CCM Cost and Time Management 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A construction manager notices activities on the critical path have zero total float. A non-critical activity has 5 days of total float consumed. What is the impact?
- The project end date is immediately delayed by 5 days
- The activity's float buffer is reduced but project end date is unaffected unless all float is consumed (Correct answer)
- The critical path changes automatically
- The activity becomes a milestone
Correct answer: The activity's float buffer is reduced but project end date is unaffected unless all float is consumed
Consuming total float reduces the buffer available before the activity delays the project; the end date is only affected if all float is exhausted.
Question 2: Which change control process step ensures that a proposed scope change's cost and schedule impacts are evaluated before approval?
- Change identification
- Impact analysis (Correct answer)
- Change implementation
- Change closure
Correct answer: Impact analysis
Impact analysis evaluates the cost, schedule, quality, and risk effects of a proposed change before the change control board decides to approve or reject it.
Question 3: A project uses unit price contracts for earthwork. Actual quantities exceed bid quantities by 20%. What is the financial impact on the owner?
- Owner pays fixed price regardless of quantity
- Owner pays the additional quantity at the contracted unit price (Correct answer)
- Contractor absorbs the additional cost
- Contract must be renegotiated for any quantity change
Correct answer: Owner pays the additional quantity at the contracted unit price
Unit price contracts require the owner to pay for actual quantities used at the agreed unit price, so a quantity overrun increases owner cost proportionally.
Question 4: What is the significance of a 'zero float' activity that is NOT on the original critical path?
- It has become a new critical path activity due to schedule changes (Correct answer)
- It has excess resources that should be reallocated
- It was incorrectly scheduled and must be re-baselined
- It will automatically receive priority resource allocation
Correct answer: It has become a new critical path activity due to schedule changes
When a non-critical activity's float is consumed to zero, it joins the critical path, meaning any further delay will push the project end date.
Question 5: Which estimating approach involves pricing each individual work item from quantity takeoffs and summing all components?
- Analogous estimating
- Parametric estimating
- Bottom-up estimating (Correct answer)
- ROM estimating
Correct answer: Bottom-up estimating
Bottom-up estimating builds a detailed estimate by pricing individual work packages or activities and rolling them up to a total project cost.
Question 6: A construction manager is forecasting project completion. The EAC using the current CPI trend is $650,000 against a BAC of $600,000. What action is most appropriate?
- Immediately issue a change order to increase the budget
- Report the variance and develop a corrective action plan to improve cost efficiency (Correct answer)
- Ignore the variance until work is 50% complete
- Reduce project scope to bring costs in line
Correct answer: Report the variance and develop a corrective action plan to improve cost efficiency
A negative cost variance requires the construction manager to document the issue and implement corrective actions to bring performance back in line with the baseline.
Question 7: Which scheduling output shows the earliest and latest start and finish dates for each project activity?
- Resource histogram
- Network diagram with float calculations (Correct answer)
- Gantt chart with milestones
- Work breakdown structure
Correct answer: Network diagram with float calculations
The forward and backward pass through the network diagram yields early start, early finish, late start, and late finish dates along with total float for each activity.
CCM Cost and Time Management 5
A construction manager notices activities on the critical path have zero total float.
A non-critical activity has 5 days of total float consumed.
What is the impact?