CHAPTER 6

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

discretionary

which of the following statements is false

duration and effort are synonymous terms

You cannont start editing a technical report until someone else completes the first draft. What type of dependency does this represent

finish to start

____is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration.

critial path method

three point estimate

A _______ includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three weeks for the optimistic scenario, four weeks for the most likely scenario, and five weeks for the pessimistic scenario.

resource breakdown structure

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

baseline dates

The planned schedule dates for activities are called the ______, and the entire approved planned schedule is called the schedule baseline.

schedule baseline

The planned schedule dates for activities are called the baseline dates, and the entire approved planned schedule is called the ___________ .

late finish date

The_____ is the latest possible time an activity can be completed without delaying the project finish date.

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

tracking gantt chart

critical path

A _____ for a project is the series of activities that determine the earliest time by which the project can be completed. It is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float.

slipped milestone

A _____ means the milestone activity was completed later than originally planned.

forward pass

A ______ determines the early start and early finish dates for each activity.

node

A ______ is simply the starting and ending point of an activity.

backward pass

A ______ through the network diagram determines the late start and late finish dates for each activity in a similar fashion.

Activity

An ________ or task is an element of work normally found on the work breakdown structure (WBS) that has expected duration, cost, and resource requirements.

task

An activity or _________ is an element of work normally found on the work breakdown structure (WBS) that has expected duration, cost, and resource requirements.

pert weighted average

By using the ________________ for each activity duration estimate, the total project duration estimate takes into account the risk or uncertainty in the individual activity estimates.

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

Critial chain scheduling

feeding buffers

Critical chain scheduling also protects tasks on the critical chain from being delayed by using _______, which consist of time added before tasks on the critical chain if they are preceded by other tasks that are not on the critical path.

project buffer

Critical chain scheduling removes buffers from individual tasks and instead creates a _______, which is time added before the project's due date.

effort

Do not confuse duration with _______, which is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task.

resources

Estimating activity ______ involves estimating how many ________— people, equipment, and materials—a project team should use to perform project activities.

Which of the following statements is false?

Fast Tracking is a technique for making cost and schedle trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compressions for the least incremental cost.

duration

It is important to note that ______ includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus elapsed time.

buffer

Many people add a safety or _______— additional time to complete a task—to an estimate to account for various factors. These factors include the negative effects of multitasking, distractions, and interruptions, fear that estimates will be reduced, and Murphy's Law.

critical path method

Many projects fail to meet schedule expectations. _________ is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project du- ration. This important tool helps you combat project schedule overruns.

probabillistic time estimates

PERT uses ___________—duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates of activity durations—instead of one specific or discrete duration estimate,

Which of the following processes involve determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning executing and controlling the project schedule?

Planning Schedule Management

float

Slack or ______ is the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date.

smart criteria

The SMART criteria are guidelines suggesting that milestones should be: Specific Measurable Assignable Realistic Time-framed

precedence diagramming method

The ______ is a network diagramming technique in which boxes represent activities. It is particularly useful for visualizing certain types of time relationships.

crashing

_____ is a technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost.

program evaluation and review technique

______ can be used to estimate project duration. _______ applies the critical path method (CPM) to a weighted average duration estimate.

fast tracking

______ involves doing activities in parallel that you would normally do in sequence.

slack

______ or float is the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date.

total slack

______ or total float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date.

murphys law

______ states that if some- thing can go wrong, it will.

dummy activities

_______ have no duration and no resources, but are occasionally needed on AOA network diagrams to show logical relationships between activi- ties

start to finish depency

_______________: A relationship in which the "from" activity must start before the "to" activity can be finished. This type of relationship is rarely used, but it is appropriate in some cases. For example, an organization might strive to stock raw materials just in time for the manufacturing process to be- gin. A delay in starting the manufacturing process should delay completion of stocking the raw materials. Another example would be a babysitter who wants to finish watching a young child but is dependent on the parent's arrival. The parent must show up or "start" before the babysitter can finish the task.

start to start dependency

_________________: A relationship in which the "from" activity cannot start until the "to" activity or successor is started. For example, on IT proj- ects, a group of activities might start simultaneously, such as the many tasks that occur when a new system goes live.

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

activity attributes

network diagram

A _________- is a schematic display of the logical relationships among project activities and their sequencing.

merge

A __________ occurs when two or more nodes precede a single node

dependency

A ____________ or relationship pertains to the sequencing of project activities or tasks.

relationship

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

parkinsons laws

Not having task buffers should mean fewer occurrences of _______, which states that work expands to fill the time allowed.

early finish date

The ______ is the earliest possible time an activity can finish based on the project network logic.

latefinish date

The _______ is the latest possible time an activity can be completed without delaying the project finish date.

activity list

The ________ is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule.

early start date

The ________ is the earliest possible time an activity can start based on the project network logic.

late start date

The ________ is the latest possible time an activity might begin without delaying the project finish date.

Activity Attributes [Output/Input]

The _________ provide schedule-related information about each activity, such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, re- source requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity.

theory of constraints

The ___________ is a management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and discussed in his books The Goal and Critical Chain.

finish to start dependency

_______ A relationship in which the "from" activity or predecessor must finish before the "to" activity or successor can start. For example, you cannot provide user training until after software or a new system has been installed. _______ is the most common type of relationship or dependency, and AOA network diagrams use only finish-to-start dependencies.

external dependencies

_______ involve relationships between project and non-proj- ect activities. For example, the installation of a new operating system and other software may depend on delivery of new hardware from an external supplier. Even though delivery of the hardware may not be included in the scope of the project, you should add an ______to it because late delivery will affect the project schedule.

critical chain scheduling

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

multitasking

_______ occurs when a resource works on more than one task at a time. This situation occurs frequently on projects.

gantt chart

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

project time management

_______, simply defined, involves the processes required to ensure timely completion of a project. Seven main processes are involved in project time management:

mandatory dependencies

_______- are inherent in the nature of the work being per- formed on a project. They are sometimes referred to as hard logic. For example, you cannot test code until after the code is written.

discretionary dependencies

________- are defined by the project team. For example, a project team might follow good practice and not start the detailed design of a new information system until the users sign off on all of the analysis work. _______ are sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care because they may limit later scheduling options.

finish to finish dependency

________: A relationship in which the "from" activity must be finished before the "to" activity can be finished. One task cannot finish before another finishes. For example, quality control efforts cannot finish before pro- duction finishes, although the two activities can be performed at the same time.

free slack

_________ or free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any immediately following activities.

what symbol on a gantt chart represents a slipped milestone?

white diamond

milestone

A _________ on a project is a significant event that normally has no duration. It of- ten takes several activities and a lot of work to complete a _________, but the _________ itself is a marker to help in identifying necessary activities.

burst

__________ occur when two or more activities follow a single node.

tracking gantt chart

__________ —a Gantt chart that compares planned and actual project schedule information.

activity-on-arrow

The format of this network diagram uses the ______________ approach or the arrow diagramming method (ADM)—a network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows and connected at points called nodes to illustrate the sequence of activities.

arrow diagramming method

The format of this network diagram uses the activity-on-arrow (AOA) approach or the _________—a network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows and connected at points called nodes to illustrate the sequence of activities.