PMP Practice Questions

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

Your organization is executing a portfolio of projects, and you are managing a critical ERP implementation with a 18-month timeline. At month 10, the portfolio review board redirects your two most experienced technical resources to a new executive priority project for the next 90 days. These resources are currently assigned to critical path activities for database migration and integration testing. Your resource manager can provide three junior resources as replacements, but they lack ERP experience. The portfolio manager states this is non-negotiable due to business priorities. Your analysis shows that using junior resources will likely cause 6-8 weeks of schedule delay and increase risk of integration defects. What should be your PRIMARY response?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a government defense project with a fixed-price contract and strict security protocols. At the 40% completion point, a new regulation is published requiring additional cybersecurity controls that were not in the original scope. Implementing these controls will add $1.2M to project costs and 4 months to the schedule. Your contracts team confirms this qualifies as a changes in law provision under the contract. However, the government client's project office indicates their fiscal year budget cannot accommodate the increase and suggests descoping other requirements to offset costs. Your technical lead warns that descoping any current requirements will likely fail the final security certification. What is the MOST appropriate next step?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a large infrastructure project with a 24-month timeline and a $15M budget. During month 14, your Cost Performance Index (CPI) is 0.89 and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) is 0.92. The project has consumed $9.2M of the budget. Your sponsor is concerned about cost overruns and demands that you reduce spending immediately. The critical path activities for the next three months include foundation work that requires specialized equipment already procured and scheduled. What should be your PRIMARY response to the sponsor's demand?

September 9, 2026

You are leading a construction project that is 65% complete when a key subcontractor declares bankruptcy. This subcontractor was responsible for all electrical work, representing 20% of remaining project activities. Three alternative subcontractors have been identified: Vendor A can start immediately but costs 35% more; Vendor B matches the original cost but needs 45 days mobilization; Vendor C costs 15% more and needs 20 days mobilization. The electrical work is on the critical path, and contract penalties of $50,000 per week apply after the baseline completion date, which is 90 days away. Your analysis shows current electrical work would take 70 days. What is the BEST course of action?

September 9, 2026

Your pharmaceutical project is developing a new drug formulation with strict FDA validation requirements. The project is using a stage-gate approach with formal quality reviews at each phase. During the Phase 2 gate review, quality auditors identify that 12 of 47 deliverables from Phase 1 do not fully meet the documented acceptance criteria, though they passed initial reviews. Reworking these deliverables will cost $340,000 and delay the project by 6 weeks. The Phase 1 project manager, who has since left the company, approved these deliverables based on verbal agreements with stakeholders that differ from the documented requirements. What should you do FIRST?

September 9, 2026

Your organization is implementing SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) across five agile teams working on an integrated product. During PI (Program Increment) Planning, the teams identified 23 dependencies between them. After three sprints, only 30% of planned features are completed because teams are waiting on each other. The Release Train Engineer asks you, as one of the Scrum Masters, how to address the delivery delays. Analysis shows that eight dependencies are technical integration points, ten are related to shared specialist resources, and five involve sequential work that cannot be parallelized. What is the most effective approach to improve flow?

September 2, 2026

You're leading an agile transformation initiative in a financial services company. After six months, eight teams are running sprints, but several dysfunctions have emerged: teams are consistently achieving 100% of sprint commitments but stakeholders report little business value is being delivered; sprint retrospectives focus on minor process tweaks rather than substantive improvements; technical debt is accumulating rapidly with no plan to address it; and teams report they're afraid to raise impediments because previous attempts resulted in blame from management. Velocity metrics are stable and high. Senior management considers the transformation successful based on these metrics. What is the most critical issue to address?

September 2, 2026

Your agile project team is developing a medical device software component that requires FDA regulatory approval. You're using two-week sprints with a definition of done that includes unit tests, integration tests, and code review. The regulatory affairs department insists that no code can be released to production without completing a validation protocol that takes 6-8 weeks and costs $50,000 per validation cycle. Marketing is pressuring for faster feature delivery to respond to competitive threats. The team is frustrated because completed increments sit unreleased for months. How should you adapt your agile approach to balance regulatory compliance with agile principles?

