chapter 6 exam

Question 1

project network?

Answer 1

tool used for planning, scheduling, and monitoring project progress

Question 2

what are four things the project network depicts?

Answer 2

project activities, logical sequences, interdependencies of activities, and times for activities to start/finish

Question 3

what is a framework for project information system used by project managers to make decisions concerning time, cost, and performance?

Answer 3

project networks

Question 4

what are project networks developed from?

Answer 4

the WBS

Question 5

activity?

Answer 5

element in project that consumes time

Question 6

what is used to build the activities found in the project network?

Answer 6

work packages from the WBS

Question 7

can an activity have one or more work packages?

Answer 7

yes

Question 8

two primary explanations for failure of integrating work packages and network?

Answer 8

diff groups used to define work packages and activities. the WBS is poorly constructed and not deliverable/output oriented

Question 9

how can managers guarantee continuity?

Answer 9

by having same people that defined the WBS and work packages define the network activities

Question 10

what are the primary inputs for developing project network plan?

Answer 10

work packages

Question 11

4 things about activities?

Answer 11

element of project that takes time. may or may not require resources. work or wait. represent one or more tasks from a work package

Question 12

merge activity?

Answer 12

has more than one activity immediately preceding it

Question 13

parallel activities?

Answer 13

activities that can take place at the same time

Question 14

path?

Answer 14

sequence of connected, dependent activities

Question 15

critical path?

Answer 15

paths with longest duration through the network, if an activity on this path is delayed the project is delayed!

Question 16

burst activity?

Answer 16

has more than one activity immediately following it

Question 17

3 things about activity-on-node?

Answer 17

one of two methods used to develop project networks. dominates all project plans. activities represented by nodes (boxes).

Question 18

3 relationships that must be established for activities included in project network?

Answer 18

predecessor, successor, concurrent/parallel

Question 19

what questions do completion of forward and backward processes answer? (2)

Answer 19

forward pass - earliest times, backward pass - latest times

Question 20

what does a forward pass - earliest times do?

Answer 20

starts with first project activity and traces each path through the network to last project activity, adding activity times while tracing

Question 21

what is the longest path that denotes project completion time for plan?

Answer 21

critical path

Question 22

equation of forward pass?

Answer 22

early start + duration = early finish

Question 23

what does backward pass - latest times do?

Answer 23

starts with last project activity on network and traces backward subtracting activity times

Question 24

what does the late finish usually equal? (2 things)

Answer 24

early finish or existing project duration deadline

Question 25

equation of backward pass?

Answer 25

late finish - duration = late start

Question 26

total slack?

Answer 26

tells the amount of time an activity can be delayed and not delay the entire project

Question 27

what tells the amount of time an activity can exceed its early finish date without affecting the project end date or imposed completion date?

Answer 27

total slack

Question 28

sensitivity?

Answer 28

likelihood the original critical path will change once project is initiated

Question 29

characteristics of an INSENSITIVE network schedule?

Answer 29

has one critical path and noncritical activities that enjoy significant slack

Question 30

characteristics of a SENSITIVE network schedule?

Answer 30

has more than one critical path and/or noncritical activities with very little slack

Question 31

free slack (float)?

Answer 31

amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying any immediately following (successor) activity

Question 32

what is the amount of time an activity can exceed its early finish date without affecting early start date of any successor?

Answer 32

free slack (float)

Question 33

2 things about free slack?

Answer 33

never negative, only activities that occur at the end of a chain of activities where there is a merge activity can have free slack

Question 34

what does the early start and late finish tell project managers?

Answer 34

the time interval in which the activity should be completed

Question 35

should project managers select the activities or combination of them that will cost least to shorten a project when it must be expedited to meet an earlier date??

Answer 35

yes

Question 36

what sets the level of detail for activities?

Answer 36

how many tasks are used in each one

Question 37

what does having too much info to manage result in?

Answer 37

increased overhead costs

Question 38

how do managers of small projects minimize level of detail?

Answer 38

eliminate some preliminary steps for drawing networks

Question 39

do we assume the network will materialize? does it usually?

Answer 39

yes, no

Question 40

looping?

Answer 40

attempt by planner to return to an earlier activity

Question 41

activity ID numbers should always be higher for activities following an activity in question... what does this do?

Answer 41

avoids illogical precedence relationships among activities

Question 42

can an activity occur more than once? if so what should it have?

Answer 42

it should only occur once, if occurs again should have new name and ID number

Question 43

how do most schemes number activities?

Answer 43

in ascending order, each succeeding activity has larger number so flow of project activities is toward project completion

Question 44

what type of charts are most popular during planning, resource scheduling, and status reporting?

Answer 44

bar charts

Question 45

what does requiring common start and finish events in form of nodes avoid?

Answer 45

dangler paths - gives impression that project doesn't have clear beginning or ending

Question 46

is a project with more than one activity beginning when project is to start a dangler path?

Answer 46

yes

Question 47

if project network ends with more than one activity, what are those unconnected paths?

Answer 47

dangler paths

Question 48

what is the method for showing relationships among activities?

Answer 48

finish-to-start relationship

Question 49

laddering?

Answer 49

when an activity has a long duration and will delay the start of an immediately following activity, it can be broken into segments

Question 50

benefit of drawing network with laddering approach?

Answer 50

so following activity can begin sooner or not delay the work

Question 51

lag?

Answer 51

minimum amount go time a dependent activity must be delayed to begin or end

Question 52

benefit of using lags? (3)

Answer 52

greater flexibility in network construction, avoid delays of large activities broken down and reduce network detail, used to constrain start and finish of an activity

Question 53

what are the most commonly used relationship extensions?

Answer 53

start to finish, finish to finish, and combinations of the two

Question 54

finish to start relationship?

Answer 54

typical, generic network style used

Question 55

start to start relationship?

Answer 55

alternative to segmenting activities

Question 56

can start to start relationships be used with or without lags?

Answer 56

yes, with or without lags

Question 57

what can changing finish to start relations to start to start relationship do?

Answer 57

find compression opportunities

Question 58

concurrent engineering?

Answer 58

breaks activities into smaller segments so work can be done in parallel and project expedited

Question 59

finish to finish relationship?

Answer 59

the finish of one activity depends on the finish of another

Question 60

start to finish relationship?

Answer 60

situations in which the finish of an activity depends on the start of another

Question 61

can more than one lag relationship be attached to an activity?

Answer 61

yes

Question 62

hammock activities? (2)

Answer 62

span over a segment of a project, also used to aggregate sections of a project

Question 63

what determines duration of hammock activities?

Answer 63

the time span between other activities