PMI SH - Build and Lead a Team (0.5)

During the team meeting, two of the team members who worked on the same tasks are arguing about who is at fault for the task being late. None of them want to be perceived as the one who caused the delay.

What is the most likely cause of this issue?

• Conflicting Priorities

• Unclear Responsibilities

• Personal Competition

• Personnel Selection

Answer explanation

Solution: B. Unclear Responsibilities

Any of the stated answers COULD be correct. The PM may have specific insight, but lacking that, the most likely culprit is a lack of clarity in responsibilities. If those are clarified, not only will conflict be less likely, but it will become more obvious where the issue lies.

An organization has decided to implement agile and a project manager with Scrum Master has been selected to coach the project team to understand agile delivery. One of the team members asks the project manager what servant leadership hierarchy means.

How should the project manager respond?

• Team members are supposed to serve their manager.

• Managers are supposed to serve their team members.

• Clients are supposed to serve the team members.

• Team Members are supposed to serve their clients.

Answer explanation

Solution: B. Managers are supposed to serve their team members.

Servant leadership is the inverted hierarchy. In Agile, the manager is a leader that serves the team by creating the environment for the team to grow, removing impediments, and facilitating rather than commanding.

Which leadership behavior is least likely to boost motivation in an Agile project team?

• Instruct the team to immediately use a new productivity tool.

• Ask the team to vote if a new work method should be adopted.

• Assign individual team members to the tasks in the backlog.

• Ask for a volunteer to run a customer satisfaction survey.

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Instruct the team to immediately use a new productivity tool

Instructing or dictating the team immediately to do something is least likely to boost motivation. The principles of servant leadership and the Agile Manifesto recognize that empowerment and autonomy promote individual and team motivation.

Agile Manifesto Principle #5 - Build projects around motivated individuals. The remaining options align with this. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

Asking the team to vote about a new work method will also boost motivation.

Asking for a volunteer to run a customer satisfaction survey will also boost motivation.

Assigning individual team members to the tasks in the backlog will also boost motivation.

Allowing the team members to decide what to work on based on prioritized objectives or features will motivate them.

A hybrid project has the following characteristics:

• It is in the early stages.

• It has a brand new team.

• The project manager will be very busy executing other projects during the first two weeks of the project.

During this early stage, how should the project manager develop the new project team?

• Ensure the team understands self-organizing principles.

• Plan and host several team-building events to normalize the team.

• Provide daily project status updates to keep the team informed.

• Get to know each team member through one-on-one conversations.

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Ensure the team understands self-organizing principles.

The project manager needs to make sure that the team is capable of working on the project during their absence in the first two weeks of the project. To do so, the project manager should ensure that the team understands self-organizing principles. A self-organizing team is a cross-functional team in which people assume leadership as needed to achieve the team’s objectives. Some projects benefit from decentralized coordination in which project team members self-organize and self-manage. In this case, the project manager can not devote their full attention to managing the team, so the team must understand how to self-organize and self-manage.

The other answer choices are incorrect. Team-building events may be productive, but the project manager will be very busy and not consistently available during the first two weeks. Hosting several team-building events will be a drain on the project manager's bandwidth and may not be possible until after the project manager can focus on the team.

Providing project status updates is incorrect because the project manager will not be consistently available. The team will be working on the project in the project manager's absence, it is more likely that they will provide the manager with status updates.

Having one-on-one conversations may result in deeper relationships but would have to wait until the project manager can focus on the team.

After success in a particulary challenging project phase, a project manager reassigned a high-performing team member to a more strategic task.

This is an example of what?

• Recognition

• Risk acceptance

• Mentorship

• Scope change

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Recognition

Recognition - singles out an individual by recognizing them as worthy of more of the work that satisfies them. In this case, the high-performing team member is recognized for their work and is reassigned to a more strategic task.

Risk Acceptance - There is no identified risk here hence the option is incorrect.

Mentorship- the guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or educational institution hence not the correct answer.

Scope Change - a scope change comes into effect when there is a significant change that impacts project parameters to a defined, accepted work package or project, hence not the correct answer.

