28 People (Leadership & Teams) Practice Questions & Answers

1. 1. A Scrum team's product owner left and a new one took over three weeks ago. In refinement, members give three different explanations of what problem the product solves, and priorities have been reversed twice. What should the project manager do FIRST?

   • A.Have each member write down their understanding and adopt the majority view
   • B.Freeze the backlog until the product owner delivers a written specification
   • C.Ask the sponsor to replace the new product owner
   • D.Facilitate a session with the product owner and key stakeholders to re-establish and clearly state the shared product vision✓ Answer

   A shared vision is what makes prioritization decisions coherent, so when people work from different mental models the fix is to rebuild and restate the vision with the stakeholders who own it; a majority vote or a frozen backlog treats only the symptom.

   Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Develop a common vision (enabler: help ensure a shared vision with key stakeholders)Report a problem with this question

2. 2. Midway through a hybrid program, a new regulation invalidates the business assumptions behind the vision statement written at kickoff. Teams still quote the original vision when making trade-offs. What should the project manager do NEXT?

   • A.Submit a change request for the regulatory work and leave the vision unchanged
   • B.Reconvene the sponsor and key stakeholders to refresh the vision, then communicate and make it visible to all teams✓ Answer
   • C.Let each team interpret the vision in light of the new regulation
   • D.Keep the original vision so the team has a stable reference point

   Keeping the vision current is an ongoing responsibility, because a vision that no longer matches the business context silently steers every daily trade-off in the wrong direction; scope changes made under an obsolete goal only compound the error.

   Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Develop a common vision (enabler: keep the vision current)Report a problem with this question

3. 3. Two teams building either side of an integration have delivered incompatible increments twice. Each team insists it is building exactly what the charter describes. What should the project manager do FIRST?

   • A.Add an integration test gate before every release
   • B.Assign a lead architect to decide the interface and direct both teams
   • C.Escalate to the PMO and request that one team absorb the other
   • D.Bring both teams together to break the situation down and identify the root cause of their differing understanding of the goal✓ Answer

   Repeated incompatible output from teams that both believe they are compliant is a symptom of a shared-understanding failure, so the first move is root-cause analysis of the misunderstanding; a test gate only detects the defect later and an architect's ruling fixes one instance.

   Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Develop a common vision (enabler: identify the root cause of a misunderstanding of the vision)Report a problem with this question

4. 4. In a Kanban team's daily standup, two engineers have argued sharply about the deployment approach on three consecutive days. Other members have stopped speaking up. What should the project manager do FIRST?

   • A.Notify both engineers' functional managers that they are disrupting the team
   • B.Put the disagreement on the retrospective agenda so the whole team can judge who is right
   • C.Decide the deployment approach himself so the team can move on
   • D.Meet the two engineers privately to understand the source and context of the conflict✓ Answer

   A resolution strategy can only be chosen after the source and context of the conflict are understood, and interpersonal friction is addressed directly and privately at the lowest level; public adjudication erodes the psychological safety that has already begun to fail.

   Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Manage conflicts (enablers: identify conflict sources; analyze the context for the conflict)Report a problem with this question

5. 5. During commissioning, a gas alarm sounds. A contractor supervisor wants to keep working to protect a milestone; the site safety officer orders evacuation. Which conflict-resolution approach is MOST appropriate?

   • A.Collaborate: schedule a joint problem-solving workshop to find a win-win
   • B.Withdraw: step back and let the two parties settle it between themselves
   • C.Force/direct: stop work and evacuate immediately, then investigate✓ Answer
   • D.Compromise: let a reduced crew continue while the alarm is investigated

   Forcing is the appropriate mode when a decision is urgent and safety of life is at stake, because collaboration and compromise both consume time the situation does not allow and leave people exposed while the discussion runs.

   Source: PMP ECO – Manage conflicts; forcing/directing is appropriate for emergencies and safety-critical decisionsReport a problem with this question

6. 6. A distributed agile team's own working agreement says everyone joins ceremonies with full attention and no parallel work. Two members are visibly multitasking every session. What should the project manager do FIRST?

   • A.Report the two members to their line managers
   • B.Exclude the two members from ceremonies to protect the meeting's focus
   • C.Issue a new attendance rule as project manager and enforce it
   • D.Remind the team of the ground rules it created and ask the team to reaffirm or revise them✓ Answer

   The team owns its ground rules and the project manager's role is to facilitate and reinforce them, so the first step is a collective reminder that singles out no one; private coaching comes next if the behavior persists, and imposing rules destroys the ownership that makes them work.

