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4 The role of each stakeholder is determined by:
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7 Who of the following is ALWAYS a stakeholder? 8
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10 All of the following are characteristics of a project EXCEPT: The engineering department wants the project objective to be a 10 percent improvement in throughput. The information technology department wants no more than 5 percent of its resources to be used on the project. Management, who is also your boss, wants the project team to decrease tax liability. The BEST thing you can do is:
Your customer requested the new railroad cars you are building for his company be constructed from heavy grade aluminum. After reviewing the requirements, two of your experts inform you the customer would be better off with steel cars. You meet with the customer to discuss the issue, and he directs you to go ahead with the aluminum cars. What should you do?
Your boss, the vice president of research at an electronic system development firm, defines success on the project as providing "state-of-the-art" development. The vice president of marketing defines success as "world-class practices." The vice president of engineering, who is the customer for this project, is primarily concerned with new features. Which of the following BEST describes what you should do?
You are beginning a new project that has been attempted, but unsuccessful, several times in the past few years. Previous projects were cancelled because of "politics" (differing views and direction by key stakeholders on the project). This is an example of:
Your customer has asked for a 2,000-call capacity for the new call center project. However, one of your company's technical experts believes a 3,000-call capacity can be reached. Another thinks that based on the technical needs of the customer, the capacity needs to be only 1,500 calls. What is the BEST thing to do?
Near the end of your last project, additional requirements were demanded by a group of stakeholders when they learned they would be affected by your project. This became a problem because you had not included the time or cost in the project management plan for these requirements. What is the BEST thing you can do to prevent such a problem on future projects?
To obtain support for the project throughout the performing organization, it's BEST if the project manager:
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Who determines the project scope requirements of a new project?
Which of the following techniques is the BEST way to determine project requirements?
The project manager must identify _________, determine their requirements, and then manage and influence those requirements to ensure a successful project.
A project manager can BEST resolve the differences between the requirements of one stakeholder and those of another by making which of these statements?
A conflict between the requirements is BEST resolved in favor of the:
Your manager approves the project charter and asks you to begin working immediately and to provide her with a schedule. What should you do FIRST?
Which of the following does NOT assess the value a project brings to an organization?
There are over 30 stakeholders on a new software development project , and no one can agree on the project objectives. One stakeholder believes the project can achieve a 30 percent improvement while another believes a 50 percent improvement is possible. The project manager thinks a 10 percent improvement is more realistic. What is the BEST course of action?
A market demand, a business need, and a legal need are ALL:
All of the following statements about project feasibility studies are true EXCEPT:
Your management has decided that all orders will be treated as "projects" and that project managers will be used to update orders daily, to resolve issues, and to ensure the customer formally accepts the product within 30 days of completion. Revenue from the individual orders can vary from US $100 to US $150,000. The project manager will not be required to perform planning or provide documentation other than daily status. How would you define this situation? A project manager is planning a project when he discovers the project has many different deliverables which must be completed in a sequence, with each deliverable dependent on starting after the previous one is completed. What is the BEST thing the project manager can do?
Which of the following statements BEST describes the rule that has been ignored when a project which was originally scheduled for completion in six months has been ongoing for two years?
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35 Who has more power in a strong matrix organization? The human resources department wants to hire a new project manager from within the company. They can choose from the following candidates: Candidate A has good management knowledge; Candidate B has good project management knowledge; Candidate C has solid technical knowledge; Candidate D has general management, project management, and technical skills. Who is the BEST candidate?
You are the CEO of a large publishing house and desire to improve project management practices in your company. What is the BEST thing to do in order to manage the publication of each issue?
A project manager is trying to complete a software development project, but cannot get enough attention for the project. Resources are focused on completing process-related work and the project manager has little authority to assign resources. What form of organization must the project manager be working in?
Project management processes can be categorized into five groups. The process groups are linked by the results they produce. The outputs of one often become the inputs to another. What is the MOST appropriate sequence of the five project management process groups?
The policies, methodologies, and templates for managing projects within the organization should be supplied by the: You are a project manager in a large organization that uses a matrix structure for projects. You have been asked to investigate what organizational structure your competitors use and how this affects their ability to manage projects successfully. How would you describe the MAIN difference between a matrix organization and a functional organization?
Which type of organization is BEST for managing complex projects involving cross-disciplinary efforts?
Which of the following statements BEST describes how stakeholders are involved on a project?
A project team is working on manufacturing a new product, but they are having difficulty creating a project charter. What is the BEST description of the real problem?
A project manager in a predominantly hierarchical organization has been assigned a major project with aggressive timelines. The BEST approach for developing an initial project charter in this environment is to:
All of the following are correct statements about a project manager EXCEPT:
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41 All of the following are true EXCEPT:
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A project manager is completing the WBS with the project team, but the session is hard to manage. There are 200 people in the room representing four different departments. Some of the people who will be working on the project later are talking about other things while earlier work is discussed. Which of the following BEST describes the real problem?
A new project manager is having difficulty creating a WBS with the team. To alleviate this situation, the project manager should ask for help from:
Senior management has imposed a project delivery date prior to acceptance of the project scope statement. To whom is the project manager MOST accountable?
All of the following are parts of the team's stakeholder management effort EXCEPT:
You are the project manager for a large installation project when you realize there are over 200 potential stakeholders on the project. Which of the following would be the BEST course of action for you to take?
