Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), CPM Study guide

The requirements traceability matrix is important because it:

Ensures that each requirement adds business value by linking it to objectives

The highest point for Maslow's hierarchy of needs is called

Esteem

Which of the following describes the BEST use of historical records from previous projects?

Estimating, risk management, and project planning

The project team is arguing about the prospective sellers who have submitted proposals. One team member argues for a certain seller while another team member wants the project to be awarded to a different seller. The BEST thing the project manager should remind the team to focus on in order to make a selection is the

Evaluation criteria

The purpose of status meetings is to:

Exchange information about the project

During a team meeting, a team member asks about the measurements that will be used on the project to judge performance. The team member feels that some of the measures related to activities assigned him are not valid measurements. The project is BEST considered in what part of the project management process?

Executing

The process group that involves coordinating people and resources, managing stakeholder expectations and completing the work defined in the project management plan is known as:

Executing

Which project management process group generally takes the MOST project time and resources

Executing

Execution Phase

Execution Phase third phase of the project management lifecycle, and it's usually the longest phase of the project. During this phase, the project team develops the product or service and presents the final product to the customer.

Target Price

Expected final price

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

Expert

Gold plating is always a good idea

False

Pareto charts help the project manager:

Focus on the most critical issues to improve quality

The development of the scope baseline can BEST be described as involving:

The project Plan

The project status report is an example of which form of communication?

Formal written communication

What is the most optimal zone for project managers regarding 'personal space '?

Friend Zone

A project manager is trying to complete a software development project, but cannot get enough attention for the project. Resources are focused on completing process-related work and the PM has little authority to assign resources. What form of organization must the PM be working in?

Functional

Which of the following BEST describes product analysis

Gaining a better understanding of the project of the project in order to create the project scope statement

Monte Carlo analysis is used to:

Get an indication of the risk involved in the project

Which of the following would be the MOST appropriate thing to do during the initiating process group?

Get familiar with the company culture and structure as it relates to the project

Statement of Work (SOW)

Given to vendor for bids

All of the following are characteristics of a project except...

Giving stakeholders extras

Opportunity Cost

Giving up something to do something else. Value of watching TV when the other option is to take a course or value of project NOT selected

All of the following are common results of risk management EXCEPT:

The project charter is changed

What is a program?

Grouping of related projects to help organization get economies of scale and reduce risk

The sponsor's role on a project is BEST described as:

Helping to prevent unnecessary changes to project objectives

You are a new project manager who has never managed a project before. It would be BEST in this situation to rely on _____ during planning in order to improve your chance of success.

Historical information

A work breakdown structure numbering system allows the project team to:

Identify the level at which individual elements are found

Which of the following can create the MOST misinterpretation of the project scope statement?

Imprecise language

When do stakeholders have the MOST influence on a project?

In the middle of the project

Schedule Compression

Includes Fast tracking (starting parallel work) and Crashing (adding resources etc)

Which of the following is an advantage of centralized contracting?

Increased expertises

PMBOK defines a stakeholder as:

Individuals, groups or organizations who may affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.

A rough order of magnitude estimate is made during which project management process group

Initiating

During which part of the project management process is the project scope statement created?

Initiating

The 1. high-level project schedule constraints have just been determined. What project management process group are you in?

Initiating

The BEST time to assign a project manager to a project is during:

Initiating

The project charter is created in which project management process group?

Initiation

Stakeholders can be identified in....

Initiation and planning phases only

Every project must have these processes?

Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Control and Closing

All of the following are factors in the assessment of project risk EXCEPT:

Insurance premiums

The need for _____ is one of the major driving forces for communication in a project.

Integration

An activity has an early start (ES) of day 3, a late start (LS) of day 13, an early finish (EF) of day 9, and a late finish (LF) of day 19. The activity:

Is not on the critical path.

What is the key benefit of Manage Stakeholder Engagement?

It allows the project manager to increase support and minimize resistance from stakeholders

All of the following are the characteristics of a project EXCEPT...

It has a definite beginning and end

What is the duration of a milestone?

