Project Management Final Exam

If a project network diagram has 4 paths of lengths equal to 10, 13, 15, and 17 weeks, what is the shortest time to finish the project?

17 weeks

If an activity has a optimistic time of 3 days, a pessimistic time of 13 days, and a most likely time of 5 days, what is the PERT weighted average?

6 days

The project management framework, best and formally defined by the Project Management Institute, includes ______________________.

All of the answer choices are correct.

____ estimates, also called top-down estimates, use the actual cost of a previous, similar project as the basis for estimating the cost of the current project.

Analogous

What is an agile mindset ? Why are some organizations adopting Agile project management rather than a Waterfall approach?

Answers should address: An agile mindset is one that focuses on the why before the how. It drives delivery of value as early as possible and completes work through small, self organizing teams working in shor cycles (sprints) to deliver something of value to the customer. Many organizations are adopting Agile in an attempt to improve project success. The traditional Waterfall approach does extensive planning upfront -- which has led to problems with project deliverables being out of date or not fit for use due to changing demands/technology or other factors. Agile is seen to be more flexible and allows for organic construction of the deliverable.

Which of the following is NOT a question asked by Portfolio Managers?

Are all our poejcts on time and budget?

A ____________________ is a methodology that converts an organization's value drivers—such as customer service, innovation, operational efficiency, and financial performance—to a series of defined metrics to aid in project selection.

Balanced Scorecard

Which of the following is NOT a myth associated with Benefits Realization?

Benefits may be difficult to quantify

What is the difference between a project and a process - and why is it important to know the difference?

Better answers will identify that a project is a temporary endeavor that produces a unique deliverable, service or result - where a process is a repeatable operation performed regularly. It matters because processes should be well defined, documented and efficient. Orgs that treat processes like they are projects are "out of control" and inefficient.

____ estimates involve estimating individual activities and summing them to get a project total.

Bottom-up

What is Change Management? AConsider a project you are manageing that is working to improve the pick list fullfillment process. The new system will use handheld scanners and bluetooth printers to generate packing lists. The new system will be used by all shipping personnel - and shipping floor supervisors will be required to troubleshoot problems and be "super-users".

Change Management addresses the impact of projects and programs on people in the organization. Your answer could include 2 of the following (or other valid ideas): 1. I could include some training activites for the shipping personnel 2. I could include some of the shipping personnel on the project team as subject matter experts to help design the solution 3. I could solicit the project's champion to publicly support and encourage the customer to accept the change. 4. I could train the "super-users" - to train the rest of the shipping personnel on how to use the system to build their confidence. 5. I could use the "super-users" as testers of the new system. 6. Communicate the cost savings or efficiencies gained by the new system to make people aware of why the project is being done

____ to requirements means that the project's processes and products meet written specifications.

Conformance

__________ are funds included in the cost baseline that can be used to mitigate cost or schedule overruns if know risks occur.

Contingency reserves

_______________________________ is illustrated by Edward Deming's cycle of Plan, Do, Check, Act -- and is applied by progressively elaborating the specifics of the project work

Continuous Advancement

The completion of non-functional items such as review by experts is included in the __________.

Definition of Done

What type of dependences are defined by the project team and sometimes referred to as soft logic?

Discretionary

____ includes the actual amount of time spent working on an activity plus elapsed time.

Duration

____ dependencies are inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project.

Mandatory

_______________ allow organizations to measure their performance in certain areas—such as failure rates, availability, and reliability—and compare them over time or with other organizations.

Metrics

____ risk events might include the performance failure of a product produced as part of a project, delays in completing work as scheduled, increases in estimated costs, supply shortages, litigation against the company, and strikes.

Negative

The ________________ is a certification and the de facto standard for project managers.

PMP

Which of the following is NOT part of the PMI Talent Triangle?

Professional skills

Describe the purpose, of kickoff meetings. Identify the key players in planning and running the meeting.

