Pmp Exam Practice Test - 1E Project Quality Management

Front 1

Quality is very important to your company. Each project has a quality statement that is consistent with the organization’s vision and mission. Both internal and external quality assurance are provided on all projects to—

a. Ensure confidence that the project will satisfy relevant quality standards
b. Monitor specific project results to note whether they comply with relevant quality standards
c. Identify ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory results
d. Use inspection to keep errors out of the process

Back 1

a. Ensure confidence that the project will satisfy relevant quality standards

Quality assurance increases project effectiveness and efficiency and provides added benefits to project stakeholders. It includes all the planned and systematic quality activities to ensure that the project uses all the processes to meet requirements. Quality assuranceshould be performed throughout the project. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 227, 242–244

Front 2

Benchmarking is a technique used in—

a. Inspections
b. Root cause analysis
c. Plan quality management
d. Perform quality control

Back 2

c. Plan quality management

Benchmarking involves comparing actual or planned practices to those practices of comparable projects to identify best practices, to note ideas for improvement, and to provide a way to measure performance. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 239

Front 3

In quality management, the practice “rework” is—

a. Acceptable under certain circumstances
b. An adjustment made that is based on quality control measurements
c. Action taken to bring a defective or nonconforming component into compliance
d. Not a concern if errors are detected early

Back 3

Action taken to bring a defective or nonconforming component into compliance

Rework is a frequent cause of project overruns. The project team must make every reasonable effort to control and minimize rework so that defective or nonconforming components are brought into compliance with requirements or specifications. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 559

Front 4

The quality function deployment process is used to—

a. Provide better product definition and product development
b. Help products to succeed in the marketplace
c. Improve the functional characteristics of a product
d. Support production planning and the just-in-time approach

Back 4

a. Provide better product definition and product development

Quality function deployment helps a design team to define, design, manufacture, and deliver a product or service to meet or exceed customer needs. Its main features are to capture the customer’s requirements, ensure cross-functional teamwork, and link the main phases of product development—product planning, part deployment, process planning, and production planning. [Planning]
Evans and Lindsay 2005, 568–569
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 556

Front 5

As it applies to quality, the law of diminishing returns says that—

a. 100% quality is unattainable
b. 100% inspection is not cost effective
c. Beyond a certain point, additional investment in quality has a negative ROI
d. Providing quality products will stop, or at least diminish, the number of returned items

Back 5

c. Beyond a certain point, additional investment in quality has a negative ROI

If a company has paid $100,000 to gain 98% quality and it would cost an additional $25,000 to gain the other 2%, this is known as the law of diminishing returns. [Monitoring and Controlling]
Ward 2008, 240

Front 6

You are leading a research project that will require between 10 and 20 aerospace engineers. Some senior-level aerospace engineers are available. They are more productive than junior-level engineers, who cost less and who are available as well. You want to determine the optimal combination of senior- and junior-level personnel. In this situation, the appropriate technique to use is to—

a. Conduct a design of experiments
b. Use the Ishikawa diagram to pinpoint the problem
c. Prepare a control chart
d. Analyze the process using a Pareto diagram

Back 6

a. Conduct a design of experiments

This technique is used to identify which variables have the most influence. It is a statistical method to identify the factors that may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production. For example, roller blade designers might want to determine which combination of number of wheels and titanium ball bearings would produce the most desirable “ride” characteristics at a reasonable cost. This technique, however, can be applied to project management issues such as cost and schedule trade-offs. An appropriately designed “experiment” often will help project managers to find an optimal solution from a relatively limited number of options, and often it help to determine the number and type of tests to use and their impact on quality. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 239–240

Front 7

The purpose of the Taguchi method is to—

a. Manage the flow of material for better visibility and control
b. Use statistical techniques to compute a “loss function” to determine the cost of producing products that fail to achieve a target value
c. Design, group, and manage production operations as self-contained flexible cells capable of start-to-finish processing of a family of items
d. Regulate coordination and communication among process stages

