PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
A project manager notices that the team's velocity has decreased over the last two sprints. Retrospectives have not identified clear causes. The project manager suspects that team members are overworked and possibly experiencing burnout. What should the project manager do first?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose to reduce scope (Option C) or add resources (Option D) as immediate fixes, confusing symptom management with root cause analysis, whereas the PMP exam prioritizes direct stakeholder engagement and servant leadership first.
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
✓
Schedule individual meetings to discuss workload and well-being.
The first step when suspecting burnout is to engage directly with team members to understand their individual workloads and well-being. This aligns with the PMP's emphasis on servant leadership and proactive people management, as it addresses the root cause before taking further action. Individual meetings allow the project manager to gather specific data on overwork, which retrospectives failed to surface, enabling a targeted response.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Schedule individual meetings to discuss workload and well-being.
Why this is correct
A decline in team velocity is a critical indicator that requires immediate investigation, not just observation. Scheduling individual meetings allows the project manager to gather direct, qualitative feedback on potential root causes such as workload imbalances, skill gaps, personal challenges, or signs of burnout. This proactive approach fosters trust and provides actionable insights necessary to address the underlying issues affecting team performance and well-being before they escalate further. It aligns with servant leadership principles by prioritizing the team's needs.
- ✗
Continue monitoring; the velocity may recover naturally.
Why it's wrong here
Continuing to merely monitor a declining velocity is a passive approach that risks exacerbating the underlying problems. Velocity is a key performance indicator reflecting the team's capacity and efficiency; a sustained drop signals systemic issues, not just a temporary fluctuation. Delaying intervention could lead to increased team frustration, reduced morale, potential burnout, and even attrition, making recovery significantly more challenging and impacting project timelines and quality.
- ✗
Reduce the project scope to lower pressure.
Why it's wrong here
Reducing project scope without first understanding the root cause of the velocity drop is a premature and potentially ineffective solution. While it might seem to alleviate pressure, it assumes the problem is solely related to the volume of work rather than issues like process inefficiencies, technical debt, or team dynamics. Such a decision should be data-driven, based on a clear understanding of the team's capacity and the project's critical path, to avoid cutting valuable features unnecessarily.
- ✗
Add more team members to distribute the workload.
Why it's wrong here
Adding more team members to a project experiencing a velocity decline is often counterproductive, especially in the short term, as articulated by Brooks's Law. New team members require significant onboarding, training, and integration time, which diverts existing team members' attention and can initially further decrease overall velocity. Furthermore, if the underlying issue is burnout or process inefficiency, simply increasing headcount will not resolve these systemic problems and may even complicate communication and coordination.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to the PMP Exam and Project Management Basics
Key term
Organizational Change Management
Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the structured approach to preparing, supporting, and guiding people through changes in an organization to ensure lasting success.
Key term
Training and Development
Training and Development is the process of enhancing team members' skills, knowledge, and competencies to improve project performance and achieve career growth.
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