Schedule Management

Question 1

You are the project manager for the constructino of a commercial office building that has very similar characteristics to a construction project performed by your company two years ago. As you perform Define Activities, what is the BEST approach?

A. Use the activity list from the previous project as your activity list.

B. Generate your activity list without looking at the previous project’s list and compare when your project’s list is complete.

C. Use the gap analysis technique to identify any differences between your project and the previous project.

D. Use the previous activity list to help construct your list.

Answer 1

D. Use the previous activity list to help construct your list.

The previous activity list would make an excellent tool to help you ensure that you are considering all activities. Any historical information such as this is thought of as an organizational process asset.

Question 2

The customer has called a project team member to request a change in the project’s schedule. The team member asks you what the procedure is for handling schedule changes. Where should you refer the team member to help him understand the procedure?

A. The project office

B. The integration management plan

C. The schedule management plan

D. Inform the team member that the customer has the ultimate decision.

Answer 2

C. The schedule management plan

The schedule management plan, discussed in chapter 4, is part of the project plan. This is the best source of information on how changes to the schedule are to be handled.

Question 3

If you were creating duration estimates for a schedule activity, which of the following tools or techniques would NOT be appropriate to use?

A. Expert judgement

B. Data analysis

C. Three-point estimating

D. Least-squares estimating

Answer 3

D. Least-squares estimating

Since we are creating activity duration estimates, we are performing the process of Estimate Activity Durations. Answers A, B, and C are all tools used in Estimate Activity Durations, but D is a make up term.

Question 4

Senior management has called you in for a meeting to review the progress of you project. You have been allocated 15 minutes to report progress and discuss critical issues. Which of the following would be BEST to carry with you in this case?

A. A milestone chart

B. The project network diagram

C. The project management plan

D. The recent project status reports from your team members.

Answer 4

A. A milestone chart

Milestone charts show the high level status, which would be appropriate given the audience and time allocated for this update.

Question 5

Which of the following is FALSE concerning an activity’s early finish and/or late finish?

A. Early finish represents the earliest possible date an activity could finish.

B. Late finish represents the latest possible date an activity could finish without lengthening the critical path.

C. The difference between an activity’s early finish and late finish is the same as the difference between the early start and late start.

D. Early finish is typically depicted in the node’s lower left quadrant, and late finish is depicted in the lower right quadrant.

Answer 5

D. Early finish is typically depicted in the node’s lower left quadrant, and late finish is depicted in the lower right quadrant.

The early finish is typically depicted in a node’s upper right quadrant, while the late finish is in the lower right.

Question 6

The amount of time that an activity may be delayed without extending the critical path is:

A Lag

B. Grace period

C. Free factor

D. Slack

Answer 6

D. Slack

The slack (or float) is the amount of time an activity may be delayed without affecting the critical path.

Question 7

Crashing differs from fast tracking because crashing:

A. Usually decreases value

B. Usually increases the cost

C. Usually takes more time

D. Usually saves more money

Answer 7

B. Usually increases the cost

Crashing adds more resources to an activity. This usually increases the cost due to the law of diminishing returns which predicts that 10 people usually cannot complete an activity in half the time that 5 people can. The savings from crashing are rarely linear.

Question 8

If senior management tells you “The last project we did like this took us 15 months,” what estimating method is being used?

A. Delphi technique

B. Principle of activity equivalency

C. Analogous estimating

D. Bottom-up estimating

Answer 8

C. Analogous estimating

In this example management is providing you with analogous estimates. These estimates use actual durations from previous projects (historical information or organization process assets) to produce estimates for a similar project.

Question 9

You are advisin a project manager who is behind schedule on his project. The sponsor on his project is very unhappy wiht the way things have progressed and is threatening to cancel it. The sponsor has accepted a revised due date from the project manager but did not allow any increased spending. Which of the following would represent the BEST advice for the project manager in this case?

A. Fast track the schedule.

B. Request a new sponsor from senior management.

C. Crash the schedule.

D. Talk with the customer to see if budget may be increased without the sponsor’s involvement.

Answer 9

A. Fast track the schedule.

In this case, you must compress the schedule without increasing the costs. Fast tracking does not directly add cost to the project and is the best choice in this case.

Question 10

Based on the diagram, which is the correct match?

A. ES = 16, Float = 19

B. EF = 40, LS = 21

C. Float = 5, Duration = 19

D. Float = 5, LF = 40

Answer 10

D. Float = 5, LF = 40

In order to answer this question, you’ll need to calculate the duration, the float, and the late finish. The early finish is given to us as 35 (eliminating ‘B’ as a potential correct answer). To claculate the duration, subtract the early start (top left) from the early finish (top right) and add one. This works out to 35 - 16 + 1 = 20, eliminating ‘C’ as a possible answer. To calculate the float, subtract the early start from the late start. This is 21 - 16 = 5. Now we can also eliminate ‘A’ as a possibility, so we actually have enough information to guess ‘D’ as the correct answer. To confirm it, we need to calculate the late finish (LF). Late Finish = Start + duration - 1, or LF = 21 + 20 - 1 = 40.

