Deck 3: Planning the Project

Question 1

A representative of senior management should be invited to the project launch meeting.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The project plan should begin with a complete description of all agreements made with the client or any third party.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Taken together the RACI and the Work Breakdown Structure may be used to determine the importance of each task listed.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The primary purpose of the launch meeting is to develop the project plan and budget.

Question 5

Lack of planning is a major contributor to project's failure.

Question 6

The letters used in the RACI matrix help link a person and a task for accountability purposes.

Question 7

RACI stands for remove all cost information.

Question 8

The salary requirements of human resources are a required element in the project plan.

Question 9

Mind mapping is a whole-brain approach that is particularly applicable to project management.

Question 10

The initial project meeting is just to coordinate the project, so areas of responsibility do not need to be discussed.

Question 11

The RACI matrix is a tool to organize the cost in your project plan.

Question 12

Predecessors must be listed in the WBS because they are critical for scheduling.

Question 13

It is acceptable to restrict the launch meeting to brainstorming a problem.

Question 14

It is not possible to overdo it when it comes to project planning.

Question 15

You can depict who is responsible for a task on a RACI.

Question 16

Defining resource needs is not necessary on small projects.

Question 17

A limitation of traditional project management planning tools is that they do not address the flow of information.

Question 18

As a rule of thumb, the lowest level tasks in a typical project should not take longer than two days to complete.

Question 19

The start and finish date of a project must be specified before the action plan can be completed.

Question 20

The work breakdown structure is one way to separate project activities by their level of importance.

Question 21

Imelda, a professor of management studies, wants to organize a collaborative project with her students to help them understand various aspects of marketing. She writes down the project goal in a circle in the center of a large sheet of paper. She and her students then brainstorm to identify the tasks that must be done to achieve the goal. She asks the students to write each task in a circle on the sheet and draw lines connecting the various circles. In this scenario, Imelda is using a process called _____.

A) Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)
B) RACI matrix
C) hierarchal planning
D) mind mapping
E) contingency analysis

Question 22

Suzanne, a human resources manager in an event management company, is assigned the task of arranging a farewell dinner for the CEO of the company. She uses Microsoft Project (MSP) to create a work breakdown structure list for this task. The MSP creates a list of Level 1 tasks, Level 2 tasks, and so on. Suzanne then adds appropriate descriptions to each task. While doing so, Suzanne should ensure that:

A) the generality of each task is roughly at the same level.
B) each task takes the same amount of time.
C) each task requires the same amount of resources.
D) the level of employee knowledge required for each task is roughly the same.
E) each task covers multiple objectives of the project.

Question 23

Which of the following is not a category in the RACI matrix?

A) Responsible
B) Interpret
C) Accountable
D) Consult
E) Inform

Question 24

Marcus is asked by higher management to create a document that provides a high level description of a project that has not yet been approved. The document should describe the major deliverables of the project and should provide the financial and strategic justification for the project. In this scenario, Marcus needs to prepare a _____.

A) project baseline
B) RACI matrix
C) work breakdown structure
D) project charter
E) contingency plan

Question 25

The manager of a project causes a catastrophic failure in the project that threatens the timely delivery of the project. Frank, another project manager, is asked to take over. He initiates a backup plan created by him, and he takes critical steps to recover from the setback and salvage the project. In this scenario, Frank is most likely using a(n) _____.

A) Langley histogram
B) logic chart
C) risk profile
D) FMEA chart
E) RACI matrix

Question 26

Roger is a scientist who is developing a new drug to cure cancer. He lists five possible ways in which the drug might fail. He ranks the severity of the consequences of each failure, the likelihood of each failure's occurrence, and the ease of detection of each failure on a scale of 1 to 10. In the context of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis, which of the following failures has the highest Risk Priority Number (RPN)?

A) Failure one with a severity of 4, a likelihood of 4, and an ease of detection of 7
B) Failure two with a severity of 7, a likelihood of 5, and an ease of detection of 2
C) Failure three with a severity of 8, a likelihood of 4, and an ease of detection of 4
D) Failure four with a severity of 5, a likelihood of 5, and an ease of detection of 6
E) Failure five with a severity of 2, a likelihood of 4, and an ease of detection of 7

Question 27

The project baseline plan is the open, honest, and frequent communication between the interested parties of a project.

Question 28

The project manager can plan at all levels of the project.

Question 29

Sharon, a project manager, is working on a new project with a team of six members. She allocates work to each member who then works independently. The members are asked to refrain from experimentation and rigidly follow the project scope. Sharon coordinates the work of the members and provides them with feedback confidentially. The given scenario exemplifies the use of _____.

A) Agile Project Management
B) the traditional waterfall approach to project management
C) the Responsible-Accountable-Consult-Informed Matrix
D) a Gozinto chart
E) mind mapping

Question 30

Mind mapping is a planning tool.