It has no duration

Once signed, a contract is legally binding unless:

It is in violation of applicable law

Perform Quality Assurance does audits not only to identify all good and best practices being implemented but because:

It should result in a reduced cost of quality and an increase in customer acceptance

1. Which of the following is a characteristic of project management processes?

Iterative

The project manager should perform the Initiating processes at the start of each phase in order to:

Keep the project focused on the business need

During every project team meeting, the project manager asks each team member to describe the work he or she is doing, and the project manager assigns new activities to team members. The length of these meetings has increased because there are many different activities to assign. This could be happening for all the following reasons EXCEPT

Lack of resource leveling

waiting time between two activity

Lags

X & Y theory by McGregor

Lazy and Self motivated

Which interpersonal skill is displayed by developing a vision and strategy, and inspires people to achieve that vision and strategy?

Leadership

means activity can start before predecessor is completed

Leads

All of the following are parts of an effective change management plan EXCEPT:

Lessons learned

Resource Leveling

Level our resources by extending schedule. Use when you have limited resources

Risk Register

List of risk items

Critical Path

Longest path that helps define project completion.

When a project manager is engaged in negotiations, nonverbal communication skills are of:

Major importance

Which of the following activities occurs during the Plan Procurements process?

Make-or-buy decisions

Change control board

Makes decision on changes

A work authorization system can be used to:

Manage when and in what sequence work is done

Project manager spends 90% of the time

Managing communication

Ceiling Price

Max price to be charged to buyer

Some of the keys to project success

Measurable business case Unwavering support from project sponsor Earliest engagement of the project manager Authority of the project manager

Sunk Cost

Money already spent

The key benefit of one of the Integration processes is that it allows stakeholders to understand the current state of the project, the steps taken, budget, schedule, and scope forecasts. This process is known as:

Monitor and Control Project Work

During which project management process group are budget forecasts created?

Monitoring and Control

Control procurements is performed as part of which process group?

Monitoring and Controlling

Change request is output of what process group?

Monitoring and control

During which process group does the team measure and analyze the work being done on the project?

Monitoring and controlling

A simulation that involves calculating multiple project durations using probability distributions is called:

Monte Carlo

The halo effect refers to the tendency to:

Move people into project management because they are good in their technical fields

Six Sigma

Name of a quality approach

Which of the following is the BEST project management tool to use to determine the longest time the project will take?

Netwrok diagram

How many knowledge areas does PMBOK cover?

Nine

Scope creep can cause...

No effect if schedule and budget are increased

Project management with no start or end date is...

Not a project

Which is one of the KEY objectives during contract negotiations?

Obtain a fair and reasonable price

Sponsor is the one who...

Owns and funds the project

Lessons learned are best completed by

PM

What is (are) highly regarded project management methodology?

PMI, Agile, SDLC

A watchlist is an output of which risk management process

Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis

Verify Scope is closely related to:

Perform Quality Control

Hierarchy of Needs by Maslow

Performance peaks after basic needs

What is correct for a project manager?

Person assigned to achieve project objectives

Who is a project coordinator?

Person who has some power to make decisions, some authority and reports to higher level manager

Float or Slack

"Sand bag" Free float is between activities, total float is at project level where project float is internal date vs. externally announced date

If a project has a 60 percent change of a US $100,000 profit and a 40 percent change of a US $100,000 loss, the expected monetary value (EMV) for the project is:

$20,000 profit

If earned value (EV) = 350, actual cost (AC) = 400, planned value (PV) = 325, what is cost variance (CV)?

-50

1. If the optimistic estimate for an activity is 12 days, and the pessimistic estimate is 18 days, what is the standard deviation of this activity?

1

What is project management plan?

Plan that includes, all 9 knowledge areas, processes to use, scope, schedule and cost baseline, requirements, change and configuration management plans and process improvement plans

In which Project management process group is the detailed budget created?

Planning

In which project management process group is the detailed project budget created?

Planning

The Process group that contains more than 50% of the processes is known as:

Planning

a Project should 'ideally' go through what? project

5 stages (process groups) of project

Given an estimate (in days) of 7 Optimistic, 15 Most Likely and 25 Pessimistic, what is the estimated range within two standard deviations?

