Project Management 101 — Proficiency Exam

15 questions · pass with 50%

1. A department asks you to "project-manage" the monthly invoice run, which has no end date and the same steps every cycle. What is it?
A project in the closing process groupOperations that need a process owner, not a project charterA programme because it repeatsA project whose charter can omit the end date
2. What does a signed project charter primarily give you as project manager?
A work breakdown structure and task estimatesFormal authorisation, high-level boundaries, and named authority to apply resourcesA finished schedule and cost baselineDaily stand-up notes and a RACI for every task
3. The sponsor wants the original go-live date and a late feature add, with no extra budget. What should you do first?
Have the team absorb the work and protect the date silentlyReject the feature because the charter is frozen foreverMake the trade-off explicit: date, cost, or other scope must move, and get the sponsor to chooseAdd the feature and extend the date without telling anyone
4. A stakeholder messages you: "While you are building the report, can you add an extra dashboard? It should only take a day." You have no spare contingency. What is the correct next step?
Start it immediately so you stay helpfulRefuse all changes until closeLog a change request, assess schedule and cost impact, and take a decision from the authorised personAdd it to the WBS quietly and hope the date still holds
5. What should a WBS primarily break down?
Deliverables into estimable work packagesThe project manager's calendar into meetingsRisks into a probability-impact matrixThe budget into invoice line items
6. Which statement is a usable acceptance criterion?
The page should feel modern and intuitiveMake it as fast as possibleA named operations lead confirms that a full restore from backup completes within the four-hour window documented in the runbookThe team thinks it is done
7. What does the critical path represent?
The longest chain of dependent activities, which sets the minimum project durationThe cheapest sequence of tasksEvery task with a finish-to-start linkThe work the sponsor cares about most
8. Task B cannot start until Task A is finished. What dependency is that?
Start-to-start (SS)Finish-to-finish (FF)Finish-to-start (FS)Start-to-finish (SF)
9. A developer wants to add two extra days to every estimate "for safety." What is the better practice?
Accept the pad so nobody can blame the estimatesEstimate the work honestly and hold a visible contingency buffer on the path or at project levelCut every estimate in half to offset the padHide the pad inside documentation tasks
10. The test environment is already down and UAT cannot run. Where does this belong?
The risk register, scored as high probabilityThe issue log, because the event is already happeningManagement reserve, because it was unknownOut of scope, because testing is the vendor's problem
11. You add a second supplier and extra design review now so a late drop is less likely and less damaging. What is that?
Acceptance with no actionTransfer via a contract onlyMitigation — present work that reduces probability or impactContingency — a fallback you will use only if the drop is missed
12. When should you activate a contingency plan?
Whenever the team feels nervousAt project close so leftover budget is usedWhen a predefined trigger shows the risk is materialisingAs soon as the risk is identified
13. A director can stop your release but rarely reads long updates and is not involved day to day. How should you engage them?
Ignore them because interest is lowInvite them to every daily stand-upKeep them satisfied with short, reliable exception reports and clear asksCopy them on every team Slack thread so nothing is missed
14. What belongs near the top of a weekly status to a sponsor?
A complete list of tasks the team closedRAG against baseline, material slippage or risk, and any decision needed by a dateMinutes of the last stand-upA full Gantt screenshot with no narrative
15. Two managers both insist they are "accountable" for go-live sign-off. What should you do?
Leave both names on the RACI to keep the peaceForce a single accountable name and record who is consulted or informedRemove sign-off so nobody is blockedLet the team decide on the day

Answer all 15 questions to submit.