Manage Schedule and Manage Quality 4 Flashcards
A project has the following characteristics: -It is in the execution phase. -500 products have been developed based on the originally-approved blueprint. -The project team randomly selected 50 products to evaluate against the quality plan. What is occurring in this scenario?
A. The project team is performing inspections.
B. The project team is utilizing statistical sampling.
C. The project team is conducting audits.
D. The project team is undertaking a quality control measure.
Answer: B
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection. The sample is taken to measure controls and verify quality. PMBOK Guide Sixth Edition (2017) PMI/PMI/8.3.2/302
Why is it necessary to review work performance information in connection with control schedule?
A. To determine if the baseline has been changed
B. To determine if there is a need to change the baseline
C. To assess whether the change can be approved
D. To assess the magnitude of any variations that may have occurred
Answer: D
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Work performance information helps in assessing the magnitude of variations that have occurred from planned baselines, and a review is necessary to evaluate the need for corrective actions needed to bring future performance back in line with the baseline.
The project stakeholders have reviewed your project and feel that the cost accuracy and duration estimates need to be improved and that the project’s expected end date is too far into the future. This concerns you since you are new to the company and want to make a good first impression. What should you do first?
A. Re-interview the subject matter experts (SMEs) and ask for better estimates.
B. Re-examine the WBS to see if it can be further decomposed, to allow for better estimating on cost and duration.
C. Tell your stakeholders that your estimates are sufficient. They are just stakeholders and have no real understanding of your project.
D. Reduce all the cost and time estimates by 20% based on your feedback.
Answer: B
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Answer B is correct. If your cost accuracy and duration estimates need to be improved, then that could tell you that your current estimates are not accurate. Thus, the first thing you should do is re-examine the WBS to see if it can be further decomposed, to allow for better estimating on cost and duration. You might also do A, but you would first re-examine the WBS.
You are managing a project that is running behind schedule. You change the relationship of several scheduled activities from finish-to-start to start-to-start in order to complete the project within the deadline. This is an example of which of the following and what impact does it have on project risk?
A. Fast-tracking and will increase risk
B. Crashing and will increase risk
C. Adjusting leads and lags and will decrease risk
D. Resource leveling and will have no effect on risk
Fast-tracking is when you take activities or project phases that would otherwise be done sequentially and do them in parallel. This speeds up delivery of the project, but will also increase risk.
__ __ is when you take activities or project phases that would otherwise be done sequentially and do them in parallel. This speeds up delivery of the project, but will also increase risk.
Fast-tracking is when you take activities or project phases that would otherwise be done sequentially and do them in parallel. This speeds up delivery of the project, but will also increase risk.
__ is when you add extra resources to critical path activities.
Crashing is when you add extra resources to critical path activities.
Adjusting leads or lags does not alter the relationship of activities, but applies a delay or head-start to activities.
Adjusting leads or lags does not alter the relationship of activities, but applies a delay or head-start to activities.
__ __ is the process of smoothing out resource utilization to avoid spikes in resource demand.
Resource leveling is the process of smoothing out resource utilization to avoid spikes in resource demand.
You are planning your project and reviewing resource optimization tools and techniques. You think you will be competing for resources and want to address the potential risk proactively. What would resource leveling usually result in?
A. Decrease in resource multitasking and risk
B. Fast tracking
C. Crashing
D. Increase in project duration
Answer: D
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Resource leveling is used to allocate scarce resources to critical path activities first, but this often results in a project duration that is longer than the original schedule estimates.
You are in the process of executing your project and need to know when it will be completed. You have the following activity durations on your project: A=6, B=15, C=11, D=8, E=14, F=5, G=4. You also know that D is dependent on A and B. Task F is a successor of D, E, and G. Task C is a predecessor of task E and G. Which of the following is the critical path?
A. A-D-F
B. B-D-F
C. C-E-F
D. C-G-F
Answer: C
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
For this question you could draw out the schedule network diagram based on the information provided. However, since the only thing we need to calculate is the critical path, we can take a shortcut and just add up the possible durations and choose the longest duration path, which is C-E-F or 30 days.
