PMI PMI-CP Practice Test Questions and Exam Dumps Part19 Q361-380

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Question 361.

A project team discovers that a critical subcontractor is consistently completing work later than promised in short-term plans. What should the project manager do?

  1. Review commitment reliability, identify recurring causes, and agree on corrective actions with clear ownership.
    2. Increase every future activity duration automatically.
    3. Stop measuring subcontractor commitments.
    4. Remove incomplete activities from progress reports.

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Repeatedly missed commitments indicate that the planning or execution process needs attention. The project manager should analyze why promised work is not being completed, considering constraints such as labor, materials, information, access, equipment, predecessor work, or unrealistic planning assumptions. Corrective actions should address the recurring causes and have clear owners and due dates. Simply increasing durations may conceal rather than solve the underlying problem. Monitoring commitment reliability helps improve short-term planning and creates a more predictable workflow for downstream trades.

Question 362.

A project uses a cost-reimbursable arrangement for a portion of uncertain work. What should receive particular management attention?

  1. Only the contractor’s original estimate
    2. Verification of allowable costs, supporting records, productivity, quantities, and applicable contractual controls
    3. Only the final completion date
    4. Eliminating cost reporting because actual costs will be reimbursed

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

Cost-reimbursable work still requires disciplined commercial management. The project team should understand which costs are allowable, what supporting documentation is required, and how labor, materials, equipment, quantities, and subcontract expenditures are verified. Productivity and forecasts remain important because reimbursement does not eliminate the need to manage project value or financial exposure. Applicable fee structures, limitations, approvals, and audit requirements should also be understood. Accurate contemporaneous records help both parties administer the arrangement transparently and reduce later disagreement.

Question 363.

A project team finds that many RFIs originate from inconsistencies between different design disciplines. What should it do?

  1. Increase the number of RFIs without changing the coordination process.
    2. Wait until construction crews identify each conflict.
    3. Strengthen multidisciplinary design coordination and address recurring interface causes.
    4. Stop documenting design questions.

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

A high volume of RFIs caused by interdisciplinary inconsistencies can indicate a systemic coordination problem rather than isolated questions. The team should examine where interfaces are failing and improve coordination among relevant design disciplines. Model coordination, interdisciplinary reviews, responsibility clarification, and stronger design-quality checks may help. RFIs remain useful for resolving specific uncertainties, but repeatedly relying on field questions to discover design conflicts can create delay and rework. Addressing the recurring source improves both design quality and construction readiness.

Question 364.

A project requires a shutdown of an operating facility to connect new systems. What should the team do before the shutdown?

  1. Begin as soon as construction labor is available.
    2. Assume facility operators can adapt during the shutdown.
    3. Perform the work without contingency planning.
    4. Develop a coordinated shutdown plan covering scope, sequence, responsibilities, isolation, testing, contingency, and restoration.

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

Shutdown work can have significant operational consequences and often provides a limited execution window. The team should define exactly what will occur, establish system isolation and safety requirements, coordinate responsible parties, confirm materials and resources, and plan testing and restoration. Contingency arrangements should address credible problems that could prevent timely return to service. A readiness review before the shutdown can verify that prerequisites are complete. Detailed coordination reduces the likelihood that avoidable problems extend the outage or affect facility operations.

Question 365.

What is a major benefit of resource smoothing when schedule flexibility is available?

  1. It can reduce peaks and fluctuations in resource demand without changing the required project completion date when sufficient float permits.
    2. It removes all resource limitations.
    3. It always shortens the critical path.
    4. It eliminates activity dependencies.

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Resource smoothing uses available schedule flexibility to create a more manageable resource profile while generally preserving key schedule constraints or completion dates. Activities with available float may be shifted so labor or equipment demand is less uneven. This can improve utilization and reduce unnecessary mobilization fluctuations. Resource smoothing differs from resource leveling, which may alter completion dates when resource limitations require it. Neither technique eliminates dependencies or resource constraints; they provide structured ways to account for resource considerations in scheduling.

Question 366.

A supplier requests approval to ship equipment even though several factory test deficiencies remain unresolved. What should the project manager do?

  1. Approve shipment because transportation has already been booked.
    2. Evaluate the deficiencies against acceptance and shipment requirements before authorizing release.
    3. Ignore the test results until commissioning.
    4. Delete the deficiencies from the inspection report.

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

Shipment should follow the applicable quality and procurement requirements. The project team should determine whether identified deficiencies must be corrected before release or whether an authorized disposition permits shipment with clearly controlled outstanding items. Transportation convenience should not override acceptance requirements. Shipping defective equipment can move unresolved problems to the site, where correction may become more difficult and expensive. Documented evaluation and authorization provide traceability regarding equipment status and remaining obligations.

Question 367.

A contractor identifies a potential opportunity to reuse excavated material elsewhere on the project. What should the team do?

  1. Use the material immediately without testing.
    2. Dispose of it because reuse is never appropriate.
    3. Evaluate suitability, technical requirements, environmental conditions, handling, cost, and schedule benefits before reuse.
    4. Store all excavated material until project completion.

