A. Being homesick

B. Stereotyping others based on what you've heard about their culture

C. Having the opinion that one's own culture is inherently natural and superior

D. Believing that individuals from your country know how to better manage a project

Question 2 As the project manager for a marketing and sales extranet application tool project, you have contracted with a Web development firm to reengineer the existing extranet application in order to be compliant with the standards of the new corporate Web hosting center. The contract is fixed price with incentives for meeting targeted milestone dates. The payment schedule and accompanying incentives are as follows:

Payment
Milestone
Percentage
Amount
Incentive

1
Signed contract
10%
$50,000
—

2
Proof-of-concept
10%
$50,000
+5% if 5 days early

3
First iteration
15%
$75,000
+5% if 5 days early

4
Second iteration
15%
$75,000
+ 5% if 1 week early; +10% if 2 weeks early

5
Third iteration
15%
$75,000
+ 5% if 1 week early; +10% if 2 weeks early

6
User acceptance
35%
$175,000
—

At this point, the contractor has just delivered the second iteration 8 days early and requests the incentive bonus of 5%. You decide to not authorize the incentive bonus because the contractor had been 3 days late on the delivery of the first iteration and there were numerous performance issues with that iteration. The contractor's project manager threatens to halt application development until the milestone and incentive bonus payments are authorized. Which project document would be the most beneficial in the resolution of this dispute?

A. Procurement management plan

B. Solicitation plan

C. Signed contract (statement of work)

D. Scope statement

Question 3 You've completed a deliverable for a project and have gained acceptance and signoff by the customer. The project has now been closed for more than 30 days. When reviewing the deliverable with another project manager who is preparing for a similar project, you discover a flaw in the results communicated in the deliverable that may not depict possible safety issues in the future. The risk involved with these safety issues is very small. What should you do?

A. Because the project has been closed for more than 30 days, there is no need to bring these safety issues to the attention of the customer.

B. Because the risk involved with these safety issues is very small, there is no need to bring them to the attention of the customer.

C. Communicate your findings to your management, both verbally and in writing.

D. Immediately call the customer and let them know your concerns.

Question 4 Which of the following does not describe characteristics of a project plan ?

A. Formal and approved

B. A document or collection of documents that change over time

C. Only used by the project manager to execute the project

D. Includes methods for identifying milestones

Question 5 Which of the following statements is not true during project execution?

A. The majority of the budget is spent.

B. The product of the project is actually produced.

C. Project performance against the plan is monitored.

D. Decisions on when and with whom to communicate are made.

Question 6 As part of your project you implement a control system. What is a control system concerned with?

A. Preventing change from affecting project execution

B. Influencing factors that cause change, determining a change has occurred, and managing the implementation of the change

C. Ensuring the change-control board is informed

D. Ensuring the quality of the work products meet targeted standards

Question 7 Which of the following best describes progressive elaboration?

A. The process for better defining project scope

B. The step-by-step process by which project tasks are identified

C. A process for better defining project scope and product scope

D. A process that should not affect the project scope but that better defines the project's product characteristics over time

Question 8 What is the main difference between a program manager and a project manager?

A. A program manager is part of a PMO.

B. A project manager may direct one or more program managers.

C. A program manager coordinates and manages a group of projects to obtain benefits not available by managing them individually.

D. There are no major differences. The terms are interchangeable.

Question 9 You want to make certain you are not at a disadvantage in an upcoming negotiation session. What should you do?

A. Actively listen to all parties involved.

B. Speak louder than everyone else.

C. Make sure there are more people in the negotiation with your opinion than there are with an opposing opinion.

D. Sit at the head of the table.

Question 10 How often should a project plan be monitored?

A. Weekly.

B. Monthly.

C. Never. Once the plan is done, the team knows what to do and can do it.

D. Continuously.

Question 11 As part of your planning for a new chemical-processing plant construction project you have won, you identify the stakeholders involved with your project. Which of the following statements best describes who stakeholders are?

A. The company paying for the product or service.

B. Stakeholders exert influence over the project and its results.

C. Stakeholders include anyone whose interests are affected by the project.

D. Stakeholders are always external to the project team.

Question 12 A culture's approach to doing business is to initially spend a great deal of time getting to know the personal background of individuals through small talk. Questions are asked about such topics as family, education, and personal interests. This type of approach can be referred to as which of the following?

