Monday, February 23, 2009

Conflict Management..... few Questions and answer.

We often see many situational questions on conflict management in PMP exam. Conflict management is a key knowledge area, which is very important in our day-to-day life not just in project management. We often have conflict with our co-worker, boss, subordinate, and friends and even with spouse. So it’s very important to understand the key concept behind conflict management. Instead of going into details on conflict management (which is available in all preparation books) I am sharing few questions, which will be useful to sharpen your preparation for exam .

1) Which of the below is true regarding conflict
a. Conflict is always destructive
b. Conflict can be constructive
c. Schedule is never an important reason for conflict
d. Personality conflict is the most common type of conflict

2) You work in a balanced matrix organization. You are having severe conflict with your fellow resource manager (who has same status in the organization) over few resources that were promised earlier but now he wants to move them to another project that has a lot of higher management interest. You have arranged a meeting with the manager to resolve the issue. What is the best approach of handling such conflict
a. Confronting
b. Soothing
c. Withdraw
d. Compromise

3) There is a conflict between two of your most critical staff. You decided to investigate the issues with both of them in order to find solutions that are mutually acceptable. What kind of conflict management style you are using here
a. Soothing
b. Compromise
c. Collaborating
d. Avoid

4) Settling on a solution that gives each person part of what he or she wanted; no one gets everything and no one loses completely is known as
a. Smoothing
b. Dispute handling
c. Mutual understanding
d. Compromise

5) What are the four most common reasons for conflict
a. Schedule, personality conflict, cost & resource
b. Resource, project priority, schedule & technical opinions
c. Personality conflict, cost, resource, project priority
d. Cost, resource, schedule & admin decisions

6) Which of the below is not true about conflict resolution
a. Focus should be on past events
b. Conflict is a team issue
c. Openness resolve conflict
d. Conflict forces a search for alternative

7) Conflict management is a critical responsibility of Project Manager because
a. Successful conflict management results in completion of work in time
b. Successful conflict management results in greater productivity and positive working relationship
c. Successful conflict management results in good work environment
d. Successful conflict management results in completion of project as per scope with in budget and agreed schedule


8) Project Manager face schedule conflict mostly with
a. Functional Manager
b. Project team
c. Project Sponsor
d. Other Project Manager

9) Which type of conflict resolution style is strongly unfavorable for Project manager when he is having the conflict with his supervisor
a. Forcing
b. Withdrawal
c. Compromise
d. Confrontation

10) Few of your team members appear to have personality clashes and most of the times avoid working together. In team meeting they always have opposite point to each other’s idea and solution for every issue. Project is at few days from implementation and you cannot take any risk as a project manager. All of them need to work round the clock as a team to implement all assembly packages. What is the best conflict resolution mode at this situation?
a. Forcing
b. Withdrawl
c. Compromise
d. Confrontation







1) b
2) d
3) c
4) d
5) b
6) a
7) b
8) a
9) d
10) a

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Do I need a calculator for Exam ?

Some questions may require calculation but don't worry there is an inbuilt calculator (Similar to windows calculator). Its a default button in the screen and hence appears for every question. So if you require it then just click and use. Note that PMP examination does not test mathematics proficiency and hence most of the numerical questions can be done even without any calculator usage.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Are you preparing questions on Delegation?

I got 3 questions on delegation. It is observed that at least 2 questions on delegation are now appearing in every PMP exam. PMBOK does not mention anything about this but you better prepare for delegation questions, who knows this could make or break your final score card. I will put few questions on this in coming days. Meanwhile you can read some of the articles collected from net.

http://www.businessballs.com/delegation.htm
http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art5.html
http://pmstories.com/2008/01/24/rules-of-delegation/
http://www.pmhut.com/12-rules-of-delegation

Few delegation questions to help you prepare for the exam

1) When its best to delegate a task to a subordinate
a. When you find this is a boring task for you to perform
b. When you want to show your authority to a unruly team member
c. When you think your staff has more experience and expertise to do the task
d. When you think you are going late home everyday and hence delegate all important tasks

