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PK0-005 Practice Question: During project monitoring and controlling, the…
During project monitoring and controlling, the project manager calculates the cost performance index (CPI) as 0.8. What does this indicate?
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
✓
The project is over budget
A CPI below 1 signifies that the project is over budget.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The project is behind schedule
Why it's wrong here
CPI measures cost efficiency, not schedule; a value of 0.8 means 80 pence of value per pound spent, so the project is over budget. Confusing cost and schedule indices is tempting because SPI and CPI are calculated identically from earned value, differing only in whether EV is divided by PV or AC.
- ✗
The project is ahead of schedule
Why it's wrong here
CPI compares earned value against actual cost, so it carries no schedule information; 0.8 indicates cost overrun. The confusion arises because SPI, the schedule counterpart, uses the same earned-value formula with planned value as the denominator, and both indices are reported together in EVM dashboards.
- ✓
The project is over budget
Why this is correct
A CPI of 0.8 means earned value is only 80% of actual cost, so every unit of planned work is consuming more budget than forecast. Since CPI below 1.0 indicates cost inefficiency, the project is running over budget, not ahead of schedule or under spent.
- ✗
The project is under budget
Why it's wrong here
A CPI below 1.0 signals cost inefficiency: for every pound spent, only 80 pence of value is earned, so the project is over budget. It is tempting because CPI is a cost metric and a value below one intuitively reads as favourable, whereas under budget requires CPI above 1.0.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PK0-005 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PK0-005 exam.