PMI PMI-SP Online Practice Questions and Exam Preparation

PMI PMI-SP Online Questions & Answers

• Question 11:

  Harry works as the project manager for his organization. He is creating the activity list and would like to tag those activities that are comprised of apportioned effort. Which of the following is the best example of apportioned effort?

  A. Adding features to the project's product that is not included in the project scope.
  B. Managing the day-to-day events of a project.
  C. Creating software as defined in the project scope.
  D. Completing project activities as start-to-start events.
  B. Managing the day-to-day events of a project.

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  Apportioned effort is effort applied that you cannot subdivide into work packages, but it is related to, usually in a supportive role, to the completion of the project work packages. The project management overhead, such managing the project

  work, is an example of apportioned effort. Apportioned effort (AE) is the effort that is applied to the project-related work that cannot be easily and readily divided into discrete efforts for those tasks, but which is associated in a direct proportion

  to the discrete work efforts that are capable of being measured. The presence of apportioned effort relies particularly on the performance of further efforts.

  Answer option C is incorrect. This is an example of discrete effort. Answer option A is incorrect. This is an example of a scope change that has not been approved. Answer option D is incorrect. This is an example of a scheduling technique.

• Question 12:

  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?

  A. Project calendar
  B. Resource calendar
  C. Organizational calendar
  D. Company calendar
  A. Project calendar

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  The project calendar defines the working hours for the project, including any days that project work will not happen due to the organizational calendar.

  Answer option D is incorrect. The company calendar is not the correct choice for this question. Answer option C is incorrect. The organizational calendar is not the correct choice for this question. Answer option B is incorrect. The resource

  calendar defines whether resources the project needs will be available. The resources include people, facilities, equipment, and other things that project needs to be completed.

• Question 13:

  Andy is the project manager of the NHGQ project for his organization. He has elected to use a three- point estimate for his project. His project team, however, is complaining about participating in this estimate type because of the time it takes

  to predict the duration of activities. Andy, as the project manager, tells the project team that they must create the time estimate, as it will help this project and future similar projects.

  What is a three-point estimate?

  A. Each activity must be estimated for its optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely duration.
  B. Each activity must be estimated for its optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely duration and then an average for the estimate is created.
  C. A three-point estimate, also known as PERT, uses the formula optimistic, plus four times the most likely, plus the pessimistic. This value is then divided by six.
  D. A three-point estimate, also known as GERT, uses the formula optimistic, plus four times the most likely, plus the pessimistic. This value is then divided by six.
  B. Each activity must be estimated for its optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely duration and then an average for the estimate is created.

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  A three-point estimate requires that each activity be estimated for its optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic duration. Once the three estimates have been created, an average of the duration estimates is found and this is the recorded duration for the project work. Answer option A is incorrect. This is not a complete of a three-point estimate. Answer option C is incorrect. This is a definition of PERT, a similar time estimating technique. Answer option D is incorrect. This is definition of PERT, but this answer uses the term GERT so it is not a valid choice.

• Question 14:

  Which of the following documents captures and defines the work activities, deliverables, and a timeline that a vendor will execute against in performance of work for a customer?

  A. Project charter
  B. Scope of statement
  C. SOW
  D. WBS
  C. SOW

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  A statement of work (SOW) is a document that captures and defines the work activities, deliverables and timeline that a vendor will execute against in performance of work for a customer. Detailed requirements and pricing are usually specified in it, along with many other terms and conditions. SOW is a narrative description of products or services to be supplied by the project. For internal projects, the project initiator or sponsor provides the statement of work based on business needs, product, or service requirements. For external projects, the statement of work can be received from the customer as part of a bid document. Answer option B is incorrect. Scope of statement gives the narrative description of the project scope. Answer option A is incorrect. Project charter is a document that formally authorizes a project manager to work on a project. Answer option D is incorrect. WBS is a tool that defines a project and groups the project discrete work in a way that helps organize and define the total work scope.

• Question 15:

  Fredrick works as a Project Manager for BlueWell Inc. A number of projects are running under his guidance. You, a team leader of a project, inform Fredrick about the performance indexes of your project. The schedule performance index (SPI) of your project is 1.325. What does this figure indicate?

  A. The schedule performance is better than expected.
  B. The schedule performance is right on target.
  C. The cost performance is better than expected.
  D. The schedule performance is below expectation.
  A. The schedule performance is better than expected.

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  According to the question, the SPI of your project is 1.325. This figure is greater than 1. Hence, it shows that the schedule performance is better than expected. What is SPI? 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. Answer option C is incorrect. SPI has nothing to do with cost performance. Answer options B and D are incorrect. An SPI value less than 1 or 0 indicates that the schedule performance is either below expectation or is right on target.

