Chapter 1

Question 1

Attributes of a project (6)

Answer 1

• Unique purpose
• Temporary
• developed using progressive elaboration
• needs resources
• needs primary customer/ sponsor
• involves uncertainty

Question 2

project sponsor

Answer 2

provides direction and funding

Question 3

triple constraint

Answer 3

scope, time, and cost. Figure out which is most important, and pursue it at the cost of the others

Question 4

Project management

Answer 4

the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.

Question 5

Stakeholders (7 examples)

Answer 5

people involved in or affected by project activities

-project sponsor, team, support staff, customers, users, suppliers, opponents

Question 6

Project management knowledge areas (10)

Answer 6

Scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, procurement, stakeholder, integration

Question 7

project management tools and techniques

Answer 7

tools that assist in doing work in the 10 knowledge areas. (ie. Gantt charts, project network diagrams, critical path analysis)

Question 8

3 criteria of Project success

Answer 8

1) Met time, scope, and cost goals
2) Satisfied customer/ sponsor
3) Results met project’s main objective

Question 9

Program manager

Answer 9

• provides leadership and direction for the project managers heading the projects within a program.
• coordinate efforts of project teams, functional groups, suppliers, and operations staff supporting the projects

Question 10

program

Answer 10

group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them indiividually

Question 11

project portfolio management

Answer 11

• organizations group and manage projects and programs as a portfolio investments that contribute to the entire enterprise’s success
• help their companies make wise investment decisions- select and analyze projects strategically (instead of tactically)

Question 12

3 basic IT project categories

Answer 12

venture (transform business), growth (more revenues), core (necessary to run business)

Question 13

leader vs manager

Answer 13

leader focuses on long term goals and big picture, while manager deals with specific goals

Question 14

critical path

Answer 14

longest path through a network diagram that determines the earliest completion of a project

• shows which tasks affect the target completion date
• can change

Question 15

enterprise project management software

Answer 15

software that integrates information from multiple projects to show the stats of active, approved, and future projects across an entire organization

Question 16

gantt chart

Answer 16

standard format for displaying project schedule info by listing project activities and their start and finish dates in calendar form

Question 17

systems thinking

Answer 17

describes a holistic view of carrying out projects within an organization

Question 18

systems

Answer 18

set of interacting components that work within an environment to fulfill some purpose

Question 19

systems analysis

Answer 19

problem-solving approach that requires defining the scope of a system, dividing it into components, and identifying and evaluating its problems, opportunities, constraints, and needs

Question 20

structural frame

Answer 20

roles and responsibilities, coordination, control

Question 21

human resources frame

Answer 21

harmony b/t needs of organization and needs of people

Question 22

political frame

Answer 22

coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups. power

Question 23

symbolic frame

Answer 23

culture, language, tradition, image

Question 24

functinoal organizational structure

Answer 24

• organizational chart hierarchy

- CEO -> functional managers/ VPs -> staff

Question 25

project organizational structure

Answer 25

- organizational chart hierarchy - CEO -> Program managers -> staff - for organizations who earn revenue from doing projects for other people under contract

Question 26

matrix organizational structure

Answer 26

-organizational chart hierarcy-staff report to a functional manager AND 1+ project managers -split time between projects strong, weak, or balanced -problems when project manager doesn't have adequate control of their time

Question 27

organizational culture

Answer 27

set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization

Question 28

10 characteristics of organizational culture

Answer 28

``` member identity, group emphasis, people focus, unit integration, control, risk tolerance, reward criteria, conflict tolerance, means-ends orientation (focus on outcomes rather than techniques), open-system focus (responding to change in environment) ```

Question 29

champion

Answer 29

a senior manager who acts as a key proponent for a project (sponsor or another manager)

Question 30

project feasibility

Answer 30

- the first two project phases - concept and development - focus on planning

Question 31

project acquisition

Answer 31

last two project phases - implementation and closeout - delivering actual work

Question 32

systems development life cycle

Answer 32

framework for describing phases of developing information systems - waterfall, spiral, incremental build, etc - predictive life cycles

Question 33

predictive life cycle

Answer 33

- scope of the project can be articulated clearly and schedule and cost can be predicted - spend a long time specifying requirements, and then produce design - users can't see a result for a while

Question 34

adaptive software development

Answer 34

- adaptive approach b/c all requirements cannot be clearly expressed early on - more freedom - Agile

Question 35

phase exits/ kill points

Answer 35

- management reviews after each phase of project | - used to gage whether a project should be continued, redirected, or terminated

Question 36

advantages of virtual team

Answer 36

- lower costs b/c no office space/ support | - more flexibility- people working at any time of day/night

Question 37

scrum

Answer 37

agile development method with a product owner, who creates a project backlog (wishlist), sprint planning, sprint backlog, spring, scrummaster (not the project manager)

Question 38

process

Answer 38

- series of actions toward a particular result | - not mutually exclusive

Question 39

list of 5 processes

Answer 39

initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/ controlling, closing