PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Test 23 — 15 Questions

Question 1

During project execution, the project manager notices that two team members are in frequent conflict, which is affecting the team's overall performance. The project manager wants to resolve the conflict effectively. Which THREE actions align with PMI's recommended approach?

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

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a joint meeting to discuss the issue and find common ground. Facilitating a joint meeting aligns with PMI's collaborative conflict resolution approach, where the project manager acts as a neutral facilitator to help conflicting parties discuss issues openly and find common ground. This technique, often called 'confronting' or 'problem-solving,' is the most effective method for resolving interpersonal conflicts and restoring team performance, as it addresses the root cause directly.

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Address the conflict in a team meeting to model transparency

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Escalate the conflict to the project sponsor for resolution

Question 2

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. Option A is correct because empowering a self-organizing agile team means trusting members to resolve their own conflicts; the project manager should act as a servant-leader and only intervene if the team explicitly requests help, preserving the team's ownership and accountability. Option C is correct because true empowerment requires delegating decision-making authority to the team on technical approaches and task assignments, which are exactly the areas a self-organizing team should control. Option B is incorrect because stepping in to make decisions undermines the team's empowerment and self-organization, reinforcing dependence on the project manager. Option D is incorrect because assigning a senior team lead to oversee decisions centralizes authority and contradicts the principle of a self-organizing team. Option E is incorrect because additional agile training addresses knowledge gaps, not the empowerment issue described, and does not itself transfer decision-making authority to the team.

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

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Assign a senior team lead to oversee team decisions

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Provide additional training on agile practices

Question 3

You are managing a hybrid software development project. During the daily stand-up, two senior developers get into a heated argument about the best technical approach for a critical feature. The argument is delaying the meeting and causing tension. As the project manager, what should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Intervene, acknowledge both perspectives, and schedule a separate meeting to resolve the conflict. As the project manager in a hybrid project, you must facilitate conflict resolution without imposing a technical decision that exceeds your role. By acknowledging both perspectives and scheduling a separate meeting, you keep the daily stand-up focused on coordination while ensuring the technical debate is resolved by the appropriate experts, preserving team autonomy and project momentum.

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for a decision

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Let the team resolve the conflict on their own without intervention

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Decide on the technical approach yourself to move forward quickly

Question 4

You are leading a virtual team across three time zones. A team member from the offshore location has been consistently missing deadlines, causing delays. When you inquire, the member says they are overloaded with work from another project. What is the best course of action?

Accepted Answer

Discuss the situation with the member and their functional manager to resolve the workload conflict. The root cause is a resource conflict across projects, which is a functional management issue. As a project manager, you must collaborate with the team member and their functional manager to negotiate priorities and workload balance, rather than unilaterally escalating or replacing the resource. This aligns with the PMI principle of 'engaging with stakeholders' and the 'manage team' process, where addressing resource constraints through negotiation is the first step before considering administrative actions.

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Assign additional resources to help the member complete tasks

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Replace the team member with someone who can meet deadlines

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Issue a formal warning to the team member about performance expectations

Question 5

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

Question 6

You are managing a project to develop a mobile app. The sponsor asks you to skip user acceptance testing (UAT) to meet an aggressive launch date. The team is concerned about quality risks. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Explain the risks of skipping UAT and propose a change request to adjust the schedule. It demonstrates the project manager's responsibility to balance stakeholder requests with quality standards. By explaining the risks of skipping UAT—such as undetected defects leading to user dissatisfaction or rework—and proposing a change request to adjust the schedule, you follow the PMI ethical code and the change control process. This approach respects the sponsor's authority while advocating for project quality, aligning with the 'People' domain of leading the team and stakeholders.

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Refuse the request without further discussion

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Comply with the sponsor's request to meet the deadline

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Proceed with UAT secretly and report the launch date as planned

Question 7

A risk event that was identified and included in the risk register has occurred. The impact on the project schedule is moderate. What should the project manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Implement the agreed-upon risk response from the risk register. When a risk event that was identified and included in the risk register occurs, the project manager should first implement the agreed-upon risk response that was already planned and documented. This is because the risk response plan was developed during risk planning and approved by stakeholders, making it the immediate and correct action to take. Implementing the pre-agreed response ensures a timely, consistent, and controlled reaction to the risk, minimizing disruption to the project schedule.

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Ignore the event since the impact is only moderate

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Escalate the issue to the project sponsor for guidance

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Develop a new risk response immediately

Question 8

Your project team includes members from diverse cultural backgrounds. During a meeting, you notice that some team members are not contributing ideas, while others dominate the discussion. What should you do to foster inclusive participation?

Accepted Answer

Establish a team charter with ground rules that encourage equal participation. Establishing a team charter with ground rules is a proactive, collaborative approach that addresses cultural differences in communication styles. It creates a shared agreement on meeting norms, such as turn-taking or idea-sharing methods, which fosters inclusive participation without singling out individuals. This aligns with the PMP's focus on leading diverse teams through agreed-upon processes rather than imposing top-down rules.

