PMI PMP - Business Environment

A project manager is part of a project management strategy focus group that is brainstorming the ways projects will be used to add business value to the organization in the upcoming quarter. Which statement(s) describes broadly how organizations use projects to add business value?

• Projects are used to develop new products, processes, or services

• Projects are used to modify existing products, processes, or services.

• Projects are used to deliver day-to-day activities, processes, or services.

• 1. Projects are used to develop and modify products, processes, or services.

Answer explanation

D. Projects are used to develop and modify products, processes, or services.

Business value is added by projects to develop new products or modify existing products, processes, or services.

Projects should deliver unique features, and do not deliver day-to-day activities.

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

PMI.org (2014) //Phillipy, M. A. (2014). Delivering business value: The most important aspect of project management. Paper presented at PMI^® Global Congress 2014—North America, Phoenix, AZ. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute// [Item]

A project manager works for an organization that uses the predictive method of project management. The project manager has completed training for agile project management and begins to manage projects using the agile method. Stakeholders are not familiar with agile and are having difficulty understanding the new project methodology.

How should the project manager address this issue?

• Hold a session with the stakeholders to introduce agility - explaining the business value of prioritization, accountability, and improved quality from frequent reviews.

• Conduct a cost benefit analysis for the new project comparing predictive and agile approaches and present it to the stakeholders.

• Invite the stakeholders to a backlog grooming session so that they understand the scope of work and the development approach.

• Send the stakeholders video links explaining agile approaches as well as supporting case studies from the industry.

Answer explanation

Solution: A. Hold a session with the stakeholders to introduce agility - explaining the business value of prioritization, accountability, and improved quality from frequent reviews.

This question tests the project manager's understanding of their role in educating the stakeholders, as well as the benefits of this type of stakeholder engagement.

The other options on conducting analysis, and having a backlog grooming session do not help the stakeholders understand better. The option to send video links is helpful, but a personalised session with the stakeholders would likely be the most effective option.

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, Hybrid (No Date) Robert K. Wysocki//3 What are the Project Management Processes/96 [Item]

| The Agile Practice Guide (No Date) PMI/PMI/4/4.2.1.4 (37) [Item]

A project manager is midway through project delivery. The project manager decides to hold a stakeholder engagement meeting with senior management and the clients to examine if the project deliverables are achieving business value.

Which of the documents contains critical information to help the project manager with this?

• Work breakdown structure

• Project management plan

• Project scope statement

• Business case

Answer explanation

D. Business case

The business case can be used to establish what was the initial project justification hence the business value envisaged from the onset

Work breakdown structure - Tasks, deadlines, and assigned resources along with the dependencies are documented in the work breakdown structure document

Project scope statement - The scope of the work is documented in the scope statement

Project management plan - It contains the information about the tasks which are involved in each and every stage of the project (Initiation, planning execution, control, and closure)

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

PMI.org (2014) //Phillipy, M. A. (2014). Delivering business value: The most important aspect of project management. Paper presented at PMI^® Global Congress 2014—North America, Phoenix, AZ. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute// [Item]

A project team is brainstorming the best project management methodology to recommend to senior management for adoption. The project team's idea is characterized by frequent requirement changes, incremental and iterative changes, customer focus, and defined stages with specific documents produced to meet industry regulatory standards.

Which project management methodology is preferred in this case?

• Agile

• Hybrid

• Predictive

• Waterfall

Answer explanation

B. Hybrid

Hybrid is correct as the team needs to adopt the hybrid approach as their projects require agile benefits such as being more customer centric, responding faster to change as well as predictive benefits of clear stages and documents. Hence a blend is recommended in this instance.

• Agile is incorrect as the defined stages with specific documents are required in order to meet industry regulatory standards.

• Predictive is incorrect as the project requires frequent requirement changes, incremental and iterative changes whereas predictive methodology is applied when when the scope of work and requirements for the project are clear and justify the detailed upfront planning.

• Waterfall is incorrect as the waterfall project management is a sequential, linear process of project management whereas this project requires frequent requirement changes, incremental and iterative changes

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

PMI.org (2010) //Sheffield, J. & Lemétayer, J. (2010). Critical success factors in project management methodology fit. Paper presented at PMI^® Global Congress 2010—Asia Pacific, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute// [Item]

A local government provides subsidies for healthcare activities. An organization plans to leverage this subsidy for a project to provide health testing services for at-risk populations. After the project has started, the government announces that this testing service might not qualify for the subsidy.

What should the project manager do?

• Escalate the project risk to a higher level.

• Meet with the project sponsor to redefine project benefits.

• Inform the stakeholders of the need to develop a contingency plan.

• Submit a change request to the change control board (CCB).

Answer explanation

A. Escalate the project risk to a higher level.

If there are potential conflicts between strategic goals and the portfolio of work, then the risk is escalated to the proper level of management.

The project benefits haven't changed, there is no indication yet that a contingency plan is needed, and there would be nothing to substantiate a change request.

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

PMBOK Guide Sixth Edition (2018) PMI/PMI/11 Project risk management/398 [Item]

| PMBoK, Sixth edition (2021) PMI/PMI/11/ [Item Key Concepts for the Project Risk Management]

| The AMA Handbook of Project Management, Third Edition (No Date) /AMACOM/CHAPTER 14 Risk Management in Practice/Location 4166 [Item]

| The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right (No Date) /Amacom/RISK PROCESS 81 Risk-Management Planning/202 [Item]

| The Standard for Risk Management in Portfolios, Programs, and Projects (2019) Project Management Institute, Inc./Project Management Institute, Inc.// [Item]

A project management office (PMO) normally runs projects using the waterfall approach. A project currently in development is impacted by local regulations which are being updated regularly. The project team feels that implementing agile techniques would benefit the project due to the constantly changing regulations.

