CST Project Management & Planning 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Resource leveling in project scheduling typically results in:
- A shorter project duration
- A longer project duration or changed dates (Correct answer)
- Lower project costs
- Fewer dependencies between activities
Correct answer: A longer project duration or changed dates
Resource leveling resolves over-allocations by delaying activities, which often extends the project schedule.
Question 2: In Earned Value Management, what does BAC stand for?
- Budget at Completion (Correct answer)
- Baseline Activity Cost
- Budgeted Actual Cost
- Base Allocation Curve
Correct answer: Budget at Completion
BAC (Budget at Completion) represents the total planned budget for the entire project.
Question 3: A Finish-to-Finish dependency with a lag of 5 days means:
- The successor must start 5 days after the predecessor finishes
- The successor must finish 5 days after the predecessor finishes (Correct answer)
- The predecessor must wait 5 days before starting
- Both activities must finish within 5 days of each other
Correct answer: The successor must finish 5 days after the predecessor finishes
An FF+5 relationship means the successor activity cannot finish until 5 days after the predecessor finishes.
Question 4: Which estimating technique bases activity duration estimates on actual durations from similar previous projects?
- Parametric estimating
- Analogous estimating (Correct answer)
- Three-point estimating
- Bottom-up estimating
Correct answer: Analogous estimating
Analogous estimating uses historical data from similar past projects as a basis for estimating current project durations.
Question 5: The Schedule Baseline differs from the Project Schedule in that the Schedule Baseline is:
- Updated weekly to reflect actual progress
- The approved version that can only change through formal change control (Correct answer)
- A high-level summary for stakeholder reporting
- The worst-case scenario schedule
Correct answer: The approved version that can only change through formal change control
The schedule baseline is the formally approved version of the schedule that serves as a comparison point for measuring performance.
Question 6: When applying the Critical Path Method, a 'near-critical path' is significant because:
- It has the longest duration in the network
- It has very little float and could become critical if delays occur (Correct answer)
- It represents activities with the highest resource requirements
- It identifies activities that should be fast tracked first
Correct answer: It has very little float and could become critical if delays occur
Near-critical paths have minimal float and pose schedule risk because small delays can make them critical.
Question 7: In the context of project scheduling, what is a 'hammock activity'?
- An activity with no predecessors or successors
- A summary activity that spans between two specified activities in the network (Correct answer)
- An activity that can be performed at any time
- A recurring activity that happens throughout the project
Correct answer: A summary activity that spans between two specified activities in the network
A hammock activity summarizes a group of related activities and its duration is determined by the start and finish of the activities it spans.
CST Project Management & Planning 3
Resource leveling in project scheduling typically results in: