MBA 742 - Project Management Professional Concepts Module 2 Terms Flashcards
What is Product Scope?
The features and functions that characterize a product, service or result
What is Project Scope?
The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions. The term project scope is sometimes viewed as including product scope
What is Scope Baseline?
The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and its associated WBS dictionary, that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison.
What is WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)?
Work Breakdown Structure
What is Scope Change?
Any change to the project scope. A change almost always requires an adjustment to the project cost or schedule.
What is Scope Creep?
The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources.
What is Scope Management Plan?
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and verified.
What is the Requirements Management Plan?
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and verified.
What is Decomposition?
A technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts.
What is the Requirements Traceability Matrix?
A grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
What are the major components of Project Scope Management?
The processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully
True
True or False: Managing Project Scope includes determining what is AND what is NOT included in the project
What is gold plating?
This refers to when a project team delivers more than what is expected based on the product/project scope
What are the steps in the Scope Management Process?
1) Plan Scope Management 2) Collect Requirements 3) Define Scope 4) Create WBS 5) Validate Scope 6) Control Scope
What is the Plan Scope Management Process?
The process of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be: Defined, Validated and Controlled
What are the Inputs for planning in the Scope Management Process?
Project Management Plan
Project Charter
Enterprise Environmental Factors
Organizational Process Assets
What are the Tools and Techniques in Planning Scope Management Process?
Expert Judgement
Data Analysis
Meetings
What are the Outputs in Planning Scope Management Process?
The Scope Management Plan and Requirements Management Plan
What is the key benefit of the Plan Scope Management Process?
It provides direction on how to manage scope throughout the entire process
What is the Collect Requirements Process?
The process of determining, documenting, and managing stakeholder needs and requirements to meet project objectives
What is the key benefit of the Collect Requirements Process?
It provides a basis to define and manage project and product scope
What are the inputs of the Collect Requirements Process?
Project Charter
Project Management Plan
Procut Documents (Scope Management Plan, Requirements Management Plan, Stakeholder Management Plan, Stakeholder register)
Business documents
What are the tools and techniques of the Collect Requirements Process?
Expert Judgement
Data Gathering (like interviews, questionnaires, surveys and observations)
Data Analysis (like benchmarking)
Prototypes
Context Diagrams
What are the outputs of the Collect Requirements Process?
Requirements Documentation
Requirements Traceability Matrix
What is benchmarking?
The comparison of actual or planned practices, such as processes and operations, to those of comparable organizations to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring performance.
What are context diagrams?
A visual depiction of the product scope showing a business system(process, showing a business system (process, equipment, computer system, etc.), and how people and other systems (actors) interact with it
What are Observations (AKA “Shadowing”)?
A technique that provides a direct way of viewing individuals in their environment performing their jobs or tasks and carrying out processes
What are Prototypes?
A method of obtaining early feedback on requirements by providing a working model of the expected product before actually building it
What are questionnaires and surveys?
Written sets of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from a large number of respondents.
What are Requirements Documentation?
A description of how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
What are Requirements Traceability Matrix?
A grid that links product requirements to their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
This can be further defined as the ability to describe and trace the life of a requirement, in both a forward and backward direction. This allows the project team to ensure that all original sources of the requirements are identified and that all the requirements have been used as part of the implementation.
What does Define Scope Process mean?
The process of developing a detailed description of the project and the product
What is the key benefit of the Define Scope Process?
It provides a clear account of what is in and out of scope for the project. This, once approved, serves as the basis for a common understanding of the project objectives and deliverables among all project stakeholders.
What are the inputs for the define scope process?
The Project Management Plan which includes the Scope Management Plan
Project Charter
Project Documents including assumption log, requirements documentation and risk register
Organizational Process Assets
What are the tools and techniques for the define scope process?
Expert Judgement
Data Analysis including alternative generation
Interpersonal Team Skills including facilitation workshops and product analysis
What are the outputs for the define scope process?
Project Scope Statement
Project Documents Updates (Assumption Log, Requirements Documentation, Requirements Traceability Matrix)
What is the Risk Register?
This tool contains response strategies that may affect the project scope, such as reducing or changing project and product scope to avoid or mitigate a risk. We will be discussing risk and risk management in more detail in later modules.
What is Product Analysis?
For projects that have a product as a deliverable, product analysis is a tool to define scope that generally means asking questions about a product and forming answers to describe the use, characteristics, and other the relevant aspects of what is going to be manufactured.
What is Alternatives Generation?