9.33 to 21.33

What percentage of the total distribution is 3 sigma from the mean equal to?

99.73%

Organizational Process assets

Policies and Procedures, Knowledge base

Which of the following is NOT needed in order to come up with a project estimate?

A change control system

All the following statements about change control are incorrect EXCEPT:

A fixed price contract will minimize the need for change control

You want to group your project stakeholders based on their authority and involvement in the project. Which of the following is appropriate model for this?

Power/Influence Grid

Net Present Value

Present value minus costs over future time

When it comes to changes, the project manager's attention is BEST focused on:

Preventing unnecessary changes

Which of the following conflict resolution techniques will generate the MOST lasting solution?

Problem Solving

Which of the following are GENERALLY illustrated BETTER by bar charts than network diagrams?

Progress or status

As Planning occurs, more and more is known about the project and the project management plan becomes increasingly detailed. This detailing is known specifically as:

Progressive elaboration

Integration is done by the

Project Manager

The person who should be in control of the project during the project planning is the:

Project Manager

Which of the following is NOT an input to the initiating process group?

Project Scope Statement

What is a program

A mean to gain benefits and control of related projects

A manager and the head of engineering discuss a change to a major work package. After the meeting, the manager contacts you and tells you to complete the paperwork to make the change. This is an example of

A project expediter position.

A project manager is in the middle of creating a request for proposal (RFP). What part of the procurement process is she in?

A project manager is in the middle of creating a request for proposal (RFP). What part of the procurement process is she in?Plan Procurements

What is a project?

A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result

A schedule performance index, SPI, of 0.75 means:

Project is progressing at 75% of the rate originally planned

Output of a planning process group is

Project management plan

In Initiating, a project charter is created. According to the PMBOK, which person or group may help write the charter?

Project management team

Lesson learned are best completed by

Project manager

During risk management activities, 236 risks have been identified which are caused by 13 root causes. You could eliminate the 234 risks by your risk management activities. For remaining 2 risks, you, together with your team, could not find a way to mitigate or insure the risks. Also these 2 risks cannot be outsourced or removed from project scope. What is the best solution?

Accept the risk

Control Quality checks for correctness, which according to PMBOK is a function of:

Accuracy

Early in the life of your project, you are having a discussion with the sponsor about what estimating techniques should be used. You want a form of expert judgment, but the sponsor argues for analogous estimating. It would be BEST to

Agree to analogous estimating, as it is a form of expert judgment

Just in Time (JIT)

Almost zero inventory

Float or slack

Amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying early start of the next activity

Direct and Manage Project Work requires review of all project changes and the implementation of approved changes. This may lead to corrective action which is defined as:

An intentional activity that realigns the performance of the project work with the project management plan

When calculating activity durations, the estimating method that uses historical data and is frequently used when there is a limited amount of detailed information is referred to as:

Analogous

Contingency Reserves

Project reserve to cover risk

All of the following are ALWAYS inputs to the risk management process EXCEPT:

Project status report

As a project team member, you know that the change control board approves or rejects all changes. During a team meeting, you ask the project manager whose responsibility it is to schedule and implement the changes. She tells you it is the responsibility of:

Project team

In conjunction with the project manager, which person or group needs to address every process and the project environment to determine the level of implementation for each process?

Project team

The primary objective of contract negotiations is to:

Protect the relationship

You are finding it difficult to evaluate the exact cost impact o frisks. You should evaluate on a(n):

Qualitative Basis

You are the program level manager with several project activities underway. In the executing process group, you begin to become concerned about the accuracy of progress reports from the projects. What would BEST support your opinion that there is a problem?

Quality Audits

All of the following are examples of the cost of nonconformance EXCEPT:

Quality Training

When a product or service completely meets a customer's requirements:

Quality is achieved

business case

Reasoning for project

A market demand, a business need or legal requirements are an example of

Reasons project is initiated

A market demand, a business needs and/or legal requirements are examples of

Reasons projects are initiated

The project manager is responsible for maintaining all contract documentation and records and for archiving them during Close Procurements. The tool or technique used for this is known as the:

Records management system

When would a milestone chart be used instead of a bar chart?

