CAPM Predictive Plan-Based Methodologies Practice Question
A project manager is leading a construction project with a fixed budget and strict deadline. During execution, a key supplier notifies that a critical material will be delayed by two weeks, which will push the project past the deadline. The project manager reviews the schedule and identifies that the delay can be compensated by fast-tracking two subsequent activities that are currently planned sequentially. What should the project manager do first?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates may immediately choose to add resources (Option D) or accept the delay (Option A) without recognizing that the PMBOK Guide prescribes risk assessment as the mandatory first step before implementing any schedule compression technique.
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
✓
Assess the risks of fast-tracking the two activities.
The correct first step is to assess the risks of fast-tracking the two activities (Option B). Fast-tracking involves performing activities in parallel that were originally planned sequentially, which can introduce new risks such as rework, resource conflicts, or quality issues. The PMBOK Guide emphasizes that before implementing a schedule compression technique, the project manager must evaluate the associated risks and determine if the benefits outweigh the potential negative impacts. Since the project has a fixed budget and strict deadline, a risk assessment ensures informed decision-making before proceeding.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Accept the delay and update the project schedule accordingly.
Why it's wrong here
Accepting the delay and updating the schedule abandons the deadline without applying the fast-tracking option already identified, which recovers the two weeks. Acceptance is appropriate only when no viable response exists or the impact is tolerable. Here a compression technique is available and addresses the constraint.
- ✓
Assess the risks of fast-tracking the two activities.
Why this is correct
Fast-tracking two sequential activities compresses the schedule but introduces rework and coordination risk, since parallel work increases dependency conflicts. Assessing those risks first satisfies the stem's constraint of recovering the two-week delay without breaching the fixed budget or deadline, before committing to execution.
- ✗
Submit a change request to extend the deadline.
Why it's wrong here
Raising a change request to extend the deadline alters the baseline before evaluating the identified fast-tracking opportunity, which already recovers the two weeks. Change requests follow analysis and approval of a chosen response. Extension would be warranted only if no schedule compression could absorb the supplier delay.
- ✗
Immediately add resources to the delayed activity to catch up.
Why it's wrong here
Adding resources to the delayed activity is crashing, and the delay stems from supplier material unavailability, so extra labour cannot accelerate it. The manager already identified fast-tracking as the viable compression technique. Crashing suits activities where duration is resource-driven and additional capacity genuinely shortens work.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CAPM practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI 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 CAPM exam.