about 3.3% of the exam content - about 90 minutes - 14 practice questions
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Every project changes. The question the exam asks is never "should change be allowed": it is
"was the change handled through the right process." A project manager who makes a sensible,
well-intentioned decision outside the change control process has still given the wrong answer.
On a GCHS rehab, the homeowner asks the crew lead to also widen the hallway door while they are working on the
bathroom. The crew lead says yes because it is only an hour of labor. That is scope creep, an
uncontrolled addition, and by the time three of those add up, the unit is over budget and the funder's approved
scope no longer matches the work performed.
A change request is analyzed before it is decided, decided by the right authority before any
baseline changes, and only implemented once the baseline and plan are updated and communicated.
The integrated change control process
Perform Integrated Change Control is "integrated" because you evaluate the effect of a change
on everything, not just the one area it seems to touch. Adding a grab bar affects scope, cost, schedule,
procurement, quality, and possibly the funder's approved scope of work.
1. Identify and document the change: anyone may request a change; it is captured as a
written change request. Verbal requests get written down.
2. Perform impact analysis: assess the effect on scope, schedule, cost, quality,
resources, risk, procurement, and compliance. Consult the team and subject matter experts. This step is where
most exam answers live.
3. Route to the appropriate decision authority: the PM if within their threshold, the
change control board (CCB) or sponsor if beyond it. Customer approval may also be required by
contract.
4. Record the decision: approved, rejected, or deferred, in the change
log. Rejected changes are logged too, with the reason.
5. If approved, update the baselines and plan components, communicate to affected
stakeholders, and only then implement.
6. Verify implementation and confirm the change achieved the intended result.
Key points
Two things happen in the wrong order on most exam distractors. First, implementing before approval.
Second, updating the baseline before the change is approved. The correct order is always: analyze impact,
obtain approval from the right authority, update baselines, then implement. And you never change a baseline to
hide a variance: that is called altering the baseline to match reality, and it destroys your ability to measure
performance.
Types of change requests
Type
What it does
Timing
GCHS example
Corrective action
Realigns performance with the plan after a deviation has occurred
Reactive: the problem already happened
Adding a second crew to recover two weeks of weather delay
Preventive action
Reduces the probability of a future negative outcome
Proactive: the problem has not happened yet
Scheduling exterior work before hurricane season because delays are likely later
Defect repair
Corrects a nonconforming product component
After a defect is found in a deliverable
Re-hanging a door that does not meet the required clear width
Updates
Revises formally controlled project documents or plans
As approved
Revising the procurement management plan after a vendor category changes
Baseline change (a kind of update)
Formally revises the approved scope, schedule, or cost baseline
Only through approved change control
Adding three units to an approved program with matching funding
The corrective-versus-preventive distinction is heavily tested. Ask yourself: has the undesired thing
already happened? If yes, the response is corrective. If you are acting to stop a future occurrence, it is
preventive. Defect repair is narrower still: it applies only to a nonconforming deliverable.
Who decides: the change control board
A change control board is a formally chartered group that reviews, evaluates, approves,
defers, or rejects changes. Its composition, authority, and meeting cadence are defined in the change
management plan, a component of the project management plan. Key points:
The PM typically prepares and presents the analysis; the CCB decides. On some projects the PM has delegated
authority up to a threshold and the CCB handles the rest.
CCB decisions are recorded in the change log with rationale. This protects everyone later.
Emergency change procedures exist for genuine urgencies: safety hazards, imminent damage.
An emergency procedure still requires documentation and retroactive review; it is not a license to skip the
process, only to compress it.
Not every project has a CCB. On small or agile projects, the product owner or sponsor may hold that
authority. The exam expects you to follow whatever the change management plan defines.
Configuration management versus change control
These sound the same and are not. Change control governs decisions about whether to
change scope, schedule, cost, and other baselines. Configuration management governs the
identification, versioning, and traceability of the deliverable and its documentation, which drawing
revision is current, what serial numbers were installed, which specification version the work was built to.
The practical test: if the question is about approving a change, it is change control. If it is about knowing
which version is authoritative and keeping records consistent, it is configuration management. On a rehab program,
configuration management is why the crew is not working from a superseded plan set, a very real cause of rework.
Change in agile and hybrid environments
Agile does not eliminate change control; it relocates it. Because the scope is intentionally flexible within a
fixed cost and schedule, most change is absorbed by reprioritizing the product backlog rather
than by raising a formal change request.
