CNIT 480 Exam 2

What are Theory Y workers?

- enjoy work - can be trusted to work efficiently without direct supervision - motivated by work itself - need little motivation from manager - managers exercise participative style of group decision making

What is a budget estimate?

- estimates done after much of the early planning has been completed - -10% to +25% variance

What is a rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimate?

- estimates done very early in the life of a project - -25% to +75% variance

What is a definitive estimate?

- estimates done within last several months as the project moves closer to completion - -5% to +10% variance

What are some definitions of communication?

- exchange of information - verbal/written message - technique for expressing ideas effectively - process by which meanings are exchanged between persons through a common system of symbols and/or sounds

What are some techniques for resource estimating?

- expert judgment - analogous - alternatives analysis - bottom-up estimating

What are the project manager influence types?

- expertise - work challenge - salary influence - friendship - future work assignments - promotion - authority - fund allocations - penalty

What are some risk mitigation strategies?

- fallback plans - contingency plans - contingency reserves

What are the three categories of contracts?

- fixed price/lump-sum - cost-reimbursable - time and material

What are Theory X workers?

- inherently lazy - require constant direct supervision - dislike work - avoid work whenever possible - punishment used as motivator - authoritarian approach to management

What are some procurement planning evaluation criteria?

- initial and lifecycle price - seller's ability to address SOW - seller's experience - seller's customer references - seller's financial stability - seller's technical approach - seller's product capacity and interest - who owns intellectual property rights if applicable

What are some qualitative risk analysis techniques?

- interviews - probability and impact matrix

What are some qualitative risk tools and techniques?

- interviews with SMEs - probability/impact matrix

What are cost-reimbursable contracts?

- involves reimbursement of seller's actual costs, plus a fee typically representing the seller's profit - include incentive clauses based on the seller meeting certain project objectives such as schedule targets or cost targets

What four perspectives does a balanced scorecard suggest viewing organizational activity for?

- learning and growth - business process - customer perspective - financial

What are the five interpersonal influence types managers can possess?

- legitimate or formal - reward - penalty - expert - referent

What are some ways to estimate the work size needed?

- lines of code (LOC) - function points

What is six sigma?

- main purpose is to reduce variation in product to reduce defects - uses data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance by identifying and eliminating defects - sigma used to represent standard deviation

What are some best practices in regards to risk management?

- manage projects by managing their risk - create/maintain census of risks - track causal risks, not just the ultimate undesirable outcomes - assess each risk for probability and likely cost - appoint a risk officer

What are the contents of a risk management plan?

- methodology - roles and responsibilities to manage risks throughout the entire project - budget for risk management activities - timing of risk management activities - risk categories - risk probability and impact sales - format for risk register and its use

What does the quality management plan consist of?

- metrics - missed requirements - system response time - failure rates - checklists - improvement plan - baseline

What does ISO 9000 provide in regards to quality?

- minimum requirements for an organization to meet their quality certification standards - standard applicable to any product, service, or process anywhere in the world

What are Theory Z workers?

- more participative - capable of performing many and varied tasks at different levels of responsibilities

What is COCOMO/COCOMO II?

- most widely accepted model - parametric model

What are ways in which resource leveling can be accomplished?

- moving activities (changing discretionary dependencies, entering hard dates) - splitting activities - reducing resource availability - change/add resources to task - authorizing overtime

What is a contract?

- mutually binding agreement entered into by two or more parties enforceable in a court of law - obligates seller to provide the specified products, services, or results - obligates the buyer to provide monetary compensation in most cases

What is a risk register?

- dynamic document that is updated as project progresses - lists risks, trigger events, responsibilities, consequences, probabilities, and mitigation

What are the three models based on the development phase of COCOMO II?

- early application - early design - post-architecture

What are the primary uses for schedule development?

- to determine the start and end date of the project - determines planned start and completion dates for each activity listed on the WBS

What are the main objectives of risk management?

- to increase the probability and impact of positive outcomes - to decrease the probability and impact of negative outcomes

What is risk utility?

