Practice Exam 2 Part 1

A good project manager always gathers and documents lessons learned throughout the project lifecycle rather than delaying the effort until the project closure. Which of the following is not a risk associated with postponing the lessons-learned gathering effort until the very end of the project?

• The project manager has fewer resources available.

• The project's earned value decreases

• Not all lessons learned might get captured

• The effort might seem boring and non-value-adding

Answer explanation

The risk of delaying the lessons learned gathering exercise till the very end of the project is that the gathered information might not be completed because the project manager will not have the whole team available rather than those working on the closing phase. Further, this exercise might seem boring and bureaucratic.

Laurence is the PMO manager at ANZ Company. The CEO of the company asked Laurence to review the business requirements and develop the current year’s capital management plan. The capital management plan will outline the key business deliverables (capital projects) and will go to the board for final approval. Which of the following organizational artifacts should Laurence review to analyze the business requirements for the current fiscal year?

• Lessons Learned

• Capital Budget for the current year

• Organizational Process Assets

• Organizational Strategy

Answer explanation

Capital planning is the process of budgeting resources for the future of an organization's long term plans. Capital planning for a business would include budgeting for new and replacement machinery, research and development and the production of new products, new plants and other major capital projects. Capital projects can only achieve the organizational goals when they are aligned with the organization’s strategy.

Maintaining good supplier relationships should be important to all project managers. A good buyer-seller relationship is a partnership that results in a win-win situation that nurtures both parties. Which of the following is both a short- and long-term benefit of treating a supplier with courtesy, honesty, and fairness?

• There is no need to have formal contracts in place

• Delivery of quality products and services at the best price

• The buyer can delay the payments without jeopardizing the relationship

• The supplier can charge a price higher than the market price

Answer explanation

Charging higher than market price or delaying the payment will damage the relationship in the long-run. Further formal contracts should always be in place as it is a good project management practice and it mitigates risk for both parties and avoids conflicts. The benefit of a good supplier relationship is delivery of quality products at competitive prices.

James is managing a shopping mall construction project. During the project execution, he learns the project communications management plan is not effective and requires a major update. Which of the following processes will issue a change request for the required update?

• Plan Communications Management

• Manage Communications

• Perform Integrated Change Control

• Monitor Communications

Answer explanation

Change request is an output of the Monitor Communications process. The Monitor Communications process will produce the change request, the Perform Integrated Change Control process will get that approved, and then the Plan Communications Management process will make the necessary updates.

With a growing awareness of so-called unknowable-unknowns, the existence of emergent risk is becoming clear. These are risks that can only be recognized after they have occurred. Emergent risks can be tackled through developing:

• Project resilience

• Project charter

• Project management plan

• Project risk management plan

Answer explanation

Emergent risks can be tackled through developing project resilience. This requires each project to have right level of budget and schedule contingencies, flexible project processes, empowered project team and frequent review of early warning signs.

Change control tool selection should be based on the needs of the project stakeholders, including organizational and environmental considerations and/or constraints. Which of the following is not a key change management consideration while selecting an appropriate change control tool for a project?

• Identifying and selecting a change item

• Configuration item verification and audit

• Documenting the change into a proper change request

• Tracking change requests

Answer explanation

Configuration item verification and audit is related to configuration management instead of change management.

In general, Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis is:

• Not often completed

• Complete and 100 percent accurate

• In-depth and thorough

• focused on high-priority risks

Answer explanation

Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis is quicker than Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis as it focuses on high-priority risks.

As a project manager, you perform various project performance measurements to assess the magnitude of variation. You then attempt to determine the cause and decide whether corrective action is necessary. This is:

• Scope Analysis

• Variance Analysis

• Performance Reporting

• Configuration Management

Answer explanation

This is known as Variance Analysis. As project manager, you would then attempt to determine the cause of the variance relative to the scope baseline, and then decide whether corrective action is required.

Two efficiency indicators that reflect the cost and schedule performance of a project are:

• Cost Projection Index (CPI) and Schedule Projection Index (SPI)

• Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

• Actual Cost (AC) and Planned Value (PV)

• Cost Pricing Index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

Answer explanation

The Cost Performance Index (CPI) and the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) are two efficiency indicators that reflect the cost and schedule performance of the project.

In projects with adaptive life cycles, many of the project management processes are repeated in each iteration of the project except:

• Develop Project Charter

• Collect Requirements

• Define Scope

• Create WBS

Answer explanation

In projects with adaptive life cycles, many of the project management processes are repeated in each iteration of the project except the Develop Project Charter process; which is typically performed only once at the start of the project.