Back 7

b. Use statistical techniques to compute a “loss function” to determine the cost of producing products that fail to achieve a target value

The Taguchi method is used to estimate the loss associated with controlling or failing to control process variability. It is based on the principle that by carefully selecting design parameters to produce robust designs, an organization can produce products that are more forgiving and tolerant. The tool helps determine the value or break-even point of improving a process to reduce variability. [Monitoring and Controlling]
Ward 2008, 432

Front 8

Quality assurance promotes quality improvement. A “breakthrough” is the accomplishment of any improvement that takes the organization to unprecedented levels of performance by attacking—

a. Special causes of variation
b. Common causes of variation
c. Inspection over prevention
d. Specific tolerances

Back 8

b. Common causes of variation

Quality improvement includes action taken to increase project effectiveness and efficiency in order to provide added benefits to stakeholders. A breakthrough attacks chronic losses, or in Deming’s terminology, common causes of variation. [Executing]
Evans and Lindsay 2005, 486

Front 9

Which of the following statements best describes attribute sampling versus variables sampling?

a. Attribute sampling is concerned with prevention, whereas variables sampling is concerned with inspection.
b. Attribute sampling is concerned with conformance, whereas variables sampling is concerned with the degree of conformity.
c. Attribute sampling is concerned with special causes, whereas variables sampling is concerned with any causes.
d. Both are the same concept.

Back 9

b. Attribute sampling is concerned with conformance, whereas variables sampling is concerned with the degree of conformity.

Attribute sampling determines whether a result does or does not conform. Variables sampling rates a result on a continuous scale to measure the degree of conformity. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 250

Front 10

Your project scheduler has just started working with your project and has produced defective reports for the past two accounting cycles. If this continues, these defective reports could provide the potential for customer dissatisfaction and lost productivity that is due to rework. You discovered that the project scheduler needs additional training on using the scheduling tool that is used on your project. The cost of training falls under which one of the following categories?

a. Overhead costs
b. Failure costs
c. Prevention costs
d. Indirect costs

Back 10

c. Prevention costs

Prevention costs include any expenditure directed toward ensuring that quality is achieved the first time. [Planning]
Rose 2005 8–9
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 235

Front 11

When a process is within acceptable limits, it—

a. Should not be adjusted
b. May not be changed to provide improvements
c. Shows differences caused by expected events or normal causes
d. Should not be inspected or reworked for any reason

Back 11

a. Should not be adjusted

Processes should be changed only through established change procedures. If the process is outside acceptable limits, it should be adjusted. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 238, 252–253

Front 12

The project team should have a working knowledge of statistical process control to help evaluate control quality outputs. Of all the topics involved, which of the following is the most important for the team to understand?

a. Sampling and probability
b. Attribute sampling and variables sampling
c. Tolerances and control limits
d. Special causes and random causes

Back 12

a. Sampling and probability

Sampling and probability form the basis of statistical process control, which helps the team monitor project results for compliance with relevant quality standards so that methods can be identifiedto eliminate causes of unsatisfactory results. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 240, 252

Front 13

Rank ordering of defects should be used to guide corrective action. This is the underlying principle behind—

a. Trend analysis
b. Inspections
c. Control charts
d. Pareto diagrams

Back 13

d. Pareto diagrams

Pareto diagrams are histograms, ordered by frequency of occurrence, that show how many results were generated by type or category of identified cause. The project team should take action to fix the problems that are causing the greatest number of defects first. Pareto diagrams are based on Pareto’s Law, which holds that a relatively small number of causes will typically produce a large majority of defects, also called the “solzo rule.” [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 237,252

Front 14

Project quality management was once thought to include only inspection or quality control. In recent years, the concept of project quality management has broadened. Which statement is NOT representative of the new definition of quality management?

a. Quality is designed into the product or service, not inspected into it.
b. Quality is the concern of the quality assurance staff.
c. Customers require a documented and, in some cases, registered quality assurance system.
d. National and international standards and guidelines for quality assurance systems are available.

