Review Questions

1.	What are the processes that you use for human resources planning? Staff acquisition Contract administration Organizational planning Performance reporting
2.	You have been assigned as project manager for a major software development project. Andy is the functional manager who will be providing the resources for your development team. Andy is being asked to supply resources to several projects concurrently. You have a list of the people you want assigned to your team, but you fear other project managers may want these same people. How should you approach Andy regarding the assignment of his people to the project? Choose the best answer. Schedule a meeting with Andy to discuss resources. Explain your project deliverables and the skill sets you need. Negotiate for your most critical resources first. Negotiate with Andy. Send Andy a memo listing the resources you need and the start date for each resource. Catch up with Andy just before a meeting both of you need to attend so that he will not have time to think up reasons to turn down part of your request. Meet with Andy's boss to let her know that your project is critical and provide her with the list of resources you need from Andy.
3.	A quality technique that analyzes similar activities as a means of comparison is: Cost-benefit analysis Corporate quality policy Flowcharting Benchmarking
4.	The total cost of all the work required to assure the project conforms to quality standards is referred to as the cost of quality. Which of the following are types of costs associated with quality? Failure costs Prevention costs Appraisal costs All of the above
5.	Risk identification is the process of: Quantifying the impact to the project of a potential problem Determining and documenting potential danger areas in your project Assigning a probability that a particular problem will occur Defining the action to take in response to a potential risk
6.	What types of activities are documented in a risk response plan? Risk probabilities Preventative actions Contingency actions B and C
7.	Communications planning is the process of: Scheduling a regular meeting for the project team. Developing a distribution list for the stakeholders Identifying the people or groups who need information on your project Creating a template to report project status
8.	You are the project manager for a new software application that will provide online help to sales consultants regarding the features of the products they sell. One of your stakeholders is the VP of sales, who has committed to a 5 percent increase in product revenue based on this tool to assist his sales team. You have an opportunity to present an overview of this project to the VP. Based on the why, what, how, and when categories in the stakeholder engagement template, which of the following would be appropriate messages in the presentation? A summary of the detailed technical design. A demonstration of how the help function is accessed and the type of product in formation that is displayed. An overview of the programming language used to develop the code. A review of the plans to involve a small group of sales consultants in a pilot of the application to identify any concerns before the system is deployed to 4,000 users.
9.	The technique of looking at the trade-offs between doing something internally and procuring it from outside the organization is referred to as: Cost estimating Vendor selection criteria Staff augmentation Make or buy analysis
10.	You are a project manager for a telecommunications company assigned to a project to deploy a new wireless network using a technology that does not have a proven track record. You have requested vendor bids for portions of the development that will include researching various scenarios. What type of contract is the most likely in this situation? Choose the best answer. Fixed price contract Time and materials contract Cost reimbursable contract None of the above
11.	You're stuck with a hard project end date and your budget is fixed. If you don't manage the project extremely well, which component is most likely to suffer? Project plan Quality Documentation Project book
12.	Who is responsible for identifying and mitigating risk in the project? Sponsors Stakeholders Project manager Corporate management
13.	You're well under way with a major project when one of your development engineers alerts you to an unforeseen problem-a delay in the procurement of a specific piece of hardware-that is going to require a significant addition of time to the deadline of the project. What should you do? Please select the best answer(s). Adjust the timeline of the project and notify the stakeholders. Consult your risk assessment and mitigation strategies for this risk. Adjust the timeline of the project and notify the sponsors. Adjust the timeline of the project and obtain sign-off from the sponsors. Tell the engineer that he must complete the project on time. Add developers to the project.
14.	Who is responsible for accepting or not accepting the risks associated with a project? Project sponsors Project stakeholders Project client Project manager
15.	You are the project manager for a large, complex project that is in the middle of an 18-month estimated timeline. Some important vendors are now entering into the delivery of key project parts (servers, cabling, etc.). What crucial part of project planning will now play out as you take delivery of the components ? Select all that apply. Procurement planning Human resources planning Communications planning Risk planning
16.	Why do you spend time developing a solid communications plan? Select all that apply. To set and meet stakeholder expectations. To set aside time for your own needs. To make sure vendors are in the loop. To understand where the blame lies when something goes wrong. To keep company executives updated on your progress.
17.	When developing projects, your company has determined that quality is the most important of the three elements that affect any project (time, money, quality). What corporate strategy would assist with such a mandate ? Project management plan Corporate quality officer Corporate quality policy Project manager bonuses
18.	Your project involves a complicated system that enables communication among several disparate systems. What component of the project planning may require additional (perhaps substantial) communications work on your part with team members and stakeholders in order to clearly elucidate the complexity of the project? Deliverables Project end date Budget and additional resources Risk assessment
19.	You're the project manager for a project in which you're following a specific software development methodology. Some of the developers went to a presentation by a well-known company that manufactures software development software. They saw a new coding technique that could improve the speed with which the code will be developed and ready. They come back energized and ready to shift everything over to the new coding paradigm. How should you handle this recommendation? Since there's a cost/time-savings benefit, go with the recommendation. Obtain project sponsor approval to implement the new methodology. Run the recommendation through the change-management process. Development methodologies aren't something that the project manager needs to be concerned with. Assess the risks of adopting the new development methodology. If acceptable, go forward. Nix the idea and save for the next project.
20.	In your risk assessment activities, why would it be more important for you to evaluate potential risks for steps in the critical path than for those steps that are not? (Choose the best answer.) Steps in the critical path directly affect the project's duration. Steps in the critical path are the most critical to the project's successful outcome. Steps in the critical path are those that are the most time- intensive . Steps in the critical path are those that are the most complicated.

