HW3

Projects such as road building and plane building are: agile. well-defined. ill-defined. not defined. none of these.

well-defined.

WBS stands for which of the following project management tools? work break schedule work breakdown status work break status work breakdown schedule work breakdown structure

work breakdown structure

If an activity whose normal duration is 15 days can be shortened to 11 days for an added cost of $2,000, what is the crash cost per period? $2,000 $400 $30,000 $20,000 $500

$500

The difference between AON and AOA networks is that: AOA networks sometimes require dummy activities. nodes consume no resources or time in AOA networks. nodes designate activities in AON, while arrows designate activities in AOA. both are acceptable in practice; however, Microsoft Project uses AON. All of the these are true.

All of the these are true.

The ________ distribution is used by PERT analysis to calculate expected activity times and variances. Beta Binomial Normal Alpha Gaussian

Beta

Which of the following statements regarding time-cost tradeoffs in CPM networks is FALSE? Activities not on the critical path can become critical after crashing takes place. A negative crash cost per period would imply that either crashing is cheaper than not crashing or that the crash time was slower than the normal time. Crashing shortens project duration by assigning more resources to critical tasks. Crashing must consider the impact of crashing an activity on all paths in the network. Crashing sometimes has the reverse result of lengthening the project duration.

Crashing sometimes has the reverse result of lengthening the project duration.

If an activity whose normal duration is 13 days can be shortened to 11 days for an added cost of $1,500, what is the crash cost per period? $1,500 $500 $750 $13,000 $15,000

$750

A contractor's project being analyzed by PERT has an estimated time for the critical path of 120 days. The sum of all activity variances is 81; the sum of variances along the critical path is 64. What is the probability that the project will take 130 or more days to complete? 0.89435 0.13350 1.29 0.85120 0.10565

0.10565

A PERT project has 45 activities, 19 of which are on the critical path. The estimated time for the critical path is 120 days. The sum of all activity variances is 64, while the sum of variances along the critical path is 36. What is the probability that the project can be completed between days 114 and 120? 0.34134 0.27337 0.22663 0.84134 0.47725

0.34134

A project being analyzed by PERT has 38 activities, 16 of which are on the critical path. If the estimated time along the critical path is 90 days with a project variance of 25, what is the probability that the project will be completed in 88 days or less? 0.02275 0.97725 18 0.34458 0.65542

0.34458

Contract requirements state that a project must be completed within 180 working days, or it will incur penalties for late completion. Analysis of the activity network reveals an estimated project time of 145 working days with a project variance of 400. What is the probability that the project will be completed before the late-payment deadline? 0.80511 0.45994 near 1.00000, or almost certain 0.04006 0.95994

0.95994

A local project being analyzed by PERT has 42 activities, 13 of which are on the critical path. If the estimated time along the critical path is 105 days with a project variance of 25, what is the probability that the project will be completed in 95 days or more? 4.20000 0.34444 0.97725 -0.40000 0.02275

0.97725

A project whose critical path has an estimated time of 820 days with a variance of 225 has a 20% chance that the project will be completed before which day (rounded to nearest day)? 833 807 631 1009 689

807

Which of the following statements regarding CPM is TRUE? The critical path is the shortest of all paths through the network. The critical path is that set of activities that has positive slack. All activities on the critical path have their LS equal to the maximum EF of all immediate predecessors. All activities on the critical path have their ES equal to their LF. Some networks have no critical path

All activities on the critical path have their LS equal to the maximum EF of all immediate predecessors.

The critical path for the network activities shown below is ________ with duration ________. Activity. Duration. Immediate. Predecessors A. 4. -- B. 2. A. C. 9. -- D. 4. A E. 5. B,C,D A-B-D; 10 A-D-E; 13 C-E; 14 A-B-E; 11 A-B-C-D-E; 22

C-E; 14

A project manager determined that the project was running behind schedule. If she wants to shorten the total completion, which of the following techniques should be used? Resource view Beta distribution Gantt chart Crashing Forecasting

Crashing

Which of these statements regarding time-cost tradeoffs in CPM networks is TRUE? The crash time always exceeds the normal time. Crashing shortens the project duration by assigning more resources to one or more of the noncritical tasks. Activities not on the critical path can never be on the critical path, even after crashing. Crashing is possible even if there are multiple critical paths. Crashing a project often reduces the length of long-duration, but noncritical, activities.

