CHAPTER 2

PROJECT MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW

PROJECT MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW

Chapters 1 and 2 of the PMBOK^® Guide provide a basic structure for the field of project management. These chapters introduce project management and the context or environment in which projects operate. Together, these first two chapters contain many important definitions and concepts that must be understood before attempting the remaining chapters of thePMBOK^® Guide.
Project management overview questions on the PMP exam mainly cover definitions, concepts, and approaches. You must be very familiar with PMI terminology. Projects, programs, project management, stakeholders, project and product life cycles, organizational structures, and influences are among the topics covered.

EXAM TIP
Reference the Glossary of the PMBOK^® Guide frequently to learn PMI terminology.

1. Things to Know
2. The various project constraints
3. The definition of business value, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets
4. The difference between project management, program management, and portfolio management as each relates to the various knowledge areas
5. The difference between projects, programs, and portfolios
6. The purpose of the project management office
7. Project management’s role in operations management and in organizational strategy
8. The roles and interpersonal skills of the project manager
9. The many organizational cultures and styles
10. The importance of organizational communication
11. Three primary forms of organizational structure
12. The value of governance
13. Variations in project team composition
14. The differences between projects, products, and their respective life cycles
15. The preferred use of incremental, predictive, and adaptive life cycles
16. The concept of the influence curve

Key Definitions

Business value: the entire value of the business; the total sum of all tangible and intangible elements.
Colocation: project team members are physically located close to one another in order to improve communication, working relations, and productivity.
Constraints: a restriction or limitation that may force a certain course of action or inaction.
Good practice: a specific activity or application of a skill, tool, or technique that has been proven to contribute positively to the execution of a process.
Enterprise environmental factors: external or internal factors that can influence a project’s success. These factors include controllable factors such as the tools used in managing projects within the organization or uncontrollable factors that have to be considered by the project manager such as market conditions or corporate culture.
Operation: ongoing work performed by people, constrained by resources, planned, executed, monitored, and controlled. Unlike a project, operations are repetitive; e.g., the work performed to carry out the day-to-day business of an organization is operational work.
Organizational process assets: any formal or informal processes, plans, policies, procedures, guidelines, and on-going or historical project information such as lessons learned, measurement data, project files, and estimates versus actuals.
Portfolio: a collection of programs, projects, and additional work managed together to facilitate the attainment of strategic business goals.
Product life cycle: the collection of stages that make up the life of a product. These stages are typically introduction, growth, maturity, and retirement.
Program: a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way; e.g., the design and creation of the prototype for a new airplane is a project, while manufacturing 99 more airplanes of the same model is a program.
Progressive elaboration: the iterative process of continuously improving the detailed plan as more information becomes available and estimates for remaining work can be forecast more accurately.
Project: work performed by people, constrained by resources, planned, executed, monitored, and controlled. It has definite beginning and end points and creates a unique outcome that may be a product, service, or result.
Project life cycle: the name given to the collection of various phases that make up a project. These phases make the project easier to control and integrate. The result of each phase is one or more deliverables that are utilized in the next few phases. The work of each phase is accomplished through the iterative application of the initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing process groups.

EXAM TIP
Read the PMI Lexicon of Project Management. It provides the foundational professional vocabulary.
Project management: the ability to meet project requirements by using various knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to accomplish project work. Project work is completed through the iterative application of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing process groups. Project management is challenged by competing and changing demands for scope (customer needs, expectations, and requirements), resources (people, time, and cost), risks (known and unknown), and quality (of the project and product).
Project management information system: the collection of tools, methodologies, techniques, standards, and resources used to manage a project. These may be formal systems and strategies determined by the organization or informal methods utilized by project managers.
Stakeholders: individuals and organizations who are involved in or may be affected by project activities. Examples of stakeholders include the project manager, team members, the performing organization, the project sponsor, and the customer. The PMBOK^® Guide advocates that any discrepancies between stakeholder requirements should be resolved in favor of the customer. Therefore, the customer is one of the most important stakeholders in any project.
Standard: a document that describes rules, guidelines, methods, processes, and practices that can be used repeatedly to enhance the chances of success.
Subproject: a component of a project. Subprojects can be contracted out to an external enterprise or to another functional unit.

