Deck 9: Project Management

Question 1

Describe CPM/PERT networks and how they work.

Answer 1

A CPM/PERT network consists of branches and nodes and depicts the precedence relationships between activities. The Gantt chart does not clearly show precedence relationships, which can be a disadvantage when using it for small projects. However, CPM/ PERT also has certain limitations. The project manager tends to rely so heavily on the project network that errors in the precedence relationship or missing activities can be overlooked; attention to critical path activities can become excessive to the extent that other project activities may be neglected or delayed.
Both CPM and PERT were derived from the Gantt chart and so were very similar. However, there were originally two primary differences between CPM and PERT. CPM used a single estimate for activity time that did not allow for any variation and treated activity times as if they were known for certain, or "deterministic." PERT used multiple time estimates for each activity that allowed for variation, and so they were treated as "probabilistic." The other difference was that they used different conventions for constructing a network. With CPM, the nodes (circles) represented the project activities. The arrows in between the nodes indicated the precedence relationships between activities. This approach to network construction was called activity-on-node (AON). With PERT, the opposite convention was taken. The branches represented the activities, and the nodes in between them reflected events or points in time such as the end of one activity and the beginning of another. This approach was referred to as activity-on-arrow (AOA).
Over time, however, CPM and PERT merged into a single technique now referred to as CPM/PERT.

Question 2

Project planning involves a set of procedures for monitoring and evaluating progress and performance.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Discuss the issues that can arise in a diverse project group.

Answer 3

Global projects involving companies and team members from different countries have grown as a result of increased information and communication technology. While a globally diverse project team can have advantages, issues can arise that affect project work and the success of the project. English is generally accepted and used globally to conduct business, so language will not necessarily be an issue. Instead, issues may arise from things such as differing attitudes toward work and vacation time, differing management styles, and differing ways of addressing problems. Or some people may simply have trouble working with others from different cultures. Whatever the issues, identifying and addressing these issues in a global project group is critical for project management and for achieving project success.

Question 4

A work breakdown structure provides a common understanding of and justification for a project.

Question 5

Discuss the key elements of project control and define enterprise project management.

Question 6

Project scope involves a set of procedures for anticipating and assessing uncertainties that might increase the risk of delaying the project.

Question 7

Develop and analyze a probabilistic activity time estimate network for a project.

Question 8

Explain project crashing and time-cost tradeoffs, including how they are determined.

Question 9

Global projects rarely are concerned with cultural differences among team members because English is the universal business language.

Question 10

Explain the basics of project scheduling and how to use a Gantt chart.

Question 11

A Gantt chart provides a visual display of the project schedule that includes scheduled start times, finish times and available slack.

Question 12

Discuss features of the project planning process, including planning tools, evaluation methods, and key elements of a plan.

Question 13

Asian cultures tend to embrace project management's methodical approach more than western cultures.

Question 14

A unique, one-time operational activity or effort is referred to as a process.

Question 15

Issues of cultural diversity in project management should only be addressed if and when they arise.

Question 16

In general, projects are subject to less uncertainty than other types of processes.

Question 17

Use Smartsheet for CPM/PERT analysis.

Question 18

The upper level of a work breakdown structure for a project highlights summary activities and/or major components.

Question 19

The three major components of project management include planning, scheduling, and costing.

Question 20

A project team is typically cross-functional consisting of members throughout an organization.

Question 21

A dummy activity is an activity inserted into the network diagram to show a precedence relationship, but does not represent any passage of time.
Blooms: Comprehension

Question 22

The critical path is the shortest path through the project's network.

Question 23

Activities that are not on a project's critical path have zero slack.

Question 24

Managing quality is not an important part of project management.

Question 25

The principles of total quality management (TQM) cannot be applied to project management.

Question 26

Earned value analysis reports a project's performance by tracking its forecasted completion date and anticipated budget variations.

Question 27

Management and control of a companywide portfolio of projects is known as enterprise project management.

Question 28

A project's duration can be reduced by crashing activities on the critical path.

Question 29

Slack represents the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project completion time.

Question 30

Two key elements of project control are time management and cost management.

Question 31

Because the critical path is the shortest path through a network it defines the minimum project completion time.

