Review Questions

1.	Your project is winding down and you are eager to get started on your next project, which is high visibility and could lead to a promotion. An outside company was responsible for completing several of your deliverables. There are acceptance test activities for each of these deliverables on the project schedule. The procurement manager has called you because the terms of the contract require notification to the vendor of acceptance or rejection of all deliverables be provided to the vendor in 4 days. What action should you take? Choose the best answer. You should forward the procurement manager's message to the person assigned to vendor acceptance test. You need more time to complete testing, so tell the procurement manager there are problems with some of the tests results. You should confirm that the vendor acceptance testing included all aspects of the vendor deliverables and that all testing has been completed with satisfactory results. If testing is ongoing, you need to take appropriate action to ensure it will complete before the contract deadline. You can ignore the procurement manager's message for now, as you should have the final test results with a week. Procurement always thinks they need an answer right away.
2.	You have just left a meeting with the project sponsor where you were advised that your project has been canceled due to budget cuts. You have called the project team together to fill them in and to review the remaining activities to closeout the project. Several of your team members question the benefit of doing a lessons learned review on a project that has been canceled. What should your response be? Choose the best answer. Advise the team that part of the review time will be spent on deciding how to blame the project failure on the lack of clear client requirements. Tell the team they need to do this to be able to stay on the project payroll another week while they look for a new assignment. Inform the team that a final report is a requirement from the PMO, regardless of how the project ends. Explain that there is value both to the team and for future projects in analyzing the phases of the project that have been completed to date to document what went right, what went wrong, and what you would change.
3.	Which of the following scenarios would NOT trigger the project closure processes? The project is behind schedule and over budget, but no additional resources will be provided and a request for additional funding has been denied . End user deployment is delayed due to conflicting demands on the user training staff. The sponsor advises you the project does not fit the vision of the new CEO. Your critical path resources are pulled off your project to work on a newly approved strategic in initiative
4.	You are gathering documents to work on your comprehensive project review. What aspects of the project should you focus on? The review should focus on the technical aspects of the project. All phases of the project, from planning through execution should be included in the review. The review should focus on the project schedule with an emphasis on the accuracy of the original estimates. The review should be limited to the positive aspects of the project. This will help all the team members get better assignments in the future.
5.	You have scheduled a session with your project team members to obtain their input for documentation of key learnings from your project. Which of the following is the most effective technique to get the information you need? An informal project team session with no guidelines will produce the most data. Encourage team members to assign responsibility for portions of the project that did not go well. Send a survey to all project team members asking them to document five successes and five failures during the life of the project. Compiling this data can produce the report. Facilitate a session with the project team members structured around the project phases. For each phase ask team members to identify the successes and failures. For any item that did not go well, ask for a recommendation of what to do differently in a similar scenario. As project manager, you have the best perspective on what went right and what went wrong on the project. A review is not needed to complete an accurate report.
6.	What is the purpose of a formal sign-off at the conclusion of the project work? A sign-off allows the project manager to start a new assignment. The sign-off finalizes the client agreement that the project team is no longer accountable for this product. The sign-off is the trigger for releasing team members back to their functional organization. A formal sign-off indicates that the project meets the documented requirements and the client has accepted the project deliverables.
7.	You are transitioning a project to maintenance/support mode when you discover that the training for the help-desk staff to support the end users has still not been done. During the project deployment, all questions were funneled through project team members. What is the best course of action to take at this point? You should work with the functional managers to retain the team members currently taking end user calls until the help-desk staff is trained to take the calls. This is an operations issue, not a project issue. The operations manager will have to deal with the impact of the decision to delay training. The client should be notified that until further notice, all questions regarding the new application should be routed through the local office supervisors. The supervisors should call the help desk only as a last resort. You should shut down the new application until the help desk is prepared to support the end users.
8.	What is the focus of the written report resulting from the comprehensive project review session? The report should cover both the positive and negative aspects of the project, with suggestions for improvement. The report should summarize the results of the project schedule, the budget, and any approved scope changes. The report should focus on the IT deliverables and any issues that were created by the client The report should cover what went well during the project. If the project was canceled, blame for the failure needs to be established.