PROJECT CONSTRAINTS
Projects are often performed under many constraints that could impinge on the project’s successful completion. In addition, these constraints interact and require tradeoffs or decisions that must be made to fulfill project objectives.
For example, additional scope requirements will usually mean either more time to complete those requirements or more resources to work on these requirements, thereby increasing project cost as well as creating additional project teams. These project constraints were previously known as the triple constraint.
The PMBOK^® Guide has expanded the number of constraints that need to be balanced in managing a project. These constraints now include:

• Scope
• Quality
• Budget (Cost)
• Resources (Cost, Time)
• Schedule (Time)
• Risk

                                                 Figure 2-1 Project Constraints

If one factor changes, one or more other factors are impacted, as depicted in Figure 2-1. In addition, enterprise environmental factors may also constrain or limit the project team’s ability to function.

BUSINESS VALUE
Every organization has value. If there were no value in a business, it would not exist. Some businesses provide commercial value, while others benefit the community or stockholders. Each organization’s value is unique, just as each project is unique. For any project to be successful, the project manager and project team must understand how the project relates to the value of the business. Understanding the business value of an organization will make project managers’ responses to varying situations more effective.

ENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
The workplace has changed tremendously in the last two decades, forcing organizations to compete in a global economy. Various internal and external factors can and often do contribute to, or detract from, a project’s success.
Project teams are now often geographically dispersed, and the colocation of project team members, although still a viable technique, is often no longer possible. With the advent of virtual teams (project teams that spend little or no time meeting face-to-face), the enterprise environmental factors and cultural norms, standard processes, common project management information systems, and the organization’s established communications channels are more important than ever.
Some best practices for project teams with one or more virtual team members are:

• Use web tools for virtual meetings to facilitate communications among team members and key stakeholders
• Be conscious of different time zones and cultures
• Use a virtual team room, BLOGs, WIKIs, or other collaboration tools for project deliverables and work products
• Be familiar with the organizational process assets and project management information systems, and have both easily accessible
• Use a proven defined approach, and document the adaptations (tailoring) of the process to fit the needs and requirements of the project
• Have frequent and regular contact with all stakeholders (virtual or face-to-face)
• Hold regularly scheduled team meetings to define requirements, discuss issues, review deliverables, and make decisions
• Use multiple methods of communication, such as mail, email, phone calls, phone conferences, virtual meetings, face-to-face meetings when possible, and teleconferences

ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESS ASSETS

An organizational process asset can be any tangible property or resource of the organization that the project team has access to use, re-use, tailor, or modify to support the project effort. The following are examples of situations in which a project manager utilized an organizational process asset:

• Using a schedule template for an information technology project within the same organization as the starting point for the WBS development activities
• Using a prior quality control plan as the basis for another project’s quality control plan
• Inserting current human resource guidelines for hiring and managing contractor resources for the project within the human resources plan
• Reviewing a prior project’s lessons learned document to trigger thought and discussion on potential risks that could be encountered on the existing project

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PROJECT MANAGEMENT, PROGRAM MANAGEMENT, AND PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

Many organizations use the terms project, program, and portfolio very loosely. For the exam, you must understand the specific definitions of each term and how they relate to one another. In addition, you must recognize that a project manager’s function is very different from the function of a program manager or portfolio manager. Although each uses the same set of knowledge areas, these individuals have very different functions to perform during each knowledge area.

EXAM TIP

Read Table 1-1 of the PMBOK^® Guide to understand the different functions performed by project managers, program managers, and portfolio managers within each knowledge area.

Projects, Programs, and Portfolios

Projects are unique, one-time endeavors with a defined beginning and end. They have specific objectives to fulfill, which are achieved through the coordination of interrelated tasks and activities.

Projects are not independent events within an organization. They are one piece of an overall strategic plan. The projects that an organization undertakes should facilitate the achievement of that strategic plan. They should be prioritized so that the most important projects are given every opportunity to succeed and should regularly be re-assessed as to their impact on the overall corporate vision.

A program is a collection of related projects that have a single focused objective. Managing projects within a program adds complexity and requires additional coordination between the projects within the program. However, program management can enhance the value of projects by coordinating seemingly independent activities. Programs may include elements of related work outside of the scope of the discrete projects in the program.

A portfolio is a group of projects that are coordinated so that the organization can implement its business strategy and organizational vision. The projects or programs in the portfolio may not be interdependent or directly related.

There is usually no lack of projects within an organization, but every organization has a limited amount of time, money, staff, expertise, assets, and other resources. Two aspects that are most important in choosing projects are critical, specialized resources and money. There are always more “good” projects that could be selected than there are resources.

