MG 485 Module 4 In-Depth Questions - Chapter Assignments
Closing
Relative to the project life cycle, when is the cost per risk discovered typically highest? a. Initiating b. Planning c. Executing d. Closing
Transferring
A Fortune 100 company is about to undertake a $50 million construction project to build a new office building. As a condition of hiring a general contractor for the construction, they require the contractor to secure a performance bond to guarantee their work and performance under this contract. This is an example of __________ project risk. a. avoiding b. mitigating c. transferring d. accepting
Deterministic
A __________ estimate is also referred to as a single-point estimate. a. deterministic b. probabilistic c. definitive d. order of magnitude
Root cause analysis
A __________ is an analytical technique to ascertain the fundamental or causal reason or reasons that affect one or more variances, defects, or risks. a. SWOT analysis b. Root cause analysis c. Delphi technique d. Brainstorming technique
Common cause variation
A __________ variation is the result of the product design and the method of making it, and is exhibited by a random pattern within predictable limits. a. Six Sigma variation b. Special cause variation c. Root cause variation d. Common cause variation
Remains the same regardless of the size or volume of work
A fixed cost is described as a cost that __________. a. is necessary to keep the organization running, but is not associated with one specific project b. only occurs because of the project and is often classified as direct labor or other direct costs c. remains the same regardless of the size or volume of work d. varies with the volume of use
Trigger condition
A key supplier of materials for your project has not been returning your calls or responding to your e-mails. This is an example of a __________, which indicates that a risk is likely to occur. a. bad business relationship b. trigger condition c. risk avoidance d. risk transfer
Implement activity-based costing (ABC)
A manufacturing company will be purchasing two sophisticated pieces of equipment for the factory floor. The project manager for this procurement has distributed the detailed specifications to a number of vendors and is waiting for the bid responses. When analyzing the vendor's bids, the PM can do a number of things to determine if the vendor's bid prices appear to be reasonable. Which of these actions would NOT be appropriate for the vendor bid analysis? a. Compare the bids and assume that the lowest responsible offer is fair. b. Review business publications and industry websites to determine if the prices are in line with industry standards. c. Select one of the lower-priced vendors with a good reputation and negotiate with them for the best price. d. Implement activity-based costing (ABC).
Threat, opportunity
A project risk is anything that may impact the project team's ability to achieve the general project success measures and the specific project stakeholder's priorities. A negative impact is known as a(n) __________, while a positive impact is known as a(n) __________. a. issue, benefit b. issue, opportunity c. threat, opportunity d. threat, benefit
Who identified the risk
All of these are ways to categorize project risks EXCEPT: a. when they occur in the project life cycle. b. who identified the risk. c. what project objective may be impacted (scope, time, cost, etc.). d. whether the risk is internal or external to the organization.
developing a design that, once approved, guides the team
An example of a nonrecurring cost is __________. a. cost of writing code b. cost of laying bricks c. developing a design that, once approved, guides the team d. cost of running an assembly line in a factory
Ask the manager questions about the new office space to understand the departments that will be located there, the level of finishes desired, etc...
An experienced project manager has successfully managed many new office build-outs for their East Coast company. The company just announced that they will be expanding operations to the Midwest, and a lease has been signed for 5,000 square feet of space in Cincinnati. The new office has to be up and running in 3 months, and leadership has asked for a construction estimate by the end of the day. How can the project manager come up with a credible estimate for the new space quickly? a. Tell the manager that you can't come up with an estimate in a few hours. b. Ask the manager questions about the new office space to understand the departments that will be located there, the level of finishes desired, etc. Then base the new budget on previous, similar projects. c. Create a work breakdown structure by using another previous project and generate a bottom-up estimate for each work package. d. Go through all office buildouts for the past five years. Calculate an average construction cost per square foot and multiply the 5,000 square feet by this historical cost per square foot to calculate the budget.
Is necessary to keep the organization running, but it is not associated with one specific project
An indirect cost is described as a cost that __________. a. is necessary to keep the organization running, but is not associated with one specific project. b. only occurs because of the project and is often classified as direct labor or other direct costs. c. repeats as the project work continues d. occurs when the project must be conducted faster than normal
Quality audits
Control quality is the activities used to verify that deliverables are of acceptable quality and that they are complete and correct. All of these are quality control activities EXCEPT: a. inspection. b. deliverable peer reviews. c. quality audits. d. testing process.
