PMI PMI Certifications PMI-SP Questions & Answers

• Question 141:

  Don is the project manager of the NQP project for his organization. This project is scheduled to last for 18 months and will have several elements of the project that have government regulations. Management is concerned with the regulations and would like Don to report on the activities that will be affected by the regulations. Which of the following documents should Don refer to, for the information on the activities and the regulations?

  A. Risk management plan

  B. Activity list

  C. Activity list and attributes

  D. Risk register

  Correct Answer: C

  The activity list and the attributes will contain the information about the activities that interact with the government regulations.

  Answer option A is incorrect. The risk management plan communicates how the risks will be identified, analyzed, responded to, and monitored.

  Answer option D is incorrect. The risk register is a list of all the risk events for the project. Answer option B is incorrect. The activity list is not a detailed enough answer for this question.

• Question 142:

  Which of the following processes fall under the Project Integration Management knowledge area? Each correct answer represents a complete solution. Choose all that apply.

  A. Quality Assurance

  B. Project Plan Development

  C. Integrated Change Control

  D. Project Plan Execution

  Correct Answer: BCD

  Project Integration Management is one of the nine Project Management Knowledge areas. It comprises the following processes:

  Develop Project Charter

  Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement

  Develop Project Management Plan

  Direct and Manage Project Execution

  Monitor and Control Project Work

  Integrated Change Control

  Close Project

  These processes occur throughout the project and are repeated quite often during the working of the project. They ensure that the various elements of the project are properly coordinated. What are the Project Management Knowledge Areas? The Project Management Knowledge Areas are groupings that bring together processes that have things in common. For example, Resource Planning, Cost Estimating, Cost Budgeting, etc., are part of the Project Cost Management knowledge group. These processes may or may not be part of different or same process groups. Guide to the PMBOK identifies forty- two processes that are arranged in nine knowledge areas. The knowledge areas are as follows:

  Project Integration Management

  Project Scope Management

  Project Time Management

  Project Cost Management

  Project Quality Management

  Project Human Resource Management

  Project Communications Management

  Project Risk Management

  Project Procurement Management

  Answer option A is incorrect. Quality Assurance is a part of the Project Quality Management knowledge area.

• Question 143:

  Ned is the project manager of the HYQ Project. In Ned's project, the management has requested that he enforce resource leveling so that the maximum amount of hours in the project per worker will not exceed 25 hours per week. Ned's pay is based on how quickly he can complete the project work. What must Ned do to accommodate the change in the resource allotment if he has to finish the project on time?

  A. Crash the project.

  B. Add more risk mitigation.

  C. Reduce the amount of labor.

  D. Reduce the project scope.

  Correct Answer: A

  The change in the amount of labor Ned is allowed to use will cause his project schedule to increase thereby affecting the project end date. Crashing the project will allow Ned to add more resources while still keeping each resource to a maximum of 25 hours per week. Answer option D is incorrect. Ned likely does not have control over descoping decisions. Answer option C is incorrect. Reducing the project labor is what resource leveling does. Answer option B is incorrect. Adding risk mitigation won't necessarily help Ned finish the project faster.

• Question 144:

  Joseph works as the project manager of the NHQ Project. He has created the project network diagram as shown in the figure: Based on the network diagram, find out which path is the critical path for this project?

  

  A. ABEHJ

  B. ABDIJ

  C. ABDHJ

  D. ACFIJ

  Correct Answer: D

  The critical path is the path with the longest duration to complete the project. It has no float and shows the earliest completion date and the latest completion date for the project. In this example, path ACFIJ takes 27 days and is the critical path. ACFIJ= A(4)+C(8)+F(4)+I(7)+J(4)= 27 A critical path is the sequence of project activities, which add up to the longest overall duration. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project. Any delay of an activity on the critical path directly impacts the planned project completion date (i.e. there is no float on the critical path). A project can have several, parallel, near critical paths. An additional parallel path through the network with the total durations shorter than the critical path is called a sub-critical or noncritical path. These results allow managers to prioritize activities for the effective management of project completion, and to shorten the planned critical path of a project by pruning critical path activities, by "fast tracking" (i.e., performing more activities in parallel), and/or by "crashing the critical path" (i.e., shortening the durations of critical path activities by adding resources). Answer option A is incorrect. ABEHJ takes only 22 days to complete. ABEHJ= A(4)+B(5)+E(2)+H(7)+J(4)= 22 Answer option C is incorrect. ABDHJ takes 21 days to complete. ABDHJ= A(4)+B(5)+D(1)+H(7)+J(4)= 21 Answer option B is incorrect. ABDIJ takes 21 days to complete. ABDIJ= A(4)+B(5)+D(1)+I(7)+J(4)= 21

• Question 145:

  You work as a project manager for BlueWell Inc. You have to identify the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables. For this, you have to explain the three inputs for the define activities process to your project team. Which of the following is NOT a valid input?

