Review Questions

1.	You are a project manager for a new software application. You have just learned that one of your programmers is adding several new features to one of the deliverables. What is the best action to take? Make any needed adjustments to the schedule and cost baseline and tell the programmer that any future changes must be approved by you. Request the programmer to remove the coding for the new features, as he is outside the boundaries of the original scope statement. Contact the appropriate functional manager and request a replacement for this programmer. Determine the source of the request for the new features and run this change through the scope change process to determine the impact of the changes and obtain formal approval to change the scope.
2.	You have just received the latest update to the project schedule. Based on the progress to date, system testing is projected to take 3 weeks longer than planned. If this happens, user acceptance testing will have to start 3 weeks late and the project will not complete on the planned finish date. The client scheduled the user acceptance testing participants weeks in advance. What is the best course of action? Explain to the test team that system test will end on the scheduled date and they are accountable for the accuracy of the testing results. Meet with the test team to determine the cause of the delay. If you determine that there are not enough testers to complete all of the scenarios in the time allotted, work with the sponsor to secure additional testers to complete system test as planned. If no alternatives can be implemented, work with the client to resolve the impacts to user acceptance testing. Write a memo to the client stating that you have a new date when the project will be ready for the end user testers. Escalate the issue of the system test delay to the sponsor and let her decide what action to take.
3.	Your $5,000,000 application development project includes the purchase of two new servers, which are currently listed in the cost baseline at $50,000 each for a total of $100,000. Between the time the estimate was made and the equipment was purchased, there was a 10 percent price increase. The bill for the servers will be a total of $110,000. What action should you take? Choose the best answer. Use the new figure to revise your cost estimate and communicate the change to the project team and other stakeholders as part of your ongoing performance reporting. Add the additional server costs as an agenda item for the next project team meeting and work with the project team to develop a recommendation to take to the sponsor on scope reduction to cover the increased cost of the server. Review the scope statement and the schedule baseline for adjustments to make due to the impact of the server cost. Schedule a performance review meeting with the project team member responsible for the estimate.
4.	You are the project manager for a new address verification system. The development phase has experienced some delays, and you are meeting with the development team to look at alternatives to get back on schedule. A suggestion is made by the development manager to skip unit testing and go right to the system test. What is the best response to this suggestion? The development lead has the most information about the complexity of the individual modules. You decide to accept the suggestion, as you already have 3 weeks scheduled for the system test. That should be more than enough time to find any problems. You agree to accept the suggestion, but make it clear to the development lead that she is accountable if this decision leads to rework or problems as a result of the system test. You need to request more information from both the development lead and the test manager regarding the complexity of the unit tests and the potential impacts to the system test if this step is omitted. You should explain to the development lead that no quality activities can be removed from the schedule, but you can agree to a scaled back version of what is reviewed during testing.
5.	The system test results of your address verification system have uncovered a problem with the screen flow that is presented to the end user. Fixing the problem will involve a major rewrite of a portion of the screen flow logic. The end user can still access the 'missing' screens, but this involves additional user training on commands to manually request a specific screen. What is the best course of action? You should send a memo to the client and copy the stakeholder team explaining both the problem and the action required of the end user. Ask the client to determine if there are any schedule changes related to end user training. You should review the test results with the stakeholder team and provide estimates on the impact to the schedule and the budget if the rework is done. This information should be compared with the cost of additional user training and the impact of the manual override on productivity of the customer experience. You should escalate the problem to your sponsor for resolution. You should call an emergency meeting with the team that developed the screen flow logic. Let them know that the problem must be fixed without any impact to the schedule regardless of the hours they must put in. They are salaried employees and are not eligible for overtime, so there will not be any impact to the budget.
6.	Which of the following is not one of the results of completing quality control activities? Acceptance of defects Rework to correct defects Development of a Pareto diagram Process changes
7.	The project you are currently managing requires a new piece of equipment that has only been available in limited quantity in a beta test mode. The manufacturer has assured you that the device will be in production mode in time to meet the committed delivery in your project schedule. Delivery of this device was identified as a high priority risk during risk planning. Because you have no authority to impact the production of the device, your team designed a contingency plan that uses a different device that will allow the project to move forward with reduced functionality. Which of the following is the best example of a trigger that indicated that you need to implement the contingency plan? A major trade magazine has just printed a story quoting 'informed sources' predicting the resignation of the manufacturer's CIO. Several of your project team members have come to you to express concern regarding the dependency on this one vendor. Rumors are circulating that testing of the device is not progressing as planned and major rework will be required. The vendor is scheduled to ship the first set of devices on March 1. It is February 3 and you have not received the required written confirmation from the vendor regarding the shipping date.
