Cards for Shack Flashcards
1
Q
In what document is a vendor’s payment schedule recorded?
A
The Statement of Work (not in the contract / agreement)
2
Q
What is “swarming?”
A
When all development team members work on just one requirement at a time.
3
Q
What’s the difference between the stakeholder management plan and the communication management plan?
A
The stakeholder management plan is about who gets what information. The communication management plan is about the mechanics of communications, independent of who gets what.
4
Q
Which comes first in the change control process? Approving the change or analyzing the impact?
A
Analyze the impact.
5
Q
What’s the difference between the contingency reserve and the management reserve?
A
Contingency reserve is used to react to previously identified risks. It is already a part of the cost baseline, and therefore the project manager does not need a change request to access those funds; nor does the cost baseline need to updated before using them.
By contrast, the management reserve is used to react to unidentified risks. It is not part of the cost baseline, so in order to access those funds, the project manager must first create a change request to update the cost baseline.
6
Q
In what document are intellectual property rights documented?
A
The requirements document
(Nnot in any of the procurement documents, although this begs the question about how the vendor would know what the IP rules are…)
7
Q
What is the Iron Triangle?
A
The triangle of schedule, scope, and cost – with quality as the fourth element, that is balanced by those three.
8
Q
What does OPA stand for?
A
Organizational process assets
The plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organization.
9
Q
What is float?
A
The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project duration. Non critical-path steps have float; critical path steps do not. Also called “slack.”
10
Q
Do critical path steps have float?
A
Nope
11
Q
What is slack?
A
Another term for float.
12
Q
What is Rolling Wave planning?
A
A type of “progressive elaboration.” Whereas “progress elaboration” just means “generally get more precise over time,” rolling wave is a bit more specific about timing of clarity, because it adds the idea that details will be provided as the work gets close, whereas future work will likely remain fuzzy.
13
Q
What is a risk trigger?
A
An indicator that a risk is about to occur or has occurred. For example, if there’s a risk that says “Our scrum master may quit,” the moment that the scrum master actually quits is the risk trigger.
14
Q
What is the Tuckerman Ladder?
A
A model of team cohesion, stating that teams move through five steps:
- Forming (getting started),
- Storming (fighting),
- Norming (getting used to each other),
- Performing (when everything is working well), and
- Adjourning (breaking up).
Sometimes teams get stuck in storming, and to get out of that phase, the project manager may need to create or walk the team through the team management plan, which describes (in part) how the team will work together.
15
Q
What are the five process groups?
A
The phases of a project: Initiation Planning Executing Monitoring and Controlling Closing "I Positively Enjoy MagiC Cards"
16
Q
What are the ten knowledge areas?
A
These are the ten areas that get their own plans as part of the project management plan: Integration management Schedule management Scope management Cost management Quality management Resource management Communication management Risk management Procurement management Stakeholder management "I Saw Silly Cats Quietly Reciting Carols in a Really Poetic Scene"
17
Q
What should a project manager do with unused contingency reserve at the end of a project?
A
Remove it from the budget.
18
Q
What is Gold Plating?
A
Going above and beyond for the project.
19
Q
What is a Tornado Diagram used for?
A
Determining which variable (among many) is most important in terms of project outcomes.
20
Q
What is brain writing?
A
A technique for generating ideas (or brainstorming). Also known as the 6-3-5 method, it means six people each write three ideas on a piece of paper (in less than five minutes). Then everyone passes their paper to the next person, for another three ideas. This is done a total of 5 times and generates 108 ideas in an hour. This has some advantages over people shouting out ideas to a moderator.
21
Q
What is TCPI
A
To Complete Performance Index
It answers a COST question: “How are we doing overall?” by calculating “How much work is left” / “How much money do we have left?”
Anything under 1 is happy; anything over 1 is sad.
It informs the next question: ““How efficiently must we use our remaining financial resources?”
It combines four inputs: budget at completion, earned value, actual cost, and estimate at completion.
(BAC-EV) / (EAC - AC)
22
Q
What is a salience model?
A
A way of categorizing stakeholders. Specifically, it plots their urgency, power, and legitimacy.
