Deck 23: Project Management

Question 1

Although PERT and CPM were originally developed independently, they are now nearly identical in terms of analysis and procedures.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Good project management is very important with virtual teams.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Matrix organizations transfer control of workers to project managers for the duration of the project.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The latest starting time for an activity is equal to the latest finish time minus the activity time.

Question 5

A hierarchical listing of what must be done during a project is called matrix.

Question 6

The higher the node number, the longer the activity will take.

Question 7

A Gantt chart is a popular visual tool for displaying the established precedence relationships.

Question 8

Once a project is approved and underway, project managers are only responsible for effectively managing time and costs which, if done well, will assure project completion on time and on budget.

Question 9

The project computing algorithm requires both a forward and a backward pass.

Question 10

An advantage of Gantt charts in project management is that they identify which activities can be delayed without delaying the overall project.

Question 11

The main function of dummy activities is to clarify relationships in network diagrams.

Question 12

One way that project management differs from management of more traditional activities is because of the limited time framework of projects.

Question 13

Path probabilities are calculated by dividing path mean by path standard deviations.

Question 14

Some organizations use a matrix organization to integrate the activities of specialists within a functional framework.

Question 15

The earliest finish time for an activity is equal to the latest finish time minus the activity time.

Question 16

The sum of times of the longest path in a network indicates expected project duration, and the activities represent the critical activities.

Question 17

The probability of occurrence of risk events is lower near the beginning of a project and higher near the end of the project since very few activities remain.

Question 18

The path in a network with the average length of time to completion is called the critical path.

Question 19

The costs associated with risk events tend to be lower near the beginning of a project and higher near the end of the project.

Question 20

The network diagram shows sequential relationships among major activities on a project.

Question 21

The task of identifying risks should involve everyone associated with the project.

Question 22

A disadvantage of activity-on-node diagrams is the occasional need for dummy activities.

Question 23

Which of the following is not one of the six key decisions in project management?
(I) Selecting the project team
(II) Deciding on the project manager's title
(III) Managing and controlling project resources
(IV) Deciding which projects to implement
(V) Selecting the project manager

A) I
B) II
C) III
D) IV
E) V

Question 24

The total cost of crashing any one activity should never exceed 20 percent of the total cost of the original project.

Question 25

One upside to terminating a project that is not going as well as planned is that:

A) poorly performing project team members will be kept from causing trouble elsewhere.
B) no additional costs will be incurred.
C) poor project managers will be weeded out.
D) resources can perhaps be put to better use elsewherE.
E) project completion will be hastened.

Question 26

Activities not on the critical path have a slack time equal to zero.

Question 27

If the expected length of a path is more than 2.5 standard deviations less than a desired project completion time, the path will not be a factor in assessing the probability of finishing the project on time.

Question 28

Slack time is equal to LS-ES or LF-EF.

Question 29

Most likely time generally is at least as long as optimistic time.

Question 30

Project management software eliminates constraint violations when there are shared resources.

Question 31

Deterministic networks use three time estimates-shortest, most likely, and longest-for each activity in order to best determine the activity's estimated time.

Question 32

If two consecutive activities on the same path each have two days of activity slack, this means that each of them can be delayed by two days without delaying the project.

Question 33

The standard deviation of the critical path is equal to the sum of the standard deviations of all of the activities on the critical path.

Question 34

Which of the following stages is that one in which the project's expected costs, benefits, and risks are assessed?

A) executing
B) monitoring/controlling
C) assessment
D) planning
E) initiating

Question 35

The earliest finish time for an activity is equal to the latest finish time minus the activity slack.

Question 36

The probability that the project will go beyond the desired time is equal to one minus the joint probability that all paths will be completed within the desired time.

Question 37

In the execution phase of a project's life cycle, activities are guided by decisions that were made in the __________ phase.

A) initiating
B) planning
C) monitoring/controlling
D) closing
E) assessment

Question 38

In order to determine the probability of timely project completion, it is sometimes necessary to take into account paths other than the critical path.

Question 39

If two consecutive activities have shared slack, this means that each of them can use only half of the slack without delaying completion of the project.

Question 40

Many activities have slack time; if we add these slack times together, this represents the potential improvement in early completion for the project.

Question 41

Which of the following would probably not involve the use of PERT?

A) planning and constructing a new city hall
B) developing an advertising campaign for a new product
C) designing and constructing a subway system
D) writing a poem
E) preparing for the visit of a foreign dignitary

Question 42

Project management differs from management of more traditional activities mainly because of:
(I) its limited time frame.
(II) its unique, defined set of activities.
(III) the requirement for use of the appropriate resources.
(IV) the need for planning and execution.

