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20 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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You are the project manager of a project with the charter to build a large accounting application for a Fortune 500 company. The firm has been planning the project for over a year, and upper level management has a well defined set of specifications. The other stakeholders have not been involved in the process. At the kick-off meeting, you sense that several members of mid-level management believe that there are mistakes in the overall direction.
As the project manager, whose support should you focus on first? Upper management Stakeholders Technical manager Production manager |
Stakeholders
To increase the potential to have a successful project, you should get support from all stakeholders. The stakeholders are individuals who have a vested interest in the project and have something to gain or lose based on the outcome of the project. This project already has upper management's support because they defined its guidelines. Therefore, you should meet with them to discuss your concerns. You should not take any independent actions to solicit support from mid-management. The key to the project is stakeholder consensus. Once that is accomplished, the stakeholders can deal with mid-management such as the technical or production manager. It may be that you are the stakeholder who deals with mid-management, but not until the stakeholders have a mutual understanding of the project and its deliverables. |
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What should your project plan include to display how the information in it is organized?
Executive summary Implementation plan Table of contents Document information |
Table of contents
The table of contents displays how the information in the project plan is organized and allows users to easily find the information in the plan. The executive summary contains high-level, non-technical information and is intended to communicate to the executives of the company the project's overview. The implementation plan contains an overview of the methods used to put the project's schedule in place. The document information is an administrative component that displays information about the updating and maintenance of the project plan. |
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What is the estimate at completion (EAC)?
The total amount spent on the project to date The total amount of the project budget The cost estimate for the remaining project work and the actual cost spent on the project to date The cost estimate for the remaining project work |
The cost estimate for the remaining project work and the actual cost spent on the project to date
The estimate at completion (EAC) is the actual cost (AC) plus the estimate to complete (ETC). Therefore, it is the cost estimate for the remaining project work plus the actual cost spent on the project to date. The budget at completion (BAC) takes into account all money allocated for the project budget for its completion. The ETC is the cost estimate for the work that remains to be completed for the project. The actual cost (AC) includes all amounts spent on a project through a particular date or phase. |
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You are defining the scope for a database project and must ensure that you obtain written confirmation from the customer on the project's deliverables.
Which elements of a project's background must you, as a project manager, understand and receive written confirmation of to properly understand the project? The reasons for the project initiation, the problem or opportunity the project is intended to address, and the project's strategic alignment with organizational goals. The methodology used on the project, the problem or opportunity the project is intended to address, and the reasons for the project initiation. The methodology used on the project, the problem or opportunity the project is intended to address, and the project's strategic alignment with organizational goals. The reasons for the project initiation and the project's strategic alignment with organizational goals. |
The reasons for the project initiation, the problem or opportunity the project is intended to address, and the project's strategic alignment with organizational goals.
To understand a project's requirements, the project manager needs to understand the history behind the project, including the problem (or opportunity) that the project is intended to address, the reasons for the project initiation, and how the project aligns with organizational goals. Keep in mind that projects are designed to address a specific problem or opportunity. From the history, you can learn prior hindrances and roadblocks that kept the project from being undertaken or caused it to fail in a prior attempt. Understanding the immediate need of the company that is causing this project to be undertaken at this specific time is also crucial. Development methodology is not part of the background of the project. It is part of the process of delivering the deliverable. |
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What are key characteristics that must be included in a communications plan used for execution of a large multi-site project?
It must establish a schedule for status reporting and it must promote consistent information flow between the teams and the project manager. It must promote consistent information flow between the teams and the project manager. It must establish a schedule for status reporting, it must identify what should be communicated and to whom it should be communicated, and it must promote consistent information flow between the teams and the project manager. It must identify what should be communicated and to whom it should be communicated and it must promote consistent information flow between the teams and the project manager. |
It must establish a schedule for status reporting, it must identify what should be communicated and to whom it should be communicated, and it must promote consistent information flow between the teams and the project manager.
Having and using communication plans during the execution of a large multi-site project is a strategy for maintaining quality. Communications standards foster consistent information flow between the teams and the project manager. They also help identify which information you should communicate and to whom. In addition, communication standards should include a schedule for status reporting. Communications plans do not ensure that all parties communicate information and status in a timely fashion. However, they do outline guidelines that team members should follow. |
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Jay interviewed subject matter experts (SMEs) to get time estimates on the software development for the key phase of his current project. After reviewing their estimates, he determined that 120 hours of programming is sufficient. This phase of the project is planned to last for two weeks.
