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20 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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In the development of a comprehensive project plan, you create an outline of the plan and take it to the stakeholders and project sponsor for their approval. The project sponsor wants you to include the testing strategies for quality control.
What should you do? Revise the outline and take it back to the project sponsor and stakeholders. Ignore the project sponsor's request. Tell the project sponsor that this is a high-level outline and you are aware of such needs. Get the stakeholders to sign off on the plan and begin writing the relevant documents. |
Revise the outline and take it back to the project sponsor and stakeholders.
It is essential that you have the project sponsor's and the stakeholders' concurrence for the project. If you start out the planning process without their support, you are setting your project up to fail. Therefore, you should revise the outline to include the testing strategies and take the outline back to the project sponsor and stakeholders for their approval before you move forward writing the plan. Ignoring the request or just getting the support of the stakeholders is setting your project up to fail. Project Strategy Development and Preliminary Planning Sub-Objective: 2.27 Identify the steps involved in organizing a comprehensive project plan and using it to close out the planning phase of a project, including: Assembling all project planning elements (estimates of deliverables, time, costs, etc.), Creating an outline or table of contents for the comprehensive project plan, Reviewing the outline of the comprehensive project plan with sponsor and key stakeholders, Obtaining feedback and concurrence, and revising as needed, Writing the comprehensive project plan by integrating all planning elements according to the outline and creating a full document with transitions, introductions, graphics, exhibits, appendices, etc., as appropriate, Circulating the comprehensive project plan to all stakeholders, Obtaining top management support of the comprehensive project plan by making certain it reflects their concerns and that they have had an opportunity to provide input, Conducting a formal review of the comprehensive project plan in which stakeholders have an opportunity to provide feedback, Adjusting the comprehensive project plan based on stakeholder feedback, Obtaining formal approval (sign-off) of the comprehensive project plan by sponsor(s). |
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Which type of organizational structure is shown in the exhibit?
(CEO) (Proj Mgr)(Proj Mgr) (Proj Team)(Proj Team) Projectized Matrix Corporate Functional |
Projectized
The exhibit displays a projectized organization. Projectized organizations derive their primary business from projects. Therefore, the company is organized by projects. Functional organizations organize the staff along departmental lines such as the marketing department or sales department. Matrix organizations typically organize along departmental lines as well. However, project managers are typically responsible for all project work. All of these can be types of corporate companies. |
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After evaluating the project scope for an accounting application project, you have broken down the deliverables, their dependencies, and their costs as shown in the exhibit.
Using this information to create a high level budget, how much cost do you account for when budgeting project A? (see chart#1) $3 million $.6 million $11.7 million $1.2 million |
$1.2 million
Since this is a high-level budget and not a task-oriented budget, you would account for the full $1.2 million that Task A requires and not count it as two separate $.6 million charges as you would in a task-oriented budget. The $11.7 million is the total cost of the project. A bottom up estimate breaks the project down from the bottom up and assigns a dollar amount to each task and not just a general dollar figure. |
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How does a formal, mutually agreed upon acceptance criteria create an effective working relationship with a third party?
Acceptance criteria are a formality to show the process to an auditor. Acceptance criteria provide a subjective measurement to protect the project and the third-party vendor. Acceptance criteria provide an objective measurement to determine that the work produced meets its objectives. Acceptance criteria keep the delivering party honest. |
Acceptance criteria provide an objective measurement to determine that the work produced meets its objectives.
In the Statement of Work that you define for a third party, you should establish acceptance criteria. These criteria provide an objective measurement to determine that the work produced meets its objectives and serves as the basis for payment. Acceptance criteria should be required in all third-party work. Formal acceptance criteria provide an objective way, not a subjective way, to protect both the third-party and your project as they outline specifically what should be accomplished before the work is complete. Acceptance criteria serve as more than just a formality, but they cannot ensure honesty. They can come close by specifically outlining the requirements, but they cannot ensure honesty. |
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Which key outputs occur during the system development life cycle (SDLC) planning phase?
Critical success factors Overall change control Document lessons learned Project charter |
Project charter
The planning process group contains the project charter, design and analysis phase, the model requirements, and the documentation of the system requirements. The closing process group contains the operation and support phase, the training phase, the maintenance phase, and the enhancement phase. The controlling and executing process groups are where the implementation and development defined by the SDLC occur. The initiation process group contains the planning, formal business unit request, and a complete feasibility study phase. |
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You just completed a project and are in the process of turning it over to your technical support/helpdesk department. How can you assure quality during the transition?