2) Tim always liked the idea of delegating but never manage to do so as he was always busy with his task. For him he believes all tasks are important and if he delegates something then performance will be impacted. What do you think best way to delegate
a. Delegate a task that can be challenging and very important
b. Delegate a task that is specific, agreed, measurable, realistic and time bound.
c. Delegate a task that you have no idea about
d. Delegate a task that you think very dirty and unpleasant for you

3) Which of the below match with delegation concept
a. Cross road
b. One big circular street
c. Two-way street
d. Straight high way

4) In ideal situation a person who is a recipient of delegation should consider the delegated task as
a. A task that is given by his boss and hence he should do it
b. A task that he must do as this is his job duty
c. A task enables him to gain experience to take on higher responsibilities
d. A task that is given to him because he is a hard worker

5) Which is of the below is not true about delegation
a. Very helpful aid for succession planning, personal development
b. Delegation can be used to develop your people and yourself
c. To be a good delegator you never need to let go
d. Delegation enables us to gain experience to take on higher responsibilities

6) You should delegate for all the below reasons except
a. To groom a successor
b. To save your time
c. To develop your people
d. To establish your authority

7) You are a project manager. You have mastered the art of delegation and often delegate many of your tasks to you team member with clear plan with specific tasks, your expectation and delivery date. Who is ultimately responsible for task that is delegated
a. Project Manager
b. Program Manager as resource report to him
c. Team
d. Team member who was assigned the particular task

8) Once an activity is delegated, what should project manager do?
a. Wait till team member tells that task is finished and then review the work
b. Monitor the activity which is delegated
c. Study books on Project management to enhance knowledge to utilize the free time created by delegation
d. Plan to delegate more activity related to training, team building, performance review etc

9) Main objective of delegation is to
a. Follow PMI standard for time management for project manager
b. Get the job done by someone else
c. Avoid the responsibility by transferring the task
d. Motivate the team

10) Successful delegation depends upon (Choose the most correct one)
a. Communicating clearly the nature of the task, the extent of their discretion, and the sources of relevant information and knowledge
b. Team member know what you want
c. Team member have the authority to achieve it
d. Team member know how to do it






1) a
2) b
3) c
4) c
5) c
6) d
7) a
8) b
9) b
10) a

When are you planning your PMP exam?

PMBOK 4th edition is out already and from 1st July PMP exam will be based on this edition. So don't waste time if you have bought the 3rd edition and planning for the exam for last few months but never decided firmly on date. Wakeup and set a date immediately as there is a mad rush for dates. You should consider yourself lucky if you get a date in May or June. Consider following before further postponing PMP exam date.

· 4th edition is quite different from 3rd edition. Many process names are changed. Do you want to memorize once again the process names which are named differently?

· Exam pattern is always changing and with the arrival of 4th edition its expected to change more.

· Study material that supplement PMBOK may take some time to be available in the market. So you have to wait for that and new edition always costs more :(

· Even you consider all the free information you found many places. Many of those questions will become irrelevant because of certain changes in PMBOK 4th edition.

Those who have already purchased PMBOK 3rd edition and think you won’t be able to make it then better download the softcopy of 4th edition from PMI website (only member can download free of cost) and dedicate your effort on the new edition.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Preparation Question Set - 2

1) Which is not a output from Select Seller process
a) Screening system
b) Selected sellers
c) Contract
d) Contract Management plan

2) There are more than 20 areas identified which are causing quality issues. You want to focus on key issues those causing most of the defects. What should you use to get the info
a) Trend analysis
b) Status report
c) Control Chart
d) Pareto Chart

3) You have signed a contract with a vendor A. Project will be completed in 4 phases. Phase 1 is complete. When you can say a phase is completed.
a) After Administrative closure is complete
b) After Contract close complete
c) After you have started next phase
d) A phase is complete when all the deliverables are accepted by customer under that phase

4) You are running very late for a project due to too many changes requested by customer. You are not happy with CCB as to you it seems like all the changes are approved even though you don’t think they should be. You have requested an increase in number of resource but that was rejected. You have requested for schedule extension but customer said this new product is very critical to launch before Christmas else their market share will decline. What is the best action you can take at this stage
a) Crash the Project
b) Fast track the project
c) Do resource leveling
d) Complain to Project Sponsor about CCB

