General Knowledge Flashcards
(95 cards)
1
Q
What is the PMI definition of a project?
A
A temporary endeavour undertaken to provide a unique product or service.
2
Q
What is the definition of Project Management?
A
The application of knowledge, skills and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
3
Q
What are the three constraints that affect most projects?
A
Scope (results), Time (schedule), Cost (budget). All three affect the quality of the project.
4
Q
What is the relationship of the three constraints?
A
Changes in one will affect the others. i.e: Reducing the time to complete a project will probably force a reduction in the scope. Increasing the scope will probably increase the cost and schedule.
5
Q
What defines the Scope?
A
Project deliverables and the work required to produce them.
6
Q
What is a deliverable?
A
What the project produces or delivers, a tangible or verifiable piece of work. It is an object, not an activity. Stated with a noun, not a verb.
7
Q
What is a Program?
A
A group of related projects that are managed together to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.
8
Q
What is a Portfolio?
A
A collection of projects (or programs) that are grouped together for easy management. The projects do not necessarily need to be related but must share a common strategic objective.
9
Q
What is a resource?
A
People, equipment, materials, infrastructure and money used to complete a activity.
10
Q
How are human and equipment resources normally measured?
A
In time.
11
Q
How are Materials Measured?
A
Amounts.
12
Q
What is a Project Management System?
A
A set of methods, tools, procedures and resources used by a Project Manager.
13
Q
What is a Predictive Approach suited for?
A
Projects that are stable, have low volatility, uncertainty, ambiguity or complexity. The emphasis is on up front planning.
14
Q
Pros for Predictive Approach?
A
Easy to use, division between stages is more intuitive, more structured, usually well documented.
15
Q
Cons for Predictive approach?
A
Higher risk if things go wrong causing delays or having to start over. Relies heavily on team understanding.
16
Q
What is Adaptive Approach suitable for?
A
Iterative projects that have high likelihood of change, uncertainty or requirements that will be refined with each iteration. Creative projects.
17
Q
Pros for Adaptive Projects.
A
Flexible, freedom due to short iteration cycles. Lower risk as changes are small and adaptive. Frequent stakeholder involvement.
18
Q
Cons of Adaptive Projects.
A
Constant changes make resource management and scheduling challenging. Requires constant feedback and demands on stakeholder time.
19
Q
What is a Hybrid Approach?
Stylistic and binary.
A
Combination of Adaptive and Predictive. Flexible but also structured. Broad plans are made up front but will be refined through an iterative process.
20
Q
Advantages of Hybrid (predictive and adaptive PM approaches).
A
Flexible. If requirements don’t change, change can be made quickly.
21
Q
Cons of Hybrid.
A
Requires a lot of compromise. Combination of methodologies can be confusing to the team and be a lot to manage.
22
Q
What is the project life cycle? What does the team contribute?
A
Analysis, Design, Development, Testing, Deploy/Sustainment.
23
Q
What are the steps in the Project Management Process? What does the PM do?
A
Initiation, Planning, Execution/Control, Closing.
24
Q
How is a Functional Organization Structured and what is the PM’s role?
A
Teams are grouped by their function (Developers, Engineering, Marketing etc..) with each dept having a Lead or Manager. The PM has little authority and usually more of a coordinator.
25
What are the advantages of a Functional Organization?
Grouped by specialty. Only one line of reporting. Clear career path.
26
What are disadvantages of Functional Organization?
Work is not organized into projects so therefore no authority or career path for the PM.
27
How is a Projectized Organization structured and what is the role of the PM?
Team are created for specific projects with many disciplines on each team. PM has high authority and control.
28
What is the advantages of a Projectized Organization?
Promotes team development and communication.
29
What is the disadvantage of a Projectized Organization?
Not always an efficient use of all resources. Difficult to maintain continuity between projects.
30
What are the three types of a Matrix Organization?
Weak: Similar to a Functional Organization. Low PM authority.
Balanced: Also similar to Functional organization but with more authority to the PM.
Strong Matrix: Similar to Projectized with strong PM support and standardized practices with a PMO.
31
What are the advantages to a Matrix Organization?
