GIAC GCPM Exam Actual Questions

FILL BLANK -
______________ emphasizes on bringing out the best in a team to make sure that self-development, positive communication, leadership skills, and the skill to work together as a team to resolve problems are built within the team.

Correct Answer: Team building
Team building emphasizes on bringing out the best in a team to make sure that self-development, positive communication, leadership skills, and the skill to work together as a team to resolve problems are built within the team. These efforts help a team to develop a more cohesive bond among individuals in a team. Building a strong team is important for any organization if the organization wants to accomplish its goals successfully.
Reference: "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Fourth edition"
Chapter: Communications and Human Resources
Objective: Team Building

Which of the following is a formal documentation that indicates the completion of the project or phase and the transfer of the completed project deliverables to the operations group or to the next phase?

Correct Answer: C 🗳️
As part of the project closure activities, the project handover report is a formal documentation that indicates the completion of the project or phase and the transfer of the completed project deliverables to the operations group or to the next phase.
Answer option D is incorrect. A project charter is a document that officially recognizes and acknowledges that a project exists. It helps define requirements and expectations to all involved in the project. It is issued by the project sponsor. It can be as simple as a one-page form for a very small project, briefly describing the project and listing the responsibilities and authority of the project manager. Charters can be much longer, however, depending on the size of the project. In addition to formally authorizing a project, the charter provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. Project charters are important to the success of a project.
It's a good idea to have a project manager assigned to the project prior to the start of planning, and preferably while the project charter is being developed. Here's an example of a project charter.

Answer option B is incorrect. A risk register is a document that contains the results of qualitative risk analysis, quantitative risk analysis, and risk response planning. Description, category, cause, probability of occurring, impact on objectives, proposed responses, owner, and the current status of all identified risks are put in the risk register.
Answer option A is incorrect. The stakeholder register is a project management document that contains a list of the stakeholders associated with the project. It assesses how they are involved in the project and identifies what role they play in the organization. The information in this document can be very perceptive and is meant for limited exchange only. It also contains relevant information about the stakeholders, such as their requirements, expectations, and influence on the project.
Reference: "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Fourth edition"
Chapter: Procurement and Project Integration
Objective: Monitoring Your Projects Progress

Which of the following processes is described in the statement below?
"It is involved with many kinds of process design and with implementation and improvement to the IT infrastructure and service processes."

Correct Answer: B 🗳️
The Continual Process Improvement Management process is involved with many kinds of process design and with implementation and improvement to the IT infrastructure and service processes. Continual Process Improvement Management aims to build standardized processes for the handling of IT-related services and infrastructure, and to document, operate, control, and improve them permanently.
Answer option A is incorrect. Risk management is a continuous process. The process from the threats to risks and then finally to security measures is known as risk management. In this process, the risks are first identified, then examined, and then finally reduced to an acceptable level. The process is applied to all aspects of the operational processes.
Answer option D is incorrect. Configuration management (CM) is a field of management that focuses on establishing and maintaining consistency of a system's or product's performance and its functional and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. For information assurance, CM can be defined as the management of security features and assurances through control of changes made to hardware, software, firmware, documentation, test, test fixtures, and test documentation throughout the life cycle of an information system.
CM for information assurance, sometimes referred to a Secure Configuration Management (SCM), relies upon performance, functional, and physical attributes of IT platforms and products and their environments to determine the appropriate security features and assurances that are used to measure a system configuration state. For example, configuration requirements may be different for a network firewall that functions as part of an organization's Internet boundary versus one that functions as an internal local network firewall.
Answer option C is incorrect. The change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organizational process aimed at empowering the employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment. In project management, change management refers to a project management process where changes to a project are formally introduced and approved.
Reference: "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Fourth edition"
Chapter: Quality and Risk Management
Objective: Continual Process Improvement

FILL BLANK -
Fill in the blank with the appropriate term.
The ________________ defines the period in which, during the development of the project scope statement, a clear and very thorough project scope statement narrative is documented.

Correct Answer: develop project scope statement period
The develop project scope statement period defines the period in which, during the development of this project scope statement, a clear and very thorough project scope statement narrative is documented. The period of project scope statement development is typical for the entire project management team to work together to think what this project scope statement will be; however, in some cases, the project team leader may develop the statement himself, with or without the project management team's approval.
Reference: "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Fourth edition"
Chapter: Project Charter and Scope Management
Objective: Project Scope Development

Which of the following staffing management plan factors is described in the statement below?
"It helps promote and reinforce desired behaviors of team members."