Question 31

Robert, a project manager, created a work breakdown structure (WBS) for his new project. He then used the data from the WBS to create a table that assigned responsibilities to each team member and helped organize the project team. In this scenario, Robert created a(n)_____.

A) Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) chart
B) RACI Matrix
C) Langley histogram
D) Gozinto chart
E) contingency plan

Question 32

Which of the following is used to show linkages between people and tasks?

A) the work breakdown structure
B) the RACI
C) the Project Action Plan
D) the Project Resource Diagram
E) the Concurrent Engineering Chart

Question 33

Renee, a project manager, is responsible for developing a project plan for her new project. To do so, she needs to consider all the tasks that would need to be done to produce the deliverable and make a list of them. In this scenario, Renee needs to prepare a(n) _____ for the project.

A) FMEA chart
B) RACI Matrix
C) work breakdown structure
D) project charter
E) contingency plan

Question 34

Duncan, a project manager, has to create a work breakdown structure (WBS) for a new project. He gathers the project team and provides them with a pad of sticky-notes. After defining the project objectives and the major activities that would need to be done to achieve those objectives, he asks his team members to write all the tasks that they think would be required to complete the project on the sticky-notes. These notes are then stuck on a wall in a sequential manner. In this scenario, Duncan uses a(n) _____ to create the WBS.

A) FMEA chart
B) Langley histogram
C) project baseline
D) Gozinto chart
E) RACI matrix

Question 35

What is the primary purpose of creating a work breakdown structure?

A) to draw the project plan as a chart or tree
B) to make sure important tasks are identified
C) so that all team members can see what others are working on
D) to assign budget numbers to tasks
E) to make sure team members can communicate effectively

Question 36

The results of the launch meeting include:

A) finalizing the project team
B) finalizing the project's schedule
C) finalizing the project's budget
D) the project's scope is understood
E) selecting the project champion

Question 37

Janet, a project manager, receives a complex marketing project. She needs to make sure that the client receives regular updates about the project and that the project team is flexible enough to accommodate any changes in the project scope. She also needs to ensure that feedback is provided at the completion of each project milestone. In this scenario, Janet should use _____ to plan the project.

A) a Langley histogram
B) a logic chart
C) a risk profile
D) systems engineering
E) Agile Project Management (APM)

Question 38

While the design structure matrix can help identify potential rework situations, typically nothing can be done to avoid them.

Question 39

The design structure matrix can be used to identify potential rework situations due to the flow of information in a project.

Question 40

One of the problems with mind mapping is that it is relatively difficult to convert into work breakdown structure (WBS).

Question 41

The first task of a newly appointed project manager is

A) to negotiate the project's budget
B) to negotiate with functional managers for key resources
C) to develop a work breakdown structure for the project
D) to review the project objectives with senior management
E) to develop a linear responsibility chart for the project

Question 42

FMEA stands for

A) Financial Methods and Efficiency Analysis
B) Failure Modes and Effect Analysis
C) Full Monetary Expenditure Accrual
D) Financial Measurement of Expenses Accrued
E) Factor Mode and Efficiency Analysis

Question 43

Which of the following is most closely associated with FMEA?

A) risk priority number
B) game theory
C) expected value
D) simulation
E) program budgeting

Question 44

List some of the results of the project launch meeting.

Question 45

What are some options for eliminating potential rework situations when they are discovered in the Design Structure Matrix?

Question 46

Entries above the diagonal in the Design Structure Matrix indicate

A) tasks that need to be shortened
B) tasks that have no resources assigned to them
C) tasks that are on the critical path
D) potential rework situations
E) tasks with no predecessors

Question 47

According to the text, the use of sticky-notes can be particularly useful for constructing a(n)

A) RACI matrix
B) Work Breakdown Structure
C) Gantt chart
D) Design Structure Matrix
E) Aggregate Project Portfolio

Question 48

Define hierarchical planning.

Question 49

In order to prepare a mind map, you need to start with:

A) the maximum allowable cost of the project
B) a definition of role of the working professional programs (WPPs)
C) a means of evaluating the results
D) the most detailed tasks
E) a statement of the project's objectives

Question 50

What is the primary function of a project plan?

Question 51

Explain how to construct a Design Structure Matrix.

Question 52

What are the key concepts behind mind mapping?

Question 53

Which of the following is not a sub-process associated with risk management?

A) risk identification
B) risk measurement
C) qualitative risk analysis
D) quantitative risk analysis
E) risk response planning

Question 54

Explain the process of developing a WBS.

Question 55

In the Design Structure Matrix

A) the rows correspond to tasks and the columns correspond to resources
B) both the rows and columns correspond to tasks
C) the rows correspond to tasks and the columns correspond to functional departments
D) the rows correspond to resources and the columns correspond to tasks
E) the rows correspond to resources and the columns correspond to functional departments

Question 56

A(n) __________________ shows the set of all tasks in a project arranged by task level?

A) RACI Matrix
B) Work Breakdown Structure
C) Gantt chart
D) Design Structure Matrix
E) Aggregate Project Portfolio