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
You are working through various options in your project and need to help stimulate your group towards innovation and ideas. Which of the following is a type of group creativity technique?
A) Monte Carlo Analysis
B) Regression analysis
C) Brainstorming
D) Root cause analysis
Question 2
You are working as a project manager, at the stage where you need to validate the scope and products you have created with the appropriate people. What is the output called that is produced by a project and approved by the end-user or customer?
A) Accepted Products
B) Accepted Deliverables
C) Accepted Results
D) Accepted Data
Question 3
You are working on your Project Management Plan and will need the opinion of an individual or a group who has a wide range of knowledge and experience in that specific field. What is this called?
A) Expert Judgment
B) Expert Findings
C) Expert Comment
D) Expert Decision
Question 4
You are developing a new product and decide to add three extra features that the customer did not ask for, to make the product extra special. You feel as though it will work better this way. What is this called?
A) Scope Creep
B) Customer first
C) Verified Deliverables
D) Gold Plating
Question 5
A project management plan is a formal approved document that defines how the project is planned, executed, monitored and controlled. Who is responsible for creating and updating the project management plan?
A) The Program Manager
B) The Project Manager
C) The Project Sponsor
D) The Project Team
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
You are working on a project and have been asked to create a plan that shows the practices and procedures to be adopted for execution and monitoring and controlling the project. What will you create?
A) Risk Management Plan
B) Project Management Plan
C) Sponsor Management Plan
D) Benefits Measurement Plan
Question 2
You have recently discovered the importance of communication in your project after one of your directions was misunderstood. What is one of the most effective way to handle complex communications?
A) Informal written communication
B) Oral formal communication
C) Formal written communication
D) Oral informal communication
Question 3
You are working in the risk area of a project. The project work is half way complete and dozens of new risks have been found that could jeopardise your project. The risk plan is not yet complete. When should risk management planning have been completed?
A) At the beginning of your project, during initiation and planning
B) In the middle of your project, during execution
C) When monitoring your project – you can analyse what isn’t created yet
D) When the project is finalised – as you will know the risks that have occurred.
Question 4
You are a project manager needing to use a project tool and technique that will inspect, clean, transform and model large amounts of data to uncover the impact of certain project risks. What technique are you using?
A) Meetings
B) Assessment Analysis
C) Information Technology
D) Data Analysis
Question 5
You are working on Risk Planning in your project and have asked one of your team to find the established records of risk categories within the organisation for you to pick from and re-use. What project management tool and technique are these also called?
A) Prompt Lists
B) Mitigation Lists
C) Issue Lists
D) Risks Lists
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
You have started to notice the impact that team motivation has on your project results. If you are giving your team love, affection, acceptance, friendship, you are using their:
A) Legal Needs
B) Social Needs
C) Wealth Needs
D) Organisational Needs
Question 2
You are working on a project where a strict and powerful union for the employees ensures that no employee can work more than 37 hours a week. This is an example of:
A) Project permissions
B) Project regulations
C) Project constraints
D) Project laws
Question 3
You are working on an Agile project and have been asked to create a document that lists team principles, agreements, and guidelines about the acceptable behaviour by team members. What are you working on?
A) The Team Guideline
B) The Project Management Plan
C) The Project Charter
D) The Team Charter
Question 4
You are managing a project team and need to ensure your team members are doing what is needed to get the job done. What is a project document you will use that helps you know the effectiveness of the team?
A) Team Performance Assessments
B) Team Progress Assessments
C) Team Presentation Assessments
D) Team Achievement Assessments
Question 5
A project manager will spend up to 90% of their time communicating, and your interpersonal skills will directly or indirectly impact the outcome of your project. Which of the following is a type of interpersonal skill?
A) Selling
B) Converting
C) Team building
D) Physical skills
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
You have been asked to prepare a document to gain the project sponsor’s sign off to access their function’s resources, that details the project goal and business case, high-level scope and requirements, high level dates and milestones, a high-level budget, and initial risk analysis. What are you creating?
A) Project Management Plan
B) Project Charter
C) Risk Management Plan
D) Lessons Learned
Question 2
You are working with the quality assurance manager of your project, where they are using a fishbone diagram to perform a cause and effect analysis for a problem you are working on to solve. What else is a fishbone diagram called?
A) Ishikawa Diagram
B) Value Stream Map
C) Pareto Diagram
D) Control Chart
Question 3
You are working in the quality assurance and testing phase of your project, where the test manager makes use of many different ways to assess project quality control. Who has the most responsibility for project quality control?
A) The vendor
B) The functional manager
C) The project manager
D) The project sponsor
Question 4
Your quality assurance manager on your project is using a technique in order to validate the scope and gain sign off on the deliverables. What is it called when they check the quality of the product against the quality requirements?
