CAPM : Certified Associate in Project Management (PMI-100) : Part 12

CAPM : Certified Associate in Project Management (PMI-100) : Part 12

1. The following chart contains information about the tasks in a project.

   

   Based on the chart, what is the schedule variance (SV) for Task 8?

   • -2,000
   • -1,000
   • 1,000
   • 2,000

2. The following chart contains information about the tasks in a project.

   

   Based on the chart, what is the cost variance (CV) for Task 6?

   • -2,000
   • 0
   • 1,000
   • 2,000

3. The following chart contains information about the tasks in a project.

   

   Based on the chart, what is the schedule performance index (5PI) for Task 4?

   • 0.83
   • 0.9
   • 1.11
   • 1.33

4. One of the key benefits of the Plan Human Resource Management process is that it:

   • outlines team selection guidelines and team member responsibilities.
   • establishes project roles and responsibilities.
   • improves teamwork, interpersonal skills, and competencies.
   • provides an accurate appraisal of team member performance.

   Explanation:

   Process: 9.1 Plan Human Resource Management
   Definition: The process of identifying and documenting project roles, responsibilities, required skills, reporting relationships, and creating a staffing management plan.
   Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it establishes project roles and responsibilities, project organization charts, and the staffing management plan including the timetable for staff acquisition and release.

   Inputs
   1. Project management plan
   2. Activity resource requirements
   3. Enterprise environmental factors
   4. Organizational process assets
    
   Tools & Techniques
   1. Organization charts and position descriptions
   2. Networking
   3. Organizational theory
   4. Expert judgment
   5. Meetings
    
   Outputs
   1. Human resource management plan

5. Which Define Activities tool or technique is used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts?

   • Decomposition
   • Inspection
   • Project analysis
   • Document analysis
   Explanation:

   5.4.2.1 Decomposition
   Decomposition is a technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts. The work package is the work defined at the lowest level of the WBS for which cost and duration can be estimated and managed. The level of decomposition is often guided by the degree of control needed to effectively manage the project. The level of detail for work packages will vary with the size and complexity of the project. Decomposition of the total project work into work packages generally involves the following activities:
   – Identifying and analyzing the deliverables and related work;
   – Structuring and organizing the WBS;
   – Decomposing the upper WBS levels into lower-level detailed components;
   – Developing and assigning identification codes to the WBS components; and
   – Verifying that the degree of decomposition of the deliverables is appropriate.

   Process: 6.2 Define Activities
   Definition:  The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.
   Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is to break down work packages into activities that provide a basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, monitoring, and controlling the project work.

   Inputs
   1. Schedule management plan
   2. Scope baseline
   3. Enterprise environmental factors
   4. Organizational process assets
    
   Tools & Techniques
   1. Decomposition
   2. Rolling wave planning
   3. Expert judgment
    
   Outputs
   1. Activity list
   2. Activity attributes
   3. Milestone list

6. Which type of analysis is used to determine the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance?

   • Schedule network analysis
   • Reserve analysis
   • Alternative analysis
   • Variance analysis
   Explanation:
   5.6.2.1 Variance Analysis
   Variance analysis is a technique for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance. Project performance measurements are used to assess the magnitude of variation from the original scope baseline. Important aspects of project scope control include determining the cause and degree of variance relative to the scope baseline (Section 5.4.3.1) and deciding whether corrective or preventive action is required.

7. A project’s purpose or justification, measurable project objectives and related success criteria, a summary milestone schedule, and a summary budget are all components of which document?

   • Work breakdown structure
   • Requirements document
   • Project charter
   • Project management plan
   Explanation:

   4.1.3.1 Project Charter
   The project charter is the document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. It documents the business needs, assumptions, constraints, the understanding of the customer’s needs and high-level requirements, and the new product, service, or result that it is intended to satisfy, such as:
   – Project purpose or justification,
   – Measurable project objectives and related success criteria,
   – High-level requirements,
   – Assumptions and constraints,
   – High-level project description and boundaries,
   – High-level risks,
   – Summary milestone schedule,
   – Summary budget,
   – Stakeholder list,
   – Project approval requirements (i.e., what constitutes project success, who decides the project is successful, and who signs off on the project),
   – Assigned project manager, responsibility, and authority level, and
   – Name and authority of the sponsor or other person(s) authorizing the project charter.