You are considering creating a project management office (PMO) in your organization and have solicited the opinions of some of the senior managers. The first representative recommends the PMO should manage all projects in the organization. The second believes the PMO should handle large projects budgeted over a defined dollar amount. The third thinks a PMO should simply provide support to the department project managers. What should you do?
You are a project manager in a large organization that uses a matrix structure. You have been asked to investigate what organizational structures your competitors use and how the choice affects their ability to manage projects successfully. Which type of organizational structure gives the LEAST amount of authority to project managers?
A project manager is assigned to an environmental engineering project chartered to build a reverse flow fish ladder on a river. An environmental group is performing the project. This type of project has never been done before. The project manager has decided to build a basic project schedule and to detail the work of each part as the current part nears completion. What BEST describes what the project manager is doing?
Which of the following BEST describes what is included in a staffing management plan?
An organization is going through an evolutionary phase of restructuring the way it does projects. In a shift from a weak matrix organization to a strong matrix organization, the power is shifted from the:
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52 In a projectized organization, the project team: 53 What are the project management process groups? 54
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Which form of organization retains many characteristics of a functional organization and treats the project manager's role as more of a coordinator or expediter than a manager? Consideration of ongoing operations and maintenance is crucially important to products of projects. Ongoing operations and maintenance should:
Important aspects of a product include the ongoing operations and maintenance. Which of the following BEST describes how operations and maintenance activities impact a project?
Two project managers have just realized they are in a weak matrix organization and their power as project managers is quite limited. One figures out that he is really a project expediter and the other realizes he is really a project coordinator. How is a project expediter different from a project coordinator?
Four project managers are having lunch together and discussing their projects. Most of the time they are just complaining about how hard projects are to manage in their company. Some complain about the stakeholders and the number of changes they cause. Others talk about how hard it is to get people to cooperate and perform. One project manager wants to focus on the advantages of the matrix-type organization they all work in for their projects. Which of the following would he mention?
You are a public executive working on your fourth project to order new buses for a transportation route between two cities. You include a government official as a stakeholder and include meetings with that official in the WBS. Your manager objects to such activities as unnecessary. The BEST response is to inform your manager that:
A particular stakeholder has a reputation for making many changes on projects. What is the BEST approach a project manager can take at the beginning of the project to manage this situation?
In which project management process group is the detailed project budget created?
In project executing, a project manager from the information systems department is trying to complete the project, yet is constantly faced with interference from the manager of the engineering department. The engineering department keeps changing the resources assigned to the project team and their availability. What type of matrix does this represent? Which project management process group generally takes the MOST project time and resources?
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One of your team members informs you that he does not know which of the many projects he is working on is the most important. Who should determine the priorities between projects in a company?
A new project manager has just been assigned a project that is in progress and is two weeks behind schedule. The team members are about to be distributed to another project based on the original time estimates by the functional manager. What type of organization is the new project manager in?
People from the business development department are the only ones completing a project. Whenever questions arise, they are transmitted to the heads of other departments, to the people in these departments, and then back to the business development department. This is causing delays on the project. Why might this method of communicating be happening?
A frequent complaint about matrix organizations is that communications are:
A manager and the head of engineering discuss a change to a major work package. After the meeting, the manager contacts you and tells you to complete the paperwork to make the change. This is an example of:
You have just been assigned to take over a project your management has told you is "out of control." When you asked your management what the problems were, they had no specifics, but said the project was behind schedule, over budget, and the client was dissatisfied. Which of the following should be of the MOST concern to you?
You have just been assigned to manage a project in the middle of project executing. The BEST way to control the project is to:
You have just learned that one of your team members has not been adequately trained to complete project activities as assigned to him. How will you handle this situation?
A stakeholder complains that the project did not increase the department's knowledge of Java programming and therefore, the project is not complete. The customer has accepted the project. The project manager determines that all stated requirements and deliverables have been met. He does not find evidence that Java programming was a requirement. A review of project correspondence shows no mention of the deliverable. The project manager should: The customer has accepted the completed project scope. However, the lessons learned required by the project management office have not been completed. What is the status of the project?
While staffing a project in another country, the project leader from that country comes to you with a suggested team consisting of members of the project leader's family. Your FIRST course of action should be to:
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You are in the middle of a new product development project for your publicly traded company when you discover the previous project manager made a US $3,000,000 payment that was not approved in accordance with your company policies. Luckily, the project cost performance index (CPI) is 1.2. What should you do?
While preparing your risk responses, you realize you need to make adjustments to the project to compensate for unknown risk events. These adjustments are based on your past project experience when unknown risk events occurred and knocked the project off track. What should you do?
Due to corporate restructuring, the project sponsor, a major stakeholder, and the CEO have left the company. The project manager's project is past the halfway point and the remaining members of the management team have been lukewarm toward the project. The new CEO does not place a high value on project management methodology, and the project team is nervous about its future. Under these circumstances, what is the project manager's primary responsibility?
You have been working on a nine-month project for six months. The project is ahead of schedule when one of the functional managers tells you the resources committed to the project are no longer available. After checking further, you discover the company has just started another project and is using the resources committed to your project. You believe the new project is not critical, but the project manager is the son of a board member. What is the BEST course of action in this situation?
