You are working on a project to create state of the art diving equipment that can take you

safely to depths of 300 feet in deep ocean. The project is on schedule, and budget allocations
and spending is continuing as per normal. However, lately there has been a rumor that the
blueprint for the new design is not original, and you, the Project Manager have just been sued
by a competitor for copyright infringement. To say that you are worried is an understatement.
Such problems were never discussed during the risk planning activities, and were therefore,
never added to the risk register. To deal with the situation, it will now cost the project a lot of
time and money. What is the BEST response for this situation?

A. Do not take any action, just accept that there’s a problem that the team did not plan for.

B. Stop all project activities and approach senior management for advice on this problem
immediately.

C. Add the risk to the risk register and begin gathering information about its probability and
impact.

D. Use the management reserve to cover the costs of the problem.

What is your answer? Quick, do not think too long, and come up with the answer.

Understanding the Problem at Hand:

Now, let us analyze the options, and identify the best answer… that is what was asked in this
mock PMP question…

You are now facing a problem, which was not anticipated, or planned for. There is nothing in the
Risk Register, and it is an unexpected problem, that you have never thought of. It has big
implications…

There is pressure on the reputation of the company, legal liability, and this will cost a lot of time
& money to the company. Thus, you need to carefully look at the options, and then choose your
answer.

Analyzing the Options Given:

One of the common pitfalls for PMP exam aspirants is that they think about the BEST situation
that they would do, and then search for it in the answers. But this is not the best idea. You should
always look for the BEST option of the given 4 choices. The answer you choose should be the
Best of these 4 choices, even if the chosen answer is not what you would do in a real situation.

An important tip for such questions is to NOT mix the choices given with your real life
experience, but strive to eliminate the wrong choices, and pick the Best of the 4 choices… even
if it seems illogical or most improbable one..
Choice A tells you to do not do anything. After all, legal things can take many months, and you
have just been notified. Such choices are checking if you wait for the problem to materialize,
and/or grow bigger, before you would take any action. This is not a good option to choose. After
all, you are a Proactive Project Manager. You will anticipate problems, and will develop risk
mitigation strategies, Contingency plans, and if they actually occur, you will be prepared with
the impact analysis, action plan, and have a team member responsible and ready to take action,
and be on the lookout for it…

Choice B seems a good option. It says that you should go to the senior management, inform
them of the impending problems, and ask for their guidance or advice immediately. After all,
with such dire consequences, it seems wiser to keep them updated, and ask for their support. It
makes sense, but there are 2 issues with this choice:

a. It says that Stop all project activities. It is fine to seek advice, but why stop all other activities?
Stopping all other activities will further jeopardize the remaining activities of the project.

b. Solving all project problems is your job. That is why you were appointed the Project
Manager in the first place. If you go to the management, and expect them to solve your
problems, you are not doing your job well. Of course, if you come up with solutions to solve the
issue at hand, and seek their approval on such a big change, then it is in accordance with the
Integrated Change Control Process. You could then be using the escalation process, calling an
emergency meeting of the Change Control Board, etc., and advise them of the problem, and
probable solutions, helping them make an informed decision.

Choice C seems perfect. It admits that you goofed up earlier and missed identifying this Risk in
the Risk Register. It then does damage repair, by adding this risk to the risk register, and
subsequently begin gathering more information about the probability and impact of the problem
at hand.

However, do note that we are not in the planning stages now… Such kind of things are better
done during the planning stages. Now the problem has happened, and the issue in very close at
hand… it is time to execute the plan, not begin planning now.

Adding to the risk register is fine but gathering information about its probability is futile now…
the problem has already happened. As a PM, you first job is to fix the problem. Just because it
was not noticed/tracked/thought of earlier does not mean that we cannot start and fix it first.

Choice D seems improbable. How can you use the management reserve without management
approval? There is no mention of seeking management approval. Should you use it, or use the
contingency reserve? D is the correct answer.

Only Change is Constant. Even with the best of planning, things will go wrong. That is why we
setup a Contingency Reserve – for the known unknowns… like Inflation. We know it will
happen, but we do not know the %, or when it will be sharp or less… It depends on the market
forces. Therefore, for the things that you can foresee, we create a contingency reserve and use it
at things happen.
And for things that are unknown, unheard of, we setup a Management Reserve. This amount
rests with the Management (Sponsor, senior management etc.). The Project Manager is aware of
this fund but cannot use it without getting approval from the management. Further, it should be
only used for the Unknown Unknowns – things are unknown and have not been planned for.

