Professional & Social Responsibility F O U R T E E N

Practice Exam

L A project manager is being considered for a particular project that will deal exclusively with global

virtual teams. He only has experience with local teams. What should he do when discussing the

opportunity with the sponsor?

A. Since the project manager has managed many projects and teams, it does not make any difference

that the new project involves global virtual teams. He should tell the sponsor he has the relevant

experience.

B. The project manager should avoid any conversation regarding the types of teams involved so the

sponsor does not know he lacks experience in this area.

C. The project manager should point out to the sponsor that he has not had experience with global

virtual teams, and then explain why he thinks he is a good fit for the project anyway.

D. The project manager should point out to the sponsor that he has not had experience with global

virtual teams and therefore must decline the assignment.

2. A project manager gathered data to perfonn earned value calculations on his project. He used the

results to report to management that the project is under budget and on schedule. After reporting this

information, he discovered the base figures he used in the cakulations were incorrect, as they came

from an old copy of the project file that had not been updated. What should he do now?

A. He should contact management and tell them to expect some changes in the next reporting

period as things are starting to look gloomy.

B. He should contact management to make them aware of the error, provide the correct information,

and explain how he made the mistake.

C. He should use the correct figures to calculate the information when it is time for the next report

and ignore the fact that he reported incorrect infonnation.

D. He should tell management that he received incorrect data from team members, resulting in an

inaccurate report.

3. A project manager is working with a seller on a project that is time-sensitive due to government

regulations requiring it to be completed by a certain date. She learns one of the sellers has bribed a

subcontractor to work on this project instead of fulfiUing previous commitments to other projects.

What should she do?

A. She should report the offense to management and to the project managers of the affected projects.

B. She should not do anything because this is the seller's problem. The project manager herself

didn't do anything wrong.

C. She should report this to other subcontractors.

D. She should resign from the project so as to remove herself from this type of activity, but keep her

discovery to herself rather than cause problems.

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4. You are in the middle of a new product development project that has an NPV of$ I O.S million. The

schedule performance index {SPI) is 0.99. There are strict rules in your publicly traded company

regarding risk, quality, and procurement. You discover the previous project manager made a $3 million

payment that was not approved in accordance with your company policies. Your relationship with the

sponsor is strained, as you've had to request changes because the previous project manager didn't have

a complete project management plan. The sponsor and the previous project manager are good friends

outside of work and coach your daughter's sports team together. Luckily, the project cost performance

index (CPI) is 1.2. What should you do?

A. Contact your manager.

B. Put the payment in an escrow account.

C. Bury the cost in the largest cost center available.

D. Ignore the payment.

S. You are staffing a project in another country, and the project leader from that country has recommended

a project team that consists of members of the project leader's family. Your first course of action should

be to:

A. Inquire if hiring through family lines is common practice in the project leader's country.

B. Review the resumes of the individuals to see if they are qualified

C. Ask the project leader to provide additional names of people unrelated to them.

D. Use a different project leader to prevent problems later in the project.

6. When checking the calendar of a team member to schedule a meeting, you see she has scheduled a

meeting with a key stakeholder that you were not informed of. This stakeholder has been vocal in her

concern that her requirements for the project have been ignored and that she doesn't think you are a

good project manager. You know that the stakeholder and the team member are friends outside of the

organization and that their children are in school together. Your organization's PMO has a policy

stating that the project manager is to be informed of, and invited to, all project-related meetings. This

is a functional organization that has strugg1ed with communicatioru and stakeholder participation.

You have heard that the team member thinks the PMO policy regarding notifying and inviting the

project manager to all meetings is intrusive and gets in the way of effective communications with

stakeholders; she has also complained that project managers are not available because of multiple

projects and too many meetings. She doesn't feel trusted, and is frustrated. Her complaints have been

reported to other departmental leaders, and the PMO has been asked to review the policy. The best

approach would be to:

A. Avoid mentioning it to the team member but continue to watch her activities.

B. Notify the PMO about the problem.

C. Address the concern with the team member's manager.

0. Address the concern with the team member.

7. Your team member is three days late with a report. Five minutes before the meeting where the topic of

the report is to be discussed, she hands you the report. You notice some serious errors in it. What

should you do?

A. Cancel the meeting and reschedule when the report is fixed.

B. Go to the meeting and tell the other attendees there are errors in the report.

C. Allow the team member to do the presentation and remain silent as the other attendees find

the errors.

D. Cancel the meeting and rewrite the report yourself.

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Professional & Social Responsibility F O U R T E E N

8. A manager has responsibility for a project that has the support of senior leadership as it will fulfill a

strategic organizational objective. From the beginning, you (the project manager) have disagreed with

the manager as to how the project should proceed and what the deliverables should be. You and she

have disagreed over many issues in the past. Your department has been tasked with providing some key

work packages for the project. What should you do?

