PMP Question #1213: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

Question

An IT company's office is closed abruptly due to a new government restriction. All employees are now working remotely. Project team A has a critical project delivery due in 2 weeks. The project manager, apprehensive about this sudden change, instantly emails the customer explaining that the project delivery will be delayed. The customer is unhappy with this and has escalated the issue to senior management. What should the project manager have done differently?

Options

• ADisclosed to senior management in confidence, then communicated the delay to the customer
• BCommunicated a new delivery date to the customer along with the news about the delay
• CAssessed the situation with the project stakeholders first and communicated the impact to the
• DSpoken to the customer on the phone and explained the reason for the delay instead of writing an

Explanation

The project manager should have first assessed the situation internally with project stakeholders to understand the true impact of the office closure before communicating any potential delays to the customer.

Common mistakes.

• A. Disclosing to senior management confidentially then communicating a delay to the customer still means announcing a delay before fully understanding its necessity or magnitude.
• B. Communicating a new delivery date without a proper internal assessment is speculative and risks setting an unrealistic expectation that might need to be changed again.
• D. While a phone call can be more personal, the medium of communication is less critical than the content and timing; the core mistake was communicating a delay without first assessing the situation fully.

Concept tested. Crisis communication and impact assessment

Reference. https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/pmbok

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