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Indicate whether the statement is true or false.
1. The Critical Path Method (CPM) allows us to investigate the effects of uncertainty of activity times on the project
completion time.
a. True
b. False
2. Project managers do not need technical expertise.
a. True
b. False
3. A key assumption with crashing is that the time can be reduced to any proportion of the crash time at a proportional
increase in cost.
a. True
b. False
4. The earliest time that an activity can be completed is equal to the latest time it can begin minus the time to perform the
activity.
a. True
b. False
5. In the context of the Critical Path Method (CPM), latest start (LS) and latest finish (LF) times are computed by making
a backward pass through the network, beginning with the ending project activity or activities.
a. True
b. False
6. A pure project organizational structure eliminates the duplication of resources across the organization.
a. True
b. False
7. The only way the project completion time can be reduced is by crashing activities on the critical path.
a. True
b. False
8. The Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) was developed as a means of scheduling and controlling
projects with constant activity times.
a. True
b. False
Indicate the answer choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
9. _____ refers to reducing the total time to complete the project to meet a revised due date.
a. Benchmarking
b. Crashing a project
c. Project resource leveling
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d. Activity sequencing
10. Which of the following stages of the project life cycle entails the scheduling of activities?
a. The defining stage
b. The planning stage
c. The organizing stage
d. The controlling stage
11. The calculation (a + 4m + b) / 6 is used to find _____ time.
a. optimistic
b. expected
c. average
d. pessimistic
12. Which of the following is true of crashing a project?
a. It involves the removal of resources from selected project activities to reduce costs.
b. It increases the total cost of the project.
c. It increases the total time taken to complete the project.
d. It is a trade-off between project revenue and additional input costs.
13. The activities, their respective immediate predecessors, and activity times for a particular project are given in the table
below. Determine the earliest completion time for this project using a Gantt chart.
Activity Immediate Predecessor(s) Activity Time(in weeks)
A None 1
B None 1
C A 4
D B 5
E C, D 5
F E 3
G F 2
a. 14 weeks
b. 16 weeks
c. 18 weeks
d. 20 weeks
14. The district magistrate of a city has decided to reconstruct the most frequented street of the city. He plans to block the
street for the duration of the work, which will cause considerable inconvenience to the people of the city. The project has
three parallel paths defined as the following:
Path A-B-C-H will take 16 days.
Path A-D-E-H will take 22 days.
Path A-F-G-H will take 30 days.
In the given scenario, which of the following statements is true?
a. The expected duration of the project is 68 days.
b. Activities B, D, and F have an earliest starting time of 0.
c. Path A-D-E-H has the largest slack time.
d. Path A-F-G-H is the critical path.
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15. A _____ is a temporary and often customized initiative that consists of many smaller tasks and activities that must be
coordinated and completed to finish the entire initiative on time and within budget.
a. resource plan
b. schedule
c. project
d. product-process matrix
16. In the context of projects, _____ are discrete tasks that consume resources and time.
a. value chains
b. activities
c. processes
d. schedules
17. Which of the following is an assumption made by the critical path method (CPM)?
a. The activity time estimates are accurate and stable.
b. Activities are dependent on each other, without clearly defined start and finish times.
c. Activities are interrupted many times before completion.
d. The project network defines a tentative work sequence that can be changed anytime during the project.
18. Which of the following is an example of a project that belongs to the functional area of accounting and finance?
a. Market research study
b. Planning a firm’s initial public offering
c. Annual performance and compensation review
d. Installing a revenue management system
19. In the context of the Critical Path Method (CPM), the slack time (ST) for an activity is computed as:
a. the latest start (LS) time minus the earliest finish (EF) time.
b. the latest finish (LF) time minus the earliest start (ES) time.
c. the latest start (LS) time minus the earliest start (ES) time.
d. the earliest finish (EF) time minus the latest start (LS) time.
20. If an activity can be completed in 10 weeks at a cost of $3,200 instead of the normal time of 12 weeks at a cost of
$2,400, then the crash cost per week for the given activity is _____.
a. $200
b. $400
c. $600
d. $800
21. Rose is in charge of advertising a new product launched by her company. She has defined the advertising for this
product as an individual project that consists of seven activities. Following are the characteristics of these activities:
Activity Immediate Predecessor(s) Activity Time(in weeks)
A None 2
B None 2
C A 4
D B 5
E C 5
F D 2
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G E, F 2
Calculate the earliest completion time for the project using a Gantt chart.
a. 10 weeks
b. 11 weeks
c. 12 weeks
d. 13 weeks
22. Implementing a new computer-aided design system is an example of a project in the functional area of _____.
a. engineering
b. operations
c. logistics
d. marketing
23. In the project management life cycle, the _____ stage involves collecting and assessing status reports, managing
changes to baselines, and responding to circumstances that can negatively impact the project participants.
a. closing
b. planning
c. organizing
d. controlling
24. Which of the following is true of the Critical Path Method (CPM)?
a. It allows us to investigate the effects of uncertainty of activity times on project completion times.
b. It uses the variance in the critical path activities to evaluate the risks associated with project completion times.
c. It assumes that activities are independent of one another, with clearly defined start and finish dates.
d. It accounts for the interruptions that may affect an activity between the start and the finish times.
25. Which of the following is true of a typical functional organization?
a. It eliminates duplication of resources.
b. It makes communication across the organization easier and smooth.
c. A project cuts across organizational boundaries in a typical functional organization.
d. Team members are assigned exclusively to projects in a typical functional organization.
26. In the context of the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), which of the following is true of the beta
probability distribution approach?
a. It allows managers to identify the best case, worst case, and most likely case for activity times.
b. It describes the inherent similarity in the optimistic, most probable, and pessimistic time estimates.
c. It is rigid in characterizing the distribution of times.
d. It forces activity times to a symmetric normal probability distribution.
27. In the context of project management, _____ a project involves releasing and reassigning people.
a. closing
b. organizing
c. defining
d. planning
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28. Following is the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) network used to execute a marketing campaign at
TeaTime Inc. Calculate the variance for the project.
a. 2.5 weeks
b. 3.0 weeks
c. 3.5 weeks
d. 4.0 weeks
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Answer Key
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chapter 19