PMI-SP Exam Questions Instant Access - No Installation Required

Question 1

You are the project manager of a project that has a budget of $675,000 and you have completed 40 percent of the project work. Your project is supposed to be 60 percent complete but you are actually only 40 percent complete. Due to some errors, however, you have actually spent $335,000 of the budget. Management wants to know what the project's cost performance index (CPI) is. What value do you report?

A-$135,000

B.67

C.81

D-$65,000

Answer : C

Cost performance index (CPI) is used to calculate performance efficiencies. It is used in trend analysis to predict future performance. CPI is the ratio of earned value to actual cost. The CPI is calculated based on the following formula: CPI = Earned Value (EV) / Actual Cost (AC) If the CPI value is greater than 1, it indicates better than expected performance, whereas if the value is less than 1, it shows poor performance. The CPI value of 1 indicates that the project is right on target. In this instances it is $270,000 divided by $335,000 for a CPI of .81. Answer option B is incorrect. .67 is actually the schedule performance index. Answer option D is incorrect. -$65,000 is the cost variance for the project. Answer option A is incorrect. -$135,000 is the schedule variance of the project.

Question 2

You are the project manager of the NHQ Project. This project has a Budget at Completion of

$750,000 and is expected to take 18 months to complete. The project is supposed to be 75 percent

complete, but due to some errors the project is only 60 percent complete. At this time the project

has spent $465,500. Management has asked you to review the project work and report the project's

SPI. What is the SPI for this project?

A0.97

B0.80

C$562,500

D-$112,500

Answer : B

The project's schedule performance index (SPI) can be found by using the formula;

earned value/planned value. The earned value is the

percent of the project completed times the BAC. The planned value is the percentage of where the

project should be times the budget at

completion. In this instance, the formula reads: $450,000/562500 = 0.80.

Schedule performance index (SPI) is the measure of schedule efficiency on a project. It is used in

trend analysis to predict future performance.

SPI is the ratio of earned value to planned value. The SPI is calculated based on the following

formula:

SPI = Earned Value (EV) / Planned Value (PV)

If the SPI value is greater than 1, it indicates better than expected performance, whereas if the value

is less than 1, it shows poor

performance. The SPI value of 1 indicates that the project is right on target.

Answer option A is incorrect. This value is the project's Cost Performance Index (CPI).

Answer option D is incorrect. This value is the schedule variance for the project.

Answer option C is incorrect. $562,500 is the planned value for the project.

Question 3

Holly is a new project manager in your organization. She is working with you on the JHG project and she is confused as to why the project needs a schedule management plan and a schedule baseline. What is the difference between the schedule management plan and the schedule baseline?

AThe schedule management plan describes how the schedule will be managed and controlled. The schedule baseline is used to compare with actual results to determine if a change, corrective action, or preventive action is needed.

BThe schedule management plan describes how the schedule will be managed and controlled. The schedule baseline is used to determine how accurate the schedule management plan has been throughout the project execution.

CThe schedule baseline describes how the schedule will be managed and controlled. The schedule management plan is used to compare with actual results to determine if a change, corrective action, or preventive action is needed.

DThe schedule management plan describes how the schedule will be created. The schedule baseline is used to compare with actual results with what the project manager intended.

Answer : A

The schedule management plan is the intent of the project manager. It defines how the schedule will

be managed and controlled. The schedule baseline is a benchmarking tool to compare actual results

against the planned results.

Answer options C, D, and B are incorrect. These are not valid definitions of the schedule

management plan and the schedule baseline.

Question 4

Terri is the project manager for her organization and she is working with her project team to develop the project schedule. She has identified the float in her project although some of the activities where float exists may be susceptible to risk in the project execution. She is also concerned that the critical path may change during the project if the risk events come into execution. What scheduling method is Terri using in this example?

ACritical chain method

BRisk analysis method

CActivity on the arrow method

DCritical path method

Answer : D

Terri is using the critical path method in this example. The question acknowledges that Terri has

identified float and the critical path, but it makes no mention of the availability of project resources -

something the critical chain method focuses on.