Portfolio management is the pursuit of a balanced portfolio of projects. The balance comes from comparing several factors, which may include:

• External market-driven costs versus internal cost reduction
• Enterprise versus business unit benefit
• Research and development versus existing product lines
• Short-term versus long-term goals
• High risks versus low risks

Portfolio management will aid in managing scarce resources. It benefits business units as they plan and execute projects. It provides senior management a way to compare projects across the organization and to consider new prospects that arise during the course of business. It also assists in managing project and organization risks.

Organizations that manage portfolios of projects and programs have a greater capability to plan and predict their financial results. When projects and programs are defined in terms of their contribution to the organization, senior management makes better decisions about the mix of projects and programs and their associated values.

Portfolio management helps all levels and business units communicate, which increases the probability that the organization will have long-term financial success.

Project Management Office (PMO)

The project management office is an additional layer of organization dedicated to helping project managers. Although most often found in matrixed or projectized organizations, a project management office may exist in any type of organizational structure. Figure 2-2 shows the pros and cons of adding a PMO layer of organization.

                                                Figure 2-2 PMO Pros and Cons

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY
The PMBOK^® Guide emphasizes the role projects play within an organization’s operations and in strategic planning, and it has also made a clear distinction between operations and project management. You must understand how projects are critical to the operations of a business in achieving organizational goals and how project management supports operations.
No organization will grow without an excellent execution of strategy. An organization chooses projects that directly deliver components of an organizational strategy.

ROLES AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS OF THE PROJECT MANAGER
The PMBOK^® Guide emphasizes the responsibilities and competencies necessary for project managers to succeed. Project managers must have enough knowledge to perform their function. They must be able to execute all necessary work and must do so in a professional and ethical way.

In addition, the PMBOK^® Guide stresses the importance of interpersonal skills. It specifically lists 11 such skills that can be leveraged in the various situations a project manager will encounter. These skills are:

• Leadership
• Team building
• Motivation
• Communication
• Influencing
• Decision making
• Political and cultural awareness
• Negotiation
• Trust building
• Conflict management
• Coaching

EXAM TIP

Read the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

In this book, as we discuss each of the ten knowledge areas, we may highlight these skills and demonstrate how the interpersonal skill can be used to a project manager’s advantage.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES AND STYLES

Organizational cultures and styles play a large part in any organization. Every organization is different, and what works in one organization may not work in another. The project manager must be able to assess the organizational cultures and styles of both the performing organization as well as external organizations that may be interacting with the project, such as the customer or vendor.

Knowing the vision, values, regulations, risk tolerance, and work ethic of an organization, to name a few, will change how a project manager manages and responds to situations on the project.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

Project managers are told from the very beginning that communication is a large part of their job. As the profession of project management matures and as the use of virtual teams grows, the complexities of communication will increase and the risks associated with poor communication will also increase.

It is paramount that the project manager use a variety of communication tools to ensure good and clear communications to all the project stakeholders.

FORMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The PMBOK^® Guidestresses the importance of organizational structures because the organizational structure will often constrain the availability of resources for a project. Become very familiar with Table 2-1 in the PMBOK^® Guide, Organizational Influences on Projects.

EXAM TIP

You should study the PMBOK^® Guide’s:

• Figure 2-1: Functional Organization
• Figure 2-2: Weak Matrix Organization
• Figure 2-3: Balanced Matrix Organization
• Figure 2-4: Strong Matrix Organization
• Figure 2-5: Projectized Organization
• Figure 2-12: Composite Organization

Functional Organization

In a functional organization, each employee is in a hierarchical structure with one clear superior. Staff is grouped by specialty, such as accounting, marketing, or engineering. The pros and cons of a functional organization are shown in Figure 2-3 below. Included in a functional organization is the use of a project expeditor or a project coordinator.

Project expeditor (PE): the PE is a facilitator who acts as the staff assistant to the executive who has ultimate responsibility for the project. This person has little formal authority. The PE’s primary responsibility is to communicate information between the executive and the workers. This type of structure is useful in functional organizations in which project costs are relatively low.

Project coordinator (PC): the PC reports to a higher level in the hierarchy and is usually a staff position. A PC has more formal authority and responsibility than a PE. A PC can assign work to functional workers. This type of structure is useful in functional organizations in which project costs are relatively low compared to those in the rest of the organization.

