PMP Practice Questions

You are managing a large infrastructure project with a team of 45 members across multiple departments. During the weekly status meeting, two senior engineers from different functional areas have a heated disagreement about the technical approach for a critical deliverable. The conflict is affecting team morale, and other team members are beginning to take sides. The project is currently on schedule, but this issue could impact the next milestone in three weeks. What should you do first as the project manager?

June 17, 2026

You are managing a construction project that is entering the execution phase. During resource planning, you identified that three specialized technicians are needed for a critical phase starting in six weeks. Your functional manager has just informed you that due to competing organizational priorities, only two of the three requested technicians will be available. The project baseline assumed all three resources would be available, and this shortage will likely extend the project schedule by two weeks. What should you do next?

June 17, 2026

You are managing a multi-phase engineering project that is currently in month 8 of a 16-month schedule. During performance reviews, you notice that four team members who joined the project three months ago are not integrating well with the existing team. They frequently work in isolation, miss key communications, and their deliverables require significant rework. The original team members have mentioned feeling frustrated with the additional coordination effort. These four members were added to accelerate the project schedule, but productivity has not improved as expected. What is the best approach to address this situation?

June 17, 2026

You are managing a product development project for a manufacturing company. A team member from the quality assurance department approaches you privately and expresses concern that another team member from engineering has been taking shortcuts in the testing protocols to meet schedule deadlines. The QA team member has evidence of incomplete test documentation but is reluctant to raise the issue directly because the engineering team member is senior and well-connected in the organization. The project is currently showing green status, but you know that quality issues could have serious compliance implications. How should you address this situation?

June 17, 2026

You are leading a predictive software development project for a financial institution. A key developer who is responsible for the security module has been consistently missing deadlines over the past three weeks. This developer was previously a high performer. During a one-on-one conversation, you learn that they are dealing with a personal family situation that requires significant attention. The security module is on the critical path, and any further delays will impact the project delivery date committed to the sponsor. What is the most appropriate course of action?

June 17, 2026

Your agile team has been consistently delivering working software every sprint, but stakeholders are becoming frustrated because the features delivered don't always match their expectations. The product owner has been writing user stories and prioritizing the backlog, but rarely engages with stakeholders between sprint reviews. Team morale is starting to decline because they feel their hard work isn't valued. What should you recommend to improve this situation?

June 10, 2026

Your agile team has a new developer who joined two weeks ago. During the latest sprint review, you notice the new team member did not demonstrate any completed work and appears confused about their responsibilities. Other team members mention that the new developer has been asking the same questions repeatedly. The sprint goal was partially met, but the team's velocity has decreased. What is the most appropriate first step to address this situation?

June 10, 2026

During sprint planning, your development team is struggling to understand the acceptance criteria for several user stories. The product owner is explaining the requirements, but team members keep asking for more technical specifications and detailed design documents before they feel comfortable committing to the work. The team has experience with traditional waterfall projects but is new to agile. How should you help the team move forward?

June 10, 2026

Your agile development team has been working together for three months. You notice that team members frequently interrupt each other during daily stand-ups and some developers work in isolation rather than collaborating. The product owner has mentioned concerns about team cohesion affecting their ability to deliver value. As the project manager, you want to strengthen team relationships and improve collaboration. What is the best action to take?

June 10, 2026

You are leading an agile project team that has just completed their second sprint. During the retrospective, one team member dominated the conversation while others remained silent. You notice that some team members appear uncomfortable speaking up in front of the more vocal participant. The team needs to improve their collaboration and ensure all voices are heard. What should you do to improve team participation in future retrospectives?

June 10, 2026

You are facilitating an agile team that recently integrated three new members with strong waterfall backgrounds after an organizational restructuring. The existing five agile-experienced team members have become increasingly frustrated because the new members keep asking for detailed upfront requirements, resist participating in estimation, and want to work on tasks individually rather than swarm on stories. During yesterday's sprint review, one new member publicly criticized the 'lack of planning' in front of stakeholders, creating an awkward situation. The team's performance metrics show their cycle time has doubled and work in progress has increased significantly. The next retrospective is in two days. How should you prepare for and facilitate this retrospective?

June 10, 2026

Your agile team has been consistently exceeding velocity targets for four sprints. However, during a recent organizational audit, it was discovered that the team's automated test coverage has dropped from 80% to 45%, and the technical debt backlog has grown significantly. When you raise this concern with the team, the development lead reveals that the product owner has been pressuring them to deprioritize quality practices to deliver more features, saying 'we can fix technical debt later.' The development team has been complying to avoid conflict. Now two senior developers are threatening to leave the project, citing ethical concerns about the mounting technical debt that will impact future teams. What should you do?

June 10, 2026

You are coaching a newly formed agile team that includes members from four different countries and three time zones. During the first three sprints, the team struggled with coordination, and their definition of done has been inconsistently applied, leading to technical debt. In the latest retrospective, tensions emerged when team members from the Asian region felt their concerns about work-life balance were dismissed by European members who scheduled meetings during Asian evening hours. Meanwhile, North American members expressed frustration that decisions were being made without their input during their night hours. The product owner is pressuring the team to increase velocity. How should you address this situation?