Question 11

Which scheduling approach inserts non-working buffer time to be managed by the project manager?

A. Critical chain method

B. Critical path method

C. Resource leveling

D. Schedule modeling

Answer 11

A. Critical chain method

The critical chain method provides a buffer to be used by the project manager to protect the critical path. Typically, the team is not aware of this buffer.

Question 12

What is the BEST tool to use to calculate the critical path on a project?

A. Work breadown structure

B. GERT diagram

C. Gantt chart

D. Project network diagram

Answer 12

D. Project network diagram

The project network diagram shows duration and dependencies which would help you calculate the critical path.

Question 13

Consider the table. What is the critical path?

A. Start-A-E-H-Finish

B. Start-C-E-H-Finish

C. Start-B-D-I-Finish

D. Start-B-D-G-Finish

Answer 13

A. Start-A-E-H-Finish

The critical path is determined in 3 steps. The first step is to draw out the project network diagram. Yous should look similar to the one depicted as follows.

The next step is to list out all of the paths through the network. The six paths are:

Start-A-E-H-Finish

Start-C-E-H-Finish

Start-B-F-I-Finish

Start-B-F-G=Finish

Start-B-D-I-Finish

Start-B-D-G-Finish

The last step is to add up all of the following values associated with each path as is done below:

Start-A-E-H-Finish = 0+3+5+11+0 = 19

Start-C-E-H-Finish = 0+2+5+11+0 = 18

Start-B-F-I-Finish = 0+4+1+8+0 = 13

Start-B-F-G=Finish = 0+4+1+6+0 = 11

Start-B-D-I-Finish = 0+4+2+8+0 = 14

Start-B-D-G-Finish = 0+4+2+6+0 = 12

The critical path emerges as Start-A-E-H-Finish because the path adds up to 19, which is longer than any of the other paths. If any of the activities in this path are delayed, the finish of the project will be delayed.

Question 14

Based on the diagram, which of the following statements is true?

A. This activity is on the critical path.

B. This activity is not on the critical path.

C. The activity shown should be decomposed further.

D. In order for the project to stay on schedule, the activity needs to finish on day 35 or earlier.

Answer 14

B. This activity is not on the critical path.

This activity has 5 days of float (slack). To calculate the float, subtract the early start form the late start. This is 21 - 16 = 5. You should assume that any activity with a positive float (>0) is not on the critical path.

Question 15

Refer to the table, what is the float for Activity D?

A. 0 days

B. 3 days

C. 5 days

D. 7 days

Answer 15

C. 5 days

The float (or slack) of an activity is the amount of time it can slip without moving the critical path. In this case, we must calculate the float of Activity D. If Activity D was on the critical path, we would immediately know that the float was 0, but in this case it is not.

To solve this problem, we must first list out all of the paths. We will use the list from the previous question.

Start-A-E-H-Finish = 0+3+5+11+0 = 19

Start-C-E-H-Finish = 0+2+5+11+0 = 18

Start-B-F-I-Finish = 0+4+1+8+0 = 13

Start-B-F-G=Finish = 0+4+1+6+0 = 11

Start-B-D-I-Finish = 0+4+2+8+0 = 14

Start-B-D-G-Finish = 0+4+2+6+0 = 12

The next step is to identiy the ones that have Activity D in them. They are:

Start-B-D-I-Finish = 0+4+2+8+0 = 14

Start-B-D-G-Finish = 0+4+2+6+0 = 12

Now the task is simple. We simply subtract the path sums form the length of the critical path for each (19 - 14 = 5, and 19 - 12 = 7), and finally we take the smaller of those two values which is 5. Therefore, the float for Activity D is 5.

Question 16

An activity has a duration estimate that is best case = 30 days, most likely = 44 days, and worst case = 62 days. What is the weighted three-point estimate for this activity?

A. 44.67 days

B. 34.67 days

C. 5.33 days

D. 59.33 days

Answer 16

A. 44.67 days

The formula for a weighted three-point estimate is (Pressimistic + 4 x Realistic + Optimistic) divided by 6. In this example, the terms were switched around slightly, but it equates to (62 + 4 x 44 + 30) / 6 = 268 / 6 = 44.67

Question 17

A government contracting firm that builds large infrastructure projects in analyzing the time it will take to plan phase one of a bridge renovation. The program manager’s opinion is that approzimately 24% of the time should be added to the beginning of the schedule for planning; however, the project manager states that her experience is that when the existing infrastructure is already in place, the general rule is that planning should take about half this much time. The project manager’s beliefs are an example of:

A. A heuristic

B. An organizational process asset

C. An attribute

D. Value engineering

Answer 17

A. A heuristic

A heuristic is a process or method that exists when the rules are loosely defined or when there are no rules at all. The question asked what do the project manager’s beliefs exemplify. Shince the project manager has a “general rule” that the planning should take less time but it is only based on experience and not a firm rule, it fits the definition well.

