PMI SH - Empower Team Members and Stakeholders

A project manager begins to notice disengaged members arriving late, not delivering on time, not attending meetings, and producing low-quality deliveries.

What action should the project manager take?

• Investigate the reason for the team members' disengaged behavior and boost morale and participation. 

• Ask the team members to change the way they are working to match the newest work trends.

• Encourage the team to double their efforts to pick up the slack from the disengaged team members.

• Request that the team members abandon the process that is slowing their progress.

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Investigate the reason for the team members' disengaged behavior and boost morale and participation. 

The project manager should investigate the reason for the team members' disengaged behavior and boost morale and participation. The project manager needs to understand why the team members are disengaged and then take steps to address it. This could involve providing more support, giving the team members more autonomy, or changing the way the project is structured. Boosting morale and participation will help to improve the team's performance. When team members feel engaged and motivated, they are more likely to be productive and deliver high-quality work.

The other answer choices are incorrect. Asking the team members to change the way they are working to match the newest work trends is not a good option because it does not address the root cause of the disengagement. Encouraging the team to double their efforts to pick up the slack from the disengaged team members is not a good option because it is unfair to the other team members. Requesting that the team members abandon the process that is slowing their progress is not a good option because it could lead to more problems down the road.

A delivery milestone for a project is fast approaching, but an item that is planned to be completed is at risk. A team member begins to act defensively and is blaming others for this issue.

How should the project manager have acted to avoid this?

• Established ground rules for interaction that the whole team must follow.

• Established and maintained meaningful relationships between team members.

• Established formal patterns of authority, responsibility, and accountability.

• Established clear delegation and accountability-sharing principles.

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Established ground rules for interaction that the whole team must follow.

By establishing clear ground rules, the project manager would be creating a positive and productive team environment, where everyone feels comfortable speaking up and contributing. This would help to prevent finger-pointing and blaming, as everyone would know how to interact with each other in a respectful and productive way.

The other answer choices are incorrect because they are important, but don't necessarily do much to prevent disrespectful behaviors. 

A project team in the middle of an incremental delivery project decided they need the help of a subject matter expert (SME) who is working in a different department. The project team asked the SME to join their team and assist in a specific task and they informed the project leader about this action.

What should the project manager do?

• Check the project budget and assess the impact and feasibility of adding an additional resource

• Talk with the project sponsor and get approval, explaining that this resource is important and crucial

• Talk to the functional manager of this needed resource and check their availability and bandwidth

• Facilitate the coordination of resources with the needed resources based on the teams working agreement

Answer explanation

Solution: D. Facilitate the coordination of resources with the needed resources based on the teams working agreement

Facilitating the coordination of resources with the needed resources based on the team's working agreement is correct as a team often needs to coordinate with other delivery teams across the organization, using effective coordination strategies, based on the working agreement.

The other options are incorrect.

Checking the project budget and assessing the impact and feasibility of adding additional resources is not the best choice, even if there is a budget available, as adding an SME in the middle of an incremental delivery process will impact team fabric and there will be a ramp curve for any new member being added. Similarly, seeking approval from the project sponsor, or talking to the functional manager of the resource, are incorrect because they do not address the full impact of the added resource.

The product owner decides to launch a product after a couple of releases, knowing that the minimum viable product (MVP) lacks some features. One of the key stakeholders, the marketing vice president, is not happy with the results and questioned the release decision.

What should the project manager do?

• Coach the team on the decision-making process, assuming a risk-averse strategy towards product releasing.

• Support the product owner's decision and seek better alignment with this stakeholder in order to avoid this type of issue in the future.

• Assume the responsibility for product releases, making the final call on when something is ready for customer launch.

• Escalate the issue to the sponsor, questioning the authority of the key stakeholder regarding the product launch decision.

Answer explanation

Solution: B. Support the product owner's decision and seek better alignment with this stakeholder in order to avoid this type of issue in the future

The agile team owns complete responsibility of the launch of the product and the Product owner being a part of the agile team, understands the product and the releases and is in a better position to decide when to launch the product . However, it also the duty of the Product Owner and the agile team to start involving all stakeholders early in the project, ensure inclusions in Priority decisions and solicit feedback during reviews that will eliminate stakeholder dissatisfaction. Hence this option is the correct answer.

Agile projects are less prone to risks as there are built in quality measures and their quick response to changes. Hence risk averse strategy may not be applicable. Hence this option is incorrect.

Project Manager in agile projects do not take responsibility for product releases nor can the project manager question the authority of the key stakeholders. Hence these options are incorrect.

A project team is actively engaged in the preparation of the last delivery before the final product is live in production. What should the project manager do to make sure that the whole team is in full sync?

