PMI PMI-SP Online Practice Questions and Exam Preparation

PMI PMI-SP Online Questions & Answers

• Question 241:

  You work as the project manager for BlueWell Inc. Mark, a project team member, has some doubts related to the outputs of the control schedule process. Which of the following is an output of the control schedule process?

  A. Project schedule
  B. Lessons learned
  C. Change request
  D. Activity resource requirement
  C. Change request

  ---

  Only change request is a valid answer. The five outputs of the control schedule process are work performance measurements, organizational process assets updates, change requests, the project management plan updates, and project

  document updates. Change requests are requests to expand or reduce the project scope, modify policies, processes, plans, or procedures, modify costs or budgets or revise schedules. These requests for a change can be direct or indirect,

  externally or internally initiated, and legally or contractually imposed or optional. A Project Manager needs to ensure that only formally documented requested changes are processed and only approved change requests are implemented.

  Answer option D is incorrect. Activity resource requirement is not an output of the control schedule process.

  Answer option A is incorrect. The project schedule is not an output of the control schedule process. Answer option B is incorrect. Lessons learned is not an output of the control schedule process.

• Question 242:

  You are the project manager for your organization. Your project is doing fine on time and cost, but management wants to address the project performance for future accomplishment. Management has asked you to begin reporting and forecasting your project's health based on a moving average, extrapolation, trend estimation, and growth curve. What type of forecasting method is management asking you to use?

  A. Judgmental methods
  B. Causal/econometric methods
  C. Time series methods
  D. Estimate at completion method
  C. Time series methods

  ---

  These are examples of a time series method for forecasting project performance. Another method that fits with the time series method of forecasting is earned value management. Forecasting is the process of estimating or predicting in

  unknown situations. Forecasting is about predicting the future as accurately as possible with the help of all the information available, including historical data and knowledge of any future events that might impact forecasts. The forecasting

  methods are categorized as follows: Time series method: It uses historical data as the basis for estimating future outcomes. Causal/econometric method:

  This forecasting method is based on the assumption that it is possible to identify some factors that might influence the variable that is being forecasted. If the causes are understood, projections of the influencing variables can be made and

  used in the forecast. Judgmental method: Judgmental forecasting methods incorporate intuitive judgments, opinions, and subjective probability estimates. Other methods: Other methods may include probabilistic forecasting, simulation, and

  ensemble forecasting. Answer option B is incorrect. Causal/econometric methods do not use the moving average, but models such as linear regression and non- linear regression.

  Answer option A is incorrect. Judgmental methods for forecasting are based on intuition, opinions, and probability estimates.

  Answer option D is incorrect. The estimate at completion method is an earned value management formula, which is part of the time series method for reporting and forecasting performance.

• Question 243:

  You are the project manager of the AHQ project. This project is scheduled to last for six months and will require $345,000 to complete. If the project completes earlier than scheduled, your organization will receive a bonus of $5,000 per day of early completion. Management has asked you to develop an aggressive schedule to realize as much of the bonus as possible, but management does not want you to increase the costs of the project beyond $1,000 per day of the bonus realization. Which of the following approaches will likely add costs to the project?

  A. Adding leads to the project work
  B. Fast tracking
  C. Crashing
  D. Using the critical chain method
  C. Crashing

  ---

  Crashing adds labor to the project. This approach adds costs to the project because you will have to pay for the added labor.

  Answer option B is incorrect. Fast tracking allows entire phases to overlap in the project. This approach adds risks to the project.

  Answer option D is incorrect. The critical chain method considers the availability of project resources. Answer option A is incorrect. Adding lead time to activities allows activities to overlap and does not add project costs.

• Question 244:

  Kay is the project manager of the QUI Project. This project is done but is also considerably over budget. Kay has elected to crash the project in order to recoup schedule delays but this increased the project costs. What should Kay do with the information regarding the schedule delays and cost overruns?

  A. Create an entry in the lessons learned documentation and explain her reasoning behind the corrective actions.
  B. Create an exceptions report.
  C. Create a variance report.
  D. File the information as part of the project final report.
  A. Create an entry in the lessons learned documentation and explain her reasoning behind the corrective actions.

  ---

  When there have been significant corrective action decisions the reasoning behind the decision should be documented in the lessons learned documentation. What is lessons learned documentation? Lessons learned documentation is prepared to contribute to the lessons learned knowledge database of the organization. It includes the causes of issues, the reasoning behind the corrective action chosen, and other types of lessons learned about stakeholder management. Lessons learned are documented so that they become part of the historical database for the project/program and the performing organization. The lessons learned are compiled, formalized, and stored through out the project's/program's duration. Answer option C is incorrect. A variance report may be appropriate but cost and schedule variances are reported differently. Kay could create a cost variance report and a schedule variance report, but not one report for both project attributes. Answer option B is incorrect. An exceptions report is the same as a variance report. Kay would create a separate exceptions report for cost, and another for schedule. Answer option D is incorrect. The information may go into the project final report but it should be included in the project's lessons learned information when it is discovered.

• Question 245:

  You are the project manager for your organization. You are working with your project team to define the project network diagram. Several of the activities in the project schedule appear to have external constraints. Who among the following determines which dependencies are external to the project?

