The correct answer is to facilitate a team meeting to revisit the team charter and reinforce QA processes. This is the right first step because the core issue is a breakdown in team norms and communication, not a technical failure—the network engineers are bypassing QA due to perceived inefficiency, which violates the agreed-upon decision-making framework. On the PMP exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the Manage Team process and the importance of addressing root causes of conflict through team charter enforcement, not by jumping to solutions like replacing staff or escalating. A common trap is to choose a disciplinary action or a technical fix, but the PMP emphasizes that a project manager with authority should first realign the team on shared ground rules. Remember the mnemonic "Charter First, Fix Later"—when a team bypasses QA, always start by facilitating a meeting to reinforce the charter and processes before taking any other corrective action.
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.
You are the project manager for a large infrastructure project to upgrade a legacy network system across 50 remote sites. The project is in its second month, and the team consists of 12 members: 6 network engineers, 3 site coordinators, 2 QA testers, and 1 procurement specialist. The team is co-located at the headquarters except for the site coordinators who are at various locations. Recently, you have noticed that the weekly status meetings are dominated by the network engineers, and the QA testers rarely speak. The site coordinators have missed the last two meetings due to 'scheduling conflicts.' Deliverables from QA are consistently late, and there have been three incidents where network configurations were deployed without QA approval, causing outages at two sites. When you asked the lead network engineer about it, he said, 'QA is too slow; we had to move fast.' The QA lead is frustrated and feels marginalized. The sponsor has expressed concern about the increasing number of outages. The organizational culture is hierarchical, but the project charter gives you authority to manage the team. What should you do first to address this situation?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "first"
Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
Hold one-on-one meetings with each team member to understand their perspectives and then make decisions unilaterally.
Why wrong: Lacks team buy-in and does not create shared commitment.
B
Escalate the issue to the sponsor and request authority to replace the lead network engineer.
Why wrong: Avoids constructive conflict resolution and may demoralize team.
C
Facilitate a team meeting to revisit the team charter, establish ground rules for decision-making and communication, and reinforce the importance of QA approvals.
Addresses team norms and process adherence directly.
D
Implement a new project schedule with tighter deadlines for QA to encourage faster turnaround.
Why wrong: May increase pressure without addressing collaboration issues.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Facilitate a team meeting to revisit the team charter, establish ground rules for decision-making and communication, and reinforce the importance of QA approvals.
Option C is correct because the core issue is a breakdown in team processes and collaboration, not a technical problem. As the project manager with authority, your first step should be to facilitate a team meeting to revisit the team charter, establish clear ground rules for decision-making and communication, and reinforce the mandatory QA approval gate. This directly addresses the root cause—the network engineers bypassing QA—by realigning the team on agreed-upon processes and roles, which is a fundamental leadership action in the 'Manage Team' process.
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.
✗
Hold one-on-one meetings with each team member to understand their perspectives and then make decisions unilaterally.
Why it's wrong here
Lacks team buy-in and does not create shared commitment.
✗
Escalate the issue to the sponsor and request authority to replace the lead network engineer.
Why it's wrong here
Avoids constructive conflict resolution and may demoralize team.
✓
Facilitate a team meeting to revisit the team charter, establish ground rules for decision-making and communication, and reinforce the importance of QA approvals.
Why this is correct
Addresses team norms and process adherence directly.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Implement a new project schedule with tighter deadlines for QA to encourage faster turnaround.
Why it's wrong here
May increase pressure without addressing collaboration issues.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may choose Option A (one-on-one meetings) thinking it is a collaborative approach, but it is actually a form of 'consult and decide' that does not rebuild team trust or address the systemic process failure, whereas facilitating a team meeting to co-create rules is the correct first step in a conflict situation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This scenario reflects a classic 'servant leadership' challenge in project management, where the project manager must balance authority with team empowerment. The correct approach aligns with the PMBOK Guide's 'Manage Team' process, which emphasizes conflict resolution, team building, and establishing ground rules. In a real-world infrastructure project, bypassing QA for network configuration changes (e.g., altering BGP or OSPF settings) can cause immediate routing loops or black holes, as seen in the two site outages, highlighting why a mandatory change control board (CCB) or QA gate is non-negotiable.
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 small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
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: Facilitate a team meeting to revisit the team charter, establish ground rules for decision-making and communication, and reinforce the importance of QA approvals. — Option C is correct because the core issue is a breakdown in team processes and collaboration, not a technical problem. As the project manager with authority, your first step should be to facilitate a team meeting to revisit the team charter, establish clear ground rules for decision-making and communication, and reinforce the mandatory QA approval gate. This directly addresses the root cause—the network engineers bypassing QA—by realigning the team on agreed-upon processes and roles, which is a fundamental leadership action in the 'Manage Team' process.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
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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