Ch. 7 - Questions
Steve has just been assigned as a project manager for a newly approved software development project. The sponsor is interested in knowing a high-level estimation of the total duration of the project and ask Steve to send him the information by the end of the day. What kind of estimate should Steve use in this kind of situation? A. An analogous estimate B. A heuristic estimate C. A three-point estimate D. A bottom-up estimate
A. An analogous estimate is usually done during the early phase of the project hen not much information is available about the project. It is less accurate even though it is less costly and less time consuming. In a bottom-up approach, one estimate per activity is received from the team members; it requires significant time to develop. A heuristic estimate is based on the rule of thumb. A PERT estimate, also known as weighted average estimate, is usually associated with specific project activities and requires significant time to develop as well.
One of your team members working on the project has informed you that a work package would most likely require ten weeks to complete. In the best-case scenario, if everything goes well and there are no surprises, it will take eight weeks. Since he is involved in more than two projects and has several pending deliverables, this specific work package may taken eighteen weeks to complete. Based on this information, what would be the correct estimated time to complete the work package? A. Eleven weeks B. Ten weeks C. Nine weeks D. Eighteen weeks
A. PERT allows the estimator to include three estimates: optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely, given by the equation: 8 + 4*10 +18)/6 = 11 weeks
You are overseeing a project to implement a web-based traffic monitoring system. You have requested three programmers, three database developers, and two testers; senior management only approved five team members for your project. Which one of the following may you use to produce a resource-limited schedule by letting the schedule lengthen and the cost increase in order to deal with a limited amount of resources, resource availability, and other resource constraints? A. Resource leveling B. Fast-tracking C. Crashing D. Critical path method
A. Resource leveling is used to produce a resource-limited schedule by letting the schedule lengthen and cost increase in order to deal with a limited amount of resources.
Your project's sponsor is extremely disappointed with the project as it is over budget by $15,000 and also behind schedule by several weeks. The sponsor has asked you to take care of the situation immediately and do whatever it takes. While exploring different options to shorten the project duration, you decide to put some of the non-critical activities on hold so that some of the resources working on these activities can be assigned to the activities with the most schedule risk. You also asked for a couple of additional external resources to be added to the project. The sponsor agrees to pay the additional costs, time is now a critical factor. This is an example of which of the following? A. Crashing B. Fast-tracking C. Critical chain method D. Resource leveling
A. The best option here is use he method of crashing by adding additional resources to the project activities on the critical path to complete them quickly. Fast-tracking is the technique of doing critical path activities in parallel when they were originally planned in series. Resource leveling is used to produce a resource-limited schedule by letting the schedule lengthen and cost in increase in order to deal with a limited amount of resources, resource availability, and other resource constraints. The critical chain method is another way to develop an approved, realistic, and resource-limited formal schedule; it provides a way to view and manage uncertainty when building the project schedule.
You have recently been assigned as a program manager to implement an ERP solution in your organization. Initially, the team will only work on five key modules in the first phase of the project. The second phase of the project has not been approved yet. You have estimated that three of the modules will take ten days each and the remaining two will be completed in fifteen days each. It is not possible to work on these modules in parallel. What would be the approximate duration for the first phase of your project? A. Fifty-five to sixty-five days B. Fifty days C. Ten days D. Ninety days
A. The duration of the three modules is 10 * 3 = 30 days and the remaining two modules is 2 * 15 = 30 days. The first phase of the project will take 30 + 30 = 60 days, or approximately between 55 and 65 days.
Your team has been working with the WBS for a while and has completed the decomposition of the work packages. After a week, the team finalized the estimates of all activities and completed the network diagram. Which of the following activities will they be expected to concentrate on next? A. Develop a preliminary schedule and get approval from the team members B. Finalize the project scope statement C. Use the precedence diagramming method for sequencing the activities D. Develop the risk management plan and add it t the total project management plan document.
A. The project manager should now focus on developing the preliminary schedule and getting approval from the team members. Finalizing the project scope statement should have been completed prior to completing the WBS. The team members have completed the network diagram, which suggests that the activities sequencing is also completed. Since the project schedule is an input to risk management, developing the risk management plan should be done once the schedule is completed.
