Project Management Professional (PMP) — All Questions

Midway through a predictive project, a stakeholder submits a formal request to add a significant new feature. What should the project manager do first?

• a.Immediately implement the change to keep the stakeholder satisfied
• b.Evaluate the change's impact on scope, schedule, cost, and risk, then route it through the change control process✓
• c.Reject the request because the baseline is already approved
• d.Add the feature only if the team has spare capacity this week

Integrated change control requires assessing the full impact of a requested change and submitting it for approval before any action. Implementing immediately bypasses governance, outright rejection ignores potential value, and acting on spare capacity skips formal impact analysis and authorization.

An EVM report shows a project with CPI = 0.85 and SPI = 1.05. What does this indicate about project performance?

• a.The project is under budget and behind schedule
• b.The project is on budget and on schedule
• c.The project is over budget and behind schedule
• d.The project is over budget but ahead of schedule✓

CPI below 1.0 means the project is spending more than the value earned, so it is over budget, while SPI above 1.0 means more value has been earned than planned, so it is ahead of schedule. Recognizing that CPI addresses cost efficiency and SPI addresses schedule efficiency is essential to interpret combined performance correctly.

A hybrid project uses predictive planning for hardware and agile delivery for software. The software backlog keeps changing, disrupting hardware milestones. What is the best approach?

• a.Define clear integration points and coordinate cadences so software iterations align with hardware milestones✓
• b.Force the software team to adopt a fixed, unchangeable scope
• c.Abandon the predictive approach for the hardware component
• d.Let each team work independently with no synchronization

Hybrid delivery succeeds when teams establish integration points and synchronize cadences so evolving work aligns with fixed milestones. Freezing software scope defeats agility, converting hardware to pure agile may not fit its constraints, and removing synchronization guarantees misalignment.

During execution, the project manager notices that a risk previously logged as low probability now appears likely to occur. What should be done?

• a.Ignore it until it actually occurs
• b.Immediately execute a fallback plan
• c.Reassess the risk, update the risk register, and implement the appropriate response strategy✓
• d.Remove the risk from the register to avoid alarming stakeholders

Risk monitoring is continuous; when a risk's probability changes, the project manager reassesses it, updates the risk register, and triggers the planned response. Waiting until it occurs forfeits proactive control, jumping to a fallback skips analysis of the primary response, and deleting the risk hides critical information.

A project manager is planning procurement for specialized components with well-defined specifications and a stable market. Which contract type best transfers cost risk to the seller?

• a.Cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF)
• b.Firm-fixed-price (FFP)✓
• c.Time-and-materials (T&M)
• d.Cost-plus-incentive-fee (CPIF)

A firm-fixed-price contract sets a fixed total price for well-defined work, placing the cost risk on the seller since overruns are the seller's responsibility. Cost-reimbursable and T&M contracts leave more cost risk with the buyer and are better suited to uncertain or evolving scope.

An agile team consistently completes fewer story points than committed each sprint, eroding stakeholder trust. What should the project manager coach the team to do?

• a.Use empirical velocity to forecast commitments and refine backlog estimates during planning✓
• b.Commit to more points to push the team harder
• c.Stop measuring velocity to reduce pressure
• d.Extend every sprint until all committed work is done

Agile forecasting relies on empirical data; using actual historical velocity and refining estimates produces realistic, sustainable commitments that rebuild trust. Over-committing worsens the gap, dropping velocity removes a key feedback metric, and stretching sprint length breaks the fixed-cadence principle.

A project's schedule shows the critical path has zero float, and a non-critical activity has 6 days of float. An unexpected delay consumes 4 days of that activity's float. What is the schedule impact?

• a.The project end date slips by 4 days
• b.The critical path immediately changes to that activity
• c.The project must be crashed to recover
• d.The project end date is unaffected because float remains on that activity✓

Float is the amount of delay an activity can absorb without affecting the project finish date; consuming 4 of 6 days of float still leaves 2 days, so the end date is unaffected. Only when a delay exceeds available float does it affect the critical path or the project completion date.

Quality inspections reveal a recurring defect in a deliverable. The project manager wants to prevent recurrence rather than just fix the symptom. Which tool is most appropriate?

• a.A milestone chart to track completion
• b.A responsibility assignment matrix to reassign work
• c.A root-cause analysis such as a fishbone diagram to identify underlying causes✓
• d.A stakeholder register to log concerns

Preventing recurrence requires identifying underlying causes, and a cause-and-effect (fishbone) diagram or the 5 Whys systematically uncovers root causes. Milestone charts, RAMs, and stakeholder registers serve tracking and assignment purposes, not defect-cause analysis.

At the start of an iteration, the product owner reprioritizes the backlog so a high-value feature moves to the top. How should the team respond during iteration planning?

• a.Refuse the change because the backlog was already set
• b.Pull the reprioritized high-value items into the iteration based on capacity and definition of ready✓
• c.Complete the previous order first, then address the new priority next iteration
• d.Split the team so half works on old priorities and half on new

Agile embraces changing priorities between iterations; the team pulls the newly prioritized, ready items into the upcoming iteration according to its capacity. Refusing the change ignores value delivery, deferring high-value work delays benefits, and splitting the team fragments focus and reduces flow.