Analysis of a Psychometric Question

Below is a representative example of a Test Question that requires psychometric reasoning to solve. I made it up. It was not on my PMP Exam. On the PMP Exam, there are 200 just like this one (some easier, some harder) that each must be understood and answered in about 72 seconds a piece. I did the exam in 2 hours 15 minutes at an average of 41 seconds for each question.

1) Your project CPI is 1.05, AC=200 and PV=215. Present trends are expected to continue. Your sponsor has just received and approved a Change Request from the CCB that will add effort hours to the project. What is the FIRST action you should take?

a. Crash the project schedule to improve schedule performance using the additional effort hours

b. Fast Track the project schedule to improve schedule performance using the additional effort hours

c. Re-baseline the project baseline to time-phase the additional effort hours within the schedule

d. Incorporate the additional hours and budget changes into the Project Plan

Analysis:

Psychometric reasoning requires that we use our perspective of a problem, understanding of PMBOK theory, and ability to execute some form of action to arrive at the correct answer. This problem requires us to not only take the inputs provided to us at face value, but to create other inputs derived from the face value inputs, to develop a holistic understanding of the problem which supports our solution.

To solve this problem, we must understand the full picture by developing additional inputs that:

1) Determine the health of the project through CPI and SPI as this helps us disqualify potential answers

2) That assume the CCB has performed its job and properly analyzed the request before approving the request for signature by the sponsor, causing additional effort hours to translate to additional budget. Signature by the sponsor infers that additional budget is being added as the sponsor holds the purse strings.

3) Determine what you don’t know within the problem (if you can).

Reasoning:

1) We have a project that is doing well in terms of cost and is slightly behind the planned schedule. We determined this by first solving for EV using CPI and AC and then applying EV and PV to develop SPI. The resulting SPI could likely benefit from crashing or fast tracking, however it could also be within the tolerance of the customer. We also do not know if the present trends have had a history of SPI=1 or more, nor do we know if the present SPI is a temporary glitch. We also don’t know if the additional effort is aimed toward mitigating a risk that will improve SPI. This all could be possible. We just don’t know.

2) The CCB has likely approved a scope change thus the effort hours and budget is obligated eliminating answers A) and B). There is no mention of a need for schedule compression using Crashing or Fast Tracking, however if you determined SPI wrong, it may set you up with bad information affecting your holistic perception of the problem and therefore the outcome. This question also requires you to know that a CCB is a Change Control Board, and what the purpose of the Change Control Board is.

3) So now you are now stuck with C) or D) UGH!

4) You know from the PMBOK that one of the reasons to re-baseline a project is when you add budget to the project budget (BAC). However the information you have is incomplete. You don’t know how significant the project budget changes are and there is nothing that contributes further to this.

5) You are left with D) to incorporate changes within the Project Plan. In the PMBOK and sample practice questions we often discussed this as Project Management Plan (updates). Within the answer it is called something else, requiring us to translate from the exam language to what it is in the PMBOK. This kind of translation problem is prevalent. Within this answer we would also need to know that the Cost Management Plan is a subsidiary plan to the Project Management Plan, and that approved Changes ripple through the PMP to its subsidiary plans.

Therefore the correct answer is D.