Head First PMP 4th Edition - project schedule management Exam Questions

9. What is the critical path in the activity list to the right? A. Start-A-B-C-Finish B. Start-A-D-E-F-Finish C. Start-G-H-I-J-Finish D. Start-A-B-J-Finish

9. Answer: A When you draw out a network diagram for the activities in the table, you end up with four paths. And you definitely should draw out the activity diagram for a question like this! You're allowed to use scratch paper on the exam, and this is one place where you should definitely do it. Of the four paths, only one has the longest duration: Start‑A‑B‑C‑Finish, which has a duration of 6 + 4 + 8 = 18. That's the critical path.

10. What is the float for activity F in the activity list to the right? A. 0 B. 7 C. 8 D. 10

10. Answer: C Activity F is in the path Start-A-D-E-F-Finish. This path has a duration of 6 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 10. The float of an activity is the longest time it can slip before it affects the critical path. In this case, activity F can slip by 8 without causing the path that it's on to go beyond the critical path. But any more than that, and its path becomes the new critical path!

11. You're managing an interior decoration project when you find out that you need to get it done earlier than originally planned. You decide to fast-track the project. This means: A. Starting the project sooner and working overtime B. Assigning more people to the tasks at a greater total cost, especially for activities on the critical path C. Starting activities earlier and overlapping them more, which will cost more and could add risks D. Shortening the durations of the activities and asking people to work overtime to accommodate that

11. Answer: C This is the definition of fast-tracking, and you're probably getting the hang of this one by now. You may get a question like this, but you'll almost certainly see fast-tracking as an incorrect answer to several questions.

13. You're managing a construction project. You've decomposed work packages into activities, and your client needs a duration estimate for each activity that you come up with. Which of the following will you use for this? A. Milestone list B. Activity list C. Critical path analysis D. Project schedule network diagram

13. Answer: B This question is asking about the Estimate Activity Durations process. Take a look at the answers—there's only one answer that's used in that process: you need to start with the activity list in order to do the estimates for the activities. The other answers are things that are inputs, tools, or techniques for other processes.

12. Slack is a synonym for: A. Float B. Lag C. Buffer D. Reserve

12. Answer: A Remember that when you see slack, it's the same thing as float. Either term could appear on the exam.

1. You're managing a project when your client tells you that an external problem happened, and now you have to meet an earlier deadline. Your supervisor heard that in a situation like this, you can use schedule compression by either crashing or fast-tracking the schedule, but he's not sure which is which. What do you tell him? A. Crashing the project adds risk, while fast-tracking adds cost. B. When you crash a project, it always shortens the total duration of the project. C. Crashing the project adds cost, while fast-tracking adds risk. D. When you fast-track a project, it always shortens the total duration of the project.

1. Answer: C You're likely to get some questions that ask you about crashing and fast-tracking, and it's important to know the difference between them. When you crash the project, it means that you add resources to it, especially to the critical path. There's no real risk in doing that—in the worst-case scenario, the extra people just sit around!—but it does cost more. Fast-tracking means adjusting the schedule so that activities overlap. The same resources are doing the work, so it's not going to cost more, but it's definitely riskier, because now you've eliminated buffers and possibly broken some dependencies! And remember that crashing or fasttracking won't always work to make the project go faster!

19. For that same network diagram below, what's the float for activity E? A. 0 weeks B. 1 week C. 2 weeks D. 4 weeks

19. Answer: A Since Activity E is on the critical path, its float is zero, because the float of any activity on the critical path is zero.

14. What's the correct order of the Project Schedule Management planning processes? A. Sequence Activities, Define Activities, Estimate Activity Resources, Estimate Activity Durations, Develop Schedule B. Plan Schedule Management, Define Activities, Sequence Activities, Develop Schedule, Estimate Activity Resources, Estimate Activity Durations C. Plan Schedule Management, Define Activities, Sequence Activities, Estimate Activity Resources, Estimate Activity Durations, Develop Schedule D. Plan Schedule Management, Develop Schedule, Define Activities, Sequence Activities, Estimate Activity Resources, Estimate Activity Durations

14. Answer: C It's not hard to remember the order in which the Project Schedule Management processes are performed. If you use a little common sense, you can reason your way through a question like this. You need to define your activities before you can sequence them, you need to know who's going to be doing an activity before you can estimate how long it's going to take, and you need to do all of that before you can build a schedule!

