Manage Schedule - Prep Questions Flashcards
The team wants to refine their understanding of what needs to be done before scheduling the project. The team will rely on the decomposition technique to identify:
A. Deliverables and schedule activities
B. Schedule activities and dependencies
C. Schedule activities and requirements
D. Work packages and activities
D. Work packages and activities
The decomposition technique decomposes deliverables into work packages and work packages into activities (answer D). The decomposition technique does not identify deliverables (answer A), dependencies (answer B) and requirements (answer C).
An agile team is developing an e-commerce website. The product owner wants to understand how the sprint work is progressing towards completion. Which of the following may the product owner check?
A. Scrum board
B. Release burndown chart
C. Product backlog
D. Product roadmap
A. Scrum board
A scrum board is used to visualize how the sprint work is progressing towards completion.
You have just joined an existing scrum team that has been working together for several months. The team is using a scrum board to visualize work information. Which of the following statements BEST describes a scrum boards?
A. Shows the tasks’ priorities
B. Shows the amount of work left
C. Shows how tasks progress towards completion
D. Shows how the product Will evolve
C. Shows how tasks progress towards completion
A scrum board is used to visualize how the sprint work is progressing towards completion.
Your project will implement the company’s new ticketing system. You are calculating late start and late finish dates by working backwards through the network diagram. Which of the following practice are you performing?
A. Schedule compression
B. Backward pass
C. Reverse scheduling
D. Reverse leveling
B. Backward pass
The backward pass calculates the late start and late finish dates of project activities, by moving backwards throughout the network diagram.
A junior project manager is using the critical path method to develop the project schedule? You should remind the project manager that the critical path method does not take __________ into account.
A. Schedule activities
B. Resource availability
C. Schedule risk provisions
D. Dependencies
B. Resource availability
The critical path method does not take resource availability into account (answer B). The critical path method takes activities (answer A), contingency reserves (answer C) and dependencies (answer D) into account.
A critical stakeholder wants to know if the team will be able to complete the accepted work within the current iteration. You should refer the stakeholder to the ___________.
A. Product backlog
B. Performance report
C. Product roadmap
D. Iteration burndown chart
D. Iteration burndown chart
Iteration burndown charts are commonly used in agile projects to represent planned and actual sprint performance (answer D).
The product owner is updating the release plan for the current release. Which of the following statements is correct?
A. The product backlog items that Will be completed within the remaining iterations are firmly defined because the release is timeboxed
B. The product backlog items that Will be completed within the remaining iterations are firmly defined because the sprints are timeboxed
C. The number of iterations required to complete the minimum viable product are firmly defined because the release is timeboxed
D. The number of iterations required to complete the selected product backlog items may vary because the release is scopeboxed
D. The number of iterations required to complete the selected product backlog items may vary because the release is scopeboxed
A scopeboxed release plan determines the number of iterations required to complete a specific set of product backlog items (answer D). The product backlog items that will be completed within the remaining iterations may vary when the release is timeboxed (answers A and B). The of iterations required to complete the minimum viable product may vary (answer C).
You recently joined a government agency and were assigned to an important project. You collected the following estimates for the duration of an activity: Optimistic = 4 days, Most Likely = 6 days,
Pessimistic = 12 days. What is the estimated duration using the Beta estimation technique?
A. 6.6
B. 7 33
C. 8
D. 40
A. 6.6
The Beta expected duration is calculated as (o+p+4pm)/6., using an optimistic (o), pessimistic (p) and most likely (m). Therefore the three-point estimate is 6.7.
An agile team has a total of six members, three members who work full time and three members who work part time. At the beginning of the second sprint, team members are defining the tasks required
to meet the sprint goal. Which of the following statements regarding tasks are correct? (Choose three.)