Crashing is possible even if there are multiple critical paths.

Activity D on a CPM network has predecessors B and C, and has successor F. D has duration 6. B's earliest finish is 18, while C's is 20. F's late start is 26. Which of the following is definitely TRUE? F is critical, and has zero slack. D has no slack but is not critical. B is a critical activity. D is critical, and has a slack of two days. C is completed before B.

F is critical, and has zero slack.

Which of the following statements regarding Gantt charts is TRUE? Gantt charts give a timeline and precedence relationships for each activity of a project. Gantt charts are visual devices that show the duration of activities in a project. Gantt charts are expensive. Gantt charts use the four standard spines of Methods, Materials, Manpower, and Machinery. All of these are true.

Gantt charts are visual devices that show the duration of activities in a project.

The project organization works best when which of the following conditions are satisfied? I.Work tasks can be defined with a specific goal and deadline. II.The job is typical and familiar to the existing organization. III.The work contains interrelated tasks requiring specialized skills. IV.The project is temporary but unimportant to long-term organizational success. V.The project cuts across organizational lines. I, III, IV, V I, II, III, IV, V I, II, III, V I, III, V None of these conditions need to be satisfied.

I, III, V

Which of the following statements regarding CPM networks is TRUE? The late start of an activity is its late finish plus its duration. If a specific project has multiple critical paths, all of them will have the same duration. There can be multiple critical paths on the same project, all with different durations. The early finish of an activity is the latest early start of all preceding activities. None of these are true.

If a specific project has multiple critical paths, all of them will have the same duration.

Which of the following statements regarding critical paths is TRUE? The shortest of all paths through the network is the critical path. Some activities on the critical path may have slack. On a specific project, there can be multiple critical paths, all with exactly the same duration. The duration of the critical path is the average duration of all paths in the project network. Every network has only one critical path.

On a specific project, there can be multiple critical paths, all with exactly the same duration.

Which of the following is NOT a limitation of PERT? Precedence relationships must be specified and networked together. Project activities have to be clearly defined, independent, and stable in their relationships. Only one time estimate can be used for each activity. There is the inherent danger of placing too much emphasis on the critical path. Time estimates tend to be subjective and are subject to fudging by managers.

Only one time estimate can be used for each activity.

A project manager is interested in crashing a project with variable activity times. Which of the following tools should he/she employ? either PERT or CPM Gantt Chart CPM PERT PERT, CPM, or a Gantt chart are fine.

PERT

The main difference between PERT and CPM is that: CPM assumes activity durations can vary. PERT assumes that activity durations are known. PERT ignores activity costs. PERT is more accurate than CPM. PERT employs three time estimates for each activity.

PERT employs three time estimates for each activity.

Which of the following statements regarding PERT analysis is NOT true? Project standard deviation is the sum of all critical activity standard deviations. Project variance is the sum of all critical activity variances. Only critical activities contribute to the project variance. Each activity has three estimates of its duration. The most likely time is different from the expected activity time.

Project standard deviation is the sum of all critical activity standard deviations.

A simple CPM network has three activities, D, E, and F. D is an immediate predecessor of E and of F. E is an immediate predecessor of F. The activity durations are D=4, E=3, F=6. Slack at E is 3 periods. The critical path is D-F, duration 10. Slack at D is 0 periods. The critical path is D-E-F, duration 12. Both A and C are true.

Slack at D is 0 periods.

A simple CPM network has three activities, A, B, and C. A is an immediate predecessor of B and of C. B is an immediate predecessor of C. The activity durations are A=4, B=3, C=5. The critical path is A-C, duration 10.5. The network has no critical path. The critical path is A-B-C, duration 12. The critical path cannot be determined without knowing PERT expected activity times. The critical path is A-B-C, duration 9.