Wants to work exclusively on verifying a specific approach to lessen risk
During Agile project estimating, a "spike" is undertaken when the team __________. a. wants to develop a definitive cost estimate for the entire project b. wants to work exclusively on verifying a specific approach to lessen risk c. agrees to "shift left." d. agrees to do value engineering
Executing
During which phase of a project life cycle do recurring costs typically occur? a. Planning b. Selecting and initiating c. Closing and realizing d. Executing
Perform qualitative risk analysis
During which risk planning process is each risk assigned a probability and impact score? a. Plan risk management b. Identify risks c. Perform qualitative risk analysis d. Perform quantitative risk analysis
Forecasts to predict trends
Effective metrics help enable project teams to keep performance acceptable and to ultimately deliver outcomes that generate business value. Which of these is NOT a lagging indicator used to measure deliverables and reflect past performance? a. Defects b. Forecasts to predict trends c. Work in progress d. Performance measures
Project quality management
In the United States, government, business, consulting, and academic specialists in quality worked together to develop a common means of describing Total Quality Management (TQM). Which of these is NOT one of the key TQM areas that form the core values of the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Award? a. Visionary leadership b. Customer focused excellence c. Agility and resilience d. Project quality management
So that they can be responsible for determining if it's about to be triggered, and implementing the strategy
In the risk register, why should one person be designated as the "owner" of the risk? a. So that they can be congratulated when the risk is mitigated b. So that they can be blamed if the risk is triggered and causes major project problems c. So that they can be responsible for determining if it's about to be triggered, and implementing the strategy d. So that they will be responsible for administering the management reserves
Document the lessons learned for the project
Project kickoff meetings are conducted for many reasons. All of these are reasons for conducting a project kickoff meeting EXCEPT to: a. allow all project stakeholders to express their legitimate needs and desires. b. enable the project manager to use their influence to get everyone excited about the project. c. document the lessons learned for the project. d. allow all key stakeholders to see how all the pieces of the project fit together.
Lessons learned from previous projects
Project managers want to avoid two extremes: the extreme of not measuring anything since there is not enough time, and the extreme of measuring too many things. Project teams can often seek useful measures when they study __________. a. sources of variation b. quality management plan c. the work of quality gurus d. lessons learned from previous projects
Initiating, planning, executing, and closing
Risks are typically discovered during which stage(s) of a project? a. Initiating b. Initiating and planning c. Initiating, planning, and executing d. Initiating, planning, executing, and closing
DMAIC
Six Sigma uses a 15-step disciplined process called the __________ process to plan and manage improvement projects. a. SIPOC b. TQM c. DMAIC d. ISO 9001:2015
5; 10
The amount of money placed into contingency reserve is calculated during risk analysis and is often in the range of __________ to __________ percent of the total project. a. 5; 10 b. 10; 15 c. 15; 20 d. 25; 30
Resource roles and responsibilities
The cost management plan includes forecasting and refining cost estimates of all the project activities throughout the duration of the project, and it is integral to the cost management planning process. This plan contains descriptions, procedures, and responsibilities for all of these EXCEPT: a. cost estimating. b. budget determination. c. resource roles and responsibilities. d. cost control.
Date risk identified
The primary output of risk identification is the risk register. All of these information is typically contained in the risk register EXCEPT: a. risk response strategy. b. risk owner. c. probability of occurrence. d. date risk identified.
Analogous
The project manager at a software company predicts a project's costs based on previous projects that were similar to the current project. What type of cost estimating are they using? a. Parametric b. Analogous c. Bottom-up d. Rolling wave
Project quality
The term __________ is defined as "the characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs." a. value b. Six Sigma c. customer satisfaction d. project quality
Discounting the value of future revenue and cost streams enables better project decisions.
The time value of money is relevant to project management because: a. the project manager must balance the timing of project cash inflows and outflows. b. discounting the value of future revenue and cost streams enables better project decisions. c. it is important to understand how to calculate the cost of regular and overtime labor. d. as time passes on a project, money is spent.
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
What does a SWOT analysis examine?
Teams work exclusively on verifying a specific approach, and adjust their thinking by testing as early as practical in the project...
What does the Agile term "shift left" mean? a. Teams work exclusively on verifying a specific approach, and adjust their thinking by testing as early as practical in the project anything that will need to be tested at a later stage. b. Move stories from In Progress status on the Kanban board to the left, back to Product Backlog. c. Remove decimal places from estimates. d. Move from various locations to a co-located team environment.
It is the point beyond which corrective action is taken
What is the purpose of identifying a threshold for project metrics? a. It indicates stakeholder tolerance for quality defects. b. It will become the trigger event for a risk response. c. It is the point beyond which corrective action is taken. d. It is the point at which the defect gets into the customer's hands.