Question 32

PERT stands for program enterprise and resource technique.

Question 33

With an activity-on-node (AON) network diagram, the nodes indicate the precedence relationships and the arrows represent the project's activities.
Blooms: Knowledge

Question 34

Project scheduling is recognized as the most critical element in the project management process.

Question 35

Crashing activates with positive slack reduces a project's duration.

Question 36

Indirect costs always increase as a project's duration decreases.

Question 37

Enterprise project management refers to the management and control of a large, complex project.

Question 38

Unlike PERT, CPM incorporates probabilistic time estimates into the project management process.

Question 39

Project control involves monitoring a project and measuring its progress toward a successful completion.

Question 40

The earliest start time for an activity is at time zero.

Question 41

Which of the following is the universal business language most often utilized managing global projects?

A) French
B) Spanish
C) English
D) Chinese

Question 42

A standard procedure for numerically measuring a project's progress is referred to as a(n)

A) program evaluation and review technique (PERT).
B) critical path method (CPM).
C) Gantt chart.
D) earned value analysis.

Question 43

Which of the following is not a general characteristic of a project?

A) A project has a unique purpose.
B) A project has more certainty.
C) A project has more uncertainty.
D) A project often draws resources from various areas in the organization.

Question 44

Which of the following is not a basic element in a project plan?

A) objectives
B) personnel
C) contract requirements
D) All the above are basic elements.

Question 45

The key elements of project control includes all the following except

A) time management.
B) cost management.
C) material management.
D) communication.

Question 46

A bar graph displaying when activities are scheduled to start, when they will be finished, and where extra time is available is known as a

A) PERT chart.
B) work breakdown structure (WBS).
C) Gantt chart.
D) responsibility assignment matrix (RAM).

Question 47

A ___ breaks down a project into components, subcomponents, activities, and tasks.

A) work breakdown structure (WBS)
B) scope statement
C) responsibility assignment matrix (RAM)
D) organizational breakdown structure (OBS)

Question 48

Which of the following is not a recognized project management certification?

A) Program Management Professional
B) Certified Associate in Project Management
C) Project Management Professional
D) Certified Associate in Program Management

Question 49

Which of the following is the universal business language most often utilized managing global projects?

A) French
B) Spanish
C) English
D) Chinese

Question 50

A(n) ___ is a project team structure that includes members from different functional areas.

A) matrix organization
B) project network
C) organizational breakdown structure
D) work breakdown structure

Question 51

A standard procedure for measuring a project's progress, forecasting its completion date and cost, and measuring schedule and budget variation is known as

A) ROI.
B) EVA.
C) WBS.
D) ROA.

Question 52

The ___ is a document that provides a common understanding, justification, and expected result for a project.

A) statement of work
B) work breakdown structure
C) scope statement.
D) responsibility assignment matrix

Question 53

In general, crashing costs decrease as a project's duration is shortened.

Question 54

The project management process encompasses

A) planning.
B) scheduling.
C) control.
D) all of the above.

Question 55

A project with a low but positive ROI ____.

A) will always be undertaken
B) will never be undertaken
C) may be undertaken if there is no alternative project with a higher ROI
D) none of the above.

Question 56

One disadvantage of a Gantt chart, especially for large projects, is that it does not

A) clearly show precedence relationships.
B) indicate activity start times.
C) indicate activity finish times.
D) use bars to represent activities.

Question 57

Which of the following is not used to calculate probabilistic time estimates?

A) optimistic
B) most likely
C) least likely
D) pessimistic

Question 58

Smartsheet is a software package that supports PERT but not CPM.

Question 59

Slack refers to which of the following?

A) the latest time an activity can be finished without delaying the project
B) the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project
C) the earliest time an activity can be started without delaying the project
D) the latest time an activity can be started without delaying the project

Question 60

In project management, the slack in an activity can be identified using

A) Gantt only.
B) CPM only
C) Pert and CPM only.
D) Gantt and Pert/CPM

Question 61

A project consists of the following four activities with activity times in days: Table 9.2

Using Table 9.2, the earliest start (ES) time for activity B is

A) 5 days.
B) 6 days.
C) 11 days.
D) 14 days.

