Conflict
Two team members disagree about how to complete a work package. The disagreement has not yet affected the schedule. What should the PM do first?
A. Ask the sponsor to choose the approach.
B. Facilitate a discussion to understand the disagreement and help the team reach resolution.
C. Select the approach personally.
D. Document it as an issue and wait.
B. Understand and facilitate before directing or escalating.
A stakeholder who was previously supportive has stopped attending project meetings. What should the PM do first?
A. Remove the stakeholder from the register.
B. Contact the stakeholder to understand the change in engagement.
C. Escalate to the sponsor.
D. Continue without them.
B. Assess the reason for disengagement first.
A capable team repeatedly asks the PM to approve small day-to-day decisions. What should the PM do next?
A. Continue approving everything.
B. Clarify decision authority and empower the team to make appropriate decisions.
C. Ask the sponsor to approve them.
D. Create additional status reports.
B. Strong leadership enables rather than unnecessarily controls.
***DAILY DOUBLE (worth 100 additional points)
A stakeholder says project reports contain too much technical detail. What should the PM do?
A. Stop reporting.
B. Tailor the information to the stakeholder's needs.
C. Send the same report with a smaller font.
D. Ask the stakeholder to learn the terminology.
B. Communication should be tailored to the audience.
A team member has missed two deadlines. The PM does not know why. What should the PM do first?
A. Replace the team member.
B. Meet with the team member to understand the cause.
C. Escalate to the functional manager.
D. Reduce the person's responsibilities.
B — ASSESS: Meet with the team member to understand the cause. The cause is still unknown.
During a team meeting, one member repeatedly interrupts another and dismisses their ideas. Tension is increasing. What should the PM do next?
A. Remove the disruptive member.
B. Ignore it unless delivery is affected.
C. Address the behavior and reinforce agreed team ground rules.
D. Report the person to HR.
C. Address conflict constructively and reinforce working agreements.
End users complain that they are receiving project information too late to prepare for implementation. What should the PM do next?
A. Send every report to everyone.
B. Review their information needs and adjust the stakeholder engagement/communication approach.
C. Tell them to attend more meetings.
D. Ask the sponsor to communicate with them.
B. Review their information needs and adjust the stakeholder engagement/communication approach.
A team member is struggling because they have never used a required tool. What should the PM do first?
A. Replace the person.
B. Report poor performance.
C. Identify the skill gap and determine appropriate coaching or training.
D. Reduce their workload permanently.
C. Diagnose and develop skill before punitive action.
A distributed team frequently misunderstands decisions made during virtual meetings. What should the PM do first?
A. Schedule more meetings.
B. Assess how decisions are communicated and confirm understanding with the team.
C. Require everyone to work onsite.
D. Escalate poor communication.
B. Diagnose the communication gap before prescribing a solution.
The PM learns that a stakeholder misunderstood what will be included in the next release. What should the PM do next?
A. Review the agreed release expectations with the stakeholder and clarify the misunderstanding.
B. Submit a change request immediately.
C. Tell the stakeholder they are mistaken.
D. Escalate to the sponsor.
A — COLLABORATE/ALIGN. The problem is an expectation gap.
wo technical experts recommend different solutions. Both are viable, but neither will compromise. What should the PM do first?
A. Choose the cheaper solution.
B. Ask the most senior expert to decide.
C. Help the team evaluate alternatives against agreed project criteria.
D. Escalate to the sponsor.
C. Facilitate an objective, collaborative resolution.
A powerful stakeholder requests a feature that conflicts with agreed priorities. What should the PM do first?
A. Add it because the stakeholder has influence.
B. Reject it immediately.
C. Understand the need and review the request against value, priorities, and the appropriate decision process.
D. Escalate to senior leadership.
C. Understand and assess before committing or rejecting.
An agile team asks the PM to assign every task because members are uncomfortable self-organizing. What should the PM do next?
A. Assign all tasks.
B. Coach the team on roles, self-management, and collaborative planning.
C. Escalate to functional managers.
D. Convert the project to predictive delivery.
B. Coach and empower the team consistent with the delivery approach
A senior leader wants a monthly executive summary while operational teams need weekly implementation details. What should the PM do?
