IT Project Management Exam 1

resource allocation (In the resource allocation stage of selecting information technology projects, organizations select information technology projects.)

In the _____ stage of selecting information technology projects, organizations select information technology projects.

project

Project managers have the most amount of authority in a ____ organizational structure.

Systems thinking

Projects must operate in a broad organizational environment, and project managers need to consider projects within the greater organizational context. _____ describes this holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization.

FALSE (The project management plan is much more than a Gantt chart.)

A Gantt chart is the same as a project management plan.

project life cycle

A ____ is a collection of project phases

kick-off meeting

A ____ is a meeting held at the beginning of a project so that stakeholders can meet each other, review the goals of the project, and discuss future plans.

concept

A preliminary or rough cost estimate is developed in the ____ phase, and an overview of the work involved is created.

zero (You can determine a project's internal rate of return (IRR) by finding what discount rate results in an NPV of zero for the project.)

A project's internal rate of return can be determined by finding what discount rate results in an NPV of _____ for the project.

ballpark (A rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimate provides an estimate of what a project will cost. A ROM estimate can also be referred to as a ballpark estimate, a guesstimate, a swag, or a broad gauge.)

A rough order of magnitude estimate can be referred to as a _____ estimate.

work breakdown structure (After collecting requirements and defining scope, the next step in project scope management is to create a work breakdown structure. A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a deliverable oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines its total scope.)

A(n) _____ is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project.

change control system (A change control system is a formal, documented process that describes when and how official project documents may be changed. It also describes the people authorized to make changes, the paperwork required for these changes, and any automated or manual tracking systems the project will use.)

A(n) _____ is a formal, documented process that describes when and how official project documents may be modified, the people authorized to make modifications, and the paperwork required for these changes.

a corrective action (Feedback: Corrective actions should result in improvements in project performance.)

An IT company revises its process parameters in response to complaints from vendors that products were not ready on time. This would be an example of _____.

the earned value minus the actual cost. (Cost variance (CV) is the earned value minus the actual cost. If cost variance is a negative number, it means that performing the work costs more than planned. If cost variance is a positive number, performing the work costs less than planned.)

Cost variance is:

benchmarking (Benchmarking, or generating ideas by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products inside or outside the performing organization, can be used to collect requirements.)

Generating ideas by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products inside or outside the performing organization is known as _____.

It is ahead of schedule and over budget.

If a project is halfway completed and its schedule performance index is 110 percent and its cost performance index is 95 percent, how is it progressing?

the cost variance is $500, which is under budget

If the actual cost for a WBS item is $1500 and its earned value was $2000, what is its cost variance, and is it under or over budget?

functional (A functional organizational structure is the hierarchy most people think of when picturing an organizational chart. Functional managers or vice presidents in specialties such as engineering, manufacturing, IT, and human resources report to the chief executive officer (CEO).)

In Rizzati Corp, vice presidents in departments such as engineering, manufacturing, IT, and human resources report directly to the chief executive officer and undertake their tasks independently of each other. The staffs of these departments have specialized skills in their respective disciplines. Rizatti Corp can be said to have a _____ organizational structure.

lowest; highest

In early phases of a project life cycle, resource needs are usually ____ and the level of uncertainty is ____.

determining their dependencies. (After defining project activities, the next step in project time management is sequencing them or determining their dependencies. The sequencing process involves evaluating the reasons for dependencies and the different types of dependencies.)

In project time management, the next step after defining project activities is:

developing a schedule (The ultimate goal of developing a realistic project schedule is to provide a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project. Project time management processes often go through several iterations before a project schedule is finalized.)

In project time management, the ultimate goal of _____ is to provide a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project.

Developing the schedule (Developing the schedule involves analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule. Outputs include a schedule baseline, project schedule, schedule data, project calendars, project management plan updates, and project documents updates.)

In project time management, which of the following processes involve analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule?

Estimating activity durations (Estimating activity durations involves estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities. Outputs include activity duration estimates and project documents updates.)

In project time management, which of the following processes involve calculating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities?

the top-down or bottom-up approach (You could conduct mind mapping for an entire project by listing the project in the center of a diagram and adding branches or develop a mind-mapping diagram for each deliverable and merge them to create one large diagram for the entire project.)

