Project Management Test 1.3

Front 1

A project manager is responsible for planning, __________, budgeting, directing, organizing, and controlling the project.

Back 1

staffing

Front 2

Project managers need to be sensitive to organizational politics as project success is dependent on the support of __________.

Back 2

senior management

Front 3

The PM must be perceived by the client, senior executives, the functional departments, and the project team as possessing sufficient subject-specific knowledge to direct the project. This is referred to as __________ credibility.

Back 3

technical

Front 4

The project manager has responsibilities to the __________, to the project, to the client, and to the members of the project team.

Back 4

parent organization

Front 5

Which of the following must a project manager possess to demonstrate administrative credibility?

Back 5

the ability to keep the project on schedule and within cost

Front 6

During the __________ stage, cost, schedule, and performance are all equally important.

Back 6

formation

Front 7

Cost as a project objective is most important at the __________ stage of the project life cycle.

Back 7

formation

Front 8

Most of a project manager’s time is spent __________.

Back 8

communicating with groups interested in the project

Front 9

The __________ is a wide-ranging method for addressing problems that considers multiple and interacting relationships

Back 9

systems approach

Front 10

The __________of a culture include(s) such things as the tools used by people, the material things they produce and use, the way they prepare food, their skills, and their attitudes toward work.

Back 10

technology

Front 11

Functional managers use the __________ approach, while project managers use the __________ approach.

Back 11

analytic, systems

Front 12

Which of the following is an example of the institutions of a culture?

Back 12

the nature of the family

Front 13

A skill that becomes necessary as project managers begin to interact with others in order to acquire adequate resources, acquire and motivate personnel, deal with obstacles, making project goal tradeoffs, and others is that of __________. This is the art of discussing and arranging the terms of a transaction, in most cases attempting to work out the best deal for you or your organization.

Back 13

negotiation

Front 14

During the __________ stage of the project life cycle, there is no significant difference in the importance that project managers place on the three goals of cost, time, and performance.

Back 14

design or formation stage

Front 15

During the buildup stage of a project life cycle, __________ is the dominant goal of many project managers.

Back 15

schedule

Front 16

Culture contains the following four elements: technology, language, arts, and __________.

Back 16

institutions

Front 17

Arts are the aspect of culture that communicates the __________ of the culture.

Back 17

aesthetic values

Front 18

Microcultures rarely vary between industry and firms.

Back 18

False

Front 19

The functional manager is responsible for deciding what resources will be devoted to accomplishing the task.

Back 19

True

Front 20

The project manager is usually a facilitator and a generalist possessing a reasonable level of technical knowledge.

Back 20

True

Front 21

The drive to complete the task is the most important of all the characteristics desirable in a project manager.

Back 21

True

Front 22

When comparing the project manager with the functional manager, the functional manager is the direct, technical supervisor.

Back 22

True

Front 23

Identify the attribute that is not normally associated with the job of functional manager.

Back 23

The functional manager is usually a generalist in the area being managed

Front 24

According to the authors, the analytic method, when applied to systems, focuses on ________.

Back 24

Breaking the components of a system into smaller and smaller elements

Front 25

The project manager is usually ________.

Back 25

A facilitator and a generalist having a reasonable level of technical competence in the science of the project

Front 26

According to the authors, three major questions face the project manager with respect to synthesizing the requirements of a project. Identify the item that is not listed as one of the three major questions.

Back 26

Who will actually do the work of the project?

Front 27

When managing a project, the project manager is responsible for ________.

Back 27

Organizing, staffing, budgeting, directing, planning, and controlling the project

Front 28

The project manager's responsibilities are broad and fall primarily into three separate areas. Identify the item that is not identified by the authors.

Back 28

Responsibilities to special-interest groups

Front 29

Project managers should view politics as ________.

Back 29

The mechanism by which the people in organizations make decisions

Front 30

The project manager must make trade-offs between project progress and process. Conceptually, this involves trade-offs between the ________ functions.

Back 30

Technical and management

Front 31

During the ________ stage of the project lifecycle, there is no significant difference in the importance that project managers place on the three goals of cost, time, and performance.

Back 31

Design or formation stage

Front 32

. According to the authors, a Type 1 project is ________.

Back 32

Well understood and routine

Front 33

Type 1 projects usually fail because ________.

Back 33

They have not been organized to handle unexpected crises and deviations from plan

Front 34

. In a Type II project, the so-called planning problems usually result from ________.

Back 34

A failure to define the mission carefully and get the client's acceptance

Front 35

According to the authors, of all the characteristics desirable in a project manager, ________ is the most important.

Back 35

Drive to complete the task

Front 36

. The project manager needs ________ credibility.

Back 36

Technical and administrative

Front 37

Projects are conducted in four important environments. They are ________.

Back 37

Economic, political, legal, and sociotechnical

Front 38

A ________ is a set of interrelated components that accepts inputs and produces outputs in a purposeful manner.

