PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
Your project is using a predictive lifecycle. A team member notices that a task on the critical path is taking longer than estimated, threatening the project completion date. What is the BEST action to take?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates choose 'add more resources' (Option A) without considering the need for analysis and the potential negative effects of crashing, such as increased cost and diminishing returns.
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
✓
Analyze the situation and apply schedule compression techniques such as crashing or fast tracking.
In a predictive lifecycle, when a critical path task runs late, the project manager must first analyze the impact and then apply schedule compression techniques like crashing (adding resources with cost-benefit analysis) or fast tracking (performing tasks in parallel) to recover the schedule without unauthorized scope changes or premature escalation.
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 add more resources to the task without analysis.
Why it's wrong here
Immediately adding more resources to a task without prior analysis is a reactive and potentially ineffective approach. Without understanding the root cause of the delay or verifying if the task is on the critical path, simply adding resources can lead to increased costs, communication overhead (Brooks' Law), and resource over-allocation without actually resolving the schedule variance or accelerating the project.
- ✗
Inform the sponsor that the project will be delayed and request a new deadline.
Why it's wrong here
Informing the sponsor of a project delay and requesting a new deadline without first attempting to mitigate the issue demonstrates a lack of proactive project management. A project manager's responsibility is to analyze variances, identify corrective actions, and implement them to bring the project back on track before escalating to stakeholders with a request for a revised baseline, which should be a last resort.
- ✗
Reduce the scope of the project to compensate for the delay.
Why it's wrong here
Reducing the project scope to compensate for a schedule delay is a significant change that impacts deliverables and stakeholder expectations. This action requires a formal change request, thorough impact analysis, and approval through the integrated change control process, making it a complex and potentially undesirable solution rather than an initial response to a schedule variance.
- ✓
Analyze the situation and apply schedule compression techniques such as crashing or fast tracking.
Why this is correct
Analyzing the situation and applying schedule compression techniques such as crashing or fast-tracking is the most appropriate and professional response. This involves systematically evaluating the critical path, identifying opportunities to shorten the schedule by adding resources (crashing) or performing activities in parallel (fast-tracking), and then implementing these changes after assessing their impact on cost, risk, and quality.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 800 original PMP practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.