Project Management Foundations

After the plan is approved and project work begins, Tara's boss is not happy about a project delay for an upgrade. The vendor thought Tara's team would do the upgrade, and Tara thought the vendor would do it. What was missed in this situation?

An assumption was not identified. Feedback Assumptions are created during the project initiation phase when you do not know everything that will happen, and thus this one was missed.

Your client has just asked you to make changes to some features in the project. What would you do first?

Ask the client to document and submit a change request form. Feedback This is the process that needs to be followed as part of the project's change management process.

Raghbir has done all the project planning and is ready to obtain stakeholders' approval. However, the stakeholders are not colocated. What is the best possible approach for getting their approval?

Have a video conference with all stakeholders. Feedback This is the best approach for achieving group collaboration and approval in a timely fashion.

Rosanne's boss asks her to manage a project. Which question requires understanding of objectives, requirements, deliverables, and success criteria to answer?

How will you know when you are done? Feedback This question requires understanding of deliverables and success criteria, whereas the other questions do not require that information.

Project objectives help you flesh out a project by _____.

defining project scope

The IT department says that there are several products that do what the project needs. What is the most important thing that will help you choose the right product?

understanding your project needs Hint Procurement processes help you purchase what you need. It isn't the most important thing you need to make a good decision.

You are building your project schedule. You have the tasks in the right sequence. What is the next step you should take?

Add the time that you estimate for each task. Feedback Once you have tasks in the right order, you can add the estimated time for each task.

Tiko and Camille's boss has a project in which the solution is a bit unclear. Tiko wants to use a waterfall approach and Camille wants to use the Agile approach. Which approach is best and why?

Agile is best because it delivers partial solutions at regular intervals. Feedback This approach is best because it uses short iterations or sprints to deliver partial solutions, while customer feedback improves the overall solution.

Your coworker has to develop a cost estimate but is unsure which is the best one based on a bell curve of costs for past projects. What is a general practice for choosing the best estimate?

Choose a point halfway between the average and worst-case values. Hint Taking this approach will more than likely set up the wrong expectation with a customer, and the project may be less than successful.

Banton is defining his project deliverables. Which statement describes what a project deliverable is?

Deliverables are the results that the project delivers and help define the project scope. Feedback A project deliverable is defined as a result that a project delivers, and helps define the project scope.

Your boss is asking you to take on a reengineering project. The company hasn't run reengineering projects before, but has hired several project managers with reengineering experience. Which technique is best to use in this situation to estimate time and cost?

Delphi technique Hint This technique is best with large projects, in which major components are estimated and then broken down until reaching individual tasks.

A project that you manage is behind schedule. You have identified an approach that would get the project back on track, but it would require you to break one of your organization's policies. What is the best course of action?

Determine if the rule is one that can be broken and come up with an alternative plan of action if your approach doesn't work. Feedback Some rules can't be broken without severe consequences. If you determine that the rule can be broken, you can deliver earlier with minor consequences. You must have a plan for what you will do if you break the rule and don't deliver earlier.

Kendra has a project team of varying skills and experience. Since the WBS task names are short and may not be enough for the team members to know what to do, what should Kendra do?

Kendra should have her team leaders create work package documents. Feedback These documents describe the work that needs to be done in detail, and are created for new or less-experienced team members.

Ramesh is creating objectives for his project. Which SMART step will help him identify actual progress?

Measurable Feedback This SMART step refers to the objectives that make it easy to determine whether or not they have been achieved.

Your project seems to be going off track, so you take action to resolve the problem. In which project management process group are you working?

Monitoring and Controlling Feedback This process group checks on the status of the project and compares it to what was planned.

The sponsor of Project T5 assigned you as the project manager, and the project has already been approved. What is the first thing you need to do as the project manager?

Review what has been done and complete any tasks not addressed. Feedback Since the project was approved before the project manager was chosen, the project manager needs to take these steps next.

Sakait has done some extra work to appease a client. Now the client is asking her to do one more task, which is significant and not part of project scope. What should Sakait do?

Sakait should tell the client the task is not within scope and add the task using the change control process. Feedback This is the best approach for Sakait and would help to prevent any further scope creep.

What is NOT a required part of creating a project schedule?

Set a deadline for the project. Feedback Management might set a deadline for your project, but that isn't needed to build the schedule. You build the schedule first and then adjust it, if necessary, to meet the deadline.

