an endeavor to accomplish a specific objective through a unique set of nonrelated tasks and the effective utilization of resources.
can include people, organizations, equipment, materials, and facilities.
Project objective needs a schedule and a budget (T/F)
all the work that must be done in order to produce all the project deliverables, satisfy the customer, and accomplish the project objective
The project plan is executed in the
Projects are identified and selected in the
The _______________ usually states the time by which a project scope must be completed in terms of the specific date agreed upon by the sponsor.
The project objective requires completing the project work scope and producing all the deliverables by a certain time and within budget. (T/F)
Introduction of a new process to ship packages for a firm is an example of a project objective. (T/F)
False no schedule and budget
The sponsor provides funds to accomplish the project.
False
A project involves a degree of uncertainty that is reduced as the project progresses as estimates and assumptions are more accurate.
The Department of Transportation hired a company to build a six-lane highway between two cities. This is an example of a project.
True, this is a project with a specific through a unique set of interrelated tasks and the effective utilization of resources.
Disadvantages for doing a project may have a positive impact on an organization. T/F
True
Disadvantages for doing a project may have a positive impact on an organization.
The reaction of an advocacy group is categorized as a negative consequence for a project. T/F
False
The reaction of an advocacy group could be favorable and be a positive benefit.
The project charter is also called a project authorization or a project initiation document. T/F
The project objective in the project charter indicates the deliverable, schedule, and budget for a project. T/F
Funding statements in a project charter may be broken into the amount authorized by project phase. T/F
A milestone schedule lists target dates for phases of a project. T/F
The constraints for a project include the requirement to outsource due to the organization's lack of having expertise with its own staff. T/F
Project approval requirements state when the sponsor wants to review the progress of the project and make decisions about moving to the next phase. T/F
A project should have weekly project status review meetings supplemented with written project reports. T/F
FALSE
The project's reporting requirements state the frequency and content of project status reviews and reports. The frequency should be often enough for the sponsor to approve the deliverables and for the project team to reduce problems due to project delays. This may be daily, weekly, or even monthly and is dependent upon the project.
The approval date for the project is the project start date. T/F
TRUE
The approval signature and date in the project charter indicate that the sponsor has officially or formally authorized the project and the date is considered to be when the clock starts ticking for accomplishing the key milestones for the project.
The first step in project selection is to
develop a set of criteria against which the project will be evaluated. The criteria inform the types of data to be gathered, the assumptions that must be made, and evaluation that is made.</
The final decision of which projects to select is the responsibility of
the organization's owner, president, or department head
be concise and create a vision for the end result of the project.
The project objective should
STATE WHAT IS EXPECTED TO BE ACCOMPLISHED
The implementation of the new procedure is expected to reduce costs of production by 10% over the next year. This is an example of the ________________ in a project charter.
success criteria and expected benefits
The success criteria or expected benefits in the project charter do what?
indicate the quantitative benefits of the project
The new employees are expected to receive $13 million of Fast Start training that will be provided by a state workforce development grant. This is an example of the ________________ in a project charter.
(T/F) Waiting to develop a proposal until a RFP is announced is important to be sure all the information is available
FALSE The final RFP should be used to finalize the proposal. The proposal should be started prior to the RFP release
Helping customers identify needs, even if they are needs your company cannot help them address, is a way to position your company to win future contracts. T/F
TRUE
Working closely with a potential customer puts a contractor in a better position to be selected eventually as the winning contractor when the customer does issue an RFP.
The cost of developing a proposal should be added in as a direct expense in the budget for a proposal.
A contractor should bid on RFPs where there is little or no competition and avoid ones where they might have a competitor bid on the project. T/F
FALSE
Contractors must evaluate their position, build a relationship with the customer, and propose projects where they have a better than average chance to win.
If there is high risk for the success of a project, the contractor should include a cost-reimbursement plan in their cost section if the RFP did not specify a contract type. T/F
The reputation of the company that announced the RFP should be evaluated as a factor as well as the reputation of the contractor when making a bid or no-bid decision. T/F
A contractor should only respond to RFPs if they have the required resources already on their staff. T/F
It is good practice to have the person who will be responsible for the major work tasks estimate the associated costs.
________________ establish the foundation for successful funding.
Sleeping on a contradictory issue and providing a thoughtful answer the next day
- reinforces your thoughtfulness and builds a positive perception of you by the customer.
- Do not make quick knee-jerk responses that you may regret later. It is better to sleep on a contradictory issue and provide a more thoughtful response the next day.
Clients want to work with people who can _______ problems, not with those who merely ______ them.
