PMBOK 7th Edition Questions and Answers to Pass Your PMP (1 to 10)

[Music] hi everyone welcome back to this series of PMP practice questions in particular this one is from the pmbok guide of the seventh edition the absolute latest edition of the pmbok guide and probably one that you'll find the most questions around on your PMP exam so we've got a hundred questions and we're going to do them in little blocks of 10 each so it's not too much and this first one is going to be a whole bunch of fun around the principles that really kick off the pmbot guide seventh edition it's going to be awesome

stick with it and it will really help you pass your PMP as well let's get into the first question you have been assigned to a new project where the workers behind schedule and the team are not working together well the team is relatively new and conflicts are arising team members are blaming each other for the work not done and some people are not showing up to work on the project at all okay well gosh what will you do next so it's hard to have a project if we haven't got people coming to work with us

and sometimes this is hard because we've got you know we may not own these resources we may be borrowing them from certain you know functional areas in the business or an organization so what are we going to do here okay meet with the functional manager of that area to agree on team members time requirements um you know that could work but also conflicts are arising and the team is also relatively new so you know how are we going to manage that I think there's probably better answers there meet with your team to set a charter

team charter and Define roles and responsibilities that one sounds actually quite good because then we're getting into what they're responsible for what their role actually is sometimes that's unclear and also a team charter how is the team going to work together we're starting to move into an agile you know agile terminology here so the vision you know the escalation points uh team roles 10 responsibilities I actually think that's a pretty good one let's see what else we've got meet with the project sponsor to gain additional funding for resources who can work together you know what

even if we change the resources it's not a hundred percent guaranteed that they're still going to work without conflict projects are difficult situations and so you know conflict is going to arise it's up to us to manage it as project managers it's part of the wonderful job that we have at last escalate the issue to the steering committee wow escalating it even further as soon as possible as a project risk okay well it's already happening so it's more of an issue I think you know probably it could be it could be a risk you know

for future scope or schedule issues maybe but I don't think we really want to escalate this to the steering committee without managing it first and we manage it by answer B I think let's go with that there it is the standard for project management asks that we create a collaborative team environment including team agreements definitions of roles and responsibilities formal committees tasked with specific objectives so really specific things they need to do standing meetings that regularly review a given topic so all of those things create a collaborative team environment page 28 and 29 in the

promote guide 7th edition under creating a collaborative team environment how did you guys go with that one first one there's many many more it's going to be fun and also I think that wasn't too bad so I think that was pretty good start let's see what we've got next you have recently completed a project for a new product and have been asked to manage it after its release to keep it relevant in today's Marketplace sounds like a product owner role or a product manager but perhaps half of your existing team are rolling off to other

projects okay so we're on a project now but we need to keep the product relevant so we need to keep releasing features potentially to make sure that it's up to date what are we going to do next the project budget is nearly depleted I don't think we'll manage this as a project this is probably something that we go into more of a stable team or you know business as usual and then release continuous features I think maybe again moving into an agile sort of way of work here let's see what options we have create a

business case and a project Charter for your project sponsor to approve that would be if we had a specific project in mind but I really think this is more about product management here retain as many of your current project staff to continue work on the product that could work but how are we going to do that we're going to need money here you know these things just don't magically appear people also may be rolling off the project as as they say and there's no more money to pay them so unless we can pay them with

love I don't think that one's going to work raise a change request for your current project and add scope and continue making changes to add scope and continue making changes change request again um probably not the best and I see I probably answered D I think is probably where we're heading though secure funding for a stable team that's what we were saying then use current resource research to form a suite of projects to improve the product so this is where we're continuously releasing features to improve it over time and we have a stable team so

they become really really good at that particular product I think we're going to go with answer d all right there it is this question is referring to product management hey that's good we got that file product management involves the integration of people data processes and Business Systems to develop or maintain a product or service throughout its life cycle and of course you know over time it may eventually um you know finish the product may be retired and and then you know then we can roll off and move on because we're not needed anymore under page

