SITUATIONAL based questions for PMP: A lot of questions are situational in nature. These will test your ability to apply theoretical understanding to real-life project management situations. These questions demonstrate why having project management experience is critical to passing the exam. Often, these questions tend to be very long-winded. The idea behind this is that in real life you will be handed both relevant and irrelevant information. Your task is to identify what’s relevant, ignore what doesn’t matter, and then act upon the real issues. Be sure to read and accurately identify the actual question being asked of you, so that you can eliminate the useless information. Often, situational questions will offer two choices that are both reasonably correct, so it’s extremely important that you identify if the question is asking you the BEST choice in general, the EXCEPTION to some rule, or the ONLY answer applicable to that situation – tricky.

These questions are very difficult because all or some of the options will seem acceptable. However, you have to choose the best option, and the keywords here are, “for that situation“.

7 Steps to solve SITUATIONAL based questions:

Step 1: Filter irrelevant information and capture the gist of the question: A lot of times only certain parts of the question are relevant and the rest is just noise. It is important to eliminate them and understand exactly what the question is asking for.

Step 2: Read all the answers: You must read ALL the answers provided. Some people have a tendency to just stop and pick the first answer they found correct. For situational questions, there could be more than one correct answer and you have to pick the best answer.

Step 3: Rule out obviously wrong answers: This is where the filtering process begins. While reading the answers you will find that some of the answers are obviously wrong. You first eliminate them.

Step 4: Shortlist potential correct answers: By eliminating the obviously wrong answers you will end up with potential correct answers.

Step 5: Apply each answer to the context: Try to apply each potential correct answer to the context. This means, that an answer may be correct. But, does it satisfy ALL the conditions mentioned in the question? Based on that, eliminate any answer that is out of context.

Step 6: Compare the actions against the processes and knowledge areas: The PMBOK guide explains in detail, the different ITTOs attached to the knowledge areas and their sequence. Compare the question and the answers against them and see if an answer is in line with those ITTOs. If not, eliminate that answer.

Step 7: Look at specific terms such as BEST, NEXT, NOT, EXCEPT, and LAST used in the question: This is really important! In most cases, this becomes the deciding factor while picking the final right answer. Pay extra attention to these keywords. For a specific problem, the question may be asking for the NEXT action and there could be multiple actions listed in the answer section. Then you have to pick the NEXT action applicable to the situation described in the question.

Integrate your real-world project management experience with your knowledge of the exam concept for SITUATIONAL-based questions.

SITUATIONAL based questions Example – 01

Question: You are the manager of your company’s project management office. The company is running many concurrent projects; most of them share a resource pool of technical staff. Understanding how resources are utilized across projects has been found essential to overall project performance, including cost-effectiveness and profitability. This morning you received a message that the resource pool members will be unable to perform as planned for the next months because the overall workload has grown too high and while delays are adding up, the morale of the staff is going down. What should you do next?

1. Ensure that quantitative information for all projects is made available in a uniform and reliable fashion and verify that the project management methodology is adhered to. Then consolidate the information to get an understanding of the problems related to the use of shared resources.
2. Implement an enterprise project management software solution that is able to level the human resources across the various projects and which has the capability to model resource assignment on a percentage level thus optimizing resource utilization for the overall organization.
3. Do nothing related to the described problem unless you are explicitly requested by the organization’s upper management. Supporting decision-making on the level on which project portfolio management is done, is not the project management office’s business.
4. Evaluate project management software that supports planning and scheduling across enterprise-wide project portfolios. Avoid managing the availability of shared enterprise resources for the projects run by an organization because this is not the business of a project management office.

Step 1: Read the Question carefully and filter irrelevant information. Try to summarize the question in your mind on your own terms. In this case, it could be something like ” You are the PMO manager. There are multiple projects sharing resources from a common pool. You learned that in the coming months, this pool will not be able to handle the workload. What is your NEXT action?” If you got here you are already halfway through. In the PMP exam, especially for situational questions, understanding the question is the key.

Step 2: Read all the answers. Read and understand all the answers completely. Many times it so happens that the actual meaning of the answer is in the last few words. Let us summarize the answers provided above so that we can filter them.

In short, this is what the answers are saying:

1. Collect necessary information and consolidate them to get an understanding of the problem.
2. Implement a solution for optimal resource management.
3. Do nothing, as it is not your business.
4. Consider a project management software for enterprise-wide planning. Don’t bother managing shared enterprise resources as it is not a PMO job.

Steps 3 & 4: Answer A talks about understanding the details of the problem at hand and getting an idea of the situation. So, it could be the correct answer.   Let us shortlist A.

Answer B is talking about implementing a solution to the problem. So, it could be the correct answer. Let us shortlist B.

Answer C is saying don’t do anything. Being in a  responsible position( PMO manager), is not an option, Hence eliminating C.

Answer D is talking about some solutions to achieve enterprise-wide planning. Let us shortlist it.

Step 5: Answers A & B are talking about the problem described in the question. Hence keep them. Answer D is proposing a solution on one hand and suggests avoiding resource management on the other hand. This is out of context. Hence eliminate the answer D.

Step 6: This step is not really applicable to this question.

Step 7: Both A& B sound to be the right answers. But note that question is asking for NEXT action. Answer A is talking about understanding the problem and B is talking about implementing a solution. So, your NEXT action would be to understand the problem and not implement the solution. You need to understand the problem before implementing the solution.

Hence we eliminate answer B.

This concludes that the right answer is 1.

SITUATIONAL based questions Example – 02

Dow Corporation has several projects running concurrently. A few of them are part of a large project. If all the teams were to meet simultaneously, there would not be enough space at Dow Corporation headquarters. There would also not be enough time to hear the team members’ collective voices within the meeting. This situation could create unforeseen impediments that could block the team’s progress. Sam, the lead project manager, must find a way to hold a daily scrum meeting that effectively addresses these issues. What is his best course of action?

1. He could schedule an off-site weekly meeting that would allow all the teams to discuss the project’s overall progress.
2. He could have the teams email each other with updates, allowing documentation of progress to be reviewed as needed.
3. He could set up a daily meeting, known as the scrum of scrums, where each team member could be chosen as a representative to report on their team projects’ progress.
4. He could submit to management the need for larger conference rooms to allow for larger capacity for daily standups.

Explanation:

The scrum of scrums is the most effective and least costly way for each team’s representatives to meet. This allows teams to coordinate with each other and remove impediments that could hinder projects while optimizing the team’s insight.

Rest all options are incorrect as 

It would be counterproductive to hold a weekly off-site meeting. The scrum of scrums is the best option.

Emailing status reports among teams isn’t the best option presented.

Bringing all of the teams together isn’t the best method to communicate status among the teams.

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PMP Certification: Types of Questions 

Refer to the below details for different types of questions you may face in the PMP certification exam.

1. FORMULA based questions
2. SITUATIONAL based questions
3. DEFINITION based questions
4. KNOWLEDGE based questions
5. INTERPRETATIONAL based questions
6. SPECIFIC TECHNIQUE based questions
7. PMBOK GUIDE KNOWLEDGE based questions
8. ITTO (Inputs, Tools, Techniques & Outputs) based questions
9. Professional and Social Responsibility based questions. 
10. Combination questions 

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