PM Test Center

During a simple home repair project, Eva is planning on putting two coats of paint on her dining room. After the second coat of paint dries, she intends to hang up a picture of her family in the room. The activity relationships described in this example are known as:

A. Soft logic
B. Lag
C. Mandatory dependencies
D. Critical path

Answer: C. Mandatory dependencies
When you have activities that inherently require other activities to be completed, they are called mandatory dependencies, or hard logic. Discretionary dependencies, or soft logic, allow some flexibility and is based on preference. In this example, Eva must finish her first coat of paint before applying the second coat of paint. Then she must wait for the second coat of paint to dry before she can hang up her picture; she does not have any flexibility on the dependencies.

As a senior project manager, Jim is asked to review the work of other project managers in the organization. Wendy, a fairly new project manager, is working with her team to sequence activities. One thing Jim should ensure is that Wendy has already performed the __________ process.

A. Develop Schedule
B. Estimate Activity Resources
C. Define Activities
D. Estimate Activity Durations

Answer: C. Define Activities
Although all of the choices are time management processes, only the Define Activities process precedes the Sequence Activities process. The primary output of Define Activities is an activity list, which a project manager must obviously have in order to sequence activities.

Which of the following estimating types provides the most accuracy?

A. Parametric
B. Analogous
C. Bottom-up
D. Top-down

Answer: C. Bottom-up
Bottom-up estimating, which may also be called grass roots, engineering, or definitive estimating, will provide the most accuracy since activities are estimated with the greatest level of detail. However, that level of accuracy comes at a cost. In order to be more accurate than parametric and analogous, it will also take the longest amount of time to create.

The intern who will be verifying address labels will not be able to check them until they have obviously been printed. However, you recognize that she does not have to wait until all of the labels have been printed; rather she can begin shortly after the printing of the labels begin. This is an example of:

A. Finish-to-start
B. Finish-to-finish
C. Start-to-start
D. Start-to-finish

Answer: C. Start-to-start
The start of successor is determined by the start of the predecessor. Translation: when labels start printing out, the intern can start verifying them. You may even add a little lag (i.e. delay) if you wish.

You are planning a series of programming tasks and you know that your quality engineers will be testing the code after the programmers have completed the code. This is an example of:

A. Finish-to-start
B. Finish-to-finish
C. Start-to-start
D. Start-to-finish

Answer: A. Finish-to-start
In this example, programmers must complete the code before the testing begins. As a result, there is a finish-to-start relationship. The predecessor determines when the successor can begin, in other words, the testing cannot start until the programmers have finished the code.

Jamie, the project manager for creating a new product, recognizes that she will need help estimating. Since she has not managed a project like this before, she decides she will review past projects that company has completed for other products. This is an example of:

A. Analogous estimating
B. PERT
C. Expert judgment
D. Parametric estimating

Answer: A. Analogous estimating
Analogous estimating leverages historical information from a previous similar project. It is typically used when there are limited details on the project.

One of your monthly reports claim that your project has a SV of -1000. How would you describe it to your sponsor?

A. The project is behind schedule
B. The project is ahead of schedule
C. Impossible to have a negative SV
D. Not enough information

Answer: A. The project is behind schedule
SV (schedule variance) is simply a measure of how the project is performing in terms of schedule. A positive number is good, ahead of schedule, while a negative number is bad, behind schedule. SV is derived from EV (earned value) minus PV (planned value).

After making a small change to your project schedule, you realize now that you have two critical paths. Therefore, the project:

A. Will cost less
B. Must be modified to allow only one critical path
C. Has increased risk
D. Cannot be accomplished

Answer: C. Has increased risk
A critical path is the longest path (and the shortest amount of time possible) it takes to complete the project. If you have two critical paths, that means you have less flexibility in your schedule. As a result, you have increased risk. You can actually have as many critical paths as necessary but of course, the more you have the riskier the project becomes.

If EV = 25,000, PV = 30,000, and AC = 29,000, what is the SPI?

A. 0.83
B. 0.86
C. 1.16
D. 1.20

Answer: A. 0.83
SPI (Schedule Performance Index) is calculated by EV (Earned Value)/PV (Planned Value). The 0.83 means that the project is progressing at 83% of the baseline.

Which of the following estimating types takes the most amount of time to prepare?

A. Bottom up
B. Analogous
C. Parametric
D. Top down

Answer: A. Bottom up
Bottom up, also known as engineering, grass roots or definitive estimating, takes a substantial amount of time since it involves estimating each work package. The estimates are then rolled up to sub-project and overall project levels.