CAM Quality Assurance & Improvement 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A surveillance team samples a CAM's estimate at completion (EAC) and finds it has not changed in twelve months despite a steadily worsening cost performance index. What quality deficiency does this indicate?
- The EAC is not being updated based on current performance data, undermining its validity (Correct answer)
- The management reserve is too small
- The schedule baseline lacks a critical path
- The CAM is using too many work packages
Correct answer: The EAC is not being updated based on current performance data, undermining its validity
EACs must be regularly reassessed using current performance trends or they lose credibility as forecasts.
Question 2: Which of the following is the best evidence that a CAM performs meaningful monthly variance analysis?
- Written analyses identifying root cause, impact, and corrective action for variances exceeding thresholds (Correct answer)
- A statement that variances will resolve themselves by contract end
- A spreadsheet listing variance values with no narrative
- Verbal explanations given only when the customer asks
Correct answer: Written analyses identifying root cause, impact, and corrective action for variances exceeding thresholds
Quality variance analysis documents root cause, impact, and corrective action rather than merely reporting numbers.
Question 3: During a self-assessment, a contractor discovers retroactive changes were made to prior-period earned value without documentation. What is the appropriate quality response?
- Document the changes, determine root cause, and establish controls preventing undocumented retroactive adjustments (Correct answer)
- Delete the audit trail to restore consistency
- Reclassify the work as level of effort
- Ignore the issue if total contract cost is unchanged
Correct answer: Document the changes, determine root cause, and establish controls preventing undocumented retroactive adjustments
Retroactive changes must be documented and controlled; the fix is transparency and preventive controls, not concealment.
Question 4: A CAM wants to reduce recurring data entry errors in monthly status updates. Which continuous improvement approach is most effective?
- Analyze the error patterns, address the root causes, and add automated validation checks (Correct answer)
- Ask the customer to accept a wider error tolerance
- Increase the reporting threshold so fewer variances appear
- Shift all status responsibility to the scheduler
Correct answer: Analyze the error patterns, address the root causes, and add automated validation checks
Root-cause analysis combined with automated validation prevents recurrence instead of hiding errors.
Question 5: What is the primary purpose of a contractor's EVMS System Description in the context of quality assurance?
- It defines the documented processes against which compliance and data quality are evaluated (Correct answer)
- It replaces the contract statement of work
- It lists the customer's funding profile
- It serves as the project's risk register
Correct answer: It defines the documented processes against which compliance and data quality are evaluated
The System Description is the documented standard that surveillance and self-assessments measure actual practice against.
Question 6: A quality review finds that management reserve was used to offset an unfavorable cost variance in a completed control account. Why is this a serious finding?
- Management reserve must not be used to mask existing variances, as this distorts true performance (Correct answer)
- Management reserve can only be used in the first year of a contract
- Completed accounts must always retain their budgets in undistributed budget
- The contract ceiling automatically increases
Correct answer: Management reserve must not be used to mask existing variances, as this distorts true performance
Using management reserve to eliminate existing variances hides true performance and violates EVMS principles.
Question 7: Which sampling approach gives a surveillance team the most objective view of EVMS health across a large program?
- A risk-based random sample of control accounts across different CAMs, phases, and work types (Correct answer)
- Reviewing only the control accounts the program office recommends
- Reviewing only accounts with favorable variances
- Reviewing the same single account every month
Correct answer: A risk-based random sample of control accounts across different CAMs, phases, and work types
Risk-based random sampling across diverse accounts avoids selection bias and reveals systemic issues.
CAM Quality Assurance & Improvement 3
A surveillance team samples a CAM's estimate at completion (EAC) and finds it has not changed in twelve months despite a steadily worsening cost performance index.
What quality deficiency does this indicate?