Project management final exam prep

In scheduling terms, time-constrained means resources are ________; time is ________.

flexible | fixed

In what way can organizational culture influence project estimates

importance the organization places on estimating. Use of top-down versus bottom-up estimating can influence estimates

which of the following statements is false?

in small projects it is necessary define a project scope statements of project scope are sometimes referred to as statements of work

The personality of an organization is a simple explanation of ________.

organizational culture

Examples of ________ projects include embryonic DNA treatments and new kinds of metal alloys.

oyster

A sequence of connected, dependent activities is termed a(n)

path

The indicator that tells you the planned time-phased value of the work that is scheduled is the ________.

planned value (PV)

If the project schedule begins to slip, it is the ______ you should focus on

Critical activities

________ define the scope of the project, and ultimate project success rests in their satisfaction.

Customers

Given that an activity's normal time and cost are 8 days and $350, respectively, and its crash time and cost are 3 days and $700, respectively, what is the activity's slope?

$70 per unit of time C o s t S l o p e = R i s e R u n = C r a s h C o s t − N o r m a l C o s t N o r m a l T i m e − C r a s h T i m e = 700 - 350 8 − 3 = 350 5 = 70 per unit of time

The lowest element in the hierarchical breakdown of the WBS is...

A Work Package

In order to shorten project duration, which of the following activities would you first select to crash?

A critical activity with $40 per time unit reduced The first activity to crash is a critical activity with the least cost to shorten one time period. The project duration will not be reduced by crashing non-critical activities.

Which of these is part of the "sociocultural dimension" of project management?

A) Negotiation C) Customer expectations D) Leadership E) Politics

an element of the project that requires time but may not require resources

Activity

Which of the following is not part of a project monitoring system?

Adjusting the data Comparing the data with another project data

Project selection criteria are typically classified as ________ and ________.

financial | nonfinancial

Which of the followings about developing a project network is false?

Arrows cannot cross over each other.

Which of the following statements is true?

Because of the significant loss in potential product revenue, "time to market" has become one of the most critical factors in developing new products.

James is a business undergraduate student taking a project management course but does not have sufficient project experience. Which PMI certification will James be eligible to stand for after he finishes taking his project management course?

CAPM

Which of the following is not one of the most commonly used methods for accelerating project completion?

Compromise quality

________ has lead to a dramatic increase in the speed in which new products are developed.

Concurrent engineering

After reviewing the project scope statement, the owner specifies that costs MUST stay within $400,000. This criterion is classified as

Constrained

Which of the following cultural characteristic relates to the degree to which rules, policies, and direct supervision are used to oversee and control employee behavior?

Control

In the _____________ stage of the project life cycle, project objectives are established, teams are formed, and major responsibilities are assigned.

Defining

The forward pass in project network calculations determines

Earliest time an activity can begin Earliest time an activity can finish. Duration of the project. How soon the project can finish.

Early Finish (EF) of each activity is equal to

Early Start (ES) of that activity + Duration of that activity

Early Finish (EF) of each activity is equal to ________.

Early Start (ES) of that activity + Duration of that activity

________ is the process of approximating or forecasting the time and cost of completing project deliverables.

Estimating

The primary function of the control tower PMO is to improve project ______. Multiple Choice scheduling budgeting execution scheduling and budgeting quality of the resulting product

Execution

which of the following is a draw back of organizing projects as dedicated teams

Expensive Internal Strife Limited Technological Expertise Difficult Post-Project Transition

Which of the following would be defined as the ability to have command of their emotions and respond constructively to others when things get a bit out of control?

High emotional intelligence (EQ)

Which of the following problems refers to lack of understanding and consensus of organization strategy among top and middle-level managers? This also can result when top management formulates strategy and leaves implementation to functional managers.

Implementation gap.

Which of the following is NOT true when managing a portfolio system?

It does not require a constant effort

Which of the following is not one of models that describes the function of a project management office?