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Allow the meeting to proceed naturally as it is a cultural difference

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Require each team member to speak at least once per meeting

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Privately ask the dominant members to speak less

Question 9

During a hybrid project, an executive stakeholder bypasses you and directly instructs a team member to add a new feature. The team member is now confused about priorities. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Meet with the executive stakeholder to explain the project's change control process and the importance of proper communication channels. As the project manager, you must first address the root cause of the confusion—the executive stakeholder's bypass of the formal change control process. By meeting with the executive, you reinforce the importance of proper communication channels and the change control board (CCB) process, which protects the project from scope creep and ensures all changes are evaluated for impact on cost, schedule, and quality. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's principle of managing stakeholder engagement and maintaining a single point of accountability for project decisions.

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Ignore the issue and allow the feature to be added to maintain stakeholder satisfaction

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Reprimand the team member for accepting instructions without your approval

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Add the feature to the backlog and treat it as a priority

Question 10

You are leading a Scrum team. For the past three sprints, the team has consistently completed all committed user stories. The product owner wants to increase the team's velocity by 20%. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a retrospective to identify process improvements that could sustainably increase velocity. In Scrum, velocity is a measured outcome, not a target that can be mandated. The correct approach is to facilitate a retrospective where the team inspects its process and identifies improvements that could sustainably increase throughput, such as reducing technical debt, improving automation, or refining backlog items. This respects the empirical nature of Scrum and the team's self-managing authority over how work is done.

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Reduce the definition of done to skip testing activities

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Instruct the team to commit to more stories each sprint

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Ask the team to estimate stories with lower story points to increase velocity

Question 11

A key vendor has notified you that they cannot deliver a critical component on time due to a raw material shortage. This component is on the project's critical path. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Evaluate the impact on the project schedule and identify possible alternatives, such as sourcing from another vendor. The first step in any project management issue is to analyze the impact and explore alternatives before taking action. Since the component is on the critical path, any delay directly affects the project finish date, so you must evaluate schedule impact and identify options like sourcing from another vendor to mitigate the risk.

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Initiate legal proceedings against the vendor for breach of contract

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Crash the schedule by adding resources to other tasks to compensate for the delay

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Immediately escalate the issue to the project sponsor

Question 12

Your project is running 15% over budget at the midpoint. The cost variance is due to higher-than-expected material costs. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Perform a variance analysis, update the cost forecast, and consider corrective actions such as finding cost savings. When a project is over budget due to higher material costs, the project manager should first perform variance analysis to understand the root cause, then update the cost forecast (e.g., EAC) and evaluate corrective actions such as negotiating lower prices or finding cost savings elsewhere. This aligns with PMP's analyze-then-act principle.

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Reduce the project scope to bring costs back in line

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Continue as planned since the project is only 15% over budget

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Request additional funding from the sponsor immediately

Question 13

A new government regulation has been enacted that affects your project's deliverables. The regulation requires additional compliance checks that were not in the original scope. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Submit a change request to incorporate the compliance checks and assess the impact on scope, schedule, and cost. When a new government regulation impacts your project, the first step is to submit a change request to formally document the required compliance checks and assess their impact on scope, schedule, and cost. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's integrated change control process, ensuring that the regulation is addressed through a controlled change rather than ad-hoc adjustments. Option A is correct because it initiates the proper change management workflow, which includes impact analysis and stakeholder approval.

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Refuse to comply with the regulation because it increases project costs

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Discuss with stakeholders before taking any action

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Inform the team to ignore the regulation as it was not part of the original plan

Question 14

On a large-scale project, you have a team member who is technically skilled but consistently fails to complete tasks on time, affecting the team's morale. You have had informal conversations about this, but there has been no improvement. What should you do next?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a formal performance review, document the issues, and create a performance improvement plan with clear expectations and timelines. As a project manager, you must follow a progressive discipline process. After informal conversations failed, the next step is a formal performance review to document the issues and create a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) with clear expectations and timelines. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's emphasis on managing team performance through structured feedback and corrective actions, ensuring fairness and legal defensibility.

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Replace the team member with a more reliable resource

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Ignore the issue as the team member is technically strong

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Reassign all critical tasks to other team members

Question 15

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. Option B is correct because a team charter that explicitly documents communication norms, response-time expectations, meeting cadences, and collaboration tools gives a distributed team a shared operating agreement, which directly reduces the ambiguity and isolation that arise when members work across time zones and cultures. Option C is correct because scheduled virtual team-building sessions and informal catch-ups create regular social interaction and interpersonal trust, which strengthens relationships and reconnects members to the team's purpose and goals beyond task-only exchanges. Option A is not appropriate because forcing everyone to rotate hours to overlap with all time zones is unsustainable and harms work-life balance without addressing the underlying disconnection. Option D is wrong because mandatory daily status reports add administrative overhead and can feel like surveillance, increasing alienation rather than engagement. Option E is wrong because deploying a new collaboration tool without training creates confusion and frustration, and tooling alone does not build cohesion.

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

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Require daily status reports from each team member

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Implement a new collaboration tool without providing training