PMP · Question #1213
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…
The correct answer is C. Assessed the situation with the project stakeholders first and communicated the impact to the. 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.
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
How the community answered
(23 responses)- A4% (1)
- B9% (2)
- C83% (19)
- D4% (1)
Why each option
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.
Disclosing to senior management confidentially then communicating a delay to the customer still means announcing a delay before fully understanding its necessity or magnitude.
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.
Before communicating a potential delay to an external customer, the project manager should first engage with the internal project team and relevant stakeholders to thoroughly assess the actual impact of the sudden office closure. This collaborative assessment helps to determine realistic implications for the project, explore mitigation options, and allows for a more informed, measured, and strategic communication with the customer, potentially including solutions or revised plans, rather than an immediate announcement of delay.
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
Source: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/pmbok
Topics
Community Discussion
5
Wesley A.Jul 5, 2026C is the right call here, and I know because I picked B on my first attempt and it cost me. The trap is that the PM panicked and emailed the customer before anyone even assessed what the actual impact would be. You need to gather the project stakeholders first, figure out the real schedule impact, and only then communicate something concrete. I get why A and D sound tempting, but the exam always wants you to assess before you communicate.
Viktor S.Jul 5, 2026C is right because the PM panicked and fired off an email before even figuring out what the real impact was. You assess with your team first, then communicate. What gets me is option B, which sounds reasonable too if you already know the new date, so does anyone know if PMI considers giving a revised date without stakeholder input worse than saying nothing definitive yet?
Orla P.Jul 5, 2026Saw this one on my exam last spring, and C is the move because the PM panicked and emailed before even figuring out what the remote work shift meant for the timeline. I almost bit on B because offering a new date sounds proactive, but you cannot commit to anything until you have assessed the actual impact with your team and stakeholders first.
Lena V.Jul 1, 2026D is the move here. Emailing a delay to a customer without a conversation is amateur hour.
Wesley A.Jul 3, 2026I get the instinct, Lena, but C is correct here because the scenario is specifically asking for an automated notification workflow, not a manual conversation. I went D on my first attempt for the same human reasoning and it cost me, the keyword "automated" in the stem is what locks in C.