Module 1-5

Question 1

What is the difference between a project and operational work?

Answer 1

Project: Temporary and delivers unique product,service or result (on budget)
Operation: Routine and ongoing

Question 2

What is the ultimate responsibility of the project manager.

Answer 2

Produce the project deliverables on time and on budget while simultaneously satisfying the client and earning profits for the environmental firm.

Question 3

Draw the PM circle?

Answer 3

Define> Plan> Coordinate> Lead> Monitor> Control>

Question 4

Explain why reporting unpleasant results may be one of the most difficult jobs of a project manager.

Answer 4

The reports released by project managers in environmental projects must be based on defensible scientific analysis. However, the findings may highlight the need to take further actions which could cost the client many thousands of dollars. It may be difficult to report such findings and unpleasant reports may be met with several detailed questions. Reporting these types of findings may be difficult for project managers and project managers should be aware that they may need to answer several questions regarding the process used to arrive at the results as well as the results themselves.

Tl;dr Can cause the project to go over budget, making client mad

Question 5

What is a stakeholder and why are they important to project managers?

Answer 5

A person or organization that is actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. Project managers are interested in stakeholders because they may exert influence over the project or its deliverables

Question 6

Describe a public good.

Answer 6

A public good exists when a person cannot be restricted from using a good and when one person uses the good, the use does not reduce the availability of the good for another person’s use.

Question 7

Why has the public become suspect of the government’s ability to protect the environment?

Answer 7

High profile cases such as Chernobyl and Bhopal have led to public concerns about the ability of governments to balance the interests of the public and industry and as a result have forced governments to allow public individuals and groups to be involved in decisions about the environment.

Question 8

List the different stakeholder groups that are likely to be important for environmental projects.

Answer 8

Governments and regulators, the public, project proponent or client, project team, environmental firm

Question 9

What does the acronym SMART stand for?

Answer 9

Specific Measurable Aligned Realistic Time-bound

Question 10

What is project scope?

Answer 10

Project scope sets the boundaries of the project to determine what is included and what is excluded from the project at hand.

Question 11

What is a project deliverable?

Answer 11

A deliverable is the unique product, service or result that is produced by the project.

Question 12

What is a project constraint and why are they important to define?

Answer 12

Constraints are project limitations or restrictions and may internal to the project or related to events, activities or conditions external to the project. Project constraints must be identified so that they can be incorporated into the project plan.

Question 13

What are the two factors to be considered when determining whether or not to create a plan to manage a particular risk?

Answer 13

The two factors are severity if the event should occur and the probability of the occurrence of the event. If the severity of the event and probability that it will occur are simultaneously of medium to high a management plan should be developed to deal with the risky event.

Question 14

What is a WBS and what is it used for?

Answer 14

A WBS is the work breakdown structure for a project. It identifies the tasks and sub-tasks that are required to complete a project.

Question 15

When should you stop breaking down the WBS into greater detail?

Answer 15

When the time and financial resources required to complete the tasks can be reasonably estimated.

Question 16

What is the critical path, critical tasks and why are they important to the project manager?

Answer 16

The longest sequence of tasks through the project and identifies the critical tasks. Critical tasks are those which must be completed on time in order to complete the project on time. It is important for project managers because it highlights those tasks that must be managed to ensure the project is not delayed.

Question 17

What is a Gantt chart?

Answer 17

A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart where the tasks are shown on the Y axis and time is depicted on the X axis.

Question 18

What percentage of the project budget should be set aside as contingency?

Answer 18

The amount of contingency set aside for a project depends on the complexity of the project and the past practices of the organization undertaking the project.

Question 19

Describe how assignment of tasks could cause changes to the project schedule during project planning.

Answer 19

When creating the critical path unlimited resources are assumed but in some cases, unlimited resources unavailable. As a result, it may not be feasible to complete tasks concurrently due to resource limitations. If resources must complete one task before moving on to a new task, the project could be delayed. Resource limitations must be considered as part of project planning.

Question 20

What is const benefit analysis?

Answer 20

Cost benefit analysis is an economic framework for evaluating competing activities. It compares all the financial costs of completing the project against all the benefits associated with completion of the project.

Question 21

Why do corporations need to evaluate competing activities?

Answer 21

Just like individuals, private sector organizations such as corporations and government sector organizations have limited financial resources and organizations are motivated to make the best use of the resources they have under their control.

Question 22

Describe one concern associated with the application of cost-benefit analysis to some environmental projects.

Answer 22

For some environmental projects it is very difficult to convert benefits into financial terms. For example, assume a project is proposed to clean up a contaminated site. There may be real benefits associated with the clean up such as protection of human health, avoidance of future legal and financial liability and protection of other species. However, it is very difficult to identify the exact monetary value of any of these and as a result it is difficult to compare benefits against results.

Question 23

Describe the payback period.

Answer 23

The payback period is equal to the number of years that it takes to payback the original financial investment in the project.

Question 24

What is the time value of money?

Answer 24

The time value of money is an economic concept that deals with the fact that the purchasing power of a given amount of money is not the same in the future as it is today.

Question 25

What is the present value of $1,000 one year from now if the interest rate is 10%?

Answer 25

$909

Question 26

What is the future value of $1,000 one year from now if the interest rate is 10%?

Answer 26

$1,100

Question 27

What is the present value of $1,000 ten years from now if the interest rate is 10%?

Answer 27

$385

Question 28

What is the key consideration in selecting team members for project tasks?

Answer 28

The key consideration in selecting team members is to obtain the experience and skills required to complete the project tasks while making the best possible use of the financial resources of the organization.

Question 29

List some of the issues project managers should consider when coordinating human resources for environmental projects.

Answer 29

The following list is not exhaustive but provides a summary of some of the issues that should be considered.
 Ensure field workers know when, where and with whom they are working
 Accommodation, travel and travel time should be considered.
 Safety and training must be planned to be completed before project tasks are to commence.
 Management plans for drug and alcohol abuse in remote sites may be necessary.
 Plans to deal with mixed gender in remote sites may be necessary.

Question 30

What is a POP, what might it be used for and when might it by used?

Answer 30

A POP is a project orientation package which briefly describes the project and includes a variety of useful information for project team members and potentially other stakeholders. POPs are useful for communicating important project information to interested parties. POPs are often used in cases where projects are relatively large with many team members but may also be applied to smaller projects in an abbreviated form.

Question 31

List the main components of a POP.

Answer 31

The following list of POP components may be expanded or contracted depending on the requirements for the particular project.
 Project description
 Project stakeholders
 Project management structure
 Project contact list
 Project administrative procedures
 Confidentiality statement

Question 32

List considerations project managers should be aware of in coordinating non-human resources.

Answer 32

This list of considerations is not exhaustive since there is such a wide range of potential environmental projects. This list is intended only to highlight some of the areas for the project manager to be aware
 Reliability of equipment and equipment supplier
 Materials availability
 Training to operate specialized equipment
 Available time may not be equivalent to productive time for non-human resources