Question 62

The slack time for an activity can be computed as

A) latest start time (LS) - latest finish time (LF).
B) earliest start time (ES) + earliest finish time (EF).
C) latest start time (LS) - earliest start time (ES).
D) latest finish time (LF) + earliest finish time (EF).

Question 63

A project consists of the following activities: Table 9.1

Using Table 9.1, the critical path for this project consists of activities

A) A-B-C-D-E-F.
B) A-C-E-F.
C) A-B-C-F.
D) A-B-D-F.

Question 64

A project consists of the following four activities with activity times in days: Table 9.2

Using Table 9.2, the earliest finish (EF) time for activity C is

A) 4 days.
B) 6 days.
C) 10 days.
D) 11 days.

Question 65

A project consists of the following activities: Table 9.1

Using Table 9.1, the latest start (LS) time for activity B is

A) 5 weeks.
B) 8 weeks.
C) 13 weeks.
D) 14 weeks.

Question 66

A project consists of the following activities: Table 9.1

Using Table 9.1, the earliest finish (EF) time for activity D is

A) 7 weeks.
B) 13 weeks.
C) 20 weeks.
D) 30 weeks.

Question 67

The ___ probability distribution is typically used to describe uncertain activity times in a project.

A) beta
B) normal
C) binomial
D) exponential

Question 68

For activities on a project's critical path

A) earliest start time (ES) equals latest start time (LS).
B) earliest start time (ES)is greater than latest start time (LS).
C) earliest start time (ES) is less than latest start time (LS).
D) earliest start time (ES) equals latest finish time (LF).

Question 69

In general, the earliest finish time for an activity is equal to

A) earliest start time + activity time estimate.
B) earliest start time - activity time estimate.
C) earliest start time - slack time.
D) earliest start time + slack time.

Question 70

A project consists of the following four activities with activity times in days: Table 9.2

Using Table 9.2, the latest start (LS) time for activity D is

A) 8 days.
B) 11 days.
C) 19 days.
D) 12 days.

Question 71

The longest path through a project network is referred to as the

A) activity-on-node path.
B) path of greatest slack.
C) critical path.
D) noncritical path.

Question 72

A project consists of the following four activities with activity times in days: Table 9.2

Using Table 9.2, the critical path for this project is

A) A-B-C.
B) A-C-D.
C) A-B-D.
D) A-B-C-D.

Question 73

A project consists of the following activities: Table 9.1

Using Table 9.1, the earliest start time for activity F is

A) 30 weeks.
B) 20 weeks.
C) 14 weeks.
D) 13 weeks.

Question 74

A backward pass through a CPM/PERT network is used to determine the

A) earliest activity times.
B) critical path.
C) latest activity times.
D) work breakdown structure

Question 75

In general, the latest finish time for an activity is equal to

A) latest finish time minus the activity time estimate.
B) the minimum of the latest start times for the activities that immediately follow.
C) the maximum of the latest start times for the activities that immediately follow.
D) the average of the latest start times for the activities that immediately follow.

Question 76

A project consists of the following activities: Table 9.1

Using Table 9.1, the time complete the entire project is

A) 20 weeks.
B) 30 weeks.
C) 36 weeks.
D) 39 weeks.

Question 77

A project consists of the following activities: Table 9.1

Using Table 9.1, the amount of slack associated with activity C is

A) 0 weeks.
B) 3 weeks.
C) 6 weeks.
D) cannot be calculated.

Question 78

A project consists of the following four activities with activity times in days: Table 9.2

Using Table 9.2, the time to complete the entire project would be

A) 23 days.
B) 19 days.
C) 17 days.
D) 11 days.

Question 79

A project consists of the following four activities with activity times in days: Table 9.2

Using Table 9.2, the amount of slack associated with activity C is

A) 4 days.
B) 3 days.
C) 2 days.
D) 1 day.

Question 80

For an activity-on-node (AON) network

A) arrows represent activities and nodes represent events.
B) nodes represent activities and arrows indicate precedence relationships.
C) arrows represent events and nodes indicate precedence relationships.
D) nodes indicate precedence relationships and arrows indicates the length of the activity time.