PM - Oral Exam Flashcards
(94 cards)
1
Q
What are the 2 goals of a software project?
A
Develop software
Enable further development
2
Q
What is methodical weight?
A
methodical weight is how thoroughly a methodology control elements’ attempt to constrain the process to develop software
3
Q
What does PMBOK stand for?
A
Project Management Book of Knowledge
4
Q
What do opportunity costs == ?
A
missed opportunities
5
Q
What are PMBOK competing constraints? (5)
A
Scope Cost Risk Quality Time
6
Q
4 strategies for managing threats?
A
Avoid - change plan to eliminate threads
Mitigate - change plan to reduce threat’s impact/probability
Transfer - shift some or all impact to another party
Accept - do nothing special
7
Q
4 strategies for managing opportunities?
A
Exploit - change plan to ensure opportunity is realized
Enhance - change plan to increase probability
Share - allocate some or all of the benefit to another party
Accept - do nothing special
8
Q
4 Triggers for activating a risk management plan
A
Scheduled events
Elapsed time
Threshold values
Variance
9
Q
What is TCPI?
A
To-Complete Performance Index
One of the forecasting tools of Earned Value Management (MGT) - answers how efficiently must we use our REMAINING resources
10
Q
McConnell’s definition of:
Estimate
A
• A statement about the likelihood of achieving a target at a specific level of quality with a specific amount of resources by a specific date
11
Q
McConnell’s definition of:
Commitment
A
A promise to achieve a target with the previously mentioned specifications
12
Q
McConnells’s “Three Points” estimation.
A
For each task, develop: a worse, an expected, and a best case estimation of effort
13
Q
How is the cloud of uncertainty relate to the cone of uncertainty?
A
The cloud of uncertainty expands over the cone of uncertainty. The cloud represents a project not well controlled and the estimates aren’t by skilled workers.
14
Q
What are 3 benefits of Group expert judgement for estimates?
A
- improves estimation accuracy
- useful to find experts with different backgrounds, roles and techniques
- useful for early estimates
15
Q
Critique about Cone of Uncertainty
- name 2
- tips?
A
- Concern is the cone catches up front risks, but not backend risks caused by bugs of which fixes can cause more bugs.
- The one implies middle point most of the time, but usually higher “The wormhole of reality”
- Tips: Use test-driven development, automatic user testing, browser-based automated testing tools
16
Q
What are all methodologies based on?
A
Fears
17
Q
What is Little-M?
A
• Selected for processing a specific task – some deliverables with their standards and a few technologies
18
Q
What is Big-M?
A
Complete processes for producing systems, often assembled from little-Ms
19
Q
Name 2 attributes to Yourdon’s death march project?
A
- Schedule compressed to less than half of rational
* Staff reduced to less than half of normal
20
Q
Brinkman and Kirschner
Strategy for getting people to refrain from engaging in difficult behavior?
A
- You can’t
- Focus on what compels people to be difficult
- Learn to listen, backtrack, and respect the person’s underlying reason for acting
- Assume they have good intentions and encourage future good intentions
21
Q
Brinkman and Kirschner
Name some personality types
A
- Grenade
- Think they know it all
- Yes person
- Maybe person
- Tank
- No person
- Martyr
- Whiner
22
Q
Difference between leadership and management
A
- Leadership – you discuss the results you want; people achieve them
- Management – you direct people to do specific activities – more time consuming.
23
Q
5 styles of leadership
A
- Authoritarian
- Consensus
- Delegation
- Consultation
- Democracy
24
Q
7 basic human motivators
A
- Avoidance of boredom - no significant side effects
- Exclusivity
- Fear – may be needed in desperate times, but use sparingly lest too many good employees will leave
- Greed – avoid, becomes entitlement too quickly
- Guilt
- Need for approval
- Self-esteem – no significant side effects – most important motivator
25
What is the single most important element in any effective communication?
Empathy
26
Drucker - Executive
What are 5 "habits of the mind?"
* Know where their time goes
* Focus on outward contribution (effort results)
* Build on strengths
* Set priorities – concentrate on few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results
* Make effective decisions
27
Drucker - Executive
What is the scarcest and most previous resource?
