IT Project Management CH 4-6

A ______ is a document that describes detailed information about each WBS item

WBS dictionary

What symbol on a Gantt chart represents a slipped milestone?

White diamond

The ______ period is the amount of time it will take to recoup, in the form of net cash inflows, the total dollars invested in a project

payback

WBS: The ______ approach: Start with the largest items of the project and break them down

top-down

Assume that you have a project with major categories called planning, analysis, design, and testing. What level of the WBS would these items fall under?

2

Which of the following statements is false? a. A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical structure that identifies the project's resources by category and type. b. Duration and effort are synonymous terms c. A three-point estimate includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate. d. A Gantt chart is a common tool for displaying project schedule information

B

______ tools track the execution of business process flows

Business Service Management

If estimates for total discounted benefits for a project are $120,000 and total discounted costs are $100,000, what is the estimated return on investment (ROI)? a. $20,000 b. $120,000 c. 20% d. 120%

C

Which of the following is not a suggestion for performing integrated change control? a. use good configuration management b. minimize change c. establish a formal change control system d. view project management as a process of constant communication and negotiation

B

Why did McDonald's terminate a large project after spending $170 million on it? a. The company found a better technology b. The company decided to outsource the work c. The scope was too much to handle d. The government requirement that prompted the project was repealed

C

______ is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration

CPM

______ management specialists identify and document configuration requirements, control changes, record and report changes, and audit the products to verify conformance to requirements

Configuration

______ ensures that the descriptions of the project's products are correct and complete

Configuration management

______ is a method of scheduling that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date.

Critical chain scheduling

______ is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration.

Critical path method

Which of the following is not a best practice that can help in avoiding scope problems on IT projects? a. Keep the scope realistic b. Use the off-the-shelf hardware and software whenever possible c. Follow good project management processes d. Don't involve too many users in scope management

D

Which of the following is not a suggestion for improving user input? a. Develop a good project selection process for IT projects. b. Have users on the project team. c. Co-locate users with developers. d. Only have meetings as needed, not on a regular basis

D

Which of the following items is not normally included in a project charter? a. the name of the project manager b. budget information c. stakeholder signatures d. a Gantt chart

D

Which of the following statements is false? a. Growing grass was on the critical path for a large theme park project. b. The critical path is the series of activities that determine the earliest time by which a project can be completed. c. A forward pass through a project network diagram determines the early start and early finish dates for each activity. d. Fast tracking is a technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost

D

______ is subdividing project deliverables into smaller pieces

Decomposition

As the project manager for a software development project, you are helping to develop the project schedule. You decide that writing code for a system should not start until users sign off on the analysis work. What type of dependency is this?

Discretionary

______ dependencies: defined by the project team., sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care since they may limit later scheduling options

Discretionary

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

Effort

What tool and technique is used for all processes of project integration management?

Expert judgement

______ dependencies: involve relationships between project and non-project activities

External

Project management software helps you develop a ______, which serves as a basis for creating Gantt charts, assigning resources, and allocating costs.

WBS

______ can be calculated by finding the discount rate that makes the NPV equal to zero

Internal rate of return

Which tool or technique for collecting requirements is often the most expensive and time consuming?

Interviews

______ dependencies: inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic

Mandatory

______ is a technique that uses branches radiating out from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas

Mind mapping

______ weighted average = (optimistic time + 4X most likely time + pessimistic time)/6

PERT

______ states that work expands to fill the time allowed

Parkinson's Law

______ is determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule

Planning schedule management

A ______ is a document that formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project's objectives and management.

Project Charter

Involves coordinating all of the other project management knowledge areas throughout a project's life cycle

Project Integration Management

The _______ involves: Introduction or overview of the project Description of how the project is organized Management and technical processes used on the project Work to be done, schedule, and budget information

Project management plan

What is the last step in the four-stage planning process for selecting IT projects?

Resource allocation

______ is calculated by subtracting the project costs from the benefits and then dividing by the costs. (total discounted benefits - total discounted costs) / discounted costs

Return on Investment

Milestones should be

SMART

______ refer(s) to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them.

Scope

______ refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them

Scope

Involves determining long-term objectives by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, studying opportunities and threats in the business environment, predicting future trends, and projecting the need for new products and services.

Strategic planning

What type of diagram shows planned and actual project schedule information?

Tracking Gantt Chart

Scope ______ is often achieved by a customer inspection and then sign-off on key deliverables.

Validation

______ is the difference between planned and actual performance

Variance

A ______ is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines its total scope.

WBS

A ______ is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project

WBS

Which of the following processes involves determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule? a. planning schedule management b. defining activities c. estimating activity resources d. activity sequencing

a

Which of the following processes is not part of project integration management? a. Developing the project business case b. Developing the project charter c. Developing the project management plan d. Closing the project or phase

a

_____ ensures that the descriptions of the project's products are correct and complete. a. configuration management b. integrated change control c. integration management d. a change control board

a

Predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions are all examples of

activity attributes

An ______ is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule that includes: the activity name an activity identifier or number a brief description of the activity

activity list

WBS: The ______approach: Review WBSs of similar projects and tailor to your project

analogy

Which of the following is not a best practice for new product development projects? a. aligning projects and resources with business strategy b. selecting projects that will take less than two years to provide payback c. focusing on customer needs in identifying projects d. assigning project managers to lead projects

b

A ______ determines the late start and finish dates

backward pass

A ______ is the approved project management plan plus approved changes

baseline

The scope ______includes the approved project scope statement and its associated WBS and WBS dictionary Information Technology Project

baseline

The ______ approach: Start with the specific tasks and roll them up

bottom-up

A new government law requires an organization to report data in a new way. Which of the following categories would include a new information system project to provide this data? a. problem b. opportunity c. directive d. regulation

c

A ______ is a formal group of people responsible for approving or rejecting changes on a project

change control board

A ______ is a formal, documented process that describes when and how official project documents and work may be changed

change control system

A ______is a product produced as part of a project, such as hardware or software, planning documents, or meeting minutes

deliverable

On a Gannt chart, arrows represent

dependencies

On a Gannt chart, horizontal bars represent

duration of tasks

You cannot start editing a technical report until someone else completes the first draft. What type of dependency does this represent?

finish-to-start

A ______ through the network diagram determines the early start and finish dates

forward pass

The three main objectives of _______ are: Influencing the factors that create changes to ensure that changes are beneficial Determining that a change has occurred Managing actual changes as they occur

integrated change control

______ involves identifying and managing the points of interaction between various elements of a project

interface management

On a Gannt chart, a black diamond represents a

milestone

What approach to developing a WBS involves writing down or drawing ideas in a nonlinear format?

mind mapping

A ______ is a document that formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project's objectives and management

project charter

Inputs to developing a ______: A project statement of work A business case Agreements Enterprise environmental factors Organizational process assets

project charter

A ______ is a document used to coordinate all project planning documents and help guide a project's execution and control

project management plan

The ______ documents how project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed

requirements management plan

A ______ is a table that lists requirements, various attributes of each requirement, and the status of the requirements to ensure that all requirements are addressed

requirements traceability matrix

A ______ is a hierarchical structure that identifies the project's resources by category and type

resource breakdown structure

A ______ plan includes: Project schedule model development The scheduling methodology Level of accuracy and units of measure Control thresholds Rules of performance measurement Reporting formats Process descriptions

schedule management

On a Gannt chart, thick black bars represent

summary tasks

______ is an estimate that includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three weeks for the optimistic, four weeks for the most likely, and five weeks for the pessimistic estimate

three-point estimate

Project ______ management is often cited as the main source of conflict on projects, and most IT projects exceed time estimates

time

A ______ is a tool that provides a systematic process for selecting projects based on many criteria

weighted scoring model

A ______ is a task at the lowest level of the WBS

work package