Deck 13: Working With Projects

Question 1

A project is a unique, repetitive, and structured work effort to accomplish a specific goal.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Projects are independent of time because you do not know how long it will take to finish them.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Commuting to work and maintaining a website are good examples of long-term projects.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Three key performance dimensions of a project are cost, scope, and time.

Question 5

Project management is the controlling of time and resources to meet and manage stakeholder goals, project risks, and project changes.

Question 6

Project managers manage three things: performance, people, and change.

Question 7

The best project manager is the one with only the best technical skills.

Question 8

Very few big budget projects are failures because more money spent means quicker project completion.

Question 9

Seeking improvement in any one dimension of project performance requires acceptance of levels of elevated performance on the others.

Question 10

The four phases of any project are initiation, planning, implementation, and closure.

Question 11

The scope of any project, indicating what will and will not be included as part of the project, is perhaps the most important part of the initiation phase.

Question 12

Scope creep in a project is when the project slows to a crawl because of a lack of project details.

Question 13

In the implementation phase, project details are thrashed out and documented.

Question 14

The phase in which we hand over the final deliverables to the client and intimate formal project closure to all stakeholders is called project closure.

Question 15

An important aspect of project closure is that lessons learned are discussed and recorded for future use.

Question 16

A full time equivalent is the number of hours it would take the project team to complete an activity.

Question 17

Project teams are organized in a cross-functional or matrix structure.

Question 18

Evaluation methods used for projects with predictable cash flows include the payback period, the NPV, the ROI, and the IRR.

Question 19

Evaluation methods used for projects with uncertain cash flows with estimated probabilities include the EMV.

Question 20

Nonfinancial evaluation criteria may include risk tolerances, potential market development options, or political reasons.

Question 21

Evaluation methods used for projects with cash flows that are too uncertain to estimate probabilities include the minimax, maximax, and the maximin regret.

Question 22

A Gantt chart is a colorful chart showing complex task interdependencies, costs, and activities on a time line.

Question 23

The longest path determines the expected time it will take to finish the project, and this is called the critical path.

Question 24

Critical activities are those activities where no delays can be tolerated.

Question 25

An activity with most slack time is called a critical activity.

Question 26

A project can only have exactly one critical path.

Question 27

The optimistic time estimate is the best time required to perform the activity.

Question 28

Reducing project activity expected times or adding more resources (people/tools) to our project is called crashing a project.

Question 29

We crash a project only by reducing critical activity times.

Question 30

Critical paths cannot change when we crash a project.

Question 31

Very few projects are failures because they have well defined goals and their business intent is clear.

Question 32

People are the major reason for project failures.

Question 33

Process failures arise when task times are underestimated or utilization of resources is overestimated.

Question 34

Having actively engaged executive sponsors is the top driver of project success.

Question 35

Every project needs a superstar to be successful.

Question 36

Projects with larger and longer deliverables are becoming more popular because of the chance to generate more revenue for the project providers.

Question 37

Portfolio selection and management skills are becoming valuable in overseeing and orchestrating a global portfolio of projects.

Question 38

Real options theory from finance is finding use in valuing project growth, deferment, stage, scale, switching, and abandonment options.

Question 39

A project can be recognized by

A) tasks that have specific goals
B) tasks that involve teams with interdependent activities
C) tasks that have linked work steps with a specified time line
D) all of the above

Question 40

Which of the following is not a project?

A) doing a term paper or presentation for your OM class
B) writing a weekly newspaper sports column
C) maintaining your company's website
D) All of the above are projects.

Question 41

Project management involves managing all of the following except

A) project risks
B) stakeholder quality
C) project changes
D) scenario planning

Question 42

Project performance can be assessed by measuring all of the following dimensions except

A) quality
B) cost
C) time
D) scope

Question 43

Which of the following is not a phase of a project?