Implement all rework that the user requires. Ensure the programmers write the document explaining the application's functionality. Ensure that the programmers communicate with the technical writers to document the application's functionality. Verify the acceptance criteria. |
Ensure that the programmers communicate with the technical writers to document the application's functionality.
To ensure quality during the transition of a project from the development team to the support staff, you must ensure that the programmers communicate with the technical writers to document the project's functionality. It is not a good idea to have the programmers write the documentation for the project because they would most likely document things in a too technical manner that a normal user might not be able to comprehend. Since the project is ready to be turned over to support, all rework and acceptance criteria should be complete. |
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You have an approved project scope document, and a detailed schedule and budget for a major IT project you are managing.
What is important to understand when creating a project management plan? Project size, project cost, and stakeholder roles Role of the stakeholders, skill set of the stakeholders, information needed by the stakeholders, and the frequency of information needed by the stakeholders Role of the stakeholders and the information needed by the stakeholders Role of the stakeholders, information needed by the stakeholders, and the frequency of information needed by the stakeholders |
Role of the stakeholders, information needed by the stakeholders, and the frequency of information needed by the stakeholders
To create a project management plan, you first need to create and assemble all of the planning documents that the project plan includes, and then create an outline of the project plan. After reviewing the outline with the sponsor and key stakeholders and getting feedback, you should revise the outline. Next, you should write the project plan, integrating all of the planning elements and any necessary supplemental material, such as charts and appendices. After distributing the plan to stakeholders and upper management, you should conduct a formal review of the project plan. After making final revisions, the sponsors should sign-off on the finished document. In order to create a valid project management plan, you need to understand the role of the stakeholders, and you need to know what information the stakeholders need and how frequently they need it. The skill set of the stakeholders is irrelevant to the project plan. A project plan is an organized collection of all of the planning documents. It should include: * Table of Contents * Overview * Sponsors * Team Members * Requirements * Scheduled Tasks * Expected Resources * Environmental Issues * Business Requirements * Implementation Plans * Support Plans * Training Plans The project size, project cost, and stakeholder roles are defined in the project's scope document. |
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You have been working on a large IT project for six months. According to the schedule, the project's total allocated time is 18 months. The project is on schedule. Your team has spent $450,000 out of a total budget of $2,350,000.
Assuming the costs are spread evenly, what is the current cost variance for the project? $450,000 $333,330 $783,330 $1,900,000 |
$333,330
To calculate financial performance, you must measure actual time and costs against measurable baseline targets. You can use financial management variables to tell you if a project is on time and within budget. One of the financial management variables you can use to track the financial performance of a project is the cost variance. To calculate cost variance, you must first determine the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS), the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP), and the actual cost of work performed (ACWP). BCWS is a baseline established at the beginning of a project. It is a measurement of the amount of money budgeted, based on the cost of the work scheduled. Because BCWS is a baseline, it will not change through the life of the project. In a scenario where costs are evenly spread, you can calculate BCWS by dividing the total budget by the total number of months ($2,350,000/18 months = $130,555 per month). The BCWS is $130,555 per month. To calculate BCWP, you must measure the amount of money budgeted for the work that has actually been performed. BCWP changes as costs and schedules change. To calculate BCWP, you must multiply the total BCWS by the percentage of work that is complete. ($2,350,000 x .3333% months = approximately $783,330) The BCWP is $783,330. ACWP is the amount you have spent -- $450,000. Cost variance (CV) is the difference between BCWP and ACWP. A positive result is an indication that you are spending less money than planned. A negative amount indicates you are over budget. In this scenario, the CV calculates to positive $333,330. You are currently under budget. |
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You have a project that has five major tasks: A, B, C, D, and E. Task B cannot be started until A is completed and task D cannot be started until task B is completed. Tasks C and E may be completed at any time.
