PMP Practice Questions

During sprint planning, your agile team commits to 30 story points based on their historical velocity. Midway through the sprint, a critical production bug requires immediate attention, consuming 40% of the team's capacity. The product owner insists that all originally planned stories must still be completed and suggests the team work overtime. Several team members express concern about burnout. What is the most appropriate action?

June 29, 2026

Your distributed agile team spans three time zones across North America, Europe, and Asia. Team members have complained that the daily standup time rotates to accommodate everyone, but this means each region experiences inconvenient times regularly. Additionally, team bonding has suffered because members rarely interact outside of formal ceremonies. Sprint retrospectives reveal low team morale despite delivering features successfully. What should you prioritize to improve team cohesion?

June 29, 2026

A new team member joined your agile team two weeks ago. She has strong technical skills but comes from a traditional waterfall background. During the daily standup, she provides detailed status reports to you rather than discussing impediments with the team. She also waits for task assignments instead of pulling work from the board. Other team members are becoming frustrated with her approach. How should you handle this situation?

June 29, 2026

Your agile development team is struggling to complete stories within sprints. During planning, developers frequently say they cannot estimate stories because requirements are unclear. The product owner insists the stories are sufficiently detailed and becomes defensive when the team asks questions. This pattern has repeated for four sprints, causing incomplete work and team frustration. As the project manager, what is your best course of action?

June 29, 2026

You are leading an agile team that has been working together for three sprints. During the latest retrospective, you notice that two team members consistently dominate the conversation while three others remain silent. The silent members later confide in you that they feel their ideas are not valued. Team velocity has been declining, and you suspect the lack of diverse input is affecting quality. What should you do first to address this situation?

June 29, 2026

You are leading a hybrid project team where some members work remotely on agile tasks while others are co-located working on predictive deliverables. During virtual stand-ups, you notice that the co-located team members often have side conversations and inside jokes that exclude the remote participants. Several remote team members have privately expressed feeling like outsiders. Collaboration between the agile and predictive groups is suffering. What action should you take?

June 26, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project where the software development follows Scrum while the infrastructure deployment follows a phase-gate approach. During a retrospective, your Scrum team complained that they don't feel informed about infrastructure decisions that affect their work. The infrastructure lead says the development team doesn't attend the scheduled phase-gate reviews. Team engagement scores have dropped in the latest survey. What should you do to improve cross-team engagement?

June 26, 2026

Your hybrid project team includes developers working in sprints and a creative design team that prefers working in longer cycles with more planning time. During sprint planning, the designers requested a three-week lead time for new design requests, but the development team wants designs available within the current two-week sprint. Both groups are becoming frustrated with each other's working styles. As the project manager, what approach should you take?

June 26, 2026

You are leading a hybrid project with both agile and predictive components. A new team member, Sarah, has only worked on waterfall projects before. She seems hesitant to participate in the daily stand-ups with the agile portion of the team and has mentioned feeling uncomfortable with the informal communication style. She performs well on her waterfall tasks but rarely interacts with the agile team members. What is the best way to support Sarah?

June 26, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project where part of the team works in two-week sprints while another group follows a traditional waterfall approach for regulatory compliance activities. During a recent sprint review, the agile team demonstrated completed features, but several waterfall team members expressed confusion about what was delivered and how it impacts their documentation work. Team morale appears to be declining due to this disconnect. What should you do first to address this situation?

June 26, 2026

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