Deck 24: Project Management

Question 1

A Gantt chart provides a visual representation of the sequence of activities in a project.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

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

Answer 2

False

Question 3

A project manager usually staffs the human resources required for a project by hiring outside specialists that only work for the company for the duration of the project.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Companies that are organized as pure project organizations are equivalent to matrix organizations that temporarily group specialists from different departments.

Question 5

The precedence network for a project depicts sequential relationships among activities in a project.

Question 6

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

Question 7

Projects involve routine operations that are performed repeatedly.

Question 8

Careful planning of complex projects can eliminate the occurrence of risk events that have undesirable consequences.

Question 9

Risks involved in a project can be transferred by outsourcing a particular component of the project and requiring performance bonds.

Question 10

Sequential dependencies among project activities are less important than the time required to complete activities.

Question 11

The probability of occurrence of risk events is lower near the beginning of a project and higher near the end of the project.

Question 12

Purchase planning is typically outside the scope of project planning activities.

Question 13

Once a project is underway,project managers are only responsible for managing the project schedule (time)and budget (costs).

Question 14

One way that project management differs from management of more traditional operations is the limited time frame of projects.

Question 15

PERT was originally developed for military planning in the 1940's during the Second World War (WWII).

Question 16

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

Question 17

Project managers bear the ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of the project.

Question 18

Although PERT and CPM were originally developed for somewhat different types of projects,they are now nearly identical in terms of analysis and procedures.

Question 19

The path in a PERT/CPM precedence network with the fewest activities and shortest duration is referred to as the critical path.

Question 20

Following project initiation,planning and scheduling,project execution is the last phase of a projects life cycle.

Question 21

The standard deviation of a project duration is equal to the sum of the variances of all the activities of the project.

Question 22

For the PERT/CPM technique,completing the backward pass includes making the latest finish (LF)equal to the earliest finish (EF)for the end activity.

Question 23

Consecutive activities on the same path have shared slack,which means if activities are delayed,the amount of slack remaining is reduced for all these activities without delaying completion of the project.

Question 24

The standard deviation of the duration of the critical path is equal to the square root of the sum of the variances of all of the activities on the critical path.

Question 25

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 26

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

Question 27

A normal distribution is usually used to describe probabilistic duration estimates for activities in a project.

Question 28

Activity slack is the difference between the latest finish and earliest finish times.

Question 29

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

Question 30

The critical path has zero path slack time.

Question 31

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

Question 32

Simulation can be used for cases in which network activity durations are dependent.

Question 33

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 overall project.

Question 34

Project managers are sometimes able to reduce indirect project costs by increasing direct costs.

Question 35

The path in a precedence network with the longest duration is the critical path.

Question 36

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

Question 37

The sum of activity durations of the longest path in a network indicates expected project completion time,and the activities on it are called the critical activities.

Question 38

Deterministic networks use three duration estimates for each activity in order to best determine the activity's estimated duration.

Question 39

A beta distribution can be used to describe the inherent variability of an activity's duration.

Question 40

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 41

Uncontrolled changes to a project is called:

A)cost creep
B)project randomness
C)scope creep
D)transferring risk
E)avoidance

Question 42

A project manager should not be concerned with the political nature of the organization they are working with.

Question 43

The life cycle of a project does not include which of the following phases?

A)Initiation
B)Planning and scheduling
C)Growth and maturity
D)Closeout
E)Execution

Question 44

Which of the following is not a common theme regarding people that work on projects?

A)They are often on loan from their regular job.
B)They are often work only part time on the project.
C)Many are associated with the project for less than the full time required to complete it.
D)They are exclusively from inside the organization.
E)Some people go from project to project.

Question 45

Only activities on the critical path are initial candidates for crashing.

Question 46

Project execution involves the actual performance of the activities/work packages that were planned in project planning.

Question 47

The cost control technique of earned value analysis measures project progress by the budgeted cost of work scheduled.

Question 48

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

A)the people.
B)costs.
C)time.
D)communications.
E)the project sponsor

Question 49

Which of the following would probably not involve the use of project management?

A)Planning and constructing a new city hall
B)Developing a marketing campaign for the launch of a new product
C)Designing and constructing a subway system
D)Scheduling workers and purchasing raw materials for a manufacturing plant
E)Producing and staging a music festival

Question 50

Which of the following is not part of the project management triangle?

A)risk
B)cost
C)schedule
D)scope

Question 51

A hierarchical listing of what must be done during the project is called:

A)work breakdown structure (WBS).
B)program evaluation and review technique (PERT).
C)planning matrix.
D)crashing.
E)critical path method (CPM).

Question 52

Scope creep refers to the tendency for projects to take longer than planned.