What should the project manager do in this scenario?

• Leverage budget reserves to add vendors familiar with the regulations to the project team.

• Conduct an analysis of how incorporating agile methodologies will impact the project.

• Present this request to the PMO and the project sponsor.

• Implement the request and train the project team on agile methodologies.

Answer explanation

B. Conduct an analysis of how incorporating agile methodologies will impact the project.

The project should first conduct an analysis of how incorporating agile methodologies will impact the project requirement before making other changes to the approach.

Using budget reserves to add vendors is not the correct action for this scenario.

The Project Manager should do the due diligence on why the project should be changed to agile before presenting the request to the PMO and project sponsor.

The Project Manager shouldn't be implementing the request and training the project team on agile methodologies without first getting approval from the stakeholder.

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Opitimizing Your Way of Working (January 2019) Scott W Ambler and Mark Lines/// [Item Page No.78]

| O'Reilly Platform (No Date) //6/np [Item The Professional product owner: Leveraging scrum as a competitive advantage by Don McGreat and Ralph Johnson 2018.]

An agile team is determining which activities to complete first during an upcoming project iteration for a new product development. Which factor should they use to rank the order of activities that will be delivered?

• Size of the activity

• Value of the activity to stakeholders

• Cost of the activity

• Ease of completion of the activity

Answer explanation

B. Value of the activity to stakeholders.

In agile product development, prioritizing activities based on the value they provide to stakeholders is a fundamental principle. This approach ensures that the most valuable and impactful features or tasks are addressed first, maximizing the project's return on investment (ROI) and addressing stakeholders' needs and expectations effectively. Prioritizing based on the value of the activity to stakeholders ensures that the team works on tasks or features that directly contribute to meeting customer or user requirements and expectations.

While the size, cost, and ease of completion are important factors to consider, they should be secondary to the value factor. An activity might be small, inexpensive, or easy to complete, but if it doesn't provide substantial value to stakeholders, it may not be the most important one to address.

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

PMI.org (2010) //Byatt, G. (2010). Delivering project benefits—a practical plan for success. Paper presented at PMI^® Global Congress 2010—Asia Pacific, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute// [Item]

What methodology uses new approaches to implement solutions to problems that are encountered daily?

• Ideation 2.0

• Scrum

• Kanban

• Hybrid

Answer explanation

A. Ideation 2.0

Ideation 2.0 is about using new approaches to ideate solutions to the problems you encounter in your daily routine, helping you to design collaboratively while keeping in mind the necessary outputs to inform the initial prototype.

The other answer choices are incorrect because they are not designed to address problems that are encountered on a daily basis.

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/675586/An-Introduction-to-Ideation-2-0-in-Practice [Item Ideation 2.0 is about using new approaches to ideate solutions to the problems you encounter in your daily routine, helping you to design collaboratively while keeping in mind the necessary outputs to inform the initial prototype.]

A project manager has been assigned to a new project. During the initial review of the project charter, the project manager reaches out to the project sponsor to discuss important information that is missing in the document.

What piece of information is appropriate for the project manager to request?

• Measurable objectives of critical success factors

• Detailed description and requirements of the final deliverable

• Work breakdown structure (WBS)

• Performance measurement baseline

Answer explanation

A. Measurable objectives of critical success factors

The project sponsor is generally responsible for the development of the business case for the project. That person would be the logical source of the objectives for project success.

Detailed deliverable requirements, WBS, and performance management baseline are all lower level documents that the project manager should develop based on the criteria provided by the sponsor.

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, 7th ed (No Date) Robert Wysocki/Wiley/12/393 [Item]

| PMBOK Guide Sixth Edition (2018) PMI/PMI/4/81 [Item]

A project manager in a predictive environment has recently completed agile training and is starting to manage projects in an agile fashion. The organization is new to agile and not everyone understands the principles.

How should the project manager gain support going forward?

• Hold a session with the stakeholders explaining the business value of prioritization, mindset, accountability, and improved quality.

• Conduct a cost benefit analysis for the new project comparing predictive and agile approaches and present it to the stakeholders.

• Invite the stakeholders to a backlog grooming session so that they understand the scope of work and the development approach.

• Send the stakeholders video links explaining agile approaches as well as supporting case studies from the industry.

Answer explanation

A. Hold a session with the stakeholders explaining the business value of prioritization, mindset, accountability, and improved quality.

The project manager is responsible for educating and engaging the stakeholders. The project manager should hold a session with the stakeholders explaining the business value of prioritization, agile mindset, accountability, and improved quality.

The other answer choices are incorrect. Conducting a cost benefit analysis may not show results in favor of the agile approach; inviting stakeholders to instill understanding of the benefits of agile is not the objective of a backlog grooming session; holding a session shows more dedication to the stakeholders as opposed to sending a video lesson link.

This question and rationale were developed in reference to:

Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, Hybrid (No Date) Robert K. Wysocki//3 What are the Project Management Processes/96 [Item]

| The Agile Practice Guide (No Date) PMI/PMI/4/4.2.1.4 (37) [Item]