   Source: PMP ECO – Manage conflicts (enablers: foster adherence to common ground rules; manage and rectify ground rule violations)Report a problem with this question

7. 7. At the end of a long day a design discussion becomes heated and personal. The decision is not needed until next week and both participants are visibly tired. What should the project manager do?

   • A.Tell both participants they agree more than they disagree and move to the next topic
   • B.Direct a decision immediately so the argument ends
   • C.Pause the discussion, let emotions settle, and reconvene next morning with the data both sides need✓ Answer
   • D.Split the difference by adopting half of each proposal

   Withdrawing or deferring is the right mode when a cooling-off period will improve the outcome and the decision is not time-critical, whereas smoothing hides the real disagreement and splitting the difference can yield a technically unsound design.

   Source: PMP ECO – Manage conflicts; withdrawal/avoidance is appropriate for a cooling-off period on non-urgent issuesReport a problem with this question

8. 8. Three days into a sprint the team reports that the shared test environment is being rebuilt by another department and will be unavailable for a week, blocking most of the sprint backlog. What should the project manager do FIRST?

   • A.Engage the other department, and the sponsor's support if needed, to restore or provision an alternative environment for the team✓ Answer
   • B.Quietly drop items from the sprint backlog so the burndown looks achievable
   • C.Instruct the team to verify the changes directly in production
   • D.Extend the sprint by one week

   Servant leadership means clearing the obstacle and supplying the resources the team cannot obtain on its own, since the team is fully capable of the work once the environment exists; changing sprint length or hiding scope reduction manages appearances rather than the cause.

   Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Lead the project team; servant leadership (removing obstacles, providing resources)Report a problem with this question

9. 9. A newly assembled hybrid team is in its third week. Members argue about who owns which decisions, meetings overrun, and output has dropped since week one. What is the BEST response?

   • A.Assign all work personally and end further discussion
   • B.Escalate to the sponsor and request that the team be re-formed
   • C.Recognize this as a normal stage of team development and facilitate a session to agree roles, decision rights and working agreements✓ Answer
   • D.Replace the most vocal members to restore harmony

   Storming is a normal and necessary stage in which a team negotiates roles and norms, so the leader coaches and facilitates it through to norming; replacing people or directing all work suppresses the conflict and prevents the team from ever reaching performing.

   Source: PMP ECO – Lead the project team (enabler: establish clear roles and responsibilities); Tuckman stages of team developmentReport a problem with this question

10. 10. Before iteration planning, a self-managing team asks the project manager to assign each story to a specific developer, as their previous manager did. What should the project manager do?

    • A.Ask the product owner to assign the stories instead
    • B.Facilitate planning so the team selects and distributes its own work against the iteration goal, coaching them through the first attempt✓ Answer
    • C.Assign the stories using a skills matrix to ensure the best fit
    • D.Escalate to the sponsor to confirm who has authority to assign work

    Empowering the team to choose its own work builds the ownership and shared accountability that make a self-managing team effective, so the leader clarifies the goal and constraints and coaches; taking the decision back reinforces dependency, and the product owner decides what and why, not who.

    Source: PMP ECO – Lead the project team (enablers: empower the team; establish expectations at the team level)Report a problem with this question

11. 11. A team member who joined two months ago has missed three commitments and their work needs rework. Others have begun quietly covering for them. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Record the performance issue in the next status report so the sponsor sees it
    • B.Reassign the person's tasks to stronger members without discussing it
    • C.Ask the resource manager to replace the team member
    • D.Speak with the person privately to understand what is causing the shortfall and agree on support such as coaching, training or pairing✓ Answer

    Underperformance usually has a diagnosable cause such as unclear expectations, a skills gap, a blocker or personal circumstances, so the professional sequence is a private conversation followed by development; a status report is never the channel for an individual's performance.

    Source: PMP ECO – Lead the project team (enablers: solve problems; support the team's varied experiences and skills)Report a problem with this question

12. 12. A team health chart shows velocity steady across five sprints while self-reported morale falls from 8 to 4 out of 10. Pay is competitive and a retention bonus was paid last quarter. Retrospectives say the work is repetitive and the team's improvement ideas are never adopted. What should the project manager do BEST?

    • A.Improve office facilities and equipment
    • B.Give the team authority to select and implement its own improvement items, rotate people onto more challenging work, and recognize contributions visibly✓ Answer
    • C.Add a weekly progress meeting to keep the team focused while morale recovers
    • D.Increase the retention bonus for next quarter

    Pay and working conditions are hygiene factors that only prevent dissatisfaction, while motivation comes from achievement, growth, autonomy and recognition; the chart shows throughput is fine and engagement is the problem, so adding control would make it worse.

