PMA Q&A MONITORING AND CONTROLLING 2

Your team must regularly hire a group of British engineers to test the product. You are not sure how many times you will need to use the engineers, but you do know that the engineers are all located in the UK, charge a regular rate, and need to be paid in British Pounds. What kind of cost is this? A. Variable B. Finite C. Fixed D. Indirect

Answer: A Monitoring - Cost Management This is a variable cost. By definition variable costs will vary based on the number of times you need to use the resource.

Perform integrated change control is primarily concerned with which of the following? A. Reviewing and approving change requests B. The creation of change requests C. Integrating deliverables from different functional specialties on the project D. Establishing a change control board that oversees the overall changes on the project

Answer: A Monitoring - Integration Management Perform Integrated Change Control is the process of reviewing all change requests, approving changes and managing changes to the deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents and the project management plan. The creation of change requests is done in other processes and becomes an input to the Perform Integrated Change Control process.

You are dealing with multiple requests for changes on a project, some of which are very minor and some more impactful. You want to be sure that the appropriate person/body is approving each of the various change requests, so you should consult which of the following? A. Change Control System B. Configuration management plan C. Change management plan D. Stakeholder Register

Answer: A Monitoring - Integration Management The change control system is a collection of formal documented procedures that define how project deliverables and documentation will be controlled, changed and approved. It should be set forth in the Project Management Plan, along with other change management plans.

You have received a change request and are about to present it to the change control board for its consideration and possible approval. Which of the following must you have in order to properly present the request? A. Supporting details for the change including how it affects various constraints B. Approval of the change from the project team C. Approval of the change from a subject matter expert in the relevant area D. Risk assessment for each proposed change

Answer: A Monitoring - Integration Management The change request must be supported by further information, including but not limited to, how it will affect the project constraints (time, costs, etc.). This analysis must always be done before presenting a change request for approval.

You are in the process of monitoring and recording results of your quality activities to prepare for the quality assurance process. Which of the following is not involved in this process? A. Quality audit B. Statistical sampling C. Trend analysis D. Inspection

Answer: A Monitoring - Quality Management A) The question tells you that you are performing the Control Quality Process. Quality audit is a tool and technique of Perform Quality Assurance, not Control Quality. B) Choice B is incorrect because statistical sampling is performed on work results and therefore, is a part of project quality control. C) Trend analysis is analyzed during Control Quality (often via a run chart). D) Inspection is a tool and technique of Control Quality.

Which of the following best describes control charts? A. Graphic displays of process data over time, shown relative to established control limits B. Graphic tools used to uncover the source of variations C. Tools used to document the relationship between 2 variables D. Tools used to assist the project sponsor during the Validate Scope process

Answer: A Monitoring - Quality Management Control charts are a graphical display of process data over time and showed against established control limits. Control charts show defects, but inspection actually detects them.

You are the project manager for a start-up software company. In a status meeting, you just learned that a crucial piece of the software your team was creating is not working. This will cause the project to be late by one month and will likely cost additional money for the developers' time. What is the next step you should take? A. Determine the impact of the change to decide whether to initiate Integrated Change Control B. Create a change request to get approval for the revised work required to fix the problem C. Complete root-cause analysis to determine why the problem occurred D. Present the problem to the customer, with your solution to resolve the problem

Answer: B Monitoring - Integration Management The question states that you have identified the problem and have done the impact assessment (you know that the change will cause a 1 month delay). The next step is to create a change request so that you can get approval to fix the problem. While answer choice D looks good, according to the PMBOK guide you should not go to the customer until after you perform integrated change control.

Ishikawa and other quality leaders have worked to identify the quality tools optimal for use across multiple industries. Knowing that your project will be required to leverage such tools to control quality, which quality tool shows the number of errors sorted in descending order, along with a cumulative total? A. Control chart B. Pareto diagram C. Bar chart D. Flow chart

Answer: B Monitoring - Quality Management A Pareto diagram is a type of chart which contains both bars and a line graph, where number of occurrences of errors are shown as bars sorted in descending order, and the cumulative total is represented by a line. Control charts are a graphical display of the end results of a process sampling over time. Flow charts show the relationships between components in a system. A bar chart can display errors, but does not sort them by frequency of occurrence, and does not show cumulative a total.

Your team has discovered an issue during testing and the resolution is proving to be very challenging. They have unsuccessfully tried many different approaches to fix the issue, however you notice that their approach to fixing the issue has been tedious and time-consuming, since they are randomly selecting possible variables which often have nothing to do with the issues. What would be your best advice to the team? A. Use the Design of Experiment approach to change several factors at a time instead of just one factor B. First determine the root cause of this issue using the Ishikawa approach C. Monitor the results through the use of control charts to determine the trend and where the process may be going out of control D. Plot the results of all the changed factors using the Pareto Diagram approach

Answer: B Monitoring - Quality Management Ishikawa (or Cause and Effect, or Fish bone) diagram is best used to determine the root cause of the issue, and from there you can focus your attention on the factors that could actually be causing the problem (instead of just grasping at straws).