A technique used to develop as many potential options as possible in order to identify different approaches to execute and perform the work of the project.
What are Facilitated Workshops?
An elicitation technique using focused sessions that bring key cross-functional stakeholders together to define product requirements.
What is Alternative Generations?
A technique used to aid in the Define Scope process including Alternative Analysis, Brainstorming, Nominal Group Technique, Mind Mapping
In the theme of Alternative Generation, what is Alternative Analysis?
A technique used to evaluate identified options in order to select which options or approaches to use to execute and perform the work of the project
In the theme of Alternative Generation, what is Brainstorming?
A general data gathering and creativity technique that can be used to identify risks, ideas, or solutions to issues by using a group of team members or subject matter experts.
In the theme of Alternative Generation, what is Nominal Group Technique?
A technique that enhances brainstorming with a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further brainstorming or for prioritization.
In the theme of Alternative Generation, what is Mind Mapping?
Technique used to consolidate ideas created through individual brainstorming sessions into a single map to reflect commonality and differences in understanding and to generate new ideas.
The Create WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) process is the process of subdividing project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components
What do we mean by Create WBS Process?
What does WBS stand for?
Work Breakdown Structure
What is the key benefit of the Create WBS process?
It provides a structured vision of what has to be delivered
What are WBS Process inputs?
Project Management Plan including Scope Management Plan
Project Documents including Project Scope Statement and Requirements Documentation
Enterprise Environmental Factors
Organizational Process Assets
What are WBS Process tools and techniques?
Decomposition and Expert Judgement
What are WBS Process Outputs?
Scope Baseline and Project Documents Updates including Assumption Log and Requirements Documentation
What is Documentation in the Create WBS Process context?
A technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts. Note that sometimes the terms “decompose” and “deconstruct” are used interchangeably in this context
What is the objective of creating a WBS?
To identify all required deliverables and work packages needed to complete the project. A work package is the work identified at the lowest level of the WBS for which cost and duration can be estimated and
managed
What are the 5 Steps on Decomposition?
1) Gather information on major project deliverables (SOW)
2) Start development of the WBS at the highest level
3) Begin decomposing each of the higher WBS components into lowe level deliverables
4) Identify each work package and WBS components with a unique code (1, 2, 3)
5) Ensure that the WBS is at sufficient level to estimate from
What is a Control Account?
A management control point where scope, budget, actual cost, and schedule are integrated and compared to earned value for performance measurement. Each control account may include one or more work packages, but each of the work packages should be associated with only one control account
For illustration purposes, let’s use a simple WBS for the building of a house. This WBS
is incomplete, but shows the decomposition from higher levels of work to the more
specific levels of work involved in each item. You can see that it is a process of
breaking down identified work items into their smaller components. The goal is to
break work down into activities that can be communicated, related and estimated as
well as possible.
See Chart
What is the Validate Scope Process?
The process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables
What is the key benefit of the Validate Scope Process?
Validating the deliverables increases the chance of final acceptance of the project
What are the Inputs of the Validate Scope Process?
Project Management Plan including Scope Management Plan and Requirements Management Plan
Project Documents including requirements traceability matrix, requirements documentation, lessons learned register, and quality reports
Verified deliverables
Work Performance data
What are the Tools and Techniques of the Validate Scope Process?
Inspection
Decision Making (such as Voting)
What are the Outputs of the Validate Scope Process?
Acceptable Deliverables
Change Requests
Work Performance Information
Project Documentation Updates including lessons learned register, requirements documentation and requirements traceability matrix
True or False: In the Validate Scope process, the project manager also compares performance to
baselines and/or terms and conditions of a contract. The results will determine if the
project or phase should be accepted as complete or if corrective action is required
TRUE
What is Inspection in the context of the Validate Scope Process?
Examining or measuring to verify whether an activity, component, product, result, or service conforms to the specified requirements. Inspections might be conducted through formal reviews, audits, walk-throughs, etc.
What is the ‘defects’ list in the context of the Validate Scope Process?
A common method for recording incomplete or incorrect work is a “defects” list. Often, this defects list then must be completed for the project or phase to be accepted
What is the Control Scope Process?
The process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline
What is the key benefit to the Control Scope process?
It allows the scope baseline to be maintained throughout the project
What are the Inputs of the Control Scope Process?
Project Management Plan
Project Documents
Organizational Process Assets
Work performance Data
What are the Tools and Techniques of the Control Scope Process?
Data Analysis
What are the Outputs of the Control Scope Process?