Question 18

Which of the following choices best fits the description of a project manager applying the technique of what-if scenario analysis?

A. Using project management software to build three versions of the project schedule.

B. Using Monte Carlo analysis to identify what would happen if schedule delays occurred.

C. Using critical path method to analyze what would happen if the critical patch actually occurred.

D. Discussing with the functional managers what they would do if certain project team members quit the project early.

Answer 18

B. Using Monte Carlo analysis to identify what would happen if schedule delays occurred.

What-if analysis can take on many forms, but the form you are most likely to see on the exam is Monte Carlo analysis, which throws a large number of scenarios at the schedule to see what would happen if one or more scenarios occurred.

Question 19

How do the activity list and activity attributes relate to each other?

A. The activity list focuses on schedule activities, while the activity attributes apply to WBS activities.

B. The activity attributes are created prior to the activity list.

C. The activity list may be substituted for the activity attributes in most processes.

D. Activity attributes provide additional information for each activity on the activity list.

Answer 19

D. Activity attributes provide additional information for each activity on the activity list.

The activity attributes simply expand on the information for each activity.

Question 20

You are discussing the schedule with members of your team when one of them describes a group of activities that can start at any time but must finish in a specific order. You decide to investigate this further. What would be the best way to recognize these activities?

A. Look for a Gantt chart with a group of activities that have staggered or stair-stepped finish dates.

B. Look for a group of activities with a start-to-finish relationship.

C. Look for a group of activities with a finish-to-finish relationship.

D. Look for this information on the activity attributes.

Answer 20

C. Look for a group of activities with a finish-to-finish relationship.

This scenario describes tasks that have finish dates linked to finish-to-finish order.

Question 21

Which of the following is the BEST description of the critical path?

A. The activities that represent critical functionality.

B. The activities that represent the largest portions of the work packages.

C. The activities that represent the highest schedule risk on the project.

D. The activities that represents the optimal path through the network.

Answer 21

C. The activities that represent the highest schedule risk on the project.

The critical path is the series of activities, which if delayed, will delay the project. This makes these activities the highest schedule risk on the project.

Question 22

Which of the following is TRUE about Estimate Activity Durations?

A. It must be performed after Sequence Activities.

B. It must be performed after Develop Schedule.

C. Parametric estimates may be used to derive the durations.

D. The activity duration estimates must be validated during Develop Schedule.

Answer 22

C. Parametric estimates may be used to derive the durations.

One of the important tools used in Estimate Activity Durations is parametric estimates.

Question 23

If schedule activities are not properly decomposed, which of the following would NOT be an expected outcom?

A. The team encounters difficulty estimating cost and time.

B. The team encounters difficulty in building the schedule.

C. The team encounters difficulty in calculating earned value.

D. The team encounters difficulty in creating the responsibility assignment matrix.

Answer 23

D. The team encounters difficulty in creating the responsibility assignment matrix.

This is a problem many project managers have faced. As you answer this question, keep in mind that WBS nodes are decomposed into work packages first. Then schedule activities are decomposed from the work packages. A, B, and C all relate to problems you would have if the schedule activities are not properly decomposed, but D is related to the work packages, and you are not given anything in the questino that suggests there is a problem with the way they were decomposed.

Question 24

Your project schedule has just been developed, approved, and distributed to the stakeholders and presented to senior management when one of the resources assigned to an activity approaches you and tells you that her activity cannot be performed within the allotted time due to several necessary pieces that were overlooked during planning. Her revised estimate would change the schedule but would not affect the pritical path. What would be the BEST way for the project manager to handle this situation?

A. Adhere to the published schedule and allow for any deviation by using schedule reserve.

B. Go back to Estimate Activity Durations and update the schedule and other plans to reflect the new estimate.

C. USe an independent party to validate her claim.

D. Replace the resource with someone who says they can meet the published schedule.

Answer 24

B. Go back to Estimate Activity Durations and update the schedule and other plans to reflect the new estimate.

Changes happen. Some of them are submitted as change requests, and some of them come out of nowhere. In this case, you would want to return to palnning and update the plans, The project will not be delayed, and the resources has given a good reason why the dates need to be revisited (a common occurrence in the real world).

Question 25

Jan working with the project team to produce an estimate for a particular activity. They have gathered expert opinions and have determined that the optimistic estimate is 4.5 days, the the pessimistic estimate is 13 days. The most likely estimate is 7 working days. Given the team’s preference for triangular distribution, what estimate should they use?

A. 7 days

B. 7.6 days

C. 8.2 days

D. 11 days

Answer 25

C. 8.2 days

Triangular distributino for these purposes is really nothing more than a simple average, which is (4.5 + 13 + 7) divided by 3 = 8.16. (rounded to 8.2).