Deck 14: Project Planning and Scheduling

Question 1

The project management concept that can best be applied to situations such as R&D,computer systems design,and military invasions is:

A)PERT
B)CPM
C)Gantt chart
D)All of the above

Answer 1

PERT

Question 2

The job of the project manager is to:

A)Control all costs
B)Control costs,schedule,and performance of the project
C)Keep within the budget,no matter what
D)All of the above

Answer 2

Control costs,schedule,and performance of the project

Question 3

A forward pass of the above network indicates that the early start time of activity 4-5 is:

A)4
B)5
C)3
D)None of the above

Answer 3

5

Question 4

The advantage(s)that the Gantt chart has over the network method is (are):

A)A Gantt chart is easy to use and quite widely understood.
B)Gantt charts show precedence relationships more explicitly than network scheduling.
C)Gantt charts require specialized training.
D)All of the above

Question 5

The purpose of performing a forward pass is to:

A)Identify the critical path
B)Determine the early start and the early finish times
C)Determine the late start and the late finish times
D)Determine the slack available in the process

Question 6

The advantage(s)of the network method over the Gantt chart is (are)that:

A)The network method is easy to use and quite widely understood.
B)The network method shows precedence relationships more explicitly than Gantt charts.
C)Network methods are less costly to use.
D)All of the above

Question 7

Given the list of activities,the expected time estimates,and variances,compute the probability that the project time will be less than 30 minutes.Round Z to two decimals.
$\begin{array}{ll}\text { Activity } & \mathrm{T}_{e} \text { (minutes) }&\text { Variance } \\\text { A } & 2.00&0.5 \\\text { B } & 6.17&1.75 \\\text { C } & 8.34&1.45 \\\text { D } & 10.05&3.00\end{array}$

A)0.6950
B)0.7500
C)0.8907
D)0.9082
E)0.9989

Question 8

An assumption of the PERT method is:

A)Activity times are not constant.
B)There is uncertainty in individual activity time estimates.
C)Distribution of project completion times and the probability that each activity is on the critical path can be computed.
D)All of the above

Question 9

Project managers' objectives include:

A)Cost
B)Quality
C)Flexibility
D)All of the above

Question 10

Controlling a project does NOT include:

A)Monitoring costs,time,and performance
B)Adhering to the budget
C)Correcting the plan as necessary
D)None of the above

Question 11

Project management requires:

A)Scheduling,planning,and controlling
B)Quantitative skills
C)Behavioral skills
D)All of the above

Question 12

A network-based project scheduling method that requires three time estimates for each activity is:

A)PERT
B)CPM
C)Gantt chart
D)All of the above

Question 13

Multiple critical paths can exist under the critical path method (CPM)because:

A)There is more than one way to complete the project
B)Different network paths can have the same total time
C)Great flexibility of activity sequences is available
D)None of the above

Question 14

"Slack" refers to the difference between:

A)Late and early times
B)Finish and start times
C)Observed and predicted times
D)Optimistic and pessimistic times

Question 15

Which of the following statements is NOT true about the PERT method of project scheduling?

A)PERT requires three time estimates for scheduling a given activity.
B)PERT assumes that the actual activity times are distributed according to the beta probability distribution.
C)PERT assumes that the statistical variation in total project completion times can be computed by multiplying variances along the critical path.
D)None of the above

Question 16

The critical path of the following network is:

A)1-3-4-5
B)2-3-4-5
C)2-3-5
D)More than one of the above

Question 17

Gantt charts are effective for project scheduling if:

A)Activities are highly interconnected
B)Activity times are random
C)The project contains simple activity sequences
D)All of the above

Question 18

Which of the following statements is true about a critical path?

A)It consists of activities for which early start time equals late start time.
B)The total time of activities on the path take the longest time.
C)There is no slack in the activities along the critical path.
D)All of the above

Question 19

Project managers' work includes:

A)Planning,Scheduling,Control,and Closing
B)Planning,Scheduling,Starting,and Ending
C)Scheduling,Control,Starting,and Ending
D)None of the above

Question 20

The information calculated from the forward and backward pass can be used for:

A)Identifying the critical path
B)Calculating slack
C)Determining the final completion date of the project
D)All of the above

Question 21

Which of the following statements about critical path method (CPM)is true?

A)It is an example of a variable time project scheduling method.
B)It is well suited when activity times are expected to vary.
C)It is well suited when activity times are fairly constant and can be reduced by spending more money.
D)It is well suited for R&D projects and for scheduling computer systems.

Question 22

The early start and late start times are equal for an activity on the critical path of a network.

Question 23

A work-breakdown structure is used in the scheduling activity of project management.

Question 24

A forward pass is required while computing the early start and early finish times of activities.

Question 25

PERT assumes that the statistical variation in total project completion times can be computed by adding the standard deviations along the critical path.

Question 26

Critical path method (CPM)network scheduling assumes a second order (non-linear)time-cost tradeoff exists.