33 People (Leadership & Teams) Practice Questions & Answers

1. 1. A Scrum team's sprint goal is at risk because a vendor security review has not come back. Two developers are spending several hours a day chasing the vendor for a status update. What should the project manager do first?

   • A.Log the delay in the risk register and let the developers keep chasing the vendor
   • B.Reassign the blocked story yourself and pull replacement work into this sprint
   • C.Ask the sponsor to escalate the delay to the vendor's senior management today
   • D.Take on the vendor follow-up yourself so the developers can resume the story✓ Answer

   Servant leadership is measured by the impediments the project manager removes, not by the instructions issued: an external blocker outside the team's control is the project manager's work, and absorbing it returns the developers' hours to the sprint goal. Escalation to the sponsor is appropriate only after the project manager's own channels fail, and changing what the sprint contains is a decision the team makes, not the project manager.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (empower the team; solve problems); PMBOK Guide, servant leadershipReport a problem with this question

2. 2. Halfway through an adaptive project the project manager finds that two sub-teams are building toward different interpretations of the product vision, even though the vision statement and roadmap have not changed. What should the project manager do first?

   • A.Bring both sub-teams together to find where their understanding diverged✓ Answer
   • B.Ask the product owner to rule on which sub-team's reading is correct
   • C.Circulate the approved charter and vision statement to both sub-teams again
   • D.Ask the sponsor to restate the vision at the next steering committee

   When people work at cross purposes under an unchanged vision, the defect is in shared understanding, so the first move is to break the situation down and locate the root cause of the misunderstanding. Re-sending the same documents repeats the message that already failed to land, and having an authority figure declare a winner leaves the divergence undiagnosed and free to reappear.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Develop a common vision (identify the root cause of a misunderstanding of the vision)Report a problem with this question

3. 3. A newly formed hybrid team is three weeks old. Meetings run long, members talk over one another, and decisions are reopened after the meeting ends. What should the project manager do?

   • A.Facilitate a session in which the team writes and records its own ground rules✓ Answer
   • B.Assign the most senior member as timekeeper and recorder for all meetings
   • C.Shorten every recurring meeting on the calendar so overruns are impossible
   • D.Draft a set of meeting ground rules and publish them in the team charter

   Ground rules belong in the team charter and get their force from being authored by the team itself, because people enforce agreements they helped write and ignore rules handed down to them. The trap here is picking the right content with the wrong author: a well-drafted rule set the project manager publishes alone produces compliance at best, not the shared ownership that keeps decisions from being reopened.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Manage conflicts (foster adherence to common ground rules); PMBOK Guide, team charterReport a problem with this question

4. 4. The team charter contains ground rules the team wrote itself, including that everyone attends the daily standup. One developer has skipped it four days running and posts updates in chat instead. What should the project manager do first?

   • A.Accept the chat updates and brief the developer separately after each standup
   • B.Raise the missed standups with the developer's functional manager this week
   • C.Restate the ground rules the team agreed and let the team enforce them✓ Answer
   • D.Rewrite the ground rule yourself so that standup attendance is mandatory

   Rectifying a ground rule violation starts inside the team that made the rule: the project manager reminds the team of its own agreement and lets peer accountability work, escalating outside the team only if that fails. Going to the functional manager first bypasses the person and the team, while quietly working around the absence tells everyone the charter is optional.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Manage conflicts (manage and rectify ground rule violations)Report a problem with this question

5. 5. On a predictive project a tester's automated scripts keep failing review. A skills assessment shows the tester has never worked with the new automation framework, and that work package has float. What is the best response?

   • A.Review each script yourself before it is committed until the quality improves
   • B.Replace the tester with a contractor who already knows the automation framework
   • C.Move the tester to manual testing and give the automation work to other members
   • D.Pair the tester with an experienced automation engineer and add training✓ Answer

   The assessment has already identified a competence gap rather than an attitude or capacity problem, and a competence gap is closed by developing the person through pairing, mentoring and targeted training, which the available float allows. Removing or replacing a team member is never the first response to a gap the project can close, and screening every script personally makes the project manager the quality gate instead of building capability.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (support the team's varied experiences and skills); PMBOK Guide, team development and trainingReport a problem with this question

6. 6. In a retrospective an agile team says technical design questions sit unanswered for days while the project manager travels, and that work stops while they wait. What should the project manager do?

