[study] Project Management Final

How does resource scheduling reduce flexibility in managing projects?

Resource scheduling systems usually reduce flexibility because when resources are considered, computer routines use slack to get an "efficient" schedule. When slack is used up, flexibility is lost and the risk of delaying the project increases. If the resource conflict occurs on the critical path, the project is delayed.

How does resource scheduling tie to project priority?

Resource scheduling ties to project priority because resources are limited. Remember, the priority system ranks projects which then determines which project each resource should work on first.

If resources are not adequate to meet peak demands, the resulting reschedule is termed

Resource-constrained scheduling

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

An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on project objectives is termed a

Risk

Projects should align with the organization's overall strategy in order to

Reduce waste of scarce resources.

Project management is important to understand when people are a part of a project team because they

- Need to be able to monitor and report project progress. - Need to understand project priorities so they can make independent decisions. - Need to understand the project charter or scope statement that defines the objectives and parameters of the project.

Change management systems are designed to accomplish

- Reflect scope changes in baseline and performance measures - Review, evaluate, and approve/disapprove proposed changes formally - Track all changes that are to be implemented - Identify expected effects of proposed changes on schedule and budget

Explain the risks associated with leveling resources, compressing or crashing projects, and imposed durations or "catch-up" as the project is being implemented.

Flexibility is decreased and risk of delay is increased. For example, slack is used up and may cause other bottlenecks later in a sequence of activities. Having time buffers at merge points before the project begins could help avoid some of the need to crash activities. Decoupling critical activities can help to cut time if decoupling is possible and resources can be shifted; however, the risk is typically reduced only slightly.

One common mistake made early in the risk identification process is to

Focus on consequences and not on the events that could produce consequences

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

For internal use only

An expected output over the life of a project would be classified as

A deliverable

Which of the following represents an activity on an activity-on-node (AON) project network?

A node

What is the difference between avoiding a risk and accepting a risk?

Avoiding a risk is changing the project plan in advance so as to eliminate specific risks from occurring while accepting a risk means no preventive action is taken; contingency plans may be used if the risk materializes.

Refining estimates may be necessary for a number of reasons. For example, people working on prototype development needing time to interact with the design engineers after the design is completed is a good example of

Hidden interaction costs.

Which of the following does NOT help describe a project network?

Highlights major deliverables and identifies their completion dates

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 period and are intended to achieve a goal is known as a

Program

Resource leveling or smoothing can have all the following results on a project EXCEPT

a longer project duration

Explain the difference between budget reserves and management reserves.

Budget reserves are established to cover identified risks that occur while implementing a project work package or activity. If the risk does not materialize, the funds are removed from the budget reserve. The management reserve covers unforeseen risks and applies to the total project. These reserves are usually controlled by top management, the owner, and/or the project manager. Budget and management reserves are independent of each other.

Only activities that occur at the end of a chain of activities can have free slack.

False

Performance bonds, warranties, and guarantees are financial instruments used to share risk.

False

Responses to all identifiable risks should be a top priority for the project manager.

False

Scope creep occurs when your project is completed over-budget.

False

Since a construction company builds many buildings, the buildings built after the first do not fit the definition of a project.

False

The first stage in the project life cycle is the concept stage.

False

Present six reasons scheduling resources is an important task.

Check if existing resources are adequate and available Decide which resources have priority Assess the impact if another project is added to the pool Determine where the real critical path is. Are there unforeseen dependencies? See what happens to the risk of being late if slack is used up developing a schedule Decide if outside contractors have to be used Decide if an imposed project duration is realistic

In the _____________ stage of the project life cycle project the product is delivered to the customer and resources are reassigned.

Closing

There are 5 steps involved when defining a project; which of the following is the last?

Code the WBS for tracking

Companies are using which of the following for improving the estimating process for future projects?

Creating historical databases of previous projects

When considering risk value, the lower the value, the higher the level of risk.

False

Work package estimates should include allowances for contingencies.

False

The _________ is used to assist in making project trade-offs among schedule, budget, and performance objectives.

Project priority matrix

Project risks can/cannot be eliminated if the project is carefully planned. Explain.

