This PMP practice question tests your understanding of people — leading projects. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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.
Your project sponsor asks you to skip the testing phase to save time and meet the deadline, arguing that the team is experienced and the product is simple. 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
✓
Explain the risks of skipping testing and suggest alternatives such as reducing test scope or increasing resources
Skipping testing violates quality management principles and introduces significant risk of defects reaching production, which can cause rework, cost overruns, and reputational damage. As a project manager, you must protect the project's quality baseline and stakeholder confidence. Option A correctly addresses this by explaining the risks and proposing viable alternatives like reducing test scope or adding resources, which aligns with the PMI's focus on proactive risk management and stakeholder negotiation.
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.
✓
Explain the risks of skipping testing and suggest alternatives such as reducing test scope or increasing resources
Why this is correct
The PM should advocate for quality while proposing viable alternatives.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Skip testing but document the decision in the lessons learned
Why it's wrong here
Skipping testing without proper change control is not acceptable.
✗
Agree to skip testing to maintain a good relationship with the sponsor
Why it's wrong here
Compromising quality to please the sponsor is unethical and may lead to project failure.
✗
Escalate the issue to the PMO or steering committee
Why it's wrong here
Escalation may be necessary if the sponsor insists, but first try to discuss and find alternatives.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may choose Option D (escalation) thinking it is the safest 'escalate to authority' response, but the PMP exam expects the project manager to first attempt to resolve the issue directly with the sponsor through negotiation and risk communication before escalating.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In practice, skipping testing often leads to undetected integration issues, security vulnerabilities, or performance bottlenecks that surface only after deployment, requiring emergency patches or rollbacks. For example, in software projects, a simple feature change might break existing functionality due to unanticipated dependencies, and without regression testing, the team may not discover this until end-users report failures. The PMBOK Guide emphasizes that quality is planned in, not inspected in, and that reducing test scope should be a calculated risk with documented acceptance criteria, not a blanket omission.
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: Explain the risks of skipping testing and suggest alternatives such as reducing test scope or increasing resources — Skipping testing violates quality management principles and introduces significant risk of defects reaching production, which can cause rework, cost overruns, and reputational damage. As a project manager, you must protect the project's quality baseline and stakeholder confidence. Option A correctly addresses this by explaining the risks and proposing viable alternatives like reducing test scope or adding resources, which aligns with the PMI's focus on proactive risk management and stakeholder negotiation.
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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