ETM PM Final questions and answers + rationales for student success

A form of matrix organization in which the functional manager and project manager have equal amounts of power is called a weak matrix.

T or F

False

The work component at the lowest level of the WBS for which cost and duration can be estimated and managed is called the ______:

a. control account

b. work package

c. work element

d. activity

B: work package

You are the project manager on a project that has a CPI of 0.92. What do you know?

A:The project is current 8% behind schedule.

B: When the project is delivering 92% of the work product.

C: The project will end up being 92% over budget.

D: The project is currently 8% over budget.

D: The project is currently 8% over budget.

Project managers and teams should consider risks and include them in the project charter for all the following reasons EXCEPT:

a. a positive risk is an opportunity to complete the project better, faster, and/or at lower cost or to capitalize upon the project in additional ways.

b. any negative risk that is a threat that may inhibit successful project completion needs to be identified.

c. sometimes there is more risk to the organization if the project is not undertaken, and this provides additional rationale for doing the project.

d. all project risks should be eliminated before the project charter is signed.

d. all project risks should be eliminated before the project charter is signed.

What is the project duration for a project with the following tasks, durations and predecessor relationships: A, 15, N/A; B, 7, A; C, 12, A; D, 9, A; E, 5, B; F, 8, C; G, 14, D; H, 6, F; I, 13, E; J, 14, I; K, 12, H; L, 15, G; M, 9, (J, K, L);

A:59

B:63

C:67

D:61

B:63

All of the following accurately describe earned value management EXCEPT:

a. It is used to make predictions concerning the project schedule and cost control until the project's conclusion.

b. It enables a project team to understand progress in terms of both cost and schedule.

c. It is used as a decision-making tool.

d. It is good for performance reporting but not for forecasting

d. It is good for performance reporting but not for forecasting

A charter can be used to quickly screen out obviously poor projects.

T or F

True

Kevin is a full-time project manager within his organization who is struggling. He gets some administrative support, but really has to fight to get any time from his resources because of his low level of authority. In what type of organization does Kevin work?

A:Weak matrix

B: Balanced matrix

C:Strong matrix

D: Projectized

B: Balanced matrix

Which of the following statements correctly describes project management?

a. Project management uses knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to meet stakeholder needs and expectations

b. Project management should not involve tradeoffs between scope, schedule and cost.

c. Project management only relies upon checklists to plan and execute the work.

d. Project management's goal is to maintain efficiency of ongoing operations.

a. Project management uses knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to meet stakeholder needs and expectations

Joseph Juran provided guidance regarding how to conduct quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. Which of the following items is NOT part of Juran's Quality Trilogy?

a. determine what to control, establish measurement systems, establish standards and compare performance to standards.

b. identify all customers and their needs, develop requirements, and develop methods to satisfy those requirements.

c. select and support improvement projects, select and implement solutions, and maintain control of improved processes.

d. work to identify root causes, not just symptoms

d. work to identify root causes, not just symptoms

Which of the following styles of handling conflict is most appropriate whenever there is enough time, trust can be established, the issue is important to both sides and buy-in is needed?

a. compromising

b. collaborating / problem solving

c. smoothing / accommodating

d. forcing / competing

b. collaborating / problem solving

A study of 25 organizational quality policies in 2017 found some interesting patterns, with the most frequent terms being customers, improving processes, and exceeding requirements.

T or F

False

A project coordinator is concerned about the amount of work it will take to communicate with all the stakeholders. The organization employs more than 30,000 people in 12 different locations. Her project team is a strong matrix organization. In general, what can she expect the communication to be?

A: Complex

B: Simple

C: More structured

D: Hard to automate

A: Complex

Leadership within a project team should be consistently demonstrated only by the project manager.

T or F

False

A key concept in agile projects is that something of value will be delivered at each iteration.

T or F

True

Information is power. Withholding or distorting project information is a viable and potentially useful approach to increase power for the project manager.

T or F

False

On Monday morning your boss comes into your office and asks about the amount of slack you have on a specific activity in your project. This is determined by:

A: Performing a PERT analysis.

B: Estimating the task or activity length.

C: Creating a PDM diagram.

D: Determining the total amount of time that a schedule activity may be delayed without impacting the project delivery.

D: Determining the total amount of time that a schedule activity may be delayed without impacting the project delivery.

