Proj Mgmt Ch 3 And 4

Front 1

In many situations a request for proposal does not involve soliciting competitive proposals from external contractors.

Back 1

T

Front 2

Contractors must wait until formal RFP solicitations are announced by customers before starting to develop proposals.

Back 2

F

Front 3

Pre-RFP or pre-proposal efforts by a contractor are considered marketing or business development but are still frequently charged to the customer.

Back 3

F

Front 4

The competition should be considered before preparing a proposal. 

Back 4

T

Front 5

The objective of the management section of the contractor proposal is to convince the customer that the contractor understands the need or problem and can provide the least risky and most beneficial solution.

Back 5

F

Front 6

A proposal should give the estimated costs for the various classifications of people who are expected to work on the project. 

Back 6

T

Front 7

Contractors must continue to be proactive even after the proposal is submitted.

Back 7

T

Front 8

A contract is an agreement between the contractor, who agrees to provide a product or service (deliverables), and the customer, who agrees to pay the contractor a certain amount in return.

Back 8

T

Front 9

The fixed price type of contract provides low risk for the customer.

Back 9

T

Front 10

Some contracts provide bonuses for finishing early. 

Back 10

T

Front 11

The development of proposed solutions by interested contractors or by the customer’s internal project team in response to a customer’s request for proposal is the ________ phase of the project life cycle.

Back 11

second

Front 12

A proposal is a _____________ document
it is not a ____________ report.

Back 12

selling, technical

Front 13

Proposals are often organized into three sections:

Back 13

technical, management, and cost

Front 14

Which section of a proposal should stress the benefits to the customer?

Back 14

technical

Front 15

The objective of the ___________section of the contractor proposal is to convince the customer that the contractor can do the proposed work (the project) and achieve the intended results.

Back 15

management

Front 16

Materials are typically part of the ________ section of a proposal.

Back 16

cost

Front 17

______________ is an amount the contractor may want to include to cover the unexpected.

Back 17

contingency

Front 18

Customers will sometimes provide a final opportunity for contractors to convince them that their proposal will provide the best value by allowing them to submit a:

Back 18

best and final offer

Front 19

There are basically two types of contracts:

Back 19

fixed price and cost reimbursement

Front 20

In a ___________________ the customer agrees to pay the contractor for all actual costs (labor, materials, and so forth), regardless of amount, plus some agreed-upon profit.

Back 20

cost reimbursement

Front 21

Performing, or doing, the project—implementing the proposed solution—is the third phase of the project life cycle

Back 21

T

Front 22

A work analysis chart is a hierarchical tree of products that usually identifies the organization or individual responsible for each work package

Back 22

F

Front 23

A network diagram shows the necessary sequence and interdependencies of activities to achieve the project objective

Back 23

T

Front 24

Scheduling determines what needs to be done, who will do it, how long it will take, and how much it will cost

Back 24

F

Front 25

It is important that the people who will be involved in performing the project also participate in planning the work

Back 25

T

Front 26

The project control process continues throughout the project phase of the life cycle

Back 26

T

Front 27

Project management should be a reactive approach to controlling a project

Back 27

F

Front 28

An activity that must be performed during the performing phase is assuring that the final payment has been collected from the customer.

Back 28

F

Front 29

Internally, there should be one type of post-project meeting: a group meeting with the entire project team

Back 29

F

Front 30

There are never any reasons why a project should be terminated before it is completed

Back 30

F

Front 31

The third phase of the project life cycle has two parts

Back 31

Detailed planning and implementing that plan

Front 32

________________ the project involves measuring actual progress and comparing it to planned progress

Back 32

Controlling

Front 33

During each reporting period two kinds of data or information need to be collected

Back 33

data on actual performance and any changes to scope, schedule and budget

Front 34

If a decision is made on which corrective actions to take, they must be incorporated into the ___________ and _____________

Back 34

schedule and budget

Front 35

The purposes of a ____________ should be to determine whether the project provided the customer with the anticipated benefits, to assess the level of customer satisfaction, and to obtain any feedback that would be helpful in future business relationships with this or other customers

Back 35

post-project evaluation meeting with the customer

Front 36

Risk _____________ involves identifying, assessing, and responding to project risks in order to minimize the likelihood and impact of the consequences of adverse events on the achievement of the project objective

Back 36

management

Front 37

A _____________ is a pre-defined set of actions that would be implemented if the risk event occurs.

