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PMP Certification Exam Guide 2025 – Complete
Study Plan, Practice Questions & PMBOK-Based
Preparation
The Project Manager is reviewing the issue log as part of his execution activity. Which of the following would be the LEAST appropriate activity for the Project Manager to perform as part of the monitoring and controlling process group activity? A. Assess the corrective actions on the issue register B. Determine the next steps for unresolved issues C. Use appropriate tools and techniques in order to minimize the impact on project schedule, cost, and resources D. Review the issue and determine if the issue should be avoided, mitigated, transferred, or accepted - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION Avoid, Mitigate, Transfer, and Accept are risk response strategies where there is an element of uncertainty involved. It is not appropriate for issue management because issues are present in here and now. You are assigned as a Project Manager to a project in the execution stage. Current schedule and performance indices for the project, SPI and CPI are 1.12 and 1.15, and project performance are well within the baseline. The defects found during internal testing for the last deliverable were well below the organization limits. However, the customer doesn't seem to be happy with the project progress. What should be the FIRST thing the Project Manager should do? A. Start managing project as you gain more insight into day to day responsibilities
B. Meet with the project team to understand open issues in the project C. Conduct a meeting with the customer to understand his concern over project progress D. Improve project schedule and cost control measure so that SPI and CPI reaches above 1.5 - - correct ans- - Correct Option: C EXPLANATION The most important thing for the Project Manager who is taking over the project midway is to understand why the customer is unhappy in spite of the project performance being well within the baseline. Option A, wouldn't address the main problem and Option D, has no valid justification. Option B, could be a good option after talking to the customer to address his concerns and other issues on the project. A Project Manager working in an iterative model of the product development lifecycle expects many changes during the course of the project. He wants to establish a robust configuration management system and also make his team aware of the process. Which of the following statements is NOT true about configuration management? A. The purpose of configuration management is to maintain integrity of work product B. Configuration management includes configuration audits, configuration control, configuration status accounting, and configuration identification C. Configuration management focuses on establishing and maintaining consistency of a product's requirements D. Configuration management involves measuring project performance with baselines and taking corrective action when necessary - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION This is done as a part of the process 'monitor and control project work'. All the other statements describe the configuration management process.
incorporate his feedback. Which of the following would be the most critical process to be followed in this scenario? A. Control Quality B. Control Scope C. Manage Communications D. Control Risks - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION In this case, frequent changes are expected to be done by the team based on customer feedback. When a change is presented, a part of considering the change involves additional planning. The Project Manager and the team must examine how the change affects the project work and knowledge areas. Thus, Control scope ensures that the project scope is protected from unnecessary changes and all eligible changes are done using the scope change control system. Option A, Control Quality, is more focused on ensuring conformance to documented standards and is not the correct choice. A Project Manager is proactively managing the change through the scope control process. Which of the following should he be MOST worried about? A. Value Added Changes B. Errors and Omissions C. Risk Response D. Verbal communication from key stakeholders - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION Undocumented changes should never be allowed by the Project Manager. He should ensure that whenever a change is requested, the impact on features and functions of the product (including that on the triple constraints) is documented with a change request. Only then should the change continue through integrated change control. Option A, value-added changes, describe changes in the scope that would provide benefits such as cost reduction. Option B, errors and omissions, could be both in
project scope, which is the work required to complete the project, and the product scope, which refers to the features and functions of the deliverables. Option C, risk response, involves changes in the scope required to mitigate an identified risk. Option D, verbal undocumented changes, poses maximum potential threat to a project. The ES of an activity is 2 days, and the duration of the activity is 5 days. The LF for the activity is 8 days. What is the total float for this activity? A. 6 days B. 3 days C. 1 day D. 5 days - - correct ans- - Correct Option: C EXPLANATION We can calculate float using the formula EF=ES+D=2+5=7 and LS=LF-D=8-5=3. The formula for Total float is LS-ES or LF-EF. The answer is 1 day. As a Project Manager and member of the PMO (Project Management Office), you want to present a snapshot of the status of various projects that the organization is working on to the senior management. Which of the following charts would be most suitable for the purpose? A. Milestone chart B. Gantt Chart C. Precedence diagram D. Control chart - - correct ans- - Correct Option: A EXPLANATION A milestone chart depicts key events along a timescale. It is used for top level reporting so that management does not become bogged down in the minutia of the projects. A milestone chart can contain various colors or markings that indicate status. It can also