You are the Manager of Operations for a major gizmo manufacturer. You are currently leading an effort to deploy the new assembly line for the SuperX Gizmo. Is this a project or an operation?

a.Project

b.Operation

a.Project

A project manager is discussing her project with her boss. They are concerned the project might be falling behind schedule and decide they must determine its likely completion date and where any flexibility exists. Which of the following tools would best provide this information?

A: AOA

B: PDM

C: CPM

D: Network Diagramming

C: CPM

The scope overview and business case sections of the project charter provide the high-level "what and where" of the project.

T or F

False

A background statement is often added to a project charter to help stakeholders better understand the rationale and purpose behind the scope overview and business case.

T or F

True

The first process in developing a project schedule is to identify all the resources available to work on the project.

T or F

False

A freelance project manager is brought in by Company X to lead a large, expensive project. This project manager has excellent leadership skills and a strong technical understanding of the project. In order for her to optimize every component of the Talent Triangle, what might be a good activity for the project manager at the start of her time with Company X?

A.attend a seminar on advanced leadership techniques

B.send an email including her résumé to all SMEs to ensure they are aware of her technical background

C.host an icebreaker for all team members

D.familiarize herself with the long-term objectives of Company X

D. familiarize herself with the long-term objectives of Company X

Your manager comes to you and demands that you complete your project three (3) weeks early. What is the best thing to do?

A: Meet with your project team to examine alternatives for crashing and fast tracking.

B: Tell your boss the project critical path does not allow for a three week early completion

C: Ask the project to work overtime

D: Ask your manager if you can

A: Meet with your project team to examine alternatives for crashing and fast tracking.

A common tool project teams use is a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM). Typically, this chart will depict:

a. the duration of each activity.

b. all the work packages and the resources assigned for various responsibilities regarding each work package.

c. the early start and early finish, and late start and late finish, of each schedule activity.

d. the hierarchical organizational reporting structure.

b. all the work packages and the resources assigned for various responsibilities regarding each work package.

All of the following elements should be included in a project scope statement EXCEPT:

a. final and intermediate deliverables with acceptance criteria

b. project boundaries or exclusions

c. names of the project team members

d. constraints imposed on the project, and assumptions made during planning

c. names of the project team members

Which of the following is not a factor in the development of organizational culture and style?

A: Shared values, norms or beliefs

B: Technical certifications

C: Policies and procedures

D: View of authority relationships

B: Technical certifications

All of the following are among the steps of the negotiation process EXCEPT:

a. work toward a common goal

b. clarify both parties' interests

c. use "good cop / bad cop" technique

d. clarify and confirm agreements

c. use "good cop / bad cop" technique

You are a program manager for a large conglomerate responsible for the Wonder G program. You use Earned Value reporting to give senior management an accurate picture and are currently producing 1,000 units per day. Is this a project or an operation>

a.Project

b.Operation

B: Operation

Jane is a project manager and has been asked to reanalyze her project to predict project duration. Within her company, she is required to analyze the sequence of activities with the least amount of scheduling flexibility. What technique does Jane's company use?

A: Precedence diagramming

B: Flowcharting

C: Critical path method

D: Critical Chain method

C: Critical path method

The project life cycle where project teams plan in short bursts (generally of one to four weeks), often called sprints or iterations, is referred to as _________:

a. Predictive, plan-driven project life cycle

b. Adaptive, change-driven project life cycle

c. Process improvement life cycle

d. Construction project life cycle

b. Adaptive, change-driven project life cycle

The primary output of the "Identify Stakeholders" process is the project communications plan.

T or F

False

Consider the Research Project depicted in Figure 7-2. Based on the information provided, what is the slack associated with activity C - "Review Reports"?

a. 1 day

b. 0 days

c. 4 days

d. 2 days

D: 2 days

All of the following may be negotiated between a client company and a contractor EXCEPT:

a. quality standards

b. personnel assignments

c. selection criteria for scoring models

d. the amount of money to be paid.

c. selection criteria for scoring models

Normal or random variations that are considered part of operating the system at its current capability are ______:

a. special cause variations.

b. common cause variations.

c. systemic variations.

d. life cycle variations

b. common cause variations.

One useful method of process improvement involves consideration of how another organization performs a process, identifying and analyzing best practices for improvement ideas. This method is known as:

a. root cause analysis

b. benchmarking

c. voice of the customer

d. comparative improvement

b. benchmarking

In Agile projects early risk planning, assessment and response planning is done at a high level, and more detailed and timely risk management occurs during the planning of each subsequent iteration, in daily stand-up meetings, and in retrospectives at the end of each iteration.

