Project Tools & Techniques Quizzes

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Questions and Answers

You and your boss are discussing the best approach to prioritize projects involving reasonably simple technology improvements in your company using only one financial indicator. Your organization is small. Your projects typically have small teams, take less than a year, and have benefits that can be quantified. Which approach would you recommend?

IRR

PBP (correct)

ROI

One of your colleagues has just told you that there is a rumour your project is failing. You are surprised as you are meeting the project’s success criteria. What should you do?

Discuss with the Project Sponsor

Ignore the comment, it is just politics

Work on improving project communications (correct)

Prepare your resume

What a mess. You have just finished a meeting with the project team to review the project requirements. The requirements are all over the place. The first step is to get things organized. What should you do?

Do nothing, and carry on

Create the WBS to review with the client

Create a requirements traceability matrix (correct)

Meet with the client to review the requirements

What is the purpose of prioritizing requirements?

To help all stakeholders identify what is important Signup and view all the answers

The project sponsor is keen to have the WBS for your project. You agree, but the problem is that you are not a subject matter expert on the product of the project. The team, which is very experienced, has been formed. What should you do?

Use the bottom up approach Signup and view all the answers

Your team is working on the work packages for their area. One of the experienced team leads, who usually finishes this work quickly, is taking a long time to complete the work. As you review what the team has done there seems to be a large number of work packages. What would be the reason for this?

This may be fine, the team leader has more scope Signup and view all the answers

You are trying to determine whether to procure a product or not. What should you not consider?

Seller's procurement policy Signup and view all the answers

You are reviewing your organization’s procurement policy and there is a definite bias against procuring products and services for your project. This is probably due to:

Organization preference Signup and view all the answers

Your project sponsor is very concerned about the cost of the cost-plus contract, but you have not been able to finalize the scope. What can you do?

Add an incentive fee Signup and view all the answers

What should you check when the buyer wants you to sign a fixed-price contract?

The clarity of the scope Signup and view all the answers

In evaluating seller RFP responses, what does the two-envelope approach involve?

Reviewing the price for qualified sellers only Signup and view all the answers

Your seller has just called again wondering when payment is going to be made. You remind the seller that there are still defects to be corrected. You have not authorized payment because the payment can only be made…

When deliverables are accepted Signup and view all the answers

You are so frustrated with the seller coming up with excuses about why they are late in completing the deliverables. What can you do?

Check the contract for the dispute resolution clause Signup and view all the answers

Your boss has asked you to come up with the return on investment for your project. This is unusual as your organization normally uses a payback period. What additional information will you need to complete the ROI analysis?

Your organization's discount rate Signup and view all the answers

It is important to determine what is your project's success. Key performance indicators can be used to measure if you are on track for a successful project. To be effective, which of the following is a KPI best practice?

Aim for consistent indicators Signup and view all the answers

Your project charter has been approved and you are planning how to collect the requirements. For this project, there are many stakeholders, but you do not have very much time to collect the requirements. Which tool should you use?

Focus groups Signup and view all the answers

Considering the smart criteria, what is missing from the following requirement? The website must be able to accept payments using PayPal with the initial delivery of the website.

Nothing, it meets the criteria Signup and view all the answers

You are finalizing the scope baseline for your project. What is one thing you need to ensure that the WBS is complete?

Ensure the WBS dictionary is complete and reflects the WBS Signup and view all the answers

The project charter is approved, and you want to get an idea of the project deliverables and put them into a WBS to help guide you during the project planning. You've done similar projects before. What is the best approach to use to create the WBS?

Use the WBS from a previous project as a base Signup and view all the answers

What tool is used to help develop the project scope statement by breaking the product into smaller components?

Product breakdown Signup and view all the answers

You are managing a project and looking at options for the project resources. Your boss is keen to use some internal resources that are available. However, the project has several time constraints. What other things should you consider in making your decision?

The capability of the resources Signup and view all the answers

You are reviewing the make-or-buy analysis done by your team. Their recommendation is to buy. You look at the cost, and they have done a complete analysis of the costs to make the product, including overhead. The buy costs are the price for the product only. What should you do?

Ask the team to look at the other costs for buying Signup and view all the answers

Which procurement document should you use when procuring a standard item for your project?

RFQ Signup and view all the answers

You have just completed gathering the requirements from all stakeholders. Your team has reviewed the requirements and you have clarified the requirements that were not clear. You have updated the requirements traceability matrix. What should you do next?

Categorize the requirements Signup and view all the answers

You need to outsource some work on your project as internal resources are not available to do the work. The project's top priority is cost, but unfortunately, the requirements are not as clear as you would like. What should you do?

Use a fixed price with incentive fee contract Signup and view all the answers

An organization is considering various contract types to motivate sellers. What should they consider before deciding to use an award fee contract?