  A. Project team
  B. Project sponsor
  C. Project manager
  D. Project management team
  D. Project management team

  ---

  The project management team defines which activities are external to the project. An external dependency is any nonproject activity that is external to the project but has a direct impact on the project activities. An external dependency may be

  an inspector or any agency that may have to give prior approval before the project can move forward. These dependencies are external to the organization and are determined by the project management team to find which dependencies are

  external all through the process of sequencing the activities. Answer option C is incorrect. The project manager may be part of the project management team, but this is not the best choice.

  Answer option A is incorrect. The project team does not define this relationship. Answer option B is incorrect. The project sponsor would not define the external dependencies.

• Question 246:

  You work as a Project Manager for Media Perfect Inc. Several projects are running under your supervision. Rick, team leader of a project, provides you performance indexes of his project. The schedule variance (SV) of his project is 25. What does this figure depict?

  A. Project is behind the schedule.
  B. Costs are higher than planned.
  C. Project is right on target.
  D. Project is ahead of the schedule.
  D. Project is ahead of the schedule.

  ---

  According to the question, the schedule variance (SV) of the project is 25, which is a positive value. The positive SV depicts that the project is ahead of the planned schedule. What is SV? Schedule variance (SV) is a measure of schedule performance on a project. The variance notifies that the schedule is ahead or behind what was planned for this period in time. The schedule variance is calculated based on the following formula: SV = Earned Value (EV) - Planned Value (PV) If the resulting schedule is negative, it indicates that the project is behind schedule. A value greater than 0 shows that the project is ahead of the planned schedule. A value of 0 indicates that the project is right on target. Answer option A is incorrect. The negative SV means that project is behind the schedule. Answer option C is incorrect. The zero SV means that project is right on target. Answer option B is incorrect. This result can be drawn by looking at the cost variance (CV) of the project. What is CV? Cost variance (CV) is a measure of cost performance on a project. The variance notifies if costs are higher than budgeted or lower than budgeted. The cost variance is calculated based on the following formula: CV = Earned Value (EV) - Actual Cost (AC) A positive value means that spending is less than budgeted, whereas a negative value indicates that costs are higher than originally planned for the project.

• Question 247:

  Examine the figure given below: Which path is considered the critical path?

  A. ACDFJ
  B. ACGIJ
  C. ABEFJ
  D. ABDFJ
  B. ACGIJ

  ---

  The critical path is the path in the project network diagram with the longest duration. In project management, a critical path is the sequence of project network activities which add up to the longest overall duration. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project. Any delay of an activity on the critical path directly impacts the planned project completion date (i.e. there is no float on the critical path). In this instance path ACGIJ is the longest as it takes 23 days. Answer options C and D are incorrect. These paths take 13 days. Answer option A is incorrect. This path only takes 19 days.

• Question 248:

  Holly is the project manager of the NDS project and she is 85 percent complete with her project though she should be 95 percent complete. Her project has a BAC of $9,850,400 and she has spent $8,011,221 to date. What is Holly's schedule performance index for this project?

  A. 1.07
  B. 0.98
  C. 0.89
  D. Ten percent
  C. 0.89

  ---

  The schedule performance index is found by dividing the earned value by the planned value. For Holly's project, it would be as follows:

  SPI = EV/PV

  = (0.85*9,850,400)/(0.95*9,850,400)

  =8,372,840/9,357,880

  =0.89

  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 D is incorrect. Ten

  percent is not a valid calculation for this question. Answer option B is incorrect. 0.98 is the cost performance index. Answer option A is incorrect. 1.07 is the to-complete performance index based on the BAC.

• Question 249:

  Beth is the project manager of the KJH project. Sarah is Beth's administrative assistant and Ben is the project team leader. Beth's project has eight virtual teams throughout the world that will be working on the activities relevant to the deliverables in their locales. Thomas, the project sponsor, has told Beth that he is to be kept abreast of all communication between her project and the stakeholders. In this project, who is the lead person responsible for communication with all stakeholders?

  A. Thomas
  B. Sarah
  C. Each of the team leaders for the eight virtual teams
  D. Beth
  D. Beth

  ---

  Beth, the project manager, is responsible for communication with all stakeholders. According to the PMBOK, the project manager occupies the center of the interactions between stakeholders and the project itself.

  Answer option B is incorrect. Sarah may help with the communications, but she is not responsible for the communications.

  Answer option A is incorrect. Thomas, the project sponsor, just needs to be kept abreast of the information.

  Answer option C is incorrect. The project team leaders for the virtual sites are not responsible for communicating with the project stakeholders.

• Question 250:

  You are the project manager for your organization. You are meeting with your customers to discuss the project performance. In this meeting, you will have eight project customers, the project sponsor, and ten members of your project team. What type of communication method are you using in this instance?

  A. Interactive communication
  B. Active communication
  C. Pull technique
  D. Push technique
  A. Interactive communication

  ---

  Any meetings, phone calls with multiple participants, or conferences are examples of the interactive communications.

  Answer option B is incorrect. Active communication is not a PMBOK term for project management. Answer option D is incorrect. A push technique describes a distribution from the project manager out to the message recipients, such as

  email.

  Answer option C is incorrect. A pull technique describes a distribution method where the recipients of the message pull the message from a source, such as a Web server.