Question regarding CODE of ETHICs

Submitted by interservicio on Fri, 02/28/2014 - 13:06

 

Your project files need to be sent via overnight mail to your company's central office. If the files do not arrive tomorrow, your company will not be able to deliver the project on time and you will lose an important client. The deadline cannot be negotiated. The team worked right up to the last minute in order to give you the files. Due to a traffic jam, you are running late and the overnight delivery company will close in five minutes. You can only make it if you drive over the speed limit. Which of the following is correct?

     
1.   You must drive over the speed limit so that you can save the client relationship
2. You must stay within the speed limit, even if you lose the client
3.   You must negotiate a new deadline
4.   You can use the earned value metrics to show that the SPI is over 1, meaning the project is not late

Explanation

The PMP Code of Professional Conduct states that you must follow every law, no matter how trivial, and no matter how serious the consequences are. Any time that you see a question that asks about breaking a law, your answer should always be the choice that doesn't break it - no manner how minor the infraction, and how serious the consequences.

 

My question is, Why option 4 is not correct?

Thanks¡¡

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abhinavpraneet

Fri, 02/28/2014 - 18:18

There are two aspects to ethics questions (and in general any PMP question):

1. Most of the times you would be able to spot the most appropriate answer almost intuitively. The answer would stand out as most obvious and relevant to you.

2. In cases where the above may not apply, use elimination. So in the question above, see what each choice means in the context of the question:

Option 1: Clearly if you drive over the speed limit, you are being irresponsible and breaking the law. PMBOK would not recommend that.

Option 3: The question already states the deadline cannot be negotiated. So this is out.

Option 4: There is no information given in the question about SPI/CPI or any other metric whatsoever. You cannot assume this option based only on the answer. So this one is out as well.

That leaves you with Option 3, which also sounds most logical based on PMI Code of Ethics.

Hope that helps.

Abhinav Praneet, PMP

interservicio

Mon, 03/03/2014 - 08:26

Your answer was most helpful.

Thanks very much.