Payment of the award fee must be agreed upon by both the buyer and the seller when the contract is signed Signup and view all the answers

Your teams are working on the work packages for their areas. One of the team leads, who is new to a leadership role, is having trouble getting the work done. What should you do to provide more control of the work?

Break the work packages down into smaller packages Signup and view all the answers

In contracts, there are several specific terms that can be used. What is the contract term that explains what can be done with confidential project information?

Non-disclosure Signup and view all the answers

Your seller has just notified you that the head office of their company has moved. You check the contract and realize that all notifications are to be sent to the company's head office. What type of change is required to the contract?

Administrative change Signup and view all the answers

You have taken over a project with some contracts. You have reviewed all the contracts and confirmed that the statement of work matches the requirements and approved change requests. You have also noted that all sellers have signed your organization's standard contract. What other key items in the contract should you review as part of your responsibilities?

Payment terms and invoice status Signup and view all the answers

You and your seller have been discussing a dispute on your contract for several weeks. you have brought in senior management, and they have not been able to resolve the dispute. what would be the next step to resolve the dispute?

Mediation Signup and view all the answers

You have two sellers who have submitted excellent responses to the RFP. After evaluation, they are very close in the result of the weighting scoring system. How should you make the final decision?

Ask for BAFO Signup and view all the answers

When estimating labour costs for a team that is co-located, you should ensure you account for?

The resource doing the work Signup and view all the answers

The main reason you should attach a level of accuracy with all estimates is to?

Show the uncertainty in the estimate Signup and view all the answers

In looking at the people available for your project, there is a capability gap. Which of the activities would you NOT do to address the gap?

Contract out the work Signup and view all the answers

You have a person assigned to your project part-time. They will spend 50% of their time on your project. From past experience, the productivity is 80%. You have estimated that the task is 10 days of effort. With the person assigned, what duration should you now use?

25 days Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following estimation methods has the highest effort?

Bottom-up Signup and view all the answers

Optimistic bias can be a problem with estimates. One of the ways to reduce the impact of optimistic bias is to?

Use 3-point estimates Signup and view all the answers

Your client has repeatedly said the project must be on time. The budget is running over. What should you do?

Determine if the client will live with the cost overrun Signup and view all the answers

The project contingency is used to?

Cover the cost of risks that occur Signup and view all the answers

The type of dependency that is created by legal, contractual, or inherent in the nature of the work is called?

Mandatory Signup and view all the answers

A critical path is defined as?

The path with no float on all the activities Signup and view all the answers

When crashing the project schedule, you should focus on the activities that?

Are on the critical path Signup and view all the answers

An activity can be crashed by?

Changing resources Signup and view all the answers

You finally have a schedule that meets the constraint date, so now you turn your attention to the resources. Unfortunately, you discover that a couple of resources are overloaded. Why should you address the over allocation?

Staff can only physically work so many hours each day Signup and view all the answers

You have a project that has high risk but it is very short. How should you handle schedule contingency?

Put the contingency at the end of the project Signup and view all the answers

You've been watching how one of your team members has approached completing their work package. This person had four weeks to complete the work package. In the first couple of weeks, there was not much focus; but in the last week, the team member was very focused and worked extra hours. What are you observing?

Student syndrome Signup and view all the answers

Your project is over budget, and you are trying to determine the cause. You are reviewing the estimates provided by team members to create the cost baseline. The estimates are organized by work package, and you have the spreadsheet that was used, but it is difficult to determine what is happening since all of the team members who provided the estimates have already left. What is the one thing you wish was provided with the estimate?

List of assumptions Signup and view all the answers

You have just finished gathering the project requirements and you are building the WBS. There is still a lot more planning to do, including assigning resources. However, the project sponsor wants an update on the budget to see where things stand. What level of accuracy is required?

Budget Signup and view all the answers

What to do now? You have the perfect person assigned to your project and you have just found out the person has resigned and is not available. You are looking at the project team and the resource pool and there is not a replacement. For this project, you cannot contract out the work due to the nature of the work, but luckily you have ample budget and extra time. What is the best option?

Train another team member Signup and view all the answers

You have a small team of three people working on the project part-time. The team will spend 50% of their time on your project. You have noticed that the team's productivity is 75%. You have estimated that the team will take a total of 120 hours of effort. If the labor rate is $50 per hour what estimate should you use?

$8,000 Signup and view all the answers

What a frustrating meeting. You were reviewing your proposed budget with finance, and you discovered that you had missed some significant costs. The good news is that the finance staff showed you how to calculate the cost and you can do it quickly. The bad news is that you're going to have to explain to your boss. What cost did you miss?

Overhead costs Signup and view all the answers

You are meeting with your team to develop an estimate for implementing a new software application. After much discussion, the team agrees that it will most likely take 12 weeks. However, several members have mentioned some potential problems, and if those occur it could take 26 weeks to complete the work. On the other hand, a couple of team members have figured that if everything goes well, it could be done in 20 days. What is your estimate?

