Exam 2 Project Management

What is the relationship between organizational culture and estimating?

Cultural norms affect the accuracy of estimates.

The process of forecasting or approximating the time and cost of completing project deliverables is called

estimating.

A home builder is collecting estimates for a house that he will have the funding to build in 12 months. Which of the following factors does he need to consider in regard to the quality of these estimates?

Planning horizon

The estimating factor that considers the tendency to overestimate project time and cost in order to improve the likelihood of meeting the estimates is known as the ________ factor.

padding estimates

A project manager is looking over the actual results of projects and comparing them to what was estimated. She notices that the projects that took six months or longer to complete were noticeably more off the estimates. Which of the following factors is she recognizing?

Planning horizon

A good starting point for developing time and cost estimates is

past experience.

Which of the following is NOT one of the recommended guidelines for developing useful work package estimates?

Which of the following is NOT one of the recommended guidelines for developing useful work package estimates?

The bottom-up approach for estimating times and costs that uses costs from past projects that were similar to the current project is known as

template method.

Which of the following is NOT true in regard to the level of detail estimates should contain?

Detailed estimates are crucial to project success; therefore, an effort should be made to make estimates as detailed as possible for all projects.

Which of the following top-down methods is used when projects closely follow past projects in regard to features and costs of those features, and result in costs being assigned by percentages to major segments of the project?

Apportion

Which of the following does NOT help describe a bottom-up estimating approach?

They are made by someone who uses experience and/or information from someone else to determine overall project cost and duration.

Top-down methods are used for all but which of the following intended usages?

Budgeting and scheduling

When someone uses experience and/or information from others to determine the project duration and total cost, ________ estimating is being used.

top-down

In practice, estimating processes are frequently classified as

top down or bottom up.

The information necessary to conduct a bottom-up estimate of project time and cost starts with the ________.

work package

Typical kinds of costs found in a project include all of the following EXCEPT

All of these are examples of costs found in a project.

The salary of the project manager would be an example of what type of cost found in a project?

Direct project overhead

Which of the following would best represent direct project costs?

Labor, materials and equipment

Costs that are not directly related to a specific project, such as advertising, accounting, and senior management's salary, are classified as ________ costs.

general and administrative overhead

Refining Estimates may be necessary for a number of reasons. For example, a manager getting further into a project and obtaining a better understanding of what needs to be done to accomplish a project and meet the needs of the customer is an example of

changes in project scope.

The estimating factor that considers the decreasing accuracy of estimates as one forecasts activities that are further into the future is known as ________.

planning horizon

A project leader is forecasting how much money his department needs to support a new project. He estimates that two people and $25,000 in expenses will cover his needs. Because management typically insists on reducing forecasts by 20 percent, he increases his estimates to allow for that reduction. Which of the following factors is illustrated in this situation?

Padding estimates

The estimating factor that considers the skill level of participants doing the estimating is known as the ________ factor.

people

A construction estimator is forecasting project time and cost for constructing a new building by multiplying the total square footage by a given dollar amount. Which of the following methods is he using?

Ratio

The preferred method for situations where the cost and time estimates are important, in a fixed contract situation, and when the customer wants a lot of detail is the ________ approach to estimating project time and costs.

bottom-up

A scrum master is responsible for estimating a work package that has a significant amount of uncertainty associated with the time and cost to complete. Due to the uncertainty involved he will be making a low, an average and a high estimate. He is using which estimating approach?

Range estimating

Project costs such as labor and materials are typically classified as ________ costs.

direct

The salary of the project manager and temporary rental space for the project team would be classified as ________ costs.

direct project overhead

Refining estimates may be necessary for a number of reasons. For example, people working on prototype development needing time to interact with the design engineers after the design is completed is a good example of

hidden interaction costs.

A project network provides the basis for

scheduling labor and equipment.

When translated into a project network, a work package will become

one or more activities

Information to develop a project network is collected from the

work breakdown structure

A sequence of connected, dependent activities is termed a(n)

path

A(n) _________ activity has more than one successor activity.

burst

Activities which can take place at the same time are termed

parallel activity.

In a project network, recycling through a set of activities or ________ is not permitted.

looping

If a project has more than one activity that can begin when the project is to start, a common start node should be used to indicate a clear project beginning on the network. Without a common start node, each path is a

dangler path.

A ________ activity is one that has more than one activity immediately preceding it.

merge

Which of the following will correctly calculate the total slack in an activity?

Either LS − ES or LF − EF

A(n) ________ calculates project duration.

forward pass

For any activity that has one or more predecessors, the ________ time is always the largest early finish of any of its predecessors. If the early finish times of an activity’s predecessors were 85, 70 and 55, then this time would be the largest of these three early finish times or 85.

early start

The ________ calculates the critical path and determines how long an activity can be delayed without delaying the project.

backward pass

Which of the following correctly calculates the late start for an activity?

LF − DUR

A(n) ________ calculates how late an activity can start and finish.

backward pass

The likelihood the original critical path(s) will change once the project is initiated is referred to as

The likelihood the original critical path(s) will change once the project is initiated is referred to as

A network has only one critical path and the slack for noncritical activities is high. This network would appear to have a ________ level of sensitivity

low

The delaying of any activity on the ________ will delay the completion of the project by the same amount.

critical path

________ slack must be coordinated with all participants in the activities that follow in the chain.

total

The amount of time an activity can be delayed and yet not delay the project is termed

total slack

Which of the following is provided by both the project network and the work breakdown structure?