8.	Which of the following is the correct term for the forecast of the total project cost based on current performance results? Actual cost (AC) Estimate at completion (EAC) Budget at completion (BAC) Estimate to complete (ETC)
9.	Which of the following statements is most effective to communicate a budget overrun to stakeholders? We have spent $325,000 on the development phase compared to the cost baseline estimate of $250,000. We are overrunning our budget by 30 percent. We ran a little over budget in the development phase, but plan to make it up later on. Project expenditures to date have been $325,000.
10.	You are a project manager for a new product your company will be aggressively promoting. Your client is the VP of Marketing and Sales, and at the time the project charter was approved, she was very clear that the product would be launched on June 15, and information regarding the launch has already been provided to several trade publications . Things have been going great to this point: you are within the budget range and all the major milestones have been met. You have just been advised that one feature of the new product is not functioning properly and will require rework. To launch the product with the new feature, you will need to extend the launch date to July 1. How should you communicate this schedule delay to the VP? Choose the best answer. Advise your client that the product release will be delayed 2 weeks because the user requirements for the new feature were not clear. Tell the rework team to do whatever it takes to get the feature in the product, not worry about any testing, and plan on fixing any problems after launch. Advise the VP that you can meet the committed launch date of June 15, but only by releasing the product without this one feature, and adding the feature in 2 weeks to existing customers via a download from the company website. Update the project schedule and communicate the change as part of your regular status report. A 2-week delay is not that big a deal.
11.	You have just received this Pareto diagram (see exhibit) displaying the results of unit testing. Based on what you see here, what action should you take? Have the programmers start working on the category E errors. Since there are fewer errors here, it should be easier to fix and you can complete one of the five categories and report that you are 20 percent done. Send a memo to the programming lead advising him that all the defects must be fixed in one week. Focus the programming team on the defects in category A. Escalate this to the project sponsor, so she can decide which category is most important.
12.	You're a project manager for a complex IT project that's well under way; you're in the middle of the executing/controlling phase. You have a disgruntled team member who is severely distracting the team's focus. The team member came to the team with some sort of chip on his shoulder but managed to keep it low-key until now. The team member has skills that are critical to the project's success. What's the best plan to deal with this issue? Ask him to seek a new team to work with. Ask the team member what the issues seem to be. Tell him that things aren't working out and that you're seeking a new team to work with. Ask the team member what the issues seem to be. Try to get to the heart of what's bothering him. Ask him how you can help correct the issues, if possible. Stress the importance of the project and his role on the team. Tell the team member what you perceive the issues to be. Ask him what's bothering him. Stress the importance of the project and his role on the team.
13.	You're a project manager for a complex IT project that's well under way; you're in the middle of the executing/controlling phase. You have a team member who was at one time a star performer but has now begun to slack off. As a result, the tasks she has been working on are behind schedule. You're beginning to become concerned . What's the best plan to deal with this issue? Ask the team member what the problem seems to be with her late work. Ask her if there are ways that you can help her return to her former level of productivity. Ask the team member what the problem seems to be with her late work. Tell her that she needs to get back to the level of productivity she was at before she started slacking off. Tell the team member that other team members are asking about her-wanting to know why her performance level has dropped off. Ask her if there are ways that you can help her return to her former level of productivity. Ask the team member what the problem seems to be with the late work. Ask her if you can get an assistant to help her finish her work.
14.	What are some methods you can use to control the quality of server installations? (Select all that apply.) Obtain all the gear from the same vendor. Assure that all servers have a 10Mb or higher connection. Assure that all gear comes from the same manufacturer. Create a burn document against which all servers are burned. Make sure you've got a gold-level maintenance agreement.
15.	Stakeholders have come to you to tell you they want to change the scope. Before agreeing to the scope change, what things should you do next? (Select all that apply.) Determine which project constraint (time, budget, quality) is most important to stakeholders. Discuss the proposed scope change with the sponsor. Ask team members what they think about the scope change. Define alternatives and trade-offs that you can offer back to stakeholders.
