PK0-005 Project Management Concepts Practice Question
A project manager has been assigned to lead a project that will deploy a new enterprise resource planning system across five regional offices. Executive leadership has emphasized that the go-live date cannot move because of a regulatory deadline, and the budget has been capped. During planning, the project manager realizes the team cannot deliver the full original feature set within the fixed time and budget. Which TWO actions should the project manager take to address this situation? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating the triple constraint as immovable and reaching for overtime or extra staff instead of recognizing that scope is the element that must be negotiated and formally changed.
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
✓
Negotiate with the sponsor and key stakeholders to reduce or defer some scope items to meet the fixed date and budget
When time and cost are fixed, scope must be adjusted through negotiation with the sponsor and stakeholders, and any resulting change must be formally documented and approved through change control. Together these actions align the project with the regulatory deadline while maintaining governance and stakeholder agreement. Attempting to force delivery through overtime or added staff ignores the constraints and the change control 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.
- ✓
Negotiate with the sponsor and key stakeholders to reduce or defer some scope items to meet the fixed date and budget
Why this is correct
When time and cost are constrained, scope is the variable the project manager can most realistically adjust. Working with the sponsor and stakeholders to descope or defer lower-priority features allows the project to meet the regulatory deadline within the capped budget. This is a recognized trade-off approach in the triple constraint and keeps the project aligned with its most critical business objective rather than attempting an impossible delivery.
- ✗
Instruct the team to work overtime indefinitely until all original features are delivered by the go-live date
Why it's wrong here
Mandating indefinite overtime is not a sustainable or approved approach to resolving a scope-time-budget conflict. It risks burnout, quality degradation, and increased error rates, which are especially dangerous for an ERP deployment tied to a regulatory deadline. It also does not address the capped budget, since overtime increases labor cost, and it bypasses the change control process that should govern scope adjustments.
- ✗
Ignore the scope gap and proceed with the original plan, assuming the team will find a way to deliver everything
Why it's wrong here
Proceeding with an unachievable plan without addressing the gap is a failure to manage the project proactively. It leaves the project exposed to missed deadlines, quality problems, and stakeholder dissatisfaction, and it violates the project manager's responsibility to manage constraints and risks. Ignoring the issue also prevents the sponsor from making informed trade-off decisions, which can damage trust and jeopardize the regulatory commitment.
- ✗
Add additional team members to the project to increase delivery capacity without changing scope
Why it's wrong here
Adding people late in a constrained project frequently increases coordination overhead and onboarding time, which can slow delivery rather than accelerate it. This reflects the well-known tendency for schedule compression through staffing to backfire when the work is not easily partitioned. It also increases cost, which conflicts with the capped budget, and does not resolve the fundamental mismatch between required scope and available time and money.
- ✓
Document the scope reduction or deferral decision in a change request and obtain approval through the change control process
Why this is correct
Any change to the approved scope baseline must go through formal change control. Documenting the reduction or deferral in a change request and obtaining sponsor or change control board approval ensures the adjustment is authorized, communicated, and reflected in the project plan, schedule, and budget. This protects the project manager from later disputes and keeps the revised scope aligned with stakeholder expectations and the regulatory deadline.
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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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