Robin and John are assigned to do the programming. Robin is scheduled to work 20 hours per week on the project, and John will be working 40 hours per week on the project. A few days before the programming is scheduled to begin, you receive a call from Robin. Her daughter must have minor surgery next week and she will be unavailable for two days. What should you do to prevent schedule slippage? Find an additional resource to take Robin's place when she is away or negotiate overtime with John and Robin. Negotiate a different resource to replace Robin. Negotiate overtime with John and Robin. Negotiate overtime with John and Robin or negotiate a different resource to replace Robin. |
Negotiate overtime with John and Robin or negotiate a different resource to replace Robin.
Robin's contribution to the programming is half of a full-time employee (FTE) [40/2=20 hours], while John contributes a whole FTE (40 hours). The impact of Robin's absence for two days is reduced because she does not work on the project full-time. Therefore, there are two viable options: you can negotiate overtime with John and Robin to make up the difference or negotiate to obtain a different resource to replace Robin. Since Robin has not begun working on the project, she is not yet indispensable for this project. It will do little good to have a temporary replacement who would not be trained on the development. |
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You are a senior program manager working in the IT department of a Fortune 1000 company. Your manager has been trying to get a pet project approved for several years. In your manager's opinion, the development of the application would result in substantial savings to the company. He has developed a clearly defined budget, clear completion criteria, and a clear scope of the project.
After reviewing the project scope and charter, you agree with your manager's assessment. Your manager has been able to find sufficient funding for the project by efficiently managing his department. He asked you to be the project manager. What should your decision be and why should you make that decision? You should agree to manage the project because the project will have a positive effect on the company and your manager has enough funding. You should NOT agree to manage this project because your manager has not gained support from upper management for the project. You should agree to manage this project to show upper management that the IT department is striving to help the company to be more profitable. You should NOT agree to manage this project because your manager is not able to maintain funding for the project, and the end-user organizations may not cooperate. |
You should NOT agree to manage this project because your manager has not gained support from upper management for the project.
You should NOT agree to manage this project because upper management has not shown support for this project. Continued management buy-in throughout a project is critical to maintaining the necessary level of support for a project. If you do not obtain management buy-in, you risk having insufficient project funding, unavailability of critical resources, and cancellation of the project. |
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For what purposes should you create a work breakdown structure (WBS)? (Choose two.)
To specify the budget of the project To specify the scope of the project To provide an organized representation of the entire project To specify quality control To support the timeline for the project |
--To provide an organized representation of the entire project
--To support the timeline for the project A WBS is a hierarchical list of tasks that you must complete for each project deliverable. Each task should have a specific duration and a clearly defined deliverable. You can use a WBS to provide input for resource planning, to support the timeline for the project, and to provide an organized representation of the entire project. A WBS does not directly specify the scope of the project, although when it is all put together, the scope is contained in the WBS. A WBS is not concerned with the budget because it is built before the budget is defined. Quality control expectations are not defined in the WBS. |
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John did not perform well on a project deliverable. Several team members complained about his attitude, and he was late on his part of the deliverable. You have a project team meeting in two days and a scheduled review for John in a week. In addition, you have a team meeting with just the team members of John's team in four days.
When should you address this issue with John? At the review meeting At the project team meeting Immediately At the team meeting |
Immediately
When there is an issue with a team member, it is always best to address it immediately. In addition, it is important to address negative performance issues privately with the offending team member. You should not address these issues in a public setting. Therefore, you should address the issue immediately and privately. You should not wait until the team meeting, review meeting, or the project team meeting. |
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Once the project charter is signed, how should you ensure its stakeholders are on board?
Send the table of contents of the charter to the stakeholders. Call a meeting and address any concerns. Call a meeting with all the stakeholders before the charter is signed. Send them an e-mail containing the charter. |
Call a meeting and address any concerns.
Once the project charter is signed, you should call a meeting of all the stakeholders and address any of their concerns. It is best to resolve any concerns or conflicts immediately because this ensures a cohesive team of stakeholders backing the project. It is not sufficient to simply e-mail the stakeholders the charter or send them a part of it such as the table of contents. Although you will probably meet with individual stakeholders prior to the charter being signed, you will not bring them together for consensus until after the project charter has been signed and the project initiation phase can begin. |
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In implementing a quality management plan, which gauges do you use to measure the success of a deliverable?
Completion criteria and testing the deliverable's function in a fully tested system Beta testing and testing the deliverable's function in a fully tested system Beta testing with an extensive number of users and completion criteria Completion criteria and Beta testing |
Completion criteria and testing the deliverable's function in a fully tested system
You should measure the success of a deliverable against the completion criteria specified in the project plan and evaluate how well the deliverable functions in a fully tested system. You should not use Beta testing as a gauge. Beta testing occurs during the testing phase. System designers use Beta testing to flush system problems. Using an extensive number of users to measure deliverable success does not indicate a successful product. |
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You are establishing your project's review processes as the project enters the execution phase. You have defined your scope, budget, and allocated resources for the project. You want to investigate ways in which you could modify the project to improve outcome.