Correct Answer: A 🗳️
In order to promote and reinforce desired behaviors, clear criteria for rewards and a planned system is required for members use. Recognition and rewards are parts of staffing management plan. In developing human resource in a project, recognition and rewards play the key roles. Recognition and rewards help promote and reinforce desired behaviors of team members. To be effective, recognition and rewards should be based on activities and performance under a person's control.
Answer options C, B, and D are incorrect. These factors are not described in the question.
Reference: The Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth edition, Section 9.3.2.6, Page 277
Chapter: Communications and Human Resources
Objective: Team Building

Which of the following is defined as the time it takes to complete a task or a set of interdependent tasks?

Correct Answer: C 🗳️
Lead time is the time it takes to complete a task or a set of interdependent tasks. Lead time is also the saved time by starting an activity earlier than its predecessor is completed.
A lead time is the time that overlaps between the predecessor and the successor tasks. The successor task can start before the predecessor task finishes. For example, if a task can start when its predecessor is one-fourth finished, a finish-to-start dependency with a lead time of 25 percent for the successor task can be specified. The lead time is entered as a negative value. The lead time can be entered as a duration or as a percentage of the predecessor's task duration. It is entered on the Predecessor tab in the Task Information dialog box.
Answer option B is incorrect. A lag time is a delay between the predecessor and the successor tasks. Sometimes it may be needed to schedule a delay between the predecessor and the successor tasks. For example, if two coats of paint are required to paint a car, then the final coat should be applied only when the first coat dries. This delay is known as the lag time. The lag time is entered as a positive value. The lag time can be entered as a duration or as a percentage of the predecessor's task duration. It is entered on the Predecessor tab in the Task Information dialog box.
Answer options A and D are incorrect. These are not the valid answers.
Reference: "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Fourth edition"
Chapter: Time and Cost Management
Objective: Task Lead and Lag Dependencies

You work as a project manager for HRM Inc. You are performing steps to carry out and finish the project according to the measures drawn through the planning stage. Which of the following stages of the project are you working on?

Correct Answer: C 🗳️
Execution entails steps to carry out and finish the project according to the measures drawn through the planning stage.
Answer option A is incorrect. Initiating is a process group or stage that occurs at the beginning of the project. It determines the nature and scope of the development. If this stage is not performed well, it is unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business needs. The initiating stage should include a cohesive plan that encompasses the following areas:
✑ Study analyzing the business needs in measurable goals
✑ Review of the current operations
✑ Conceptual design of the operation of the final product
Equipment and contracting requirements including an assessment of 'long-lead' items

✑ Financial analysis of the costs and benefits including a budget
✑ Stakeholder analysis, including users, and support personnel for the project
✑ Project charter including costs, tasks, deliverables, and schedule
The key project controls needed here are an understanding of the business environment and ensuring that all necessary controls are incorporated into the project.
Any deficiencies should be reported and a recommendation should be made to fix them. Answer option B is incorrect. Monitoring and controlling guarantees that only agreed changes are made so that the project does not morph into something unrecognizable over time.
Answer option D is incorrect. Closing concludes a project and closes it. It often consists of satisfying the terms of any outstanding contracts.
Reference: "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Fourth edition"
Chapter: Procurement and Project Integration

Objective: Project Execution -
Annotate

Which of the following are the tools and techniques of the Plan Procurement Management process?
Each correct answer represents a complete solution. Choose three.

Correct Answer: BCD 🗳️
Answer options B, C, and D are correct.
Plan Procurement Management is the process of documenting project purchasing decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers. Make-or- buy analysis, expert judgment, and market research are the tools and techniques used in this process.
Answer option A is incorrect. This is not a part of the Plan Procurement Management process.
Reference: The Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth edition, Section 12.1
Chapter: Procurement and Project Integration
Objective: Contract Types and Contract Negotiations

Tom is the project manager for his organization and he's creating a project network diagram for this project. He has created his project network diagramming with the consideration of the availability of project resources. What network diagramming approach has Tom used in this example?

