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925 North Spurgeon Street, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Text:
Author(s):
Publisher:
www.calcoast.edu
Phone: 714-547-9625 Fax: 714-547-5777
Project Management
Second Edition, 2010
ISBN-13: 9780136065616
3. BAM 540 Project Management
Multiple Choice Questions (Enter your answers on the enclosed
answer sheet)
1. There is no such thing as a project team with a(n)
____________.
a. deliverable
b. ongoing, nonspecific purpose
c. goal
d. project manager
2. A project that results in “doing the wrong things well” has
ignored the _____________ goal.
a. budgetary
b. technical
c. customer satisfaction
d. scheduling
3. The technical side of project management emphasizes
______________.
a. team building
b. conflict management
c. negotiation
d. budgeting
4. The behavioral side of project management emphasizes
______________.
a. scheduling
b. leadership
c. planning
d. project selection
4. 5. Geoffco’s project manager names three individuals and
requests a project budget of
$3,000,000 for the new 8-Pod, a backpack-sized personal
music player for 8-track tapes
capable of holding up to 100 songs from the 60s and 70s.
This important step takes place
during ____________ of the project life cycle.
a. planning
b. conceptualization
c. execution
d. termination
6
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
6. The degree of risk associated with a project is typically at its
highest during the ____________
phase.
a. conceptualization
b. planning
c. execution
d. termination
7. A spider web diagram is useful for ____________.
a. showing company performance on a number of criteria
simultaneously
b. collecting data on how a competitor manages projects
5. c. identifying industry standards for project management
maturity
d. coaching, evaluating and auditing projects
8. The project maturity model developed by the Center for
Business Practices would have
_____________ rings if a spider web diagram were used.
a. three
b. four
c. five
d. six
9. Which of these is not characteristic of a project?
a. Projects are responsible for the newest and most improved
products, services and
organizational processes.
b. Projects are ad hoc endeavors with a clear life cycle.
c. Projects provide a philosophy and strategy for the
management of change.
d. Traditional process management functions of planning,
organizing and controlling do
not apply to project management.
10. Which of the following is not a project constraint?
a. the budget
b. the customer requirements
c. the schedule
d. the technical specifications
11. Projects differ from classic organizational processes
because projects are ____________.
a. discrete activities
6. b. part of line organization
c. well established systems in place to integrate efforts
d. multi-objective
7
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
12. Process management features _____________ with respect
to project management.
a. greater heterogeneity
b. greater certainty of performance
c. lower numbers of goals and objectives
d. lower adherence to established practices
13. Studies of IT projects reveal that _____________.
a. initial cost estimates are overrun by an average of 15%
b. over 66% of IT projects were delivered to customers but not
used
c. about 25% of all IT projects become runaways by
overshooting budgets and
timetables
d. up to 75% of software projects are cancelled
14. A business reality that makes effective project management
critical is the fact that
_____________.
a. products are becoming increasingly simple
b. inflation is rampant
7. c. product life cycles are compressing
d. product launch windows are widening
15. A product is introduced into a market, gains the acceptance
of a fickle public and is finally
supplanted by a new and improved offering. This
phenomenon is known as ____________.
a. the product life cycle
b. the rule of 80
c. the Mendoza line
d. the beta
16. External stakeholders that are external to a project but
possess the power to effectively
disrupt the project’s development are ____________
groups.
a. intervenor
b. environmental
c. stressor
d. special-interest
8
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
17. Which of the following statements about clients is best?
a. Client refers to the entire customer organization.
b. Clients are concerned with receiving the project as quickly as
they can possibly get it.
8. c. Client groups tend to have similar agendas.
d. A single presentation is best when dealing with all client
groups in an organization so
that everyone hears exactly the same message.
18. The tendency of employees in a functionally organized
company to become fixated on their
own concerns and work assignments to the exclusion of the
needs of other departments is
known as _____________.
a. layering
b. myopia
c. nepotism
d. siloing
19. The functional structure is well-suited when
_____________.
a. there are low levels of external uncertainty
b. there is high instability in the environment
c. project coordination is assigned to the lowest levels in an
organization
d. there must be rapid response to external opportunities and
threats
20. The manager of the Super Burrito Project is in the midst of
an important project team
meeting but Fred Fromage, the representative from the
Cheese department, is nowhere to
be found. After a brief investigation, it is determined that
Fred’s manager in the Cheese
department has other plans for Fred’s time and efforts over
the next several days and he
simply won’t be available for Super Burrito Project work.