A. Provide the manager with what she needs.

B. Inform your manager of your concerns to get her support.

C. Sit down with the manager at the beginning of the project, attempt to describe why you object to

the project, and discover a way to solve the problem.

D. Ask to be removed from the project.

9. A large, complex construction project in a foreign country requires the movement of heavy equipment

through crowded city streets. The officials in the city know that you have a large, complicated project

and that staying on schedule and within budget is important to your company. You have coordinated

moving equipment in other countries for other projects without problems. To ensure the equipment

is transported successfully, your contact in the country informs you that you will have to pay the local

police a fee for coordinating traffic. What should you do?

A. Do not pay the fee because it is a bribe.

B. Eliminate the work.

C. Pay the fee.

D. Do not pay the fee if it is not part of the project estimate.

10. You are responsible for negotiations with all potential government subcontractors, of which there are

many, on an important highway project. A major negotiation with a potential subcontractor is

scheduled for tomorrow. Theirs was the lowest starting bid, and included a new approach that could

make this project less expensive than other similar projects already completed. You have serious

reservations as to whether they will be able to deliver as promised-for the cost and in the period of

time agreed upon. You have now discovered there is a good chance the project will be cancelled. What

should you do?

A. Do not spend too much time preparing for the negotiations.

B. Keep the negotiations short.

C. Only negotiate major items.

D. Postpone the negotiations.

11. You've been assigned to take over managing a project that should be half complete according to the

schedule. After an extensive evaluation, you discover the project is running far behind schedule, and

will probably take twice the time originally estimated by the previous project manager. However, the

sponsor has been told the project is on schedule.. What is the best course of action?

A. Try to restructure the schedule to meet the project deadline.

B. Report your assessment to the sponsor.

C. Turn the project back to the previous project manager.

D. Move forward with the schedule as planned by the previous project manager, and report at the

first missed milestone.

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 F O U R T E E N Professional & Social Responsibility

12. You are halfway through a major network rollout. There are 300 locations in the United States, with

another 20 in England. A software seller has just released a major software upgrade for some of the

equipment being installed. The upgrade would provide the customer with functionality they requested,

which was not available at the time the project began. What is the best course of action under

these circumstances?

A. Continue as planned; your customer has not requested a change.

B. Inform the customer of the available upgrade, and explain the impacts to the project's timeline

and functionality iF the upgrade is implemented.

C. Implement the change and adjust the schedule as necessary because this supports the customer's

original request.

D. Implement the change on the remaining sites and continue with the schedule.

13. You are a project manager for one of many projects in a large and important program. At a high-level

status meeting, you note that another project manager has reported her project on schedule. Looking

back on your project over the last few weeks, you remember many deliverables from the other project

that arrived late. What should you do?

A. Meet with the program manager.

B. Develop a risk control plan.

C. Discuss the issue with your manager.

D. Meet with the other project manager.

14. You have always been asked by your management to cut your project cost estimates by 10 percent after

you have submitted them. The scope of your new project is unclear, and there are over 30 stakeholders.

Management expects a 25 percent reduction in downtime as a result of the project. Which of the

following is the best course of action in this situation?

A. Replan to achieve a 35 percent improvement in downtime.

B. Reduce the estimate, and note the change in the risk response plan.

C. Provide an accurate estimate of the actual costs, and be able to support it.

D. Meet with the team to identify where you can find 10 percent savings.

IS. You are in the middle of a project when you discover that a software seller for your project is having

major difficulty keeping employees due to a labor dispute. Many other projects in your company are

also using the company's services. What should you do?

A. Attempt to keep the required people on your project.

B. Tell the other project managers in your company about the labor problem.

C. Contact the company and advise that you will cancel the company's work on your project unless

the labor dispute is settled.

D. Cease doing business with the company.

16. You have been assigned a second project with your new company. This project is a construction project.

You have received positive feedback. on your performance so far, but are unfamiliar with construction.

All the following are your responsibilities as a project manager except:

A. Maintain the confidentiality of the customer's confidential information.

B. Determine the legality of company procedures.

C. Ensure that a conflict of interest does not compromise the legitimate interest of the customer.

D. Provide accurate and truthful representations in cost estimates.

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17. Although your company is not the lowest bidder for a project, the client has come to expect good

performance from your company and wants to award the contract to you. To be awarded the contract,

the client asks you to eliminate your project management costs. The client says your company has

good project processes, and project controls unnecessarily inflate your costs, What should you do

under these circumstances?

A. Eliminate your project management costs, and rely on experience.

B. Remove costs associated with project team communications, meetings, and customer reviews.

C. Remove meeting costs but not the project manager's salary.

D. Describe the costs incurred on past projects that did not use project management.

18. You are the project manager for one part of a new program in your organization. Four months into a

three-year project, your project team has already made some significant discoveries that have led to

vastly improved performance and efficiencies on your project. What is the best thing to do?

