BSE Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management: Project Management Fundamentals 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does the acronym RACI stand for in project management?
- Resources, Activities, Costs, Issues
- Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed (Correct answer)
- Risk, Assumptions, Constraints, Issues
- Requirements, Approval, Compliance, Integration
Correct answer: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
RACI defines roles in project tasks: who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for each activity.
Question 2: An engineering manager is using the Delphi technique during risk identification. What is the main advantage of this approach?
- It is the fastest method available
- It avoids groupthink by gathering anonymous expert opinions iteratively (Correct answer)
- It requires no facilitation
- It only uses quantitative data
Correct answer: It avoids groupthink by gathering anonymous expert opinions iteratively
The Delphi technique uses anonymous expert rounds to prevent dominant opinions and reduce bias in risk identification.
Question 3: Which contract type places the most financial risk on the buyer?
- Fixed-price contract
- Time and materials contract
- Cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (Correct answer)
- Firm-fixed-price contract
Correct answer: Cost-plus-fixed-fee contract
In a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, the buyer reimburses all allowable costs plus a fixed fee, bearing the risk of cost overruns.
Question 4: In agile project management, what is a 'sprint retrospective' used for?
- Planning the next sprint's backlog
- Reviewing the product increment with stakeholders
- Reflecting on team processes to improve future sprints (Correct answer)
- Estimating story points for upcoming work
Correct answer: Reflecting on team processes to improve future sprints
The sprint retrospective is a team meeting focused on identifying what went well, what didn't, and how to improve the team's process.
Question 5: What is the purpose of a project baseline?
- To document lessons learned after project closure
- To serve as an approved reference point for measuring project performance (Correct answer)
- To assign resources to project activities
- To identify project stakeholders
Correct answer: To serve as an approved reference point for measuring project performance
A project baseline is the approved version of the plan used to compare actual performance and identify variances.
Question 6: During project execution, a team member reports that a key supplier will be two weeks late. This is best addressed initially by:
- Immediately escalating to senior management
- Updating the risk register and assessing schedule impact (Correct answer)
- Terminating the supplier contract
- Ignoring it until it officially affects the schedule
Correct answer: Updating the risk register and assessing schedule impact
The PM should log the issue, analyze the impact on the critical path, and determine corrective actions before escalating.
Question 7: Which scheduling technique uses probabilistic time estimates (optimistic, most likely, pessimistic) to account for uncertainty?
- Critical Path Method (CPM)
- Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) (Correct answer)
- Gantt charting
- Resource leveling
Correct answer: Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
PERT uses three-point estimates to calculate a weighted average duration and account for schedule uncertainty.
BSE Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management: Project Management Fundamentals 3
What does the acronym RACI stand for in project management?