Optimized staff with shared and coordinated Resources. Highly visible project objectives. Lots of PM control and authority.
32
What are disadvantages to a Matrix Organization?
Conflicting priorities. Team member have more than one boss. Lots of admin people and costs. Complex communication and resource allocation.
33
What are the three categories of stakeholders?
| General. Not a stance or level of influence.
Common Project Stakeholders (People directly involved)
Common Internal Stakeholders (Management, Accounting etc..)
Common External Stakeholders (Anyone who cares that's not the other two)
34
What are the 5 levels of Stakeholder Awareness/Stance?
| This is a gradient.
Leading
Supportive
Neutral
Resistant
Unaware
35
What is a Stakeholder Awareness Matrix?
Plotting each stakeholder into a grid with their CURRENT level of awareness (unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive, leading) and their DESIRED level.
36
What are common roles of a stakeholder within an organization?
1. Project Manager
2. Sponsor
3. Management
4. Customer/Client
5. Performing Organization
6. Team
37
What are the four quadrants and approaches for each of a Stake Holder Matrix?
Hi Inf, Lo Support | Hi Inf, Hi Support
Lo Inf, Lo Support | Lo Inf, Hi Support
Blockers - Keep satisfied. Consult and negotiation
Key Stakeholder - Manage closely. Partnership and collaboration.
Bystanders - Monitor. Advocate.
Supports - Keep Informed. Information and participation.
38
What are the four levels of support or investment of a stakeholder?
Key Stakeholder - Promoters and cheerleaders. High influence and high investment.
Supporters - Promoters but not a lot of influence.
Blockers - Oppose the project. Possibly high influence to sabotage or end the project.
Bystander - Low influence and low support. Monitor to see if their influence or support change.
39
What are the 5 stages of a project needs life cycle?
1. Needs emerge - When a need arises.
2. Needs recognition - When a need is acknowledged as being important.
3. Needs articulation - Defining the need in clear terms.
4. Functional requirements definition - The condition or capability the project must conform to.
5. Technical requirements definition - defining the technical details of the project. Used to establish the scope.
40
What are the six characteristics of a requirement?
Necessary - must relate to the need.
Comprehensive - focus on what needs to be achieved
Unambiguous - Not open to interpretation
Verifiable - observable and measurable.
Feasible - Possible at a realistic cost.
Prioritized - prioritized against other projects.
41
What is Net Present Value?
Calculating the net gain or loss of a project by discounting all expected future cash inflow and outflow to the present point in time.
42
What is the purpose of a Project Charter?
To document the project requirements and objectives and to authorize the PM to meet those objectives.
43
What is the anatomy of a Project Charter?
Background - Pertinent info.
Requirements - Problem/Opportunity and Justification for the project.
Objectives - Expected outcomes.
Assumptions - Assertions that are believed to be true.
Constraints - Restrictions being imposed
Budget Estimate - Estimate of the cost and duration
Authority - PM Responsibilities
Sponsor Signature - Approval from Sponsor.
44
How should a work package be formatted in a WBS?
Action + Unique Description
Eg: Build Module X,
Design Desktop Wireframe
45
What are the 5 types of Resources?
Human - People
Material - Consumables
Equipment - Tools
Infrastructure - Systems and Environment
Financial - Money
46
What is the primary goal of Scheduling?
Complete the project in the shortest time, for the least cost and risk.
47
What are the four dependency categories?
Mandatory Internal
Discretionary Internal
Mandatory External
Discretionary External
48
What are the four type of dependencies when scheduling tasks?
Finish to Start - The selected task cannot start until the pred is finished.
Start to Start - The selected task starts at the same time as its pred
Finish to Finish -
the selected task must finish at the same time as its pred.
Start to Finish - The selected task must before its pred is finished.
49
What is lag?
A necessary delay between tasks.
50
What is lead time?
The period of time a task must take before another task. A.K.A: Negative lag.
51
What does the Forward Pass Analysis calculate?
The Early Start and Early Finish of a task.
52
What does the Backward Pass Analysis calculate?
The Late Start and Late finish of a task
53
How do you calculate the Early Start and Early Finish?
