The correct answer is to work with the team and relevant stakeholders to remove the obstacles. This is the essence of the servant leader remove impediments concept, where the leader’s primary function is to clear blockers—such as unclear requirements or a missing testing environment—so the team can maintain velocity and focus on delivering value. On the PMP exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the servant leadership mindset emphasized in the PMBOK Guide, particularly how it differs from traditional command-and-control management. A common trap is choosing an answer that delegates the problem upward or delays action, but the core principle is proactive, collaborative removal. Remember the mnemonic “S.L.I.C.E.”: Serve, Listen, Impediments, Clear, Empower—when you see a blocker, your job is to clear it with the team, not around them.
PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
This PMP practice question tests your understanding of people — leading projects. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
During a project retrospective, the team identifies several obstacles that are slowing them down, including unclear requirements and lack of access to a testing environment. As a servant leader, what should you do?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Work with the team and relevant stakeholders to remove the obstacles
Option D is correct because, as a servant leader, your primary responsibility is to remove impediments that hinder the team's progress. By working directly with the team and relevant stakeholders to address unclear requirements and lack of access to a testing environment, you enable the team to maintain velocity and focus on delivering value. This aligns with the PMI's focus on empowering teams through proactive obstacle removal rather than deferring or delegating the issue.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Document the obstacles and review them at the next retrospective
Why it's wrong here
Delaying action does not serve the team's immediate needs.
✗
Prioritize the obstacles and include them in the project risk register
Why it's wrong here
Obstacles are not risks; they are current issues that need resolution.
✗
Ask the team to resolve the obstacles themselves
Why it's wrong here
The PM should help remove obstacles that are beyond the team's control.
✓
Work with the team and relevant stakeholders to remove the obstacles
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse the servant leader role with a passive facilitator (Option A) or incorrectly apply risk management (Option B), failing to recognize that immediate impediment removal is a core duty, not a deferred or delegated task.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In Agile frameworks like Scrum, the Scrum Master explicitly serves as an impediment remover, and this principle extends to the servant leader role in any project management approach. The PMBOK Guide emphasizes that servant leaders should actively engage with stakeholders to unblock the team, using techniques such as root cause analysis to address unclear requirements and negotiating with resource managers for testing environment access. A real-world scenario might involve a team blocked by a missing test server; the servant leader would escalate to the infrastructure team or procure a cloud-based environment, rather than waiting for the next retrospective or logging it as a risk.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A security administrator must allow nursing staff to reach a patient records server while blocking access from the guest Wi-Fi VLAN. After applying an extended ACL, traffic is still blocked from nursing workstations. The ACL was applied outbound instead of inbound on the wrong interface. Questions like this test ACL direction and placement rules.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this PMP question in full detail.
People — Leading Projects — This question tests People — Leading Projects — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Work with the team and relevant stakeholders to remove the obstacles — Option D is correct because, as a servant leader, your primary responsibility is to remove impediments that hinder the team's progress. By working directly with the team and relevant stakeholders to address unclear requirements and lack of access to a testing environment, you enable the team to maintain velocity and focus on delivering value. This aligns with the PMI's focus on empowering teams through proactive obstacle removal rather than deferring or delegating the issue.
What should I do if I get this PMP question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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