IE 590 Project Management PMI Quizzes

You are trying to determine the time it would take for your upcoming software project to complete and eventually determine that it was most likely to complete in 35 weeks. However, if the additional resources you had asked for get allocated to the project, you believe that you can complete the project in as early as 30 weeks. On the flip side, if the hardware consignment gets delayed, the project might take up to 45 weeks. Using the 3-point estimate (PERT method), what would be the likely completion timeline for the project?

35.8 Weeks

A project has many characteristics. Which of the following is not a project characteristic?

A project's impact ends when the project ends.

A project manager and his project team are planning the work to be done on a project. They have reviewed the customer requirements and have created an outline of the work breakdown structure and its corresponding WBS dictionary. They are now breaking down the work packages into smaller increments. What are they now trying to create?

An activity list

For a new project, a project manager employs a technique in which he uses expert judgment and refers historical records of previous projects to reach an estimate for that project. What kind of estimating technique did he use?

Analogous Estimating

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

To control the schedule, a project manager is reanalyzing the project to predict project duration. She does this by analyzing the sequence of activities with the least amount of scheduling flexibility. What technique is she using?

Critical path method

The float of an activity is determined by:

Determining the length of time the activity can be delayed without delaying the critical path

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

Dollars per module

Effective project integration usually requires an emphasis on:

Effective communication at key interface points.

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

Identify the level at which individual elements are found

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

Initiating

The project charter is created in which project management process group?3

Initiating

What is the duration of a milestone

It has no duration.

Which of the following is the MOST appropriate description of what a critical path is?

It is the longest path through the network that contains zero float

As part of an on-going software implementation project the project team must setup a new testing environment before they can commence the software testing. This is an example of:

Mandatory dependency

You are assigned as the project manager in the middle of the project. The project is within the baselines, but the customer is not happy with the performance of the project. What is the FIRST thing you should do?3

Meet with the customer.

Which of the following is the BEST thing to do when asked to complete a project two days earlier than planned?

Meet with the team to look at options for crashing or fast tracking the critical path.

A project activity has an early start (ES) of day 2, a late start (LS) of day 11, an early finish (EF) of day 7, and a late finish (LF) of day 16. This indicates that this activity is:

Not on the critical path

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

Progress or status

Dan has been asked to select between 3 new projects. Project A has a Net Present Value (NPV) of $45,000 and can be completed in 1 year, Project B has an NPV of $56,000 and can be completed in 18 months, and Project C has an NPV of $100,000 and can be completed in 2 years. Which of these projects should he opt for?

Project C

The portfolio review board is conducting its yearly project selection meeting. Which of the following projects is the review board most likely to choose? Project J with a payback period of 23 months, Project K with a payback period of 18 month, Project L with a payback period of 42 months, or Project M with a payback period of 38 months.

Project K

A market demand, a business need, and/or a legal requirement are examples of:

Reasons projects are initiated.

A new project manager has asked you for advice on creating a work breakdown structure. After you explain the process to her, she asks you what software she should use to create the WBS and what she should do with it when it is completed. You might respond that it is not the picture that is the most valuable result of creating a WBS. The most valuable result of a WBS is:

Team buy-in

Which of the following is TRUE about the development of a project charter?3

The project manager creates the project charter, and the sponsor approves it.

A project you are managing has multiple critical paths. Which of the following statements is the BEST description of how this will impact the project?

The project risks increase.

When a project management plan is prepared, it should be done so with realistic goals and expectations. Which of the following would be the MOST appropriate way to create a project management plan?1

The project sponsor should create the project management plan after taking inputs from the project team.

A project is plagued by changes to the project charter. Who has the primary responsibility to decide if these changes are necessary?

The sponsor

During project planning, you estimate the time needed for each activity and then add up the estimates to create the project estimate. You commit to completing the project by this date. What is wrong with this scenario?

The team did not create the estimate, and a network diagram was not used.

In a well-managed project, the lessons-learned documentation is compiled and stored for the reference of future projects. At which stage of a project are the lessons learned compiled?

Throughout the duration of the project.

