PMP Practice Questions

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 leading a hybrid project where requirements gathering and analysis follow a traditional approach, while development and testing are conducted in iterations. Two team members from different functional areas have had a disagreement about the acceptance criteria for a deliverable. The tension is starting to affect team morale, and others are beginning to take sides. What should be your first action?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a project using a hybrid approach where design work follows sequential phases while implementation uses two-week sprints. A team member from the implementation team has repeatedly demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills and often helps others overcome technical obstacles. However, she has not been formally recognized. What should you do to acknowledge her contributions?

September 9, 2026

Your hybrid project has a co-located team working on hardware development using a traditional phase-gate approach, while a distributed team handles software development using Kanban. During a project review meeting, the hardware lead complains that the software team is not providing enough visibility into their progress and that he cannot track their work against the project schedule. How should you address this concern?

September 9, 2026

You are leading a project using a hybrid approach where infrastructure work follows a predictive plan while software development uses Scrum. A new team member with strong technical skills but no agile experience has just joined the software team. She seems hesitant to speak up during daily standups and appears confused about the iterative approach. What is the best way to support her integration into the team?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project where the development team works in two-week sprints while the marketing team follows a traditional waterfall approach. During a retrospective, several developers mention they feel disconnected from the marketing team and unsure how their work aligns with the overall campaign timeline. The marketing lead was not invited to the retrospective. What should you do first to address this concern?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project where the design phase used predictive methods and the build phase uses Scrum. A key stakeholder who approved the design documents now wants to make significant changes after seeing the first sprint demo. The development team is frustrated because they followed the approved designs. How should you address this situation?

September 9, 2026

During a retrospective for your hybrid project, team members from the agile workstream express frustration that the predictive workstream doesn't participate in retrospectives. They feel that cross-team issues aren't being addressed. The predictive team says they handle lessons learned at project milestones. What should you do?

September 9, 2026

You are leading a hybrid project where the requirements phase followed a predictive approach, and now development has transitioned to agile sprints. A new team member who has only worked in fully agile environments is confused about why there are detailed requirement documents. They believe the team should discover requirements iteratively instead. How should you handle this?

September 9, 2026

Your hybrid project has team members working remotely across three time zones. The predictive workstream uses traditional status reports while the agile workstream prefers information radiators and digital boards. Team members have complained they don't know what's happening in other parts of the project. What is the best way to address this communication gap?

September 9, 2026

You are managing a hybrid project where some team members work using Scrum iterations while others follow a predictive schedule. A senior developer from the predictive team wants to attend the Scrum team's daily standups to better understand their progress and coordinate dependencies. The Scrum team is hesitant, saying their standup is only for their team members. What should you do first?

September 9, 2026

Your organization is transitioning a large, multi-year infrastructure program to agile delivery. The program consists of five interdependent product teams, each running two-week sprints. After three program increments, dependencies between teams are causing frequent delays—Team A cannot complete their sprint commitments because they're waiting for API specifications from Team B, while Team C's database changes block Team D's integration testing. The program board shows 47 active dependencies across teams. Teams are becoming frustrated with blocked work and declining morale. What approach would best address these systemic dependency issues?

September 9, 2026

An agile team developing a healthcare platform has maintained consistent velocity at 38 story points for six consecutive sprints. During the retrospective, technical debt items are repeatedly raised but never addressed because the product owner prioritizes new features to maintain competitive advantage. The lead architect warns that accumulated technical debt is increasing the time required for new features by approximately 30%, and estimates two full sprints would be needed to address critical technical debt. Code quality metrics show increasing defect rates and decreasing test coverage. What is the most appropriate action?

September 9, 2026

A distributed agile team across four time zones is developing an API integration platform. During the daily standup conducted via video conference, developers in the Asia-Pacific region consistently remain silent or provide minimal updates. The product owner mentions that several critical defects discovered by APAC developers were not communicated until the weekly status report, causing a two-day delay in resolution. Team velocity metrics show APAC contributions are significantly lower than other regions despite having equal headcount. What is the most effective approach to improve team collaboration and information flow?

September 9, 2026

Your agile team has completed three sprints of a mobile application project. The product owner consistently adds new acceptance criteria during sprint reviews, claiming these represent newly discovered customer needs. The team's velocity has dropped from 45 to 28 story points, and team members are frustrated with rework. The product owner insists all changes are critical for market competitiveness. Sprint planning for the next iteration is scheduled for tomorrow. What should the Scrum Master do first to address this situation?

September 9, 2026

During the eighth sprint of a financial services product, a regulatory compliance requirement emerges that affects the system's data retention architecture. The compliance officer estimates implementation requires 320 hours of effort, equivalent to four full sprints of the eight-person team's capacity. The product owner has a committed release date in six sprints to support a major client contract worth $2.3M annually. The current product backlog contains 180 story points of features promised for this release. The team's average velocity is 45 story points per sprint. How should the team approach this situation?

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