A. Lacking scope

B. High context

C. Low context

D. Overly friendly

Question 13 Project managers need solid communication and negotiation skills primarily because ________________________________________.

A. they often lead teams with no direct control over the individual team members

B. they must give briefings to senior management

C. procuring resources from vendors requires these skills

D. they must be able to effectively share their technical expertise

Question 14 What is the key difference between quality planning and quality assurance?

A. None. Prior to ISO 9000, they were considered the same thing.

B. Only quality planning involves the use of cost benefit analysis, benchmarking, flowcharting, and design of experiments.

C. Only quality assurance must be performed by the organization's QA department.

D. Quality planning focuses on identifying which quality standards to use, whereas quality assurance focuses on planned and systematic activities to ensure those standards.

Question 15 The ability of stakeholders to influence the final characteristics of a project's product is ___________________________________________.

A. a major contributor to budget overruns

B. highest at the end of a project when stakeholders are engaged during product approvals

C. highest at the start of a project when the project and product requirements are defined

D. a constant issue for project managers

Question 16 If Project X has a Net Present Value (NPV) of $176K and Project Y has a NPV of $216K, what is the opportunity cost if Project X is selected?

A. $176K

B. $40K

C. $216K

D. –$40K

Question 17 When interacting with individuals from foreign countries in both personal and professional situations, people unfortunately sometimes judge others based on traits they assume everyone from that country has. While working on a project team in a foreign country, what should you do if you feel the team has categorized you based on your culture?

A. Use this to your advantage if possible.

B. Behave in a manner that contradicts their assumption about you.

C. Communicate verbally and in writing that you do not hold the cultural traits they are assuming you to have.

D. Ignore the situation.

Question 18 Which of the following is not needed in order to develop a project estimate?

A. WBS

B. Risks

C. Change-control procedure

D. Resource levels

Question 19 If you have a colleague ask you to describe the concept of Kaizen as related to project management, which of the following answers would be the best one to give?

A. It's a quality control technique.

B. It's a solicitation philosophy.

C. It's a quality assurance technique.

D. It's a quality planning organization.

Question 20 Which of the following statements regarding power types is true?

A. Legitimate power is based on an individual's organizational authority or position.

B. Referential power is based on the number of references on your resume.

C. With referential power, a project manager can enforce the execution of certain project tasks.

D. Legitimate power is based on fear.

Question 21 Which of the following statements is not true about a project phase?

A. A project phase is marked by the completion of one or more deliverables.

B. A project phase is marked by phase-end reviews designed to determine whether a project should continue.

C. Collectively, the sequential set of project phases are known as the project lifecycle.

D. A project phase is synonymous with a project management process group.

Question 22 Fast tracking can be best described as which of the following?

A. The quickest way to achieve project manager status

B. The practice of overlapping project activities on the critical path to speed a project's completion

C. An accelerated method of monitoring project performance

D. The practice of adding additional resources to critical path activities to compress the duration of the project

Question 23 Double-declining balance is a form of _____________.

A. investment analysis

B. straight-line depreciation

C. constrained optimization

D. acceleration depreciation

Question 24 A status review meeting __________________.

A. is ad hoc and only needed when problems arise

B. is regularly scheduled and used to exchange information about the project

C. should be avoided so that team resources can be spent on the project

D. is part of executing the project plan

Question 25 Which statement best describes a PMIS?

A. A PMI certification that is specifically designed for project management focusing solely on the Information Systems profession.

B. A repository used for project information so that future projects can learn from this information. It's used in the execution phase of a project for reference purposes.

C. A required log for timekeeping.

D. The tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and disseminate the process outputs of project management.

Question 26 Business operations differ from projects because operations are not ________.

A. performed by people

B. constrained by limited resources

C. planned, executed, and controlled

D. temporary and unique

Question 27 Using the following earned value metrics, calculate the SV, CV, CPI and EAC for this project:

PV=$125,000, EV=$75,000, AC=$100,000, BAC=$225,000

A. SV=$50,000, CV=$25,000, CPI=.75, EAC=$300,000

B. SV=–$50,000, CV=–$25,000, CPI=.75, EAC=$300,000

C. SV=–$50,000, CV=$25,000, CPI=1.25, EAC=$180,000

D. SV=$25,000, CV=$50,000, CPI=.75, EAC=$168,750

Question 28 Which of the following is not an example of an item that causes a change request?