A) I
B) II
C) I and II
D) I and III
E) I, II, and IV

Question 43

Consider the portion of a project depicted by this graph:
What is the earliest finish time for activity 10-11 (far right-hand side) if the earliest start time of 8-10 (upper left-hand side) is 12 and the earliest start time of 9-10 (lower left-hand side) is 13?

A) 22
B) 23
C) 24
D) 25
E) 26

Question 44

The advantage a precedence diagram has over a Gantt chart is:

A) its ability to reveal relationships among activities.
B) its difficulty in depicting networks.
C) its complexity.
D) its simplicity.
E) its lack of riskiness.

Question 45

Concerning PERT and CPM:

A) These are two different names for essentially the same techniquE.
B) CPM tends to focus more on the critical path; PERT focuses on the parallel paths.
C) PERT gives a clearer indication of activity slack, while CPM gives a better picture of path slack.
D) Because of its recent discovery, much less is known about CPM than PERT.
E) CPM is useful for project manager selection; PERT is useful for project team selection.

Question 46

To _____ an activity means to shorten the time it will take.

A) smash
B) fund
C) crash
D) aggregate
E) matrix

Question 47

Which of the following is not true about the use of dummy activities in project networking?

A) They preserve the separate identities of activities.
B) They clarify precedence relationships among activities.
C) They have an activity time equal to zero.
D) They have an activity time variance equal to zero.
E) They are used in activities-on-nodes (AON) network diagrams.

Question 48

A hierarchical listing of what must be done in a project is called a:

A) work breakdown structure (WBS).
B) PERT.
C) planning matrix.
D) crashing plan.
E) critical path.

Question 49

A sequence of activities that leads from the starting node to the finishing node is called a:

A) path.
B) sequel.
C) trail.
D) critical sequence.
E) time line.

Question 50

Shortening activity durations is called:

A) expediting.
B) crashing.
C) vendor management.
D) null nodes.
E) trade-off analysis.

Question 51

Which of the following is not typically treated as part of a project life cycle?

A) feasibility assessment
B) planning
C) maturity
D) release resources
E) project staffing

Question 52

Suppose a project is subject to the following risk events (each with a given probability of occurring and a cost associated with that occurrence):
Given these, Event _____ should probably get the most attention and Event _____ should probably get the least.

A) II; IV
B) III; IV
C) I; III
D) I; II
E) II; III

Question 53

Once a project is underway, the project manager usually is not responsible for effectively managing:

A) the people.
B) costs.
C) resources.
D) time.
E) project priority.

Question 54

A popular visual tool for planning and scheduling simple projects, and for monitoring progress, is the:

A) activity-on-arrows network.
B) activity-on-nodes network.
C) Gantt chart.
D) critical path method.
E) program evaluation and review technique.

Question 55

Which of the following is determined as a direct result of computing the earliest starting and finishing times for the activities of a project network?

A) expected project duration
B) activity slack time
C) which activities are on the critical path
D) variance in project duration
E) maximum project duration

Question 56

A method used for establishing a logical framework for identifying the required activities for the project is called:

A) work breakdown structurE.
B) PERT.
C) planning matrix.
D) crashing.
E) critical path analysis.

Question 57

Activity 7-8 is directly preceded by two activities-activity 5-7 and activity 6-7. Activity 5-7 has an expected time of five and an ES time of six. Activity 6-7 has an expected time of seven and an ES time of seven. Activity 7-8 has an expected time of 10. The ES for activity 7-8 is:

A) 11.
B) 14.
C) 21.
D) 24.
E) 25.

Question 58

In a project network, the critical path is the sequence of activities which has the:

A) most activities.
B) most nodes.
C) most events.
D) longest duration.
E) greatest variance.

Question 59

Which of the following is not a form of risk reduction in project management?

A) backup system
B) outsourcing
C) risk sharing
D) scenario analysis
E) frequent monitoring of critical project dimensions in order to catch and eliminate problems early

Question 60

Project risk events tend to be unlikely __________ a project, but that's also when they tend to be the __________.

A) early in; most costly
B) late in; least costly
C) late in; most costly
D) before the beginning of; most complex
E) at the conclusion of; least complex

Question 61

There are four activities on the critical path, and they have standard deviations of 1, 2, 4, and 2 days. The standard deviation of the critical path is:

A) 3.
B) 5.
C) 9.
D) 16.
E) 25.

