improvements. Facilitating a retrospective is the correct first step because it empowers the team to collaboratively identify the root causes of the decreased velocity and demotivation, such as technical debt, unclear requirements, or process inefficiencies. This aligns with the agile principle of continuous improvement and servant leadership, where the project manager acts as a facilitator rather than imposing solutions. Addressing the underlying issues through team-driven improvements is more sustainable than forcing scope or personnel changes.

Answer

Reduce the sprint scope to increase velocity

Answer

Replace the scrum master with a more experienced one

Answer

Ask the team to work overtime to regain velocity

Question 5

You are managing a global project with team members in three time zones. A key team member from the India office has been consistently missing deadlines, impacting the project's critical path. In a one-on-one meeting, you discover she is struggling with the work-from-home setup and lack of collaboration tools. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Work with the team member and IT to provide necessary tools and support. The correct first step is to address the root cause of the performance issue by providing the necessary tools and support. As a project manager, your primary responsibility is to remove impediments and enable the team member to succeed, especially when the issue is environmental (lack of collaboration tools) rather than a lack of skill or will. This aligns with the PMI's focus on servant leadership and proactive problem-solving.

Answer

Initiate a formal performance improvement plan

Answer

Reassign her tasks to other team members

Answer

Escalate to the functional manager to reassign the team member

Question 6

During a project status meeting, an executive stakeholder bypasses you and directly instructs a team member to add a new feature to the current sprint. The team member looks confused. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

After the meeting, privately remind the executive about the change control process and offer to submit a change request. The PM must protect the team from scope creep while maintaining stakeholder relationships. Privately reminding the executive about the change control process and offering to submit a change request addresses the issue diplomatically, enforces the formal change management system, and ensures the team member is not put in a conflicting position. This aligns with the PMP's focus on leading through influence rather than confrontation.

Answer

Ignore the situation and continue the meeting

Answer

Tell the team member to add the feature as requested to satisfy the stakeholder

Answer

Immediately interrupt the executive and explain that all changes must go through you

Question 7

Your agile team has recently formed and is struggling to agree on work methods and communication norms. Several team members are frustrated with the lack of consistency. What should you do as the project manager?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a workshop to develop a team charter that defines working agreements and communication norms. The team is in the forming stage and needs explicit guidance to establish shared expectations. Facilitating a workshop to create a team charter directly addresses the root cause—lack of agreed-upon work methods and communication norms—by providing a structured, collaborative process that aligns with agile principles while still leveraging the project manager's leadership to resolve the impasse.

Answer

Let the team work out the issues on their own since they are self-organizing

Answer

Assign a team lead to make decisions on work methods

Answer

Replace the frustrated team members with more collaborative ones

Question 8

Your project is halfway through its timeline and is running 15% over budget due to unexpected vendor price increases. The sponsor is concerned and asks you to cut costs by reducing the number of quality tests. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Conduct an impact analysis and submit a change request to the change control board. As a project manager, you must follow the formal change control process when a sponsor requests a change that impacts the project baseline. Reducing quality tests is a change that could affect scope, schedule, and risk; therefore, you should analyze the impact on quality, cost, and schedule, then submit a change request to the change control board (CCB) for approval. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's guidance on managing changes through the integrated change control process, ensuring decisions are made with full awareness of trade-offs.

Answer

Increase testing in other areas to compensate for reduced quality risk

Answer

Inform the sponsor that quality cannot be compromised and continue as planned

Answer

Agree with the sponsor and reduce the number of tests to stay within budget

Question 9

A key vendor informs you that they cannot deliver a critical component on time due to a raw material shortage. This component is on the critical path. The risk was identified and documented in the risk register. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Implement the contingency plan defined in the risk register. Since the risk was already identified and documented in the risk register, the project team should have prepared a contingency plan for this specific scenario. The PMBOK Guide states that when a risk occurs, the first action is to implement the pre-defined contingency plan to minimize impact. This is a proactive, planned response rather than a reactive scramble, and it aligns with the 'Plan Risk Responses' and 'Implement Risk Responses' processes.

Answer

Escalate the issue to the project sponsor

Answer

Contact the vendor to negotiate a new delivery date

Answer

Immediately look for an alternative vendor

Question 10

Your project team includes members from diverse cultural backgrounds. You notice that some team members are not contributing ideas during brainstorming sessions, while others dominate the conversation. What should you do to promote inclusion?