Mind mapping can be used for developing WBSs using

direct (Direct costs can be directly related to creating the products and services of a project. For instance, direct costs include the salaries of people working full time on a project.)

Newtech Inc. hires John for the position of a software programmer to work on their new project. Salary paid to John by Newtech Inc. would be an example of _____ costs.

revenues minus expenditures. (Profits are revenues minus expenditures. To increase profits, a company can increase revenues, decrease expenses, or try to do both.)

Profits may be defined as:

political frame

The ____ assumes that organizations are coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups.

human resources frame

The ____ focuses on producing harmony between the needs of the organization and the needs of the people.

waterfall life cycle

The ____ model assumes that requirements will remain stable after they are defined.

closing

The ____ process involves gaining stakeholder and customer acceptance of the final products and services and bringing the project, or project phase, to an orderly end.

top-down (To use the top-down approach, start with the largest items of the project and break them into subordinate items. The top-down approach is best suited to project managers who have vast technical insight and a big-picture perspective.)

The _____ approach for constructing a WBS starts with the largest items of the project and breaks them into subordinate items.

late start date (The late start date is the latest possible time an activity might begin without delaying the project finish date.)

The _____ for an activity is the latest possible time an activity might begin without delaying the project finish date.

scope statement (The scope statement should list and describe all of the deliverables required for the project. It is very important to ensure consistency between the project charter, scope statement, WBS, and Gantt chart to define the scope of the project accurately.)

The _____ should list and describe all of the deliverables required for the project.

requirements management plan (The requirements management plan documents how project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.)

The ______ documents how project needs will be analyzed, documented, and managed.

the project objective, high-level requirements, and time and cost goals (Many projects require a business case to justify their investment. Information in the business case, such as the project objective, high-level requirements, and time and cost goals, is included in the project charter.)

The business case includes information on _____.

longest; shortest (A critical path for a project is the series of activities that determine the earliest time by which the project can be completed. It is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float.)

The critical path is the _____ path through a network diagram, and it represents the _____ amount of slack or float.

FALSE (The introduction or overview of the project should include the following information: the project name; a brief description of the project and the need it addresses; the sponsor's name; the names of the project manager and key team members; deliverables of the project; a list of important reference materials; and a list of definitions and acronyms.)

The introduction or overview of a project must only include a list of definitions and acronyms.

cost budgeting (The main goal of the cost budgeting process is to produce a cost baseline for measuring project performance and to determine project funding requirements. Determining the budget involves allocating the project cost estimate to individual material resources or work items over time.)

The main goal of the _____ process is to produce a cost baseline for measuring project performance and project funding requirements.

Developing the Project Charter Developing the project management plan Directing and managing the project work Monitoring and controlling project work Performing integrated change control Closing the project or phase

The main processes involved in project management?

execution (The majority of time on a project is usually spent on execution, as is most of the project's budget.)

The majority of time on a project is usually spent on _____, as is most of the project's budget.

executing

The project procurement management knowledge area maps to the ____ process group through the activities conducting procurements.

crashing (Crashing is a technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost. The main advantage of crashing is shortening the time needed to finish a project.)

The technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost is known as _____.

deliverable (The term deliverable describes a product created as part of a project. Deliverables can be product related, such as a piece of hardware or software, or process-related, such as a planning document or meeting minutes.)

The term ______ describes a product produced as part of a project.

six

There are ____ main processes involved in project integration management.

critical

To shorten the duration of a project, we should trim time from activities on the ________path.

Creating sprint backlog (Creating product backlogs, sprint backlogs and release backlogs are all part of the planning process of the scrum.)

Which of the following activities is a part of the planning process of the Scrum?

External (External dependencies involve relationships between project and non-project activities.)

Which of the following dependencies involve relationships between project and non-project activities?

An activity attribute provides more schedule-related information about each activity than an activity list. (The activity list is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule. The list should include the activity name, an activity identifier or number, and a brief description of the activity. The activity attributes provide more schedule-related information about each activity, such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, and so forth.)

Which of the following is a difference between an activity list and an activity attribute?

Collecting requirements

Which of the following is a planning process associated with project scope management?

Start-to-start (A start-to-start dependency is a relationship in which the "from" activity cannot start until the "to" activity or successor is started.)

Which of the following is a relationship in which the "from" activity cannot start until the "to" activity is started?