   Process: 4.1. Develop Project Charter
   Definition: The process of developing a document that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
   Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is a well-defined project start and project boundaries, creation of a formal record of the project, and a direct way for senior management to formally accept and commit to the project.

   Inputs
   1.     Project statement of work
   2.     Business case
   3.     Agreements
   4.     Enterprise environmental factors
   5.     Organizational process assets
    
   Tools & Techniques
   1.     Expert judgment
   2.     Facilitation techniques
    
   Outputs
   1.     Project charter 

8. In the Define Activities process, the schedule management plan is used to:

   • Capture the lessons learned from other projects for comparison.
   • Contain the standard activity list.
   • Document and support the project change requests.
   • Prescribe the level of detail needed to manage the work.
   Explanation:

   6.1.3.1 Schedule Management Plan
   A component of the project management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule. The schedule management plan may be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed, based upon the needs of the project, and includes appropriate control thresholds.
   For example, the schedule management plan can establish the following:
   – Project schedule model development. The scheduling methodology and the scheduling tool to be used in the development of the project schedule model are specified.
   – Level of accuracy. The acceptable range used in determining realistic activity duration estimates is specified and may include an amount for contingencies.
   Units of measure. Each unit used in measurements (such as staff hours, staff days, or weeks for time measures, or meters, liters, tons, kilometers, or cubic yards for quantity measures) is defined for each of the resources.
   – Organizational procedures links. The WBS (Section 5.4) provides the framework for the schedule management plan, allowing for consistency with the estimates and resulting schedules.
   – Project schedule model maintenance. The process used to update the status and record progress of the project in the schedule model during the execution of the project is defined.
   – Control thresholds. Variance thresholds for monitoring schedule performance may be specified to indicate an agreed-upon amount of variation to be allowed before some action needs to be taken. Thresholds are typically expressed as percentage deviations from the parameters established in the baseline plan.
   – Rules of performance measurement. Earned value management (EVM) rules or other physical measurement rules of performance measurement are set. For example, the schedule management plan may specify:
   ○○ Rules for establishing percent complete,
   ○○ Control accounts at which management of progress and schedule will be measured,
   ○○ Earned value measurement techniques (e.g., baselines, fixed-formula, percent complete, etc.) to be employed (for more specific information, refer to the Practice Standard for Earned Value Management) [9],
   ○○ Schedule performance measurements such as schedule variance (SV) and schedule performance index (SPI) used to assess the magnitude of variation to the original schedule baseline.
   – Reporting formats. The formats and frequency for the various schedule reports are defined.
   – Process descriptions. Descriptions of each of the schedule management processes are documented.

   Process: 6.2 Define Activities
   Definition:  The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.
   Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is to break down work packages into activities that provide a basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, monitoring, and controlling the project work.

   Inputs
   1. Schedule management plan
   2. Scope baseline
   3. Enterprise environmental factors
   4. Organizational process assets
    
   Tools & Techniques
   1. Decomposition
   2. Rolling wave planning
   3. Expert judgment
    
   Outputs
   1. Activity list
   2. Activity attributes
   3. Milestone list

9. A project team attempts to produce a deliverable and finds that they have neither the expertise nor the time to complete the deliverable in a timely manner. This issue could have been avoided if they had created and followed a:

   • risk management plan
   • human resource management plan
   • scope management plan
   • procurement management plan
   Explanation:

   12.1.3.1 Procurement Management Plan
   The procurement management plan is a component of the project management plan that describes how a project team will acquire goods and services from outside the performing organization. It describes how the procurement processes will be managed from developing procurement documents through contract closure. The procurement management plan can include guidance for:

