This team has decided together to continue prioritizing their work and offering a way to share their successful ways of working with the organization by inviting others to attend their retrospectives. They did not have to agree to the portfolio manager’s suggestion, although it seemed to be a genuine improvement measure for the organization. Quite legitimately, because their environments can be very fast-paced and busy, agile teams need to ensure their work is conducted at a sustainable pace. Protecting their team’s time and space, ideating, voting, and offering a way to share their success with others in the organization—all demonstrate their agile mindset and values.

This project team is using decision tree analysis to decide between the two options, using financial data, forecasting, modeling, and expert judgment.

This agile team and product owner should work together to figure out whether the effort required to fulfil this user story is worth the extra cost and effort that the project team expects. The cost-benefit analysis will help them all to understand the trade-offs involved in including the complex user story. By considering the potential benefits, costs, risks, and alignment with strategic objectives, the project team and product owner can make the best decision. This approach ensures that decisions are based on a thorough evaluation of all relevant factors and supports effective communication and collaboration with stakeholders.

Investigating the risk is important but will not evaluate all of the aspects needed for the team and product owner to make this decision. Revisiting the project’s budget and time line to accommodate the user story is an important consideration for evaluating the impact on budget and timeline, but it should not be the sole basis for the decision. A comprehensive cost-benefit analysis is needed. While identifying alternative solutions or workarounds can be a valid approach in certain situations, it may not directly address the stakeholders’ objection regarding the competitive advantage.

The best approach is for the project manager to start understanding the project situation by meeting all project team members and key stakeholders to better understand the project’s current status, key issues requiring immediate attention, project priorities, and short-term deliverables, then reviewing and revising the project charter. The problems with this company’s project team include geographical dispersion and lack of project management skills. They are highly skilled in their technical work, so the option of hiring new project team members is not a wise choice.

This agile event or ceremony is a product demo or review meeting, where the core features and capabilities of a product are demonstrated to customers. These happen during testing intervals, which fits the description in the scenario. It is neither a standup, which happens daily, nor a team conversation, which would indicate a retrospective. A scrum of scrums is a meeting of several teams together.

In this case, the project manager should understand the estimated cost of the work that needs to be done before conducting procurement, so that there is a baseline for comparison when the bids are submitted. The only way to do this is by obtaining an independent estimate first. Then hosting a bidder conference can help ensure that any vendor bidding on the project has all the information they need and is able to ask questions before submitting a viable bid for consideration. Whether bids are submitted by knowledgeable vendors with accurate estimates or budgets or not, the project manager needs to know the approximate cost of the work.

Even though a change can negatively affect or distract from a project’s goals, if a powerful and influential stakeholder insists on it, the change must be taken seriously. Hence the work should be done as required by the company owner, despite the delay and cost involved. Execute this change like any other by submitting a change request and obtaining approval from the change control board (CCB) after determining the cost and time required for the change.

Because this is a serious design flaw that impacts product quality and project success, it must be rectified. The best approach is to obtain change request approval for the execution of the missing work.

A project manager has a good understanding of the project team and stakeholders for this project and is now ready to establish the project management framework. This is the next step in the project and, through servant leadership, can show the team how it is done, which will also satisfy the stakeholders. The other tasks should also be performed, but the first step for the project manager to complete on this list is to establish the project framework.

In this scenario, the project manager and product owner should work together to assess the impact of the change. Key stakeholders should be consulted to quantify the impact to the schedule and budget and help determine the business priority of the change and ensure it aligns with the project’s objectives. Escalating the final decision to the project sponsor might be necessary if the assessment determines that the change is required but is outside any delegated authority for approval.

The dependencies between these two projects present a great challenge to the project B team. They need to balance their internal and stakeholders’ priorities as well as the owners of project B, who are also stakeholders. The only way to do this is to prioritize positive project outcomes.

Although there are concerns, there is no proof the developer is doing anything sinister or wrong. Playing vigilante is the opposite of an environment built on trust and psychological safety and may create negative morale. By checking the nondisclosure agreement (NDA) and signed security protocols first and ensuring the team is reminded of the ground rules in the team charter, you have done your due diligence as project manager. If needed, any concerns should be discussed with the project sponsor.