A new request goes to the product owner, who places it in the backlog by value. Something
else moves down or out: the team's capacity is fixed, so change is a trade, not an addition.
The current sprint is protected. New work generally waits for the next sprint. If a change
is so urgent it must enter the sprint, the sprint goal is at risk and the team and product owner decide together, potentially cancelling the sprint. Only the Product Owner has the authority to cancel a Sprint, and only when the Sprint Goal has become obsolete.
What still requires formal change control in agile: changes to contract terms, funding, the
release date commitment, regulatory scope, or the product vision. Those live outside the team's
authority.
Hybrid projects typically apply formal change control to the fixed, funded, or regulated
elements and backlog reprioritization to the flexible build work.
Scope creep vs gold plating
Scope creep is uncontrolled expansion of scope, usually driven by a stakeholder request that
never went through change control. Gold plating is the team adding extras the customer never
asked for, believing they are being generous. Both are failures. Both consume budget that was approved for
something else. Neither is acceptable, even when the customer would be delighted.
Change drivers from the business environment
The 2026 outline emphasizes changes originating outside the project: a regulation changes, a funder
reallocates money, a market or supply condition shifts, an organizational strategy pivots, or a new AI or
sustainability requirement lands. The PM's responsibility with external changes is to:
Monitor the environment continuously: regulatory updates, funder notices, supply-chain
and material cost movement, and organizational strategy shifts.
Assess impact on the project's scope, benefits, and business case, not only on the
schedule.
Raise the change through the process with options and a recommendation, rather than
absorbing it silently or waiting for someone else to notice.
Update the risk register, since external changes often create new risks and retire old
ones.
An external change the PM cannot control still produces a change request the PM must manage. "It was out of my
hands" is never the exam answer; "analyze the impact and route it through change control" is.
Practice Questions
1. A homeowner asks the crew lead to add a hallway door widening while the crew is on site. The crew lead agrees because it is only an hour of work. What has occurred?
Scope creep
Defect repair
Approved scope change
Gold plating
Answer: a. An addition made at a stakeholder's request without going through change control is scope creep. Gold plating would be the team adding extras nobody requested; here the homeowner requested it.
2. What should a project manager do FIRST when a stakeholder requests a significant scope addition?
Update the scope baseline immediately
Analyze the impact on scope, schedule, cost, risk, and quality
Reject it to protect the baseline
Implement it if the team has capacity
Answer: b. Impact analysis precedes any decision so the authority can decide with real information. Rejecting outright, implementing early, or updating the baseline before approval all skip the analysis and approval steps.
3. Which sequence correctly reflects integrated change control?
Answer: d. Analysis informs the approval decision, approval authorizes the baseline update, and only an updated plan directs implementation. Any order that implements or updates baselines before approval breaks the control.
4. A team adds two extra electrical outlets the homeowner never requested because they had leftover material. This is BEST described as:
Value engineering
Scope creep
Gold plating
Preventive action
Answer: c. Gold plating is the team adding unrequested extras believing they are being generous. Scope creep originates from stakeholder requests that bypass change control, not from team-initiated additions.
5. Rain delays put a project two weeks behind. The PM adds a second crew to recover the schedule. This is an example of:
Preventive action
Defect repair
Corrective action
Configuration management
Answer: c. The undesired event already occurred, so realigning performance with the plan is corrective action. Preventive action addresses a problem that has not yet happened.
6. A PM reschedules all exterior work to occur before hurricane season because storm delays are likely later. This is an example of:
Gold plating
Defect repair
Preventive action
Corrective action
Answer: c. Acting to reduce the probability of a future negative outcome is preventive action. Nothing has gone wrong yet, so it cannot be corrective.
7. A crew discovers an imminent structural safety hazard that must be corrected immediately, well before the next scheduled change control board meeting. What should the project manager do?
Wait for the next scheduled change control board meeting, then submit a standard change request
Skip the change process entirely, since emergencies are exempt from documentation and review
Correct it and never document it, since time was critical
Use the emergency change procedure, then document it and obtain retroactive review
Answer: d. Emergency change procedures exist for genuine urgencies like safety hazards, but they still require documentation and retroactive review; they compress the process, they do not eliminate it. Waiting for the next meeting would leave an imminent hazard uncorrected.
