PMP Practice Test

1. A project manager notices two team members have had escalating disagreements over task ownership for three sprints. The PM meets with both privately, then facilitates a joint session to redefine responsibilities. Which conflict resolution technique is this primarily?

• A. Withdraw/avoid, by delaying the discussion until tempers cool
• B. Collaborate/problem-solve, by incorporating multiple viewpoints into a mutually agreed solution
• C. Force/direct, by imposing one person's viewpoint at the expense of the other
• D. Smooth/accommodate, by emphasizing areas of agreement over disagreement

2. A project team is co-located but morale has dropped after a difficult client escalation. The project manager wants to rebuild trust and cohesion before the next milestone review. Which servant leadership behavior best supports this goal?

• A. Assigning additional tasks to keep the team too busy to dwell on the incident
• B. Removing organizational impediments and actively listening to team concerns
• C. Escalating the morale issue directly to the sponsor for a decision
• D. Waiting until the retrospective at project close to address it

3. A functional manager repeatedly reassigns a key resource off the project without notice, jeopardizing the schedule. What is the most effective first action for the project manager to take?

• A. Immediately replace the resource with an external contractor without discussion
• B. Escalate to the project sponsor and request formal disciplinary action against the manager
• C. Have a direct conversation with the functional manager to understand priorities and negotiate resource commitments
• D. Update the risk register and take no further action until the next status meeting

4. A distributed team spans four time zones and communicates primarily via chat and email. The project manager notices important decisions are being made informally and not reaching all team members. What should the project manager do first?

• A. Mandate that all team members work overlapping hours regardless of time zone
• B. Establish a documented communication plan that defines how and where decisions are recorded and shared
• C. Rely on the most active chat channel as the single source of truth without formal documentation
• D. Reduce the team size to eliminate coordination overhead

5. During a sprint, a developer identifies that a teammate is quietly struggling to keep pace due to a personal issue affecting focus. The project manager wants to address this with emotional intelligence. What is the best approach?

• A. Document the performance issue immediately in a formal write-up for HR
• B. Ignore the issue since personal matters are outside the project manager's scope
• C. Privately check in with empathy, acknowledge the situation, and collaboratively adjust workload if needed
• D. Publicly discuss the performance gap during the daily stand-up to ensure transparency

6. A new team member joins an established agile team mid-project and is unfamiliar with the team's working agreements. What should the project manager prioritize to support this individual's integration?

• A. Assign the most complex backlog item first to quickly assess their skill level
• B. Onboard them with team norms, working agreements, and pairing with an experienced member
• C. Have them shadow silently for the remainder of the project without active participation
• D. Skip onboarding since agile teams are expected to self-organize immediately

7. A project sponsor asks the project manager to bypass the change control process for a stakeholder-requested scope addition because the stakeholder is influential. What should the project manager do?

• A. Comply immediately since sponsors outrank change control boards
• B. Explain the risks of bypassing governance and recommend routing the request through the established change control process
• C. Quietly implement the change and update documentation retroactively
• D. Refuse to discuss the request and refer the sponsor to legal counsel

8. A project manager is coaching a newly promoted team lead who tends to micromanage. Which coaching approach best supports the team lead's growth toward effective delegation?

• A. Take over the team lead's responsibilities to demonstrate the correct approach
• B. Ask guiding questions that help the team lead reflect on the impact of micromanagement and identify their own solutions
• C. Tell the team lead exactly what to do in every situation going forward
• D. Avoid the topic to prevent damaging the team lead's confidence

9. Two departments on a cross-functional project disagree on which vendor's data format to adopt, each citing valid technical constraints. The project manager convenes both leads to jointly evaluate options against shared project objectives. This reflects which principle of stakeholder engagement?

• A. Deferring the decision indefinitely until one department changes its position
• B. Delegating the decision entirely to the more senior department to avoid conflict
• C. Building consensus through collaborative decision-making aligned to shared objectives
• D. Selecting the option preferred by the department with the larger budget contribution

10. A project manager observes that a team member consistently delivers excellent technical work but avoids speaking up in retrospectives, potentially withholding valuable process improvement ideas. What is the most appropriate action?

• A. Require the team member to present at every future retrospective regardless of comfort level
• B. Create a safer, lower-pressure channel (such as anonymous input or one-on-one conversations) to surface their insights
• C. Exclude the team member from retrospectives since they do not contribute verbally
• D. Note the behavior as a performance deficiency in the next formal review

11. A project manager is building a team charter at project kickoff. Which element is most essential to include to prevent later disputes about how the team will operate?

• A. A detailed list of every stakeholder's salary and title
• B. Ground rules for communication, decision-making, and conflict resolution agreed upon by the team
• C. A fixed schedule of mandatory overtime for the duration of the project
• D. A complete technical architecture diagram for the deliverable

12. A project manager wants to assign clear accountability for each major deliverable so exactly one person is answerable for its completion, while others may still contribute or be consulted. Which tool is best suited for this?