Reporting to management

RFP, RFQ and IFB

Request for Proposal, quote and Invitation for Bid

You are new to the organization and are working on your first project with your team. In your last company, scope definition always preceded requirements. Your project manager informs you that they follow PMBOK best practices which call for:

Requirements gathering is done first and provides the basis for defining and managing scope

Which of the following is an output of the Collect Requirements process?

Requirements traceability matrix

Adding reserve to a known risk is ok.

Reserve

A project manager has received activity duration estimates from his team. Which of the following does he need in order to complete the Develop Schedule process?

Reserves

The MOST common causes of conflict on a project are schedules, project priorities, and:

Resources

A RACI chart is typically a matrix that shows an activity or work package along with the person who is responsible, accountable, to be consulted, or to be informed. It is a type of:

Responsibility assignment matrix

A heuristic is BEST described as a:

Risk of Thumb

Which of the following BEST describes a project management plan?

Risk, staffing, process improvement, and other management plans

Early in the project, the sponsor provides a range for what the project might cost. The range is $75,000 to $175,000 with a base cost of $100,000. What is this estimate referred to as?

Rough order of magnitude

Which of the following is the BEST thing for ta project manager to do in the Conduct Procurements process?

Answers sellers' questions about the procurement documents

Stakeholder

Anyone who has influence on project

Who is a project stakeholder?

Anyone who has something to gain or lose from the project

A project manager is quantifying risk for her project. She needs expert opinion in this process and related experts are spread over to different geographical locations. How can she continue?

Applying the Delphi Technique

From the project perspective, quality attributes:

Are specific characteristics for which a product is designed and tested

Your company just won a major new project. It will begin in three months and is valued at 2m USD. 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

Project Coordinator

Same as expeditor but with some authority

Charter

Authority to spend money and use resources or start project

All of the following are parts of the scope baseline EXCEPT the:

Scope Management Plan

Project is built on four foundational pillars and two additional support structures that must be considered...

Scope, Quality, Cost and Time Resources and Risk

Name the constraints

Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Risk and Resources.

The work breakdown structure can be an effective aid for communication in which setting(s)?

Senior management is displeased

Critical path is

Shortest time to complete project ,longest path for project completion, path on which delay of one task can result in project delay

Communications are often enhanced when the sender ___ the receiver

Shows concerns for the perspective of

A person or group who provides resources and support for the project, program, or portfolio and is accountable for enabling success.

Sponsor

The work breakdown structure can BEST be thought of as an effective aid for ___ communication

Stakeholder

What is one thing that you must never sacrifice

Stakeholder satisfaction

Knowledge Areas

Stakeholders, Procurement, Risk, Communication, HR, Quality, Integration, Scope,Time, Cost

. Which of the following BEST describes the relationship between standard deviation and risk?

Standard deviation tells you how uncertain the estimate is

When would a milestone chart be used instead of a bar chart?

Standard deviation tells you how uncertain the estimate is

In one phase or stage of the Tuckman ladder, the environment can become counterproductive if team members are not collaborative and open to ideas. It is called:

Storming

Project Plan

Sum of all plans. Schedule is one of them

The project manager and team should consider each process along with its inputs, tools and outputs. As a result, they should choose which are applicable. This effort is known as

Tailoring

Testing the entire population would:

Takes too long

Matrix

Team members have two bosses. Strong matrix gives more power to PM. Weak matrix to functional manager

During a meeting with some of the project stakeholders, the project manager is asked to add work to the project scope. The project manager had access to correspondence about the project before the project charter was signed and remembers that the project sponsor specifically denied funding for the scope mentioned by these stakeholders. The BEST thing for the project manager to do is to:

Tell the stakeholders the scope cannot be added.

Histogram

Bar chart

Pareto Chart

Bar chart by order

Performance Baseline

Base to report performance against. Contains Scope, Cost and Schedule

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Breaking down of work

In a Time and Materials contract, which party has the risk?

