All five members of a project team

1. All five members of a project team add 15% to their individual serial activities as a safety margin and submit their time estimates to the project manager. The manager adds the activity length estimates together and adds 10% for his personal safety margin. Then, anticipating a cut by top management, adds another 10% to his final project estimate. Much to his surprise, top management cuts 30% off his time estimate. How much of a cushion is now built into the project?

a 13%

b. 7%

c. 5%

d. -3%

2. All five members of a project team add 20% to their individual serial activities as a safety margin and submit their time estimates to the project manager. The manager adds the activity length estimates together and adds 20% for his personal safety margin. Then, anticipating a cut by top management, adds another 20% to his final project estimate. The executive level of the organization just completed a retreat where they read The One Minute Manager, Who Moved My Cheese and Critical Chain. They return from their retreat both energized and much wiser in the ways of project management. They know that everyone has been routinely adding 20% and want to scale the project back to an unpadded estimate. How much should they cut?

a. 42%

b. 60%

c. 33%

d. 27%

3. The student syndrome of wasting extra safety time can be described as ______________.

a. lack of motivation

b. procrastination

c. failure to communicate

d. lack of comprehension

4. Which of the following statements about CCPM activity networks is correct?

a. Project workers are more likely to meet a deadline for their activity than miss it.

b. There are no milestones in the CCPM activity network.

c. Project workers are more likely to miss a deadline for their activity than meet it.

d. There is no project delivery deadline in the CCPM activity network.

5. Subcontractor deliveries are difficult to schedule with the critical chain project methodology because ____________.

a. the project manager cannot force subcontractors to use this project management approach

b. the feeder buffers for a subcontractor are as much as 50% shorter than for an employee or internal team

c. subcontractors routinely operate according to calendar delivery dates

d. the corporate culture of “no blame” does not naturally extend to subcontractors

6. The buffers supplied to noncritical paths in critical chain project management are called _____________ buffers.

a. slack

b. drum

c. rope

d. feeder

7. The amounts of individual resources that a schedule requires during a specific time period is referred to as the resource’s ______________.

a. loading

b. capacity

c. constraint

d. drag

8. A resource loading form is also known as a(n) ______________.

a. load schedule

b. resource usage calendar

c. activity resource schedule

d. network resource profile

9. A resource loading chart displays the amount of ______________.

a. time needed as a function of resource limits

b. resources required as a function of time

c. time needed as a function of money

d. resources needed as a function of money

10. Splitting activities refers to _____________.

a. assigning the work to two or more workers

b. assigning the work to two or more days

c. starting an activity, interrupting it to use a resource elsewhere and then returning to work on the activity

d. breaking each noncritical activity into two or more components and subdividing the resources they use by a similar divisor

11. The Minimum Late Finish Time rule stipulates that the _____________.

a. earliest late finishers are scheduled last

b. latest early finishers are scheduled first

c. earliest late finishers are scheduled first

d. latest late finishers are scheduled first

12. Mathematical programming is sometimes used to generate optimal solutions to resource constrained problems in a multi-project setting but suffers from _____________.

a. an inability to model project and activity due dates

b. resource substitution

c. resource constraints

d. problem complexity

13. In earned value management, schedule variance is defined as the difference between the _____________.

a. earned value and the actual cost

b. earned value and the planned value

c. actual cost and the planned value

d. cost and schedule performance indices multiplied by the budgeted cost at completion

14. The budget variance is calculated as _____________.

a. earned value minus planned value

b. planned value minus actual cost

c. earned value minus actual cost

d. cost minus planned value

15. In earned value management analysis, the cumulative amount of the budget becomes the _____________.

a. planned value

b. scheduled value

c. cost basis

d. cost driver

16. The project baseline is established by combining data from the _____________.

a. work breakdown structure and the project budget

b. time-phased project budget and the PERT chart

c. S-curve and the project budget

d. time-phased project budget and the work breakdown structure

17. Take the factors considered by earned value analysis and subtract those considered by project S-curves. The factor(s) you have remaining are _____________.

a. performance and cost

b. cost and schedule

c. time

d. performance

18. Knowing the correct steps to take once problems develop is a function of a team’s ___________ ability.

a. communication

b. client acceptance

c. troubleshooting

d. technical task

19. Earned value management is also known as _____________.

a. the golden triangle method (GTM)

b. the achieved value method (AVM)

c. the program evaluation and review method (PERM)

d. earned value analysis (EVA)

20. All projects are unique _____________.

a. therefore all project management circumstances are equally unique

b. so knowledge cannot be transferred

c. but they may have several common points

d. so knowledge should not be transferred to avoid bias in future projects

21. Lessons learned analysis is best described as a(n) ______________ process.

a. bookkeeping

b. personnel reassignment

c. pressure relief

d. organizational learning 

22. Which of these is not a consequence of a natural process for project closeout?

a. Team members suffer a natural let-down and are de-motivated to participate in future projects.

b. Managers can create a database of lessons learned analyses.

c. Closeout can serve as an important source of information for team members.

d. Structure for a systematic and complete project shut-down arises.

23. Which of these statements about early termination decisions is best?

a. The decision to pull the plug is usually clear-cut.

b. A project’s viability is usually a purely internal issue.

c. Projects that can fulfill a useful purpose in the marketplace are not killed.

d. External reasons, such as a change in the organizations environment, are often the reasons for project termination.

24. A mainframe computer company decided to enter the personal computer market with its Floridian Project, but subsequently decided to leave the market to focus on the mainframe business. The decision rule that they probably applied was to get out when ____________.

a. the project no longer meets strategic fit criteria

b. deadlines continue to be missed

c. project personnel turn over too rapidly

d. technology evolves beyond the project’s scope

25. The rapid evolution of technology and the need to freeze a project’s scope can combine to render a project ____________.

a. too costly to complete

b. obsolete before it can be finished

c. a poor fit with current company strategy

d. so complex that it will take too long to complete