Project Management Final Exam

PERT weighted average formula:

(Optimistic time+4*Most likely time+Pessimistic time)/6

Four stage planning process to select projects that support the organizations business strategy.

1. Strategic planning 2. Business area analysis 3. Project Planning 4. Resource Allocation

If a project team has six people, how many two-way communication channels are there?

15

Project cost $100 upfront, Annual benefits are $20/year, what is the payback period?

5 years

People with a high need for ______________ need regular feedback and often prefer to work alone or with other people like them.

Achievement

Many software development projects follow ____________ methodologies, meaning they use an iterative workflow and incremental delivery of software in short iterations.

Agile

The PM is creating an estimate for the data warehouse. This is something he/she is quite experienced at. The client needs the estimate quickly. Which of the following types of estimates is he/she likely to provide?

Analogous

Research shows that the majority of communication is through _______________.

Body Language

A ______________ chart is often used to show projects in terms of risk, value, and size.

Bubble

_____________ is a document that provides financial justification for investing in a project.

Business Case

Equations:

CV=EV-AC SV=EV-PV CPI=EV/AC SPI=EV/PV

The 5 whys technique is used in which of the following diagrams?

Cause-and-Effect/Fishbone/Ishikawa

A senior manager who acts as a key proponent for a project.

Champion

What is the name of a newer conflict-handling mode where decision makers incorporate different viewpoints and insights to develop consensus and commitment.

Collaborating

________________ are mutually binding agreements that obligate the seller to provide the specified products or services, and obligate the buyer to pay for them.

Contracts

A _________________ is a time-phased budget that project managers use to measure and monitor cost performance.

Cost baseline

______________ is a technique that is used for making cost and schedule trade offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost.

Crashing

You can purchase an item you need for a project for $8,000 and it has a daily operating cost of $200, or you can lease the item for $600 per day. On which day will the purchase of the cost be the same as the lease cost?

Day 20

DMAIC

Define Measure Analyze Improve Control

When should a process for handling change requests be defined for a project?

During planning

Project management plans should be _________________

Dynamic, flexible, and receptive to change

Which need in Maslow's hierarchy includes personal achievement, recognition, and respect?

Esteem

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

Executing

The main purpose of project planning is to guide which process group:

Execution

(t/f) A project should be developed using progressive elaboration, staring from specific details to and broadening in scope as it progresses

False

(t/f) According to the textbook, the top ten skills and competencies for effective PMs, include: people skills, listening, and having their PMP

False

(t/f) All organizations have a PMO

False

(t/f) Hygiene factors and motivating agents are part of David McClelland's Theory of Needs.

False

(t/f) Monitoring and controlling is done only during the execution process.

False

(t/f) Parkinson's Law states that if something can go wrong, it will

False

(t/f) The RP is the % of actual work completed multiplied by the % of work planned to be completed

False

(t/f) The lower the EVM, the better

False

(t/f) The planning process group requires the most resources and time

False

(t/f) The project manager should pick and choose which knowledge areas he/she wishes to utilize, while managing a project

False

(t/f) According to Six Sigma, the target for perfection is the achievement of no more that 3.2 defects per million opportunites

False (3.4)

The most common type of dependency between activities is?

Finish-to-Start

With which type of contract is the seller MOST concerned about project scope?

Fixed Price

________________ Theory focuses on the two main areas for workplace success: hygiene and motivating agents.

Herzberg

There are usually more potential projects than an organization can undertake at any one time, so it is important to work on the most ___________ ones first.

Important

List the 5 process groups

Initiation Planning Executing Monitoring/Controlling Closing

List the 10 PM knowledge areas (I saw the car quickly hit Chris's rear plate swiftly)

Integration Scope Time Cost Quality Human Resources Communication Risk Procurement Stakeholder Management

What is the duration of a milestone?

It has no duration

A _________________ meeting happens at the beginning of a project, so that the stakeholders can meet each other, review the goals of the project, and discuss future plans.

Kick-off Meeting

______________ a person that focuses on long-term goals and big picture objectives, while inspiring people to reach these goals

Leader

Rearranging resources so that a constant number of resources are used each month is called:

Leveling

_______________ movies produced by Peter Jackson and were decided to be created under one program, instead of 3 separate, independent projects

Lord of the Rings

What gets _____________ gets managed

Measured

You are assigned as the project manager in the middle of the project. The project is within the baselines, but the customer is not happy with the performance of the project. What is the first thing you should do?