A. The programmer decides there is a neat feature he can add to the product.

B. An error in the project or product design is discovered.

C. The government has changed a regulation that impacts the project.

D. An identified risk has occurred and a contingency plan must be implemented.

Question 29 All the following statements about a WBS are true except which one?

A. It provides a framework for organizing and ordering a project's activities.

B. It breaks down a project into successively greater detail by level and can be similar in appearance to an organizational chart.

C. It's one of the methods available to build a project schedule.

D. It's a key project-planning tool.

Question 30 Which project-selection technique utilizes a constrained optimization approach?

A. Murder boards

B. Cost-benefit analysis

C. Linear programming

D. Scoring models

Question 31 Which of the following statements best describes a weighting system?

A. It's a tool used to evaluate vendors based on a value assigned to each criteria.

B. It establishes minimum performance requirements.

C. It judges the size and volume of the work to be accomplished.

D. It's not a recommended technique because it's subjective.

Question 32 Where is the best place to go to find out when individual people resources will be needed for the project?

A. The roles and responsibilities matrix

B. The project schedule

C. The staffing management plan

D. The communications plan

Question 33 A change-control system does not have which of the following?

A. Paperwork

B. Tracking mechanisms

C. Approval requirements

D. Referential authority

Question 34 Schedule control requires which of the following?

A. Continual meetings to update tasks and monitor personnel hours to ensure that all workers are sufficiently busy

B. Measuring and assessment of the magnitude of variation to a schedule to determine whether corrective action is needed

C. Re-baselining

D. A project scheduling system with a tightly integrated time-reporting capability

Question 35 Rework is the result of ________________.

A. poor planning

B. a quality control finding

C. untrained project resources

D. a quality improvement process

Question 36 Risk monitoring and control _______________.

A. only need to take place during the initial phases of a project

B. detect new risks as the project matures

C. keep track of identified risks, monitor residual risks, identify new risks, and ensure the effectiveness of risk plans at reducing risk to the project

D. D. are part of the PMIS and are the most neglected risk management processes

Question 37 The characteristics of a project lifecycle include all the following except which one?

A. A defined beginning and ending

B. A phase to transition the project to ongoing operations

C. Deliverable approvals

D. High risk

Question 38 What does Earned Value Management consist of?

A. Monitoring project work results for conformance to requirements

B. Measuring project performance by relating planned value, earned value, and actual costs

C. Determining the amount of payment to a contractor

D. Monitoring planned schedule and costs against actual schedule and costs

Question 39 Schedule variance is _____________________.

A. the difference between how much the project was expected to cost and how much it is actually costing

B. not an issue for project managers because schedules do typically vary

C. the difference between the amount of time a task is scheduled to take and the actual amount of time it takes

D. considered a major problem by PMI

Question 40 You are meeting with a business that has never had a professional project manager work with it before. The president asks you what's the best environment for your team to work in. She is concerned about giving you the optimal environment to succeed with the project. What do you tell her in response to her question?

A. A team in the same room that reports directly and only to the project manager

B. A team that meets frequently face to face but has other functional duties

C. A loosely connected group of functional experts who help direct the project

D. A team that resides offsite

Question 41 Which of the following is a good team-building technique?

A. Involving the team in the planning process

B. Having a barbeque

C. Doing a "lessons learned" session

D. Letting individual team members operate independently

Question 42 The key purpose of distributing project information is ____________________.

A. to create an archive of project information that can be used by other projects

B. to inform stakeholders in a timely manner of work results

C. to make sure the project continues to have sponsorship

D. to resolve conflicts between project members

Question 43 A scope change is __________________________.

A. a request by a stakeholder to change the project schedule

B. any modification to the agreed-upon scope, as defined by the WBS

C. necessary for any change request

D. a change in the level of involvement of the project manager

Question 44 The Work Breakdown Structure is a central input to which of the following?

A. Project schedule management

B. Scope change control, because it defines the baseline tasks of the project

C. Project payments to vendors

D. Project initiation

Question 45 The WBS can be used to ______________________.