The best approach here is to utilize the retrospectives by maintaining the healthy and strong relationships among all stakeholders. As a new member of the project team and new to an agile working environment, they will need help understanding expectations, how a psychologically safe environment works, and coaching from the team. Unfortunately, clients and customers sometimes do react passionately or negatively; this is reality. A unified, empowered team culture built on effective and safe communication and organizational policies is the best defense against this kind of behavior. It is not a project team’s job to coach a client or customer on emotional intelligence (EI).

The team member has acted to close a project without the team. While the team member might have had the best of intentions or produced a positive outcome, their way of working is out of scope for healthy project team communication. Team members should not act alone, without the product owner, to close a project. Although virtual teams can suffer from poor communication, the problem here could also be a weak sense of team identity or a team member who does not have the correct training or know the team’s way of working. The team member might have even ignored the team’s way of working for professional advancement or in the genuine best interest of the project. Whatever the case, this team is disunified and it needs to be reunified. Revisit the correct project process roles and responsibilities at the next retrospective and examine how well this team’s framework is working to make necessary changes.

Resistance to change can be a natural response, and project managers should know how to work with organizational change management methods and owners to facilitate positive receiving environments for their projects. Working with the process owner to create a transition plan or including a pilot for the project can be effective ways to ease this organization into a change. Incentivizing is not a sustainable solution, and ignoring a problem is hardly ever the best option. Providing further training can be perceived as a burden to end users, and it should take place before the implementation.

A successful adoption of agile should be led ideally by someone who has already adopted it and can be an advocate and coach. The other choices would not be as advantageous to the organization.

The project manager needs to communicate with these very public and resistant stakeholders. When factors in the external business environment create a substantial impediment to project work, such as what has happened here, it is first up to you to find a solution. In this case, stakeholder engagement and collaboration should be used. Local and online stakeholder groups can learn about the project’s objective through a neutral, creative medium, and if it is done well, it is possible that some people may be convinced, or a compromise reached. Going ahead with the work in a clandestine and forceful way is not the best choice, because these kinds of heavy-handed actions can have negative consequences. The other options to delay or end the project do not indicate an opportunity to collaborate with stakeholders, which is required.

We examine value and base decisions for project scope based on available data. After that, we can invest in a proof of concept (POC). These stakeholders have had enough time to collaborate, but it is clear they cannot agree and move forward without help. They have contributed enough initial ideas for you to examine the potential value, schedule, and cost of each as the first steps.

When a new project manager joins a project and find an incomplete business case, the immediate solution is to determine what information is needed to understand what the business wants and needs from the project.

A project charter includes a high-level description of the project’s goals and a lot of information about the project. At this point, contracts may or may not be executed and the workspace may or may not exist. Acceptance criteria are decided on when it is time to complete the next step, starting with the project management plan. The only step on this list that should be completed now is to facilitate a peer review of the document ahead of obtaining approval.

The project manager needs to prioritize the long list of defects before taking action. A Pareto chart will show the defects by volume, from greatest to least. From this visual, the project manager can see what is causing the greatest defects and deal with those first.

Since the actual cost (AC) exceeds the planned cost (PC) and this project has a fixed budget, the team should find out if they can adjust quality to deliver on scope. In this software development project, this may involve identifying and removing any unnecessary work or features and prioritizing critical project requirements. The budget is fixed, so the team needs to stay within that parameter. Renegotiating vendor contracts will take time and carries risks.

Stakeholder collaboration is the best solution to resolve the quality issues in this situation. The project team should also work with the product owner to create a new user story to address the quality issues or schedule an iteration H to solve the quality defects. Escalation is not required in this situation, because the team should be able to act on quality issues, and the iteration backlog is not updated during the iteration.

You need to ensure the team is using measurement units as described in the schedule management plan. Directing them without checking the schedule management plan is an incorrect choice for a project that is using this project management plan component. Designing a tool is just going to complicate things, will take time, and is not an appropriate solution considering the effort and money invested. You could consider consulting the project management office (PMO), which would have been more appropriate while creating the schedule management plan.

