Technology Project Management
1. Project selection criteria are typically classified as:
a. Financial and non-financial
b. Short-term and long-term
c. Strategic and tactical
d. Required and optional
e. Cost and schedule
2. In a project meeting, if someone suggested using a “parking lot”, this would refer to:
a. A decision to put the project on hold
b. A waiting list for discussion items not on the agenda
c. A warning that the sponsor has withheld resources
d. Removal of a team member from the project
3. The highest element in the hierarchical breakdown of the WBS is
a. A working package
b. Sub deliverables
c. A cost account
d. Major deliverables
e. The Project
4. Typically an activity on a project network represents
a. A single work package
b. One or more tasks from a work package
c. Several work packages
d. A sub-deliverable
e. A cost account
5. When is the best time for project team members to engage in a detailed analysis of potential uncertainties?
a. While they are setting up the monitoring system
b. After they have created the detailed schedule
c. After they have developed the WBS
d. Before they select the project
e. Just before they develop the WBS
6. Reasons why estimating time and cost are important include all of the following except:
a. To schedule work
b. To determine how long the project take and cost
c. To develop cash flow needs
d. To determine how well the project is progressing
e. All of the above are valid reasons
8.
9. What is the difference between the critical path and the critical chain?
Answer
a. The critical chain considers resource availability and the critical path does not
b. The critical path considers resource availability and the critical chain does not
c. It is possible to crash activities on the critical path, but activities on the critical chain have already been reduced to their shortest feasible durations.
d. There is no difference – they are exactly the same
10. In critical chain terminology, removing some of the time buffer from individual activity estimates and moving them collectively to the end of the project is an example of:
Answer
a. Inserting a resource buffer
b. Inserting a project buffer
c. Inserting a feeding buffer
11. Which of these are characteristics of the best project managers?
Answer
a. Disciplined, yet flexible
b. Creative, but not too technical
c. Sensitive, yet tyrannical
d. Extrovert
12. __________activities are the completed immediately following a particular activitiy
a. Merge
b. Burst
c. Predecessor
d. Successor
e. Critical
13. In contrast to the triple constraint, a balance scorecard perspective in a project environment offers which of the following advantages?
a. Appreciation for strategic context
b. More focus on operational details
c. Understanding of tradeoffs
d. Measurement of project cost
14. Which of the following in the correct order for the strategic management process?
a. Strategies, mission, goals, projects
b. Goals, projects, mission, strategies
c. Mission, goals, strategies, projects
d. Goals, mission, strategies, projects
e. Projects, mission, strategies, goals
15. Which of these is a potential disadvantage of a real options approach?
a. Apples only to financial projects
b. Requires a project team to stick with a rigid plan that allows no deviation when new information becomes available
c. Project teams can find it difficult to abandon or shift the direction of a project since they have invested their time and energy
d. Involves only go-n-go options rather than potential for re-routing plans
16. Which of these is the best guideline for determining how far a team should go in breaking down the WBS?
a. Each work package should require between 1-8 hours to complete
b. If it is useful for planning, accountability, or control purposes to break a task down into another component parts, then do so
c. Each work package should require between 8 and 800 hours to complete
d. The level of detail the project team uses in planning a project should match the level of detail it uses for control
17. The bottom-up approach for estimating times and costs that uses cost from past projects that were similar to the current project is known as:
a. Detailed WBS work package estimates
b. Template method
c. Function point method
d. Time-phased cost estimates
e. Phase estimating
18. Using the following figures calculate the monthly incremental crash cost for this activity
Normal time = 6 months Crash time = 4 months
Normal cost = 27,000 Crash cost = 35,000
a. 4,000
b. 6000
c. 8,000
d. 12,000
19. Which of the following characteristics would make an activity an unattractive candidate for crashing?
a. It has a long duration
b. Employees required to do the job have highly specialized skills
c. It is in a bottleneck position
d. It is on the critical path
20. Which of the following tools for causal analysis would be the most appropriate to apply to the following situation: “We experienced low attendance and dismal sales during the grand opening of our newest retail store in Cairo last week. Let’s gather a small team to engage in a structured discussion about the interacting set of factors that worked systematically to create this situation.”
Answer
a. Affinity exercise
b. Mind map
c. Fishbone diagram
d. Influence diagram
21. Select all that apply: Which of the following is (are) characteristics of a fixed-price contract?
Answer
a) The supplier bills the customer for all costs involved in completing the work
b) The work should be open-ended to allow for adaptation to changing customer requirements
c) Low risk for the customer
d) The work must be clearly specific and well-defined
22. The integration of project work packages within the organization’s management structure is known as
Answer
a. Responsibility matrix
b. Organization breakdown structure
c. Work breakdown structure
d. Priority matrix
e. Process breakdown structure
23. Which of the following is provided by a project network but not by the work breakdown structure?
Answer
a. Dependencies
b. Sequencing
c. Interrelationships
d. Both A and B are correct
e. A, B, and C are all correct