CAPM Requirements Traceability Matrix Practice Question
Exhibit
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A business analyst is reviewing the output of a requirements validation session. The following issues were identified: 'Requirement REQ-001 has no associated business objective', 'Requirement REQ-002 has a conflicting priority with REQ-003'. What is the most likely cause of these issues?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is attributing the issues to general project management documents like scope statement or management plan, rather than recognizing that the RTM specifically tracks requirements and their linkages, making it the most likely cause.
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 requirements traceability matrix was not properly maintained.
The requirements traceability matrix (RTM) links requirements to business objectives and tracks their status and relationships. Issues like missing business objectives and conflicting priorities indicate that the RTM was not properly maintained, as it would have highlighted these gaps and conflicts.
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 scope statement is incomplete.
Why it's wrong here
An incomplete scope statement affects project boundaries and deliverables, not the internal quality of individual requirements. Scope definition is the correct focus when stakeholders dispute what is in or out of the project, rather than when a requirement lacks a business objective or clashes on priority.
- ✗
The requirements management plan was not followed.
Why it's wrong here
The management plan governs how requirements are elicited, documented and traced; the reported defects are content faults — a missing business objective link and conflicting priorities — not process deviations. Following the plan is the right remedy when requirements lack agreed ownership, baselines or change control.
- ✗
The business analyst did not use a standard template.
Why it's wrong here
Template choice affects document consistency and presentation, not whether each requirement traces to a business objective or whether priorities conflict. Standard templates are the right answer when artefacts must be uniform across teams, not when validation exposes missing traceability and priority clashes.
- ✓
The requirements traceability matrix was not properly maintained.
Why this is correct
A maintained traceability matrix links each requirement to its business objective and records priority relationships. Missing objective links and conflicting priorities signal that these mappings were never captured or updated, so validation exposed orphaned and contradictory requirements rather than defects in the requirements themselves.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official PMI exam blueprint
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.