The organizational structure being
9. used here is unquestionably a ______________.
a. strong matrix
b. weak matrix
c. project organization
d. chevre organization
21. A major weakness of a matrix organizational structure for
project management occurs when
_____________.
a. the environment is dynamic
b. resources are scarce and shared between functional
responsibilities and the
competing project
c. the number of human resource coordination meetings is
considered
d. one considers the dual importance of project management and
functional efficiency
9
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
22. The PMO is used to protect and support the skill of project
management under the
_____________ model.
a. resource pool
b. weather station
c. control tower
d. project
10. 23. The PMO is used to maintain and provide a cadre of skilled
and trained project
professionals, as needed, under the _____________ model.
a. control tower
b. cadre
c. weather station
d. resource pool
24. A writer estimates it will take three months to generate
spiffy documents to accompany a
seminal work in operations management. He grossly
underestimates the time required and
misses his deadline by two months. This estimate was
____________ and ____________.
a. objective; accurate
b. subjective; accurate
c. objective; inaccurate
d. subjective; inaccurate
25. A wedding planner allows $10,000 for flowers and three
weeks to receive all RSVPs back
from the list of 700 guests. Both estimates are correct within
a fraction of a percent. We
could describe this factoid as ____________ and
____________.
A) numeric; ubjective
B) numeric; objective
C) nonnumeric; subjective
D) nonnumeric; objective
26. The efficient frontier in project management is the set of
portfolio options that offer a
11. _____________ return for a _____________ risk.
a. minimum; minimum
b. minimum; maximum
c. maximum; minimum
d. maximum; maximum
10
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
27. Which statement about the use of the profile model is best?
a. The profile model requires careful calculation of the
percentage risk for each possible
project.
b. The scale used for the profile model can be any two
numerical variables that a
company deems important.
c. The efficient frontier in the profile model is where return is
100% (or greater) and risk
is 0%.
d. For a given level of risk, a positive move on the return axes
would indicate a superior
project.
28. Regardless of which selection method a firm uses, it should
always _____________.
a. be able to predict how much revenue will be returned to the
firm each year
b. know which project will ultimately succeed and which ones
12. will fail
c. be objective in their selection method
d. use a weighted scoring technique
29. The systematic process of selecting, supporting and
managing a firm’s collection of projects
is called _____________.
a. heavyweight project management
b. matrix project organization
c. profile management
d. project portfolio management
30. The concept of project portfolio management holds that
firms should _____________.
a. regard all projects as unified assets
b. manage projects as independent entities
c. focus on short-term strategic goals
d. focus on long-term constraints
31. A project with the chance for a big payout may be funded if
an important criterion is
_____________.
a. cost
b. opportunity
c. top management pressure
d. risk
11
Final Examination
13. BAM 540 Project Management
32. Group maintenance behavior would be exhibited by a
project manager that ______________.
a. provides the necessary support and technical assistance
b. plans and schedules activities and resources appropriately
c. contributes to the completion of project assignments
d. works with subordinates to understand their problems
33. The group maintenance behavior of gatekeeping helps to
______________.
a. increase and equalize participation
b. reduce tension and hostility
c. regulate behavior
d. increase and equalize participation
34. The task-oriented behavior of summarizing accomplishes
which specific outcome?
a. check on understanding and assess progress
b. guide and sequence discussion
c. check on agreement
d. increase comprehension
35. Tim slapped together his first webpage and proudly showed
it to all his colleagues, pointing
out what he thought were obvious and overwhelming
advantages in simplicity and
portability. His championing of webpages that he had read
about in a trade journal
ultimately shamed everyone else into adopting a web-based
approach for all communication
and cemented his status as a true ______________.
14. a. creative originator
b. entrepreneur
c. godfather
d. project manager
36. Michael wants to carry out his mentor’s long range strategic
vision of expanding the
company’s customer base by entering the casino business in
Las Vegas. He issues a series of
memos that explain the importance of these projects and
makes sure that all necessary
resources are at the disposal of the project management
team, which is fortunate to have
such a(n) _____________.
a. creative originator at the helm
b. entrepreneur
c. godfather
d. project manager
12
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
37. Which of the following is a traditional duty of a project
champion?
a. cheerleader
b. visionary
c. politician
d. technical understanding
15. 38. Which of the following is a nontraditional role of a project
champion?
a. cheerleader
b. leadership
c. administrative
d. control
39. In order to allocate costs more precisely, a company will
assign ______________.
a. bar codes to each activity
b. activity codes to each subdeliverable
c. WBS codes to each activity
d. level 4 codes to each package element
40. Which of these statements about subdeliverables is best?
a. Subdeliverables have durations of their own.
b. Subdeliverables consume resources.
c. Subdeliverables have direct, assignable costs.
d. Subdeliverables summarize the outcomes of work packages.
