PMI-SP Schedule Tools 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which scheduling tool output best supports stakeholder communications by showing only key deliverables and their planned completion dates?
- Resource histogram
- Milestone schedule (Correct answer)
- Network diagram
- S-curve report
Correct answer: Milestone schedule
Milestone schedules highlight key deliverables and dates, providing an executive-level view without task-level detail.
Question 2: A scheduler sets a 'Must Finish On' constraint in scheduling software. How does this differ from a 'Finish No Later Than' constraint?
- 'Must Finish On' is flexible; 'Finish No Later Than' is rigid
- 'Must Finish On' locks the finish date exactly; 'Finish No Later Than' allows early finish (Correct answer)
- 'Must Finish On' applies only to milestones; the other applies to tasks
- Both constraints behave identically in the scheduling engine
Correct answer: 'Must Finish On' locks the finish date exactly; 'Finish No Later Than' allows early finish
'Must Finish On' pins the finish to a specific date regardless of float, while 'Finish No Later Than' allows the task to finish earlier if logic permits.
Question 3: When importing a schedule from another tool using XML format (e.g., Microsoft Project XML), the project manager should first verify:
- That all resources are color-coded correctly
- That dependencies, constraints, and calendars transferred accurately (Correct answer)
- That the Gantt chart bar styles match
- That baselines are automatically recalculated
Correct answer: That dependencies, constraints, and calendars transferred accurately
Import validation must confirm that logical relationships, date constraints, and calendar assignments survived the format conversion without data loss.
Question 4: In scheduling software, 'early start' (ES) and 'late start' (LS) dates are computed during which two passes of the scheduling algorithm?
- Resource leveling pass and optimization pass
- Forward pass and backward pass (Correct answer)
- Baseline pass and current pass
- Critical path pass and float pass
Correct answer: Forward pass and backward pass
The forward pass calculates ES and early finish, while the backward pass calculates LS and late finish, together determining float.
Question 5: A scheduling tool's baseline is best described as:
- The most recent status update to the schedule
- A snapshot of the approved plan against which actual performance is measured (Correct answer)
- A list of all project milestones agreed upon by stakeholders
- The resource-leveled version of the original schedule
Correct answer: A snapshot of the approved plan against which actual performance is measured
The baseline is a frozen copy of the approved schedule used as a reference for variance analysis throughout the project.
Question 6: Which scheduling tool feature automatically adjusts all successor task dates when a predecessor's duration changes?
- Auto-scheduling mode (Correct answer)
- Manual scheduling mode
- Constraint lock
- Resource pool synchronization
Correct answer: Auto-scheduling mode
Auto-scheduling mode calculates dates based on network logic, so changes to one task propagate through all successors automatically.
Question 7: A project manager needs to display actual progress against the baseline on a Gantt chart. Which visualization technique is typically used in scheduling tools?
- Earned value S-curve overlay
- Progress bar inside the baseline bar (Correct answer)
- Variance column in the task table
- Histogram showing planned vs. actual
Correct answer: Progress bar inside the baseline bar
Most scheduling tools render a progress bar (often shaded differently) inside or beside the baseline bar on the Gantt chart to show completion percentage vs. plan.
PMI-SP Schedule Tools 3
Which scheduling tool output best supports stakeholder communications by showing only key deliverables and their planned completion dates?