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

Reusing excavated material can reduce disposal, transportation, purchasing, and environmental impacts, but the material must be suitable for its intended application. The team should evaluate properties, contamination concerns, specification requirements, processing needs, storage, handling, and timing. Reuse may provide substantial value when technical and environmental requirements are satisfied. Implementing it without evaluation could create quality or compliance problems. Opportunity management should therefore apply the same disciplined assessment used for project threats and changes.

Question 368.

A project team discovers that temporary drainage is inadequate before a forecast period of heavy rainfall. What should the project manager do?

  1. Wait to see whether flooding occurs.
    2. Move only valuable equipment and ignore the drainage issue.
    3. Assume permanent drainage will protect unfinished work.
    4. Improve temporary drainage and protection measures before the anticipated weather event.

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

Temporary drainage is important while permanent site systems are incomplete or unavailable. If heavy rainfall is forecast and current arrangements are inadequate, the team should act proactively to protect excavations, temporary works, materials, equipment, neighboring properties, and completed construction. Measures may include channels, pumps, barriers, erosion controls, or revised storage arrangements. Waiting until flooding occurs can result in damage, environmental impacts, rework, and schedule disruption. Weather preparedness should be incorporated into changing site conditions.

Question 369.

Why should a project team maintain a current forecast of cash requirements?

  1. It helps align expected payment timing with funding and financial planning needs.
    2. It guarantees that project cost cannot increase.
    3. It replaces contractual payment procedures.
    4. It measures only physical progress.

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Construction expenditures can vary significantly throughout a project’s lifecycle. Forecasting cash requirements helps owners, contractors, or other responsible organizations understand when funding may be needed to support procurement, labor, subcontract payments, and other obligations. The timing of cash movement differs from total project cost and from physical progress. Accurate forecasting can therefore support financial planning even when the overall budget remains unchanged. It should be updated as schedules, payment timing, changes, and procurement commitments evolve.

Question 370.

A project team is planning an activity requiring access to an area controlled by another contractor. What should it do?

  1. Assume access will be available on the planned date.
    2. Coordinate the access interface, required conditions, timing, responsibilities, and restrictions in advance.
    3. Enter the area without coordination.
    4. Remove the activity from the schedule.

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

Access controlled by another organization represents an interface dependency that should be actively managed. The team should confirm when the area will be available, what conditions must exist, what restrictions apply, and who is responsible for releasing or accepting it. These requirements should be incorporated into near-term planning and schedule coordination. Assuming access without confirmation can leave crews and equipment idle. Clear interface planning makes external dependencies visible and improves the reliability of construction commitments.

Question 371.

A project manager discovers that workers are using an outdated inspection checklist. What should be done?

  1. Continue using it until the current phase is finished.
    2. Allow each crew to choose its preferred checklist.
    3. Replace it with the current controlled version and assess whether prior inspections were affected.
    4. Stop documenting inspections.

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

Inspection documents should reflect current approved requirements. When an obsolete checklist is discovered, the team should prevent further use and provide the correct controlled version. It should also determine whether inspections performed using the outdated checklist omitted or incorrectly assessed any current requirements. If necessary, affected work may need additional verification. Document control is not limited to drawings; procedures, forms, checklists, specifications, and other execution documents can also require version control to maintain reliable quality processes.

Question 372.

A project has experienced repeated theft of small tools and materials. What should the project team do?

  1. Assume losses are unavoidable.
    2. Stop tracking inventory.
    3. Ask workers to purchase replacements personally.
    4. Analyze the pattern and strengthen appropriate inventory, access, storage, surveillance, or accountability controls.

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

Repeated losses can increase cost, interrupt work, and indicate weaknesses in site-security or material-control processes. The team should analyze when, where, and what items are disappearing and determine which controls are appropriate. Measures may involve secure storage, controlled access, inventory procedures, lighting, surveillance, check-out systems, or improved accountability. Controls should be proportionate to the project’s risk and site conditions. Tracking patterns helps the team address underlying vulnerabilities rather than treating each loss as an isolated event.

Question 373.

What is the main purpose of establishing cost-control thresholds for escalation?

  1. To define when variances or forecasts require additional management attention or higher-level action
    2. To ensure every minor variance reaches senior leadership
    3. To prevent unfavorable information from being reported
    4. To eliminate project-management judgment

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Thresholds can help determine when cost conditions require escalation beyond routine project management. They may be based on variance magnitude, forecast exposure, contingency consumption, or other project-specific criteria. Appropriate thresholds prevent senior stakeholders from being overwhelmed by insignificant fluctuations while ensuring material issues receive timely attention. They should not be used to conceal problems below an arbitrary number; professional judgment remains important. Clear escalation expectations improve governance and help management focus on financially significant developments.

Question 374.

A project manager receives two technically compliant bids with substantially different exclusions. What should happen before selection?