Correct Answer: B 🗳️
Answer option B is correct.
The critical chain method examines the availability of project resources to determine when they're available in order to create the project network diagram.
Answer option A is incorrect. The critical path method determines the longest path to completion as the critical path.
Critical path method (CPM)
The critical path method, abbreviated CPM, or critical path analysis, is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. It is an important tool for effective project management.
It was developed in 1950s by the US Navy when trying to better organize the building of submarines. Today, it is commonly used with all forms of projects, including construction, software development, research projects, product development, engineering, and plant maintenance, among others. Any project with interdependent activities can apply this method of scheduling.
The essential technique for using CPM is to construct a model of the project that includes the following:
1. A list of all activities required to complete the project (also known as Work breakdown structure),
2. The time (duration) that each activity will take to complete, and
3. The dependencies between the activities.
Using these values, CPM calculates the longest path of planned activities to the end of the project, and the earliest and latest that each activity can start and finish without making the project longer. This process determines which activities are "critical" (i.e., on the longest path) and which have "total float" (i.e., can be delayed without making the project longer). In project management, a critical path is the sequence of project network activities, which add up to the longest overall duration. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project. Any delay of an activity on the critical path directly impacts the planned project completion date (i.e. there is no float on the critical path). A project can have several, parallel, near critical paths. An additional parallel path through the network with the total durations shorter than the critical path is called a sub-critical or non-critical path.
These results allow managers to prioritize activities for the effective management of project completion, and to shorten the planned critical path of a project by pruning critical path activities, by "fast tracking" (i.e., performing more activities in parallel), and/or by "crashing the critical path" (i.e., shortening the durations of critical path activities by adding resources).
Answer option D is incorrect. Fast tracking allows phases of the project to overlap in order to decrease the overall project duration. It is not a networking technique.

Fast tracking a project -
Fast tracking is a frequently used technique to compress a project's schedule. It is often the most effective way to shorten the duration of a project. You fast track a project by scheduling tasks that were originally scheduled to run in sequence, instead in parallel. It is the process of shortening the project schedule without reducing the project scope or compromising on quality.
The problem with fast-tracking is that there is no free lunch. Additional resources pulled in to do the parallel tasks might make mistakes, or even seasoned resources could make mistakes, skip crucial steps, make assumptions because results from the necessary parallel step were as yet unavailable. If something goes wrong, your schedule could slip or the quality, scope, or budget could suffer.
In general, the risks are small. However, to make the most of fast-tracking, look at the longest tasks on the critical path first. These provide the largest potential decrease in duration with the fewest number of risks to manage.
Answer option C is incorrect. Activity on the arrow is a project network diagramming technique that illustrates the activities on the arrows rather than the more common method with the activities on the nodes in the network diagram.
Reference: "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 4th Edition, ISBN: 978-1-933890-51-7.", "IT Project Management: On Track From Start to
Finish by Joseph Phillips, ISBN: 978-0072232028."
Chapter: Time and Cost Management
Objective: Critical Path Scheduling

You are using the PDCA model to determine, implement, monitor, control, and maintain Information Security Management System or ISMS. You have to evaluate the new processes and match up to the results against the probable results to determine the differences. In which of the following phases of the PDCA are you working?

Correct Answer: A 🗳️
Answer option A is correct.
The check phase of the PDCA cycle evaluates the new processes and match up to the results against the probable results to determine the differences.
PDCA (plan-do-check-act) is a problem-solving process which is used in business process improvement. It has the following cycle components:
1. Plan: It performs the following activities:
✑ It establishes scope.
✑ It develops a comprehensive ISMS policy.
✑ It performs risk assessment.
✑ It creates a risk treatment plan.
✑ It determines controls and their objectives.
✑ It develops a statement of applicability that describes the reasons of selecting a specific control.
2. Do: It performs the following activities:
✑ It operates the selected controls.
✑ It detects and responds to incidents properly.
✑ It performs security awareness training.
✑ It manages resources that are required to achieve a goal.
3. Check: It performs the following activities:
✑ It performs intrusion detection operation.
✑ It performs incident handling operation.
✑ It performs internal ISMS audit.
✑ It performs a management review.
4. Act: It performs the following activities:
✑ It implements improvements to the ISMS in response to the items that are identified in Check phase.
✑ It performs corrective actions in response to the items that are identified in Check phase.
✑ It performs preventive actions in response to the items that are identified in Check phase.
Reference: "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Fourth edition"
Chapter: Project Management Structure and Framework
Objective: PDCA Cycle