Deck 19: CD - Pertcpm Models for Project Management

Question 1

The activities with the longest durations in a project network are called critical activities.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The latest starting time for an activity is equal to the latest finish time minus the duration of the activity.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A Gantt chart of a project shows the scheduled start and finish times for activities.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The earliest finish time for an activity is equal to the latest finish time minus the duration of the activity.

Question 5

In an Activity-On-Node project network,the nodes are used to separate an activity from each of its immediate predecessors.

Question 6

Projects involve routine activities that are performed repeatedly.

Question 7

If two paths are tied for the longest duration,both would be considered to be critical paths.

Question 8

The project network diagram describes sequential relationships among major activities in a project.

Question 9

An activity in a project network cannot begin until all of the activities leading into that activity have been completed.

Question 10

Project managers must often function in an environment that is beset with uncertainties.

Question 11

In PERT,the path with the fewest activities is referred to as the critical path.

Question 12

The earliest start of an activity is the latest early finish of any immediately preceding activity.

Question 13

An immediate predecessor of an activity must be completed before that activity can begin.

Question 14

The length of the critical path is determined by adding the expected completion times for all the activities in the project.

Question 15

Although PERT and CPM were originally developed for somewhat different types of projects,they are now nearly identical in terms of analysis and procedures.

Question 16

The values assigned to the nodes in a project network are there to identify the precedence relationships.

Question 17

The earliest finish time for an activity is equal to the latest finish time minus the activity slack.

Question 18

In PERT,the project duration will never exceed the expected duration of the critical path.

Question 19

The sum of durations of the longest path in a project network indicates expected project completion time,and the activities are the critical activities.

Question 20

The path in a project network with the average duration is the critical path.

Question 21

A forward pass is the process of moving forward through the project network to determine the latest start times and latest finish times of each activity.

Question 22

The slack of any activity is the amount of time that the activity can be delayed without delaying the completion of the project.

Question 23

The slack of an activity is the difference between the latest finish and the earliest finish times.

Question 24

The PERT three-estimate approach can be used to determine the probability that a project will be completed by a certain time.

Question 25

When making a backward pass through a project network,you must start at the finish node.

Question 26

If an activity is not on the critical path,then the project cannot be delayed if that activity is delayed.

Question 27

Crashing an activity will always reduce the duration of a project.

Question 28

Crashing cannot be accomplished by using different materials than originally planned.

Question 29

PERT/Cost is a systematic procedure to help a project manager bid on a project.

Question 30

In order to determine the probability of timely project completion,it is sometimes necessary to take into account paths other than the critical path.

Question 31

When calculating the probability that a project will finish by a certain time,the approximation that is obtained is usually lower than the true probability.

Question 32

The standard deviation of the critical path is equal to the sum of the standard deviations of all the activities on the critical path.

Question 33

The CPM method provides an excellent procedure for evaluating time-cost tradeoffs.

Question 34

The mean critical path is the path through the project network that would be the critical path if the duration of each activity equals its mean.

Question 35

A manager has decided that an activity has a pessimistic estimate of 15 days,a most-likely estimate of 6 days,and an optimistic estimate of 3 days.The expected duration of this activity is 6 days.

Question 36

If the variance of an activity duration is equal to 1 then all the durations are the same.

Question 37

Activities that are not on the critical path have a slack time equal to zero.

Question 38

The latest finish of an activity is the earliest late start of any immediately preceding activity.

Question 39

Only activities on the critical path are initial candidates for crashing.

Question 40

A normal distribution is usually used to describe the form of the probability distribution of activity durations in the PERT three-estimate approach.

Question 41

There is currently no method that permits activities and their immediate predecessors to overlap.
Multiple Choice Questions

Question 42

Figure Given this network:
The expected duration of this project is:

A)12.
B)17.
C)20.
D)36.
E)77.

Question 43

Figure
The critical path is:

A)A-E.
B)B-F.
C)C-D-F.
D)C-G.
E)there are two critical paths.

Question 44

PERT/CPM can answer which of the following questions?

A)When do activities need to start and finish to meet a deadline?
B)How much delay can be tolerated for certain activities?
C)Given uncertainties,what is the probability that a project will finish on time?
D)What is the least expensive way to expedite a project to meet a deadline?
E)All of the above.

Question 45

Activity C has an early start time of 8,an early finish time of 12,a latest start time of 13,and a latest finish time of 17.Its slack is:

A)0.
B)1.
C)4.
D)5.
E)9.

Question 46

In a project network the critical path is the sequence of activities which has:

A)the most activities.
B)the fewest activities.
C)the most events.
D)the longest time.
E)the greatest variance.

Question 47

Given this information about activity H: ES = 10,EF = 15,LS = 16,and LF = 21,we can determine that the amount of slack associated with the activity is:

A)0.
B)1.
C)5.
D)6.
E)11.

Question 48

Given the portion of the network shown above,what is the earliest finish time for activity D,if the earliest start time of A is 12 and the earliest start time of B is 13?

A)22.
B)23.
C)24.
D)25.
E)26.

Question 49

Concerning PERT and CPM:

A)These are two different names for essentially the same technique.
B)CPM tends to focus more on the critical path.
C)PERT gives a better indication of activity slack,CPM a better picture of path slack.
D)Because of its recent discovery,much less is known about CPM that PERT.
E)All of the above are true.

Question 50

A project manager does not need to monitor each individual activity,just the overall project when looking at budget costs.

Question 51

Given the portion of the network shown above,what is the latest start time of activity D if the latest finish of activity F is 26 and the latest finish of activity G is 23?

