CAPM : Certified Associate in Project Management (PMI-100) : Part 33
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Using the three-point estimating technique, if the most likely duration is four months, the optimistic duration is two months, and the pessimistic duration is one year, how many months is the expected activity duration?
- Two
- Four
- Five
- Twelve
Explanation:
6.5.2.4 Three-Point Estimating
The accuracy of single-point activity duration estimates may be improved by considering estimation uncertainty and risk. This concept originated with the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). PERT uses three estimates to define an approximate range for an activity’s duration:
– Most likely (tM). This estimate is based on the duration of the activity, given the resources likely to be assigned, their productivity, realistic expectations of availability for the activity, dependencies on other participants, and interruptions.
– Optimistic (tO). The activity duration based on analysis of the best-case scenario for the activity.
– Pessimistic (tP). The activity duration based on analysis of the worst-case scenario for the activity.Depending on the assumed distribution of values within the range of the three estimates the expected duration, tE, can be calculated using a formula. Two commonly used formulas are triangular and beta distributions. The formulas are:
– Triangular Distribution. tE = (tO + tM + tP) / 3
– Beta Distribution (from the traditional PERT technique). tE = (tO + 4tM + tP) / 6
Duration estimates based on three points with an assumed distribution provide an expected duration and clarify the range of uncertainty around the expected duration.E = (a + 4m + b) / 6
(2+ (4*4) +12)=30 /6 =5 -
A project lifecycle is defined as:
- a collection of generally sequential and sometimes overlapping project phases.
- a process required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.
- a recognized standard for the project management profession.
- the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.
Explanation:
2.4 Project Life Cycle
A project life cycle is the series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure. The phases are generally sequential, and their names and numbers are determined by the management and control needs of the organization or organizations involved in the project, the nature of the project itself, and its area of application. The phases can be broken down by functional or partial objectives, intermediate results or deliverables, specific milestones within the overall scope of work, or financial availability. Phases are generally time bounded, with a start and ending or control point. A life cycle can be documented within a methodology. The project life cycle can be determined or shaped by the unique aspects of the organization, industry, or technology employed.
While every project has a definite start and a definite end, the specific deliverables and activities that take place in between will vary widely with the project. The life cycle provides the basic framework for managing the project, regardless of the specific work involved. -
Administer Procurements is part of which Process Group?
- Planning
- Executing
- Monitoring and Controlling
- Closing
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The process to ensure that appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used is:
- Plan Quality.
- Perform Quality Assurance.
- Perform Quality Control.
- Total Quality Management.
Explanation:Process: 8.2 Perform Quality Assurance
Definition: The process of auditing the quality requirements and the results from quality control measurements to ensure that appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used.
Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it facilitates the improvement of quality processes.Inputs
1. Quality management plan
2. Process improvement plan
3. Quality metrics
4. Quality control measurements
5. Project documentsTools & Techniques
1. Quality management and control tools
2. Quality audits
3. Process analysis
Outputs
1. Change requests
2. Project management plan updates
3. Project documents updates
4. Organizational process assets updates -
Which Process Group contains the processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project specifications?
- Initiating
- Planning
- Executing
- Closing
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A project manager at a publishing company decides to initiate the editing phase of the project as soon as each chapter is written. Which type of Sequence Activities tool and technique is involved, considering that there was a start-to-start relationship with a 15-day delay?
- Slack
- Float
- Lag
- Lead
Explanation:A lag is the amount of time whereby a successor activity will be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity.
For example, a technical writing team may begin editing the draft of a large document 15 days after they begin writing it.Process: 6.3 Sequence Activities
Definition: The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.
Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it defines the logical sequence of work to obtain the greatest efficiency given all project constraints.Inputs
1. Schedule management plan
2. Activity list
3. Activity attributes
4. Milestone list
5. Project scope statement
6. Enterprise environmental factors
7. Organizational process assets
Tools & Techniques
1. Precedence diagramming method (PDM)
2. Dependency determination
3. Leads and lags
Outputs
1. Project schedule network diagrams
2. Project documents updates -
The completion of the project scope is measured against the:
- requirements documentation.
