e1d4 Flashcards
Your project is 4 weeks behind schedule and you have been asked to crash the project in order to make up the lost time. The tasks listed in the table below are all on the critical path. Which of the tasks below would you crash?
A. Save 3+1 weeks, Crash Cost 2k+3.5k
B. Save 2+2 weeks, Crash Cost 2.5k+3.5k
C. Save 4 weeks, Crash Cost 6.5k
D. Save 2+1+1 weeks, Crash Cost 3.5k+3.5k+4k
A. Save 3+1 weeks, Cost $25k + $15.5k
When crashing a project you will always crash those tasks that have the smallest crash cost. While all of these answers will give you a 4 week reduction in duration, crashing tasks C & E is the cheapest option:
Task A = 6,500
Tasks C & E = 2,000 + 3,500 = 5,500
Tasks B & D = 2,500 + 3,500 = 6,000
Tasks D & E & F = 3,500 + 3,500 + 4,000 = 11,000
You are managing a project and one of your close friends is also a manager at the client organization. During the project execution, your friend asks for changes to be made in the project scope, and with the reasoning that the changes are critical to the success of the project, he asks you to handle them on an informal basis. He argues that if you want to follow the normal change procedures you will lose considerable time. What should you do in this situation?
A. Explain to the manager that the change should be handled through the formal change management process and it should be documented
B. Since what the manager has asked you is unethical you should refuse the changes.
C. Comply with the manager’s request since it is critical to the project success.
D. Perform the changes according to the manager’s request because they are crucial to the project success, but document them later on when the project is on track and there are no more changes to be made.
A. Explain to the manager that the change should be handled through the formal change management process and it should be documented
The correct response is that you would explain to the manager that you would need to formally document these as part of a project scope change and put it through the change management process. Complying with the manager’s request is incorrect and violates the code of ethics and professional responsibility that you have towards your organization. Refusing to take up the changes may be too drastic a step.
As a project manager you are using a fishbone diagram to find the potential risks on your project. Which process are you in?
A. Plan Risk Response
B. Control Quality
C. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
D. Identify Risk
D. Identify Risk
A fishbone diagram (also called cause and effect analysis or Ishikawa diagram) is used in the Identify Risks process to determine the potential risks that might affect the project.
As a project manager, you are currently involved in a Close Project or Phase process. In this situation which one of the following activities might possibly be unnecessary?
A. Finalizing all activities across all of the Project Management Process Groups.
B. Measuring the project scope against the project management plan.
C. Performing activities such as finalizing open claims, updating procurement records to reflect final results, and archiving such information for future use.
D. If a project is terminated before completion, starting procedures to investigate and document the reasons for this early termination.
C. Performing activities such as finalizing open claims, updating procurement records to reflect final results, and archiving such information for future use.
Closing out a contract involves administrative activities such as finalizing open claims, updating records to reflect final results, and archiving such information for future use. Procurement Close could be done at any stage of the project and is not associated only with Close Project or Phase process.
You are the construction project manager of an important stadium which is going to be used for the Winter Olympics. The games start a month from now, and your project has faced some weather delays in pouring the concrete for the landscaping. You know that bad weather might affect the quality of the concrete, however since the deadline is closing you decide to not delay the project anymore and go ahead with the remaining concrete work. Which risk strategy are you undertaking?
A. Transfer
B. Exploit
C. Mitigate
D. Accept
D. Accept
In this situation your are taking the Acceptance strategy. Acceptance is adopted when there is no possibility to eliminate all threats from a project. This means the project team has decided not to change the project management plan to deal with a risk or is unable to identify a response strategy. This strategy can be active or passive acceptance. Passive Acceptance: No action except documenting the strategy and leave project team to deal with the risks as they occur. Active Acceptance: Establish a contingency reserve (time/money/resources).
Rhonda is an IT Manager responsible for an important new project. The stakeholders are encouraging her to use Scrum; however, her team doesn’t have experience with it. What is the most important cultural factor Rhonda should ensure is in place for a successful change to this method?
A. A safe and transparent environment
B. A focus on speed over stability
C. An emphasis on flexibility over predictability
D. An atmosphere that encourages execution over exploration
A. A safe and transparent environment
While speed and flexibility are important qualities for an agile project, the most important cultural norm for change is a safe, honest, and transparent environment. Encouraging execution over exploration is more indicative of an environment suited towards predictive methods.
Tom is managing a software development project in a large IT firm. According to the project essential requirements, he has written an email to one of the functional managers and requested a number of staff to be assigned to his project on a permanent basis for a 2-week period. The functional manager has rejected Tom’s request. What should Tom do in this situation?
A. Raise the issue to higher level managers who can decide on project priorities
B. Change the sequence of activities so that he can cope with the resource limitations
C. Record this as a risk in the risk register
D. Negotiate with the functional manager
D. Negotiate with the functional manager
Tom as the project manager has the ultimate responsibility of acquiring the resources on time. In this situation he should use the negotiation tools and techniques to acquire the project team. Of course other items might also be correct in some situations, but the first most responsible way is to do negotiation with the functional managers.
You are managing a residential building construction project. Your client has just requested a change in the lighting system which may increase project risk and costs. What should be your first action?
A. Raise the issue to the project sponsor
B. Issue a Change Request
C. Update the project risk register
D. Analyze the impacts of the change
D. Analyze the impacts of the change
The first action after receiving any change request is to analyze the impacts. Then after comparing the impacts to the plan you may need to issue a change request to modify the project scope. Raising the issue to the project sponsor is also possible once you are aware of the impacts of the change.
For the purpose of recording project lessons learned, you are analyzing the major delay in the project schedule. The root cause of the delay was a demonstration done by a group of green initiative supporters. They were unhappy because their representatives were not informed about all of the arrangements that you are taking to protect the environment. What could you and your team have done better to prevent this from happening?
A. A more accurate risk response planning
B. A more accurate stakeholder identification
C. A clearer communication management plan
D. A better project management plan
B. A more accurate stakeholder identification
Identifying stakeholders and understanding their relative degree of influence on a project is critical. Failure to do so can extend the timeline and raise costs substantially. An important part of a project manager’s responsibility is to manage stakeholder expectations and develop a strategy to keep them satisfied.
In the Plan Quality Management process, which of the following is not attributable to the cost of non-conformance?
A. Rework
B. Quality measures
C. Warranty
D. Downtime
B. Quality measures
Quality measures are not an attribute of the cost of non-conformance. The cost of non-conformance result in some kind of a loss or rejection of the project’s output.