Project risks cannot be eliminated. It is impossible to be aware of all things that might happen when a project is being implemented. Undesirable events identified before the project begins can be transferred, retained/reduced, or shared. Contingency plans with trigger points and responsibility should be established before the project begins.

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

Defining

Which of the following is a good example of a program?

Developing a new residential area that includes six custom homes

The salary of the project manager would be an example of what type of cost found in a project?

Direct project overhead

What are the major differences between managing negative risks versus positive risks (opportunities)?

Essentially the same process that is used to manage negative risks is applied to positive risks. The major differences occur in the responses. Instead of avoiding negative risks, project managers often try to exploit positive risks by taking action to ensure that the opportunity occurs. Instead of transferring risks to another party, project managers often share positive risks to increase the likelihood the opportunity can be exploited. Instead of mitigating negative risks, project managers will take action to enhance the likelihood the opportunity will occur and/or increase the positive impact of the opportunity. Finally, project managers will often choose to accept both negative and positive risks, but be prepared to respond if either occurs.

In the _____________ stage of the project life cycle, a major portion of the physical project work performed.

Executing

A major portion of the project work, both physical and mental, takes place during the production stage of the project life cycle.

False

An expected output over the life of a project would be classified as a target.

False

Because of its flexibility, project management is equally useful in ongoing, routine work as well as unique, one-time projects.

False

Because of the profitability motive, project management is nearly always limited to the private sector.

False

Enhancing a risk is a tactic that seeks to eliminate the uncertainty associated with an opportunity to ensure that it definitely happens.

False

If the project has a duration of 13 days, the project should be completed 13 days from the day it starts.

False

If the project time should be accepted, then the project must be completed on time.

False

The initial step in the risk management process is to

Identify the risks

What are the likely outcomes if a change control process is not used? Why?

If a change control process is not used, budgets and plans will self-destruct quickly. Tracking changes facilitates control and accountability of budgets and time. In addition, change control allows for coordination of changesfurther on in the project.

The assumption that all immediate preceding activities must be 100% complete is too restrictive in some situations. When an activity is broken down into smaller segments in order to start the succeeding activity sooner, this is called

Laddering

The project scope statement indicates that the client is responsible for training the people who will be using the equipment and that the project team will train the client's trainers. This is an example of

Limits and exclusions.

What is the difference between mitigating a risk and contingency planning?

Mitigating a risk refers to taking action to either reduce the likelihood that a risk (bad event) will happen and/or reduce the impact the risk has on the project. Contingency planning is developing a response if the risk occurs. Mitigating is preventive while contingency is reactive.

_______________ focuses on how to respond to events that have a positive impact on a project.

Opportunity management

The integration of the lowest level of the WBS with the organizational units responsible for performing the work is known as

Organization breakdown structure.

Why is it critical to develop a time-phased baseline?

Other systems do not measure how much work is accomplished for the money spent! Hence, without time-phasing cost to match your project schedule, it is impossible to have reliable information for control purposes.

How can outsourcing project work alleviate the three most common problems associated with multi project resource scheduling?

Outsourcing can be used to reduce project slippage, improve utilization of critical resources, and avoid resource bottlenecks. For example, project delays can be avoided by contracting key activities when resources are not available internally. Likewise, hiring consultants to help with Y2K problems allows critical IT people to work on specific problems, while the outsiders work on standard programs. Not only does the project get done on time, but the company avoids hiring IT personnel to meet a short term need.

Which of the following is NOT typical of a project manager?

Overseeing existing operations

A professional organization for project management specialists is the

PMI

Janet is forecasting how much money her department needs to support a new project. She estimates that two people and $25,000 in expenses will cover her needs. Because management typically insists on reducing forecasts by 20 percent, she increases her estimates to allow for that reduction. Which of the following factors is illustrated in this situation?

Padding estimates

Activities which can take place at the same time are termed

Parallel activity.

Which of the following are included in a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis?

Probability, Impact, Detection, and Risk Value

Which of these is NOT part of the "technical dimension" of project management?

Problem solving

The risk management tool that is divided into three color-coded zones representing major, moderate, and minor risks is the risk

Severity matrix

The chances of a risk event occurring as a project proceeds through its life cycle tend to

Slowly drop

Concurrent engineering, which has dramatically reduced the development time for new products, relies on what kind of lag?

