Examine the figure given below.
In this project network diagram, what is the total float for Activity I?
Answer : A
The float for Activity I is three days. The early start for Activity I is Day 17 and the late start for
Activity I is Day 20. Therefore, the difference of
the early start and the late start reveals the float as three days. It is possible, and acceptable, to use
the difference of the early finish and the late finish to find the float, as the value will be the same
amount. Answer options B, D, and C are incorrect. These are not the valid calculation for the total
float.
You are the project manager for your organization. You are coaching Allen, a junior project manager,
on how the details of the project's critical path are calculated. Examine the figure given below:
What is the critical path of this project?
Answer : B
The critical path is discovered by summing the duration of each activity node in each
chain of activities in the project network diagram. In this
figure, the critical path is ACFGJ, which is 26 days, the longest chain of activities in the project.
Answer option A is incorrect. This path's duration is 22 days.
Answer option D is incorrect. This path's duration is 23 days.
Answer option C is incorrect. This path's duration is 15 days.
Harry is the project manager of a large network installation project. This project requires Harry to
add network cable to each office and cubicle of a 14-story office building. Harry will receive a bonus
for good time and cost performance in this project. What law of economics would prevent Harry
from exponentially adding labor to the project work in an effort to complete the work in a very small
amount of time?
Answer : B
The law of diminishing returns state that the user cannot exponentially add labor to a
project to reduce the amount of time required to complete the project work. In other words, Harry
cannot keep doubling the workforce on this project to reduce the project duration down to
just a few minutes.
The law of diminishing returns state that 'the user will get less and less output when he add
additional doses of an input while holding other
inputs fixed. In other words, the marginal product of each unit of input will decline as the amount of
that input increases holding all other
inputs constant.' Diminishing returns mean that the extra labor causes output to fall, which means
that the MPL is negative. In other words,
the change in output per unit increase in labor is negative and total output is falling.
Answer option C is incorrect. This is not a valid project management term.
Answer option A is incorrect. Parkinson's Law states that work will expand to the amount of time
allotted to it.
Answer option D is incorrect. Moore's Law is based on Intel's Gordon Moore who stated that
processor speeds generally double in power
every 18 months.
You are the project manager for the NQQ Project for your organization. You and the project team
are creating the activity list for the NQQ Project. You have instructed the project team members that
they should include an activity identifier and a scope of work description for each
activity in the activity list. Why is this information needed?
Answer : C
The primary reason for including the activity identifier and the scope of work
description for each activity is to ensure the project team
understands what work is required to be completed.
Answer option B is incorrect. Profit and loss statements are not required for all projects and they are
linked to actual performance against a
project baseline.
Answer option D is incorrect. Communicating to the stakeholders is always a good idea, but
stakeholders would not usually need to know the
activity details. Their focus is on project benefits and deliverables.
Answer option A is incorrect. A requirements traceability matrix is the tool to link requirements to
project deliverables.
You work as a Project Manager for Media Perfect Inc. Several projects are running under your
supervision. Rick, team leader of a project, provides you performance indexes of his project. The
schedule variance (SV) of his project is 25. What does this figure depict?
Answer : D
According to the question, the schedule variance (SV) of the project is 25, which is a
positive value. The positive SV depicts that the project is
ahead of the planned schedule.
What is SV?
Schedule variance (SV) is a measure of schedule performance on a project. The variance notifies that
the schedule is ahead
or behind what was planned for this period in time. The schedule variance is calculated based on the
following formula:
SV = Earned Value (EV) - Planned Value (PV)
If the resulting schedule is negative, it indicates that the project is behind schedule. A value greater
than 0 shows that the
project is ahead of the planned schedule. A value of 0 indicates that the project is right on target.
Answer option A is incorrect. The negative SV means that project is behind the schedule.
Answer option C is incorrect. The zero SV means that project is right on target.
Answer option B is incorrect. This result can be drawn by looking at the cost variance (CV) of the
project.
What is CV?
Cost variance (CV) is a measure of cost performance on a project. The variance notifies if costs are
higher than budgeted
or lower than budgeted. The cost variance is calculated based on the following formula:
CV = Earned Value (EV) - Actual Cost (AC)
A positive value means that spending is less than budgeted, whereas a negative value indicates that
costs are higher than
originally planned for the project.
Andy is the project manager of the NHGQ project for his organization. He has elected to use a three-
point estimate for his project. His project team, however, is complaining about participating in this
estimate type because of the time it takes to predict the duration of activities. Andy, as the project
manager, tells the project team that they must create the time estimate, as it will help this project
and future similar projects. What is a three-point estimate?
Answer : B
A three-point estimate requires that each activity be estimated for its optimistic, most
likely, and pessimistic duration. Once the three
estimates have been created, an average of the duration estimates is found and this is the recorded
duration for the project work.
Answer option A is incorrect. This is not a complete explanation of a three-point estimate.
Answer option C is incorrect. This is a definition of PERT, a similar time estimating technique.
Answer option D is incorrect. This is definition of PERT, but this answer uses the term GERT so it is
not a valid choice.
You are the project manager of the HGH Project. Thomas, your project sponsor, asked you to submit
status reports every week, but now he wants you to submit the status reports every other week.
What project management plan would you need to update to reflect this change
from Thomas?
Answer : C
The communications management plan needs to be updated whenever there is a
change in the frequency, type, or audience of
communication.
The communication management plan is a document that contains information that is required by
the stakeholders. It also documents when
and how the information should be distributed. It describes the information delivery needs, its
format and level of detail. The communication
management plan is contained in or is a subsidiary of the project management plan.
Answer option D is incorrect. The project management plan is a collection of subsidiary plans,
including the communications management plan.
Answer option A is incorrect. The scope of the project is not being changed in this example, so there
is no need to update the plan.
Answer option B is incorrect. There is no plan by the name of performance management plan, so this
choice is incorrect.