Q&A Hero

Q: Project evaluation should not be limited to an after-the-fact analysis.

Q: Project evaluation should be limited to an after-the fact analysis.

Q: Project evaluation appraises the performance of a project relative to the project's initial or revised plan.

Q: Project evaluation should only appraise the progress and performance of a project relative to the project's initial plan and not relative to a revised plan.

Q: The following components are required for project control except; a) Sensor b) Comparator c) Decision maker d) Standard e) Regulator

Q: Managing a project involves all of the following except; a) Continually planning what to do b) Checking on progress c) Comparing progress to plan d) Taking corrective action to build to bring progress into agreement with the plan if it is not e) Holding regular meetings

Q: When a PM updates a project all of the following should be updated except: a) Tables b) Charts c) Action plans d) All of the above should be updated e) None of the above should be updated

Q: Data Collecting will eventually exist in one of the following formats except: Frequency counting Raw numbers Verbal characterization Subjective numeric ratings Probability scores

Q: The first step in setting up a monitoring system is to: a) identify personnel b) identify all project milestones c) identify key factors to be controlled d) identify reports required e) develop a change request form

Q: Which of the following is not true regarding meetings? a) A written agenda should be distributed in advance of the meeting. b) The agenda should announce pre-set starting and stopping times. c) It is appropriate to be flexible and extend a meeting's stopping time if issues come up that were not on the agenda. d) Don"t penalize those who show up on time by making them wait for those who are late. e) All of the above are true.

Q: The most common source of changes to a project based on the natural tendency of the client and project team members to improve the project's output is called... a) scope creep b) projectitis c) multitasking d) dynamic scoping e) unfreezing

Q: Which of the following is not a tool used to aid the PM in project control? a) variance analysis b) trend projections c) earned value analysis d) control charts e) discounted cash flow analysis

Q: Which of the following is not a component of a control system? a) effector b) sensor c) decision maker d) leveler e) standard

Q: Which of the following is not a primary mechanism by which the PM exerts control? a) reviews b) personnel assignments c) audit reports d) resource allocation e) all of the above are mechanisms by which the PM exerts control

Q: In earned value analysis... a) it is desirable to have negative variances for both schedule and spending. b) it is desirable to have positive variances for both schedule and spending. c) the schedule variance should be positive and the spending variance negative. d) the schedule variance should be negative and the spending variance positive. e) ideally both variances would equal zero.

Q: Estimated (remaining cost) to completion (ETC) is calculated as...a) (BAC - EV)/CPIb) (BAC - EV)/SPIc) (BAC + EV)/CPId) (BAC + EV)/SPIe) (BAC - AC)/CPI

Q: The cost/spending variance is calculated as... a) AC - EV b) EV- PV c) PV - EV d) AC - PV e) EV - AC

Q: Which of the following was not listed in the text as a convention for estimating task progress? a) 50% when task is started and another 50% when it is completed b) 100 percent when task is completed and 0% before that c) using the ratio of cost expended to total cost budgeted d) using the ratio of time expended to the total time scheduled e) all of the above were mentioned

Q: Which of the following is not a distinct type of report? a) exception b) special analysis c) critical incident d) routine e) all of the above are distinct types of reports

Q: Which of the following is most closely associated with ordinal rankings? a) frequency counts b) raw numbers c) indicators d) subjective numeric rankings e) surrogates

Q: Which of the following is used when it is especially difficult to find a direct measure of a variable? a) frequency count b) raw numbers c) surrogates d) subjective numeric ratings e) verbal characterizations

Q: The plan-monitor-control cycle is best described as... a) an open loop process b) a closed-loop process c) an ad-hoc process d) an informal process e) a hierarchical process

Q: Which of the following is not an objective mentioned in the text for data gathered from monitoring? a) promoting team members b) keeping management informed c) auditing d) learning from mistakes e) control

Q: The go/no-go control takes the form of tests (sensors) to determine if some specific precondition (standard and comparator) has been met before permission is granted to continue (decision maker and effector).

Q: Control systems that make use of all five components of project control are called cybernetic control systems.

Q: The 50-50 approach for estimating progress overstates the EV of tasks that are near completion and understates the EV of tasks that have recently begun.

Q: Earned value (EV) of a task is the budgeted cost of the work actually performed.

Q: Earned Value is a measure of overall project progress in terms of performance, budget, and schedule.

Q: Monitoring is the direct connection between project planning and control.

Q: The key to setting up a monitoring system is to identify the special characteristics of scope, cost and time that need to be controlled in order to achieve the project goals.

Q: The percentage of an activity's budget actually spent by a given date is typically a good indicator of the percent of that activity's completion.

Q: According to the text, there is no satisfactory way to measure accurately the percent of completion of most tasks.

Q: Lower expenditures than expected at a given point in time is always good.

Q: Earned value is a measure for overall project progress in terms of performance, budget and schedule.

Q: To maximize efficiency, project team meetings should follow Robert's Rules of Order.