The project has a critical deliverable that requires certain expertise to complete. The person who was going to complete the activity has left the company and there is no one else available within the company who can complete the work. Therefore, the project manager needs to acquire the services of a consultant as soon as possible. To do this, the project manager should:
During a meeting with some of the project stakeholders, the project manager is asked to add work to the project scope. The project manager had access to correspondence about the project before the project charter was signed and remembers that the project sponsor specifically denied funding for the scope mentioned by these stakeholders. The BEST thing for the project manager to do is to:
A control chart shows the last eight pipes produced were all less than average weight. You need to inform management that there is a problem because the situation violates the: Your project team has been informally meeting with sellers to discuss the sellers' "best practices" relative to upcoming potential work from your company. During one of these sessions, a seller offers to give you tickets to a sporting event if you will tell him the names of other companies you have been meeting with. What is the BEST response? When checking the calendar of a team member to schedule a meeting, you see she has scheduled a meeting with a key stakeholder that you were not informed of. The BEST approach would be to:
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The project manager is having a very difficult time keeping the project schedule on track. The project requires 220 people to complete it. All the project problems have been fixed to the project manager's satisfaction, the schedule performance index (SPI) is currently 0.67, the cost performance index (CPI) is 1.26, there are 23 activities on the critical path, and the project PERT duration is 26. Under these circumstances, the monthly status report should report:
Your employee is three days late with a report. Five minutes before the meeting where the topic of the report is to be discussed, she hands you the report. You notice some serious errors in it. What should you do?
While completing a project, a project manager realizes he needs to decrease project costs. After researching his options, he comes up with the following options Which choice would DECREASE project costs?
A manager has responsibility for a project that has the support of a senior manager. From the beginning, you have disagreed with the manager as to how the project should proceed and what the deliverables should be. You and she have disagreed over many issues in the past. Your department has been tasked with providing some key work packages for the project. What should you do?
You are managing a two-year project involving staff from several departments. The project is on schedule and within budget. A key team member leaves for a four-week vacation without completing a highly technical and specialized activity assigned to him (activity A). The project team cannot begin activity B or activity E (a critical path activity) until activity A is completed. Activity A has three days float and is not on the critical path. A team member, a seller, and a non-team member work overtime to complete activity A within its float time. You need to reimburse the non-team member's department and pay the seller at an overtime rate. What action should you take?
Although your company is not the lowest bidder for a project, the client has come to expect good performance from your company and wants to award the contract to you. To win the contract, the client asks you to eliminate your project management costs. The client says your company has good project processes, and project controls unnecessarily inflate your costs. What should you do under these circumstances?
In project planning, it becomes apparent that factions within the client's company have significantly different views on how the project should be structured and how the deliverables should be defined. Which of the following is the BEST thing to do?
Which of the following payments on an international project is unacceptable?
Payment for routine government action by a foreign official is:
Your company wants to open a plant in a country where the law stipulates that women can earn only 50 percent of what men earn. Under these circumstances, what should you recommend to your company?
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Which of the following rules should apply to international dealings on your project?
You are making another international trip and have been invited to a holiday celebration. During the celebration, you discover that all of the subcontracted work for the project is going to be given to the brother of one of the team members. What should you do?
While visiting the country where a new branch office is being built, you are told you must pay a US $5,000 fee to the government permit officer to obtain the facility permit required by law to start construction. The construction company tells you this is standard practice and is required by law. What should you do?
Your company is in competition to win a major project for the government of a country. Your contacts in that country inform you that you must make a large payment to the foreign minister to be considered for the project. What should you do?
A large, complex construction project in a foreign country requires coordination to move needed equipment through crowded city streets. To ensure the equipment is transported successfully, your contact in that country informs you that you will have to pay the local police a fee for coordinating traffic. What should you do?
The success of your new project requires several of your people to work in a foreign country for six months. The team informs you that in this country a payment is required to obtain visas. What should you do?
Payment for any decision made or encouraged by a foreign official with respect to whether a company will be awarded a project is BEST described as:
For which of the following actions could a project manager incur a fine and be jailed?
While managing a project in another country, you are asked to make a "facilitating" payment so the country officials will issue a work order. What should you do?
You are reviewing the expense report from one of your team members when you notice a payment he made in another country. You think the payment is a bribe. What is your FIRST course of action?
Your project is being completed in another country. It is going reasonably well and is ahead of the cost projections when one of the local officials informs you he will make sure the project work stops unless you pay him US $50. What is the BEST thing to do?
You are about to begin negotiations with people from another country. Which of the following should provide guidance on what business practices are allowed and not allowed?
You are managing a new oil purification project in a foreign country. A person informs you that you will have to pay him a "transfer fee" for the permit to move heavy equipment through the city. What is the FIRST thing you should do? A major negotiation with a potential subcontractor is scheduled for tomorrow when you discover there is a good chance the project will be cancelled. What should you do?
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Which of the following is NOT a measure that determines if a business practice used by another country is an unfair business practice?
A project manager working for a construction company works closely with a design firm. Part of his responsibility is to negotiate and approve bid documents with the design firm. The design firm offers the project manager a job with the firm, which he accepts. When the project manager gives his two weeks notice to the construction company he is not asked, nor does he mention, that the design firm will employ him. For the next two weeks, the project manager continues to negotiate and approve bids and designs submitted by the design firm. In this situation:
You are working on an 18-month project with a small, co-located team. The project sponsor and senior management are in another city and have requested weekly updates. The customer requires monthly meetings. Because the team members are busy with the project executing work, they would like to reduce the frequency of meetings. Which of the following BEST describes how status meetings should be managed on this project?
You've been assigned to take over managing a project that should be half complete according to the schedule. After an extensive evaluation, you discover the project is running far behind schedule, and the project will probably take twice the time originally estimated by the previous project manager. However, the sponsor has been told the project is on schedule. What is the BEST course of action?
