ISDS Exam:

Which of the following best describes a kill point in the project life cycle? a. The final submission of the project deliverables after which the project is terminated b. The point of time in the project lifecycle after which it is impossible to terminate a running project c. A review of the status of a project at each phase of development to determine if it should be continued, redirected, or terminated d. The period of time given to managers during the feasibility phases to decide on the cost, quality, and time constraints for the project

A review of the status of a project at each phase of development to determine if it should be continued, redirected, or terminated

Internal stakeholders include groups affected by the project such as government officials or concerned citizens.

False

___ refers to the degree to which departments within an organization are encouraged to coordinate with each other. a. People focus b. Member identity c. Unit integration d. Group emphasis

Unit integration

_____ involves defining and documenting the features and functions of the products produced during the project as well as the processes used for creating them. a. Collecting requirements b. Defining scope c. Validating scope d. Controlling scope

a. Collecting requirements

_____ 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. a. Defining scope b. Creating scope c. Validating scope d. Controlling scope

a. Defining scope

Which of the following is true of the agile approach to software development? a. In the agile method, requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration. b. In the agile approach, requirements must be clearly expressed early in the life cycle. c. An agile approach sets scope goals, but leaves time and cost goals flexible. d. Agile is a predictive model of software development.

a. In the agile method, requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration.

Which of the following statements is true of project management? a. It does not guarantee successes for all projects. b. It has specific tools which work universally across all kinds of projects. c. Its framework consists solely of project management knowledge areas. d. It is a simple discipline with a limited scope.

a. It does not guarantee successes for all projects.

Which of the following is true of return on investment or ROI? a. It is always a percentage. b. It is the result of adding the project costs to the profits. c. It is always a positive number. d. The lower it is, the better.

a. It is always a percentage.

Which of the following is true of earned value? a. It is an estimate of the value of the physical work actually completed. b. It is the actual cost plus the planned cost. c. It is also known as the planned value. d. It is based solely on the total cost estimate to be spent on an activity.

a. It is an estimate of the value of the physical work actually completed.

Which of the following is true of analogous estimates? a. They are most reliable when previous projects are similar in fact with current projects. b. They are the only technique which do not require expert judgement. c. Their main disadvantage is that they cost more than other techniques. d. They use project characteristics in a mathematical model to estimate project costs.

a. They are most reliable when previous projects are similar in fact with current projects.

Which of the following is true of tangible costs? a. They can be easily measured. b. Their examples include goodwill and prestige. c. They cannot be calculated in monetary terms. d. They are difficult to quantify.

a. They can be easily measured.

In the _____ approach for constructing a WBS, you use a similar project's WBS as a starting point. a. analogy b. bottom-up c. mind-mapping d. top-down

a. analogy

The _____ stage of information technology planning outlines business processes that are central to achieving strategic goals and helps determine which ones could most benefit from information technology. a. business area analysis b. project planning c. information technology strategy planning d. resource allocation

a. business area analysis

Critical chain scheduling protects tasks on the critical chain from being delayed by using _____, which consist of additional time added before tasks on the critical chain that are preceded by non-critical-path tasks. a. feeding buffers b. fast tracking c. dummy activities d. critical paths

a. feeding buffers

Which of the following is recommended for the creation of a good WBS? a. The work content of a WBS item is independent of the WBS items below it. b. A unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS. c. Each WBS item should be created assuming that the requirements are inflexible. d. Any WBS item should be the responsibility of all the people working on it.

b. A unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS.

Which of the following types of tools is usually recommended for small projects and single users? a. Midrange b. Low-end c. Upper range d. High-end

b. Low-end

_____ includes the processes required to ensure that a project team completes a project within an approved budget. a. Project scope management b. Project cost management c. Project time management d. Project quality management

b. Project cost management

Which of the following is true of bottom-up estimates? a. They are also known as parametric estimating. b. They are time-intensive and expensive to develop. c. They are most accurate when they involve large, extensive work items. d. They are based on the actual cost of a previous, similar project.

b. They are time-intensive and expensive to develop.