Typically drawn as a Venn diagram of those three topics, with the intersections being words like “dormant” and “dangerous” and “dominant” and “dependent.”
These words are an input to the the stakeholder register, which may include one of those words next to each stakeholder.
23
Q
What is lead time?
A
The time for a process to complete, start to finish, including breaks and pauses. Elapsed time.
But contrast this with cycle time, which is just the time spent on tasks.
24
Q
What is cycle time?
A
Cycle time is the amount of time spent actually working on a task or process.
It’s shorter than Lead Time, because it excludes (for example) the time between a process starting (order the pizza) and the time someone actually starts working on it (start making the pizza).
It also has different units, since it’s time PER TASK, not just time elapsed.
25
What does the Requirements Traceability Matrix track?
Scope, requirements, and deliverables.
So, for example, it answers the question "Where would I go to find the scope effect of a change request?"
Note that in Agile, this document may not exist at all, in favor of user stories that have requestor and test cases as attributes.
26
What are three top project management software tools?
Monday, Wrike, and Smartsheet
27
What is the first thing a project manager should do after a change request has been approved?
Update the change log.
28
What is variability risk?
Any risk were the results could go either way (e.g. higher or lower).
29
What does "single source" mean? How is it different from "sole source?"
Single source: there are multiple vendors who could provide the service, but you choose to work with only one.
Sole source: there is only one vendor who can provide the service.
30
What is the Activity Attributes document?
Provides details about each activity, including (for example), a tie back to WBS id, geographical location where the activity will be done, constraints, precedents and successors (so it overlaps with the gantt chart in some respects).
31
What document would you look at to see where (in the world) certain project activities will be done?
The Activity Attributes document.
The Activity List and the Activity Attributes documents are about tasks.
By contrast, the WBS and WBS Dictionary are about deliverables.
32
Where would you look to see what seller invoices have been paid?
Work Performance data.
| Not, apparently, the SOW: that describes the payment schedule, but not actual payments.
33
What is the difference between Work Performance Data and Work Performance Information?
Work Performance Data raw data.
| Work Performance Information is analysis.
34
What is RAM?
The Responsibility Assignment Matrix: a chart that shows the responsibility of people (usually across the top) to specific tasks (usually along the side). Unlike a pure RACI chart, a RAM might have verbs like "primarily responsible," "secondarily responsible," or "approver."
RACI is a type of RAM (says the PMBOK)
35
What are the differences between a RAM, an OBS, an RBS, and a WBS?
WBS (Work Breakdown Structure): describes at an estimable level the specific deliverables a project must produce.
RBS (Resource Breakdown Structure): describes the resources (usually people) which can perform the activities.
OBS (Organization Breakdown Structure): describes the organizational relationships and constraints under which the resources within the RBS should be considered
RAM (Responsibility Assignment Matrix) : maps the specific responsibility assignments from the RBS to the WBS.
36
What is PMM?
Project Management Methodology: it's how things are done in an organization, but not part of the project documentation.
37
What forms the basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, and monitoring and controlling project work?
Activities
38
What is the purpose of developing a project scope management plan?
Ensure that the project includes all of the work required.
| NOT "to make sure the project will fulfill the needs for which it was begun"(!)
39
What are the options for dealing with positive risk?
Exploit, enhance, share, accept (NOT transfer).
40
What are the options for dealing with negative risk?
Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate, Accept (NOT share).
41
What is ADR?
Alternative Dispute Resolution: this means arbitration and mediation. Apparently it requires "claims administration."
42
Does the WBS tell you *who* will do the work?
NO. (If you want to map activities to people, you need the Responsibility Assignment Matrix.)
43
In which Knowledge Area is the project charter developed?
Project Integration Management
44
In positive risk, what's the difference between "enhance" and "exploit?"
In the enhance strategy you are trying to increase the probability of the opportunity happening, but in the exploit strategy you increase the probability of the opportunity to 100%.
45
Does a request for information result in a offer from the seller?
NO. It only results in information.
46
What document describes how direct and indirect costs will be handled?
