Planning questions reward knowing what a plan is FOR, not just what it contains. The project management plan (PMP) is the baseline against which everything is measured, and the PMQ tests whether you understand how it is built, owned and used — including the difference between deployment and delivery baselines.
What planning covers in the PMQ
- The project management plan: purpose, ownership and what it brings together
- Estimating methods — analogous, parametric, bottom-up — and estimating funnels
- Baselines, and how re-planning and re-baselining differ
- Subsidiary plans: scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, communication and resource
- Assumptions, constraints and dependencies
- Deployment baseline versus delivery baseline
Where candidates lose marks
Calling any document 'the plan'. The PMP is a single, owned, baselined artefact, not a folder of documents.
Confusing an estimate with a target. Estimates carry uncertainty; the funnel narrows as the project progresses.
Re-baselining informally. A baseline only moves through change control.
Free, timed, exam-style questions across the twelve PMQ topics — with an explanation for every answer and a per-topic breakdown at the end.
Start a free practice testPlanning questions, answered
What is the project management plan (PMP)?
The single, owned, baselined document that brings together how the project will be delivered — scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk and the other management plans. It is the baseline everything is measured against, not a folder of loose documents.
What is the difference between an estimate and a target?
An estimate carries uncertainty and narrows as the project progresses (the estimating funnel); a target is a fixed goal. Treating an early estimate as a firm commitment is a common planning error.
The other eleven topics
Independent study material, not affiliated with or endorsed by APM. Always check the official APM website for the current syllabus. APM does not publish a fixed pass mark for the PMQ.