PMI PMI-SP Online Practice Questions and Exam Preparation

PMI PMI-SP Online Questions & Answers

• Question 111:

  Bonnie is the project manager for her organization. She is developing a strategy to manage the project stakeholders. She wants to identify the key stakeholders, their influence over the project, their interest in project, and an assessment of methods. What can Bonnie create to gain support from the stakeholders in her project?

  A. Stakeholder identification tools
  B. Expert judgment
  C. Stakeholder Analysis Matrix
  D. Communications management plan
  C. Stakeholder Analysis Matrix

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  A stakeholder analysis matrix is a simple table that identifies stakeholders, their attitude towards the project, their perceived threats and concerns, and strategies the project manager can use to gain stakeholder support and remove obstacles. Answer option A is incorrect. Stakeholder identification tools are not a precise answer for this question. Answer option D is incorrect. The communications management plan is a broad plan and may reference the stakeholder analysis matrix, but it is not the best answer for this question. Answer option B is incorrect. In some cases the project manager could rely on expert judgment, but in all projects the project manager can use a stakeholder analysis matrix.

• Question 112:

  You work as a project manager for BlueWell Inc. You want to increase the overall duration of the project. If the management elects to use resource leveling, then what will happen to the project duration?

  A. The duration will increase, but the labor will stay the same.
  B. The duration will decrease as new team members are brought onto the project.
  C. Nothing, new resources will be incorporated into the project team.
  D. The duration will increase, but the labor will decrease.
  A. The duration will increase, but the labor will stay the same.

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  Resource leveling usually increases the overall duration of the project because management restricts the amount of labor which can be utilized in a given time period. Resource leveling heuristics is a prioritization method that allocates inadequate resources to critical path activities first. It is a schedule network analysis technique useful to a schedule that has already been analyzed by the critical path method. It is used when shared or critical essential resources are only available at certain times, in limited quantities, or to keep resource usage at a constant level. It is a technique that resolves resource conflicts by delaying tasks within their slack allowances. Resource leveling is the process in which project teams come across problems when developing their project schedules. If a company has multiple projects running simultaneously that require the same resources, then problems can arise. It can often cause the critical path method to change. Answer option C is incorrect. New resources are not added as part of resource leveling. Answer option D is incorrect. Labor remains the same in resource leveling, but their availability decreases. Answer option B is incorrect. New resources are not added as part of resource leveling.

• Question 113:

  Mary is the project manager for her company. She's working with the project team to compress the project schedule as the project must be completed by December 30. For some of the project activities, she and the project team have agreed to crash the project work. What must be true of these project activities for crashing to be acceptable?

  A. The activities must be of fixed duration.
  B. The activities must be effort-drive.
  C. The activities must not be susceptible to the Law of Diminishing Returns.
  D. The activities must be risk-free.
  B. The activities must be effort-drive.

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  Crashing is the addition of project resources to complete effort-driven activities in faster time. By adding more labor the activity can be completed faster. Crashing is a schedule compression technique to obtain the greatest amount of compression for the least incremental cost. Crashing works for activities where additional resources will shorten the duration. Approving overtime, bringing in additional resources, paying to expedite delivery to activities on the critical path are examples of crashing. Answer option A is incorrect. An activity of fixed duration, such as printing 100,000 brochures in a printing press, won't be completed faster by adding more effort. Answer option D is incorrect. Activities need not be risk-free to use project crashing. Answer option C is incorrect. All effort-driven activities are susceptible to the Law of Diminishing Returns. By adding more labor the value of the yield of the work decreases because of the cost of the labor added to the project work.

• Question 114:

  Which of the following statements best describes an activity in a project?

  A. It is a defined set of functions a resource must complete for the project scope to be considered complete.
  B. It is the effort needed to complete a work package.
  C. It is the unit of resource utilization needed to complete a project deliverable.
  D. It is a listing of all project work that must be accomplished for the project scope to be considered complete.
  B. It is the effort needed to complete a work package.

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  An activity is the effort needed to complete a work package. The activities are linked to the work packages in the WBS. An activity is the element of work performed throughout the various stages of a project. It is a group of people, communications, processes, and work items that correspond to a joint effort to achieve a goal. An activity is a way to manage the work collectively with others in any organization. The create WBS process identifies the deliverables at the lowest level in the WBS, called the work package. Project work packages are divided into smaller elements known as activities, which correspond to the work required to complete the work package. Answer option D is incorrect. This is a definition of all the work that the project team and manager must complete in order to complete the total activity list. Answer options A and C are incorrect. These are not valid definitions of an activity.

• Question 115:

  In the project time management knowledge area, there are six processes. According to the PMBOK, which project time knowledge area will have the majority of the effort?

  A. Estimate activity resources
  B. Define activities
  C. Control schedule
  D. Develop schedule
  C. Control schedule

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  Of all six processes, the control schedule process will take the majority of the time in the project time management knowledge area. Control schedule process is a method of monitoring the status of the project to update project progress and

  deal with the changes to the schedule baseline. It is concerned with:

  Determining the current status of the project Influencing the factors that create schedule changes Determining that the project schedule has changed Managing the actual changes as they occur Control schedule is a component of the

  Perform Integration Change Control process. Answer options B, A, and D are incorrect. These processes will not take the longest to complete.

