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1. Keith, the project manager of a large publishing project, sends an invoice to his client. Which communication type is he using?

Formal verbalA. Formal writtenB. Informal writtenC. Informal verbalD.

2. Which of the following is NOT an input to the Plan Communications process?

Enterprise environmental factorsA. B. Organizational process assets

Information gathering techniquesC. Project scope statementD.

3. You take over for a project manager who has left the company and realize that team is talking directly to the customer and only having status meetings when there are problems. The programming team has one idea about the goals of the project, and the testing team has another. Which document is the FIRST one that you should create to solve this problem?

Communication plan A. Status reportB. Meeting agendaC. Performance reportD.

4. You ask one of your stakeholders how things are going on her part of the project and she says “things are fine” in a sarcastic tone. Which is the BEST way to describe the kind of communication that she used?

A. FeedbackActive listeningB. NonverbalC. ParalingualD.

5. You’re managing an industrial design project. You created a communication plan, and now the team is working on the project. You’ve been communicating with your team, and now you’re looking at the work performance information to evaluate the performance of the project. Which of the following BEST describes the next thing you should do?

Use A. formal written communication to inform the client of the project statusCompare the work performance information against the time, cost and scope baselines and look for deviationsB. Update the organizational process assets with your lessons learnedC. Hold a status meetingD.

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6. You have five people working on your team, a sponsor within your company, and a client, all of whom need to be kept informed of your project’s progress. How many lines of communication are there?

28A. 21B. 19C. 31D.

7. Which of the following is NOT an example of active listening?

Nodding your head in agreement while someone is talkingA. Restating what has been said to be sure you understand itB. Asking questions for clarificationC. Multitasking by checking your email during a conversationD.

8. Sue sent a message to Jim using the company’s voicemail system. When he received it, Jim called her back. Which of the following is true?

Sue encoded the voicemail, Jim decoded it, and then encoded his feedback message.A. Sue decoded her voicemail message; Jim encoded his phone call and decoded the feedback.B. Jim sent feedback to Sue, who encoded it.C. Sue decoded her voicemail message and Jim encoded his feedback.D.

9. You’re managing a construction project. Suddenly the customer asks for some major changes to the blueprints. You need to talk to him about this. What’s the BEST form of communication to use?

Informal writtenA. Informal verbalB. Formal writtenC. Formal verbalD.

10. Kyle is the project manager of a project that has teams distributed in many different places. In order to make sure that they all get the right message, he needs to make sure that his project plan is translated into Spanish, Hindi, French, and German. What is Kyle doing when he has his communications translated?

EncodingA. DecodingB. Active listeningC. Effective listeningD.

Exam Questions

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Exam Questions11. There are 15 people on a project (including the project manager). How many lines of communication are there?

105A. 112B. 113C. 52D.

12. Which communication process is in the Monitoring & Controlling process group?

Distribute InformationA. Manage Stakeholder ExpectationsB. Plan CommunicationsC. Report PerformanceD.

13. You’re working at a major conglomerate. You have a 24-person team working for you on a project with five major sponsors. The company announces layoffs, and your team is reduced to half its size. How many lines of communication are on your new, smaller team?

66A. 153B. 276C. 406D.

14. You’ve consulted your Earned Value calculations to find out the EAC and ETC of your project. Which of the following is the BEST place to put that information?

Work performance informationA. B. Forecasts

Quality control measurementsC. D. Lessons learned

15. Which of the following is an example of noise?

An email that’s sent to the wrong personA. A project manager who doesn’t notice an important clause in a contractB. Garbled text and smudges that make a fax of a photocopy hard to readC. When the team is not paying attention during a status meetingD.

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1. Answer: B

Any communication that can be used for legal purposes is considered formal written communication. An invoice is a formal document.

2. Answer: C

Information gathering techniques are part of Distribute Information but not part of Plan Communications.

3. Answer: A

The Communication Plan is the first thing you need to create in this situation. It will help you organize the meetings that are taking place and get everyone on the same page. The communication plan will help you to streamline communications so that the customer can use you as a single point of contact, too.

4. Answer: D

Paralingual communication happens when additional information is conveyed by the tone or pitch of your voice. It’s when you use more than just words to communicate.

5. Answer: B

When you look at work performance information, you’re in the Report Performance process. And what do you do with the work performance information? You compare it against the baselines to see if your project is on track! If it isn’t, that’s when you want to get the word out as quickly as possible.

6. Answer: A

The formula for lines of communication is n x (n-1) 2. In this problem there were seven people named, plus you. (8 x 7) 2 = 28.

Exam QuestionsAnswers

See the word, “technique”? That’s a good indication that it’s a tool and not an input.

A lot of people choose B here. Don’t forget to include yourself! Look out for questions like this on the exam too.

I get it! You can’t do any communications unless you’ve got a good communication plan.

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7. Answer: D

All of the other options show the speaker that you understand what they are saying. That’s active listening.

8. Answer: A

This question is just asking if you know the definitions of encode, decode, and feedback. Encoding is making a message ready for other people to understand, while decoding it involves receiving the message and understanding it. Feedback means letting the sender know that you got the message.

9. Answer: C

Anytime you are communicating with the customer about the scope of your project, it’s a good idea to use formal written communication.

10. Answer: A

He has to encode his message so that others will understand it.

11. Answer: A

(15 x 14) 2 = 105 This one is just asking if you know the formula n x (n–1) 2.

12. Answer: D

Report Performance is the only Monitoring & Controlling process in Communications Management.

Active listening sometimes means saying things like “I agree,” or “can you explain that a little further?”

Anytime you see anything about a formal document in communication with a client, it’s formal written.

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13. Answer: B

There are now 12 team members, five sponsors and a project manager. That gives you 18 people. Use the formula: n x (n – 1) 2 to calculate this: 18 x 17 2 = 153.

14. Answer: B

The idea behind forecasts is that you are using the Earned Value calculations that forecast the completion of the project to set everyone’s expectations. That’s why you use EAC (which helps you estimate your project’s total cost) and ETC (which gives you a good idea of how much more money you think you’ll spend between now and when it ends).

15. Answer: C

There are plenty of ways that communication can go wrong. When you send email to the wrong person, your communication had trouble—but that’s not noise. Noise is the specific thing that interferes with the communication. In this case, the garbled text is a great example of noise.

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Oh, I get it. I already came up with good cost and time forecasts using EAC and ETC. Now I can package them up as forecasts and tell them to the team.

Did you get one of the other answers? Make sure you included the five sponsors and the project manager!