PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
You are the project manager for a complex IT infrastructure project. Two senior developers have a conflict regarding the technical approach to a critical component. The conflict is causing delays and affecting team morale. Both approaches are valid but have different resource and schedule implications. What should you do 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
✓
Facilitate a meeting with both developers to evaluate each approach against project objectives.
As a PM, you should facilitate a collaborative discussion to resolve the conflict. The goal is to leverage the team's expertise to find the best solution. Avoiding personal confrontation and focusing on technical merits is key.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Facilitate a meeting with both developers to evaluate each approach against project objectives.
Why this is correct
Facilitating a meeting with both developers to collaboratively evaluate each approach against defined project objectives is the most effective strategy. This approach leverages the team's expert judgment, promotes open communication, and fosters a shared understanding of the problem and potential solutions. By guiding the discussion towards project objectives, the Project Manager ensures the chosen solution aligns with overall project success criteria and gains team buy-in, which is crucial for implementation.
- ✗
Ask the developers to document both approaches and then choose the one with lower cost.
Why it's wrong here
Directing developers to document approaches and then selecting solely based on lower cost is an overly simplistic and potentially detrimental decision-making criterion for complex IT infrastructure. This approach neglects critical factors such as quality, long-term maintainability, scalability, security implications, and alignment with strategic business goals. A holistic evaluation considering multiple project constraints and objectives is essential to avoid short-sighted decisions that could lead to greater costs or issues later.
- ✗
Escalate the conflict to the project sponsor for resolution.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating the conflict to the project sponsor for resolution prematurely abdicates the Project Manager's primary responsibility for team conflict management. Escalation should be reserved as a last resort when internal team resolution efforts have demonstrably failed or when the conflict's scope exceeds the team's or PM's authority. The PM is expected to utilize conflict resolution techniques to facilitate agreement at the lowest possible level, empowering the team and demonstrating leadership.
- ✗
Make a decision yourself based on the project constraints to save time.
Why it's wrong here
Making a unilateral decision based solely on project constraints, even to save time, is generally discouraged in complex project environments. This approach fails to leverage the valuable expert judgment and diverse perspectives of the development team, potentially leading to a suboptimal or unworkable solution. Furthermore, a top-down decision can reduce team morale, decrease commitment to the chosen path, and undermine future collaboration and problem-solving efforts.
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Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on PMP
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. During a project, two senior developers have a conflict regarding the technical approach. As project manager, which TWO actions should you take?
easy- A.Decide on the technical approach yourself
- ✓ B.Encourage both developers to collaborate and find a mutually acceptable solution
- C.Escalate to the project sponsor for a decision
- D.Reassign one developer to another project to avoid further conflict
- ✓ E.Document the conflict and resolution in the issue log
Why B: The project manager should facilitate collaboration between the two senior developers to resolve the technical conflict, which aligns with the PMP's emphasis on conflict resolution through collaboration and problem-solving. This approach leverages the team's expertise to find a mutually acceptable solution, which is more effective than imposing a decision or escalating prematurely. Documenting the conflict and resolution in the issue log (Option E) is also correct as it ensures transparency and provides a record for future reference, which is a key practice in project management.
Variation 2. Two senior developers on your hybrid project have a conflict over the technical approach for a critical feature. The conflict is causing delays. What should the project manager do first?
medium- ✓ A.Facilitate a meeting where each developer presents their approach and the team evaluates pros and cons against project objectives
- B.Escalate the issue to the sponsor for a final decision
- C.Make the decision yourself to save time and end the conflict
- D.Separate the developers to work on different features to avoid further conflict
Why A: The PM should facilitate a collaborative resolution by encouraging the team to evaluate options based on objective criteria, such as impact on project goals.
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.