                            Figure 2-3 Functional Organization Pros and Cons

Matrix Organization

Understand the matrix organizations—weak, balanced, and strong—and how they differ. The pros and cons of a matrix organization are listed in Figure 2-4 below. Matrix organizations have:

• High potential for conflict
• Team members who are borrowed from their functional groups and who are therefore caught between their functional manager and their project manager (but as projects draw to a close, these team members know they have a “home” with their functional groups)
• Team members who only see pieces of the project and may not see the project to completion
• An advantage in relatively complex projects in which cross-organizational knowledge and expertise are needed
• Project managers whose authority and time on a project increases from weak matrix (lowest) to balanced matrix to strong matrix (highest)

EXAM TIP

The PMBOK^® Guide places enormous emphasis on the social, economic, and environmental influences on projects. A key influence on the role and authority of the project manager is the organizational structure. Anyone wishing to pass the exam must understand organizational influences.

                               Figure 2-4 Matrix Organization Pros and Cons

Projectized Organization
In a projectized organization, team members are often colocated and the project manager has a great deal of independence and authority. Team members worry about their jobs as a project draws to a close. Figure 2-5 below shows the pros and cons of a projectized organization.

                                  Figure 2-5 Projectized Organization Pros and Cons

GOVERNANCE
Project governance is an oversight function that provides an organization’s project teams direction and structure for successfully delivering projects. Project management offices, program management offices, and portfolio management offices are all forms of governance; however, within an organization, how each office provides value to the project teams will vary from company to company.
For the exam you should know the various elements that could be included in a governance framework.

PROJECT TEAMS
Project teams and their composition can also impact the success of a project. One of the key challenges project managers face is project staff who are part-time and not dedicated to the project. Organizational culture, project scope, and resource location are all factors in team composition.
Additionally, projects interact with external entities which can also impact the team composition. For the exam, you should understand how having a partnership, joint venture, consortium, or alliance could impact the overall team effectiveness and thereby change how a project manager approaches the management of the project.

PROJECT LIFE CYCLE
A project life cycle defines:

• The phases that a project goes through from initiation to closure (the PMBOK^® Guide states that a project contains an initial phase, one or more intermediate phases, and a final phase)
• The technical work to be done in each phase
• The skills involved in each phase
• The deliverables and acceptance criteria for each phase
• How each phase will be monitored, controlled, and approved before moving to the next phase

                                                   Figure 2-6 Project Life Cycle

A typical project life cycle contains the following four phases, as shown in Figure 2-6.

• Starting the project (the concept phase): the problem to be solved is identified. Deliverables from this phase could be:
• Feasibility studies that clarify the problem to be solved
• Order of magnitude forecasts of cost
• A project charter to grant permission for the project to proceed
• Organizing and preparing (the development and planning phase): what needs to be done is identified. Deliverables created here include
• The scope statement
• A work breakdown structure (WBS)
• A schedule baseline
• A determination of budgetary costs and a developed budget
• The identification of resources and team members with levels of responsibility
• A risk assessment
• A communications management plan
• The project management plan
• Control systems and methods for handling change control
• Carrying out the work (the implementation and execution phase): the actual work of the project is carried out. Deliverables include:
• Execution results for work packages
• Status reports and performance reporting
• Procurement of goods and services
• Managing, controlling, and redirecting (if needed) scope, quality, schedule, and cost
• Resolution of problems
• Integration of the product into operations and the transferral of responsibility
• Closing the project (the termination and close phase): the product is finalized, evaluated, and rejected or accepted. Deliverables include:
• Formal acceptance
• Documented results and lessons learned
• Reassignment or release of resources

Projects versus Products

A project is a temporary endeavor that is undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. When the outcome of a project is related to a product, the outcome of the project could, for instance, be:

• The development of a new stand-alone product
• The addition of new functions or features to an existing product
• The development of a component or segment of a product or of an aspect of a product such as a prototype or installation at a new location

A product is an artifact that is produced and is quantifiable. It can either be an end item such as an airplane, or a software application, or it can be a component item such as an engine, or a software feature.

Relationship of Project Life Cycle to Product Life Cycle

The life cycle of a project is only one aspect of the overall product life cycle, as Figure 2-7 below shows. A project can be initiated to determine the feasibility of a product in the introductory stage of a product life cycle. There may be a second project to address the design and development of the product once the feasibility study has determined the viability of the product.