A) scoping
B) implementation
C) closure
D) planning

Question 44

An organizational structure where team members are assigned to a project and report directly to the project manager is called

A) a hierarchical structure
B) a matrix structure
C) a mixed project structure
D) a departmental structure

Question 45

The "dual-boss" problem occurs in a

A) matrix organizational structure
B) pure project type structure
C) functional organizational structure
D) multilayered organizational structure

Question 46

Short- to medium-term project selection with predictable cash flows can be done by which of the following methods?

A) simple payback period
B) net present value
C) internal rate of return
D) all of the above

Question 47

If we cannot estimate probabilities because the project cash flows are uncertain, then we can use all of the following methods except

A) minimax regret
B) maximin
C) maximax
D) EMV

Question 48

Which of the following is not a method used to evaluate projects with unpredictable cash flows where probabilities cannot be estimated?

A) maximin
B) maximax
C) minimax
D) minimax regret

Question 49

Popular techniques to plan for and monitor a project include

A) WBS, Pareto chart, PERT/CPM
B) WBS, Gantt chart, and PERT/CPM
C) LFT, EFT, and EST
D) LFT, EST, and LST

Question 50

Activity times for a project can be estimated by all but which of the following methods?

A) standard normal distribution curve models to improve replications
B) statistical methods based on actual past experiences
C) subcontractors with extensive experience in our project area
D) previous managerial experiences

Question 51

Which one of the following statements best describes the critical path of a project network?

A) It is the sequence of activities between a project's start and finish that has the maximum amount of slack.
B) It is the sequence of activities that has the smallest normal activity cost.
C) It is the set of activities that has the smallest total number of predecessors.
D) It is the sequence of activities between a project's start and finish that takes the longest time to complete.

Question 52

A project has three possible paths from start to finish. Path A-B-C is 15 hours; path A-C-D is 10 hours, and path A-C-E is 20 hours. Which one of the following statements is true?

A) The expected duration of this project is 10 hours.
B) The expected duration of this project is 15 + 10 + 20 = 45 hours.
C) Path A-C-E is the critical path.
D) Path A-B-C has the most slack.

Question 53

Given that activity B has the following times, which of the following statements is true about activity B?
Earliest start time = 9 days; latest start time = 17 days; earliest finish time = 15 days; latest finish time = 23 days

A) Activity B has a slack time of 8 days.
B) Activity B is a critical activity.
C) Activity B takes 6 days to complete.
D) Activity B takes 23 days to complete.

Question 54

Which of the following is the critical path for the project network shown in the following diagram?

A) ACEF
B) ACDF
C) ABDF
D) ABCDEF

Question 55

What is the project duration for the project network shown in the following diagram?

A) 20
B) 13
C) 15
D) 14

Question 56

Using the information shown in the following table, what is the slack time for activity E? $$\begin{array} { | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | } \hline \text { Activity } & \begin{array} { c } \text { Duration } \\\text { (weeks) }\end{array} & \text { EST } & \text { EFT } & \text { LST } & \text { LFT } & \text { SLACK } \\\hline \text { A } & 2 & 0 & & 0 & 2 & 0 \\\hline \text { B } & 1 & 2 & 3 & 3 & 4 & 1 \\\hline \text { C } & 3 & 2 & 5 & 2 & 5 & 0 \\\hline \text { D } & & 3 & 10 & 4 & 11 & 1 \\\hline \text { E } & 3 & 5 & 8 & & 11 & \\\hline \text { F } & 6 & 5 & & 5 & 11 & 0 \\\hline \text { G } & 4 & 11 & 15 & 11 & 15 & 0 \\\hline\end{array}$$

A) 1
B) 7
C) 6
D) 3

Question 57

Using the information shown in the previous table, what is the earliest finish time for activity F?

A) 6
B) 0
C) 4
D) 11

Question 58

Using the information shown in the previous table, what is the duration time for activity D?

A) 3
B) 4
C) 7
D) 1

Question 59

Using the first diagram above, which one of the following paths is the critical path?

A) ACEG
B) ACFG
C) ABEG
D) ABDG

Question 60

Using the second diagram above or using the information shown in the previous table, what is the project duration?