Answers

1.	A,C. Organizational planning is the process used to define roles and responsibilities for project team members and a plan to manage the project team. Staff acquisition is the actual assignment of people to the project team.
2.	A. Obtaining the right resources for your project requires good planning and skillful negotiation. An individual meeting with each functional manager who will be providing resources is the best approach. Although you identify all the ideal resources you need, do not expect that you will get everyone you want. Negotiate for your most critical resources first and be willing to compromise. An assumption that the functional manager just needs your list or an attempt to obtain resources by circumventing the functional manager provides a perception that you do not value the functional manager and can create a poor working relationship.
3.	D. Benchmarking is a technique that uses similar activities as a means of comparison. It is a good quality tool for projects designed to improve the current business operation. Cost-benefit analysis is another quality tool that looks at proposed quality activities to determine which one will provide the most benefit to the project at the least cost. Flowcharting uses diagrams that depict the way work flows. The corporate quality policy is an existing document that can provide information on existing corporate quality standards.
4.	D. All of these are components of the cost of quality. Prevention costs cover activities that keep quality problems from occurring. Appraisal costs keep any product defects from reaching the customer. Failure costs include any work associated with the failure of the product.
5.	B. Risk identification is the process of determining and documenting the potential danger areas in your project. Quantifying the impact to the project of a potential problem is risk severity. Risk probability deals with the likelihood that a particular problem will occur. Risk response defines the action to take in response to a potential risk.
6.	D. A risk response plan contains preventative actions and contingency actions. A preventative action is an activity designed to prevent a risk from occurring. A contingency action is an activity designed to deal with the impacts of a risk that is out of your control. Risk probability is part of risk analysis. You must determine how likely it is that the potential problem will occur in order to prioritize your risks. Risk analysis is done prior to the risk response plan.
7.	C. Communications planning is the process of identifying who needs to receive information on the project, what information they need, and how they will get that information. Scheduling project team meeting, developing distribution lists, and creating a project status template are all activities that might be a result of the communications plan.
8.	B, D. The VP of sales is accountable for the increased revenue resulting from this application. He is concerned that the functionality the application will provide is easy to use and contains the data users need to close sales. He would also be interested in any processes that will ensure the system is ready for mass deployment. A review of the technical design and programmer language is more appropriate for functional manager stakeholders in the IT organization who are providing the people who will be doing the design and code work.
9.	D. Make or buy analysis is the technique of determining the benefits of procuring goods or services outside the organization. Staff augmentation is the term used for contract labor that is added either for a fixed amount of time or to complete specific tasks . Vendor selection criteria are the items you use to evaluate and select a vendor.
10.	C. A cost reimbursable contract is often the only option if you do not have a well-defined product or if the vendor is being asked to provide something that has not been done before. A fixed price contract would not be feasible for the vendor or the buyer, as there is not any historical information to use as a basis for the fee. A time and materials contract would also be problematic , as the vendor may not have enough data to know what type of resources will be applied to the contract.
11.	B. If your budget and project end date are fixed, then the thing that's going to represent the point of variance will be the quality. Managing quality in such an environment can be very difficult.
12.	C. It is the responsibility of the project manager to identify those risks associated with the project.
13.	B, C. You've encountered a risk to the project that you (hopefully) identified in your risk assessment process. The mitigation strategy shows that when the scope of the project has changed, which it has in this case due to the pushing out of the targeted completion date, you must obtain sign-off from the project sponsor. Adding developers won't help in this situation because the problem's been determined and a solution proposed but there is a time requirement.
14.	B. The stakeholders of the project (which includes the sponsor and the clients ) are the ones who'll have to live with any associated risks and need to be the ones who decide whether the risks are acceptable. On the other hand, it is up to the project manager to make sure he or she has assessed the risk situation and has come up with ways to avoid any pitfalls, as well as mitigation strategies to deal with risks that arise. Stakeholders should be made aware of the risks that were discovered at risk assessment time.
15.	A, C, D. When you develop a procurement plan, you put out a request for bids and perform an analysis of the subsequent bids for the work. You should pay attention to the way that the vendor describes how the gear will be shipped, how it will be warranted, and how its safe arrival will be guaranteed . Thus procurement planning is critical to making sure that the long-term delivery initiatives pointed out above (18 months) will be met. Additionally, risk planning will help define those areas where problems may arise. While not necessary, you could certainly add communications planning details on how you'll interact with vendors.
16.	A, C, E. While a nice advantage to a good communications plan is that you are able to carve out some time for yourself, it is not the reason you develop such a plan. Similarly, with a good communications plan, you'll be updating the sponsor who, in turn , will update the executives, but your communications plan may not directly update them.
17.	C. A corporate quality officer is probably a good idea, but how will she enforce quality if there's not a quality policy in place to start with? A project management plan should be in place for adhering to a corporate quality policy and the project manager might be lucky enough to work for a company that gives bonuses for superior project management quality.
18.	D. When faced with an integrated system deployment, it's wise to understand that the complexities can frequently be more plentiful than your team may at first be willing to admit. In an integrated systems project, it would be prudent to spend extra time on risk assessment as well as allocating extra testing time when connecting systems.
19.	F. A methodology change involves in a change in the project's scope, which, in turn, involves sponsor sign-off and a brand new risk assessment. While it may be attractive to go forward with something that has the promise of saving you time, you've already settled on a given methodology that has sign-off and you should not experiment at this point in time with new techniques as you're not sure whether you'd have a positive outcome.
20.	A. The critical path is the series of consecutive activities that represent the longest dependent path through the project. Since a risk to a step in the critical path could potentially increase the time it takes to get the step done, it can directly affect the project's completion date. While it's important that you strive to uncover as many risks as possible prior to the project getting under way, it's very important that you pay special attention in terms of risk assessment to tasks on the critical path.