                                                     Figure 2-7 Product Life Cycle

The number of projects initiated to support the product life cycle will vary from organization to organization and from product to product.

Project life cycle phases and product life cycle phases are often defined similarly. For example, a project life cycle may start with a feasibility phase to determine if the project can achieve its objectives while the first phase in a product life cycle might consist of a market study to determine if the product will meet sales goals.

Phases of a product life cycle are generally performed in sequence. Although the phases in a project life cycle can be performed sequentially, it is increasingly common that phases overlap or are iterative. In an overlapping relationship, the next phase of the product life cycle is initiated before the closing of the previous phase. The process groups are repeated within each phase of the project life cycle to guide the project to completion. This overlapping of process groups within phases can be seen in thePMBOK^® Guide’s Figure 2-12.

In the PMBOK^® Guide, three distinct project life cycles are discussed. You must know the differences between them and when they are generally preferred to be used.

• Predictive: used when a product is well understood (such as in building a house
• Iterative or incremental: used when an organization needs to manage changing objectives and scope or when the partial delivery of a product is beneficial (such as with an environmental study that needs to be completed before plans can be finalized on a new airport runway)
• Adaptive: used when dealing with a rapidly changing environment and when requirements and scope are difficult to define in advance (such as with market driven software product development)

THE INFLUENCE CURVE

The influence curve demonstrates how important it is for organizations to plan projects. Note that the ability of a stakeholder to influence a change is high at the beginning of a project and decreases as the project progresses. Conversely, the impact or cost of a change is low at the beginning of a project and increases as the project progresses, as seen in Figure 2-8.

                                            Figure 2-8 The Influence Curve

SAMPLE PMP EXAM QUESTIONS ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW

1.As the project manager on a software development project, your organization typically breaks up software projects into four smaller projects: requirements, design and development, quality assurance, and implementation. This is an example of:

a)	A work breakdown schedule
b)	A functional organization
c)	Progressive elaboration
d)	A project life cycle

2.One difference between a program and a portfolio is that:

a)	Programs are unique endeavors while portfolios are continuous
b)	A portfolio’s success is dependent on the performance of the portfolio items, while a program’s success is based on the program charter
c)	Programs are a set of related projects, while portfolios include all projects, related or not
d)	Programs have a business scope, while portfolios have a strategic scope

3.The life cycle that is preferred when the project scope is well-defined is called:

a)	Incremental
b)	Adaptive
c)	Predictive
d)	Iterative

4.You have been working on your project in a foreign country. As you are exiting, you are forced to pay a substantial, “unofficial” exit fee. On your expense report, you:

a)	Show nothing for the exit fee
b)	Bury the exit fee in other parts of your expense report
c)	Ask the sponsor how you could report the exit fee
d)	Include the cost of the exit fee since you had to pay it to leave the country

5.Virtual teams rely on which of the following to be efficient and productive?

a)	Collaborative online workspaces
b)	Colocation of team members
c)	Business partners who provide specialized expertise
d)	Project management staff to handle administrative support

6.You are a project manager assigned to a project that is estimated to cost $3 million dollars. The product of the project is being developed because of speculation that a new market will be opening up. The senior management team has a high tolerance for risk and is willing to spend $3 million and potentially gain nothing in return. Embarking on this kind of project makes sense if the senior management team approves the project as part of an overall:

a)	Tax reduction plan
b)	Effort to induce investments
c)	Portfolio strategy
d)	Construction project

7.You have joined a new organization that has a PMO. You have just been assigned to a project that appears to require specific technical resources used on many projects in the organization. What should you do first?

a)	Work with the functional manager to identify resources that may be backups
b)	Emphasize to your project sponsor the critical need for the special resources on this project
c)	Determine if the PMO has the authority to allocate resources to your project
d)	Contact the program manager to resolve resource constraints before they become a problem

8.As a project manager, you have been negotiating with a vendor on specific points of the business requirements. During the meeting between the vendor and the project sponsor, significant differences arise. Your responsibility includes:

a)	Restating the desires of the sponsor
b)	Explaining your understanding of the vendor’s position
c)	Taking the side of the sponsor
d)	Sitting back and letting the vendor and sponsor work out their differences