Back 14

b. Quality is the concern of the quality assurance staff.

Quality concerns all levels of management and staff. Its success requires participation from all members of the project team with management providing the needed resources to succeed. [Planning, Executing, and Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 227–229

Front 15

Assume you wish to provide a process to be more creative in problem solving as on your project you have a somewhat complex scenario that possesses intertwined logical relationships for up to 50 items. The best approach is to—

a. Design an experiment
b. Use an interrelationship diagraph
c. Conduct a Monte Carlo analysis
d. Use a process decision program chart

Back 15

b. Use an interrelationship diagraph

In perform quality assurance, the interrelationship diagraph can be used as a quality management and control tool. It may be developed from data generated by other quality tools such as the affinity diagram, the tree diagram, or the cause-and-effect diagram. It is an adoption of relationship diagrams. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 245

Front 16

Your quality assurance department recently performed a quality audit of your project and identified a number of findings and recommendations. One recommendation seems critical and should be implemented because it affects successful delivery of the product to your customer. Your next step should be to—

a. Call a meeting of your project team to see who is responsible for the problem
b. Reassign the team member who had responsibility for oversight of the problem
c. Perform product rework immediately
d. Issue a change request to implement the needed corrective action

Back 16

d. Issue a change request to implement the needed corrective action

The information obtained from a quality audit can be used to improve quality systems and performance. In most cases, implementing quality improvements requires preparation of change requests. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 247

Front 17

Six sigma refers to the aim of setting tolerance limits at six standard deviations from the mean, whereas the normally expected deviation of a process is—

a. One standard deviation
b. Two standard deviations
c. Three standard deviations
d. Undeterminable because of the unique nature of every process

Back 17

c. Three standard deviations

When the results of a sample of items measured falls within three standard deviations and that sample is representative of the entire population, you can assume that more than 99% of all items fall within that range. This generally accepted range of results has been used by quality control professionals through the years. Six sigma is a program started by Motorola that, from a statistical standpoint, indicates a quality +standard of only 3.4 defects per million. [Planning and Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 238, 252
Kerzner, 2009, 902

Front 18

You recognize the importance of quality control on your project. However, you also know that quality control has costs associated with it and that the project has a limited budget. One way to reduce the cost of quality control is to—

a. Work to ensure that the overall quality program is ISO compliant
b. Use statistical sampling
c. Conduct inspections throughout the process
d. Use trend analysis

Back 18

b. Use statistical sampling

Statistical sampling uses part of a population to draw conclusions about the total population. It is a well-proven technique that can significantly reduce the cost of quality control. [Monitoring and Controlling]+
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 240, 252

Front 19

Deming’s Fourteen Points provide a way for an organization to create and sustain a culture of continuous improvement. As such it should be directed by—

a. The project manager
b. Top management
c. Employees participating in quality circles
d. Stakeholders

Back 19

b. Top management

Deming is known as a quality pioneer. His approach to quality is not only statistically based but focuses on what management’s responsibilities should be with respect to quality. His Fourteen Points for management are goals of quality for transforming business. [Executing]
Rose 2005, 28–29

Front 20

Quality inspections also may be called—

a. Control tests
b. Walkthroughs
c. Statistical sampling
d. Checklists

Back 20

b. Walkthroughs

Inspections comprise an examination of a work product to determine if it conforms to standards. Additional names for inspections are audits, reviews, or peer reviews (in some application areas, these terms may have narrow and specific meanings). [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 252

Front 21

Your management has prescribed that a quality audit be conducted at the end of every phase in a project. This audit is part of the organization’s—

a. Quality assurance process
b. Quality control process
c. Quality improvement program
d. Process adjustment program

Back 21

a. Quality assurance process

Quality assurance is a managerial function that establishes processes or procedures in an organization or project to assist in determining whether quality standards and operational definitions are being met. It is the application of planned, systematic quality activities to ensure that the project will use all processes needed to meet requirements and is performed throughout the life of the project. Quality audits are a tool and technique to use. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 242–243

