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1. While working on an external project your customer asks you to perform some additional tasks that are not included in the formal contract. You should:
Honor the customer's request as sign of cooperation to ensure future business.
Refuse the request and report the customer to your sponsor
Acknowledge the request and advise the customer to submit a formal change request
Convene a meeting of the project team and rewrite the scope statement.
2. You are managing an internal R&D project. The initial test results are very poor. You are afraid your management might cancel the project, and this could reflect poorly upon you. Verification testing could be done quickly and inexpensively. You should:
Be the first to recommend canceling the project
Inform management about the results and wait for a response
Inform management immediately and recommend retesting for verification
Withhold the information from management until you perform additional tests to verify the initial results
3. During an informal meeting with your project client you are offered a substantial monetary incentive to alter the configuration of the product to meet the client's personal need. This change may result in additional project costs and schedule delays. The appropriate action to take would be:
Refrain from accepting the offer and advise the customer to submit a request to the change control board.
Accept the offer and issue an internal configuration change request to the design group
Obtain additional information about the request and the customer's personal need before accepting the offer.
Delay acceptance of the offer until you can ensure that you can protect yourself from any legal liabilities.
4. As the project manager for a very large and highly visible project you receive a preliminary press release for your approval before distribution. You are expected to approve the release without comment. Your review identifies a major discrepancy regarding some key project financial estimates that may mislead the intended recipients. As the project manager it is your responsibility to:
Inform the project sponsor of the discrepancy and refuse to approve the release
Approve the release but send a memo to the sponsor advising that you are aware of the discrepancy and will refer any questions your receive to the sponsor
Completely rewrite the press release and include the correct information
Approve the release as requested
Your project is running out of cash and significant work remains. You are directed by senior management to instruct your people to use another project's charge numbers while working on your project. You should:
Follow instructions
Inform the corporate auditors
Understand the background of management's instructions before taking any action
Shut down the project, if possible
6. While reviewing the estimates from the functional managers assigned to your project you discover that one cost estimate is clearly higher than those submitted for previous projects. You should:
Reject the estimate and remove the functional manager from the project
Request the supporting details for the estimate to ensure it has been properly prepared.
Accept the estimate and plan to use the additional funding as a reserve.
Question each functional manager for information about this estimate
You are working in a country where it is customary to exchange gifts between contractor and customer. Your company code of conduct clearly states that you cannot accept gifts from any client. Failure to accept the gift from this client may result in termination of the contract. The action to take in this case would be:
Provide the customer with a copy of your company code of conduct and refuse the gifts.
Exchange gifts with the customer and keep the exchange confidential
Contact your project sponsor and /or your legal or public relations group for assistance.
Ask the project sponsor or project executive to exchange gifts.
8. During your assignment as project manager you add a new member to your project team. This new team member was recently hired from a competitor and offers to share a substantial amount of proprietary information from his previous company. This information could put you and your team in a very strong position for future business. You are aware of a non compete clause in the new hire's condition of employment. You should:
Accept the information and agree to keep it confidential between you and the new hire.
Review the condition of employment with the new hire and advise her to reconsider the offer.
Review the information and only accept only what may have a direct impact on the project's financial status.
Ignore the offer to share and move forward with the project
9. You are asked to write a paper for your sponsor so that he/she can present it at a technical meeting. You are informed that his/her name will be the only name on the paper. You should:
Follow instructions
Follow instructions but demand that your name also appears
Refuse to follow the instructions
Go over the head of your sponsor seeking advice
An example of a conflict of interest would be:
As a public official you make a decision about a contract award that will benefit you personally
You and a functional manager disagree with a task cost estimate
Your sponsor decides to cancel your project because it no longer supports the company strategy
Your personality conflicts with that of a key member of your project team.
11. Each of the following describes the use of an ethical approach except:
Attempting to understand the religious and cultural sensitivities of the country in which you have been assigned.
Ensuring that personal interest does not interfere with your decision making process.
Accepting gifts in exchange for favoring one contractor over another
Maintaining confidentiality of sensitive information obtained during the project life cycle.
12. To maintain the customer's schedule, massive overtime will be required between Christmas and New Years. Many of your team members have put in for vacation during this time. You should:
Let the schedule slip and inform the customer
First give the employees the choice of working overtime
Make the employees cancel their vacation plans and work overtime
Hire temporary employees for the overtime
13. Which of the following situations describes a violation of the PMP?Professional Code of Conduct?
Accepting a gift that is within the customary guidelines of the country or province you are currently working in.
Use of confidential information to advance your position or influence a critical decision.
Complying with laws and regulations of the state or province in which project management services are provided
Disclosing information to a customer about a situation that may have an appearance of impropriety.