• A. A RACI matrix, distinguishing Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed roles
• B. A burndown chart tracking remaining work over time
• C. A stakeholder power/interest grid
• D. A control chart with upper and lower control limits

13. A project manager joins a team where members hesitate to raise problems. What action most directly addresses this?

• A. Building psychological safety by responding to raised problems without blame and acting on what is surfaced, so raising issues is demonstrably worthwhile
• B. Requiring team members to report problems in writing to the sponsor
• C. Introducing penalties for problems discovered late
• D. Reducing team meeting frequency to save time

14. Two senior team members disagree publicly about a technical approach and the disagreement is stalling work. What is the project manager's most appropriate first response?

• A. Facilitate a structured discussion surfacing each position's reasoning and the criteria for deciding, so the team converges on a decision they can commit to
• B. Escalate immediately to the sponsor for a ruling
• C. Separate the two members so they no longer interact
• D. Decide the technical approach personally to end the delay

15. A team is newly formed and members are polite but not yet productive together. Which stage of team development is this and what does the leader provide?

• A. Forming, requiring clear direction, defined roles and explicit expectations while the team has not yet established its own norms
• B. Performing, requiring delegation and minimal intervention
• C. Norming, requiring the leader to step back entirely
• D. Adjourning, requiring closure activities

16. A servant leadership approach is adopted. What does it emphasize?

• A. Removing impediments, providing what the team needs and developing its members, so the team can deliver rather than the leader directing every action
• B. The leader making all decisions to relieve the team of responsibility
• C. Minimizing communication with the team to avoid interruption
• D. Delegating accountability for outcomes entirely to team members

17. A stakeholder with high power and low interest is identified. What engagement approach fits?

• A. Keep satisfied, providing enough information to maintain support without demanding attention they have not offered
• B. Manage closely with frequent detailed updates
• C. Monitor with minimal effort
• D. Keep informed with regular detailed reporting

18. A team formed six weeks ago has moved past initial politeness, and members are now openly clashing over technical approaches and unclear role boundaries, with two arguments erupting in the last planning meeting. How should the project manager interpret and respond to this situation?

• A. Treat the conflict as a performance problem and issue formal warnings to the members involved
• B. Recognize the team is in the storming stage and facilitate open discussion to clarify roles and working norms
• C. Disband the current sub-teams and reassign members so that conflicting personalities are separated
• D. Escalate the disagreements to the sponsor so leadership can impose a technical direction

19. A project team is distributed across three continents and struggles to choose tools for day-to-day collaboration. Some members have limited bandwidth, others work asynchronously, and decisions often need rapid input. What should most influence the project manager's selection of communication technology?

• A. The technology the project manager personally finds most efficient for status reporting
• B. Whichever platform the organization already licenses, regardless of fit
• C. The tool with the richest feature set, since more capability always improves collaboration
• D. Urgency of information needs, technology availability and ease of use, and the team's working environment

20. During planning in a matrix organization, a project manager knows the project will need two specialists from the analytics department during a period when that department is historically overloaded. What is the most proactive way to secure these resources?

• A. Negotiate resource commitments with the analytics functional manager now and document them in the resource management plan and resource calendars
• B. Wait until the work is scheduled to begin and then submit an urgent staffing request
• C. Add schedule padding so the project can absorb whatever delay the resource shortage causes
• D. Plan to outsource the analytics work immediately without consulting the functional manager

21. A consistently strong developer has been working long hours for a month; her code review comments have become terse, defect rates in her modules are rising, and she has skipped several team syncs. What should the project manager do first?

• A. Publicly remind the whole team about quality standards at the next meeting
• B. Reassign her critical tasks to other developers without discussion to reduce risk
• C. Meet with her privately to understand her workload and well-being, then rebalance assignments toward a sustainable pace
• D. Document the quality decline and place her on a formal performance improvement plan

22. Minutes before a client demo, two analysts begin disputing which of them caused a data discrepancy. The project manager steps in, emphasizes how much of the dataset both agree is correct, and suggests the ownership question be examined after the demo. Which conflict resolution technique is the project manager using?

• A. Smoothing, because areas of agreement are emphasized while the underlying issue is deferred
• B. Forcing, because the manager imposed a decision on both parties
• C. Compromising, because each analyst gave up part of their position
• D. Collaborating, because both parties are working toward a joint solution

23. During system commissioning, an engineer reports that a pressure valve configuration could create a safety hazard if energized. Two leads disagree about whether the concern is valid, and the energization is scheduled within the hour. What conflict approach is most appropriate for the project manager right now?

• A. Withdraw from the disagreement and let the more senior lead decide
• B. Ask the leads to split the difference by energizing at reduced pressure
• C. Direct an immediate halt to energization until the safety concern is formally assessed, even though one lead objects
• D. Schedule a collaborative workshop for next week so both leads can fully explore the disagreement

24. Two designers disagree about the shade of an internal admin screen's background color and keep raising it in meetings, though the style guide leaves it discretionary and no stakeholder has expressed a preference. The release is in two days. How should the project manager handle this conflict?