Time
28
Drucker - Executive
3 ways to manage time?
Record time
Manage time
Consolidate time
29
Drucker - Executive
3 Diagnostic questions for time-wasting?
ID and eliminate what doesn’t need to be done at all
Ask “which of these could be done by someone else and good or better?”
ID the time of others he himself wastes.
30
Drucker - Executive
What is the most crucial and difficult type of decision – to make slowly
Personnel decisions
31
Drucker - Executive
What is Recurrent crises?
failing to prune time – lack of system or foresight
32
Drucker - Executive
What is the cardinal rule for managing all types of meetings?
Focus
33
Drucker - Executive
What is Drucker's attitude about well-rounded people?
Well-rounded people – produce mediocre results at best – focus on strengths (with strengths comes weakness – put up with one to get the other)
34
How are W-models different from V-model development?
```
W = waterfall
V = verification & validation
```
In V model Development and testing is done parallelly , while in Waterfall Model Development is done and after development Testing is Done
35
What are the Scrum backlog types?
* Product backlog – overall prioritized list of discrete deliverables
* Release backlog – subset of a product backlog targeted for a given release
36
What are 4 Scrum meetings?
* Sprint planning meeting – 2-4 hrs
* Daily scrum – 15 min
* Sprint review – 4 hrs
* Spring retrospective – 2-4 hrs
37
What 3 questions are asked at a Daily scrum meeting?
o What have you done since last Scrum?
o What do you plan to do for next Scrum?
o What is impeding you in your work?
38
Can a customer change the deliverables that a sprint is tasked to complete?
No
39
What is Meyer's critique of Scrum?
• Self-organization depends on the people – if they’re experienced or competent
40
Meyer
What is the conflict with YAGNI?
The conflict is that YAGNI closes the door on including anything that might make changes easier to accommodate.
41
Meyer
What is "Dual development" principle?
First early on in development, infrastructure is key. Later, key decisions have been made.
- One team to build fundamental architectures –
- Another team delivers functionality that immediately works. Mixing iteration with “standard” development.
42
Meyer
What are 2 difficulties with XP’s implementation of pair programming?
* Useful, but not a major improvement. Some people work better alone and prefer it versus having someone look over her shoulder
* Could end up being a mentor position. One member may be inexperienced and is being held back explaining to the novice
43
Meyer
What are 2 definitions of Done?
* Releasable – unit and integration tested
| * Acceptance – tested, release notes written, no increased technical debt
44
Meyer
What is Technical debt?
What is it manifested from?
The cost of additional work
| Manifested from choosing an easy solution now versus a solution that benefits down the road
45
5 reasons written documentation is better than spoken?
* The spoken word is notoriously ambiguous, more than written requirements
* The difficulty of achieving precision in spoken communication
* Different languages – must easier with a common language subset
* Written can be sent to anyone without being there
* People in a software project come and go – writing survives
46
What are 2 Michael Jackson’s domain and machine requirements?
* Some requirement s elements describe properties of a model of a part of the world, or “domain” in which the system will operate
* Others describe desired properties of the system, or “machine” that the project wants to build
47
Cooper
What's the critique to Cooper's Stage gate model?
What's Cooper's counter argument?
o Increases time to market
o The extra “homework” pays for itself
Without “homework” the product is more likely to fail
Many projects are poorly defined when they go into the development stage
48
What are 2 Gatekeeper tasks?
* Review the quality of inputs or deliverables
| * Assess the quality of the project from an economical and business standpoint
49
What is Marketing’s impact on product success?
Marketing is key to know what the user needs. Research is needed to analyze and perform concept tasks since new products are the key to success
50
What at minimum must be included in a project schedule?
At minimum includes a start and end date for each task
51
What are Discretionary dependencies ?
helps avoid scrap and rework – allows them to be bypassed as needed to meet hard deadlines.