You need to make a major change to the equipment used on your project. You know of a product that meets your needs, but you are worried because your brother owns the company that produces the product. What should you do? Your company wants to assign a resource to your project and asks you to bill that resource to the customer. This concerns you because you get a bonus for maximizing billings to the customer. What is the BEST thing to do? You are managing a procurement for a project and have arranged a bidder conference with the potential proposers. All of the following are appropriate for a bidder conference EXCEPT:
Your project sponsor is extremely happy with the project performance to date. To celebrate, he wants to hold a party with dancing and liquor for the entire team. You are concerned because the company policy states that "no alcohol can be served at company events." What should you do?
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Another project manager has a family emergency and must leave. He has asked you to fill in for him during a team meeting to discuss a minor problem with the project. He has already distributed a detailed agenda and provided you with a copy. When you attend the meeting, several members of the team are making fun of the absent project manager's ethnic heritage. Your company does not have a formal diversity policy covering such behavior. What should you do?
You are halfway through a major network rollout. There are 300 locations in the United States, with another 20 in England. A software seller has just released a major software upgrade for some of the equipment being installed. The upgrade would provide the customer with functionality they requested, which was not available at the time the project began. What is the BEST course of action under these circumstances?
You are in the process of reviewing bids from various sellers for work on your project. One of the bidding sellers has a history of delivering on time and within budget, and you have personally worked with this company successfully on previous engagements. You receive a call from the manager submitting the bid inquiring about how the process is going. He asks to have lunch with you to discuss the bid. What is the BEST response?
A team member comes to you (the project manager) privately and informs you that an employee of your customer is making unwelcome advances. The team member has repeatedly requested that this person stop, but the advances continue. What is the BEST course of action? The customer responsible for overseeing your project asks you to provide a written cost estimate that is 30 percent higher than your estimate of the project's cost. He explains that the budgeting process requires managers to estimate pessimistically to ensure enough money is allocated for projects. What is the BEST way to handle this?
In the process of reviewing the status of your team's work assignments, you learn the project has fallen behind schedule by one week. The project has high visibility within the organization and is completely date-driven. The project finish date is still two months out and you think you can recover the time over the next month or so. What is the BEST course of action for reporting the project status? You are assigned to a project that senior management has already decided to outsource. As a project manager, you need to work with the contracts department to select the seller and then oversee the seller through project completion. Company policy requires a project of this size go through a formal bid process. A vice president in your company tells you his friend owns one of the companies that might bid on the project and the company would be an excellent choice as a seller. This vice president has a reputation for making or breaking careers. What is generally the BEST course of action?
You are working on your research and development project when your customer asks you to include a particular component in the project. You know this represents new work, and you do not have excess funds available. What should you do?
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A floor in one of the office buildings a company owns is now available for rent. It is imperative that the space be rented within one month. The only offer that has been received is from a company that is a competitor. What is the BEST thing to do in this situation?
You are the project manager for one part of a new program in your organization. You are four months into a three-year project when your project team makes significant discoveries on your project. What is the BEST thing to do? There are over 30 stakeholders on your project. The project is being done in another country with people from three countries as team members. Which of the following is the MOST important thing to keep in mind?
You are a project manager for one of many projects in a large and important program. At a high-level status meeting, you note that another project manager has reported her project on schedule. Looking back on your project over the last few weeks, you remember many deliverables from the other project that arrived late. What should you do?
Over lunch with another project manager, you discuss ways to identify risks on your project. The next day, the other project manager sends you risk identification software created by her company with a copyright date of 2008. What should you do?
You have always been asked by your management to cut your project cost estimate by 10 percent after you have given it to them. The scope of your new project is unclear and there are over 30 stakeholders. Management expects a 25 percent reduction in downtime as a result of the project. Which of the following is the BEST course of action in this situation?
You are a new project manager for Company B. You previously worked for Company A, which had an extensive project management practice. Company B has its own procedures, but you are more familiar with those from Company A. You should:
You are a project manager on an international project of great importance to the client. The client is from another country and is so pleased with how well the project is going that he presents you with a company automobile for your personal use. The BEST thing for you to do would be to: Adhering to legal requirements, satisfying competing needs, providing accurate and truthful representations, and disclosing conflicts of interest are all:
In the course of completing work on the project, the project manager needs to complete an activity she has never done before. During this time, the project manager attends a professional association discussion where the presenter shares how he completed a difficult activity on his project that is similar to the project manager's activity. He provides a handout describing his process. The project manager should:
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You are doing business in a foreign country and you are advised by your local contact that it will be necessary to make payments to certain officials in order to get the contract. Such payments are expected in the other country, but are illegal for people from your country. What should you do?
You are taken to lunch by one of your sellers on a current project who has become a friend. He offers you an opportunity to participate in a new venture in association with his company, unrelated to your current employment. What should you do?
A team member tells you that when his wife was diagnosed with a serious illness, he stole items from work and sold them, using the money for her treatment. He has since paid back the money taken, in ways that kept his theft secret. Ethically, what should you do?
Your team is assessing options to deal with a problem on the project. A team member has a copy of a software program on his home computer which he offers to you at no cost because it will may solve the problem. What should you do?
Your employee is three days late with a report. She walks into a meeting and hands you a copy of the report five minutes before the topic is to be discussed. You notice some serious errors in the report. How could this have been prevented?
You have designed an improved system for a consumer product that could decrease repair costs for the consumer. Management is impressed with your idea, but has decided to wait until next year to implement it. What is the BEST thing to do?
