Project Plans Flashcards

1
Q

What is a work breakdown structure?

A

Groups project elements that organize and define total scope of the project

Levels - each lower level is more detailed by breaking down into more tasks

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2
Q

What is the basis for development of the WBS for a project?

A

The scope of the project

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3
Q

What happens to the WBS if the scope of the project changes?

A

The wbs has to change to fit the new scope

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4
Q

What is “scope change control” or “configuration management”?

A

Procedures by which the project scope may be changed

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5
Q

When can scope creep occur?

A

No clearly defined requirements

No defined scope change control

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6
Q

Constituent elements of a WBS should be described in terms of ___________

Why?

A

Tangible, verifiable results

To define when a task is complete

To introduce measures and performance analysis

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7
Q

The lower level elements of a WBS should be both necessary and sufficient for __________

A

completion of the decomposed upper level item

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8
Q

Why can future elements often not be decomposed in WBS?

A

Impossible to estimate things about the future accurately

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9
Q

Is it better to have lots of small milestones or few large milestones?

A

Lots of small

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10
Q

What is the optimum number of people to assign to each small task?

Why?

A

1

More likely to get done

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11
Q

What is the ETDVX model?

A

A generic compliance model

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12
Q

What does ETDVX stand for?

A

Entry - pre conditions to be met before the task

Task - what is to be done, by who, where etc.

Deliverable

Validation - assurance of the quality of the task

Exit - post conditions

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13
Q

What is a dependency/precedence table?

A

Table that shows tasks, durations and predecessors of tasks

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14
Q

What is an activity network?

A

A visual diagram of the precedence table

Nodes represent activities

Connections show dependencies

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15
Q

What does a node in an activity network look like?

A

A = task

5 = duration

A : 5 |

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16
Q

What is the end prodct of the task decomposition process?

A

Activity network diagram

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17
Q

What should the activity network diagram be accompanied by?

A

Narrative to explain dependencies

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18
Q

What is effort?

A

The total time spent by all resources on a specific task

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19
Q

What is activity duration?

A

How long it will take to complete the activity (elapsed time)

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20
Q

What is a path in CPA?

A

Sequence of activites that starts with a beginning activity, travels through series of intermediate successors, and ends with an ending activity

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21
Q

What is a critical path?

A

Any path whose length is equal to the maximum possible length in a network

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22
Q

How is the length of a path defined?

A

The total time it takes to go through the complete path

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23
Q

How do you calculate the forward path in CPA?

A

Calculate the earliest start time and earliest finish time for each task

24
Q

What is the EST for the beginning activity?

A

0

25
Q

How do you calculate the EFT for an activity?

A

The maximum EFT of its predecessors plus its duration

26
Q

What do you calculate in the backward path in CPA?

A

Latest start and finish times

27
Q

How do you calculate the LST for an activity?

A

The LFT minus the duration

28
Q

How do you calculate the LFT for an activity?

A

The minimum LST for all of its successors

29
Q

What is Slack in CPA?

A

The amount of time that an activity can be delayed beyond its EST or EFT without delaying the project

30
Q

How do you determine which activities are on the critical path?

A

The activities with the minimum slack

31
Q

How do you calculate slack?

A

LFT - EFT

or

LST - EST

32
Q

Why is critical path important?

A

Delay on critical path means delay on project completion

Improvement of total project duration is usually due to improvement on critical path

33
Q
A
34
Q

What is fast tracking?

A

Performing activities in parallel instead of sequentially

More incremental development

Increased rework

35
Q

What is crashing? (compression method)

A

Adding more/reassigning resources

Not always realistic

Increased costs

36
Q

What are the 5 key stakeholders in a project?

A

Organisation - employs the programmers

Project Manager - manages the project

Customer - will use the product

Team members - Do the work on the project

Sponsor - funds the project

37
Q

What is the effort of a task?

A

The total time spent by all resources on a task

e.g. how many programmer days

38
Q

Duration does not include _______ days

A

non-working

39
Q

What is resource?

A

The amount of work that can be done per day from all of the resources assigned to the task

40
Q

What is the “formula” for duration?

A

Duration = Total effort/Resource

41
Q

What impact can dependencies have on duration?

A

Can increase it - not all resources may be able to work on the same task at the same time because some might have another task to do first

42
Q

What is effort measured in?

A

person weeks, person months, person days, person hours etc.

43
Q

What are the 6 steps of the estimation process?

A

Establish scope - error margin, time it is required

Allocate resources to do the estimation

Pin down requirements

Obtain key indicators - facts and measures

Use independent techniques - different tools, methods

Consolidate differences between results

44
Q

What are some useful indicators?

A

System size - e.g. lines of code

Quality attributes - reliability, maintainability

Productivity factors

Costs

45
Q

How can staff affect productivity?

A

Motivation, capability, experience, teamwork

46
Q

How can organisation affect productivity?

A

Methodology, decision mechanism, stability, communications, process model, location

47
Q

What are the 3 rules for time recording?

A

Completeness: all project time even unpaid

Honesty: not influenced by anything

Compatibility: agreed units

48
Q

What are 4 approaches to effort estimation?

A

Estimating by analogy

Algorithmic model

Expert Judgment/Guesses

Price to Win

49
Q

What is estimation by analogy?

What is the danger of it?

A

Using results of similar projects from the past as the basis of the estimate

possibility of false analogy due to projects not quite matching up, lack of formal method

50
Q

What is the algorithmic model of effort estimation?

A

Effort expressed as function or logarithm of one or more variables

51
Q

What is the Delphi method of estimation?

A

Get wide number of experts with relevant experience to make initial estimate

Second round where each expert revises his decision based on other experts decisions and inputs

Take the median

52
Q

What is price to win method of effort estimation?

A

Taking the cost and time expectation of the sponsor without actually validating it; i.e. winning the contract at whatever cost

53
Q

What is resource leveling?

A

Limiting the differences in the level of resources between time units by e.g. splitting activities, using alternative dependencies, extending the project..

54
Q

What is Finish-to-Start task dependency?

A

B cannot start until A has finished

55
Q

What is start-to-start task dependency?

A

B cannot start until A starts

56
Q

What is finish-to-finish task dependency?

A

B cannot finish until A has finished

57
Q

What is start-to-finish task dependency?

A

B cannot finish until A has started