PMP Exam Prep 2024 - Practice Test 6 - Scope & Meeting (PDF Ch7)

A solar-powered car project is almost finished when the project manager receives an approved change request to replace a defective component of the car batteries.

What should the project manager do?

• Record the problem in the issue log

• Meet with the change control board to discuss the matter

• Repair the defective component

• Replace the defective component

Answer explanation

Since the project manager has received an approved change request, they should ensure its appropriate implementation.

Since the change request specifically entails the replacement of the defective component, the project manager shouldn’t repair it instead.

A project manager is wrapping up a one-year project.

Which of the following activities should be prioritized?

• Updating the change log

• Releasing the project resources

• Completing the knowledge transfer activities

• Celebrating the project completion

Answer explanation

Because projects are temporary endeavors, most of the acquired knowledge is lost once the project is completed.

The project manager should be attentive to knowledge documentation and transfer to allow the organization to gain and retain the knowledge and experience obtained through running projects (PMBOK 7th edition, page 78).

Once this activity is completed, a celebration could take place and resources can be released.

On the other hand, the change log should be updated to monitor the change requests’ status.

A project manager is leading a project using an adaptive approach. During the sprint review, the product owner asks for an acceptance document to sign off in order to demonstrate their approval of the deliverables.

What should the project manager do?

• Create an acceptance document and share it with the product owner to sign off

• Ask the product owner to create a task in the product backlog and prioritize it, so that the development team can create the acceptance document

• Ask the product owner to create the acceptance document and sign it off

• Inform the product owner that an acceptance document is unnecessary

Answer explanation

A sprint review is conducted to demonstrate the accomplished work, solicit feedback, and foster collaboration rather than seeking formal approval through an acceptance document sign-off (Essential Scrum by Rubin, Kenneth S, page 372).

Besides, formal approvals are more common in predictive environments.

A project manager closed all contracts related to their construction project, except one that concerns setting up security cameras. The only thing left for this contract is to go through a quick inspection by an expert in order to check out wireless connection, night vision, cloud storage, etc.

Knowing that the security cameras are working fine and that the project needs to be closed as soon as possible, what should the project manager do?

• Close the contract and the project with no inspection

• Close the contract, but keep the project open

• Close the project, but keep the contract open

• Keep the contract and the project open

Answer explanation

The project manager should keep both the contract and the project open until the seller performs the inspection.

losing a project entails conducting several processes and steps including closing out all contracts.

Closing a contract in return requires verifying that the seller has delivered their work as predetermined in the contract.

A project manager is leading a team that is not familiar with the adaptive approach. After several weeks, the project has reached a point where there is an accumulation of Work In Progress (WIP).

What should the project manager do to figure out whether the team is properly following procedures?

• Perform a process evaluation

• Review the notes of the previous retrospective meetings

• Check the Kanban board

• Check relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Answer explanation

Process evaluation involves quality assurance activities and process audits to ensure procedures and processes are being followed and are generating the intended outcomes (PMBOK 7th edition, page 72).

Process evaluation can also include reviewing the notes of the previous retrospective meetings as they can reflect the type of issues that were encountered in the past and how they were handled.

Therefore, process evaluation involves more than just reviewing the previous retrospective meetings notes. KPIs and the Kanban board can only determine whether WIP is beyond the acceptable level, without identifying the causes.

Finally, process evaluation can take place during a retrospective meeting or a lessons learned session, and it can require further investigation that could go beyond those meetings

An organization asked the project manager to send a report on the cost of quality.

The report stated that the total cost was $30,000, detailed as follows (see image).

According to the above table, how much is the appraisal cost of the project?

• $2,000

• $3,000

• $5,000

• $10,000

Answer explanation

Appraisal costs, also known as inspection costs, are part of the Cost of Conformance as they represent the costs of identifying defective products before they are delivered to clients.

This comprises testing, inspecting, auditing, evaluating, and measuring the deliverables, product, or service the project is producing. Appraisal costs are set up to implement a series of activities to determine work results’ degree of conformance to quality requirements.

