A project has experienced significant delays due to equipment problems, staff attrition and slow client reviews. The project is 40% complete and has used 60% of the available calendar time. What is the FIRST thing you should do?
A: Rebaseline the schedule to reflect the new date
B: Analyze the critical path activities for potential to fast track or crash the schedule C: Document the lack of progress and associated issues to management
D: Identify tasks that have required more time than planned A:D
A project manager knows that she can delay the start of certain activities within the project schedule to coincide with the mitigation of a known risk. She knows exactly the mitigating task and duration needed, should the risk event occur. She is confident that the finish date will not be impacted by the time delay. Which of the following aspects of schedule development has the project manager used in this situation?
A: The reliance on her certainty that, for risk planning purposes, assumptions are considered to be true, real or certain.
B: That GERT probability factors provide her with certainty that there will be activities in the current schedule that will not be performed at all.
C: Her CPM float calculations have revealed those activities that allow sufficient time for the inserted task.
D: The project manager's risk management plan was to build in task buffer time to all the project tasks during schedule development in order to cover any risk event occurrence.
A:C Float is the time an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the project finish date. Building in buffer time to the project would not be cost effective.
Float will occure naturally as part of the dependency relationships among project tasks.
Take advantage of float to mitigate potential risks.
What is the BEST method of estimating the time for a task that has never been done by your company before?
A:CPM B:PERT
C: Monte Carlo Analysis D:Activity definition A:B
All of the following are inputs to schedule development EXCEPT?
A: Vacation schedules
B: Need for delay between ordering equipment and installing it
C: Assumption that the software will be released without any damaging bugs D: Planned start and finish dates for each activity
A:D
A detailed project schedule can be created only after creating the:
A: project budget.
B: work breakdown structure.
C: project plan.
D: detailed risk assessment.
A:B In the project management life cycle, the project budget, project plan and detailed risk assessment come after the schedule. The only answer that could be an input is the WBS.
Thank you for sharing the photos! The house is going to gorgeous! Get ready for the Quality
Where are control limits located on a control chart?
A: Near the assignable cause
B: Above the statistical independence point C: Within the specification limits
D: Above the normal curve
A:C The control limits are the dashed lines above and below the mean. They are within the specification limits so that if the process is “ out of control” it could still be within the spec limits.
All of the following are outputs of quality planning EXCEPT?
A: Quality management plan B: Acceptance decisions C: Creation of checklists D: Metrics
A:B Acceptance decisions are an output of quality control.
All of the following are part of quality control EXCEPT?
A: Cost of quality B: Inspection C: Control charts D: Flowcharting
A: Tools and techniques for quality control include trend analysis, flowcharting, statistical sampling, Pareto diagrams, control charts and inspection.
A project is considered out of control and the previous project manager has quit. You are assigned as the new project manager. You are asked to verify the quality level of the project and to take corrective action. What do you do FIRST?
A: Review the project plan.
B: Meet with the team.
C: Draw a control chart.
D: Create a risk mitigation plan.
A:C Your task is to determine whether the project is really out of control, so the first thing to do is to create a control chart.
A project is in progress and the project manager is working with the quality assurance department to improve stakeholders' confidence that the project will satisfy the quality standards. Which of the following is an output of this process?
A: Quality problems B: Checklists
C: Quality improvement D: Quality audits
A:C This question is similar to others in this program, but not exactly the same. You may also see this occur on your exam. Carefully read the questions! In this case, an output of quality assurance is quality improvement (choice C). Since the purpose of quality
management is to improve quality, quality problems (choice A) could not be an output of any of the quality processes. Choice B is an input to quality assurance and choice D is what is occuring in quality assurance, not an output of it.
The project team has created a plan for how they will implement the quality policy. If this changes during the project, it will also be a change to?
A: The project plan
B: The quality control plan C: The quality assurance plan D: The quality management plan
A:A The plan described is the quality management plan. Changing this plan will also change the project plan as it is included as part of a project plan.
Evaluating overall project performance regularly is part of:
A: quality management.
B: quality assurance.
C: quality planning.
D: quality control.
A:B The key word here is "overall." Quality control is wrong because we are not addressing the specific performance of a task.
What might historical records used as an input to activity definition include?
A: activities B: resources C: tasks D: schedule
A:A his question is worded strangely! Get used to it because you will have many
instances where it will take you two minutes to figure out what the question is asking, let alone come up with the best answer.
Who is ultimately responsible for quality management in the project?
A: Project engineer
B: Project manager C: Quality manager D: Team member
A:B Though each person working on the project should check their own work as part of any project, the project manager ultimately has the responsibility for quality on the project as a whole.
From the project perspective, quality attributes:
A: determine how effectively the performing organization supports the project.
B: provide the basis for judging the project's success or failure.
C: are specific characteristics for which a product is designed and tested.
D: are objective criteria that must be met.
