Chapter 2 - Organizational Influences & Project Life Cycle

Question 1

When a project involves external entities such as those that are part of a _____ or _______, the project will be influenced by more than one organization.

Answer 1

When a project involves external entities such as those that are part of a joint venture or partnering agreement, the project will be influenced by more than one organization.

Question 2

What are examples of commonalities that shape organizational culture?

Answer 2

Shared visions, missions, values, and beliefs
Motivation and reward systems
Risk tolerance
Code of conduct and work ethic
View of hierarchy
Methods and Procedures

Question 3

Organizational Structure - In which does the PM have more authority?

Answer 3

Projectized

Question 4

Organizational Structure - In which does the PM have less authority?

Answer 4

Functional

Question 5

Organizational Structure - In which is the staff reorganized according to their roles within the project?

Answer 5

Projectized

Question 6

What is a composite organization?

Answer 6

An organizational structure where at various levels it is both Functional AND Projectized

Question 7

What are Organizational Process Assets?

Answer 7

Organizational Process Assets are the plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and used by the preforming organization.

Question 8

What are the two categories of Organizational Process Assets?

Answer 8

1. Processes and procedures

2. Corporate Knowledge Base

Question 9

What goes into OPA: Processes and Procedures?

Answer 9

• Guidelines for tailoring the org.’s standard procedures to the specificities of the given project.
• Legal Policies (health, safety, HR)
• Document Templates
• Change control, risk control, and financial procedures
• Proposal criteria
• Etc etc

Question 10

What goes into OPA: Corporate Knowledge Base?

Answer 10

• Financial databases

- Historical info and lessons learned

Question 11

What are Enterprise Environmental Factors?

Answer 11

Refer to conditions, not under the control of the project team, that influence, constrain or direct the project.

Question 12

What are examples of Enterprise Environmental Factors?

Answer 12

• Geographic distribution of resources
• Government or industry standards?
• Marketplace conditions
• Stakeholder risk tolerances
• Commercial databases
• Political Climate

Question 13

What are examples of stakeholders?

Answer 13

Sponsor, Customers and users, Sellers, Business Partners, Organizational groups, Functional managers, etc

Question 14

What is a project life cycle?

Answer 14

A project life cycle is the series of phases that a project passes through from it’s initiation to it’s closure.

Question 15

What are the two types of project life cycles?

Answer 15

Predictive and Adaptive

Question 16

What is a predictive life cycle?

Answer 16

The product and deliverables are defined at the beginning of the project and any changes to the scope are carefully managed.

Question 17

What is an adaptive life cycle?

Answer 17

The product is developed over multiple iterations and detailed scope is defined for each iteration only as the iteration begins.

Question 18

What is a phase gate? What are some other terms for it?

Answer 18

The point where one phase ends and a new one is to begin. This phase end represents a natural point to reassess the activities underway and to change or terminate the project if necessary. Also known as milestone, phase review, kill point, stage gate, etc