Buyer

As a change control expert, you are asked to work on a plan that documents how changes will be controlled and monitored on the project. Additionally you are told it will ultimately become part of the project management plan. This document is known as a:

Change management plan

A numbering system used to uniquely identify each component of the work breakdown structure is called:

Code of accounts

Which of the following aspects of leadership is MOST important for a project manager?

Communication

Project Expeditor

Communication co-ordinator and staff assistant

Interactive communication, push communication and pull communication are tools and techniques of Plan Communications Management. Collectively they are known as:

Communication methods

Benchmarking

Compare with other similar

Bidder conferences are part of:

Conduct Procurements

The MOST likely result of communication blockers is that:

Conflict Occurs

The main focus of life cycle costing is to:

Consider operations and maintenance costs in making project decisions

A diagram that assists in gathering requirements by showing a business system and how other people and systems interact with it is known as a:

Context diagram

The project manager and team are monitoring overall stakeholder relationships and adjusting strategies and plans for engaging stakeholders. They are in which process?

Control Stakeholder Engagement

Who is ultimately responsible for quality management on the project?

The Project manager

All of the following MUST be present to have a contract EXCEPT:

The address of the seller

All the following are tools of Perform Quality Control EXCEPT:

Cost of Quality

Your project management plan results in a project schedule that is too long If the project network diagram cannot change but you have extra personnel resources, what is the BEST thing to do?

Crash the project

A company is making an effort to improve its project performance and create historical records of past projects. What is the best way to accomplish this?

Create lessons learned.

the sequence of project network activities which add up to the longest overall duration, regardless if that longest duration has float or not. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project.

Critical Path

Enterprise Environmental Factors

Culture, Politics, Industry standards, market conditions, Personnel administration, infrastructure/systems

An Enterprise Environmental Factor that may be taken into consideration when Planning Cost Management is:

Currency exchange rates

During which part of the project management process is the project scope statement created?

Customer acceptance of project deliverables

Which of the following is a KEY output of the Verify Scope process?

Customer acceptance of project deliverables

Which of the following is CORRECT?

The critical path helps prove how long the project will take

Formal written correspondence with the customer is required when

The customer requires additional work not covered under the contract

Quality is

The degree to which the project meets requirements

Estimate at completion (EAC) is a periodic evaluation of:

The anticipated total cost at project completion

>Direct and Manage Project Work is the process of leading and performing the work defined in the project management plan. There are several outputs from this process. The only one defined as typically tangible components completed to meet the project objectives is:

Deliverables

Which project constraint is most critical?

Depends

A cost baseline is an output of which cost management process

Determine budget

The project team has just completed the initial project schedule and budget. The NEXT thing to do is to:

Determine communications requirements

A control chart helps the project manager:

Determine if a process is functioning within set limits.

Risk analysis includes

Determining cost and schedule reserve Identifying risks requiring most attention Ranking risks

Critical Path Method

Determining longest duration path through network diagram. In other words shortest time to complete project

The project manager has held a meeting to describe what documents will be needed to help define the scope baseline. A major document is the WBS. As a member of the project team with expertise in the project area, your primary role will be to assist in:

Determining the final decomposition of the project scope into discrete work packages

Which of the following MUST be an agenda item at all team meetings?

Discussion of project risks

The technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a higher level is called:

Display

One common way to compute estimate at completion (EAC) is to take the budget at completion (BAC) and:

Divide by CPI

Which of the following is an example of a parametric estimate?

Dollars per module

Schedule Performandce Index (SPI)

EV/PV. Tells if project is on schedule. Greater than 1 mean ahead

Cause and Effect (Ishkawa/Fishborne)

Effect is the head of fish

Effective project integration usually requires an emphasis on:

Effective communication at key interface points

The project manager should participate in the development of the project charter to better understand the project requirements. Understanding these requirements will better allow for:

Efficient resource allocation to project activities

As of the measurement point, your project's TCPI is 1.33 and your CPI is .85. How would you interpret this information?

The work will be harder to complete

A project team is working on manufacturing a new product, but they are having difficulty creating a project charter. What is the best description of the real problem?

