COM Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the COM exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 COM Exam Format at a Glance
📚 COM Topics to Study (69)
✍️ Sample COM Questions & Answers
1. Which of the following represents a 'proactive' risk mitigation approach rather than a 'reactive' one?
Proactive mitigation prevents or reduces risk before it materializes; preventive maintenance addresses risk before failure occurs rather than responding after.
2. A vendor fails to deliver materials on time, impacting production. When communicating this risk to stakeholders, what should the operations manager include FIRST?
Stakeholders need to understand the impact, cause, and proposed resolution before deciding on corrective action.
3. A project manager holds a kickoff meeting at the start of a project. What is its primary purpose?
A kickoff meeting formally communicates the project's objectives, scope, and team roles to all stakeholders to establish a shared understanding.
4. What is the critical path in COM project scheduling?
The critical path identifies the longest chain of dependent tasks; delays on these directly delay project completion.
5. What is the PRIMARY purpose of conducting a team retrospective after completing an operations project?
Retrospectives are learning exercises focused on capturing what worked, what didn't, and what to change — not on blame.
6. A hospital applies the Theory of Constraints to its emergency department. The patient intake desk is identified as the bottleneck. According to TOC, what should be done first?
TOC's five focusing steps begin with identifying the constraint, then exploiting it — getting the maximum output from it before adding resources.