Certified Associate of Project Management (CAPM) Exam 2

Leadership involves challenging the status quo, focusing on the big picture, and building trust, and management involves ensuring that procedures and tasks are carried out correctly. Refer to section 3.6 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition, and section 3.4.5 of the PMBOK Guide, 6th edition.

The main purpose of planning is to proactively determine an approach to creating project deliverables. The activities associated with delivering scope and quality refer to delivery performance. Assessing performance and adjusting actions refer to the benefits of project measurement performance. Working with stakeholders to maintain positive alignment and relationships refers to stakeholder performance. Refer to chapter 2 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition.

Since this was a documented risk and you are now in the executing phase of the project, the risk should already have an associated contingency plan. Whatever the documented response was, it should be followed. Refer to section 2.8.5 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition, and p. 190 of The Project Management Answer Book.

Section 4.3.3 of the fairness ethics code states, “We do not hire or fire, reward or punish, or award or deny contracts based on personal considerations, including but not limited to favoritism, nepotism, or bribery” (p. 4).

Option (A) represents verified requirements. Option (B) represents the solution evaluation approach. Option (C) represents approved requirements. Refer to sections 7.4.3.1, 7.5.3.1, 9.2.3.1, and 9.4.1.1 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

The stakeholder register can be used to determine an appropriate requirement elicitation technique since it provides information on how the stakeholder is affected or can affect the project, their availability for a meeting, and their role in the organization. Refer to section 6.1 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

The product roadmap is a deliverable created during the product life cycle. It defines when product iterations will be created through the course of a portfolio, program, or one or more project lifecycles. The other items are all deliverables created by projects. Refer to section 4.5 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

Projects are a way to deliver value, change a future state, or improve efficiency and productivity, among other benefits. Taking orders would be a benefit of operations. Refer to sections 3.0 and 3.12 of the Standard for Project Management.

DSDM constrains schedule and cost while keeping scope flexible. Refer to Annex A3 of the Agile Practice Guide.

Persona analysis is a tool and technique used by the Determine Stakeholder Engagement and Communication Approach process and involves the analysis of a representative stakeholder group termed a persona. This analysis involves looking for patterns that may suggest effective communication techniques. Refer to section 5.3 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

All of the activities listed are responsibilities of the project manager except for the facilitation of the product roadmap development, which is the responsibility of the business analyst or product owner. Refer to section 4.5 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis and section 2.2 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition.

Requirements traceability is about linkages between artifacts to ensure that all needed requirements, and only those needed requirements, are implemented. Such matrices can highlight dependencies between features, so a subset of features needs to be developed together to attain benefits. The correctness of requirements or artifacts occurs through verification and validation. Refer to chapter 8 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

Analysts first determine the model type appropriate for the situation and then select tools such as use cases, entity relationship diagrams, and context diagrams that are part of that model category. Brainstorming, document analysis, retrospectives, and lessons learned are techniques used to determine which modeling tools and templates should be used to analyze requirements. Refer to section 7.1 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis and section 4.10 of the Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide.

Comparing the deliverable to the acceptance criteria, definition of done, and the technical performance specifications are all ways of verifying scope. Refer to section 2.6.2.2 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition.

All but Scrum are designed to accommodate larger teams. Scrum is best for teams of up to nine. Refer to section 4.3.1 of the Agile Practice Guide.

Servant leaders prioritize the growth and well-being of their team, exemplified by coaching and actively listening to their needs. In contrast, directing and controlling are traits of more authoritarian leadership styles. Refer to section 4.2 of the Agile Practice Guide.

As milestones have zero duration, this is likely the reason. The other answers are distractors. Refer to section 4.5 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

The sponsor is responsible for the project charter. While the project team and project manager may initially develop the team charter, the project team holds themselves accountable. Refer to section 2.2 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition, section 9.1.3.2 of the PMBOK Guide, 6th edition, and section 5.1 of the Agile Practice Guide.

Teams with emotional intelligence can effectively sustain relationships with others, which is an important component of an effective team. Refer to section 2.2.4.4 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition.

A brainstorming session with a diverse team can generate creative alternatives and would be the best option. The other techniques would not aid you in exploring different options to solve the problem. Refer to section 2.8.3.2 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition.

Business goals, risks, and success criteria are common items found in a charter. The scope statement and schedule baseline are created well after the charter is approved. Refer to section 4.1.3.1 of the PMBOK Guide, 6th edition, and section 4.7 in the Guide to Business Analysis.

Either adaptive or predictive lifecycles can apply to a single product or an entire portfolio, so this information is not necessarily true for only an agile project. Adaptive project roadmaps are expected to change often and can easily accommodate changes to the product value, which is expected to vary over the project’s life. Predictive lifecycles generally show high-level milestones and features, while adaptive lifecycles depict themes and features. Refer to section 4.5.4 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

Since the team member is not behind schedule, it is not an issue, though it could become one. Therefore, it represents a risk and should be documented in the risk register. Refer to section 4.6 of the PMBOK Guide 7th edition.

MoSCoW and Timeboxing are two methods for prioritizing requirements. Focus Groups and Brainstorming are two methods for eliciting requirements. Refer to section 4.11.6 of Business Analysis for Practitioners, section 7.7.2.5 of Guide to Business Analysis.

A project closeout meeting is used to get final acceptance of the project’s scope from the sponsor, product owner, or customer. Refer to section 4.4.3 of the PMBOK Guide 7th edition.