5) As project is too big, your organization has decided to divide it into smaller sub projects. This is an example of
a) Program Management
b) Portfolio Management
c) Divide and Rule management
d) Decomposition

6) What is a Planning package?
a) This is created from work package so that it can be estimated and managed easily and used in schedule creation.
b) This is a WBS component that is used for planning known work content that does not have schedule activity.
c) This is a tool used to perform Cost Estimation
d) Planning package is a package of tools and techniques used for Project Planning process

7) You are managing a project and there are 9 people working under you. Since project is nearing end you have decided to release 5 team members. How many communication channels will be reduced after you release team members?
a) 10
b) 12
c) 35
d) 45

8) You are measuring a product. The expected length of the product should be 10.02 to 10.06 inches. You have take 10 cases and found that all of them are in the range of 9.9999 to 10.0000 inches. After few days you took again measurement of a different set but only 1 case and found that its 10.05 inches. What do you think about these 2 outcomes?
a) Both are statistical sampling example and shows why sampling should be used in quality control.
b) First type is an example of precision while second is an example of accuracy
c) You should adjust the measurement tool so that all results are similar
d) Since one case is with in acceptable range second set of product is better than first set

9) Project management process cycles can be also summarized as
a) Plan, do, act, check cycle
b) Plan, act, check cycle
c) Plan, execute, check cycle
d) Initiate, Plan, execute, monitor, correct, check, close cycle

10) You have a relationship between two activity that second activity can start only when first starts. Which of the below statement is MOST correct?
a) You should use PERT estimation for this situation
b) AOA (Activity on Arrow) should be used as arrow will be easier to show the dependency
c) This is an example of external dependency
d) PDM (Precedence Diagramming Method) should be used for activity sequencing in this case

11) You are managing a simple project with 3 resources and duration of 3 months. You have tailored the Time Management Plan. You have just one activity in that where you create schedule considering WBS, activities, sequence of activity, resource required for activity, duration for the activity. All these were done in 2 hours at the same time. What do you think best describe the situation
a) Since you are not following all process correctly you are not qualified as a project manager
b) Better spend more time on scheduling even though this is a small project
c) Since this is a small and simple project, all time management process can be performed together
d) This shows lack of planning and poor management

12) Which of the below is not a part of Project Environment?
a) Physical Environment
b) Political Environment
c) Social Environment
d) Virtual Environment

13) Which is not an interpersonal skill?
a) Leadership
b) Motivation
c) Communication
d) Marketing

14) You have a colleague who has 10 years of Project Management experience. But every time you talk with him you feel like he is confused with things those are quite similar but still different. One day while presenting a project plan you noticed that he is referring standard and regulation interchangeably. During the break you went to him and told that standard and regulation are not same because
a) Once standard is used by many it becomes regulation
b) Once regulation is used by many it becomes standard
c) Standard is concerned with quality while regulation is only with law
d) Standard is optional but regulation is mandatory

15) Which is the most difficult conflict to handle?
a) Cost
b) Schedule
c) Personality
d) Priority




Answers

1) a
2) d
3) a
4) b
5) d
6) b
7) c
8) b
9) a
10) d
11) c
12) d
13) d
14) d
15) c

Preparation Question Set - 1

1) You are leading a team to make a bid for 2 million dollar project. All team members are located in a single room to create all required documentation, discussion etc for past 3 weeks. What of the below best describe the situation
a) This a fixed price contract
b) This is an example of co-location
c) This is war room
d) This is a team building exercise since all team members stay together

2) You are in client site attending a bidder’s conference as a project manager. While discussion with one of the project manager (who is also a PMP) from client side, he borrowed your pen to explain some details to you on a paper. Your pen is a very expensive branded pen. On next day you realized that the project manager has not returned you the pen. What should you do?
a) Call PMP for the ethical violation done by the project manager and report the incident
b) Call the Manager and humbly tell him that you will collect your pen when they meet next time
c) Let the manager keep the pen as if you ask it you may not get the project
d) You should tell your manager and ask not to report it to PMP since its not a bribe

