CST Milestone & Constraint Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A milestone representing 'System Integration Complete' has no successors in the schedule. What scheduling problem does this represent?
- Dangling finish (Correct answer)
- Dangling start
- Open-end constraint
- Resource conflict
Correct answer: Dangling finish
A milestone or activity with no successors creates a dangling finish, which violates sound CPM scheduling practice.
Question 2: Which constraint should be used when a task can begin no earlier than the receipt of a government permit expected on a fixed date?
- As Soon As Possible (ASAP)
- Start No Earlier Than (SNET) (Correct answer)
- Must Finish On (MFO)
- Finish No Later Than (FNLT)
Correct answer: Start No Earlier Than (SNET)
SNET is a soft constraint that prevents a task from starting before a specified date, appropriate for externally-driven early boundaries.
Question 3: In Earned Value Management, which milestone-related metric measures schedule efficiency at a point in time?
- Cost Performance Index (CPI)
- Schedule Performance Index (SPI) (Correct answer)
- Estimate at Completion (EAC)
- Variance at Completion (VAC)
Correct answer: Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
SPI (EV/PV) measures how efficiently the project is progressing against the planned schedule, including milestone achievement.
Question 4: A scheduler is told a client milestone cannot move. After network analysis, the milestone shows -10 days of float. What is the BEST corrective action?
- Add resources or overlap tasks to recover 10 days on the driving path (Correct answer)
- Convert the milestone to a summary task
- Remove all predecessors from the milestone
- Change the constraint to ASAP
Correct answer: Add resources or overlap tasks to recover 10 days on the driving path
The correct response to negative float on a hard-date milestone is to compress the driving path through crashing, fast-tracking, or added resources.
Question 5: Which term describes a milestone that is linked to payment authorization upon verified completion?
- Baseline milestone
- Contract milestone (Correct answer)
- Summary milestone
- Predecessor milestone
Correct answer: Contract milestone
A contract milestone triggers a financial event such as payment or billing upon verified achievement, making it legally and commercially significant.
Question 6: During a schedule health check, an analyst finds a milestone with both a predecessor and a successor but its Total Float differs from all surrounding tasks. What is the most likely cause?
- The milestone has an applied date constraint creating a separate float path (Correct answer)
- The milestone has too many resources assigned
- The milestone is on the critical path by definition
- The milestone has a lag that was entered incorrectly as negative
Correct answer: The milestone has an applied date constraint creating a separate float path
A date constraint on a milestone creates an independent float reference, causing its float to differ from tasks driven purely by logic.
Question 7: What is the recommended maximum percentage of activities that should carry hard constraints in a DCMA-compliant schedule?
- 5% (Correct answer)
- 10%
- 15%
- 25%
Correct answer: 5%
DCMA guidance recommends that hard constraints should not exceed 5% of all activities to preserve the integrity of CPM calculations.
CST Milestone & Constraint Management 3
A milestone representing 'System Integration Complete' has no successors in the schedule.
What scheduling problem does this represent?