13 weeks Signup and view all the answers

Your project requires a key resource with very specific skills. The best way to ensure the resource is available to your project when required is to…

Ensure the resource is pre-assigned to the project Signup and view all the answers

The most common reason to compress a project schedule is to meet a constraint date. Another reason to compress a project schedule is to…

Reduce overhead costs Signup and view all the answers

You've been working with your team to develop a detailed estimate of the project. The team has completed the estimates and the total is $20,000 for labor and $10,000 for material. Your organization has a 20% overhead on labour and adds a further 10% on project costs excluding any contingency. In addition, the results from the risk analysis show that you need a 15% contingency on the total cost. What is the budget for your project to the nearest thousand?

$43,000 Signup and view all the answers

If activity D has 5 days of total float and takes 4 days longer to complete than planned, the impact of this delay is?

The overall duration does not change, but the successors start 4 days later Signup and view all the answers

You’re meeting with the team to discuss how to crash the project schedule. One of the team members offers to work overtime to complete their tasks sooner. You've decided to decline the offer. What is the most likely reason you are declining the offer?

The team member's activity is not on the critical path Signup and view all the answers

Your team has recommended to fast track your project by overlapping development and testing. What cost concern would you have with this recommendation?

Overtime due to overallocation Signup and view all the answers

You are reviewing the resource profile of your project and you noticed that some of the key resources are overallocated on certain days, but when you look at the schedule by week, they are still over-allocated but only by an hour or two. What should you do?

Do nothing, the staff can figure it out Signup and view all the answers

You have completed your risk analysis of schedule risks. The schedule has several constraints that must be met. You have a number of very well-defined risks. Where should you place the schedule contingency?

Prior to each milestone Signup and view all the answers

In reviewing the schedule with your team, you identified an opportunity to introduce five days of overlap between activities A and B. Activity A occurs first. How would you show this overlap on the schedule?

Activity B has a dependency with activity A of finish to start with a 5-day lead Signup and view all the answers

When doing qualitative risk analysis, how should you analyze opportunities?

Follow the approach in the risk management plan Signup and view all the answers

After responding to a risk by avoiding the risk event, you should next:

Update the project scope Signup and view all the answers

One of the benefits of doing quantitative risk analysis is...

Allows for the analysis of interrelated risk events Signup and view all the answers

You are looking to make a decision about three options: Option A: 30% chance of success resulting in $20,000 profit, if it fails, you lose $5,000 Option B: 20% chance of success resulting in a $50,000 profit, if it fails, you lose $10,000 Option C: 80% change of success resulting in $10,000 profit, if it fails, you lose $20,000 Using EMV, which option would you pick?

Option C Signup and view all the answers

To use the simple simulation approach which of the following must be present:

The result is a normal distribution Signup and view all the answers

A critical path has the following two activities: Activity X with standard deviation of 3, Activity Y with standard deviation of 4. What is the standard deviation of the critical path?

5 Signup and view all the answers

As part of the risk planning for your project, you have created an emergency call-out list for the team. This is an example of:

Contingency plan Signup and view all the answers

You are reviewing your email and there is another request from the client. You reviewed the request, and it looks like there is a change in the project scope. What should you do?

Work with the client to complete a change request Signup and view all the answers

What is not some of the activities you can do to help reduce scope changes?

Use earned value Signup and view all the answers

Your sponsor wants you to use earned value to report on the project, but the project is only 3 months in duration. You have well-defined deliverables, but no metrics. What approach should you use to calculate EV?

Percent from staff Signup and view all the answers

The best time to use the method of calculating EAC as AC + (BAC-EV) is when:

When there is a one-time event that caused the variance Signup and view all the answers

_____ is an analytical technique that uses mathematical models to forecast future outcomes based on historical results.

Trend analysis Signup and view all the answers

In variance analysis, what should you do before you look at risks and scope creep?

Check the actuals Signup and view all the answers

Why is it important to get the acceptance of all the project deliverables?

To help ensure project success Signup and view all the answers

Not another change request! Your project contingency fund can only absorb so much. You have had a number of risks occur on the project already that were accepted. You have set up a meeting with the project sponsor to discuss this change request, but you are not concerned about the project budget. Why?

You still have contingency Signup and view all the answers

You are currently identifying risks for your project. Your main objective is to be on time. One of your team members has commented that you are using new staff on your project which could cause the project to be late. What is wrong with using this risk description?

The risk event is missing Signup and view all the answers

You are considering how to respond to the identified project risks. For your project, you are using the following probability and impact matrix and your risk threshold is for and above. You have a risk with a score of four. In looking at response options, you determine that you can mitigate the risk at a cost of $10,000, but this will just reduce the risk score to three. You estimate the risk value for a score of three is $5,000 and a score of four is $10,000 what should you do?