Izzy has finished identifying risks for her big project, but is unsure how to account for unknown risks from a time and cost perspective. What is the general practice most companies use for projects?

Set aside a percentage of the budget and project duration based on past projects. If you don't have past experience, use 15%. Feedback This is a best practice most project managers use for contingency.

The change review board can't get through all the change requests that are submitted. They want to focus on requests with significant impact. What process change would you propose to allow the review board to focus on significant changes?

Set thresholds so you or team leads can decide what to do with small change requests. Feedback Setting thresholds for time and cost will reduce the number of change requests that the review board has to handle.

Ravi took on a system implementation project that he estimated would take six months to complete, but the work keeps continuing. What is the likely cause?

The project is not clearly defined. Feedback When the work on a project keeps going, it is a sign the project is not well defined.

Rudolph, the project manager, is trying to obtain customer approval of project deliverables. It is taking longer than he anticipated because the customer wants to discuss the results. What is the most likely reason for these delays?

The success criteria aren't clear and quantifiable. Feedback Success criteria that are unclear or not quantifiable can make it difficult to determine whether deliverables are acceptable.

Which factor is a test you can use to determine whether you have broken down the work to the right level?

The work package is between 8 and 80 hours to complete. Feedback This is a best practice project managers strive to achieve when testing whether work is broken down to the right level

You are considering a vendor to help with a project. You are confident about how much work and time is needed, but you want the vendor to accept the risk. Which type of contract would you likely use?

a fixed-price contract Feedback This contract is used for well-defined projects and places the risk with the vendor, regardless of the time and cost it takes.

You are managing a project that is implementing a new financial system. You need to include some of the finance department's resources on the team. Which stakeholder should you approach?

a functional or line manager Feedback This stakeholder is most accountable for the resources that are needed for a project.

James is managing a project in which he has some authority to make decisions. In which type of organizational structure is James most likely managing this project?

a matrix organization Feedback This organizational structure can be weak or strong, but does allow the project manager to have some authority to make decisions.

Your boss has asked you to be the project manager of an approved software implementation project. Which project document identifies your authority and responsibilities?

a project charter Feedback This document describes the scope, objectives, stakeholders, and the project manager's authority and responsibilities for a project.

The boss has asked you to research project management tools that will help with building and planning tasks on a timeline. Which type of tool would you most likely consider?

a scheduling program Feedback Project managers typically use this tool to build and manage a project schedule.

Krisha is gathering information on her stakeholders, such as department names, factors that motivate them, who they listen to, and their contributions on the project. What is this document called?

a stakeholder analysis Feedback This document includes much of the information Krisha needs to effectively communicate with each stakeholder.

What are the components that differentiate a project from operational work?

a unique goal, a temporary endeavor, and usually a budget Feedback The definition of a project is "a temporary endeavor that has a unique goal and usually a budget."

Which of the following skills is NOT crucial for a project manager to possess?

accounting Feedback Although project managers do need to understand aspects of finance, accounting skills can be provided by others.

You have created a risk management plan for your project. Which type of response would you use if the scope was changed to remove a risky section of the project?

avoidance Feedback Changing the project scope to remove a risky section is an example of avoiding risk.

Your organization runs numerous projects and wants to choose the most appropriate resources for each project team. Which of the following is the best tool for identifying project resources?

enterprise project management software Feedback Enterprise project management software offers tools to find resources with the right skills and availability.

During which process group does the project manager orient team members to the project and expectations?

executing Hint During planning, you identify the resources you need, but you don't prepare them to perform their assignments.

Which technique would you most likely use to gather valid requirements and get buy-in from various departments?

focus groups Feedback This type of requirements gathering is usually face-to-face and is best for obtaining buy-in or agreements from several groups.

Mariko has created a work breakdown structure diagram to show work broken down into manageable pieces. Which choice is NOT a reason for creating the WBS?

identifying deliverables Feedback Deliverables drive the creation of the work breakdown structure, not the other way around.

Your team has identified possible strategies for a project. The team is now evaluating them using a decision matrix. What is the purpose of weighting the objectives?

identifying the importance of each objective Feedback Weighting objectives allows you to determine which strategy addresses the most important objectives.