14. In order to balance the needs of the many stakeholders involved in your project the most desirable method to achieve resolution of conflicts would be:
Compromise
Forcing
Controlling
Confrontation
15. You receive a contract to perform testing for an external client. After contract award, the customer provides you with the test matrix to use for your 16 tests. The vice president for engineering says that the customer's test matrix is wrong, and she will use a different test matrix, which should give better results. This is a violation to the SOW. Suppose your sponsor is also the vice president for engineering. You should:
Use the customer's test matrix
Use the engineering test matrix without telling the customer
Use the engineering test matrix and inform the customer
Tell your sponsor that you want to set up a meeting with the customer to resolve the conflict
16. In order for the project manager to fully and effectively understand a stake holder's personal concerns or grievances it may be necessary to:
Ask for a written description of the problem and submit it through the project office
Schedule a project review session with the entire project team
Attempt to empathize with the stakeholder
Involve the project sponsor as an arbitrator
As the leader of a project team, the project manager may be required to assess the competencies of his or her team members. Occasionally, some weaknesses or areas for improvement will be identified. The project manager should:
Remove any team members who have demonstrated weaknesses in critical knowledge areas
Communicate those weaknesses and establish a performance improvement program
Hire additional resources to compensate for weak areas
Wait for the team members to fail in an assignment to justify termination.
18. You have just changed jobs and discovered that your new employer routinely violates OSHA/EPA and affirmative action requirements on projects. You should:
Do nothing; it's not your problem
Start by asking management if they are aware that regulations are being violated
Talk to the corporate legal department
Inform the appropriate government agencies about the violations
19. The project manager must be an effective communicator to ensure that project stakeholders receive and understand project related information and status. Prior to delivering information to the stakeholders the project manager should attempt to:
Research and understand the region of experience of the stakeholder before transmitting information
Identify only those stakeholders that have the same background experience as the project manager
Filter the information to remove any details
Restrict information to specific technical details
20. As part of your project plan you must develop an effective method of communication for your multinational team of stakeholders. You have several choices of media available. The appropriate action to take in the development of the communication plans would be to:
Discuss the available options with the stakeholders and obtain their input
Use the standard media that has been in effect for your previous projects
Use multiple forms of media to ensure that everyone receives the information
Obtain additional funding from the project sponsor and develop a project specific communications infrastructure.
21. One of your employees is up for promotion. If the promotion is granted, the employee will be reassigned elsewhere causing a problem for you on your project. You can delay the promotion until your project is completed. You should:
Support the promotion but work with the employee and the employee's new management to develop a good transition plan
Ask the employee to refuse the promotion until your project is completed.
Arrange to delay the promotion until the project is completed
Tell the employee that it is his responsibility to find a suitable replacement so that the project will not suffer.
22. The integrity of the project manager is often challenged by stakeholders who attempt to use personal power or influence to change the scope of an agreed upon deliverable. In these situations the project manager's most appropriate response would be:
Refer the stakeholder to the process for change documented in the approved contract.
Agree to the change because customer satisfaction is the goal regardless of cost.
Contact the legal department and suspend all further project work
Determine the risks and rewards for implementing the change before taking any action.
23. During project implementation the client interprets a clause in the contract to mean the he is entitled to a substantial refund for work recently completed. You review the clause and disagree with the client's conclusion. As the project manager which of the following actions should be taken
Disregard the customer's conclusion and continue to process invoices
Document the dispute and refer to the provisions of the contract that address interpretations and disputes
Advise the customer that ambiguous information in contracts is always interpreted in favor of the contractor
Immediately correct the clause to remove any possible misinterpretation by the customer
Your executives, in appreciation for the success of your project, have given you a ,000 bonus to be disbursed among your five-team members. One of the five, who is a substandard worker and accomplished very little on your project, is in your car pool. You should:
Provide everyone with an equal share
Provide everyone a share based upon their performance
Ask the workers to decide among themselves how the bonus should be subdivided
Ask the sponsor to make the decision
25. Before reporting a perceived violation of an established rule or policy the project manager should
Determine the risks associated with the violation
Ensure there is a reasonably clear and factual basis for reporting the violation
Ignore the violation until it actually affects the project results
Convene a committee to review the violation and determine the appropriate response
26. Project Managers can contribute to their organization's knowledge base and to the profession of project management most effectively by:
Developing and implementing a project review and lessons learned process
Establishing strict guidelines for protecting intellectual property
Promoting the use of ad hoc project management
Ensuring that all project plans are developed before the project team is formed
You have been assigned two concurrent projects. Because of the nature of the projects, you have a conflict of interest. You should:
Do the best you can and tell no one
Ask to be removed from one of the projects
Ask to be removed from both of the projects
Inform your sponsor and ask for his advice
28. An effective method for improving an organization's project management knowledge base is through:
Coaching and mentoring
Referent power
A weak Matrix organizational structure
Fast Tracking
29. You are managing an international project with locations in several countries that you have had limited experience with. As you begin planning for the project you should:
Follow your own previously established planning methodology
Identify differences in how each country conducts business
Disregard political and cultural issues
Establish project monitoring and control procedures and standards before staffing the project.
Answer Key
1=c 8=b 15=d 22=a
2=d 9=b 16=c 23=b
3=a 10=a 17=b 24=c
4=a 11=c 18=b 25=b
5=c 12=b 19=a 26=a
6=b 13=b 20=a 27=d
7=c 14=d 21=a 28=a
29=b
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