You are a project manager for a large manufacturing plant. You are concerned with safety on your project as team members of other projects have been injured. You want to make sure safety training is included in your project budget. The cost of safety training falls under which category of costs?
A. Cost of quality
B. Direct cost
C. Staffing Management Plan
D. Cost of nonconformance to quality
Answer: A
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Safety training is an example of the cost of quality. This is a preventative cost that falls under the cost of conformance. Cost of Quality emphasizes that monies spent on the front end to prevent/identify defects will pay large dividends in the long run.
Your agile team had planned to complete 40 story points during its last sprint. However, your team actually completed 30 story points. Based on this information, what was your SPI?
A. 1.33
B. .75
C. 10
D. -10
Answer: B
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Option B is correct. Schedule performance index is calculated using the following formula: EV / PV. Therefore, 30 / 40 = .75. This indicates we worked at 75 percent of our intended rate.
You are the team lead on the financial reporting software development team. Your project manager comes to you with a defect report denoting that the volume of defects in the code for the past three weeks has been trending towards out of control. He asks you to bring in an independent software developer from another internal team to conduct an audit on your group. What is the difference between an audit and quality control?
A. An audit refers to a structured review of the deployment and adherence to the planned quality management processes while quality control refers to monitoring specific work results to determine compliance with planned quality standards.
B. An audit is a specific tool & technique that can be used during the control quality process.
C. An audit is for checking the project management results for compliance to required standards while quality control is to determine compliance of the products of the project.
D. An audit is performed by the project team while quality control is performed by the quality department.
Answer: A
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
An audit reviews quality management activities to identify lessons learned and ensures continuous improvement in the project processes to meet the quality standards of the project. Whereas, conducting control quality performs checks on specific work results of either project management results or that of the product itself.
You are the project manager for a large energy company. You are currently managing a project to review alternative energy sources and select an appropriate wind turbine system. What are the tools and techniques you would use on your project while creating your activities list?
A. WBS, WBS Dictionary
B. Project Management Information Systems, Scheduling Software, Expert Judgment
C. Decomposition, Rolling Wave Planning, Expert Judgment
D. Planning Components, Milestone Lists
Answer: C
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
This question is describing the Define Activities process, and the tools and techniques for this process are Decomposition, Rolling Wave Planning, and Expert Judgment.
As a project manager, you are evaluating the test results for the page load speed on the new website. You learn more than 15% of the load speeds do not meet the company quality standards. Based on your experience, you feel the page load speed is fine and does not need to meet the company quality level. You should:
A. Report the true quality results, even though it is below standards, and try to find a solution
B. Ensure the future pages on the site meet the standard
C. Document the results in your quality report that the page load speed meets the quality standard
D. Change the quality standards to align with the level achieved
Answer: A
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Honesty in reporting results should be done, along with a plan to handle this so the results align better with the quality standards. A change to the quality standards (Choice D) should never be done without a change request. Just looking at the future results and ignoring the current results (Choice B) is not a good answer. Documenting the load speed as meeting quality standards (Choice C) is dishonest.
Your team is looking at the difference between the cost baseline and actual costs to date on your project. This is best described as?
A. Planned deviations
B. Relationships
C. Connections
D. Variance Analysis
Answer: D
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Variance Analysis consists of comparing the actual performance of the project to the baseline plans. The project manager manages variances and identifies the reasons therefor.
Based on past experience, you estimate that it takes about 20 hours to build one wall. Since you need to construct 15 new walls, you estimate this activity to take 300 hours. Which of the following estimating techniques have you used?
A. Analogous estimating
B. Bottom-up estimating
C. Parametric estimating
D. Reserve analysis
Answer: C
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Parametric estimating multiplies a known element like the quantity of materials needed by the time it takes to install or complete one unit of materials. The result is a total estimate for the activity. In this case, 15 walls multiplied by 20 hours per wall gives you a 300 hour total duration estimate.
You are managing a project to develop a new space satellite, and you know the quality control requirements will be very strict. At what points in the project should you plan to conduct control quality activities?
A. At the beginning of the project execution
B. At the completion of all the project deliverables
C. Throughout the project
D. When advised by the quality control department
Answer: C
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Quality control should be performed throughout the project. Remember, it addresses the deliverables and the effectiveness of the project management effort.