When should the investigation take place? This is an ongoing process, and you should address it throughout the life of the project. You should investigate this as soon as possible so that this information can be included in the scope of work document. You should do this in the early stages of the project so that you can refer to the results throughout the project. You should investigate when you are concerned about meeting a particular goal for the project. |
This is an ongoing process, and you should address it throughout the life of the project.
Process improvement is an ongoing process that you should address throughout the life of the project. You should continually investigate ways to modify your project to improve the outcome. For example, you might be able to optimize your resource usage and task execution to improve the deliverables of your project execution by incorporating additional features that broaden the scope of the project and thereby benefit the end user and organization. This is a proactive process and not a reactive process. You should not wait until you are concerned about a particular goal. If you find a problem, you should address it immediately. Process improvement is certainly addressed in the initial phases of the project when you are negotiating with and determining the customer's requirements. However, it is easy to overlook or miss something and find it when you get into the "nuts and bolts" of the project. Therefore, process improvement takes place throughout the life of the project. Because the scenario stated that you already defined your scope, the option to "investigate this as soon as possible so that this information can be included in the scope of work document" is incorrect. |
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What are three reasons to obtain formal written approval for a project? (Choose three.)
To establish project ownership To prevent loss of interest in the project To clarify project expectations To confirm management support for the project To ensure project success |
--To establish project ownership
--To clarify project expectations --To confirm management support for the project |
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Which project element requires consensus among stakeholders?
Work breakdown structure Definition of deliverables Post-project review Project closure |
Definition of deliverables
To have a successful project, you must have consensus among the stakeholders. Stakeholders are people that have a vested interest in the project. Deliverables are essentially the pieces of functionality for the project. If the project's deliverables are not agreed upon by the stakeholders, the project will not be a success. As a project manager, you should obtain written confirmation that the stakeholders agree to the project priority, project deliverables, and the targeted completion date. If you obtain consensus from the project sponsors on project deliverables, your project is much more likely to meet the sponsors' expectations and thus maintain funding. Written approval of project deliverables also helps prevent scope creep, which is the gradual addition of new requirements. Scope creep is the primary reason large projects fail. Although you need to get consensus for the targeted completion date, it is not necessary to obtain approval for the project closure process or the work breakdown structure (WBS). A WBS is a hierarchical list of tasks that must be completed to create each deliverable. The stakeholders need to agree on the outcome of the project, but not necessarily on the plans of how to achieve the outcome. After customer acceptance of the final project deliverables, the project manager should hold a post-project review with the project team members. Stakeholders are not involved in this meeting. |
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In the planning phase of a project, you predicted a risk that you may exceed the budget. The current scheduled performance index (SPI) is .90.
What can you do to mitigate this risk and bring the SPI closer to 1? Use a different development program. Change the scope of the project. Increase the number of team members devoted to this project. Decrease costs. |
Increase the number of team members devoted to this project.
The formula for the SPI is budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP)/budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS). Therefore, to get a SPI of .90, you are behind schedule. To mitigate this risk, you must increase the number of team members devoted to this project. Changing the scope of the project most likely leaves it incomplete. Using a different development program may or may not reduce man-hours on this project. Decreasing costs does not address the schedule slippage. |
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You have the following project scope definition:
Project 334 is designed to create a user interface for XML Web components, install and configure Web servers, design the layout of an e-commerce solution, and host the solution. The client is going to create the database in an open database connectivity (ODBC) for which you are not responsible since the design specifications state that there will be direct calls to the database. The client requires a two-month time to address the marketability of the e-commerce solution. The project is complete when all Web pages are operational and capable of using an ODBC database. Since the client requires control over the database, the client is responsible for anything beyond the site being ODBC compliant (such as database configurations). Which statement should also be included in this scope definition to make it more complete? Clarifying that a specific team is responsible for all XML documentation. Adding what features are not included in the project. Adding that any functionality changes to the site requires approval by the stakeholders, the project manager, and the client. Adding client's billing address, key contacts, and primary customer contact. |
Adding that any functionality changes to the site requires approval by the stakeholders, the project manager, and the client.
To make the scope definition more complete, you should include a statement that adding any functionality to the site requires approval by the stakeholders, the project manager, and the client. The scope clearly identifies what is involved in the project and the fact that the database is not involved in the project. Additionally, including how changes take place makes the scope definition that much clearer and prevents any miscommunications in the future. The scope statement already includes what is not included in the project such as the database configuration and maintenance. It is more appropriate to include the team's responsibilities in the work breakdown structure (WBS). The client's billing address is not included in the scope document. |
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In which project process group does the enhancement step of the system development life cycle (SDLC) occur?