Which of the following is true of dummy activities? a. They have long durations. b. They show logical relationships between activities. c. They have a large range of resources. d. They have limited time periods.

b. They show logical relationships between activities

A(n) _____ is a table that lists requirements, their various attributes, and the status of the requirements to ensure that all are addressed. a. state transition table b. requirements traceability matrix c. entity-attribute-value model d. Gantt chart

b. requirements traceability matrix

Schedule variance is: a. the earned value minus the actual cost. b. the earned value minus the planned value. c. the planned value plus the rate of performance. d. the planned value plus the earned value.

b. the earned value minus the planned value.

The _____ approach for constructing a WBS starts with the largest items of the project and breaks them into subordinate items. a. analogy b. top-down c. bottom-up d. mind mapping

b. top-down

The main goal of the _____ process is to produce a cost baseline for measuring project performance and project funding requirements. a. cost planning b. cost controlling c. cost budgeting d. cost estimating

c. cost budgeting

Project managers have the most authority in a pure _____ organizational structure. a. functional b. matrix c. project d. circular

c. project

The first step in project cost management is: a. to develop several estimates of costs for different types of resources. b. to allocate project cost estimates to individual material resources. c. to plan how costs will be managed. d. to control project costs and monitor cost performance.

c. to plan how costs will be managed.

A network diagramming technique in which boxes represent activities is known as a(n) _____. a. CPM b. PERT c. ADM d. PDM

d. PDM

Which of the following is one of the main outputs of estimating activity resources process? a. Milestone list b. Work breakdown structure c. Activity duration estimate d. Project documents update

d. Project documents update

In the _____ approach, team members first identify as many specific tasks related to the project as possible and then aggregate the specific tasks and organize them into summary activities, or higher levels in the WBS. a. mind mapping b. analogy c. top-down d. bottom-up

d. bottom-up

The first process involved in project time management is _____. a. defining activities b. estimating activity durations c. sequencing activities d. planning schedule management

d. planning schedule management

A(n) _____ refers to a product or service, such as a technical report, a training session, a piece of hardware, or a segment of software code, produced or provided as part of a project. a. system b. deliverable c. resource d. input

deliverable

A SWOT analysis, being a linear process, cannot be performed using the nonlinear mind mapping technique. t/f

false

A drawback of the project management software is that it does not have the capacity to calculate the critical path(s) for a project. t/f

false

A work package represents one component of the product that the project aims to deliver. t/f

false

Budgetary estimates are made even before a project is officially started. t/f

false

In project time management, the primary output of defining activities is a schedule management plan. t/f

false

Individual projects always address strategic goals whereas portfolio management addresses tactical goals. t/f

false

One of PERT's main disadvantages is that it does not address the risk associated with duration estimates. t/f

false

Projects that address broad organizational needs are likely to fail. t/f

false

Questions about how a team will track schedule performance is related to a project's scope. t/f

false

The enterprise project management software, which aids project and portfolio management, is a low-end tool. t/f

false

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

false

The main disadvantage of crashing is that it lengthens the time needed to finish a project. t/f

false

The nature of hardware development projects is more diverse than software-oriented projects. t/f

false

The scope baseline in a WBS consists of the requirements documentation and enterprise environmental factors. t/f

false

To be a successful manager, the only skills an IT project manager needs to possess is excellent technical skills. t/f

false

If the cost performance index (CPI) is less than 100 percent, the project is under budget.

false if it's equal to 1, its on budget. Under 1 means over budget & over 1 means under budget.

In the _____ stage of selecting information technology projects, organizations select information technology projects. a. business area analysis b. information technology strategy planning c. project planning d. resource allocation

resource allocation

A dependency pertains to the sequencing of project activities or tasks. t/f

true

Information from the project charter provides a basis for further defining the project scope. t/f

true

The introduction of new software makes basic tools, such as Gantt charts and network diagrams, inexpensive and easy to create. t/f

true