Project kick-off meetings are often used to get support for a project and clarify roles and responsibilities. If there is a project champion, he should speak first at the kick-off meeting and introduce the project sponsor and project manager. If anyone seems opposed to the project or unwilling to support it, the project champion—an experienced senior manager—should be able to handle the situation. As discussed earlier in the chapter, there is normally a fair amount of work done before an official kick-off meeting for a project. At a minimum, the project manager and sponsor should have met several times, and other key stakeholders should have been involved in developing the project charter. The project manager should make sure the right people are invited to the kick-off meeting and send out an agenda in advance. The agenda should include a meeting objective, introduction of attendees, review of project background & related documents), org structure, discussion of scope, schedule and budget.

The fundamental difference between projects and processes is ____________________________.

Projects deliver something new and drive change, processes are procedures for repeatable work

_______________ is defined as the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.

Quality

A Request for ____ is a document used to solicit quotes or bids from prospective suppliers.

Quote

_______ are conditions or capabilities that must be met by the project or present in the product, service, or result to satisfy an agreement or other formally imposed specification.

Requirements

You are leading a project and decide not to use a new survey tool but stick to the old tool. What type of risk response strategy are you using?

Risk avoidance

____ development uses the results of all the preceding project time management processes to determine the start and end dates of project activities and of the entire project.

Schedule

Which of the following statements is true concerning the execution of agile projects?

Scrum teams should have all the skills necessary to create value each sprint.

______________________________ are the people involved or affected by project activities and include the project sponsor, project team, support staff, customers, users, suppliers, and even opponents to the project.

Stakeholders

You are estimating costs with your large agile team, and there are many user stories. Which method would be most appropriate to use?

The bucket system

____ are indicators or symptoms of actual risk events.

Triggers

A _____________ is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project.

WBS

A scope baseline is composed of an approved scope statement, a WBS, and a ____.

WBS dictionary

Which of the following is another name for the predictive project management framework?

Waterfall

Scope answers the question of ____________________________.

What work will be done as part of the project?

Which of the following is not an output of planning for project integration and scope management?

a project website

According to Douglas McGregor, people who believe in Theory ____ assume that workers dislike and avoid work if possible, so managers must use coercion, threats, and various control schemes to get workers to make adequate efforts to meet objectives.

b. X

A _____________ is a starting point, a measurement, or an observation that is documented so that it can be used for future comparison

baseline

A _________________________ is "an optimal way recognized by industry to achieve a stated goal or objective".

best practice

Using a(n) __________ approach to developing cost estimates requires a good deal of expert judgment and is generally less costly than others are, but it can also be less accurate.

bottom-up

Cost ____ involves allocating the overall cost estimate to individual tasks over time to establish a baseline for measuring performance.

budgeting

Which of the following is an example of a project?

building a new website

In an AOA network diagram, ____ occur when two or more activities follow a single node.

bursts

What document provides justification for investing in a project?

business case

A rhythm of activities conducted throught the project is called ______.

cadence

According to the PMBOK Guide - Sixth Edition, which process group includes activities for only one knowledge area?

closing

Topics such as who will receive project information and who will produce it, suggested methods or guidelines for conveying the information, frequency of communication, and escalation procedures for resolving issues should be described in a ___________.

communications management plan

If project managers want to find a mutually acceptable solution that partially satisfies both parties, which conflict handling mode should they use?

compromising

The final output of the seller selection process is an agreement or ____.

contract

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

cost

A(n) ____ path for a project is the series of activities that determine the earliest time by which the project can be completed.

critical

The ____________ method is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration.

critical path

The __________ ultimately decides if the quality level is acceptable.

customer

High level items in a WBS are broken down or _______ into smaller tasks.

decomposed

A WBS _________ is a document that describes the deliverables on the WBS in more detail.

dictionary

A(n) __________ is a large user story that cannot be delivered as defined within a single iteration or is large enough that it an be split into smaller user stories.

epic

The majority of a project's time and budget is spent on _______________.

executing

In general, the majority of a project's time and budget is spent on project ____.

execution

The main purpose of project planning is to guide project ____.

execution

Risk __________ is a response strategy for a positive risk where you do whatever you can to make sure the positive risk happens

exploitation

The main disadvantage of ____ is that it can end up lengthening the project schedule, because starting some tasks too soon often increases project risk and results in rework.

fast tracking

Slack or ____ is the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date.

float

You are leading a project team where team members offer no conflicting viewpoints on various aspects of the project. What has the team developed?

groupthink

Covey's habit of putting first things first suggests that people need to spend more time doing things that are ____________.

important but not urgent

If you are leading a project where requirements are not well defined, change is expected, and the customer wants several deliveries of useful products, which development approach might be most appropriate to use?

incremental

The costs of providing a work space for project workers, office furniture, electricity, and a cafeteria are ____ costs.

indirect

Sketching the entire Mona Lisa and then adding more detail is an example of using a(n) ______________ approach.

iterative

Project management is the application of ____________________ to project activities to meet the project requirements.

knowledge, skills, tools and techniques of automation

Goals of ___________ include reducing preparation efforts as much as possible, improving time to market, simplifying proposals, evaluating soft and hard skills or potential partners, and preparing an agile contract.

lean-agile procurement

Project ____ work with the project sponsors, the project team, and the other people involved in a project to meet project goals.

managers

Which of the following is not part of the triple constraint of project management?

meeting communication goals

In an AOA network diagram, a(n) ____ occurs when two or more nodes precede a single node.

merge

In the context of a network diagram, a ____ is simply the starting and ending point of an activity.

node

A three-point estimate is an estimate that includes a(n) ____, most likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three weeks, four weeks, and five weeks, respectively.

optimistic

A project ____ chart is a graphic representation of how authority and responsibility is distributed within the project.

organizational

Which of the following is not an agile estimating methods?

parametric estimating

What two dimensions should you use when evaluating project risks?

probability and impact

When using Scrum, the ________ creates a prioritizeed wish list or backlog.

product owner

Which of the following is not an attribute of a project?

projects involve no uncertainty

Project ____ management ensures that the project will satisfy the stated or implied needs for which it was undertaken.

quality

Unlike predictive project estimating, agile approaches to estimating are often done in terms of ___________.

relative size

A(n) ____ histogram is a column chart that shows the number of resources required for or assigned to a project over time.

resource

A RACI chart is a type of _______________.

responsibility assignment matrix

PMI defines a project ____ as an uncertainty that can have a negative or positive effect on meeting project objectives.

risk

After a project is approved, senior managers should meet to determine the ____, time, and cost constraints for the project.

scope

To define the ____ of the project accurately, it is very important to ensure consistency between the project charter, scope statement, WBS, Gantt chart, and related documents.

scope

Wha is scope creap? What are some underlying causes and what is it's affect on a project's success?

scope creep is the tendency for project scope to continually increase throughout the project's life. It an be caused by a poorly defined scope to begin with, poor project management practices, a lack of proper communication between the stakeholders of the project and failure to properly manage change requests to the project's scope. Without properly defining and managing scope, the project will likely exceed it's budget and schedule baselines.

After defining project activities, the next step in project time management is activity ____.

sequencing

Several studies suggest that ________ skills are crucial to the success of project managers, especially during project execution.

soft

Which of the following is an agile event where the team presents the results of their work to key stakeholders to inspect the outcomes of the sprint and determine future adaptations?

sprint review

A stakholder analysis is a technique for analyzing information to determine which stakeholders' interests to focus on and how to increase stakeholder _________.

support

A _________ helps promote teamwork and clarify team communications.

team charter

Which of the following best completes this sentence: The risk of selecting projects for the organization's portfolio based soley on financial measures is that ______________________.

the selected projects may not represent the overall strategy of the organization

The SMART criteria are guidelines suggesting that milestones should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and ____________.

time-framed

cost baseline is a(n) ____ budget that project managers use to measure and monitor cost performance.

time-phased

Instead of creating a detailed schedule for all of the activities required to complete an entire project, agile teams focus on the most valuable work they can complete within each iteration using an approach called _______.

timeboxing

A ___________ is a description of what a customer or user would want from a product or solution.

user story

A(n) ____ scoring model is a tool that provides a systematic process for selecting projects based on many criteria.

weighted