Q: Remarks should be directly attributed to individuals in the meeting minutes.

Q: Weekly progress report meetings should be rarely held.

Q: Project review meetings are always important.

Q: Exception reports are primarily intended for unexpected situations.

Q: Exception reports are prepared to disseminate the results of a special study.

Q: An overload of reporting is just as dangerous as underreporting.

Q: In general, it is preferable to have periodic reports.

Q: Everyone associated with the project should receive the same information.

Q: Frequent blame is considered a good motivational tool to keep project team members on track.

Q: An important use of data analysis is to identify who to properly blame for poor project performance.

Q: Statistical quality control techniques can be helpful for determining what size variances are significant.

Q: Raw numbers represent a simple tally of the occurrence of an event.

Q: A common mistake is to focus too much on results and not enough on the intensity of activity.

Q: Too often, intensity of activity is measured instead of results.

Q: One way of linking planning and control is to monitor project progress on the MSP Gantt chart.

Q: Mechanisms to gather and store data rarely need to be designed.

Q: In order to manage for overall project success, control must be exercised at the detailed work level for each aspect of project performance.

Q: In order to manage for overall project success, control should be exercised at a very high and aggregated level and not get bogged down with unnecessary details.

Q: It is often the case with particularly challenging or uncertain projects that the planning-monitoring-controlling effort is minimized so that the "real work" can be done.

Q: The plan-monitor-control cycle constitutes a "closed loop" process.

Q: The most important use of data gathered from monitoring is control.

Q: The most important use of data gathered from monitoring is learning from mistakes.

Q: The purpose of control is to ensure that all interested parties have the information they need.

Q: Control is the collection, recording, and reporting of project information.

Q: Project monitoring and control can be thought of as opposite sides of project selection and planning.

Q: A project that must be completed with in the specified performance requirements is considered... a) time constrained b) schedule constrained c) resource constrained d) performance constrained e) critically constrained

Q: All of the following are criteria available to help choose the priority rule mentioned in the textbook except; a) Schedule slippage b) Project cost c) resource utilization d) in-process inventory

Q: To crash a project, which of the following principles apply? 1) Focus on the critical path(s) when trying to shorten the duration of a project, 2) Select the least expensive way to do it 3) Crash non-critical activities a) All three are correct b) Only 1 and 3 are correct c) Only 1 and 2 are correct d) Only 1 is correct

Q: The safety time added to chains other than the critical chain is called... a) feeding buffer b) project buffer c) path buffer d) critical buffer e) team buffer

Q: The practice of assigning project team members to multiple projects is called... a) concurrent engineering b) parallel activities c) fast-tracking d) project crashing e) multitasking

Q: According to research, the best overall priority rule is... a) as soon as possible b) as late as possible c) shortest task duration first d) minimum slack first e) most critical successor

Q: Which of the following is a measure of the amount by which a project is delayed by application of a leveling rule? a) schedule inflation b) schedule progression c) schedule efficacy d) schedule efficiency e) schedule slippage

Q: Which of the following is not commonly used to help select a priority rule? a) schedule slippage b) resource utilization c) in-process inventory d) cost overruns e) all of the above are used

Q: Which of the following is not considered a resource? a) Money b) People c) Equipment d) Material e) None of the above

Q: Which of the following rules maximizes the number of tasks that can be completed by a system in a given period of time? a) as soon as possible b) as late as possible c) shortest task duration first d) minimum slack first e) most critical successor

Q: Which of the following priority rules makes resources available so that activities start on their LSTs whenever possible without increasing the project's duration? a) as soon as possible b) as late as possible c) shortest task duration first d) minimum slack first e) most critical successor

Q: Starting the building phase before the design and planning phases is called... a) operations overlapping b) concurrent engineering c) fast-tracking d) concurrent construction e) construction overlapping

Q: Crashing refers to... a) expediting the project so as to minimizing the total cost of completing the project. b) expediting the project so as to minimizing the number of activities in the project c) expediting the project so as to completing the project by a specified time. d) all of the above e) none of the above.

Q: A task has a normal duration of 9 days and a crash duration of 7 days. Its normal cost is $40 and its crash cost is $100. What is the crash cost per day? a) $140 b) $70 c) $50 d) $40 e) $30

Q: The task duration with standard-practice resource usage is referred to as the... a) expected task duration b) nominal task duration c) crash duration d) normal task duration e) planned task duration

Q: A project that must be completed by a specific time is considered... a) time constrained b) schedule constrained c) resource constrained d) performance constrained e) critically constrained

Q: The primary cause of concern in resource allocation is... a) labor cost b) resource scarcity c) lack of solution methodologies d) parallel activities e) equipment downtime

Q: Allocating specific, limited resources to specific activities is called... a) resource allocation b) resource leveling c) resource tracking d) expediting a project e) crashing a project

Q: According to research minimum slack rule is the overall best priority rule.

Q: Activities that have duration but do not require resources are referred to as pseudoactivities.