   – Types of contracts to be used;
   – Risk management issues;
   – Whether independent estimates will be used and whether they are needed as evaluation criteria;
   – Those actions the project management team can take unilaterally, if the performing organization has a prescribed procurement, contracting, or purchasing department;
   – Standardized procurement documents, if needed;
   – Managing multiple suppliers;
   – Coordinating procurement with other project aspects, such as scheduling and performance reporting;
   – Any constraints and assumptions that could affect planned procurements;
   – Handling the long lead times to purchase certain items from sellers and coordinating the extra time needed to procure these items with the development of the project schedule;
   – Handling the make-or-buy decisions and linking them into the Estimate Activity Resources and Develop Schedule processes
   – Setting the scheduled dates in each contract for the contract deliverables and coordinating with the schedule development and control processes;
   – Identifying requirements for performance bonds or insurance contracts to mitigate some forms of project risk;
   – Establishing the direction to be provided to the sellers on developing and maintaining a work breakdown structure (WBS);
   – Establishing the form and format to be used for the procurement/contract statements of work;
   – Identifying prequalified sellers, if any, to be used; and
   – Procurement metrics to be used to manage contracts and evaluate sellers.

   A procurement management plan can be formal or informal, can be highly detailed or broadly framed, and is based upon the needs of each project.

10. A benefit of using virtual teams in the Acquire Project Team process is the reduction of the:

    • cultural differences of team members
    • possibility of communication misunderstandings
    • costs associated with travel
    • costs associated with technology
    Explanation:
    9.2.2.4 Virtual Teams
    The use of virtual teams creates new possibilities when acquiring project team members. Virtual teams can be defined as groups of people with a shared goal who fulfill their roles with little or no time spent meeting face to face. The availability of communication technology such as e-mail, audio conferencing, social media, web-based meetings and video conferencing has made virtual teams feasible. The virtual team model makes it possible to:
    – Form teams of people from the same organization who live in widespread geographic areas;
    – Add special expertise to a project team even though the expert is not in the same geographic area;
    – Incorporate employees who work from home offices;
    – Form teams of people who work different shifts, hours, or days;
    – Include people with mobility limitations or disabilities; and
    – Move forward with projects that would have been ignored due to travel expenses.
      There are some disadvantages related to virtual teams, such as possibility for misunderstandings, feeling of isolation, difficulties in sharing knowledge and experience between team members, and cost of appropriate technology. Communication planning becomes increasingly important in a virtual team environment. Additional time may be needed to set clear expectations, facilitate communications, develop protocols for resolving conflict, include people in decision making, understand cultural differences, and share credit in successes.

11. Those who enter into a contractual agreement to provide services necessary for a project are:

    • buyers
    • sellers
    • business partners
    • product users

12. Project managers who lead by example and follow through on the commitments they make demonstrate the key interpersonal skill of:

    • influencing
    • leadership
    • motivation
    • coaching

13. Which items are an output of the Perform Integrated Change Control process?

    • Work performance reports
    • Accepted deliverables
    • Project management plan updates
    • Organizational process assets
    Explanation:

    Process: 4.5 Perform Integrated Change Control
    Perform Integrated Change Control is the process of reviewing all change requests; approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the project management plan; and communicating their disposition. It reviews all requests for changes or modifications to project documents, deliverables, baselines, or the project management plan and approves or rejects the changes.
    Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it allows for documented changes within the project to be considered in an integrated fashion while reducing project risk, which often arises from changes made without consideration to the overall project objectives or plans.

    Inputs
    1. Project management plan
    2. Work performance reports
    3. Change requests
    4. Enterprise environmental factors
    5. Organizational process assets

    Tools & Techniques
    1. Expert judgment
    2. Meetings
    3. Change control tools

    Outputs
    1. Approved change requests
    2. Change log
    3. Project management plan updates
    4. Project documents updates

14. Which term describes an assessment of correctness?

    • Accuracy
    • Precision
    • Grade
    • Quality
    Explanation:
    Accuracy. Within the quality management system, accuracy is an assessment of correctness

15. The cost baseline and project funding requirements are outputs of which process in Project Cost Management?

    • Estimate Costs
    • Control Costs
    • Plan Cost Management
    • Determine Budget
    Explanation:

    7.3.3.1 Cost Baseline
    The cost baseline is the approved version of the time-phased project budget, excluding any management reserves, which can only be changed through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results. It is developed as a summation of the approved budgets for the different schedule activities.