This project has been authorized and is proceeding, whether the stakeholders are ready or not. The project manager’s job during the next 3 weeks is to prepare to start the project work. Even if the conversations will be difficult, the project manager needs to have them with the stakeholders now. Asking for more money to hire external resources is also a good idea in case the stakeholders cannot provide staff to meet the project’s needs. Using AI is an innovative tool, which is becoming commonplace, but it carries risks that would need to be evaluated before the tool is used; this adds time to the schedule.

Estimate to complete (ETC) indicates the projected remaining amount of money that will be spent based on past performance. The project manager can look at the money spent during the first 4 months of the project. Because this project occurs every year, a project manager can easily access the past years’ performance metrics to determine how much more money to allocate to the budget.

The best approach here is to perform an impact analysis and be transparent with the team members regarding the project status and their roles in project success. Based on the result of the analysis, collaborate with them on a solution that will not negatively affect the project.

In this case, the new project manager is assuming control of a project that did not have proper stakeholder engagement planning. Stakeholder support is always needed. The project sponsor can help but they and the team have already been consulted. Clearly, research is required, and the project documents are a good place to start. After identifying and engaging the stakeholders, the new project manager should collaborate with the team to determine levels of participation. Although it is true that the lessons learned repository has a lot of information, it is important to identify, analyze, and engage the stakeholders as soon as possible.

A server outage is a problem or issue that has occurred and for which a solution must be found. Negotiations seek a likely budget of US$50,000 to solve infrastructure difficulties, so the team can make the assumption, or working hypothesis, or the cost. The possibility of a delay is a statement of risk that something may happen, namely if the server is stopped abruptly there might be data loss. Finally, a known infrastructure capacity limitation explains a constraint, or limiting condition to the work.

After identifying a high-risk item with a costly contingency plan, the project manager’s next step should be to evaluate the cost-benefit analysis of the contingency plan before implementing it. This will help the project manager to determine if the cost of the contingency plan is worth the risk mitigation benefit. The project manager should also consider other risk management options such as risk avoidance, risk acceptance, and risk transfer. By evaluating the cost-benefit analysis and considering other risk management options, the project manager can make an informed decision on how to proceed. Implementing the contingency plan without evaluating its cost-benefit analysis may lead to unnecessary expenses and negatively impact the project budget. Waiting to see if the risk materializes may lead to missed opportunities for risk mitigation, increased costs, and project delays. Ignoring a high-risk item is not a proactive risk management approach and may lead to serious consequences if the risk materializes.

The best approach here is to update the risk management plan that should already be in place. The issues on this project are evident because the risk management plan is not updated. Using a predictive approach does not guarantee better risk management. The project is already using a hybrid approach, so a risk management plan should have been in place and continuously updated. After the plan is updated, the risk register can be modified.

The key issue in this question is the stage of the project and its criticality. Using Tuckman’s Ladder Model as a guide to team dynamics, adding an unknown resource for a short period of time means the project team will start from the forming stage and won’t reach their maximum productivity right away. This is a best-case scenario, because the outcome can be a far more serious disruption to the team dynamic at a critical point in the project. That risk is too high. Approvals can be expedited, and we can assume that since the project is business critical, the company would have paid for the extra resource. Option D presumes that a reprioritized backlog would deliver an inferior or inadequate product. But because this project team is using an agile development approach, any backlog decisions will have a strong chance of delivering positive outcomes for the customer.

With new stakeholders in the key role of project sponsor, it is imperative to engage with them to discover their needs and expectations for both the project and communication with them. With the arrival of a new person in the role of project sponsor, even though they are already familiar with company policies and organizational process assets (OPAs), they are still new to the project. You should engage them properly and personally about the project. The original project sponsor has left, so they will be replaced in the communications management plan and stakeholder engagement plan; there is no need to add another channel.