What is the critical path of this project? A->B->D->E A->B A->B->C->D A->B->D |
A->B->D
The critical path is A->B->D,because task A must be complete before B can be started and B must be complete before D can be started. The critical path of a project is the sequence of tasks that will result in the earliest completion date. If a single task in the critical path suffers a delay by a single day, then the entire project will suffer a delay. You use task duration and dependencies to calculate the critical path. You do not assess cost, quality, or risk when you determine the critical path. The critical path deals with time only. Cost, quality, and risk have nothing to do with its calculation. Project Strategy Development and Preliminary Planning Sub-Objective: 2.18 Given a scenario with necessary project documents, and given enterprise holiday and individual resource calendars, demonstrate the ability to develop a project schedule by doing the following: define and sequence project tasks, activities, and phases which are needed to bring about the completion of given interim or finished project deliverables, estimate durations for project tasks, activities, and phases, estimate work effort for project tasks, assignments, specify resources required for the completion of each phase, identification of the project critical path. |
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Your project has experienced a severe schedule slippage. The project is 35% complete and 50% of the schedule is consumed. This means your project team will have to put in some extended overtime.
What are legitimate ways you can motivate the team to accept the overtime situation? Do not worry about the schedule at this time and let the team members develop their own attitudes about the overtime situation. Let the team members work out the overtime among themselves and do not worry about the schedule at this phase of the project. Challenge team members to find an alternative solution to the schedule slippage (and resulting overtime) and give team members clearly defined performance expectations concerning the schedule slippage. Challenge team members to find an alternative solution to the schedule slippage (and resulting overtime) and let the team members develop their own attitudes about the overtime situation. |
Challenge team members to find an alternative solution to the schedule slippage (and resulting overtime) and give team members clearly defined performance expectations concerning the schedule slippage.
After you identify the reason for the slippage, you need to understand the impact on the project. After you understand the cause, you should look for options to correct the schedule slippage and alternative solutions. If you decide the project team will have to put in extended overtime to correct the slippage, you can motivate them by giving them clearly defined performance expectations to correct the slippage. You can also motivate them by challenging them to find a solution to the schedule slippage and resulting overtime. As the manager of the team, you should do your best to manage attitudes about the overtime situation, not just let the team develop their own attitudes. You should let the team members know that it is important to get back on schedule. Therefore, you must guide the team through this and not just ignore the issue. |
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Which project elements should have time allotted for iteration? (Choose three.)
System test Stakeholders Requirements analysis Scope definition Communication plan |
--System test
--Requirements analysis --Scope definition When you create a WBS, your plan should take into account the fact that some tasks must be completed through a series of iterations. You need to allow for iterations in tasks that have a higher risk of failure. A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a hierarchical list of tasks that you must complete to deliver project components or complete a project. Each task should have a specific duration and a clearly defined deliverable, and should be familiar. For instance, the WBS for a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich could be: Project Goal: Peanut Butter-and-Jelly Sandwich 1.0 Obtain Ingredients 1.1 Drive to store 1.2 Select ingredients: peanut butter, jelly, and bread 1.3 Pay for ingredients 1.4 Deliver ingredients to kitchen 2.0 Assemble Sandwich 2.1 Get knife and paper plate 2.2 Open bread, peanut butter, and jelly 2.3 Put bread on plate 2.4 Put peanut butter on bread 2.5 Put jelly on bread 2.6 Put slices of bread together 3.0 Eat Sandwich A communication plan describes how to disseminate project information. Revisions to the communication plan are unlikely, so you do not need to allocate time for iteration. It is also unlikely that revisions are needed to the stakeholders. If a stakeholder is replaced or lost, it typically does not require iterations to compensate for. |
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You have the following figures:
Budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP) = $1,000,000.00 Actual cost of work performed (ACWP) = $1,100,000.00 Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) = $1,200,000.00 What is the schedule variance of this project? - $100,000.00 - $200,000.00 $100,000.00 $200,000.00 |
(- $200,000.00)
The formula for schedule variance is BCWP - BCWS. Therefore, to calculate the schedule variance, you subtract $1,200,000.00 from $1,000,000.00 (1,000,000 - 1,200,000) and find the schedule variance is -$200,000.00. The formula for the schedule performance index (SPI) is BCWP/BCWS. The formula for the cost variance is BCWP - ACWP. The formula for the cost performance index (CPI) is BCWP/ACWP. Project Execution, Control and Coordination Sub-Objective: 3.1 Identify the following as tasks that should be accomplished on a weekly basis in the course of tracking an "up and running" project. Explain the rationale for performing these tasks and explain how to adapt these tasks to different situations: Check the project's scope status to determine "in scope" versus "out of scope" status of project elements, Check the evolution and status of project deliverables, Check the project schedule, Analyze variances (deviations from plan) by comparing "estimated" to "actual" resource time expenditures, dollar expenditures, milestones and elapsed duration of activities, Handle scope changes, if needed, List, track, and try to resolve open issues, Report project status, Look for opportunities to and "push" for close out of activities and sign-off of deliverables, Decide whether it is appropriate to continue the project. Discontinue the project if appropriate. |
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Your project requires the development of a program to track customer order history and recommend products based on the order history. Which components should be implemented in a formal quality management plan?