A)3.
B)4.
C)9.
D)10.
E)12.

Question 52

The earliest start time for an activity is:

A)based on the length of the critical path.
B)determined by the maximum of the earliest finish times of its immediate predecessors.
C)determined by the maximum of the earliest finish times of its immediate successors.
D)the same as the latest start time of its immediate predecessor.
E)None of the above.

Question 53

Figure
The duration of the critical path is:

A)11 days.
B)20 days.
C)18 days.
D)22 days.
E)15 days.

Question 54

Once a project is underway,the project manager is responsible for effectively managing:

A)the people.
B)costs.
C)time.
D)a and b.
E)a,b,and c.

Question 55

AON project networks have which of the following advantages over AOA networks?

A)They are easier to construct.
B)They allow the project to be completed faster.
C)They are easier to revise when there are changes in a project.
D)a and c only.
E)b and c only.

Question 56

Figure
The path with the greatest slack is:

A)A-E.
B)B-F.
C)C-D-F.
D)C-G.
E)None of the above.

Question 57

PERT/Cost can be used to monitor budget overruns.

Question 58

In project network analysis,slack refers to the difference between:

A)observed and predicted times.
B)optimistic and pessimistic times.
C)latest finish and latest start times.
D)earliest finish and earliest start times.
E)latest start and earliest start times.

Question 59

Which of the following is not a feature of PERT/CPM?

A)An estimate of how long a project will take.
B)A graphical display of project activities.
C)An indication of crucial activities.
D)An indication of slack time.
E)All are features.

Question 60

A common assumption when using PERT/Cost is that the costs are incurred at a constant rate throughout the duration of an activity.

Question 61

When finding the approximate probability of project duration,it is necessary to know which of the following?

A)The mean and variance of each activity.
B)The mean of each activity on the critical path.
C)The standard deviation of only the activities on the critical path.
D)Each activity's probability of completion.
E)The distribution of activity times.

Question 62

Figure (time in days)
What is the estimated mean time for project completion?

A)160 days.
B)170 days.
C)200 days.
D)210 days.
E)300 days.

Question 63

There are four activities on the critical path,and they have standard deviations of 1,2,4,and 2 days.The standard deviation of the critical path is:

A)3 days.
B)5 days.
C)9 days.
D)16 days.
E)25 days.

Question 64

Figure (time in days)
What is the estimated mean time for project completion?

A)100 days.
B)140 days.
C)199 days.
D)200 days.
E)440 days.

Question 65

The standard deviation of a path is computed as:

A)the sum of the standard deviations of all activities on the path.
B)the square root of the sum of the standard deviations of all activities on the path.
C)the sum of the variances of all activities on the path.
D)the square root of the sum of the variances of all activities on the path.
E)None of the above.

Question 66

Figure Given this network:
The path with the greatest slack is:

A)A-E-H.
B)B-H.
C)A-D-G.
D)C-F-H.
E)C-I-J.

Question 67

Figure (time in days)
What is the estimated mean time for activity E?

A)91 days.
B)99 days.
C)100 days.
D)101 days.
E)115 days.

Question 68

Activity C in a project network has an optimistic time estimate of five days,a most likely time estimate of seven days,and a pessimistic time estimate of nine days.Its expected duration is approximately:

A)5 days.
B)6 days.
C)7 days.
D)8 days.
E)9 days.

Question 69

There are four activities on the critical path.Coincidentally,their standard deviations are all equal to 4.The standard deviation of the critical path is therefore equal to:

A)2 days.
B)4 days.
C)8 days.
D)16 days.
E)64 days.

Question 70

Figure (time in days)
What is the probability that this project will be completed within 205 days?

A)0.6826.
B)0.8413.
C)0.9544.
D)0.9772.
E)0.9987.

Question 71

Figure (time in days)
What is the estimated slack time for activity A?

A)0 days.
B)20 days.
C)40 days.
D)60 days.
E)100 days.

Question 72

Figure Given this network:
The slack for path A-D-H-I is:

A)0.
B)3.
C)4.
D)7.
E)8.

Question 73

Figure (time in days)
What is the estimated standard deviation in the time for activity E?

A)1 days.
B)2 days.
C)3 days.
D)4 days.
E)5 days.

Question 74

Figure (time in days)
What is the estimated standard deviation in the time for activity E?

A)2 days.
B)3 days.
C)4 days.
D)16 days.
E)24 days.

Question 75

An activity has an optimistic time estimate of three days,a most likely time estimate of eight days,and a pessimistic time estimate of ten days.The expected duration of this activity is:

A)7.0 days.
B)7.5 days.
C)8.0 days.
D)8.5 days.
E)10.0 days.

Question 76

Figure Given this network:
The critical path for the network shown is:

A)A-C-G.
B)A-D-F-G.
C)A-D-H-I.
D)B-E-F-G.
E)B-E-H-I.

Question 77

Figure Given this network:
The critical path for the network shown is:

A)A-E-H.
B)B-H.
C)A-D-G.
D)C-F-H.
E)C-I-J.

Question 78

An important assumption in PERT calculations is:

A)activity durations are normally distributed.
B)activity durations are independent.
C)a computer will be available to do the calculations.
D)a and b only.
E)a and c only.

Question 79

Figure Given this network:
The expected duration of this project is:

A)13.
B)15.
C)20.
D)52.
E)81.

Question 80

Figure (time in days)
What is the estimated mean time for activity E?

A)35 days.
B)36 days.
C)39 days.
D)40 days.
E)45 days.