While reading a magazine article, you discover there is a tool of project management that other companies are using, but that your company has never heard of. You feel this tool would be of great help on the project you are currently planning. What should you do?
Another project manager in your company is having difficulty managing his project. You have learned that he has not used a project charter and that is probably the cause of the problem. How can you help?
You are in the middle of a project when you discover that a software seller for your project is having major difficulty keeping employees due to a labor dispute. Many other projects in your company are also using the company's services. What should you do?
All of the following are responsibilities of a project manager EXCEPT:
Your company is purchasing the services of a consultant. You own stock in one of the consulting companies interested in the work. What should you do?
Your organization is approached by company A to produce certain software. During the middle of the project, a competitor of company A asks your organization to produce similar software for them. What should you do?
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Your company puts a new product into the marketplace without any reports of problems. However, your internal research indicates there is a possibility of serious injuries that would cost US $20,000,000 to fix. What should you do? In order to complete work on your projects, you have been provided confidential information from all of your clients. A university contacts you to help it in its research. Such assistance would require you to provide the university with some of the client data from your files. What should you do? A team member asks to tell you something in confidence. He advises you that he has been performing illegal activities within the company for the last year. He is feeling guilty about it and is telling you in order to receive advice as to what he should do. What should you do?
Your company has a policy that only a certain hotel chain may be used for business travel. You discover that a more expensive hotel is offering a discount on the days you need to be in town. What should you do?
You just found out that a major subcontractor for your project consistently delivers items late. You decide to postpone dealing with the issue until you have more time. What conflict resolution method are you using?
You just found out that a major subcontractor for your project consistently provides deliverables late. The subcontractor approaches you and asks you to continue accepting late deliverables in exchange for a decrease in project costs. This offer is an example of:
During construction of a new manufacturing facility in another country, one of your team members complains to you that the wage paid to the workers is below the acceptable wage in your home country. In this situation it is BEST to:
Management has promised you part of the incentive fee from the customer if you complete the project early. While finalizing a major deliverable, your team informs you that the deliverable meets the requirements in the contract, but will not provide the functionality the customer needs. If the deliverable is late, the project will not be completed early. What action should you take?
You signed an agreement with your client that the integration plan and other documents they provided would remain confidential. You needed these documents to complete the project. Another company contacts you because you're an expert in the field. They ask you for samples of integration plans, which they want to include in a book they are writing. They promise you a "thank you" fee of 300 British pounds, but they need the information today. What should you do?
You have a cost plus fee (CPF) contract with the customer and an arrangement with your manager whereby you will receive 10 percent of the contract amount as your payment for services. While completing the project, you discover the actual cost will be lower than expected, thus decreasing your fee. What should you do?
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While constructing a new drug manufacturing plant, you discover a leak in a pipe which has released chemicals into the ground. It was difficult to acquire the necessary government approval and community support for the plant, and management has told you to be particularly careful to not upset the community. You are uncertain of whether the chemicals could leak into the groundwater or cause any damage. What should you do?
You have just discovered an error in the implementation plan that will prevent you from meeting a milestone date. The BEST thing you can do is:
While testing the strength of concrete poured on your project, you discover that over 35 percent of the concrete does not meet your company's quality standards. You feel certain the concrete will function as it is, and you don't think the concrete needs to meet the quality level specified. What should you do?
On one of your company's medical research projects, you object to how the research is being handled. However, you signed a confidentiality agreement with the company that prohibits you from talking about the research. It would be BEST to:
You are the project manager for a new international project, and your project team includes people from four countries. Most of the team members have not worked on similar projects before, but the project has strong support from senior management. What is the BEST thing to do to ensure that cultural differences do not interfere with the project?
A project has a tight budget when you begin negotiating with a seller for a piece of equipment. The seller has told you the equipment price is fixed. Your manager has told you to negotiate the cost with the seller. What is your BEST course of action?
Your company is in the middle of negotiating to win a major new project. The project nicely fits into the company's strategic plan, but will require some of the best resources the company has in order to meet the quality objectives. Management is excited, because the project represents the opportunity to generate good profits for the company and will put all their company expertise to the test. The prospective team members are also excited because the client is prestigious. In order to meet the schedule objectives for the project, you need to start committing jobs to new and critical project resources now, while the contract is still under negotiation. What should you do?
You are working on a large construction project that is progressing within the baselines. Resource usage has remained steady, and your boss has just awarded you a prize for your performance. One of your team members returns from a meeting with the customer and tells you that the customer is not happy with the project progress. What is the FIRST thing you should do?
A project manager discovers a defect in a deliverable that is due to the customer under contract today. The project manager knows the customer does not have the technical understanding to notice the defect. The deliverable meets the contract requirements, but it does not meet the project manager's quality standard. What should the project manager do in this situation?
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Which of the following would BEST prevent cultural problems on your international project?
You are trying to help project managers in your organization understand the project management process groups and the project management process. Many of them are confusing the project life cycle with the project management process. Which of the following identifies the DIFFERENCE between these two?
A project manager is finalizing a project that has had repeated problems with cost conformance. He is concerned about what management will say. Which of the following types of information would be BEST for the project manager to use to evaluate performance?
You have just been assigned as the project manager for a new telecommunications project as it is entering its second phase. There appear to be many risks on this project, but no one has evaluated them to assess the range of possible project outcomes. What needs to be done?
Which of the following aspects of leadership is MOST important for a project manager?
For the last three months, a customer has been from two to four days late with her approvals on deliverables. After analyzing the situation, the project manager decides withdrawal is the best conflict resolution technique to use. Which of the following reflects withdrawal?
