PMP Practice Questions

You are managing a manufacturing project to develop a new production line. During a risk review meeting, the engineering team identifies a potential risk: a key piece of automated equipment might not integrate properly with existing systems, which could delay commissioning by four weeks. The probability is assessed at 40% and the impact would be $150,000 in additional costs. After discussing response strategies, the team proposes purchasing a backup manual system for $45,000 that could be used if the integration fails. What risk response strategy does this represent?

July 13, 2026

You are managing an infrastructure project with a fixed budget of $2.5 million. At the end of month 4, your earned value analysis shows: PV = $800,000, EV = $750,000, AC = $825,000. The project is planned for 12 months total. Based on this information, senior management asks you to forecast the final project cost. What is the most appropriate estimate at completion (EAC) to present if you expect current performance to continue?

July 13, 2026

You are managing a pharmaceutical research project with strict regulatory requirements. During quality inspections, you discover that 15% of the test samples from the last production batch do not meet the acceptance criteria defined in the quality management plan. The lab supervisor suggests reworking the samples, while the quality manager recommends disposing of the batch and starting over. The rework would save two weeks but carries some risk. What should you do?

July 13, 2026

You are managing a software development project using a waterfall approach. During the design phase, your technical lead discovers that a third-party component you planned to integrate has been discontinued by the vendor. This component was included in the approved project scope and budget. The technical lead suggests two alternatives: building the component in-house or using a different vendor's solution with similar functionality but different technical specifications. What is the best course of action?

July 13, 2026

You are managing a construction project to build a new office building. During the execution phase, a key supplier notifies you that the specialized steel components will be delayed by three weeks due to manufacturing issues. The critical path includes the steel frame installation, and this delay will impact the project completion date. Your project sponsor is very concerned about meeting the contractual deadline. What should you do first?

July 13, 2026

You are managing a product development project using a stage-gate approach. The project is approaching the gate review for Phase 2 completion. During quality inspections, you discover that three of the fifteen deliverables have minor defects that do not prevent functionality but fall slightly below the quality standards documented in the quality management plan. Correcting these defects would take two weeks and consume the remaining schedule buffer. The gate review is scheduled for next week, and senior management is eager to proceed to Phase 3. What should you do?

July 10, 2026

You are managing an infrastructure project with a detailed WBS and network diagram. A key stakeholder requests the addition of a new feature that was not included in the original scope baseline. The change would provide significant value to end users and has strong executive support. After analysis, you determine the change would add three weeks to the schedule and increase costs by 8%. The change control board (CCB) has approved the change request. What should you do next?

July 10, 2026

Your manufacturing project has a Cost Performance Index (CPI) of 0.85 and a Schedule Performance Index (SPI) of 1.10. The project is 60% complete with six months remaining until the planned completion date. During the monthly steering committee meeting, the CFO expresses concern about the budget overrun and asks whether the project can be completed within the approved budget. What should you present to the steering committee?

July 10, 2026

You are leading a software development project using a waterfall methodology. During the testing phase, the QA team discovers that 15% of the delivered functionality does not meet the acceptance criteria defined in the requirements document. The development team claims the requirements were ambiguous and their interpretation was reasonable. The testing phase is scheduled to end in one week, and any rework will delay the go-live date. What is the most appropriate action?

July 10, 2026

You are managing a construction project using a predictive approach. During the execution phase, a supplier informs you that a critical material will be delayed by three weeks due to manufacturing issues. This delay will impact the critical path and push the project completion date beyond the contractual deadline. You have already exhausted schedule reserves on previous delays. The project sponsor is highly concerned about contractual penalties. What should you do first?

July 10, 2026

An agile team working on a financial services application has maintained a consistent velocity of 28-32 story points over the past six sprints. During Sprint 7 planning, the team estimates several user stories and realizes they are consistently giving higher estimates than in previous sprints for similar work. When asked, team members mention they are concerned about upcoming regulatory requirements that might require rework, though the specific requirements won't be finalized until next quarter. The Product Owner is concerned that velocity is decreasing. What should the team do to address this situation?

July 7, 2026

A cross-functional agile team is building a data analytics platform. During Sprint 6, a critical production bug is discovered in functionality delivered two sprints ago that is affecting customer reporting. Fixing the bug will require approximately 13 story points of effort. The current sprint backlog contains 32 story points of planned work, matching the team's average velocity. The Product Owner wants to add the bug fix to the current sprint without removing any planned stories. What should the Scrum Master recommend?

July 7, 2026

An agile team is developing a customer relationship management (CRM) system. After the fourth sprint, the Product Owner reviews the increment during the sprint review and realizes that several features don't match what key stakeholders envisioned. The stakeholders are present and express concern that the product is heading in the wrong direction. The development team is frustrated because they built exactly what was described in the user stories. The team's definition of done includes code review, testing, and documentation. What is the most likely root cause of this issue?