A. show calendar dates for each task

B. show the business need for the project

C. communicate with the customer

D. show the dependencies between work packages

Question 46 Your project is about to get underway. You perform a solicitation at the start. Which of the following best describes what you are doing in the solicitation?

A. Gathering requirements for a product purchase

B. Determining what vendors to buy from

C. Letting vendors know you have a need

D. Negotiating the pricing

Question 47 A contract between buyer and seller is created at what point in the procurement process?

A. In procurement planning, based on the policies and procedures of the company

B. During solicitation, when a proposal from a vendor is received

C. During contract administration, when the vendor is actually producing the work requested

D. During source selection, based on evaluation criteria, procurement policies, and supplier history

Question 48 Scope verification consists of __________________.

A. ensuring the correctness of the work results

B. ensuring formal acceptance of the work results

C. a verbal acceptance from a project sponsor

D. verification that all the project's teams have signed off on their respective duties

Question 49 A good work authorization system is ______________.

A. mandatory and includes all tasks

B. informal

C. intended to prevent projects from spending money unnecessarily

D. designed to balance the value of the control provided against the cost of that control

Question 50 All of the following statements about project plan execution are true except which of the following?

A. Tasks are completed

B. Change requests are generated based on new information

C. Information for project reporting regarding costs and quality is gathered

D. Team members are trained

SV (schedule variance) = EV (earned value) – planned value (PV) = $75,000 – $125,000 = $-50,000

CV (cost variance) = EV (earned value) – actual costs (AC) = $75,000 – $100,000 = –$-25,000

EAC (estimate at completion) = BAC (budgeted at completion) / CPI (cost performance index)

CPI = EV / AC = $75,000 / $100,000 = .75

EAC = BAC / CPI = $225,000/.75 = $300,000



Question 28 Answer A is correct. This is generally considered gold-plating by PMBOK. Neat, extra features not requested by the customer should be avoided. Answers B, C, and D are all examples of when a change request should be initiated and are therefore incorrect answers.



Question 29 Answer C is correct. A WBS is not a project-scheduling method. Answers A, B, and D are all true statements concerning a WBS and are therefore incorrect answers.



Question 30 Answer C is correct. Answers A, B, and D are all benefit-measurement methods of project selection and are therefore incorrect answers.



Question 31 Answer A is correct. A weighting system is a method of applying quantitative methods to qualitative data to minimize subjectivity. Answer B is incorrect because minimum performance requirements define a screening system. Answer C is incorrect because it deals with scope definition and estimating. Answer D is incorrect because it is a recommended technique.



Question 32 Answer C is correct. The staffing management plan documents when and how each person starts on the project and plans to leave the project. Answer A is incorrect because the roles and responsibilities matrix does not describe the "timing" elements. Answer B is tempting, but it is not the best source for this information. Answer D is incorrect because the communications plan does not deal with the use of a project's human resources.



Question 33 Answer D is correct. Referential authority is related to managing through another, more highly placed individual in an organization. Per the PMBOK definition, a change-control system must have paperwork, tracking mechanisms, and approval requirements, thus making answers A, B, and C incorrect.



Question 34 Answer B is correct. Although meetings are often required to update a schedule, this can be done through other means, such as email. Therefore, answer A is incorrect. Re-baselining is only necessary if a major change to the scope or timeline of the project has occurred. Therefore, answer C is incorrect. Answer D is tempting, because a project scheduling system with a tightly integrated time-reporting capability would be a great asset for the schedule control process, but it is not a requirement for doing schedule control.



Question 35 Answer B is correct. Although answers A and C may be true, rework is detected and required only through the quality control process.



Question 36 Answer C is correct. Answer A is incorrect because risk control must take place throughout a project. Answer B is incorrect because it's only partially true. This leaves answer C to be the best answer.



Question 37 Answer D is correct. Although risk is higher earlier in a project lifecycle, it is not part of the definition. Answers A, B, and C are all characteristics of a lifecycle definition and are therefore incorrect answers.



Question 38 Answer B is correct. Answer A is incorrect because monitoring work results is quality control. Answer C is also incorrect, although earned value is sometimes used in contract payments. Answer D is tempting, but it is incorrect due to the focus on "monitoring" rather than "measuring" and the incomplete definition.