When the number of communication channels changes, we need to adjust our communication methods accordingly. The strategy can remain the same. To assume that two individuals working closely together would act as one is an unsafe assumption. With a plan in place to handle their individual communications, the project manager can have an effective strategy and engage and collaborate with these stakeholders effectively as individuals.

The project manager needs to get this problem fixed as soon as possible. The RACI chart and the conflict between the vendor and the team lead should also be addressed but this can be done later. Escalation is typically the option taken when the issue is beyond your authority and too complex to solve on your own.

To facilitate a smooth transition in this case, agile training and an open discussion about the transition are required. The project team needs to understand the transition process and have input in decision-making before adopting an agile way of thinking and working. Taking this step without the collaboration and buy-in of the team might create resistance and hinder the transition process. Creating a detailed plan for the transition is an example of a plan-based method that the team is trying to move away from, so this is not a good choice because the project team and the project manager all need to shift to the agile mindset.

When choosing the appropriate project approach, project managers should make their selection based on which will deliver the best value for that specific project. In this process, it is also important that the project manager educate stakeholders about the rationale behind the choice of a specific approach. Since the project manager and project team will plan and deliver the project, this decision should not be escalated to the project sponsor; however, the customer and other stakeholders may provide input.

The question states the vendor has completed the work as per the technical specifications mentioned in the contract. Therefore, the seller has met the acceptance criteria described in the terms and conditions of the agreement. Realistically, you would likely negotiate a new or amended contract with the seller to align the deliverable with your requirements better. Therefore, among all available options, accepting the deliverable and negotiating a new or amended contract are the best answers to this question.

Developing a stakeholder engagement plan and communicating regularly with stakeholders is the most effective approach to engaging stakeholders in a highly visible project with significant community impact. It is essential to engage with stakeholders, understand their concerns, and develop strategies to address them. Communication is critical to building trust with stakeholders and ensuring their support for the project. Engaging with stakeholders is necessary to address their concerns and ensure project success. However, since these stakeholders are already detractors, you might spend a lot of time and energy getting involved in discussions or arguments that do not benefit the project. While ignoring stakeholders’ concerns can lead to negative public perception, legal problems, and project delays, indulging them is also the wrong strategy.

Regular communication with stakeholders throughout the project is the best approach to preventing defects caused by incomplete requirements gathering and poor communication. This approach helps in identifying and resolving issues early on and ensures stakeholders are kept informed of the project’s progress. It also helps in building a strong relationship with the stakeholders and ensuring their expectations are managed. Since the work for this project takes a hybrid development approach to software development, we can assume that complete requirements gathering is not likely to be possible. In software development, requirements can change throughout the project and the project team needs to be flexible to accommodate these changes. Assigning a dedicated team for requirements gathering is a good approach; however, it might not always be feasible due to budget and resource constraints. Holding stakeholders accountable for incomplete requirements might create a negative impact on the project team’s relationship with the stakeholders. This approach may lead to a breakdown in communication and damage the project team’s reputation.

Although the key stakeholders were part of the project assessment, the project manager should present the report details and the project priorities established by the project sponsor. This way the stakeholders will understand the reasons for the changes to be made and the project manager can get their support for the implementation.

Conflict or disruption is a normal part of an agile team environment; frustration in this context can be understood and processed with empathy. Neither the project team member, nor the customers, nor the stakeholder did anything wrong. Feedback can come from any stakeholder or source and can take many forms. The project team only has some control over how they receive it and what they do with it. However, the product owner may be able to play the role of intermediary and speak to the stakeholder about how to deliver this feedback in a more useful way. The team member’s concern should be discussed at the next retrospective, where the project team can also discuss and circulate guidelines for stakeholder feedback so that it is useful for product and team development. Using the incident as a learning opportunity to improve the project team environment is also a good answer.

It is great the project team wants to keep working—it shows they have a good work ethic and dedication. As a project professional, one of your roles as a steward is to ensure the continuous learning and improvement (CI) of the team. In this case, you need to be the advocate for CI. As with any issue, we should analyze first, then take action. Reminders are not strong enough in most cases for meaningful action to take place. Adding or increasing visibility of actions—as ensuing lessons learned, or a review of the team chart and ground rules is on the agenda—is a worthwhile response. However, these actions are not as active as taking steps to find the root cause and resolve the issue—if only to gather information to analyze.