A) 15
B) 12
C) 14
D) 10

Question 61

Using the information shown in the following table, the expected time for activity B is

A) more than 12 days
B) 5 days
C) 2 days
D) 4 days

Question 62

Using the information shown in the previous table, what is the variance for activity H?

A) 6
B) 12
C) 4
D) 0.44

Question 63

Using the information shown in the previous table, what is the standard deviation for the entire project?

A) 43
B) 1.64
C) 13.11
D) 3.62

Question 64

If the length of the critical path is 25 weeks, what is the probability that the project will be completed on or before 22 weeks?

A) greater than 20 percent but less than 25 percent
B) greater than 25 percent but less than or equal to 35 percent
C) greater than 80 percent but less than or equal to 85 percent
D) greater than 85 percent

Question 65

If the length of the critical path is 25 weeks, what is the shortest project due date if the project manager wants at least a 98 percent probability that the project will be completed on or before the due date?

A) less than or equal to 25 weeks
B) greater than 32 weeks but less than 33 weeks
C) greater than 33 weeks but less than or equal to 35 weeks
D) greater than 25 weeks but less than 32 weeks

Question 66

Using the data supplied in the following table, by how many weeks can we crash activity A? $$\begin{array} { | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | } \hline \text { Activity } & \begin{array} { c } \text { Normal } \\\text { Time }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Crash } \\\text { Time }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Normal } \\\text { Cost }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Crash } \\\text { Cost }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Availab le } \\\text { Weeks of } \\\text { Crashing }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Crashing } \\\text { Cost/Week }\end{array} \\\hline \text { A } & 4 & 2 & \$ 15,000 & \$ 21,000 & & \\\hline \text { B } & 3 & 2 & \$ 15,000 & \$ 18,000 & & \\\hline \text { C } & 4 & 4 & \$ 9,000 & \$ 9,000 & & \\\hline \mathrm { D } & 5 & 3 & \$ 10,000 & \$ 16,000 & & \\\hline E & 4 & 1 & \$ 10,000 & \$ 13,000 & & \\\hline \text { F } & 1 & 1 & \$ 10,000 & \$ 10,000 & & \\\hline\end{array}$$

A) 0
B) 6
C) 1
D) 2

Question 67

Using the data supplied, what is the crashing cost per week for activity A?

A) $3,000
B) $6,000
C) $2,000
D) cannot be determined

Question 68

Using the data supplied, if a decision is made to crash activity C, what is the cost for this one week of crashing?

A) $2,000
B) This activity cannot be crashed.
C) $3,000
D) $2,500

Question 69

Using the data supplied, which activity should be crashed first if the critical path is A-B-D-E?

A) B
B) A
C) E
D) D

Question 70

If activity E is reduced by 1 week and activity A is reduced by 2 weeks, what is the new total project cost?

A) $69,000
B) $34,000
C) $55,000
D) $76,000

Question 71

A(n) __________ has specific goals, linked work steps with a specified timeline, a clear start and finish, and is fairly unique and nonrepetitive.

Question 72

__________ is the art of orchestrating time and resources to meet and manage stakeholder goals, project risks, and project changes.

Question 73

Managing multiple projects is called __________.

Question 74

Project performance has three dimensions: __________, __________, and __________.

Question 75

The __________ phase is when project details are thrashed out and documented.

Question 76

Lucy, the project manager, and her team were able to archive important project documents in a safe and accessible place and then celebrate during the __________ phase of the project.

Question 77

Larry was part of a project team due to his technical expertise. However, he was faced with the dilemma of reporting to two bosses: one in his functional area and his project manager. Larry is in a firm that has a(n) __________ organizational structure.

Question 78

__________ and __________ are two methods of evaluating short- to medium-term projects with predictable cash flows.

Question 79

Janet was tasked with assessing competing projects with unpredictable cash flows and where the probabilities could not be estimated. In order for her to perform her analysis, she should use the __________ or __________ techniques.

Question 80

The __________ is a statement of all work, tasks, and subtasks that have to be completed.