Start to Start lags

________ activities are to be completed immediately following a particular activity.

Successor

Which of the following methods is NOT considered a top-down approach to estimating project time and cost?

Template

How are the work breakdown structure and change control connected?

The WBS and change control are directly linked. Any change from the baseline developed from the WBS needs to be recorded. This link allows management to trace changes and problems directly to deliverables and the organization unit responsible.

The chances of risk events occurring and their respective costs increasing change over the project life cycle. What is the significance of this phenomenon to a project manager?

The chances of risk events and estimated costs changing over the project life cycle are high. These events will impact project change control mechanisms. Moreover, such changes could be significant enough to require changes in scope. The project manager must ensure that these changes are recorded and kept updated. Otherwise the integrity of the project control system will quickly deteriorate and become useless as a management tool.

Which metaphor best captures the role of a project manager?

The conductor of an orchestra

In practice, estimating processes are frequently classified as

Top down/bottom up.

The amount of time an activity can be delayed and yet not delay the project is termed

Total slack

All task time estimates need consistent time units.

True

Burst activities have more than one activity immediately following them (more than one dependency arrow flowing from them).

True

Contingency funding is made up of budget reserves and management reserves.

True

Estimates that are typically based on estimates of elements found in the work breakdown structure are called bottom-up estimates.

True

Fixed-price contracts are an example of transferring risk from an owner to a contractor.

True

Most people who excel at managing projects never have the title of project manager.

True

One of the defining characteristics of project management is that the projects are not confined to a single department but involve several departments and professionals.

True

There is a strong correlation between project success and clear project scope definition.

True

Which of the following describes the consensus method?

Uses pooled experience of senior and/or middle managers to estimate the total project duration and cost

Jose is looking at a document that outlines the specific deliverables and subdeliverables required to complete the writing of a technical support manual. He is most likely viewing the

Work breakdown structure.

Which of the following activities is the best example of a project?

Writing a policy manual

"To construct a high-quality, custom home within five months at costs not to exceed $150,000" is best classified as

an objective

Project success or failure often is reliant upon the contributions of all of the following groups of stakeholders EXCEPT

competitors

A lack of readily available engineers is a technical constraint.

false

Since resource leveling or smoothing delays noncritical activities, a common result is a decrease in network sensitivity.

false

Splitting is a scheduling technique used to get a better schedule or better resource utilization and should be used without hesitation.

false

When a company will reduce the number of projects they have to manage internally to only core projects and send noncritical projects to contractors and consulting firms this is called

outsourcing

Rachel is working on a project that technically allows three activities to be done at the same time. If they were to be implemented at the same time, she would need 5 contractors in order for the activities to be completed on time. There are only 3 available for her to use. This is an example of what type of constraint?

people

Sam, the project engineer, has been scheduled to run the product system test at the same time he is to build a marketing prototype. This is an example of what type of resource constraint?

people

Susan is to conduct environmental testing but the chamber cannot hold all the equipment that she wants to test. This is an example of a constraint that could impact the sequence and timing of activities in a project network. What type of constraint is it?

physical

In a resource-constrained project the second priority in assigning resources is usually given to activities with the

smallest duration

Resources are adequate, but demand varies widely over the life of the project. Delaying noncritical activities to lower peak demand on resources is known as resource

smoothing

Regina's boss has told her that her project is very important. If the critical path is delayed, she will be given whatever she needs to get it back on schedule. Her project is classified as ________ constrained.

time

Most of the scheduling methods available today require the project manager to classify the project as either _______ constrained or ______ constrained.

time, resource

If resources are truly limited and activity time estimates are accurate, the resource-constrained schedule will materialize as the project is implemented, not the time-constrained schedule.

true

Resource bottlenecks are one of the three more common problems encountered in managing multi-project resource schedules.

true

To determine if a project is time-constrained or resource-constrained you would consult the project priority matrix.

true

When resource constraints are added to technical constraints the original project network may change as well as the completion date.

true

Project budgets are developed by time-phasing which of the following?

work packages