IS445 Final Exam Study Guide

Project Leader

Person that focuses on long-term goals and big-picture objectives, while inspiring people to reach those goals.

Program Manager

Person who provides leadership and direction for those heading projects within a program.

At the bottom of Maslow's structure are __________ needs.

Physiological

In which of the five project management process groups are activities performed that relate to every knowledge area?

Planning

What are the 5 P's?

Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Which of the following conflict resolution techniques will generate the most lasting solution?

Problem Solving

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Professional certification that Project Managers can obtain through the Project Management Institute and requires actual professional PM experience.

What document formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project's objectives and management?

Project Charter

Project Sponsor

Provides direction and funding for the project.

Your organization plans to hire an outside firm to develop a new marketing campaign for a major product. What type of procurement document would you send to potential suppliers?

RFP

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

Reasons projects are initiated

Project Manager

Responsible for developing the project management plan.

Positive NPV

Return from a project exceeds the opportunity cost of capital, the return available by investing the capital elsewhere.

It is important to find the _________ or underlying reason a problem occurs.

Root Cause

Champion

Senior manager who acts as a key proponent for a project.

Everyone involved in creating the team contract, as well as new members of the team should __________ it.

Sign

What is a crucial part of the project charter, in particular a session in which key project stakeholders acknowledge their agreement on the need for the project?

Sign-off

Two of your project stakeholders simply do not get along. You know they both love watching professional sports, so whenever you are with them you bring up that topic to avoid conflict between them. You are using the __________ conflict-handling mode.

Smoothing

SMART stands for?

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely

The PMBOK Guide is a _________ that describes best practices for what should be done to manage a project; a _________ describes how things should be done.

Standard, Methodology

What is the Four-Stage planning process to select projects that support the organization's business strategy?

Strategic Planning, Business Area Analysis, Project Planning, and Resource Allocation.

Mind Map

Technique that uses branches radiating out from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas.

Crashing

Technique used for making schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost.

One of your team members informs you that he/she does not know which of the many projects he/she is working on is the most important. Who should determine the priorities among projects in a company?

The project management office

The management theory that states that all people can direct their own efforts is:

Theory Y

Quadruple Constraint

Time, Cost, Scope, Quality

Triple Constraint

Time, Cost, and Scope

Cost Baseline

Time-phased budget that project managers use to measure and monitor cost performance.

A college approved a project to provide discounts for faculty, students, and staff to use the city's new light-rail system. Under what existing program might this project naturally fit?

Transportation Program

T/F A NPV that is greater than zero is best.

True

T/F A project manager is assigned by the project sponsor.

True

T/F According to CHAOS study, the number of successful projects has more than doubled, from 16 percent in 1994 to 37 percent in 2010.

True

T/F According to the text, project managers often cite delivering projects on time is one of their biggest challenges.

True

T/F In order to Monitor and Control a project, you must have metrics to see that the objectives of the project are being met.

True

T/F It is very difficult to create a good WBS.

True

T/F Monitoring and controlling processes overlap all of the other project management process groups.

True

T/F Portfolio management addresses questions like are we working on the right projects?

True

T/F Project management process groups do not occur sequentially.

True

T/F Quality must be planned in, not inspected in.

True

T/F Resources and risk are examples of typical project constraints.

True

T/F Rework is action taken to bring rejected items into compliance with product requirements.

True

T/F Starvation is one of the common ways to close or terminate a project.

True

T/F TCPI is the cost performance that must be achieved on the remaining work to meet a goal.

True

T/F The SPI Earned Value Management calculation is used to see the "effectiveness" of the project.

True

T/F The greatest threat to success of any project is failure to communicate.

True

T/F The reason why schedule problems are so common is that time is easily and simply measure.

True

T/F Workarounds are unplanned responses to risk events.

True

T/F You can have both positive and negative risks in a project.

True

The project manager and team are involved in project planning. They are in the process of breaking the work down into the smallest level of the WBS. What are they creating?

Work Package

10 Project Management Knowledge Areas

1. Integration 2. Scope 3. Time 4. Cost 5. Quality 6. Communications 7. Risk 8. Procurement 9. HR 10. Stakeholder

5 Process Groups

1. Monitoring 2. Controlling 3. Initiating 4. Planning 5. Closing

You can purchase an item you need for a project for $8,000 and it has a daily operating cost of $200, or you can lease the item for $600 per day. Which day will the purchase cost be the same as the lease cost?