17 to 19 under product management considerations in the Puma guide seventh edition if you want to check that out for yourself how did you guys go with that one I thought that was really really good let's see what we've got next you're delivering a critical change and several key stakeholders in your organization have added seemingly unnecessary steps for you to take with extra approvals reports and meetings they're also restricting the people you need from working on your project in a larger capacity so again this is because if we don't own those people necessarily uh and

they're coming from other functional areas in the business sometimes we don't have 100 control over those people and they may not end up working for us full time what will you do next so we have to manage that we have to manage these things and this is great for the real world as well go directly to the people you need to avoid extra back and forth with the stakeholders so if we go directly to the people that we need they may agree to come and work for us you know we could probably convince them but

then what happens when their boss finds out and their boss you know that's probably going to be a more difficult situation to manage because now we've gone behind their back so you know I think you know that's probably the easiest way but it just won't work in the long run because of that reason raise a risk in the risk register on the lack of access to sufficient resources sure maybe yeah we could raise a risk I mean that's a low maybe though if we're just raising a risk how are we going to manage that risk

so you know maybe there's a better way here communicate more often with the stakeholders and gain a deeper awareness of their ideas and situation okay communicating always good it's a large part of project management is this going to solve what we're after here so you know they're restricting people you know what communicating what does communicating do it helps with people's engagement this could be an issue with our stakeholder engagement actually and so if we're communicating more finding what uh what their ideas are and their situation is maybe there's good reasons for them restricting the people

or slowing down the project or maybe they just don't feel engaged or involved enough so communicating always helps there that's a high maybe for that one let's see if there's a better one just in case show your stakeholders the resource assignment Matrix and project roles and responsibilities I think that also could be good so then we're just sort of saying look here it is you know this is what you agreed to but the thing is they may agree to it but they still may not do it because they're not engaged so I think if we're

gonna we could win their minds by this for example we can force them to do it but if uh what's that saying are those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still so I think if we haven't won their hearts you know from that perspective we need to communicate more often let's go with that one I think ends a c okay this question refers to the principle of effectively engaging with stakeholders stakeholders may add steps or requirements or restrict team members if they're not engaged appropriately communication and awareness of their ideas through knowledge

sharing and regular meetings ideally face to face may help and this is directly from the pilmont guides 7th edition as well you've got page 32 and 33 under effectively engaging with stakeholders all right well so that was a little bit trickier and a bit of the soft skills there that we need on our projects let's see what we've got next you're managing a project team made up mostly of men recently Jane was hired for her High expertise High expertise in the brands that make up your industry Okay so we've got mostly men and now we've

got Jane okay well I mean what's going to happen here hopefully nothing crazy but you notice she has been left out of some key meetings and others are overlooking her opinions you also notice she is paid significantly less than her male colleagues what will you do next wow okay tricky situation this one and I think for us as a project managers you know how do we manage this as managers and leaders you know we want to go for for fairness I'm pretty sure so that things don't you know come back and bite us down the

road and that people stay engaged and they see that you know we're acting fairly as well I wonder if there's an option here so make steps to update her pay to the same range as the others on your project and ask her opinion and advice specifically during each meeting along with others in your team well that covers pretty much everything doesn't it so I don't know that one's pretty obvious I think if we can act in a you know that's quite a fair manner I really like that one let's see what else we've got just

in case take the lower pay as a win for your project as it will help keep costs low and her colleagues don't need to know wow okay you know what and you know what this will happen in the real world as well but what happens when people find out engagement goes through the floor and and then people leave and they take all that all that product knowledge with them at the same time and then you have to hire someone you trust me it just you know it's not the best scenario definitely a no for that

one for those reasons you have to look at the bigger picture here ask Jane to write down her knowledge of the industry just in case she leaves um you know I mean yes we would do that anyway I think I think it's good to capture some of that information but are we still acting fairly I would prefer I would prefer to still act fairly here so no need to rock the boat this is just how people work in this industry again you know some people will just carry on with the status quo in the real

world that will definitely happen but for us if we're going to be true leaders true managers let's go for the equality here I think let's go with answer a okay this question is on integrity and stewardship this is good we should have respectful engagement of project team members including the compensation access to opportunity and fair treatment and by the way this can happen the opposite way as well you know um you know it doesn't have to be a man a man woman thing this can be just someone who's not assertive enough to ask for a