The scope statement, which is part of the scope baseline.
The scope statement has three parts:
1. Project justification
2. Project deliverables
3. Project objectives
It creates the boundaries of a project (contrast with the project charter, which authorizes the project manager to use defined resources to complete a project).
47
What is EMV?
Expected Monetary Value. It is a statistical technique in risk management used to quantify risks and calculate the contingency reserve.
It calculates the average outcome of all future events that may or may not happen by multiplying likelihood x impact, where impact is the financial impact.
Every risk should have an EMV calculated. EMV will be negative for negative risks and positive for positive risks.
At budget time, you add up all those positives and negatives, and that's your contingency reserve.
48
What is project expeditor?
Someone who helps the project manager with logistics. This person has no decision-making power.
49
What is a project coordinator?
Someone who acts as a deputy of the project manager, helping to manage and control the project.
A project coordinator has decision-making authority.
50
Work performance information is an output of which process?
| And what are the inputs, tools, and outputs of that process?
Control communication -- because that's where the data gets turned into information, apparently.
Inputs
1. Project management plan
2. Project communications
3. Issue log
4. Work performance DATA
5. Organizational process assets
Tools
1. Information management systems
2. Expert judgment
3. Meetings
Outputs
1. Work performance INFORMATION
2. Change requests
3. Project management plan updates
4. Project documents updates
5. Organizational process assets updates
51
What is scope verification?
One of the processes: Getting the stakeholders to formally accept completed deliverables.
Inputs:
1. Project scope statement
2. WBS dictionary
3. Project scope management plan
4. Deliverables
Tools and techniques:
1. Inspection
Outputs
1. Accepted deliverables
2. Requested changes
3. Recommended corrective actions
52
What the Difference between Risk Appetite, Risk Tolerance, and Risk Threshold?
Risk Appetite: "The degree of uncertainty an organization or individual is willing to accept in anticipation of a reward."
Risk Tolerance: "The degree, amount, or volume of risk that an organization or individual will withstand."
Risk Threshold: "The level of risk exposure above which risks are addressed and below which risks may be accepted."
53
What happens with the sealed bid method?
Market forces determine the price. The lowest bidder wins (assuming all other obligations are met), and there are apparently no contract negotiations.
54
What's the difference between avoiding risk and mitigating risk?
Avoiding completely removes the risk: 100%. Mitigate means dealing with it by reducing its probability or impact.
55
What is the WBS Register?
There is no such thing!
56
What is the WBS Dictionary?
Seems to be a weird document list that's highly redundant with the RAM (Responsibility Assignment Matrix): show the tasks from the WBS, but with resources assigned, start dates and end dates, constraints, costs -- all the stuff you put into Microsoft Project.
57
What are the conflict resolution techniques?
There are five:
1. Withdraw/Avoid
2. Smooth/Accommodate
3. Compromise/Reconcile
4. Force/Direct
5. Collaborate/Problem Solve
58
What are the types of dependencies?
There are four:
1. Mandatory: required by contract or law
2. Discretionary: at the project team's discretion (also called Preferred Logic, Preferential Logic or Soft Logic)
3. External: dependency between a project activity and an activity outside the project, not part of the project.
4. Internal: dependencies between to project activities
59
What are the Project Time Management processes?
There are six:
1. Plan Schedule Management
2. Define Activities
3. Sequence Activities
4. Estimate Activity Durations
5. Develop Schedule
6. Control Schedule
60
What is PERT?
"Program Evaluation and Review Technique"
A way to predict the probability of something.
Add the optimistic scenario, four times the most likely scenario, and the pessimistic scenario; then divide by six.
(Compare this with triangular distribution.)
It's a technique in the Program Evaluation Review process.
61
What is sensitivity analysis?
The technique used in Quantitative Risk Assessment.
It analyzes how changes in a specific model variable impact the output of the model.
62
What is Tight Matrix?
A team building approach; specifically, one in which the project team is colocated. It facilitates concurrent activity.
63
What is the first step in the Project Scope Management process?
Prepare the scope management plan.
64
What are the inputs, tools, and outputs of the Integrated Change Control process?