Controlling Closing Planning Initiation |
Closing
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. The planning process group contains the design and analysis phase, the model requirements, and the documentation of the system requirements. |
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You are a project manager of a team that includes an employee who has fallen behind on scheduled work. The employee has become disgruntled and is beginning to disrupt team morale. Your best efforts to resolve the situation have been unsuccessful.
What is the last step you should take before dismissing this employee? Ignore the problems because individuals should fix their own. Use the "nice guy" approach so you will not hurt the individual's self-esteem. Issue a written warning to the individual. Provide feedback to the individual on a regular basis. Have coaching sessions with the individual. |
Issue a written warning to the individual.
Before dismissing the employee, you should issue a written warning to the employee. Verbal warnings, coaching, and feedback are steps you should take long before you are ready to issue a written warning or dismiss an employee. When you manage an employee with an individual performance issue, you should first try to identify the cause of the behavior. It may be that the individual is having issues in his personal life that are affecting his work. Also, you should address issues in private by having coaching sessions with the individual. This allows you to work with the person to develop a better understanding of the expectations and provide feedback on a regular basis. Using the "nice guy" approach or ignoring the problems may compromise team and project success. You cannot ignore the issue if the employee is causing the team's morale to decrease. Firing the individual is an option. However, if this is going to cause project deadlines to slip, it is much better to see if the issue can be resolved and at least give the person a chance to correct his actions. Ignoring the problem is not an option. If the issue is ignored, the team's morale will slip and the project will suffer as a result. You should deal with issues as soon as possible when they surface. |
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You are the project manager for a project in the initial planning stages. The customer request is unclear. What is the first course of action you should take?
You should identify the project size. You should determine the stakeholder requirements. You should decide which methodology to follow. You should forecast the project budget. |
You should determine the stakeholder requirements.
When faced with an unclear or poorly worded customer request, you should determine the stakeholder requirements first. Key stakeholders in a project include: * Sponsor -- the individual or organization that is initiating the work and providing the resources * Customer -- the individual or organization that receives the results of the project * End users -- the people who use the results of the project; the customer may be the end user * Project team -- the people who participate in the project * Project manager -- the individual who manages the project * Other individuals or organizations that the project affects The stakeholder requirements are the basis for the entire project. They also define the critical success factors, which are indicators of a project's success or failure. Without a clear understanding of the stakeholder requirements, you are unable to correctly identify the project size, forecast the project budget, or decide which methodology to follow. The project size is referred to as the project scope, which determines the size of the work required to complete a project. The project budget outlines the monetary constraints for the project. The project methodology is the course taken to reach the project goals. |
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You are managing a large IT project. The concept for the project has been in development by management for over a year. You have defined the project concept, completed the project charter, and obtained the funding. Management has not involved the rest of the stakeholders in this process.
The proposed application results in some major changes to the way your company does business. The results of the project transform some departments and disband others. The cooperation of all the stakeholders is critical to the success of the project. Which statement correctly describes how and when you should inform the stakeholders that major changes are going to take place? You should be up-front with the stakeholders during a combined meeting shortly after the kick-off meeting. You should meet with the affected stakeholders individually and explain how the project may affect them. You should meet with groups of no more than six stakeholders and explain the impact of the project on their department. You should not tell the stakeholders about possible staffing changes; this is a job for management. |
You should not tell the stakeholders about possible staffing changes; this is a job for management.
Managing a project includes soliciting support from stakeholders. However, there are some tasks for which the management of the company is responsible, not the project manager. You should not tell the stakeholders about the possible staffing changes; this is a job for management. This is especially true if a stakeholder is at risk of losing his or her job. Project Strategy Development and Preliminary Planning Sub-Objective: 2.6 Given a project description/overview and a list of the project business and technical requirements, do the following: decide if the project is defined well enough to achieve a measurable outcome and metrics for success, determine if the requirements include the necessary range of inputs (assumptions, expectations, technical issues, industry issues, etc.) in order to validate the input given and gaps related to scope, distinguish any input provided which do not relate to the project at hand in order to achieve greater focus, recognize whether the list of requirements is complete, accurate and valid enough to move on to the planning step, given a situation where the project outcomes are not possible to verify, recognize the role poorly detailed requirements, assumptions, expectations play, identify the high level value of the project to sponsor and users of the outcome, describe the role of project value and its importance to individual and team effectiveness. |
