Communication
The PMBOK breaks the methods of communication up into three types. Name 1 of the 3 types of communication used to share information throughout a project
Interactive, push, or pull
What 3 things make up the scope baseline?
1. The WBS,
2. Approved project scope statement
3. WBS dictionary
In a schedule network diagram, the longest path with the shortest duration is known as what?
The critical path.
You want to estimate the duration of an activity on your project. Your pessimistic estimate is 10 days, your most likely estimate is 5 days, and your optimistic estimate is 3 days. Using a triangular PERT distribution, what is your duration estimate?
6 days
10+5+3=18/3
Is a fixed price contract advantageous to the buyer or seller? Why?
Buyer. In a fixed price contract the seller assumes financial and technical risk
Sending out weekly status reports to stakeholders is an example of what type of communication?
Push communication- communication sent out to stakeholders that does not require engagement
You as the project manager are in the planning phase of your project. In order to collect all of the scope requirements, you want to use a systematic approach to evaluate and rank many ideas that are generated by your team. Would you use brainstorming, idea/mindmapping, facilitated workshops, or multicriteria decision analysis to do this?
Multicriteria decision analysis
What is the difference between total float and free float?
Your actual cost is 155 and your earned value is 170. What is your cost variance?
15
The process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance, and making changes as appropriate is called--
Control Procurements
A project has five stakeholders, when an additional project member gets added, how many communication channels exist?
15
N(N-1)/2
6(6-1)/2
6*5/2=15
Which of the following is contained in the project charter but not the project scope statement?
A. Progressively elaborated project description
B. Project purpose or justification
C. Acceptance criteria
D. Project deliverables
Project purpose or justification.
The PMBOK Guide makes a point to describe how the project charter and project scope statement are sometimes subtly different. Review the PMBOK Guide on pages 123-124 if you got this question wrong
The customer is looking for the project to be complete 10 days earlier than planned due to marketing constraints. You work with your project team and figure out that this can be achieved if a couple of activities can overlap. What is this approach known as?
Fast tracking
Your project has a budget of $240,000 and is expect to last for 1 year, with the work and budget spread evenly across all months. The project is now in the fourth month, the work is on schedule, but you have already spent $120,000 of the project budget. What is your COST Variance in this case?
- $40,000
Cost Variance = Earn Value - Actual Cost
Earn Value = total cost * percentage of work actually completed = $240,000 * (4/12)=$80,000
CV = $80,000 - $120,000 = -$40,000
A general management technique used to determine whether particular work can best be accomplished by the project team or should be purchased from outside sources is called what?
Make-or-Buy Analysis
A project manager is having trouble getting a project member to complete their tasks as assigned. What type of communication would the project manager want to use to address this problem initially?
Think verbal vs written; formal vs. informal
Informal Verbal.
The key word here is initially. You would first want to talk to the project member to understand what is keeping them from completing his task. You should always document these issues, but communicating to the project member should start informally.
In a meeting, a team member describes the project scope statement as the decomposition of all of the work to be carried by the project team to accomplish the project and create the required documents. What is wrong with this team member’s statement?
They are describing the WBS, NOT the project scope statement.
Your company, which operates one of the region's largest chemical processing plants, has been convicted of illegally dumping toxic substances into the local river. The court has mandated that the required cleanup activities be completed by February 15. This date is an example of ---
a. A key event
b. A milestone
c. A discretionary dependency
d. An external dependency
A milestone.
A milestone is a significant point or event in the project. Milestones may be required by the project sponsor, customer, or other external factors, such as those required by contract, for the completion of certain deliverables. They are similar to schedule activities, with the same structure and objectives, but they have zero duration as they represent a moment in time.
Your project has a budget of $10,000 and is expect to last for 1 year, with the work and budget spread evenly across all months. Right now CPI is 0.8. What is Variance at Completion in this case?
-$2,500
Variance at Completion = BAC - EAC
(EAC) = BAC / CPI = $10,000 / .8 = $12,500
VAC = $10,000 - $12,500 = -$2,500
The type of hybrid contracts which influences the Plan Procurement project is called what?
Time and Materials Contract
You are just taken over a project that is ¾ of the way complete. You want to get a general understanding of the work completed. What type of report would help you find this information?
Progress report- It will provide an overview of what has been accomplished.
Who is most crucial in in validating scope?
Project sponsor or customer.
In the Validate Scope phases, the project sponsor or customer provides formal acceptance of the project deliverables. An internal team works on Control Quality, while an external source (the customer or sponsor) must Validate Scope.
You are managing a construction project for a new city water system. The contract requires you to use special titanium piping equipment that is guaranteed not to corrode. The titanium pipe must be resting in the ground a total of 10 days before connectors can be installed. In this example, the 10-day period is defined as ---
Lag- A lag is the amount of time that a successor activity will be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity.
If you would like to base your project cost estimate on historical data and statistical analysis, what cost estimation technique would you use?
Parametric estimating
What is the last item a project manager must do to finalize the project closing?
Contract Completion