16.	You are the project manager for a project that's implementing a new manufacturing system that controls the output of widgets. You have just received this Pareto diagram (see exhibit) displaying the results of how the system performed on several different test days, given different system configuration settings. The test basis was 10,000 widgets manufactured per test. Based on what you see here, what action should you take? Scrap the new system. None of the configurations are worth using. Use configuration E. Use configuration B. Not enough data in this chart to allow for a good choice.
17.	Which calculation will show you the ratio of remaining work compared to remaining budget and is represented as a percentage? TCPI BWCP SPI CPI
18.	You're preparing some variance figures for your project and you want to show the variance between a task's estimated progress versus its actual progress. What variance formula should you use? SV = BCWS - BCWP CV= BCWS - BCWP SV = BCWP - BCWS CV = BCWP - BCWS
19.	Suppose that you've got a task that's going to take 5 days starting on opening of business on Monday and ending on closing of business on Friday. The task is projected to cost $250. The task concludes successfully at noon on Thursday. What is the BCWS? $100 $150 $175 $200 $250
20.	Suppose that you've got a task that's going to take 5 days starting on opening of business on Monday and ending on closing of business on Friday. The task is projected to cost $250. The task concludes successfully at noon on Thursday. What is the ACWS? $100 $150 $175 $200 $250

Answers

1.	D. The client may have requested the new features. If these are required features omitted from the original scope statement, you need to analyze the impact to the project and obtain approval for the change. If you just make adjustments to the budget and schedule without any analysis, you not only risk being late and over budget, there may be impacts to other areas of the plan or risks associated with this change. Removing the new features may add additional cost and time to the schedule as well as create a potentially hostile relationship with the client. Unless this is a situation where the programmer has repeatedly changed scope outside of the approval process, requesting a replacement resource is not an appropriate response.
2.	B. Any time you have a projected delay in a major deliverable , you want to immediately determine what is causing the delay, as you may determine steps to bring the deliverable back on track. If you determine that there are no options to prevent the delay, you should meet with the client to develop a workable solution to providing testing resources at a later time. Setting an arbitrary finish date for a deliverable that is already behind will almost assure incomplete testing and a potentially poor quality product. Given the magnitude of the impact to the client, this is not a situation that should be communicated in a memo. You need to be part of the solution.
3.	A. A price increase of that magnitude has a negligible impact on a project with a $5,000,000 budget. The change needs to be documented and communicated, but it does not warrant a scope reduction. The estimate was made with the best information available at the time, so the project team member who provided the estimate did nothing wrong. An equipment cost increase alone will not impact the scope or the schedule baseline.
4.	C. Even reducing the number of planned quality activities or the scope of an activity can be risky. Leaving out the unit test could result in defects that could have been corrected early on not being found until the system is being tested end to end. You do not have enough information at this point to assess the impact of that suggestion, and you need to involve the test manager. Regardless of what you may say to the development lead, you are accountable for the entire project and would take the blame if this approach backfires.
5.	B. This is a classic case of the need to evaluate trade-offs with the stakeholder. There is no perfect solution in this case, but situations similar to this occur on a daily basis in the world of project management. Making unreasonable demands on the project team will not resolve the situation; it may even make it worse . This is not an issue that should be decided in a vacuum by the project manager or even the sponsor; it requires input and consensus from the stakeholder team, particularly the client, regarding the best course of action.
6.	C. A Pareto diagram is one of the quality control tools and techniques. It is used to rank importance of a problem based on its frequency of occurrence over time. The actions that are taken following the completion of a quality activity are accepting the defects that were found, reworking the deliverables involved to correct the defects, or changing processes to prevent defects from happening in the future.
7.	D. The vendor has missed a key milestone date-the written confirmation of the device shipping date. The team member concerns may be valid, but the risk associated with a new device produced by only one vendor was accepted when the project was authorized. The speculation regarding the status of device testing may be indications that the device will not be available, but you need to contact the vendor and ask specific questions. The other answers may all warrant further investigation, but you would not want to implement your contingency plan based on unconfirmed rumors.
8.	B. Estimate to complete (ETC) is a forecast of the cost of all remaining project work. Estimate at completion (EAC) is a projection of final project costs obtained by adding the ETC to the actual project costs to date (the AC). Budget at completion (BAC) is the amount of the project budget that remains after subtracting the actual costs spent to date.
