Chapter 6: Practice

____________________ involves the processes required to ensure timely completion of a project.

Project time management Project schedule management

____________________ is the one variable that has the least amount of flexibility.

Time

____ is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date. - Total slack - Free float - Free slack - Total time

Total slack

A(n) ____________________ Gantt chart compares planned and actual project schedule information.

Tracking

Different cultures may have different perceptions of work ethic. - False - True

True

Even though the delivery of the new hardware may not be in the scope of the project, you should add an external dependency to it. - False - True

True

Fast tracking can end up lengthening the project schedule. - False - True

True

In a Gantt chart created in Microsoft Project, a black diamond symbol represents a milestone. - False - True

True

Individual work styles and cultural differences may cause schedule conflicts. - True - False

True

To make milestones meaningful, some people use the ____________________ criteria to help define them.

SMART

____ involves controlling and managing changes to the project schedule. - Schedule development - Schedule control - Activity resource estimating - Activity duration estimating

Schedule control

____ involves analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule. - Activity resource estimating - Activity duration estimating - Schedule development - Schedule control

Schedule development

There are ____ main processes involved in project time management. - 4 - 10 - 6 - 2

6

____ involves identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables. - Activity definition - Activity sequencing - Activity duration estimating - Activity resource estimating

Activity definition

____ results in supporting detail to document important product information as well as assumptions and constraints related to specific activities. - Activity resource estimating - Activity duration estimating - Activity definition - Activity sequencing

Activity definition

____ involves estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities. - Activity definition - Activity duration estimating - Activity resource estimating - Activity sequencing

Activity duration estimating

____________________ involves estimating how many people, equipment, and materials a project team should use to perform project activities

Activity resource estimating

____ involves evaluating the reasons for dependencies and the different types of dependencies. - Activity sequencing - Activity duration estimating - Activity resource estimating - Activity definition

Activity sequencing

____ involves identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities. - Activity duration estimating - Activity sequencing - Activity definition - Activity resource estimating

Activity sequencing

____ is a technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost. - Crashing - Fast tracking - Crushing - Expediting

Crashing

____ is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration. - Critical chain scheduling - Gantt charts - PERT analysis - Critical path analysis

Critical path analysis

The ____ is a network diagramming technique in which boxes represent activities. - POA - ADM - AOA - PDM

PDM

____ dependencies are sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care since they may limit later scheduling options. - Mandatory - Internal - External - Discretionary

Discretionary

____________________ have no duration and no resources but are occasionally needed on AOA network diagrams to show logical relationships between activities.

Dummy activities

____________________ is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task.

Effort

____ dependencies involve relationships between project and non-project activities. - External - Internal - Mandatory - Discretionary

External

Activity information is not a required input to the other time management processes. - False - True

False

Duration only includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity. - False - True

False

Every item on the WBS needs to be on the network diagram - False - True

False

It is not necessary to complete all of the activities on the network diagram in order for the project to finish. - False - True

False

It only takes one activity to complete a milestone. - False - True

False

Managers often cite cost issues during the end phase of a project as one of their biggest challenges and the main cause of conflict. - False - True

False

Most managers are unfamiliar with the various forms of scheduling. - True - False

False

____ provide(s) a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format. - Critical chain scheduling - Critical path analysis - PERT analysis - Gantt charts

Gantt charts

____ dependencies are inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project. - External - Discretionary - Internal - Mandatory

Mandatory

____________________ occurs when a resource works on more than one task at a time.

Multitasking

The ____________________ is based on the fact that, like a chain with its weakest link, any complex system at any point in time often has only one aspect or constraint that limits its ability to achieve more of its goal.

TOC Theory of Constraints

It is important that the people who help determine what resources are necessary include people who have experience and expertise in similar projects and with the organization performing the project. - True - False

True

Many information technology projects are failures in terms of meeting scope, time, and cost projections. - True - False

True

Many projects, especially in information technology, have very unrealistic schedule expectations. - True - False

True

Project schedules grow out of the basic documents that initiate a project. - True - False

True

Schedule performance can be estimated by subtracting the original time estimate from how long it really took to complete the project. - True - False

True

The WBS is often dissected further during the activity definition process as the project team members further define the activities required for performing the work. - False - True

True

The arrows in a network diagram represent the activity sequencing or relationships between tasks. - True - False

True

The ____ provide(s) schedule-related information about each activity, such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity. - activity list - activity descriptions - activity attributes - milestones

activity attributes

The goal of the ____ process is to ensure that the project team has complete understanding of all the work they must do as part of the project scope so they can start scheduling the work. - activity resource estimating - activity sequencing - activity duration estimating - activity definition

activity definition

The main outputs of the ____ process are an activity list, activity attributes, milestone list, and requested changes. - activity resource estimating - activity definition - activity sequencing - activity duration estimating

activity definition

Outputs of the ____________________ process include activity duration estimates and updates to activity attributes.