    Process: 7.3 Determine Budget
    Definition:  The process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline.
    Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it determines the cost baseline against which project performance can be monitored and controlled.
    Inputs
    1. Cost management plan
    2. Scope baseline
    3. Activity cost estimates
    4. Basis of estimates
    5. Project schedule
    6. Resource calendars
    7. Risk register
    8. Agreements
    9. Organizational process assets
     
    Tools & Techniques
    1. Cost aggregation
    2. Reserve analysis
    3. Expert judgment
    4. Historical relationships
    5. Funding limit reconciliation
     
    Outputs
    1. Cost baseline
    2. Project funding requirements
    3. Project documents updates

16. The Project Human Resource Management process that involves confirming human resource availability and obtaining the team necessary to complete project activities is:

    • Acquire Project Team.
    • Plan Human Resource Management.
    • Manage Project Team.
    • Develop Project Team.
    Explanation:
    Process: 9.2 Acquire Project Team
    Definition:  The process of confirming human resource availability and obtaining the team necessary to complete project activities.
    Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process consists of outlining and guiding the team selection and responsibility assignment to obtain a successful team.
    Inputs
    1. Human resource management plan
    2. Enterprise environmental factors
    3. Organizational process assets
     
    Tools & Techniques
    1. Pre-assignment
    2. Negotiation
    3. Acquisition
    4. Virtual teams
    5. Multi-criteria decision analysis
     
    Outputs
    1. Project staff assignments
    2. Resource calendars
    3. Project management plan updates

17. At the start of a typical project life cycle, costs are:

    • low, peak as work is carried out, and drop as the project nears the end.
    • low, become steady as work is carried out, and increase as the project nears the end.
    • high, drop as work is carried out, and increase as the project nears the end.
    • high, become low as work is carried out, and drop as the project nears the end.

18. Success is measured by benefits realization for a:

    • strategic plan
    • project
    • portfolio
    • program
    Explanation:
    1.4.2 Portfolio Management
    A portfolio refers to projects, programs, subportfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. The projects or programs of the portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent or directly related. For example, an infrastructure firm that has the strategic objective of “maximizing the return on its investments” may put together a portfolio that includes a mix of projects in oil and gas, power, water, roads, rail, and airports. From this mix, the firm may choose to manage related projects as one program. All of the power projects may be grouped together as a power program. Similarly, all of the water projects may be grouped together as a water program.
    Thus, the power program and the water program become integral components of the enterprise portfolio of the infrastructure firm.

19. Organizational process assets, a lessons-learned database, and historical information are all inputs to which process?

    • Plan Cost Management
    • Plan Scope Management
    • Plan Stakeholder Management
    • Plan Schedule Management

20. A project team member agrees to change a project deliverable after a conversation with an external stakeholder. It is later discovered that the change has had an adverse effect on another deliverable. This could have been avoided if the project team had implemented:

    • Quality assurance.
    • A stakeholder management plan.
    • Project team building.
    • Integrated change control.
    Explanation:

    Process: 4.5 Perform Integrated Change Control
    Perform Integrated Change Control is the process of reviewing all change requests; approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the project management plan; and communicating their disposition. It reviews all requests for changes or modifications to project documents, deliverables, baselines, or the project management plan and approves or rejects the changes.
    Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it allows for documented changes within the project to be considered in an integrated fashion while reducing project risk, which often arises from changes made without consideration to the overall project objectives or plans.

    Inputs
    1. Project management plan
    2. Work performance reports
    3. Change requests
    4. Enterprise environmental factors
    5. Organizational process assets

    Tools & Techniques
    1. Expert judgment
    2. Meetings
    3. Change control tools

    Outputs
    1. Approved change requests
    2. Change log
    3. Project management plan updates
    4. Project documents updates