- project scope statement.
- project management plan.
- work performance measurements.
Explanation:4.2.3.1 Project Management Plan
The project management plan is the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled. It integrates and consolidates all of the subsidiary plans and baselines from the planning processes.
Project baselines include, but are not limited to:
– Scope baseline (Section 5.4.3.1),
– Schedule baseline (Section 6.6.3.1), and
– Cost baseline (Section 7.3.3.1).Subsidiary plans include, but are not limited to:
– Scope management plan (Section 5.1.3.1),
– Requirements management plan (Section 5.1.3.2),
– Schedule management plan (Section 6.1.3.1),
– Cost management plan (Section 7.1.3.1),
– Quality management plan (Section 8.1.3.1),
– Process improvement plan (Section 8.1.3.2),
– Human resource management plan (Section 9.1.3.1),
– Communications management plan (Section 10.1.3.1),
– Risk management plan (Section 11.1.3.1),
– Procurement management plan (Section 12.1.3.1), and
– Stakeholder management plan (Section 13.2.3.1).
Among other things, the project management plan may also include the following:
– Life cycle selected for the project and the processes that will be applied to each phase;
– Details of the tailoring decisions specified by the project management team as follows:
○ Project management processes selected by the project management team,
○ Level of implementation for each selected process,
○ Descriptions of the tools and techniques to be used for accomplishing those processes, and
○ Description of how the selected processes will be used to manage the specific project, including the dependencies and interactions among those processes and the essential inputs and outputs.
– Description of how work will be executed to accomplish the project objectives;
– Change management plan that documents how changes will be monitored and controlled;
– Configuration management plan that documents how Configuration management will be performed;
– Description of how the integrity of the project baselines will be maintained;
– Requirements and techniques for communication among stakeholders; and
– Key management reviews for content, the extent of, and timing to address, open issues and pending decisions.The project management plan may be either summary level or detailed, and may be composed of one or more subsidiary plans. Each of the subsidiary plans is detailed to the extent required by the specific project. Once the project management plan is baselined, it may only be changed when a change request is generated and approved through the Perform Integrated Change Control process.
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The processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project has been undertaken to achieve are grouped within which Process Group?
- Initiating
- Planning
- Executing
- Monitoring and Controlling
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Which input will be used when tasked with developing the human resource plan?
- Project management plan
- Activity resource requirements
- Resource calendar
- Project staff assignments
Explanation:9.1.1.2 Activity Resource Requirements
Described in Section 6.4.3.1. Human resource planning uses activity resource requirements to determine the human resource needs for the project. The preliminary requirements regarding the required project team members and their competencies are progressively elaborated as part of the Plan Human Resource Management process.6.4.3.1 Activity Resource Requirements
Activity resource requirements identify the types and quantities of resources required for each activity in a work package. These requirements then can be aggregated to determine the estimated resources for each work package and each work period. The amount of detail and the level of specificity of the resource requirement descriptions can vary by application area. The resource requirements documentation for each activity can include the basis of estimate for each resource, as well as the assumptions that were made in determining which types of resources are applied, their availability, and what quantities are used.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 -
Which of the following are an enterprise environmental factor that can influence the Identify Risks process?
- Work performance reports
- Assumptions logs
- Network diagrams
- Academic studies
Explanation:11.2.1.12 Enterprise Environmental Factors
Described in Section 2.1.5. Enterprise environmental factors that can influence the Identify Risks process include, but are not limited to:
– Published information, including commercial databases,
– Academic studies,
– Published checklists,
– Benchmarking,
– Industry studies, and
– Risk attitudes.Process: 11.2 Identify Risks
Definition: The process of determining which risks may affect the project and documenting their characteristics.
Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is the documentation of existing risks and the knowledge and ability it provides to the project team to anticipate events.Inputs
1. Risk management plan
2. Cost management plan
3. Schedule management plan
4. Quality management plan
5. Human resource management plan
6. Scope baseline
7. Activity cost estimates
8. Activity duration estimates
9. Stakeholder register
10. Project documents
11. Procurement documents
12. Enterprise environmental factors
13. Organizational process assetsTools & Techniques
1. Documentation reviews
2. Information gathering techniques
3. Checklist analysis
4. Assumptions analysis
5. Diagramming techniques
6. SWOT analysis
Expert judgmentOutputs
1. Risk register -
Which Control Scope input is compared to actual results to determine if corrective action is required for the project?
- Scope baseline
- Scope management plan
- Change management plan
- Cost baseline
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Which process is responsible for monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline?
- Variance Analysis
- Define Scope
- Verify Scope
- Control Scope
Explanation:Process: 5.6 Control Scope
Definition: The process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline.
Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it allows the scope baseline to be maintained throughout the project.Inputs
1. Project management plan
2. Requirements documentation
3. Requirements traceability matrix
4. Work performance data
5. Organizational process assetsTools & Techniques
1. Variance analysisOutputs
1. Work performance information
2. Change requests
3. Project management plan updates
4. Project documents updates
5. Organizational process assets updates -
The total of the planned value (PV) is also known as:
- work breakdown structure (WBS).
- schedule target.
- performance measurement baseline (PMB)
- earned value baseline.
Explanation:
Planned value. Planned value (PV) is the authorized budget assigned to scheduled work. It is the authorized budget planned for the work to be accomplished for an activity or work breakdown structure component, not including management reserve. This budget is allocated by phase over the life of the project, but at a given moment, planned value defines the physical work that should have been accomplished. The total of the PV is sometimes referred to as the performance measurement baseline (PMB). The total planned value for the project is also known as budget at completion (BAC). -
When a permitting agency takes longer than planned to issue a permit, this can be described as a risk:
- event.
- response.
- perception.
- impact.
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Plan-do-check-act is also known as:
- prevention over inspection.
- statistical sampling.
- management responsibility.
- continuous improvement.
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Which of the following is a tool or technique used in the Determine Budget process?
- Variance analysis
- Three-point estimating
- Bottom-up estimating
- Historical relationships
Explanation:7.3.2.4 Historical Relationships
Any historical relationships that result in parametric estimates or analogous estimates involve the use of project characteristics (parameters) to develop mathematical models to predict total project costs. Such models may be simple (e.g., residential home construction is based on a certain cost per square foot of space) or complex (e.g., one model of software development costing uses multiple separate adjustment factors, each of which has numerous points within it).
Both the cost and accuracy of analogous and parametric models can vary widely. They are most likely to be reliable when:
– Historical information used to develop the model is accurate,
– Parameters used in the model are readily quantifable, and
– Models are scalable, such that they work for large projects, small projects, and phases of a project.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 -
The risk shared between the buyer and seller is determined by the:
- assumption log.
- quality checklist.
- risk register.
- contract type.
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The project management processes are usually presented as discrete processes with defined interfaces, while in practice they:
- operate separately.
- move together in batches,
- overlap and interact.
- move in a sequence.
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The process for performing variance analysis may vary, depending on:
- scenario building, technology forecasting, and forecast by analogy.
- working relationships among various stakeholders and team members.
- application area, the standard used, and the industry.
- work to be completed next.
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A tool and technique used during the Define Scope process is:
- facilitated workshops.
- observations.
- questionnaires and surveys.
- group creativity techniques.
Explanation:Facilitated Workshops. An elicitation technique using focused sessions that bring key cross-functional stakeholders together to define product requirements.
Process: 5.3 Define Scope
Definition: The process of developing a detailed description of the project and product.
Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it describes the product, service, or result boundaries by defining which of the requirements collected will be included in and excluded from the project scope.Inputs
1. Scope management plan
2. Project charter
3. Requirements documentation
4. Organizational process assets
Tools & Techniques
1. Expert judgment
2. Product analysis
3. Alternatives generation
4. Facilitated workshops
Outputs
1. Project scope statement
2. Project documents updates