PMP · Question #1059
A project manager is assigned midway through a project. The team members are in different locations across the country and they are unable to meet in-person often. During a status review meeting…
The correct answer is B. Review the communications management plan and verify whether the stakeholder's needs are. When a stakeholder is unaware of project deliverable status, the project manager's first action should be to review the communications management plan to verify if stakeholder needs are addressed.
Question
A project manager is assigned midway through a project. The team members are in different locations across the country and they are unable to meet in-person often. During a status review meeting, one of the stakeholders highlighted that they were unaware of the status for the project deliverables. What should the project manager do first?
Options
- ASchedule a meeting with the stakeholder, and include the stakeholder's needs in the project
- BReview the communications management plan and verify whether the stakeholder's needs are
- CRequest the project team include the stakeholder's details and make sure the project status
- DReview the stakeholder management plan and update the stakeholder register for incorporation in
How the community answered
(53 responses)- A4% (2)
- B77% (41)
- C8% (4)
- D11% (6)
Why each option
When a stakeholder is unaware of project deliverable status, the project manager's first action should be to review the communications management plan to verify if stakeholder needs are addressed.
Scheduling a meeting and updating the project plan directly without reviewing the existing communications plan might lead to redundant efforts or miss existing, albeit unexecuted, communication strategies.
Reviewing the communications management plan first allows the project manager to identify if the stakeholder's information needs were properly identified, if the communication channels were correctly defined, and if the agreed-upon frequency and format for status updates are being followed. This determines if the issue is a planning gap or an execution failure.
Requesting the project team to include stakeholder details assumes the plan is correct but not followed; the first step is to verify the plan's adequacy before instructing the team.
Reviewing and updating the stakeholder management plan might be a subsequent step if the communications plan reveals the stakeholder's needs were not accurately captured, but the immediate action for a communication gap is to check the communication plan itself.
Concept tested: Project communications management plan review
Source: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/pmbok/project-communications-management/plan-communications-management
Topics
Community Discussion
5
Grace U.Mar 12, 2026B is the right call here. Before scheduling a meeting or updating documents, you need to check the communications management plan to see if this stakeholder's information needs were already identified and accounted for. Since you joined the project midway through, it is entirely possible that an existing communication method failed or was never properly set up for this person. Reviewing the plan first gives you the context to fix the actual gap rather than just reacting to the complaint.
Brenda K.Mar 15, 2026Agree on B but watch your clock on this one, because the paragraph-long stakeholder scenario is a classic time sink that you should flag and revisit if you are not done with the quick wins in the first pass.
Wei W.Mar 29, 2026B. Saw this on my exam last month, checked the comms plan first, got it right.
Grace U.Mar 31, 2026Agreed on B, and I would add that the trick is spotting who actually needs to be informed versus who just wants to be in the loop, because the comms plan separates those two groups.
Brenda K.Mar 24, 2026B is the fast pick here, maybe 30 seconds if you catch the keyword. The stakeholder is complaining about not knowing the status, so the PM needs to check the communications management plan before adding meetings or updating registers. C and D sound like action you take only after B confirms there is a gap, so flag them as traps. One thing I keep second-guessing, is the stakeholder engagement plan ever the first stop for an awareness issue, or is that strictly for influence and interest tracking?