1. Introduction

Question 1

What are the Project Initiation Factors?

Answer 1

1. Meet regulatory, legal, or social requirements;
2. Satisfy stakeholder requests or needs;
3. Implement or change business or technological strategies; and
4. Create, improve, or fix products, processes, or services.

Question 2

What is Tailoring?

Answer 2

Determining the appropriate combination of Processes, Inputs, Tools, Techniques, Outputs and Life cycle phases to manage a project.

Question 3

What contains the PMBOK Guide?

Answer 3

This PMBOK Guide identifies a subset of the project management body of knowledge that is generally recognised as good practice.
· Generally recognised means the knowledge and practices described are applicable to most projects most of the time and there is consensus about their value and usefulness.
· Good practice means there is general agreement that the application of the knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project management processes can enhance the chance of success over many projects in delivering the expected business values and results.

Question 4

Is the PMBOK a methodology?

Answer 4

The PMBOK Guide is different from a methodology. A methodology is a system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline. This PMBOK Guide is a foundation upon which organisations can build methodologies, policies, procedures, rules, tools and techniques, and life cycle phases needed to practice project management.

Question 5

What is a standard?

Answer 5

A standard is a document established by an authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example. Compliance with a Standard in not necessarily mandatory but may be helpful.

Question 6

What means ANSI?

Answer 6

American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

Question 7

What are the four values of the Code of Ethics?

Answer 7

Responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty

Question 8

What is a deliverable?

Answer 8

A deliverable is defined as any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is required to be produced to complete a process, phase, or project. Deliverables may be tangible or intangible.

Question 9

How can we define the end of a project?

Answer 9

o The project’s objectives have been achieved;
o The objectives will not or cannot be met;
o Funding is exhausted or no longer available for allocation to the project;
o The need of the project no longer exists (e.g. the customer no longer wants the project completed, a change in strategy or priority ends the project, the organisational management provides direction to end the project);
o The human or physical resources are no longer available; or
o The project is terminated for legal cause or convenience.

Question 10

What is the Business value in a project?

Answer 10

The net quantifiable benefit derived from a business endeavour.
The benefit may be tangible, intangible, or both. In business analysis, business value is considered the return, in the form of elements such as time, money, goods, or intangibles (goodwill, brand recognition, strategic alignment) in return for something exchanged.

Question 11

What is a project?

Answer 11

A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.

Question 12

What is the difference between project, program and portfolio?

Answer 12

· Program and project management focus on doing programmes and projects the ‘right’ way.
• Portfolio management focuses on doing the ‘right’ programmes and projects.

Question 13

What are the project, program, portfolio contributions to achieving strategic objectives

Answer 13

• Portfolio management aligns portfolios with organisational strategies by selecting the right programs or projects, prioritising the work, and providing the needed resources.
• Program management harmonises its program components and controls interdependencies in order to realise specified benefits.
• Project management enables the achievement of organisational goals and objectives.

Question 14

What is a program?

Answer 14

Group of related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.
Programs may also include operations.

Question 15

What is program management?

Answer 15

Program management is defined as the application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing program components individually

Question 16

What is a portfolio?

Answer 16

Collection of projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.

Question 17

What is portfolio management?

Answer 17

Portfolio management is defined as the centralised management of one or more portfolios to achieve strategic objectives

Question 18

What is the aim of portfolio management?

Answer 18

• Guide organisational investment decisions.
• Select the optimal mix of programs and projects to meet strategic objectives.
• Provide decision-making transparency.
• Prioritise team and physical resource allocation.
• Increase the likelihood of realizing the desired return on investment.
• Centralise the management of the aggregate risk profile of all components.

Question 19

What is Operation Management?

Answer 19

Operations Management is concerned with the ongoing production of goods and /or services. It ensures that business operations continue efficiently by using the optimal resources needed to meet customer demands. It is concerned with managing processes that transform inputs (materials, components, energy, and labour) into outputs (products, goods, and/or services).

Question 20

What is OPM?

Answer 20

OPM or Organisational Project Management is defined as a framework in which portfolio, program, and project management are integrated with organisational enablers in order to achieve strategic objectives.
OPM also helps to ensure that all levels in the organisation understand the strategic vision, the initiatives that support the vision, the objectives, and the deliverables.