Schedule compression technique is useful not only during project planning to see if the desired completion date can be met, but also during integrated change control to look at the schedule impacts of changes to time, cost, scope, or risk. Option B seems to be in good faith but doesn't address the immediate problem. Option C should be done once all the alternatives are explored to minimize the adverse effect of the change on the project schedule and other constraints. Project performance reviews using earned value management would NOT typically incorporate information from: A. Variance Analysis B. Cost Benefit Analysis C. Trend Analysis D. Earned Value Technique - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION Cost benefit analysis is a technique that compares positive factors or benefits with negative ones to determine the net result of performing the action. It is a popular technique for the project selection method, but will not be useful during the project performance review. Please refer to PMBOK® Guide - Sixth Edition Project Cost Management page 282 for more details. As a Project Manager, you realize that the initial budget cost, Budget at Completion (BAC), for your project is no longer viable. You need to develop a new Estimate At Completion (EAC) forecast assuming that current variances would continue in the future. Which of the following formulae should you use to calculate EAC? Here, AC is the Actual Cost, EV is the Earned Value, and PV is the Planned Value. A. EAC = AC + ETC B. EAC= AC+ (BAC - EV) C. EAC = EV/PV D. EAC = BAC/Cumulative CPI - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D
EXPLANATION
This method assumes current variances to be typical of the future. The remaining work is assumed to be performed at the same cumulative cost performance index (CPI) as what has been incurred by the project to date. Earned value management is the tool and technique of which process? A. Perform Integrated Change Control B. Control Costs C. Direct and Manage project work D. Control Schedule - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION Earned value management is a tool and technique of the Control Costs process. See page 261 of PMBOK® Guide - Sixth Edition A project team with a CPI of 0.78 is looking for options to reduce cost. Which of the following would be the BEST option to do so? A. Reduce a test cycle in the system testing phase B. Reduce scope by cutting down non-essential features C. Add more resources to expedite the schedule D. Revisit estimates and eliminate risks and then re-estimate - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION
Baselines are an important input to a number of project processes. Outputs of many processes raise change requests to these baselines. Which of the following is not a valid project baseline? A. Scope baseline B. Risk baseline C. Cost baseline D. Schedule baseline - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION Risk baseline is not a valid project baseline. It is an accepted and approved project plan. Procurement management plan is developed based on: A. Only Budget B. Scope and Schedule C. Scope, budget, and schedule D. Only scope - - correct ans- - Correct Option: C EXPLANATION According to the new examination content outline, budget is also included. Earlier it was based on scope and schedule. Out of the following, who is not a QUALITY guru, i.e., one who has stated a theory on quality? A. Joseph M. Juran B. Merby U. Crosmy C. Edwards Deming
D. Kaoru Ishikawa - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION The correct name is Merby U. Crosmy. Which of the following activities is part of initiating? A. Conduct procurement B. Acquire project team C. Inform stakeholders of the approved project charter in order to ensure common understanding of the key deliverables, milestones, and their roles and responsibilities. D. Create WBS - - correct ans- - Correct Option: C EXPLANATION Options (a) and (b) are part of executing. Option (d) is part of planning. Informing stakeholders of the approved project charter in order to ensure common understanding of the key deliverables, milestones, and their roles and responsibilities is the new task during initiating phase that has been defined in the examination content outline. During executing, change requests are raised in the project. The project manager is implementing these changes by following the change management plan. Which parameter/s should be implemented? Choose the best answer. A. Corrective actions B. Preventive actions C. Approved changes D. Approved changes and corrective actions - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION
B. Transfer of Authority, Assignment of Duties to Subordinates, Acceptance of Assignment, Creation of Responsibility C. Assignment of Duties to Subordinates, Acceptance of Assignment, Creation of Responsibility, Transfer of Authority D. Acceptance of Assignment, Creation of Responsibility, Assignment of Duties to Subordinates, Transfer of Authority - - correct ans- - Correct Option: A EXPLANATION Assignment of Duties to Subordinates, Transfer of Authority, Acceptance of Assignment, Creation of Responsibility. You are a Project Manager. You need to decide whether to buy insurance for a temporary manufacturing facility. The likelihood of a mishap is assessed at 10% and the likely impact is evaluated at $500,000. The cost of insuring is $20,000 and has a $10, deductible. Would you buy insurance? A. Yes, because 50,000 > 21, B. Yes, because 50,000 > 30, C. No, because 30,000 < 500, D. No, because 21,000 < 50,000 - - correct ans- - Correct Option: A EXPLANATION EMV when there is no insurance is - 500,000 * 0.1 = $50,000. EMV when there is insurance is - (20,000+ 0.1*10,000) = - 21,000. Therefore, it makes sense to buy insurance. Which statement is correct about human resource management plan? A. HR plan specified how resources will be utilized B. HR plan specifies how resource will be assigned C. HR plan specifies how communication flows