You are overseeing a data center project for one of your clients. The team members have finished creating the WBS and work breakdown structure dictionary. The team members also submitted their activity duration estimates to you. What should you focus on NEXT? A. Sequence the activities using the PDM B. Create the activity list C. Determine high-level project assumptions and constraints D. Develop the project schedule
A. Your team has created the WBS, WBS dictionary, and activity list and has submitted the activity durations. The next step should be to sequence the activities by creating a network diagram using the PDM method. Determining the high-level project assumptions and constraints is done as part of the project initiation and is completed much earlier. The Develop schedule process follows the Sequence Activities process. Note that sequencing activities can be done before or after the activity duration estimate is done.
Which one of the following analysis methods usually uses a Monte Carlo simulation to simulate the outcome of a project by making use of three-point estimates (optimistic, pessimistic, most likely) for each activity, a huge number of simulated scheduling possibilities, or a few selected scenarios that are most likely, and the network diagram? A. Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) B. What-if scenario analysis C. Critical chain method D. Resource leveling
B. "What if" scenario analysis usually uses Monte Carlo simulation to simulate the outcome of a project by making use of a few selected scenarios that are most likely and the network diagram. The outcome of this analysis may be used to evaluate the project schedule under adverse conditions and to develop the preventative and contingency action plan to reduce the impact and probability of unexpected situations.
The product owner on an agile project would like to know how much work is remaining to be done on the project. What should the agile project manager use to provide this information? A. Burndown chart B. Burnup chart C. Velocity chart D. Kanban
B. A burndown chart will show you the amount of work that remains to be done.
Your team just finished the designed activities for a software development project. You have ordered a server and a couple of PCS to set-up the development environment and are waiting for the vendor to deliver it yo you so that the team can start the development work. The vendor informs you that it will take twelve days for the equipment delivery, set up, and configuration. The twelve days waiting time can be defined as: A. Mandatory dependency B. Lag C. Lead D. Internal dependency
B. A lag is an inserted waiting time between activities.
A project manager is managing a web-based application project to automate the accounting process of his organization. The project has an estimated budget of $120,000 and a duration of nine months. While reviewing the project, the project manager notices that activities were scheduled in sequential order, but coding work was initiated twelve days earlier than planned. What type of relationship represents the start of coding work to the competition of the design work? A. Finish-to-start relationship with a twelve day lag B. Finish-to-start relationship with a twelve day lead C. Start-to-finish with a twelve day lag D. Start-to-finish with a twelve day lead
B. A lead is an acceleration of the successor activity, or in other words, a successor activity getting a jump start. A lead may be added to start an activity before the predecessor activity is completed. There is a finish-to-start relationship between the design and coding, meaning that design work should be completed prior to the coding work starting.
While reviewing your project resource histogram, you notice several peaks and valleys as resources are not evenly distributed in your project. In order to evenly utilize resources as much as possible, you decide to move some activities from the week when you are using a lot of resources to the week when you are hardly using them. Which technique are you using in this case? A. Resource leveling B. Overtime C. Schedule compression D. Schedule control
B. Resource leveling is used to produce a resource-limited schedule by letting the schedule length and cost increase in order to deal with a limited amount of resources. It can be used when shared, or critically required resources that are only available at certain times, are in limited quantities, or when resources have been over-allocated.
Which one of the following takes the progressive elaboration approach and plans the near-term work in detail and future work at a higher level? A. Scope definition B. Rolling wave planning C. Decomposition D. SWOT analysis
B. Rolling wave planning takes the progressive elaboration approach and plans near-term work in detail and future work at a higher level. During the early strategic planning phase, work packages may be decomposed into less-defined milestone levels since all details are not yet available, and later they are decomposed into detailed activities. This kind of planning is usually used in IT and research project, but is very unlikely in construction projects where any unknowns are extremely expensive and destructive.
You recently took over a project from another project manager. While reviewing the network diagram, you find that there are four critical paths and three near-critical paths. What can you conclude about the project? A. The project will likely be completed on time and within budget B. The project is at high risk C. The project will required more people and an additional budget D. The project should be terminated
B. The project is definitely at high risk because if any of the activities on the critical paths or near critical-paths are deleted, the entire project will be delayed. Having more than one critical path and several near-critical paths does not necessarily mean that more resources and additional budget will be required to complete the project. There is no valid reason to terminate the project just because it is at a high risk of schedule delay.
