PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects — 15 Questions

Question 1

During a project's execution phase, a key stakeholder requests a change that would add a new feature. The project manager estimates the impact: 2 additional weeks to schedule and $15,000 to budget. The project currently has 0 schedule reserve and $5,000 contingency reserve. What should the project manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Document the change request and conduct a formal impact analysis. Option D is correct because the PMBOK Guide mandates that all change requests must be formally documented and analyzed for impact before any approval or rejection. Even though the project has a contingency reserve, the change introduces a new feature, which is a scope change requiring a formal change control process. The project manager must first document the request and conduct a thorough impact analysis to assess alternatives, risks, and stakeholder implications before deciding on the change.

Answer

Approve the change using contingency reserve and inform the stakeholder

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Implement the change immediately since the stakeholder is key

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Reject the change because there is insufficient reserve

Question 2

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.

Answer

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 3

A project manager is developing the project schedule. After defining activities and sequencing them, what is the next step in the schedule development process?

Accepted Answer

Estimate activity resources. In the schedule development process, after defining activities and sequencing them, the next step is to estimate the resources required for each activity (option A). This is because resource availability and constraints directly impact activity durations, and you must know what resources are available before you can estimate how long each activity will take. The PMBOK Guide's schedule management process follows the order: Plan Schedule Management → Define Activities → Sequence Activities → Estimate Activity Resources → Estimate Activity Durations → Develop Schedule.

Answer

Estimate activity durations

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Estimate costs

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Develop the schedule baseline

Question 4

A project has a critical path of 120 days with a standard deviation of 5 days. The project sponsor wants to know the probability of completing the project within 130 days. Using the normal distribution, what is the approximate probability?

Accepted Answer

97.5%. The critical path duration is 120 days with a standard deviation of 5 days. Completing within 130 days is 2 standard deviations above the mean (130 - 120 = 10, 10/5 = 2). In a normal distribution, approximately 95% of data falls within ±2 standard deviations, so the probability of being at or below +2σ is 50% + (95%/2) = 97.5%.

Answer

95%

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84%

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68%

Question 5

A project manager is using earned value management. At month 6 of a 12-month project, the EV is $50,000, PV is $60,000, and AC is $55,000. What is the cost performance index (CPI)?

Accepted Answer

0.91. The Cost Performance Index (CPI) is calculated as EV / AC. Here, EV = $50,000 and AC = $55,000, so CPI = 50,000 / 55,000 = 0.909, which rounds to 0.91. A CPI less than 1 indicates the project is over budget, as the cost incurred ($55,000) exceeds the value of work performed ($50,000).

Answer

0.83

Answer

1.20

Answer

1.10

Question 6

Which TWO are inputs to the Control Schedule process? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Project management plan. The Control Schedule process monitors the status of project activities and manages schedule changes. The project management plan (B) is a key input because it contains the schedule management plan, which defines how the schedule will be controlled, including thresholds for variance and reporting formats. Work performance data (C) provides the raw observations and measurements of actual start/finish dates and progress against the schedule baseline, which is essential for calculating schedule variance.

Answer

Schedule data

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Organizational process assets

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Schedule forecasts

Question 7

Which THREE are tools and techniques used in the Plan Risk Management process? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Meetings. Meetings (B) are a key tool and technique in the Plan Risk Management process because they bring stakeholders together to define the risk management approach, establish risk categories, and agree on risk thresholds. These meetings produce the risk management plan, which outlines how risk activities will be structured and performed throughout the project.

Answer

Probability and impact matrix

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Risk categorization

Question 8

A project team is implementing a new software feature. During testing, a critical defect is found that could delay the release. The project manager needs to determine the root cause. Which tool or technique should be used?

Accepted Answer

Cause-and-effect diagram. The cause-and-effect diagram (also known as a fishbone or Ishikawa diagram) is the correct tool for root cause analysis because it systematically maps potential causes of a defect across categories like people, process, technology, and environment. In this software testing scenario, the project manager would use it to brainstorm and visually trace the critical defect back to its underlying technical root cause, such as a coding logic error or integration failure, rather than just observing symptoms.