D. HR plan specifies how Stakeholder management happens - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION According to the new examination content outline, "assigned" replaces "utilized." Option (c) and (d) are part of the communication and stakeholder management plans respectively. A project has a CV of - $500 and SPI of 1.2. What can be said about the project? A. Your project is over budget and behind schedule B. Your project is under budget and behind schedule C. Your project is over budget and ahead of schedule D. Your project is under budget and ahead of schedule - - correct ans- - Correct Option: C EXPLANATION CV < 0 indicates that the project over budget The popular iterative four step approach of Plan-Do-Check-Act was advocated by: A. Joseph Juran B. W. Edwards Deming C. Philips Crosby D. Genichi Taguchi - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION
D. It's a popular method of drawing a network diagram - - correct ans- - Correct Option: A EXPLANATION In the arrow diagramming method (ADM), the arrows are used to represent activities. The nodes represent activity dependency. Which of the following is the best use of Pareto charts? A. To visualize a workflow B. To prioritize issues C. To perform deeper causal analysis D. To examine trends - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION Pareto charts based on the 80-20 rule are useful for prioritizing from among a number of possible causes because it helps to focus on the 20% causes that result in 80% of the issues. A project team working on a water purification plant is determining the right combination of flow rate, dosage of chlorine, and residence time in the oxidation chamber to achieve the best results. What is the technique being applied? A. Benchmarking B. Statistical Sampling C. Design of Experiments D. Qualitative risk analysis - - correct ans- - Correct Option: C EXPLANATION
Design of experiments is the technique of finding the optimum combination of factors that help achieve a certain target objective. In a normal distribution, what is the probability of finding the actual value between 1 standard deviation distance from the mean? A. 0. B. 0. C. 0. D. 0.68 - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION The answer is based on the property of the normal distribution. The technique for performing root cause analysis is called: A. Ishikawa diagram B. Kaizen C. Deming cycle D. Total Quality Management - - correct ans- - Correct Option: A EXPLANATION Ishikawa diagrams or fish-bone diagrams are used to perform root cause analysis. A team is inspecting specific project deliverables to ensure that they are in accordance with the specifications. Which process is being worked on? A. Perform Quality Assurance B. Validate Scope C. Plan Quality Management
Which of the following is NOT true of decision trees? A. Clearly lay out the problem so that all options can be challenged B. Provide a framework to quantify the values of outcomes and the probabilities of achieving them C. Allow users to analyze the possible consequences of a decision fully D. Enable the finance department to obtain financial approval from the CFO - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION The financial approval required by the finance department may be dependent on multiple parameters, not only the result evaluated from the decision trees. The customers are performing User Acceptance Tests on the product that was delivered by the project team. Which process is likely being performed? A. Control Quality B. Control Schedule C. Perform Integrated Change Control D. Validate Scope - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION Scope validation is the process of accepting or rejecting the project's deliverables. Pareto Analysis is a simple technique for prioritizing problem-solving work so that the first piece of work you do resolves the greatest number of problems. It is based on: A. Tom Pareto Principle B. 80/20 Rule C. Root Cause Analysis
D. Why's Principle - - correct ans- - Correct Option: B EXPLANATION Although Option A appears correct, Tom Pareto is an ambiguous name. If it had only been the Pareto Principle, then that would've been the correct answer. A Project Manager is working toward improving the competencies, team interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance. Which of the following tools and techniques would NOT be helpful here? A. Training B. Recognition and Rewards C. Conflict Management D. Co-location - - correct ans- - Correct Option: C EXPLANATION The Project Manager is in the process of developing teams. Apart from conflict management, all the other options are tools and techniques used in the process. Conflict management is part of "manage team." For more information, please refer to PMBOK® Guide - Sixth Edition Project Resource Management page 336 Once the risks of the project have been identified, the next step is to manage the risks. Which of the following is NOT a suitable way of managing the risks? A. Using existing assets B. Contingency planning C. Investing in new resources D. Brainstorming - - correct ans- - Correct Option: D EXPLANATION