Front 22

You are managing a major international project, and your contract requires you to prepare both a project plan and a quality management plan. Your core team is preparing a project quality management plan. Your first step in developing this plan is to—

a. Determine specific metrics to use in the quality management process
b. Identify the quality standards for the project
c. Develop a quality policy for the project
d. Identify specific quality management roles and responsibilities for the project

Back 22

c. Develop a quality policy for the project

The quality policy includes the overall intentions and direction of the organization with regard to quality, as formally expressed by top management. If the performing organization lacks a formal quality policy or if the project involves multiple performing organizations, as in a joint venture, the project management team must develop a quality policy for the project. The quality management plan then describes how the quality policies will be implemented. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 234, 241

Front 23

Recently your company introduced a new set of “metal woods” to its established line of golfing equipment. However, in the past weeks many of the clubs have been returned because of quality problems. You decide to conduct a failure mode and criticality analysis to—

a. Analyze the product development cycle after product release to determine strengths and weaknesses
b. Evaluate failure modes and causes associated with the design and manufacture of this product
c. Evaluate failure modes and causes associated with the design and manufacture of a new product to replace the clubs
d. Help management set priorities in its existing manufacturing processes to avoid failures

Back 23

c. Evaluate failure modes and causes associated with the design and manufacture of a new product to replace these clubs

This technique is a method of analyzing design reliability. A list of potential failure modes is developed for each element, and then each mode is given a numeric rating for frequency of occurrence, criticality, and probability of detection. These data are used to assign a risk priority number for prioritizing problems and guiding the design effort. [Monitoring and Controlling]
Evans and Lindsay 2005, 582–594

Front 24

The “rule of seven” as applied to statistical process control charts means that—

a. Seven rejects typically occur per thousand inspections
b. Seven consecutive points are above or below the mean
c. At least seven inspectors should be in place for every thousand employees
d. A process is not out of control even though seven measurements fall outside the lower and upper control limits

Back 24

b. Seven consecutive measurements are above or below the mean

Consecutive points on a control chart that are above or below the mean or if a point exceeds a control limit indicate an abnormal trend in the process and must be investigated. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 228, 252

Front 25

Long-term contracting is an important aspect of project quality management because it—

a. Provides incentives to vendors to make quality commitments
b. Improves quality through the use of benefit-cost ratio
c. Usually results in lower costs and increased profitability
d. Provides for periodic, yet mandatory quality audits

Back 25

a. Provides incentives to vendors to make quality commitments

Vendors that have long-term relationships with buyers are generally more inclined to invest in process and quality improvement, because they have a higher probability of recovering their costs. The stability provided through longer-term contracts permits better planning and encourages better communication and partnering between the buyer and the seller. Long-term contracting with fewer vendors also reduces buyer-related costs by simplifying accounting, collections, and other administrative tasks. [Planning]
Rose 2005, 87–88

Front 26

Even though your project is vastly different from a manufacturing operation, you believe the principles of kaizenwill work well. The kaizen approach to continuous improvement emphasizes—

a. The greater importance of customer satisfaction over cost
b. Radical changes in operating practices
c. Incremental improvement
d. The use of quality circles to improve morale

Back 26

c. Incremental improvement

Imai, a Japanese engineer, coined the word kaizen to describe an approach to quality that means making small improvements every time a process is repeated. [Executing]
Evans and Lindsay 2005, 347—348

Front 27

Results of quality control measurements are used—

a. As an input to plan quality management
b. To prepare an operational definition
c. To prepare a control chart
d. As an input to perform quality assurance

Back 27

d. As an input to perform quality assurance

Quality control activities result in measurements that are used as inputs to the QA process. Such quality control measurements are used to evaluate and analyze the quality of the processes of the project against the organization’s standards or specific requirements. They also compare processes used to create the measurements and validate actual measurements to determine their level of correctness. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 244

Front 28

The control chart is a tool used primarily to help—

a. Monitor process variation over time
b. Measure the degree of conformance
c. Determine whether results conform
d. Determine whether results conform to requirements