- tolerance for risk - amount of satisfaction or pleasure received from a potential payoff

What is cost of quality?

- total costs incurred to prevent a faulty product or development of a system that does not meet system requirements - costs include assessment, rework, lost time, injury, and death

What is TQM?

- total quality management - describes, culture, attitude, and organization of a company that strives to provide customers (internal and external) with products and services that satisfy their needs - combination of quality tools and management specific tools to achieve increased business while reducing costs and waste

When is a definitive cost estimate completed and how accurate is it?

- toward the end of project execution -5% to +10%

When is a budget cost estimate completed and how accurate is it?

- toward the end of the project planning process +10% to -25%

What are decision trees and expected monetary value (EMV)?

- used along with graphical representation to describe set of options under consideration along with estimated implications - consists of cost, revenue, and probabilities for each option path

What is the thread technique and what is it used for?

- used in conjunction with top-down, bottom-up, or analogy - group concentrates on one objective at a time with a focus on the most complex issues first

What is the top-down technique and what is it used for?

- used to create WBS if similar project doesn't exist - starting from scratch - high-level list of deliverables first and then each is decomposed into smaller steps - brainstorming session, SMEs, stakeholders, team members

What are external failure costs?

costs associated with system defects after fully deployed (scrap, rework, returns, market share, lawsuits, etc.)

What are internal failure costs?

costs associated with system defects before a system is fully deployed (scrap and rework)

What are direct costs?

costs directly attributable to the activities of the project

What are recurring costs?

costs that appear more than once throughout the life of the project

What are nonrecurring costs

costs that appear only once

What are variable costs?

costs that change based on the activity of a business or project

What are all of the activities that fall on the longest path through the project schedule called?

critical path activities

What is a make-or-buy analysis?

determines whether it makes more sense to perform activities within the project team or to contract with a seller

What is communications planning?

determining the information and communications needs of the stakeholders

What is the key aspect of developing an SLA?

determining what levels of service the organization actually needs to do its business

What is the final step of procurement planning?

develop and communicate the proposal evaluation criteria used to rate and evaluate seller proposals

What is cost estimating?

developing an estimate of the costs and resources needed to complete a project

What is free slack?

difference between the earliest time an activity can begin and the latest time an activity can begin without changing the completion date of any successor task

What is slack?

difference between the earliest time an activity can begin and the latest time an activity can begin without changing the completion date of the project

What is the crucial aspect to successful interviewing in regards to risk management planning?

making sure the stakeholders feel comfortable sharing ideas with the interviewer

What is the key issue with implementing a balanced scorecard?

making sure you pick the right metrics

What are some examples of indirect costs?

- overhead rates - management salaries - energy costs - rents

What are some activity estimating techniques?

- system analogy (top-down estimates, package-level "bottom-up" analogy) - three point - simulation (Monte Carlo) - COCOMO Version 2.0

What is the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule?

80% of the rework time spent on the product was caused by 20% of the requirements

True/False: Activities with non-zero slack are on the critical path.

False | activities with zero slack

True/False: As the project progresses, the critical path(s) cannot change.

False | can change

True/False: Risk identification is a one time process.

False | continuous process

True/False: The project manager's objective in regards to risk management is to remove all risk.

False | identify and manage risk to benefit of the project

What is the primary importance of project cost management?

IT projects have a poor track record for meeting cost goals

True/False: Before estimating activity durations, you must have a good idea of the quantity and type or level of resources that will be assigned to each activity.

True

True/False: Cost estimating should be done in a progressive elaboration manner.

True

True/False: Critical chain scheduling takes both time and constraints into account.

True

True/False: Every IT project, regardless of size, complexity, location, or organization contains some measure of risk.

True

True/False: If one or more activities on the critical path takes longer than planned, the whole project schedule will slip unless corrective action is taken.

True

True/False: In most projects of any size, there is typically only one critical path.