• A. Convene a formal facilitated session to fully resolve the color question before release
• B. Force a decision personally and instruct the designers never to raise the topic again
• C. Escalate the disagreement to the product sponsor for a ruling
• D. Defer the discussion until after the release, since the issue is trivial and does not affect the deliverable's acceptance

25. Two team leads each want the single available senior tester assigned fully to their workstream. After discussion, the project manager arranges for the tester to spend mornings with one workstream and afternoons with the other, and both leads accept the arrangement with some reluctance. Which conflict resolution outcome does this illustrate?

• A. Collaborating, since both leads participated in the discussion
• B. Forcing, since the manager dictated the split schedule
• C. Compromising, since each party gave up part of what they wanted to reach an acceptable middle ground
• D. Smoothing, since the manager minimized the disagreement

26. After a salary adjustment resolved widespread pay complaints, a project manager is surprised that team engagement scores remain flat and discretionary effort has not improved. Which motivation concept best explains this result?

• A. Compensation is a hygiene factor whose correction removes dissatisfaction but does not itself create motivation, which comes from achievement, recognition, and growth
• B. Engagement scores are lagging indicators and will rise automatically next quarter
• C. Pay increases always reduce motivation by shifting focus to extrinsic rewards
• D. Team members are inherently unmotivated and require closer supervision

27. A project manager leads a team of experienced research engineers who complain that rigid task assignments and detailed daily oversight are draining their enthusiasm. Which adjustment is most likely to improve their motivation?

• A. Introduce a bonus tied to hours logged each week
• B. Add a second daily check-in to catch problems earlier
• C. Give the engineers greater autonomy over how they accomplish outcomes, with opportunities to deepen expertise and a clear connection to project purpose
• D. Rotate all engineers to new task areas weekly to keep work novel

28. A newly appointed delivery manager insists on approving every task before work starts, saying that people will slack off the moment supervision is relaxed. Which management assumption does this behavior reflect, and what is its likely effect on an experienced team?

• A. Theory Y; the team will feel trusted and take more initiative
• B. Theory X; the close control will likely erode trust and initiative in a team that is already self-motivated
• C. Servant leadership; the manager is shielding the team from external pressure
• D. Situational leadership; the manager is matching style to the team's low maturity

29. A project manager oversees two team members: a new hire who is enthusiastic but has never performed the upcoming integration task, and a veteran who has done it many times and works independently. How should the project manager adapt leadership style between them?

• A. Provide the new hire with specific direction and frequent check-ins while delegating the task to the veteran with minimal oversight
• B. Supervise both closely so neither feels singled out
• C. Delegate fully to both, since equal treatment builds fairness
• D. Pair them and manage them as a single unit with identical expectations

30. A project manager wants to develop a promising coordinator by delegating responsibility for the vendor-onboarding workstream. Which delegation approach gives the coordinator the best chance to grow while protecting the project?

• A. Define the outcome, boundaries, and check-in points, then let the coordinator decide how to achieve it while remaining available for support
• B. Hand over the workstream completely and avoid all involvement so the coordinator learns from unassisted failure
• C. Provide a detailed step-by-step script the coordinator must follow exactly
• D. Delegate only trivial administrative pieces and retain all decisions personally

31. A project manager wants to recognize outstanding work by a delivery group whose members come from a culture that strongly values group harmony and views individual spotlighting as uncomfortable. What is the most appropriate recognition approach?

• A. Name a single most valuable performer at the all-hands meeting to set a visible example
• B. Recognize the group's collective achievement in a way that honors its shared effort, while offering any individual appreciation privately
• C. Skip recognition entirely to avoid any risk of cultural offense
• D. Apply the organization's standard individual-award template unchanged for consistency

32. Midway through planning, a project manager discovers that the upcoming migration requires containerization skills that no current team member possesses, and the work begins in ten weeks. What is the best course of action?

• A. Say nothing and hope the team can learn on the job once the migration starts
• B. Immediately replace two team members with external contractors who have the skill
• C. Arrange targeted training now for selected team members, track the skill gap in the resource management approach, and reassess readiness before the work begins
• D. Descope the migration so the existing skill set is sufficient

33. A senior architect meets monthly with a junior engineer to discuss long-term career direction, professional networks, and lessons from the architect's own experience, independent of any specific project task. Which development relationship does this describe?

• A. Coaching, because the architect is helping the engineer improve a specific skill
• B. Performance management, because the meetings are recurring and structured
• C. Training, because knowledge is being transferred from expert to novice
• D. Mentoring, because an experienced practitioner is providing broad, long-term career and professional guidance

34. In a tense steering meeting, a stakeholder accuses the project manager of hiding schedule problems. The project manager feels a surge of anger at the unfair claim. Which response best demonstrates emotional intelligence in the moment?

