Question 1

Paralingual communication pertains to the way that the pitch and tone of a voice convey meaning.

Accepted Answer

Paralingual communication specifically refers to the part of communication that is encoded in the pitch and tone of a voice.
Key Takeaway: Anyone who has a passive aggressive co-worker will be familiar with the idea that much of the meaning of words lies in the way you say them.
Be wary of team members who do not seem to understand this, either in their own communication style or the way that they interpret others. This can be an instant red flag for someone who needs to be managed tightly.

Question 2

For which of the following should you use a formal, written communications method? Select all that apply:

Accepted Answer

The only one that doesn't require a formal style is informing a team member they didn't quite cut it their first week on the job. Unless their performance was really poor, a informal verbal communication with feedback on how to improve is recommended.
Key takeaway: Formal written documentation is a way of covering yourself, but also articulating the importance of a request or task. For instance, a formal request for more resources must be taken seriously be a senior manager. In organization, there are constant informal requests for more resources. "I'm overworked" or "If we only had another guy on this team" are common refrains but generally ignored. A written request says "I'm serious, this project needs more for us to get it done."

Question 3

What is the BEST way to notify the team about an approved change request?

Accepted Answer

Consulting the change control process is correct. Answers A through D might all be effective individual choices given the project that you are managing. However, every company has a formal change process which specifies who must be notified when a change is approved. If there isn't one, then you're off the hook, but you might do well to help the firm put one in place.
Key Takeaway: We included this question to remind you that you should do whatever is formally required by the change control processes at the organization you are at. Additionally, a project manager should use their discretion in how they would notify other parties.

Question 4

Caroline is managing a project at The Forrester Company. In the project charter she helped draft, it's noted that Systems A and B are assumed to be the only systems impacted; however, it comes to light several weeks later that System C is also impacted. Which statement is correct about this particular situation?

Accepted Answer

In this case though we might want to pick "Start from scratch," the correct answer is that both the constraints and assumptions will need to be revisited and the project plan amended to fit the new requirements.
Key Take Away: In complex, large-scale projects, highly-effective Project Managers, even if they are strapped for time and begging for more time in a day to get things done, take time out to revisit requirements periodically to be sure nothing has changed or been overlooked. This is key to effectively manage risk. The earlier adjustments are made, the easier changes are.
Jay Forrester at MIT created system dynamics, which deals with the simulation of interactions between objects in dynamic systems. We named the company in this question in tribute to him, and suggest that it would be a worthwhile experience to learn some system dynamics if your busy schedule permits.

Question 5

A work authorization system is always required by PMI standards.

Accepted Answer

A work authorization system is not required. However, it is smart to have in order to keep track and communicate with contractors and employees when to begin executing tasks.
Key Take Away: A work authorization system is often built in at a large company in time-tracking software. Especially on larger, more complex projects where you don't have a lot of face time with people actually doing the work, this is a good idea. It gives you a chance to ensure previous work was done properly and brief the team execute the new work package on specifics.

Question 6

Joe is a consultant. He is managing a contract that is fixed price on client site. The client requests a change that would impact the cost and schedule of the project. Which of the following should Joe do? Select all that apply:

Accepted Answer

Joe would want to consult first with the change control process to see how changes are made at the organization he is working at. As he does this, he should make sure that he has analyzed the changes to properly understand the impact. He should also check with the formal contract, as there may be key stipulations that he needs to be aware of.
He definitely should not begin working on things right away.
Gold-plating a project, which go beyond beyond what is required, is never a good idea according to PMI best practices.
Key Take Away: We haven't heard the term used all that often in the real project management environment, but we do recall seeing it as a choice on many PMI Exam questions.

Question 7

Sherri Bobbins is formulating her scope management plan for his project. To develop a well-rounded plan she'll use all of the following, except:

Accepted Answer

Benchmarks are necessary when measuring project performance, but are not used to create a scope management plan. They are also left when basketball players carry objects in their back pockets.
Product and stakeholder analysis as well as scope definition are all imperative pieces to incorporate when creating this type of plan.
Key Take Away: Since scope creep negatively affects a large proportion of projects, advanced Project Managers know the importance of devoting an appropriate amount of attention to developing an effective plan.

Question 8

The WBS is created by the project manager alone.

Accepted Answer

the WBS is created by the project manager with the team.
Key Takeaway: We want to drive home the point that the WBS is created with the assistance of all the team members who are relevant in the planning process.

Question 9

What are the four options for dealing with a risk?

Accepted Answer

Accept, mitigate, transfer and avoid are the four acceptable ways of dealing with risk. Remember that mitigating and reducing are synonyms in risk management, and that insuring is a form of transferring risk.
Key takeaway: We want you to remember these four options and consider them each time you consider what to do with a risk. Our natural tendency is to avoid or mitigate, but sometimes that is just not possible.

Question 10

By applying effective risk management techniques, what percentage of risks can be curtailed?

Accepted Answer

According to studies, it's believed that up to 90% of risks can be eliminated through effective risk management techniques. We're sure this varies from project to project, but we included this question to emphasize the value that can be created by good risk management practices.
Key Take Away: The last 10% can be accepted or transferred. At the end of the day, if we only proceeded with things that had zero risk, nothing would get done.

Question 11

What is Pareto's Law?

