PM Test Center

Although you got your project schedule approved prior to starting it, your client just moved the target finish date up two days. In order to finish the project two days earlier, which of the following can you apply?

A. Add two days of lag to the critical path
B. Add two days of lag to a non-critical path
C. Add two days of lead to the critical path
D. Add two days of lead to a non-critical path

Answer: C. Add two days of lead to the critical path
Lag is a forced waiting period and therefore, would push the project out. Adding lead, also known as negative lag, would do the opposite — overlap related tasks, which is what you will need to do in this example to finish sooner. However, only adding lead to the critical path would affect the end date. Although you can add lead anywhere, putting it on a non-critical path would not allow you to finish any sooner.

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.

One disadvantage of using Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) is that:

A. Only finish-to-start relationships can be used.
B. Negative lag is not shown.
C. There can only be one critical path.
D. Project duration is limited to the total of all dummy activities.

Answer: A. Only finish-to-start relationships can be used.
A drawback of AOA is that only finish-to-start relationships are possible.

Which of the following estimating types provides the least accuracy?

A. Analogous
B. Engineering
C. Bottom-up
D. Grass roots

Answer: A. Analogous
Analogous is a top-down estimate. It usually only takes a short period of time to estimate since it is based on historical information and expert judgment. As a result, it generally produces less accurate outputs when compared to the others on the list, which provide estimates at the greatest level of detail.

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

A. -5,000
B. -1,000
C. 1,000
D. 5,000

Answer: A. -5,000
SV (Schedule Variance) is calculated by EV (Earned Value) – PV (Planned Value). The -5,000 means that the project is behind schedule.

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

A. Analogous
B. Parametric
C. Engineering
D. Bottom up

Answer: B. Parametric
Parametric, also known as rough order of magnitude, is very quick since it is simply estimating a part of the project and scaling it. For instance, if it is estimated to take 8 hours and $1000 to do paint a room, then the estimate for painting eight rooms of similar size would take 64 hours and $8000.

__________ is an activity sequencing technique that uses arrows to represent activities.

A. Critical chain method
B. Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
C. Activity-on-Node (AON)
D. Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

Answer: B. Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
In an AOA, activities are arrows and nodes are used to connect them.

__________ is an activity sequencing technique that uses nodes to represent activities.

A. Project management software
B. Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
C. Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
D. Critical chain method

Answer: C. Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
In a PDM, also known as AON, activities are nodes and arrows are used to show relationships.