A. They may be displayed in a Kanban board
B. They are defined during product backlog refinement
C. They are recorded in the product backlog
D. Should have sufficient detail to ensure that team members understand how the work Will be done
E. They are the actions required to complete product backlog items
F. They are a concise and intuitive description of a feature
A. They may be displayed in a Kanban board
D. Should have sufficient detail to ensure that team members understand how the work Will be done
E. They are the actions required to complete product backlog items
Tasks represent small actions required to create product backlog items (answers D and E). Tasks may be recorded in the kanban board (answer A). Tasks are defined as part of sprint planning (answer B) and are not recorded in the product backlog (answer C). A user story is a concise and intuitive description of a feature (answer F).
A financial institution needs to release a new service until the end of the current year. During the project early stages, the project manager is considering several crashing alternatives to reduce the
project overall duration. All of the following are valid alternatives to crash the schedule, EXCEPT:
A. Allocating more resources to critical activities
B. Shifting resources from non-critical activities to critical activities
C. Adjusting the activity duration estimates
D. Using more skilled resources
C. Adjusting the activity duration estimates
The project manager should not adjust the activity duration estimates (answer C) without adjusting other project constraints. The remaining answers represent valid crashing approaches.
You have just taken over a project that is running behind schedule. The sponsor has asked you to compress the schedule without using additional resources. What is the BEST course of action?
A. Level the existing resources
B. Crash the schedule
C. Fast track the schedule
D. Run a schedule simulation
C. Fast track the schedule
Fast tracking accelerates the schedule by overlapping schedule activities that would usually be done sequentially (answer C). Resource leveling (answer A) and schedule simulations (answer D) do not shorten the schedule duration. Crashing (answer B) could compress the schedule but would require bringing in additional resources.
An activity has an optimistic estimate of 2 days, a most likely estimate of 5 days and a pessimistic estimate of 14 days. Using the Beta technique, what would be the activity standard deviation?
A. 2
B. 6
C. 8
D. 12
A. 2
Beta uses the formula Sigma = (P-O)/6, where O is the optimistic estimate and P is the pessimistic estimate. Therefore, sigma = (14-2)/6=2.
You are working with senior management establishing a common understanding of how the schedule will be managed. Which of the following may you define?
A. Adopted schedule management standards and schedule management responsibilities
B. Schedule data and adopted schedule performance metrics
C. Adopted schedule management standards and activity attributes
D. Schedule reporting formats and schedule forecasts
A. Adopted schedule management standards and schedule management responsibilities
The adopted schedule management standards and schedule management responsibilities are part of the schedule management plan (answer A). Schedule data (answer B) is an output of schedule development. Activity attributes (answer C) are defined in the define activities process. Schedule forecasts (answer D) are an output of the control schedule process.
Which of the following statements regarding the critical path method (CPM) are correct? (Choose three.)
A. Increasing the number of critical paths reduces the schedule risk
B. The critical path activities can have zero or positive free float
C. Each project only has one critical path
D. The critical path activities can have zero or negative float
E. The critical path method is used to level project resources
F. A project may have a negative float
B. The critical path activities can have zero or positive free float
D. The critical path activities can have zero or negative float
F. A project may have a negative float
Your construction company estimates the time required to paint a house assuming that it takes 30 minutes per square meter of surface painted. Which estimating technique is your company using?
A. Formula estimating
B. Heuristic estimating
C. Parametric estimating
D. Analogous estimating
C. Parametric estimating
Parametric estimating uses a statistical relationship between historical data and project parameters.
In a pharmaceutical project, the quality control team can perform inspection work once the laboratory work has begun. This is an example of what type of sequence?
A. Start to Finish
B. Finish to Start
C. Finish to Finish
D. Start to Start
D. Start to Start
An agile team is developing a geographic information system. Senior management wants to know which requirements qill be delivered at the end of the remaining sprints. Who is primary responsible for providing that information?
A. Team
B. Scrum master
C. Product owner
D. Project manager
C. Product owner
The product owner is responsible for prioritizing the product backlog.