A:C Quality attributes are the measurements that determine if the product is acceptable.
They are based on the characteristics of the product for which it was designed.
The project team has created a plan describing how they will implement the quality policy. It addresses the organizational structure, responsibilities, procedures and other information about plans for quality. If this changes during the project, which of the following plans will also change?
A: Quality assurance B: Quality management C: Project
D: Quality control
A:C The plan described is the quality management plan. Since this plan is included in the project plan, changing the quality management plan will also change the project plan.
A project manager is using a cause-and-effect diagram with the team to determine how various factors might be linked to potential problems. In what step of the quality management process is the project manager involved?
A: Quality analysis B: Quality assurance C: Quality control D: Quality planning
A:D The key words here are “potential problems.” They are looking into the future and, therefore, must be in quality planning.
All the following are not examples of quality assurance EXCEPT?
A: Inspection B: Team training C: Pareto diagram D: Fishbone diagram
A:B Choice A is done as part of quality control. Choices C and D are done as part of quality planning or control (depending on how they are used). This leaves only choice B, which must be the best answer, as team training could be taken to mean that all parties are trained on the quality requirements for the project. Watch out for “double-negative”
questions like this on the exam!
Which statement is TRUE of quality planning?
A: Quality planning should be performed regularly throughout the project.
B: Quality planning is done to compile a risk response plan.
C: Quality planning is done only during project planning.
D: Quality planning is not considered during project execution.
A:A Quality planning is performed regularly and in parallel with other planning processes.
A project manager has access to a tremendous amount of historical information on projects and wants to use this information to mathematically forecast the future outcome of projects. Which of the following is the project manager MOST likely to use?
A: Benchmarking B: Trend analysis C: Variance analysis D: Decision trees
A:B Trend analysis examines project results over time to evaluate performance.
You are in the middle of a major new facility construction project. The structural steel is in place, and the heating conduits are going into place when the senior management informs you that he is worried that the project will not meet the quality standards. What should you do in this situation?
A: Assure senior managment that during quality planning it was determined the project would meet the quality standards
B: Analogously estimate future results C: Form a quality assurance team
D: Check the results from the last quality management plan
A:C The quality management plan (choice D) does not provide results. Choice A is not productive since it does not solve the problem. An analogous estimate (choice B) looks at past history of other projects. This would not be appropriate to determine how the current project is going. Quality assurance (choice C) helps to determine if the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards.
Which of the following is an example of quality planning?
A: Fishbone diagrams used to evaluate a defect B: Quality audits
C: Control charts D: Benchmarking
A:D n quality planning you are defining quality for the project and determining how quality will be measured. Benchmarking looks at past projects for improvement ideas and sets guidelines from which to measure quality performance.
A project manager is using a cause-and-effect diagram to determine how specific factors might be linked to potential problems. The project manager would be involved in which step of the quality management process?
A: Quality assurance B: Quality control C: Quality planning D: Quality tools
A:C The topic being addressed is potential problems. They must therefore be in quality planning.
The acceptable range of variation of a process is the ___________ on a control chart?
A: mean
B: specification limit C: rule of seven
D: upper and lower control limit
A:D The control limits are set based on the company's quality standard and indicate the acceptable range.
A project manager has to resolve two problems. However, both problems can occur in a single trial. In this situation, what is the BEST action the project manager can take?
A: Develop a solution for each problem
B: Develop a solution that solves both problems C: Use a statistically independent trial
D: No solution is needed, the two problems cancel each other out
A:A The question indicates the two problems are unrelated. Therefore, they require separate solutions.
A project manager takes over an existing project only to find that there are no quality standards. What part of the quality process is the project manager in?
A: Quality planning B: Quality assurance C: Quality analysis D: Quality control
A:A Determining what standards to use is part of quality planning. Don't get fooled that this situation is occurring during execution.
All of the following are part of quality planning EXCEPT?
A: Flowcharting
B: Benefit/cost analysis C: Inspection
D: Design of experiments
A:C Choice C (inspection) is an aspect of quality control rather than quality planning.
A project manager has just taken over the project from another project manager during the executing phase. The previous project manager created a project budget, determined communications requirements and went on to complete work packages. What should the new project manager do NEXT?
A: Coordinate performance of work packages B: Identify quality standards
C: Begin risk identification D: Execute the project plan
A:B Since the previous project manager did not finish planning, choice D should not be the next activity. Risk identification (choice C) sounds like a good choice, however, choice B occurs before choice C. Performance of work packages (choice A) is done after planning. The best answer is B.
A project manager is determining which factors might influence specific quality variables. He has chosen to analyze what combination of color and size will best
contribute to the functionality of the new product. What step of the quality management process is the project manager in?
A: Design of experiments B: Quality planning C: Quality assurance D: Quality control
A:B The project manager is involved in design of experiments and design of experiments is included in quality planning.
All of the following are inputs to the quality process EXCEPT?
A: Project work results