Key Concepts

Question 1

How to interpret SPI and CPI results

Answer 1

• less trhan 1 is bad (behind schedule, and funds deficit - over budget)
• Greater than 1 is good (ahead of schedule and surplus of funds - under budget)

Question 2

When and how are contingency reserves vs management reserves applied?

Answer 2

• Contingency reserves
  
  • applied for known-unknowns - risks you planned for
  • Applied at activity and/or WBS level
  • included in cost baseline
• Management reserves
  
  • applied to unknown-unknowns - risks you did not foresee or plan for
  • applied at project level
  • not part of cost baseline, but is part of project budget

Question 3

Difference between critical path mothod and critical chain methods

Answer 3

• Critical path does not account for resources
• Critical Chain method alloows the placement of buffers on any task to account for limited resources and project uncertainties “Duration buffers” where necessary - duration buffers include:
  
  • Feeding Buffer (activity level)
  • Projct Buffer (project Level

Question 4

Cost of Quality includes:

Answer 4

• Both Prevention Costs (cost to make sure you have quality) and Faliure Costs (cost resulting when you don’t comply with quality standards)

Question 5

Key concepts for Critical Path Method

Answer 5

• Float
  
  • for tasks on the critical path are always 0
  • for tasks not on the critical path,
    
    • calculated by critical path - path duration
    • same for all activities on that path
  • if a float already is applied, do not overwrite it
• Early Start/Early Finish/Late Statrt/Late Finish
  
  • ES/EF calculated by forward pass (top of activity)
  • LS/LF calucated by backward pass (bottom of activity)
  • First task on schedule is always ES of 1
  • The LF of the last activity is the same as the EF
  • EF of any task is its ES+Duration-1
  • LS of any activity is its LF-Duration+1

Question 6

7 Quality Tools

(7QT)

Answer 6

1. Fishbone or Ishikawa Diagrams (cause and effect, or problem statement)
2. Histogram (statistical distribution)
3. Pareto Diagram (bar chart + key causes)
4. Scatter Diagrams (correlation)
5. Checksheets
6. Control Charts (in or out of control, within or out of variance, standard deviation)
7. Flowchart (process, anticipate quality problems)

Question 7

3 Terms for Failure Costs

Answer 7

1. Failure Costs
2. Costs of non-compliance
3. Costs of Poor Quality

Question 8

General technique for interpreting comparisons and performance ratios

Answer 8

• Lower number is bad
• Higher number is good

Question 9

Opportunity Cost Considerations

Answer 9

• When dealing with NPV or otherwise, opportunity costs don’t matter
• Sunk costs never factor into a decision
• Opportunity cost is very simple - the value of the next best item on the list of choices

Question 10

ITTO Key Things to Remember