Back 28

a. Monitor process variation over time

Used to monitor process variation and to detect and correct changes in process performance, the control chart helps people understand and control their processes and work. It enables the project manager, along with appropriate stakeholders, to identify points where corrective action can be taken to prevent unnatural performance. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 238, 252

Front 29

The area where the project manager can have the greatest impact on the quality of his or her project is in—

a. Quality planning
b. Quality assurance
c. Quality control
d. Quality improvement

Back 29

b. Quality assurance

Quality assurance is the management section of quality management. It is the collective term for the formal activities and managerial processes that attempt to ensure that products and services meet the required quality level. The project manager should establish administrative processes and procedures necessary to ensure and often prove that the scope statement conforms to the customer’s actual requirements, to determine which processes will be used to ensure that stakeholders have confidence that the quality activities will be properly performed, and to ensure that all legal and regulatory requirements will be met. [Executing]
Kerzner 2009, 888

Front 30

You are a project manager for residential construction. As a project manager, you must be especially concerned with building codes—particularly in the plan quality management process. You must ensure that building codes are reflected in your project plans because—

a. Standards and regulations are an input to plan quality management
b. Quality audits serve to ensure there is compliance with regulations
c. They are a cost associated with quality initiatives
d. Compliance with standards is the primary objective of perform quality control

Back 30

a. Standards and regulations are an input to plan quality management

During the plan quality management process, the project management team must consider any application area-specific standards, regulations, rules, and guidelines that may affect the project as part of the enterprise environmental factors. Building codes are an example of regulations. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 28–29 and 234

Front 31

You work as a project manager in the largest hospital in the region. Studies have shown that patients have to wait for long periods before being treated. To assist in identifying the factors contributing to this problem, you and your team have decided to use which of the following techniques?

a. Cause-and-effect diagrams
b. Pareto analysis
c. Scatter diagrams

Back 31

a. Cause-and-effect diagrams

Cause-and-effect diagrams, also called Ishikawa diagrams or fishbone diagrams, are used to illustrate how various causes and subcauses interact to create a special effect. It is named for its developer, Kaoru Ishikawa. These diagrams are useful in linking the undesirable effects seen as special variation to the assigned cause, enabling project teams to implement corrective actions to eliminate the special variation shown in a control chart. [Monitoring and Controlling]
Ward 2008, 226
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 236, 252

Front 32

The ISO 9000 standards provide—

a. A description of how products should be produced
b. Specifics for the implementation of quality systems
c. A framework for quality systems
d. The maximum process requirements necessary to ensure that customers receive a good product

Back 32

c. A framework for quality systems

ISO 9000 provides a basic set of requirements for a quality system, without specifying the particulars for implementation. [Planning]
Evans and Lindsay 2005, 128–132
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 228–229

Front 33

All of the following are objectives of a quality audit—

a. Defect repairs have been implemented
b. Improvement opportunities are identified
c. Good practices can be introduced elsewhere
d. Root cause analysis has been performed as part of process analysis

Back 33

d. Root cause analysis has been performed as part of process analysis

The purpose of the quality audit is to determine if project activities comply with organizational policies, procedures, and processes. The quality audit has a number of objectives associated with it, but root cause analysis is part of process analysis to identify needed improvements in the process improvement plan. [Executing]
Kerzner 2009, 479
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 247

Front 34

There are three uses and types of Pareto analysis. If you wish to provide a measure of significance to factors that at first may not appear to be significant at all, you should use a—

a. Basic Pareto analysis
b. Comparative Pareto analysis
c. Weighted Pareto analysis
d. Trend Pareto analysis

Back 34

c. Weighted Pareto analysis

The weighted Pareto analysis gives a measure of significance to factors that may not appear significant at first, using such additional factors as cost, time, and criticality. A basic Pareto analysis identifies the vital few contributors that account for most quality problems, and the comparative Pareto analysis focuses on any number of program options or actions. [Monitoring and Controlling]
Kerzner 2009, 897–898