Question 39 Answer C is correct. Answer A is incorrect because this is the definition of cost variance. Although answer B is true, a project manager must continually assess the variance to determine whether corrective action must be taken. Answer D is incorrect because schedule variance can be positive and may not necessarily require corrective action.



Question 40 Answer A is correct. Collocation and a projectized environment are the best situations for a project team. Although the scenario in answer B can work effectively, team members with other functional duties will have conflicts of priorities. Therefore, answer B is incorrect. Answer C is incorrect because it's the definition of subject matter experts. Answer D is tricky because offsite team building is often encouraged in team literature. However, in this case, it's an incorrect answer.



Question 41 Answer A is correct. Involving the team in the planning of the project helps to develop buy-in by all members and provides them with a better understanding of the project. Although having a barbeque can be a team-building technique, it isn't the best one in this case. Therefore, answer B is incorrect. Lessons learned sessions are typically done at the end of phases or the end of a project. These can be team-building events by airing difficulties, but they are intended to correct project direction, not to build a team. Therefore, answer C is incorrect. Allowing individuals to operate independently is a good management technique in general. However, if they're allowed to do so without supervision or project control, it could actually cause team problems. Therefore, Answer D is incorrect.



Question 42 Answer B is correct. Project information is important so that stakeholders and sponsors understand how well a project is meeting its goals. For sponsors, a project behind schedule may call for some type of intervention. Answer A is incorrect because, although it is important to create a project archive, it is not the purpose of distributing the information. Answer C is incorrect because project sponsorship should be resolved prior to project initiation. Occasionally a project is cancelled because it no longer meets the needs of the sponsors or company, but distributing the project information is not intended to keep sponsorship of the project. Answer D is incorrect because conflicts need to be managed by the project manager and resolved apart from reporting on the project.



Question 43 Answer B is correct. Answer A is incorrect because a schedule change may not mean there is a scope change. Likewise, answer C is incorrect because a change request may not require a scope change. Answer D is incorrect because a change in resource allocation does not mean a scope change has occurred.



Question 44 Answer B is correct. Although the WBS is key to creating the schedule, it is not used for schedule management. Therefore, answer A is incorrect. Payments to vendors may indeed be based on tasks in the WBS, but they are not the primary method for discerning payment. The contract is the method by which the payment obligations are defined. Therefore, answer C is incorrect. Answer D is also incorrect because the WBS is created after project initiation.



Question 45 Answer C is correct. The WBS is an effective stakeholder communication tool. Answer A is incorrect because there are no calendar dates on the WBS. Calendar dates are on the project schedule. Answer B is incorrect because the business justification is not part of the WBS. Answer D is incorrect because dependencies are shown on the network diagram and project schedule, but not the WBS.



Question 46 Answer C is correct. The solicitation process is the means by which you let vendors know what your requirements are. They then respond with a proposal on how they can meet your requirements. Answer A is incorrect because requirement gathering is done in the procurement planning stage. Answer B is incorrect because the actual determination of vendor happens in the source selection phase. Answer D is incorrect because price negotiation happens in the source selection phase as well.



Question 47 Answer D is correct. Answer A is only partially correct because the corporate procurement policies do affect a contract, but that is not when it is created. Answer B is incorrect because the receipt of a proposal does not make a legal contract. Answer C is incorrect because a contract must be signed before work can be done. However, in certain circumstances, the actual act of work being produced can be considered a default contract. Project managers need to avoid this.



Question 48 Answer B is correct. Scope verification deals with formal acceptance of the project work results. Answer A is incorrect because this describes quality assurance. Answer C is incorrect because verbal acceptance is not adequate. Answer D is incorrect because it is focused on verification of assigned tasks rather than work results.



Question 49 Answer D is correct. Work authorization is intended to ensure the proper tasks are done at the proper time. It is usually a formal system with written authorizations. A work authorization system does prevent projects from spending money at the wrong times. However, it doesn't prevent them from spending unnecessarily. A good work authorization system is designed to work for the scale of the project.



Question 50 Answer B is correct. Execution will result in completed tasks, development of team members and information gathering regarding costs and quality. So, Answers A, C and would not be correct. It can also result in change requests, but it does not have to.