TOPIC: Free PMP® Exam Sample Question

A project manager is in the process of obtaining team members. She wants to understand the availability of the team members required to complete project work.

What should the project manager do to find this information?

A. Look at the resource calendars
B. Contact the project management office
C. Review the resource requirements
D. Examine the resource breakdown structure

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HINT: Which input to the Acquire Resources process identifies the working days and shifts upon which each specific resource is available?

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Answer and Explanation:
The correct answer is A.

The scenario implies that the project manager is about to start one of the iterations of the Acquire Resources process and needs to understand the availability of the project team members.

The project documents include the resource calendars which serve as an input to the Acquire Resources process.

A resource calendar identifies the working days, shifts, start and end of normal business hours, weekends, and public holidays when each specific resource is available.

Information on which resources are potentially available during a planned activity period is used for estimating resource utilization. Resource calendars also specify when and for how long the identified team and physical resources will be available during the project.

Of the available choices, looking at the resource calendars provides the best source of information for the project manager about the availability of the team members to perform project work.

Note, resource calendars are progressively elaborated and updated throughout the project. Once created as an output of the Acquire Resources process, they are used as needed whenever this process is repeated. In other words, after the Acquire Resources process is completed for the first time, resources calendars become an input to each subsequent iteration of the process, which is the assumption the scenario described.

Details for each option:

A. Correct. Resource calendars specify when and for how long identified team and physical resources will be available during the project.

B. Incorrect. The project management office (PMO) is an organizational structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques. The PMO typically does not have information related to the availability of project team members.

C. Incorrect. The resource requirements are determined during project planning and identify which resources need to be acquired. However, the resource requirements do not have the availability of those resources.

D. Incorrect. The resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical representation of resources by category and type which is developed during project planning. However, the resource breakdown structure does not include resource availability.

Reference: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, Page(s) 331