Accepted Answer

Pareto's Law says that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian Economist, observed in his country that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. The poor were lucky then - today it's more like 10/85. Management thinker Joseph Juran (1904 - 2008!) was the one who actually came up with this concept as it applies to business and named it after Pareto.
We'll go through the other ones since they're kind of fun to know:
B, "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" is Parkinson's Law. That's another good one to know.
C, is Murphy's Law. Sometimes it may seem like "Anything than can go wrong will", but it isn't necessary a good philosophy to have!
D, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." is Hanlon's Razor. This isn't in the project manager's handbook for good reason. It's easier to work with a team when you have a healthy respect for them. Nevertheless, you can keep this in the hip pocket for an opportune time.
Key Takeaway: This is a handy heuristic to help you focus your attention on the most important things a project entails, allowing him/her to manage key risks and satisfy the most important stakeholders. Other examples: 20% of your customers will cause 80% of you problems. 20% of items in inventory represent 80% in sales. And so on.
One application I'm sure you'll find interesting is that 80% of beer is drunk by 20% of consumers. That's why most beer commercials are concentrated on football and tawdry men's magazines. It just makes sense for those companies to focus on their heavy consumers.

Question 12

Rick was in the middle of his procurement management process when he realized he was missing organizational process assets. Which is an example of an organizational process asset?

Accepted Answer

Rick was missing lessons learned from prior projects. Organizational process assets are processes, documents and information from other projects that can aid in future projects. Other examples of organizational assets are existing organization procedures and contracts templates (or past contracts).
Risk register, current contracts and the project scope statement are all additional items needed in the procurement management process but are not part of this asset group.
Key Take Away: Project Managers should realize the benefit of organizational assets and fold them into their process more; that is, if they can find them. They are often poorly maintained and hard to find!

Question 13

Eric is heading an engineering project and is in the midst of deciding which type of contract statement of work he will use. Which type is not available to him?

Accepted Answer

RFP is not a contract statement of work type; what it stands for is Request for Proposal.
Performance, function and design are all types of contract statement of work types that Eric may choose from.
Key Take Away: Options abound in procurement management. If you feel this area is not your strongest, you are NOT alone. Ask for help when needed. It's better to seek counsel than to put your project on the line, and for your company to pay through the nose unnecessarily.

Question 14

For the seller of services, a Fixed Price plus Incentive contract is riskier than a Cost plus Fixed Fee contract.

Accepted Answer

The seller must complete the project in such a manner to achieve the incentive fee in this case. There is more variation in these incentives usually, which means there is more risk.
Key Take Away: In this case, increased risk can mean reward. Imagine a contract where the vendor is rewarded per day that the project is completed early. While there might be variation and thus "risk" in when the project is completed, the earnings could be substantially higher than just a fixed fee for project complete.

Question 15

When is the project manager using analogous estimating?

Accepted Answer

Project managers can use similar projects or activities to help them with giving time estimates on another project plan. If there is no other information to go on, this activity is an effective estimation methodology.
Key Takeaway: Look close enough and you're likely to find tasks within your organization that were similar to ones on the project you are trying to estimate with.

Question 16

Jill's project is behind schedule but it needs to be delivered by a certain date. She requests additional resources to complete the project faster. Which of the following terms is this an example of?

Accepted Answer

The definition of crashing means adding more resources to a project in an attempt to complete the project sooner.
Key Takeaway: Crashing typically helps your Schedule Performance Index (SPI), but will badly hurt your Cost Performance Index (CPI). The return is rarely cost effective, as it usually means bringing in new resources who have to get up to speed or paying people to work overtime.
Crashing is most effective when you have resources familiar with the project who can work more. For instance, if you have a part-time contractor who can go full-time for a few weeks, this can be an effective way to crash in a cost-effective manner. As such, keep resources with capacity can be an effective risk management technique.

Question 17

Michael is looking at a network diagram he's just created for his project. He sits with Tito, a team member and relays important facts about the project utilizing the diagram. Which of the following does not represent the benefits of using a network diagram?

Accepted Answer

By utilizing this detailed diagram, Richard should be able to address questions relating to those activities that are make up this project, so it could not be a "quick sketch."
Richard would be able to reference dependencies, speak to a critical path, and even a calendar scale, as those are things that can incorporated into a network diagram.
Key Takeaway: Although more than 90% of things we fear never actually materialize, there's no better approach to the other 10% than by being paranoid - I meant prepared. Network diagrams are the Project Manager's equivalent to how to exit a fire through a particular stairwell. It shows you where you are and where you need to go.

Question 18

What are some limitations of the PERT/critical path approach?

Accepted Answer

The PERT/CPM management places a lot of emphasis on critical path activities. This can mean an excessive focus on them that leads to not enough attention being paid to other tasks. Just because they have some slack doesn't mean they can't come in on time. Additionally, time estimates are subjective. Even though they've gone through a nifty formula there's going to be significant variation on the actual time it takes to complete tasks. Also, constantly keeping track of time estimates and recalculating the critical path and other metrics can be very time consuming.
Key Takeaways: Project management instructors and manuals seem to love PERT/CPM. We just want to point out some of the drawbacks. In some cases, the attention to detail and effort required will not yield a significant incremental improvement in your project processes. A great part of it depends on whether or not your project is the type where discrete tasks can be estimated individually with any accuracy.

Question 19

What is a standard range for a Rough Order of Magnitude estimate?

Accepted Answer

The standard range for a Rough Order of Magnitude Estimate is from -25% to +75%.
Key Takeaway: While that range sounds wide, it is actually very easy to miss in the early stage. A good project manager does in-depth analysis before issuing Rough Order of Magnitude estimates. Note that this guideline suggests that you're better off missing on the high side than the low side.

Question 20

A management reserve should be a specific percentage of each budget.

Accepted Answer

A management reserve is a discretionary account that is typically set aside in budgeting, but not included in the baseline for a variety of events that might occur to affect the project adversely. Management must approve its expenditure.
Key Takeaway: We want to emphasize that you should always have both a management and discretionary reserve approved early in the project planning process. It's always easier to get this money when the checkbook is open then when management has already put it away. Especially since if you need to dip into reserves, there's likely been some type of adversity.

Quiz 1: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)