15. Which of the following is NOT a tool or technique used in Estimate Activity Durations? A. SWAG estimation B. Parametric estimation C. Analogous estimation D. Three-point estimation

15. Answer: A You'll have to know the different kinds of estimating techniques for the exam. You don't necessarily have to be good at doing them, but you should recognize which are which. Parametric estimating is when you plug values into a formula, program, or spreadsheet and get an estimate. Analogous estimating uses similar activities from past projects to calculate new estimates. Three-point estimating uses an optimistic, pessimistic, and realistic estimate.

16. You're managing a project to build a new project management information system. You work with the team to come up with an estimate of 27 weeks. In the best case, this could be shortened by two weeks because you can reuse a previous component. But there's a risk that a vendor delay could cause the project to be delayed by five weeks. Use PERT to calculate a three-point estimate for this project. A. 25.83 weeks B. 26 weeks C. 27.5 weeks D. 28.3 weeks

16. Answer: C This question is asking you to apply the PERT three-point estimation formula: (optimistic time + 4 × most likely time + pessimistic time) ÷ 6. When a question gives you these values directly, it's easy. But in this case, to answer the question you had to figure out the values for the optimistic time and pessimistic time, which meant that you needed to look at the assumptions that the team was making. The most likely time was given: 27 weeks. The best-case scenario would come in two weeks earlier, at 25 weeks, and the worst case would come in five weeks late, at 32 weeks. So the estimate is (25 weeks + 4 × (27 weeks) + 32 weeks) ÷ 6 = 27.5 weeks.

17. Given the network diagram below, what's the critical path? A. Start-A-B-C-End B. Start-A-D-G-End C. Start-E-D-C-End D. Start-E-F-G-End

17. Answer: C The path Start-E-D-C-End has a duration of 8 + 2 + 4 = 14, which is the longest total duration in the entire network.

18. For that same network diagram below, what's the float for activity A? A. 0 weeks B. 1 week C. 2 weeks D. 4 weeks

18. Answer: B Activity A is on three different paths: Start-A-B-C-End (13), Start-A-D-C-End (12), and Start-A-D-G-End (9). To calculate its float, you take the longest path's length and subtract it from the length of the critical path: 14 - 13 = 1.

2. Given this portion of the network diagram to the right, what's the EF of activity F? A. 41 B. 49 C. 53 D. 61

2. Answer: C To calculate EF for a task with two predecessors, start by calculating the ES: choose the highest EF of the predecessors and add 1: ES = 40 + 1 = 41. Then use that ES to calculate EF by adding the duration and subtracting 1: EF = 41 + 13 - 1 = 53

20. You're managing a software project when your customer informs you that a schedule change isnecessary. Which is the BEST thing to do? A. Consult the schedule management plan. B. Notify the team and the sponsor that there's going to be a schedule change. C. Influence the factors that cause change. D. Refuse to make the change because there's already a schedule baseline.

20. Answer: A The Schedule Management plan tells you how changes to the schedule are to be handled. Any time there's a change, the first thing you should do is consult the plan to see how it should be handled.

21. Your company has previously run other projects similar to the one you're currently managing. What is the BEST way to use that information? A. Check the organizational process assets for lessons learned and other information about the past projects. B. Use parametric estimation to estimate your project based on past projects' performance. C. Start from scratch because you don't want mistakes from past projects to influence you. D. Reuse the Project Management plan from a past project.

21. Answer: A The organizational process assets contain historical information about past projects. When you write up your lessons learned, or create work performance information, you store it in your company's organizational process asset library! Also, did you notice that answer B was the wrong definition of parametric estimation?

3. Given this portion of the network diagram to the right, what's the LS of activity F? A. 41 B. 49 C. 53 D. 61

3. Answer: B To calculate LS for a task that's the predecssor to two other tasks, start by calculating the LF. Take the lowest LS and subtract 1: LF = 61 - 1 = 61. Then use that LF to calculate LS by subtracting the duration and adding 1: LS = 61 - 13 + 1 = 49.