You are a project manager in a high tech company. Quality is a core value of your firm, and your sponsor is very concerned with delivering high quality by prevention and appraisal. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Inspection helps avoid rework.
B. Preventive actions prevent defects from reaching the customer.
C. Inspection reduces random variation in the output of the process.
D. Preventive actions reduce the likelihood that errors will occur in the process.
Answer: D
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Choice A is wrong because non-conforming products need to be reworked or rejected. Therefore, inspection usually results in rework. Choice B and C are wrong because inspection ensures that errors do not reach the customer. Choice D is correct because preventive actions are a documented direction to perform an activity that can reduce the probability of negative consequences associated with project risks.
You and your team are placing activities in order based on dependencies and logical relationships. During the planning session, you must create a document to represent the relationships and use configuration management per company policy when complete. Choose the best option below.
A. Create a schedule network diagram and configure software updates including the activity attributes, activity list, WBS Dictionary, then baseline your schedule
B. Use the critical path method to identify float, then request approval of the schedule baseline
C. Create a schedule network and update your risk register
D. Create a schedule network diagram, then when complete update activities attributes, activity list, and the WBS Dictionary according the configuration management plan
Answer: D
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
A schedule network diagram is a graphical representation of the logical relationship, also known as the dependencies among the project schedule activities (pg. 194; 6.3.3.1). A configuration management system is defined as a collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to these artifacts. In simple terms, when a document is created, updated, or deleted other documents must be updated to reflect those changes. Answer A and B are wrong because, at this point, you would not baseline. Answer C is simply not the best answer.
You are the project manager on a large domestic utility project. You are working with your team to define your project and document your scope. You feel relatively comfortable about the scope but are concerned that you may have trouble completing the project on time. Which of the following processes results in an Activities List?
A. Define scope
B. Define activities
C. Develop schedule
D. Collect requirements
Answer: B
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
The Define Activities process uses decomposition of work packages to come up with a list of all activities on a project.
The business analyst for the organization informs the Project sponsor the market demand for your project has spiked. Early delivery to the market would raise profit margins by 35% and give your organization the strategic advantage. The last deliverable recently had the scope validated and was accepted by the Sponsor. Which of the following would be the best way to proceed?
A. Speed up a successor activity, known as leading
B. Fast track execution to ensure early delivery to the market
C. Identify activities you can fast track or successor can speed up to promote early delivery
D. Add additional resources to closing the project to ensure early delivery to market. By crashing the project, you guarantee timely delivery
Answer: C
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Speeding up a successor activity is known as leading, but this is a vague answer lacking significance; Fast tracking increases risk but is another vague answer. Conducting an analysis of activities to be fast tracked also mitigates risk, fast tracking is known for increasing risk and this must be managed. Finally, adding additional resources increases cost and crashing does not necessarily guarantee on time delivery.
The project is overseen by a senior project manager. A new project manager joins the project, and the sponsor asks the new project manager to develop the quality management plan. How should the new project manager proceed?
A. Meet with the senior project manager to identify established plans and processes. Then, ask for assistance in selecting the appropriate standards.
B. Schedule a meeting with the customer to collect requirements and obtain benchmarking samples.
C. Obtain the necessary benchmarking samples and cost-benefit analyses from the sponsor.
D. Postpone the development of the quality management plan until quality metrics and quality checklists are created.
Answer: A
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
The new project manager needs to consult with the senior project manager to find out what practices and processes are already in place. PMBOK Guide Sixth Edition (2017), 8. Project Quality Management / 8.1.3.1 Quality Management Plan, p286
You are working with the project team to identify quality requirements and standards for the project. Which of the following documents would not be relevant?
A. Assumptions Log
B. Organizational quality policy
C. Requirements documentation
D. Stakeholder Register
Answer: A
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
The correct answer is A, as the question asks which of the documents is NOT relevant. The Stakeholder Register would be helpful, so you could find out which Stakeholders had requirements around Quality. The Assumptions Log is where we document Assumptions and Constraints, and while there is a chance there are assumptions made about quality, if you were looking for requirements as the question asked, that would be the least likely place of the four answers to go looking.
