Modern Project Management Chapter 1 Quiz

Project Management Overview

• A project is a complex, nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs.
• Key characteristics of a project include an established objective, defined life span, involvement of multiple departments and professionals, and specific time, cost, and performance requirements.

Project Manager's Role

• The project manager marshals resources for the project and acts as a direct link to the customer.
• They provide direction, coordination, and integration to the project team, and are responsible for the project's performance and success.

Drivers of Project Management

• Compression of the product life cycle is a factor leading to the increased use of project management.
• Knowledge explosion, triple bottom line (planet, people, profit), increased customer focus, and small projects representing big problems are also driving factors.

Agile Project Management

• Agile project management is a methodology that emerged from frustration with traditional project management processes in software development.
• It employs an incremental, iterative process, focusing on active collaboration between the project and customer representative, and adapting to changing requirements.
• Agile is often used in the defining phase to establish specifications and requirements, and then traditional methods are used to plan, execute, and close the project.

Rolling Wave Development

• Rolling wave development involves iterations that typically last from one to four weeks.
• The goal of each iteration is to make tangible progress, such as defining a key requirement, solving a technical problem, or creating desired features to demonstrate to the customer.
• Progress is reviewed and adjustments are made at the end of each iteration, with each new iteration building upon the previous one.

Program Management

• A program is a series of coordinated, related, multiple projects that continue over an extended time and are intended to achieve a goal.
• Program management involves managing a group of ongoing, interdependent, related projects in a coordinated way to achieve strategic objectives.

Project Life Cycle

• The project life cycle includes initiation, planning, execution, and closure.
• The project life cycle involves managing temporary, non-repetitive activities and frequently acts independently of the formal organization.

Challenges of Project Management

• Managing temporary, non-repetitive activities and frequently acting independently of the formal organization are key challenges of project management.