9.	A. The stakeholders need to know the amount of money that has been spent, the amount of money that was budgeted, and what portion of the project is included in that number. Presenting just the amount spent or just the percentage overrun does not provide stakeholders with the context they need. Answer C is an attempt to mask what could be a serious issue.
10.	C. Since you are aware that the product release date is the client's top priority, your first option should be one that keeps the launch date and proposes trade-offs in another area. Trying to shift blame to the user requirements will make the situation worse. If the requirements were unclear, you should have resolved this issue during planning. Releasing a product with an untested feature is very risky and a shoddy product could do major damage to the company's reputation. There may be cases where a 2-week delay is not a big issue, but this is definitely not one of them.
11.	C. A Pareto diagram ranks problems based on the frequency of occurrence. The purpose of a Pareto diagram is to direct the quality improvement efforts to those areas that will have the biggest impact. The defects in category A account for 40 percent of the problems, so you want to address those first. Fixing category E may be quicker, but it will resolve only 5 percent of your problems. A Pareto chart is unrelated to the amount of time it should take to fix defects.
12.	C. People, not equipment or code, are the most important thing your project team has going for it. Clearly, this individual came to the team with some sort of issue. It's important that you work with him, not because he's mission-critical to the project, but because he has issues that you might be able to help him with so he can enjoy his time working on the project just like everyone else. It's important that he knows his importance to the team and the project as well.
13.	A. This team member has demonstrated that she's able to handle the level of work you've given her and can produce quality output. Now she's begun to slack off. The problem could be that she's been working too much overtime or that she's lost energy for the project. It's up to you to figure out what's bothering her, then see if you can fix it and get her back on track. You should never bring up that others are asking about her (even if they are). You also shouldn't resort to ordering someone to do something. Telling her to increase her productivity is going to result in exactly the opposite effect. She's able to do the work, an assistant isn't required-getting at the heart of the issue is what's needed.
14.	A, C, D. While it's not altogether important that you get all of your gear from one vendor (because most large hardware vendors outsource huge lots of components for their setups anyway), it has support implications for the servers. Settling on a given manufacturer and making sure all the gear is from that manufacturer or that the manufacturer has operational agreements with his outsourced suppliers may go a long way toward making sure the installations are uniform and of good quality. For example, you may have an item in your burn doc that requires that the BIOS for each computer be upgraded to the latest version before the NOS is installed. If you're working with different server manufacturers, then you have to worry about each manufacturer's implementation of BIOS updates. A standardized burn doc is mandatory-one standard burn doc for each type of server you're burning.
15.	A, D. Determining the constraint that stakeholders think is driving the project will help you determine the kinds of trade-offs or alternatives you can propose to lessen the effect of the proposed scope change.
16.	B. A Pareto diagram ranks problems based on the frequency of occurrence. The purpose of a Pareto diagram is to direct the quality improvement efforts to those areas that will have the biggest impact. The defects in category E reflect a much smaller percentage of the problems, so this would prove to be the most likely configuration to utilize. Using item B would result in disaster as this bar represents the most defects of all of the manufacturing runs.
17.	A. The to-complete performance index measures remaining work to remaining budget. TCP can be viewed as an efficiency formula where the higher the percentage you derive, the more efficiency you're currently getting out of a task. A TCPI that is more than 20 percent higher or lower than the cost performance index (the ratio of each of the project's tasks to its costs) means that the current estimate at completion (EAC) is not representative of past performance. Here is the TCPI formula: TCPI = work remaining / funds remaining Where: work remaining = BAC - BCWP Funds remaining = BAC - ACWP
18.	C. The schedule variance (SV) is calculated by taking the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP) and subtracting the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS). Recall that the BCWS and BCWP are derived from the estimated figures for a task as compared to actual performance (see definitions of these items earlier in the chapter).
19.	E. The BCWS is calculated by dividing the number of days projected for a task by its budgeted cost. So a task that you think will take 5 days and cost $250 is going to cost $50 a day. Regardless of how quickly you finished the task though, your budgeted cost of work scheduled is still $250.
20.	C. The ACWS is calculated by dividing the number of days projected for a task by its budgeted cost, then multiplying the result times the number of days it took to complete the task. So a task that you think will take 5 days and cost $250 is going to cost $50 a day. Since you finished the task at noon on Thursday, you multiply by 3.5 to derive an ACWS of $175.