PMI Project Management Professional (PMP) practice questions

A project depends on a specialised soldering process that the team has never performed, and analysis shows a real chance the in-house attempt will fail and delay the schedule. A certified subcontractor will perform the same work under a fixed-price contract that makes the vendor liable for rework. Which risk response does engaging that subcontractor represent?

• ATransfer, because a fixed-price contract shifts the financial consequence of the threat to a third party better able to bear it.check_circle Correct
• BMitigate, because the fixed-price contract reduces the probability that the soldering defect will occur on the project.
• CAvoid, because using a subcontractor removes the soldering scope and the associated threat from the project entirely.
• DAccept, because the team acknowledges the threat and relies on the subcontractor to deal with the outcome if it happens.

Why A is correct: Transfer moves the impact of a threat, together with ownership of the response, to a third party without eliminating the threat. A fixed-price contract with rework liability is a textbook transfer mechanism.

Why B is wrong: Mitigation lowers the probability or impact while the team retains ownership of the threat. Here ownership of the consequence, including rework liability, passes to a third party, so the response is transfer rather than mitigation.

Why C is wrong: Avoidance eliminates the threat, often by removing or changing the scope. The soldering work still happens and the threat still exists; it has simply been moved to a party better able to bear it, which is transfer.

Why D is wrong: Acceptance takes no proactive action to change exposure and is tempting because the team is no longer doing the work. Signing a contract that reassigns liability is a deliberate proactive action, so it is transfer.

A newly formed agile team is midway through its first two sprints and members keep interrupting one another in stand-ups, with two engineers openly disagreeing about who owns integration testing. Delivery has slowed and morale is dipping. Applying servant leadership, what should the project manager do FIRST?

• AFacilitate the team in agreeing a set of ground rules covering communication, decision-making, and how work is shared.check_circle Correct
• BAssign each disputed task to a named individual and publish a fixed responsibility list so the arguments stop immediately.
• CEscalate the conflict to the sponsor and ask for a ruling on which engineer should lead integration testing.
• DWait for the team to settle by itself over the coming sprints, since storming behaviour usually passes without intervention.

Why A is correct: The friction is typical of the storming stage, and a servant leader responds by helping the team surface and agree its own ground rules, which gives shared, durable norms the team owns rather than a manager's edict.

Why B is wrong: Imposing assignments is a command-and-control reflex that removes the self-organising team's ownership; it may quiet the symptom but does not address the missing agreement on how the team will work together.

Why C is wrong: Escalating a normal team-formation dispute is premature and undermines the team's ability to self-organise; the sponsor is not close enough to the work to make a better call than the team can.

Why D is wrong: Storming does often pass, but passive waiting while delivery and morale slide neglects the servant leader's duty to remove impediments and help the team reach performing sooner.

A project manager is initiating a predictive project that will process the health records of hospital patients in a jurisdiction that has recently introduced strict data-protection legislation. The team is eager to begin design work. What should the project manager do FIRST?

• ABegin the technical design and schedule a compliance check once a working prototype is available for the team to review.
• BAsk the sponsor to confirm that the compliance requirements documented on the organisation's previous health project still apply to this one.
• CIdentify the specific regulatory and organisational compliance requirements that apply, and build them into the project management plan.check_circle Correct
• DEscalate to the legal department and pause all project activity until they deliver a full written interpretation of the legislation.

Why A is wrong: This feels efficient because it keeps the team busy, but deferring compliance until a prototype exists risks building a design that has to be reworked to meet legal requirements identified too late.

Why B is wrong: Reusing prior requirements looks like sensible tailoring, but it assumes the old requirements are complete and current when new legislation may impose obligations the earlier project never faced.

Why C is correct: Identifying the applicable compliance requirements at the outset lets the project manager fold them into scope, quality, and risk planning before design decisions are made, which is the proactive process-following action.

Why D is wrong: Consulting legal is reasonable, but halting the entire project and waiting for an exhaustive interpretation escalates too far and stalls work the project manager could progress while requirements are being clarified.