activity duration estimating activity duration estimates activity duration estimate

In the activity definition process, the project team should review the ____________________ and activity attributes with project stakeholders before moving on to the next step in project time management.

activity list

The ____________________ is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule.

activity list

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

critical path

One of the first reality checks on scheduling that a project manager should make is to review the ____________________ usually included in the project charter.

draft schedule

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

feeding buffers

In a(n) ____ relationship, one task cannot finish before another finishes. - start-to-start - finish-to-start - finish-to-finish - start-to-finish

finish-to-finish

In a(n) ____ relationship, the "from" activity must finish before the "to" activity can start. - finish-to-finish - start-to-finish - start-to-start - finish-to-start

finish-to-start

A(n) ____________________ determines the early start and early finish dates for each activity.

forward pass

The ____ for an activity is the latest possible time an activity might begin without delaying the project finish date. - early start date - late finish date - late start date - early finish date

late start date

The critical path is the ____ path through a network diagram, and it represents the ____ time it takes to complete a project. - longest; longest - shortest; shortest - shortest; longest - longest; shortest

longest; shortest

A(n) ____________________ on a project is a significant event that normally has no duration.

milestone

A white diamond on the Tracking Gantt chart represents a(n) ____________________.

slipped milestone

In a(n) ____________________ relationship, the "from" activity must start before the "to" activity can be finished. (Please refer to the textbook as the correct answer is with hyphens)

start-to-finish

In a(n) ____ relationship, the "from" activity cannot start until the "to" activity is started. - start-to-start - finish-to-finish - finish-to-start - start-to-finish

start-to-start

Many project management software programs come with ____________________ or sample files.

templates

Duration estimates are often provided as a discrete number, such as four weeks, or as a range, such as three to five weeks, or as a(n) ____________________.

three-point estimate 3-point estimate

____ occur when two or more activities follow a single node. - Conflicts - Combinations - Bursts - Merges

Bursts

Most projects have one path through a network diagram. - False - True

False

Network diagrams are the preferred technique for showing activity discretionary dependencies. - False - True

False

Start-to-finish relationships are the most common type of relationships. - False - True

False

The critical path always includes the most critical activities. - False - True

False

The main outputs of activity resource estimating include a project schedule network diagram, requested changes, and updates to the activity list and attributes. - True - False

False

The outputs to schedule development include activity duration estimates and updates to activity attributes. - False - True

False

____ involves doing activities in parallel that you would normally do in sequence. - Crashing - Fast tracking - Crushing - Expediting

Fast tracking

____ is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any immediately following activities. - Total slack - Free slack - Total float - Free time

Free slack

____ uses probabilistic time estimates—duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates of activity durations—instead of one specific or discrete duration estimate. - Critical Path Analysis - PERT - Gantt Charting - Critical Chain Scheduling

PERT

____ states that work expands to fill the time allowed. - Moore's Law - Parkinson's Law - Newton's Law - Murphy's Law

Parkinson's Law

Project managers often illustrate progress with a ____ showing key deliverables and activities. - PERT chart - Tracking Gantt chart - Gantt chart - network diagram

Tracking Gantt chart

A Tracking Gantt chart is based on the percentage of work completed for project tasks or the actual start and finish dates. - True - False

True

A fast and easy way to determine early and late start and finish dates and free and total slack amounts for activities is by using project management software. - True - False

True

Enterprise environmental factors, organizational process assets, the project scope statement, activity list, activity attributes, activity resource requirements, resource calendars, and the project management plan all include information that affect ____. - resource estimates - sequences - duration estimates - definitions

duration estimates

Managers like to see progress made on projects approximately each ____________________. - day - year - month - week

month

A(n) ____________________ is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities and their sequencing.

network diagram

In a network diagram, a(n) ____________________ is simply the starting and ending point of an activity.

node

Project managers must use discipline to control ____. - project schedules - project critical paths - project dependencies - project bursts

project schedules

On a network diagram, all arrowheads should face toward the ____. - right - bottom - left - top

right

Outputs from ____ include performance measurements, requested changes, recommended corrective actions, and updates to the schedule model data, the schedule baseline, organizational process assets, the activity list and attributes, and the project management plan. - schedule development - activity duration estimating - schedule control - activity resource estimating

schedule control

The goal of ____ is to know the status of the schedule, influence the factors that cause schedule changes, determine that the schedule has changed, and manage changes when they occur. - activity duration estimating - schedule development - schedule control - activity resource estimating

schedule control

The main outputs of ____________________ include performance measurements, requested changes, recommended corrective actions, and updates to the schedule baseline, schedule model data, activity list, activity attributes, project management plan, and organizational process assets, such as lessons-learned reports related to schedule control.

schedule control