Project Management Test 2.5

Front 1

Which of the following is a major advantage of placing a project in the matrix approach?

Back 1

There is less anxiety among team members about what will happen to them when the project is completed.

Front 2

Identify the major advantage of placing a project within a functional department of the parent organization.

Back 2

There is maximum flexibility in the use of staff.

Front 3

Which of the following is a major disadvantage of placing a project within a functional department of the parent organization?

Back 3

The client is not the primary focus of activity in the function.

Front 4

Which of the following is a major advantage of placing a project within the pure project organization?

Back 4

A holistic approach to performing the project is supported.

Front 5

Which of the following is true for a matrix organization?

Back 5

It reduces the duplication required by the standalone project structure.

Front 6

In a matrix organization, the __________ controls when and what the project members do, while the __________ control who will be assigned to the project and what technology will be used.

Back 6

project manager, functional managers

Front 7

For firms engaged in a large number of projects which are similar, the __________ form of organization is preferred.

Back 7

projectized

Front 8

The project management office is responsible for __________ numerous projects within a firm.

Back 8

organizing

Front 9

The __________ is the individual on a project team that is in charge of all official paperwork, keeping track of standards compliance, customer changes, billings, etc.

Back 9

contract administrator

Front 10

The project manager’s primary tool for resolving conflict is ___________.

Back 10

negotiation

Front 11

Risk management is the process of dealing with __________ in projects

Back 11

uncertainty

Front 12

__________ projects are those where the project team crosses time, space, organizational, and cultural boundaries.

Back 12

Virtual

Front 13

If pure functional and pure project organizations coexist in the firm, the firm is said to have a ________ organizational structure.

Back 13

composite

Front 14

The __________ manager is typically responsible for a number of related projects, each with its own project manager.

Back 14

program

Front 15

The __________ is a basic project document that describes all the work that must be done to complete the project and forms the basis for costing, scheduling, and work responsibility

Back 15

WBS (work breakdown structure)

Front 16

When the project requires the integration of inputs from several functional areas and involves reasonably sophisticated technology, but does not require all the technical specialists to work for the project on a full-time basis, the projectized organization is the most logical choice.

Back 16

False

Front 17

In the matrix organizational structure, one individual, the PM, takes responsibility for managing the project, for bringing it in on time, within cost, and to specification.

Back 17

True

Front 18

A major purpose of the project management office should be to serve as the critical link between strategic management and project management in the organization.

Back 18

True

Front 19

The weak matrix is most similar to the projectized organization, while the strong matrix is closest to the functional organization.

Back 19

False

Front 20

The matrixed organizational form is a standalone project organization overlaid on the functional divisions of the parent firm.

Back 20

True

Front 21

When the parent organization takes on numerous projects (in a projectized organization), considerable duplication of effort may exist.

Back 21

True

Front 22

The project controller is responsible for efficient production of the product or process the project engineer has designed.

Back 22

False

Front 23

The project plan must be designed in such a way that the project outcome meets ________.

Back 23

The criteria used to justify its selection

Front 24

The ________ is a portion of the project plan detailing the activities, their schedules, and resources, including personnel.

Back 24

Action plan

Front 25

The ________ is a specialized view of the action plan that focuses on who has what responsibility for each project task.

Back 25

Linear responsibility chart

Front 26

The success of the project launch meeting is dependent on the existence of ________.

Back 26

A well-defined set of objectives for the project

Front 27

This project plan element provides a short summary of the objectives and scope of the project. It is directed to top management.

Back 27

Overview

Front 28

This project plan element should include profit and competitive goals as well as technical goals.

Back 28

Objectives

Front 29

This project plan element outlines the various schedules and lists all milestone events. It identifies the estimated time for each task and is used to construct the master project schedule.

Back 29

Schedule

Front 30

This element of the project plan contains a brief description of the procedure to be followed in monitoring, collecting, storing, and evaluating the history of the project.

Back 30

Evaluation methods

Front 31

Identify the statement that does not describe one of the three major objectives for systems integration.

Back 31

The dimension of project efficiency is of paramount concern

Front 32

To achieve the objective of effectiveness for systems integration, three guidelines are offered. Identify the statement that is not one of the three guidelines.

Back 32

Design components to optimize subsystem performance so that total system performance will be optimized

Front 33

One of the challenges during the even planning process is to ensure that managers do not mix ________.

Back 33

Outcomes (events) with the specific tasks (activities) needed to produce them

Front 34

The process of coordinating the work and timing of the different groups working on multidisciplinary teams is called ________.

Back 34

Integration management

Front 35

In a control chart, this centerline represents the value computed as ________.