8. A dispute arises over which drawing revision the crew should be working from on a GCHS rehab. Which discipline governs resolving this?
Risk management and reserves
Procurement management
Change control board review
Configuration management
Answer: d. Configuration management governs identification, versioning, and traceability of the deliverable and its documentation, including which drawing revision is authoritative. Change control governs whether to change a baseline, which is a different question from knowing which version is current.
9. Where are a change control board's composition, authority, and meeting cadence formally defined?
The risk register, which lists risks, owners, and planned responses
The change management plan (part of the project management plan)
The lessons learned repository
The project charter, which names the project manager and the sponsor's authority
Answer: b. The change management plan defines who sits on the CCB, what it has authority to decide, and how often it meets. The charter authorizes the project itself and does not carry this level of process detail.
10. A funder unexpectedly reallocates a portion of GCHS's grant funding to a different program. What is the project manager's responsibility?
Wait for the sponsor to notice the funding change and decide whether the project manager needs to act
Assess the impact on the business case and raise it through change control with options and a recommendation
Note that it was out of the project manager's hands and take no further action
Absorb the change silently within the current budget so the team is not disrupted by re-planning
Answer: b. An external change the project manager cannot control still produces a change request the project manager must manage, assessing impact on scope, benefits, and the business case and routing it with a recommendation. "It was out of my hands" is never the correct exam response to a change originating outside the project.
11. Mid-sprint, a stakeholder submits an urgent new request to an agile team. What is the general rule for handling it?
The sprint is protected; the request normally waits for the next sprint
The request is always added into the current sprint immediately, with the sprint goal adjusted to match
The team quietly extends the sprint length by a few days to fit the request in
The product owner has no say, because only the scrum master orders the backlog
Answer: a. The sprint is protected so the team can deliver what it committed to; new work generally waits for the next sprint unless the request is urgent enough to put the sprint goal itself at risk. Only the Product Owner has the authority to cancel a Sprint, and only when the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete; a stakeholder cannot.
12. Which of the following still requires formal change control on an agile GCHS project, rather than being absorbed through backlog reprioritization?
Rearranging the order of two already-planned stories for the next sprint
Deciding which team member picks up a particular story during the sprint
Reprioritizing which backlog item the product owner wants next
A change to contract terms, funding, or a committed release date
Answer: d. Agile absorbs most change through backlog reprioritization by the product owner, but contract terms, funding, committed release dates, regulatory scope, and the product vision sit outside the team's authority and still require formal change control. Ordinary backlog and task-assignment decisions do not.
13. After a vendor category changes, the project manager revises the procurement management plan to reflect it. What type of change request is this?
Update, because it revises a controlled plan document, not a baseline
Defect repair, because the plan was found to be nonconforming
Baseline change, because the plan document is part of the approved baselines
Corrective action
Answer: a. Revising a formally controlled project document, such as the procurement management plan, is classified as an update, distinct from a baseline change, which is a specific kind of update that formally revises the approved scope, schedule, or cost baseline itself. A subsidiary plan such as the procurement management plan is not one of those baselines. Neither corrective action nor defect repair fits a planned document revision.
14. A new state regulation changes inspection requirements partway through a GCHS program. Beyond routing the change through change control, what else should the project manager do?
Update the risk register, since external changes create and retire risks
Leave the risk register unchanged, since the change originated outside the project
Wait until project closure to record anything about it in the lessons learned
Record it only if the change request is ultimately rejected
Answer: a. External changes are a recognized source of new risk, and the risk register should be updated regardless of whether the change request is ultimately approved or rejected. Waiting until closure would mean managing the current project with a stale risk picture.
Glossary
Change request
A written proposal to modify a document, deliverable, or baseline, captured and tracked through the change log.
Perform Integrated Change Control
The process of evaluating a change's effect across scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, risk, and procurement before deciding on it.
Change control board (CCB)
A formally chartered group that reviews, approves, defers, or rejects change requests, per authority defined in the change management plan.
Configuration management
Identification, versioning, and traceability of a deliverable and its documentation, distinct from deciding whether to change a baseline.
Scope creep
Uncontrolled expansion of scope, typically from a stakeholder request that bypassed change control.
Gold plating
The team adding extras the customer never requested, believing it is generous; it still consumes approved budget.
Corrective action
A change that realigns performance with the plan after a deviation has already occurred.
Preventive action
A change made to reduce the probability of a future negative outcome that has not yet happened.