9.	Your project is winding down, and some of your team members are anxious about their status. What is the best way to deal with their concerns? Explain to the team members that they will be released when the project is done. Let the team members know that you can only discuss their release date with the functional managers. Establish the same release date for all the team members, even if their work is completed. If some people start leaving, others may try to jump ship as well. Review the team member release plans from the staffing management plan. Keep team members and functional managers informed based on the status of the project schedule.
10.	Your client has suddenly produced a list of items that he wants fixed prior to final sign-off on the project. You suspect that he is attempting to add functionality to the system that should be handled through operations as a potential enhancement. What is the best approach to deal with the client's request? Let the client know that this is too late in the process to be bringing these issues to your attention. Any user issues should have been formally documented during user acceptance testing. Advise the client you will forward the list to the operations manager to provide time and cost estimates for each item. Request that the client map the fixes to specific requirements in the project scope document and explain what the problem is. Review the results of acceptance testing to determine if any ' bugs ' were identified. Escalate this to the project sponsor, so he can tell the client to follow the proper procedures for requesting enhancements
11.	Which element of project closure is most often overlooked by project managers creating finalized project documentation? Completing the project book Including all metrics comparisons Getting the signatures of all of the stakeholders Creating lessons learned documentation
12.	Which aspects of the project will you review when preparing your final closure documents? (Select all that apply.) Unfulfilled Positive Negative Unrealistic
13.	Which four situations indicate that the project is ready to be closed? Stakeholders approve final testing results. Completion metrics are achieved. Sponsor says it's time to use the project members on another project. Project is canceled. Project plan is rejected. Company priorities change. Project resources are exhausted.
14.	Which of the following denote an unsuccessful conclusion to a project? (Select all that apply.) Resources exhausted. Project plan rejected. Project canceled. Project renamed . Project priority reduced.
15.	From the list below, select those project phases in which you would expect successful project closure. (Select all that apply.) Initiating Planning Activating Executing Controlling Closing
16.	You're a project manager for a large, complex IT project that's just begun. You're in the middle of the executing phase. The project sponsor has looked over your requirements definition plan and decided that the project is way too complicated for the minimal deliverables the customer has requested . She decides to cancel the project. What are your next steps? (Select all that apply.) Change vendors to obtain a lower bid for hardware and software components . Prepare project closure documents stipulating lessons learned. Release resources. Get the sponsor to let you redesign the project. Ask for a new sponsor.
17.	Which projects should be required to have a closing phase? (Select all that apply.) Small projects Medium- sized projects Large projects All projects No projects
18.	Which outflow of the closing phase stipulates that team members are free to go back to their departments? Release of resources Lessons learned Project book Sign-off
19.	You are a project manager for a medium-sized project that's close to closure. You've worked through the majority of the UAT for the deliverables, but you have a few more tests to go. Your sponsor wants you to conclude the project now, because by doing so it will look as though the project came in a few days ahead of schedule. What do you tell the sponsor? OK, that's doable. The last few UAT tests weren't all that critical. No can do. We have to wait through the final UAT tests to make sure we're completely successful. You're the sponsor and can conclude the project any time you want, but for successful conclusion, we need to finish the UAT tests. I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that right now.
20.	Who is responsible for authorizing the closure of the project? Stakeholders Project manager Customers Sponsor

Answers

1.	C. Acceptance of deliverables is a key part of the vendor contract. Failure to meet the terms of communicating acceptance could put your company in breach of contract. You should immediately confirm the status of vendor deliverable acceptance testing and ensure that all results are completed to meet the deadline. This is not something that should be pushed aside or handed off to someone else.
2.	D. There is valuable information to be gained from a review of any project, even projects that do not complete. The assessment should focus on those phases of the project that did complete, as well as a look at whether anything could have been done differently to make the project a success. The purpose of a review is not to assign blame, even for projects that are canceled. Facilitating a review session for a canceled project may not be the easiest task, but you will not energize the project team with the attitude that you are being forced to do this.
3.	B. A delay in project implementation is not a signal that the project should be closed out, as long as the project is still viable . You will have to do some re-planning and analyze the impacts of the delay on other aspects of the project plan. If you have exhausted your budget, lost your resources, or no longer have executive support, you should obtain sponsor approval to officially cancel the project and move into the closure phase.