A project manager has a problem with a team member's performance. What is the BEST form of communication for addressing this problem?
What is one of the KEY objectives during contract negotiations?
Management tells a project manager to subcontract part of the project to a company that management has worked with many times. Under these circumstances, the project manager should be MOST concerned about:
The customer on a project tells the project manager he has run out of money to pay for the project. What should the project manager do FIRST?
You are the project manager for a large project under contract with the government. The contract for this two-year, multi-million dollar project was signed six months ago. You were not involved in contract negotiations or setting up procedures for managing changes, but now you are swamped with changes from the customer and from people inside your organization. Who is normally responsible for formally reviewing major changes to the project/contract?
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A seller has withdrawn from a project midway through the project executing processes, and another seller is taking over. The project manager meets with the replacement seller and his crew. In this meeting, what should the project manager do FIRST?
The customer is repeatedly requesting changes. You discover the contract does not include procedures for implementing change, and there are no available funds in the customer's budget to accommodate change. What should you do?
During project executing, a major problem occurs that was not included in the risk register. What should you do FIRST?
Your organization is having a difficult time managing all of its projects. You have been asked to help senior management get a better understanding of the problems. What do you do FIRST?
Which of the following BEST describes the project manager's role regarding project changes?
Which of the following BEST describes the project manager's role as an integrator?
During project planning, one of the electrical engineers informs the project manager that the life cycle cost of the new heating and air conditioning system is higher than the life cycle cost of another heating and air conditioning system. What should the project manager do?
You are a project manager working on a multimillion-dollar project. As the project has progressed, you have become friends with the general contractor. You are working on a US $100,000 change request. She has offered to let you use her boat on the lake this weekend while she is away. What should you do?
The previous project manager for your project managed it without much project organization. There is a lack of management control and no clearly defined project deliverables. Which of the following would be the BEST choice for getting your project better organized?
Which of the following BEST describes the major constraints on a project?
You are taking over a project during project planning and discover that six individuals have signed the project charter. Which of the following should MOST concern you?
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The project charter for a project was approved for planning, and you have just been assigned as project manager. Realizing that project planning is an ongoing effort throughout the project, which processes are you MOST likely to combine?
Which of the following describes the BEST use of historical records from previous projects?
You are a new project manager who has never managed a project before. You have been asked to plan a new project. It would be BEST in this situation to rely on _______ during planning to improve your chance of success.
The sponsor has asked you to require that each piece of the project scope be planned, estimated, and scheduled. The sponsor also wants to authorize each piece of the project management plan after the documentation is assembled. What is the MOST appropriate response to these requests? A project manager is appointed to head a highly technical project in an area with which this person has limited familiarity. The project manager delegates the processes of Develop Schedule, Estimate Costs, Define Activities, and Estimate Activity Resources to various project team members, and basically serves as an occasional referee and coordinator of activities. The results of this approach are likely to be:
The sponsor assigns you to be the project manager of a project that crosses functional lines and is designed to operate at 6 sigma levels. The sponsor has given you cost and schedule requirements. Which of the following would NOT be an appropriate action on your part?
Which of the following processes involves creating a coherent, consistent document that can be used to guide all the work in both project executing and project monitoring and controlling?
All of the following are NOT parts of a project management plan EXCEPT:
All the following should be determined before project planning EXCEPT:
If a project manager is concerned with gathering, integrating, and disseminating the outputs of all project management processes, she should concentrate on creating a better:
Which of the following BEST describes a project management plan?
You are assigned as a project manager to lead a new quality improvement project. Management is asking for a project management plan. Which of the following should you create FIRST?
A project management plan should be realistic in order to be used to manage the project. Which of the following is the BEST method to achieve a realistic project management plan?
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You have accepted a position at a company where you will manage a group of projects in a coordinated way. This organization specifically hired you to start a project management office to help it develop a more structured approach to project management. What should you do FIRST?
The person who should be in control of the project during project planning is the:
Which of the following is NOT needed in order to come up with a project estimate?
A project change management plan should be created during which process group?
Which of the following BEST describes a project management plan?
Your project team has identified dependencies on six related projects that are providing major deliverables to your project. Some of these projects have a very similar scope and may overlap with your deliverables. In light of this, which of the following processes should you be MOST concerned about?
You are given a new project to manage and a brief project scope statement. The project sponsor tells you there is no required completion date for the project. The BEST thing to do is to:
You have taken over a project from another manager who left the firm. This is a functional organization and the different units are often rather hostile to each other. The project is a large one involving activities the organization has never done before. You find the project has what appears to be adequate documentation, including an agreed-to project charter, project management plan, WBS, etc. The project is on schedule and within budget. However, the atmosphere in meetings with the project team often seems tense, and offhand comments made by participants seem to indicate a high level of dissatisfaction with the project. You review all the major project documents with the key stakeholders and get agreement that they are still accurate, but this does not seem to solve the problem. What is the MOST likely explanation for this situation? You are in the middle of executing a major modification to an existing product when you learn that the resources promised at the beginning of the project are not available. The BEST thing to do is to:
A project manager receives a change request from the customer. The change requires adding a new filtration system to the project in place of a cleaner bag. When the project manager evaluates the change, it is MOST important that she consider the impact on the:
Inputs to the Direct and Manage Project Execution process include all the following EXCEPT:
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213 What is a project management information system (PMIS)?
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During what part of the project management process is MOST of a project's budget expended?
