PMP Practice Questions #145
During a project to enhance an e-commerce platform’s user experience, the Product Owner plans to conduct A/B testing for the checkout process design. A team member tells you, the Project Manager, they’re worried about the extra work A/B testing entails, fearing it distracts from other priorities. How do you respond?
A) Suggest dropping A/B testing to save on development effort.
B) Advise the team to trust the Product Owner’s judgment.
C) Propose delaying A/B testing until there’s more bandwidth.
D) Acknowledge concerns but stress A/B testing’s long-term benefits.
Analysis
The scenario revolves around the conduct of A/B testing during an e-commerce platform enhancement project. A/B testing, a method to compare two versions of a webpage or app feature against each other to determine which one performs better, is critical for optimizing user experience by empirical evidence rather than intuition. Despite its benefits, a team member expresses concerns about the additional workload and its potential distraction from other priorities. This places the Project Manager in a position to mediate between the efficiency concerns of the team and the value-driven approach of the Product Owner.
Analysis of Options:
Option A: Suggest dropping A/B testing to save on development effort. Choosing to eliminate A/B testing solely to reduce workload might appease immediate team concerns but undermines the project’s long-term goal of enhancing user experience through informed decision-making. This option could lead to suboptimal product quality and fail to capture valuable user insights, which are critical for the project’s success. Thus, this option is shortsighted and potentially detrimental to delivering the highest business value.
Option B: Advise the team to trust the Product Owner’s judgment. This option promotes deference to the Product Owner’s expertise without addressing the team’s concerns directly. While it supports project hierarchy and the Product Owner’s role, it does little to reconcile the team’s worries about workload or educate them on the importance of A/B testing. As such, it misses an opportunity to align team understanding with project goals.
Option C: Propose delaying A/B testing until there’s more bandwidth. Delaying A/B testing could be a pragmatic approach if resource constraints are severe. However, without evidence of critical bandwidth issues from the scenario, this option might unnecessarily postpone the benefits of A/B testing, such as quicker iterative improvements and risk mitigation. Therefore, this response is less about strategic decision-making and more about a potentially avoidable deferment.
Option D: Acknowledge concerns but stress A/B testing’s long-term benefits. This response is the most balanced and strategic. It acknowledges the team’s concerns, which is important for maintaining morale and trust, while also educating and reiterating the benefits of A/B testing. This approach not only supports the Product Owner’s vision but also helps the team see the value in their extra efforts, potentially increasing their buy-in and fostering a more collaborative project environment.
Conclusion: Option D is the most appropriate response as it effectively addresses both the immediate concerns of the team and the overarching goals of the project. By emphasizing the long-term benefits of A/B testing, this option helps align team efforts with the project’s needs for empirical validation of user experience improvements. This option best supports the project manager’s role in balancing team capabilities with the necessity to deliver substantial business value through informed, data-driven decisions.
PMP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
|---|---|
| Process | Task 1: Execute project with the urgency required to deliver business value |
| Business | Task 2: Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value |
Topics Covered
- Early Feedback
- A/B Testing
- Business Value
