Multiple choice questions:
1. Which of the following is an example of a project?
a. Maintaining e-mail addresses
b. Capacity planning
c. Submitting travel and expense reports
d. Sending monthly reports to top management
2. An effective project manager must:
a. Tell his team members what to do
b. Be the most capable person on the team technically
c. Be focused on achieving results
d. Not trust his team members to achieve results without his personal attention to detail
3. A key characteristic of an effective project team is that:
a. Members have graduate degrees in project management
b. Members come from the same professional background
c. Members see themselves as stakeholders in the project
d. Members adhere to a prescribed pecking order
4. A challenge of the matrix project organization is that:
a. Team members are full of ego
b. Team members are selected from the same functional area
c. Team members have divided loyalties
d. It enables functional managers to provide career guidance to their workers
5. A key weakness of the Benefit-Cost ratio project selection mechanism is that:
a. It only focuses on things that can be measured
b. It takes time frame into consideration
c. It is too much based on subjective judgment
d. It does not entail prioritizing
6. A major strength of task Gantt charts is that they can:
a. Offer a sophisticated model of a project
b. Show how many resources will be used on the project
c. Show the interdependencies of tasks
d. Show actual versus planned schedule status
7. If you want to shorten the length of a project, you must:
a. Shorten the critical path
b. Shorten the free float
c. Spend more money
d. Cut back on the features you plan to deliver
8. The critical path:
a. Provides the duration of a project
b. Has the shortest duration on a project
c. Is the most expensive path to implement
d. Contains the project's most significant tasks
9. A tool that graphically shows cost variance is:
a. A chart of accounts
b. A code of accounts
c. A histogram (also called a resource loading chart)
d. A cumulative cost curve (also called S-curve)
10. Which of the following methods involves performing tasks in parallel?
a. Crashing
b. Fast tracking
c. Leveling
d. Hammocking
11. Top-down estimates (also called parametric estimates):
a. Are based on historical trends
b. Can be derived from the WBS
c. Can be determined by analyzing work packages
d. Provide accurate assessments of project costs
12. Bottom-up estimates:
a. Are based on historical trends
b. Can be derived from the WBS
c. Must employ Monte Carlo simulation
d. a and c
13. Definitive estimates are generally derived from:
a. Bottom-up estimates
b. Top-down estimates
c. Expert judgment cost estimates
d. Order of magnitude estimates
14. The resource planning tool that enables us to identify who we need to carry out what tasks is called:
a. A resource Gantt chart
b. A resource matrix (also called the responsibility chart)
c. A resource ogive
d. A resource loading chart (also called a resource histogram)
15. Which of the following shows resource allocation over time?
a. Resource Gantt chart
b. Resource matrix
c. S-Curve
d. Resource leveling
16. What is the function of a change control board (CCB) in configuration management?
a. To assess the management impacts of change requests
b. To initiate changes needed on the project
c. To focus on the technical implication of change requests
d. To approve change requests coming from senior management
17. Good functional requirements
a. Describe how the deliverable should be developed
b. Provide detailed technical insights into what the deliverable will do
c. Describe what the deliverable looks like and what it should do
d. Are created after development of the technical specifications
18. The type of management whose focus is on activities whose variances lie outside the acceptable range is:
a. Management by Objectives
b. Management by Exception
c. Management by Walking Around
d. Management by Control Limits
19. Which of the following is a characteristic of an effective reporting system?
a. SMART
b. KISS
c. MBO
d. LOWBALLING
20. Which of the following is an elapsed time task?
a. Paint is drying
b. A painter paints the wall
c. Software is being written
d. A sandwich is being made
21. An autocratic management style:
a. Is effective in most project management situations
b. Is effective in highly routine efforts
c. Is effective in high flux, state-of-the-art projects
d. Will lead to the tyranny of the majority
22. A project team structure that closely reflects the physical structure of the deliverable is known as:
a. Egoless
b. Specialty
c. Surgical
d. Isomorphic
23. The purpose of mid-project evaluation is:
a. Continual monitoring of budget and estimates
b. To focus on achievement of individual element of the project plan
c. To determine whether the original objectives are still relevant
d. To re-baseline the project budget
24. If the latest time you can start a task is five hours into the project, and the earliest time is three and a half hours into the project, how much slack (also called float) does the task have?