You are responsible for a PMO and are developing a training module on quality. You are documenting quality tools and listing the purpose of each. An Ishikawa diagram performs which of the following functions?
A. Puts information in order of priority
B. Explores potential causes of defects
C. Shows team responsibilities
D. Shows when continuous process improvement is achieved
Answer: B
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
An Ishikawa Diagram, also called a fishbone diagram or cause and effect diagram, helps identify various potential causes of quality defects.
A project deadline has been imposed for the end of the year. The project consists of two tasks. Task A has a duration of two months and task B has a duration of three months. Tasks A and B can be performed concurrently. The start date for the project is set for the beginning of July. What is the total duration of the critical path?
A. Two months
B. Three months
C. Five months
D. Six months
Answer: B
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Three months is the time taken to complete the project based on the estimates, so the critical path will be 3 months in length.
You are performing inspections to check the correctness of deliverables and determine if they meet customer acceptance criteria. Which of the following describes the cost of quality associated with this technique?
A. Internal failure costs
B. Appraisal Costs
C. Costs of doing business
D. External failure costs
Answer: B
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Appraisal costs (which are part of the cost of conformance) include inspection and testing of the deliverables.
You are the project manager for a large financial services company. You are currently managing a project to select and install an ERP system. Your company is risk adverse and you need to have the new system operating by the end of the fiscal year. What are the inputs to Define Activities?
A. Project scope statement, Activity List, Activity attributes, Milestone List, Organizational process assets
B. Enterprise Environmental Factors, Organizational Process Assets, Activity List, Activity attributes, Resource Availability, Project Management Plan
C. Schedule Management Plan, Scope Baseline, Enterprise Environmental Factors, Organizational Process Assets
D. Decomposition, Templates, Rolling Wave Planning, Expert Judgment
Answer: C
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
The inputs to Define Activities are Schedule Management Plan, Scope Baseline (Scope Statement, WBS, WBS Dictionary), Enterprise Environmental Factors, and Organizational Process Assets.
You are the project manager for a large manufacturing company. You are currently managing a project to design and manufacture molded fiber and other custom packaging. The inputs to Estimate Activity Durations include which of the following?
A. Resource requirements, Resource breakdown structure, Project document updates
B. Expert Judgment, Analogous Estimating, Parametric estimating, schedule management plan, risk register, resource, breakdown structure
C. Enterprise environmental factors, Organizational process assets, Activity list, Activity attributes, Schedule management plan, resource breakdown structure, Project scope statement, resource requirements, Resource calendar
D. Activity Duration estimates, schedule management plan, risk register, resource, breakdown structure and Project document updates
Answer: C
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Enterprise environmental factors, Organizational process assets, Activity list, Activity attributes, Schedule management plan, resource breakdown structure, Project scope statement, resource requirements, Resource calendar are all inputs to the Estimate Activity Durations process.
If the optimistic estimate for an activity is 12 days and the pessimistic estimate is 18 days, what is the standard deviation of this activity?
A. 1 day
B. 1.3 days
C. 6 days
D. 3 days
Answer: A
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Standard Deviation = (Pessimistic - Optimistic)/6. Solved, that comes out to: 18-12/6 = 1
You are the project manager for a Wedding Planning company. You work with clients that are very interested in steps necessary for a successful wedding. You create a high level schedule for your clients which includes a milestone chart. What is the primary purpose of a milestone chart?
A. To discuss key activities with your client
B. To show major events occurring during a project
C. To show task dependencies
D. To highlight the critical path
Answer: B
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Milestone charts show only major events in the project life cycle, such as all design inputs received, completion of design, etc
You just finished meeting with your project sponsor, who advised you that, because of unanticipated changes with the business, your project will need to be completed one month sooner than originally expected. Which of the following would not help you shorten the schedule as requested?
A. Crashing
B. Resource leveling
C. Fast-tracking
D. Reducing the project scope
Answer: B
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
Normal schedule network logic may require more resources during certain time periods than are available. Thus, the schedule may need to be extended to allow for the resource constraints that would otherwise occur. This typically has the effect of extending the schedule and would not be helpful here. The other options would all help facilitate the earlier completion of the project.