A) Checking
B) Assessment
C) Evaluation
D) Inspection
Question 5
You have noticed your project team starting to drift off, miss deadlines and make quality defects, and decide to learn a skill that will help bring the team together again. What will you research for information on how people, teams, and organizational units function in a project?
A) Organizational Process Assets
B) Organizational Theory
C) Organizational Charts
D) Organizational Structure
When you are working as a project manager, you don’t necessarily own a team of your own inside the business. Instead, you’re usually coming in and using business resources to help you deliver something, and they may not report to you on a daily basis.
Because of that it’s very interesting to look at the project manager’s sphere of influence, because it really does vary and it is different to a normal manager’s sphere of influence. For example, the normal manager will have direct influence over their team – they can pretty much hire or fire, they can tell their people exactly what to do with real consequences. Sure, a project manager can in some ways do that as well, but it’s much more prominent as a functional manager will have direct control over those people.
A project manager will need to have influence over the project team, and the managers and the resource managers for those people. But it extends out even further. They need to work with and ensure influence and responsibility for the project sponsors – who we’re delivering that business value to. There are also governing bodies around the project such as the steering committee of the project. There’s project management organizations or PMOs – all of these within an organization will need to be worked with, and you’ll need to provide information make sure that they’re working with you not against you, and ensure there’s little friction so that you can help get those things delivered nice and smoothly.
And that’s all part of being in the project manager role.
Beyond that we’ve got stakeholders of the project, for example suppliers who are supplying either resources or tools or things or information into the project. The end customer and the end users as well – all of these people will ultimately be influenced by the work that we do and so are subject to the project manager’s influence over the project.
A project manager needs to lead the project team and meet the project objectives, and meet or manage their stakeholder’s expectations. If things need to change over time a project manager will need to use their skills to ensure that stakeholders support the project instead of going against the project (which definitely can happen if things go sideways) and even to support the project decisions even when they don’t agree with them sometimes.
That can be a very challenging situation but it will be something that you do need to work through. It was noted in the PMBOK guide that the top 2% of project managers demonstrate superior relationship and communication skills, while displaying a positive attitude.
Even when things get tough, they still are able to display a positive attitude and work through those issues in a positive way. This is so they can keep those good stakeholder relationships as well, and work through those things in the future. It’s very, very important.
A project manager must also have influence over the organisation, working with other project managers in the organization. Maybe you’ve got 10 projects going on at the same time and maybe there are different resources required – this project needs some of your resources and now you have to ensure that you’re using your power and influence and your skills to make sure that your stuff still gets done at the same time as helping out other projects around the organization.
It can be a tough situation, but it is something that you will need to be aware of. Other projects may impact yours due to demands on the same resources, funding (maybe they need money and it’s coming out of the same bucket of money), impacts of the change to the business. Sometimes the business can only handle so much change going into it, such as training and communication and process changes that need to be done, and they have their business as usual work that they need to do as well, so sometimes they just run out of capacity to take it all on.
As project management capability is increased it’s also important throughout the organization that everyone is operating from the same playbook, the same strategic steps, the same tactical steps (such as processes that you go through to complete a project), so that everyone is is on the same page and knows what you’re talking about. It’s a much nicer shortcut to working with others when everyone is working from the same process steps.
But that is not all.
The project manager needs to work with the industry as well. We need to stay informed about current industry trends, no matter what industry you’re in all of these things are constantly changing and it’s up to us to be aware of what’s happening in our industry because they might impact our project. Something could come out of the blue and completely change the landscape, and we need to be aware of that.
We might have product technology development, new market niches. You might have broader economic forces, for example maybe the stock market is starting to fall, or maybe money is flowing out of this particular industry. We’ve got new tools, new skills or disciplines (for example Agile coming into IT around 15 years ago and now into project management, and also into operations management).
We’ve got new competitors, new threats and of course new laws and regulations. We seen our fair share of of regulation changes over the last few years in almost every industry.
But that is still not all.
A project manager needs to influence and be aware of their own professional discipline as well. That means continuing our professional development, continuing to learn, continuing our education and sharing that knowledge, the things that we’ve learned with others within our organization to help everyone sing from the same hymn book, to work from the same process steps. Beyond the organization is helping other organizations improve their way of work and their methods for delivering projects as well. It might include standards for delivering change around the world, whether it’s in your industry or other industries. This is a wonderful thing because now we’re not just helping ourselves, but we’re going out there and helping others where we can as well – we’re developing our project management knowledge, our knowledge in our related profession and we share that at local, global and national levels.
