PM Test Center

When managing stakeholder expectations, a project manager should apply management skills when appropriate. Which of the following is not a management skill?

A. Presentation skills
B. Negotiating
C. Overcoming resistance to change
D. Writing skills

Answer: C. Overcoming resistance to change
Overcoming resistance to change is an interpersonal skill, not a management skill.

When managing stakeholder expectations, a project manager should apply interpersonal skills when appropriate. Which of the following is not an interpersonal skill?

A. Building trust
B. Resolving conflict
C. Active listening
D. Self-motivation

Answer: D. Self-motivation
Motivation of one’s team is an interpersonal skill, but not self-motivation.

During the life cycle of a project, a project manager may distribute information using a wide range of tools. Which of the following is not one of them?

A. Sending a press release
B. Writing an email to a team member
C. Using project management software to schedule tasks
D. Watching an instructional video for your consumer

Answer: D. Watching an instructional video for your consumer
Although all the choices involve communication, watching an instructional video does not involve distributing information for the project manager since he would simply be the receiver in this case. The point is, there are many ways to distribute information; in addition to the choices, you could also have hard copy documents, databases, faxes, phone and voice mail, collaborative web sites, and various software, just to name a few.

You are in the initiating phase of the project. After the project charter is created, which of the following processes would you mostly likely work on next?

A. Collect Requirements
B. Acquire Project Team
C. Plan Communications
D. Identify Stakeholders

Answer: D. Identify Stakeholders
Develop Project Charter and Identify Stakeholders are the only two processes that fall under the Initiating process group. The charter is also a key input when identifying stakeholders for the project. The stakeholder register, an output of Identify Stakeholders process, becomes an input to Collect Requirements and Plan Communications.

Your project team currently consists of you and three others. If you add one more individual to the team, making a total of five people, how many more communication channels will you have?

A. 3
B. 4
C. 6
D. 10

Answer: B. 4
Communication channels are calculated by n(n-1)/2. That means, if you have four people (like the example), you have six channels [4(4-1)/2 = 4(3)/2 = 12/2 = 6]. Alternatively, you can simply draw four dots on a page and draw a line from each dot to every other dot. That may be a challenge if you have, say, a forty person team. Anyway, the question asks for how many more channels. Therefore, if four people have six channels and five people have ten channels, the difference is four.

Key components of a basic communication model are:

A. Encode, message and feedback-message, medium, noise, decode
B. Sender, message, receiver
C. Inputs, tools & techniques, outputs
D. Sender, encode, message and feedback-message, decode, receiver

Answer: A. Encode, message and feedback-message, medium, noise, decode
According to the PMBOK®, key components are encode, message and feedback-message, medium, noise, decode. All other choices are “noise”.

According to the PMBOK®, which of the following is not a management skill used by project managers for communicating?

A. Presentation skills
B. Resolving conflict
C. Negotiating
D. Writing skills

Answer: B. Resolving conflict
Management skills used by project managers include but are not limited to presentation skills, negotiating, writing skills, and public speaking Resolving conflict is an interpersonal skill.

Contracts should typically be communicated through:

A. Informal written
B. Informal verbal
C. Formal written
D. Formal verbal

Answer: C. Formal written
Formal written communication should be used for project documents such as project charters, project plans, and contracts. As a general rule, if it needs sign-off, then you should take a formal written method. Most project communication, however, will fall into the other categories. These could include email (informal written), meetings (informal verbal), and presentations (formal verbal).

As the project manager responsible for creating forecasts, you tend to utilize time series methods for predicting outcomes. Reports you typically use are:

A. Monte Carlo simulation, P&I matrix
B. Linear regression analysis, non-linear regression analysis
C. Probability estimates, Delphi method
D. Earned value, moving average

Answer: D. Earned value, moving average
Examples of time series methods are earned value, moving average, extrapolation, linear prediction, trend estimation, and growth curve.

The main output of the Report Performance process is:

A. Performance reports
B. Stakeholder register
C. Project charter
D. Communications management plan

Answer: A. Performance reports
Performance reports provide status and progression for the project to various stakeholders.