Activity duration

On a project network, the activity times are derived from the

work packages.

________ activities are to be completed immediately following a particular activity.

Successor

Activities that must immediately follow a given activity are called ________ activities.

successor

An activity that has more than one predecessor is a ________ activity.

merge

Activities that must occur immediately before a given activity are called ________ activities.

predecessor

Which of the following is NOT one of the basic rules to follow when developing project networks?

Conditional statements are allowed but looping statements are not allowed.

The activity time estimates used to build a project network are derived from ________.

work packages

An activity has a duration of 10 days. Its early start is 5 and its late start is 8. This activity has ________ days of total slack.

3

The backward pass in project network calculations determines all of the following EXCEPT

earliest time an activity can finish.

After the total slack for each activity is identified, the project manager can more easily identify the

critical path.

________ reflects the likelihood the original critical path(s) will change once the project is initiated.

Sensitivity

A purchasing agent is responsible for ordering hardware for a custom home his company is building. The contractor installing the hardware is scheduled to start in 5 working days, but the hardware is on backorder and will not arrive for another 9 working days. Fortunately, the purchasing agent has 10 days of slack; however, he shares this slack with the hardware installer. He will have to let the contractor know that the hardware will be ready 4 days later than expected and that the slack for the installer has been reduced by 4 days. The purchasing agent and the installer share 10 days of

total slack

An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on project objectives is termed a

risk

The likelihood of a risk occurring ________ as a project goes through its life cycle.

decreases

The chances of a risk event occurring as a project proceeds through its life cycle tend to

slowly drop

An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on project objectives is known as a ________.

risk

One common mistake made early in the risk identification process is to

focus on consequences and not on the events that could produce consequences.

What is the risk value of a risk whose impact score is 5, whose probability score is 5 and whose detection score is 1?

25

The ________ matrix is divided into red, yellow, and green zones representing major, moderate, and minor risks.

risk severity

Risks are evaluated in terms of

likelihood and impact

The risk assessment form contains all of the following EXCEPT

who will detect the occurrence of the risk event.

When considering risk response development, changing the plan to eliminate the risk or condition is known as ________ the risk.

avoiding

Performance bonds, warranties, and insurance are examples of ________ a risk.

transferring

Flooding would be devastating to the project; however, it is very unlikely. The project manager is most likely to ________ this risk.

retain

When considering risk response development, reducing the likelihood that an event will occur and/or reducing the impact that an adverse event would have on a project is known as ________ the risk.

mitigating

A fixed price contract is an example of

transferring risk

Which of the following risks are likely to be retained?

Risks of low likelihood

Risks that can result in a system or process that will not work are known as

technical risks

A Risk Response Matrix contains all of the following EXCEPT

when the risk will occur

A key distinction between a risk response and a contingency plan is

a risk response is part of the actual implementation plan and action is taken before the risk can materialize, while a contingency plan goes into effect only after the risk has transpired.

Just as contingency funds are established to absorb unplanned costs, managers use ________ to cushion against potential delays.?

Time buffers

Funds that are for identified risks that have a low probability of occurring and that decrease as the project progresses are called ________ reserves.

cotingency

When developing project networks, which of the following is not a reason for delineating technical dependencies first before doing resource dependencies?

All of these alternatives are reasons for delineating technical dependencies first before doing resource dependencies.

Resources are adequate, but demand varies widely over the life of the project. Delaying noncritical activities to lower peak demand on resources is known as resource

smoothing.

When developing a new software package, logically, the software must be designed before the code is written, and the code must be written before it is tested. These activities are dependent on each other by ________ constraints.

technical

When considering the sequence and timing of activities, which of the following is NOT one of the types of project network constraints?

time

A(n) ________ constraint addresses the sequence in which project activities must occur even after considering resource constraints.

technical or logic

If three copiers are needed to produce a final report on time and only two are available, the project is facing a(n) ________ type of resource constraint.

equipment

A project engineer has been scheduled to run the product system test at the same time as building a marketing prototype. This is an example of what type of resource constraint?

People

A special truck that is needed on the project has been assigned to another project. This is an example of what type of resource constraint?

Equipment

In order that the new product is on the shelf for the Christmas buying season, the development of the new product would be classified as a(n) ________ -constrained project.

time

A project scheduler is trying to reallocate resources in a time-constrained project to create smoother resource utilization. The scheduler should first identify activities with the

most slack

A project scheduler is trying to reallocate resources in a time-constrained project to create smoother resource utilization. The scheduler should first identify activities with the

a longer project duration.

After resource leveling or smoothing, one goal is that the amount of resources needed over the life of the project will be ________.

reduced

In a resource-constrained project the second priority in assigning resources is usually given to activities with the

smallest duration

In scheduling resource-constrained projects, ________ are typically used rather than optimum mathematical solutions.

heuristics

When a project is classified as resource-constrained, a resource constraint exists, and positive slack is insufficient, then the project duration is typically ________.

extended

When scheduling activities in a resource-constrained project, typically the activity scheduled first has the ________ amount of slack.

least

All resource leveling techniques involve

delaying noncritical activities.

While balancing assignments, a project manager must also balance:

Talent development.