Project management

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

A node

When deciding which staff to team-up to work on work packages, factors to consider are:

Both work habits and practical experience.

In which stage of the project life cycle is the product of the project delivered to the customer and resources are released from the project?

Closing

Any project life cycle is made up of stages. The project's schedule and budget will be determined in the ___________ stage of the project life cycle

Defining

The establishment of project goals, specifications, and responsibilities usually occurs in the ________ stage of project life cycle.

Defining

________ slack is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying any immediately following (successor) activity can never be negative.

Free

Accounting would be an example of which of the following costs typically found in a project?

General and administrative overhead

The critical path in a project network is the

Longest path through the network

Which of the following is a good example of a Process Breakdown Structure?

New software program

Which of the following is least likely to be included in a work package?

Overhead expenses

Which of the following would be the best method for projects where the final product is not known and the uncertainty is very large?

Phase estimating

In which stage of the project life cycle is the project's schedule and budget determined?

Planning

A project manager is looking over the actual results of projects and comparing them to what was estimated. She notices that the projects that took six months or longer to complete were noticeably more off the estimates. Which of the following factors is she recognizing?

Planning horizon

________ activities must be completed immediately before a particular activity.

Predecessor

The WBS is best suited for projects that have a tangible outcome. Which of the following is used when the final outcome of the project is less tangible or is a product of a series of steps or phases?

Process breakdown structure

Which of the choices listed below is NOT considered a project?

Production of automobile tires

If a project is small and does not require an elaborate system to assign tasks, which of the following is a good choice?

Responsibility matrix

Which dimension of project management centers on creating a temporary social system within a larger organizational environment that combines the talents of a divergent set of professionals working to complete the project?

Sociocultural

While balancing assignments, a project manager must also balance

Talent development

What's consensus method?

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

A "Dissemination Mode" is

What defines how project communication is to occur

What is a project?

a project is done only once; a new product or service exists when the project is completed. (its not a routine)

The last element of a project scope statement or checklist ensures an understanding and agreement of expectations. This is known as ____________.

acceptance criteria

In making project trade-offs, a criterion that is allowed not to meet the original target, for example, allowing the schedule to slip, is classified as ___________.

accepted

A key aspect to communication plans are that they allow the project manager and the project team to

actively control the flow of information.

All leveling techniques delay noncritical activities by using ________ to reduce peak demand

additional slack

When the project scope and/or technology are not fully known or stable, the best choice of method for such projects is

agile-driven project management

When work package estimates are made by individuals most knowledgeable about the work being performed and these estimates are then "rolled up" to find estimated costs for major deliverables and the project itself, ____________ estimating is being used

bottom-up

Training the customer, releasing staff and resources occurs in the ________ stage of project life cycle.

closing

The type of information that will need to be collected during a project and who will receive this information can be found in the project __________ plan

communication

A robust ______________ can go a long way to reducing project problems over the life of the project and will establish how, when and to whom information must be supplied.

communications plan

The top-down method of estimating when the pooled experience of senior and/or middle managers are used to estimate the total project duration and cost is the _________ method

consensus

In regard to project priorities, if a project parameter such as the completion date or the cost of a project is fixed and must be met, it is considered ____________.

constrained

The delaying of any activity on the __________ will delay the completion of the project by the same amount

critical path

customer tastes and feature preferences vary from customer to customer. Increased competition has placed a premium on customer satisfaction and the development of __________ products and services.

customized

Taking advantage of opportunities to reduce costs or accelerate the schedule are examples of project criteria classified as ___________

enhanced

If three copiers are needed to produce a final report on time and only two are available, the project is facing a(n) ________ type of resource constraint.

equipment

In which stage of the project life cycle are you more likely to find status reports, changes, and the creation of forecasts?

executing

In which stage of the project life cycle is a major portion of the actual project work performed?

executing

When a project is classified as resource-constrained, a resource constraint exists, and positive slack is insufficient, then the project duration is typically __________.

extended

A(n) _____________ calculates project duration

forward pass

In scheduling resource-constrained projects, _________ are typically used rather than optimum mathematical solutions

heuristics

What are the stages of project life cyle?

identifying, defining ,planning, executing and closing

The best way to __________________ is to collect and archive data on past projects

improve estimates

Agile project management involves ____ whereas traditional project management involves _______.

iterative and incremental delivery, upfront planning with high predictability

An increase in the complexity of projects, because projects typically include the latest advances, can be the result of a growth in new __________.

knowledge

Learning curves are more likely to be applied in situations where most of the costs are

labor

The assumption that all immediately 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

When an activity with a long duration is broken into smaller segments so that the following activities can begin sooner it is called __________

laddering

The top-down method of estimating project time and costs that is useful for projects requiring the same task, group of tasks, or product repeated several times, especially if it is labor intensive, is the ______________.

learning curves

In a resource-constrained project, the first, or primary, priority in assigning resources is usually given to activities with the

least slack.

