PMI CAPM PMI-100 Questions & Answers

• Question 1:

  Project management processes ensure the:

  A. alignment with organizational strategy

  B. efficient means to achieve the project objectives

  C. performance of the project team

  D. effective flow of the project throughout its life cycle

  Correct Answer: D

  Explanation:

  Project management processes. These processes ensure the effective flow of the projectthroughout its life cycle. These processes encompass the tools and techniques involved in applying the skills and capabilities described in the Knowledge Areas (Sections 4 through 13)

• Question 2:

  Which process is conducted from project inception through completion and is ultimately the responsibility of the project manager?

  A. Control Quality

  B. Monitor and Control Project Work

  C. Control Scope

  D. Perform Integrated Change Control

  Correct Answer: D

  Explanation:

  Process: 4.5 Perform Integrated Change ControlDefinition: Perform Integrated Change Control is the process of reviewing all change requests; approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the project management plan; and communicating their disposition. It reviews all requests for changes or modifications to project documents, deliverables, baselines, or the project management plan and approves or rejects the changes. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it allows for documented changes within the project to be considered in an integrated fashion while reducing project risk, which often arises from changes made without consideration to the overall project objectives or plans.

  Inputs

  1.

  Project management plan

  2.

  Work performance reports

  3.

  Change requests

  4.

  Enterprise environmental factors

  5.

  Organizational process assets

  Tools and Techniques

  1.

  Expert judgment

  2.

  Meetings

  3.

  Change control tools

  Outputs

  1.

  Approved change requests

  2.

  Change log

  3.

  Project management plan updates

  4.

  Project documents updates

• Question 3:

  The risk response strategy in which the project team acts to reduce the probability of occurrence or impact of a risk is known as:

  A. exploit

  B. avoid

  C. mitigate

  D. share

  Correct Answer: C

  Explanation:

  11.5.2.1 Strategies for Negative Risks or Threats Three strategies, which typically deal with threats or risks that may have negative impacts on project

  

  objectives if they occur, are: avoid, transfer, and mitigate. The fourth strategy, accept, can be used for negative risks or threats as well as positive risks or opportunities. Each of these risk response strategies have varied and unique influence on the risk condition. These strategies should be chosen to match the risk's probability and impact on the project's overall objectives. Avoidance and mitigation strategies are usually good strategies for critical risks with high impact, while transference and acceptance are usually good strategies for threats that are less critical and with low overall impact. The four strategies for dealing with negative risks or threats are further described as follows:

  Avoid. Risk avoidance is a risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact. It usually involves changing the project management plan to eliminate the threat entirely. The project manager may also isolate the project objectives from the risk's impact or change the objective that is in jeopardy. Examples of this include extending the schedule, changing the strategy, or reducing scope. The most radical avoidance strategy is to shut down the project entirely. Some risks that arise early in the project can be avoided by clarifying requirements, obtaining information, improving communication, or acquiring expertise.

  Transfer. Risk transference is a risk response strategy whereby the project team shifts the impact of a threat to a third party, together with ownership of the response. Transferring the risk simply gives another party responsibility for its management—it does not eliminate it. Transferring does not mean disowning the risk by transferring it to a later project or another person without his or her knowledge or agreement. Risk transference nearly always involves payment of a risk premium to the party taking on the risk. Transferring liability for risk is most effective in dealing with financial risk exposure. Transference tools can be quite diverse and include, but are not limited to, the use of insurance, performance bonds, warranties, guarantees, etc. Contracts or agreements may be used to transfer liability for specified risks to another party. For example, when a buyer has capabilities that the seller does not possess, it may be prudent to transfer some work and its concurrent risk contractually back to the buyer. In many cases, use of a cost-plus contract may transfer the cost risk to the buyer, while a fixed-price contract may transfer risk to the seller.