• A. End the meeting immediately to avoid saying something regrettable
• B. Stay silent for the rest of the meeting and address the accusation later by email
• C. Pause to manage the emotional reaction, acknowledge the stakeholder's concern, and offer to walk through the schedule data together
• D. Correct the stakeholder sharply so the accusation does not stand unchallenged

35. During a requirements session, a clinician gives a long, winding description of a workflow problem. Before proposing anything, the business analyst restates the problem in her own words and asks the clinician whether the summary captures his intent. Which communication skill is the analyst applying, and why does it matter?

• A. Feedback solicitation, because she is asking for opinions on her performance
• B. Nonverbal communication, because tone conveys most meaning
• C. Active listening, because paraphrasing and confirming understanding prevents requirements from being built on a misinterpretation
• D. Persuasion, because she is guiding the clinician toward a solution

36. A program spans teams in several countries, and the project manager notices that a regional office repeatedly misses planning sessions scheduled during its national holidays and late-evening hours. Team members there have begun disengaging. What should the project manager do?

• A. Ask the regional members to individually adjust their personal schedules to attend
• B. Require all regions to adopt headquarters' calendar and business hours for consistency
• C. Exclude the region from planning sessions and send them decisions afterward
• D. Incorporate regional calendars into scheduling, rotate meeting times across time zones, and build shared cultural awareness within the team

37. At the end of each quarter, a project manager evaluates how much the team's technical competencies, collaboration, and cross-training have improved, separate from whether deliverables are on schedule. Which purpose does this evaluation serve?

• A. It fulfills the organization's payroll compliance requirements
• B. It replaces earned value reporting for the quarter
• C. It determines contract penalties for underperforming vendors
• D. It assesses team effectiveness and development so the manager can target training, coaching, and team-building actions

38. A team entering a six-week stabilization push before a major go-live is currently scattered across two floors, and the project manager is offered a dedicated room where the whole team can sit together with visible boards and immediate access to one another. What is the strongest argument for accepting?

• A. It reduces facility costs by consolidating desk space
• B. It guarantees the go-live date will be met
• C. Colocation during an intense phase accelerates informal communication and rapid issue resolution when interaction needs are highest
• D. It allows the project manager to monitor attendance more closely

39. A veteran integration specialist retires in four months, and much of what she knows about the legacy interfaces exists only in her head. Documentation exists but is acknowledged to be incomplete. What is the most effective knowledge transfer strategy?

• A. Pair her with successors on live work, hold facilitated knowledge-sharing sessions, and supplement the documentation as gaps surface
• B. Ask her to spend her final four months writing documents full-time in isolation
• C. Record a single exit interview on her last day for the archive
• D. Rely on the existing documentation since some coverage already exists

40. A supplier's delivery lead insists on a schedule extension while the project manager needs the original date held. In their negotiation, the project manager asks questions and learns the supplier's real concern is a quality-inspection bottleneck, not total duration. The parties agree the project will lend an inspector, keeping the date intact. What negotiation principle does this outcome illustrate?

• A. Anchoring the discussion with an aggressive opening position
• B. Conceding early to preserve the long-term relationship
• C. Using formal authority to overrule the supplier's objection
• D. Exploring underlying interests rather than stated positions to find a mutually beneficial solution

41. In a balanced matrix organization, a project manager needs a database administrator from another department to prioritize the project's index-tuning request, but has no formal authority over that person. Which influence approach is most likely to succeed?

• A. Copy the administrator's manager on escalating emails until the work is done
• B. Offer to conceal a past mistake by the administrator in exchange for the favor
• C. Issue a written directive citing the project charter's authority
• D. Build the relationship, explain how the request supports shared organizational goals, and rely on expertise and reciprocity rather than command

42. An agile team is described as self-organizing, and a newly assigned project manager wonders what her role should be in daily task assignment. What best describes her responsibility toward this team?

• A. Step away entirely and provide no direction of any kind
• B. Provide vision, priorities, and boundaries, and let the team decide who does which tasks and how the work is organized
• C. Review and approve the team's internal task allocations before work proceeds
• D. Assign every task each morning so members do not waste time deciding

43. During a daily sync, a developer mentions that the team has been waiting three days for access credentials to the performance-testing environment, and the work is now blocking a sprint commitment. What should the project manager do?

• A. Tell the developer to find a workaround on his own machine
• B. Extend the sprint to accommodate the delay
• C. Note the delay and wait for the infrastructure group to process the request in normal order
• D. Treat the access delay as an impediment and actively pursue its resolution with the responsible group that day

44. A department manager whose staff will use the new system has stopped attending demos and privately tells colleagues the project will fail. Her cooperation is essential for user acceptance testing in two months. What should the project manager do first?

• A. Remove her from the stakeholder register since she is disengaged
• B. Meet with her one-on-one to understand her concerns before deciding how to re-engage her
• C. Report her negativity to the sponsor and request she be ordered to cooperate
• D. Proceed without her and plan acceptance testing around other departments

45. A chief operations officer tells a project manager that the weekly twelve-page status packet is useless to her, though she still wants to stay informed about the project's health. How should the project manager respond?