Question 62

When developing probabilistic estimates of project duration, it is necessary to know which of the following?

A) the mean and variance of every activity
B) the mean and variance of activities on the critical path
C) the standard deviation of activities on the critical path
D) each activity's probability of completion
E) the distribution of activity times

Question 63

A project is represented by the following diagram:
The expected duration of this project is:

A) 12.
B) 17.
C) 20.
D) 36.
E) 77.

Question 64

In "crashing" a project, a manager will generally focus on activities which:

A) are not on the critical path.
B) are the least costly to crash.
C) are costly to crash and are on the critical path.
D) are on the critical path and are the least costly to crash.
E) are the easiest to crash.

Question 65

The project management strategy of injecting additional resources in order to reduce the length of the project is called:

A) expediting.
B) rushing.
C) panicking.
D) crashing.
E) loading.

Question 66

Activity C has an early start time of 8, an early finish time of 12, a latest start time of 13, and a latest finish time of 17. Its slack is:

A) 0.
B) 1.
C) 4.
D) 5.
E) 9.

Question 67

Which of the following are limitations of PERT and CPM?
(I) Time estimates may include a fudge factor.
(II) Important activities may be overlooked.
(III) It is an after-the-fact analysis.

A) I and II
B) I, II, and III
C) I and III
D) II and III
E) I only

Question 68

At which point does crashing of a project cease?

A) when the project is completed
B) when no additional crashing is possible
C) when the cost to crash equals or exceeds the benefit of crashing
D) when the project is one-half completed
E) when the team has been disbanded

Question 69

A node has one entering activity, a, and two leaving activities, b and c. Given the following information, determine the latest starting time for activity a: EFb = 15, EFc = 17, LFb = 24, LFc = 27; activity times are a = 4, b = 6, c = 8.

A) 14
B) 15
C) 16
D) 17
E) 18

Question 70

Given this information about activity 3-4: ES = 10, EF = 15, LS = 16, and LF = 21, we can determine that the amount of slack associated with the activity is:

A) 0.
B) 1.
C) 5.
D) 6.
E) 11.

Question 71

Activity 4-5 in a network diagram has an optimistic time estimate of five days, a most likely time estimate of seven days, and a pessimistic time estimate of 10 days. Its expected time (in days) is approximately:

A) 5.
B) 6.
C) 7.
D) 8.
E) 9.

Question 72

There are four activities on the critical path. Coincidentally, their standard deviations are all equal to 4. The standard deviation of the critical path is therefore equal to:

A) 2.
B) 4.
C) 8.
D) 16.
E) 64.

Question 73

Gantt charts are most closely associated with

A) JIT.
B) PERT.
C) MRP.
D) MRPII.
E) Six Sigma.

Question 74

In project network analysis, "slack" refers to the difference between:

A) observed and predicted times.
B) optimistic and pessimistic times.
C) mean and modal times.
D) finish and start times.
E) latest and earliest times.

Question 75

A PERT/CPM activity has an optimistic time estimate of three days, a most likely time estimate of eight days, and a pessimistic time estimate of 10 days. The expected time (in days) of this activity is:

A) 7.0.
B) 7.5.
C) 8.0.
D) 8.5.
E) 10.0.

Question 76

Which of the following is not a limitation of PERT and similar project-scheduling techniques?

A) They force the manager to organize and quantify information.
B) One or more important activities may be omitted from the network.
C) Precedence relationships may not all be correct as shown.
D) Time estimates may contain a "fudge factor."
E) The use of a computer is essential for large projects.

Question 77

Consider the portion of a project depicted by this graph:
What is the latest start time of activity 6-7 if the latest finish of activity 7-8 is 26, and the latest finish of activity 7-9 is 23?

A) 18
B) 17
C) 13
D) 12
E) 10

Question 78

The basis for use of the beta distribution in PERT is:

A) essentially theoretical.
B) its features that make it attractive in practicE.
C) its symmetry.
D) It is bimodal.
E) It can easily be converted to a normal distribution.

Question 79

Which of the following are advantages of PERT and CPM?
(I) It is visual.
(II) It is automatically updated.
(III) Activities that need to be watched closely can be identified.

A) I and II
B) II and III
C) III only
D) I and III
E) I, II, and III

Question 80

In the probabilistic approach to project network analysis, the time estimate annotated tm for any activity is the:

A) mean time.
B) median time.
C) most likely timE.
D) mode time.
E) marginal time.