   • A.Ask the sponsor to approve design decisions during the weeks you are away
   • B.Delegate design decisions within agreed limits and ask the team to keep you informed✓ Answer
   • C.Appoint a deputy who exercises your approval authority whenever you travel
   • D.Hold a fixed daily approval slot so the team knows when decisions get made

   Empowerment means decision authority sits with the people who hold the information, and here the retrospective has shown that the project manager is the bottleneck rather than the source of the technical judgement. A scheduled approval window and a stand-in deputy both preserve the bottleneck by keeping the decision outside the team, and routing technical choices to the sponsor pushes them further from the work rather than closer to it.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (empower the team); Agile Practice Guide, self-organizing teamsReport a problem with this question

7. 7. For six weeks the project manager has seen one developer return code reviews late, holding up other members. The mid-year performance summary is two months away. What should the project manager do?

   • A.Record the examples and raise them in the mid-year performance summary
   • B.Ask the developer's functional manager to raise it in their next one-on-one
   • C.Name the developer in the next retrospective and ask the team to respond
   • D.Discuss the specific late reviews with the developer privately and soon✓ Answer

   Feedback changes behaviour only when it is specific, prompt and delivered privately to the person who can act on it, so a six-week-old pattern is already overdue and storing it for a formal review wastes the window in which it could be corrected. Raising it in front of the team makes the point about the person rather than the process, and routing it through the functional manager removes the project manager from a conversation they are best placed to have.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (establish expectations); PMBOK Guide, team performance and feedbackReport a problem with this question

8. 8. An experienced agile team is meeting its commitments, but in two retrospectives members have said the work feels repetitive and that how features are built is decided elsewhere. The project manager has a discretionary budget. What is the best response?

   • A.Use the budget for a sprint bonus paid to the highest-performing engineers
   • B.Introduce a release award the project manager grants for standout effort
   • C.Give the team authority over how the work is done and stretch assignments✓ Answer
   • D.Use the budget to lift base pay across the team above the local market rate

   The complaint names lost autonomy and lost growth, which are motivators; pay and bonuses are hygiene factors that remove dissatisfaction but do not create engagement, so money spent here buys nothing the team is asking for. Restoring the team's authority over how the work is done, plus assignments that build mastery, addresses the stated cause directly.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (empower the team); Herzberg motivation-hygiene theoryReport a problem with this question

9. 9. Since a scope change was announced, a normally talkative team member has gone quiet in standups, gives one-word answers and no longer volunteers for work. Delivery has not slipped yet. What should the project manager do first?

   • A.Ask a colleague who works closely with the member to find out what is wrong
   • B.Speak with the member privately to understand what has changed for them✓ Answer
   • C.Wait until the retrospective to see whether the member raises the issue
   • D.Raise the change in behaviour with the whole team at the next daily standup

   Emotional intelligence means noticing a signal early and checking the interpretation with the person rather than acting on an assumption, and withdrawal is a signal worth reading before it shows up in delivery. Airing the observation in the standup exposes the person publicly, waiting surrenders the early window, and asking a colleague gathers second-hand impressions while the person themselves goes unheard.

   Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (determine an appropriate leadership style); PMBOK Guide, emotional intelligenceReport a problem with this question

10. 10. A project team is spread across three time zones and has never met in person. Handoffs happen by email, misunderstandings are increasing, and members say they do not know what the other locations are working on. What best addresses this?

    • A.Require a detailed written status email from each member at day's end
    • B.Rotate meeting times so each location is inconvenienced equally each month
    • C.Set a shared overlap window with a video standup and a board everyone updates✓ Answer
    • D.Ask each location's lead to summarise that site's progress to you weekly

    A distributed team loses the incidental awareness and quick clarification that proximity supplies, so it must be replaced deliberately with interactive communication and a visible information radiator that everyone can read at any hour. More written push reporting adds volume without restoring two-way clarification, and funnelling status through site leads to the project manager keeps the locations invisible to each other.

    Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Plan and manage communication (promote transparency and collaboration); Agile Practice Guide, information radiatorsReport a problem with this question

11. 11. Two sprints into a newly formed team, debates about architecture and process have turned sharp and personal enough that one member has complained. Sprint goals are still being met. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Decide the architecture yourself so the team can stop debating and deliver
    • B.Coach the team through the friction and help it agree how decisions get made✓ Answer
    • C.Report the conflict to the sponsor as an emerging risk to team performance
    • D.Separate the two engineers who clash most into different workstreams next sprint

    A new team arguing over how it will work is in the storming stage, a normal and necessary step toward agreed norms, and the leader's job is to coach it through by helping it settle a decision-making method rather than to eliminate the friction. Separating the people or deciding for them ends the argument without producing norms, so the team never reaches the performing stage on its own.

    Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Manage conflicts / Lead the project team; Tuckman stages of team developmentReport a problem with this question

12. 12. A team that had been delivering predictably gains a new member. Velocity drops, working agreements everyone had accepted are reopened, and small frictions appear in standups. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Ask resource management to withdraw the new member before the next sprint
    • B.Treat the dip as an expected step back and rebuild the working agreements together✓ Answer
    • C.Ask the new member to observe quietly until the team's velocity has recovered
    • D.Lower the team's forecast permanently to reflect the larger team's slower pace

    Changing the membership changes the team, so a performing group returns to earlier development stages and has to re-form its norms with the new person included; the dip is expected and temporary rather than evidence of a bad hire. Sidelining the newcomer delays the re-norming that has to happen anyway, and permanently lowering the forecast treats a transition state as the team's new capability.

    Source: Tuckman stages of team development (membership change causes regression); PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project teamReport a problem with this question

13. 13. The project manager introduced a monthly award for whoever closes the most items. Since then members keep the easiest work for themselves and help each other less. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Keep the award and add a second one for the most helpful member each month
    • B.Stop all recognition until the collaboration problem has been resolved
    • C.Replace the individual award with recognition of team results and helping✓ Answer
    • D.Keep the award but let the team vote each month on who should receive it

    Recognition reinforces whatever it measures, so an award for individual throughput reliably produces work hoarding and less mutual help on a team whose output is collective. The fix is to align the reward with the behaviour wanted by recognising team outcomes and helping; leaving the throughput award in place keeps the incentive that caused the problem, and abandoning recognition altogether removes a legitimate motivator.

    Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (establish expectations; empower the team); PMBOK Guide, recognition and rewardsReport a problem with this question

14. 14. A junior analyst from the customer organisation writes acceptance criteria the team finds ambiguous, and rework is rising. A senior analyst on the project team has time available. What is the best response?

    • A.Ask the customer's manager to put a more experienced analyst on the project
    • B.Write the acceptance criteria yourself and have the customer's analyst approve
    • C.Have your senior analyst mentor the customer's analyst on writing criteria✓ Answer
    • D.Publish a criteria template in the repository and ask the analyst to use it

    Recognising and acting on mentoring opportunities is part of the project manager's work and extends beyond the project team to stakeholders, and mentoring builds a capability that stays in place instead of a workaround that must be repeated. Writing the criteria yourself absorbs the gap without closing it, going to the customer's manager damages the relationship for a problem the project can solve, and a template alone transfers format rather than the judgement the analyst lacks.

    Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Align stakeholder expectations (organize and act on mentoring opportunities)Report a problem with this question

15. 15. A hybrid project staffed by three partner companies in two countries keeps discovering delays late. Reviewing the last two, the project manager finds that 'complete' and 'in progress' mean different things to different partners. What should the project manager do first?

    • A.Require every partner to report status using your template each week
    • B.Adopt your own company's process documents as the standard for the partners
    • C.Meet each partner separately and reconcile the different definitions yourself
    • D.Facilitate a session where the partners agree shared terms and status definitions✓ Answer

    Across organisations and cultures the same word carries different assumptions, and status only becomes comparable once the partners jointly define what the terms mean, which is why a shared definition of done is negotiated rather than issued. Imposing one company's process or template standardises the form of the report while each partner keeps filling it in against its own meaning, and reconciling the definitions privately leaves the partners still misunderstanding each other.

    Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Develop a common vision / Manage conflicts (communicate principles with external stakeholders); Agile Practice Guide, definition of doneReport a problem with this question

16. 16. A project manager leads two teams with the same hands-off style. The long-standing senior team delivers reliably; the newly formed junior team has missed two commitments and says it is unsure what good work looks like. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Apply close oversight to both teams so that expectations stay consistent
    • B.Give the newer team more direction while still delegating to the other✓ Answer
    • C.Have the newer team adopt the senior team's working agreements unchanged
    • D.Move two senior engineers onto the newer team until its delivery matches

    Leadership style is situational: it is matched to the maturity and competence of the group being led, so a new team that cannot yet judge what good looks like needs direction and structure while a mature team is held back by it. Tightening oversight everywhere punishes the capable team for consistency's sake, and transplanting people or agreements imports another team's answers without building the newer team's own capability.

    Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (determine an appropriate leadership style)Report a problem with this question

17. 17. A team uses an AI assistant that generates sprint estimates from historical data. For the coming sprint its numbers are far lower than the team's own experience suggests, and one member proposes committing to them to look responsive. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Accept the numbers and add contingency to the sprint to absorb the optimism
    • B.Stop using the tool for estimating and return to the team's earlier method
    • C.Have the team weigh the generated estimates against their experience first✓ Answer
    • D.Adopt the tool's numbers because it draws on far more history than the team

    An AI-generated estimate is an input to human judgement, not a substitute for it, and the people doing the work must validate it against conditions the historical data cannot see before any commitment is made; accountability for the estimate stays with the team and the project manager either way. Accepting the output uncritically abandons that accountability, padding it hides an unexamined disagreement inside a buffer, and banning the tool discards a useful input instead of keeping a human in the loop.

    Source: PMI PMP Examination Content Outline, People — Lead the project team (solve problems; accountability when the team uses AI tools); PMBOK Guide, expert judgmentReport a problem with this question

18. 18. Two developers on a Scrum team have argued for three days about whether to refactor a shared module now or after the release. The dispute has spilled into the daily standup and other members are taking sides. The project manager has heard each of them complain separately but has not yet brought them together. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Bring the two developers together privately to surface the technical and workload concerns behind each position✓ Answer
    • B.Ask the product owner to rule on the refactoring so the team can stop debating and resume delivery
    • C.Let the disagreement run through the next sprint, since technical debate among engineers is healthy
    • D.Assign the shared module to just one of the developers so the other has no stake in the decision

    Collaborating and problem solving is the mode that produces a durable resolution because it works from the actual source of the conflict rather than from the positions people have taken. The expected sequence is to understand the source and context of a conflict and address it directly and privately with the people involved; handing the call to the product owner or splitting the work ends the argument without resolving what caused it, and letting it run lets a productive technical debate harden into a personal one.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Manage conflicts" — enablers: identify conflict sources; analyze the context for the conflict; implement an agreed-on resolution strategyReport a problem with this question

19. 19. On a construction site the safety officer and a subcontractor lead argue in front of the crew about whether work may continue while a section of guardrail is missing at the third-floor edge. A material lift is due to start at that edge in ten minutes. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Allow the lift to proceed with a spotter posted at the open section as a middle position
    • B.Facilitate a joint session so the safety officer and the subcontractor lead reach agreement
    • C.Let the subcontractor lead decide, since the crew reports to him and he owns the method
    • D.Direct that the lift not begin until the guardrail is reinstated, then discuss it afterward✓ Answer

    Forcing or directing is the appropriate mode when safety or regulatory compliance is at stake and there is no time to work toward consensus, because the hazard must be controlled before anyone can talk about it. Collaboration is the better mode in almost every other conflict, but here it consumes the ten minutes that separate the crew from an unprotected edge, and a compromise that keeps the hazard in place while adding a watcher accepts a risk the standard does not permit.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Manage conflicts"; conflict-resolution modes: force/direct is appropriate for genuine urgency, safety and compliance situationsReport a problem with this question

20. 20. In a retrospective, two team members begin shouting at each other about who caused last week's production incident. The exchange has turned personal and is going in circles, and ten minutes of the timebox remain. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Ask the rest of the team to vote on which account of the incident is the more accurate one
    • B.Decide the corrective action yourself and record it among the retrospective's action items
    • C.Continue the discussion now, while the details of the incident are still fresh for everyone
    • D.Close the topic for now and reconvene it in a separate session once tempers have settled✓ Answer

    Withdrawing or avoiding is a legitimate choice when it is deliberate and temporary: emotion has overtaken the discussion, so no analysis done in the next ten minutes will be sound, and continuing publicly deepens the personal damage. The mode is wrong only when it is used to abandon a live conflict permanently, which is why the answer pairs the pause with a committed follow-up session rather than simply dropping the subject.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Manage conflicts"; withdraw/avoid is appropriate for trivial issues or to allow emotions to cool before resolutionReport a problem with this question

21. 21. Two analysts disagree about a sampling method. The project manager asks them to concentrate on how much they already agree about the data-quality goal and to set the sampling question aside for the moment. Which conflict-management mode best describes what the project manager used?

