Project management has been on the buzz lately, and for good reasons. This concept helps businesses and project teams perform better and deliver higher-quality results. Because of the developments experienced by some companies, more people are becoming more interested in project management.
Statistics show that companies and project teams who do not implement proven project management strategies lose 28 times more money than others. As people realize the importance of project management, the demand for experts rises. If you are interested in becoming one, the best way is to take a PMP exam and acquire the certifications.
What is the PMP exam?
The PMP exam is an extensive test that assesses one’s theoretical and practical knowledge of project management. Therefore, takers should possess and display strong determination and dedication before and during the exam. One simple yet effective way to prepare for the PMP exam is studying with PMP courses.
What are the 5 types of PMP exam questions?
There are a few types of PMP exam questions. Here are the most common ones:
- ITTO-based questions
- Definition-based questions
- Situation-based questions
- Formula-based questions
- Interpretational questions
Top 20 PMP exam questions and what to answer
One of the most interactive and effective ways to study is quizzing yourself. Repeating this technique a few times will help you remember the details more effectively. In addition, it can be a fun activity with a classmate or a friend. There is no need to mull your head over thick resource materials.
Here are handpicked questions and answers for PMP exam takers:
1. What does project management mean?
- A. It refers to the utilization of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to assist team members and other stakeholders in meeting the project requirements.
- B. It refers to the application of the critical path method and the Earned Value Management system as one.
- C. It refers to the utilization of knowledge, skills, wisdom, science, and art during organizational activities to succeed in company operations.
- D. It refers to an engineering subset and other technical disciplines.
Answer: A. Project management is the utilization of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to assist team members and other stakeholders in meeting the project requirements. During every project management segment, team members transfer deliverables and knowledge between projects to attain the planned results. As such, implementation occurs because there is already a transfer of project resources from opening to closing operations.
2. In project management, work culture is a crucial factor. The following are considered components of culture, except:
- A. Values
- B. Intelligence
- C. Norms
- D. Beliefs
Answer: B. Values, norms, and beliefs are part of the work culture but not intelligence. Intelligence is innate to everyone and does not develop through a team member’s interaction with others.
3. What is the rationale behind Project Quality Management confining how to implement quality policy and product quality criteria into projects?
- A. Keep on managing products, services, and outcomes
- B. Keep up with the stakeholders’ goals
- C. Improve the process capabilities
- D. Comply with the project management body’s performance standards
Answer: B. Project Quality Management covers the steps in establishing quality policies about the product quality plan, management, and control to satisfy stakeholders’ demands and other project objectives. It also fosters a continuous process to improve activities undertaken by the performing organization.
4. While collecting requirements for your project, you should use the stakeholder register for the following purposes, except:
- A. Capture the major requirements stakeholders need during the project.
- B. Capture the stakeholders’ main expectations for the project.
- C. Appraise the Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) of every key stakeholder.
- D. Identify who among the stakeholders can relay critical information on the requirements.
Answer: C. One can use the stakeholder register to determine who among the stakeholders can relay critical information on the requirements. In addition, the stakeholder register captures the needs and expectations of stakeholders regarding the ongoing project.
5. After the project team meeting, team member Z raised his concern about specific project measurements. He felt that some of these measurements do not align with his activities. Based on your assessment, what part of the project management process is this conversation?
- A. Initiation
- B. Execution
- C. Monitoring & Controlling
- D. Closing
Answer: B. Since the team member is already discussing some measures’ invalidity, the project is likely already in the execution phase. At this point, the team focuses on fulfilling project deliverables, and each member performs tasks to the best of their abilities.
6. As the end of Project X draws near, a sudden change in market trends hastened the deadlines. In response, the project manager brought in skilled resources to re-establish the team. In this situation, the project manager should perform the following in their next steps except:
- A. Identify what skills will be essential for the project.
- B. Determine the ideal course of action to take with the team.
- C. Draft a project schedule.
- D. Conduct training sessions for the new team.
Answer: A. It is not ideal to assess the project members’ skills because it should happen before the resource assignment. The project manager should prioritize establishing the project team before focusing on the development of individual members. In this situation, it is better to understand the ideal courses of action to take with the team, plot a new project schedule, and train the new team members.