Front 35

Constancy of purpose is a core concept for continuous improvement. An organization displaying constancy of purpose must have all the following elements EXCEPT—

a. Documented and well-disseminated statements of purpose and vision
b. A set of strategic and tactical plans
c. An awareness by all members of the organization of the purpose, vision, goals, and objectives and their roles in achieving them
d. Separate quality assurance and quality control departments reporting to senior management

Back 35

d. Separate quality assurance and quality control departments reporting to senior management

Top management should provide constancy of purpose so that it can be infused throughout the organization. Constancy of purpose also requires a shared belief among organization members that management’s behavior clearly signals its commitment to and support of achievement of the vision. Quality assurance and control are functions that must be performed by everyone, not just those assigned to specific departments. [Executing]
Rose 2005, 29

Front 36

Quality objectives of the project are recorded in—

a. Process improvement plan
b. Quality management plan
c. Quality baseline
d. Quality metrics

Back 36

b. Quality management plan

The quality management plan describes how the team will implement the quality policy, which describes the objectives of the project regarding quality management. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 241, 557

Front 37

The below Pareto chart indicates defects in areas associated with billing a client for project services. Based on this Pareto analysis, which area, or areas, indicate the greatest opportunity for improvement?

a. The account number, because if it is incorrect, the invoice may be sent to the wrong client.
b. The daily rate, because if it is incorrect, the total amount of the invoice will be wrong, which impacts the cash flow.
c. The charge code, name, address, receipt date, pvc code, discount amount, mail date, and phone number, because they are fairly easy to confirm and correct, thereby significantly reducing the types of defects.
d. The account number and daily rate, because they account for 80 percent of all defects.

Back 37

d. The account number and daily rate, because they account for 80 percent of all defects.

Pareto analysis focuses on what Joseph Juran called the vital few. Named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist whose studies showed that 80 percent of the wealth was held by 20 percent of the population, quality analysis typically shows that 80 percent of the all problems (defects) are found in 20 percent of the items or areas studied.
Rose 2005, 86–87
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 237, 548

Front 38

You have decided to use a fishbone diagram to identify the relationship between an effect and its causes. To begin, you should first—

a. Select an interdisciplinary team who has used the technique before to help brainstorm the problem
b. Determine the major categories of defects
c. Set up a process analysis using HIPO charts
d. Identify the problem

Back 38

d. Identify the problem

The first and most important is to identify the problem as a gap to be closed or as an objective to be achieved. Causes then are found by looking at the problem statement and asking why until a root cause has been identified for which action can be taken or the reasonable possibilities on the diagram have been exhausted. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 236, 252
Kerzner 2009, 895–898

Front 39

Assume that your project in the food service industry involves the need for the presence of the required food label as specified by the Food and Drug Administration. In this situation, you plan to use control charts as a qualitycontrol tool, so you should prepare a(n)—

a. Variables chart
b. Attribute chart
c. Trend chart
d. Run chart

Back 39

b. Attribute chart

There are two types of control charts: variable charts, which are used with continuous data, and attribute charts, for use with discrete data. Attribute data have only two values (conforming/nonconforming, pass/fail, go/no-go, or present/absent). In this situation, you are looking for the presence of the required food label. [Monitoring and Controlling]
Kerzner 2009, 905

Front 40

The quality management plan describes all the following EXCEPT the—

a. Method for implementing the quality policy
b. Methods the team will use to meet the project’s qualityrequirements
c. Efforts at the front end of a project to ensure that decisionsare based on accurate information
d. Procedures used to conduct trade-off analyses among cost, schedule, and quality

Back 40

d. Procedures used to conduct trade-off analyses among cost, schedule, and quality

A part of the overall project management plan, the quality management plan should address all aspects of how quality management will be implemented on the project and how the project team will implement the quality policy. Trade-off analyses are business judgments and, as such, are not procedural steps to be included in the quality management plan. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 241