People Domain - Start a Project

A new Project Manager joins the Software development project during the middle of execution. Before meeting all key stakeholders, he wants to prepare a report that compares the current and desired level of engagement of stakeholders involved in the project.

What should he review to fetch this necessary information?

• Stakeholder Register

• Stakeholder Engagement assessment matrix

• Stakeholder Engagement plan

• Communication Management Plan

Answer explanation

As per the question, the Project Manager should consult the Stakeholder Engagement assessment matrix to compare the Stakeholder's current and desired level of engagement. Some may get confused with Stakeholder Engagement Plan, but the Stakeholder Engagement Plan documents "how the adjustments to stakeholders' level of engagement will be achieved".

You are a Project Manager of XYZ company. You are currently performing Stakeholder Analysis for an upcoming project to align expectations and gain support for the project. The initial list of Key Stakeholders is first time identified as a part of which process?

• Develop Project Charter

• Stakeholder Register

• Business Case

• Stakeholder Engagement plan

Answer explanation

The question here asks about the process that fetches the  initial list of key stakeholders.

Choice A - Develop Project Charter - Correct - Project Charter, the main output of Develop Project Charter process contains key stakeholder list and high level classification of roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the project.

Choice  B - Stakeholder Register - Incorrect - It is an example of a Project Document that records all Stakeholder information.

Choice C - Business Case -  Incorrect - It is a Business Document which is input for the Develop Project Charter process. Business case justifies why the project was undertaken.

Choice D - Stakeholder Engagement plan - Incorrect - It is an output for the Plan Stakeholder Engagement Process. It provides actionable plan to interact effectively with the stakeholders.
(PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s) – 81, 509.

A project manager has just finished a project charter and received approval from the project sponsor. The project manager then presented the project charter to the stakeholders and noticed a lack of participation from some of them during this meeting.

What should the project manager do?

• Ask the project team to monitor these stakeholders and their involvement

• Include this in the risk register because the Project Manager is uncertain that the stakeholders understand their responsibilities in this project

• Report the concerns about the stakeholders' lack of involvement to the project sponsor

• Hold one-on-one meetings with these stakeholders to ensure their understanding of key deliverables and their responsibilities

Answer explanation

Every stakeholder needs to understand the deliverables and their responsibilities towards the project. The project manager should address this immediately.

The other answer choices are incorrect. It is not a risk to be recorded in the risk register but an issue for the project manager to resolve. The project manager is responsible for ensuring that the stakeholders are involved in the project. Reporting the concern to the project sponsor will not resolve the problem of stakeholder engagement. It is not the responsibility of the project team to monitor the stakeholders. It needs to be done by the project manager.

The correct answer(s)

Hold one-on-one meetings with these stakeholders to ensure their understanding of key deliverables and their responsibilities.

Good Interpersonal skills play a phenomenal role in successful stakeholder engagement.

All of the following are examples of interpersonal skills EXCEPT:

• Resisting to change

• Building trust

• Resolving Conflict

• Active listening

Answer explanation

Resisting to change is not a valid interpersonal skill.

(PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s) – 144-145, 153, 709.

As a Project Manager, you are updating the Stakeholder Register to include three Specialists who have just joined your project temporarily to implement a Business-critical task that involves Pure Risk.

How will the newly appointed specialists be classified in the Stakeholder Register based on their direction of influence in the project?

• 3 Specialists will be marked as Outward in the Stakeholder Register

• 3 Specialists will be marked as Sideward in the Stakeholder Register

• 3 Specialists will be marked as Downward in the Stakeholder Register

• 3 Specialists will be marked as Influential in the Power/Interest grid

Answer explanation

The question implies that the three specialists are hired temporarily to complete important project work. It suggests that their Direction of Influence in the project is Downward as they can influence the project with their specialized knowledge in a temporary capacity.

   (PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s) – 513.

A salience model is a combination of which  of the following stakeholder characteristics?

• Power, Interest, and Involvement

• Influence, Impact, and Interest

• Power, influence, and impact

• Urgency, Power, and Legitimacy

Answer explanation

(PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s) – 513.

Troy is a Project Manager of a complex automation project which is currently under planning. In a meeting with the Project team to determine initial Stakeholder communication strategies, Troy sees that the Team has done well in stakeholder analysis and grouped stakeholders based on Power-Interest-Attitude.

What does this signify?

• Team has prepared Power/Interest grid to map identified stakeholders in a project.

• Team has prepared Stakeholder Cube to classify stakeholders on the basis of Power, Interest, and Attitude.

• Team has used Data analysis tool to classify stakeholders according to their direction of influence.

• Team has prepared Salience model to classify Stakeholders based on Power, Interest, Attitude.

Answer explanation

The Question states that Team has prepared the Stakeholder Cube. The Power-Interest grid has two axes, and if you add the 3rd axis, you’ll get a Cube. Here Attitude is the third axis added to the Power-Interest grid. Stakeholder Cube is the refinement of the grid model, which combines the grid elements into a three-dimensional model that can help the Project Team develop Stakeholder communication strategies.

(PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s)- 513.

A project manager is in the process of developing the stakeholder register. He creates a list of potential stakeholders and decides to use a data-gathering technique to share a list of questions to the individual participants before the group creativity session.

What technique the Project Manager applied in the given scenario?

• Brainstorming

• Questionnaires and surveys

• Brain writing

• Stakeholder Mapping

Answer explanation

Data gathering techniques generally for the Identify Stakeholders process include questionnaires and surveys, brainstorming, and Brain writing. Brain writing is a refinement of brainstorming that allows individual participants to consider the questions individually before the group creativity session. Therefore, the first step of Brain writing is providing the participants with the questions before the creativity session. This process will allow the participants to be better prepared, making the meeting more effective than a traditional brainstorming session.

So among all options provided, C is the best answer.

(PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s) - 511.

A new Project Manager joins the project to replace a Project Manager terminated for poor performance and poor stakeholder relationships. As a newly appointed Project Manager, he would like to understand how to interact with all the critical stakeholders involved in the project.

Which of the following would be best for him to review?

• Stakeholder Register

• Stakeholder Engagement Plan

• RACI

• Project Charter

Answer explanation

The Stakeholder Engagement Plan guides how the various stakeholders can be best involved in the project.

  (PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s) – 525.

Ryan is a Project Manager of a multi-million dollar project where team members are working from multiple countries. As a project manager, for handling multiculturalism, when should he especially consider cultural differences?

• When communication strategies are build based on political environment of  the organization.

• When the RACI chart gets finalized for assigning work to the available resources.

• When he is  working in a co-located environment.

• When he is considering recognition and rewards during team development.

Answer explanation

(PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s) – 341.