• Ensure the team is attending the daily meetings and participating actively

• Ensure that the needed information is available and accessible to each and every member

• Ensure to visualize the work to be done on a white board visual and accessible to all

• Ensure there is a room for the team to have regular conversation whenever needed

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Ensure the team is attending the daily meetings and participating actively

"Ensure the team is attending the daily meetings and participating actively" as daily meetings keep the team on track so that there are no surprises. and eliminate the waste of waiting dependencies of the work to be done between the team

Although rest of the options seems to be by providing the additional information, but the right choice is participation in daily meetings

In the middle of a project incremental delivery, due to a change in the technology, a team member informed the project leader that due to a lack of knowledge in the technology the delivery will be delayed and suggests outsourcing services.

What should the project manager do?

• Inform the end user of the delay of the specific delivery due to the new technology

• Search for an outsourcing service with the experience needed

• Inform the sponsor of the delay and ask for their support and approval

• Discuss the impact of the new technology with the team and decide action jointly

Answer explanation

Solution: D. Discuss the impact of the new technology with the team and decide action jointly

The project manager is responsible of enabling his team to work as autonomously as possible

Within the fourth iteration of product development, the project manager realizes that the software used for the project management plan is not permitting planned updates.

Which action should the project manager take?

• Select a team resource who can update the project management plan template.

• Based on business value for the upcoming iterations, choose a priority for the activities.

• Resolve the issue independently so that team members do not become distracted.

• Add the problem as a new project risk in the risk register and suggest corrective actions.

Answer explanation

Solution: C. Resolve the issue independently so that team members do not become distracted

A project manager's job is to remove impediments to team performance, therefore software deficiencies must be addressed at an administrative level and not at the team level.

The other answer choices are incorrect. They are not valid because administrative resources, rather than team resources, will be used to address the issue.

The team informed the project leader that they are not sure of the stakeholder needs, despite the multiple collection requirements efforts and engagement in status meetings.

How should the project manager approach this issue?

• Require the team to work with the stakeholders to analyze their detailed requirements and sign off on the specification

• Discuss with the team the option of canceling the project since the risk is too great to continue

• Ask the team to write a collection of user stories to capture the needs, prioritize and manage the stories

• Document what the team believes the stakeholders need, show it to stakeholders, and ask for their feedback to share with the team

Answer explanation

Solution: D. Document what the team believes the stakeholders need, show it to stakeholders, and ask for their feedback to share with the team

The primary determinant of a successful team is how they work together. This is what should the project manager focus on when forming a team. Understanding stakeholders' expectations is also paramount to a project's success. Despite the multiple collection requirements efforts, the team members remain unsure of stakeholder needs. In this case, the best course of action is to document what the team believes, ask for stakeholder feedback, and share with the team is an effective way to ensure that the team and stakeholders are aligned, allowing everyone to work together well.

Requiring the team to work with stakeholders to analyze detailed requirements is not the best option because the team has already made multiple requirement collection efforts and has engaged with stakeholders in status meetings.  Canceling the project since the risk is great is not an appropriate option. In the beginning, there will be a lot of uncertainties and the team must collaboratively analyze the situation for clarity. Deciding to cancel the project does not remedy the disconnect, and the same issue is likely to arise in other projects if it is not dealt with. Having the team produce user stories and prioritizing without involving stakeholders also does not help hence this is not the correct choice.

A project manager must make decisions daily, regardless of the decision's level of importance or criticality. What should a project manager do to ensure their decisions are unbiased and rational?

• Utilize data without checking for accuracy

• Understand they cannot achieve everything

• Make decisions quickly

• Make decisions only when the results are certain

Answer explanation

Solution: B. Understand they cannot achieve everything

It is a common flaw to have an optimism bias. Optimism bias is the tendency to be over-optimistic, overestimating favorable and pleasing outcomes.

Taking decisions quickly or waiting till the results are certain or utilizing data without checking for accuracy are incorrect options

A multi-year project is underway when a key resource announces that they are retiring. The project manager is concerned about the impact on the project and has identified that several critical tasks will be affected.

What should the project manager do?

• Require the remaining team members to work additional hours to complete the impacted tasks.

• Advise the stakeholders that the resource's tasks will not be completed on time.

• Collaborate with the resource manager to identify and train an appropriate replacement. 

• Encourage the retiring team member to postpone retirement to avoid disrupting the project.

Answer explanation

Solution: C. Work with the resource manager to identify and train a replacement for the retiring resource. 
The project manager should work with the resource manager to identify and train a replacement for the key resource. This may involve recruiting and hiring a new team member or cross-training an existing team member. Proactively identifying and training a replacement will help to ensure that the project can continue on schedule and minimize the impact of the key resource's retirement. 
The other options are incorrect.
Advising stakeholders that the key resource's tasks will not be completed on time is premature and may create uncertainty and confusion.
Requiring team members to work additional hours or encouraging the retiring team member to postpone retirement is not ethical and not a practical solution.