Estimating activity resources and activity duration are crucial processes in schedule management. Which of the following statements regarding estimations is NOT true?

Time and cost estimates are not interrelated

Preparing a project charter is among the very first activities on a project, but for what purpose can the project charter be used when the project is approaching completion?

To check whether a new scope change should be approved.

What is the primary purpose of capturing a user story?

To document product functionalities or features required by the customer

Which of the following BEST describes what a project charter may be used for when the work is being completed?

To help determine if a scope change should be approved.

To manage a project effectively, work should be broken down into small pieces. Which of the following does NOT describe how far to decompose the work?

Until it can be done by one person

During project executing, a team member comes to the project manager because he is not sure what work he needs to accomplish on the project. Which of the following documents contains detailed descriptions of work packages?

WBS dictionary

Lag means

Waiting time

The traditional PERT technique uses:

a beta distribution

Expert judgment is:

a tool and technique within all integration processes

Examples of scheduling presentations include:2

activity list, bar chart, network diagram

Another name for the precedence diagramming method is:

activity on node

Which of the following statements concerning stakeholders is true?

all stakeholders should be classified

Your team is deciding between analogous estimating and parametric estimating to assist with estimating the activity durations. Which of the following is true of analogous estimating compared to parametric estimating:

analogous is based on one past project

The project becomes officially authorized through the:

approval of the project charter

You are managing the development of a new medical device. Hitting the market window is critical for project success. To analyze the amount of float each activity has you will most likely use what method?

critical path method

Decomposition is a tool and technique of what process(es)?

define activities and create WBS

The critical path method is a tool and technique of what process?

develop schedule

You are working with your core team developing the network diagram for your map making project. Your team member tells you that they suggest you plan in your schedule that you will do a fly over of the area before researching the geography. You ask them why and they tell you it is a best practice. This is an example of a(n):

discretionary dependency

The vast majority of the project budget is spent during which process group?

executing

All of the following are examples of facilitation techniques except:

expert judgment

In the precedence diagramming method, which relationship is most common:

finish to start

The five project management process groups include:

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

We show the delay of a successor activity on a network diagram through:

lags

We show the acceleration of a successor activity on a network diagram through:

leads

Another name for hard logic is:

mandatory dependency

The PERT (program evaluation and review technique) uses all of the following estimates except:

mean (average)

The critical path method assumes:

no resource limitations

You have spent years managing small and midsize projects for your organization. Based on your success, you are managing your first large scale project with what seems like an unending list of project stakeholders. The large number of change requests makes it difficult to make progress. The most likely reason for this is:2

not enough focus on stakeholder identification and analysis

If a product is required to be delivered in full in order to have value to its stakeholder groups, we will most likely utilize what type of life cycle?2

predictive

Which of the following is usually included in a project charter?

project objectives

Crashing and fast-tracking are examples of what tool and technique?

schedule compression

Leads and lags are a tool and technique of what process(es)?

sequence activities and develop schedule

Your project team is new to project management. They are struggling with the idea of a WBS versus an activity list. You explain that:

the WBS is deliverable oriented whereas the activity list is action oriented

The WBS should be decomposed to as detailed a level as:

the ability to plan, manage, and control the work is enhanced

The nodes (boxes) in a precedence diagram represent:

the activity

The purpose of estimating activity durations is to get an approximation on

the number of work periods for each activity

If someone requests a change to the project charter, who most likely would need to approve this change?

the project sponsor

The arrows in a precedence diagram represent:

the relationship

Management is concerned about the practice of cost estimators and project managers inflating cost estimates. To deal with this practice in a positive way, management has told you that you will be allowed a contingency reserve on your project if you can support the reserve with real data. From your project management training, you realize that all the following are true about a contingency reserve except:

they are for unknown unknowns

A WBS is used for all of the following except:

to show planned start and finish times

As a young and inexperienced project manager, you work very hard to follow your organization's policies and procedures. However, not all work seems to follow policy. You are working to understand the organization's culture and style. To accomplish this, it is very important that you identify:

who are the decision makers and influencers within the organization