PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A project is in the planning phase. The project manager wants to ensure that all stakeholders have a common understanding of the project scope. Which document should be used as the primary reference?

Accepted Answer

Project scope statement. The project scope statement is the primary reference for ensuring all stakeholders have a common understanding of the project scope because it formally documents the project's boundaries, deliverables, acceptance criteria, and constraints. Unlike the project charter, which authorizes the project at a high level, the scope statement provides the detailed scope description needed during planning to align stakeholder expectations.

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Project charter

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Work breakdown structure

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Schedule management plan

Question 2

During a project, the team identifies a risk that could cause a major delay. The probability is high and the impact is high. The project manager decides to hire an external expert to manage the risk. Which risk response strategy is being used?

Accepted Answer

Transfer. Hiring an external expert to manage the risk transfers the financial and managerial responsibility for that risk to a third party. This is a classic Transfer strategy because the project retains the risk but shifts the liability and response execution to the expert via a contract or service agreement. In technical projects, this often involves outsourcing specialized tasks like penetration testing or cloud migration to a vendor.

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Mitigate

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Accept

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Avoid

Question 3

A project manager is leading a software development project. During a sprint review, the product owner rejects a feature because it does not meet the acceptance criteria. The development team claims they followed the design documents. What should the project manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a meeting with the product owner and team to review the acceptance criteria.. The immediate priority is to clarify the acceptance criteria with both the product owner and the development team. The discrepancy between the design documents and the acceptance criteria indicates a potential misunderstanding or misalignment in requirements, which must be resolved collaboratively before any rework or escalation. Facilitating a meeting ensures that the team understands the exact criteria and can align their technical implementation accordingly, preventing further wasted effort.

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Instruct the team to modify the feature to match the product owner's expectations.

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Request that the team attend additional training on requirements analysis.

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Escalate to the steering committee for a decision.

Question 4

A project manager is managing a construction project and notices that the actual cost for concrete work is consistently 15% above budget. The earned value (EV) is $100,000, and the actual cost (AC) is $115,000. The project manager wants to estimate the cost at completion (EAC) if this trend continues. Which formula should the project manager use?

Accepted Answer

EAC = BAC / CPI. The question states the cost overrun trend (15% above budget) is expected to continue. The formula EAC = BAC / CPI is the appropriate 'typical' estimate at completion when current cost performance is projected to persist. With EV = $100,000 and AC = $115,000, the CPI is 0.87, and dividing the BAC by this CPI yields the forecasted total cost assuming the same efficiency.

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EAC = AC + Bottom-up ETC

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EAC = AC + (BAC - EV)

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EAC = BAC / (CPI * SPI)

Question 5

A project team is transitioning from a predictive to an agile approach. One team member is resistant to change and insists on detailed upfront planning. What is the best way for the project manager to address this resistance?

Accepted Answer

Involve the team member in the agile transition planning to gain buy-in.. Involving the resistant team member in the agile transition planning directly addresses the root cause of resistance—lack of ownership and understanding. By participating in planning, the team member can see how agile practices (e.g., iterative delivery, adaptive planning) still incorporate upfront analysis but in a more flexible, value-driven way. This collaborative approach leverages the team member's experience while aligning with agile principles, reducing friction without forcing change.

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Inform the team member that the change is mandatory and must be followed.

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Assign a mentor to guide the team member through the new processes.

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Conduct a training session on agile principles and practices.

Question 6

A project manager is developing the project schedule and wants to determine the critical path. The activity network diagram shows multiple paths. Which technique should the project manager use?

Accepted Answer

Critical Path Method (CPM). The Critical Path Method (CPM) is the correct technique because it is specifically designed to identify the longest path through a project's activity network diagram, which determines the shortest possible project duration. By calculating early start, early finish, late start, and late finish dates for each activity, CPM reveals which activities have zero float and thus constitute the critical path. This directly answers the project manager's goal of determining the critical path from the network diagram.

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Resource leveling

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Gantt chart

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Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

Question 7

During a project, a key stakeholder requests a change that will increase the project scope. The project manager evaluates the impact and determines it will add two weeks to the schedule but no additional cost. The change request is approved by the change control board (CCB). What should the project manager do next?

Accepted Answer

Update the schedule baseline and inform all stakeholders of the approved change.. After the CCB approves a change that increases scope, the project manager must update the schedule baseline to reflect the approved two-week delay. This ensures the project plan remains accurate and serves as the basis for performance measurement. Informing all stakeholders of the approved change is a key communication requirement per the PMBOK Guide's Manage Communications process.

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Reject the change because it will delay the project.

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Instruct the project team to begin working on the additional scope immediately.

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Update the work breakdown structure (WBS) and communicate the change to the project team.

Question 8

A project manager is using a RACI chart to assign responsibilities for key deliverables. Which TWO statements about a RACI chart are true? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

'Accountable' means the person who ultimately answers for the completion of the task.. In a RACI chart, 'Accountable' (the 'A') denotes the person who ultimately answers for the completion of the task or deliverable. This person has final authority and is responsible for ensuring the work is done correctly, even if others perform the work. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide definition of accountability in responsibility assignment matrices.

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'Consulted' indicates the person who must approve the work.

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A RACI chart is used to prioritize stakeholder engagement.

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There can be multiple people Accountable for a single task.

