Deck 14: Advanced Topics in Project Management

Question 1

The number of organizations implementing some type of PMO is declining.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Describe the drawbacks of a PMO.

Answer 2

Project management offices are not without issues or drawbacks. A PMO is not a "silver bullet" that, once implemented, will fix all of the organization's project issues. Establishing a well-functioning PMO requires a culture change across the organization. Some departments or divisions need to give up some control or authority to the PMO. A PMO requires upfront expenses and training, sometimes for long periods, before it begins to show a positive ROI. Finally, implementers need to make sure that the PMO doesn't become a bureaucracy of paperwork that ultimately gets in the way of getting projects completed successfully.

Question 3

Describe five reasons organizations outsource.

Answer 3

Organizations looking for competitive advantages are outsourcing for a variety of reasons. The number-one reason is cost. Hiring IT workers outside the United States offers cost advantages in terms of salaries. Table 14-1 lists the average IT worker salaries from various countries, as reported in a recent article from BusinessWeek. (King, 2008) Other common reasons for outsourcing include the following:
• Transferring the risk to a seller
• Flexibility in resource management (that is, freeing up internal resources to work on other projects or to aid in completing a task more quickly)
• Access to expertise not available in-house
• Allowing the organization to concentrate on its core competencies
• Disaster recovery

Question 4

The chief project officer of the PMO owns project management for the enterprise, business unit, or department. Expert and mentor in all areas of project management.

Question 5

The chief project officer handles consolidating and managing of project plans, including schedule development, budgeting, and resources.

Question 6

Describe at least five best practices when implementing a PMO.

Question 7

Describe at least three ethical issues that many IT workers deal with.

Question 8

The project librarian of the PMO maintains a repository of project knowledge (records, standards, methods, and lessons learned).

Question 9

Describe five key processes that still need to be owned by the company (versus outsourcing).

Question 10

Explain why the number of organizations implementing some type of PMO is growing rapidly.

Question 11

Name and describe five different alternatives available for outsourcing.

Question 12

The best practice expert of the PMO develops and maintains project management methodology and processes.

Question 13

Define the five levels of CMMI maturity.

Question 14

The best practice expert of the PMO prepares and executes process quality assurance plans. Documents and maintains project processes and standards.

Question 15

What are the benefits provided an organization by its PMO.

Question 16

The project management office (PMO) is an organizational entity (for example, group, department, business unit) with full-time personnel assigned to provide a wide range of project management support and services across an entire organization.

Question 17

Define the three broad levels at which the PMO might operate, according to Kent Crawford (2002), in his book The Strategic Project Office.

Question 18

What are some reasons the use of virtual teams is on the rise?

Question 19

Describe at least six of the resources who make up the PMO.

Question 20

Describe at least eight tasks performed by the PMO.

Question 21

The change control expert of the PMO is responsible for organizational change management, developing and maintaining issue resolution, and change control processes.

Question 22

Email is a technology being used today to facilitate virtual communication.

Question 23

Outsourcing transfers project activities and certain decision rights to an external entity, by contract, with specific performance measures, related rewards (generally monetary), penalties (again generally monetary), and exit clauses defined.

Question 24

A maturity model is an unstructured collection of elements (best practices, processes, activities) that describe characteristics of effective processes.

Question 25

Nearshoring is the movement of a business process (in whole or in part) to companies in a nearby country, often sharing a border with the company's own country.

Question 26

When working with virtual teams, time zone differences make it difficult to work, regardless of the technology, when part of the team is 8 to 10 hours different.

Question 27

Offshoring is the movement of a business process (in whole or in part) done at a company in one country to another company in another, different country.

Question 28

A collocated team is a team whose members are unable to regularly meet face-to-face, so instead they must use various technologies to communicate.

Question 29

The resource manager of the PMO works with human resources in providing job descriptions, roles and responsibilities, and how to measure performance against those roles and responsibilities.

Question 30

Outsourcing has decreased in importance for many organizations to compete in a global economy and to find needed resources.

Question 31

Outsourcing can involve a number of different types of outsourcing (for example, nearshoring, offshoring, and rural sourcing); this is called insouring, or best-of-breed sourcing.

