PMP Compliance and Business Value 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A project operating under an agile framework must still meet GDPR data privacy requirements. How should the team handle compliance in sprints?
- Address all compliance requirements in a dedicated compliance sprint at the end
- Embed compliance acceptance criteria into relevant user stories throughout the project (Correct answer)
- Assign a separate compliance team to handle all regulatory tasks independently
- Document compliance requirements in the project charter and revisit at project close
Correct answer: Embed compliance acceptance criteria into relevant user stories throughout the project
Embedding compliance criteria directly into user stories ensures regulatory requirements are met incrementally rather than deferred.
Question 2: What is the PRIMARY purpose of a compliance register in project management?
- Track team member training and certifications
- Document all applicable regulations, standards, and contractual obligations and their status (Correct answer)
- Record audit findings and corrective actions taken
- List all project risks related to non-compliance
Correct answer: Document all applicable regulations, standards, and contractual obligations and their status
A compliance register catalogs all applicable requirements and their current status to ensure nothing is overlooked.
Question 3: A project manager is asked to demonstrate business value to an executive steering committee mid-project. Which evidence is MOST compelling?
- A Gantt chart showing tasks completed on schedule
- A burn-down chart demonstrating sprint velocity
- Early benefit metrics showing progress toward strategic KPIs (Correct answer)
- A risk register with all high risks marked as mitigated
Correct answer: Early benefit metrics showing progress toward strategic KPIs
Executives care about strategic outcomes; early benefit metrics tied to KPIs directly demonstrate business value progress.
Question 4: Which of the following BEST describes the relationship between project governance and compliance?
- Governance establishes authority structures, while compliance ensures adherence to applicable rules within those structures (Correct answer)
- Governance and compliance are interchangeable terms in project management
- Compliance is a subset of risk management, separate from governance
- Governance only applies to external regulatory requirements, while compliance is internal
Correct answer: Governance establishes authority structures, while compliance ensures adherence to applicable rules within those structures
Governance defines the decision-making framework, and compliance ensures project activities conform to regulations, policies, and standards within that framework.
Question 5: A project manager learns that a recently passed regulation will require significant rework of a nearly complete deliverable. The BEST course of action is to:
- Deliver the original scope and let operations handle the regulatory change
- Raise a change request to incorporate the new regulatory requirement and update the business case (Correct answer)
- Ignore the regulation until it is formally enforced
- Escalate to legal and suspend all project activities
Correct answer: Raise a change request to incorporate the new regulatory requirement and update the business case
New regulations that affect project scope require a formal change request and business case update to remain compliant.
Question 6: An organization's project selection committee prioritizes projects based on Net Present Value (NPV). A project with a positive NPV but negative societal impact is proposed. How should the project manager advise?
- Approve the project since NPV is the defined selection criterion
- Reject the project because societal impact always outweighs financial metrics
- Flag the societal impact as a risk and include it in the business case for decision-maker review (Correct answer)
- Recommend replacing the NPV criterion with a balanced scorecard approach
Correct answer: Flag the societal impact as a risk and include it in the business case for decision-maker review
The project manager's role is to surface all material factors—including societal impact—so decision-makers have complete information.
Question 7: During project execution, a team member reports a potential ethics violation by a key vendor. The project manager should FIRST:
- Immediately terminate the vendor contract
- Document the report and investigate through the organization's established ethics process (Correct answer)
- Inform the client and let them decide how to proceed
- Ignore it if the vendor's deliverables are meeting quality standards
Correct answer: Document the report and investigate through the organization's established ethics process
Ethics violations must be handled through the organization's formal ethics process, starting with documentation and investigation.
PMP Compliance and Business Value 3
A project operating under an agile framework must still meet GDPR data privacy requirements.
How should the team handle compliance in sprints?