22. You're planning the schedule for a highway construction project, but the final date you came up with will run into the next budget year. The state comes up with capital from a reserve fund, and now you can increase the budget for your resources. What's the BEST way to compress the schedule? A. Go back to your three-point estimates and use the most optimistic ones. B. Use the extra budget to increase your contingency reserve. C. Hire more experts to use expert judgment so your estimates are more accurate. D. Crash the schedule.

22. Answer: D Crashing the schedule is the form of schedule compression that increases cost. This is a difficult question because all of the answers sound good, and one or two are a little misleading! Don't fall into the trap of choosing an answer because you recognize a valid tool or technique in it. Reserve analysis and three-point estimates are very useful techniques, but they're not the answer to this question.

23. You're managing a construction project. You've decomposed work packages into activities, and your client needs a duration estimate for each activity that you came up with. Which of the following BEST describes what you are doing? A. Evaluating each activity to figure out how much effort it will take B. Estimating the number of person-hours that will be required for each activity C. Understanding, in calendar time, how long each activity will take D. Estimating how many people it will take to perform each activity

23. Answer: C This question was really about the definition of duration, and the key to answering it is to understand how duration is different from effort. The correct answer talks about "calendar time," which is what a duration is: it's a measurement (or estimate) of how long the activity will take in real life, taking into account the number of people who will be doing the work, the availability of the people and other resources, everyone's vacation time, time taken away from the schedule because people are pulled off of the activity to work on higher-priority activities, and other real-world factors. That's different from effort (which is often measured in person-hours), and it's different from resource estimating (which involves estimating how many people and what other resources will be used for the activity).

4. You are managing a software project. Your QA manager tells you that you need to plan to have her team start their test planning activity so that it finishes just before testing begins. But other than that, she says it can start as late in the project as necessary. What's the relationship between the test planning activity and the testing activity? A. Start-to-Start (SS) B. Start-to-Finish (SF) C. Finish-to-Start (FS) D. Finish-to-Finish (FF)

4. Answer: C Don't let the jargon fool you! You don't need to know anything about software testing to answer this question. When you have two activities, and the first activity has to be timed so that it finishes before the second one starts, then you've got a Finish-to-Start relationship, or FS.

5. You're managing an industrial design project. You've come up with the complete activity list, created network diagrams, assigned resources to each activity, and estimated their durations. What's the next thing that you do? A. Use rolling wave planning to compensate for the fact that you don't have complete information. B. Create the schedule. C. Consult the project scope statement and perform Sequence Activities. D. Use fast-tracking to reduce the total duration.

5. Answer: B This is a which-is-next question that describes a project that's completed the Define Activities, Sequence Activities, Estimate Activity Resources, and Estimate Activity Durations processes. The next process in Project Schedule Management is Develop Schedule, which means that the next thing you do is create the schedule!

6. Which of the following is NOT an input to Develop Schedule? A. Activity list B. Project schedule network diagrams C. Resource calendars D. Schedule baseline

6. Answer: D The schedule baseline is an output of the Develop Schedule process, not an input. You should definitely know what goes into the schedule baseline: it's a specific version of the schedule that you set aside and use for comparison later on, when you want to know if the project is running late.

7. Three members of your project team want to pad their estimates because they believe there are certain risks that might materialize. What is the BEST way to handle this situation? A. Estimate the activities honestly, and then use a contingency reserve to cover any unexpected costs. B. Allow more time for the work by adding a buffer to every activity in the schedule. C. Tell the team members not to worry about it, and if the schedule is wrong it's OK for the project to be late. D. Crash the schedule.

7. Answer: A You always want to be honest with your estimates. Every project has unknowns and risks, and there's no way to estimate any activity exactly! Luckily, we have tools to deal with this. You can use reserve analysis, a tool of Estimate Activity Durations, to come up with a contingency reserve that you can use to plan for these risks.

8. You're managing a software project. You've created the schedule, and you need to figure out which activities cannot slip. You've done critical path analysis, identifying the critical path and calculating the early start and early finish for each activity. Which activities cannot slip without making the project late? A. The ones with the biggest difference between ES and LF B. The activities on the critical path C. The activity with the most lag D. The last activity in the project, because it has no float

8. Answer: B The critical path is the path in the network diagram where any delay will cause a delay in the schedule. These are the activities that cannot slip without making the project late.