Accepted Answer

Implement a round-robin technique to give each team member an opportunity to speak. The round-robin technique is a structured facilitation method that ensures every team member has an equal opportunity to speak, directly addressing the cultural and behavioral imbalance in brainstorming. This approach aligns with the PMP's emphasis on inclusive leadership and active listening, as it systematically prevents domination and encourages contributions from quieter members without imposing artificial quotas.

Answer

Assign speaking quotas to ensure equal participation

Answer

Allow the dominant members to lead since they are more engaged

Answer

Send a memo reminding the team to be respectful during meetings

Question 11

During a sprint planning meeting, the product owner proposes a user story that the team believes is too vague and lacks clear acceptance criteria. The product owner insists it must be included in the sprint to meet a stakeholder deadline. What should the scrum master do?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion to refine the story with the product owner and team, and suggest splitting it. The Scrum Master's primary responsibility is to facilitate collaboration and ensure the team works with clear, actionable items. By facilitating a discussion to refine the story and suggesting splitting it, the Scrum Master helps the team achieve a shared understanding and create acceptance criteria, while still addressing the stakeholder deadline. This approach aligns with the Agile principle of delivering value incrementally and avoids committing to vague work that could lead to rework or failure.

Answer

Accept the story as is to meet the deadline

Answer

Escalate to the project sponsor

Answer

Remove the product owner from the meeting

Question 12

Your project is in the execution phase, and a new regulatory requirement has been discovered that will affect the project scope. The change is mandatory and must be implemented within two weeks. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request for the new requirement and assess its impact. When a mandatory regulatory requirement is discovered during execution, the first step is to submit a change request and assess its impact. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's integrated change control process, which requires that all changes—even mandatory ones—be formally documented and evaluated for their effect on scope, schedule, cost, and quality before any action is taken. Directly updating the plan or stopping work bypasses this critical governance step.

Answer

Directly update the project management plan to reflect the new requirement

Answer

Stop all project work until the change is resolved

Answer

Inform the sponsor and ask for immediate approval

Question 13

You are managing a distributed team with members in different time zones. A team member complains that they feel isolated and uninformed about project decisions. What should you do FIRST to address this?

Accepted Answer

Implement daily stand-up meetings and use a collaboration platform to share updates. The FIRST step in addressing team member isolation and lack of information is to implement regular communication mechanisms that are inclusive and structured, such as daily stand-ups and a collaboration platform. These practices directly address the root cause by ensuring consistent information flow and interaction among distributed team members. This aligns with PMBOK guidance on managing virtual teams and fostering engagement.

Answer

Send weekly email summaries of decisions

Answer

Advise the team member to be more proactive in seeking information

Answer

Assign the team member to a local mentor

Question 14

During a retrospective, the team identifies that the root cause of low morale is the project manager's micromanagement style. The team wants more autonomy. What should the PM do?

Accepted Answer

Acknowledge the feedback and agree to transition to a more empowering leadership style. The PM should acknowledge the team's feedback and adapt their leadership style to empower the team, which aligns with the PMP's focus on servant leadership and fostering autonomy. Micromanagement undermines trust and morale, so transitioning to a more empowering approach directly addresses the root cause identified in the retrospective.

Answer

Increase oversight to ensure the team stays on track

Answer

Explain that micromanagement is necessary to ensure quality

Answer

Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for guidance

Question 15

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. Option D is correct because facilitating a meeting between the two developers directly addresses the root cause of the conflict by giving them a structured, safe forum to discuss their differences and negotiate common ground, which is the recommended servant-leadership approach in agile environments. Option A is correct because collaborating with the whole team to create or update coding standards establishes an agreed, transparent baseline that removes ambiguity and prevents similar disputes from recurring, turning the conflict into a constructive team improvement. Option B is wrong because ignoring the conflict allows it to escalate and continue damaging morale and productivity. Option C is wrong because reassigning the developers merely avoids the problem, disrupts team stability, and does not resolve the underlying disagreement. Option E is wrong because escalating to the project sponsor bypasses the team's ability to self-organize and resolve its own issues, which contradicts agile principles.

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