The contract with the hazard specialists should be sufficient to ensure a good, collaborative working relationship with the project team. Provided the specialists are given all the internal information they need and there is a collaborative way of working, the project work should proceed smoothly. The project team and the specialists should be working with one another, not in parallel. The project team, not just one person, should understand the risk factors that will affect the project and its compliance as much as possible.

The role and title of project manager or team lead can vary by project and organization. In general terms, the profession has embraced self-organizing teams and adaptability as core tenets, and the project manager or team lead is no longer the sole person responsible for and focused on delivering results. Instead, we focus on servant leadership, which is the practice of leading the team by focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of team members in order to enable the highest possible team performance. A person taking on this role should balance strategic thinking with daily project work. Understanding that learning is continuous also plays a part in self-organization, so we think of tenets rather than fixed guidelines for leadership characteristics. One such tenet of servant leadership is to understand the vision of the project, not just the daily issues; the servant leader should figure out how to create a balance between daily and strategic work in the context of a project and team. Therefore, the only question in this list to be answered with “yes” is: Can anyone be a servant leader?

Inspection is a quality control technique used in the Control Quality process to verify that products or deliverables conform or comply with specific quality standards, specifications, or other criteria. This happened during the catalog review. To avoid this issue from being repeated, the project team should perform quality improvement methods in the future. This may include updating their review and approval processes to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and implementing training programs for designers and photographers to understand the compliance requirements. Decision-making and problem-solving are parts of quality management and should occur before implementation and during monitoring and controlling. Data analysis does not apply in the act of examining a photograph. Audits check compliance with standards, policies, and procedures and can be used in the future. Testing is similar to inspection and also used in the Control Quality process—in this case, the catalog review.

This risk, once it occurs, is no longer a risk—it is an issue that requires action. So neither updating the risk register nor developing a response is going to help now. The project team’s job is to determine what action to take. This situation was unexpected and was neither planned nor budgeted for in the contingency budget. The contingency budget is used for addressing expected problems. When an unexpected problem arises and needs to be dealt with, the project team should activate the management reserve to fund an emergency response.

An agile approach to managing projects is driven by the 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto, one of which is: Agile processes promote sustainable development. The project sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace throughout the project. Sustainable development involves the use of ideal time, factoring planned leaves, and avoiding overtime or holiday working. Additionally, in this context, the project team lead or facilitator should ensure that the go-live dates are not arbitrary but based on achievable targets. Overtime should only be used as a contingency in the case of an emergency. It is not appropriate to motivate team members to work extra hours to meet project goals unless it is an exception. Team rewards should not be linked to working overtime or dealing with unreasonable timelines. Increasing the project cost baseline is not the appropriate way to deal with team members working overtime.

Increasing costs of products and services directly affects projects, so project teams need to adapt. An increase across all vendor services is probably a sign of a big change in the external business environment. Issuing a new request for proposal (RFP) with a cost limitation will not likely be successful because every vendor is affected. The solution here is to understand what is causing the price increases and seek a solution for the project that is sustainable. The project team might then choose to create a revised budget with the new costs of vendor services and goods, namely the estimate at completion (EAC) which will tell them the expected total cost of completing all work expressed as the sum of the actual cost (AC) to date and the estimate to complete (ETC). The product owner or project sponsor will decide whether the organization can or wants to continue supporting the project. Because it is early in the project, this is the most sustainable solution for the long-term health of the project. Management reserves and the contingency budget should be used for covering expenses resulting from issues, not to support a project budget that has been impacted because of external environmental factors.

This risk, once it occurs, is no longer a risk—it is an issue that requires action. In an agile environment, the team lead, in this case a scrum master, facilitates the self-organizing team to take action and find a solution. The team should discuss the issue during the next standup meeting for awareness, but this is only the first step in problem solving. Since this issue is both from an unidentified risk and poses a serious threat, it requires action first.