Meaning the project appraisal cost involves inspection costs which are $5,000.

Training falls under prevention activities.

Rework and scrap costs, on the other hand, are part of the Internal Failure Costs, whereas Warranty charges fall under External Failure Costs.

Mid project, a project manager is notified by the information security department that they just came to know about the design changes that were made lately.

They also expressed their concern about these changes’ compliance with the organization’s standards since they did not take part when these changes were made.

What should the project manager do to overcome this issue?

• Undo all design changes since the information security department wasn’t involved in the process

• Allow the information security department team to attend all of the following daily stand-ups to ensure all made changes comply with security

  requirements

• Ask the security department to raise the issue to the product owner

• Conduct a meeting with the information security department to go over all design changes and ensure their compliance with the organization’s

  standards

Answer explanation

The project manager should first try to resolve the issue through collaboration by conducting a meeting with the information security department to go over the design changes and implement the appropriate process to ensure their compliance with security requirements.

If certain design changes are found to be critical and unfixable, then those should be reverted.

The product owner could be involved in the problem resolution process, but transferring the issue to them wouldn’t work since compliance with the organization’s standards requires understanding security concerns and setting up the appropriate processes by the project manager and their team.

Standup meetings are used for daily work synching between team members, not for examining changes.

During the sprint review of the project’s last iteration, the product owner expressed their satisfaction with the product and described it as “fit for purpose”. However, a senior team member stated that another iteration is needed to fix some bugs and improve the user experience. The sponsor, who is also attending the meeting, said that further work on the product will resume if they get more funding in the next quarter.

What should the project manager do next?

• Close the project, but keep one developer to fix any major bugs

• Keep the project open since work could be resumed in the next quarter

• Continue work on fixing bugs to satisfy the client, then close the project

• Release all resources

Answer explanation

Since the client requested the project closure, even though they are aware of the bugs and the required improvements, the project manager should proceed with the decision.

Properly closing the project entails releasing all

resources.

Continuing work on bugs after the project closure is inappropriate.

Plus, working on bugs to satisfy the client is considered gold plating.

A project cannot be kept open until receiving new funding. It should be closed and, when funding is obtained, a new project should be launched in the next quarter to fix bugs and do

whatever the customer requires.

The project sponsor informed the project manager that they have doubts about whether the resulting product will satisfy business demands. Therefore, they are looking to keep costs to a minimum.

What should the project manager do?

• Identify and implement the requirements for making a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

• Gather all requirements and execute the project using an incremental approach

• Not involve all stakeholders in scope definition in order to limit requirements

• Sign with the sponsor a fixed cost contract in order to limit project costs

Answer explanation

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is used to define the scope of the first release by identifying the requirements that would deliver value to customers (PMBOK 7th edition, page 243).

An incremental approach is not suitable for the described scenario since the client won’t get a usable product until the end of the project.

It’s not appropriate to exclude certain stakeholders in order to limit requirements.

The project manager should involve all stakeholders in the process of collecting and prioritizing product features.

Finally, a fixed-cost contract will not solve the problem in the described scenario since the main concern of the sponsor is verifying the product’s business demand.

During project execution, the sponsor informed the project manager that the produced water-proof watches should be tested in real underwater conditions in order to fulfill the acceptance criteria. When the sponsor’s advice was applied, 10% of the already produced watches did not pass the test.

What should the project manager do next?

• Consider this as an internal failure and correct defects without submitting a change request

• Consider this as an internal failure and submit a change request to fix the defective products

• Consider this as an external failure and correct defects without submitting a change request

• Consider this as an external failure and submit a change request to fix the defective products

Answer explanation

When the product quality is tested by the project team and it reveals certain defects, the defective products are considered an internal failure.

Therefore, all defects must be addressed and fixed internally before delivering the final product to the customer (PMBOK 7th edition, page 184).

A change request must be issued in order to make any sort of change on the project whether it’s a corrective action, preventive action, or a defect repair.