Question 1

Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available.

Accepted Answer

Parkinson's Law is a well-known observation that work will take up all the available time, regardless of how much time actually needs to be spent on the task.

Question 2

________ is variation that is a fact of life in the normal course of system operation.

Accepted Answer

Common cause variation

Question 3

In order to estimate completion of a Gaussian distributed activity with a 90% or higher degree of confidence,the time may be overestimated by as much as 200%.

Accepted Answer

This statement is true. In order to achieve a 90% confidence level, it is common to add a safety margin to the estimated completion time. A general rule of thumb is to add 100% (i.e., double) the estimated time. However, in some cases, the safety margin may need to be increased to 200% in order to achieve the desired level of confidence.

Question 4

A feeder buffer is a buffer that is created for a non-critical path activity.

Accepted Answer

A feeder buffer is typically created for a non-critical path activity in order to protect the critical path from delays and disruptions.

Question 5

The root cause of overinflated time estimates is a lack of trust within the project organization.

Accepted Answer

When project teams do not trust each other to deliver on time, or when developers do not trust business-side team members to make sensible features requests or prioritize items in a rational manner, padding is added to the schedule. This behavior can make the schedule feel safer, easier to deliver on time, and easier to manage.

Question 6

Your usual twenty minute commute takes two hours one morning when a 747 makes an emergency landing in the HOV lane on the beltway.This is an example of ________ variation.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Your usual twenty minute commute takes two...

Question 7

If people believe that they built extra time into their initial estimates,they are usually more likely to begin project work right away.

Accepted Answer

Believing that extra time is built into estimates can lead to procrastination, as individuals may feel they have more time to start the project later.

Question 8

Once the organization elevates its constraint,its system has no constraint.

Accepted Answer

According to the Theory of Constraints, a system always has at least one constraint; if one constraint is removed or elevated, another will become the primary limiting factor to throughput.

Question 9

The Central Limit Theorem states that if a number of probability distributions are summed,the variance of the sum equals the sum of the variances of individual distributions.

Accepted Answer

The Central Limit Theorem states that as the sample size increases, the distribution of the sample means approaches a normal distribution regardless of the shape of the original population distribution. It also states that the mean of the sample means equals the population mean, and the variance of the sample means equals the population variance divided by the sample size. Therefore, the variance of the sum of probability distributions is the sum of the variances of individual distributions.

Question 10

An important element in critical chain scheduling is to change from a late-finish (procrastination)approach to an early-start approach.

Accepted Answer

Critical chain scheduling focuses on managing project resources and includes buffers to protect the project timeline against uncertainties, rather than simply shifting from a late-finish to an early-start approach.

Question 11

Project managers often add a(n)________ to individual workers' estimates of activity duration.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Project managers often add a(n)________ to individual...

Question 12

The first step in the TOC (Theory of Constraints)methodology is to ________.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The first step in the TOC (Theory...

Question 13

People have a tendency to focus on responsibilities with long end-date completions and minimize the importance of more near-term deadlines.

Accepted Answer

People often prioritize tasks with near-term deadlines due to urgency, a phenomenon known as "deadline-driven behavior."

Question 14

The term capacity constraint buffer refers to a safety margin separating different tasks scheduled to use the same resource.

Accepted Answer

The term "capacity constraint buffer" specifically refers to a concept in the Theory of Constraints that is used to protect a system's constraint (the bottleneck) from fluctuations and interruptions, ensuring the constraint operates efficiently, rather than a safety margin between tasks.

Question 15

An organization's budget estimating process routinely misses the actual cost of a project by 25%.For the most recent project,the budget variance was a ridiculous 23%,but this must be considered common cause variance.

Accepted Answer

The statement indicates that the organization's budget estimating process routinely misses the actual cost of a project by 25%, so a 23% budget variance would fall within the expected range of common cause variance. Therefore, option A is correct.

Question 16

The critical chain is usually the same as the critical path.

Accepted Answer

The critical chain differs from the critical path in that it takes into account resource dependencies and limitations, while the critical path focuses only on task dependencies. The critical chain is the longest path taking into account resource availability and dependencies, and is used in resource-constrained project scheduling.

Question 17

Critical Chain Project Management is based on the ________.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Critical Chain Project Management is based on...

Question 18

Even though they know that their project teams have overestimated the individual task times,it is commonplace for project managers to add time to the overall project estimate.

Accepted Answer

Project managers often add time to the overall project estimate as a buffer to account for unforeseen delays or issues that may arise during the project. This is known as padding, and it is done to ensure that the project is completed on time, even if some tasks take longer than expected.

Question 19

The legal department is needed to review all contracts a project organization enters.The legal department is continually swamped with work and all other departments find themselves waiting on legal before they can begin their work.Legal is the drum for this organization.

Accepted Answer

The statement suggests that the legal department is the bottleneck for the organization, with all other departments having to wait on them before beginning their work. This makes legal the drum for the organization, as they are the driving force that sets the pace for everyone else.

Question 20

Both positive and negative variations are usually passed downstream during a project.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Both positive and negative variations are usually...

Quiz 11: Critical Chain Project Scheduling