Deck 2: Executing Strategy: Project Management

Question 1

The amount of flexibility the project manager has in terms of starting and completing an activity is referred to as its slack.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Which of the following project categories typically seeks the development of a new generation of outputs?

A)Derivative projects
B)Breakthrough projects
C)Platform projects
D)R&D projects
E)Construction Projects

Answer 2

Breakthrough projects

Question 3

Which of the following terms provides the basis for the project schedule,often formatted as a project Gantt chart?

A)Critical path
B)Slack
C)Float
D)Earned value
E)Work breakdown structure

Answer 3

Work breakdown structure

Question 4

All of the following are important outputs of project scheduling,except:

A)Identification of slack times for all activities and paths
B)Earliest and latest time each activity can be completed
C)Networks and paths
D)Identification of critical activities

Question 5

Project charters should contain some level of information regarding which of the following elements:

A)Business case,goals,or scope
B)Overview,general approach,schedules or milestones
C)Work breakdown structure and path dependencies
D)Both A and B
E)None of the above

Question 6

According to Goldratt,to complete a project on time,the highest priority should be given to the:

A)Critical buffer
B)Feeding chain
C)Project buffer
D)Critical chain
E)Slack activities

Question 7

When workers receive approval for a task based on inflated time estimate,they may perceive that they now have plenty of time to complete the task and therefore delay starting the task.What has this concept been called?

A)Senioritis
B)Inflation syndrome
C)Time-shift
D)Goldratt delay
E)Student syndrome

Question 8

An event is a series of connected activities from the start to the finish of the project.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT an example of a project?

A)Constructing highways,bridges,tunnels and dams
B)Managing research and development (R&D)activities such as the development of the atomic bomb
C)Building a long tunnel
D)Running political or advertising campaigns,war or fire-fighting operations
E)Building MP3 players for massive distribution

Question 10

Among the reasons for the growth in project operations we find:

A)People have more leisure time to follow and participate in projects
B)More sophisticated technology has increased public awareness of project operations
C)More customization for suppliers makes it important to meet their needs
D)Both A and B

Question 11

The amount of time a project manager estimates it will take to complete the activity under ideal conditions is known as:

A)Pessimistic time
B)Optimistic time
C)Likeliest time
D)Utopian time
E)Slack time

Question 12

Which of the following statement(s)concerning probabilities of completion is/are incorrect?

A)Using the variance of each activity,we can compute the likelihood of completing the project in a given time period.
B)The probability of completing a path is found by calculating the standard normal deviate of the desired completion time less the expected completion time.
C)The distribution of a path's completion time will be approximately normally distributed if the path has a large number of activities on it.
D)The individual activity completion times must be normally distributed
E)All of the above are incorrect

Question 13

Duration of critical path - path duration = __________?

A)Latest finish time
B)Critical time
C)Path slack
D)Latest start time
E)Project slack

Question 14

The set of all project activities graphically interrelated through precedence relationships is known as a/an:

A)Activity
B)Event
C)Network
D)Path
E)Gantt chart

Question 15

Any path that if delayed will delay the completion of the entire project is known as a:

A)Significant path
B)Critical path
C)Central path
D)Network path
E)Troublesome path

Question 16

Which of the following project categories might lead to the other project categories?

A)Derivative projects
B)Breakthrough projects
C)Platform projects
D)R&D projects
E)None of the above

Question 17

An optimal procedure for organizations to accept projects is to specify a return on investment (ROI)and fund only projects that meet this criterion.

Question 18

Projects should be evaluated against standards and by methods established at their completion,including procedures for monitoring,collecting,storing,and evaluating the history of the project.

Question 19

The amount of flexibility the project manager has in terms of starting and completing an activity is referred to as its:

A)Slack
B)Float
C)Flex
D)Give
E)Both A and B

Question 20

The project life cycle typically has a stretched-s or an exponential form.

Question 21

When a project cost,schedule,or time variance is significant,the project manager must identify (or at least try to do so)an __________ cause for the variance so that the proper remedy can be used to keep it from recurring.

Question 22

How are projects not like other typical or routine processes?

Question 23

The objective of feeding buffers is to ensure that non-critical chains are completed so that they do not delay tasks on the critical chain.

Question 24

What three outcomes must a project manager determine when scheduling a project with uncertain activity times and the significance of each?

Question 25

How does benchmarking improve operations? And give a relevant example.

Question 26

Give an example of Activity Time Variability with Path Interdependencies.

Question 27

Give an example of Resource Dependence.

Question 28

The optimistic time is the amount of time the project will take under the worst-case scenario.

Question 29

Three phenomena that tend to bias the expected completion time of projects are inflated time estimates,activity time variability with path interdependencies,and resource dependence.

Question 30

The amount of safety time needed to protect a particular path in a project is less than the sum of the safety times required to protect the individual activities making up the path.

Question 31

Using CPM,when activity times are not known with certainty,we still can determine how long it will actually take to complete the project.

Question 32

Why might it be useful to simulate project completion times?

Question 33

What is the product life cycle (PLC)?

Question 34

Both PERT and CPM are based on variations of the __________ chart?

Question 35

Briefly describe the importance of a Project charter.

Question 36

The amount of _____ _____ needed to protect a particular path in a project is less than the sum of the _____ _____ required to protect the individual activities making up the path.

Question 37

Why is being able to predict activity times crucial in order to meet the demands of your customer?

Question 38

Why is a project portfolio a better approach to a project than the ROI approach?

Question 39

Give an example of Inflated Activity Time Estimates.

Question 40

Favorable variances do not require corrective action or further investigation;only unfavorable variances in performance.

Question 41

Describe the two types of project organizational structure were discussed and the advantages of both.

Question 42

Describe the four qualities are sought after in a project manager.

Question 43

Give an example of a derivative project and explain why your reasoning.

Question 44

Give an example of a project with the exponential life cycle and describe why this is a good example.

Question 45

Provide an example of how a project manager can use slack time.

Question 46

Compare and contrast PERT and CPM.

Question 47

Explain the importance of slack time and how it can impact the critical path.

Question 48

Many projects require different emphases during their life cycle.For example,technical performance may be crucial at the beginning,cost overruns in the middle,and on-time completion at the end.Given the project of running a political campaign,what would be there top three emphases starting from the beginning to end?