You have been appointed manager of a project to convert multiple electronic mail systems at a major financial institution to a single platform. Your company's approach was not the client's first choice, and your firm was able to offer the lowest cost alternative by using funds provided to your company for a different purpose. After the project is underway, the client specifies a new approach that has never been used before. When the project is approaching the originally scheduled end date, it becomes clear that the technological approach will have to be significantly altered. Although the client has been apprised of developments throughout the project through regular status reports, and the project management plan has been followed, the client demands the project be continued without any increase in cost until all of their requirements are met. Your firm feels that it has no choice but to comply with the client's demands, although this will result in a substantial loss on the project. What is the MOST important thing that should have been done to avoid this situation?
You have been assigned to manage the development of an organization's first Web site. The site will be highly complex and interactive, and neither your project team nor the client has much experience with Web site development. The timeline is extremely aggressive. Any delay will be costly for both your firm and the client. You have a project sponsor and have achieved agreement and sign-off on both the project charter and the project management plan. Client personnel have been kept fully informed of the project's progress through status reports and regular meetings. The project is on schedule, within budget, and a final perfunctory review has been scheduled. Suddenly you hear that the entire effort may be cancelled because the product developed is totally unacceptable. What is the MOST likely cause of this situation?
The project manager has just received a change request from the customer that does not affect the project schedule and is easy to complete. What should the project manager do FIRST?
Having to constantly push the team to perform is an example of a LACK of:
Your company just won a major new project. It will begin in three months and is valued at US $2,000,000. You are the project manager for an existing project. What is the FIRST thing you should do once you hear of the new project? You are a project manager who was just assigned to take over a project from another project manager who is leaving the company. The previous project manager tells you that the project is on schedule, but only because he has constantly pushed the team to perform. What is the FIRST thing you should do as the new project manager?
The need for ____ is one of the major driving forces for communication in a project.
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217 When is it MOST important that integration is performed?
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Which of the following BEST describes the project manager's role during project planning?
The project manager's role during the executing process of the project can BEST be described as a(n):
Many more changes were made to the project during project executing than had been expected. What is the BEST thing for the project manager to do now?
A project manager has just been assigned to a project that has been in progress for two months when a team member requests more time on an activity he is working on. The project manager discovers the only impact to the project will be a delay on a non-critical path activity. The customer has emphasized the importance of completing the project on schedule. What should the project manager do NEXT? A software development project has been suffering through many major project changes. Because of this, the project manager has not been able to do much but complete change request forms. Which statement BEST describes the other activities the project manager should be doing? Your new project to outsource work has been going badly. The project deliverables have changed three times, the functional managers keep removing people from the team, and the project schedule baseline has been adjusted four times in the first week. This is MOST likely due to a lack of: The Java development of a project is outsourced to India. The project schedule is starting to slip. What is the LEAST likely cause of the slippage?
After a great deal of effort, the project team has finally determined the specifications for a major scope change to the project. In light of this, what should the project manager do FIRST?
A project has just begun when one of the stakeholders asks the project manager about making a change to the format of the deliverable for activity Y. She wants to know how to go about submitting the change for review. The project manager should direct her to:
The project manager on a large software installation project is working with her team on a critical set of activities. They are working late on Saturday night. Circumstances create a situation wherein the project manager must decide to change the schedule, pushing the end date of the project out two weeks. What has MOST likely happened?
You are assigned as the project manager in the middle of the project. The project is within the baselines, but the customer is not happy with the performance of the project. What is the FIRST thing you should do?
A team member notifies you she has added extra functionality to the project. She tells you there was no impact on the cost or schedule. What should be done as a result of this change?
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233 When should project baselines be changed?
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During the course of your project, you notice that most of the changes occurring on the project come from the research department. What should you do?
A project manager wants to more extensively involve the stakeholders on the project. Which of the following would be the BEST way accomplish this?
All of following should be done by the project manager during project monitoring and controlling EXCEPT:
When it comes to changes, the project manager's attention is BEST focused on:
Which of the following is the BEST method to control changes on a project?
It is the middle of the project when the project manager is informed by her scheduler that the project control limits are secure. That same morning she receives a note from a team member about a problem he is having. The note says, "This activity is driving me crazy and the manager of the accounting department won't help me until the activity's float is in jeopardy." In addition, the project manager has e-mails from a minor stakeholder and 14 e-mails from team members. While she is reading the e-mails, a team member walks in to the project manager's office to tell her a corrective action was implemented by a team member from the project management office, but was not documented. What should the project manager do NEXT?
All of the following are outputs of the Monitor and Control Project Work process EXCEPT:
The networking vendor has contacted the project manager to inform her that a recent earthquake will impact the delivery of critical components. The project team meets to determine the impact on the overall project and determines that staffing will not be affected, but changes will need to be made in the areas of risk and cost management. What is the project team involved in here?
At a critical milestone in a development project, it is determined that implementation is two months behind schedule. The project manager is concerned the root cause is lack of conformance to requirements in the design of the new billing system. More extensive measurements are taken to see if this is, in fact, the problem. Such measurements are:
The customer wants to expand the project scope after the performance measurement baseline has been established. Which procedures must be followed?
The project manager on a large software installation project is working with her team on a critical set of activities. They are working late on Saturday night. Circumstances create a situation wherein the project manager must decide to change the schedule, pushing the end date of the project out two weeks. What is the BEST action for the project manager to take next as a result of her decision?
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253 A work authorization system can be used to:
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While the project is being completed, management requests a change. What is the FIRST thing the project manager should do?