Question 21

What are the project life cycles?

Answer 21

The series of phases the project passes through from its start to its completion. The phases may be sequential, iterative, or overlapping.

Question 22

What is a development cycle?

Answer 22

Generally one or more phases that are associated with the development of the product, service, or result. Development life cycles can be predictive, iterative, incremental, adaptive, or a hybrid model.

Question 23

What is a predictive life cycle?

Answer 23

In a predictive life cycle, the project scope, time, and cost are determined in the early phases of the life cycle. Any changes to the scope are carefully managed. Predictive life cycles may also be referred to as waterfall life cycles.

Question 24

What is an iterative life cycle?

Answer 24

In an iterative life cycle, the project scope is generally determined early in the project life cycle, but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as the project team’s understanding of the product increases. Iterations develop the product through a series of repeated cycles, while increments successively add to the functionality of the product.

Question 25

What is an incremental life cycle?

Answer 25

In an incremental life cycle, the deliverable is produced through a series of iterations that successively add functionality within a predetermined time frame. The deliverable contains the necessary and sufficient capability to be considered complete only after the final iteration.

Question 26

What is an adaptive life cycle?

Answer 26

Adaptive life cycles are agile, iterative, or incremental. The detailed scope is defined and approved before the start of an iteration. Adaptive live cycles are also referred to as agile or change-driven life cycles.

Question 27

What is a hybrid life cycle?

Answer 27

A hybrid life cycle is a combination of a predictive and an adaptive life cycle. Those elements of the project that are well known or have fixed requirements follow a predictive development life cycle, and those elements that are still evolving follow an adaptive development life cycle.

Question 28

What difference between project and product life cycle?

Answer 28

Project life cycles are independent of product life cycles, which may be produced by a project. A product life cycle is the series of phases that represent the evolution of a product, from concept through delivery, growth, maturity, and to retirement.

Question 29

What is a project phase?

Answer 29

A collection of logically related activities that culminates in the completion of one or more deliverables.

Question 30

What are the factors on which project phases are established?

Answer 30

• Management needs;
• Nature of the project;
• Unique characteristics of the organisation, industry, or technology;
• Project elements including, but not limited to, technology, engineering, business, process, or legal;
• Decision points (e.g. funding, project go/no-go, and milestone review).

Question 31

What is a project gate / exit gate / kill point?

Answer 31

A review at the end of a phase in which a decision is made to continue to the next phase, to continue with modification, to end a program or project, to remain in the phase, or to repeat the phase or elements or it.

Question 32

The project’s performance and progress are compared to which project and business documents?

Answer 32

• Project business case
• Project charter
• Project management plan
• Benefits management plan

Question 33

What are the project management processes?

Answer 33

A systematic series of activities directed toward causing an end result where one of more inputs will be acted upon to create one or more outputs.
Processes consist of only 3 types of ingredients: inputs, tools & techniques, and outputs.

Question 34

What are the project management process groups?

Answer 34

A logical grouping of project management inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. Project management process groups are not project phases.

Question 35

What is a project management knowledge area?

Answer 35

An identified area of project management defined by its knowledge requirements and described in terms of its component processes, practices, inputs, outputs, tools and techniques.

Question 36

What are the 10 Knowledge areas?

Answer 36

I Saw Silly Cats Quietly Reciting Carols, in a Really Poetic Scene.
Integration, Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality,
Resource, Communication, Risk, Procurement, Stakeholder.

Question 37

What is work performance data?

Answer 37

The raw observations and measurements identified during activities performed to carry out the project work. Examples include reported percent of work physically completed, quality and technical performance measures, start and finish dates of schedule activities, number of change requests, number of defects, actual costs, actual durations, etc. Project data are usually recorded in a Project Management Information System (PMIS).

Question 38

What is work performance information?

Answer 38

The performance data collected from various controlling processes, analysed in context and integrated based on relationships across areas. Examples of performance information are status of deliverables, implementation status for change requests, and forecast estimates to complete.

Question 39

What are work performance reports?

Answer 39

The physical or electronic representation of work performance information compiled in project documents, which is intended to generate decisions or raise issues, actions, or awareness. Examples include status reports, memos, justifications, information notes, electronic dashboards, recommendations, and updates.

Question 40

How to apply tailoring?

Answer 40

Tailoring should address the competing constraints of scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality, and risk. The project manager tailors the approach for managing these constraints based on the project environment, organisational culture, stakeholder needs, and other variables.

Question 41

Define the Business documents roles and responsibilities

Answer 41

The project sponsor is generally accountable for the development and maintenance of the project business case document. The project manager is responsible for providing recommendations and oversight to keep the project business case, project management plan, project charter, and project benefits management plan success measures in alignment with one another and with the goals and objectives of the organisation.

Question 42

Interrelationship of business documents

Answer 42

Needs Assessment –> (Business case Benefits Management Plan) –> Project Charter –> Project Management Plan

Question 43

What contains a Needs Assessment?

Answer 43

A needs assessment often precedes the business case. The needs assessment involves understanding business goals and objectives, issues, and opportunities and recommending proposals to address them. The results of the needs assessment may be summarised in the business case document.

Question 44

What is a project business case?

Answer 44

A documented economic feasibility study used to establish the validity of the benefits of a selected component lacking sufficient definition and that is used as a basis for the authorization of further project management activities.
Iteratively developed and maintained throughout the life cycle of the project.

Question 45

What is the content of a Business case?

Answer 45

• Business needs
• Analysis of the situation: benefit cost analysis
• Recommendation
• Evaluation

Question 46

Describe the Business needs part of a Business Case

Answer 46

o Determination of what is prompting the need for action;
o Situational statement documenting the business problem or opportunity to be addressed including the value to be delivered to the organisation;
o Identification of stakeholders affected; and
o Identification of the scope

Question 47

Describe the Analysis of the situation part of a Business Case

Answer 47

o Identification of organisational strategies, goals, and objectives;
o Identification of root cause(s) of the problem of main contributors of an opportunity;
o Gap analysis of capabilities needed for the project versus existing capabilities of the organisation;
o Identification of known risks
o Identification of critical success factors;
o Identification of decision criteria by which the various courses of action may be assessed;

Question 48

Examples of criteria categories used for analysis of a situation in a Business case.

Answer 48

• Required. This is a criterion that is “required” to be fulfilled to address the problem or opportunity.
• Desired. This is a criterion that is “desired” to be fulfilled to address the problem or opportunity.
• Optional. This is a criterion that is not essential. Fulfilment of this criterion may become a differentiator between alternative courses of action.
o Identification of a set of options to be considered for addressing the business problem or opportunity. Options may also be described as business scenarios. For example, a business case could present the following three options:
• Do nothing. This is also referred to as the “business as usual” option. Selection of this option results in the project not being authorised.
• Do the minimum work possible to address the problem or opportunity. The minimum may be established by identifying the set of documented criteria that are key in addressing the problem or opportunity.
• Do more than the minimum work possible to address the problem or opportunity. This option meets the minimum set of criteria and some or all of the other documented criteria. There may be more than one of these options documented in the business case.

Question 49

Describe the Recommendation part of a Business Case

Answer 49

o A statement of the recommended option to pursue in the project;
o Items to include in the statement may include but are not limited to:
 Analysis results for the potential option;
 Constraints, assumptions, risks, and dependencies for the potential options;
 Success measures
o An implementation approach that may include but is not limited to:
 Milestones,
 Dependencies, and
 Roles and responsibilities.

Question 50

Describe the Evaluation part of a Business Case

Answer 50

Statement describing the plan for measuring benefits the project will deliver. This should include any ongoing operational aspects of the recommended option beyond initial implementation.

Question 51

What is a project benefits management plan?

Answer 51

The documented explanation defining the processes for creating, maximising, and sustaining the benefits provided by a project.
Iteratively developed and maintained throughout the life cycle of the project.

Question 52

What is a project benefit?

Answer 52

Defined as an outcome of actions, behaviours, products, services, or results that provide value to the sponsoring organisation as well as to the project’s intended beneficiaries.

