All posts by David McLachlan

PMP Exam Question Session 19

In this series we will walk through five PMP Practice Exam Questions each day – a great way to set up your morning as you prepare to pass the PMP Exam. It is also useful for the CAPM exam, as the content is very similar.

We will also figure them out together, and you’ll see the thought process behind solving these PMP exam questions.

I hope you enjoy!

Question 1

A vendor is hired for your project and will charge you $30 per hour, plus materials. What is this type of contract called?

A) Cost plus fixed fee
B) Time and materials
C) Task and materials
D) Cost plus incentive fee

Question 2

Your project has had most of its products delivered by a third party. The project sponsor who will own these products in their functional area is not happy with the resulting products. The vendor believes they are suitable. What process will you go through to arrange a suitable outcome for both parties?

A) Quality Administration
B) Contract Administration
C) Project Administration
D) Claims Administration

Question 3

You are working within the procurement department of a company and a project has approached you for a template for formal documents they can use to collect information, quotes or proposals from potential vendors. What are these documents called?

A) Bid Documents
B) Vendor Documents
C) Audit Documents
D) Advertising Documents

Question 4

As a project manager you are aware that communication can become more complex, the more people there are to communicate to. How many different communication channels would there be with a project team of 19 people?

A) 380
B) 190
C) 171
D) 19

Question 5

You are working on a project with many different stakeholders and it is vital to communicate project updates early and often. What is the best type of communication method for passing information to stakeholders?

A) Telephone
B) Face to face
C) Emails
D) Formal report

– See all the PMP Exam Questions –

PMP Practice Exam Questions and Answers | 21

December 17, 2020PMP Exam Question PracticeDavid McLachlan

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PMP Exam Question Session 21

We will also figure them out together, and you’ll see the thought process behind solving these PMP exam questions.

I hope you enjoy!

Question 1

You are working as a project manager with a business analyst and a tester on your team. You need to rank the issues occurring during testing from the most occurring to the least occurring, to see where to focus on first. What will you use?

A) Control chart
B) Pareto Diagram
C) Flow Chart
D) Check Sheet

Question 2

You are working through the quality management process of a project in the finance sector, and need to select the most appropriate option from a variety of options. What technique will you use?

A) Group activities
B) Agreements
C) Decision Making
D) Meetings

Question 3

You are working with a project manager in the Quality area of a project, with the aim of improving the end to end life-cycle of the project’s development. You will need to identify the problem, discover the underlying causes that lead to it, and develop preventive actions. What is this called?

A) Flow chart Analysis
B) Root Cause Analysis
C) Risk Cause Analysis
D) Corrective Analysis

Question 4

What would be the total of the Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) type of contract with a target cost of $421,000 plus a fixed fee of $45,000, if the project actual spent costs at the end is $251,000?

A) $45,000
B) $421,000
C) $296,000
D) $121,000

Question 5

You are working with a third party vendor to deliver a part of your project, and needing to ensure they will deliver what you need and on time. Price has been agreed, but other things are still to be negotiated. Which of the following is one of the items that can be negotiated as part of a procurement contract?

A) The type of software used
B) Your bonus
C) Size of the project
D) Project Management process to be used

– See all the PMP Exam Questions –

Project Management Key Concepts

December 17, 2020Project Management Key ConceptsDavid McLachlan

Project management key concepts

Below you will find dozens of key concepts in project management, direct from the Project Management Body of Knowledge. No matter what your role or project methodology, you will come across these key concepts in your career, and understanding them will help you find success!

01 – Tools for Project Integration Management

02 – Tools for Project Scope Management

03 – Tools for Project Schedule Management

04 – Tools for Project Cost Management

05 – Project Quality Management

06 – Project Resource Management

07 – Project Risk Management

08 – Project Procurement Management

09 – Project Stakeholder Management

– David McLachlan

Leadership Quote – Learn from Failure and Make Mistakes – Watson

December 17, 2020QuotesDavid McLachlan

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“You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because that’s where you will find success.” – Thomas J. Watson

Have you heard this leadership quote?

Thomas J. Watson is saying there is a difference in the way you can react when you fail. You can be discouraged and give up. Or you can learn your lessons from the failure and use those to improve on your next try. When you keep trying in this way, finding success is just a matter of when.

Quote Watson Make Mistakes and Learn

The Definition of Insanity

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result.

Likewise when we try something and fail, if we don’t change or grow from that failure then we are in that same definition of insanity. But failure gives us a unique gift. For those of us mature enough to see it, that gift is a lesson wrapped in a little bit of hurt. After all, not many people like to fail.

Seeing the good in failure and seeing the lessons in failure can be a tough thing to do. Our ego might be hurt – we might make excuses or find reasons for that failure that don’t belong to us. “It was their fault,” or “The market just isn’t right,” or “It just wasn’t the right time,” are all things that aren’t to do with us. And if they aren’t to do with us, then we can’t fix them.