• Question 116:

  Marty is the project manager of the recently completed NHK Project. The project was deemed successful by the project customer and they have signed the formal acceptance documentation. Marty has written the final project report, released the project team, and completed the lessons learned documentation. What else should Marty do in the closure of the NHK Project?

  A. Archive the project records.
  B. Summarize the project risks costs.
  C. Summarize the project variance.
  D. Close the project office.
  A. Archive the project records.

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  The last duty of a project manager is to archive the project records as part of the organizational process assets.

  Answer option B is incorrect. The cost summary is included in the final project report. Answer option C is incorrect. The project variance is included in the final project report as it shows cost performance. Answer option D is incorrect. A project

  office is an organization within the company that oversees and supports project. Marty would not close the project office.

• Question 117:

  Billy is the project manager of the PQW Project and she has an assigned project budget of $655,000. Currently she is 80 percent complete with the project though she was scheduled to be 100 percent done by this date. She has spent $490,000 to date and other than the project schedule, which was delayed because of a vendor, the project is going well. What should Billy report as her schedule performance index for this project?

  A. 1.23
  B. 100 percent because the vendor caused her lateness
  C. .80
  D. $524,000
  C. .80

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  Schedule performance index (SPI) is the measure of schedule efficiency on a project. It is used in trend analysis to predict future performance. SPI is the ratio of earned value to planned value. The SPI is calculated based on the following formula: SPI = Earned Value (EV) / Planned Value (PV) If the SPI value is greater than 1, it indicates better than expected performance, whereas if the value is less than 1, it shows poor performance. The SPI value of 1 indicates that the project is right on target. You can find the planned value by multiplying where Billy should be in the project, 100 percent, by the project's budget. In this instance the planned value is $655,000 because she is to be 100 percent complete. Answer option B is incorrect. The SPI simply reports a value not an . Answer option A is incorrect. 1.23 is the cost performance index for the project. Answer option D is incorrect. $524,000 is the earned value for the project.

• Question 118:

  Tom works as the project manager for BlueWell Inc. He is working with his project to ensure timely and appropriate generation, retrieval, distribution, collection, storage, and ultimate disposition of project information. What is the process in which Tom is working?

  A. Work performance measurement
  B. Stakeholder expectation management
  C. Project communication management
  D. Stakeholder analysis
  C. Project communication management

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  Tom is working with the project communication management process, as it is required to ensure the timely disposition of project information. Project Communications Management is one of the nine Knowledge Areas. It employs the

  processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposition of project information. The following processes are part of Project Communications Management:

  Identify Stakeholders

  Plan Communications

  Distribute information

  Manage Stakeholder Expectations

  Report Performance

  The Project Communications Management processes provide the critical links among people and information that are necessary for successful communications. These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other Knowledge Areas as well. Answer option B is incorrect. Managing stakeholder expectation is the process of working and communicating with the stakeholders to meet their requirements. Answer option A is incorrect. Work performance measurement uses the information to create project activity metrics to evaluate actual progress compared to planned progress. Answer option D is incorrect. Stakeholder analysis is the process of gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine the interest of the stakeholders. You are the project manager for your organization. Management has asked you to document the holidays, weekends, and other corporate working hours, which will supersede the project timings for your schedule. Which calendar will communicate to the project stakeholders, when the project work will take place within the organization?

• Question 119:

  Which of the following is NOT an output of the control schedule process?

  A. Organizational process assets
  B. Change requests
  C. Project termination request
  D. Project document updates
  C. Project termination request

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  The project termination request is not an output of the control schedule. Early termination of a project is a closing process and usually does not stem from the project manager. The outputs of the control schedule process are as follows: Work

  Performance Measurements: The work packages and control accounts are documented and communicated to the stakeholders. Organizational Process Assets Updates: The assets that are updated are: corrective actions chosen and the

  reasons, causes of variance, and other types of lessons learned from project schedule control. Change Requests: It is processed for reviews and disposition through the Perform Integrated Change Control process. Project Management Plan

  Updates:

  The elements that need to be updated are: schedule baseline, schedule management plan, cost baseline. Project Document Updates: The elements that need to be updated in project document updates are:

  schedule data and project schedule.

• Question 120:

  You are the project manager for your organization. Your project will need four electrical engineers for the project though there are no electrical engineers within your department. This scenario is best described as which one of the following terms?

  A. Assumption
  B. Risk
  C. Resource requirement
  D. Resource constraint
  C. Resource requirement

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  This is an example of a resource requirement. The project needs four electrical engineers even though the resources are not within your department. Your organization could be a matrix structure, or it could hire resources from outside the organization. Answer option D is incorrect. A resource constraint is evident when the project requires the electrical engineer and she is not available. A requirement, as in this scenario, is simply the identification of the needed resource even if the resource is not available in your department. Answer option B is incorrect. This is not an example of a risk, unless the resource is constrained by other projects, schedules, or work and may not be available at all when needed. Answer option A is incorrect. An assumption would be believing the resource is available for the project without confirming the availability of the resource.