7. After the project manager assigned a new resource, an outside stakeholder spread a rumor that the new resource assigned was an underperforming team member. How should the project manager deal with this issue?
- A. Mitigate the problem by discussing it with the new resource’s functional manager.
- B. Conduct an assessment of the new resource’s abilities, especially regarding their communication skills with the current project team.
- C. Test the new resource’s skills and examine how their addition adds value to the project.
- D. Request a new resource from the Project Management Office (PMO).
Answer: C. It is dangerous to believe in rumors, especially without first-hand observation. Doing so heightens the risk of destroying relationships in project teams. Therefore, prioritize investigating suspicious activities before considering any third-party hearsay.
8. Triple C company is about to start a new project. It starts in two and a half months and has a value of $3 million. The executives will assign the said new project to you, but you are currently a project manager for an existing project.
What is the first thing that you should do?
- A. Inquire with the management about the usage of project resources.
- B. Resource level the existing project.
- C. Study how the new project will impact the ongoing project.
- D. Drop the ongoing project in favor of the new one.
Answer: C. Ask management how the new project will affect the ongoing project. Determine whether it is possible to manage both projects at once and if any of the deliverables could overlap.
9. Boss A became the project manager of the XX project. However, Boss A had never experienced becoming a project manager before. What is the best thing he can rely on when planning to better the project’s success rate?
- A. Historical information
- B. Intuition and training
- C. Stakeholder analysis
- D. Configuration management
Answer: A. Boss A should prioritize studying all available historical information on similar projects. In addition, reviewing the records would give the newbie project manager a background on the company’s organizational processes.
10. What part of the procurement process is a project manager in if she is drafting a request for a proposal (RFP)?
- A. Close Procurements
- B. Conduct procurements
- C. Control Procurements
- D. Plan Procurement
Answer: D. An RFP is an elicit response from one party to potential vendors. Due to the procurement statement of work, stakeholders must prepare procurement documents during the plan procurements management process. Since RFP is a procurement document, thus, the team will have to prepare it during the plan procurements process, too.
11. What is parametric estimating?
- A. It refers to the determination of project life cycle cost and duration parameters.
- B. It refers to the calculation of project costs according to the actual cost of a prior similar project.
- C. It refers to the creation of independent cost estimates covering every work package. To determine the final project cost, all cost estimates must be combined.
- D. It refers to the creation of project cost estimates based on statistical links between relevant historical data and other variables.
Answer: A. Parametric estimating entails the determination of project life cycle cost and duration parameters.
12. Even after an extensive project team meeting, the project management plan still turned out to be too long. If it is impossible to change the project network diagram but extra personnel resources, what is the most appropriate thing to do?
- A. Fast-track the project.
- B. Level the resources.
- C. Monte Carlo analysis.
- D. Crash the project.
Answer: D. The most practical course of action is to crash the project. Crashing the project means shortening the project schedule without compromising the goals. The project manager can utilize the extra personnel resources to distribute the tasks and crash the project schedule.
13. Mr. JB is a program-level manager with several pending project activities. After executing the process group, Mr. JB expressed his concern about the accuracy of the progress reports. What is the most suitable solution if a problem arises in the future?
- A. Quality audits
- B. Monte Carlo Analysis
- C. Risk Quantification Reports
- D. Regression Analysis
Answer: A. A quality audit is reliable for checking the organization’s previous standards in project management. A thorough assessment would reveal whether relevant problems exist and if the existing fixes are appropriate for them.
14. These statements are valid statements regarding the project scope statement, except:
- A. It determines the project’s deliverables and the necessary work to realize them.
- B. It provides a general meaning of project scope to stakeholders
- C. It specifically enumerates scope exclusions to keep stakeholder expectations realistic
- D. It is a product of the Validate Scope process
Answer: D. The project scope statement is not a product of the Validate Scope process. Instead, it provides specific details for project deliverables, acceptance criteria, and project exclusions, if any.
15. These are questions asked when planning for the acquisition of project team members, except:
- A. Where did the resources for the new hires come from?
- B. What are the costs for the levels of expertise necessary for the project?
