Project Management Question Bank
for Exam preparation

Q2. Many quality problems plagued a project. The quality of the work products deviated considerably from specifications. The project manager decided to do a root cause analysis. What activities does a root cause analysis include?

1. Discovery of the underlying causes of a problem
2. Problem Identification and discovery of the underlying causes of a problem
3. Identification of a problem
4. Problem identification, discovery of the underlying causes of a problem, and development of preventive actions

Q3. In your project you identified a risk; there is a chance you may lose a critical employee. You have identified an employee from another project to bring into your project if your team member leaves you. However, this employee is known for his bad behavior and creating trouble for other employees. In a monthly risk review, a stakeholder asks you what your strategy will be if this new team member creates a problem for you. You assured him that you are aware of it and you also have a plan for it. What kind of risk is the stakeholder discussing with you?

1. Residual risk
2. Secondary risk
3. Uncertainty
4. Primary risk

Q4. What would be the BEST explanation for the following: Both the cost variance and schedule variance are negative, but the cost variance is lower than the schedule variance.

1. The project underspent because all work was not completed, but overspent for work that was done.
2. The project overspent due to increased costs and yet completed some activities faster.
3. The project activities took longer than expected, but costs were lower.
4. The project underspent, because costs were lower than planned and activities were easier to complete than planned.

Q5. What is the traditional way to display a reporting structure among project team members?

1. Text-oriented role description
2. Flowchart
3. Project organization charts
4. Matrix-based responsibility chart

Q6. You are in the process of reviewing bids from various vendors for work on your project. One of the bidding vendors has a history of delivering on time and within budget, and you have personally worked with this company successfully on previous engagements. You receive a call from the manager submitting the bid inquiring about how the process is going. He asks to have lunch with you to discuss the bid. What is the BEST response?

1. Do not mention the other bidders but simply inform him that based on past experience, he has a good chance of winning the business.
2. Inform him that it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter at all and document the conversation.
3. Inform him that it would not be appropriate to discuss the matter over the phone during business hours, but that an informal lunch discussion would be more appropriate.
4. Politely avoid continuing the conversation and disregard the bid.

Q7. The project budget is proving to be inaccurate. The SPI is 1.1. The team has had a negative deviation from the activity attributes, and the sponsor has inserted herself on the change control board. What is the BEST thing for the project manager to do?

1. Try to encourage the sponsor to remove herself from the change control board
2. Re-compute the project schedule
3. Re-estimate the activity attributes
4. Calculate the cost performance index

Q8. You are managing a construction project. Your company does not specialize in construction design so you outsourced the construction design to a third party. You are conducting regular procurement performance reviews and are dissatisfied. You want to carry out a detailed audit of the design supplier’s work processes to determine the root cause. Can you do that?

1. Yes, it is a good project management technique advocated by the PMBOK guide.
2. Yes, if there is a provision in the contract allowing work process audits.
3. No, you are only authorized to perform quality audits on the delivered products and not the supplier’s internal work processes.
4. No, a detailed procurement audit cannot be performed until you terminate the contract.

Q9. A process that states how formal validation and acceptance of the completed project deliverables will be achieved is documented in the:

1. Scope Management plan
2. Procurement Management plan
3. Risk Management plan
4. Communications Management plan

Q10. One key characteristic of adaptive lifecycles, such as the agile approach for product development, is that product features are developed using:

1. Sandwiched periods of effort
2. Squeezed periods of zero-error sprints
3. Reverse engineered products
4. Time-boxed periods of work