  A. Work Breakdown Structure

  B. Enterprise Environmental Factors

  C. Scope baseline

  D. Organizational Process Assets

  Correct Answer: A

  Of all the choices, the WBS is the best choice. The entire scope baseline is needed as an input, not just the WBS. The inputs to the Define Activities process are as follows: Scope Baseline: The project constraints, assumptions documented, and deliverables in the project scope baseline are considered while defining activities. Enterprise Environmental Factors: One of the factors that affect the Define Activities process is the project management information system (PMIS). Organizational Process Assets: The assets that can affect the Define Activities process are as follows: 1.The existing proper and unofficial scheduling strategies, procedures, and related policies that are measured in developing the activity definitions 2.The lessons-learned knowledge base containing the past information about activity lists used by similar earlier projects

• Question 146:

  You work as a project manager for BlueWell Inc. Which of the following techniques will you use to determine whether particular work can best be accomplished by the project team or must be purchased from the outside sources?

  A. Contract Types

  B. Expert Judgment

  C. Procurement Negotiations

  D. Make-or-Buy Analysis

  Correct Answer: D

  A make-or-buy analysis is used to verify whether a particular work can best be accomplished by the project team or must be purchased from outside sources. The budget constraints can influence the make- or-buy decisions. A make-or-buy

  analysis must consider all related costs; both direct and indirect support costs.

  Answer option B is incorrect. Expert judgment is a technique based on a set of criteria that has been acquired in a specific knowledge area or product area. It is obtained when the project manager or project team requires specialized

  knowledge that they do not possess. Answer option A is incorrect. The type of contract to be used and the specific contract terms and conditions fix the degree of risk being assumed by the buyer and seller. Answer option C is incorrect.

  Negotiations clarify the structure, requirements and other terms of the purchase so that the mutual agreement can be reached prior to signing the contracts.

• Question 147:

  You are the project manager of a project that has a budget of $875,000 and you have completed 40 percent of the project work. Due to some errors, however, you have actually spent $425,000 of the budget. Management wants to know what the project's cost performance index is. What value do you report?

  A. -$75,000

  B. $350,000

  C. .82

  D. -$187,500

  Correct Answer: C

  Cost performance index (CPI) is used to calculate performance efficiencies. It is used in trend analysis to predict future performance. CPI is the ratio of earned value to actual cost. The CPI is calculated based on the following formula: CPI =

  Earned Value (EV) / Actual Cost (AC) If the CPI value is greater than 1, it indicates better than expected performance, whereas if the value is less than 1, it shows poor performance. The CPI value of 1 indicates that the project is right on

  target. In this instance it's $350,000 divided by $425,000 for a CPI of .82.

  Answer option B is incorrect. $350,000 is the earned value of the project. Answer option A is incorrect. -$75,000 is the cost variance for the project. Answer option D is incorrect. -$187,500 is the predicted variance at the completion of the

  project.

• Question 148:

  Frank is the project manager of a construction project. In this project, Frank has elected to allow the interior design phase of the project to overlap with the pool construction phase of the project. Normally, Frank would not allow these two phases to overlap, but for this project, he has elected to do so in order to compress the project schedule. What is this schedule compression technique called?

  A. Resource leveling heuristic

  B. Lead time

  C. Fast tracking

  D. Crashing

  Correct Answer: C

  This is an example of fast tracking. Fast tracking allows phases to overlap in order to compress the project schedule.

  Answer option D is incorrect. Crashing adds labor to the project in order to complete effort-driven activities in less time.

  Answer option B is incorrect. The lead time allows individual activities to overlap, not entire phases. Answer option A is incorrect. Resource leveling heuristics are rules that limit the amount of time a labor resource may contribute to the project

  in a given time period.

• Question 149:

  Tom works as the project manager for BlueWell Inc. He spends the majority of his time communicating with team members and the project stakeholders. Various communication skills are involved in the communication processes. Which communication skills are involved in this process? Each correct answer represents a part of the solution. Choose all that apply.

  A. Internal and External

  B. Vertical and Horizontal

  C. Confronting and problem solving

  D. Formal and Informal

  Correct Answer: ABD

  These are some communication activities that Tom uses to communicate with the team and the stakeholders. Communications skills are part of general management skills and are used to exchange information. Communication has many dimensions: Written and oral, listening, and speaking Internal (within the project) and external (customer, the media, the public) Formal (reports, briefings) and informal (memos, ad hoc conversations) Vertical (up and down the organization) and horizontal (with peers) Communication is the most important skill that a project manager must posses. It is the single most important characteristics of a top-class project manager. Project managers must communicate well in order to integrate and maximize the performance of team members. Oral and written communications are the backbone of every successful project. During different phases of a project, a project manager requires to communicate through different manners (for example, documentation, meeting updates, etc.) and he must ensure that the information communicated is explicit, clear, and complete. Answer option C is incorrect. It is a technique to resolve conflict that arises while communicating with different parties.

• Question 150:

  Tom is the project manager for the ABC Construction Company. As part of the project scheduling for the construction of a new office building, he has allotted time for the inspectors of the building structure, as well as electrical, plumbing, and safety into the project's schedule. These inspectors can be considered what type of dependency in the project?

  A. Mandatory dependencies

  B. Required dependencies

  C. Discretionary dependencies

  D. External dependencies

  Correct Answer: D

  An external dependency is any nonproject activity that is external to the project but has a direct impact on the project activities. An external dependency may be an inspector or any agency that may have to give prior approval before the project can move forward. Answer option B is incorrect. Required dependency is not a valid term to describe a dependency. Answer option A is incorrect. Mandatory dependencies describe the required order in which the project work must take place - such as foundation before framing, or the operating system installed before the application may be installed. Answer option C is incorrect. Discretionary dependencies describe the optional order of the project work, such as painting the walls before installing the carpet.