higher pay you will see this happen all the time so just something to be aware of and when people find out that it's not equal you know then that engagement really does plummet and that's what we don't want we want things to to stay high engaged with our team members so that's really good page 25 be a diligent respectful and caring Steward that's a really nice principle okay let's get into the next one during one of your work group meetings working group meetings a stakeholder raises the concern that the product you're working on will be

discontinued in the next five months you are not aware of this and your project budget has already been approved until all the scheduled delivery which is in five months also okay hang on discontinued in the next five months and we're delivering a project at that five months Mark as well that's probably not a good thing uh what are we going to do next of course another tricky situation for us to manage using our project management skills let's see what we've got keep the project going as it is the discontinued product isn't your responsibility and you

know what maybe it's not maybe you know maybe it's someone else's responsibility but also that stewardship thing again you know can we do the right thing here so let's put a a very low maybe maybe a quite a no for this one set a meeting with your project sponsor to share the information probably good and a recommendation to terminate the project wow that's quite full-on um I mean I guess that makes sense because it's just why are we even delivering this it actually I think that actually does make sense let's put a high maybe for

that one for now and see what else we have just in case change the scope of the project to meet a different product hang on so your project can remain relevant you know what projects are usually about you know one one set thing they're you you kick off a project for a particular reason for a particular Improvement or a particular change and for us to just completely change that halfway through using the same money I don't think that's really going to work we'd probably have to kick off a new project ask for additional funding to

see if you can improve the product instead of discontinuing it and again look I mean improving it I think an additional funding there's a whole lot of rabbit holes that we'll have to go through for that and also it may not work because it actually is just being discontinued we would probably terminate the project and start a new one based on a different set of rules and maybe a different product or maybe you know a different scope that we're looking at here I think under this set of circumstances let's go with answer B okay now

these are a little bit tricky actually so this question is about delivering value the primary motivator for a project exactly if the project is no longer aligned with the business need or it seems unlikely to provide value the organization may choose to terminate the effort okay so that's good good news and remember that's directly from the PM box 7th edition page 35 focus on value so that's a very good thing to know and understand definitely makes sense when I see it like that so how did you go with that one I think a little bit

trickier there but still pretty good and we're halfway through this section so this is really really good let's see what else we've got you've collected the requirements for your project and you're creating a scope statement and the work breakdown structure scope statement is your acceptance criteria and a just a statement about the scope and the work breakdown structure is breaking down high level features into smaller pieces and then ultimately to work packages that people can work on during this process you notice some functionality in your database system that will help a different project that you're

aware of in your project management office Okay so we've got our project another project and some of our scope over here actually could help this one over here so what will we do next wow okay wow this is really good place the feature in the other Project's backlog and ask them to prioritize it as soon as possible so we've done this research on the on the feature we just hand it over to them and then they prioritize it I mean that's maybe maybe we could do that I wonder if we can just hand it over

like that do they even want to do it is it even on their scope do they have the budget for this sort of thing so maybe there's more to this tale raise the functionality in your risk register as a threat with the response to mitigate I don't think this is a threat this is more of an opportunity probably I wonder if we've got something in here so definitely a no for that one add the scope to your project and complete it as soon as possible do we just do it well if we do it you

know it's not within our product or what we're working on so our team is not going to be the experts on this it's probably better if you know if the team who are the experts in that product actually completed because they'll have the resources specific to that product so I think that's a no for that one as well for that reason raise the functionality in your risk register as an opportunity okay there we go with the response to exploit so we're exploiting the opportunity probably a good thing and meet with the other projects team and

sponsor to discuss I think that actually could be good so I think if it's between that one and just throwing it into their backlog I don't think we have the power to put it into another person's backlog the steps that we would go through first are to talk with them so we'd say hey guys this is an opportunity we can exploit this uh you know and you know is this something that you're able to work on I don't think we're just going to throw it over the fence we need to talk about it first and