Back 37

contingency plan

Front 38

What are activities involved with terminating a project? (4)

Back 38

Organizing and filing project documents
Receiving and making final payments
Conducting post-project evaluation meetings
Verifying that all deliverables were provided 

Front 39

Which of the following are reasons why a project manager should have a post-project evaluation meeting with a customer

Back 39

To determine whether the project provided the customer with the anticipated benefits
To assess the level of customer satisfaction
To obtain feedback
To ask about the possibility of additional projects

Front 40

____________________ is the amount of time a particular activity can be delayed without delaying the earliest start time of its immediately succeeding activities.

Back 40

Free Slack

Front 41

In the _______ format, there is a special type of activity known as a dummy activity

Back 41

AOA

Front 42

Does the duration estimate for each activity include any associated waiting time?

Back 42

No

Front 43

Must an activity’s duration estimate be based on the quantity of resources expected to be used on the activity?

Back 43

Yes

Front 44

EF=

Back 44

ES + Duration

Front 45

________________ is the systematic arrangement of tasks to accomplish an objective

Back 45

Planning

Front 46

_____________ can sometimes be used for projects that have a set of activities that are repeated several times

Back 46

Laddering

Front 47

If __________ is positive, it represents the maximum amount of time that the activities on a particular path can be delayed without jeopardizing completion of the project by its required completion time.

Back 47

Total Slack

Front 48

Does an activity require the expenditure of effort by people?

Back 48

No

Front 49

Is a network diagram typically not drawn to a time scale?

Back 49

Yes

Front 50

Does the planning function depend on the scheduling function when the network planning techniques are used?

Back 50

No

Front 51

Is it good practice to have the person who will be responsible for performing a particular activity to help make the duration estimate for that activity?

Back 51

Yes

Front 52

Are the ES and EF times determined by calculating forward through the network?

Back 52

Yes

Front 53

Is the latest finish time the latest time by which a particular activity must be finished in order for the entire project to be completed by its required completion time?

Back 53

Yes

Front 54

Is the longest path in the overall network diagram called the extreme path?

Back 54

No

Front 55

Is free change the amount of time a particular activity can be delayed without delaying the earliest start time of its immediately succeeding activities?

Back 55

No

Front 56

Is free slack a relative difference between values of total slack and is it always a positive value?

Back 56

Yes

Front 57

In network planning, is it assumed that, when three time estimates are used for each activity, the they follow a bell probability distribution?

Back 57

No

Front 58

The overall window of time in which a project must be completed is defined by its ____________________ time and ____________________ time.

Back 58

estimated start, required completion

Front 59

The ______________ time for a particular activity must be the same as or earlier than the earliest of all the latest start times of all the activities emerging directly from that particular activity.

Back 59

latest finish

Front 60

Total Slack =

Back 60

LF - EF

Front 61

What is the longest path in the overall network diagram called?

Back 61

Most Critical

Front 62

With projects for which there is a high degree of uncertainty about the activity duration estimates, name the duration estimates that should be used. (3)

Back 62

Optimism, Pessimistic, and Most Likely

Front 63

LS =

Back 63

LF - Duration

Front 64

What four characteristics should the objective have?

Back 64

Clear, Attainable, Specific, and Measurable

Front 65

For a project, is the objective usually defined in terms of scope, packages, and cost?

Back 65

No

Front 66

In the real world, are project objectives always spelled out clearly at the beginning of a project?

Back 66

No

Front 67

Does the WBB break a project down into manageable pieces, or items, to help ensure that all of the work elements needed to complete the project work scope are identified?

