CRS Research Project Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which document formally authorizes a research project and grants the project manager authority to apply resources?
- Project scope statement
- Project charter (Correct answer)
- Research protocol
- Statement of work
Correct answer: Project charter
The project charter is the formal document that authorizes the project and establishes the project manager's authority.
Question 2: A research team is experiencing scope creep on a longitudinal study. What is the BEST first step to address this?
- Add more team members to handle extra work
- Revise the budget upward to accommodate changes
- Review the original scope statement and submit a formal change request (Correct answer)
- Proceed informally if stakeholders are agreeable
Correct answer: Review the original scope statement and submit a formal change request
Scope creep should be managed through formal change control by reviewing the baseline scope and submitting a documented change request.
Question 3: In research project scheduling, what does 'float' (or slack) represent?
- Extra budget reserved for unforeseen costs
- The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project finish date (Correct answer)
- The difference between planned and actual resource usage
- The lag between dependent tasks
Correct answer: The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project finish date
Float is the amount of time a non-critical task can slip without affecting the overall project end date.
Question 4: A CRS researcher discovers mid-project that the original sampling frame is no longer valid due to population changes. What should they do?
- Continue with the original frame to maintain consistency
- Halt the project and start over completely
- Document the issue, assess impact, and submit a formal change request (Correct answer)
- Substitute convenience sampling without documentation
Correct answer: Document the issue, assess impact, and submit a formal change request
Mid-project discoveries require documentation, impact assessment, and formal change control to maintain research integrity.
Question 5: What is the primary purpose of a research project's Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?
- To assign individual salaries to team members
- To decompose project deliverables into manageable components (Correct answer)
- To map stakeholder communication preferences
- To schedule the critical path of activities
Correct answer: To decompose project deliverables into manageable components
A WBS decomposes the total project scope into smaller, manageable work packages to facilitate planning and control.
Question 6: During a research project, a key subject-matter expert becomes unavailable. This is best categorized as which type of risk response?
- Risk avoidance
- Risk transfer
- Risk acceptance
- A risk trigger requiring a contingency plan (Correct answer)
Correct answer: A risk trigger requiring a contingency plan
Loss of a key resource is a risk trigger that should activate a pre-planned contingency response.
Question 7: Which estimating technique uses actual durations from similar past research projects as the primary basis for new estimates?
- Parametric estimating
- Analogous estimating (Correct answer)
- Bottom-up estimating
- Three-point estimating
Correct answer: Analogous estimating
Analogous estimating relies on historical data from similar projects and is used when detailed information is limited.
CRS Research Project Management 2
Which document formally authorizes a research project and grants the project manager authority to apply resources?