9.You are the project manager of the implementation of a new product line in a manufacturing facility in southeast Asia. The project is almost complete. The project has passed all quality control inspections except for one. All documented issues have been addressed, and many of the resources have been released. The project is slightly ahead of schedule but has a small budget overrun. The sponsor is onsite, and he has called a face-to-face meeting to get final signoff. He tells you not to worry about the missed quality item. What should you do first?

a)	Explain the significance of the missed quality item to the sponsor
b)	Follow the lead of the sponsor in communicating with the customer
c)	Communicate directly with the customer on the quality item
d)	Document the missed quality item in the issues log

10.On an information technology infrastructure project, one of architects is unhappy with the software development group. The architect starts to comment on how badly the developer did on the last project. What should you do?

a)	Take up the matter with the manager of the software development group and explain your team’s frustration
b)	Ignore the architect’s comments and give the architect and development group time for them to work out the issue
c)	Redirect the conversation to focus on solving the immediate problem
d)	Commiserate with the architect because you have had problems with that developer as well

11.Life cycles are used to respond to high levels of change, and a great deal of stakeholder uncertainty relies on a set of requirements to be completed in very short iterations. These are called the product backlog and are reprioritized frequently. This life cycle is called agile, or:

a)	Adaptive
b)	Incremental
c)	Predictive
d)	Iterative

12.Any artifact, practice, or knowledge that can be used in your project and generally makes it easier to manage is called a(n):

a)	Organization process asset
b)	Infrastructure
c)	Commercial database
d)	Project management information system

13.Your consulting company has bid on an assignment to create an online course to help individuals prepare for the PMP exam. You have not created online course materials before, but you have just hired an expert in that field. How does this fit with the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct?

a)	It’s not acceptable because you don’t have experience in that field
b)	It’s acceptable because you have other information technology experience and believe you can manage the expert
c)	It’s acceptable because you have hired an expert who has the appropriate experience
d)	It’s not acceptable because it’s not consistent with your background, experience, or skills

14.Interpersonal skills provide much of the foundation for building project management skills. However, managing a project requires additional competencies of:

a)	Negotiating to acquire adequate resources
b)	Motivating and inspiring team members
c)	Effecting tradeoffs concerning project goals
d)	Managing conflict among team members

15.A matrix organization that maintains many of the characteristics of a functional organization is called a:

a)	Colocated organization
b)	Weak matrix
c)	Tight matrix
d)	Projectized organization

ANSWERS AND REFERENCES FOR SAMPLE PMP EXAM QUESTIONS ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW
Section numbers refer to the PMBOK^® Guide.

1.  D	Section 2.4 – Initiating
	This could be the start of a WBS, but it’s a typical software development life cycle.
2.  C	Section 1.4 – Initiating
	Know the differences between projects, programs, and portfolios.
3.  C	Section 2.4.2.2 – Planning
	Predictive life cycles include the traditional waterfall type used in information technology.
4.  A	Section 2.3.1 – Executing
	The cleanest way to handle the whole thing is to not include the exit fee because it may have the appearance of a bribe.
5.  A	Section 2.3.1 – Executing
	b) would not be a virtual team; C) and D) could be very helpful, but A) is more vital for virtual teams.
6.  C	Section 1.4.2 – Initiating
	Portfolio management is a strategic function.
7.  C	Section 1.4.4 – Initiating
	A), B), and D) may be actions to take after you have talked with the PMO.
8.  B	Section 4.2.1 – Executing
	Since you have been negotiating with the vendor, you may have more information, or have made other representations, that the sponsor is not aware of.
9.  A	Code 5.3.1 – Closing
	At some point, the project manager may have to do tasks in B), C), or D); however, the first step is to make sure the sponsor understands the quality issue.
10.  C	Section 3.2.4 & Section 4.2.2 – Initiating
	First, you do not want to condone negative remarks that undermine another person’s reputation. While A) and B) may be actions you will take, redirecting the conversation is the first thing you should do.
11.  A	Section 2.4.2.4 – Planning
	This life cycle is also called agile, or change-driven.
12.  A	A Section 2.1.4.1 – Initiating
	B), C), and D) are all enterprise environmental factors.
13.  B	Section 2.2.2 – Initiating
	Even though you don’t personally have the experience to do the development, you have other information technology experience and have hired a professional. That meets the ethical standard for responsibility.
14.  C	Section 1.7 – Initiating
	Negotiating, motivating, and managing conflict are examples of interpersonal skills.
15.  B	Section 2.1.3 – Initiating
	Know the differences between a weak, balanced, and strong matrix.