Question 53

Which of the following is the last step in project portfolio selection?

A)Collect project data
B)Assess resources
C)Prioritize projects within categories
D)Provide reasons for selection or non-selection of each project
E)Project closeout

Question 54

The optimum project length in crashing occurs when the cumulative cost of crashing equals savings in the indirect costs.

Question 55

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

A)Backup systems
B)Outsourcing components of the project
C)Frequent monitoring of project activities
D)Expand the project scope to reduce external dependencies
E)Improving communications

Question 56

Risk assessment is part of the project management triangle.

Question 57

Project planning determines how the project is to be undertaken,and includes breaking the job down into smaller components called task identification.

Question 58

Which of the following is not involved in project planning?

A)Risk management planning
B)Material requirements planning (MRP)
C)Quality planning
D)Communication planning
E)Purchase planning

Question 59

Quality tools such as control charts can be used in project management to identify variance.

Question 60

The main determinant of the way PERT/CPM networks are used is whether activity/work package durations are ________ or ____________.

A)statistical,actual
B)probabilistic or deterministic.
C)normal,variable
D)actual,variable
E)probabilistic or statistical

Question 61

In the probabilistic approach to precedence network analysis,the duration estimate that is given the highest weighting in calculating the expected duration for an activity is:

A)duration of the immediately prior activity.
B)duration of the immediately following activity.
C)most likely duration.
D)optimistic duration.
E)pessimistic duration.

Question 62

The principal advantage a Gantt chart has over other project scheduling techniques is:

A)its ability to reveal relationships among activities.
B)it illustrates multiple paths as a project network.
C)it focuses on the critical path.
D)its simplicity.
E)both cost and time are included in the chart.

Question 63

The project management technique that is repeated until activities are decomposed into work packages that can be performed by a designated worker,team or subcontract is called:

A)work breakdown structure (WBS).
B)program evaluation and review technique (PERT).
C)planning matrix.
D)crashing.
E)project scheduling

Question 64

A relatively simple tool for planning and scheduling simple projects is the:

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

Question 65

There are four activities on the critical path,and the standard deviations for their durations are 1,2,4,and 2 days.The standard deviation of the duration of the critical path is:

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

Question 66

A PERT/CPM activity has an optimistic duration estimate of 3 days,a most likely duration estimate of 8 days,and a pessimistic duration estimate of 10 days.The expected duration of this activity t_e is:

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

Question 67

Concerning PERT and CPM,which of the following statements is correct?

A)These are two different names for what is essentially the same technique.
B)CPM tends to focus more on the critical path.
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)Neither provides as much detail as a Gantt chart.

Question 68

Which of the following is used to compute the earliest finish times once the earliest start times are calculated for an activity on a precedence network?

A)Expected activity duration
B)Activity slack time
C)Activities that are on the critical path
D)Variance in project duration
E)Maximum project duration

Question 69

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

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

Question 70

In precedence network analysis,knowing the slack time allows managers to:

A)delay critical activities.
B)extent the project if necessary.
C)increase the critical path.
D)pay attention to activities that could delay the project.
E)decrease the project duration.

Question 71

In the probabilistic approach to precedence network analysis,the duration estimate annotated "tm" for any activity is the:

A)mean duration.
B)median duration.
C)most likely duration.
D)optimistic duration.
E)pessimistic duration.

Question 72

Which of the following is not an advantages of CPM/PERT?

A)Relationships among activities can be identified.
B)Activities that need to be watched closely can be identified.
C)Arrows and nodes depict sequential relationships.
D)Slippage in project activities is no longer an issue
E)Paths are clearly identified.

Question 73

Given this information about activity B: 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 74

Activity 4 in a network diagram has an optimistic duration estimate of 4 days,a most likely duration estimate of 7 days,and a pessimistic duration estimate of 10 days.The expected duration of Activity 4 is:

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

Question 75

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

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

Question 76

Besides project activities,the primary information that all Gantt charts illustrate is:

A)project budget and when activities occur.
B)cost of activities and delays in the schedule.
C)planned duration of activities and when they occur in the schedule.
D)project budget and staffing levels.
E)critical path and project budget.

Question 77

Which of the following is not an advantage(s)the PERT/CPM technique has over a Gantt chart?

A)its ability to reveal relationships among activities.
B)it illustrates multiple paths as a project network.
C)it indicates which activities are most critical.
D)it indicates the implications of delays in activities.
E)it is a more complex scheduling system.

Question 78

Which of the following is not a part of project scheduling?

A)Identify resource requirements for activities
B)Estimate the duration of activities
C)Identify activities in the work breakdown structure
D)Identify sequential dependencies among activities
E)Risk management planning

Question 79

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 durations

Question 80

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