PMI Project Planning & Scheduling 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A project has a total float of zero days on its longest path. What does this indicate?
- The project is ahead of schedule
- Any delay on this path will delay the project end date (Correct answer)
- Resources are optimally allocated
- The project has no schedule risks
Correct answer: Any delay on this path will delay the project end date
Zero total float on the longest path defines the critical path, meaning any delay to activities on it will directly delay the project completion date.
Question 2: Which estimating technique is MOST appropriate early in the project when limited detail is available?
- Bottom-up estimating
- Parametric estimating
- Analogous estimating (Correct answer)
- Three-point estimating
Correct answer: Analogous estimating
Analogous estimating uses historical data from similar projects and is most useful early in the project lifecycle when detailed information is scarce.
Question 3: A lag in a project schedule refers to:
- A delay applied to a successor activity after the predecessor finishes (Correct answer)
- The amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the project end date
- A mandatory waiting period built into resource allocation
- The gap between planned and actual activity durations
Correct answer: A delay applied to a successor activity after the predecessor finishes
A lag is a directed delay applied to a dependency, requiring the successor activity to wait a specified period after the predecessor's trigger event.
Question 4: Which schedule compression technique involves performing activities in parallel that were originally planned sequentially?
- Crashing
- Resource leveling
- Fast-tracking (Correct answer)
- Schedule smoothing
Correct answer: Fast-tracking
Fast-tracking overlaps activities that would normally be done sequentially, compressing the schedule but potentially increasing risk.
Question 5: When preparing a project schedule, the project manager must first:
- Assign resources to all activities
- Define the sequence of activities
- Estimate activity durations
- Create the activity list from the WBS (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Create the activity list from the WBS
Creating the activity list by decomposing work packages from the WBS is the prerequisite step before sequencing, estimating, or assigning resources.
Question 6: Free float is defined as the amount of time an activity can be delayed without:
- Delaying the project finish date
- Exceeding the approved budget
- Delaying the early start of any immediate successor (Correct answer)
- Requiring a change request
Correct answer: Delaying the early start of any immediate successor
Free float is the time an activity can slip without pushing out the early start of its direct successors, making it a more constrained measure than total float.
Question 7: A project manager is developing a schedule for a complex construction project and decides to use a rolling wave planning approach. This means:
- The entire project is planned in detail before execution begins
- Near-term work is planned in detail while future work is planned at a higher level (Correct answer)
- Each team plans its own work independently without central coordination
- The schedule is updated daily to reflect actual progress
Correct answer: Near-term work is planned in detail while future work is planned at a higher level
Rolling wave planning is an iterative approach where near-term deliverables are detailed while future work remains at a higher level of abstraction until more information is known.
PMI Project Planning & Scheduling 3
A project has a total float of zero days on its longest path.
What does this indicate?