  Mitigate. Risk mitigation is a risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to reduce the probability of occurrence or impact of a risk. It implies a reduction in the probability and/or impact of an adverse risk to be within acceptable threshold limits. Taking early action to reduce the probability and/or impact of a risk occurring on the project is often more effective than trying to repair the damage after the risk has occurred. Adopting less complex processes, conducting more tests, or choosing a more stable supplier are examples of mitigation actions. Mitigation may require prototype development to reduce the risk of scaling up from a bench-scale model of a process or product. Where it is not possible to reduce probability, a mitigation response might address the risk impact by targeting linkages that determine the severity. For example, designing redundancy into a system may reduce the impact from a failure of the original component.

  Accept. Risk acceptance is a risk response strategy whereby the project team decides to acknowledge the risk and not take any action unless the risk occurs. This strategy is adopted where it is not possible or cost-effective to address a specific risk in any other way. This strategy indicates that the project team has decided not to change the project management plan to deal with a risk, or is unable to identify any other suitable response strategy. This strategy can be either passive or active. Passive acceptance requires no action except to document the strategy, leaving the project team to deal with the risks as they occur, and to periodically review the threat to ensure that it does not change significantly. The most common active acceptance strategy is to establish a contingency reserve, including amounts of time, money, or resources to handle the risks.

• Question 4:

  A complete set of concepts, terms, and activities that make up an area of specialization is known as:

  A. a Knowledge Area

  B. a Process Group

  C. program management

  D. portfolio management

  Correct Answer: A

  Explanation:

  3.9 Role of the Knowledge Areas

  The 47 project management processes identified in the PMBOK® Guide are further grouped into ten separate Knowledge Areas. A Knowledge Area represents a complete set of concepts, terms, and activities that make up a professional field, project management field, or area of specialization. These ten Knowledge Areas are used on most projects most of the time. Project teams should utilize these ten Knowledge Areas and other Knowledge Areas, as appropriate, for their specific project. The Knowledge Areas are: Project Integration Management, Project Scope Management, Project Time Management, Project Cost Management, Project Quality Management, Project Human Resource Management, Project Communications Management, Project Risk Management, Project Procurement Management and Project

  

  Stakeholder Management. Each Knowledge Area within the PMBOK® Guide is contained in a separate section.

• Question 5:

  What is the risk rating if the probability of occurrence is 0.30 and the impact if it does occur is moderate (0.20)?

  A. 0.03

  B. 0.06

  C. 0.10

  D. 0.50

  Correct Answer: B

• Question 6:

  Which action is included in the Control Costs process?

  A. Identify how the project costs will be planned, structured, and controlled

  B. Determine policies, objectives, and responsibilities to satisfy stakeholder needs

  C. Develop an approximation of the monetary resources needed to complete project activities

  D. Monitor cost performance to isolate and understand variances from the approved cost baseline

  Correct Answer: D

  Explanation:

  7.3.3.1 Cost Baseline The cost baseline is the approved version of the time-phased project budget, excluding any management reserves, which can only be changed through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results. It is developed as a summation of the approved budgets for the different schedule activities.

  Process: 7.4 Control Costs Definition: The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline.

  Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it determines the cost baseline against which project performance can be monitored and controlled.

  Inputs

  1.

  Project management plan

  2.

  Project funding requirements

  3.

  Work performance data

  4.

  Organizational process assets

  Tools and Techniques

  1.

  Earned value management

  2.

  Forecasting

  3.

  To-complete performance index (TCPI)

  4.

  Performance reviews

  5.

  Project management software

  6.

  Reserve analysis

  Outputs

  1.

  Work performance information

  2.

  Cost forecasts

  3.

  Change requests

  4.

  Project management plan updates

  5.

  Project documents updates

  6.

  Organizational process assets updates

• Question 7:

  When painting a bedroom, preparing the walls can be done while the paint is being chosen. This is an example of a:

  A. lead

  B. lag

  C. mandatory dependency

  D. internal dependency

  Correct Answer: A

  Explanation:

  6.3.2.2 Dependency Determination Dependencies may be characterized by the following attributes: mandatory or discretionary, internal or external, as described below. Dependency has four attributes, but two can be applicable at the same time in following ways: mandatory external dependencies, mandatory internal dependencies, discretionary external dependencies, or discretionary internal dependencies.