True

What is risk acceptance?

accepting the consequences should a risk occur without trying to control it

What is cost budgeting?

allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work items to establish a baseline for measuring performance

What is a medium?

communication transport (i.e. email, phone, etc)

What is cost control?

controlling changes to the project budget

What is burden rate?

cost of a human resource which takes into consideration more than just his/her salary or hourly rate, for things such as benefits, vacations, holidays, etc

What are appraisal costs?

costs associated with assuring that all requirements have been met

What does ISO 9001 provide in regards to quality?

defines model for a quality system when a contractor demonstrates the capability to design, produce, and install products or services

What is resource loading?

defines the amount of time a specific resource is needed over each time period

What is rework?

due to poor quality the same task must be repeated to correct an identified error

When is the risk management plan created in the planning phase?

early

What is quality assurance?

evaluating overall project performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards

What are fixed costs?

expenses whose total does not change in proportion to the activity of a business/project, within the relevant time period or scale of production

What is the greatest threat to many projects?

failure to communicate

What is a critical aspect of quality planning?

important to pick the correct metrics

what are examples of nonrecurring costs?

initial purchase cost of hardware/software

What is quality control?

monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards while identifying ways to improve overall quality

What is brainstorming in regards to risk management?

non-structured or semi-structured method of eliciting ideas from a group with the goal of generating a complete list of ideas

What are indirect costs?

opposite of direct, costs that are not directly attributable to the activities of the project

What is OPM3?

organizational project management maturity model

What is a risk officer?

person who is not expected to maintain a "can-do" attitude

What are the planning activities of procurement?

plan procurements (determining what to procure, when, and how)

What are some examples of variable costs?

project employee costs

What is the deliverable from schedule development?

project schedule

What is a Monte Carlo simulation technique for activity estimation?

randomly generates specific end values for a variable using a specific probability distribution

What does critical chain scheduling do in regards to buffers?

removes buffers form individual tasks and creates: - project buffer, adding time before the due date - feeding buffers, adding time before tasks on critical path

What is project schedule shortening?

shortens durations of critical tasks by adding more resources or changing their scope

What is the EMV analysis?

statistical concept that calculates the average outcome when dealing with unknown future scenarios

What is qualitative risk analysis?

subjective methods for qualifying each risk for impact and probability of occurrence

What is fitness for use?

the product can be used as it was originally intended

What is cost of non-conformance?

total costs incurred by an organization because the product does not meet user requirements for example, rework or poor user productivity

What is decoding?

translating the message into meaningful thoughts or ideas

What is encoding?

translating thoughts into language

What are prevention costs?

up-front costs associated with satisfying customer requirements

What are some of the QMP "-ilities"?

- adaptability - flexibility - generality - installability - interoperability

What are the decisions made in the procurement planning process?

- Whether to procure - How to procure - What to procure - How much to procure - When to procure

What are some questions the communications management plan must answer?

- Who are the stakeholders? - What information do they need? - Who on the team is responsible for collection data, creating reports, etc?

What are some QMP standards and metrics?

- "-ilities" - ROI goals - efficiency - documentation - customer satisfaction criteria - performance criteria - number of change requests and time to implement - earned value

What are some examples of process improvement maturity models?

- CMMI - OPM3

What are some current quality initiatives and standards?

- ISO 9000 - TQM - balanced scorecard - Six Sigma

What are some techniques that can be used to develop the project schedule?

- PERT - CPM - critical chain

What are some tools used for schedule development?

- PERT - critical path method - critical chain - resource leveling

What are some procurement documents?

- RFQ - RFP

What are some procurement planning tools and techniques?

- SMEs - make-or-buy analysis

What is the Fishbone diagram?

"cause-and-effect" tool to aid workers in discovering the true root cause for quality issues

What does Murphy's Law state?

"if something can go wrong, it will"

What does Parkinson's Law state?

"work expands to fill time allowed"

What is critical chain scheduling?

- addresses challenge of meeting/beating project finish dates - Theory of Constrains (time, resources, cost, scope, etc) - developed by Eliyahu Goldratt - method of scheduling that takes constraints into account when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date

What are some reasons for risk management?