You are using a Statistical Process Chart and you see that almost all of the values are falling outside of the Control Limits and many are falling outside of the Spec Limits. What would be the initial best course of action in this situation? A. This should correct itself over time as more data is gathered so you just need to monitor; no need to take action at this time B. Re-analyze the Upper and Lower Control and Spec Limits C. Make changes to the product so they fall within these limits even if that means a change in scope D. Look for 7 consecutive data points above or below the mean then identify the defect

Answer: B Monitoring - Quality Management The initial calculations to estimate the limits may have been incorrect, so you should check the estimates and re-analyze the Upper Control Limit, Lower Control Limit, Upper Spec Limit and Lower Spec Limit.

All of the following are outputs of Control Scope except which of the following? A. Change requests B. Scope changes C. Project document updates D. Work performance information

Answer: B Monitoring - Scope Management The outputs of the Control Scope process are work performance information, organizational process assets updates, change requests, project management plan updates, and project documents updates. The change requests could result in scope changes, but they are not an output themselves.

The project manager has completed a ten-month analysis of production in a manufacturer's environment. The project manager now wants to plot out the results to identify trends. Which of the following is the chart or diagram that will best meet this need? A. Pareto diagram B. Ishikawa diagram C. Run Chart D. Flowchart

Answer: C Monitoring - Quality Management A run chart will allow the project manager to plot out the results of a repeated process over time, in order to find trends. A run chart will look much like a control chart, but without the upper and lower control/spec limits.

Of the following, which would not be an output of Control Quality? A. Change requests B. Project document update C. Quality management plan D. Validated changes and verified deliverables

Answer: C Monitoring - Quality Management The outputs of the Control Quality process are control quality measurements, validated changes, verified deliverables, work performance information, organizational process assets updates, change requests, project management plan updates, and project document updates. The quality management plan is an output of the Plan Quality Management process.

Which of the following is an output of the Validate Scope process? A. WBS Dictionary B. Verified deliverables C. Accepted deliverables D. Work performance data

Answer: C Monitoring - Scope Management Validate Scope is the process by which the customer or sponsor formally accepts the deliverables (which may sometimes be done in conjunction with Control Quality). Accepted Deliverables are the output of this process (assuming they meet requirements). Other possible outputs are change requests (if they do not meet requirements), work performance information and project document updates (as needed).

Which of the following is done during Validate Scope? A. Verify product correctness B. Verify the WBS C. Inspection D. Measure project performance

Answer: C Monitoring - Scope Management Validate Scope is the process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables. Inspection is used for this purpose. Verifying the correctness of the deliverable refers to control quality, while Validate Scope ensures that all requirements have been met (not just quality requirements).

Project performance is best measured by which of the following? A. Project dashboard B. The project sponsor C. Earned value management D. Performance reports

Answer: C Monitoring - Cost Management Earned Value Management (EVM) measures project performance in economic terms from a cost and schedule perspective. Performance reports don't measure performance; they are used to report performance.

You are performing a measurement of a high performance screw to be used in the assembly of a new space rocket. The screw length will be measured and will either be in specification or out of specification. What is this known as? A. Variable sampling B. Statistical sampling C. Attribute sampling D. Binary sampling

Answer: C Monitoring - Quality Management A) If the measurement is on a continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity, it is known as variable sampling. Thus, choice A is incorrect. B) Statistical sampling is a method of selecting a few outputs from a larger lot to be inspected. Thus, choice B is incorrect. C) When a measurement has only two results - either conforms or does not conform - it is known as attribute sampling. D) There is no such thing as binary sampling, at least not for PMBOK purposes. Thus, choice D is incorrect

BAC = 20,000; PV = 18,600; EV= 17,500; AC = 17,000; CPI = 1.03; SPI is 0.94; EAC is 19,400; ETC is 2,400 What do these figures tell you about your project performance to date? A. The budget at completion is less than the estimate at completion so we will spend more than we planned and need to get approval B. You are behind schedule and over budget so we need to establish new cost and schedule baselines immediately C. The estimate at completion is over the original budget D. The cost performance index tells us that we are getting a good return for the money spent on the project so far but we are behind schedule

Answer: D Monitoring - Cost Management Choice D is correct. CPI greater than 1 indicates that we are performing better than planned with regard to costs and a SPI < 1 indicates that we are behind schedule.

Control Cost outputs include all of the following except: A. Work performance information B. Cost forecasts C. Project document updates D. Cost performance baseline

Answer: D Monitoring - Cost Management The outputs of the Control Costs process are work performance information (CV, SV, CPI, SPI), cost forecasts (EAC, ETC, VAC), organizational process assets updates, change requests, project management plan updates, and project document updates. Cost performance baseline is an output of the Determine Budget process.

Why is it necessary to review work performance information in connection with control schedule? A. To determine if the baseline has been changed B. To determine if there is a need to change the baseline C. To assess whether the change can be approved D. To assess the magnitude of variations that have occurred

Answer: D Monitoring - Time Management Work performance information helps in assessing the magnitude of variations that have occurred from planned baselines, and a review is necessary to evaluate the need for corrective actions needed to bring future performance back in line with the baseline.