    Source: PMP ECO – Lead the project team; Herzberg two-factor theory (hygiene factors vs. motivators); recognition and rewardsReport a problem with this question

13. 13. A hybrid team spans three time zones. The recurring integration meeting always falls at 11 p.m. for one region, and that region's attendance and contribution have declined. What is the BEST action?

    • A.Remove that region from the meeting and brief them separately by email
    • B.Rotate the meeting time so the inconvenience is shared, and move status content to asynchronous channels so live time is used for discussion✓ Answer
    • C.Record the meeting and let that region watch it the next day
    • D.Ask that region to permanently shift its working hours to match headquarters

    Distributed teams stay engaged only when the burden of time-zone overlap is shared equitably and live time is reserved for genuine two-way work; a recording gives information but no voice, and separate briefings create an in-group and an out-group.

    Source: PMP ECO – Lead the project team; leading virtual/distributed teams, equitable meeting practices, synchronous vs. asynchronous communicationReport a problem with this question

14. 14. A project manager notices that whenever the sponsor questions the team's estimates, her pulse rises and she interrupts him to defend the team. What BEST demonstrates emotional intelligence here?

    • A.Ask the sponsor to raise concerns more gently in future meetings
    • B.Avoid estimate discussions with the sponsor and send written estimates instead
    • C.Recognize the trigger, pause before responding, and ask questions to understand the sponsor's concern before answering✓ Answer
    • D.Delegate all sponsor interactions to a team lead who is less affected

    Emotional intelligence combines self-awareness (noticing the reaction), self-regulation (pausing instead of reacting) and social awareness (seeking the other person's real concern); avoidance or delegation removes the project manager from a relationship the project depends on.

    Source: PMP ECO – Lead the project team; emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, relationship management)Report a problem with this question

15. 15. Deliverables in a hybrid project sit waiting for approval for days. When asked, three managers each say they assumed one of the others was the approver. What should the project manager do BEST?

    • A.Add a daily approval-tracking meeting
    • B.Approve the deliverables personally to keep work moving
    • C.Escalate each stuck approval to the sponsor as it occurs
    • D.Work with the team and stakeholders to build a responsibility assignment matrix naming exactly one accountable party per deliverable✓ Answer

    A RACI matrix allows several people to be responsible, consulted or informed but requires exactly one accountable party per deliverable, which is precisely the ambiguity causing the delays; extra meetings and escalations only handle each instance after it stalls.

    Source: PMP ECO – Lead the project team (enabler: establish clear roles and responsibilities); RACI, one accountable party per deliverableReport a problem with this question

16. 16. After the organization announces that an AI coding assistant will be rolled out, a previously open team stops raising defects and risks in standups, and one member privately asks whether the team will be cut. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Create space to discuss the concerns openly, clarify how roles and expectations will change, and arrange upskilling✓ Answer
    • B.Postpone the rollout indefinitely until the team feels comfortable
    • C.Explain that leadership made the decision and the team should focus on delivery
    • D.Mandate use of the tool and track per-person productivity metrics

    Silence about defects and risks is a psychological-safety symptom: people stop surfacing problems when they fear the consequences, and problems that surface late cost the most, so naming the fear and pairing it with concrete upskilling restores early disclosure.

    Source: PMP ECO – Lead the project team (enablers: establish expectations at the team level; support varied experiences, skills and perspectives); psychological safetyReport a problem with this question

17. 17. During execution a regional operations director contacts the project manager with acceptance requirements no one had captured. She controls the sites where the solution will be deployed. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Explain that requirements were baselined and she should have participated earlier
    • B.Analyze her influence, interest and expectations, update the stakeholder register and engagement plan, then plan how to engage her✓ Answer
    • C.Add her requirements to the backlog so the team can start on them
    • D.Ask the sponsor to confirm that she has no authority over the project

    Stakeholder identification is iterative rather than a one-time activity, and a newly surfaced stakeholder who controls deployment sites is a direct threat to acceptance, so she must be analyzed and added to the register and engagement plan before any scope decision is made.

    Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Engage stakeholders (enablers: identify stakeholders; analyze stakeholders); stakeholder register updated throughoutReport a problem with this question

18. 18. A stakeholder engagement assessment matrix shows an influential department head as current 'resistant' and desired 'supportive'. He attends no meetings and has criticized the project publicly. What should the project manager do NEXT?