Which of the following BEST describes when a project baseline should be changed?
During the creation of lessons learned for a project, the team determines that the project would have been better if they had a change control board. Which of the following is the BEST description of what a change control board helps the team to do?
The role of the project manager relating to integration is MOST appropriately described as:
All of the following are parts of an effective change management plan EXCEPT:
A project is plagued by changes to the project charter. Who has the primary responsibility to decide if these changes are necessary?
The project is not going well and many changes are being made. Which of the following should you do FIRST to gain control of the project?
A stakeholder wants to make a change to the work breakdown structure that does NOT affect the time or cost of the project. What is the BEST thing to do?
The carpeting subcontractor has, without prior approval, installed carpet that is a slightly different pattern from the pattern selected for the project. The difference in cost per square yard saves the buyer approximately US $10,000. Upon learning of the change, the BEST course of action for the project manager is to:
The client demands changes to the product specification that will add only two weeks to the critical path. Which of the following is the BEST thing for the project manager to do?
The primary customer of a project has requested an application change during user testing. As project manager, how should you BEST address this issue?
A project manager has made a change to the project. What should she do NEXT?
Which of the following BEST describes the project manager's role relating to changes?
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260 All the following are true of project baselines EXCEPT:
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264 Closure includes all of the following EXCEPT:
During project executing, the project manager determines that a change is needed to material purchased for the project. The project manager calls a meeting of the team to plan how to make the change. This is an example of: The project was going well when all of a sudden there were changes to the project coming from multiple stakeholders. After all the changes were determined, the project manager spent time with all the stakeholders to find out why there were changes and to discover any more. The project work has quieted down when a team member casually mentions to the project manager that he added functionality to a product of the project. "Do not worry," he says, "I did not impact time, cost, or quality!" What should the project manager do FIRST?
The customer wants to make a change to the project scope. The BEST thing for the project manager to evaluate is the: A team member notifies you, after the fact, that she has added extra functionality to the project. There was no impact on the cost or schedule. What should be done as a result of this change?
A project team member tells you she went to her project manager with a good idea for a useful change to the project. Instead of giving her approval to make the change, the project manager asked her to write a report describing the benefits of the change. What is the MOST appropriate advice for the situation?
There have been numerous changes on your project. All approved changes are BEST reflected in the:
You take over a project that is in a lot of trouble. There are apparently problems with the team dynamics, project scope, the sponsor, and the timeline. The project has a cost performance index (CPI) of 0.75 and schedule performance index (SPI) of 1.2. The FIRST action you should take is to: A project manager has finished the project. He knows the project scope has been completed and is within cost and time objectives set by management. Management, however, says that the project is a failure, because the original schedule was for 27 weeks and the project was completed in 33 weeks. If the project baseline was 33 weeks, the project is a success because:
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271 Which statement about project deliverables is CORRECT?
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Company procedures require the creation of a lessons learned document. Which of the following is the BEST use of lessons learned?
Your company has just presented its new five-year strategic plan. You have received a new product request from a customer that is in line with the previous five-year strategic plan, but it does not meet the objectives of the new plan. The product description seems to have a valid business driver and to be a straightforward development effort. As project manager, what is the BEST course of action?
The CEO of the company has assigned a project manager to a project the CEO has wanted to do for a long time. What should the project manager do FIRST?
All of the following are purposes of the project charter EXCEPT:
A market demand, a business need, and/or legal requirement are examples of:
The performing organization is trying to decide whether to split the procurement department and assign procurement responsibilities to departments directly responsible for the projects. A procurement professional might not want this split to occur because he or she would lose ___________ in a decentralized contracting environment.
Linear programming is an example of what type of project selection criteria?
You are a project manager for a large consulting firm. Your superior has just asked for your input on a decision about which project your company should pursue. Project A has an internal rate of return (IRR) of 12 percent. Project B has a predicted benefit cost ratio (BCR) of 1.3. Project C has an opportunity cost of US $75,000. Project D has a payback period of six months. If you had to choose based on this data, which project would you select?
A market demand, a customer request, and a technological advance are examples of:
A project manager has just been assigned to a new project and has been given the approved project charter. The FIRST thing the project manager must do is:
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281 Who issues the project charter? 282
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286 Which of the following is included in a project charter?
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292 A WBS is BEST described as a tool for tracking: 293
Benefit measurement and constrained optimization are examples of:
The BEST time to assign a project manager to a project is during:
A person is writing a document identifying the business need for a project and is including a description of the product to be created by the project. She includes a list of stakeholders and preassigned resources. What is the role of this person on the project?
Halfway through the project, the client considers cancelling the remaining work and the contract. It would be BEST to look at which of the following to determine the purpose for the project?
You have created the project charter but could not get it approved. Your manager and his boss have asked that the project begin immediately. Which of the following is the BEST thing to do?
To complete the project initiating processes, a project manager needs the project charter and:
Identifying high-level project performance criteria, defining business need, and determining product description are all part of WHICH project management process group?
A project manager is trying to convince management to use more formal project management procedures and has decided to start improving the company's project management by obtaining a project charter for each of his projects. Which of the following BEST describes why a project charter would help the project manager?
Management gives the project manager a preliminary project scope statement and tells him that he is not sure it is complete. The preliminary project scope statement should include:
The project charter is created in which project management process group?
Generally, when is the BEST time to create a procurement management plan?
All of the following must be performed during project initiating EXCEPT:
All of the following are parts of the project initiating processes EXCEPT:
Which of the following is an output of the Collect Requirements process?
