Project Plans

Question 1

What is a work breakdown structure?

Answer 1

Groups project elements that organize and define total scope of the project

Levels - each lower level is more detailed by breaking down into more tasks

Question 2

What is the basis for development of the WBS for a project?

Answer 2

The scope of the project

Question 3

What happens to the WBS if the scope of the project changes?

Answer 3

The wbs has to change to fit the new scope

Question 4

What is “scope change control” or “configuration management”?

Answer 4

Procedures by which the project scope may be changed

Question 5

When can scope creep occur?

Answer 5

No clearly defined requirements

No defined scope change control

Question 6

Constituent elements of a WBS should be described in terms of ___________

Why?

Answer 6

Tangible, verifiable results

To define when a task is complete

To introduce measures and performance analysis

Question 7

The lower level elements of a WBS should be both necessary and sufficient for __________

Answer 7

completion of the decomposed upper level item

Question 8

Why can future elements often not be decomposed in WBS?

Answer 8

Impossible to estimate things about the future accurately

Question 9

Is it better to have lots of small milestones or few large milestones?

Answer 9

Lots of small

Question 10

What is the optimum number of people to assign to each small task?

Why?

Answer 10

1

More likely to get done

Question 11

What is the ETDVX model?

Answer 11

A generic compliance model

Question 12

What does ETDVX stand for?

Answer 12

Entry - pre conditions to be met before the task

Task - what is to be done, by who, where etc.

Deliverable

Validation - assurance of the quality of the task

Exit - post conditions

Question 13

What is a dependency/precedence table?

Answer 13

Table that shows tasks, durations and predecessors of tasks

Question 14

What is an activity network?

Answer 14

A visual diagram of the precedence table

Nodes represent activities

Connections show dependencies

Question 15

What does a node in an activity network look like?

Answer 15

A = task

5 = duration

A : 5 |

Question 16

What is the end prodct of the task decomposition process?

Answer 16

Activity network diagram

Question 17

What should the activity network diagram be accompanied by?

Answer 17

Narrative to explain dependencies

Question 18

What is effort?

Answer 18

The total time spent by all resources on a specific task

Question 19

What is activity duration?

Answer 19

How long it will take to complete the activity (elapsed time)

Question 20

What is a path in CPA?

Answer 20

Sequence of activites that starts with a beginning activity, travels through series of intermediate successors, and ends with an ending activity

Question 21

What is a critical path?

Answer 21

Any path whose length is equal to the maximum possible length in a network

Question 22

How is the length of a path defined?

Answer 22

The total time it takes to go through the complete path

Question 23

How do you calculate the forward path in CPA?

Answer 23

Calculate the earliest start time and earliest finish time for each task

Question 24

What is the EST for the beginning activity?

Answer 24

0

Question 25

How do you calculate the EFT for an activity?

Answer 25

The maximum EFT of its predecessors plus its duration

Question 26

What do you calculate in the backward path in CPA?

Answer 26

Latest start and finish times

Question 27

How do you calculate the LST for an activity?

Answer 27

The LFT minus the duration

Question 28

How do you calculate the LFT for an activity?

Answer 28

The minimum LST for all of its successors

Question 29

What is Slack in CPA?

Answer 29

The amount of time that an activity can be delayed beyond its EST or EFT without delaying the project

Question 30

How do you determine which activities are on the critical path?

Answer 30

The activities with the minimum slack

Question 31

How do you calculate slack?

Answer 31

LFT - EFT or LST - EST

Question 32

Why is critical path important?

Answer 32

Delay on critical path means delay on project completion Improvement of total project duration is usually due to improvement on critical path

Question 34

What is fast tracking?

Answer 34

Performing activities in parallel instead of sequentially More incremental development Increased rework

Question 35

What is crashing? (compression method)

Answer 35

Adding more/reassigning resources Not always realistic Increased costs

Question 36

What are the 5 key stakeholders in a project?

Answer 36

Organisation - employs the programmers Project Manager - manages the project Customer - will use the product Team members - Do the work on the project Sponsor - funds the project

Question 37

What is the effort of a task?

Answer 37

The total time spent by all resources on a task e.g. how many programmer days

Question 38

Duration does not include _______ days

Answer 38

non-working

Question 39

What is resource?

Answer 39

The amount of work that can be done per day from all of the resources assigned to the task

Question 40

What is the "formula" for duration?

Answer 40

Duration = Total effort/Resource

Question 41

What impact can dependencies have on duration?

Answer 41

Can increase it - not all resources may be able to work on the same task at the same time because some might have another task to do first

Question 42

What is effort measured in?

Answer 42

person weeks, person months, person days, person hours etc.

Question 43

What are the 6 steps of the estimation process?

Answer 43

Establish scope - error margin, time it is required Allocate resources to do the estimation Pin down requirements Obtain key indicators - facts and measures Use independent techniques - different tools, methods Consolidate differences between results

Question 44

What are some useful indicators?

Answer 44

System size - e.g. lines of code Quality attributes - reliability, maintainability Productivity factors Costs

Question 45

How can staff affect productivity?

Answer 45

Motivation, capability, experience, teamwork

Question 46

How can organisation affect productivity?

Answer 46

Methodology, decision mechanism, stability, communications, process model, location

Question 47

What are the 3 rules for time recording?

Answer 47

Completeness: all project time even unpaid Honesty: not influenced by anything Compatibility: agreed units

Question 48

What are 4 approaches to effort estimation?

Answer 48

Estimating by analogy Algorithmic model Expert Judgment/Guesses Price to Win

Question 49

What is estimation by analogy? What is the danger of it?

Answer 49

Using results of similar projects from the past as the basis of the estimate possibility of false analogy due to projects not quite matching up, lack of formal method

Question 50

What is the algorithmic model of effort estimation?

Answer 50

Effort expressed as function or logarithm of one or more variables

Question 51

What is the Delphi method of estimation?

Answer 51

Get wide number of experts with relevant experience to make initial estimate Second round where each expert revises his decision based on other experts decisions and inputs Take the median

Question 52

What is price to win method of effort estimation?

Answer 52

Taking the cost and time expectation of the sponsor without actually validating it; i.e. winning the contract at whatever cost

Question 53

What is resource leveling?

Answer 53

Limiting the differences in the level of resources between time units by e.g. splitting activities, using alternative dependencies, extending the project..

Question 54

What is Finish-to-Start task dependency?

Answer 54

B cannot start until A has finished

Question 55

What is start-to-start task dependency?

Answer 55

B cannot start until A starts

Question 56

What is finish-to-finish task dependency?

Answer 56

B cannot finish until A has finished

Question 57

What is start-to-finish task dependency?

Answer 57

B cannot finish until A has started