Inputs:
1. Project management plan
2. Project documents
3. Work performance reports
4. Change requests
5. Enterprise environmental factors
6. Organizational process assets
Tools
1. Expert judgment
2. Change control tools
3. Data analysis
4. Decision making
5. Meetings
Outputs
1. Approved change requests
2. Project management plan updates
3. Project documents updates
65
What is Kaizen?
Eliminating waste and taking steps toward Lean Manufacturing.
66
Who are the three main thinkers about quality (as far as the PMBOK is concerned?
Deming, Juran, and Crosby
67
What is TQM?
Total Quality Management. It means the elimination of all waste.
It also means building quality into all steps of a process (rather than waiting to perform inspection at the end).
It also means every layer of the organization is involved in quality.
68
What is Zero Defects?
A performance standard in quality. A term coined by Philip Crosby
69
What type of analysis is used for Plan Quality Management?
Cost-benefit (deciding how much quality is worth).
70
What is a Control Account?
A predefined point in the WBS, at which performance is measured (check for things like EV vs. PV and the other performance metrics).
It's the second layer of the WBS, above work package (which is above activities).
In other words, its a chunk of the budget and value, measured on its own as opposed to always measuring the entire project.
71
During which process group is the quality policy determined?
Planning
72
A regression line is used to estimate:
How a change to an independent variable affects the value of a dependent variable.
Regression analysis helps predict things when we don't have all the data we'd like.
73
Through whom do project managers accomplish work?
Project team members and stakeholders.
74
What is weak matrix organization?
The project manager is weak (likely part-time) and is just a coordinator. The real bosses are the functional managers.
75
What is a triangular distribution?
A way to predict the probability of something. Add the optimistic scenario, the most likely scenario, and the pessimistic scenario, and divide by three.
76
Which type of probability distribution is used to represent uncertain events such as the outcome of a test or a possible scenario in a decision tree?
Discrete.
Discrete distributions are where the data can only take on certain characteristics (like always be integers).
Contrast that with a continuous distribution, which has infinite possibilities.
77
What is tailoring?
The effort of addressing each process to determine which are appropriate, and how much rigor to apply.
78
What are the processes within Project Initiation?
There are only two:
1. Develop Project Charter (produces project charter)
2. Identify Stakeholders (produces stakeholder register)
79
What is in the project charter?
Seven things:
1. Scope statement
2. Milestones
3. Business case
4. Funding amount
5. Funding status
6. Success criteria
7. List of stakeholders
80
What's the difference between BAC and EAC?
Both are part of earned value management.
BAC = Budget at Completion. The authorized spend.
EAC = Estimate at Completion. The expected spend.
It forecasts the project budget while the project is in progress, taking into account the unplanned costs, so it's more up to date.
81
```
What is
1. free float,
2. positive float,
3. negative float,
4. total float,
5 project float?
```
Free float: is only calculated on the last activity in a sequence. It is early finish of activity 1 minus the early start of the next activity 2. It represents the amount of time that activity 1 can be delayed without delaying the EARLY start date of the successor activity.
Positive float:
Negative float: a bad situation, when the early dates for an activity are later than the late dates. This only happens when there are constraints upon one activity's dates that are in conflict with slippage occurring earlier in the project. Negative float is an early warning sign that you're going to miss a date.
Total float: apparently a synonym for "float?" Except that it is the float of activities in a sequence: the early start date of activity 1 and the late start date of activity 2.
Project float: the time the entire project can be delayed without affecting some external completion requirement. It's usually zero in real life.
82
What is the precedence diagramming method?
A visual representation of activities (a flowchart).
Also called a Nodal Diagram OR a Network Diagram OR an Arrow Diagram.
However, it goes beyond other techniques (like PERT and Critical Path Method CPM), which only handle "finish-start" relationships.
The precedence diagramming method allows multiple precedents and dependencies.
83
What is risk attitude?
The perceived balance between an organization's risk tolerance and risk appetite.
84
```
Which is more accurate:
analogous estimating,
parametric estimating,
three-point estimating,
bottom-up estimating?
