Deck 21: Planning and Managing Projects

Question 1

A stakeholder alignment meeting is a:

A) one-off meeting, held midway through a project, that ensures everyone is clear about the project's outcomes.
B) one-off meeting, held early on in a project, that ensures everyone is clear about the project's outcomes.
C) meeting that is held at various intervals throughout a project to update stakeholders on the project's progress.
D) one-off meeting, held at the end of a project, to inform stakeholders about which of the project's outcomes have been achieved.
E) series of meetings held throughout a project's life cycle to ensure that stakeholders are clear about the project's outcomes.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

When scoping a project, what needs to be included?

A) The main risks associated with the project
B) The people and other resources needed for the project
C) The project's quality requirements
D) The project's stakeholder needs and communication arrangements
E) All of these responses are correct.

Answer 2

E

Question 3

The person or persons responsible for guiding a project through to its finalisation is/are known as the:

A) project sponsor.
B) project team.
C) project manager.
D) project board.
E) project leader.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

A visual map of a project based on its deliverables which breaks down milestones into activities and tasks is known as the:

A) communication plan.
B) performance plan.
C) risk management plan.
D) work breakdown structure.
E) project management plan.

Question 5

If done correctly, creating a dashboard of indicators provides a project manager, their team and other stakeholders with a way of monitoring a project's progress at a glance by consolidating, arranging and summarising key performance measures in visual representations.

Question 6

At which stage of a project's life cycle is a road map created to guide the project's future direction and actions?

A) Conception and initiation
B) Scoping and planning
C) Execution
D) Finalising and closing
E) Project review

Question 7

Stakeholders who will use a project's results or who stand to benefit from the project are known as:

A) drivers.
B) supporters.
C) opposers.
D) observers.
E) interveners.

Question 8

Risks should be identified and documented in a risk register, but should not be included in either a work breakdown structure or a project's timeline map.

Question 9

The project sponsor is responsible for:

A) building the business case for the project.
B) carrying out an initial risk analysis at the corporate level.
C) seeking support from key players.
D) establishing the funding and resources needed for the project.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 10

Which of the following is not a characteristic of an effective stakeholder consultation and decision-making process?

A) Transparency
B) Logical process
C) Conflicting requirements always being resolved in favour of achieving the project's requirements
D) Communication being able to be understood by the stakeholders
E) Stakeholders being given a fair opportunity to express their views and concerns

Question 11

Which of the following strategies would not be appropriate to deal with an identified risk to a project?

A) Prevent it.
B) Mitigate it.
C) Accept it and hope the consequences will be minimal.
D) Accept it and plan how best to live with it.
E) Transfer it to another party (e.g. a contractor or insurance company).

Question 12

Which of the following should a project manager not do?

A) Monitor the quality of team members' output
B) Provide the resources that people need to achieve their deliverables
C) Monitor the progress and completion of activities and tasks against timelines
D) Undertake activities or tasks that are urgent but not important
E) Pay attention to the critical paths and control points of the project so that delays do not hold up other work

Question 13

To establish operating guidelines for how a project team will work together - which will eventually become the team's norms - a project manager should:

A) draft the operational guidelines and distribute them to each member of the project team.
B) hold a stakeholder alignment meeting at which the guidelines are discussed and agreed upon.
C) allow project team members to organically develop ways of behaving and interacting with each other as the project progresses.
D) hold a launch or kick-off meeting at which all project team members are told how they are expected to behave and interact.
E) hold a launch or kick-off meeting at which all project team members discuss and agree upon how they want to work together and communicate.

Question 14

From which one of the following perspectives must a project manager manage a project?

A) Business
B) Political
C) Team
D) Technical
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 15

Which of the following statements is true in relation to Gantt charts?

A) They are useful for scheduling and setting timelines.
B) They are useful for identifying and sequencing parallel and interdependent activities.
C) They are useful monitoring tools.
D) They are useful reporting tools.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 16

Once a proposal for approval is approved and agreed to by the project's key stakeholders, it is known as the:

A) project initiation document.
B) project charter.
C) project sponsorship.
D) project plan.
E) project deliverables.

Question 17

A project's deliverables are:

A) the resources needed to carry out the project.
B) the funding needed for the project to proceed.
C) what the project will and will not achieve.
D) the costs associated with a project.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 18

When stakeholders ask for adjustments to a project scope, the course of action that should be followed is to:

A) agree and adjust the project's deliverables accordingly.
B) agree, but then look for ways to reduce other aspects of the project's scope to compensate.
C) agree, and then try to secure more funding for the project.
D) reinforce the deliverables and success measures that were made clear at the project's commencement, and stick to the original scope.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 19

The loss of support for a project from supporters and observers (who may even join the ranks of those who oppose the project) is an example of risk related to:

A) external suppliers.
B) organisational management.
C) stakeholder relations.
D) timeliness.
E) safety.

Question 20

If it became clear that a project could not fulfil its purpose and meet the business case originally put forward, who would be responsible for cancelling the project?

A) The project sponsor
B) The project manager
C) The project board
D) The project team
E) The project leader

Question 21

Capitalising on a risk to a project means:

A) removing the risk.
B) mitigating the risk.
C) spreading the risk.
D) treating the risk as an opportunity to benefit the project.
E) transferring the risk.

Question 22

Convening a 'lessons learned' meeting with team members and the project sponsor is part of:

A) planning a project.
B) commencing a project.
C) implementing a project.
D) administering a project.
E) completing a project.

Question 23

When an activity that is part of a project is not on track, what should a project manager do?

A) Reassign different staff members to the activity
B) Work out what corrective action is necessary to take, and implement it
C) Take over the activity themselves
D) Adjust the project scope downwards and advise stakeholders accordingly
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 24

Team members working on a project will normally be released from the project when:

A) the project is complete and all deliverables have been completed.
B) their team has completed their assigned deliverables.
C) each individual has completed their assigned deliverables.
D) they have a new role to transition into.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 25

During a project's execution phase, what percentage of a project manager's time should be spent communicating with their team and relevant stakeholders?

A) Ten per cent
B) Twenty per cent
C) Forty per cent
D) Sixty per cent
E) Eighty per cent

Question 26

Updating expenditure records is an example of a project manager's:

A) communication responsibility.
B) administrative responsibility.
C) technical responsibility.
D) relationship management responsibility.
E) risk management responsibility.

Question 27

At a project's completion, a project manager's final task is to:

A) write team member evaluations.
B) finish administrative tasks.
C) prepare a project evaluation.
D) hold a formal project closure meeting with the sponsor and stakeholders.
E) prepare a project closure document, and send this to the sponsor and stakeholders after the project closure meeting.

Question 28

During the 'lessons learned' meeting at the completion of a project, a project manager should:

A) identify and capture the lessons learned to make sure they are not forgotten.
B) focus on the past - what went wrong and what could have been done better.
C) appropriately apportion blame for aspects of the project that did not meet expectations.
D) invite operational workers, but not invite the project sponsor or key stakeholders.
E) document only the project's failures, and focus on why these occurred.

Question 29

Regular status meetings with the team during a project are used to:

A) review progress to date.
B) review the current status of the project against plans, and forecast completion estimates.
C) discuss any decisions to be made or corrective actions to be taken.
D) discuss the need for additional resources.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 30

Along with partial scoping and stakeholders not being clear on a project's scope and goals, the third major cause of unsuccessful projects is poor working relationships within the team.