Go Left to right, top to bottom. The ES of a Node is the EF of the preceding node. Add the DUR of the ES to get the EF.
ES + DUR = EF
ES : DUR : EF
TASK NAME : FS
LS : TS : LF
15 : 4 : 19
TASK NAME : FS
LS : TS : LF
54
How do you calculate the Late Start and Late Finish?
Go Right to left, top to bottom. The LF of a Node is the LS the preceding node. Subtract the DUR of the LF to get the LS.
LF - DUR = LS
ES : DUR : EF
TASK NAME : FS
LS : TS : LF
ES : 1 : EF
TASK NAME : FS
13 : TS : 14
55
What is the anatomy of a Network Diagram Node?
ES : DUR : EF
TASK NAME : FS
LS : TS : LF
56
How do you calculate Total Slack?
LF - EF
ES : DUR : EF
TASK NAME : FS
LS : TS : LF
ES : DUR : 19
TASK NAME : FS
LS : 5 : 24
57
How do you calculate Free Slack?
Subtract the ES of the preceding task from the LS of the current task
ES : DUR : EF : :ES:D:EF
TASK NAME : FS
LS : TS : LF
ES : DUR : 4 :6:D:EF
TASK NAME : 2
LS : TS : LF
58
What is the critical path?
The path or paths that have 0 Total Slack.
59
What are Direct Costs?
Cost that are directly applied to the project. If a cost is incurred because the project exists, it is a Direct Cost. Also known as Unloaded Rate.
60
What are Indirect Costs?
Ongoing costs incurred as a part of running the business and not part of the project. Also known as Overhead.
61
What are Unloaded Rates?
The cost of a resource.
Eg. An employee rate of $30 is the Unloaded or Burdened rate.
62
What is Analogous Estimating?
Using historical information from previous projects as a basis for costs on the current project. Also called Top Down Estimating.
63
What is Parametric Estimating?
Using parameters and a mathematical formula to estimate costs.
64
What is Vendor Cost Analysis?
Using a vendors bid submission to determine the appropriate cost for an activity.
65
What is Bottom Up Estimating?
Breaking down the cost of work on a task by task basis and then summing the amount to get a total.
66
What are the three typical Budget Statements
Task Expense - How is the money being spent?
Resource Expense - What is the money being spent on?
Cash Flow - When is the money being spent?
67
What is the definition of a Risk?
An uncertain event that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on the project objective.
A negative risk is threat. A positive risk is an opportunity.
68
What are the five Risk Management Processes?
Plan Risk Management - How will risks be managed
Identify Risks - Assess possible risk occurrences
Analyse Risks (quant and qual) -
Develop Risk Responses
Monitor and Control
69
What is the anatomy of the cirumstances of a Risk ?
Risk Event - The occurrence.
Risk Trigger - The circumstance that precedes the event.
Risk Symptom - What indicates the risk has occurred?
70
What is the difference between a Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Assessment?
Qualitative is identifying if an event qualifies as a serious risk or not. Risks are put on a sliding scale of not serious to devastating.
Quantitative is identifying what the impact of a event would be. This might be measured in money or time lost.
71
What are the two factors measured when Qualifying Risks?
Probability and Impact.
Score an event on each factor (based on certain criteria) and multiply those numbers together. If an event's score reaches a threshold, then a Quantitative Assessment should be taken.
72
What are the five responses to a threat?
Escalate - Shift responsibility to a higher authority
Avoid - Take action to eliminate the risk.
Transfer - Transfer to a third party (insurance, contracts)
Mitigate - Take action to reduce the possibility.
Accept - Plan for the possibility of the risk (can be active or passive)
73
What are the five responses to an opportunity?
Escalate - Shift responsibility to a higher authority.
Exploit - Take action to make sure it happens.
Share - Allocate some of the benefit with another team.
Enhance - Take action to increase the possibility of it happening
Accept - Take advantage of the opportunity
74
What is Physical Percent Work Complete?
The amount a deliverable has been completed if the work can be divided into easily measurable units.
75
What is Percent Work Complete?
Measuring the amount of work completed and the amount the amount left to do. Dividing these two numbers gives you the percent of the work that is complete.