• A. Adapt the communication to her needs, such as a brief dashboard of key indicators, decisions needed, and top risks
• B. Continue the full packet, since consistent reporting to all stakeholders is a best practice
• C. Stop reporting to her entirely and rely on her to ask questions
• D. Forward the raw project schedule and issue log so she can extract what she needs

46. A project manager observes a team member repeatedly interrupt colleagues and dismiss their ideas during design sessions, and other members have begun to stay silent. How should the project manager deliver feedback to the interrupting team member?

• A. Privately and promptly, describing the specific observed behavior and its effect on the team, and agreeing on a change
• B. During the next design session, so the whole team witnesses the correction
• C. In the annual performance review, where formal feedback belongs
• D. Anonymously through a note left on the team channel

47. An agile team's working agreement says decisions made in refinement are final unless new information emerges, yet one member routinely reopens settled decisions days later, frustrating the group. Where should this behavior be addressed first?

• A. In a formal HR complaint filed by the project manager
• B. By the team itself, revisiting the working agreement in a retrospective and holding one another accountable to it
• C. By quietly ignoring it, since agreements are only guidelines
• D. By the sponsor, who has authority over team conduct

48. A project team includes three near-retirement specialists with deep legacy-platform expertise and four recent graduates fluent in the target cloud stack, and the two groups rarely interact. What should the project manager do to turn this composition into an advantage?

• A. Keep the groups separated so each works only within its strength
• B. Assign the graduates to legacy work exclusively so they learn the old system first
• C. Deliberately pair members across the two groups on migration tasks so legacy knowledge and cloud skills transfer in both directions
• D. Encourage the groups to compete for the best migration approach

49. An agile team wants stakeholders and members to absorb current sprint status without attending meetings or requesting reports, so it posts a large, continuously updated board showing sprint goals, task states, and blockers in the team area. What is this practice called?

• A. A communication blackout, since meetings are eliminated
• B. A push communication, since information is sent to each stakeholder
• C. A status audit, since progress is formally verified
• D. An information radiator, a highly visible display that passively broadcasts current status to anyone who looks

50. A project manager reviewing a quarter's worth of team disputes wants to anticipate where future conflict is most likely to arise. Based on common patterns in project environments, which sources should the manager watch most closely?

• A. Personality clashes, which cause the overwhelming majority of project conflict
• B. Competition over schedules, priorities, and scarce resources, which drive most project conflict more often than personal differences
• C. Salary disparities among team members
• D. Differences in preferred documentation templates

51. During a difficult replatforming effort, one leader keeps the team focused on why the change matters and paints a picture of the improved future state, while another concentrates on updating the schedule, tracking actions, and administering the budget. How are these two sets of behaviors best characterized?

• A. The first is micromanagement and the second is delegation
• B. Both are management; leadership only occurs at the executive level
• C. The first exemplifies leadership, providing direction and inspiration, while the second exemplifies management, coordinating and administering the work; effective project managers blend both
• D. Both are leadership; administration is not part of project work

52. An executive asks a project manager what distinguishes the organization's best-performing project teams from the rest. Which characteristic should the project manager cite as foundational to high team performance?

• A. Uniformity of background, which minimizes disagreement
• B. Competition among members for individual recognition
• C. Strict hierarchy, so every question has a single decision-maker
• D. Mutual trust and open communication, which allow members to share problems, take risks, and hold each other accountable

53. A project is using a predictive approach and the project manager is finalizing the WBS with the team. A team member argues that a work package is too large to estimate accurately. What is the best resolution?

• A. Accept the estimate as-is since the WBS has already been approved by the sponsor
• B. Decompose the work package further until each component can be estimated with reasonable confidence
• C. Assign an arbitrary duration to keep the schedule on track
• D. Remove the work package from the WBS entirely to simplify planning

54. A project manager is defining acceptance criteria for a deliverable in a predictive project. The sponsor insists criteria be finalized only after the deliverable is complete, to 'stay flexible.' Why should the project manager push back on this approach?

• A. Acceptance criteria have no bearing on scope validation in predictive projects
• B. Defining acceptance criteria upfront ensures scope clarity and reduces the risk of disputes during scope validation
• C. Acceptance criteria are only relevant for adaptive projects, not predictive ones
• D. Finalizing criteria after completion speeds up the schedule with no drawbacks

55. A project's cost performance index (CPI) is 0.85 and schedule performance index (SPI) is 1.05 at the midpoint of execution. What does this combination most likely indicate?

• A. The project is ahead of schedule but spending more than planned for the work completed
• B. The project is behind schedule and under budget
• C. The project is exactly on track for both cost and schedule
• D. The project has no earned value data available yet

56. A project manager is developing the risk management plan and needs to determine how the team will categorize and prioritize identified risks. Which tool is most appropriate for this purpose?

