Perkinson PMBOK Review

The document that includes the necessary information to determine whether a project is worth the required investment, and is used for decision making by upper management, is called the:

Business Case

The author notes that contractors seeking external customers should also use a project selection / portfolio alignment process. Once an external customer and contractor have reached a consensus on the initial intentions for the contracted work, their understanding is documented in:

An agreement

The project charter should include "factors that are considered to be true, real or certain without proof or demonstration." These are known as _____:

Assumptions

PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is a guide for project management practitioners that describes the expectations that they should hold for themselves and others. Which of these is not one of the desired behaviors and basic obligations referenced by the code of conduct?

Authority

To be effective, a project manager needs to possess all of the following competencies except:

Authority - power or right granted by the organization

A business case typically contains information regarding the business need and a financial analysis. Which financial model divides the cash flow by the initial cash outlay?

Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR)

Categorize the following: "The project must be completed by November 10th. "

Both a constraint and a risk

Inadequate communications planning may endanger the success of the project. Which of these could be a problem resulting from poor communications planning?

Communication to the wrong audience Delay in message delivery Misinterpretation of the message communicated d) All of the above could be problems

The "component of the project management plan that describes how project communications will be planned, structured, monitored and controlled" is the:

Communications management plan

Which of these is NOT a challenge of working on global and virtual teams?

Competencies

A project charter is _____:

Considered to be an informal agreement (contract) between the project team and sponsor

In order to be successful, the project team must be able to assess the needs of stakeholders and manage their expectations through effective communications. At the same time they must balance competing demands between project scope, schedule, budget, risk, quality, and resources, which are also known as project _____?

Constraints

All projects should be aligned with their organization's strategic plan, which includes the organization's vision, goals, and objectives. Which of these is the definition of a vision statement?

Conveys a larger sense of organizational purpose, and is both inspiring and guiding.

Based on PMI's definition, which of these is a good example of a project?

Designing and launching a new website

The project sponsor's responsibilities during the executing stage include:

Ensuring communications with key stakeholders

The Chief Projects Officer or PMO's responsibilities might include:

Ensuring enough resources are available to perform the project

What project charter component documents significant points or events in the project, and per the author may be developed most effectively when combined with other information such as acceptance criteria?

Summary milestone schedule

Projects may be undertaken as a result of any of the following strategic reasons except:

Executive discretion

In order for a new grocery store to be erected, a neighborhood basketball court located on the building site will have to be demolished. The neighborhood children who liked to play basketball there could be considered as _________:

External stakeholders

Characteristics of an organizational culture can have a major impact on a project's success. All of these are attributes of an organizational culture EXCEPT

Financial control procedures

All of the following are characteristics of a projectized organization EXCEPT

Functional managers have majority of authority

A hierarchical organization where each employee has one clear superior, staff are grouped by areas of specialization and managed by a person with expertise in that area is known as a:

Functional organization

Program management helps determine the optimal approach for managing interdependent projects in order to achieve benefits and control. Program management activities might include all of the following except:

Managing shared client relationships

____ organization structures can be classified as weak, balanced or strong depending on the relative level of influence between the functional manager and the project manager:

Matrix

What information does the project charter contain that signifies how the customer or user of the final product, service or result will judge the deliverables, in order to determine that they have been completed satisfactorily?

Measurable project objectives and related success or acceptance criteria

Most project meetings are formal, planned events between project stakeholders. Effective meetings typically have a purpose, a pre-arranged time and place, a list of attendees and their roles, and an agenda with topics and issues to be discussed. After the meeting, _______ are circulated.

Meeting Minutes

In which project management process group would you find those processes that establish the scope of effort for the project, refine the project objectives, and define the course of action to achieve the objectives?

Planning process group

According to the PMBOK® Guide, stakeholders can be prioritized by their potential impact on the project based on a determination of all of the factors below EXCEPT:

Political connections

Customer responsibilities on a project might include all of the following EXCEPT:

Perform the work of the project to achieve its objectives

A collection of projects, programs, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives is called a:

Portfolio

Which group within the organization is responsible for integrating data and information from corporate strategic projects, and using corporate measurement systems to evaluate how strategic objectives are being fulfilled?

Project Management Office

A project statement of work (SOW) would use or include information from each of the following sources except:

Project charter

Group phenomena which evolve over time and include established approaches to initiating and planning projects, the acceptable means for getting the work done, and recognized decision-making authorities are referred to as

Project culture (norms)

Projects pass through a series of phases as they move from initiation to project closure. The names and number of these phases can vary significantly depending on the organization, the type of application, industry, or technology employed. These phases create the framework for the project, and are referred to collectively as the

Project life cycle

Which project role provides resources or support for the project, promotes and protects the project at higher levels of management, and takes an active role in the project from the chartering stage through project closure?

Project sponsor

A narrative description of products, services or results to be delivered by the project is a:

Project statement of work

Which of the following is NOT a purpose of an approved project charter?

Provides detailed information about financial resources

In the project charter, the summary budget is represented as a _____?

Rough order of magnitude of -25% to + 75% accuracy

Which PMBOK® Guide Knowledge Area includes those processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully?

Scope management

The responsibilities of a project management office (PMO) and the degree of control that it provides can cover a broad spectrum. All of these are examples of types of PMO structures within organizations except:

Selective - review business cases and select and prioritize projects to be initiated.

The "project document that includes the identification, assessment and classification of project stakeholders" is called the _____________.

Stakeholder register

The signing of the project charter represents all of these EXCEPT

The formal approval of the detailed project schedule

In an agile life cycle model _____:

The team is self-directed

In Adaptive Life Cycles (change - driven or agile methods) __

The time and cost are fixed but the scope is developed iteratively.

The components of a project communications management plan should typically include the purpose of the communication, structure (format, content etc.), methods or technologies to be used, and _______:

Time frame and frequency

When would a predictive project life cycle be the preferred approach?

When the product to be delivered is well understood.

One of the key responsibilities of a project manager is to manage stakeholder expectations. It is important for the project manager to have interpersonal or "soft" skills that include: overcoming resistance to change, resolving conflict, active listening and _____:

building trust

"It is inconvenient and time-consuming for employees to walk across campus every day to eat lunch, which is why we need an employee lunch room in our building" is an example of:

business case

The communication method that is used for large audiences or large volumes of information and requires recipients to access the content at their own discretion, is called __________ communication.

pull

Adding to the project after it has already begun without making adjustments to time, cost, or resources, is known as:

scope creep