PCC Decision Making & Problem Solving 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A project is behind schedule and over budget. The sponsor asks the team to fast-track. Which risk does this decision most likely introduce?
- Increased rework due to overlapping activities (Correct answer)
- Reduced resource utilization
- Lower project cost
- Improved stakeholder satisfaction
Correct answer: Increased rework due to overlapping activities
Fast-tracking runs sequential activities in parallel, which increases rework risk because downstream work may need revision when upstream outputs change.
Question 2: Which decision-making technique is BEST suited when a group must reach consensus on a complex project controls problem with many variables?
- Nominal group technique (Correct answer)
- Expert judgment only
- Majority vote
- Random selection
Correct answer: Nominal group technique
The nominal group technique structures group input to ensure all voices are heard and ideas are ranked by consensus, reducing groupthink on complex problems.
Question 3: A project controls manager notices a trend of increasing SPI values over three consecutive reporting periods. What does this most likely indicate?
- Schedule performance is improving (Correct answer)
- Cost performance is deteriorating
- The project is likely to finish late
- Earned value calculations are incorrect
Correct answer: Schedule performance is improving
A rising SPI trend indicates that the project is earning more value per dollar of scheduled work, signaling improved schedule performance.
Question 4: When applying the 'satisficing' approach to decision-making in project controls, a manager selects the first option that:
- Meets the minimum acceptable threshold (Correct answer)
- Maximizes expected monetary value
- Has zero risk of failure
- Receives unanimous stakeholder approval
Correct answer: Meets the minimum acceptable threshold
Satisficing, coined by Herbert Simon, means choosing the first option that satisfies minimum criteria rather than optimizing exhaustively.
Question 5: A project controls team is using a weighted scoring model to select between corrective actions. What is the primary advantage of this model?
- It incorporates multiple criteria with different levels of importance (Correct answer)
- It eliminates all subjective judgment
- It is faster than qualitative methods
- It requires no stakeholder input
Correct answer: It incorporates multiple criteria with different levels of importance
Weighted scoring models allow decision-makers to evaluate options across multiple criteria, assigning importance weights to reflect organizational priorities.
Question 6: During a schedule recovery meeting, a team member proposes crashing an activity. Which immediate question should the project controls lead ask?
- What is the crash cost per unit of time saved? (Correct answer)
- Who will be blamed if it fails?
- Has this been done on other projects?
- When can we update the baseline?
Correct answer: What is the crash cost per unit of time saved?
Crashing decisions require evaluating crash cost per unit of time saved to determine whether the schedule gain justifies the additional expenditure.
Question 7: A project controls professional identifies three potential root causes for a recurring variance. To confirm the true root cause, what should they do next?
- Gather data to test each hypothesis against observed variances (Correct answer)
- Implement all three corrective actions simultaneously
- Escalate to the project sponsor immediately
- Close the variance and monitor the next period
Correct answer: Gather data to test each hypothesis against observed variances
Hypothesis testing with real project data confirms which candidate root cause is actually driving the variance before committing to a corrective action.
PCC Decision Making & Problem Solving 3
A project is behind schedule and over budget.
The sponsor asks the team to fast-track.
Which risk does this decision most likely introduce?