Proposals are often organized
with technical, management, and cost sections that may not be labeled.
Contractor requirements define the functional or performance specifications for the project’s end product and other project deliverables. T/F
False
Customer requirements define the functional or performance specifications for the project’s end product and other project deliverables.
The work breakdown structure can include specifications regarding size, color, weight, or performance parameters, such as speed, uptime, throughput, processing time, or operating temperature range, that the project result must satisfy. T/F
- FALSE
The requirements can include specifications regarding size, color, weight, or performance parameters, such as speed, uptime, throughput, processing time, or operating temperature range, that the project result must satisfy.
In many cases, the customer states high-level requirements in the RFP, but the project team or the contractor may need to collect more information from the customer or end users to further refine the requirements. T/F
For some projects, the terms of payment may be tied to the customer’s acceptance of certain deliverables. T/F
Clear, unambiguous acceptance criteria for all deliverables are important because they are the basis for verifying that the project scope has been completed in accordance with the customer’s requirements and expectations. T/F
A network diagram is a technique for organizing and subdividing all the project work and deliverables into more manageable components. T/F
- FALSE
A work breakdown structure is a technique for organizing and subdividing all the project work and deliverables into more manageable components.
A work breakdown structure is
a technique for organizing and subdividing all the project work and deliverables into more manageable components.
If the scope seems much less than originally anticipated by the customer, the customer and contractor would have to agree on increasing the budget, extending the schedule, reducing the scope, or some combination thereof. T/F
- FALSE
- Scope must be greater than
It is essential to wait until the end of the project to check if the sponsor/customer requirements and expectations have been met regarding the quality of the project deliverables. T/F
The quality plan may also state that suppliers must provide documentation certifying that the materials they supply meet certain required specifications. T/F
The customer may hire an independent third party or laboratory to be its representative or perform tests when checking the quality of a project deliverables. T/F
The ____________is the tangible end product that the project team or contractor must produce and deliver in order for the sponsor or customer to achieve the expected benefits from implementing the project.
The project objective is usually defined in terms of the
end product or deliverable, schedule, and budget
The project scope document is valuable for establishing
a common understanding among project stakeholders regarding the scope of the project.
The customer requirements section should also include or reference ______________ that must be used and met regarding quality and performance of the project work and deliverables.
applicable technical specifications, standards, and codes
The______________ section of the project scope document is where the contractor or project team can state and clarify exactly what is included in the work scope and provide an opportunity to reconsider items that are not stated but that the customer may have forgotten to include in her requirements or RFP.
____________ are the products or outputs that the project team or contractor will produce and provide to the customer during and at the completion of the performance of the project.
For large projects that involve several hundred people performing various activities over several years, it is practical to have each person estimate activity durations at the beginning of the project. T/F
The estimated duration should be aggressive, yet unrealistic. T/F
- FALSE
- The estimated duration should be aggressive, yet REALISTIC.
Inflating estimated durations in anticipation of the project manager negotiating shorter durations is a good practice. T/F
The latest finish time for a specific 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 specific activity. T/F
A Gantt chart is the often the name for the network diagram tool for planning and scheduling. T/F
- FALSE
A Gantt chart is the often the name for the bar chart tool for planning and scheduling.
This longest path in the overall network diagram is called the network path T/F
- FALSE
- This longest path in the overall network diagram is called the CRITICAL PATH
One way to determine which activities make up the critical path is to find which ones have the least slack. T/F
Project management is a proactive approach to controlling a project to ensure that the project objective is accomplished, even when things do not go according to plan. T/F
When the customer requests a change, the contractor or project team should estimate the impact on the project schedule and budget and then go ahead with the work without customer approval.
- FALSE
When the customer requests a change, the contractor or project team should estimate the impact on the project schedule and budget and then obtain customer approval before proceeding. If the customer approves the proposed revisions to the project schedule and budget, then any additional activities, revised estimated durations, and revised estimated resources and associated costs should be incorporated into the project schedule and budget.
It is important to know what types of resources are available, in what quantities, and during what time periods to determine
if the right types of resources will be available in sufficient quantities during the time periods that the project requires.
If an organization or subcontractor has performed similar projects in the past and has kept records of how long specific activities actually took, these historical data
can be used as a guide in estimating the durations of similar activities for future projects.
Calculate the latest finish for Task D if one of its successors, Task F, has a latest start on day 9, its other successor, Task E, has a latest start on day 10, and the duration of Task D is 2 days.