- aggressive risk-taking possible - decriminalizes risk - chance for success - bounds uncertainty - minimum-cost downside protection - protects against transfer of responsibility - save part of a failed effort - maximizes opportunity for personal growth

What is a Monte Carlo simulation?

- aid in building time estimates for WBS activities - simulate impact a risk may have on project goals - can be run multiple times - used to determine cost and schedule outcomes using three point estimates of task durations

What are management reserves?

- allow for future situations that are unpredictable - sometimes called unknown unknowns

What are contingency reserves?

- allow for future situations that may be partially planned for - sometimes called known unknowns - included in project cost baseline

What are the two key pieces of information produced by CPM

- amount of slack/float for each activity - longest path through schedule/shortest time project can be completed

What are some methods for activity duration estimating?

- analogous - top-down - bottom-up - three-point - simulation - COCOMO

What are the different techniques used to develop the WBS?

- analogy technique - top-down technique - bottom-up technique - thread technique

What is identified in the risk management plan?

- approach - plan - who will execute the risk management activities

What is the system analogy technique for activity estimation?

- bases a current work package time estimate on the actual time of a work package from a similar project already completed - "top-down" approach

What are the three levels of COCOMO II?

- basic - intermediate - advanced

What are some risk identification techniques?

- broad organizational categories - analogy - brainstorming - interviews - Delphi Technique - SWOT analysis

What are the three "languages" of project managers?

- business - technical - project

What are two methods used for finding the critical path?

- calculate slack for each activity on the WBS - find longest path through network diagram

What are some of the benefits from scheduling?

- consistent framework to follow from project to project - highlights interdependencies of each activity - facilitates team communication - identifies "critical" activities - helps project manager evaluate alternatives - reduces number of conflicts - provides visibility to parallel tasks - facilitates "what if" analysis

What are some of the recommendations when developing an SOW?

- consistent, understandable language - use active voice "shall" for provisions - avoid using jargon/slang - avoid works which allow for multiple interpretations

What are the main aspects of TQM?

- continuous improvement - customer-driven - culture - employee empowerment - management involvement - decisions based on facts

What are the key decision points in a make-or-buy analysis?

- cost - human resources - time - strategic direction - risk

What are some tools and techniques used in QMP?

- cost-benefit analysis - brainstorming - benchmarking - design of experiments

What are some tools and techniques used to build a quality management plan?

- cost/benefit analysis - brainstorming with or without affinity diagrams - benchmarking - design of experiments

What are sunk costs?

- costs expended that cannot be retrieved on a product or service - money already spent that cannot be recovered

What are two schedule compression techniques?

- crashing - fast tracking

What does critical chain scheduling involve?

- critical path analysis - resource constraints - changes in how task estimates are made in terms of buffers - focus attention on critical tasks

What are some examples of appraisal costs?

- customer acceptance tests - demonstrations - lab tests

What are the ISO quality management principles?

- customer focus - provide leadership - involvement of people - use a process approach - take a systems approach - encourage continual improvement - factual approach to decision making - mutually beneficial supplier relationships

What are some quantitative risk analysis techniques?

- decision tree analysis with EMV - Monte Carlo simulation

What are some quantitative risk analysis techniques?

- decision trees with expected monetary value analysis - Monte Carlo simulation

What does the cone of uncertainty model show?

- decisions made early on have profound effects on decisions made later - as you move through the stages/iterations of the project, the cone of uncertainty grows smaller or narrower

What is the six sigma process (DMAIC)?

- define - measure - analyze - improve - control

What are some examples of prevention costs?

- design reviews - all forms of system testing - training - surveys

What does communications planning involve?

- distribution of information - managing stakeholder expectations - performance reporting

What is a statement of work (SOW)?

- document which describes the procurement item in sufficient detail to allow prospective sellers to determine if they are capable of providing the item and potentially at what cost - describes 100% of the work or services required to be completed under contract by the seller

What are some warnings to consider when using maturity models?