3) What is ideal sequence for Scope verification and Quality control
a) Quality control and then Scope verification
b) Does not matter, any order is acceptable as long a project management plan is followed
c) Both can be done at the same time
d) Scope verification and then Quality control

4) You have some dispute with Functional Manager on resource allocation. What is the best way to resolve such conflict
a) Confronting
b) Soothing
c) Withdraw
d) Compromise

5) How Contingency reserve is different from Management reserve
a) They are same thing
b) Contingency reserve is part of cost baseline while Management reserve is part of cost budget
c) Contingency reserve is used only when Management reserve is already used
d) Both should not be used as it’s a bad project management to use reserve

6) You are a project manager in a construction company. Project is suffered by a lot of issues off late and you have already conducted 3 risk review meeting. Most of the team members feel that project is suffering because of too many changes even though they are approved by CCB. There were 2 secondary risks because of emergency steps taken due to sudden risk event, which was not planned or anticipated. What do you think wrong in the above statement?
a) Secondary risk never happened.
b) CCB should not approve change when there are too many problems
c) Risk review meeting is not necessary but effort should be spent on Risk planning.
d) Risk planning is not adequate

7) Project charter is created by
a) Senior Management
b) Project Manager
c) Functional Manager
d) Project Team

8) Which one is desirable between grade and quality
a) Both are same and hence should be always high
b) High quality is desired while high grade may not be required based on requirement
c) Quality may be low but grade should be high
d) As long as customer accepts none of them matters at all

9) CV = 0, SPI = 1, BAC = 200 what will be the EAC?
a) Not sufficient information to predict
b) 200
c) 0
d) 100

10) You are a project manager and doing a project under contract. Which of the below statement is not correct
a) Buyer is a key stakeholder
b) You have to follow Contract Administration process
c) Since you are doing a fixed price project risk is at your side is higher
d) Since you are doing the project under contract only Project Procurement Management is required










Answers:

1) c
2) b
3) a (a is most correct answer while C is correct too in some cases)
4) d
5) b
6) a (secondary risk happens only for those risk which has planned risk response)
7) b
8) b
9) b
10) d

Monday, February 9, 2009

What do I need to do to get a PMP certificate

1) Read the details for application, fee, exam details ....best resource is of course the PMI website (Refer the PMP Handbook).

2) Once you think you are eligible and have decided to take the exam then don't waste time and first become a member of PMI. If you become member you save some money in form of exam fee. Don't think there is a trick , its really less than the non-member fee .

(Annual Membership fee + PMP exam fee for member) <> (just think this as formal training in project management for 35 hours through recognised organizations, class room training, online study). PDU stands for professional development units.

4) Once you become member apply for the PMP certification (typically it takes 5 days). You need 5-10 hours to fill online application form with details like project experience , duration, your role and how much time you spent on each category of Project management. Also you need to give details of 35 PDU.(If you have not updated the resume better you can do that at the same time ).

5) Once you receive the application confirmation then you need to make payment for exam fees. Once fee payment is made you can set examination date and center etc.

6) After that only thing you need to do is study hard with a proper plan, use your practical experience while reading materials , solve few sample full time question paper and go for the exam with full confidence.

Why the heck I need a PMP certificate

This is the most common question why should one get PMP certification. Here are few reasons that you should consider before saying no


  • It provides some sort of assurance to the employer that your claim as a project manager is at least valid from academic point of view once you have a PMP in your resume.

  • Its not another xyz certification that you can get immediately after 40 hours of CBT. If you think thats what it is then better don't waste your time (it will take 3 months of rigorous study and solving sample paper before you can have the confidence to sit for PMP exam ...oh you heard some did it in one month ..then exception proves the law).

  • It may not add any direct benefit for those seasoned Project Manager but not having it might raise a question.

  • Do you know what networking means ...if yes, then it provides an excellent opportunity to mix with fellow PMP professional in seminar , presentation and share ideas, learn new things. Who knows the guy sitting beside you may recommend you for a new opening that will get you rid off your nasty boss.

  • Do you believe in improving skill and knowledge in project management field then why don't you learn industry standards, processes and knowledge areas in more details ?

Still not convinced then find out why thousands and thousands people are insane and wasting so much for a certificate that's not valuable !!