PM Test Center

As a general rule, when determining how to manage quality on a project, quality must be __________ in, not __________ in.

A. Built, scheduled
B. Planned, inspected
C. Tested, worked
D. Pushed, pulled

Answer: B. Planned, inspected
The philosophy of prevention over inspection is that quality must be planned in, not inspected in.

While preparing a quality management plan, you decide that sampling is appropriate for tests. When asked, you explain to your client that, typically, sampling is preferred when at least one of the following is true except:

A. It is not cost effective to test the entire population.
B. There is a high confidence level that there will be a low number of defects.
C. The WBS is less than four levels deep.
D. There is not enough time to test the entire population.

Answer: C. The WBS is less than four levels deep.
The other choices are all reasons why sampling is appropriate. The WBS has nothing to do with whether or not it makes sense to sample.

Which of the following statements is true regarding low grade and low quality?

A. Low grade is a goal, low quality is how you measure it.
B. Low grade and low quality mean the same thing.
C. Low grade is achieved by the team, low quality is determined by the project manager.
D. Low grade is acceptable, low quality is unacceptable.

Answer: D. Low grade is acceptable, low quality is unacceptable.
Grade is a rank given to a product with different characteristics. Low grade is perfectly acceptable assuming the project meets requirements. Low quality is never OK. For example, a Honda Civic is a lower grade than a Jeep Grand Cherokee; however, the quality of the former is much better than that of the latter.

Which of the following quality experts labeled the term Zero Defects?

A. Deming
B. Shewhart
C. Crosby
D. Juran

Answer: C. Crosby
Philip Crosby included Zero Defects as part of his 14 Step Quality Improvement Process. A core principle of Zero Defects is conformance to requirements.

Joseph is looking for a way to track how long it takes his team to perform final testing for each tractor. When a tractor gets approved to deliver for a customer, he would simply like a graph that displays a just single point for the time result for that final test. Over time, he would like to see how his team progresses. What type of quality control tool should Joseph use?

A. Scatter diagram
B. Run chart
C. Pareto diagram
D. Control chart

Answer: B. Run chart
A run chart is a graph that shows plotted data points in the order they occurred. It shows a pattern of variation over time. Scatter diagrams measure two variables, Pareto diagrams track defect occurrences, and control charts have specification limits.

Fitness for use, which refers to a product’s effectiveness, was coined by which quality pioneer?

A. Deming
B. Shewhart
C. Crosby
D. Juran

Answer: D. Juran
One of the quality management concepts that Joseph Juran is known for is fitness for use, essentially stating that a quality product, in addition to meeting requirements, must be useful to the customer.

At the beginning of your project, the sponsor requests that you, the project manager, ensure that costs are controlled. One of the areas that you know that could greatly affect the bottom line is the cost of nonconformance. While creating the quality management plan, you document that a typical cost associated with nonconformance, which is:

A. Training
B. Document processes
C. Testing and inspections
D. Scrap and rework

Answer: D. Scrap and rework
Scrap and rework (internal failure costs), along with liabilities, warranty work, and lost business (external failure costs), are nonconformance costs. All other choices in the question are costs of conformance.

A quality management tool used to determine show cause and effect is:

A. Decision tree
B. Pareto diagram
C. Control chart
D. Fishbone diagram

Answer: D. Fishbone diagram
A Fishbone diagram, also known as Ishikawa Diagram, uses cause and effect to determine how quality is defined on the project.

You are performing a quality audit to determine whether or not your project team’s testing activities follow your organization’s project policies. What process are you working in?

A. Perform Quality Assurance
B. Perform Quality Audit
C. Perform Quality Control
D. Perform Quality Activities

Answer: A. Perform Quality Assurance
The key word in the question is audit. Auditing is a primary tool in the quality assurance. Essentially, you are auditing to ensure appropriate quality standards. There is no such process as Perform Quality Audit or Perform Quality Activities.

Adam wants to show his stakeholders defect types ranked by frequency of occurrence. What tool should he use?

A. Pareto chart
B. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
C. Control chart
D. Cause and effect diagram

Answer: A. Pareto chart
Pareto charts are based on the Pareto Law (the 80/20 principle). This type of histogram shows categories of defects in order of frequency of occurrence. By ranking defect types this way, you could visually see which 20% of the causes to address in order to solve 80% of the problems.