PMP Practice Questions

Your agile project team has been using two-week sprints successfully for six months. A new regulatory requirement has been introduced that mandates monthly compliance reports with detailed documentation of all work completed. The compliance officer suggests moving to four-week sprints to align with the reporting cycle, arguing it will reduce administrative overhead. The team is concerned this will reduce their ability to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. How should you address this situation?

September 21, 2026

During a sprint, your development team discovers that implementing a user story as currently defined would require significant technical debt due to integration with a legacy system. The story is high priority for the product owner and represents 8 story points of the 40-point sprint commitment. Refactoring to avoid technical debt would increase the effort to 13 story points. The team is currently on day 3 of a 10-day sprint. What should happen next?

September 21, 2026

Your agile team is developing a customer portal and has received feedback from the product owner that the last three increments did not meet customer expectations, despite meeting acceptance criteria. The team followed all documented requirements and the product owner approved each user story before development. Customers are frustrated that features don't solve their actual problems. What should the team do to prevent this in future sprints?

September 21, 2026

You are managing an agile software development project with a distributed team across three time zones. During sprint planning, the team commits to 45 story points, which is significantly higher than their historical average of 32 story points per sprint. When you question this, the team explains they want to impress the new executive sponsor who will attend the sprint review. The product owner supports the ambitious commitment. What is the BEST action to take?

September 21, 2026

Your agile team has completed three sprints on a mobile application project. During the sprint retrospective, several team members mention that the Definition of Done (DoD) has become unclear, as some user stories are being marked complete without proper testing documentation. The product owner suggests loosening the DoD to improve velocity metrics. Team members are divided on this approach. What should you do as the Scrum Master?

September 21, 2026

You are managing a 14-month product development project currently in month 8. The project has a documented communications management plan that specifies monthly status reports to stakeholders. A key stakeholder who rarely attended review meetings or responded to status reports suddenly expresses strong dissatisfaction with the project direction during a chance meeting with your sponsor. The sponsor is now questioning your stakeholder management approach. Upon investigation, you discover this stakeholder's engagement level has dropped from 'supportive' to 'resistant' without your awareness. What should you have done differently?

September 18, 2026

You are managing a software development project using a predictive approach. During a quality audit, the quality assurance team identifies that 15% of the deliverables from the development phase contain defects that meet the defined acceptance criteria but fall short of industry best practices for security standards. The project quality management plan specifies conformance to acceptance criteria as the measure of quality. Fixing these issues would require additional time and budget not currently allocated. What should you do?

September 18, 2026

Your manufacturing project is in the execution phase. A critical supplier informs you that a key component will be delayed by three weeks due to material shortages. This component is on the critical path and was scheduled to be delivered in two weeks. You review your risk register and find that supplier delays were identified as a risk, with a mitigation strategy to identify alternate suppliers. However, no alternate suppliers were pre-qualified. What should you do first?

September 18, 2026

You are managing a construction project with a 12-month timeline and a fixed budget of $2.5 million. During the fourth month, you conduct an earned value analysis and find that the Cost Performance Index (CPI) is 0.85 and the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) is 0.92. The sponsor asks you to forecast the final project cost assuming current performance continues. What is the most appropriate estimate to provide?

September 18, 2026

Your project team has completed the work breakdown structure (WBS) for a complex infrastructure project. During the activity definition process, a senior team member suggests that some work packages are still too large and should be decomposed further into smaller activities. Another team member argues that further decomposition is unnecessary and will create excessive administrative overhead. The work packages in question represent approximately 120 hours of work each. How should you proceed?

September 18, 2026

You are managing a construction project with a 24-month timeline and a fixed budget of $8 million. During month 6, you calculate that the Earned Value (EV) is $2.1 million, the Planned Value (PV) is $2.4 million, and the Actual Cost (AC) is $2.3 million. The project sponsor asks you to forecast the final project cost based on current performance trends. What should you report as the Estimate at Completion (EAC) assuming current cost performance continues?

September 18, 2026

You are leading a software development project using a waterfall approach. The design phase has been completed and approved by stakeholders. As the development phase begins, a key stakeholder requests a significant change to the user interface that would require redesigning several approved components. The change would add value but was not included in the original scope. The stakeholder insists this is just a clarification of the original requirements. What is your BEST course of action?

September 18, 2026

You are managing a bridge construction project with a 36-month duration and multiple work packages. The project is in month 12, and you are conducting a quality audit. You discover that concrete testing procedures documented in the quality management plan have not been consistently followed by the construction subcontractor for the past two months. The subcontractor claims the alternative testing methods they used are equivalent and meet industry standards. No structural failures have occurred. What should you do?