Lookout post

Which of the following is an advantage of a functional project management organization?

Maximum flexibility in the use of staff

Which of the following is one of the characteristics of effective objectives?

Measurable

Which of the following is not considered to be a characteristic of a project?

Only for internal use

________ is one of the cultural characteristics relates to the degree to which the organization monitors and responds to changes in the external environment.

Open-systems focus

Organization costs across all products and projects such as advertising, accounting, cost are considered

Overhead Costs

Good historical data estimates can be quickly with little effort and reasonable accuracy by using

Padding estimates

Organizational culture is best explained as organizational

Personality

If a project manager claims that this project is critical and s/he takes the time to observe a critical test instead of simply waiting for a report affirms the importance of the testers and their work, the project manager is leading by example through which of the following aspects?

Priorities

The WBS is best suited for design and construction projects that have tangible outcomes. When the final outcome of the project is less tangible or it is the result of a series of steps or phases, some project managers choose to utilize a(n) ___________.

Process Breakdown Structure (PBS)

Which of the following activities is not considered a project?

Production of automobile tires

A series of coordinated, related, multiple projects that continue over an extended time and are intended to achieve a goal.

Program

in a matrix form of project management structure the ___ manager is responsible for determining how much money is available to do with project tasks

Project

Suppose that you are trying to decide which among a set of projects to serve as project manager for. You have come up with the following weighted scoring matrix. Note the weights attached to each of the dimensions. You would rate Project ________ the highest. Criteria Alignment with Interests Size of Project Upside Potential Weighted Total Weight .3 .2 .5 Project 1 5 3 2 Project 2 4 5 3 Project 3 2 4 4

Project 1 = (0.3*5) + (0.2*3) + (0.5*2) = 3.1 Project 2 = (0.3*4) + (0.2*5) + (0.5*3) = 3.7 Project 3 = (0.3*2) + (0.2*4) + (0.5*4) = 3.4 Project 2

Suppose that you are trying to decide which among a set of projects to serve as project manager for. You have come up with the following weighted scoring matrix. Note the weights attached to each of the dimensions. You would rate Project ________ the lowest. A Weighted Scoring Matrix Criteria Size of Project Alignment with Interests Upside Potential Weighted Total Weight .4 .2 .4 Project 1 5 3 2 Project 2 4 3 2 Project 3 3 5 4

Project 2 = (0.4*4) + (0.2*3) + (0.4*2) = 3.0

A document issued by senior management that provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

Project Charter

The ________ is a professional organization for project managers.

Project Management Institute

A project team that operates with a full-time project manager as a separate unit from the rest of the organization is structured using ________ organization.

Projectized

Which of the following statements about project classifications is most correct?

Projects are classified by purpose, such as replacement projects Projects are classified by size, such as less than $1 million.

Jose is forecasting project time and cost for constructing a new building by multiplying the total square footage by a given dollar amount. Which of the following methods is he using?

Ratio

Samuel is approximating project time and cost for building a new warehouse by multiplying the total square footage by a given dollar amount. Which of the following methods is he using?

Ratio method

The risk associated with the unlikelihood that one of the key members will be struck by lightning would most likely be handled by which of the following?

Retaining

If a risk event rated Impact = 4, Probability = 2, and Detection Difficulty = 5, the risk value would be equal to ________.

Risk Value = Impact x Probability x Detection = 4*2*5 = 40

Which of the following is not one of three common problems encountered in managing multiproject resource schedules?

Scope creep

Which of the following is not one of the characteristics of effective objectives?

Specific

Project managers employ lots of useful tools, many supported by software. WBS, schedules, and budgets are tools taken from the ______ dimension of the

Technical

Which of the following statements is false?

The functional project team is usually physically separated from the parent organization and given the primary directive of accomplishing the objectives of the project.

Which of the following statements concerning CPM activities is false?

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

which of the following statements about the payback model is false

The payback model measures profitability

Which of the following statements about estimating is false?