Question 9

A project manager is reviewing the project's risk register and identifies several risks that could impact the project. According to PMBOK Guide, which THREE of the following are strategies for negative risks or threats? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Avoid. Avoid, Transfer, and Mitigate are the three primary strategies for dealing with negative risks or threats as defined in the PMBOK Guide. Avoid involves eliminating the threat entirely by changing the project plan, Transfer shifts the impact of the threat to a third party (e.g., insurance, fixed-price contracts), and Mitigate reduces the probability or impact of the threat to an acceptable threshold. These strategies are specifically designed to address risks with a negative impact on project objectives.

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Exploit

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Enhance

Question 10

You are the project manager for a large infrastructure upgrade project. The project involves deploying new servers across multiple data centers. During the execution phase, you receive a report that one of the critical servers has failed a security compliance test. The security team states that the server must be reconfigured and retested, which will take two days. However, this server is on the critical path and any delay will push the project completion date. Your sponsor is pressing you to meet the original deadline. The project has a contingency reserve for schedule risks. What is the best course of action?

Accepted Answer

Use the contingency reserve to cover the two-day delay and inform the sponsor that the schedule will be extended accordingly.. The project has a contingency reserve specifically allocated for schedule risks, and the two-day delay caused by the security compliance failure is a known risk that the reserve is designed to cover. Using the contingency reserve allows the team to properly reconfigure and retest the server, ensuring security compliance without compromising project quality, while formally extending the schedule with sponsor awareness.

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Instruct the team to skip the retest and proceed with deployment to meet the deadline.

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Request additional funds from the management reserve to hire external consultants to resolve the issue faster.

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Implement schedule compression techniques such as fast tracking to recover the two days.

Question 11

A project manager is developing a process improvement plan to reduce waste in a manufacturing project. The team has identified several non-value-added activities. Which technique should the project manager use to systematically analyze and improve the process?

Accepted Answer

Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma is the correct technique because it combines Lean's focus on eliminating waste (non-value-added activities) with Six Sigma's DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology for systematic process improvement. This directly addresses the project manager's goal of reducing waste in a manufacturing project through data-driven analysis and continuous improvement.

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Pareto analysis

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Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

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Critical Path Method (CPM)

Question 12

A project manager is reviewing a project plan that must comply with an industry standard. The compliance review fails. What is the most likely cause of this failure?

Accepted Answer

The version of the industry standard referenced in the plan has been deprecated.. The failure in the compliance review is most likely due to referencing an outdated version of the industry standard, which is no longer recognized or acceptable. This is a common issue when project plans rely on superseded documents without updating them.

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The project charter was not signed by the sponsor.

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The selected project management methodology is not suitable.

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The project team lacks training on the standard.

Question 13

You are the project manager for a large-scale data migration project from on-premises servers to AWS. The project involves migrating 50 terabytes of sensitive customer data. The team has completed the initial assessment and is now in the planning phase. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has mandated that all data must be encrypted in transit and at rest. Additionally, the migration must minimize downtime and ensure data integrity. The project has a tight budget and schedule. During a planning meeting, the lead architect proposes using AWS Snowball Edge devices for the initial bulk transfer, followed by AWS DataSync for ongoing replication. However, the CISO is concerned about encryption key management and audit trails. As the project manager, what should you do first to address the CISO's concerns?

Accepted Answer

Schedule a meeting with the security team and the architect to define encryption key management and audit trail requirements.. The CISO's concerns about encryption key management and audit trails are legitimate governance issues that must be addressed before proceeding. As the project manager, you need to facilitate a meeting between the security team and the lead architect to define clear requirements for key management (e.g., using AWS KMS with customer-managed keys) and audit logging (e.g., AWS CloudTrail for API calls and Snowball Edge device logs). This collaborative approach ensures that the proposed technical solution aligns with organizational security policies and compliance needs, which is critical before moving forward with the migration plan.

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Proceed with the architect's proposal and document that encryption is handled by AWS services.

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Update the risk register and accept the risk related to encryption key management.

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Inform the CISO that the proposed services meet all encryption requirements per AWS documentation.

Question 14

You are managing a software development project that uses an agile methodology. The team has been working on a critical feature for the past two weeks. During the daily standup, a developer mentions that they discovered a significant technical debt in the codebase that will require refactoring before the feature can be completed. The product owner is not present at the standup. The developer estimates that the refactoring will take an additional three days, which will delay the current sprint's delivery. The sprint ends in five days. The team is already at full capacity. As the project manager, what should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Escalate the issue to the product owner and discuss reprioritization of backlog items.. The product owner is the authority on prioritization and must be informed of the technical debt that impacts the sprint goal. The project manager should first escalate the issue to the product owner to discuss reprioritization of backlog items, ensuring alignment with business value and sprint commitments. This aligns with agile principles of transparency and stakeholder collaboration, especially when technical debt threatens delivery.

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Remove the refactoring from the sprint and add it to the backlog for future sprints.

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Instruct the team to work overtime to complete both the refactoring and the feature.

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Extend the sprint by three days to accommodate the refactoring.

Question 15

During project execution, a key stakeholder requests a change that will increase project scope by 15% but will also reduce operational costs by 20% after deployment. The project is currently on schedule and under budget. The project manager should FIRST:

Accepted Answer

Document the change request and analyze its impact on the project constraints.. Per the PMBOK Guide, the project manager must first document any change request and analyze its impact on the project constraints (scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, and risk) before any decision is made. Even though the change appears beneficial, the formal change control process requires a documented impact analysis to ensure the trade-offs are fully understood and the change is properly evaluated against the project's baselines.

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Implement the change as it provides clear business value.

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Reject the change because it increases scope beyond the approved baseline.

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Present the change to the Change Control Board (CCB) for approval.