Giancarlo SardiStrategic Development Manager| Hewlett Packard EnterpriseTx, United States
Hi everyone, a recent ATP practice question had the following and Im not clear WHY choice 'A' was marked as the correct one over 'D'. PMBOK doesnt seem to make mention of order of operations, but I'm just not clear why you would not hand over the deliverable to allow customer to start profiting from its value and keep it hostage while you update LL and update org records.
Note: I removed the obvious incorrect choices.
A project manager has completed the following steps:
-Completed a major project.
-Got acceptance from the sponsor.
-Informed the customer.
What should the project manager do next in this case?
A. Use lessons learned to update the organization knowledge base.
D. Transfer the deliverable to the customer. Saving Changes...
I'd agree that this is not a well written question. In real life, deliverables might be transferred to a customer at any point over the project's life - the earlier the better to help them realize business value.
When I was managing projects, I used to get acceptance from customers on deliverables as they had been completed and internally verified so by the end of the project I had a stack of deliverable acceptance forms to compare against the original PM plan so it made getting overall project completion acceptance that much easier.
On top of that, there's really no single sequence of when such closeout activities might be done. A lessons (to be) learned session might be held first before getting sponsor acceptance as the closeout report might include some of the key lessons.
And I really don't get what they mean by "Completed a major project" - you can't do that till the project is fully wrapped up.
I concur it is a poorly written question. I would have assumed that updating the knowledge database would include issues with transfer of the product to the customer which would mean after.
You should always be sharing lessons learned as you learn them, not waiting until the end of a project so maybe that was the intent of the question, but really,,, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Saving Changes...
Giancarlo SardiStrategic Development Manager| Hewlett Packard EnterpriseTx, United States
Many thanks for everyone's feedback! I do have several yrs of PM experience and your feedback resonates with my experiences. I'm preparing to take the PMP exam but I run into several questions like this that diverge from what I've experienced (or what makes sense) and leaves me scratching my head when I dont get a clear explanation on why this "answer" would be correct from the ATP. Saving Changes...
Mehdi AlibakhshiPM Specialist and Instructor| PHSABritish Columbia, Canada
Dear Giancarlo
I agree with your comments as well as everyone's feedback. However, it is not bad to consider some tricky point
According to PMBOK 7 Edition,
Periodically, the project team may meet and share the lessons learned to determine what they can do better in the future (here, Delivering is the next task). And knowledge management in the project fosters a collaborative working environment to deliver deliverables.
Also, according to PMBOK6:
It is a common misconception that managing knowledge involves just documenting it so it can be shared. A common misconception is that managing knowledge involves simply obtaining lessons learned at the end of a project. Our processes become more efficient when we incorporate lessons learned as both OPAs and project documents.
A lesson learned register can be found as an input and output for the process named 5.5 validate scope in PMBOK 6 edition. In fact, accepted deliverables are accompanied by lessons learned
Also, If you consider the process named 4.7 Close projects or Phase you can find the lesson learned register as input, in this case maybe you need project or phase closure guidelines (e.g., lessons learned) to finalize delivery
I hope my answer will be helpful to you. Saving Changes...
Latha Thamma reddiSr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC TechnologyMckinney, Tx, United States
Community Champion