Analysts first determine the model type appropriate for the situation and then select tools such as use cases, entity relationship diagrams, and context diagrams that are part of that model category. Brainstorming, document analysis, retrospectives, and lessons learned are techniques used to determine which modeling tools and templates should be used to analyze requirements. Use case and context diagrams are examples of modeling tools. Refer to section 7.1 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis and section 4.10 of the Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide.

A business analyst is responsible for the delivery of solutions that meet the organization’s business values, needs, and objectives. Option (A) refers to a project manager, (C) refers to a program manager, and (D) refers to a portfolio manager. Refer to section 1.2.3 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

This matrix can be referred to for cases where there is a variance between the planned and actual acceptance results to determine the severity of the variance. If the defect relates to a high-priority need, which would be reflected in the matrix based on its associated requirement, the solution would not be ready for delivery. Refer to section 9.3 of the PMI Guide to Business

A product owner is responsible for determining which features to include and exclude for a product and what priority they should have. Refer to page 406 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis and section 4.3.2 of the Agile Practice Guide.

Business analysts interface with various internal and external stakeholders, including vendors, project sponsors, project and program managers, subject matter experts, and many others. Refer to section 3.3 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

Clarification helps with successful role collaboration and competing priorities allowing both parties to deliver on projects more successfully. Delivering additional tasks outside the stated role of a business analyst is not a benefit and can occur without proper role clarification. Being responsible for tasks outside of one’s role can cause confusion and result in less collaboration. Refer to section 1.1.4 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

A feature model depicts a hierarchical breakdown of the product features and is used for feature prioritization and release planning. Refer to sections 4.5.2 and 7.2.2.8 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

This is among the very first activities done upon project initiation. Option (B) refers to a release planning meeting, (C) refers to a backlog refinement meeting, and (D) refers to a status meeting. Refer to section 4.4.3 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition.

The Definition of Done (DoD) is a shared understanding within the team of what it means for a feature or iteration to be considered complete and ready for customer acceptance. This includes all criteria that must be met for the work to be considered done, ensuring consistency and quality in the delivery. Refer to section 7.4.2 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

The role of the business analyst includes using root cause analysis techniques such as Five Whys to assess the organization’s needs. Refer to section 2.4.4 of the Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide and 4.2.2.9 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

Brainstorming is comprised of two parts: idea generation and analysis. Refer to section 5.1.2.1 of the Guide to Business Analysis and section 3.3.1.1 of Business Analysis for Practitioners.

Kanban relies on a workflow system that minimizes work-in-process rather than an iteration-based scheduling system. Refer to Annex A3 of the Agile Practice Guide.

While all stakeholders will require communication, Fred, as a high-interest, high-influence stakeholder, will require the most frequent communication of the three. Refer to section 5.2.2.4 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis Practice.

Effective communication aids in meeting stakeholder expectations, ensuring their engagement, and acquiring their input to make appropriate solution decisions. Identifying stakeholders is important but is not a stated benefit of determining an appropriate communication approach between stakeholder groups. Refer to section 5.3 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

Stakeholders with a high interest and influence in the project and a high impact on the project require more communication and effort and are prioritized higher. Refer to section 2.1.1 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition, and section 5.2.2.4 in the Guide to Business Analysis.

Both the project manager and project sponsor can remove obstacles, serve as a source of motivation, and communicate the project vision and expectations. However, the sponsor is responsible for prioritizing the needs of different stakeholder groups. Refer to section 2.2.1 and Appendix X.2 of the PMBOK Guide 7th edition.

The stakeholder register lists all identified stakeholders and includes their interests, expectations, and influence on the project. Refer to section 4.6 of the PMBOK Guide 7th edition.

Extreme Programming (XP) is well-known for its pair programming characteristic. Refer to Annex A3 of the Agile Practice Guide.

Product roadmaps provide the high-level features to be included in various releases throughout a program or project and the sequence of the releases. These are refined as the project progresses. The release plan establishes information about the iterations, such as how many and what duration they will be. The iteration plan describes which features are included in an iteration. The product backlog represents a prioritized list of all the product features. Refer to section 4.5 of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis and section 2.4.2.3 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition.

Velocity is the average amount of work a team can complete in an iteration and is useful for planning the subsequent iteration. Refer to section 5.4.1 of the Agile Practice Guide.

The resource breakdown structure will tell you the category and type of resources required but not the quantity. The resource requirements identify both the type and quantity of resources. The responsibility assignment matrix identifies who is responsible and accountable for a task, and the organization breakdown structure provides the reporting relationships of the labor resources. Refer to section 9.2 of the PMBOK Guide 6th edition.

In this case, the project manager left the meeting with one conclusion, and Frank left with a different one. This could have been easily rectified through active listening and asking clarifying questions to ensure understanding. Refer to section 2.1.1.4 of the PMBOK Guide, 7th edition, and p. 307 of The Project Management Answer Book.

Burndown charts, iteration backlogs, and information radiators are agile project artifacts. Standup and retrospective meetings are agile processes. Refer to section 5.4.1 of the Agile Practice Guide.

Team development is a critical part of this role, and the Tuckman Ladder is used to help the PM understand the current state of their team. Refer to section 4.2.6.1 of the PMBOK Guide 7th edition.

The first thing to do here is to engage with the stakeholder. It might be important to then submit a change request, but understanding the stakeholder’s expectations for the project should come first. Refer to section 5.6. of the PMI Guide to Business Analysis.