    • A.Ask the sponsor to instruct him to support the project
    • B.Reduce his involvement so his criticism carries less weight
    • C.Meet him one on one to understand the concerns behind his resistance✓ Answer
    • D.Send him a more detailed weekly report so he is better informed

    The matrix only quantifies that a gap exists; closing it requires knowing why, because resistance normally has a real driver such as impact on his staff or an unclear benefit, which more reporting cannot address and sponsor pressure usually hardens.

    Source: PMP ECO – Engage stakeholders (enablers: analyze stakeholders; build trust and influence stakeholders); stakeholder engagement assessment matrixReport a problem with this question

19. 19. In a matrix organization the project depends on a specialist group that does not report to the project manager, and the group keeps deprioritizing the project's requests. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Escalate to the sponsor and ask that the group be directed to comply
    • B.Add a penalty clause to the internal service agreement
    • C.Build a relationship with the group's leader, understand their competing commitments, and negotiate a realistic commitment based on mutual benefit✓ Answer
    • D.Raise a formal complaint with human resources

    Without formal authority the project manager's leverage is relationship, trust and demonstrated mutual value, and negotiating at the working level resolves the issue at the lowest level while preserving a relationship the project will need for months; escalation remains a later option if negotiation fails.

    Source: PMP ECO – Engage stakeholders (enabler: build trust and influence stakeholders to accomplish project objectives)Report a problem with this question

20. 20. Two business units each lobby the project manager privately to have their feature delivered in the next release, and each claims their need is more urgent. What should the project manager do BEST?

    • A.Prioritize the unit that contributes more funding
    • B.Alternate: give one unit the next release and the other the following one
    • C.Bring both units together with the product owner in a facilitated session and prioritize against the product vision and agreed value criteria✓ Answer
    • D.Ask the sponsor to decide which unit takes precedence

    Shuttling between parties leaves both feeling undercut, whereas a facilitated joint conversation with explicit shared criteria makes the trade-off transparent and durable, and the product vision — not funding share or turn-taking — is the legitimate tiebreaker.

    Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Align stakeholder expectations (enablers: identify stakeholder expectations; facilitate discussions to align expectations)Report a problem with this question

21. 21. A junior business analyst on the customer side writes vague acceptance criteria, which has caused two rounds of rework and growing frustration on both sides. What should the project manager do BEST?

    • A.Raise the rework as a contractual issue with the customer's project office
    • B.Offer to mentor her: review examples together, co-write the next set of criteria, then gradually hand the work back✓ Answer
    • C.Ask the customer to assign a more experienced analyst
    • D.Write the acceptance criteria on her behalf to avoid further rework

    Mentoring builds the stakeholder's own capability so the misalignment stops recurring and the relationship strengthens, whereas writing the criteria yourself takes away the customer's ownership of what 'done' means and a contractual move escalates a solvable skills gap.

    Source: PMP ECO – Align stakeholder expectations (enabler: organize and act on mentoring opportunities)Report a problem with this question

22. 22. A stakeholder insists the team adopt a specific dashboard product she saw at a conference and presses for it in the next iteration. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Log the request in the issue log and revisit it at the end of the release
    • B.Add the product to the iteration so the stakeholder stays engaged
    • C.Explore with her which decisions or problems she needs the dashboard to address, then evaluate options with her against that need✓ Answer
    • D.Explain that the product is not in the approved budget and decline

    A named product is a proposed solution, not a requirement, so surfacing the underlying need first often reveals a faster or cheaper way to achieve the same outcome and avoids both an unnecessary purchase and the relationship damage of a flat refusal.

    Source: PMP ECO – Align stakeholder expectations (enabler: identify stakeholder expectations); distinguishing stated wants from underlying needsReport a problem with this question

23. 23. A hybrid project is on schedule and within budget and every accepted deliverable met its acceptance criteria, yet the customer tells the steering committee the project is not delivering what they expected. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Ask the sponsor to remind the customer what was agreed in the charter
    • B.Present schedule and cost performance data showing the project is performing as agreed
    • C.Raise a change request immediately to add the features the customer seems to want
    • D.Meet the customer to understand the gap between the outcomes they expected and what was delivered, then realign with the sponsor and product owner✓ Answer

    Project success is judged by the value and outcomes stakeholders actually receive, not only by conformance to schedule, cost and scope, so defending the baseline answers a question the customer did not ask and a change request raised before diagnosis usually buys the wrong thing.

    Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Manage stakeholder expectations (enabler: monitor customer satisfaction and expectations and respond as needed)Report a problem with this question

24. 24. A developer has been adding small unrequested features because 'the customer will love them', and the customer has begun to expect them. Which combination of actions is BEST?

