Project Management Project Governance and Compliance 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A project manager discovers that a vendor is not adhering to the contract's quality standards. What is the FIRST step the PM should take?
- Terminate the vendor contract immediately
- Document the non-compliance and notify the vendor formally (Correct answer)
- Escalate directly to the project sponsor
- Accept the deliverable with noted exceptions
Correct answer: Document the non-compliance and notify the vendor formally
Formal documentation and notification creates a compliance record and gives the vendor an opportunity to remedy the issue before escalation.
Question 2: Which governance artifact formally defines the decision-making authority levels for a project?
- Project charter
- Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)
- Delegation of Authority Matrix (Correct answer)
- Risk register
Correct answer: Delegation of Authority Matrix
A Delegation of Authority Matrix specifies who has authority to make decisions at various spending or risk thresholds.
Question 3: A regulatory body introduces new environmental compliance requirements mid-project. How should the project manager handle this?
- Continue with the original plan since the regulation was not in scope
- Initiate an integrated change control process to assess impact (Correct answer)
- Ask the sponsor to lobby against the new regulation
- Pause the project indefinitely until regulations are finalized
Correct answer: Initiate an integrated change control process to assess impact
Integrated change control evaluates the impact on scope, schedule, cost, and risk before deciding how to comply.
Question 4: What is the PRIMARY purpose of a Project Management Office (PMO) in relation to governance?
- To manage individual project budgets directly
- To standardize project processes and ensure adherence to organizational policies (Correct answer)
- To replace the project manager on complex projects
- To handle all stakeholder communications
Correct answer: To standardize project processes and ensure adherence to organizational policies
A PMO establishes and enforces consistent project management standards, templates, and governance frameworks across the organization.
Question 5: During a phase-gate review, the steering committee finds the project is 30% over budget but on schedule. What is the MOST appropriate governance action?
- Automatically cancel the project
- Approve continuation only if a corrective action plan is submitted (Correct answer)
- Ignore the variance since schedule is on track
- Replace the project manager immediately
Correct answer: Approve continuation only if a corrective action plan is submitted
Phase-gate governance requires a corrective plan before authorizing continuation when a key constraint is significantly breached.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes a compliance audit in project management?
- A financial review of project expenditures by accounting
- A structured review to determine whether project activities conform to policies, standards, and regulations (Correct answer)
- An informal team retrospective on lessons learned
- A client-facing presentation of project status
Correct answer: A structured review to determine whether project activities conform to policies, standards, and regulations
A compliance audit systematically verifies that project processes and outputs meet defined standards, regulations, and contractual requirements.
Question 7: A project manager is asked to approve an expenditure that exceeds their delegated authority. What should they do?
- Split the purchase into smaller amounts to stay within authority
- Approve it and report it later in status reporting
- Escalate the decision to the appropriate authority level (Correct answer)
- Reject the expenditure without escalation
Correct answer: Escalate the decision to the appropriate authority level
Exceeding delegated authority requires escalating to the next governance level; circumventing this process violates project governance.
Project Management Project Governance and Compliance 2
A project manager discovers that a vendor is not adhering to the contract's quality standards.
What is the FIRST step the PM should take?