PMBOK Stakeholder Engagement Strategies 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A resistant stakeholder has significant political influence over the project's funding. Which engagement approach is MOST appropriate?
- Avoid engaging them to prevent conflict
- Engage them early and often with transparent, tailored information (Correct answer)
- Rely on the sponsor to manage them exclusively
- Reduce their access to project information
Correct answer: Engage them early and often with transparent, tailored information
High-influence resistant stakeholders require early, targeted, and transparent engagement to understand and address their concerns before they can block the project.
Question 2: Which of the following BEST explains why stakeholder identification should begin during project initiation?
- To satisfy PMO documentation requirements early
- To ensure stakeholders can influence project design before major decisions are locked in (Correct answer)
- To complete the stakeholder register before planning begins
- Because stakeholders cannot be added after initiating
Correct answer: To ensure stakeholders can influence project design before major decisions are locked in
Early identification allows stakeholders to shape project direction while influence is highest and changes are least costly.
Question 3: Which output of Monitor Stakeholder Engagement can directly trigger updates to the stakeholder engagement plan?
- Change requests (Correct answer)
- Work performance data
- Issue log
- Risk register
Correct answer: Change requests
Change requests generated during monitoring can lead to approved updates to the stakeholder engagement plan and other project documents.
Question 4: A project manager uses a 'direction of influence' classification to group stakeholders. Which direction describes influence from a project team member upward to the project sponsor?
- Downward
- Upward (Correct answer)
- Outward
- Sideward
Correct answer: Upward
Upward influence refers to engagement directed toward senior management or sponsors who sit above the project team in the organizational hierarchy.
Question 5: A project manager ensures all stakeholder concerns raised in meetings are recorded and followed up on. This BEST supports which principle?
- Scope baseline maintenance
- Issue resolution and stakeholder accountability (Correct answer)
- Quality auditing
- Risk quantification
Correct answer: Issue resolution and stakeholder accountability
Logging and tracking stakeholder concerns in the issue log ensures accountability and demonstrates that the PM takes stakeholder input seriously.
Question 6: Which of the following is NOT typically included in the stakeholder engagement plan?
- Desired engagement levels for each stakeholder
- Specific strategies to increase or maintain stakeholder support
- Detailed personal background information on each stakeholder (Correct answer)
- Interrelationships and potential overlap between stakeholders
Correct answer: Detailed personal background information on each stakeholder
The stakeholder engagement plan focuses on strategies and communication approaches, not personal biographical details unrelated to project impact.
Question 7: On an agile project, stakeholder engagement is BEST characterized by:
- A fixed engagement plan defined at project start with no changes
- Continuous collaboration through sprint reviews, retrospectives, and frequent feedback loops (Correct answer)
- Limiting stakeholder access to protect the team's velocity
- Engaging stakeholders only at major milestones
Correct answer: Continuous collaboration through sprint reviews, retrospectives, and frequent feedback loops
Agile emphasizes ongoing stakeholder collaboration and rapid feedback through ceremonies like sprint reviews, rather than one-time or milestone-only engagement.
PMBOK Stakeholder Engagement Strategies 5
A resistant stakeholder has significant political influence over the project's funding.
Which engagement approach is MOST appropriate?