Isn't based on a "have to", but on a "should"
52
Lead/lag
Accelerating a second task’s start time, relative to the first
53
Float
The max delay in an activity’s start with no impact on the schedule
54
Free float
Is relative to immediate successor activities (those immediately below)
Free Float is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor activity.
55
Total float
Refers to affecting the overall project delivery – depends on just a section of the entire project
Total Float is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed from its early start date without delaying the project finish date
56
Schedule compression
Preserves the project scope while reducing its duration
57
What are the 5 levels in the CMM from least mature to most mature – Capability Maturity Model?
* Level 1 (Initial): The first level of both CMM and CMMI describes an immature organization without any defined processes, run in an ad hoc, uncontrolled, and reactive manner.
* Level 2 (Repeat): Organizations that repeat some processes attain Level 2 CMM. Level 2 of CMMI however requires management of organizational requirements through planned, performed, measured, and controlled processes.
* Level 3 (Defined): CMM Level 3 mandates a set of documented standard processes to establish consistency across the organization. CMMI Level 3 is an improvement of CMMI Level 2 and describes the organizational processes in standards, procedures, tools, and methods.
* Level 4 (Manage): CMM Level 4 requires organizations to attain control over processes by using quantitative statistical techniques. CMMI Level 4 demands likewise, but also identifies sub processes that significantly contribute to overall process efficiency.
* Level 5 (Optimized): CMM Level 5 mandates use of quantitative tools and objectives to manage process improvement. CMMI Level 5 on the other hand focuses on continuously improving process performance through incremental and innovative technological improvements.
58
What's CMMI vs CMM?
CMMI (integration) addresses organization (key concern)
59
What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection - a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects. attempts to address: stressing elimination of variations (i.e., defects) in production process
60
What is VoC and CTQ?
Voice of Customer (VoC) Critical to Quality (CTQ)
Requires that processes must perform if you expect to meet customer expectations
61
Lean manufactoring
stresses elimination of waste in production
62
What is KPA?
Key Process Area (KPA) is necessary to move past level one – some basis of management for the process is required.
KPA represents a list of grouped activities that share the same outcome of success for an organization
63
Bach
What are some criticisms of CMM?
• CMM ignores factors contributing to the productivity of individual behavior
• Contains very little information on process dynamics
• Has no formal theoretical basis – based on exception of “very knowledgeable people.”
CMM is popular
• Gives an illusion of control to management
64
What's a good rule of thumb to design processes?
Processed should be designed so they can tolerate being ignored and executed somewhat incorrectly
65
2 types of project retrospectives
Social
o goal: non-judgmental evaluation of performance
Metric-driven
o use data as primary driver for retrospective
66
Barrett
4 concerns when capturing rationales for decisions
* Successes
* Risk problems
* Big decision
* Rationale
67
4 questions to ask at the end of a project?
- What did we learn?
- What should we do differently next time?
- What did we do well that we might forget?
- What still puzzles us?
68
Hawkins
What percent of time is recommended to allocate for debugging?
50%
69
Why is it recommended to break down packages?
Pitfall is taking too large a bite from the apple.
| It’s better to break down into smaller bits to determine better all the requirements for a more accurate estimate
70
What is the primary impediment to developing appropriately sized work breakdown packages?
Allowing non-technical staffers to give estimates.
They often don’t know all the requirements and/or work done behind the scenes and unknowingly provide an inaccurate estimate for too large a project
71
Spolsky
"Iceberg Effect"
* Need to consider that 90% under the cover work that needs to be done. Just because the UI is functional and pretty doesn’t mean the project is close to completion.
* Estimates need to include all “unexposed” work such as debugging.
72
Ury
What is the First real-world barrier to cooperation in a negotiation?
Your reaction
73
Ury
5-step program for preparing for a negotiation?
o Identify your interests as well as those of the party
o Options – describe all options to obtain win-win
o Standards – discuss the basics that are necessary
o Alternatives – BATNA – walk away alternative
o Identifying proposals
74
Ury
3 types of proposals to formulate prior to a negotiation?
o What do you aspire to? What do you want to see best case that benefits both sides?
o What would you be content with? What areas could you compromise and still benefit?
o What could you live with? This may bring up the possibility of using BATNA if it’s no benefit
75
What is BATNA?