An organization is developing a new product. What should the project manager of this development do first to improve the success of the project?

• Work with the project management office (PMO) to develop a detailed project schedule.

• Work with the marketing team to conduct an impact analysis to identify the target market.

• Work with the project sponsor to define the project vision and overall initiative.

• Work with the stakeholders to identify the appropriate project team members.

Answer explanation

Solution: C. Work with the project sponsor to define the project vision and overall initiative

For project success, it is critical to initially define vision and mission of the overall initiative before even focusing on detailed planning. Impact Analysis, detailed project schedule and identification of project team members will follow once the project vision and overall initiative is defined

A new graduate recently joined a mature agile R&D team. A mentor, assigned to work with the graduate, is overwhelmed by the extra workload. Team performance and motivation are dropping.

How can the project manager help with this situation?

• Maintain a laissez-faire leadership style with the team, but use a transactional style to give firm guidance to the graduate.

• Ask the mentor to use a collaborative servant leader approach to perform the usual duties along with the mentor role.

• Cancel the mentor plan and focus on keeping the graduate motivated by learning through an intensive immersion.

• Ask three more team members to share the mentor role in order to reduce the individual mentor workload by 75%.

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Maintain a laissez-faire leadership style with the team, but use a transactional style to give firm guidance to the graduate

The graduate is in need of authoritative and stable guidelines and positive feedback while the team must not lose their autonomy to maintain motivation.

Collaborative servant leadership approach is used for increasing team gel and motivation

Without mentor it is difficult to learn through an insensitive immersion

Asking three team members to share the mentor role is not an effective way

A chief technology officer (CTO) is enthusiastic about an organization's recent adoption of servant leadership practices. The CTO requests that all project managers apply servant leadership practices, but seems to be unsure of the practical applications.

Which statement below best represents how the project manager should respond to the CTO's request?

• Explain that servant leadership can be adapted and applied to any project situation.

• Remind the CTO that servant leadership is more suited for projects using agile methods.

• Clarify that servant leadership practices typically focus on the client's preferences.

• Affirm that servant leadership only works for projects with substantial resources.

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Explain that servant leadership can be adapted and applied to any project situation.

Servant leadership is the practice of leading the team by focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of team members to enable the highest possible team performance. While some approaches may rely on servant leadership more than others, servant leadership principles can be applied to any situation.

The other options are incorrect because servant leadership is not an exclusively agile practice, focuses on serving and supporting team members, and can be applied to projects of any size or budget.

During the execution phase of your project, a Resource Manager informed you that one of the experts allocated to your project had to be motivated in order to perform very well.

What would be the recommended actions to address this issue?

• Remind the functional manager that is his duty to motivate his team

• Remind the team member that there are penalties for bad behaviours.

• Remind the team member that there are financial incentives for the team.

• Remind the team member their important role and how it will be rewarded.

Answer explanation

Solution: D. Remind the team member their important role and how it will be rewarded.

This situation is normal for highly skilled individuals that can be motivated easier by recognizing their important contribution to the project. This responsibility can't be delegated to the resource manager or to the functional manager. These individuals are hard to be motivated by force or using financial incentives for the entire team. It is important to explain the importance of their role for the project so you get their buy in.

To handle a change in requirements, a project team needs to be motivated and flexible to reprioritize tasks. What leadership style would help the team to perform well in changing and uncertain conditions?

• A collaborative approach will boost motivation, learning, growth, and innovation around a project vision.

• A directive approach will boost team confidence by ensuring that team members only work on the tasks suited to their qualifications.

• A collaborative approach will ensure that project procedures are well-documented and complete enough to cover all situations.

• A directive approach will prepare the team for frequent changes by adapting the project vision to new directions.

Answer explanation

Solution: A. A collaborative approach will boost motivation, learning, growth, and innovation around a project vision

Collaborative leadership empowers teams to adapt to new challenges through a learning culture and shared vision.

The other answer choices are incorrect because even in collaborative approach, all situations can't be documented in the form of project procedures. Directive approach will not boost team confidence, rather it will decease it and will not help the team to prepare for new changes.