You are preparing an early estimate of the duration of your new project by comparing it with a relatively similar project recorded in the organizational knowledge base. You adopted this estimating technique because:
A. It produces accurate estimates
B. Estimates are based on an objective assessment
C. Estimates are based on detailed information
D. Estimates can be quickly obtained
D. Estimates can be quickly obtained
You are using analogous estimating to estimate the project duration. Analogous estimates can be quickly obtained (answer D). Analogous estimates are neither accurate (answer A) nor objective (answer B). Analogous estimates are not typically based on detailed information (answer C).
Activity A has a duration of 6 and can start any time. Activity B has a duration of 17 and can start any time. Activity C has a duration of 4 and can start after activity A. Activity D has a duration of 7 and can
start after activity C. Activity E has a duration of 5 and can start after activities B and D. Activity F has a duration of 5 and can start after activities E. What is the project critical path?
A. B-E-F
B. A-C-D-E-F
C. A-C-E-F
D. B-E-F and A-C-D-E-F
D. B-E-F and A-C-D-E-F
The alternative paths are:
- B-E-F with 27 days
- A-C-D-E-F with 27 days
They are both critical
Mary is estimating the detailed activities duration based on the organizational historic information. She is comparing her actual project with similar projects in the organization’s history. Which
estimating technique is Mary using?
A. Analogous
B. Lessons learned
C. Expert judgement
D. Parametric
A. Analogous
An analogous estimate estimates durations based on historical information accumulated in the organization.
An activity has an optimistic duration of 10 days, a most likely duration of 13 days and a pessimistic duration of 22 days. What is the Beta standard deviation of the activity?
A. 2
B. 4
C. 12
D. 14
A. 2
The Beta standard deviation is calculated based on the optimistic (o) and pessimistic (p) estimates. The Beta standard deviation is calculates as (p-o)/6. Therefore, the standard deviation is 2.
An agile team is developing a customer service application. The scrum master recommended the practice of estimating product backlog items relying on relative estimates. Which of the following are valid reasons for estimating based on relative estimating? (Choose two.)
A. Relative estimates express actual time
B. Relative estimates are aligned to the product vision
C. Relative estimates are timeboxed
D. Relative estimates may be used to develop accurate schedules
E. Relative estimates can accommodate uncertainty
F. Relative estimates do not require detailed information
E. Relative estimates can accommodate uncertainty
F. Relative estimates do not require detailed information
Relative estimates can accommodate uncertainty (answer E) and do not require detailed information (answer F).
You were asked to help an agile team to adopt agile practices. You want to introduce the practice of estimating product items using story points. Which of the following statements regarding story points are correct? (Choose two.)
A. They promote a shared sense of accountability
B. They express the size of a task in relation to others
C. They express the size of a specific function required to complete an item
D. They enable discussions across all the disciplines required to complete an item
E. They are tied to estimates of time periods
F. They enable the team to avoid detailed discussions about the item
B. They express the size of a task in relation to others
D. They enable discussions across all the disciplines required to complete an item
While managing a project, a major defect was identified. Which of the following options should the project manager do NEXT?
A. Ask the team to work overtime
B. Request a formal change to the project schedule to account for the additional time
C. Use the project schedule contingency to repair the identified defects
D. Reduce the time allocated to other project activities to allow the team to correct the default
C. Use the project schedule contingency to repair the identified defects
If there is still available contingency it should be used to compensate for accumulated variances.
You are preparing an early estimate of the duration of your new project by comparing it with a relatively similar project recorded in the organizational knowledge base. Which of the following statements regarding analogous estimating are correct? (Choose three.)
A. May be obtained on the early project stages
B. Can set expectations until a more precise estimate is defined
C. May be used to set an acceptable range of a future detailed estimate
D. It is a precise estimate
E. Is not a type of expert judgment
A. May be obtained on the early project stages
B. Can set expectations until a more precise estimate is defined
C. May be used to set an acceptable range of a future detailed estimate
The project is nearly finished and the team is completing the last technical deliverable. One week before the due date, the team informed the project manager that it Will not be possible to complete the project within schedule. What should be done NEXT?
