Quiz 17: Project Management

Good project management is very important with virtual teams.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

To _____ an activity means to shorten the time it will take. A)smash B)fund C)crash D)aggregate E)matrix

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shortening activity durations is called A)expediting. B)crashing. C)vendor management. D)null nodes. E)trade-off analysis.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

In the probabilistic approach to project network analysis, the time estimate annotated t_m for any activity is the A)mean time. B)median time. C)most likely time. D)mode time. E)marginal time.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Gantt charts are most closely associated with A)JIT. B)PERT. C)MRP. D)MRPII. E)Six Sigma.

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.

A project is represented by the following diagram: The critical path for the network shown is: A)a-c-g. B)a-d-f-g. C)a-d-h-i. D)b-e-f-g. E)b-e-h-i.

A project is represented by the following diagram: The expected duration of this project is: A)13. B)15. C)20. D)52. E)81.

A project is represented by the following diagram: The critical path for the network shown is: A)1-3-6-7. B)1-2-4-7. C)1-4-7. D)1-3-4-7. E)1-2-5-7.

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for activity E? A)91 days B)99 days C)100 days D)101 days E)115 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated standard deviation in the time for activity E? A)2 days B)3 days C)4 days D)16 days E)24 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for project completion? A)100 days B)140 days C)199 days D)200 days E)440 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated slack time for activity A? A)0 days B)20 days C)40 days D)60 days E)100 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the probability that this project will be completed within 205 days? A).6826 B).8413 C).9544 D).9772 E).9987

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for activity D? A)32 days B)41 days C)44 days D)42 days E)40 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated standard deviation in the time for activity D? A)0 days B)2 days C)3 days D)4 days E)12 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for project completion? A)41 days B)70 days C)100 days D)120 days E)221 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated slack time for activity D? A)0 days B)19 days C)20 days D)79 days E)80 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the probability that this project will be completed within 130 days? A).8413 B).90 C).9544 D).9772 E).9987

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for activity E? A)35 days B)36 days C)39 days D)40 days E)45 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated standard deviation in the time for activity E? A)1 day B)2 days C)3 days D)4 days E)5 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for project completion? A)160 days B)170 days C)200 days D)210 days E)300 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated slack time for activity D? A)0 day B)30 days C)40 days D)50 days E)100 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the probability that the critical path for this project will be completed within 210 days? A).5000 B).8413 C).9544 D).9772 E).9987

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for activity E? A)31 weeks B)38 weeks C)39 weeks D)40 weeks E)43 weeks

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated standard deviation in the time for activity E? A)0 week B)1 week C)2 weeks D)3 weeks E)4 weeks

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for project completion? A)35 weeks B)39 weeks C)50 weeks D)104 weeks E)105 weeks

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated slack time for activity E? A)0 weeks B)3 weeks C)9 weeks D)11 weeks E)12 weeks

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the probability that the critical path for this project will be completed within 52 weeks? A).1554 B).3108 C).3466 D).6554 E).8277

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for activity Y? A)30 days B)29 days C)38 days D)26 days E)35 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated standard deviation in the time for activity Z? A)3 days B)2 days C)4 days D)8 days E)5 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated expected (mean)time for project completion? A)135 days B)145 days C)170 days D)180 days E)255 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the estimated slack time for activity W? A)0 day B)25 days C)35 days D)45 days E)85 days

Consider the following work breakdown structure: What is the probability that the critical path for this project will be completed within 200 days? A).8413 B).9544 C).9772 D).9974 E).9987

Which of the following is not characteristic of good risk management? A)estimating the likelihood of chance events occurring B)planning to eliminate chance events C)identifying potential chance events D)formulating contingency plans for chance events E)analyzing the consequences of chance events

Which of the following leads to simulation being a useful tool with uncertain activity times? A)paths that are not independent B)networks with each activity on only one path C)activity times that cannot be crashed D)noncritical paths that have no variability E)critical paths with activities with deterministic time estimates

Which of the following is not an element of the project management triangle? A)cost B)schedule C)resources D)quality E)performance objectives

If an activity is determined to be on the critical path, that means that unlike activities that are not on the critical path, it will affect project A)direct costs. B)performance. C)quality. D)conflict. E)duration.

Activity J has a duration of 7 and an earliest finish time of 21. If J's latest start time is 16, this must mean that J's slack is A)7. B)4. C)3. D)2. E)1.

In which phase of the project life cycle is the work conducted? A)initiating B)planning C)executing D)monitoring and controlling E)closing

Which phase of the project life cycle happens in conjunction with project execution? A)initiating B)planning C)executing D)monitoring and controlling E)closing

Which decision in project management has typical factors that include budget, availability of appropriate knowledge, and cost-benefit considerations? A)deciding which projects to implement B)selecting the project manager C)selecting the project team D)planning and designing the project E)managing and controlling project resources

Which decision in project management has typical factors that include establishing appropriate metrics for evaluating the project and managing equipment? A)deciding which projects to implement B)selecting the project manager C)selecting the project team D)planning and designing the project E)managing and controlling project resources

All of the following are areas of knowledge that a project manager should possess, except A)managing integration. B)managing procurement. C)managing stakeholders. D)managing scope. E)managing operations.

All of the following are advantages to using a project management software package, except that A)it imposes a methodology and a common project management terminology. B)it provides a logical planning structure. C)it can enhance communication among team members. D)it enables what-if scenarios. E)it can fix the occurrence of constraint violations.