Lastly the project manager’s sphere of influence will occur across disciplines. And that’s part of the real value of project management because project management is a skill set that will sit across almost any industry, because any industry will require to put change into an organization or to go from point A to point B at some point, and to do that you need a project. To do that change you need to manage a project from start to finish. In using a project management process that works across disciplines we can help coach, improve and inspire others in that method to help them get the business value that they need.
Enterprise Environmental Factors and Organisational Process Assets
It’s time to look at the environment in which projects operate.
The environment can really change the way you need to manage a project, and this is why it is included in the PMBOK Guide. The way it is outlined is through two things: Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs) or the overall environmental factors involved, and Organizational Process Assets which will help us to operate within the project environment that we’re delivering in.
These are the two main things that you’ll see come up time and time again in each of the project management processes as we go through the PMBOK guide.
Organizational process assets or OPAs could be processes, procedures, policies or a corporate knowledge base. Enterprise environmental factors or EEFs are enterprise conditions, and they’re usually not under the control of the project team (which can make things a little bit difficult) but they still influence, constrain or direct the project.
Let’s have a look at what some of the Internal EEFs are. We’ve got organizational culture, any structure and governance that’s in place, we’ve got the geographic distribution of facilities and resources (are they all in the one place or across multiple states or countries?). We’ve got the actual physical infrastructure, and sometimes the I.T. infrastructure involved. We’ve got the information technology software that we’re using, the resource availability (how available are the resources that we’re needing to help deliver these projects), and of course the capability of all these people (have they delivered projects before? Are they familiar with the process?)
Many different things will influence the internal EEFs. To complicate things there are external EEFs as well.
We’ve got government or industry standards, we’ve got social and cultural influences, marketplace conditions, legal restrictions, cost constraints and financial considerations (do we actually have the money to to do what we need to do?) and physical environmental elements (are we in the right place physically to be able to do these things?). These are just a few examples of enterprise environmental factors or EEFs that will influence and change how you need to deliver your project.
But that’s not the only thing we have to consider. The other side of the coin is our OPAs, our Organizational Process Assets. These are the plans, the processes, policies, procedures, all of these documents and knowledge bases, things that are used by the performing organization that you’re working with and usually delivering into. OPAs will influence the management of the project because we’ll have things like specific organizational standards. You might have certain product or project life cycles that are already used in that organization (such as Agile or Waterfall). You might have pre-approved supplier lists lists or contractual agreements already in place that you need to abide by.
There are knowledge repositories as well – so you might have configuration management knowledge repositories, containing versions of things, of your baselines for your scope or maybe of the cost of the project. Historical information, lessons learned, data repositories for measuring your benefits, project files from previous projects. All of these things will impact your OPAs and your project.
As a project manager you will need to find all this out when you’re delivering a project, so you can make sure that you work within these Organizational Process Assets and ways of working that are already in place.
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
You are working as a Project Manager and one of the stakeholders of the project raises a problem with the product requirements, stating they are not correct. Which document will you use to note this for further discussion and resolution?
A) Change Request
B) Benefits Management Plan
C) Issue Log
D) Requirements Traceability Matrix
Question 2
You are working on a project in the financial sector, and the project sponsor asks you for a written document that outlines the intention of the project with set terms and conditions so she can accept. What is she referring to?
A) Collaterals
B) Indemnitees
C) Settlements
D) Agreements
Question 3
You as a project manager are listing the things that must be done to close out the project. What should you do in regards to the contracts for your third party suppliers?
A) Issue a formal written notice of the project completion to the contractors
B) Put a legal notice in the newspapers indicating that all invoices must be submitted
C) Request final inspection reports for all vendor-supplied materials
D) Issue letters of recommendation for the project team
Question 4
One of your stakeholders needs to make a proposal for modification to the scope, policies, procedures, plans, or processes of the project, after a formal review of the issue. What will they use?
A) Rectification Requests
B) Change Requests
C) Adjust Requests
D) Amend Requests
Question 5
What is the term used for any product, service or results to be achieved to complete a process, phase or project?
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
Different Project Management Office types have different levels of control and influence on projects within the organization. What is one of the types of PMO Structures?
A) Passive
B) Controlling
C) Global
D) Active
Question 2
You are working on a project in the construction industry and your project sponsor has allocated a fixed budget and tight timeline to complete the work. What are the limitations placed upon the project that the project manager and team must work within?
A) Restrictions
B) Limitations
C) Considerations
D) Constraints
Question 3
Your Project Management Office recommends the use of project management templates and checklists to plan, implement and manage your projects professionally. These templates are an example of:
A) Organizational Governance Meetings (OGM)
B) Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT)
C) Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF)
D) Organizational Process Assets (OPA)
Question 4
Work Performance Data are the raw observations of your project, without analysing it against other metrics. What is one of the types of Work Performance Data?