Accept the risk Signup and view all the answers

You are discussing with the project manager the pros and cons of doing quantitative analysis for your project. You are working on a short duration project with one other team member. You are recommending just doing qualitative risk analysis because…

You can complete the risk analysis sooner Signup and view all the answers

You were calculating the risk value for the risk of bad weather on your project. You have looked at the weather forecast and determined the following: ● Severe thunderstorm 1% chance with a cost of $100,000 ● Heavy rain 9% chance with a cost of $10,000 ● Light rain 20% chance with a cost of $2,000 Using EVM what is the risk value?

$2,300 Signup and view all the answers

You have just taken over a project and you want to implement EVM on the budget. Which of the following is not required?

Resource assignments Signup and view all the answers

You are performing EVM on a project to develop a new website. You need to have a quick process as you will have to calculate the earned value every two weeks over the next 10 months. The team has identified about 30 web pages to be coded and tested. What approach should you use to deal with the pages the staff have started but not finished on each status date?

Use 0%-50%-100% approach Signup and view all the answers

You are designing a change control system for your project. What steps should you include in the change control system?

Identify the change and evaluate the change Signup and view all the answers

Results of a project schedule simulation show that the mean duration for completing your project is 50 days and a standard deviation is 10 days. If you have a constraint duration of 85 days, what should you communicate to the client?

There is an excellent chance that the project will be completed in less than 85 days Signup and view all the answers

For simple simulation to determine the mean and standard deviation of the project schedule, you need the following key characteristic:

There is only one critical path Signup and view all the answers

Your team has worked hard, and you have the results from the simulation of your project schedule. You are excited about this development as you can stop using level of accuracy qualifier statements, which the stakeholders are not understanding. In addition, you can use the simulation to…

Calculate the schedule contingency Signup and view all the answers

For your project, you have a very high risk tolerance. You have responded to some of the risks, but accepted most of the risks. What should you do as you move into the execution phase of the project?

Develop fallback plans Signup and view all the answers

Which one of the following statements is a common mistake of project control?

Providing excessive control on the primary focus Signup and view all the answers

You need to get to the bottom of this variance and decide to do a root cause analysis. You have gathered the team together for a brainstorming session. What is the first thing you should do before the meeting starts?

Define the problem Signup and view all the answers

You need to reduce the total cost of a small renovation project. You have reviewed the estimates and found small errors, but you are still over budget. Now what? You have no control over the resources, as they are assigned to you and it does not matter, as they all have the same rate by skill. What should you do?

Swap materials Signup and view all the answers

You have a cost variance on your project for a specific work package. You have confirmed the actuals are correct and check the estimate for errors. What should you do next?

Check for risks that might have occurred Signup and view all the answers

What information will a tracking Gantt Chart show that is not found on a normal Gantt Chart?

Baseline Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Week 1

Project Prioritization: Prioritize projects using a simple financial indicator, such as the Payback Period (PBP), in small organizations with projects that take less than a year and have quantifiable benefits.
Project Failure Rumor: If a colleague says a project is failing, address the rumor by discussing it with the project sponsor.
Project Requirement Organization: To organize disorganized project requirements, create a requirements traceability matrix.
Requirement Prioritization: Prioritize requirements to ensure all stakeholders understand what's important.

Week 2

Procurement Decision: Avoid considering a seller's procurement policy when determining whether to procure a product. Focus on capacity, stakeholder preference, and market conditions.
Cost-Plus Contract Concerns: If a project sponsor has concerns about the cost of a cost-plus contract because the scope isn't finalized yet, address the scope issues first.
Fixed-Price Contract Review: When the buyer wants a fixed-price contract, review the clarity of the scope, the length of the contract, payment terms, and the buyer's reputation.
Two-Envelope Approach: In evaluating RFP responses, buyers may use a two-envelope approach; this involves reviewing the price separately from the other documents.
RFP Evaluation tie-breaker: When selecting from two nearly identical RFP responses, consider asking both companies to further elaborate or providing a tie-breaker question.

General

Project Scope Statement Development: Use product decomposition to break down a project into smaller components to clarify and develop the project scope statement.
Resource Constraints: When choosing internal resources for a project, consider the availability of training and the capabilities of the resources in addition to time constraints.
Stakeholder Management: Hold focus groups when there are many stakeholders and time is limited when gathering requirements.
Contract Review: Review contract payment terms, invoice status, the organization's procurement policies, and seller status reports for any project contracts.
Contract Dispute Resolution: Mediation is the next step in contract dispute resolution after bringing in senior management fails to resolve the dispute.

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Description

This quiz covers essential project management techniques including project prioritization, rumor management, requirement organization, and procurement decisions. Each question focuses on practical applications for managing small projects effectively and ensuring stakeholder alignment.