Question 32

The best practice expert of the PMO manages and coordinates technology issues, maintains central software configuration management for teams on all projects, and supports and maintains the PMO software, database, and all other technical needs.

Question 33

When working with virtual teams, language barriers can crop up, unless everyone is speaking English.

Question 34

Rural sourcing is the movement of a business process (in whole or in part) done at a company to another company located in a lower cost setting within the same country.

Question 35

Insourcing is the movement of a business process (in whole or in part) done at a company to another company located in a lower cost setting within the same country.

Question 36

The use of virtual teams is on the rise for many reasons: Due to the growing trend of outsourcing, discussed in the previous section, the positive economics of allowing some people to work from home, the rising cost of travel, location of corporate offices, and the need for more scarce specialized skills are all driving companies to invest in technologies to support virtual teams.

Question 37

The resource manager of the PMO handles external and internal communications related to projects within the PMO.

Question 38

Insourcing, the opposite of outsourcing, is the movement of a business process within a company to an internal entity (inside the same company) that specializes in that operation.

Question 39

Researchers estimate that 90 percent of communication is nonverbal, transferred by body language and facial expressions.

Question 40

In most cases, cost will actually increase in the early stages of PMO implementation.

Question 41

This resource of the PMO maintains a repository of project knowledge (records, standards, methods, and lessons learned).

A) Project planner
B) Best practices expert
C) Chief project officer
D) Project librarian

Question 42

A maturity model might also be used as a benchmark for assessing other like organizations for comparison.

Question 43

This resource of the PMO handles consolidating and managing of project plans, including schedule development, budgeting, and resources.

A) Project planner
B) Best practice expert
C) Chief project officer
D) Process improvement manager

Question 44

________ transfers project activities and certain decision rights to an external entity, by contract, with specific performance measures, related rewards (generally monetary), penalties (again generally monetary), and exit clauses defined.

A) Procurement management
B) Project termination
C) Outsourcing
D) Risk transference

Question 45

CMMI consists of five levels of maturity, with 25 areas of process.

Question 46

This resource of the PMO handles external and internal communications related to projects within the PMO.

A) Project planner
B) Chief project officer
C) Resource manager
D) Communications controller

Question 47

This resource of the PMO manages and coordinates technology issues, maintains central software configuration management for teams on all projects, and supports and maintains the PMO software, database, and all other technical needs.

A) Best practice expert
B) Process improvement manager
C) Technology services
D) Project manager

Question 48

An organization will produce a high-quality product just because it follows a maturity models.

Question 49

Outsourcing has become a necessity for many organizations to compete in a ________ economy and to find needed resources.

A) weak
B) global
C) strong
D) competitive

Question 50

Maturity models are not a "silver bullet" that, once implemented, will address all the ills of the organization.

Question 51

Once an organization is certified at a certain level of maturity, there is a mandatory process or audit procedure that monitors the organization to ensure that it remains at that maturity level.

Question 52

This resource of the PMO works with human resources in providing job descriptions, roles and responsibilities, and how to measure performance against those roles and responsibilities.

A) Process improvement manager
B) Chief project officer
C) Resource manager
D) Project planner

Question 53

This resource of the PMO prepares and executes process quality assurance plans, plus documents and maintains project processes and standards.

A) Process improvement manager
B) Project planner
C) Chief project officer
D) Best practice expert

Question 54

This resource of the PMO owns project management for the enterprise, business unit, or department. Expert and mentor in all areas of project management.

A) Project planner
B) Best practice expert
C) Chief project officer
D) Process improvement manager

Question 55

This resource of the PMO is responsible for organizational change management, developing and maintaining issue resolution, and change control processes.

A) Change control expert
B) Project manager
C) Chief project officer
D) Process improvement manager

Question 56

The project management office (PMO) is an organizational entity (for example, group, department, business unit) with full-time personnel assigned to provide a wide range of project management support and services across an entire ________.

A) organization
B) project team
C) department
D) stakeholder group

Question 57

CMMI consists of five levels of maturity: initial, managed, defined, quantitatively managed, and optimizing.