The downfall with blaming others or our external situation when something goes wrong is that it also means we cannot control it. And if we cannot control it, we cannot improve it, we cannot make it better for next time. What Thomas J. Watson is saying in his quote is don’t be discouraged by failure, use it to learn. And when you learn and put those lessons into your next attempt, then it is only a matter of time before you win.

– David McLachlan

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The Requirements Management Plan (or Business Analysis Plan)

December 16, 2020Project Management Key ConceptsDavid McLachlan

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The Requirements Management Plan

What is the requirements management plan? It’s a component of the project management plan, and it describes how project and product requirements will be analyzed, documented and managed.

Basically it’s the process that we’re going to go through to gather these requirements and then manage them and track them, to ensure that we’re delivering on those customer requirements right up to the end when we finish delivering the project.

With the rise of the business analyst role, almost every project will have a business analyst and many organizations will refer to this requirements management plan as the business analysis plan.

Because we’re describing the process of how we’re gathering these requirements and then tracking them there are a few different things that can go into our requirements management plan. Don’t forget with any plan we can make it small – it can be simple like just a couple of lines in an overall document, or if it’s a large project and there’s a lot of people involved and there’s a lot of stakeholders and it really needs to be spelled out, it could be a document of its own. And that could go into your project management plan. As long as it covers off these things in general usually you’re pretty safe.

Things required in a Requirements Management Plan

So how are we going to track and find these requirements? How are we going to report on them? How are we going to initiate changes, and how will those impacts be analyzed? How will the requirements be traced tracked and reported on, to make sure that we are delivering to our customer at the end and that they’re happy. What authorization levels are required to approve any changes? (This will tie in with our configuration management plan for any documents that will be baselined).

Requirements prioritization, how do we prioritize them? Are they based on business value? Who does that, who decides and the metrics that will be used for rationale? This helps get everyone on the same page. Are we going for speed in a process? Are we going for cost reduction? Whatever it is it’s good to write it down so that everyone is on the same page.

Lastly one of the most important things, the traceability structure. This reflects the requirement attributes captured on the requirements traceability matrix. In other words the traceability matrix is a separate document to this that will tie into it and show us how we’ve got our requirements and how they are actually related to the scope, and ultimately the items that we’re delivering. There needs to be a clear line, clearly shown, which is why it’s in a matrix format. You’ve got your requirements down the side and as it goes along it shows how they’re relating to the scope that you’re delivering. And that rounds out the details you will find in a Requirements Management Plan.

– David McLachlan

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PMP Practice Exam Questions and Answers | 18

December 16, 2020PMP Exam Question PracticeDavid McLachlan

– See all the PMP Exam Questions –

PMP Exam Question Session 18

We will also figure them out together, and you’ll see the thought process behind solving these PMP exam questions.

I hope you enjoy!

Question 1

You would like to motivate and align your team towards the project goals using a team building activity. Which of the following is one of the types of Team Building Activities?

A) Performing repetitive tasks
B) Following the agenda
C) Documenting meeting minutes
D) Creating the WBS

Question 2

Interpersonal Skills have the power to directly or indirectly impact the outcome of a project. Which of the following is NOT one of the types of Interpersonal Skills a project manager might use?

A) Leadership
B) Creating a scatter plot
C) Team building
D) Motivation

Question 3

You are working on a project and need to create a document that has compiled information about project performance in a report format to enable decisions, actions and project communications?

A) Work Performance Report
B) Project Management Plan
C) Agreements
D) Verified deliverables

Question 4

Your project needs to hire resources from outside the organisation, and the vendor has provided a Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) type of contract with a target cost of $280,000 plus a fixed fee of $29,000. What is the total cost if the project costs at the end is $250,000?

A) $309,000
B) $280,000
C) $279,000
D) $149,000

Question 5

You are a project manager working in a company and you have been asked to compile the business case and benefits management plan. What are these types of documents called?

A) Executive Documents
B) Business Documents
C) Project Documents
D) Project Charter

– See all the PMP Exam Questions –

Leadership Quote – You Don’t Learn by Following Rules – Branson

December 16, 2020QuotesDavid McLachlan

– See all the Leadership Quotes here –

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” – Richard Branson

Have you heard this leadership quote?

Richard Branson is talking about the value of learning from your actual experiences, instead of learning from a book. And this is particularly useful, and particularly true, when it comes to entrepreneurship and starting a business.

Quote Richard Branson Learn by doing

There Are Some Things You Must Learn By Doing

They say if you tell someone something, they recall only a small portion of what you taught them. But if you have them do it with you, they will recall nearly 100% and that lesson will stick with them significantly longer.

Likewise, there are some things that you just can’t learn from books. Sure, you can learn a math solution. Two plus two will always equal four. Probability and statistics will have the same equations for the same things you need to figure out. Spelling doesn’t change when you’re writing a book, and the elements of science will largely remain the same as what you can read about.

But when you are putting something out there in the world – an idea, a service, a product, you may now know in advance how people will react to it. Sure, you might have a rough idea – maybe you have done some product testing, maybe customer have requested a new feature. But things can evolve in peculiar ways. Customers may change their habits. The market may change, the economy may change, trends come and go.