I think for that reason let's go with answer d excellent systems thinking wow okay I didn't know we were going there involves taking a holistic view of how project Parts interact with each other and external systems projects operate within programs so you've got programs you've got projects underneath that and you know then you've got BAU layer under that so operations and all of that sort of thing and so small systems affect all of the larger ones finding a previously unknown opportunity the next best step is to make it known and to exploit that opportunity there

we are in the pmbok guide page 39 responds to system interactions systems thinking page 129 and opportunities there in the promo guide seventh edition right that's quite good to know let's see what we've got next you're working on a higher profile project several high-ranking senior Executives want to take the credit for this initiative while limiting the impact to their own resources this has led to several conflicts and a scope statement that is unclear leading to a risk of project failure what will you do next okay it seems pretty straightforward another difficult situation obviously maybe something

around engagement let's see what we've got create a scope statement yourself to avoid further conflict okay I mean we can definitely do this but then what if no one agrees to it and the customers that we're delivering to if they don't accept those deliverables then we're in trouble so probably a no for now on that one facilitate a discussion with the executives as a neutral third party I like that and again this is more of that you know facilitator role that agile terminology that we will see in the PM box 7th edition focusing on agreed

project goals that's definitely a high maybe for that one I think that's pretty good we'll see what else we've got just in case limit your project resources to the executives until they can agree on a Way Forward I mean maybe but also if we've got our project resources that maybe they're sort of still costing money and still costing project funds so if we're not using any of those resources then we're also wasting the project funds so potentially not a good thing I think probably a no for that one escalate the issue to the project steering

committee and ask them to resolve the problem again for this as project managers we should be managing this as best we can until we've exhausted every single option and then if we need to escalate it then we can so we'll put a no for that one for now I think out of all of these the best one becomes option b let's see what we've gone on fantastic leadership is not the same as Authority when senior managers suffer conflict over priorities neutral facilitation helps more than detailed recommendations so we could again we could come up with

recommendations for these guys and say okay here's what we're going to do but then again they haven't agreed with to it it hasn't come from them so they're not really engaged with those ideas if we're facilitating and extracting those ideas from them then potentially we have a better outcome leadership Acumen involves focusing a team around agreed goals generating consensus on the way forward so getting their inputs negotiating and resolving conflict and more all very tricky things to do all these soft skills that you will need as a project manager and Page 42 under demonstrate leadership

behaviors a wonderful wonderful thing in the promo guide 7th edition fantastic how did you guys go with that one I think these are really really good let's see what we've got next there's only three to go in this little section you're managing a project where the majority of the product has been planned up front but an external system is needed from a vendor in partial pieces where the requirements are unclear half okay so that sounds like agile that one doesn't it so we've got agile but we also have upfront planning so we've got our predictive

or our waterfall so we've got a few different methodologies here which one will we choose or can we do a hybrid approach half of your stakeholders want to use a waterfall approach and the other half are advocating for an agile approach what will you do next let's see what we've got I think if we've got both of those I think we could probably merge those two and create a hybrid approach and that's quite a common thing to do so let's see what we've got use an agile methodology the fixed scope is low risk and you

can capture the changes using agile I think it's probably a better option use a waterfall methodology okay so it's either one way or the other and ask the team to plan the uncertain scope better uh again I mean maybe a medium for that one but not great there's probably a better option here proceed with a hybrid method to start and with pre-planned scope but agile ceremonies that promote feedback I think that's probably one of the better ones again it's that hybrid approach we can combine them here because we've got two differing situations that need differing

ways of management use a combination of waterfall and agile to capture all the requirements and keep stakeholders happy I think this is really similar to 2C except C uses the specific terminology of a hybrid method and hybrid is where we are combining waterfall and agile but using it only where it's applicable so I think for all of those purposes let's go with answer C all right excellent this each project is unique and success is based on adapting to the unique context of the project to determine the most appropriate methods the tailoring approach is iterative in

nature okay wow so we might actually change our tailoring approach over time you know what we include or what we don't include is it more waterfall is it less waterfall for example and this project requires a hybrid of waterfall and agile with the option to improve it over time I think that's actually quite good so page 44 to 46 under tailoring in the pmbot guide 7th edition how did you guys go with that one so that's a really good one to be aware of project life cycles when to choose them lots of hybrid stuff in