```
Bottom-up is the most accurate, but requires a lot of detail about the activity, is the most time-consuming, and expensive.
Parametric is accurate for cases where units are quantifiable and scalable (like cost per foot of road).
Analogous is not very accurate, and is used primarily at the beginning of a project to rough something out based on a previous and similar project.
Three point estimating is just a way of smoothing over swings in estimating. This includes PERT and the triangle methods.
85
What are some examples of enterprise environmental factors?
Memorize seven:
1. Organizational culture
2. Organizational structure
3. Internal and external political climate
4. Existing human resources
5. Available capital resources
6. Regulatory environment
7. Financial and market conditions
Think of EEF as "information" where as OPA are "tools or constraints."
86
What are the the configuration management activities included in the Integrated Change Control process?
1. Configuration identification
2. Configuration accounting
3. Configuration verification and audit
87
What is a "cost plus award fee" (CPAF) contract?
The seller is reimbursed for allowable costs.
The award is based on the buyer's satisfaction, and cannot be challenged (appealed).
88
What is the critical chain method?
It is a scheduling technique that modifies the project schedule to account for limited resources by adding duration buffers that are non-work schedule activities to maintain focus on the planned activity durations.
You do critical path first. Then you come back, looking at resource constraints, and adding buffers in reaction to those constraints.
89
What is fixed-formula status reporting?
A type of earned value method.
You assign a percentage of the budget value for a particular work package to the start milestone, and the remainder to the finish milestone.
The project manager and the stakeholders can set the ratio: can be 0% / 100%, or 20% / 80%, etc.
Simple, but not great for managing change.
90
What is a composite organization?
One that blends the functional, matrix, and projectized types of organizations.
91
What is the critical path?
The longest path through the schedule with either zero or negative total float.
Any activity on that path is a "critical activity."
92
What is the critical path?
The longest path through the schedule with either zero or negative total float.
Any activity on that path is a "critical activity."
93
What is the definition of project plan execution?
Performing the activities in the project plan.
94
What is the difference (in PMP terms) between qualitative and quantitative risk analysis?
In PMP terms (but not in real life), qualitative risk analysis is assessing likelihood and impact of individual risks.
By contrast, quantitative risk analysis is at the *project* level, happens *after* qualitative risk analysis, and calculates probabilistic estimates of time and cost. It's time-consuming, requires high-quality data, and requires specialized tools.
95
When measuring quality, what does a scatter diagram do for you?
Visually represents the correlation between two variables (dependent and independent).
96
Where are requirements for formal contract acceptance and closure usually defined?
Contract terms
| Not in the SOW
97
When, during a project, is stakeholders' influence at its highest?
The start of the project.
98
A Pareto chart is a specific type of what kind of diagram?
Histogram
99
What are the outputs of the information distribution process?
1. Organizational process asset updates
| 2. Requested changes
100
Who has the authority to change a contract?
The contracts administrator.
| Not the project manager.
101
Which tools or techniques are used in the Develop Project Management Plan process?
Only two:
1. Expert judgment
2. Facilitation techniques
102
What is SPI and how do you calculate it?
SPI = schedule performance index
It tells you how *efficiently* you're delivering value on time.
EV / PV, which produces a number around 1
Greater than 1 is good
Less than 1 is bad
103
What is SV and how do you calculate it?
SV = schedule variance
Like SPI, it tells you how much you're on or off schedule.
EV - PV
Greater than 0 is good
Less than 0 is bad
104
What is CV and how do you calculate it?
CV = cost variance
It tells you how much you're on or off budget.
EV - AC
Greater than 0 is good
Less than 0 is bad
105
What is CPI and how do you calculate it?
CPI = cost performance index
It tells you how *efficiently* you're delivering value against the budget
EV / AC, which produces a number around 1
Greater than 1 is good
Less than 1 is bad
106
What is the formula to calculate EV?
Percentage of completed work time BAC (budget at completion)
107
(Might be a bogus question) While processes in the Planning Process Group seek to collect feedback and define project documents to guide project work, organizational procedures dictate when the project planning:
Correct answer apparently is "ends."
| But not "begins." Have no idea why.