4.	B. A project review is most beneficial to future projects if it covers all aspects of the project and includes both the negative and the positive of each phase.
5.	C. A project review session can quickly turn into 'blamestorming' if it is not well structured and tightly managed. By setting the expectations at the start, team members will know that they must offer suggestions for improvement and not just complain about whatever they did not like. A survey can be used as a last resort, but it lacks the human interaction that triggers ideas and suggestions. A report written from just one point of view may miss key elements.
6.	D. A sign-off is the formal acceptance of the project. It signifies client acceptance of the product. Team members are released according to the staffing management plan, and both the project manager and the project team members may continue to be involved in the project until all closure activities are complete.
7.	A. Your goal should be to continue the momentum of the project by working to provide a temporary solution for user support. If you take the application away from the users, they may need to be retrained once the help desk is in place. Reducing client support or taking the attitude that this is not your problem could jeopardize the long- term success of your project.
8.	A. There are key conclusions for the future from both the successes and failures of a project. Successes will provide blueprints to follow, and failures will alert teams on what to avoid. A good lessons learned document covers all aspects of the project and deliverables from all participants .
9.	D. The procedures for releasing project team members should be documented in your staffing management plan. Both team members and functional managers need to know in advance when you think a team member will be released. Team members may roll off the project at different times, so you need to discuss release with each team member individually.
10.	C. You need to determine whether there is a valid issue here. If the system does not perform according to the requirements, the client has every right to expect fixes to be made. By asking the client to map the fixes to specific requirements, you can both determine if you are dealing with a fix or an enhancement. Escalation to the project sponsor would be premature at this point, as would passing the list to operations before you have determined the appropriate category for each item on the list.
11.	D. Lessons learned is a simple idea: You're pointing out the things that might've gone better on this project and then documenting them so that project managers in later projects have information they can refer back to. Neophyte project managers might like to avoid lessons learned because they somehow associate this element with at least a modicum of project failure. In reality, no project is perfectly implemented, and all projects can offer additional information in the form of lessons learned. The project book is completed when all documentation has been signed and completed. You don't need the signatures of all of the stakeholders, only the project sponsor.
12.	B, C. You'll evaluate both the positive and the negative aspects of the project. Undoubtedly, acknowledging the negative aspects of the project will be much more difficult than the positive. Part of the reason for this is that you have to be careful to not name names of people in the company who might've had a less than positive effect on your project. The project's not complete if you have unfulfilled items. Unrealistic items should've been dealt with at requirements definition time.
13.	B, D, E, G. The project is complete when the completion criteria say so, when the project is canceled, when the project plan has been rejected for whatever reason, or when the project resources have been consumed. The project isn't necessarily complete just because the stakeholders approve the final testing results, nor if the sponsor would like to free up team members for some other project.
14.	B, C. Just because a project's resources are exhausted does not necessarily imply that the project's a failure; it may simply mean that the project utilized all of the resources allocated to it. If the project plan is rejected or the project is canceled, then one can assume there has been an unsuccessful conclusion to the project. Renaming, or even reduced priority, aren't reasons to conclude the project.
15.	F. Successful projects can be closed out only at the closing phase. You have successfully completed the project's deliverables, met the success and completion criteria, and you're ready to finish up. You've entered the closing phase and can close out the project.
16.	B, C. If you have a sponsor who opts to cancel the project, for whatever reason, you will still want to put the project into closing phase. During this phase, you'll assemble the correct closure documents, in this case indicating why the project was closed and the metrics that were formulated for the requirements, and you'll release any resources you've already set aside for the project.
17.	D. All projects should recognize some sort of closing phase, even if it's informal with a quick little document that specifies the criteria that indicated successful project completion, associated sign-off by the sponsor, and, of course, lessons learned.
18.	A. The completion of the closing phase results in the documents that conclude the project and authorizes the release of the project's resources, including team members.
19.	C. The sponsor has the right to conclude the project any time he or she wants to. Remember that the sponsor is the one who can authorize the expenditure of resources in order to prepare the deliverables. However, you cannot call it a successful project until you've completed your testing and then have validated your success and completion metrics.
20.	D. The sponsor is the one who signs off on the closure documents. As project manager, you create them, providing supporting documentation that illustrates that all deliverables have been successfully completed.