The agreement that training will be the responsibility of the customer and not the team is an example of a project ________.

limits and exclusions

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 o

limits and exclusions.

In a project network, recycling through a set of activities or __________ is not permitted

looping

The shortage of memory chips to produce a printed circuit motherboard is an example of a(n) ________ type of resource constraint

material

An activity that has more than one dependency arrow flowing into it is termed a(n

merge activity

In reviewing the project plan, a project professional sees that the first prototype must be completed by October 12. This would be best classified as a

milestone.

Significant events in a project that occur at a specific point in time, are natural control points, and are easily recognized by project participants are known as ___________.

milestones

A project scheduler is trying to reallocate resources in a time-constrained project to create smoother resource utilization. The scheduler should first identify activities with the

most slack

In reality resource allocation generally occurs in a(n) ___________ environment where the demands of one project have to be reconciled with the needs of other projects

multiproject

When translated into a project network, a work package will become

one or more activities

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

organization breakdown structure.

The estimating factor that considers the prevailing belief in some firms that detailed estimating takes too much time and is not worth the effort is an example of the ___________ factor.

organizational culture

The approach to estimating project time and cost that begins with an overall estimate for the project and then refines estimates for various stages of the project as it is implemented is known as ____________.

phase estimating method

The estimating approach that is best to use on projects where there is an unusual amount of uncertainty surrounding the project and when it is impractical to estimate times and costs for the entire project is known as ___________.

phase estimating method

A Process Breakdown Structure can provide a reasonable alternative to a Work Breakdown structure for an extensive development project if

phase exit criteria are firmly established.

Traditional project management focuses on thorough planning up front. Such planning requires ____.

predictability

One of the primary jobs of a project manager is to manage the trade-offs among time, cost, and performance. To do so, the project manager must define and understand the ___________ of the project.

priorities

A document that is issued by upper management and provides the project manager with written authority to use organizational resources for project activities is called a(n) __________.

project charter

Arrows on an activity-on-node (AON) project network represent

project flow and dependency

A technique that clearly establishes priorities with customers and top management so as to create shared expectations and avoid misunderstandings is developing a(n) ___________.

project priority matrix

Once the __________ has been established, it is the basis for making trade-off decisions later in the project

project priority matrix

Agile PM is appropriate when _______.

project scope is unknown or unstable

The definition of the end result or mission of your project, or what you expect to deliver to your customer when the project is complete is the project ___________

scope

Scope creep can be reduced by carefully writing a(n) __________.

scope statement

The likelihood the original critical path(s) will change once the project is initiated is referred to as

sensitivity.

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

smallest duration

When the work in an activity is interrupted to work on another activity and is then resumed at a later point in time, it is called _________.

splitting

When using the _______ scheduling technique, startup and shutdown costs are major considerations.

splitting

When developing a new software package, logically, the software must be designed before the code is written, and the code must be written before it is tested. These activities are dependent on each other by _________ constraints

technical

A(n) ________ constraint addresses the sequence in which project activities must occur even after considering resource constraints.

technical or logic

Projects with high predictability are said to have

the best circumstances for use of traditional project management

Iterative and incremental delivery means ______.

the components or features of the project product or service are delivered one at a time throughout the duration of the project

The forward pass in project network calculations determines all of the following EXCEPT

the critical path

The preferred method for situations involving strategic decision making, projects with a high degree of uncertainty, and projects with an unstable scope is the ___________ approach to estimating project time and costs

top-down

Project managers typically use ________, also called analogous estimating or the ______ method when there is a past history of similar projects and rough-cut estimates are needed for strategic purposes two-to-five years out because, as estimating methods go, it is faster and less expensive.

top-down, apportion

A selective outline of the project that ensures the identification of all tasks and an understanding of what is to be done is called a(n) ____________

work breakdown structure

Information to develop a project network is collected from the

work breakdown structure

The information necessary to conduct a bottom-up estimate of project time and cost starts with the ___________.

work package