A. Inform the customer that the project Will be late
B. Inform management
C. Review the communications management plan
D. Analyze available alternatives
D. Analyze available alternatives
Before informing management, or informing the customer, the project manager should analyze alternative solutions to meet the due date.
The project manager wants to determine the probability of completing the project under 4 months. Which technique should he use?
A. Probability and impact matrix
B. Sensitivity analysis
C. Monte Carlo simulation
D. Expected monetary value
C. Monte Carlo simulation
By completing multiple iterations, the Monte Carlo analysis can calculate the probabilistic distribution of the project duration.
You are leading an important research project. You are assessing the critical path to better understand the schedule flexibility. Which of the following statements regarding the critical path method is correct?
A. An activity with a positive slack can have a free slack of zero
B. The float can be calculated by subtracting the early start date from the early finish date.
C. Any activity with a slack of zero is part of the critical path
D. There is only on critical path
A. An activity with a positive slack can have a free slack of zero
An activity with a positive slack can have no free slack its delay removes slack from its successor activity. All the remaining statements are incorrect.
Activity A has a duration of 8 and can start any time. Activity B has a duration of 10 and can start after activity A. Activity C has a duration of 4 and can start after activity A. Activity D has a duration of 8 and can start after activity C. Activity E has a duration of 6 and can start after activity C. Activity F has a duration of 4 and can start after activities B,D and E. What is the project critical path?
A. A-B-F
B. A-C-D-F
C. A-C-E-F
D. A-B-F and A-C-E-F
B. A-C-D-F
The alternative paths are:
- A-B-F: 22 days
- A-C-D-F: 24 days
- A-C-E-F: 22 days
Therefore the path A-C-D-F is critical.
You need to record the project’s schedule activities, milestones and dependencies. Which document should you use?
A. Activity list
B. WBS
C. Project schedule network diagram
D. Project calendars
C. Project schedule network diagram
The project schedule network diagram represents the schedule activities, milestones and dependencies.
You are using the decomposition technique to define project activities. Before moving on to the next process, what should you do NEXT?
A. Prepare an activity template
B. Document activity attributes
C. Prepare a WBS
D. Prepare a milestone chart
B. Document activity attributes
Define activities, also includes documenting relevant information (activity attributes) that may be used by the team while completing the work.
You know that five days after beginning the development of a new software module, you can start to document the technical solution. This dependency should be modeled as a:
A. Start-to-start dependency with a five days Iag
B. Start-to-start dependency with a five days lead
C. Finish-to-start dependency with a five days slack
D. Start-to-start dependency with a five days slack
A. Start-to-start dependency with a five days Iag
There is a start-to start dependency between developing the software module and documenting the technical solution with a five days lag.
Your company initiated a project to extend the current facilities. You now need to estimate activity durations but there is no historical information from previous projects. Which estimating technique
should you use?
A. Parametric estimating
B. Analogous estimating
C. Use published commercial information and productivity metrics
D. Expert judgment
D. Expert judgment
It’s not possible to prepare analogous (answer B) and parametric estimates (answer A) because there is no historical information from previous projects. Published commercial information and productivity metrics (answer C) may be used as inputs when estimating activity durations but they are not estimating techniques. Expert judgment is, therefore, the best option (answer D).
Activity A has a duration of 8 and can start any time. Activity B has a duration of 10 and can start after activity A. Activity C has a duration of 4 and can start after activity A. Activity D has a duration of 8 and can start after activity C. Activity E has a duration of 6 and can start after activity C. Activity F has a duration of 4 and can start after activities B,D and E. What is the float of activity E?