76
What is Percent Value Complete?
The sum total of the work and material that has been received. This may involve using Physical Percent complete and Percent Work Complete.
77
What is Percent Duration Complete?
The amount of work done vs. left to be done when measured in duration.
78
What are Edward Deming 14 Points for Managers?
1. Create Constancy
2. Adopt a new philosophy from top management down
3. Cease dependence on mass inspection.
4. End awarding business on price
5. Constantly improve the systems of production
6. Institute on the job training.
7. Improve supervision
8. Drive out fear, create trust.
9. Break down barriers between departments
10. Eliminate slogans
11. Eliminate quotas, create methods for improvement
12. Remove barriers to pride in workmanship
13. Create programs of education
14. Do the transformation.
79
What is the Deming cycle?
Plan - Establish goals
Do - Execute the plan
Study - Study the results
Act - Take corrective action
80
What are Joseph Juran's 10 steps to Quality Improvement?
1. Build awareness for the need for quality
2. Set goals for improvement
3. Organize to achieve it
4. Provide training
5. Carry out project to solve problems.
6. Report progress
7. Give recognition
8. Communicate results
9. Keep score
10. Maintain momentum
81
What are Ishikawa 7 Factors in Quality Control?
1. Company wide adoption of Quality Control
2. Education and training in Quality
3. Use of Quality Circles to update standards
4. Quality audits by senior members
5. Widespread use of statistical methods and problem prevention
6. Nationwide quality control promotion
7. Revolutionary mental attitude for management and workers to welcome complaints, take risks and control quality.
82
What are the three process to project quality management?
Plan quality management
Manage Quality
Control Quality
83
What is the difference between Managing Quality and Quality Control?
Managing quality is the project's processes.
Quality Control is ensuring the high quality results are met.
84
What is statistical sampling?
Selecting a representative sample of a group instead of testing every instance.
85
What are the 7 basic tools of Quality Management?
1. Run Charts - Rule of 7
2. Scatter Diagrams - Looking for correlations between things
3. Check Sheets - How often does something occur?
4. Histograms - Measuring the frequency of things
5. Flow Chart - Sequence of steps to identify problems.
6. Cause and Effect Diagrams - Identify factors and what is causing it.
7. Pareto Chart
86
What is Six Sigma?
Using statistics to measure the deviation from an average result to identify problem occurrence's, their cause and ensuring quality is being maintained.
87
What is the DMAIC cycle in Six Sigma?
Define - What is the problem?
Measure - Collect data
Analyse - Look for improvements
Improve - Generate a solution
Control - Track the effectiveness of the solution.
88
What is ISO?
International Organization for Standardization. An organization that establishes international standards for industries and can be an indicator that a company conforms to said standards.
89
What is the basis of Communication Management?
- The right information
- Comes from the right source
- In the right format
- Using the right method
- To the right people
- At the right time.
90
What are the four elements of communication?
Substance - the idea being conveyed
Organization - putting things in the right order
Style - Making it understandable
Correctness - Free of grammar issues and incorrect information
91
In an Eisenhower Matrix, what are the four categories and what is the action for each?
1. Urgent & Important - Do it
2. Important Not Urgent - Schedule it
3. Not Important & Urgent - Delegate it
4. Not Important Not Urgent - Delete it.
92
What are the basic elements of closing a project?
Close Project Admin
Conduct Final Review
Produce Final Report
Archive Records
Close Procurements
Conduct Procurement Audit
Validate Scope
Accept Product, Results
Close Finances
Transition to Sustainment
Identify Lessons Learned
Release Resources
93
What is the purpose of a PMO?
Establish a standardized project process and make project management more effective.
94
What are the 5 levels of PMO Competency Continuum?
1. Basic PMO - Admin support for PM
2. Supportive PMO - Provide training, develop standard processes.
3. Standard PMO - Formalized project structure
4. Advanced PMO - Aligning the entire organization to formal processes.
5. Center of Excellence - Long term planning. All of it on steroids.
95
What are the considerations when implementing a scalable project approach?
Scope Range
Organization impact
Labour Required
Team Size Required
Duration Required
Cost Range
Complexity
Stability
Overall Risk