design review, code inspections, change control procedures, unit testing, system testing, vendor testing, and sign-offs design review, code inspections, change control procedures, unit testing, vendor testing, and sign-offs design review, change control procedures, unit testing, vendor testing, and sign-offs design review, code inspections, change control procedures, unit testing, system testing, and sign-offs |
design review, code inspections, change control procedures, unit testing, system testing, and sign-offs
Components of a formal quality management plan include design review, code inspections, change control procedures, unit testing, system testing, and sign-offs. The design review occurs before implementation begins to ensure that all requirements have been met by the component's design. Code inspections involve another developer reviewing the code for errors and vulnerabilities. Change control procedures outline how any change to the plan is to be dealt with. Unit testing involves testing the unit or deliverable (program in this case). System testing involves ensuring it works with the overall system, such as ensuring database integration with the program. Sign-offs involve the acceptance of the deliverable. Quality assurance begins during the planning phase with thorough planning. Verification and review of each component needs to occur before creation of the next component. Vendor sign-off is not a component of a formal quality management plan. |
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You have been managing a large mission-critical project for over a year. According to the schedule, the project will be complete in three months. One of the team managers has asked you to excuse him from this week's scheduled review meeting. Everyone has committed to attend this standing meeting. You established a policy that everyone should attend this meeting without exception. The manager's responsibilities involve the code development.
What should you do? Allow the manager to miss the meeting Ask the manager to have someone take his place. Reschedule the meeting at a time convenient for everyone. Tell the manager that he made a commitment and his attendance is mandatory. |
Allow the manager to miss the meeting
It is important that a project manager lead effectively by: * motivating the team * providing constructive support * showing honesty and integrity * being versatile and flexible * making the best possible decisions The best approach for establishing the relationship described is to adopt different management tactics for specific situations or individuals. Although you have a policy that everyone should attend the meeting, the project schedule exceeds 15 months. It is unreasonable to expect that every team member can attend every meeting. You should allow the manager to miss the meeting, but ask him to review the meeting notes before the next meeting. You should not reschedule a standing meeting because of one person's absence, unless that person is critical to the meeting. There is nothing in this question to suggest that the person is critical to the meeting. You should not ask the manager to send someone to take his place. Bringing the replacement up to date on issues might consume time and make the meeting less productive. Additionally, there may be matters you only want management to know about and not the development team. |
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Why is it important to conduct a review meeting to align the stakeholder expectations to the plan when transitioning from the planning phase to the execution phase of a project?
To ensure continued viability of the business case To assist in scheduling the project To assist in implementing quality control standards To assist in creating the budget |
To ensure continued viability of the business case
It is important to conduct a project review meeting to ensure continued viability of the business case. As the project manager, you compose the documents to address the business needs, and the stakeholders can review these to ensure that you are on target and are addressing the needs of the client's business. The stakeholders are usually not involved in creating the budget, schedule, or quality control standards. However, it is always best to get approval from the stakeholders to ensure that all planning is complete. This is why the stakeholders should always be part of the project review meeting. |
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You are the project manager for a large IT project involving several vendors and significant in-house development. A recent report from one of the vendors indicates that project-related expenses are much higher than was anticipated.
Which step is NOT necessary to take in response to this increase in expenses? Notify the technical staff and develop methods to push the schedule Identify options for absorbing part of the increase in the overall budget Clearly identify the reason for and amount of the increase Identify the stakeholders that you should notify |
Notify the technical staff and develop methods to push the schedule
You do not need to notify technical staff of the overrun or try to push the schedule to make up the difference. The problem is occurring because of a vendor and not an internal issue. When faced with an increase in expenses, you should identify the reason for the increase and the size of the increase. After you understand the cause, you should look for options for absorbing some or all of the increase into the overall budget. After you have identified the best ways to manage the cost overrun, you should identify which stakeholders you should notify and plan the best means to explain the change. |
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What is the critical path for the project shown in the exhibit?