a. 0.5 hours
b. 1.5 hours
c. 2.5 hours
d. 8.5 hours
25. In risk management, insurance is an example of:
a. Risk avoidance
b. Risk deflection
c. Risk acceptance
d. Contingency planning
26. A four step risk assessment process reflecting standard risk management good practice consists of:
a. Risk identification, Risk deflection, Risk impact analysis, Risk monitoring and control
b. Risk acceptance, Risk impact analysis, Risk response planning, Risk monitoring and control
c. Risk deflection, Contingency planning, Risk impact analysis, Risk monitoring and control
d. Risk identification, Risk impact analysis, Risk response planning, Risk monitoring and control
27. Structured Walk-Through is a methodology used in:
a. PERT
b. GERT
c. VERT
d. Project Evaluation
28. If review of a project's status indicates that EV = $400, AC = $400, and PV = $500, the project is:
a. On budget, behind schedule
b. On budget, ahead of schedule
c. Over budget, behind schedule
d. Over budget, ahead of schedule
29. The poor man's hierarchy is a method for:
a. Project estimation
b. Project scheduling
c. WBS construction
d. Project selection
30. According to PMI, a WBS should focus on
a. Tasks
b. Deliverables
c. Interrelationships among activities
d. Cost of the project
31. If EV = $300, AC = $400, and the project budget is $1,000, what is the estimated final cost of the project (this is known as EAC, estimate at complete)?
a. $750
b. $1,000
c. $1,250
d. $1,333
32. Which of the following is a scope planning tool?
a. Benefit/cost analysis
b. WBS
c. Earned Value analysis
d. Fast tracking
33. In resource planning, one of the issues that needs to be considered is:
a. Staff empowerment
b. Technical requirements of the project
c. Theory X management principles
d. Theory Y management principles
34. The bottom-most level of the WBS -- the level at which project budget and schedule data are captured -- is called:
a. Work package
b. Code of accounts
c. Budget baseline
d. Change control level
35. Scope creep means:
a. Needs emergence and identification
b. Uncontrolled changes to a project's requirements during project execution
c. Migration of project needs to requirements
d. Imprecise scope statement
36. Configuration management is a:
a. Methodology for working closely with customers by developing and updating requirements for faster response to changing customer needs
b. Methodology for ensuring that requirements evolve with evolving customer requirements
c. Methodology for specifying requirements at the outset and for controlling very tightly any changes to them
d. Methodology for specifying requirements at the outset and for facilitating any changes to them with minimum customer input
37. Rapid prototyping is a methodology for:
a. Specifying requirements at the outset and for controlling very tightly any changes to them
b. Specifying requirements at the outset and for facilitating later changes to them with minimum customr input
c. Triggering early warning of unauthorized changes to the original prototype to enable project management to take remedial actions
d. Working closely with customers by creating and updating prototypes that respond to customer input
38. Ensuring a one-to-one correspondence between specification items and general design items is a feature of:
a. Scope statement definition
b. WBS construction
c. Rapid prototyping
d. Configuration management
39. Under what conditions may a project manager accept a change request?
a. If the request has no effect on project objectives, deadlines, or resources.
b. If the request has no effect on project objectives, although it has effects on deadlines and resources
c. If the request is coming from a valued customer
d. If the request is from the Chief Executive Officer
40. Which of the following is not an activity carried out during project closeout?
a. Reassignment of project staff
b. Preparation of the project's baseline
c. Reassignment of material resources
d. Preparation of user manuals
41. When crashing a project, we typically choose critical path tasks whose costs of crashing are highest.
True
False
42. The astute project manager typically uses only one management style in order not to confuse his/her teammates.
True
False
43. Concurrent engineering involves overlapping tasks and phases to accelerate a project's schedule.
True
False
44. A work package is to be found at the summary level of the WBS.
True
False
45. Milestones, like tasks, consume resources.
True
False
46. In project management, the level of uncertainty plays a major role in determining the adequacy of a project plan.
True
False
47. Using working time or elapsed time to calculate the time it will take to complete a task produces the same results.
True
False
48. Needs recognition is the first stage of the needs-requirement life cycle.
True
False
49. Functional requirements provide us with detailed technical specifications.
True
False
50. A key objective of change control in configuration management is to keep track of actions taken in response to change requests.
True
False
51. Under rapid prototyping (also called application prototyping), the customer actually sees and works with the deliverable as it evolves.
True
False
52. There is a definite link between the level of risk an enterprise encounters and project time frame.
True
False
53. When we have objective data on the probability of an event, we are involved with decision making under certainty.
True
False
54. The Theory X approach to managing workers is a classic example of a top-down view of how people should be managed.
True
False
55. A laissez-faire management style may lead to a ship without rudder syndrome.
True
False
56. An objective of prototyping is to minimize life-cycle cost.
True
False
57. A modern view in Human Resource Management is that positive motivation results from an opportunity to achieve and experience self-actualization.
True
False
58. Confidence in the accuracy of a cost estimate increases when top-down and bottom-up estimates converge.
True
False
59. Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is the discount rate that sets the present value of cash outflow equal to the present value of cash inflow.
True
False
60. A project can be terminated prematurely because the original objectives may no longer be valid.
True
False