Day 20

DMAIC

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control

PERT Formula

Optimistic time + (4* most likely) time + pessimistic time

A WBS is often depicted in a graphical format to show its hierarchy, similar to a(n) ________ chart.

Organizational

You need something to help show quantity of defects, as well as the cumulative percentage they represent in a geographical format to help you prioritize where to spend time correcting issues. Which of the following would you use to provide this information?

Pareto Diagram

What are our most important assets?

People

Stakeholders

People involved in or affected by project activities.

Research shows that the majority of communication is through _________?

Body Language

A _______ chart is often used to show projects in terms of their risk, value, and size.

Bubble

The 5-Whys technique is used in which of the following diagrams?

Cause-and-Effect/Fishbone/Ishikawa

What is the name of a newer conflict-handling mode where decision makers incorporate different viewpoints and insights to develop consensus and commitment?

Collaborating

Which need in Maslow's hierarchy includes personal achievement, recognition, and respect?

Esteem

The majority of a project's time and budget is spent on ___________?

Executing

Main purpose of project planning is to guide which process group?

Execution

T/F A project should be developed using progressive elaboration, starting from specific details and broadening in scope as it progresses.

False

T/F According to Six Sigma, the target for perfection is the achievement of no more than 3.2 defects per million opportunities.

False

T/F According to the textbook, the top ten skills and competencies for effective project managers include: people skills, listening, and having their PMP.

False

T/F All organizations have a Project Management Office (PMO).

False

T/F Hygiene Factors and Motivating Agents are part of David McClelland's Theory of Needs.

False

T/F Monitoring and Controlling is done only during the execution process group.

False

T/F Parkinson's Law states that if something can go wrong, it will.

False

T/F The RP is the % of actual work completed multiplied by the % of work planned to be completed.

False

T/F The higher the payback period, the better.

False

T/F The lower the EVM, the better.

False

T/F The planning process group requires the most resources and time.

False

T/F The project manager should pick and choose which knowledge areas he/she wishes to utilize, while managing a project.

False

The most common type of dependency between activities is?

Finish-To-Start

Which type of contract is the seller most concerned about project scope?

Fixed Price

Herzberg's Theory

Focuses on two main areas for workplace success: hygiene and motivating agents.

PMBOK

Guide that the Project Management Institute creates as a framework for understanding project management.

Project Management

Application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.

There are usually more potential projects than an organization can undertake at any one time, so it is important to work on the most ________ ones first.

Important

What phase in the DMAIC process do you actually get to fix something on the project?

Improve

What is the duration of a milestone?

It has no duration

Rearranging resources so that a constant number of resources are used each month is called?

Leveling

What gets _____________ gets managed.

Measured

You are assigned as the project manager in the middle of the project. The project is withing the baselines, but the customer is not happy with the performance of the project. What is the first things you should do?

Meet with the customer

Kick-Off

Meeting that happens at the beginning of a project, so that stakeholders can meet each other, review the goals of the project, and discuss future plans.

3 buckets IGT filters projects down by

Must Do, Strategic Initiatives, Good Business Case

Contracts

Mutually binding agreements that obligate the seller to provide the specified products or services, and obligate the buyer to pay for them.

Many software development projects follow ________ methodologies, meaning they use an iterative workflow and incremental delivery of software in short iterations.

Agile

If a project team has six people, how many two-way communication channels are there?

15

If a project cost is only $100 upfront and its annual benefits are $20/year, what is the payback period for this project?

5 Years

People with a high need for ____________ need regular feedback and often prefer to work alone or with other people like them.

Achievement

The project manager is creating an estimate for a data warehouse. This is something he/she is quite experienced at. The client needs the estimate quickly. Which of the following types of estimates is he/she likely to provide?

Analogous

SWOT

Analysis used to aid in strategic planning.

Business Case

Document that provides financial justification for investing in a project.

When should a process for handling change requests be defined for a project?

During Planning

Project management plans should be _______________?

Dynamic, Flexible, and Receptive to Change