A) Implementation status for change requests
B) Forecasted estimates to complete
C) Number of defects
D) Status of deliverables
Question 5
A Work Performance Report is a document containing organized information about project performance in a report format to enable decision making & actions and project communications. Which of the following is a type of Work Performance Report?
A) Status reports
B) Status of deliverables
C) Forecasted estimates to complete
D) Implementation status for change requests
The Influence of Organisational Systems on your Project
An organizational system is something that encompasses the whole organisation and involves things like the culture, the governance frameworks in place and the management elements that are already in place.
There are a few things that influence the organisational structure of a company.
The first is governance frameworks.
With governance frameworks we ask, what are the rules that we have in place? We might have rules, policies, procedures, norms, even just cultural norms that are accepted within an organization. Existing relationships can also be very important, for example Billy might have an existing relationship with Anne and he can say: “Hey Anne could you just do this for me – I know it usually takes four weeks, but maybe you could do it for me this time?” And that will happen if they have a really great existing relationship within the organization.
You might have existing processes in place which apply for projects, programs and portfolios, where lots of projects will make up one program, and then multiple programs will make up one portfolio.
Management has a very specific role in organizational systems – it is how it works on a daily basis with responsibilities, discipline of action, how much action actually gets done and what happens if it’s not done, unity of direction and unity of command. Ensuring there is one clear strategic direction. Or perhaps everyone’s just sort of going for their own little team and trying to make that work – each company will be different and you may need to adjust. Safety of the people, ensuring optimal morale, ensuring clear security of work positions – all of these things are part of the management when we’re managing in within an organizational system.
The Project Manager’s Sphere of Influence
Within a company itself there are certain influences on these organizational structures and systems. It starts at the bottom where the influence of the project manager is very low. If we’ve got a project that’s just organic, where has been kicked off between a bunch of people and it’s not really formal – maybe we’re just trying to make an improvement in some way – then usually the influence of the project manager will be quite low.
But it goes up as we go into these different structures, and a functional system is where we have a functional manager who is leading a project and trying to do something, usually within their own department. They’re actually the one in charge. If a project manager comes on board usually they will report to that functional manager, within that particular team.
The influence of the project manager goes up as we move through virtual teams, hybrid teams, Weak, Balanced and Strong matricies. If you’ve got a weak matrix you’ve still got low influence, balanced is where you’ve got a balanced influence usually between the business and the project manager or the project management office, and then the strong matrix is where you have a lot more control and as a project manager you have more directive control over the resources, over the cost, over the scheduling, and all of that is more up to you as opposed to being up to the functional or the BAU environment.
Lastly the Project Management Office is where all of the projects are collected within a PMO and they are brought down the lines specifically within their own governance structures, where everyone has to go through the PMO to get anything done, and they have the most influence in a PMO structure.
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
You have been promoted from your role of project manager into a portfolio manager role. A portfolio is work grouped together to meet a certain strategic business objective and it involves:
A) Projects and programs
B) Projects and operations
C) Programs and operations
D) Projects, programs, and operations
Question 2
You are working as a project manager and created the cost estimate to bid on a government contract, where the scope was set by the government. Your manager advises you to reduce the cost to win the contract by whatever means, but your analysis shows that reducing the cost estimate will make the project unable to meet the specified scope. What should you do?
A) Reduce the cost estimate and submit it
B) Formally communicate to your manager about the implications of reducing the cost
C) Ask your manager to estimate instead
D) Submit your estimate without reducing the cost
Question 3
Work Performance Data generally contains raw facts and figures such as start dates for various activities, the number of bugs found in the software, spent cost, etc. What is a type of Work Performance Data?
A) Forecasted estimates to complete
B) Implementation status for change requests
C) Percent of work physically completed
D) Status of deliverables
Question 4
As you work on projects they can be influenced by many different things, and many different Enterprise Environmental Factors. What sort of influence are Marketplace conditions on your project?
A) External
B) Internal
C) Regulatory
D) Public
Question 5
You have recently been promoted from your role as Project Manager to a role that manages a related group of projects, and ensures efficient use of resources among those projects to ensure they are delivered. What is your role?
A) Functional Manager
B) Project Manager
C) Portfolio Manager
D) Program Manager
PMP Exam Question Session 15
PMP Exam Question Session 14
PMP Exam Question Session 13
PMP Exam Question Session 12
The Project Manager’s Sphere of Influence
Enterprise Environmental Factors and Organisational Process Assets
PMP Exam Question Session 10
The Influence of Organisational Systems on your Project
PMP Exam Question Session 8