A. 0
B. 2
C. -2
D. 12
B. 2
The alternative paths are:
- A-B-F with 22 days
- A-C-D-F with 24 days
- A-C-E-F with 22 days
Activity E is in the path A-C-E-F. Therefore it has a float of 2 days (24-22).
A contract to construct a gas platform requires that a government agency security audit be performed prior to the construction phase. This is an example of _____________.
A. Hard logic
B. Soft logic
C. Internal dependency
D. Discretionary dependency
A. Hard logic
A hard logic dependency, also known as a mandatory dependency, is created to the physical nature of the work, or results from a contract or legal requirement.
While analyzing a project activity, the project manager determined that an activity has an early start of day 6, an early finish of day 10, a late start of day 12 and no free float. What is the float of this activity?
A. 0
B. 2
C. 4
D. 6
D. 6
The float can be determined by subtracting the early start from the late start.
You have been hired to manage an industrial project. You have completed the project schedule. Before submitting it for approval you should prepare:
A. Sequence project activities
B. Prepare the schedule management plan
C. Record schedule data for future reference
D. All ofthe above
C. Record schedule data for future reference
Scheduling supporting information should be documented for future reference (answer C). The remaining options should have been performed already.
Your project is facing a schedule delay during the design phase. To identify schedule compression opportunities you have performed an analysis of the network diagram that concluded that: Activity X is delayed by 10 days and has now a slack of 1 day, activity Y is delayed by 6 days and is now on the critical path, activity Z has a negative float of 1 day. What should be the project manager ‘s priorities
while compressing the schedule?
A. X, Y, Z
B. Z, Y, X
C.Y, Z, X
D. Not enough information
D. Not enough information
We know that activity Z has a negative float of 1, but we do not know if it is on the critical path. Activity Y might also have a negative float more severe than 1.
An agile team is to develop an e-commerce application. At the beginning of the first sprint, team members are preparing a sprint backlog. Which of the following BEST describes the purpose of a
sprint planning meeting? (Choose three.)
A. Define user stories
B. Explain the reason why the sprint should be completed
C. Inspect and adapt the work
D. Inspect and adapt the product
E. Select which product backlog items Will be developed
F. Plan how to develop the selected product backlog items
B. Explain the reason why the sprint should be completed
E. Select which product backlog items Will be developed
F. Plan how to develop the selected product backlog items
Sprint planning addresses the questions: “Why should the sprint be
completed?”; “What items Will be developed?”; “How does the team plan to develop the selected items?”
In order to stay competitive, your company started an initiative to develop a transportation drone.
The sponsor has asked you to shorten the project timeline to beat the competition. How should you procceed? (Choose three.)
A. Reduce the amount of product testing
B. Adopt an incremental approach
C. Reduce the overall project duration
D. Use more resources
E. Consider negotiating product requirements
B. Adopt an incremental approach
D. Use more resources
E. Consider negotiating product requirements
The team must perform the amount of product testing required to ensure that the product is done according to quality standards (answer A). Reducing the schedule duration without redefining other project constraints is not an acceptable project management alternative (answer C). The remaining answers are valid options.
You are managing a project that will expand the IT infrastructure. The team is struggling to estimate activity durations. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
A. The project manager is not an expert in the application area
B. The scope is poorly defined
C. The team is estimating based on a parametric model
D. An analogous estimate was prepared during project initiation
B. The scope is poorly defined
Poorly defined scope can lead to difficulties while estimating activity durations. The project manager is not necessarily an expert in the application area (answer A). Parametric (answer C) and analogous estimates (answer D) do not explain why the team is struggling to estimate activity durations.
Activity A has a duration of 8 and can start any time. Activity B has a duration of 10 and can start after activity A. Activity C has a duration of 4 and can start after activity A. Activity D has a duration of 8 and can start after activity C. Activity E has a duration of 6 and can start after activity C. Activity F has a duration of 4 and can start after activities B,D and E. If the project deadline were 24, what would be
the float of activity E?