41. A young professor becomes obsessed with the latest release
of Halo and completely loses
sight of his research commitment to his colleagues, falling
hopelessly behind schedule and
consuming 80% of the department’s computing budget.
Addictive behavior notwithstanding,
this sad tale would never have happened had ____________.
a. configuration controls been established
b. trend monitoring been regularly performed
c. design controls been appropriately deployed
d. document control been conducted assiduously
16. 42. Systems for monitoring the project’s scope, schedule, and
costs during the design stage fall
under the heading of _____________ control.
a. configuration
b. acquisition
c. design
d. specification
13
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
43. As the 80th change order floated across his desk, the project
manager wished that he had
kept the first seventy-nine. What money he had saved in
scrap paper might as well be lost in
charges that could never be recouped from the client. What
he needs is better ___________.
a. trend monitoring
b. configuration control
c. specification control
d. document control
44. Which step in project management requires project
managers to consider the types of
records and reports they and their clients will require at the
completion of the project?
a. project closeout
b. completion phase
17. c. reporting
d. planning
45. A priori consideration of information needs is performed
______________.
a. several years after a project is completed
b. before a project begins
c. at the start of a project
d. during the project
46. Conflict begins as team members begin to resist authority
and demonstrate hidden agendas
and prejudices in the _____________ stage of group
development.
a. storming
b. performing
c. forming
d. norming
47. Everyone in the Tagi tribe agreed to vote out Gervasse at
the next tribal council. Their 39-
day project to make it to the final four together was two
steps away from completion. This
project group is in the ______________ stage of group
development.
a. storming
b. performing
c. forming
d. norming
14
18. Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
48. It appeared that everyone on the project team was finally on
board; Jim would bring the
doughnuts to all team meetings and Jenny would make the
coffee. Fully caffeinated and on
a sugar high, the team was coming together and fully
committed to the project development
process. The team was now planted firmly in the
_____________ stage of group development.
a. storming
b. forming
c. norming
d. performing
49. “Our work here is done,” the project leader shouted as he
surveyed the scene. “Go home and
reflect on what you’ve accomplished and I’ll see you at the
world premiere once we’re all
immortalized in a feature-length movie.” This project team
is in the _____________ stage of
group development.
a. forming
b. norming
c. performing
d. adjourning
50. The use of electronic media including e-mail, internet and
teleconferencing to link
geographically dispersed members creates a(n)
______________ team.
19. a. electronic
b. virtual
c. telegenic
d. cyber
51. The two main challenges for virtual teams include
______________.
a. maintaining autonomy
b. automating monotony
c. building trust
d. the bullwhip effect
52. Virtual teams are often slowed down by difficulty with
______________.
a. superordinate goals
b. task reliance
c. punctuated equilibrium
d. communication
15
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
53. Project penalty clauses that initiate at mutually agreed-on
points in the project’s
development and implementation are ______________.
a. liquidated damages
b. milestone adjustments
20. c. contingency clauses
d. penalty points
54. The firm set aside a little extra money just in case an
unforeseen element of cost pushed the
project beyond what they had budgeted. This extra money is
called a(n) ______________.
a. rainy day fund
b. contingency reserve
c. escalation clause
d. sinking fund
55. The mouse executive board meeting was drawing to a
conclusion; the only way they would be
able to detect the presence of the cat was to tie a bell
around its tail. Under their risk
management identification scheme, this would fall under
______________ risk.
a. commercial
b. execution
c. financial
d. technical
56. A method for conducting risk factor identification that
consolidates the judgments of
isolated, anonymous respondents is _____________.
a. a brainstorming meeting
b. the Delphi method
c. past history
d. multiple assessments
57. A method for conducting risk factor identification that
generates ideas but doesn’t focus on
21. decision-making is ______________.
a. a brainstorming meeting
b. the Delphi method
c. past history
d. multiple assessments
16
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
58. The consequences of failure categories of cost, schedule
reliability and performance were
believed to be 0.2, 0.6, 0.5 and 0.7. What is the overall
consequence of failure?
a. 0.2
b. 0.3
c. 0.4
d. 0.5
59. Input is received from an organization’s management to
create a project budget in
______________ budgeting.
a. zero-based
b. top-down
c. bottom-up
d. activity-based
60. An advantage of top-down budgeting is ______________.
22. a. that top management estimates of project costs are often quite
accurate, at least in
aggregate terms.
b. an elimination of the friction between top and lower levels in
the competition for
budget money.