They are working on a process and not a project.

Which of the following statement BEST describes how stakeholders are involved in a project?

They determine the resources needs and resources constraints

On reading the PMBOK, you are uncertain about how the Monitor and Control Project Work Process fits into the project. On discussion with the project manager, he explains to you that:

This process is a background process and is performed throughout the project

What does a resource histogram show that a responsibility assignment matrix does not?

Time

Scope statement

To do and not to do and criteria to succeed with disclaimers

You are a project manager for a major information systems project. Someone from the quality department comes to see you about beginning a quality audit of your project. The team, already under pressure to complete the project as soon as possible, objects to the audit. You should explain to the team that the purpose of a quality audit is:

To identify inefficient and ineffective policies

The Monitoring and Controlling Process Group involves:

Tracking, reviewing, and orchestrating the progress of the project

Requirement traceability Matrix

Tracks requirements and aligns scope with goal

Purchasing insurance is BEST considered an example of risk

Transfer

A project is successful when

Triple constraints are handled

All team members are going to be highly professional in a highly successful company like Intel

True

Certain behavior that effects the performance of a project must be corrected

True

Conflict management is part of managing project teams

True

Procurement is responsibility of a project manager

True

Work breakdown structure (WBS) allows project manager to break project into smaller pieces

True

Gold Plating

Trying to be a good guy. Not allowed in PM

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing

Tuckman's idea

In a fixed price (FP) contract, the fee or profit is:

Unknown

Management reserves, for both time and cost, are set aside for unforeseen work or expenditures. These reserves are used to address:

Unknown-unknowns

Control Charts

Used to monitor production and processes with set limits

Analogous estimating;

Uses top-down estimating techniques

If a project manager wants to report on the actual project results vs. planned results, she should use a:

Variance Report

Configuration Management Plan

Version of all PM docs

A form of Communication Methods, pull communication such as a wiki, is best used for:

Very large volumes of information

During project executing, 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?

WBS dictionary

Lag means

Waiting time

Risks with low ratings of probability and impact which are included within the risk register for future monitoring are part of the:

Watch list

You and another team member have had a hard time agreeing on how to proceed on a series of activities and now it is starting to become a problem. Since you are unable to come to a conclusive resolution, you mutually decide to retreat from the conflict for now to have it later resolved by others. This is known as:

Withdraw

What conflict resolution technique is a project manager using when he says, "I cannot deal with the issue now!"

Withdrawal

Conflict resolution techniques that may be used on a project include confronting, smoothing, forcing, and

Withdrawing

Conflict resolution techniques that may be used on a project include confronting, smoothing, forcing, and:

Withdrawing

The team must identify activities in order to provide a basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, monitoring and controlling the project work. These activities are identified by breaking down, or decomposing, the:

Work packages

Much information is collected and distributed during the life of the project. Data that is collected form controlling processes and analyzed in context is called:

Work performance information

Execution means

Work the plan

Your project manager holds a meeting in a hotel conference room. In the middle of the meeting, power is lost to the room unexpectedly. You go to the front desk and they assign you to another vacant room. This is an example of a:

Workaround

Extensive use of ___ communication is most likely to aid in solving complex problems.

Written

List the Process groups

initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling and closing.

Closing phase

involves handing over the deliverables to your customer, passing the documentation to the business, canceling supplier contracts, releasing staff and equipment, and informing stakeholders of the project

Operational works is different from project work is that it is ...

ongoing and repetitive

Adding of extra time for no reason - Not an acceptable practice

padding

Planning phase

phase project plans are documented, the project deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project schedule is created.

Management Reserves

reserve for unplanned expense

Initiating Phase

the 1st phase in the Project Management Life Cycle, as it involves starting up a new project.

Monitoring and Control

the process consists of the activities involved to observe the process after project implementation, identify problems and risks, and deploy a mitigation strategy to control the new process.

Lag Time

waiting time

Planning phase

when the project plans are documented, the project deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project schedule is created. It involves creating a set of plans to help guide your team through the implementation and closure phases of the project.