PMP Quality Management 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: During Control Quality, the team discovers that five deliverables have defects that can be repaired. These items are logged as:
- Lessons learned
- Validated defects requiring defect repair (Correct answer)
- Accepted deliverables
- Change requests to scope
Correct answer: Validated defects requiring defect repair
Defects identified during Control Quality are documented and tracked so they can be repaired and then re-inspected.
Question 2: A project manager wants to understand how a complex manufacturing process flows before designing quality checks. Which tool is MOST appropriate?
- Pareto chart
- Control chart
- Flowchart (Correct answer)
- Histogram
Correct answer: Flowchart
Flowcharts visualize the sequence and interactions of process steps, helping identify where quality checks should be placed.
Question 3: In agile projects, quality is primarily maintained through which practice?
- End-of-sprint quality audits
- Building quality in through continuous testing and retrospectives (Correct answer)
- Formal quality management plans updated each sprint
- Customer acceptance testing at project closure
Correct answer: Building quality in through continuous testing and retrospectives
Agile emphasizes 'building quality in' via practices like TDD, continuous integration, peer reviews, and retrospective-driven process improvement.
Question 4: A project team uses Design of Experiments (DOE) to optimize a manufacturing process. What is the PRIMARY purpose of this technique?
- To document the sequence of process steps
- To statistically identify which variables most influence process outcomes (Correct answer)
- To rank defect categories by frequency
- To verify that the process is within control limits
Correct answer: To statistically identify which variables most influence process outcomes
DOE is a statistical method used to systematically vary input factors and measure their effect on output, identifying critical variables.
Question 5: Which output of the Plan Quality Management process provides the standards and criteria the project will use to verify deliverable quality?
- Quality metrics (Correct answer)
- Quality checklists
- Project management plan updates
- Test and evaluation documents
Correct answer: Quality metrics
Quality metrics define specific attributes and how they will be measured, providing objective criteria for evaluating conformance.
Question 6: A project sponsor asks why the project is investing in prevention activities when they cost more upfront. The BEST justification is:
- Regulatory compliance requires it
- Prevention costs are typically much lower than the cost of fixing defects later (Correct answer)
- Prevention activities are mandatory in the PMBOK Guide
- It reduces the project team's workload
Correct answer: Prevention costs are typically much lower than the cost of fixing defects later
The cost of preventing defects is generally far lower than the combined cost of internal failures (rework) and external failures (warranty, reputation damage).
Question 7: A project manager reviews inspection results and finds that measured outcomes consistently fall near the upper control limit. What is the BEST course of action?
- Widen the control limits to accommodate the variation
- Investigate for an assignable cause before the process goes out of control (Correct answer)
- Accept the results since they are within control limits
- Immediately stop the process and rerun all inspections
Correct answer: Investigate for an assignable cause before the process goes out of control
Consistently near the upper control limit may signal a trend; investigating early prevents the process from going out of control.
PMP Quality Management 4
During Control Quality, the team discovers that five deliverables have defects that can be repaired.
These items are logged as: