Project Management Final

Which of the following questions reflects the strategic goals of project portfolio management?

Are we investing in the right areas?

In a Gantt chart, thick black bars represent milestones achieved in a project.

False

It is necessary that IT project managers have prior technical experience in creating and managing IT products.

False

Managing the triple constraint primarily involves making trade-offs between resources and quality.

False

Opponents of a project do not belong to the category of stakeholders.

False

Which provide a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format?

Gantt charts

The project stakeholder management knowledge area maps to which process group by identifying stakeholders?

Initiating

Project __________ management involves coordinating all of the other project management knowledge areas throughout a project's life cycle. (One word)

Integration

_____ are people involved in or affected by project activities and include the project sponsor, project team, support staff, customers, users, suppliers, and even opponents to the project. (Correct answer is one word)

Stakeholders

Estimates should become more accurate as time progresses.

True

One of the main reasons why project management is challenging is because of the factor of uncertainty.

True

Payback 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.

True

Using a systems approach is critical to successful project management.

True

What is the majority of time on a project is usually spent on?

execution

What is the first step in the planning process?

tie the information technology strategic plan to the organization's overall strategic plan

Which document contains a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project?

work breakdown structure

What does the process of controlling costs primarily involve?

Cash flow analysis

Which technique involves network diagramming and is used primarily to predict total project duration?

Critical path analysis

Which term refers to a product or service, such as a technical report, a training session, a piece of hardware, or a segment of software code, produced or provided as part of a project?

Deliverable

Soles is a footwear company which has recently set up its store in Ambrosia. To manufacture its products, Soles incurs a range of different costs. Which would be an example of an indirect cost?

Electricity used to run its factories

A work package must always represent less than 80 hours of work.

False

A work package represents one component of the product that the project aims to deliver.

False

Agile methods are used when deliverables have a low degree of change.

False

An organization's information technology project selection process should guide the strategic plan.

False

Extrinsic motivation causes people to participate in an activity for their own enjoyment.

False

Initiating and closing tasks are usually the longest and require the most amount of resources and time.

False

Intangible costs can be easily measured in monetary terms.

False

Integration testing involves testing of each individual component to ensure that it is as defect-free as possible.

False

It is important for project managers to focus on indirect costs because they can be easily controlled.

False

It is much more expensive to make major changes to a project during the earlier phases.

False

The scope of a project is clear and specific from the start.

False

The tasks in a WBS must be developed as a sequential list of steps.

False

When deciding what projects to invest in or continue, one should include sunk costs.

False

In Rizzati Corp, vice presidents in departments such as engineering, manufacturing, IT, and human resources report directly to the chief executive officer and undertake their tasks independently of each other. The staffs of these departments have specialized skills in their respective disciplines. Which type of organizational structure does Rizatti Corp have?

Functional

Which is true about the agile method?

It uses several iterations or deliveries of software instead of waiting until the end of the project to provide a product.

In a _____ organizational structure, personnel often report to both a functional manager and one or more project managers. (The correct answer is one word.)

Matrix

The project schedule management knowledge area maps to which process group through the activity of schedule control?

Monitoring and Controlling

What type of analysis involves calculating the expected net monetary gain or loss from a project by discounting all expected future cash inflows and outflows to the present point in time?

Net present value

What is an accurate difference between the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and critical path method (CPM)?

PERT uses different duration estimates whereas CPM uses one specific duration estimate.

Which chart helps users identify the vital few contributors that account for most quality problems in a system?

Pareto

Which characteristic highlights a difference between projects and operations?

Projects are temporary endeavors whereas an organization's operations are ongoing in nature.

"Totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs" is a definition of ____________.

Quality

Projects must operate in a broad organizational environment, and project managers need to consider projects within the greater organizational context. Which approach describes the holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization?

Systems thinking

In a project schedule, the variable that has the least amount of flexibility is _____.

Time

A dependency pertains to the sequencing of project activities or tasks.

True

A sprint review is a meeting in which the team demonstrates to the product owner what it has completed during the sprint.

True

An activity is an element of work that has an expected duration, cost, and resource requirements.

True

Customer requirements are an important aspect of the quality planning process.

True

If an important supplier goes out of business, management reserves can be set aside to cover the resulting costs.

True

In the Scrum method, team members work as a self-directed group coached by the ScrumMaster.

True

Many organizations provide different guidelines and templates for developing WBSs.

True

Maslow's hierarchy of needs states that people's behaviors are guided or motivated by a sequence of needs.

True

Mind mapping allows people to write and even draw pictures of ideas in a nonlinear format.

True

Monitoring and controlling processes overlap all of the other project management process groups.

True

Project managers are ultimately responsible for quality management on their projects.

True

Project managers must take adequate time to identify, understand, and manage relationships with all project stakeholders.

True

The executing process group generally requires the most resources.

True

The main purpose of the WBS is to define all of the work required to complete a project.

True

The same organization can have different subcultures.

True

Which systems development life cycle model assumes that requirements will remain stable after they are defined?

Waterfall life cycle

What process is used to generate ideas for quality improvements by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products within or outside the performing organization?

benchmarking

Which type of power involves using punishment, threats, or other negative approaches to get people to do things they do not want to do?

coercive

Newtech Inc. hires John for the position of a software programmer to work on their new project. Salary paid to John by Newtech Inc. would be an example of which type of costs?

direct

In project schedule management, which process involves estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities?

estimating activity durations

What does the process of controlling costs primarily involve?

managing changes to the project budget

Which term is used for a significant event on a project that normally has no duration?

milestone

Which technique is used for creating a WBS uses branches radiating from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas instead of writing down tasks in a list or immediately trying to create a structure for tasks?

mind mapping

Which type of power is based on an individual's personal charisma?

referent

Which technique is used for resolving resource conflicts by delaying tasks?

resource leveling

Which term refers to the amount of individual resources an existing schedule requires during specific time periods?

resource loading

Which type of power involves using incentives to induce people to do things?

reward