September 2, 2026

Your agile team has been delivering increments every two weeks for six months. The product owner recently left the company, and a new product owner has joined who has minimal agile experience. During the last three sprint reviews, the new product owner has been rejecting completed stories that meet all acceptance criteria, stating they don't align with their vision. The team's velocity has dropped by 40%, and morale is declining. Stakeholders are concerned about the lack of accepted deliverables. What should the Scrum Master do first to address this situation?

September 2, 2026

Your distributed agile team spans three time zones (San Francisco, New York, and London) with 3-4 members in each location. After four sprints, several patterns have emerged: the London team members are disconnected from decisions made during daily standups that occur at 9 AM Pacific; sprint planning sessions run 4-5 hours as teams debate estimates and approach; and sprint reviews lack engagement because stakeholders in Europe attend at 7 PM their time. The team's definition of done includes peer code review, but reviews are delayed 12-16 hours waiting for reviewers in other time zones. One team member has suggested abandoning agile practices in favor of a more asynchronous waterfall approach. What strategy would most effectively address these distributed team challenges?

September 2, 2026

You are leading a pharmaceutical research project with strict regulatory requirements. During a risk review meeting, your team identifies a new risk: a potential change in regulatory standards that could require significant protocol modifications. The probability is estimated at 30% and the impact would be a 4-month delay and $200,000 in additional costs. The change, if it occurs, would happen in approximately 6 months. Your risk response strategy includes creating a contingency plan. What should you do NEXT?

August 28, 2026

You are managing an infrastructure project with multiple external vendors. One vendor has consistently missed milestone dates, causing delays to dependent activities. You have documented these issues and discussed them in previous status meetings. The vendor's project manager claims their delays are due to incomplete information from your team, though your records show all required information was provided on schedule. The vendor is now 10 days behind on a critical path activity. What is the MOST appropriate next step?

August 28, 2026

Your manufacturing project is in the execution phase with a CPI of 0.92 and an SPI of 1.05. During a quality audit, the quality assurance team discovers that several deliverables do not meet the specifications defined in the quality management plan. The project sponsor is pleased with the schedule performance and is pressuring you to maintain the current pace. Rework to fix the quality issues would cost an additional $40,000 and require 2 weeks. What should you do?

August 28, 2026

You are managing a software development project following a waterfall methodology. The design phase has been completed and approved by stakeholders. During the development phase, the development team identifies that implementing a specific approved feature will require significant architectural changes that were not identified during design. The team estimates this will add 3 weeks to the schedule and $25,000 to the budget. The change would improve system performance but is not required to meet the original requirements. What is the BEST course of action?

August 28, 2026

You are managing a construction project using a predictive approach. During the execution phase, a key supplier notifies you that they cannot deliver critical materials on the originally agreed date due to manufacturing delays. This delay will impact activities on the critical path. The supplier offers to expedite shipping at an additional cost of $15,000, which would maintain the original schedule. Your project has a management reserve of $50,000 and a contingency reserve of $30,000. What should you do first?

August 28, 2026

Your agile team has completed a two-week sprint and is preparing for the sprint retrospective. This is the team's first retrospective, and some team members are unclear about the purpose of the meeting. One developer asks why they need to have a retrospective when they already completed a sprint review with stakeholders. How should you explain the PRIMARY purpose of the sprint retrospective?

August 28, 2026

Your team is working on an e-commerce platform using Kanban. The team has a board with columns: To Do, In Progress, Code Review, Testing, and Done. The team notices that work items are piling up in the Code Review column, and the flow of work has slowed significantly. What is the BEST action the team should take to address this bottleneck?

August 28, 2026

You are facilitating a daily standup for your agile development team. One team member begins explaining in detail the technical solution they are implementing and starts discussing code architecture with another developer. The conversation extends beyond 15 minutes, and other team members appear disengaged. As the Scrum Master, what should you do?

August 28, 2026

Your agile team has just completed their third sprint of a mobile app development project. During the sprint review, stakeholders provide feedback and request several changes to features that were demonstrated. The product owner wants to incorporate this feedback. What should the product owner do NEXT with the feedback received during the sprint review?

August 28, 2026

You are managing a software development project using Scrum. During the sprint planning meeting, the development team is estimating user stories for the upcoming sprint. One team member suggests using story points to estimate the relative effort required for each user story. Another team member asks why the team doesn't just estimate in hours instead. What is the PRIMARY benefit of using story points over hours for estimation in an agile project?

August 28, 2026