One of your team members is always late completing his deliverables. You decided to keep an eye on this team member's activities to avoid any project delay. While reviewing one of the activities of this member, you found out that the activity has an early start day of 5, an early finish day of 12, a late start day of 15, and late finish of 22. The team member tells you that he needs an additional four days to complete the activity due to various reasons he can think of. Which one of the following statements if TRUE? A. This activity will delay the project B. The activity will most probably not delay the project C. The activity has a lag D. The successor activity will be delayed
B. There is not much information to determine if the activity has a lag or not. The float of this activity is LF - EF = 10 days. The activity is not on the critical path because it has a float or buffer of ten days. Even if the team member takes four additional days to complete the activity, it probably will have no impact on the project schedule or on the successor activity.
One of your team members is always late completing his deliverables. In order to help him out with proper planning for his activities, you'd like to explore different options with him. You asked the team member to send you information about the total float and free float for all of his activities, if there are any. How does free float differ from total float? A. Total float and free float are the same thing. B. Free float affects only the early start of the successor activities. C. Total float is the accumulated amount of free float. D. Subtracting the total float from the critical path duration will give the free float.
B. Total float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the project completion date. Free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the start of its successor.
Which of the following is FALSE about analogous estimating? A. It measures the project parameter such as budget, duration, size, and complexity based on the parameters of a previous similar project and historical information. B. It is usually done during the early phase of the project when not much information is available. C. It uses a bottom-up approach. D. It usually is the overall project estimate given to the project manager from the management or the sponsor.
C. Analogous estimates take a top-down approach, and this overall project estimate is usually given to the project manager from upper management or the sponsor. It is usually done during the early phase of the project when not much information is available. It is less accurate, however it is also less costly and less time-consuming. In a bottom-up approach, one estimate per activity is received from the team members.
Steve is the project manager for a construction project to convert an older nursing home into a new multi-story office complex. The architectural design and site surveys are completed, and Steve is now waiting for the clearance and permit from the city to start the construction. This is an example of which kind of dependency? A. Mandatory dependency B. Internal dependency C. External dependency D. Discretionary dependency
C. External dependencies are drive by circumstances or authority outside the project and must be considered during the process of sequencing the activities. Internal dependencies are based on the needs of the project and are mostly under the control of the project team. Mandatory dependencies are mandatory and unavoidable dependencies that are in the nature of the work or are contractually required. They are like laws of nature and are also called "hard logic". Discretionary dependencies are also called "preferred logic" or "soft logic" as they are the preferences of the project manager and the team members. These dependencies may be determined by best practices or by local methodology and may vary from project to project.
You are in the estimate Activity Durations process? These estimates usually originate from the project team members most familiar with the activity and then get progressively elaborated. Which one of the following is TRUE about this process? A. This process must be performed after the Develop Schedule process B. Padding is a common practice and the project manager should not be too worried about it. C. The activity duration estimates are outputs in this process. D. It is not important that all estimates in this process should use a common work unit/period.
C. The activity duration estimates are outputs in the Estimate Activity Durations process. This process should be performed before the Develop Schedule process. Adding additional time or padding the estimate is a common practice in this process, so the project manager should make sure that the estimates from the team members are realistic. It is important that all estimates in this process should use a common work unit/period.
A project manager managing a recruitment automation application project just completed developing the schedule and requested approval from the stakeholders and the client. The sponsor has expressed her frustration about the unexpectedly long duration of the project, and has demanded the schedule be compressed as much as possible. While exploring different options, you find out that you cannot really cannot change the network diagram due to various constraints, but the sponsor has agreed to pay for additional personnel resources if needed. What will be your BEST option in this situation? A. Apply the critical chain method B. Fast-track the project and also apply the resource leveling method C. Crash the project D. Crash and fast-track the project
C. The best option here is to add additional resources to the project activities on the critical path to complete them quickly. Fast-tracking, the technique of doing critical path activities in parallel when they were originally planned in series, is not an option since you cannot change the network diagram. Resource leveling is used to produce a resource-limited schedule by letting the schedule lengthen and cost increase in order to deal with a limited amount of resources. The critical chain method is another way to develop an approved, realistic, resource-limited, and formal schedule.
Your IT project is progressing well and is onschedule when a vendor sends you an email stating that the equipment delivery will be delayed by a week due to a severe snowstorm on the East Coast. Which of the documents would best capture the impact of the delay on the project? A. Risk register B. Issue log C. Network diagram D. WBS
C. The project network diagram represents activities and their logical relationships, dependencies, and sequence; thus, the network diagram will be capture the impact of the delay on the project schedule. The WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the deliverables, but it does not focus on the duration of the project activities. The risk register would show an increase in project risk, but would not help to determine the impact of a delay on the project schedule. An issue log will also capture the root cause, the person assigned, due date, and other factors, but will not give out much information about the impact of the delay on the project schedule.
