CAPM Mock Exam Series – Part 7

Overall explanation
The burnup and burndown charts are created to identify the amount of workload achieved and how much remains to be completed (PMBOK 7th edition, page 188). In a burndown chart, the line goes downwards, while in a burnup chart, the line goes upwards, which in both cases illustrates the team’s progress. When burndown or burnup charts reveal issues related to sprint progress, which can be due to both technical or non-technical reasons, a self-organizing team should take corrective actions. In their next retrospective meeting, the team needs to reflect on what happened and how to better handle issues in the future.

The term “impediment” refers to problems and issues that stop the project team’s progress. Impediments should be constantly and regularly identified as they can hinder a project’s completion. Identifying, tracking, and helping remove impediments is one of the main responsibilities of the Project Manager or Scrum Master. Often, team members are able to remove their own impediments, as in the case of technical issues or risks. However, some impediments involving external issues or risks can be beyond the team’s ability to remove them. In this case, opting for support from outside of the Team is needed to overcome impediments.

Explanation
Risk Transference is a risk response strategy that involves shifting the impact or management of a risk to a third party, often through contracts, insurance, or outsourcing. The responsibility for dealing with the risk is transferred, but it doesn’t eliminate the risk itself. (PMBOK Guide 7th Edition, page 248)

A phase-gate review is conducted to evaluate the project’s deliverables and performance at the end of a project phase. It determines whether the project is ready to proceed to the next phase, based on criteria such as completion of deliverables, alignment with objectives, and overall project health. (PMBOK Guide 7th Edition, page 42)

Explanation
In a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), the work package is the lowest level of the hierarchy. It represents a specific piece of work that can be assigned to a team or individual.

Explanation
A product roadmap typically includes high-level plans for product development, such as product releases, milestones, and the timeline for delivering features. It also considers market forces to align the product’s development with market trends and demands. Additionally, the roadmap outlines success criteria to measure whether the product is meeting its objectives. However, a procurement strategy is not typically part of a product roadmap. Procurement strategies are more focused on acquiring resources, services, or materials needed for the project.

Explanation
Retrospectives are Agile practices where the team reflects on the completed work after each iteration (or sprint), provides continuous feedback, and adapts processes or workflows to improve future performance. It is a key mechanism for ongoing improvement (Agile practice guide, page 50).

Explanation
A risk register in project management is used to document identified risks, their potential impact, probability, and the actions or strategies to manage them. It helps project teams track and address risks throughout the project’s life cycle.

Overall explanation
Emotional intelligence is the interpersonal skill that enables project managers to understand, manage, and influence their own emotions and those of their team members. This skill is crucial for motivating and engaging teams effectively, fostering collaboration, and managing interpersonal dynamics.

Explanation
In adaptive approaches like Scrum, the responsibility for eliciting and analyzing requirements is shared across the entire team, not solely the business analyst. All team members contribute to understanding and refining the product requirements, which helps in delivering a solution that meets stakeholder needs. The business analyst may still take a leading role, but the whole team is involved (PMI Guide to business analysis, page 311).

During the daily standup, the scrum master listens to the team members for any faced impediments and provides support in case of need. It’s recommended that the standup meeting is facilitated by any team member rather than the project manager to ensure it does not turn into a status meeting. Ideally, it is a time for the team to self-organize and make commitments to each other (Agile Practice Guide, page 54).

Explanation
Creative thinking in business analysis is defined by the ability to explore and identify various potential solutions while working within the project’s known constraints. This includes thinking beyond conventional approaches to solve problems in innovative ways (PMI Guide to business analysis, page 368).

Explanation
A business analyst ensures that the requirements are correctly understood and reflected in the test cases. Test cases must be aligned with business objectives and requirements, which the business analyst is best positioned to verify. By reviewing the test cases, the business analyst ensures that they effectively cover the scenarios that the product needs to fulfill, minimizing gaps between what was requested by the business and what is being tested (PMI Guide to business analysis, page 51).

Explanation
Sensitivity Analysis is used to evaluate uncertainties and their potential impact on project outcomes by assessing how changes in one or more variables affect the project’s objectives or results. It helps in understanding the relationship between variables and the sensitivity of project outcomes to changes. (PMBOK Guide 7th Edition, page 249)

Overall explanation
It is the responsibility of the Product Owner to maintain and refine the backlog. Upon receiving a new requirement, it should be added to the backlog and then prioritized for implementation. Any stakeholder, not just the product owner, can submit a request.

Option A: The situation involves an adaptive approach, therefore submitting a change request is not appropriate.

Overall explanation
A Sponsor is the person or group that provides the resources, support, and authority necessary for a project and is ultimately responsible for its success. The sponsor champions the project within the organization and ensures alignment with business goals.

Explanation
Activity List is a documented tabulation of all scheduled activities showing their description and detailed scope, providing project team members with a clear understanding of what work needs to be performed. The WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the entire scope of work required to achieve the project’s objectives and deliverables. It is a foundational tool in scope management, ensuring that all project work is identified and organized.

Explanation
A Requirements traceability matrix helps track the relationships between requirements and other project elements (such as design, development, and testing). It allows the team to assess the impact of changes to a specific requirement on the overall product by tracing how the requirement is connected to other parts of the system.

Explanation
This approach ensures that the feedback from the two departments is considered while keeping the company’s overall objectives in focus. Collaboration allows the team to find common ground and create a product scope that meets broader business goals, rather than focusing solely on departmental objectives.

Overall explanation
The project is behind schedule and under budget:

You can calculate the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) by dividing Earned Value (EV) by Planned Value (PV): SPI = EV / PV.

If SPI > 1, then the project is ahead of schedule.

If SPI < 1, then the project is behind schedule. The Cost Performance Index (CPI) is calculated by dividing Earned Value (EV) by Actual Cost (AC): CPI = EV / AC. If the CPI is > 1, then the project is under budget.

If it is < 1, then the project is over budget.

Explanation
The main responsibility of a business analyst within a project team is delivering the product and ensuring that it meets business needs and objectives (PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 49).

Explanation
During project closure, finalizing and closing all contracts ensures that all contractual obligations are fulfilled and completed. This includes confirming that deliverables have been provided, payments have been made, and any outstanding contractual matters are resolved (PMBOK Guide 7th Edition, page 47).

Overall explanation
Brainstorming and Interviews are both common elicitation techniques used by business analysts. Brainstorming helps generate ideas in a group setting, while interviews are conducted with stakeholders to gather detailed information about the project requirements​ (PMI Guide to business analysis, page 164).

Option B: While market analysis is a valuable tool for strategic planning and understanding market conditions, it is not a primary elicitation technique used to gather specific project requirements​.

Option C: SWOT analysis is used for assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, but it is not an elicitation technique for gathering requirements​.

Option D: Risk assessment focuses on identifying and managing project risks rather than eliciting stakeholder needs and requirements​.

Overall explanation
The guiding principles in Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) include (Agile practice guide, page 112):

Take an economic view: Ensure that decisions are made with an understanding of the broader economic impact.

Apply systems thinking: Focus on optimizing the entire system, not just individual components.

Assume variability, preserve options: Embrace variability in development and keep options open until the last responsible moment to make decisions.

Explanation
The Monitoring and Controlling Process Group focuses on assessing the impact of proposed product changes and evaluating business analysis performance to ensure that changes align with business goals and that communication with stakeholders is ongoing, ensuring that changes are properly managed.