Best Alternatives to Negotiated Agreement – When all else fails, resign, walk away
76
What are strategies for “going to the balcony” in a difficult negotiation?
o Rewind the topic – review/repeat parts of the discussion – gives time
o Take a time out – more time away – find a natural excuse
77
Strategies for deflecting attacks
o Ignore the attack – don’t react or respond to the attack. Act as if you weren’t attacked
o Reframe an attack on you as an attack on the problem. Don’t respond as if the attack is personal. Act as if you’re both on the same side of the problem.
78
What is activate vs passive listening?
Active involves paraphrasing back to the speaker and asking for corrections. It also involves acknowledging their point
79
What is double dummy split?
Negotiation game
When the boss freaks out as a baby would spit out a dummy. The boss shouts prompting the other party to make changes to appease the boss
80
What is X Plus?
Negotiation game
The boss blames the big shot for the unreasonable request
81
What is Spanish Inquisition?
Negotiation game
There are lots of witnesses when the boss fusses over an issue. He then brings up a legitimate issue, all heads pointed at the target he’s addressing
82
What is Gotcha/Playing the Pokies?
Negotiation game
Like gambling and involves asking for more money. The client feels invested this far and has already given a lot of money and don’t want to risk losing it all
83
Reverse doubling
The boss adds a buffer to the client and doesn’t tell the project management team
84
Thomsett
How can you countermeasure to estimation games?
Recognize the game being played. Stay firm and rephrase so the boss says the time/duration so it’s on him. He doesn’t want the responsibility
85
What is the most important word in negotiation?
Fair
86
Gawande
What is the primary cause of failure?
Ignorance
o Science has only given us partial understanding of the world and how it works
o Use checklists – strategy is to overcome failure – take advantage of the knowledge people have and also make up for our inevitable human inadequacies.
87
The Phoenix Project
What is the First Way?
Address flow – enables fast LR flow of work from development to operations to customer
• Practices include continuous build, test, and deployment
• Reduce batch sizes and intervals
• Eliminate waste and hardships
• Limit WIP (Work in progress)
o The silent killer
o Critical mechanism in management of any plan is job and materials release
• Identify and elevate constraints
88
The Phoenix Project
What is the Second Way?
Addresses feedback – enables fast and constructed feedback from RL amplifying feedback to prevent problems from reoccurring or help detect problems faster
• Practices include pushing quality closer to the source and continually optimize for downstream workcenters
89
The Phoenix Project
What is the Third Way?
Address continual learning and experimentation
• Addressed by creating a culture that fosters continual experience and understand that repetition and practice are necessary for mastery (Kata)
• Practices include taking risks and learning from both sources and failure, and improving daily work
90
The Phoenix Project
What are the 3 elements of a Work Center?
* Man
* Machine
* Methods
91
What is takt time?
* Cycle time needed in order to keep up with customer demand
| * If any operation in the flow takes longer than takt, will not keep up with customer demand
92
Goldratt
What are 3 types of internal constraints?
- Equipment: The way equipment is currently used limits the ability of the system to produce more salable goods/services.
- People: Lack of skilled people limits the system. Mental models held by people can cause behaviour that becomes a constraint.
- Policy: A written or unwritten policy prevents the system from making more.
93
Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints target – they all involve the constraints (4)
* Business project
* Internal IT project
* Changes & Maintenance
* Unplanned work
Something called TOC adopts the common idiom "a chain is no stronger than its weakest link".
This means that processes, organizations, etc., are vulnerable because the weakest person or part can always damage or break them or at least adversely affect the outcome.
94
Goldratt’s 5 focusing steps
For optimizing production
Identify the constraint
o Find the bottleneck for the entire flow of operations
Optimize the constraint
o Guard it from unscheduled work
Subordinate the non-constraints
o Adjust the flow of the non-constraints
Elevate the constraints
o Keep it busy on top priority work
Return to Step 1
o Confirm that the known constraint hasn’t changed through the project workflow