• Question 16:

  You have been assigned to a project that centers on a discipline you are only topically aware of. While you do have years of experience as a project manager, but you have never worked with the technology, as is in this project. During the define activities process, you rely on your project team and two consultants to coach you and identify the type of activities the project will include. Which tool and technique are you using in the define activities process in this scenario?

  A. Templates
  B. Rolling wave planning
  C. Decomposition
  D. Expert judgment
  D. Expert judgment

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  When the project manager relies on consultants or the project team (or both), it is an example of expert judgment. Expert judgment is a technique based on a set of criteria that has been acquired in a specific knowledge area or product area. It is obtained when the project manager or project team requires specialized knowledge that they do not possess. Expert judgment involves people most familiar with the work of creating estimates. Preferably, the project team member who will be doing the task should complete the estimates. Expert judgment is applied when performing administrative closure activities, and experts should ensure the project or phase closure is performed to the appropriate standards. Answer option C is incorrect. This is not an example of decomposition. Answer option B is incorrect. This is not an example of rolling wave planning. Answer option A is incorrect. This is not an example of using a project template.

• Question 17:

  Fred is the project manager of the NHA project. This project has a BAC of $2,456,900 and is sixty percent complete. Fred has crashed the project, which has driven the project costs to date to $1,525,140, but his project is five percent more complete than what was planned. What is the cost variance for this project that Fred needs to report to management?

  A. $122,845
  B. -$51,000
  C. -$85,000
  D. Zero
  B. -$51,000

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  The cost variance for the project is -$51,000. You can find the cost variance by using the formula earned value minus planned value. In this instance, it is: CV = EV - AC = (0.60* 2,456,900) - 1,525,140 = -51,000 Answer option C is incorrect. -$85,000 is the project's variance at completion. Answer option A is incorrect. $122,845 is the project's schedule variance. Answer option D is incorrect. There is a cost variance on this project of -$51,000.

• Question 18:

  You are the project manager for your organization. Maagement has asked you for this current project. You use the critical chain method to create the project network diagram rather than the more traditional critical path method. What is the critical chain method?

  A. It examines only the non-critical path activities that are considered near critical, if the float is one day or less.
  B. It examines only the critical path activities to determine when the project completion date may be.
  C. It examines the availability of needed project resources to determine when activities may actually happen.
  D. It generates a Gantt chart that reflects the availability of project resources and considers working and non-working days for the project.
  C. It examines the availability of needed project resources to determine when activities may actually happen.

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  The critical chain method is similar to the critical path method, but it considers the availability of project resources. The critical path method assumes that the project resources are available for the identified project work in the sequence of the work as defined in the project network diagram. The Critical Chain method is a project management technique in which schedule network analysis is used for the purpose of modifying and determining a set of project schedules to account for more inadequate than estimated project financial resources. This method tends to keep the resources levelly loaded, but requires the resources to be flexible in their start times and to quickly switch between tasks and task chains to keep the whole project on schedule. In the Critical Chain method, projects are completed more rapidly and with better scheduling consistency. Answer options B, A, and D are incorrect. These are not valid definitions for the critical chain method.

• Question 19:

  Don is the project manager of the NQP project for his organization. This project is scheduled to last for 18 months and will have several elements of the project that have government regulations. Management is concerned with the regulations and would like Don to report on the activities that will be affected by the regulations. Which of the following documents should Don refer to, for the information on the activities and the regulations?

  A. Risk management plan
  B. Activity list
  C. Activity list and attributes
  D. Risk register
  C. Activity list and attributes

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  The activity list and the attributes will contain the information about the activities that interact with the government regulations.

  Answer option A is incorrect. The risk management plan communicates how the risks will be identified, analyzed, responded to, and monitored.

  Answer option D is incorrect. The risk register is a list of all the risk events for the project. Answer option B is incorrect. The activity list is not a detailed enough answer for this question.

• Question 20:

  John is the project manager for his organization. Management has asked John to fast track his project in order to reach a particular date for the project completion. When John fast tracks the project what project management component must be updated to reflect this decision? Choose the best answer.

  A. Organizational process assets
  B. Cost management plan
  C. Resource calendars
  D. Risk register
  D. Risk register

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  Fast tracking allows phases of the project to overlap and increases risk for the project. When new risks are introduced into the project they should be recorded in the risk register. Risk register is a document that contains the results of the

  qualitative risk analysis, quantitative risk analysis, and risk response planning. Description, category, cause, probability of occurring, impact on objectives, proposed responses, owner, and the current status of all identified risks are put in the

  risk register. Answer option B is incorrect. The costs do not change because of the new fast tracking requirement. Answer option C is incorrect. Resource calendars show the availability of project resources. Answer option A is incorrect.

  Organizational process assets are updated as a result of updating the risk register when you consider that the risk register will become part of the organizational process assets.

  However, this is not the best answer for this question.