    • A.Accept the added features into the baseline and increase the budget to cover them
    • B.Thank the developer for the initiative and let it continue where capacity allows
    • C.Report the developer to the sponsor and strip the extra features from the product
    • D.Speak with the developer privately about routing all change ideas through the product owner, and meet the customer to reset how changes are requested and prioritized✓ Answer

    Gold plating spends capacity on unvalidated work and quietly raises the customer's expectation baseline, so two things must be corrected: the individual behavior, handled privately and directly, and the customer expectation, reset through an agreed intake path.

    Source: PMP ECO – Manage stakeholder expectations (enabler: align and maintain outcomes to customer expectations); gold platingReport a problem with this question

25. 25. The only engineer who understands a legacy interface resigns and will leave in four weeks. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Ask the engineer to spend the final week writing complete documentation
    • B.Request a replacement hire and wait for the new engineer to arrive
    • C.Start pairing and job shadowing immediately so two other engineers work alongside him, capturing key decisions and known pitfalls as they go✓ Answer
    • D.Reschedule all work touching the legacy interface until after he leaves

    Most of what a lone expert holds is tacit knowledge — judgment and context that transfer only through working together — so pairing and shadowing move it while the person is still there and remove the single point of failure; a document written under end-of-notice pressure captures only the explicit part.

    Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Help ensure knowledge transfer (enablers: identify critical knowledge; gather knowledge); tacit vs. explicit knowledgeReport a problem with this question

26. 26. A project manager discovers her team just spent two weeks solving a vendor integration problem that another team in the same program solved last quarter. What should she do BEST?

    • A.Wait until closure and record the issue in the lessons learned repository
    • B.Ask the program manager to require each team to submit a monthly written report
    • C.Assign one person on each team to read the other teams' documentation
    • D.Record the lesson in the lessons learned register now and set up a regular cross-team forum where teams share solutions while work is in progress✓ Answer

    Lessons learned are captured continuously in the lessons learned register so the current work can benefit; if knowledge is only harvested into the repository at closure it arrives after it could have been used, and recurring human interaction moves tacit know-how that written reports rarely do.

    Source: PMP ECO – Help ensure knowledge transfer (enabler: foster an environment for knowledge transfer); lessons learned register maintained throughout vs. repository at closureReport a problem with this question

27. 27. A supplier delay will push a milestone that a key stakeholder's product launch depends on. The weekly status report goes out tomorrow and the steering committee meets in nine days. What should the project manager do FIRST?

    • A.Include the delay in tomorrow's weekly status report
    • B.Email all stakeholders a summary of the delay and its impact
    • C.Wait for the steering committee so the impact can be presented with recovery options
    • D.Contact the affected stakeholder directly for an interactive conversation as soon as possible, then confirm the agreed actions in writing✓ Answer

    Bad news and anything requiring a joint decision belong in the richest interactive channel, where the stakeholder can ask questions and help shape the response; burying it in a report or broadcast email delays his ability to react and damages trust, and written confirmation follows the conversation rather than replacing it.

    Source: PMP ECO, People domain – Plan and manage communication (enablers: define a communication strategy; promote transparency); interactive communication for urgent or sensitive messagesReport a problem with this question

28. 28. A sprint burndown chart shows the remaining-work line almost flat for the first eight days of a ten-day sprint, then dropping sharply on the last day. The same pattern appears in the two previous sprints. What should the project manager do BEST?

    • A.Report to the sponsor that the team lacks discipline and request outside coaching
    • B.Require the team to update the board twice a day so the chart looks smoother
    • C.Congratulate the team on consistently meeting the sprint goal and increase the next commitment
    • D.Facilitate a retrospective discussion about how work flows through the sprint: batch size, work in progress, and when items actually meet the definition of done✓ Answer

    A flat-then-cliff burndown means everything is in progress at once and nothing finishes until the end, so the team has no early warning if the sprint is failing; the chart is an information radiator, and the correct response is to make the team's own flow visible so it can fix the cause rather than cosmetically smoothing the line or escalating.

    Source: PMP ECO – Plan and manage communication (enablers: promote transparency and collaboration; establish a feedback loop); information radiators as team feedback devicesReport a problem with this question

Practice questions based on the PMI PMP Examination Content Outline and standard project-management frameworks (PMBOK Guide, Agile Practice Guide). PMP and PMBOK are marks of the Project Management Institute; this site is not affiliated with or endorsed by PMI. Study the official Exam Content Outline and confirm current requirements before testing. About the PMP exam →