- no guarantees they produce quality product, just that they follow a standard process - no "silver-bullet" - no auditing agencies exist to review claims after the fact

What are some uses for function points?

- number of pages of documentation per function point - levels of effort per FP - level of expertise per FP - cost per FP

What is SWOT analysis?

- offers framework with which to conduct brainstorming session, sticky-note exercise, or Delphi Technique session - focuses on both sides of each issue; strengths vs weaknesses; opportunities vs threats

What is the lines of code task sizing method?

- one of the most used - based on historical results - effort, dollars, documentation, software bugs, and number of resources

What is crisis management?

- opposite of good risk management - organizations that are trying to figure out what to do about a problem after it has occurred instead of planning for issues in advance - "perpetual fire fighting"

What are the three project types defined by COCOMO II?

- organic (small project teams) - semidetached (medium sized project teams) - embedded (large project teams)

What are some issues in regards to ISO 9000?

- paperwork - no guarantee that organization will produce quality products or services; only confirmation system/process is in place - time consuming - costly

What is the Delphi Technique?

- participants unknown - moderator presents question electronically to each participant - moderator accumulates responses into one list which is distributed to team members - continues until general consensus

How are post-it notes used in regards to risk management planning?

- participants write down ideas on post-it notes in short time interval - notes handed to moderator - list generated based on feasibility - matrix drawn similar to probability and impact matrix - risk register generated

What are some of the different categories of risk?

- people - technology - quality/performance issues - customers - vendors - management - funding - political issues or legal issues - market forces

What is the PIECES technique and what is it used for?

- performance - information - economics - control and security - efficiency - service *used to collect requirements for scope definition

What are Maslow's Hierarchy of needs?

- physiological - safety - social - esteem - self-actualization

What does a maturity model provide?

- place to start - the benefit of a community's prior experiences - common language and shared vision - framework for prioritizing actions - way to define what improvement means for organization

What is project cost management concerned with?

- planning - estimating - budgeting - control of cost of project resources needed to complete 100% of the activities of the project

What are the two techniques of activity sequencing?

- precedence diagram method - activity on arrow diagramming method

What is PERT?

- program evaluation and review technique - developed by Navy in cooperation with Booz-Allen Hamilton - for missile/submarine project in 1958 to organize contractors

What are some examples of direct costs?

- purchasing hardware - labor costs

What are some examples of fixed costs

- rent - insurance

What four development phases make up advanced COCOMO II?

- requirements - product design - detailed design - code/test development

What is cost?

- resource specified/fore-gone to achieve a specific objective or something given up in exchange - measured in monetary units like dollars

What are the four main response strategies?

- risk avoidance - risk acceptance - risk transference - risk mitigation

What are the deliverables of human resources planning?

- roles and responsibilities matrix - project organizational chart - staffing management plan

What are the three types of cost estimates?

- rough order of magnitude (ROM) (+75 to -25%) - budget (+25% to -10%) - definitive (+10% to -5%)

What is a cost-plus-percentage of cost contract?

- seller reimbursed for allowable costs plus a fee calculated as a percentage of the actual costs - fee varies based on actual project cost - contract does not provide much of an incentive for the seller to reduce costs

What is a cost-plus-incentive-fee contract?

- seller reimbursed for allowable costs plus a predetermined fee, an incentive bonus, based upon meeting certain time and cost objectives - offers seller more profit if costs are reduced or performance is improved and less profit if costs are raised or if performance goals are not met

What is a service level agreement?

- set of specific quality metrics in IT procurement contracts - specific times service must be available - response times/latency - mean time to respond to issues - mean time to repair - problem notification/escalation

What are some techniques for shortening a project schedule?

- shortening - crashing - fast tracking

What are the four stages of maturity in OPM3?

- standardize - measure - control - continuously improve

What is SWOT an acronym for?

- strengths - weaknesses - opportunities - threats

What are some benefits to resource leveling?

- team productivity - team morale - reduced costs - leveled costs (fewer swings from period to period) - less management - better use of resources

What is risk?