Meet with the customer

____________ is a technique that uses branches radiating out from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas.

Mind Mapping

A positive _______________ means the return from the project exceeds the opportunity cost of capital, the return available by investing the capital elsewhere.

NPV

A WBS is often depicted is graphical format to show its heirarchy, similar to an _____________ chart.

Organizational chart

_______________ is a guide that the PMI creates as a framework for understanding PM.

PMBOK

Who determines priorities among projects in a company?

PMO

____________ is a professional certification that PMs can obtain through the Project Management Institute and requires actual professional PM experience

PMP

You need something to help you show quantity of defects, as well as the cumulative percentage they represent in a graphical format to help you prioritize where to spend time correcting issues. Which of the following would you use to provide this info?

Pareto Chart

At the bottom of Maslow's structure are _____________ needs.

Physiological

Which process group relates to all knowledge areas?

Planning

What are the 5 P's?

Prior, Planning, Prevent, Poor, Performance

Which if the following conflict resolution techniques will generate the most LASTING solution?

Problem solving

What document formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project's objectives and management?

Project Charter

a person who provides leadership and direction for those heading projects

Project Manager

Provides direction and funding for the project

Project Sponsor

Application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements

Project management

Responsible for developing project management plan.

Project manager

_____________- is the result of subtracting the project costs from the benefits and then dividing by the costs.

ROI

A market demand, a business need, and/or legal requirement are examples of:

Reasons projects are initiated

If is important to find the ______________ or underlying reason a problem occurs.

Root cause

_____________ analysis is used to aid in strategic plannning

SWOT

Everyone involved in creating the team contract, as well as the new members of the team should ___________ it.

Sign

What is a crucial part of the project charter, in particular a section in which key project stakeholders acknowledge their agreement on the need for the project?

Sign-off

Two of your project stakeholders simply do not get along. You know they both love watching professional sports, so whenever you are with them you bring up that topic to avoid a conflict between them. You are using the ____________ conflict-handling mode.

Smoothing

SMART goals stand for :

Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely

People involved in or affected by project activities

Stakeholders

_______________ are our most important assets.

Stakeholders

The PMBOK Guid is a _____________ that describes best practices for what should be done to manage a project; a ____________ describes how things should be done.

Standard, Methadology

The management theory that states that all people can direct their own efforts is:

Theory Y

Three knowledge areas that compromise of the triple constraint in PM are:

Time, Cost, and Scope

A college approved project to provide discounts for faculty, students, and staff to use the city's new light-rail system. Under what existing program might this project naturally fit?

Transportation Program

(t/f) A projects manager is assigned by the project sponsor

True

(t/f) According to the text, project managers often cite delivering projects on time is one of their biggest challenges.

True

(t/f) Chaos study: the number of successful projects has more than doubled form 16% in 1994 to 37% in 2010

True

(t/f) In order to monitor and control a project, you must have metrics to see that the objectives of the project are being met.

True

(t/f) It is very difficult to create a good WBS

True

(t/f) Monitoring and controlling processes overlap all of the other PM process groups

True

(t/f) NPV that is greater that zero is best

True

(t/f) Portfolio management addresses questions like are we working on the right projects?

True

(t/f) Project management process groups do not occur sequentially

True

(t/f) Quality must be planned in, not inspected in.

True

(t/f) Resources are risk are examples of typical project contraints

True

(t/f) Rework is action taken to bring rejected items into compliance with product requirements.

True

(t/f) Starvation is one of the common ways to close or terminate a project.

True

(t/f) The SPI Earned Value Management calculation is used to see the "effectiveness" of the project.

True

(t/f) The TCPI is the cost performance that must be achieved on the remaining work to meet a goal.

True

(t/f) The greatest threat to success of any project is failure to communicate

True

(t/f) The reason why schedule problems are so common is that time is easily and simply measured

True

(t/f) Workarounds are unplanned responses to risk events.

True

(t/f) You can have both positive and negative risks in a project

True

The project manager and team are involved in project planning. They are in the process of breaking the work down into the smallest level of WBS. What are they creating?

Work Package

Which is false? a) higher NPV, the better b) higher payback period, the better c) higher ROI, the better d) higher weighted score, the better

b) higher payback period, the better

_____________ is a diagram that helps to show if there is a relationship between two variable by using little dots.

scatter diagram