Management 440 Chapter 5

T or F: Poorly written scope statements for new technology lead to errors in estimating times and costs.

true

Why is the accuracy of estimates for current events greater than that for more distant events?

uncertainty increases over time

What is required for using the template method of bottom up estimating?

1, 2

Good time and cost estimates are needed within project execution to allow a project manager to do which of the following? 1) Monitor project progress 2) Support decision making 3) Determine project priorities 4) Determine project priorities 5) Schedule work

1, 2, 4

Which of the following factors will influence the quality of a project's time or cost estimate? 1) Organizational culture 2) Project management structure 3) Project selection requirements 4) Project duration 5) Project profitability requirements

1, 2, 4

Which of the following statements summarize why estimates are generally so inaccurate? 1) Predicting the future is difficult 2) Project scopes are incomplete 3) Lack of information in the planning phase

1, 3

For projects with a standard time unit of days (most typical), what is the rule of thumb for duration of an individual work package within a work breakdown structure?

1-5

Factors outside of the organization, project team, or project itself may influence which aspect of time/cost estimate?

accuracy of the estimate

Establishing cost and time estimates will allow a project manager to ________________.

control the project

What is the term used to define the starting point by which a project estimate is "frozen" and then measured to determine accuracy?

project baseline

Top down methods, sometimes called parametric, usually use ____________ to estimate project times or costs.

ratios or surrogates

As the project progresses, a manager better understands what needs to be done to accomplish the project; plans may change without adequate documentation

scope creep

According to project estimation guidelines, each task estimate is supposed to be done independently of other tasks. Why does this lead to inaccurate estimates?

task interdependencies influence actual time and cost requirements

Top down and bottom up estimating both use parametric (ratio) estimating, the difference is that _________________________.

top down looks at the project as a total unit, whereas bottom up looks at individual tasks

After project execution begins, at what point in a project should time and cost estimates be reviewed for change?

when there is any change to the project scope

Estimating a project's time and cost should be _____________.

a continual process rather than a one time event

Cost of labor, materials, and equipment are examples of _______ costs.

direct

The guideline is not to plan for disaster or accidents while estimating a specific task, but in reality, events happen which affect time and cost estimates

things go wrong

Which approach to estimating project time and cost is usually completed by upper management?

top down

Apportionment is a multi-faceted top down approach and may be used in which situations? 1) New technology projects with relatively open requirements 2) Assigning WBS major deliverable costs by percentage of total project. 3) Estimating a project for a relatively standard product with minor changes

2, 3

What factors inherent to a dedicated project team structures will improve the quality of time and cost estimates? 1) Management "chain of command" directing priorities for estimates 2) Estimator's time allocated to project versus "regular" work 3) Estimator's sense of project ownership

2, 3

What are the project characteristics that would benefit from phase estimating? 1) Long duration with standard designs 2) Long duration with progressive design 3) External project with fixed price requirements 4) High degree of scope uncertainty

2, 4

Top down estimating for projects is best suited for situations when: 1) fixed price contract used with an external customer 2) the project is for an external customer 3) project proposals are being evaluated 4) a WBS cannot be easily defined

3, 4

Which of the following statements regarding learning curves are true? A) Estimating accuracy is improved by grouping many tasks into a common basket B) Labor hours reduce exponentially at each doubling of output C) Labor hours reduce at a constant rate each time the output quantity doubles

C

What approach to estimating is usually coordinated by a project manager/office and is a "roll up" of individual estimates from work breakdown structure elements?

bottom up

What is a primary reason for using several people to generate a time or cost estimate for a project rather than have a single estimator do all the estimating?

eliminates extreme estimates

Why is top down estimating generally not effective at developing a low cost project estimate?

estimators may be influence by the proposed budget

Why should time estimates use common units (hours, days, weeks, etc) across all project tasks?

facilitates network analysis

What "people factors" influence the quality of the project estimates?

individual skills, familiarity with the task

Bottom up estimating is considered by the authors to be more accurate than top down because __________________.

it considers specific tasks

Estimations should be based on past experiences with resource availability, but while this is a good starting point, it rarely holds true during a project

normal conditions do not apply

What estimating influence is described by general statement that some organizations encourage padding of estimates while others discourage the practice and want the most realistic and/or accurate estimate?

organization culture

A white elephant mega project is one that is ____________, _____________, and __________________.

over budget, under value, costs exceeds benefits

What is a significant concern with using consensus for top down project estimating?

people may yield to the opinion of the highest ranking person in the room