The critical path is A-B-C, duration 12.

Which of the following statements regarding PERT times is TRUE? The most likely time estimate is an estimate of the maximum time an activity will require. The optimistic time estimate is usually the same as the most likely time estimate. The pessimistic time estimate is an estimate of the minimum time an activity will require. The optimistic time estimate is an estimate of the maximum time an activity will require. The expected time estimate is calculated as t = (a + 4m + b)/6.

The expected time estimate is calculated as t = (a + 4m + b)/6.

Which of the following statements concerning CPM activities is false? The late finish is the earliest of the late start times of all successor activities. The early finish of an activity is the early start of that activity plus its duration. The late start of an activity is its late finish less its duration. The late finish of an activity is the earliest late start of all preceding activities. The early start of an activity is the latest early finish of all preceding activities.

The late finish of an activity is the earliest late start of all preceding activities.

Activity R on a CPM network has predecessors M and N, and has successor S. R has duration 5. N's late finish is 18, while M's is 20. S's late start is 22. Which of the following is definitely TRUE? R has no slack but is not critical. R is critical and has zero slack. S is a critical activity. The set of times cannot all be possible. N is a critical activity.

The set of times cannot all be possible.

A simple CPM network has five activities, A, B, C, D, and E. A is an immediate predecessor of B and of C. B is an immediate predecessor of D and of E. C is an immediate predecessor of E. Which of the following statements is TRUE? There are five paths in this network. There are two paths in this network. There are three paths in this network. There are six paths in this network. There are four paths in this network.

There are three paths in this network.

A project organization: is appropriate only in construction firms. is effective for companies with multiple large projects. is most helpful for ongoing projects with no termination date. is most helpful when the work contains simple and unrelated tasks. often fails when the project cuts across organizational lines.

is effective for companies with multiple large projects.

The control of projects involves close monitoring of which of the following? quality costs resources budgets all of the these

all of the these

Ethical issues that may arise in projects large and small include: exaggerated expense reports. pressure to mask delays with false status reports. gifts from contractors. compromised quality standards to meet bonuses or avoid penalties related to schedules. all of the these.

all of the these.

The waterfall approach is used most often for: engineered products with well-defined specifications and drawings. well-defined projects. projects with step-by-step progress. projects whose changes tend to be minor. all of the these.

all of the these.

In a PERT network, non-critical activities that have little slack need to be monitored closely: because PERT treats all activities as equally important. because they are causing the entire project to be delayed. because near-critical paths could become critical paths with small delays in these activities. because they have a high risk of not being completed. because slack is undesirable and needs to be eliminated.

because near-critical paths could become critical paths with small delays in these activities.

A network has been crashed to the point where all activities are critical. Additional crashing: is unnecessary. is prohibitively expensive. is impossible. may require crashing multiple tasks simultaneously. can be done, but all critical tasks must be reduced in duration.

may require crashing multiple tasks simultaneously.

The beta distribution is used in project management to: calculate the probability that a project will be completed within its budget. determine which activity should be crashed. calculate pessimistic and optimistic activity times. calculate slack on activities not on the critical path. none of the these.

none of the these.

The phases of project management are: different for manufacturing projects than for service projects. GANTT, CPM, and PERT. planning, scheduling, and controlling. planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. planning, programming, and budgeting.

planning, scheduling, and controlling.

The time an activity will take assuming very unfavorable conditions is: the optimistic time. the pessimistic time. the minimum time. the activity variance. exactly twice as long as the expected time.

the pessimistic time.

The expected activity time in PERT analysis is calculated as: the sum of the optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely times. the sum of the activity variances, divided by six. the simple average of the optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely times. the weighted average of a, m, and b, with m weighted 4 times as heavily as a and b. the sum of the optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely times, divided by six.

the weighted average of a, m, and b, with m weighted 4 times as heavily as a and b.