Lessons-learned reports (The main outputs of schedule control include work performance measurements, organizational process assets updates such as lessons-learned reports related to schedule control, change requests, project management plan updates, and project documents updates.)

Which of the following is an output of schedule control?

Cost forecasts (Outputs of the process of controlling costs are work performance information, cost forecasts, change requests, project management plan updates, project documents updates, and organizational process asset updates.)

Which of the following is an output of the process of controlling costs?

People lack estimating experience. (The people who develop software cost estimates often do not have much experience with cost estimation, especially for large projects. They also do not have enough accurate, reliable project data on which to base estimates.)

Which of the following is most likely to be a reason for inaccuracies in information technology cost estimates?

Project documents update (The main outputs of the resource estimating process include a list of activity resource requirements, a resource breakdown structure, and project documents updates.)

Which of the following is one of the main outputs of estimating activity resources process?

A unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS (Some basic principles apply to creating any good WBS and its WBS dictionary. Firstly, a unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS. The work content of a WBS item is the sum of the WBS items below it.)

Which of the following is recommended for the creation of a good WBS?

It is a dependency in which the "from" activity must be finished before the "to" activity can be finished. (A finish-to-finish dependency is a relationship in which the "from" activity must be finished before the "to" activity can be finished. One task cannot finish before another finishes.)

Which of the following is true of a finsih-to-finish dependency?

It provides an estimate of what a project will cost. (A rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimate provides an estimate of what a project will cost. This type of estimate is done very early in a project or even before a project is officially started.)

Which of the following is true of a rough order of magnitude estimate?

They are time-intensive and expensive to develop. (Bottom-up estimates involve estimating the costs of individual work items or activities and summing them to get a project total. The drawback with bottom-up estimates is that they are usually time-intensive and therefore expensive to develop.)

Which of the following is true of bottom-up estimates?

requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration.

Which of the following is true of the agile approach to software development?

Defining activities (In project time management, the process of defining activities involves identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables.)

Which of the following processes in project time management involves identifying the specific tasks that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables?

cost control (Controlling costs involves controlling changes to the project budget. The main outputs of the cost control process are work performance information, cost forecasts, change requests, project management plan updates, project documents updates, and organizational process assets updates.)

Work performance information and cost forecasts are main outputs of the _____ process.

Life cycle costing

____ helps you develop an accurate projection of a project's financial costs and benefits.

Systems analysis

____ is a problem-solving approach that requires defining the scope of the system, dividing it into its components, and then identifying and evaluating its problems, opportunities, constraints, and needs.

Organizational culture

____ is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization.

RUP

____ is an iterative software development process that focuses on team productivity and delivers software best practices to all team members.

Open-systems focus

____ refers to the degree to which the organization monitors and responds to changes in the external environment.

Strategic planning

____ should serve as the foundation for deciding which projects to pursue.

Directives (Directives are new requirements imposed by management, government, or some external influence.)

_____ are new requirements imposed by management, government, or some external influence.

Intangible costs (Intangible costs or benefits are difficult to measure in monetary terms.)

_____ are those costs that are difficult to measure in monetary terms.

Project cost management (Project cost management includes the processes required to ensure that a project team completes a project within an approved budget. Project managers must make sure their projects are well defined, have accurate time and cost estimates, and have a realistic budget that they were involved in approving.)

_____ includes the processes required to ensure that a project team completes a project within an approved budget.

Scope validation (Scope validation involves formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables. This acceptance is often achieved by a customer inspection and then sign-off on key deliverables.)

_____ involves formal acceptance of the completed project scope by the stakeholders.

Defining scope (Defining scope involves reviewing the scope management plan, project charter, requirements documents, and organizational process assets to create a scope statement, adding more information as requirements are developed and change requests are approved.)

_____ involves reviewing the project charter, requirements documents, and organizational process assets to create a scope statement, adding more information as requirements are developed and change requests are approved.

Total slack (Total slack or total float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date.)

_____ is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date.

Variance (Variance is the difference between planned and actual performance.)

_____ refers to the difference between planned and actual performance.

JAD (Joint Application Design (JAD) uses highly organized and intensive workshops to bring together project stakeholders — the sponsor, users, business analysts, programmers, and so on —to jointly define and design information systems.)

_____ uses highly organized and intensive workshops to bring together project stakeholders—the sponsor, users, business analysts, programmers, and so on—to jointly define and design information systems.