(see chart#2) C, H, J C, G, K A, D, I, K B, F, J |
C, H, J
The critical path for this project is C, H, and J, which takes 17 days. B, F, J takes 10 days. C, G, K takes 9 days. C, E, I, K takes 12 days. A, D, I, K takes 8 days. The critical path of a project is the sequence of tasks that define the end date of the project and have no float. If a single task in the critical path suffers a delay by a single day, then the entire project suffers delay. Although the critical path defines the shortest time in which a project can be completed, it is the longest path through the network diagram that produces project completion. The critical path does not necessarily include all critical activities, but is primarily concerned with time. |
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You are working on a research and development project for an aerospace company. The project is 95% complete and is scheduled to complete in two weeks on time. The project is in the critical path for a larger project, so the contract establishes penalties for being late. The penalties accrue by 1% each day for the first 5 days and then by 10% each week after that up to a maximum of 30%.
Your chief engineer must primarily perform the remaining 5% of the project. However, he has just received an offer to speak at a national aerospace engineering convention because the scheduled speaker cannot attend due to health problems. The CEO of the company gave the engineer the next week off to attend the meeting and speak at the convention because it can potentially give the business a lot of exposure leading to more projects and work. What should you do? Tell the engineer he cannot go. Explain to the CEO that a week delay penalizes the current project by at least 5%. Have the project sponsor tell the engineer he cannot attend the conference. Explain to the engineer that a week delay penalizes the current by at least 5%. |
Explain to the CEO that a week delay penalizes the current project by at least 5%.
The 5% penalty may be acceptable to the CEO since he is expecting this seminar to generate business. Therefore, you should explain the delay's consequences to the CEO and let him make the decision. Additionally, you should learn from this and ensure that there are at least two people that can do any one task in case this situation comes up on another project in the future. If someone else could finish the work, then the engineer's absence would not be an issue. Explaining the penalty to the engineer is more than likely not going to accomplish anything. He does not have the authority at this point to cancel his conference attendance. Having the project sponsor tell the engineer he cannot go or telling the project engineer he cannot go is not the best solution since his attendance may be the best thing for the company and its future projects. Therefore, since the CEO gave the authorization, it is best to go through him. |
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Why is it important to conduct a review meeting to complete the project planning documentation when transitioning from the planning phase to the execution phase of a project?
To assist in implementing quality control standards To assist in scheduling the project To resolve all planning issues To assist in creating the budget |
To resolve all planning issues
It is important to conduct a project review meeting to resolve all planning issues. As the project manager, you are primarily responsible for creating the budget, schedule, and quality control standards for a project. However, it is always best to get approval from the stakeholders to ensure that all planning is complete. This is why the stakeholders should always be part of the project review meeting. The stakeholders are usually not involved in creating the budget, schedule, or quality control standards. |
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A vendor has requested a two-week delay in delivering their product. Which two actions should the project manager take first? (Choose two.)
Notify the stakeholders of the delay. Inform the vendor there will be financial consequences for the delay. Notify the project sponsor of the delay. Negotiate by identifying ways the vendor might shorten the delay. Clearly identify the impact of the delay on the overall project. |
--Negotiate by identifying ways the vendor might shorten the delay.
--Clearly identify the impact of the delay on the overall project. When faced with schedule slippage, you should first identify what the impact is on the overall project. If a task in the critical path is affected, you may have to aggressively address the slippage. Schedule slippage requires negotiation. After you have identified the impact, you should negotiate by working with the vendor to find ways to shorten the delay. You do not need to notify the stakeholder of the delay until you have tried to resolve any schedule slippage. In addition, it is not critical to notify the stakeholder or project manager unless a delay of deliverables will occur or the project completion date is affected. Informing the vendor of penalties for the delay may influence your business relationship with the vendor. You should not threaten financial consequences prematurely. If the deliverable is not in the critical path, or affecting the next step in the critical path, a delay may not even affect the project. |