c. that projects are no longer a zero-sum game among lower
level managers
d. top management budgets, by definition, cannot experience
overruns
61. A budget that is created by starting with the work
breakdown structure, determining costs for
each work package and then adding these costs together is
______________ budgeting.
a. zero-based
b. top-down
c. bottom-up
d. activity-based
62. When properly performed, bottom-up budgeting has the
disadvantage of _____________.
a. a lack of detail needed in project plans
b. a lack of coordination among project managers and functional
department heads
c. being a hindrance to top managers when prioritizing projects
that are competing for
the same scarce resources
d. a reduction of top management’s control of the budget
process to one of oversight
17
23. Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
63. What learning rate is being demonstrated if the first unit
takes 15 hours and the third unit
takes 14 hours to complete?
a. greater than or equal to 97 percent
b. less than 97 percent but greater than or equal to 95 percent
c. less than 95 percent but greater than or equal to 93 percent
d. less than 93 percent
64. It took 80 hours of analysis to complete the first phase, but
the second phase was done in
74 hours. If this learning rate continues, then the 8th
analysis should take a mere
____________ hours and ____________ minutes, give or
take.
a. 63; 20
b. 68; 30
c. 57; 15
d. 52; 45
65. Which of these indirect costs is typically classified as an
overhead cost?
a. advertising
b. shipping
c. sales commissions
d. taxes
66. These can be located by doing a backward pass through a
network.
24. a. critical paths
b. merge activities
c. successors
d. burst activities
67. An activity with two or more immediate predecessors is a(n)
_______________.
a. merge activity
b. burst activity
c. float activity
d. event
68. An activity has an optimistic time estimate of 7 days, a most
likely estimate of 12 days and
a pessimistic estimate of 20 days. What is the expected
standard deviation of the activity?
a. between 2 and 3
b. between 3 and 4
c. between 4 and 5
d. between 5 and 6
18
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
69. Activity Z has estimates a=5, b=10, m=7; activity X has
estimates a=4, b=11, m=6; and
activity Y has estimates a=3, b=12, m=8. Which of the
following statements is most
25. accurate?
a. Activity X is longer than Activity Y
b. Activity X has a higher standard deviation than Activity Z
c. Activity Z is shorter than Activity Y
d. Activity Y has a smaller variance than Activity Z
70. There’s an old saying, “The job is not finished until the
paperwork is done.” From an activity
network standpoint, this does not necessarily mean that the
paperwork can’t begin until the
last non paperwork activity is completed. It might be
possible to work on some paperwork as
early activities are completed. In order to depict this in an
activity network, ______________.
a. hammock activities could be drawn
b. subroutines could be added
c. shortcuts can be added to the network
d. laddering could be used to redraw the network
71. One approach to reducing project length would be to
______________.
a. convert parallel paths to be serial
b. convert merge activities to burst activities
c. use hammock activities in place of multiple activities
d. eliminate tasks on the critical path
72. A project’s duration can be reduced by ______________.
a. shortening the duration of critical path tasks
b. adding tasks to the critical path
c. adding shorter routes around the critical path
d. completing the backward pass first
26. 73. A basic Gantt chart _____________.
a. clearly displays early and late start and finish times for all
activities
b. cannot be used to track the project’s progress
c. permits scheduling resources well before they are needed
d. shows dummy activities to preserve network logic
19
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
74. If an activity’s cost is plotted against its duration on axes
with zeros at the origin, the slope
of the line is _____________.
a. positive because it costs more to finish an activity more
quickly
b. negative because a shorter activity costs less than a longer
one
c. negative because it costs more to finish an activity more
quickly
d. positive because a longer activity costs more than a shorter
one
75. An activity on arrow network _____________.
a. cannot have more arrows than nodes
b. cannot have more nodes than arrows
c. has one more node than arrows
d. has one more arrow than nodes
27. 76. The best approach to network representation of a large and
hugely complex project is to
_____________.
a. represent all activities and relationships
b. simplify network logic and reduce it to the most meaningful
relationships
c. use AOA
d. use AON
77. CCPM advocates performing all noncritical activities
______________.
a. as late as possible
b. as early as possible
c. before starting the critical path
d. after completing the critical path
78. An important departure from traditional project management
is that critical chain project
management logic ______________.
a. changes from a late finish to an early start approach
b. factors in the effects of resource contention
c. adjusts expected activity durations to reflect a 95%
probability of completion on time
d. creates a separate safety margin for each activity in the
project
79. In order to resolve a resource conflict, it is advisable to
______________.
a. work backwards from the end of the project
b. work forwards from the start of the project
c. begin activities at their earliest possible start time
d. complete activities at their earliest possible finish time
28. 20
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
80. When choosing the most viable solution to resource conflict
issues, the best option is the
one that ______________.