Question 58

Which of the following is NOT a task performed by a PMO?

A) Provide project support when and where needed.
B) Select team members for all projects in the organization.
C) Provide methodology control and audits.
D) Handle integrated change control management.

Question 59

This resource of the PMO develops and maintains project management methodology and processes.

A) Project planner
B) Best practice expert
C) Chief project officer
D) Project librarian

Question 60

CMMI is based on the premise that the quality of a production ready system is highly influenced by the quality of the process used to acquire, develop, and maintain it.

Question 61

A ________ team is a team whose members are unable to regularly meet face-to-face, so instead they must use various technologies to communicate.

A) local
B) collocated
C) global
D) virtual

Question 62

Which of the following is NOT one of the general levels of OPM3 maturity?

A) Standardize
B) Measure
C) Control
D) Optimize

Question 63

A maturity model might also be used as a benchmark for ________ other like organizations for comparison.

A) interviewing
B) observing
C) assessing
D) recruiting

Question 64

Researchers estimate that ________ percent of communication is nonverbal, transferred by body language and facial expressions.

A) 100
B) 90
C) 80
D) 60

Question 65

This type of outsourcing is the movement of a business process (in whole or in part) done at a company to another company located in a lower cost setting within the same country.

A) Insourcing
B) Rural sourcing
C) Nearshoring
D) Offshoring

Question 66

A maturity model is a structured collection of elements (best practices, processes, activities) that describe characteristics of effective ________.

A) processes
B) projects
C) project managers
D) PMOs

Question 67

At this level of CMMI maturity, development follows little to no rules. The project may go from one crisis to the next. The success of the project depends on the skills of individual developers and other team participants. At this level, it is impossible to repeat successes because everything is reinvented with each project.

A) Initial
B) Managed
C) Defined
D) Optimizing

Question 68

This type of outsourcing is the movement of a business process (in whole or in part) done at a company in one country to another company in another, different country.

A) Insourcing
B) Rural sourcing
C) Nearshoring
D) Offshoring

Question 69

________ is based on the premise that the quality of a production ready system is highly influenced by the quality of the process used to acquire, develop, and maintain it.

A) OPM3
B) CMMI
C) Project management
D) PMO

Question 70

Maturity models deal with process only and are models, not ________.

A) mandates
B) projects
C) systems
D) solutions

Question 71

Which of the following is NOT one of the levels of maturity in CMMI?

A) Initial
B) Intermediate
C) Managed
D) Defined

Question 72

CMMI consists of five levels of maturity, with ________ process areas.

A) nine
B) 10
C) 22
D) 30

Question 73

This type of outsourcing is the movement of a business process (in whole or in part) to companies in a nearby country, often sharing a border with the company's own country.

A) Insourcing
B) Rural sourcing
C) Nearshoring
D) Offshoring

Question 74

Ethical behavior refers to human behavior that conforms to generally accepted ________.

A) laws
B) beliefs
C) social norms
D) acts

Question 75

Which of the following is a technology being used today to facilitate virtual communication?

A) Virtual workspaces
B) Social networking
C) Instant messaging
D) All of the above

Question 76

This level of OPM3 maturity is characterized by standardization of the entire project life cycle and by artifacts, metrics, and an adequate number of trained resources assigned.

A) Standardize
B) Measure
C) Control
D) Optimize

Question 77

This level of CMMI maturity is characterized by requirements management, project planning, project tracking and oversight, subcontract management, quality assurance, and configuration management.

A) Initial
B) Managed
C) Defined
D) Optimizing

Question 78

This is the movement of a business process within a company to an internal entity (inside the same company) that specializes in that operation.

A) Insourcing
B) Rural sourcing
C) Offshoring
D) Multisourcing

Question 79

Once an organization is ________ at a certain level of maturity, there is no mandatory process or audit procedure that monitors the organization to ensure that it remains at that maturity level.

A) certified
B) approved
C) recognized
D) admitted

Question 80

This type of outsourcing can involve a number of different types of outsourcing (for example, nearshoring, offshoring, and rural sourcing).

A) Multisourcing
B) Rural sourcing
C) Nearshoring
D) Offshoring