Cost baseline
What is used to compare actual project spending with planned expenditures to determine if corrective action is needed? a. Cost baseline b. Critical path c. Cost estimate d. Cost management plan
Fixed costs
What type of costs do NOT depend on the size of the project? a. Variable costs b. Direct costs c. Fixed costs d. Indirect costs
Quantitative risk analysis
What type of risk analysis is NOT required on all projects? a. Identify risks b. Qualitative risk analysis c. Quantitative risk analysis d. Risk response planning
Task costs
Which of the answers below is NOT one of the three types of data that Microsoft Project uses to compute each assignment's cost value? a. Assignment work hours b. Task costs c. Resource standard rate d. Resource overtime rate
Because assumptions reflect problems that will definitely happen during the course of the project
Which of these is NOT a reason for listing assumptions in the cost estimate? a. Two people from different backgrounds may view a situation differently. b. Assumptions that are not true often cause more work or manifest as risks. c. As more details are available, a project manager may review assumptions to uncover those that have now proven to be false. d. Because assumptions reflect problems that will definitely happen during the course of the project.
Mitigate opportunity
Which of these is NOT a risk strategy that is used specifically for dealing with opportunities? a. Mitigate opportunity b. Enhance opportunity c. Exploit opportunity d. Share opportunity
Corrective action
Which of these is NOT a way that value is delivered on Agile projects? a. Corrective action b. Make processes explicit c. Inspection and testing d. Continuous integration
Functional areas with the organization
Which of these is NOT an example of an external stakeholder? a. The public b. Functional areas within the organization c. Customers d. Suppliers
Schedule milestones
Which of these is NOT an example of supporting detail pertaining to cost estimates? a. Description of the project scope b. Method used to create the estimate c. Assumptions and constraints d. Schedule milestones
Vendor satisfaction
Which of these is NOT one of the four core project quality concepts? a. Vendor satisfaction b. Process management c. Fact-based management d. Empowered performance
Quality improvements
Which of these is NOT one of the general categories of typical project success measures? a. Meeting project agreements b. Quality improvements c. Project outcome met the customers' needs d. Project helped the performing organization
The saying that the team should meet expectations but exceed requirements
Which of these is NOT one of the reasons that it is better to design quality into a process than to find problems upon inspection? a. It costs more to make junk and then remake it to obtain good outputs. b. Having to do rework aggravates schedule pressure on projects. c. The saying that the team should meet expectations but exceed requirements. d. Even the best inspectors do not find every mistake.
Deliver
Which of these is NOT one of the steps of the PDCA model? a. Plan b. Deliver c. Check d. Act
Production work is halted in the factory due to lack of inventory, and management pays extra for rapid delivery of additional material
Which of these is an example of an expedited cost? a. The team completes a major deliverable within the normal 40-hour work week. b. New computers are delivered per the agreed dates in the executed purchasing agreement. c. Production work is halted in the factory due to lack of inventory, and management pays extra for rapid delivery of additional material. d. Summer months are slow for the company so management establishes summer hours, where everyone gets Friday afternoons off.
Bottom-up
Which of these methods of estimating can produce the most accurate estimate? a. Parametric b. Analogous c. Bottom-up d. Rolling wave
Everyone
Who should be involved in identifying potential risks for a project? a. Sponsor b. Project manager c. Team d. Everyone
Only high-scoring risks require a contingency plan
With respect to creating a contingency plan for risks, __________. a. risks do not require a contingency plan b. all risks require a contingency plan c. only high-scoring risks require a contingency plan d. only positive risks or opportunities require a contingency plan
Order of magnitude
__________ estimates are often used to seek initial project charter approval. a. Budget b. Order of magnitude c. Definitive d. Parametric
Plan quality management
__________ is "the process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and its deliverables and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with quality requirements and/or standards." a. Fact-based management b. Plan quality management c. ISO 9001:2015 d. Manage quality
Juran
__________ is best known for creating the Quality Trilogy. a. Juran b. Ishikawa c. Harrington d. Senge
Value engineering
__________ is defined as a formal and structured approach to reducing cost without decreasing the quality or performance. a. Vendor bid analysis b. Life cycle costing c. Value engineering d. Time value of money
Perform quality assurance
__________ is defined as a practice, primarily concerned with overall process improvements to ensure that every deliverable produced is error free. a. Manage quality b. Control quality c. Perform quality assurance d. Plan quality management
Baselined project management plan
__________ marks the transition between the planning and executing project phases. a. Baselined project management plan b. Quality management plan c. Quality baseline d. Process improvement plan
Deming
__________ was the influential thought leader in the area of quality who created the Profound Knowledge System. a. Juran b. Deming c. Taguchi d. Crosby