Using an organization breakdown structure (OBS) permits the use of different levels of detail for different levels of management.

Which of the following statements is true?

Without a time-phased budget a good project schedule and cost control are impossible

To estimates project times/costs, the Delphi Method makes use of ________ familiar with the kind of project in question.

a panel of experts

According to the Yellow Sticky approach, each yellow sticker represents ________.

an activity

The ________ approach can serve as a check on cost elements in the WBS by rolling up the work packages and associated cost accounts to major deliverables.

bottom-up

A(an) ________ activity is an activity that has more than one activity immediately following it.

burst

Training the customer, reassigning staff and releasing resources occurs in the ________ stage of the project life cycle.

closure

After reviewing the project scope statement, the president specifies that the project must be completed by October 10. This criterion is classified as ________.

constrained

If the project schedule begins to slip, it is the ________ you should focus on to get the project back on schedule.

critical activities

If an activity on the ________ is delayed, the project is delayed the same amount of time.

critical path

The likelihood of a risk occurring ________ as a project goes through its life cycle.

decreases

Late Start (LS) of each activity is equal to ________.

equals its latest finish time minus its duration (t): LS = LF - t

A shortage of one earthmoving tracker during week 5 of construction is an example of a(n) ________ type of resource constraint.

equipment

the purpose of top down estimating is used for

estimate the cost of a new project by using information from a previous, similar project.

In the ________ stage of the project life cycle, you are more likely to find many changes and the creation of forecasts of the project.

executing

A contractor finished renovating the interior of an over 200 years old home three weeks early and received $3,000 for the early completion. This is an example of reducing project duration caused by ________.

incentive contracts

As a project is crashed and project duration is reduced, direct costs typically ________.

increase

what metaphor was used in the text for describing relationship between culture and project management

is a riverboat trip, where culture is the river and the project is the boat.

The risk severity matrix is divided into red, yellow, and green zones. The green zone represents ________ risk.

low impact, low likelihood

In a ________ management system, there are usually two chains of command, one among functional lines and the other along project lines.

matrix

A(an) ________ activity is an activity that has more than one activity immediately preceding it.

merge

A(an) ________ is a significant event in a project that occurs at a point in time.

milestone

Starting and stopping work on one task to go and work on another project

multitasking

Which of the following statements about project development is true

neither looping statements nor conditional statements are permitted.

For the project that the final outcome is less tangible or is a series of steps or phases, utilizing a(an) ________ is more appropriate than using the class Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

process breakdown structure (PBS)

A document that authorizes the project manager to initiate and lead the project is called a ________.

project charter

In terms of commonly traded organizational currencies, giving personal and emotional backing is an example of ________-related currencies.

relationship

A project does not include _______.

repetitive, same or similar work

When resources are not adequate to meet peak demands, a project manager has to delay the late start of some activities in which the completion of the entire project may be delayed. This process is called ________.

resource-constrained scheduling

The fourth step in the risk management process is risk ________.

response control

One tool that is used by project managers of small projects to summarize the tasks to be accomplished and who is responsible for what on a project is called a(n) __________.

responsibility matrix

A project that a powerful, high-ranking official is advocating is often called ________.

sacred cow

Leadership, teamwork, and negotiation are examples of ________ dimension of the project management process.

sociocultural

Developing a new product would be an example of ________ projects while choosing to install a new piece of equipment would be an example of ________ projects.

strategic | operational

Refer to the Snapshot from Practice, the collapse of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen demonstrated ________.

the danger of blindly obeying the directives of superiors the need to managing budgets carefully the danger of expanding too quickly

True (Bottom up)

typically performed by the people who are doing the work

What kind of lag does the laddering method use

when an activity has a long duration and will delay the start of an activity immediately following it, the activity can be broken into segments and the network drawn using the laddering approach so that the following activity can begin sooner and not delay work.

A ________ is the lowest element in the hierarchical breakdown of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

work package