• A. A risk breakdown structure (RBS) combined with a probability and impact matrix
• B. A resource histogram showing team utilization over time
• C. A responsibility assignment matrix (RACI chart)
• D. A control chart tracking process variation

57. During execution, a quality inspection reveals that a batch of deliverables fails to meet specifications due to a flawed manufacturing process. The project manager wants to identify the underlying cause rather than just the symptom. Which technique is most appropriate?

• A. A fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram to explore root causes across categories such as people, process, and equipment
• B. A Gantt chart to review the sequencing of manufacturing tasks
• C. A stakeholder engagement assessment matrix
• D. A resource calendar to check equipment availability only

58. A project manager is closing out a project phase and needs to formally document that deliverables meet the acceptance criteria agreed upon with the customer. Which process is being performed?

• A. Validate Scope
• B. Control Quality
• C. Define Scope
• D. Plan Scope Management

59. A project manager is using rolling wave planning on a multi-year infrastructure project. Which statement best describes why this approach was selected?

• A. It allows near-term work to be planned in detail while far-term work remains at a higher level until more information is available
• B. It requires all activities for the entire project to be fully detailed at the outset
• C. It eliminates the need for a work breakdown structure
• D. It is only applicable to purely adaptive projects and never to predictive ones

60. A team using an adaptive approach completes a two-week iteration and holds a session to reflect on what went well, what did not, and what to change. What is this session called and what is its primary purpose?

• A. A retrospective, used to continuously improve team process and collaboration
• B. A sprint review, used to demonstrate the product increment to stakeholders
• C. A daily standup, used to synchronize daily work
• D. A backlog refinement session, used to reprioritize upcoming work

61. A project manager discovers during monitoring that a approved change request was implemented but never updated in the schedule baseline. What is the most appropriate corrective action?

• A. Ignore the discrepancy since the work is already complete
• B. Update the schedule baseline through the integrated change control process to reflect the approved change
• C. Create an entirely new project schedule from scratch
• D. Instruct the team to revert the implemented change to match the outdated baseline

62. A project manager wants to determine the most likely project duration by using three-point estimates (optimistic, most likely, pessimistic) for key activities. Which technique should be applied?

• A. Monte Carlo simulation using PERT-based three-point estimates
• B. A single-point analogous estimate based on a similar past project
• C. A fixed-price contract estimate from a vendor proposal
• D. A resource leveling heuristic

63. A project team is deciding between a predictive and a hybrid approach for a product with well-understood requirements but an uncertain regulatory environment for one specific module. Which strategy best fits this situation?

• A. Use a fully predictive approach for the entire project since most requirements are well understood
• B. Use a hybrid approach: predictive planning for the well-understood scope and an adaptive approach for the uncertain regulatory module
• C. Use a fully adaptive approach for the entire project regardless of how well requirements are understood
• D. Avoid iterative techniques entirely since the project has any predictive elements at all

64. A project manager is calculating the estimate at completion (EAC) for a project that is expected to continue at its current cost performance rate. Which formula is most appropriate?

• A. EAC = AC + (BAC − EV)
• B. EAC = BAC / CPI
• C. EAC = AC + BAC
• D. EAC = EV − AC

65. A definition of done is established by an adaptive team. What does it prevent?

• A. Work being reported as complete while testing, documentation or integration remain outstanding, which would accumulate as hidden unfinished work
• B. Stakeholders requesting changes to completed work
• C. The team estimating work inaccurately
• D. The project exceeding its budget

66. A project is executed in a predictive life cycle. What characterizes it relative to an adaptive one?

• A. Scope is defined early and changes are managed through a formal process, which suits stable requirements and known solutions
• B. Scope emerges through iterations with frequent re-prioritization
• C. No planning is performed before execution begins
• D. Change is prohibited entirely once the plan is baselined

67. A change request is raised that would increase scope. What must occur before work begins on it?

• A. Assessment of the impact on schedule, cost, quality and risk, then a decision by the authorized body, with approved changes updating the baseline
• B. Immediate implementation, with documentation completed afterward
• C. Rejection by default, since scope changes are not permitted
• D. Approval by the requesting stakeholder alone

68. Earned value reporting shows a cost performance index of 0.85 and a schedule performance index of 1.05. What does this indicate?

• A. The project is over budget for the work completed but ahead of schedule
• B. The project is under budget and behind schedule
• C. The project is both over budget and behind schedule
• D. The project is both under budget and ahead of schedule

69. A project has a budget at completion of $500,000, has earned value of $200,000 and actual cost of $250,000. What is the cost variance?

• A. Negative $50,000, indicating the project has spent $50,000 more than the value delivered
• B. Positive $50,000, indicating a favourable position
• C. Negative $300,000, being budget at completion minus earned value
• D. Zero, since earned value and actual cost are both below budget

70. A network diagram shows the critical path. What does it represent?

• A. The longest sequence of dependent activities determining the shortest possible project duration, where activities have zero float
• B. The sequence of the most expensive activities
• C. The sequence of activities assigned to the most senior staff
• D. The shortest path through the network

71. A schedule must be compressed without reducing scope. What distinguishes crashing from fast tracking?

• A. Crashing adds resources to critical activities increasing cost, while fast tracking overlaps activities previously sequential, increasing risk and potential rework
• B. Crashing overlaps activities and fast tracking adds resources
• C. Both reduce the project's scope
• D. Both reduce cost as well as duration

72. A risk is identified with high probability and high impact on a critical objective. Which response strategy eliminates the threat entirely?

