The most important use of data gathered from monitoring is control.
The primary purpose of the launch meeting is to develop the project plan and budget.
If a PM manages her project well enough she can eliminate uncertainty.
The time to complete a task with normal or standard-practice resource usage is referred
to as the crash duration.
Learning curve theory states that performance of labor per unit will improve by a fixed
percentage each time production doubles.
The project manager must maintain a high level of flexibility in dealing with people.
In the early years of a project when outflows usually exceed inflows, the NPV of the
project for those years will be positive.
Technical dependencies are generally easier to see on a Gantt chart than on PERT/CPM
networks.
A resource allocation decision may be intended to avoid a future problem rather than
correct a current problem.
Networks are usually drawn with a “Start” node to the right and a “Finish” node to the
left.
Project budgets are primarily modifications of budgets for the same activity in the
previous period.
Functionally organized projects are not seen as a high priority by functional managers.
R&D projects are oriented toward using newly developed technologies or existing
technologies in a new manner.
Projects are subdivisions of programs.
The salary requirements of human resources are a required element in the project plan.
For projects with S-shaped life cycles, top-down budgeting is most likely unacceptable.
As the present value of future returns decreases with rising discount rates, firms with
high hurdle rates favor short-run projects.
The work breakdown structure is one way to separate project activities by their level of
importance.
To manage a project successfully, the project manager need only pay close attention to
tasks on the critical path.
A discussion of the potential for project failure and monetary loss should be included in
the audit report.
A disadvantage of using the discounted cash flow method (or net present value) for
selecting projects is that it ignores all non-monetary factors associated with the project.
Projects in which team members may never physically meet before the team is
disbanded and another team reconstituted is called a virtual team
Learning curves can be used to help improve cost estimates.
In general, steady state demand for human resources is highly desirable.
The simulation approach is generally preferred over the statistical method.
Procedures for monitoring, collecting, and storing data on project performance should
be discussed in the Schedules section of the project master plan.
Fast-tracking a project is used primarily in the pharmaceutical industry.
Pools of like resources from which labor can be added temporarily to projects tend to
increase costs for the firm as a whole.
Project review meetings are always important.
The task of bringing the work of all groups together to make a harmonious whole is
called systems engineering.
Budgeting a project is often more difficult than budgeting routine activities.
Raw numbers represent a simple tally of the occurrence of an event.
Project team conflict stifles team creativity.
Float refers to the amount of time a noncritical task can be delayed without causing a
delay in the entire project.
Individual elements of project budgets are generally more accurate in bottom-up
budgeting.
Contingency planning is generally begun at that point in time when an organization
finds itself in serious financial trouble.
Project evaluation should be limited to an after-the fact analysis.
Statistical quality control techniques can be helpful for determining what size variances
are significant.
One of the problems with mind mapping is that it is relatively difficult to convert into
work breakdown structure (WBS).
A key advantage of top-down budgeting is that the overall budget costs can be
estimated quite accurately.
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
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
FMEA stands for
a) Financial Methods and Efficiency Analysis
b) Failure Modes and Effect Analysis
c) Full Monetary Expenditure Accrual
d) Financial Measurement of Expenses Accrued
e) Factor Mode and Efficiency Analysis
Which of the following was not mentioned in the text as a valuable source of
information for a project audit?
a) the project’s Request for Proposal
b) minutes from the project selection committee
c) benchmark data from other similar projects
d) minutes of senior management committees that initiated the project
e) All of the above were mentioned in the text as valuable sources of information for a
project audit.