T or F

True

You have a resource on a project you are leading that is not performing well because she lacks the specific experience to perform the required work. Unfortunately, you do not have another resource that is better qualified. What is the best solution for this situation?

A: Provide the resource with greater time reserves to complete the work.

B: Hire a new resource to complete the work.

C: Go to the resource's functional manager to determine how to best motivate the resource.

D: Arrange for the team member to obtain the necessary training to perform the task.

D: Arrange for the team member to obtain the necessary training to perform the task.

Which of the following is not a key common element of understanding the project environment?

a.The international and political environment

b.The outside environment

c.The cultural and social environment

d.The physical environment

b. The outside environment

W. Edwards Deming asserted that managers need to understand both serial variation and sequential variation and then work to reduce both.

T or F

False

Which of these represents a typical problem that can make it difficult to estimate activity durations accurately?

a. reducing sources of uncertainty in the estimate

b. carefully authorizing the start of non-critical activities

c. merging - multiple predecessors

d. checklists and templates

c. merging - multiple predecessors

A project manager's referent power is described as persuading others based upon giving them something.

T or F

False

Which of the following is an advantage associated with the matrix organization?

a. Increased knowledge transfer between projects.

b. Hard to monitor and control.

c. Unity of command - one "boss" for each employee.

d. Shorter response times and quicker decisions.

a. Increased knowledge transfer between projects.

DMAIC is typically used as a method of implementing continuous improvement and can thus be practiced repeatedly.

T or F

True

The project scope refers to the features and functions of a project outcome such as a product, and, in some cases, service or result.

T or F

False

A document used to manage points of discussion or dispute that arise during projects, in order to monitor them and ensure that they are resolved and add them to lessons learned, is called a(n) _____:

A. Risk register

B. Issue log

C. SWOT analysis

D. Stakeholder register

B. Issue log

Work Breakdown Structures can be displayed in a variety of formats including which of the following?

a. an inverted pyramid

b. a sequential process diagram

c. fishbone or cause and effect diagram

d. an indented outline format

d. an indented outline format

You are in the process of establishing the cost performance measurement system you will be using for a software development project. Which of the following methods would be best?

A: Ask each resource for a percent of the deliverables that are complete and forecast future performance.

B: Use the physical percent complete of the work product to calculate earned value and then forecast future performance.

C: Use a 0% / 100% rule of reporting deliverable completeness and forecast future performance.

D: Focus on the amount of money budgeted

B: Use the physical percent complete of the work product to calculate earned value and then forecast future performance.

Constraints identified in the project charter are uncertain situations that could negatively or positively affect the project if they occur.

T or F

False

Estimate Activity Resources is the process of assessing all types of resources - people, materials, tools, and equipment (along with quantities) - required for each activity to complete it as specified in project scope.

T or F

True

Which of the following roles and attributes do NOT describe the core team members on a project?

a. Core team members often make project decisions jointly with the project manager.

b. Core team members join the project on a temporary basis to perform specific project activities as necessary.

c. Core team members are the small group of people who are usually on the project from start to finish.

d. Core team members may supervise the work of subject matter experts who are brought in on an as-needed basis.

b. Core team members join the project on a temporary basis to perform specific project activities as necessary.

Many different project life cycle models are used for different types of projects, such as information systems, improvement, research and development, and construction.

T or F

True

A project manager needs to be concerned with achieving desired scope and quality (often called performance), subject to constraints of time and cost.

T or F

True

You are leading a large IT project that is nearing completion. Your sponsor requests a change to the project that would increase the project risk. What should you do first?

a. Analyze the impacts of making the change with the project team

b. Calculated the cost of the risk and create a new cost estimate

c. Gain an understanding of why the sponsor wants the change

d. Update the risk list

a. Analyze the impacts of making the change with the project team

What information does the project charter contain that signifies how the customer or user of the final product, service or result will judge the deliverables, in order to determine that they have been completed satisfactorily?

A. high level project boundaries

B. high-level project risks

C. Project assumptions

D. measurable objectives and acceptance criteria

D. measurable objectives and acceptance criteria

A project resource complains to another team member that they are frustrated because the number of tasks they have to do on different projects and the number of people telling him what to do first. If he worked in a functional organization who would have the power to tell him what to do?

A: His project manager

B: The project sponsor

C: His functional manager

D: All of the above

C: His functional manager

Some projects are considered successful if they reap business benefits like increased profitability, even if completed late or over budget.

T or F

True

Which of these is NOT one of the capabilities that will help project team members develop team synergy?

a. activity-specific knowledge and skills

b. personal learning

c. insensitivity towards others

d. organizational understanding

c. insensitivity towards others

GANTT refers to the Generalized Activity Network Tracking Technique which was developed to better understand how variability in the duration of individual activities impacts the expected project duration.

T or F

False

Project teams can often identify risks by conducting any of several types of reviews. Which of the following illustrates a valuable type of risk review?

a. review the communication plan to determine where poor communications could cause a problem

b. review sunk costs to determine project continuance

c. review the project schedule to determine if certain people are overloaded

d. review previous projects to verify that each current assumption is correct

a. review the communication plan to determine where poor communications could cause a problem

All of these describe contemporary methods of risk prioritization in project management EXCEPT:

a. Risk prioritization is generally based on the probability of occurrence and severity of impact of each identified risk.

b. Some organizations place a higher priority on risks that are likely to happen soon.

c. Some organizations call attention to the risks that are difficult to detect.

d. Results of quantitative risk analysis are used for clarification purposes and are typically not documented in the risk register.

d. Results of quantitative risk analysis are used for clarification purposes and are typically not documented in the risk register.

The primary questions project teams use in qualitative risk analysis are "how likely is this risk to happen?", and "if it does happen, how big will the impact be?"

T or F

True

A project manager takes a new job with a new organization. He has little experience and will be working in a matrix organization. Based upon his situation he should expect communication with his stakeholders to be:

A: Complex

B: Formal and written

C: Formal and verbal

D: Informal and written

A: Complex

Stakeholders include all of the following people EXCEPT:

a. those who work on the project

b. those whose routines may be disrupted by the project

c. those who provide people or resources for the project

d. those who will not be impacted by the project

d. those who will not be impacted by the project

A successor activity is the schedule activity that follows a predecessor activity, as determined by their logical relationship.

T or F

True

When would a predictive project life cycle be the preferred approach?

A. When the environment is changing rapidly .

B. When the product to be delivered is well understood

C. When the product will be created through a series of repeated cycles

D. When the high-level vision has been developed, but the product scope is not well defined.

B. When the product to be delivered is well understood

A key process topic that should be part of early discussions regarding ground rules is appropriate decision making and problem solving, ensuring that the project manager and core team understand who makes each type of decision and how those decisions are made.

T or F

True

While a "RACI" chart may be very useful for assigning activities to core team members and project managers, it should not include the subject matter experts assigned to the project.

T or F

False

Portfolio management helps an organization achieve its strategic goals in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

a. selecting the right projects

b. prioritizing work to be done

c. managing ongoing projects

d. providing needed resources

c. managing ongoing projects

In what type of organization is the functional manager likely to maintain project budget control?

A: Weak matrix

B: Balanced matrix

C: Strong matrix

D: Projectized

A: Weak matrix

Project stakeholders can be prioritized based upon their level of power, legitimacy and urgency plus a number of additional criteria that might include:

a. tenure

b. personality

c. fame

d. impact

d. impact

The "act" part of the PDCA cycle for project meetings is:

a. perform in-between meeting tasks

b. evaluate the meeting

c. prepare an advanced agenda to guide the meeting

d. conduct the meeting and write meeting minutes

a. perform in-between meeting tasks

This document summarizes why the project is important by describing the benefits of a selected component, and is used as a basis for authorizing further project management activities:

a. SWOT analysis

b. business case

c. program management plan

d. guiding principle

b. business case

Stakeholders can be classified as internal to, or external to the organization. Examples of external stakeholders include government agencies and professional groups.

T or F

True

Which of the ten knowledge areas defined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully?

a. Communications management

b. Stakeholder management

c. Scope management

d. Quality management

c. Scope management

Frequently, project managers lack legitimate power based upon position and instead resort to persuading others based upon personal relationships. This type of power is known as:

a. positional power

b. coercive power

c. connection power

d. referent power

d. referent power

During project charter creation there is typically a very general understanding of the project, so any budget included is approximate and should be called a preliminary budget with a corresponding confidence level for this estimate.