Back 67

No

Front 68

In a Gantt chart, are activities listed down the left-handed side, and is the person responsible shown along the bottom?

Back 68

No

Front 69

In the AOA format, is an activity represented by a rectangle in the network diagram?

Back 69

No

Front 70

________________ is the systematic arrangement of tasks to accomplish an objective

Back 70

Planning

Front 71

The _____________ breaks a project down into manageable pieces, or items, to help ensure that all of the work elements needed to complete the project work scope are identified

Back 71

Work Breakdown Structure

Front 72

The lowest-level item of any one branch is called a ___________

Back 72

Work Package

Front 73

The ___________________ is a method used to display, in tabular format, the individuals responsible for accomplishing the work items in the WBS

Back 73

responsibility matrix

Front 74

A _____________ is defined as a piece of work that consumes time

Back 74

Activity

Front 75

When all the detailed activities have been defined for each of the work packages, the next step is to graphically portray them in a __________________ that shows the appropriate sequence and interrelationships to accomplish the overall project work scope.

Back 75

Network Diagram

Front 76

PERT stands for

Back 76

program evaluation and review technique

Front 77

CPM stands for

Back 77

critical path method

Front 78

The Gantt chart combines the two functions of _____________________

Back 78

planning and scheduling

Front 79

One of the major drawbacks to the traditional Gantt chart is that it does not graphically display the ______________ of activities

Back 79

interrelationships

Front 80

Two popular formats for drawing network diagrams are

Back 80

Activity in the box and Activity on the box

Front 81

Activities are linked in a ________________ order to show which activities must be finished before others can start.

Back 81

Precedential

Front 82

A dummy activity consumes ______ time

Back 82

Zero

Front 83

________________ contracts are most appropriate for projects that involve risk.

Back 83

Cost reimbursement

Front 84

T/F: In many situations a request for proposal does not involve soliciting competitive proposals from external contractors.

Back 84

T

Front 85

T/F: The objective of the management section of the contractor proposal is to convince the customer that the contractor understands the need or problem and can provide the least risky and most beneficial solution.

Back 85

F

Front 86

T/F: The purpose of properly terminating a project is to learn from the experience in order to improve performance on future projects.

Back 86

T

Front 87

T/F: The contractor doesn’t need to waste the time needed to think through the project and estimate costs during proposal preparation
ballpark estimates usually work just fine.

Back 87

F

Front 88

Which of the following criteria might be used by the customer to evaluate proposals? (5)

Back 88

Management Capability, Soundness of the approach
Risk
Price
Realism of the Contractor's Sched
Contractor's experience and success with similar projects

Front 89

T/F: In order to effectively control a project, the project manager should gather actual performance data at the start of each reporting period then wait until the end of the reporting period to use this data to take corrective action.

Back 89

F

Front 90

A _____________ clause in a contract states how and when a contract can be ended.

Back 90

termination

Front 91

A proposal is a _____________ document
it is not a ____________ report.

Back 91

selling, technical

Front 92

T/F: The people involved in performing the project should not participate in planning the work. It is the project manager's job to create the project plan.

Back 92

F

Front 93

T/F: If the contractor cannot meet a specific customer requirement, that fact should be avoided in the contractor proposal. 

Back 93

F

Front 94

T/F: Once the project has begun, actual progress should be compared to the baseline plan on a regular and repeating basis.

Back 94

T

Front 95

On average, for every hour you spend planning a project, you save ____________ hours performing the project.

Back 95

3

Front 96

T/F: Pre-RFP or pre-proposal efforts by a contractor are considered marketing or business development but are still frequently charged to the customer.

Back 96

F

Front 97

Which of the following factors might a contractor consider before deciding whether or not to prepare a proposal? (6)

Back 97

Costomer's funds
Project Resources
Overhead cost of preparing the proposal
contractor's mission statement
competition
risk

Front 98

Which section of a proposal should stress the benefits to the customer?