June 10, 2026

Your agile team of eight members has been working together for six months and consistently delivers high-quality increments. However, you've observed that during sprint planning and backlog refinement sessions, only three vocal team members actively participate in estimates and technical discussions. The other five members, who are equally skilled, rarely speak up even when directly asked for input. One of the quieter members privately tells you they feel intimidated by the vocal members' confidence and fear looking incompetent if they disagree. This dynamic is starting to impact the accuracy of estimates and technical decisions. What is the most effective approach to resolve this?

June 10, 2026

You are leading an agile transformation for a large organization. During the third sprint, you notice that one team member, Sarah, has been consistently missing daily stand-ups and delivering incomplete work. When you speak with her privately, she reveals she's struggling with the new agile practices because her previous project manager gave her detailed instructions for every task, and now she feels lost without that guidance. Other team members are becoming frustrated with having to pick up her incomplete work. The team's velocity has dropped 30% over the past two sprints. What should you do first to address this situation?

June 10, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project with a distributed team across three time zones. The agile components use Scrum with daily standups at 9 AM EST, while the waterfall components have weekly status meetings at 10 AM EST. Team members in the Pacific time zone (6 AM and 7 AM their local time) have complained these meeting times are difficult. One team member has started skipping standups, and another has requested to send written updates instead. Productivity metrics show the Pacific team's velocity declining. How should you address this situation?

June 9, 2026

Your organization is transitioning to hybrid project delivery. You are managing a project where the design phase is planned using predictive methods with detailed requirements, while development will use iterative sprints. During design phase completion, your most experienced business analyst accepts a position at another company and will leave in two weeks. The development team is scheduled to start sprints immediately after the design phase ends. What should be your primary focus to ensure team continuity?

June 9, 2026

You are leading a hybrid project where feature development follows Scrum, but infrastructure deployment requires formal change control and approval gates. A senior developer who has extensive experience with agile approaches has been openly criticizing the change control process in team channels, calling it 'bureaucratic waste' and discouraging newer team members from following it. This is creating tension with the operations team who manages the approval gates. What is the most appropriate way to address this situation?

June 9, 2026

Your hybrid project team consists of eight developers working in sprints and four business analysts following a stage-gate process. You notice that the developers rarely interact with the business analysts, leading to misaligned requirements. The project sponsor has emphasized the importance of knowledge sharing across the team. One developer mentions they prefer written documentation over meetings. How should you best facilitate knowledge transfer between these groups?

June 9, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project where the development team works in two-week sprints while the regulatory compliance team follows a traditional waterfall approach. During a retrospective, several development team members express frustration that compliance reviews are causing delays at the end of each sprint. The compliance team lead explains they need at least five business days to review deliverables but are only notified when the sprint ends. What should you do first to address this conflict?

June 9, 2026

A Scrum Master notices that during the past four sprints, team members have been working significant overtime to complete their sprint commitments. While they are meeting their sprint goals, team morale surveys indicate increasing stress and work-life balance concerns. Three team members have recently mentioned feeling burned out. The Product Owner is pleased with the team's output and wants to maintain the current pace. When the Scrum Master raises concerns, the Product Owner argues that the team voluntarily commits to the work during sprint planning. How should the Scrum Master address this situation?

June 6, 2026

A cross-functional agile team is preparing for their next sprint. During sprint planning, the QA specialist expresses concern that the team has been committing to user stories without adequately considering testing effort. She feels that her input is often sought too late in the process, after developers have already estimated and committed to stories. This has resulted in quality issues and testing becoming a bottleneck in the last two sprints. The team wants to improve but is unsure how to better integrate QA perspective earlier. What should the team do?

June 6, 2026

During a sprint retrospective, a senior developer consistently dominates the conversation, speaking for 80% of the meeting time. Several junior team members have stopped participating and appear disengaged. The Scrum Master notices this pattern has occurred in the last three retrospectives. The team's velocity has been declining, and post-retrospective surveys show decreased satisfaction among junior members. What should the Scrum Master do to address this situation?

June 6, 2026

An agile team of eight members has been working together for three months. The Product Owner notices that two developers, who are both highly skilled but have different technical philosophies, frequently disagree during daily standups and refinement sessions. These disagreements sometimes delay decisions and create tension. Other team members have started avoiding technical discussions when both developers are present. Yesterday, a refinement session ended early because the disagreement escalated into a heated argument. What is the most appropriate action for addressing this conflict?

June 6, 2026

An agile team has two new members who joined three weeks ago. The existing team members have been working together for over a year and have well-established working relationships and informal communication patterns. The new members are competent but seem hesitant to speak up in team meetings. During the last sprint review, neither new member presented any of their completed work, even though they contributed significantly to the increment. One existing team member mentioned that the new developers 'just need more time to adjust.' What should the team lead do to better integrate the new members?

June 6, 2026