TOPIC: Question/Answer 13 from Sample Questions

The answer given is C: Contingency Reserve.
I am confused why the answer is not A: Reserve Analysis?

The question clearly states that you are setting aside money and asks what is it called when you do that. Reserve Analysis is the tool to establish the contingency reserve as it is explicitly stated in 7.2.2.2 in PMBOK 4.

The question asks "What is this called?" However, it does not clearly state what it is referring to when it uses the word "this". The tool or the actual money? The action or the result? I would argue that the question as written implies the action, since it starts with "You are setting aside..."

Cornelius, can you please provide further justification for this one? I want to make sure I understand the difference between the two concepts. Also, any tips on how I should have read this question to understand your intention would be greatly appreciated.

My exam is on Monday, so if you could please respond soon. Thank you,
Todd

Todd,

First of all - don't worry about this particular question for your exam. From the point of view of risk management ask yourself the following questions: How likely is it that you will have a similar question on the exam? What would the impact be? Now you see how quickly this one, small item becomes irrelevant to your success.

And now my explanation.

The answer lies in understanding the difference between the technique of Reserve Analysis and Contingency Reserve itself. On a very basic level you will use the Reserve Analysis to determine how much reserve/contingency you will need. But the question clearly says that we already know that the reserve is 15%. So there is no need for an analysis because you already know how much. So clearly "Reserve Analysis" is the wrong answer.

Let's go ahead and rephrase the question so that the answer would be "Reserve Analysis":

Question 13: You are trying to determine how much of your baseline hardware cost to set aside in order to counteract the risk of hardware cost increases as well as technological advances. What is this called?

Voila... now the answer is Reserve Analysis because you need to first analyze how much you will put aside.

Good luck on your exam and please post your success story in our Lessons Learned forum!

thanks for the quick reply. and thank you for the clarification. I understand it better now.