PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
During a daily standup, a team member mentions that a task is taking longer than expected and will likely miss the deadline. The task is on the critical path. What should the project manager do FIRST?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is the urge to take immediate action (escalate or add resources) without first understanding the issue; PMP exams emphasize 'assess before act' and servant leadership.
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
✓
Discuss with the team member to understand the issue and explore options
According to PMBOK and agile best practices, when a team member raises a potential delay on a critical path task, the project manager should first engage with the team member to understand the root cause and collaboratively explore options such as re-estimating, re-sequencing, or adding resources. This aligns with servant leadership and the principle of empowering the team to solve problems. Escalating immediately or adding resources without analysis can be premature and may not address the underlying issue.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Immediately escalate the issue to the sponsor
Why it's wrong here
Escalation to the sponsor bypasses the team's own problem-solving and the project manager's duty to assess impact, options and recovery before involving governance. It is tempting because sponsors authorise contingency reserves, so escalation becomes the correct route once the team's mitigation options are exhausted and the baseline genuinely cannot be met.
- ✗
Assign additional team members to the task without further analysis
Why it's wrong here
Adding people without analysis ignores the critical path and Brooks's law risks; the PM should first assess the delay's impact and options with the team. Reallocating resources suits a non-critical task with float, where schedule absorption is possible without threatening the project end date.
- ✓
Discuss with the team member to understand the issue and explore options
Why this is correct
A critical-path slip threatens the project end date, so the project manager first meets the team member to understand the cause and explore recovery options such as rework, added resources or resequencing. Diagnosis precedes any schedule change or escalation.
- ✗
Reduce the quality of the task to save time
Why it's wrong here
Deliberately lowering quality to recover schedule breaches the task's acceptance criteria and adds rework, which consumes further critical-path duration. It is tempting as a quick schedule lever, but descoping or quality reduction is only valid when the product owner formally accepts the reduced scope and the resulting deliverable still satisfies its defined requirements.
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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
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