Back 98

Technical

Front 99

T/F: While getting electronic notices of released RFP's is good, if the first time you've heard of an RFP is when you're reading the formal, released document, it's probably too late successfully bid on it (e.g. win the contract).

Back 99

T

Front 100

In a _____________ contract the customer and the contractor agree on a price for the proposed work and that price remains fixed unless the customer and contractor agree on changes.

Back 100

Fixed Price

Front 101

Projects usually overrun their budgets, miss completion dates or only partially satisfy their technical specifications because there is ______________________.

Back 101

No Viable Baseline Plan

Front 102

______________ is an amount the contractor may want to include to cover the unexpected.

Back 102

Contingency

Front 103

T/F: Performing, or doing, the project—implementing the proposed solution—is the third phase of the project life cycle

Back 103

T

Front 104

T/F: A work analysis chart is a hierarchical tree of products that usually identifies the organization or individual responsible for each work package

Back 104

F

Front 105

T/F: A network diagram shows the necessary sequence and interdependencies of activities to achieve the project objective

Back 105

T

Front 106

T/F: Scheduling determines what needs to be done, who will do it, how long it will take, and how much it will cost

Back 106

F

Front 107

T/F: It is important that the people who will be involved in performing the project also participate in planning the work

Back 107

T

Front 108

T/F: The project control process continues throughout the project phase of the life cycle

Back 108

T

Front 109

T/F: Project management should be a reactive approach to controlling a project

Back 109

F

Front 110

T/F: An activity that must be performed during the performing phase is assuring that the final payment has been collected from the customer.

Back 110

F

Front 111

T/F: Internally, there should be one type of post-project meeting: a group meeting with the entire project team

Back 111

F

Front 112

T/F: There are never any reasons why a project should be terminated before it is completed

Back 112

F

Front 113

The third phase of the project life cycle has two parts:

Back 113

 Detailed planning and implementing that plan

Front 114

________________ the project involves measuring actual progress and comparing it to planned progress

Back 114

 Controlling

Front 115

During each reporting period two kinds of data or information need to be collected

Back 115

data on actual performance and any changes to scope, schedule and budget

Front 116

If a decision is made on which corrective actions to take, they must be incorporated into the ___________ and _____________

Back 116

schedule and budget

Front 117

The purposes of a ____________ should be to determine whether the project provided the customer with the anticipated benefits, to assess the level of customer satisfaction, and to obtain any feedback that would be helpful in future business relationships with this or other customers

Back 117

post-project evaluation meeting with the customer

Front 118

Risk _____________ involves identifying, assessing, and responding to project risks in order to minimize the likelihood and impact of the consequences of adverse events on the achievement of the project objective

Back 118

management

Front 119

A _____________ is a pre-defined set of actions that would be implemented if therisk event occurs.

Back 119

contingency plan

Front 120

activities involved with terminating a project (4)

Back 120

Organizing and filing project documents
Receiving and making final payments
Conducting post-project evaluation meetings
Verifying that all deliverables were provided

Front 121

 reasons why a project manager should have a post-project evaluation meeting with a customer (4)

Back 121

 To determine whether the project provided the customer with the anticipated benefits
To assess the level of customer satisfaction
To obtain feedback
To ask about the possibility of additional projects

Front 122

Business or government customers may hold a _______ meeting to explain the RFP and answer questions from interested contractors

Back 122

bidders

Front 123

T/F: The objective of a project is usually defined in terms of resources, schedule, and cost.

Back 123

F

Front 124

T/F: Any customer-supplied items are not listed in an RFP.

Back 124

F

Front 125

T/F: In a cost reimbursement contract the customer will pay the contractor a fixed amount regardless of how much the work actually costs the contractor.

Back 125

F

Front 126

A ________________ deals with the scope of the project, outlining the tasks or work elements the customer wants the contractor or project team to perform

Back 126

statement of work

Front 127

The first step in the project selection process is to

Back 127

develop a set of criteria to evaluate each opportunity

Front 128

The ________ phase of the project life cycle is the development of a proposed solution to the need or problem.

