PMP Quality Management 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A project manager discovers that a deliverable passed Control Quality but was later rejected by the customer. Which process was likely inadequate?
- Plan Quality Management
- Manage Quality
- Validate Scope (Correct answer)
- Control Quality
Correct answer: Validate Scope
Validate Scope is the process where the customer formally accepts deliverables; its absence or inadequacy leads to late rejections despite passing internal quality checks.
Question 2: Which quality philosophy is associated with the concept of 'zero defects' and 'doing it right the first time'?
- W. Edwards Deming
- Joseph Juran
- Philip Crosby (Correct answer)
- Kaoru Ishikawa
Correct answer: Philip Crosby
Philip Crosby popularized 'zero defects' and the idea that quality is free when defects are prevented rather than repaired.
Question 3: A project team is performing a retrospective and decides to update the quality checklists based on lessons learned. This BEST illustrates which concept?
- Gold plating
- Continuous process improvement (Correct answer)
- Scope verification
- Configuration management
Correct answer: Continuous process improvement
Updating quality artifacts based on retrospective findings is a direct example of continuous process improvement.
Question 4: Upper and lower control limits on a control chart are set at:
- The specification limits defined by the customer
- ±3 standard deviations from the process mean (Correct answer)
- The maximum and minimum acceptable values from the contract
- ±1 standard deviation from the process mean
Correct answer: ±3 standard deviations from the process mean
Control limits are statistically derived at ±3 sigma from the process mean and represent the expected natural variation of a stable process.
Question 5: A quality manager proposes adding extra features to a deliverable beyond what the customer requested to 'exceed expectations.' The project manager should:
- Approve it since customer satisfaction is a quality goal
- Reject it because gold plating increases risk without adding value (Correct answer)
- Escalate to the sponsor for a decision
- Document it as a quality improvement in the lessons learned register
Correct answer: Reject it because gold plating increases risk without adding value
Gold plating—adding unrequested features—introduces unnecessary scope, cost, and risk without confirmed stakeholder value.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes the relationship between quality and grade in project management?
- High quality always implies high grade
- Low grade is always unacceptable; low quality is sometimes acceptable
- Grade describes functional category; quality describes conformance to requirements (Correct answer)
- Grade and quality are interchangeable terms
Correct answer: Grade describes functional category; quality describes conformance to requirements
Grade is a category assigned to products with the same functional use but different technical characteristics; quality is the degree to which requirements are met.
Question 7: A project manager is establishing the acceptable number of defects per batch before a shipment is rejected. This is BEST described as defining:
- Control limits
- Quality metrics
- Acceptance criteria (Correct answer)
- Specification limits
Correct answer: Acceptance criteria
Acceptance criteria are the conditions that must be met before a deliverable or batch is formally accepted by the customer or stakeholder.
PMP Quality Management 5
A project manager discovers that a deliverable passed Control Quality but was later rejected by the customer.
Which process was likely inadequate?