Question 53

What is the content of a Project Benefit Management Plan?

Answer 53

• Target benefits (e.g. the expected tangible and intangible value to be gained by the implementation of the project; financial value is expressed as net present value);
• Strategic alignment (e.g. how well the project benefits align to the business strategies of the organisation);
• Timeframe for realising benefits (benefits by phase, short-term, long-term, and ongoing);
• Benefits owner (e.g., the accountable person to monitor, record, and report realised benefits throughout the timeframe established in the plan);
• Metrics (e.g., the measures to be used to show benefits realised, direct measures, and indirect measures);
• Assumptions (e.g., factors expected to be in place or to be in evidence); and
• Risks (e.g., risks for realisation of benefits)

Question 54

What is a project charter?

Answer 54

The project charter is defined as a document issued by the project sponsor that formally authorises the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organisational resources to project activities.

Question 55

What is a project management plan?

Answer 55

The project management plan is defined as the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled.

Question 56

Three questions to answer about project success measures?

Answer 56

• What does success look like for this project?
• How will success be measured?
• What factors may impact success?

Question 57

What project objectives are used for success measure?

Answer 57

• Completing the project benefits management plan;
• Meeting the agreed-upon financial measures documented in the business case.
• Meeting business case nonfinancial objectives;
• Completing movement of an organisation form its current state to the desired future state;
• Fulfilling contract terms and conditions;
• Meeting organisational strategy, goals, and objectives;
• Achieving stakeholder satisfaction;
• Acceptable customer/end-user adoption;
• Integration of deliverables into the organisation’s operating environment;
• Achieving agreed-upon quality of delivery;
• Meeting governance criteria; and
• Achieving other agreed-upon success measures or criteria (e.g., process throughput).

Question 58

What are the financial measures for project success?

Answer 58

o Net Present Value (NPV)
o Return on investment (ROI)
o Internal rate of return (IRR)
o Payback period (PBP), and
o Benefit-cost ratio (BCR).

Question 59

Explain the difference between iterative and incremental

Answer 59

Iteration: repeated cycles in which some progress is made progressively to deliver the final product, service, result at the end of the last iteration.
Incremental: In each increment (portion), a slice of functionality is fully delivered through cross-discipline work, from the requirements to the deployment.

Question 60

What is progressive elaboration?

Answer 60

You do not know all of the characteristics of a product/result/service when you begin the project. Instead, they may be revisited and refined often. You may gather some requirements, perform some preliminary design, take the results to the stakeholders for feedback, and then return to gather more requirements. The project is accomplished through several iterations, or ‘progressively’.

Question 61

Definition of success for a project?

Answer 61

Delivering the product and the project within the set boundaries of scope, cost, schedule, quality, and customer satisfaction.

Question 62

What is a baseline?

Answer 62

The terms baseline is used for certain plans: scope, schedule, cost, performance management, and the project plan itself. A baseline is simply a version of the plan that exists once the plan is stabilised, plus the approved changes.
Baselines are used as tools to measure how performance deviates from the plan, so if changes to the plan are approved, the new plan becomes the baseline.

Question 63

What is the weight of processes along the project life cycle?

Answer 63

Resources and cost levels rise early in the project and drop over time.
Risks and stakeholders ability to influence the project is highest early in the project and decreases as the project progresses.

Question 64

What is Project Management?

Answer 64

Project management is the “application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order tomeet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations”and balancing their competing demands

Question 65

What is a Configuration management plan?

Answer 65

Project configuration management is the process of tracking and controlling changes to important project documents and products. … The configuration management plan specifies which documents (or products) require change control, and what parameters will be controlled.

Question 66

What are the contents of a Change management plan?

Answer 66

• Change Management roles
• Change control board
• Develop a process to submit, evaluate, authorise and manage and control the change requests
• Change request form
• Change log
• Use a tool to keep track of changes through every phase of the project

Question 67

What are project management reviews?

Answer 67

AProject Management Reviewis an exercise undertaken at the end of eachProjectPhase to identify the current status of theproject. TheProject Reviewidentifies the deliverables which have been produced to date and determines whether or not theprojecthas met the objectives set.