- the possibility of loss or injury - function of the likelihood, and impact - event if it occurs that will have a negative impact on one or more of project scope, time, cost, quality, or resources

What is the bottom-up technique and what is it used for?

- used to create WBS if similar project doesn't exist - team is familiar with this type of project - brainstorming session, SMEs, stakeholders, team members

What are function (feature, object) points?

- used to estimate time and dollars based on the generated system requirements specification - function point measures the size of a business function that the new system needs to have such as an input screen or a report - can be done at any point in the project but are not considered accurate until late in the planning phase

How does PERT work?

- uses weighted average approach - beta probability distribution - captures 3 point estimates (optimistic, most likely, pessimistic) for activity duration - averages added to network diagram

What is the three point technique for activity estimation?

- uses weighted average approach or beta probability distribution approach to capture three point estimates for each work package (optimistic, normal, pessimistic) - adds element of risk

When is a rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate completed and how accurate is it?

- very early (project charter) +25% to -75%

When is a fixed-price or lump-sum contract appropriate?

- when SOW is sufficiently detailed and stable such that the seller can prepare an accurate fixed price for completing the work - seller is obligated to complete 100% of the work at the negotiated contract value

What are the main steps in the risk management process?

1. Build/choose the risk management plan format 2. Identify risks 3. Risk assessment 4. Risk register 5. Risk management plan (budget, schedule of activities, specific tools needed)

What are the five steps in the OPM3 cycle?

1. Prepare for assessment 2. Perform assessment 3. Plan for improvements 4. Implement improvements 5. Repeat the process

What are the steps in the procurement planning process?

1. Review of requirements, WBS, schedule, etc 2. Decision on what needs to be procured, how, when (make-or-buy) 3. Develop SOW and SLA requirements 4. Develop procurement documents (RFQ, RFP) 5. Build the procurement management plan

Can projects have multiple critical paths theoretically?

Yes

True/False: Many organizations operate in a perpetual state of "crisis management" due to a lack of formal risk managent processes.

True

True/False: Multitasking often leads to longer delivery times due to wasted setup/startup time.

True

True/False: Risk on a project can be a good thing if managed appropriately.

True

True/False: The critical path is not the one with all the critical activities and only accounts for time.

True

True/False: The critical path method is based solely on time.

True

True/False: The project can be inflated for more quality or deflated for less quality.

True

True/False: The risk management plan is updated throughout the life of the project.

True

True/False: You should know the purpose and audience of the cost estimate before communicating the results or selecting the method of estimating.

True

True/False: Time and material contracts assign all of the risk to the buyer and virtually none to the seller.

True | seller is reimbursed for all previously defined costs and additional material costs of the seller to complete the product

What is project schedule fast tracking?

accomplishes tasks in parallel or overlapping them

How is a person's risk utility affected if he or she is risk-neutral?

achieves balance between risk and potential payoff

What is procurement?

acquiring goods and/or services from an outside/external source (synonyms such as purchasing, outsourcing)

What is a buffer?

additional time to complete a task

What is the probability and impact matrix?

aids project team in prioritizing which risks need more attention based on either their probability of occurring or the size of the impact to the project or both

What are life cycle costs?

all costs incurred over the life time of the product or service

What are examples of recurring costs?

annual hardware/software maintenance

What is noise?

anything that interferes with the transmission and understanding of the message

What is the balanced scorecard approach?

approach for managing and measuring business performance which takes into consideration factors beyond the typical financial metrics

What is quantitative risk analysis?

attempts to estimate the impact a risk may have on a project as well as the probability

What is the key issue with qualitative risk assessment?

centers on issue of estimator bias

What are reserves?

dollars included in a cost estimate to mitigate cost risk by allowing for future situations that are difficult to predict (i.e. critical chain buffers)

What is risk avoidance?

eliminating a specific threat or risk, usually by eliminating its causes

Which contract type provides the seller with the most amount of risk?

fixed-price or lump-sum

How is a person's risk utility affected if he or she is risk-seeking?