    • A.Collaborating or problem solving, where several viewpoints are worked into a consensus commitment
    • B.Smoothing or accommodating, where areas of agreement are emphasized over the point of difference✓ Answer
    • C.Compromising or reconciling, where each side gives up part of its position for partial satisfaction
    • D.Withdrawing or avoiding, where the issue is postponed and the parties step back for the moment

    Smoothing or accommodating is defined by emphasizing areas of agreement and de-emphasizing the point of difference, which is exactly the move described; neither analyst gives up part of a position, so it is not a compromise, and the parties stay in the conversation, so it is not withdrawal. It lowers tension without resolving the sampling question, which makes it a holding action that has to be followed later by real problem solving.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Manage conflicts"; conflict-resolution modes and their synonyms: smooth/accommodate emphasizes agreement over differenceReport a problem with this question

22. 22. During a formal design review, a business analyst from the project team and a department head argue in front of the whole group about whether a reported behaviour is a defect to be fixed under the baseline or a new requirement to be funded. The room has gone quiet. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Ask the analyst to defer, since the department head represents the receiving customer
    • B.Log the item as a change request right away so the review can move to the next topic
    • C.Escalate to the sponsor, who has the authority to rule on how the item should be funded
    • D.Take the item offline and meet both people to establish the facts behind the disagreement✓ Answer

    Whether the behaviour is a defect or a change is a factual question answered by comparing it with the approved requirements, and that comparison has to happen before anyone decides who pays. Handling it privately with the two people also removes the audience that is making the exchange harder to settle; escalating, conceding on the grounds of customer status, or classifying it as a change on the spot all commit to an outcome before the facts are established.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Manage conflicts" — enablers: identify conflict sources and analyze the context before implementing a resolution strategyReport a problem with this question

23. 23. The team charter written by the team says the daily standup starts on time and stays inside its timebox. For the past week two members have arrived several minutes late, the standup routinely overruns, and the rest of the team is visibly irritated. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Move the standup to a later time so that both members can arrive without rushing
    • B.Speak to each late member privately and warn that further lateness will be documented
    • C.Raise the lateness with the members' functional managers, who set their daily schedules
    • D.Bring the pattern to the whole team and have it revisit the ground rules it agreed✓ Answer

    Ground rules belong to the team because the team authored them in the team charter, so the enforcement that works is the team holding itself to its own agreement rather than the project manager imposing a sanction from outside. Warning individuals or going to functional managers converts a shared norm into a discipline matter and weakens the charter, and quietly moving the meeting rewards the violation by changing the rule instead of examining why it is being broken.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Manage conflicts" — enablers: establish an environment fostering adherence to common ground rules; manage and rectify ground-rule violationsReport a problem with this question

24. 24. A project manager needs a senior database engineer half-time for six weeks. The functional manager has said the engineer is fully committed to operations work. The two managers meet tomorrow to settle it. What should the project manager do to prepare for that conversation?

    • A.Send the manager the resource management plan showing the engineer as already assigned
    • B.Define the skills, hours and dates needed, and what the project can offer in exchange✓ Answer
    • C.Accept whichever staff the manager can free up, so the relationship is not strained
    • D.Ask the sponsor to instruct the functional manager to release the engineer for six weeks

    A negotiation is prepared by knowing precisely what you need, why you need it, what you can trade and what you will do if no agreement is reached, because those are what let you hold a position on substance instead of on status. Opening with sponsor pressure spends authority you may need later and damages a relationship you will negotiate with again, conceding in advance abandons a requirement you have not yet argued, and a plan document does not create availability the other manager has not agreed to.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain Process, Task "Plan and manage procurement" — enablers: determine a negotiation strategy; participate in agreement negotiations (negotiation is a Process-domain task under the current outline)Report a problem with this question

25. 25. A sponsor states that the launch date cannot move. The team's forecast shows the agreed scope cannot be finished by that date. The project manager wants to hold the forecast without damaging the relationship with the sponsor. What is the best approach?

    • A.Propose moving the date and cutting the scope by roughly equal amounts to close the gap
    • B.State plainly that the date is not achievable and ask the sponsor to reset expectations
    • C.Accept the date and add contract staff so the agreed scope still fits the schedule
    • D.Ask what the date protects, then offer scope options that meet that need by the date✓ Answer

    Negotiating on interests rather than positions is what lets both sides win: the date is a position, and behind it sits an interest such as a trade show, a contractual window or a regulatory deadline, which a reduced first release may satisfy completely. Simply declaring the date unachievable leaves the sponsor with a problem and no options, adding staff late to compressed work usually slows it further, and splitting the difference concedes schedule and scope without knowing whether either concession serves the underlying need.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain Process, Task "Plan and manage procurement" — enabler: determine a negotiation strategy (negotiate interests rather than positions; know the alternative to agreement)Report a problem with this question

26. 26. An integration task is urgent and only loosely defined. A specialist must start next week, and the true extent of the work will become clear only as it proceeds. Which contracting arrangement best fits this situation?

    • A.Time and material, capped with a not-to-exceed ceiling and a defined scope review point✓ Answer
    • B.Cost plus incentive fee, with a target cost and a shared savings ratio for the seller
    • C.Firm fixed price, with an award fee payable if the integration is completed early
    • D.Firm fixed price, based on the team's current best estimate of the integration effort

    Time and material fits urgent, small or undefined work because it can be signed quickly and does not require a scope definition that does not yet exist, while the not-to-exceed ceiling caps the buyer's otherwise open-ended cost exposure. Fixed-price forms transfer cost risk to the seller only when scope is well defined; priced against a guess they produce either a large risk premium or a stream of claims, and incentive structures built on a target cost need a cost baseline that this work cannot yet support.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain Process, Task "Plan and manage procurement" — enabler: select preferred contract types (T&M for urgent or undefined work, capped by a not-to-exceed amount)Report a problem with this question

27. 27. At the daily standup a Kanban team raises three blockers: a developer cannot install a library and needs admin rights on his own laptop from the IT service desk; a shared test environment keeps being wiped by another project that also uses it; and a vendor licence is stalled inside another department's budget approval. Which blocker should the project manager personally take on right now?

    • A.All three, since a self-organizing team should spend its capacity on delivery, not on blockers
    • B.The vendor licence, because contract and budget matters always sit with the project manager
    • C.The shared environment, because clearing it means negotiating with another project's manager✓ Answer
    • D.The library install, because unblocking a developer at once is the servant leader's first duty

    The servant leader removes the impediments the team genuinely cannot remove for itself, and the dividing line is authority and reach rather than urgency. The developer can raise his own service-desk ticket, the licence sits outside the project manager's authority and follows the governance escalation path to the sponsor, and the environment conflict is exactly the case in between: it needs a peer-level negotiation with another project that the team has no standing to conduct.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain Business Environment, Task "Remove impediments and manage issues" — enablers: prioritize impediments; determine and apply an intervention strategy (impediments are a Business Environment task under the current outline)Report a problem with this question

28. 28. The risk register carries an entry for schedule delay caused by a backlog at the certification body. The certifying body has now written to say its review will take four weeks longer than published, so the delay is certain. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Note it in the assumption log and review it at the next scheduled risk review meeting
    • B.Record it in the issue log with an owner and a target date and trigger the planned response✓ Answer
    • C.Raise the risk's probability to the highest level and re-rank the risk register accordingly
    • D.Submit a schedule change request at once so the baseline reflects the four extra weeks

    A risk is an uncertain future event, so once it has occurred it stops being a risk and becomes an issue: it moves to the issue log, gets a named owner and a target date so it is tracked to closure, and the response that was already planned for it is executed. Keeping it in the risk register at high probability tracks something that is no longer uncertain, and a change request is premature until the response has been applied and the remaining impact on the schedule is known.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain Business Environment, Task "Remove impediments and manage issues" — enabler: recognize when a risk becomes an issue; issue log entries carry an owner and a resolution dateReport a problem with this question

29. 29. An executive whose department will operate the new system has skipped every review, has not opened the last three reports, and is unaware of two approved scope changes. The project manager concludes that this executive must become an active supporter before rollout. Which tool records the difference between where the executive is now and where the executive needs to be?