Project Management Plan Updates
Change Requests
Work Performance Information
Project Document Updates
Organizational Process Assets Updates
What is Variance Analysis?
A technique for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance
What can we decipher from the Variance Analysis graph? Enter the image here
If you know what work should be complete now, and you can determine
what work has been completed now, any variance between the two is very useful information for many reasons
What is Scope Creep?
The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to Time/Schedule, Cost/Budget, and resources
What are the impacts of Scope Creep?
Impact to Time/Schedule, Cost/Budget, and resources without adjusting those constraints may impact quality and risk (typically negatively as you would expect).
What is an Activity List?
A documented tabulation of schedule activities that shows the activity description, activity identifier, and a sufficiently detailed scope of work description so project team members understand what work is to be performed.
What are Activity Attributes?
Multiple attributes associated with each schedule activity that can be included within the activity list. Activity attributes include activity codes, predecessor activities, successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints, and assumptions.
What is a Milestone List?
A list identifying all project milestones and normally indicates whether the milestone is mandatory or optional
What is a Mandatory Dependency?
AKA Hard Logic - A relationship that is contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work
What is a Discretionary Dependency?
AKA Preferred or Soft Logic - A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or an aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired
What is an Internal Dependency?
Internal dependencies involve a precedence relationship between project activities and are generally inside the project teams control
What is an External Dependency?
External dependencies involve a relationship between project activities and non-project activities. These dependencies are usually outside of the teams control
What are Logical Relationships?
A dependency between two activities, or between an activity and a milestone
What is lag time?
The amount of time whereby a successor activity is required to be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity
What is lead time?
The amount of time whereby a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor activity
What is predecessor Activity?
An activity that logically comes before a dependent activity in a schedule
What is successor activity?
A dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in a schedule.
What is the direct predecessor into Schedule Management?
Scope Management
Scope Management leads directly into Schedule Management
What is Plan Schedule Management?
The process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing and controlling the project schedule
What is the key benefit of the Plan Schedule Management process?
It provides guidance on how the schedule will be managed
What are inputs in Plan Schedule Management?
Project Management Plan
Project Charter
Enterprise Environmental Factors
Organizational Process Assets
What are tools and techniques for Plan Schedule Management?
Expert Judgement
Data Analysis
Meetings
What are outputs in Plan Schedule Management?
The Schedule Management Plan
What is the schedule management plan?
A component of the project management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.
What is the Define Activities Process?
The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables
What is the key benefit of the define activities process?
It breaks down the work packages in the WBS into specific activities
What are inputs in the define activities process?
Project Management Plan including Schedule Management Plan and Scope Baseline
Enterprise Environmental Factors
Organizational Process Assets
What are Tools and Techniques for define activities process?
Decomposition
Rolling Wave Planning
Expert Judgement
Meetings
What are the Outputs for define activities process?
Activity List
Activity Attributes
Milestone List
Change Requests
Project Management Plan Updates
What are Activity Attributes in the context of the Define Activities Process?
Multiple attributes associated with each schedule activity that can be included within the activity list.
Activity attributes include activity codes, predecessor activities, successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints, and assumptions.
What are Activity Lists in the context of the Define Activities Process?
A documented tabulation of schedule activities that shows the activity description, activity identifier, and a sufficiently detailed scope of work description so project team members understand what work is to be performed.
What is a Milestone List in the context of the Define Activities Process?
A list identifying all project milestones and normally indicates whether the milestone is mandatory or optional.
What is a Milestone in the context of the Define Activities Process?
A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio. For example, when building a house, the completion of the foundation work could be considered a project Milestone. It has several distinct activities that need to be performed/delivered (for example, purchasing the materials, excavating and preparing the foundation site, pouring the concrete, waterproofing and finishing the concrete, etc.), but these distinct activities form a larger logical unit of deliverable work; a Milestone.
What is Rolling Wave Planning in the context of the Define Activities Process?
An iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while work further out in the future is planned at a higher level. As that further out work gets closer, it is then planned in detail
What is Decomposition in the context of Define Activities Process?
Each of the resulting work packages is decomposed into the specific activities required to produce the work package deliverables
What is the Sequence Activities Process?
The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities
What is the key benefit of the sequence activities process?
It defines the logical sequence of work
What are the Inputs in the Sequence Activities Process?
Project Management Plan including Schedule Management Plan
Project Documents including project scope statement, activity list, activity attributes, milestone list, requirements documentation organizational process assets
What are the Tools and Techniques in the Sequence Activities Process?