higher tolerance for risk and satisfaction increases when more payoff is at stake

What is quality planning?

identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and organization and determining the activities necessary to meet the established standards in order to deliver the product fit for customer use

What is the first step in the risk management process?

identity as many risks as possible

What does duration include?

includes effort (actual amount of time work on an activity) plus elapsed time

What are opportunity costs?

measure of the anticipated return against the anticipated return an organization would receive on a highest yielding alternative investment that contains a similar risk assessment

What is project schedule crashing?

obtains greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost

What is a message?

output of encoding

What is the PDSA cycle?

plan, do, study, and act

What process group does risk management planning fall into?

planning phase

What does the cost budgeting process involve?

presents to the stakeholders, management, and project team the entire picture of costs for the project taking into account all of the following cost categories - direct/indirect - recurring/nonrecurring - fixed/variable - lifecycle costs

What is a problem that buffers can help alleviate?

problem of resource multitasking with idea of reducing idle time between tasks

What is resource leveling?

process of rescheduling activities on the project schedule that have available slack to achieve a more balanced distribution of resource usage

What does ISO 9004 provide in regards to quality?

quality management guidelines

What is the capability maturity model integrated (CMMI)?

quality of a system is highly influenced by the quality of the process used to acquire, develop, and maintain it

What does ISO 9003 provide in regards to quality?

quality system model for quality assurance in final inspection and testing

What does ISO 9002 provide in regards to quality?

quality system model for quality assurance in production and installation

What is the key difference between qualitative and quantitative risk analysis?

quantitative -> mathematical/statistical techniques to model behavior of particular risk

What is risk mitigation?

reducing the impact of a risk event by reducing the probability of its occurrence

What does a "man-month" in estimating refer to?

refers to how much work can be done by a worker in a given month, referred to today as "person month", "time-robbers" keep this from being 160 hours

What is the main deliverable of risk management planning?

risk management plan

How is a person's risk utility affected if he or she is risk-averse?

risk utility rises at a decreasing rate

What is a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract?

seller is reimbursed for allowable costs plus a fixed fee calculated as a percentage of the allowable costs

What is a critical path?

series of activities that determines the earliest time by which the project can be completed

What is risk transference?

shifting the consequence of a risk and responsibility for its management to a third party internal or external to the organization

Where does the majority of information contained in the communications management plan come from?

stakeholder analysis

What is a maturity model?

structured collection of elements that describe characteristics of effective processes

What does the American Society of Quality and the PMBOK define quality as?

the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements

What is reliability?

the probability of the product performing as specified without failure over a set period of time

What is conformance to requirements/specifications?

the product conforms to the written specifications

What is maintainability?

the time and expense needed to restore the product to an acceptable level of performance after the product has failed or began a trend toward failure

What is the ISO definition of quality?

the totality of features and characteristics fo a product or service that beats on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs

What is the "progressive elaboration" process?

time and cost estimates start out general and less accurate and over time become more detailed and accurate as the project proceeds

Which contract type provides the buyer with the most amount of risk?

time and material (T&M)

What is the purpose of project risk management?

to aid the team in assessing the impact a negative event will have on the project and how likely the event is to occur

What is the key goal of the procurement planning process?

to determine which project needs may best be met by sellers or vendors outside of the project team

What is the key to running a successful brainstorming session?

to foster an atmosphere that allows all ideas to be spoken regardless of likelihood

What can a maturity model be used for?

used as a benchmark for assessing different organizations for equivalent comparison

What is the cost estimating process used for?

used to develop accurate cost estimates for the resources needed to complete each activity of the project

What is a request for proposal?

used to solicit proposals from prospective sellers

What is a request for quote?

used to solicit quotes or bids from prospective suppliers

What is an analogy in regards to risk management?

uses information from past similar projects or the experience of team members to look for risks

What is the critical path method (CPM)?

uses sequence and duration of activities to determine the total project duration

How would you reach six sigma?

you would have no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities