Exam 2

During the project, you realize you need a consultant immediately to begin working on a project. What is the most appropriate contract type in this situation?

Time and material

If a project manager wants to examine project results over time to see if performance is improving they would use which of the following?

Trend Report

Which of the following can create the most misinterpretation in the statement of work?

Using imprecise language

Communication is key to the success of a project. As the project manager, you have four stakeholders you need to communicate with. As such, you have six channels of communication. A new stakeholder has been added that you also need to communicate with. How many communication channels do you have now?

10

. A project manager is in the process of scope verification of a deliverable with the customer. What is the most important thing the project manager should ensure?

Acceptance

You are a project manager working on a large software integration project involving multiple sellers. One of your key sellers has informally requested a change to its statement of work to account for some requirements she neglected to address. You are relatively certain that the requested changes will add time and cost to the project. What should you do in response to the seller's request?

Analyze the requested changes and feed them back through project planning and procurement processes.

. Your company just won a major new project. It will begin in three months and is valued at US $2,000,000. You are the project manager for an existing project. What is the FIRST thing you should do once you hear of the new project?

Ask management how the new project will affect your project

For which of the following can the work breakdown structure be used?

Communicating to the customer

A project manager believes that modifying the project scope may provide added value for the customer. What should the project manager do?

Contact the customer to determine if the change adds value

A routine audit of a cost reimbursable contract determines that overcharges are being made to the contract. If the contract does not specify corrective action, the buyer should?

Continue to make project payments.

You are in the process of having work crews dig a trench to the customer facilities to lay fiber for a high-speed connection. All of the work permits have been obtained and funding has been approved. There have been several weather related delays, but due to perseverance of the entire team, the project is on time. It is the customer's responsibility to provide entrance facilities so the connection into the building can be made. You discover the customer does not have adequate facilities and will not have them in time. What should you do?

Continue working according to your contract. Remind the customer both verbally and in writing of the customer's responsibilities. Provide the customer with an estimate of the impact if they do not meet their responsibilities.

A project manager is assigned to a new, high priority project. There are only five available resources because other resources are already committed to projects. The resource's time available to complete the project is less than half the time needed, and the project manager cannot convince management to change the end date. The project manager should do which of the following?

Cut the scope of work by removing the work that cannot be completed in the time provided.

Which of the following includes the processes required ensuring the project includes all the work and only the work required to complete the project successfully?

Scope management

. A project manager new to project management is taking on a new project. When is the best time to help build the people working on the project into a team?

Throughout the project

During a meeting to negotiate a change to the contract, the seller states that they have another meeting at three p.m. Negotiations will have to be over by then. What kind of negotiation technique is this?

Deadline

A software development project has been suffering through many major project changes. Because of this, the project manager has not been able to do much but complete change control forms. Which statement best describes the other activities the project manager should be doing?

Determine that a change is beneficial, notify stakeholders affected by changes, and determine if the change is needed

A customer is not happy with a project deliverable. What is your best course of action?

Determine why the customer is unhappy with the deliverable

Out of the following list which is the highest point in Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

Esteem

Which project management process group normally takes the most project time and resources?

Execution

While completing work on your contract, the seller is refused access to the facility by your company's security force. If access to the facility is stipulated in the contract, what should the project manager do?

Expect to receive a claim for additional time and cost

What theory proposes that efforts will lead to effective performance and will be rewarded for accomplishments?

Expectancy

All the following are forms of power derived from the project manager's position EXCEPT?

Expert

At a critical design review meeting for a large project, several important issues surfaced. After hearing about a major technical problem, one of the subcontractor's engineers mentions that he experienced a similar situation on another project; he has some ideas on how to solve the current problem. What type of power is the engineer using?

Expert

You are negotiating with a seller. Time is of the essence but you have a limited budget, and the seller knows this. What is your best negotiating strategy under these circumstances?

Focus the negotiation on seller's profit margin in order to decrease the project cost

Which of the following is the WORST way to resolve conflict?

Forcing

A project manager has just been hired and is trying to gain the cooperation of others. What is the best form of power for gaining cooperation under these circumstances?

Formal

You have been appointed manager of a project to convert multiple electronic mail systems at a major financial institution to a single platform. Your company's approach was not the client's first choice, and your firm was able to be the lowest cost alternative by using funds provided to your company for a different purpose. After the project is underway, the client specifies a new approach that has never been used before. When the project is approaching the originally-scheduled end date, it becomes clear that the technological approach will have to be significantly altered. Although the client has been kept apprised of developments throughout the project through regular status reports, and the project plan has been followed, the client demands that the project be continued without any increase in cost until all of the client's requirements are met. Your firm feels that it has no choice but to comply with the client's demands, although this will result in a substantial loss on the project. What was the MO

Formal client acceptance of the project plan

Communication under a contract should tend toward?

Formal written communication.

On his first project assignment as the project manager, the project manager encounters disagreements among highly technical team members. How would the project manager best deal with the conflict?

He should listen to the differences of opinions, encourage logical discussions, and facilitate an agreement.

Standard deviation is a measure of which of the following?

How far the measurement is from the mean.

A team member assigned to the project needs two days of training to satisfactorily complete certain tasks. No one else with the necessary skills is available to the project team. What is the best thing to do?

Include training in the project plan and include the unknown in a risk analysis.

During a routine walk-through, you discover that a seller has neglected to properly produce a major component of its deliverable. What should you do?

Insist that the seller follow their quality assurance plans

A seller is awarded a contract to build a pipeline. The contract terms and conditions require a work plan be issued for the buyer's approval prior to commencing work but the seller fails to provide one. WHICH of the following should the buyer's project manager do?

Issue a default letter.

. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, self-actualization means self-fulfillment, growth, and which of the following?

Learning

Product verification is different than scope verification in that product verification?

Makes sure all work is completed.

Which motivational theorist said that people cannot ascend to the next level until the levels below are fulfilled?

Maslow

After the contract has been signed for the upgrade of 8,000 workstations, a project manager is assigned. The proposal manager is relatively new and doesn't have as much related knowledge as the project manager. The cost analyst works from home and his price estimates are based on the details outlined in the contract. The project manager thinks there was a flaw in the logic determining the number of workstations that can be upgraded via remote electronic software distribution. Which of the following is the best thing for the project manager to do?

Meet with the appropriate project team members to choose the best solution

A company has just contracted with a well-known software developer to provide services during planning and design phases of your project. Invoicing requirements were specifically defined within the contract, but expense limits were overlooked. As the project manager, which form of corrective action should you take?

Modify the terms of the contract.

A project manager says to a team member, "If you cannot complete this task according to the quality standards you set in place, I will remove you from the team that is going to Venezuela for the milestone party with the customer." What form of power is the project manager is using?

Penalty power

During project execution, a risk occurs and has a greater impact on the project than was anticipated. The best thing to do would be to?

Perform additional risk response planning.

You have a choice of four ongoing projects that you can take over as project manager. Project 1 has a BCR of 1.4, is a high priority project, and has a critical path length of 16 months. Its CPI is 1.2. Project 2 has a SPI of 1.1, is using three critical resources, has a low priority, and has a BCR of 1.1. Project 3 has a CPI of 1.2, and SPI of .893, a BCR of 1.6, and a critical path length of 19 months. Project 4 has a CPI of .82, a task with 33 days of float, a resource that is hard to get assigned to task L, and a priority of keeping cost low. Based on the above, which project would you prefer to take over?

Project 1

A person who has been working as a project expeditor for the past three years has just been named as project manager for a construction project in a neighboring state. The construction crew has worked together for a number of years. One of the project manager's tasks is to pursue all of the historical risk information available, but he doesn't have enough time to access all available sources. The project manager would be best served by relying LEAST on which of these sources?

Project team knowledge

The primary objective of contract negotiations is to?

Protect the relationship

During project execution a project team member informs the project manager that based on her observations, the project cannot meet the quality standards set for it. The project manager meets with all parties concerned to analyze the situation. In which step of the quality management process is the project manager involved here?

Quality Assurance

Senior management regularly evaluates project performance to maintain confidence in quality product standards. Which of the following best describes this?

Quality Assurance

A project team member comes to the project manager during project execution to tell him that they feel the project cannot meet its quality standards. The project manager calls a meeting of the affected stakeholders to work through the problem. Which step of the quality management process is the project manager in?

Quality assurance

You are asked to select tools and techniques to implement a quality assurance program to supplement existing quality control activities. Which of the following would you choose?

Quality audits

Which of the following is an example of the cost of conformance to quality?

Quality training

You are managing a construction project that was contracted on a fixed price plus incentives basis. The additional incentives for completing the project early are very large. A not-for-profit cultural organization in the community has raised some concern that the construction site might overlap with an archeological site. As the project manager, you should?

Quickly research the situation, understanding that your organization is accountable for social or economic impacts resulting from a project.

