PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
A key vendor informs you that due to raw material shortages, they cannot deliver a critical component on time. This component is on the critical path. The risk register included this as a high-probability risk with a contingency plan to use an alternative supplier. What should you do FIRST?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the need for a new risk analysis or approval with the fact that the contingency plan was already approved and documented, leading them to waste time on unnecessary steps instead of executing the pre-planned response.
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
✓
Activate the contingency plan and engage the alternative supplier
D is correct because the risk was already identified, assessed as high-probability, and a contingency plan (alternative supplier) was documented in the risk register. When the risk occurs, the first action is to execute the pre-approved contingency plan, not to reanalyze or seek new approvals, as the plan was already vetted during risk planning.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ask the project sponsor to approve the alternative supplier
Why it's wrong here
Asking the project sponsor for approval at this stage indicates that the contingency plan, if it existed, was not fully approved for immediate execution by the Project Manager. Effective contingency plans are developed and pre-approved during risk response planning, empowering the PM to implement them directly when the identified risk event occurs, thereby avoiding critical delays associated with seeking new approvals.
- ✗
Replan the project schedule to accommodate the delay
Why it's wrong here
Replanning the entire project schedule is a significant and time-consuming undertaking, typically reserved for unmanaged risks or major scope changes that lack a pre-defined response. In this scenario, where a contingency plan for the specific risk exists, initiating a full schedule replan would bypass the proactive planning already completed, unnecessarily delaying the project's recovery and consuming valuable resources.
- ✗
Perform a new risk analysis to assess the impact
Why it's wrong here
Performing a new risk analysis to assess the impact is a redundant and inefficient step when the risk has already been identified and a contingency plan developed. The purpose of risk response planning is to prepare for such events; re-assessing the impact at the moment of occurrence would waste critical time and resources, delaying the immediate implementation of the pre-planned, approved response.
- ✓
Activate the contingency plan and engage the alternative supplier
Why this is correct
Activating the contingency plan and engaging the alternative supplier is the most appropriate and efficient response because it leverages prior proactive planning. A contingency plan is a pre-defined, approved course of action designed for immediate implementation when an identified risk event materializes, allowing the Project Manager to swiftly mitigate the impact of the raw material shortage without needing further analysis or approvals.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PMP question from scratch — 800 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PMP 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 PMP exam.