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
Which of the following is not related to the three goals of a project?
a) time
b) data
c) schedule
d) cost
e) performance
Which of the following is most closely associated with the output of a project becoming
a standard part of the operating systems of the sponsoring firm or client?
a) termination-by-addition
b) termination-by-extinction
c) termination-by-integration
d) termination-by-starvation
e) termination-by-elimination
Which of the following is typically used as the best estimate of task duration?
a) expected time
b) pessimistic time
c) optimistic time
d) most likely time
e) none of the above
The project team members should be all of the following except:
a) politically sensitive
b) technically competent
c) goal oriented
d) problem oriented
e) focused on activities
If the initial investment is a project is $100,000 and the expected annual net profit for
the project is $20,000, the payback period is:
a) One fifth of a year
b) 4 years
c) 5 years
d) 10 years
e) insufficient information to determine the payback period
One limitation of scoring methods is that they can only incorporate quantitative data.
A data collection form to support a project audit would include data from all the
following categories except
a) financial data
b) technical data
c) managerial data
d) risk management data
e) All of the above categories would be included in the data collection form.
Why is it necessary to consider the learning curve of resources on a project?
a) to estimate labor costs properly
b) to improve project team morale
c) because it always takes less time to do a task after someone has done it a few times
d) collective bargaining contracts require it
e) All of the above
Which of the following is most closely associated with FMEA?
a) risk priority number
b) game theory
c) expected value
d) simulation
e) program budgeting
Which of the following was not a major section listed in the text for the audit report?
a) current status
b) future project status
c) critical management issues
d) financial analysis
e) risk analysis and risk management
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
According to the text, the use of sticky-notes can be particularly useful for constructing
a(n)
a) RACI matrix
b) Work Breakdown Structure
c) Gantt chart
d) Design Structure Matrix
e) Aggregate Project Portfolio
Projects that begin with a slow start, have quick momentum in the middle, and have a
slow finish are said to follow which type of lifecycle?
a) J-shaped lifecycle
b) L-shaped lifecycle
c) an exponential growth lifecycle
d) an S-shaped lifecycle
e) an X-shaped lifecycle
In the Design Structure Matrix
a) the rows correspond to tasks and the columns correspond to resources
b) both the rows and columns correspond to tasks
c) the rows correspond to tasks and the columns correspond to functional departments
d) the rows correspond to resources and the columns correspond to tasks
e) the rows correspond to resources and the columns correspond to functional
departments
A requirement of top-down budgeting is:
a) involvement of the project team
b) estimating the detailed level of the project’s tasks
c) applying the learning curve to labor time estimates
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
Which of the following is not a type of project termination mentioned in the text?
a) project extinction
b) termination-by-addition
c) termination-by-integration
d) termination-by-starvation
e) termination-by-elimination
The PM’s job includes all of the following except?
a) Convener and chair of meetings
b) Facilitator
c) Communicator
d) Supervisor
e) Virtual project manager
Which of the following is an important project manager role?
a) technical expert
b) supervisor
c) project champion
d) micromanager
e) communicator
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
Which of the following is a numeric project selection method?
a) comparative benefits
b) payback period
c) Q-sort method
d) operating/competitive necessity
e) sacred cow
Dysfunctions of a team include?
a) Absence of trust
b) Fear of conflict
c) Lack of commitment
d) Avoidance of accountability
e) All of the above
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
The amount of time a noncritical task can be delayed without delaying the project is
called?
a) surplus
b) flop
c) slack
d) critical time
e) safety
What is project slack?
a) The amount of time a non-critical task can be delayed without making the project
late.
b) The amount of time the critical path of a project can be delayed without making the
project late.
c) The amount of time an activity on the critical path can be delayed without making the
project late.
d) The difference between how long the project would take if all tasks were completed
based on their pessimistic versus optimistic time estimates.
e) None of the above.
“Blue Sky” projects are
a) R & D projects
b) Platform projects
c) Breakthrough projects
d) Derivative projects
e) High risk projects
Which of the following terms is most closely associated with a task required by the
project?
a) activity
b) event
c) milestone
d) network
e) path
Which of the following would not be considered a project?
a) placing the weekly replenishment order
b) a political campaign
c) constructing a new office building
d) developing a new cancer treatment.
e) writing a new textbook