Your IT project has ten team members, and recently you have hired three more database developer. You are using a time phased graphical display of activities start dates, end dates, and duration for tracking progress and reporting to the team. Which chart are you using? A. Milestone chart B. Work breakdown structure C. Network diagram D. Gantt chart
D. A bar chart or Gantt chart is a time-phased graphical display of activity start dates, end dates, and durations. It is useful for tracking progress and reporting to the team and can be easily modified to show the percentage of completed work. As the project progresses, bars are shaded to show which activities are now completed. A milestone chart is similar to a bar chart, but only show major events. It is a good tool for reporting to management and customers. This type of chart is reserved for brief, high-level presentations as too much detail may be undesirable and distracting to senior management.
You project sponsor is extremely disappointed with the project as it s over budget by $20,000 and also behind schedule by several weeks. The sponsor has asked you to take care of the situation immediately, While exploring different options to shorten the project duration, you decide, with management's approval, to perform several activities in parallel rather than in sequential order as originally planned. You know you option will possibly result in rework, increase risks, and require more communication, but you decide to go for it anyway. This is an example of which of the following? A. Critical chain method B. Crashing C. Resource leveling D. Fast-tracking
D. Fast-tracking is the technique of doing critical path activities in parallel when they were originally planned in series.
A project manager is in the Sequence Activities process of identifying and documenting relationships among defined acuities and arranging them in the order they must be performed. While in this process, the project manager decide to utilize a software tool to create a Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) network diagram. This network diagram creates a schematic display of the sequential and logical relationships, dependencies, and the order in which activities in a project must be performed. The project manager also added each activity's duration in the network diagram to calculate the critical path. Which one of the following is FALSE about the critical path? A. It is the longest duration path through a network diagram B. It determines the shortest time to complete the project. C. The activities on the critical path represent the highest schedule risk in the project. D. The activities on the critical path represent critical functionality.
D. The activities on the critical path do not necessarily represent the critical functionalities in the project. The critical path is the longest duration path in the network diagram, and this duration is the shortest time needed to complete the project. The activities on the critical path have no buffer and any delay in the critical path activities will delay the project; thus, the critical path activities represent the highest schedule risk.
You should completed developing the schedule for you project and got the approval from stakeholders and the sponsor. One of the team members assigned to work on a critical component informs you that she needs additional time to complete her activities because several relevant pieces were missed during planning. Her updated estimate would have no impact on the critical path; thus, the project duration would be the same. The best approach the project manager may take in this situation will be: A. Find a replacement for the resource who can complete the task within the allocated time. B. Inform the resource that it is too late for any kind of change of the project schedule C. Inform her that it is Ok as you have sufficient schedule reserve to handle this kind of situation. D. Update the project schedule and other relevant plans to reflect the new estimate.
D. The best course of action will be to update the project schedule and other relevant plans to reflect the new estimate.
While working with your team members on activity sequencing, a team member identifies that even though a series of activities are planned to be completed in a specific sequence, they can be performed in parallel. What type of activity sequencing method may be utilized in this situation? A. Critical path B. Resource leveling method C. Monte Carlo simulation D. Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
D. The logical precedence diagramming method creates a schematic that is part of the sequential and logical relationships of the project activities. Usually, it shows dependencies and the order in which activities in a project must be performed. Critical path is not a diagramming methods.
You are in the Control Schedule process of monitoring the status of the project by comparing the result to the plan, updating project progress, and managing changes to the project schedule baseline. You are mainly focused on the current status and change to the project schedule, influential factors that create schedule changes, and management of actual changes as they occur. Which of the following is NOT a tool or technique in this time management process? A. Schedule compression B. Data analysis C. Resource optimization techniques D. Schedule forecasts
D. The schedule forecasts are outputs on the Control Schedule process, not tools & techniques.
You are the project manager overseeing the implementation of a new computer infrastructure at a local hospital. Your sponsor has informed you that all of the existing applications must work in the new infrastructure and the project should be completed in three months. These are examples of: A. Lags B. Leads C. Estimations D. Constraints
D. These are examples of a constraint or limitation that limits options and eliminates alternatives in the project.
