PK0-005 Project Management Concepts Practice Question
A project manager has been asked to lead a project that will replace a legacy payroll system. The vendor contract requires a firm completion date tied to a regulatory deadline, and the budget was approved at a fixed ceiling. During the first planning workshop, the sponsor asks the project manager to add a self-service reporting portal that was not part of the approved business case. What should the project manager do FIRST?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming a sponsor request should either be accepted on the spot or refused, when governance requires a documented impact analysis before any baseline change.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Submit the reporting portal request through the integrated change control process for impact analysis and approval.
Because the project runs against a regulatory completion date and an approved fixed budget, any new feature must be evaluated rather than absorbed or refused. Routing the reporting portal through integrated change control produces documented analysis of schedule, cost, scope, and risk impacts, and it gives the sponsor an informed approval decision. This keeps the baselines valid and the project manager accountable to the governance process.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reject the request outright because the business case has already been approved and cannot be revisited.
Why it's wrong here
Outright rejection is incorrect because approved baselines are not immutable; they change through formal change control when justified. The sponsor may have a legitimate business reason for the portal, and a project manager who refuses to even evaluate the request damages the sponsor relationship and may block value delivery. The proper path is evaluation and a documented decision, not a flat refusal.
- ✗
Ask the team to build a quick prototype of the portal so the sponsor can decide whether the request is worth pursuing.
Why it's wrong here
Building a prototype before the request is evaluated spends project resources on unapproved work, which is a form of gold plating and consumes budget from the fixed ceiling. The sponsor would then be deciding with sunk cost pressure rather than objective impact data. Prototyping may be a valid technique later, but it cannot precede the change control decision in this scenario.
- ✗
Add the reporting portal to the work breakdown structure and absorb the effort by compressing the schedule.
Why it's wrong here
Adding unapproved scope to the work breakdown structure bypasses the change control process and silently trades schedule risk for a feature the sponsor never formally authorized. Because the completion date is regulatory and the budget is a fixed ceiling, absorbing extra effort through schedule compression would likely push the team into unplanned overtime and quality risk rather than legitimately accommodating the request.
- ✓
Submit the reporting portal request through the integrated change control process for impact analysis and approval.
Why this is correct
When a stakeholder requests work outside the approved baseline, the disciplined response is to route it through integrated change control so scope, schedule, cost, and risk impacts are analyzed before any commitment. This protects the fixed regulatory deadline and budget ceiling while giving the sponsor a documented decision point. Only after approval should the portal be planned into the baselines.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
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