A. Make certain the discoveries are included in the final project lessons learned.

B. Make certain the discoveries are reported in the monthly status report.

C. Make certain you mention the discoveries at the senior management meeting in two months.

D. Make certain you tell the other project managers involved in this program about the discoveries

at the weekly meeting.

19. You just discovered an error in the implementation plan that will prevent you from meeting a milestone

date. Up to this point, your project has been running true to its baselines, and you will be delivering a

routine status report tomorrow. The milestone in question is not on the critical path, but it is on a near­

critical path. What is the best thing you can do?

A. Develop options to meet the milestone date.

B. Change the milestone date.

C. Remove any discussion about dates in the project status report.

D. Educate the team about the need to meet milestones.

20. While testing the strength of concrete poured on your project, you discover that over 35 percent of the

concrete does not meet your company's quality standards. You are certain, however, that the concrete

will function as it is, and you don't think the concrete needs to meet the quality level specified. What

should you do?

A. Change the quality standards to meet the level achieved.

B. State in your reports that the concrete simply "meets our quality needs."

C. Ensure the remaining concrete meets the standard.

D. Report the lower quality level, and try to find a solution.

2 1. You arc the project manager for a new international project, and your project team includes people

from four countries. Most of the team members have not worked on similar projects before, but the

project has strong support from senior management. What is the best thing to do to ensure that cultural

differences do not interfere with the project?

A. Spend a little more time creating the work breakdown structure and making sure it is complete.

B. Make sure you choose your words carefully whenever you communicate.

C. Ask one person at each team meeting to describe something unique about their culture.

D. Keep communication short and to the point.

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22. You are negotiating with a seller for a piece of equipment on a project with a tight budget. The seller

has told you the equipment price is fixed. Your manager has told you to negotiate the cost with the

seller. Your assessment is that the piece of equipment has been offered at inflated pricing. What is your

best course of action?

A. Make a good faith effort to find a way to decrease the cost.

B. Postpone negotiations until you can convince your manager to change his mind.

C. Hold the negotiations, but only negotiate other aspects of the project.

D. Cancel the negotiations.

23. A PMP-certified project manager is contacted by PMI and asked to provide information regarding a

team member, who is also a personal friend. The PMP-certified project manager cannot think of a

reason he would be contacted by PMI about this individual unless someone had reported that this

team member has been involved in unethical activities. The PMP-certified project manager has

information that would likely support the accusations. He is thinking that the best thing to do is to not

respond to avoid the risk that what he says could hurt his friend. 1his way he is not responsible for

confirming or denying the accusations. ls this the right thing to do?

A. Yes. It is acceptable to just ignore the request and stay out ofit.

B. No. He is required by PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to cooperate.

C. No. It would be better to deny the charges against his friend to maintain the relationship.

D. Yes. It is best if project managers support each other in the field.

24. A project manager discovers a defect in a deliverable that is due to the customer under contract today.

The project manager knows the customer does not have the technical understanding to notice the

defect. The deliverable meets the contract requirements, but it does not meet the project manager's

quality standard. What should the project manager do in this situation?

A. Issue the deliverable, and get formal acceptance from the customer.

B. Note the problem in the lessons learned so future projects do not encounter the same problem.

C. Discuss the issue with the customer.

D. Inform the customer that the deliverable will be late.

25. Your company wants to open a plant in a country where the law stipu1ates that women can earn only

SO percent of what men earn. Under these circumstances, what should you recommend to

your company?

A. Do not open the plant.

B. Meet with government officials and try to get a waiver th.at equalizes the pay rate between men

and women.

C. Do not hire women.

D. Provide the women you hire with extra work to increase their salary.

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Professional & Social Responsibility

26. Three students from another country are working as interns on a project. The project manager has

arranged for some games to be played as team-building activities to help develop a stronger sense of

team with the group members. At the event where the activities are taking place, the three students

refuse to participate, claiming the behavior involved is unacceptable in their country and that they

would be very uncomfortable participating. What should the project manager do?

A. He should tell the students they need to become familiar with how things are done in this country

and they must participate.

B. He should excuse the students from participating and arrange to discuss with them alternative

team-building activities they would be more comfortable with.

C. He should report the students to their functional manager and request they be removed from the

project since their attitude will have a negative impact on the project.

D. He should tell the students they are excused from the activities and to not attend any team­

building activities in the future.

27. You are finalizing the monthly project status report due now to your manager when you discover that

several project team members are not reporting actual hours spent on project activities. This results in

skewed project statistics. What is the most appropriate action to take?

A. Discuss the impacts of these actions with team members.

B. Report the team members' actions to their functional managers.

C. Continue reporting information as presented to you.

D. Provide accurate and truthful representations in all project reports.

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