You are the project manager for your organization. Management has offered you a bonus if you can complete the project work two months earlier than what your schedule predicts. You can use a schedule compression technique, but management does not want to increase costs in the project. What approach would you recommend to condense the project duration?
Correct Answer:
A
Of all the choices, only fast tracking is an option that would not increase project costs. Fast tracking allows phases of the project to overlap, but it does increase project risks. Fast tracking is a technique for compressing project schedule. In fast tracking, phases are overlapped that would normally be done in sequence. It is shortening the project schedule without reducing the project scope.
Answer option B is incorrect. Crashing adds labor to the project and increases project costs.
Answer option C is incorrect. Effort-driven activity analysis examines activities whose duration may be reduced by adding labor. This approach, however, increases project costs, as it is a form of project crashing.
Answer option D is incorrect. Rewards and recognitions are good incentives for the project team, but simply offering the reward does not decrease the duration of the project.
Fred is the project manager of the NHA project. This project has a BAC of $2,456,900 and is sixty percent complete. Fred has crashed the project, which has driven the project costs to date to $1,525,140, but his project is five percent more complete than what was planned. What is the schedule variance for this project that Fred needs to report to the management?
Correct Answer:
B
There is positive variance of $122,845 on Fred's project. Variances can be either positive or negative. Schedule variance (SV) is a measure of schedule performance on a project. The variance notifies that the schedule is ahead or behind what was planned for this period in time. The schedule variance is calculated based on the following formula: SV = Earned Value (EV) - Planned Value (PV) If the resulting schedule is negative, it indicates that the project is behind schedule. A value greater than 0 shows that the project is ahead of the planned schedule. A value of 0 indicates that the project is right on target.
Answer option C is incorrect. This is the project's variance at completion. Answer option D is incorrect. This is the cost variance for the project. Answer option A is incorrect. This is not a valid answer for the project.
You are the project manager of the NHA Project. This project is expected to last one year with quarterly milestones throughout the year. Your project is supposed to be at the third milestone today, but you are likely to be only 60 percent complete. Your project has a BAC of $745,000 and you have spent $440,000 of the budget-to-date. What is your cost variance for this project?
Correct Answer:
D
The cost variance is the earned value minus the actual costs. In this project, you have spent less than what the project is worth, so the project has a positive cost variance. Cost variance (CV) is a measure of cost performance on a project. The variance notifies if costs are higher than budgeted or lower than budgeted. The cost variance is calculated based on the following formula: CV = Earned Value (EV) - Actual Cost (AC) A positive value means that spending is less than budgeted, whereas a negative value indicates that costs are higher than originally planned for the project.
Answer option B is incorrect. -$111,750 is the cost variance of the project. Answer option A is incorrect. This is the variance at completion for the project. Answer option C is incorrect. There is a cost variance, albeit a positive one.
You are the project manager of the NNN Project. Stakeholders in the two-year project have requested to send status reports to them via email every week. You have agreed and are sending the reports on each Thursday. After six months of the project, the stakeholders are pleased with the project progress and they would like you to reduce the status reports to every two weeks. What process will examine the change to this project process and implement it in the project?
Correct Answer:
B
Although this appears to be a simple change the project manager must still follow the rules of the project's change control system. Perform Integrated Change Control is the process of reviewing all change requests, approving changes, and controlling changes to the deliverables and organizational process assets in a project. Perform Integrated Change Control has to do with influencing the things that cause change, determining that the change is required or has happened, and managing the change.
Answer option D is incorrect. Communications management is the execution of the communications management plan.
Answer option A is incorrect. The project change control process not valid as it's the parent of the integrated change control process, which is more accurate for this question.
Answer option C is incorrect. Configuration management is the documentation and control of the product's features and functions.
What time will you record for this activity?
Correct Answer:
A
This is an example of a three-point estimate. A three-point estimate records the optimistic, most likely, and the pessimistic duration, and then records an average for the predicted duration Three-point estimate is a way to enhance the accuracy of activity duration estimates. This concept is originated with the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). PERT charts the following three estimates: Most likely (TM): The duration of activity based on realistic factors such as resources assigned, interruptions, etc. Optimistic (TO): The activity duration based on the best-case scenario
Pessimistic (TP): The activity duration based on the worst-case scenario
The expected (TE) activity duration is a weighted average of these three estimates:
TE = (TO + 4TM + TP) / 6
Duration estimates based on the above equations (sometimes simple average of the three estimates is also used) provide more accuracy. It can be calculated as follows:
TE = ( 20 + 45*4 + 90) / 6
= 290/6
=48
Answer options B, C, and D are incorrect. These are not the valid answers for this question.
