You are the project manager of the NHQ Project. This project has a Budget at Completion of $750,000 and is expected to take 18 months to complete. The project is supposed to be 75 percent complete, but due to some errors the project is only 60 percent complete. At this time the project has spent $465,500. Management has asked you to review the project work and report the project's SPI. What is the SPI for this project?
Correct Answer:
B
The project's schedule performance index (SPI) can be found by using the formula; earned value/planned value. The earned value is the percent of the project completed times the BAC. The planned value is the percentage of where the project should be times the budget at completion. In this instance, the formula reads: $450,000/562500 = 0.80. Schedule performance index (SPI) is the measure of schedule efficiency on a project. It is used in trend analysis to predict future performance. SPI is the ratio of earned value to planned value. The SPI is calculated based on the following formula: SPI = Earned Value (EV) / Planned Value (PV) If the SPI value is greater than 1, it indicates better than expected performance, whereas if the value is less than 1, it shows poor performance. The SPI value of 1 indicates that the project is right on target.
Answer option A is incorrect. This value is the project's Cost Performance Index (CPI). Answer option D is incorrect. This value is the schedule variance for the project. Answer option C is incorrect. $562,500 is the planned value for the project.
Billy is the project manager of the PQW Project and she has an assigned project budget of
$655,000. Currently she is 80 percent complete with the project though she was scheduled to be 100 percent done by this date. She has spent $490,000 to date and other than the project schedule, which was delayed because of a vendor, the project is going well. What should Billy report as her schedule performance index for this project?
Correct Answer:
C
Schedule performance index (SPI) is the measure of schedule efficiency on a project. It is used in trend analysis to predict future performance. SPI is the ratio of earned value to planned value. The SPI is calculated based on the following formula: SPI = Earned Value (EV) / Planned Value (PV) If the SPI value is greater than 1, it indicates better than expected performance, whereas if the value is less than 1, it shows poor performance. The SPI value of 1 indicates that the project is right on target. You can find the planned value by multiplying where Billy should be in the project, 100 percent, by the project's budget. In this instance the planned value is $655,000 because she is to be 100 percent complete. Answer option B is incorrect. The SPI simply reports a value not an explanation.
Answer option A is incorrect. 1.23 is the cost performance index for the project. Answer option D is incorrect. $524,000 is the earned value for the project.
Terri is the project manager for her organization and she is working with her project team to develop the project schedule. She has identified the float in her project although some of the activities where float exists may be susceptible to risk in the project execution. She is also concerned that the critical path may change during the project if the risk events come into execution. What scheduling method is Terri using in this example?
Correct Answer:
D
Terri is using the critical path method in this example. The question acknowledges that Terri has identified float and the critical path, but it makes no mention of the availability of project resources - something the critical chain method focuses on. Critical Path Method, abbreviated CPM, or Critical Path Analysis, is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. It is an important tool for effective project management. It provides the following benefits: Provides the graphical view of the project. Predicts the time required to complete the project. Shows which activities are critical to maintain the schedule and which are not. CPM models the activities and events of a project as a network. Activities are depicted as nodes on the network, and events that signify the
beginning or ending of activities are depicted as arcs or lines between the nodes. Answer option A is incorrect. The question does not indicate that Terri is concerned with the availability of project resources - as she would be if she were using the critical chain method.
Answer option B is incorrect. The risk analysis method is not a valid scheduling technique. Answer option C is incorrect. Activity on the arrow method is not being described in this question.
You are the project manager for your organization. You are working with your virtual team to create activity duration estimates for your current project. This virtual team is comprised of team members from around the world. Much of this process will be completed by geographical locations though some conferences will require all the team members to participate and to coordinate the activities that will interact between the different sites. The project manager must consider all of the following when creating the activity duration estimates except for which one?
Correct Answer:
B
When it comes to creating the project's activity duration estimating, the critical path is not yet a concern. The critical path will be determined by the duration of the project activities and the sequencing of the project events. A critical path is the sequence of project activities, which add up to the longest overall duration. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project. Any delay of an activity on the critical path directly impacts the planned project completion date (i.e. there is no float on the critical path). A project can have several, parallel, near critical paths. An additional parallel path through the network with the total durations shorter than the critical path is called a sub-critical or non-critical path. These results allow managers to prioritize activities for the effective management of project completion, and to shorten the planned critical path of a project by pruning critical path activities, by "fast tracking" (i.e., performing more activities in parallel), and/or by "crashing the critical path" (i.e., shortening the durations of critical path activities by adding resources).
Answer option C is incorrect. The resource calendar must be considered for the availability of the project resource.
Answer option A is incorrect. The project calendar must be considered to determine when the project work is allowed to take place in the different sites.
Answer option D is incorrect. Time zone differences must be considered for communication demands and coordination of events between the geographical sites.
You are working with your project team to control the project schedule. You will need five inputs to this process throughout your project. Which one of the following is an output of the project schedule control, and NOT an input?
Correct Answer:
D
Work performance measurements are created from the work performance information. WPMs are an output of Control schedule, Control cost, and Control scope processes, which are monitoring and controlling processes. WPMs consist of planned versus actual performance indicators with respect to scope, schedule, and cost. They are documented and communicated to the stakeholders and are used to make project activity metrics, such as the following: Planned vs. Actual Technical performance and Scope performance Planned vs. Actual Schedule performance Planned vs. Actual Cost performance
Answer option A is incorrect. Work performance information is an input to the control schedule process and includes information on project progress and activity start and finish information.
Answer option C is incorrect. The project management plan is an input to the control schedule process.
Answer option B is incorrect. The project schedule is an input to the control schedule process.