  Mandatory dependencies. Mandatory dependencies are those that are legally or contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work. Mandatory dependencies often involve physical limitations, such as on a construction project, where it is impossible to erect the superstructure until after the foundation has been built, or on an electronics project, where a prototype has to be built before it can be tested. Mandatory dependencies are also sometimes referred to as hard logic or hard dependencies. Technical dependencies may not be mandatory. The project team determines which dependencies are mandatory during the process of sequencing the activities. Mandatory dependencies should not be confused with assigning schedule constraints in the scheduling tool.

  Discretionary dependencies. Discretionary dependencies are sometimes referred to as preferred logic, preferential logic, or soft logic. Discretionary dependencies are established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or some unusual aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired, even though there may be other acceptable sequences. Discretionary dependencies should be fully documented since they can create arbitrary total float values and can limit later scheduling options. When fast tracking techniques are employed, these discretionary dependencies should be reviewed and considered for modifcation or removal. The project team determines which dependencies are discretionary during the process of sequencing the activities.

  External dependencies. External dependencies involve a relationship between project activities and non-project activities. These dependencies are usually outside the project team's control. For example, the testing activity in a software project may be dependent on the delivery of hardware from an external source, or governmental environmental hearings may need to be held before site preparation can begin on a construction project. The project management team determines which dependencies are external during the process of sequencing the activities.

  Internal dependencies. Internal dependencies involve a precedence relationship between project activities and are generally inside the project team's control. For example, if the team cannot test a machine until they assemble it, this is an internal mandatory dependency. The project management team determines which dependencies are internal during the process of sequencing the activities.

• Question 8:

  Perform Integrated Change Control is the process of:

  A. Reviewing, approving, and managing all change requests

  B. Facilitating change management, manuals, or automation tools

  C. Comparing actual results with planned results in order to expand or change a project

  D. Documenting changes according to the change control system by the change control board

  Correct Answer: A

  Explanation:

  Process: 4.5 Perform Integrated Change ControlPerform Integrated Change Control is the process of reviewing all change requests; approvingchanges and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, projectdocuments, and the project management plan; and communicating their disposition. It reviews all requests for changes or modifications to project documents, deliverables, baselines, or the project management plan and approves or rejects the changes. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it allows for documented changes within the project to be considered in an integrated fashion while reducing project risk, which often arises from changes made without consideration to the overall project objectives or plans.

  Inputs

  1.

  Project management plan

  2.

  Work performance reports

  3.

  Change requests

  4.

  Enterprise environmental factors

  5.

  Organizational process assets

  Tools and Techniques

  1.

  Expert judgment

  2.

  Meetings

  3.

  Change control tools

  Outputs

  1.

  Approved change requests

  2.

  Change log

  3.

  Project management plan updates

  4.

  Project documents updates

• Question 9:

  Plan Communications Management develops an approach and plan for project communications based on stakeholders' needs and requirements and:

  A. Available organizational assets

  B. Project staff assignments

  C. Interpersonal skills

  D. Enterprise environmental factors

  Correct Answer: A

  Explanation:

  Process: 10.1 Plan Communications ManagementDefinition: The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications based on stakeholder's information needs and requirements, and available organizational assets. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it identifies and documents the approach to communicate most effectively and efficiently with stakeholders.

  Inputs

  1.

  Project management plan

  2.

  Stakeholder register

  3.

  Enterprise environmental factors

  4.

  Organizational process assets

  Tools and Techniques

  1.

  Communication requirements analysis

  2.

  Communication technology

  3.

  Communication models

  4.

  Communication methods

  5.

  Meetings

  Outputs

  1.

  Communications management plan

  2.

  Project documents updates

• Question 10:

  Which stakeholder approves a project's result?

  A. Customer

  B. Sponsor

  C. Seller

  D. Functional manager

  Correct Answer: A