September 18, 2026

During the execution phase of a pharmaceutical manufacturing project, you discover that a critical piece of equipment specified in the project scope has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Three alternative equipment options are available, each with different costs, lead times, and technical specifications. One option closely matches the original specifications but costs 30% more and has a 3-month longer lead time. Another option costs the same but has reduced capacity. A third option is cheaper and faster but requires modifications to the facility design. What should you do FIRST?

September 18, 2026

You are managing a manufacturing project to deliver 500 custom components over 10 months. After 4 months, you have delivered 180 components. The project budget is $500,000, and you have spent $195,000 so far. According to the baseline schedule, you should have delivered 200 components by now. Senior management wants to know if the project will meet its deadline. What is the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) and what does it indicate about schedule performance?

September 18, 2026

You are leading an agile project to develop a web portal. During the sixth sprint, a major competitor launches a similar product with features that make your planned functionality less competitive. The Product Owner wants to immediately pivot and add new differentiating features, which would require abandoning nearly half of the current sprint backlog. The development team is concerned about the disruption and waste of partially completed work. There are four days remaining in the ten-day sprint. What is the best course of action?

September 9, 2026

Your agile team is working on a financial services application with strict regulatory compliance requirements. The compliance officer insists on reviewing and approving all completed work before it can be released, which takes 3-5 days. This has created a bottleneck, causing completed stories to pile up and not be truly 'done' by sprint end. Team morale is declining because their sprint goals are technically met, but nothing is actually reaching production. How should you address this situation?

September 9, 2026

During sprint planning for a software development project, your team is estimating user stories for the upcoming two-week sprint. One critical story that the Product Owner wants included has significant technical uncertainty. Three developers provide estimates ranging from 3 to 13 story points, indicating vastly different understandings of the work involved. The team has already committed to 32 story points of well-understood stories, and their average velocity is 40 story points. What should the team do with this uncertain story?

September 9, 2026

You are managing an agile project for developing a customer relationship management (CRM) system. After four iterations, the team has consistently delivered all committed story points, but customer feedback indicates that the features delivered are not addressing their most critical pain points. The Product Owner has been creating user stories based on what they think customers need rather than direct customer input. Velocity is stable, but customer satisfaction is declining. What is the most appropriate action to take?

September 9, 2026

Your agile team has completed three sprints of a mobile app development project. During the retrospective, several team members mention that the Definition of Done (DoD) is unclear, leading to inconsistent quality across user stories. Some developers consider a story done after coding, while others include unit testing and code review. The Product Owner is frustrated that stories marked 'done' often require rework in subsequent sprints. What should the Scrum Master do first to address this issue?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a pharmaceutical product development project following a predictive lifecycle with strict regulatory requirements. During the testing phase, a critical test reveals unexpected results that require investigation before proceeding. This was not anticipated in the risk register. The project schedule has no float, and any delay will impact the launch date that has been publicly announced to investors. The quality manager insists on a thorough investigation that will take three weeks, while the sponsor pressures you to proceed with limited investigation to maintain the schedule. What should you do?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a manufacturing project using a predictive approach. During a quality inspection, you discover that 15% of the completed components do not meet the quality specifications defined in the quality management plan. The components are already installed, and removing them would require significant rework, causing a two-week delay and 20% cost increase. The defects are minor and do not affect functionality, but they do not meet documented specifications. Your team suggests accepting the components as-is. What should you do?

September 9, 2026

Your software development project is following a predictive lifecycle with detailed upfront planning. You are currently in the execution phase, and the project is on schedule and within budget. A key stakeholder who was minimally involved during planning now requests a significant feature addition that would provide substantial business value but was not included in the original scope. The stakeholder insists this feature is critical and should be added immediately without formal approval processes. What is the most appropriate action?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a construction project using a predictive approach. During the execution phase, a major supplier informs you that a critical material will be delayed by three weeks due to manufacturing issues. The project schedule shows this material is on the critical path, and the delay will impact the project completion date. You review the risk register and find this supplier delay was identified as a potential risk with a mitigation strategy documented. What should you do first?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a telecommunications infrastructure project using a predictive methodology. The project is 60% complete when you conduct an earned value analysis. The results show: PV = $800,000, EV = $720,000, AC = $780,000, BAC = $1,200,000. Based on these metrics, the project team is concerned about performance. The sponsor asks you to forecast the total cost at completion and explain the project's current performance status. What is the most accurate assessment?

September 9, 2026