Skip to content

Module 2 Challenge (Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project) Answers 2025

Question 1

As a project manager, you’re using the SMART criteria to craft goals for your team. During the process, you ask yourself if a goal is aligned to the organization or the company’s goals. Which SMART criteria does this question represent?

  • Specific

  • Measurable

  • Attainable

  • Relevant

  • Time-bound

✅ Correct Answer: Relevant

🔹 Explanation:
“Relevant” checks whether a goal aligns with broader organizational objectives.

Question 2

During your weekly project meeting, the project sponsor tells you the customer is adding a new deliverable requirement that costs $10,000 USD. This addition surpasses the budget by $5,000 USD. What is this an example of?

  • Internalizing scope

  • Calibrating scope

  • External scope creep

  • Internal scope creep

✅ Correct Answer: External scope creep

🔹 Explanation:
A customer-requested addition that increases cost is scope creep originating from outside the project team — i.e., external scope creep.

Question 3

Consider this Office Green scenario: A member of the marketing team suggests allowing customers to choose from an additional three plant colors. What can help prevent project scope creep in this scenario? (Select all that apply.)

  • Go along with the member’s suggestion

  • Make project plans visible

  • Get clarity on project requirements

  • Create a plan for dealing with out-of-scope requests

✅ Correct Answer: Make project plans visible; Get clarity on project requirements; Create a plan for dealing with out-of-scope requests

🔹 Explanation:
Visibility, clear requirements, and a defined process for handling out-of-scope requests all reduce the chance of uncontrolled changes. “Go along” would invite scope creep.

Question 4

As a project manager for an online retailer, you meet with your company’s head of customer service and are asked to improve the response time to customer email inquiries by 15 percent by the end of the first quarter. Your team creates email templates for responding to typical questions from customers and produces an end-of-quarter report that shows a 17 percent improvement in response time after your templates were implemented. Which of the following is the project goal in this scenario?

  • Improve the response time to customer email inquiries by 15 percent

  • Meet with your company’s head of customer service

  • Create email templates for responding to typical questions from customers

  • Produce an end-of-quarter report that shows an improvement in response time

✅ Correct Answer: Improve the response time to customer email inquiries by 15 percent

🔹 Explanation:
The measurable target (15% improvement) set by the head of customer service is the project goal; templates and reports are means and evidence.

Question 5

Which of the following scenarios best represents project launch?

  • The website development team researches a specific audience through sales data analysis.

  • The client agrees to the initial timeline and budget.

  • The project team releases a new product.

  • The project manager works with stakeholders to develop project goals and deliverables.

✅ Correct Answer: The project team releases a new product.

🔹 Explanation:
Project launch (also called execution or implementation) is when the actual deliverable goes live — for example, releasing a new product.

  • Researching an audience = part of planning.

  • Client agreeing to budget/timeline = authorization/initiation.

  • Developing goals and deliverables = initiation phase.

Question 6

As the project manager for a team of software developers, your team has been hired to develop a piece of proprietary software for a corporate customer. After a few weeks working on the project your customer announces that they will need their software several weeks sooner than originally expected, but that the software needs to look and function as originally agreed with no changes.

Using the triple constraint model, what trade-off could you use to meet your customer’s new requirements?

  • Change the budget

  • Change team roles

  • Change the project goals

  • Change the project scope

✅ Correct Answer: Change the budget

🔹 Explanation:
To shorten schedule while keeping scope the same, you typically increase resources/cost (raise budget) to accelerate work. Changing scope or goals contradicts the customer’s requirement.

Question 7

Which of the following indicate whether a project manager accomplishes what they set out to do?

  • Accuracy standard

  • Launch standard

  • Success criteria

  • Deviation criteria

✅ Correct Answer: Success criteria

🔹 Explanation:
Success criteria are the measurable conditions that determine whether project objectives were met.

Question 8

Which of the following is an engagement metric?

  • Number of new customer sign-ups for a subscription

  • A 20% increase of participation time within an app

  • Double the number of initial orders

  • A 35% increase of first-time customers

✅ Correct Answer: A 20% increase of participation time within an app

🔹 Explanation:
Engagement metrics measure how users interact with a product (time spent, activity), whereas sign-ups/orders are acquisition or sales metrics.

Question 9

A project manager launches a project to streamline a local city’s school bus route schedule to reduce the amount of time students are on the bus by 30%. What scenario below demonstrates that the project manager landed at the intended goal?

  • The project manager reviews the data in 3 months to determine if they reduced the amount of time students spend on the bus by at least 30%.

  • The project manager hands over the project to the client with all of the plans and documents and considers the project a success.

  • The project manager surveys the team members to ask how they feel about the project success; their feedback is reviewed and determines the next team.

  • The project manager completes the research and development required for the plan and adds another county to compare success rates for the project.

✅ Correct Answer: The project manager reviews the data in 3 months to determine if they reduced the amount of time students spend on the bus by at least 30%.

🔹 Explanation:
Measuring the actual outcome against the target (30% reduction) is the correct way to confirm goal achievement.

Question 10

Fill in the blank: When determining a measurable outcome, _____ define how you will measure whether a desired outcome has been achieved.

  • key results

  • objectives

  • budgets

  • goals

✅ Correct Answer: key results

🔹 Explanation:
In OKR-style thinking, objectives state the desired outcome and key results define the measurable indicators that show the objective has been met.