Candace is a new project manager and has asked for your help with the project budget. Which type of cost typically represents the largest portion of a project budget?

labor Feedback Labor equates to people and is the largest part of a project's costs.

Your client has asked for a project that will fix productivity concerns with the customer service department. After asking "why" several times, you are able to determine the cause and create a _____.

problem statement Feedback This is what clearly defines the problem or opportunity that the project will address.

Madhukant's project includes testing software functions. Which part of the quality management plan would address the processes that will be used to ensure the software is meeting the standards?

quality assurance plan Feedback This section articulates the processes Madhukant uses during the project to ensure the final results meet the quality standards.

Turkan is developing a resource management plan for his project. Which part of this plan articulates who makes decisions, who performs work, and who needs to receive status on the project?

responsibility matrix Feedback This section details the responsibilities, decision makers, participants, and approvers.

One risk to your schedule is that a hard drive with customized software fails and you lose the work that was done. Resources on the project team regularly back up their work so they can resume work quickly after a hard drive failure. What type of risk management strategy do backups represent?

risk mitigation Feedback Risk mitigation means you limit the impact or probability of the risk, which is what the team is doing by backing up their work regularly.

Jivan is preparing an agenda for the project plan approval meeting. Which item should she not include in her agenda?

schedule the project definition meeting Feedback The project definition meeting is held during the initiation phase of the project before the plan is created.

As part of the project definition, Bisa identifies risks for the project. What is the purpose of doing this during project initiation?

so management can decide whether the risks are serious enough to warrant denying the project Feedback If the project has numerous, serious risks, management might decide to choose a different project that offers benefits without so much uncertainty.

You are hiring a new project manager to take over a project with several teams that often disagree on what they are supposed to do. Which competency would you feel is most important in a candidate for this situation?

strong leadership skills Feedback This skill is needed to help guide and inspire the team to do the right things and work together.

George is building his work breakdown structure (WBS) to organize and distribute the project work to various departments. Which type of tasks would he use to represent a department's responsibility?

summary tasks Feedback These tasks are the higher-level tasks that organize work in some way, such as work for a department.

When would you create a work package document that describes the work to be done in explicit detail?

the assigned resource is inexperienced Feedback A detailed work package can provide an inexperienced person with guidance on what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, how to tell that the work is complete and completed correctly.

Mei has obtained a graph showing duration data for past projects that follows a normal distribution. Which duration estimate provides the best chance for a project being selected and completed successfully?

the average of the worst-case value and the 50% probability value on the normal distribution Feedback This choice is not so high that the project won't get selected, yet it provides an 86% chance of delivering at or below your estimates.

Chloe is developing her risk management plan and wants to make sure that she can get early warning that a risk might occur. What is the key item she should document in her risk information forms?

the events that might trigger the risk

Which organizational factor would you use when having to make a difficult decision?

the organization's mission Hint This factor does not help make difficult decisions, but employees are motivated to help develop solutions in a positive work environment.

Linde has a tight budget for her project. She needs to potentially seek outside sources. Which plan should she consult to understand the products or services that are available?

the procurement plan Feedback This plan describes the process for deciding whether to purchase projects and services, how to do it, and which are available to purchase.

Several stakeholders for a project disagree on the priorities of many project objectives. Who would you ask first for help resolving this issue?

the project sponsor Feedback The project sponsor wants the project to succeed and has enough authority to help you resolve issues, particularly with other stakeholders.

Angela is about to start the project plan for a financial system migration project. What information should she identify first because it drives most of the plan?

the work that must be done Feedback The work that must be done determines the skills and resources you need, the effort the work will take, the cost, and more.

You are the project manager for a healthcare system implementation project. The sponsor has asked you to create a project definition. What will the sponsor use this document for?

to decide whether to approve the project Feedback By defining the project, the customer or sponsor can make an informed decision whether the project makes sense for the organization.

Why is it important to document the project scope?

to remind stakeholders what they agreed to and to prevent scope creep Feedback With the project scope in writing, you will be able to identify whether requests are within scope or need to be handled by change management.

The development team has encountered a problem with a software feature. They need to handle this problem quickly, but they can't make a face-to-face brainstorming session because they aren't local. Which alternative solution is best?

videoconferencing Feedback Videoconferencing is similar to face-to-face interactions and a next best thing to face-to-face sessions.