8 thoughts on “How to Answer Situational Questions in the PMP Exam”

1. MC Leong I would answer B because getting sued is way outside the PM’s league.
Senior management has to act in this regard, and stopping all other activities is ethically
proper, until it is known what risk impact those activities will bring from the suit. Rightly
you have put it that the PM has no jurisdiction over the management reserve, and because
Option D did not elaborate further that that the PM seeks senior management to use the
funds to counter the suit and/or damages, we cannot guess more into the answer that is
already provided.
2. Brett Phipps I really question their logic on the answer as well. Copyright infringement
is breaking the law and warrants managements immediate involvement. I would suggest
that D? is wrong because it fails to address notifying management of the issue.
3. M.U. I just failed my exam, and this is exactly how most questions were. “Take action,
Do nothing, Add to a document, use some funds, etc…” just multiply this X70 questions.
What would you do? What is next? What’s the best chart that shows what you want. The
most frustrating exam ever.
4. Gregory This was a very good mock question, as I got it wrong.
5. Vinai Prakash Thanks for reading and liking this PMP mock question. We all learn from
our mistakes. Hope it will help you in achieving your dream and get your PMP
certification fast! Cheers – Vinai
6. Jess I’m with M.U. Most of the questions were just like this on the exam. You have to
answer according to PMI’s standards, NOT your field experience. Good Luck!
7. vinayagamoorthy my answer is C – read the read the question find the Key works here
rumour. never added to the risk register
it plays major role in this question to choose the BEST answer
8. James Agree that ‘D’ fails to account for getting permission to use Management
Reserves. Maybe I am reading the question wrong, but problem statement tells me that
the lawsuit is part of the rumor. Thus, it has not happened yet. To me, this is a new risk
that needs to be put in Register and investigated carefully so that PM can mitigate now
(buy data rights with Contingency funds), or escalate to managers later (bring in legal
team to deal with suit when it arrives).
Situational PMP Exam Questions

The PMP exam does not use formatting for critical words. So, for example you will never see
EXCEPT or except on the exam. It will always be written simply as except.

Situational questions test your ability to apply theoretical expertise to real-life project
management situations. These questions tend to be exceptionally long winded. The idea behind
this is that in real life, you are often provided both relevant and irrelevant information. Your task
is to identify what is important, ignore what does not matter and then act upon the real issues. Be
sure to read and accurately understand what is asked in a PMP exam question.

A single word can be critical, such as NOT or EXCEPT or ONLY or ALWAYS, which can
change the meaning of the question or a choice.

Often, situational questions will have two choices, which after going through the question may
appear to be reasonably correct. Therefore, it is vital that you identify what the question is
asking. Based on the question and your knowledge of project management concepts, you must
find the BEST answer.

Here is a situational sample question:

• You have just been assigned as the project manager for an ongoing project in your company.
You have discovered there is no Project Charter that describes the responsibilities and
authorities of the project manager. When you talked to your project sponsor about the issue,
he told you that nobody in the company even knows what a Project Charter is or what
purpose it serves. He also told you that your company has executed numerous projects in the
past without ever using a Project Charter. However, he asked you to prepare one just in case
it is really a necessary project document. Where should you look for a Project Charter
template to update to meet your project requirements?
•
A. Project Business Case
B. Enterprise Environmental Factors
C. Project Statement of Work
D. Organizational Process Assets

Correct Answer: B. Enterprise Environmental Factors

Explanation: Your organization has never created a Project Charter in the past, so you must
find a Project Charter template to update to create a Project Charter for your project.
 This is a tricky question. Usually templates for project documents are found in the
Organizational Process Assets. However, since your company has never developed a Project
Charter, you cannot find this template there. You can find templates for a Project Charter on
websites and in commercial databases, which are included in Enterprise Environmental
Factors.

A final tip on the situational PMP questions, try not to overthink the situation. A real-life
situation may have a multitude of factors and considerations that cannot be represented in a
single exam question. Try not to think of too many “what if”, “what about” scenarios or fixate
that “this would never happen in the real world.” Remember that the situational question aims to
test how you apply the theoretical knowledge. Focus on answering the question with the given
information and your project management knowledge.