. In a fixed price contract, which of the following might not be an output of contract administration?

Resource approvals

A parking lot fencing project was bid at US $11 per foot. The parking lot has four equal sides of 125 feet and requires installing a six-foot diameter culvert on one side. Fencing should take 100 feet per day, and the culvert installation will cost US $500 and take one day to complete. The culvert must be installed before work can begin on that side of the fence. After three days of work, one side is complete, another has 75 feet installed, and the culvert is completely installed. At this point, the client tells you that the culvert needs to be increased to a sevenfoot diameter. You determine that this will cost US $1000 and require two additional days. What should you do FIRST?

Review the scope of work for mention of the diameter of the culvert.

A project manager is finalizing the resources for the project team. All the following will help the project manager complete this task EXCEPT?

Reward and recognition systems

The most common source of conflict on projects is:

Schedules

Conflict on projects is usually caused by?

Schedules, priorities, technical opinions, and resources.

In planning a project, you notice that some of the materials required on the project are only available from a seller that owns a patent on the material. What should be one of your main concerns?

Seller bankruptcy

One of your team members informs you that he does not know which of the many projects he is working on is the most important. Who should determine the priorities among projects in a company?

Senior management

All the following are tools for scope verification EXCEPT?

Sensitivity analysis

A project team is worried that the integration of the components of the project will result in uncovering flaws. Instead of continuing their work, they are constantly looking for flaws to try to prevent their system from being the only one found to have flaws during integration. It might be best for the project manager to?

Smooth the situation.

A project team member has been having a big disagreement with another team member for over two months when the other team members become involved. The issues are complex, but you have specific experience in the area and know what needs to be done. The best choice would be to:

Strive for fair resolution of the issue.

A seller is giving you so much trouble that your time available allocated to the project has gone from 20% to over 80% for this small piece of the overall project. Most of the seller's deliverables are late and inadequate, and you have little confidence in his company's ability to complete the project. What should you do?

Terminate the seller for convenience and hire another seller

Employees who believe their efforts will lead to effective performance and expect to be rewarded for their accomplishments remain productive as rewards meet their expectations. This is called?

The expectancy theory.

You are purchasing a major component for a new product from the company that has the patent on the component. Under these circumstances, which of the following should be your highest concern?

The financial stability of the seller.

During the construction of a large manufacturing facility, the expected delivery of a very critical piece of manufacturing equipment purchased by the buyer, but to be installed by the project's general contractor, was significantly delayed by six weeks. The original estimated delivery date for this equipment was provided to all the general contractors that bid the project as part of the bid documents. The bidders were specifically instructed to depend on this delivery date during the preparation of these bids. How should the buyer's project manager deal with the general contractor?

The project manager should inform the general contractor immediately of the pending problem, and Request an estimate of the impact to the general contractors work as provided under the changes clause of the contract documents.

A project team is trying to decrease risk on the project. The project sponsor has a good relationship with a seller who is experienced in areas that your company is not experienced in. The sponsor wants all tasks with a US $50,000 or higher risk to be transferred to the seller. The project sponsor believes that this will remove their impact from the project. Why would this not be effective?

The transference of a risk does not remove all impacts of the risk.

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

Theory Y

During execution a team member comes to the project manager because he is not sure of what work he needs to accomplish on the project. Which of the following documents contain detailed descriptions of work packages?

Work breakdown structure dictionaries

You are a project manager of a construction project that is financially challenged and behind schedule. A foreman fails to deliver a phase of the project on time as promised. You need to address the issue with the foreman. How should you approach the foreman?

You meet with the foreman inquiring about what happened, and seek to understand and solve the problem.

Under a seller agreement, formal, written correspondence with the seller is required when:

change to the project is issued.

Your contract states that the maximum charge for services from the seller will be US $50,000 per month. However the actual invoices have been US $100,000 for the past three months. Stopping the seller's service will impact the project schedule. Under these circumstances, the best thing to do is to review the:

contract change control system.

An advantage of a fixed price contract is:

cost risk is lower

In their pure state, project reports are a method to:

distribute information.

A project manager is working on his first project with outside sellers. He is familiar with project control systems but not contract control systems. In explaining how a contract control system differs from a project control system, it is best to point out that a contract control system:

includes trend analysis.

During the source selection process of procurement, your objective is to obtain the best price possible. The tool that you will most heavily rely upon will be a(n):

independent estimate.

A project team member has just completed work on the microprocessor for the new human system performance monitor and is now finished with the project. The project manager should:

provide input to the team member's performance appraisal.