• A. Avoid, by changing the plan so the risk's cause no longer applies to the project
• B. Mitigate, by reducing probability or impact
• C. Transfer, by shifting the impact to a third party
• D. Accept, by acknowledging it without action

73. A risk register entry describes an opportunity rather than a threat. Which response strategies apply?

• A. Exploit, enhance, share, accept and escalate, mirroring the threat strategies with the intent of increasing rather than decreasing the effect
• B. Only accept, since opportunities require no management
• C. The same strategies as threats with identical names
• D. Only avoid and mitigate

74. A contingency reserve is established. What is it intended to cover?

• A. Identified risks that have been analysed, and it sits within the cost baseline under the project manager's authority
• B. Unknown risks outside the baseline, controlled by management
• C. Approved scope changes only
• D. Routine operating expenses of the project team

75. A quality management approach distinguishes prevention from inspection. What is the practical implication?

• A. Preventing defects is generally less costly than detecting and correcting them, so quality is built in rather than inspected in
• B. Inspection eliminates the need for prevention activities
• C. Prevention and inspection cost the same
• D. Neither is necessary where the team is experienced

76. Quality assurance and quality control are distinguished. What does each address?

• A. Assurance applies only after project closure
• B. Both inspect the same deliverables at different times
• C. Assurance inspects deliverables and control audits processes
• D. Assurance audits whether processes are adequate and being followed, while control inspects deliverables against requirements

77. An adaptive team holds a retrospective at the end of each iteration. What is its purpose?

• A. Inspecting how the team worked and agreeing specific improvements to try next iteration, which is distinct from reviewing the product delivered
• B. Demonstrating completed work to stakeholders for feedback
• C. Planning the next iteration's scope
• D. Evaluating individual team members' performance

78. A team's velocity is measured over several iterations. What is it appropriate to use it for?

• A. Forecasting how much that team can complete in future iterations, not comparing teams or assessing individual productivity
• B. Comparing the productivity of different teams
• C. Setting individual performance targets
• D. Determining team members' compensation

79. A project's stakeholder identifies a requirement late in an adaptive project. How is it handled?

• A. Added to the backlog and prioritized against existing items, since accommodating change is expected and the constraint is capacity rather than the plan
• B. Rejected because the plan was already agreed
• C. Added to the current iteration immediately regardless of commitment
• D. Escalated to the sponsor for a formal change request

80. A project is being closed. What must occur regardless of whether it completed successfully or was terminated early?

• A. Formal closure activities including releasing resources, closing procurements, obtaining acceptance where applicable and recording lessons learned
• B. Closure activities only where the project delivered its objectives
• C. Transfer of the project manager to a new project without further action
• D. Retention of all resources until the next project begins

81. A project manager reviewing a vendor contract notices ambiguous language about ownership of intellectual property created during the engagement. What is the best course of action before work begins?

• A. Proceed with the contract as-is and address IP disputes if they arise later
• B. Work with procurement and legal to clarify IP ownership terms in the contract before execution begins
• C. Assume the organization automatically owns all IP regardless of contract wording
• D. Let the vendor unilaterally decide IP ownership once deliverables are complete

82. A company launches a project explicitly to comply with a new environmental regulation that takes effect in six months. Which category of business need does this project primarily address?

• A. A market demand opportunity
• B. A legal or regulatory requirement
• C. A customer request unrelated to compliance
• D. An internal process improvement with no external driver

83. A project manager is evaluating whether a proposed project aligns with organizational strategy. Which document should be reviewed first to make this determination?

• A. The project's detailed risk register
• B. The organization's strategic plan and business case for the project
• C. The team's daily stand-up notes
• D. The vendor's technical proposal

84. A project manager calculates that a proposed initiative has a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 0.8. What does this indicate about the initiative's financial viability?

• A. The benefits exceed the costs, making it a strong investment
• B. The costs exceed the benefits, suggesting the initiative may not be financially justified
• C. The benefits and costs are exactly equal
• D. BCR cannot be used to evaluate project viability

85. An organization is deciding between two mutually exclusive projects using net present value (NPV) analysis. Project A has an NPV of $150,000 and Project B has an NPV of $95,000, with similar risk profiles. Which project should generally be prioritized based on this data alone?

• A. Project B, because a lower NPV indicates lower risk exposure
• B. Project A, because a higher NPV indicates greater expected value creation
• C. Neither project, because NPV cannot be used to compare mutually exclusive projects
• D. Both projects equally, since NPV should be ignored in project selection

86. A project manager is assessing whether continued investment in a struggling project is still justified after significant funds have already been spent. Which principle should guide this decision?