T or F

True

Common purposes for project communications include status reporting and efforts to obtain approval of project outputs.

T or F

True

What is the variance of a project that has a best case estimate of 36, most likely case estimate of 41, and a worst case estimate of 54?

A: 9.00

B: 9.29

C: 3.00

D: 42.33

A: 9.00

Plan scope management is the process of creating a project scope statement.

T or F

False

When constructing a responsibility matrix or "RACI" chart, it is important to ensure that only one person has primary accountability for any activity.

T or F

True

The standard approach to making decisions on a project is to clearly and consistently vest decision making authority in the sponsor and project manager.

T or F

False

The final item to be recorded on the project meeting minutes is an evaluation of both good and poor points from the meeting. On agile projects, this evaluation is called the ____:

a. retrospective

b. stakeholder analysis

c. lessons learned

d. plus-delta process

a. retrospective

What is the variance of a project that has a best case estimate of 6, most likely case estimate of 7, and a worst case estimate of 10?

A: 2.08

B: 0.44

C: 0.67

D: 7.33

B: 0.44

A project manager comments to their spouse about how frustrated they are at work. Everyone is telling their resources what to do. In a projectized firm who can formally direct project resources?

A: The senior manger

B: The functional manager

C: The project manager

D: All of the above

C: The project manager

A project is a time-bound effort constrained by performance specifications, resources, and budget to create a unique product or service.

T or F

True

In a projectized organization most people are assigned to a project and report upward through the project manager.

T or F

True

You have an activity that has an ES of 12 weeks, a LS of 15 weeks, an EF of 21 weeks, and a LF of 24 weeks. What do you know about this activity?

A: It is ahead of schedule

B: It is not on the critical path

C: It is behind schedule

D: It is on the critical path

D: It is on the critical path

Which of the following is part of the Project Management Body of Knowledge?

a. Project life cycle definition

b. Five project management process groups

c. Ten knowledge areas

d. All of the above

d. All of the above

It is argued that project teams progress through five stages of team development. Which of the following sequences best represents this progression?

a. forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning

b. forming, norming, storming, performing, reforming

c. forming, performing, reforming, norming, adjourning

d. forming, storming, norming, performing, reforming

a. forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning

Stephanie is managing a new automobile development project for her organization. It is a large project requiring resources from several locations and its success is critical for the company. What is the most desirable level of engagement for all Stephanie's major project stakeholders?

a. Neutral stakeholders

b. Resistance stakeholders

c. Supportive stakeholders

d. Leading stakeholders

c. Supportive stakeholders

Which of these is NOT among the common task-related sources of project conflict?

a. schedule

b. technical approach

c. personalities

d. priorities

c. personalities

A WBS dictionary is a document that defines each of the terms used in the project scope statement.

T or F

False

While the manage communications process is underway, effective information distribution often requires the project manager and team to accomplish all of the following activities EXCEPT:

a. determine any information needs not already uncovered

b. report progress to all stakeholders

c. develop responses to identifies risks

d. collect information on executed work and work in progress

c. develop responses to identifies risks

Some scope changes start as proposed changes to cost or schedule, just as some changes to cost or schedule start as proposed scope changes.

T or F

True

In order for activities to be useful as schedule building blocks, they should have tangible output that can be verified.

T or F

True

Consider the System Integration Project depicted in Figure 7-3. Based on the information provided, how many days can you delay the purchase of software (Activity C), without impacting the expected project completion date?

a. 4 days

b. 0 days

c. 2 days

d. 1 day

d. 1 day

Which of the following is a disadvantage associated with managing projects in a projectized organization?

a. Team members have difficulty focusing on project issues.

b. Traditional department barriers are reduced.

c. Team members assigned to a project are often underutilized and have idle time.

d. Response times and decision making are slow.

c. Team members assigned to a project are often underutilized and have idle time.

In order to plan for a project meeting, project managers should develop an agenda. Which of the statements below is NOT accurate with respect to a project meeting agenda?

a. the agenda should list the major topics of the meeting in the order in which they will be covered.

b. the project manager should assure the agenda is prepared and distributed ahead of time.

c. the agenda should state the purpose of the meeting.

d. the agenda should only be shared with senior management.

d. the agenda should only be shared with senior management.

The priority of the product in agile is more significant than in traditional project management, as the outcome, or product, will drive the elaboration of the project.

True