  1. Select the lower total price immediately.
    2. Normalize the commercial comparison by understanding exclusions, assumptions, scope coverage, and associated risks.
    3. Ignore exclusions because both bids are technically compliant.
    4. Average the two bid prices.

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

Headline bid prices may not be directly comparable when bidders include different scope assumptions or exclusions. The team should normalize the comparison by identifying what each proposal includes, what remains outside the price, and which risks may transfer back to the project. Commercial qualifications, schedule commitments, and other relevant terms should also be considered. A lower apparent price can become more expensive if significant required scope is excluded. Bid evaluation should therefore compare equivalent commercial positions rather than price figures in isolation.

Question 375.

A project’s waste-management target is not being achieved. What should the team do?

  1. Stop measuring waste.
    2. Change the target retroactively to match performance.
    3. Analyze major waste sources and implement targeted reduction, reuse, segregation, or recycling improvements.
    4. Send every waste stream to the same disposal location.

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

When performance falls short of a waste objective, the team should understand which materials and processes are driving the result. Causes may involve ordering, packaging, damage, design dimensions, installation practices, poor segregation, or limited recycling arrangements. Targeted improvements can then address the largest opportunities. Simply changing the target does not improve environmental or operational performance. Measuring results after corrective actions also helps determine whether the revised practices are effective and whether additional intervention is needed.

Question 376.

A project team plans to remove temporary barriers as areas approach handover. What should be verified first?

  1. Only that the barriers are no longer visually attractive.
    2. Only that removal labor is available.
    3. Only that the owner has entered the building.
    4. That remaining construction hazards, access controls, public interfaces, and operational conditions no longer require the barriers.

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

Temporary barriers often separate active construction from occupied, public, or completed areas. Their removal should therefore be based on actual risk and access conditions rather than appearance or a calendar date. The team should verify whether hazardous work, incomplete systems, restricted areas, or continuing construction traffic still require separation. Handover can change the nature of site interfaces, making coordinated barrier removal especially important. Temporary protections should remain until their intended safety or security function is no longer necessary.

Question 377.

Why should procurement packages clearly define required documentation deliverables?

  1. Documentation such as manuals, certificates, test records, and drawings may be necessary for acceptance, commissioning, operation, and closeout.
    2. Documentation is unrelated to equipment delivery.
    3. Suppliers should decide after delivery what documents to provide.
    4. Documentation requirements always disappear after installation.

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Supplier documentation can be essential to design review, quality verification, commissioning, regulatory compliance, operation, maintenance, and final turnover. If documentation requirements are unclear in procurement packages, the project may receive equipment without the information needed to approve, test, operate, or maintain it. Required formats, review stages, quantities, and delivery dates should therefore be established early. Documentation should be tracked alongside physical equipment because late paperwork can become a significant closeout constraint even when installation is complete.

Question 378.

A subcontractor’s schedule shows all available float assigned to its own activities, leaving no flexibility for downstream interfaces. What should the project manager do?

  1. Accept the schedule because subcontractors own all project float automatically.
    2. Review float treatment according to the contract and integrated project schedule rather than assuming unilateral ownership.
    3. Delete all float from the schedule.
    4. Add arbitrary delays to downstream activities.

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

Treatment of schedule float can depend on contractual provisions and the project’s scheduling rules. A subcontractor should not simply assume unilateral ownership without considering the integrated schedule and applicable agreement. Float can affect multiple parties and interfaces, so its use should be transparent and consistent with established project requirements. The project manager should evaluate the proposed schedule within the overall network and clarify applicable float rules. Arbitrary manipulation of float reduces schedule credibility and can contribute to later disputes.

Question 379.

A project manager learns that a proposed cost-saving change would create substantially more difficult maintenance access after handover. What should the team do?

  1. Approve the change because construction cost decreases.
    2. Ignore operational considerations because construction is temporary.
    3. Evaluate the construction savings against maintenance, accessibility, safety, lifecycle, and owner requirements.
    4. Allow the installer to make the final decision independently.

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

Construction decisions can affect the facility long after the project team leaves. A change that reduces initial cost but makes maintenance more difficult may increase lifecycle cost, operational disruption, or safety risk. The team should present these trade-offs to the appropriate decision-maker and evaluate them against owner objectives. This does not mean every maintenance consideration overrides construction cost, but the consequences should be visible. Value decisions should consider the facility’s intended lifecycle rather than construction expenditure alone.

Question 380.

A project is nearing final handover, but several electronic records are stored only on individual team members’ devices. What should the project manager do?

  1. Leave the records where they are.
    2. Delete them when team members leave.
    3. Print only selected emails and discard the remaining records.
    4. Transfer required project records into the approved document-management and retention system before team demobilization.

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

Project records may be required for operations, warranties, commercial closeout, audits, future modifications, claims, or organizational learning. Important information stored only on individual devices can become inaccessible when personnel leave the project. Before demobilization, required records should be captured in the approved repository, organized appropriately, and retained according to applicable project and organizational requirements. Good records management supports continuity beyond the construction team and reduces the risk that important evidence or facility information is permanently lost.