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Scatter diagram

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Control chart

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Delphi technique

Question 9

A project manager is reviewing the schedule performance index (SPI) and cost performance index (CPI). The current values are SPI = 0.85 and CPI = 1.10. What is the most likely conclusion about the project?

Accepted Answer

The project is behind schedule and under budget.. An SPI of 0.85 indicates the project is behind schedule (less than 1.0), while a CPI of 1.10 indicates the project is under budget (greater than 1.0). Therefore, the project is behind schedule but under budget, making option B correct.

Answer

The project is behind schedule and over budget.

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The project is ahead of schedule and over budget.

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The project is ahead of schedule and under budget.

Question 10

During project execution, a key stakeholder requests a change that will increase the scope. The project manager follows the formal change control process. What is the first step the project manager should take?

Accepted Answer

Document the change request in the change log.. Option C is correct because the first step in the formal change control process, as defined by the PMBOK Guide, is to document the change request in the change log. This ensures that all proposed changes are formally recorded and tracked before any analysis or approval activities occur. Without this initial documentation, there is no official record of the request, which undermines the integrity of the change control system.

Answer

Communicate the change to the project team.

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Submit the change request to the change control board (CCB).

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Analyze the impact on the project constraints.

Question 11

Refer to the exhibit. The project team uses Git for version control. The lead developer accidentally committed a bug fix directly to the main branch instead of the feature branch. What is the best course of action to maintain a clean history?

Accepted Answer

Cherry-pick the bug fix commit to the feature branch, then revert the commit on main.. Option B is correct because it preserves a clean Git history by first cherry-picking the bug fix commit from main to the feature branch (ensuring the fix is applied where intended), then reverting the commit on main to remove the accidental change without rewriting history. This avoids merge commits or destructive operations, maintaining a linear and traceable project history.

Answer

Revert the commit on main and do nothing else.

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Merge main into feature to include the bug fix.

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Reset main to the commit before the bug fix, then force push.

Question 12

Refer to the exhibit. The project's S3 bucket policy allows read access only from the internal IP range (10.0.0.0/8) and denies access if not using HTTPS. A developer reports that they can access the bucket from a machine with IP 10.0.0.5 using HTTPS. However, they cannot access it from a machine with IP 10.0.0.6 using HTTP. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The Deny statement for HTTP overrides the Allow statement.. The correct answer is A because in AWS IAM policy evaluation logic, an explicit Deny always overrides any Allow. The policy includes a Deny statement that blocks access when HTTPS is not used. Since HTTP access from 10.0.0.6 triggers this Deny, it overrides the Allow statement that permits access from the internal IP range, resulting in denied access.

Answer

The policy requires both IP and HTTPS conditions to be met simultaneously.

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The IP address 10.0.0.5 is not in the allowed range.

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The IP address 10.0.0.6 is not in the allowed range.

Question 13

Which TWO are key components of a project management plan? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Scope management plan. The project management plan is a formal, approved document that defines how the project is executed, monitored, and controlled. The scope management plan and schedule management plan are subsidiary plans that are key components of the overall project management plan, as they detail the processes for defining, developing, monitoring, controlling, and verifying the project's scope and schedule.

Answer

Stakeholder register

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Project charter

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Work performance data

Question 14

Which THREE are common techniques used for quantitative risk analysis? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Monte Carlo simulation. Monte Carlo simulation is a quantitative risk analysis technique that uses repeated random sampling to model the probability distribution of potential project outcomes. It allows the project manager to see the range of possible completion dates or costs and their associated probabilities, providing a data-driven basis for contingency reserves.

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SWOT analysis

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Checklist analysis

Question 15

Refer to the exhibit. What is the critical path duration?

Accepted Answer

11 days. The critical path is the longest path through the network diagram, determining the shortest possible project duration. By summing the durations along each path, Path A-B-E-F totals 11 days (3+2+4+2), which is longer than the other paths, making 11 days the correct critical path duration.

Answer

9 days

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10 days

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12 days