PDM (Precedence Diagramming Method)
Dependency Determination
Leads and Lags
Project Management Information System
What are the Outputs in the Sequence Activities Process?
Project Schedule Network Diagrams
Project Documents Updates
What is the PDM (Precedence Diagramming Method)?
A technique used for constructing a schedule model in which activities are represented by nodes and are graphically
linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.
What is Dependency Determination?
A technique used to identify a type of dependency that is used to create the logical relationships between predecessor or successor activities
What is a Project Schedule Network Diagram?
A graphical representation of the logical relationships among the project schedule activities. This diagram is the result of the precedence diagramming effort and is an output of the Sequence Activities process
A schedule network diagram can be thought of as a flowchart that shows the order and relationships between the work that must be performed, and the Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) is the technique used to develop this schedule network diagram.
Here’s what a Project Schedule Network Diagram looks like
USe PSND Chart
What is a Precedence Relationship?
The term used in the precedence diagramming method for a logical relationship. In current usage, however, precedence relationship, logical relationship, and dependency are widely used interchangeably, regardless of the diagramming method used. See also logical relationship
What are the 4 different precedence relationships?
1) Finish-to-start (FS)
2) Finish-to-finish (FF)
3) Start-to-Start (SS)
4) Start-to-Finish (SF)
Regarding precedence relationships: what is Finish-to-Start?
A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished.
Regarding precedence relationships: what is Finish-to-Finish?
A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has finished.
Regarding precedence relationships: what is Start-to-Start?
A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started.
Regarding precedence relationships: what is Start-to-Finish?
A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started.
What is the most commonly used of the four different precedence relationships?
Fish-to-start
What is the least commonly used of the four different precedence relationships?
Start-to-finish
What is Estimate Activity Duration Process?
The process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources
What is the key benefit of the Estimate Activity Durations process?
It provides the time each activity will take to complete?
What is bottom up estimating?
A method of estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower-level components of the work breakdown structure (WBS).
What are activity resource requirements?
The types and quantities of resources required for each activity in a work package.
What are the Estimate Activity Duration Process Inputs?
Project Management Plan including Schedule Management Plan
Project Documents including activity list, activity attributes, project scope statement and risk register
Enterprise Environmental factors
Organizational Process Assets
What are the Estimate Activity Duration Process Tools and Techniques?
Expert Judgement
Analogous Estimating
Parametric Estimating
Three Point Estimating
Data Analysis
Decision Making
Meetings
What are the Estimate Activity Duration Process Output?
Activity Duration Estimates
Basis of Estimates
Project Documentation Updates
What is Analogous Estimating?
A technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data from a similar activity or project.
What is Parametric Estimating?
An estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters
What is Effort in the context of Analogous and
Parametric Estimating?
The number of labor units required to complete a schedule activity or work breakdown structure component, often expressed in hours, days, or weeks.
What is Duration in the context of Analogous and
Parametric Estimating?
The total number of work periods (not including holidays or other non working periods) required to complete a schedule activity or work breakdown structure component. Usually expressed as workdays or workweeks.
Why is it important to understand the difference between effort and duration when determining schedule estimates?
It is important to understand the difference between effort and duration to understand how the different types of estimating help in determining schedule estimates:
What is Three Point Estimating?
A technique used to estimate cost or duration by applying an average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates when there is uncertainty with the individual activity estimates.
What are the two types of Three Point Estimating?
PERT and Triangular Distribution
What is PERT (Three Point Estimating Type)?
A technique for estimating that applies a weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates when there is uncertainty with the individual activity estimates.
What is Triangular Distribution (Three Point Estimating Type)?
The more simple of the two types, here the most likely, optimistic and pessimistic estimate are simply summed and result is divided by 3.
What are the 3 values individually estimated in Three Point Estimating?
Most likely (m), Optimistic (o), and Pessimistic (p)
What does the Most Likely estimating technique mean in regards to the Three Point Estimating Type?
An estimate of the most probable activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance. This is sometimes also called the best guess (BG) estimate
What does the optimistic estimating technique mean in regards to the Three Point Estimating Type?
An estimate of the shortest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance. This estimate considers what the estimate might be if positive factors do occur
What does the pessimistic estimating technique mean in regards to the Three Point Estimating Type?
An estimate of the longest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance. This estimate considers what the estimate might be if negative factors do occur.
Here’s an image of the Three Point Estimating Triangle
See triangle below
Here’s an image of the PERT Equation
Ssee equation below
Here’s an image of the Triangular distribution equation
See equation below
