PMP · Question #493
A company is initiating a project to enhance one of its existing products. All of its products are developed internally. What should the project manager do?
The correct answer is B. Review the lessons learned from the previous project. When initiating a project to enhance an existing product, the project manager should leverage historical data and experiences from previous projects to inform current planning and strategy.
Question
A company is initiating a project to enhance one of its existing products. All of its products are developed internally. What should the project manager do?
Options
- AEnsure the stakeholder engagement plan is accurate and properly documented
- BReview the lessons learned from the previous project
- CIdentify the risk of implementing the new solution and evaluate the impact on the project
- DCreate a lessons learned document for the initiation phase
How the community answered
(20 responses)- B95% (19)
- C5% (1)
Why each option
When initiating a project to enhance an existing product, the project manager should leverage historical data and experiences from previous projects to inform current planning and strategy.
Ensuring the stakeholder engagement plan is accurate is a planning process activity, not the initial action a project manager takes during initiation to inform overall project strategy.
Reviewing lessons learned from previous projects is a key part of leveraging organizational process assets during project initiation and planning. This helps the project manager understand past successes, failures, and challenges, providing valuable insights to better plan the new project and avoid repeating prior mistakes.
Identifying and evaluating risks is a crucial planning activity that comes after initial information gathering, where lessons learned can inform the risk identification process.
Creating a lessons learned document is typically an output of a project phase or project closure, not an action taken during project initiation itself.
Concept tested: Utilizing organizational process assets (lessons learned)
Source: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/lexicon/organizational-process-assets
Topics
Community Discussion
6
Wesley A.Jul 5, 2026B is correct. Since the company develops all its products internally, there are almost certainly lessons learned from the original product project that directly apply here. Reviewing those lessons learned during initiation helps you avoid repeating past mistakes and gives you a head start on stakeholder and risk considerations. I bit on C the first time because it sounds like solid PM thinking, but you want to ground yourself in organizational history before evaluating new risks. D is premature since you are just starting out and have not learned anything yet on this specific project.
Carlos M.Jul 5, 2026Agreed on B, and the other thing lessons learned gets you is early visibility into which stakeholders were problematic on the first product, so you can start managing those relationships before they become issues.
Carlos M.Jun 26, 2026B is correct. Since the product was developed internally, there are lessons learned from the original project sitting right there, so review them first before you repeat the same mistakes.
Luis F.Jun 26, 2026Good call on B, and remember internal docs might be scattered across different repos or wikis so dig through all of them, not just the obvious final project report.
Luis F.Jun 26, 2026I picked C first because risk stuff always sounds right to me, but the question says the company develops all products internally, so they probably have lessons learned from previous projects just sitting there. Since this is initiation, reviewing what worked or failed before makes way more sense than jumping into risk evaluation before you even have a plan.
Fatima Z.Jul 2, 2026Confirmed B on my attempt last week, and my sticky trick is BLEND - Because Lessons Educate Next Development - since this is an internal product enhancement you absolutely mine past project knowledge first. One thing I keep wondering though, does anyone know if PMI always treats "existing product enhancement" as a cue to check lessons learned, or would they switch the expected answer if the question mentioned a brand new product?