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.

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.

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.

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.

__________ 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.

For your new software project, you decide you need to use a Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT) network diagram. When asked by an intern why you chose to use GERT, you explain that one of the main advantages is that you can:

A. Be more accurate than using a PERT
B. Use hammock activities
C. Assign multiple resources
D. Create loops between tasks

Answer: D. Create loops between tasks
GERT allows for conditions or loops between tasks. For projects with iterative tasks, GERT will often tell a better story.

Resource leveling typically results in a:

A. Project cost overrun
B. Project cost savings
C. Project duration longer than the baseline
D. Project duration shorter than the baseline

Answer: C. Project duration longer than the baseline
When resource leveling, work scheduled for resources that are over-allocated will be spread over a longer period of time. As a result, this smoothing out process will usually cause the project to take longer.