    • A.The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix, marking the current and the desired levels✓ Answer
    • B.The power/interest grid, which positions stakeholders by authority and level of concern
    • C.The stakeholder register, which records identification and classification information
    • D.The salience model, which sorts stakeholders by power, legitimacy and urgency of claims

    Only the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix is built to hold two values for the same person, marking the current level and the desired level against unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive and leading, and the gap between them is what drives the engagement actions. The grid and the salience model prioritize stakeholders relative to one another, and the register records who they are and what is known about them, so none of the three can express a gap to be closed.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Tasks "Engage stakeholders" and "Align stakeholder expectations"; stakeholder engagement assessment matrix levels: unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive, leadingReport a problem with this question

30. 30. Two weeks before a data migration, the project manager learns that an internal audit group must sign off on the migration approach. The group is not in the stakeholder register and nobody named it at initiation. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Insert the sign-off into the schedule as a milestone and proceed with the migration
    • B.Add the group to the register and analyze its interest, influence and expectations✓ Answer
    • C.Send the group the migration plan and schedule so its review can start immediately
    • D.Ask the sponsor whether the sign-off can be waived given how late it has surfaced

    Stakeholder identification is iterative and continuous rather than a one-time activity at initiation, so a newly surfaced stakeholder is registered and analyzed before any engagement is designed. The analysis of interest, influence and expectations is what tells you what this group will actually look for, and sending documents, asking for a waiver or booking a milestone all commit the project to an approach before anyone knows what the audit group needs to see.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Engage stakeholders" — enablers: identify stakeholders; analyze stakeholders (identification is performed iteratively throughout the project)Report a problem with this question

31. 31. An operations manager has declined every demonstration invitation and has criticized the project in two other management forums. So far the project manager has only sent written updates. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Record the behaviour in the issue log and continue with the current engagement plan
    • B.Route the decisions the manager blocks through the sponsor so delivery is not held up
    • C.Meet the manager privately to learn what is driving the resistance and what would ease it✓ Answer
    • D.Increase the frequency of the written status updates so the manager is better informed

    Resistance is a symptom with a cause behind it, commonly a threat to the manager's operation, staffing or budget, so a resistant stakeholder is diagnosed through direct interactive dialogue rather than routed around. Sensitive conversations call for interactive communication, which is why more one-way reports will not move the level of engagement, and bypassing the manager through the sponsor confirms the fear that the project is being done to her department rather than with it.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Engage stakeholders" — enablers: analyze and tailor communication to stakeholder needs; build trust and influence stakeholdersReport a problem with this question

32. 32. Midway through a sprint, a marketing director emails the development team directly with two additional features that, she writes, must be in this release. The team has already committed to the sprint goal. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Direct the request to the product owner to be sized and ranked in the product backlog✓ Answer
    • B.Ask the team to absorb the two features, since the director is a senior stakeholder
    • C.Reply to the director that the release scope is frozen and admits no further additions
    • D.Convene the change control board to evaluate the two features against the baseline

    In an adaptive setting the product owner owns priority, so a new request is welcomed into the backlog to be sized and ranked against everything else rather than pushed into a sprint the team has already committed to. That protects the sprint without refusing the stakeholder, whereas absorbing the work silently breaks the commitment, a flat refusal damages a relationship the project needs, and a change control board belongs to a predictive setting with a scope baseline to change.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Manage stakeholder expectations"; adaptive delivery: the product owner orders the product backlog and the sprint commitment is protectedReport a problem with this question

33. 33. The company announces a reorganization that will move half of the project team under a new department in two months. Delivery has slowed and several members have privately asked the project manager whether their roles are safe. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Find out what can be shared about the change and hold an open session with the team✓ Answer
    • B.Ask each member individually to confirm they will stay on the project until delivery
    • C.Carry on as normal and avoid the subject until the new assignments are confirmed
    • D.Lower the delivery forecast now to absorb the disruption the reorganization will cause

    What depresses performance during organizational change is uncertainty rather than the change itself, so the project manager acts as the voice of the team, obtains what can legitimately be shared, and says plainly what is known, what is not yet decided and when more will be known. Silence lets rumour fill the gap, asking people to pledge to stay puts them in an impossible position, and adjusting the forecast treats a symptom while leaving the anxiety that caused it untouched.

    Source: PMP Examination Content Outline, Domain People, Task "Lead the project team" (represent the voice of the team) with Task "Plan and manage communication" (promote transparency; establish a feedback loop)Report a problem with this question

Practice questions based on the PMI PMP Examination Content Outline and standard project-management frameworks (PMBOK Guide, Agile Practice Guide). PMP and PMBOK are marks of the Project Management Institute; this site is not affiliated with or endorsed by PMI. Study the official Exam Content Outline and confirm current requirements before testing. About the PMP exam →