108
What documents define scope?
During initiation, scope is defined by the scope statement.
However, during planning, the WBS takes over and becomes the gold source.
109
What's the difference between "develop project team" and "plan resource management?"
Plan Resource Management means "how many people, and what are their job descriptions; how performance will be assessed; where the project team will work; how to handle conflicts."
Develop Project Team means "A constant activity to make the team better: performance reviews, team building activities, recognition, and rewards."
110
In PMP land, what's the difference between trend analysis and variance analysis?
Trend analysis is where you are forecasting: what has happened and can I use that to predict the future?
Variance analysis is where you have all the data and you're comparing what happened to what was expected.
111
In PMP land, in what process group does "Identify Risks" live?
Planning, apparently
| Even though risks are a part of the project charter. I fucking hate this nonsense.
112
What are WIP limits?
Basically a synonym for how much work a team can do in a sprint. If they have to work overtime to finish work, their WIP limits need to be reset (downgraded).
113
What's the relationship between Agile, Lean, and Kanban?
Agile and Kanban are specifically-named subsets of Lean/
114
When is a predictive approach (rather than an agile approach) appropriate for a project?
When the project requirements are known and the project scope is defined.
115
What tool helps the team improve its effectiveness by visualizing the flow of work, making impediments easily visible, and allowing flow to be managed by adjusting work in process limits?
Apparently it's the Kanban Board.
| Not the burndown chart.
116
What are the artifacts of the scrum framework?
There are three:
1. Product backlog
2. Sprint backlog
3. Increments (huh??? but it's in the PMBOK so whatever)
117
What are the values of the agile manifesto?
There are four; get these combinations correct verbatim because the test will mix them up:
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools,
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation,
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation,
4. Responding to change over following a plan.
118
What is an information radiator in agile?
A visible, physical display that provides information to the rest of the organization enabling up-to-the-minute knowledge sharing without having to disturb the team. It is openly shared with all team members and other stakeholders and continuously updated. It includes information such as the Kanban or task board, the team velocity, continuous integration status, the progress of the team, and Sprint Burndown Charts.
Apparently the scrum master should use this, rather than status reporting, to satisfy everyone -- including executives!
119
What is Beta distribution?
Same as Pert?
| (Pessimistic + (best guess x 4) + optimistic) / 6
120
If a project gets terminated, what should the project manager do first?
Close out procurements, apparently.
121
A quality control member informed the project manager about a one-week schedule delay to complete the testing phase. What should the project manager do first?
Check to see if it's on the critical path. If there's no impact, there's no need to react.
122
Quality metrics are defined during which process?
Plan quality management
| Not define scope
123
What's a lower-cost technique for quality checking if you can't do any many checks as you'd like?
Statistical sampling.
124
When does the project kick-off meeting happen?
At the end of planning.
125
What is the purpose of the project kick-off meeting?
To get commitment from the key stakeholders.
126
Who approves change requests?
It depends!
For changes that do not impact plans or baselines, decisions are usually made by the project manager.
If baselines are going to be impacted, then the approval decisions is made by the CCB (change control board), and additionally by the customer and sponsor if they are not part of the CCB already.
127
In PMP land, what's the best technique to get a team to work better together?
Co-location. PMI seems to love it.
128
What type of estimation is used when building the activity durations from the WBS?
Bottom-up estimation.
129
In PMP land, what type of communication sharing is a web portal?
Pull communication.
(This is utter BS, since the information is being pushed, but in PMP land, they focus on the user's immediate action, not the directionality of the information flow.)
130
When does the identify stakeholders process happen
In the planning process bundle, and therefore after the project charter has been created.
This is counterintuitive, since stakeholders are in the project charter, but in PMP Land that's the story.
131
Where would you find project exit criteria?
In the project charter
132
What cost estimation technique should be used in a fixed-price contract?
Bottom-up estimating.
The logic is that in any fixed-price contract, you'd better have your requirements nailed down in detail.
When requirements are nailed down in detail, you can use bottom-up estimating, which is the most accurate technique for cost estimation.