July 7, 2026

A software development team is working on an e-commerce platform using two-week sprints. During sprint planning for Sprint 5, the Product Owner presents 15 user stories totaling 55 story points. Based on their velocity from the last three sprints (average: 34 story points), the team knows they cannot complete all stories. The Product Owner insists all stories are critical for an upcoming trade show demo in four weeks. The team is concerned about committing to work they cannot complete. What is the best approach for the team to take?

July 7, 2026

Your agile team has completed three sprints of a mobile application project. During the sprint retrospective, several team members express frustration that they are spending too much time in meetings and not enough time developing features. The Scrum Master notes that the team is attending daily standups, sprint planning, sprint reviews, sprint retrospectives, and several ad-hoc meetings called by stakeholders. Velocity has declined from 32 story points in Sprint 1 to 21 story points in Sprint 3. What should the Scrum Master do first to address this issue?

July 7, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project for developing a medical device, where regulatory compliance work follows a waterfall approach with formal documentation and sign-offs, while the user interface development uses Kanban. The regulatory team has just completed validation protocols that must be signed by the quality assurance director before UI testing can begin. However, the QA director is unexpectedly on medical leave for two weeks, and the UI team has already completed their work and is ready to begin testing. The QA director's delegate can review documents but doesn't have signature authority. What is the best approach?

June 26, 2026

Your organization is transitioning to hybrid project management. You are managing a project where requirements gathering and architecture design follow a plan-driven approach, while development and testing use Scrum with two-week sprints. After three sprints, the cumulative flow diagram shows that completed story points are consistently 20% below the planned velocity, while the predictive architecture work is on schedule. Stakeholders are concerned about meeting the final delivery date. What should be your primary focus?

June 26, 2026

You are leading a hybrid project where the design phase follows a predictive approach with fixed milestones, while implementation uses iterative delivery. During the third implementation iteration, the team discovers that a design assumption documented in the approved design specification is technically infeasible. Implementing the original design would require significant rework. The design phase gate was formally closed two months ago. How should you proceed?

June 26, 2026

Your hybrid project uses a predictive approach for hardware procurement and an adaptive approach for software development. During a sprint review, stakeholders request a significant feature enhancement that would require additional hardware components with a 10-week lead time. The current sprint has three weeks remaining, and four more sprints are planned. The product owner wants to add this feature to the product backlog immediately. What is the most appropriate action?

June 26, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project for a financial services company where the infrastructure team uses predictive methods while the application development team uses Scrum. The infrastructure team has completed their work package on schedule, but the development team needs an additional sprint to integrate a regulatory compliance feature that was just clarified by the legal department. The infrastructure lead is concerned about team members being reassigned if they remain idle. What should you do first?

June 26, 2026

You are managing a marketing campaign project using a hybrid approach. The creative content development uses Scrum sprints, while media buying and placement follow a predictive schedule tied to specific launch dates. During sprint review, stakeholders are extremely pleased with the creative work completed and want to launch two weeks earlier than planned. However, the media buying contracts are already finalized for the original dates, and changing them would incur significant penalties. How should you respond to this request?

June 20, 2026

Your construction project uses a hybrid approach where procurement and permitting follow predictive methods, while interior design selections use an iterative approach with the client. The general contractor has reported that the foundation work (on the predictive critical path) is 15% behind schedule due to weather delays. Meanwhile, the client wants to accelerate the interior design iterations to make faster decisions. The project has a fixed completion date for regulatory reasons. What should be your primary focus?

June 20, 2026

You are leading a healthcare application project using a hybrid methodology. Regulatory compliance requirements are managed through predictive planning with detailed documentation, while user interface features are developed using two-week Scrum sprints. During a retrospective, the development team reports frustration that compliance reviews are creating bottlenecks, as the compliance officer needs five business days to review each increment before it can be released to staging. This delay is impacting the team's ability to get timely feedback. What is the best approach to address this issue?

June 20, 2026

Your organization is implementing a new enterprise software system using a hybrid approach. The infrastructure setup and data migration follow a predictive waterfall model, while feature configuration and user acceptance testing use iterative cycles. You've just completed the second iteration of user testing when stakeholders request a major change to the data migration strategy that would affect already-configured features. The change would improve data quality but requires re-work of completed iterations. How should you handle this request?

June 20, 2026

You are managing a product development project using a hybrid approach where the design phase follows predictive practices while development uses Scrum. During sprint planning for the third development sprint, the team discovers that the design deliverables from the predictive phase are incomplete, missing critical UI specifications needed for the planned user stories. The design team operates on a different schedule and won't complete these specifications for another three weeks. What should you do first?

June 20, 2026