You are documenting acceptance criteria within the project scope statement for the various deliverables of your project. Of the following, who is in the best position to determine whether a particular work item has met the quality expectations?
A. The engineering staff
B. The marketing staff
C. The CEO
D. The customer or sponsor
Answer: D
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
The ISO 9000 definition of quality says that it is "the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs." These needs are ultimately derived from the customer or key stakeholders (i.e. sponsor), and thus, they are in the best position to assess the level of quality achieved.
Which of the following processes typically occur in parallel on Agile projects?
A. Plan Quality Management and Control Quality
B. Control Quality and Validate Scope
C. Plan Quality Management and Validate Scope
D. Plan Quality Management and Manage Quality
Answer: B
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
By their nature, customers/end users are an integral part of Agile teams, working in tandem with other team members. When the team begins to verify deliverables in the Control Quality process, the customers/end users also validate/accept those deliverables at the same time, so both processes are effectively combined.
Your company has an opportunity to be first to market with a revolutionary new product for infant safety. This product stands to bring safety for newborns and infants to a new level; but to capitalize on this market edge and related financial benefits for the company, conformance to requirements is paramount. Conformance to requirements best describes which of the following terms?
A. Grade
B. Scope
C. Quality
D. Technical information
Answer: C
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Quality is most simply and accurately defined as the extent to which a deliverable meets requirements.
You are a project manager and your project is progressing according to schedule. You have done extensive planning and are actively working with your team to ensure deliverables meet customer expectations. Manage Quality involves which of the following?
A. Defining organizational quality practices to ensure the customer is satisfied
B. Inspecting deliverables to verify requirements have been met
C. Application of Pareto diagrams to ensure quality processes have been implemented in accordance with the Quality Management Plan
D. Auditing the quality requirements and the quality control results to ensure appropriate quality standards are utilized
Answer: D
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Manage Quality is the process of auditing the quality requirements and the results from control quality measurements to ensure appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used. It also is used to ensure the team is following through with the quality management processes set forth in the Quality Management Plan.
Before any coding has begun you have gathered all team members together to discuss the acceptance criteria for the product. You plan to have the team develop and define automated acceptance criteria then write just enough code to conduct the automated tests. What is this concept called?
A. Statistical sampling
B. ATDD
C. SWOT
D. FMEA
Answer: B
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
ATDD stands for Acceptance Test Driven Development. Statistical sampling is used to establish the amount of testing required to make informed decisions about the population being studied, a key component of your quality management plan. SWOT, identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats - is a tool used for risk identification as the FMEA - failure modes and effects analysis. Read more in the Agile Practice Guide on page 56. Test tip: make sure to know all approved acronyms in the PMBOK Guide p 696 and Agile Practice Guide p 149
You are the project manager for a small start-up marketing company. Project management is a new concept to the organization and you are working to establish a supportive PMO. You are discussing activity duration steps with a junior project manager. Estimate Activity Durations inputs include all of the following except which one?
A. Activity resource requirements
B. Basis of estimates
C. Activity list
D. Project scope statement
Answer: B
Process - Task 6 - Manage Schedule
The inputs of the Estimate Activity Durations process are schedule management plan, activity list, activity attributes, activity resource requirements, resource calendars, project scope statement, risk register, resource breakdown structure, enterprises environmental factors, and organizational process assets. Basis of estimates is an output of the Estimate Costs process (where you describe how you arrived at cost estimates).
Your Agile team will be delivering a payroll function during this sprint and they are determining the best approach for testing this deliverable. There are more than 150,000 employees that will need to be run through the system and your team cannot possibly test every single one. What tool would you advise them to use to reduce the number of tests?
A. Ishikawa Diagram
B. Statistical Sampling
C. Statistical Process Chart
D. Pareto Chart
Answer: B
Process - Task 7 - Manage Quality
Statistical Sampling is testing a representative sample of the population instead of the entire sample which will reduce the number of tests (while not compromising quality). Ishikawa is used to get to a root cause of an issue. Statistical Process Charts (Control Charts) are used to show if a process is stable and predictable, and a Pareto Chart shows critical issues in descending order of frequency.