And so you have to learn by walking and falling down – you have to “do”, and adjust when the market feedback tells you that something is working (i.e. you should do more of it) or not working (i.e. time to pivot in to something else).

As long as you are learning, and never give up, you will have success. It is only a matter of when.

– David McLachlan

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What is the Final Report?

December 15, 2020Project Management Key ConceptsDavid McLachlan

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The Final Report Project Management Key Concepts The Final Report

What is the final report? It is a report that provides a summary of the project performance and how it went, either during that phase or during the entire project itself. As with all things in project management it can be a small piece of work or it could be a large detailed document in itself. It could be formal or it could be informal. It could range from a document just a few lines in your project measurement plan, or it could be the outputs of a retrospective if you’re delivering a feature using agile for example.

A retrospective occurs for us to say what went well, what didn’t go well, what still puzzles me and what have I learned. Asking those questions and feeding that back into the process and that could be documented as a final report for that iteration or that particular feature.

There are many different ways to use the final report. It can include things like the scope objectives – were they met? And evidence of them being met. Has the scope been verified, and has it been delivered and accepted by the stakeholders? The quality objectives, actual milestone delivery dates (when did we deliver these things) and any variances in those. Did we say we’re going to deliver here but we actually only delivered there? What were the variances, and why.

This also feeds into our lessons learned register. Lessons learned from the project will really help future projects if this information is available.

We’ve got cost objectives – the actual versus predicted cost, reasons for any variances, same with the schedule and same with any risks. Did we encounter risks? How did we resolve them? All of that can go in the final report.

The final report puts it in a nice sort of nice package for the end of project report. Part of this could also include a handover document to whoever you’re handing over to or ultimately delivering this project to. All that information that they might need down the track, who to go to for this system access, who to go to if they need to get more of this resource once it’s gone into BAU. That can be part of a handover and can potentially go into the final report as well.

– David McLachlan

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PMP Practice Exam Questions and Answers | 17

December 15, 2020PMP Exam Question PracticeDavid McLachlan

– See all the PMP Exam Questions –

PMP Exam Question Session 17

We will also figure them out together, and you’ll see the thought process behind solving these PMP exam questions.

I hope you enjoy!

Question 1

Estimate at Completion is the forecasted cost of the project as the project progresses. Your project has a budget of $10,000.
30% of the work has been completed against planned 30%, and $10,000 has been spent so far. If the CPI impacts our future cost, what is the Estimate At Completion (EAC)?

A) $17,000
B) $44,444
C) $33,333
D) $22,222

Question 2

You are working on a project and wanting to plan the immediate work in detail, while leaving the remaining work at a higher level. What are you doing?

A) Executive Planning
B) Rolling Wave Planning
C) Progressive Planning
D) Extra Planning

Question 3

You are working with your project team and wanting to stimulate creativity and new ideas. Which of the following is a group creativity technique you might use?

A) Nominal group technique
B) Regression analysis
C) Tornado diagram
D) Prompt lists

Question 4

As a project manager, you are wanting to work with the project sponsor to bring more objectivity to the acceptance process. What is this project activity called?

A) Collecting Requirements
B) Estimating Activity Durations
C) Planning Schedule Management
D) Validating Scope

Question 5

You are working through the scope of your project and wanting to decompose the high level features into smaller pieces of work that a team can deliver using a work breakdown structure. What is that level of the work breakdown structure called?

A) Work Package
B) Work Product
C) Work Deliverable
D) Work Task

– See all the PMP Exam Questions –

Leadership Quote – You Can Have Everything You Want – Zig Ziglar

December 15, 2020QuotesDavid McLachlan

– See all the Leadership Quotes here –

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

Have you heard this leadership quote from Zig Ziglar?

Zig Ziglar is talking about a very special thing, that has made thousands of millionaires over the years. He is talking about the value you bring to the marketplace.

Quote Zig Ziglar You Can Have Anything You Want

Helping Other People Brings Them Value

An it’s value that they are often willing to pay for. Think about your favorite service, or thing you like to do or buy. Maybe it’s an online shopping site, maybe it’s an activity, but whatever it is if you like it a lot, chances are you pay for that service. And that service is provided by someone – maybe a person, maybe a business, but the point is that person is helping you get what you want.

And by helping you get what you want, you are paying them money, and they are working their way to being able to have whatever they want in return.

The more people you help, the more value you bring, the more money you are able to earn.

Now, can you change the amount of value you bring to the marketplace? Of course! If you currently earn $15 an hour flipping burgers, can you learn a new skill and earn $18 an hour? Of course you can.

Could you learn a particular skill, or set of skills that earned you $50 an hour? $100 an hour? $1,000 an hour or more? Yes you can. A surgeon is paid more than a window washer, and an accountant is paid more than a taxi driver. All of these skills are learnable and there are a million variations in between.

Does it take time to change the value you bring to the marketplace? Of course it does. But if you know your direction and spend time on it every day, you will be there before you know it.

– David McLachlan

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