Negative slack indicates a lack of slack over the entire project and the amount of time
an activity must be accelerated to complete the project by the required completion time
The total completion time is 25 days. Task A is planned to take seven days. Task B is planned to take five days. Task C is planned to take eight days. The tasks have a serial relationship. How much slack does the project have?
As the project progresses, the actual finish times (AFs) of completed activities will determine
the earliest start and earliest finish times for the remaining activities in the network diagram, as well as the total slack.
Resource-limited scheduling will not extend the project completion time if necessary in order to keep within the resource limits. T/F
- FALSE
Resource-limited scheduling will extend the project completion time if necessary in order to keep within the resource limits.
The statement, "Network diagrams illustrate the technical constraints among activities," means the activities are constrained because
one activity cannot be started until the predecessors are finished.
Why are activities drawn in a serial relationship in a network diagram?
From a technical standpoint, the activities must be performed in that sequence
When several activities need the same limited resource at the same time, the activities with
the least slack have first priority.
A resource requirements plan illustrates
the expected utilization of resources by time period during the time span of the project.
Resource leveling, or smoothing, levels the resources so that
they are applied as uniformly as possible without extending the project schedule beyond the required completion time.
The start of noncritical activities are delayed beyond their earliest start times (but not beyond their latest start times) in order to
maintain a uniform level of required resources.
Activities can be delayed only to the point where all their positive slack is used up, as any further delays would cause the project to
extend beyond the project completion time.
Resource-limited scheduling is a method for
developing the shortest schedule when the number or amount of available resources is fixed and cannot be exceeded.
In resource-limited scheduling, the lower priority activities get delayed. How does the delaying of activities affect the project?
The delaying of activities may delay the project.
In many projects, large dollar amounts are expended for materials or services (subcontractors, consultants) that are used over a period of time longer than one cost reporting period. T/F
Committed costs are also known as discharged or postponed costs. T/F
- FALSE
Committed costs are also known as commitments or encumbered costs.
The percent complete estimate for a work package is subjective and requires an underestimated guess compared to the scope of the work package. T/F
- FALSE
The percent complete estimate for a work package is subjective and requires an honest assessment compared to the scope of the work package..
If you put off corrective actions until some point in the distant future, the negative cost variance may deteriorate in the project. T/F
The key to effective cost control is waiting to address negative cost variances and cost inefficiencies after they are identified. T/F
- FALSE
The key to effective cost control is aggressively addressing negative cost variances and cost inefficiencies as soon as they are identified.
The total project cost is often estimated during the_______ phase of the project or when the project charter or a proposal is prepared
Labor costs in the project costs estimate are the estimated costs for the various types or classifications of ___________ and are based on the estimated work time (not necessarily the same as the activity estimated duration) and the dollar labor rate for each.
people who are expected to work on the project
Travel costs in the project costs estimate are for
travel (other than local travel) required during the project. travel (other than local travel) required during the project.
Contingency costs in the project costs estimate, also referred to as _________, are to cover unexpected situations that may come up during the project, such as items that may have been overlooked when the initial project scope was defined, activities that may have to be redone because they may not work the first time (redesigns), or a high probability or high impact risk that may occur.
At the beginning of the project, it may not be possible to estimate the costs for all activities with a level of confidence regarding their accuracy. This is especially true for
The budget for each work package is
distributed over the duration of the work package
Allocating total project costs for the various elements to the appropriate work packages will establish
a total budgeted cost (TBC) for each work package. a total budgeted cost (TBC) for each work package.
There are two approaches to establishing the total budgeted cost for each work package:
Costs are ________ when an item is ordered even though actual payment may take place at some later time.
As data are collected on _______, including portions of any committed cost, they need to be totaled by work package so that they can be compared to the ________
actual cost, cumulative budgeted cost.
If the cumulative earned value is $10 and the cumulative actual costs are $20, then the CPI is
- 0.5
- Cost performance index = Cumulative earned value/Cumulative actual cost CPI = CEV/CAC.
Another indicator of cost performance is cost variance (CV). If the cumulative earned value is greater than the cumulative actual costs, then
- The CV is positive
- Cost variance = Cumulative earned value – Cumulative actual cost CV = CEV – CAC
When evaluating work packages that have a negative cost variance, you should focus on taking corrective actions to reduce the costs of:
activities that have a large cost estimate.
- activities that have a large cost estimate.
Focus on taking corrective actions to reduce the costs of activities that have a large cost estimate. Taking corrective measures that reduce the cost of a $20,000 activity by 10 percent will have a larger impact than totally eliminating a $300 activity.
Which of the following is not a way to reduce the costs of activities:
assign a person with less expertise or less experience to perform or help with the activity