A. 0
B. 4
C. 2
D. 6
C. 2
The alternative paths are:
A:B:F with 22 days
A:C:D:F with 24 days
A:C:e:F with 22 days
Activity E is in the path A:C:E:F. Therefore it has a float of 2 days. If there is a deadline of 24 days, the float of activity E does not change.
A project has been authorized to develop a new mobile phone. You are preparing a list of milestones. Which of the following statements regarding milestones are correct? (Choose three.)
A. Senior management may impose milestones
B. They can be used as checkpoints
C. They are imposed dates
D. They are small work activities
E. They are formal project reviews
F. They are zero duration events
A. Senior management may impose milestones
B. They can be used as checkpoints
F. They are zero duration events
Milestones are zero duration events (answer F) that may be used as checkpoints (answer B). Senior management may define milestones (answer A). The remaining statements are incorrect.
The PMO wants projects managers to produce estimates using a combination of historical information and statistics. The PMO will be focused on _________.
A. Developing parametric models
B. Preparing parametric estimates that can be used as reference for future projects
C. Developing quantitative risk analysis procedures
D. Preparing guidelines for using analogous estimates combined with PERT
A. Developing parametric models
The parametric estimate uses a statistical relationship between historical data and project variables. The PMO should prepare a model that can be used by the projects.
You are leading a complex project adopting an agile approach. The team wants to explain to the product owner how the selected product backlog items will be developed. How should the team
proceed?
A. Ensure that the product owner attends each daily standup
B. Share the definition of done
C. Ensure that the product owner receives frequent performance reports
D. Prepare an iteration backlog
D. Prepare an iteration backlog
The iteration backlog clarifies the details of each item and determine the work and effort required to complete it.
You have just determined that your project can be completed with eleven months. However, management wants you to review the schedule to complete the project within ten months. Which of the following statements regarding your current schedule is correct?
A. The duration of the critical path has decreased by one month
B. Duration of the critical path has increased by one month
C. The project has a positive float of one month
D. The duration ofthe critical path remains the same
D. The duration ofthe critical path remains the same
Without any change to the current schedule, the new schedule deadline does not change the critical path duration.
An agile team is developing product features to the two business units that are funding the project. Senior management wants to ensure that the team devotes 50% of its effort to each business unit.
Which of the following practice would you recommend?
A. The team should produce a consolidated product backlog and order items according to their value
B. The team should group product backlog items by business unit and ensure that it completes the same number of items per unit each sprint
C. The business unit managers should decide what the team will deliver each sprint
D. The team should group product backlog items by business unit and allocate 50% of the sprint’s estimated velocity to each unit
D. The team should group product backlog items by business unit and allocate 50% of the sprint’s estimated velocity to each unit
Velocity is an expression of the amount of work a team can complete in one iteration, typically determined by adding the story points of the fully-completed items (answer D). Ordering items by value would not ensure that the team devotes 50% of its effort to each business unit (answer A). Completing the same number of items per unit each sprint would not ensure that the team devotes 50% of its effort to each unit (answer B). An agile team must be able to plan the sprint based on a prioritized product backlog, estimates and velocity (answer C).
The team is updating a chart showing the number of points that were actually completed at the end of each iteration. As the projects progresses towards completion, the chart’s actual performance line
remains in line with the planned performance. Which of the following did the team member update?
A. Iteration burndown chart
B. Iteration burnup chart
C. Release burnup chart
D. Release burndown chart
C. Release burnup chart
The release burnup chart represents planned and actual work completed in each iteration.
Your company is taking on a scrum project for the first time. The project Will build a virtual reality headset and the team will be working in 4-week iterations. As the first sprint progresses, the team
realizes that one important item in the sprint backlog cannot be completed within the sprint. Who owns the sprint backlog?
A. Team
B. Scrum master
C. Product owner
D. Project manager
A. Team
The team owns the sprint backlog.
