Notes Flashcards
What does it mean if your standard deviation for PERT estimating is within 2 deviation?
95% accuracy.
What does it mean if your standard deviation for PERT estimating is within 1 deviation?
you are 68% accurate.
What is a con of bottom up estimating?
takes a long time to do.
What is a con of analogous/top down estimating?
cost assignment is difficult.
What are constraints to consider when estimating activity durations?
law of diminishing returns, number of resources to use, theory of constraints/bottleneck, advances in tech, motivation of staff.
What are enablers
illustration of work associated with the task.
A checklist can be used for what in the schedule process?
To format the work package document
What should a work package document include?
describe work, quality check, completion measures.
4 things needed to create the schedule
schedules of people/vendors working the project
times they are unavailable and vacation time for project staff,
conflicting projects your team members are working,
schedules for materials and resources.
What are control accounts?
The first level of the WBS and are composed from the project charter.
What should be included in the project benefits management plan?
strategic alignment, timeframe for seeing benefits, benefit owner, success measures, metrics, assumptions, risks
How is 86% of a bell shaped curve represented
halfway between the top of the bell curve and the worst-case scenario.
What is Parkinson’s Law
statistical observation of economics. The demand expands to match the supply.
What are the 4 dependency types?
mandatory/hard logic, discretionary/soft logic, external, and internal.
What is the best practice dependency type to use?
discretionary/soft logic
What are the 4 types of predecessor relationships?
Finish to start
Finish to finish
Start to start
Start to finish
Define a finish to start predecessor relationship
must finish one task before another can begin.
define a finish to finish predecessor relationship
2 or more activities need to finish before the next starts
define a start to start predecessor relationship
when one activity finishes, 2 or more activities can begin
define a start to finish predecessor relationship
successor activity cannot finish until the predecessor has started.
True or false: an activity’s Total Float can either be greater than or equal to Free Float
true
True or False: free float can be larger than its value for total float?
False. Free Float can never be larger than its value for Total Float
What does it mean if the total float is negative?
the project cannot be finished at the desired time without changing the logic or durations
Another name for a Gantt chart
- Logic bar chart
What is a summary schedule?
reflects the work package level summary of resource days
What is a hammock schedule?
displays at the control account level
What is a last resort for solving bottlenecks in the schedule?
break the critical path
What does VVBs stand for?
validation/verification bodies
What is the role of VVBs?
qualified, independent third-party auditors who are experts in the scope or technical area they audit.
What is VBS?
Value Breakdown Structure
What is the critical chain method?
looks mainly at bottlenecks and probable interrelated risks. Uses resource buffers to these areas of concern and leaves a buffer at the end of the project.
2 methods to account for contingencies in the schedule
either add 10-15% to each step OR add time for the entire due date.
Input to create the scope baseline
The WBS. Scope baseline is the aggregate of all work packages
What should be included in a team charter?
statement of team values, agreements, and practices. Guidelines for communication, communication tools, decisions making process, conflict resolution process, and meeting schedule.
RAM chart
responsibility assignment matrix
RACI/RICA
RAM chart with intelligence
What does a RACI chart map?
charts responsibility, accountable, consulted, informed.
A RACI can also be used to…
Evaluate if each component is needed for the project.
4 types of cost
- Direct
- Indirect
- Fixed
- Variable
Example of variable cost
labor and materials
Internal Rate of Return definition
interest rate at which the cash inflow and cash outflow of the project equal zero
2 points about internal rate of return
- being higher indicates a more desirable project.
- calculated via iterative methods.
What are burdened costs?
your employee’s cost for hours worked.
Name 4 tools for estimating costs
estimation methods, SME’s, analogous estimating, parametric estimating, 3-point estimating, bottom-up budget, top-down budget, alternatives analysis, reserve analysis, cost quality, PMIS, decision making, voting, computerized.
Output of budget creation
project funding requirements
Chart of accounts
account codes used by accounting department to charge to a budget broken down by the functional environment structure.