Back 35

The arithmetic mean

Front 36

In a control chart, the lines depicting the extreme values for a distribution of data are usually located at ________.

Back 36

Plus or minus 3 standard deviations from the mean

Front 37

Significant events in the project lifecycle that have zero duration and that do not consume resources are called ________.

Back 37

Milestones

Front 38

________ is the name given to what a system does. Its attributes include reliability, quality, and maintainability.

Back 38

performance

Front 39

________ is an approach used in systems integration when the relevant cost trade-offs can be estimated. It represents the simple and consistent use of cost-effectiveness analysis to achieve the cost objectives for system integration

Back 39

value engineering

Front 40

The set of physical elements required to build a project is called the ________.

Back 40

bill of materials

Front 41

The ________ is a graph showing how a statistic is changing over time compared to its average and extreme values.

Back 41

control chart

Front 42

The physical items to be delivered from a project are called ________.

Back 42

deliverables

Front 43

________ is a measure of project progress that has been made against baseline plans during execution of the project.

Back 43

earned value

Front 44

________ planning is an approach that breaks the planning task down into the activities that must be done in each managerial level of the organization. Typically, objectives are cascaded when this approach is used.

Back 44

hierarchical planning

Front 45

The approach that examines each element of a product for a system to determine if there is a better or cheaper way of achieving the same function is called ________.

Back 45

value engineering

Front 46

The ________ provides a description of a task that defines all the work required to accomplish it, including inputs and desired outputs.

Back 46

work statement

Front 47

The ________ of the project should be defined prior to developing the WBS.

Back 47

objectives

Front 48

The major tool that a project manager uses during the planning phase is called the ________.

Back 48

WBS

Front 49

The final form of a plan that has received approval from all parties involved in the plan is called the ________.

Back 49

master plan

Front 50

During initial project planning, activities are identified and sorted. In completing this process, each level in the hierarchy should limit the number of activities to a range between ________.

Back 50

2 to 20 activities

Front 51

The ________ chart is a tree diagram used to represent a hierarchical plan.

Back 51

Gozinto

Front 52

Identify four important outcomes associated with the project launch meeting.

Back 52

The technical scope should be established. Participants should accept the basic areas for performance responsibility. Tentative schedules and budgets are spelled out for the overall project. A group to manage risk has been created.

Front 53

Identify two objections commonly raised by marketing organizations against the early participation by engineering and manufacturing in the selling process to external customers. Explain how you would counter these objections.

Back 53

The sales arm of the organization is trained to sell. It is expected to be fully conversant with all technical aspects of the firm's products and services. In addition, salespeople are expected to be knowledgeable about design and manufacturing lead times and schedules. On the other hand, it is widely assumed by marketing that manufacturing and design engineers do not understand sales techniques. Moreover, there may be legitimate concerns about the appropriateness and effectiveness of interpersonal communications due to the lack of formal training in selling processes. And finally, it is expensive to invest high-priced technical talent for proposals with a relatively low probability of success. Using cost of quality concepts, Philip Crosby and others have shown that is usually cheaper, faster, and easier to do things right first time than to redo them later.

Front 54

Described the strategic factors identified by Pinto and Slevin that should be associated with success in the implementation of projects.

Back 54

It is important to clearly define and agree upon the objectives in the project plan. Top management should support the project at its outset and make clear to all personnel involved that management supports successful completion. The project needs an action plan that spells out in detail the steps required to implement the project, including all resource requirements.

Front 55

Described the general steps recommended by the authors for designing and using the WBS.

Back 55

Step 1: Using information from the action plan, list the task breakdown in excessively finer levels of detail. Continue until all meaningful tasks for work packages have been identified. Each task should be at a level of detail such that it can be individually planned, budgeted, scheduled, monitored, and controlled. Step 2: For each work package, identify the data relevant to the WBS. It is helpful to construct a linear responsibility chart to show who is responsible for what. The LRC will help the PM keep track of who must approve what and who must report to whom. Step 3: All work package information should be reviewed with the individuals or organizations responsible for doing or supporting the work. This review should verify the WBS’s accuracy. Step 4: The project budget should consist of four elements. They are: direct budgets from each task, an indirect costs budget for the project, a project contingency for unexpected emergencies, and any residual, which includes a profit derived from the project. Step 5: Schedule information and milestones should be integrated into a project master schedule. Step 6: During project execution, the project manager will compare actual resource usage by work element, work package, task and so on against the planned amounts for those items. This will enable the project manager to refine estimates and initiate appropriate corrective actions as necessary. Step 7: The schedule will be analyzed in the same manner as the budget.