a. minimizes total network slack
b. minimizes total network schedule disruption
c. maximizes total network slack
d. maximizes activity late start times
81. A system-wide constraint is called a ______________.
a. rope
b. resource
c. drum
d. chain
82. Successful implementation of CCPM depends on first
_____________.
a. identifying the critical chain that meanders through the
project organization’s portfolio
of projects.
b. identifying the constraint that holds hostage the project
organization’s other resources
c. examining and changing the culture of the project
organization
d. exploiting the drum by using it to subordinate the existing
29. PERT network
83. The best method for establishing the existence of resource
conflicts across project activities
uses _____________.
a. Gantt charts
b. network diagrams
c. Pareto diagrams
d. resource-loading charts
84. A measurement process that determines the project goals
and then the degree to which the
actual performance lives up to these goals is
______________.
a. metric system
b. goal-performance linkage
c. five degrees of separation
d. gap analysis
85. Penalty clauses for schedule slippage are sometimes referred
to as _______________.
a. liquidated damages
b. punitive damages
c. temporal assessments
d. late fees
21
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
30. 86. A tracking Gantt chart cannot show ______________.
a. the reason an activity has slipped
b. which activities are ahead of schedule
c. which activities are on schedule
d. which activities are behind schedule
87. A tracking Gantt chart does not allow for ______________.
a. looking at today’s activity progress and determining whether
a single activity is behind
scheduled
b. future projections of the project’s status
c. looking at today’s activity progress and determining whether
the entire project is
behind schedule
d. looking at today’s activity progress and determining whether
a single activity is ahead
of schedule
88. It is possible to measure _____________ with the tracking
Gantt chart.
a. only positive deviations from the schedule baseline
b. only negative deviations from the schedule baseline
c. both positive and negative deviations from the schedule
baseline
d. both positive and negative deviations from the budget
89. If significant deviations from the project plan are detected,
corrective action is taken and
then _____________.
a. the monitoring and control cycle begins anew
b. project goals are adjusted to reflect current reality
31. c. the project stakeholders are informed of the budget or time
difficulties
d. the critical chain is reviewed for task dependency
90. The classic project S-curve is a plot of ______________.
a. labor hours versus money expended
b. money expended versus elapsed time
c. elapsed time versus labor hours
d. number of personnel versus days behind schedule
22
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
91. A measurement process that determines the project goals
and then the degree to which the
actual performance lives up to these goals is
_____________.
a. metric system
b. goal-performance linkage
c. five degrees of separation
d. gap analysis
92. Earned value management jointly considers the impact of
______________.
a. time, cost and planned cost
b. project performance, planned performance and cost
c. performance, cost and time
d. planned cost, planned performance and time
32. 93. Which of these concerns does not belong in the assessment
of team performance in a project
final report?
a. Were the stakeholder’s concerns addressed?
b. Were the best people in the organization selected to work on
this project?
c. How were our project team members trained for their duties?
d. Does the project manager have the ability to evaluate worker
performance?
94. A final report section on the techniques of project
management would include an honest
assessment of whether the ______________.
a. benefits promised to the client were actually delivered
b. resource costs could be better estimated
c. project workers came together as a team
d. the project finished on time
95. The primary goal in requiring a project final report is to
_____________.
a. formally close-out the project
b. provide the customer with a sense of completion
c. lay the groundwork for successful future projects
d. find out the root cause for all failures, both major and minor
96. The project final report is fundamentally ______________.
a. a historical record
b. a review of human activity
c. window dressing for the project
d. a forward-looking document
33. 23
Final Examination
BAM 540 Project Management
97. In nonbinding arbitration, _____________.
a. the judge can offer suggestions for dispute resolution but
cannot enforce these
opinions.
b. the two parties agree to open up, or unbind, their books for
inspection by the other
party.
c. the client and project organizations both agree to perform
exactly what the judge
decrees.
d. the client and project organizations are not bound by the
rules of law.
98. The goal of a lessons learned meeting is to recapitulate the
series of events _____________.
a. as subjectively as possible
b. from the project manager’s viewpoint
c. as intuitively as possible
d. from all possible viewpoints
99. Some of the greatest challenges facing project teams during
termination is ______________.
a. maintaining the energy and motivation to finish
b. providing accurate data for the project final report
c. providing accurate root cause analysis for the project final
34. report
d. finding another project to begin
100. An example of an external intellectual issue is the
_______________.
a. control of charges to the project
b. screening of partially completed tasks
c. identification of outstanding commitments
d. determinants of requirements for audit trail data