CAM Project Integration Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A CAM's control account shows a cumulative cost variance of -$50,000 that exceeds the reporting threshold. What integrated action is required?
- Prepare a variance analysis report explaining cause, impact, and corrective action (Correct answer)
- Wait to see whether the variance self-corrects next month
- Rebaseline the control account to zero out the variance
- Shift budget from management reserve to close the gap
Correct answer: Prepare a variance analysis report explaining cause, impact, and corrective action
Threshold-breaching variances require formal analysis covering root cause, impact on the project, and planned corrective action.
Question 2: Rolling wave planning at the control account level means the CAM should:
- Detail-plan near-term work packages while keeping far-term effort in planning packages (Correct answer)
- Plan the entire contract to work package detail on day one
- Leave all future work unplanned until the customer complains
- Re-plan completed work to improve reported performance
Correct answer: Detail-plan near-term work packages while keeping far-term effort in planning packages
Rolling wave planning converts planning packages into detailed work packages as their execution window approaches.
Question 3: Which element ties a control account to the responsible organizational unit, ensuring single-point accountability?
- The intersection of the WBS and the organizational breakdown structure (OBS) (Correct answer)
- The project communication matrix
- The vendor qualification list
- The lessons learned repository
Correct answer: The intersection of the WBS and the organizational breakdown structure (OBS)
A control account is established at the intersection of the WBS and OBS, giving one manager accountability for scope, schedule, and cost.
Question 4: A CAM notices a subcontractor's schedule slip will delay a successor task in another control account. The most integrated response is to:
- Coordinate with the affected CAM and update the integrated master schedule impacts (Correct answer)
- Manage only their own control account and ignore downstream effects
- Suppress the slip from status reports until recovery is certain
- Cancel the subcontract without analysis
Correct answer: Coordinate with the affected CAM and update the integrated master schedule impacts
Integration requires communicating cross-control-account schedule impacts and reflecting them in the integrated master schedule.
Question 5: Undistributed budget (UB) differs from management reserve (MR) in that UB is:
- Budget for authorized scope not yet allocated to control accounts (Correct answer)
- Budget held for out-of-scope customer requests
- Profit set aside by the contractor
- Funds returned to the customer at contract end
Correct answer: Budget for authorized scope not yet allocated to control accounts
Undistributed budget covers authorized, definitized scope awaiting distribution to control accounts, while MR covers unplanned in-scope risk.
Question 6: When closing out a completed control account, the CAM should ensure that:
- Budget equals earned value at completion and no further charges are accepted (Correct answer)
- Remaining budget is quietly moved to open accounts
- Actual costs continue accruing for team convenience
- The account remains open indefinitely as a contingency
Correct answer: Budget equals earned value at completion and no further charges are accepted
At closure, budget at completion should equal cumulative earned value, and the charge number should be closed to prevent further costs.
Question 7: A directed change from the customer arrives without a negotiated price. How should the CAM plan this authorized unpriced work?
- Plan near-term effort in the baseline based on the estimated value until definitization (Correct answer)
- Refuse to start any work until final price agreement
- Perform the work using management reserve permanently
- Book the work outside the EVM system entirely
Correct answer: Plan near-term effort in the baseline based on the estimated value until definitization
Authorized unpriced work is planned into the baseline at its estimated value and adjusted when the change is definitized.
CAM Project Integration Management 3
A CAM's control account shows a cumulative cost variance of -$50,000 that exceeds the reporting threshold.
What integrated action is required?