Back 38

system

Front 39

In order to maintain credibility within the parent firm, the PM must never allow ________ to be surprised.

Back 39

Senior Management

Front 40

The project manager's responsibility to the project and to the client is met by ensuring that the ________ of the project is preserved in spite of conflicting demands made by stakeholders.

Back 40

integrity

Front 41

During the build-up stage of a project lifecycle, ________ is the dominant goal of many project managers.

Back 41

schedule

Front 42

During the final stage of the project lifecycle, ________ is the dominant goal of many project managers.

Back 42

performance

Front 43

________ results when the demands made on an individual are greater than the person's ability to cope with them, particularly when the person has a high need for achievement.

Back 43

stress

Front 44

________ is the entire way of life for a group of people. It contains the four elements of technology, institutions, language, and arts.

Back 44

culture

Front 45

The structure of the society is defined by its ________.

Back 45

institutions

Front 46

The aesthetic values of a culture are communicated through the culture's ________.

Back 46

art

Front 47

According to the textbook, in Latin America, the ________ system leads a manager to give preference to relatives and friends when hiring.

Back 47

compadre

Front 48

The laws of the nation are often a product of the nation's ________.

Back 48

history

Front 49

This agreement, ________, affords protection of intellectual property rights of firms of the three signatory countries in North America.

Back 49

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Front 50

________ is a complex composite of words, science, symbols, movements and positions of the body, pictures, sounds, equations, and objects.

Back 50

language

Front 51

Participative management may be difficult to practice in societies with highly structured ________.

Back 51

social class

Front 52

The ________ is a person who spearheads an idea or action and sells it throughout the organization.

Back 52

champion

Front 53

The ________ is an alternative for action if the expected result fails to materialize.

Back 53

contingency plan

Front 54

The ________ represents everything outside the system that delivers inputs or receives outputs from the system.

Back 54

environment

Front 55

The ________ is the “corporate culture” within the organization, or even within the project.

Back 55

microculture

Front 56

. The project manager makes a ________ by allowing one aspect of the project to get worse in return for allowing another aspect of the project to get better.

Back 56

trade-off

Front 57

A ________ is a person who helps people overcome problems, either with technical issues or with other people.

Back 57

facilitator

Front 58

With respect to acquiring resources, there is a high potential for conflict between the functional manager and the project manager. Describe a major source of that conflict and suggest how it can be properly managed.

Back 58

The project manager often will seek individuals with scarce but necessary skills. Moreover, the project manager will seek those individuals who are top producers. However, these are the very people the functional manager would like to retain to perform the work of the function. In order to manage this conflict, the use of an objective standard to set priorities is recommended. Instead of seeking to optimize the project or the function, the project manager and the functional manager should collaborate to solve the problem in a manner that maximizes organizational success for the business as a whole.

Front 59

When asked, “How do you motivate astronauts?” A representative of NASA responded, “We don't motivate them, but, boy, are we careful about whom we select.” Discuss the implications of this statement for project managers seeking to motivate project team members.

Back 59

The most effective team members have some common characteristics. Moreover, the issue of motivating people in a project team is closely related to the kind of people who are invited to join the team. For example, when faced with technical problems, will the team members take the initiative to resolve the issue or will the team members seek to delay action by referring the problem back to the functional department? Moreover, because of the potential for conflicting priorities between the function and the project, team members should have the political skills to balance such competing demands, especially when the project team is not assigned full-time to work on a project. If each team member has a problem solving orientation, the team member will seek interdisciplinary collaboration instead of narrowly viewing the problem within a specific discipline. And finally, team members should have the moral courage necessary to work in an open environment where problems are identified and resolved.

Front 60

At the inception of a project, crises tend to be associated with resources. Explain why this scenario could be common in some organizations

Back 60

Uniqueness is a characteristics shared by projects. Once the technical plans to accomplish the project have been translated into a budget and schedule, managerial reviews will often seek to gain cuts in budget and/or schedule. Each time this happens, the cuts will have to be translated into changes in technical plans.

Front 61

Identify three important characteristics that would be desirable in a project manager. Explain your reasoning.

Back 61

The three characteristics would be an ability to get the job done without destroying the performing organization and/or its relationships with key stakeholders. There are three aspects to this statement. First, there needs to be a drive to complete the tasks of the project. Second, the resources of the performing organization must be used in a manner that ensures survivability of the organization. Finally, the project manager needs the emotional maturity to balance competing demands among multiple project stakeholders.

Front 62

Four project environments were identified in chapter 3. Assume that there is a clash in requirements between the legal environments of two countries participating in the project. Before taking action to resolve the clash in requirements, what would you recommend that the project manager do?

Back 62

Since this is a multinational project, the project manager needs to understand the jurisdiction of the legal systems governing the project. Once the governing jurisdiction for the matter at issue has been identified, the project manager should also understand procedural laws associated with the interpretation and enforcement of substantive rights. In many cases, the project manager will lack the expertise to correctly understand and translate these issues into a course of action without guidance provided by competent legal counsel.