- C. How to deal with senior executive compensation?
- D. To what extent can the human resources department and functional managers support the project management team?
Answer: D. The project management plan covers resource management, which is about the categorization, allocation, management, and release of project resources. Depending on the project’s specifications, this task can qualify as a component of the team management plan and the physical resource management plan.
16. The final leg of the NEXT project requires applying the agile approach. Later, the project manager discovered that many team members had never experienced working with this approach before. How should the project manager resolve this issue, considering the deadline is fast approaching?
- A. Do not apply the agile approach at all.
- B. Determine how to implement the most cost-effective agile training for inexperienced team members.
- C. Raise this problem to the project sponsors and let them decide.
- D. Have team members who know about the agile approach teach the inexperienced ones.
Answer: B. The best thing to do in this situation is to train the inept project team members. Not applying the agile approach may cause the failure of the project. On the other hand, raising the problem to project sponsors will decrease the project manager’s credibility. Lastly, while mentoring is viable, it may not fit a strict time schedule.
17. The ABC Project is behind its performance schedule. After a thorough assessment, project manager Y found that the project resources have low knowledge levels. In addition, Some senior-level resources are unskilled, performing irrelevant work, and causing delays in the project deliverables.
How can project manager Y improve the team’s performance?
- A. Provide incentives to junior team members to encourage them to work faster and share some notes with the senior-level resources
- B. Identify team members’ weak points and implement training wherever necessary.
- C. Have inexperienced resources replace the dysfunctional senior-level resources.
- D. Announce project goals, schedules, roles, and timelines at the next team meeting to remind team members.
Answer: B. Project manager Y should prioritize training all junior team members so they can perform their tasks well. Also, ensuring that all junior team members are properly trained will help keep everyone’s work more transparent.
18. While a technical project is ongoing, another department requested a key team member to join a different project. The team finds this risky and expressed their concerns over the matter. What is the best action to resolve this dilemma?
- A. Hear out what the team has to say and identify how the removal of the key team member would impact the ongoing project.
- B. Find someone who can replace the said key team member
- C. Talk with the project sponsor to come up with an appropriate solution
- D. Take advantage of coaching tools and techniques to encourage the remainder of the project team
Answer: A. The project manager must first consider the concerns of the original project team. Personnel changes are always critical because this situation may affect how other team members will perform in the future.
19. The project manager leading an ongoing project uses the traditional project management approach. Subsequently, the company organization started implementing the agile project management approach. In the middle of all this, a few team members expressed that the key subject matter expertise is lacking and that the team has poor communication. What is the best way for the project manager to resolve the team members’ concerns?
- A. Hire third-party specialists to address the lack of key subject matter expertise.
- B. Implement the usage of Kanban boards to make work co-dependencies more apparent to everyone.
- C. Introduce cross-functional internal resources to the team.
- D. Reiterate the value of team collaboration during the next standup meeting.
Answer: C. Successful agile projects need “T” shaped team members or individuals who understand the cruciality of cross-functional collaboration in project management. The problem at hand calls for more qualified resources and collaborative people.
20. Communication skills are vital for any project manager. After all, they must constantly connect with team members and other stakeholders. To ensure effective communication, project managers should do the following except:
- A. Incorporate feedback channels
- B. Enhance personal skills to adapt to varied modes of communication
- C. Make an accurate estimate of the number of usable communication channels.
- D. Analyze the communication needs of project stakeholders.
Answer: C. Knowing the potential number of communication channels does not foster effective communication. However, effective communication happens when the project manager performs tasks such as incorporating feedback channels, enhancing communication skills, and understanding the communication needs of project stakeholders.
In reviewing these questionnaires, do not forget to refresh your knowledge on project management 101. The basics are always relevant in any exam. Thus, continue building your knowledge without forgetting the fundamental concepts of project management.
Keep up with the standards of the Project Management Institute
PMP exam questions cannot fully mimic the steps of effective project management, but it trains team members to be resourceful and keen on details. So keep on quizzing yourself through these guide Q&As to rise to the standards set by PM institutes. It might take some time, but progress acquired through hard work will always be worth it.
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