Critical Path Method, abbreviated CPM, or Critical Path Analysis, is a mathematically based algorithm

for scheduling a set of project activities. It

is an important tool for effective project management. It provides the following benefits:

Provides the graphical view of the project.

Predicts the time required to complete the project.

Shows which activities are critical to maintain the schedule and which are not.

CPM models the activities and events of a project as a network. Activities are depicted as nodes on

the network, and events that signify the

beginning or ending of activities are depicted as arcs or lines between the nodes.

Answer option A is incorrect. The question does not indicate that Terri is concerned with the

availability of project resources - as she would be

if she were using the critical chain method.

Answer option B is incorrect. The risk analysis method is not a valid scheduling technique.

Answer option C is incorrect. Activity on the arrow method is not being described in this question.

Question 5

Ben is the project manager for his organization. His project has 26 stakeholders this week and will have five additional stakeholders next week. How many more communication channels will Ben's project have next week?

A140

B10

C325

Answer : A

Ben's project will have 140 more communication channels because of the five additional stakeholders. To solve the question, you will need to find the current stakeholder communication channels first, which is (26*25)/2= 325, and then find the difference of the number of channels for the five additional stakeholders. You can use the formula of N(N-1), where N is the number of stakeholders. In this example, the formula would read: Total number of communication channels that Ben will have next = ((31*30)/2)-((26*25)/2 =140 Answer option D is incorrect. Five is the number of additional stakeholders. Answer option B is incorrect. 10 is the number of communication channels among just five stakeholders. Answer option C is incorrect. 325 is the number of current communication channels.

Question 6

Joseph works as the project manager of the NHQ Project. He has created the project network diagram as shown in the figure:

Based on the network diagram, find out which path is the critical path for this project?

AABEHJ

BABDIJ

CABDHJ

DACFIJ

Answer : D

The critical path is the path with the longest duration to complete the project. It has no float and

shows the earliest completion date and the

latest completion date for the project. In this example, path ACFIJ takes 27 days and is the critical

path.

ACFIJ= A(4)+C(8)+F(4)+I(7)+J(4)= 27

A critical path is the sequence of project activities, which add up to the longest overall duration. This

determines the shortest time possible to

complete the project. Any delay of an activity on the critical path directly impacts the planned

project completion date (i.e. there is no float on

the critical path). A project can have several, parallel, near critical paths. An additional parallel path

through the network with the total

durations shorter than the critical path is called a sub-critical or non-critical path.

These results allow managers to prioritize activities for the effective management of project

completion, and to shorten the planned critical

path of a project by pruning critical path activities, by 'fast tracking' (i.e., performing more activities

in parallel), and/or by 'crashing the critical

path' (i.e., shortening the durations of critical path activities by adding resources).

Answer option A is incorrect. ABEHJ takes only 22 days to complete.

ABEHJ= A(4)+B(5)+E(2)+H(7)+J(4)= 22

Answer option C is incorrect. ABDHJ takes 21 days to complete.

ABDHJ= A(4)+B(5)+D(1)+H(7)+J(4)= 21

Answer option B is incorrect. ABDIJ takes 21 days to complete.

ABDIJ= A(4)+B(5)+D(1)+I(7)+J(4)= 21

Question 7

Examine the figure given below:

You are the project manager of this project. Tom, a project team member, reports that Activity D will be delayed by 12 days due to the unavailability of the resources from the vendor. What will this delay do to your project completion, if you allow the delay to enter into the project?

AThe project will be one day late.

BThe float for activity D will be consumed.

CThe project can still finish on time.

DThe project will be seven days late.

Answer : A

The project will be just one day late due to this delay. The path ADGJ takes a total of 15 days. If

Activity D takes a total of 13 days (i.e. 12 +

1), then the path will now take 27 days to complete. This causes the critical path to shift to ADGJ and

the project will end on day 27 rather

than day 26.

Answer options D, B, and C are incorrect. These are not the valid answers, as the project will now

take 27 days to complete, rather than 26.

PMI Scheduling Professional PMI-SP Exam Questions