the PMP exam as well excellent work all right only two to go you're doing great you're working on a project where senior users have been testing the product as parts are released they have found some missing requirements and defects okay good their manager is worried that the project won't deliver a product that is fit for purpose without defects and within the time frame needed what will you do next Okay so we've got some defects we've been testing it now the manager is worried about those defects I think how do we manage this perform some of

the testing yourself to ensure a quality product we may be tempted to do this but I think the value in a project manager is where the conductor of the orchestra so you need a conductor to keep everybody on track and to keep that rhythm going basically so everyone has their little sections trumpets saxophones xylophones percussion you know woodwind all of the rest of it and they are experts in their area I don't think we need to do the testing I guess that's the point there help every team member focus on quality from correct acceptance criteria

to a developed and tested product that's a very broad answer maybe I mean it definitely makes sense yes focusing on Quality quality is everyone's responsibility in an agile team you will hear that said a lot so let's put that as a high maybe for now limit testing until the very end of the project so you can do it all in one go when the product is completely ready I think for this one you know this may not work because again in an agile project we want to test at all levels unit testing on our story

cards system testing has a for the system as a whole user acceptance testing with the user's eyes on it and then even regression testing where we're testing to see if anything else is broken when we've released a certain part so I don't think we necessarily just want to limit it to the end here increase the testing on your project and add more testing resources so no defect goes unnoticed potentially but again may not be the best answer I think actually looking at that I would choose B over D because now the whole team is focusing

on Quality quality is everyone's responsibility we're not just throwing resources at it we're actually managing it like we should I think let's go with answer B excellent work all right quality focuses on meeting acceptance criteria for deliverables and satisfying stakeholders expectations on product requirements quality is everyone's responsibility in an Adaptive or agile project and there you are you will hear that a lot so there it is again page 47 to 49 in the guide 7th edition build quality into processes and deliverables that section there and you know what else is really really good quality is

the last question that you've got in this section and the way that you've gone through this amazing work you're doing a great thing for your PMP exam preparation let's see what we've gone you are working through the risk assessment with your team who are having trouble coming up with ideas for risks you decide to give them some guidance on types of complexity that might affect your new product what will you do next okay risk and complexity uh two wonderful things that you will see or not see you know that will definitely be there regardless of

whether we can see it or not in your project ask them to brainstorm qualitative and quantitative risks yes that could probably work from a risk perspective but what about the complexity behind that so what else have we got ask them to perform the five wires and Ishikawa analysis that is root cause analysis to find the root cause of a problem probably not necessarily related to what we're doing here ask them to brainstorm around possible unwanted human behavior system Behavior ambiguity and Technical Innovation impacts so that way we're Gathering risks but we're Gathering risks based on

all of these things which are types of complexity and volatility so you'll see vuca volatility um I don't know what that one is uh gosh now I've forgotten it complexity ambiguity that one will come to me in time I can't remember now if someone remembers put it in the comments save me please and last one ask them to perform a retrospective uncertainty there it is to discover what isn't working well and what still puzzles us if you beat me to that in the comments please give yourself a thumbs up at the end of your comment

well done and I don't think we're going to go with answer B either I think D I think C is definitely the best one there from that vuca perspective I absolutely love it let's choose that one and there it is complexity is often the result of human behavior system interactions technical Innovation uncertainty and ambiguity complexity can be introduced by events or conditions that affect our value our scope stakeholders risk and more which is why working on projects there is never a dull moment we always have to deal with these wonderful things and having a toolkit

to do that really really helps that's where the PMP is just the best thing to do for your career page 50 51 navigate complexity and you made it to the LA to the last bit of this little section well done I absolutely congratulate you for doing that and also I truly truly believe that you can pass the PMP with this preparation and with all the work that you're putting in keep working at it every day it's definitely a worthwhile activity and it's definitely a worthwhile thing when you do get your PMP I truly believe that

you can do it I hope to see you in the next video bye for now [Music] good morning