• A. Continue funding the project because of the amount already invested (the sunk cost fallacy)
• B. Evaluate the decision based on future costs and benefits only, since past costs are sunk and irrecoverable
• C. Always cancel any project that has exceeded its original budget
• D. Defer the decision indefinitely to avoid political conflict

87. A project manager learns midway through execution that a new corporate policy requires all vendor payments to route through a centralized procurement platform. Which type of organizational process asset (OPA) update does this represent?

• A. A change to project-specific technical specifications
• B. An update to organizational policies and procedures affecting how the project must operate
• C. A change to the project's individual risk register only
• D. A revision to the team's working agreements exclusively

88. A project manager is evaluating enterprise environmental factors (EEFs) that could influence project planning. Which of the following is the best example of an EEF?

• A. The organization's lessons learned repository from prior projects
• B. Government regulations and marketplace conditions relevant to the project's industry
• C. A standardized project charter template used across the organization
• D. The organization's historical risk register templates

89. A project manager is asked to justify a project using a return on investment (ROI) analysis. The finance team notes the project has a payback period of 4 years against an organizational threshold of 3 years. What is the most appropriate interpretation?

• A. The project automatically qualifies for approval since ROI was calculated at all
• B. The project exceeds the organization's payback threshold and may require further justification or rejection based on this criterion
• C. Payback period is irrelevant once ROI is calculated
• D. A longer payback period is always preferable to a shorter one

90. A project manager is preparing a project charter and must identify the business justification for undertaking the work. Which of the following best belongs in this section?

• A. A detailed task-level schedule with resource assignments
• B. A summary of the business case, including why the project is being pursued and its expected value
• C. The full technical requirements specification
• D. A list of every individual risk with mitigation plans

91. A project manager identifies that a competitor recently released a similar product, changing the market landscape mid-project. What should the project manager do first in response to this external change?

• A. Assess the impact on the business case and consult the sponsor about whether project objectives still hold
• B. Immediately halt all project work without informing stakeholders
• C. Ignore external market changes since they are outside the project's control
• D. Unilaterally change the project's scope to match the competitor's product

92. A stakeholder with high power and high interest is identified during stakeholder analysis. According to standard stakeholder engagement guidance, how should this stakeholder generally be managed?

• A. Monitor with minimal effort
• B. Manage closely with frequent, proactive engagement
• C. Keep informed with minimal engagement effort
• D. Ignore unless they raise concerns directly

93. During project initiation, the project manager and sponsor disagree on whether a proposed initiative should proceed given uncertain market conditions. Which artifact should primarily guide this go/no-go decision?

• A. The team's daily standup log
• B. The business case, updated with current assumptions and expected benefits
• C. The most recent sprint retrospective notes
• D. The project's communication management plan

94. A contract is awarded as firm fixed price. Who bears the risk of cost overruns?

• A. The seller, which is why this type suits well-defined scope and typically carries a higher price reflecting the risk premium
• B. The buyer, who reimburses actual costs incurred
• C. The risk is shared equally regardless of scope definition
• D. Neither party, since overruns are prohibited by the contract

95. A project must demonstrate alignment with organizational strategy. What establishes this?

• A. The business case, which states the need, expected benefits and how they support strategic objectives, and which is revisited as conditions change
• B. The project schedule showing the delivery date
• C. The resource assignment matrix
• D. The risk register

96. A benefits realization plan is prepared. What does it address that the project plan does not?

• A. How and when benefits will be measured and by whom after delivery, since benefits usually accrue after the project closes
• B. The sequence of project activities
• C. The assignment of team members to tasks
• D. The procurement of project materials

97. A project faces a newly announced regulatory requirement affecting its deliverable. What is the appropriate response?

• A. Assess the impact on scope, schedule, cost and risk, and process it through change control, since compliance is not optional but its implementation must still be managed
• B. Implement the required changes immediately outside change control
• C. Defer consideration until the regulation is enforced
• D. Cancel the project

98. An organization operates a project management office. Which type exerts the most control over projects?

• A. A directive office, which manages the projects directly, compared with controlling offices that require compliance and supportive offices that provide templates and advice
• B. A supportive office, which mandates methodology
• C. A controlling office, which manages projects directly
• D. All types exert identical control

99. A project manager works in a weak matrix organization. What authority do they typically hold?

• A. Limited authority with resources controlled by functional managers, so influence and negotiation matter more than positional power
• B. Full authority over resources and budget
• C. The same authority as in a projectized organization
• D. No involvement in resource decisions of any kind

100. A project manager becomes aware that a team member has misrepresented test results to meet a deadline. What is required?

• A. Address it directly and report it through the appropriate channel, since honesty and responsibility obligations do not yield to schedule pressure
• B. Allow it to stand if the deadline is genuinely critical
• C. Correct the record quietly without addressing the conduct
• D. Wait until the project completes before raising it