The cost baseline should not include what type of reserve?
management reserves
Metrics for cost forecasting not in earned value management
ROI, IRR, NPV, Payback, BCR, opportunity cost
What are 6 tools for establishing quality measures?
benchmarking, brainstorming, interviews, cost benefit analysis, cost of quality, multicriteria decisions analysis, flowcharts, logical data modeling, matrix diagrams, mind mapping, checklists, affinity diagrams, Paredo diagram.
8 quality methods
Demings, ISO, TQM, Six Sigma, LEAN, FMEA, VOC, COQ
What is burn rate in an Agile environment?
an estimating technique that indicates how well a project is, or is not, staying within the project budget.
Configuration management
identifying, tracking and protecting a project’s deliverables or products from unauthorised change.
Difference between project management and configuration management
project management controls changes related to project management plans, processes, and baselines. Configuration management you manage changes related to product scope
Output of a well controlled configuration management process
confidence that the current version of any configuration item is known; and.
documented traceability between versions of each configuration item.
5 pillars of configuration management
Planning and Management. Identification. Change Management. Status Accounting. Verification and Audit.
Primary benefit of configuration management
consistency of systems and software.
A configuration management plan is a subset of what other plan?
project quality management plan
Output of configuration identification step
configuration baseline
Input to identify probability of risk occurrence
expert judgement or historical information from past projects
PESTLE analysis
Audit that examines Political, Economic, Sociological, technical, legal, and environmental to maximize opportunities and minimize risk.
Demings quality standard method attributes
plan, do check, act cycle
What is ISO
organization for standardization
TQM
total quality management
FMEA
failure mode and effect analysis
VOC
voice of the consumer
COQ
cost of quality
What is the fitness for youth quality methodology?
customers set quality, not creators.
What is the Kaizen quality methodology?
continuous improvement resolving low hanging fruit each time there is a review.
2 other names for a cause and effect diagram
Fishbone diagram/Ishikawa
2 non event risks
variability risk and ambiguity risk
Variability risk
uncertainty about activity or decision.
Tool to address variability risk
Monte Carlo simulations
ambiguity risk
uncertainty due to imperfect knowledge
Tools for addressing ambiguity risk
incremental development methodology, prototyping, simulation
3 risk types
pure, speculative, business risk
OR
known, predictable, unpredictable
pure risk
2 outcomes. Bad occurred or nothing happened
speculative risk
3 outcomes. Positive, negative, or nothing happened
2 risk characteristics
uncertainty and loss
what is a loss risk characteristic
unwanted consequences
Example of political risks
if the sponsor controls the stakeholders, influence from negative stakeholders, communication quality with stakeholders.
PESTLE
political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental.
TECOP
technical, environmental, commercial, operational, political.
VUCA
volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity
input to risk register aka risk report aka risk identification list
SWOT analysis, SME’s, data
Tool for qualitative risk analysis
probability and impact matrix aka risk assessment chart
tools for quantitative risk analysis
SME’s, data gathering, interviews, simulations, sensitivity analysis, influence diagrams, decision tree analysis, Monte Carlo, tornado diagrams.
Tornado diagram
based on sensitivity and shows potential impact.
Evaluation decision making tools
Expected Monetary Value, decision tree diagram, PERT
inputs into decision tree diagram
PERT calculations and EMV
What should a risk response plan include?
aka contingency plan
how will you know when an event has happened, what alarms will look like, when to act, who is responsible, who needs to be informed, what additional resources are needed, what will happen when event occurs, response actions to the event, consequences the risk event creates
1 tool for developing a risk response
SME, data gathering, interviews, strategies for threats, strategies for opportunities, contingent response strategy, alternative analysis, cost benefit analysis, multicriteria decision analysis, risk burn down graph.
what is the negative response strategy of mitigation?
minimize
MOAs
memoranda of agreements
SLAs
service level agreements
MSA
master service agreements
2 scope of work approaches
design and functionality
5 components of contracts
capacity, consideration ,offer, legal purpose, acceptance
Who has the most risk in a Fixed Price aka lump sum contract?
seller
Who has the most risk in a time and materials contract?
buyer
Who has the most risk in a cost reimbursement contract?
buyer