A. Send one identical report to everyone.
B. Develop communications appropriate to each audience's information needs and cadence.
C. Send only what the senior leader requests.
D. Let each stakeholder request updates individually.
B. Different audiences can require different information and delivery methods.
The project team identifies an impediment and has already determined a solution that is within its authority. What should the PM do next?
A. Escalate to the steering committee.
B. Conduct another root-cause analysis.
C. Support implementation of the agreed solution and monitor the outcome.
D. Wait for sponsor approval.
C — ACT. Assessment and decision have already occurred.
A disagreement between a product owner and development lead has continued through several iterations and is now preventing prioritization decisions. The PM has already facilitated two unsuccessful discussions. What should the PM do next?
A. Continue facilitating indefinitely.
B. Escalate through the appropriate governance path with evidence of the unresolved blocker.
C. Replace the product owner.
D. Let the team decide without them.
B. Escalation becomes appropriate after reasonable attempts at resolution fail and delivery is blocked.
A stakeholder continues to resist a new process even after multiple informational briefings. What should the PM do next?
A. Increase the number of emails.
B. Meet with the stakeholder to identify the underlying concern and tailor engagement accordingly.
C. Remove them from the project.
D. Ask the sponsor to require compliance.
B. Resistance often requires listening and understanding, not simply more messaging.
***DAILY DOUBLE (worth 400 additional points)
An experienced team is consistently meeting objectives, but the PM continues directing exactly how work must be performed. Team motivation is declining. What should the PM do?
A. Increase oversight.
B. Give the team greater autonomy while maintaining clear outcomes and accountability.
C. Replace the least engaged members.
D. Ask the sponsor to motivate the team.
B. Tailor leadership to team maturity.
A multicultural virtual team reports that several members rarely speak during meetings, even though they contribute strongly through written channels. What should the PM do next?
A. Require everyone to speak equally.
B. Tailor communication methods to support effective participation across the team.
C. Assume quiet members are disengaged.
D. Replace meetings with email only.
B. Adapt communication to culture, context, and team needs.
The PM has attempted to resolve a resource conflict with a functional manager, but the manager cannot provide the required resource and the project milestone is now at risk. The PM lacks authority to resolve the constraint. What should the PM do next?
A. Continue asking the same manager.
B. Quietly move the milestone.
C. Escalate the resource constraint through the appropriate governance path with supporting impact information.
D. Require the team to work overtime.
C — ESCALATE. The problem is now outside the PM's authority.
A team member tells the PM privately that another team member's behavior is creating an unsafe and hostile working environment. What should the PM do first?
A. Conduct an informal team-building exercise.
B. Tell both employees to work it out themselves.
C. Assess the concern and follow applicable organizational policies and escalation requirements.
D. Wait for another complaint.
C. Serious policy/people risks may require formal handling rather than routine conflict facilitation.
Two stakeholder groups have competing definitions of project success. Both have significant influence. What should the PM do first?
A. Let the sponsor choose a definition.
B. Develop separate success criteria for each group.
C. Facilitate alignment around project objectives, value, and agreed success measures.
D. Continue execution and resolve it later.
C. This is a shared-vision and expectation-alignment problem.
A high-performing team fails to surface problems because members believe mistakes will be punished. What leadership action is most appropriate?
A. Require daily problem reports.
B. Create psychological safety by encouraging transparency, learning, and constructive problem-solving.
C. Identify who caused previous failures.
D. Escalate every issue immediately.
B. Strong leadership encourages openness, learning, and shared accountability.
An urgent project issue must be communicated to stakeholders. Email is the normal channel, but the issue could materially affect tomorrow's deployment. What should the PM do?
A. Wait for the weekly report.
B. Use an appropriately urgent communication channel and confirm that affected decision-makers understand the issue.
C. Send the standard email only.
D. Tell the project team and let them decide who else needs to know.
B. Urgency and impact should influence the channel and confirmation method.
*** DAILY DOUBLE (worth 500 additional points)
A stakeholder requests an immediate change during an adaptive project. The change appears valuable, but the team has already committed to the current iteration. What should the PM do first?
A. Add the request immediately.
B. Reject it because the iteration has started.
C. Understand the need, engage the appropriate product decision-maker, and evaluate it against priorities and value.
D. Escalate to the sponsor.
C — ASSESS + COLLABORATE. Adaptive does not mean every request is implemented immediately.