Back 128

second

Front 129

T/F: Project selection involves evaluating various needs or opportunities, and then deciding which of these should be moved forward as a project.

Back 129

T

Front 130

T/F: The purpose of preparing a request for proposal is to state, comprehensively and in detail, what is required, from the contractor’s point of view, to address the identified need

Back 130

F

Front 131

______________, based on a percentage of the total price, are those made as certain milestones are accomplished

Back 131

progress payments

Front 132

In a _____________ contract, the customer will pay the contractor a set amount regardless of how much the work actually costs the contractor

Back 132

fixed price

Front 133

The key to effective ______________is measuring actual progress and comparing it to planned progress on a timely and regular basis and taking corrective action immediately, if necessary.

Back 133

Project Control

Front 134

T/F: The needs and requirements are usually written up by the customer in a document called a request for prices (RFP).

Back 134

F

Front 135

examples of evaluation criteria that might be included in an RFP (4)

Back 135

The contractor’s experience with similar projects
The technical approach proposed by the contractor 
The schedule 
The costs

Front 136

guidelines for drafting a formal request for proposal to external contractors (3)

Back 136

    An RFP must provide a statement of work (SOW)
The RFP must include the customer requirements, which define specifications and attributes
The RFP should state what deliverables the customer expects the contractor or project team to provide

Front 137

T/F: Instructions in an RFP might state the maximum number of pages, the number of details the customer wants the contractor to show regarding the costs, and other specifications.

Back 137

T

Front 138

T/F: All project life cycles include the preparation of a written Request For Proposal (RFP) and subsequent proposals from contractor

Back 138

F

Front 139

T/F? A project is an endeavor to accomplish a specific objective through a unique set of interrelated tasks and the effective utilization of resources.

Back 139

T

Front 140

T/F? The objective of a project is usually defined in terms of resources, schedule, and cost.

Back 140

F

Front 141

T/F? The scope of a project is all the work that must be done in order to satisfy the customer that the deliverables meet the requirements or acceptance criteria agreed upon at the onset of the project.

Back 141

T

Front 142

T/F? There are five main phases of a project life cycle.

Back 142

F

Front 143

T/F? The needs and requirements are usually written up by the customer in a document called a request for prices (RFP).

Back 143

F
request for PROPOSAL

Front 144

T/F? A project breakdown list (PBL) is a hierarchical tree of products produced by the project team during the project.

Back 144

F

Front 145

T/F? A statement of work (SOW) is an optional part of an RFP.

Back 145

F

Front 146

T/F? In a cost contract the customer will pay the contractor a fixed amount regardless of how much the work actually costs the contractor.

Back 146

F
Fixed Price Contract

Front 147

T/F? The RFP should indicate the due date by which the customer expects potential contractors to submit proposals.

Back 147

T

Front 148

T/F? All project life cycles include the preparation of a written request for proposal and subsequent proposals from contractors

Back 148

F

Front 149

The successful accomplishment of the project objective is usually constrained by four factors:

Back 149

scope, cost, schedule, and customer satisfaction

Front 150

The _________ for a project is the timetable that specifies when each activity should start and finish.

Back 150

schedule

Front 151

Ultimately, the responsibility of the project manager is to:

Back 151

make sure the customer is satisfied

Front 152

The ________ phase of the project life cycle is the development of a proposed solution to the need or problem.

Back 152

second

Front 153

The front-end effort in managing a project must be focused on establishing a:

Back 153

baseline plan

Front 154

The key to effective ______________is measuring actual progress and comparing it to planned progress on a timely and regular basis and taking corrective action immediately, if necessary.

Back 154

project control

Front 155

The RFP must include the customer requirements, which define ____________ and attributes

Back 155

specifications

Front 156

________________ are the tangible items that the contractor is to supply

Back 156

deliverables

Front 157

______________, based on a percentage of the total price, are those made as certain milestones are accomplished

Back 157

progress payments

Front 158

The first step in the project selection process is to

Back 158

develop a set of criteria to evaluate each opportunity