Project Management Project Scheduling and Costing 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A project manager is compressing the schedule by adding more team members to critical path tasks. This technique is called:
- Fast-tracking
- Crashing (Correct answer)
- Resource smoothing
- Schedule rebaselining
Correct answer: Crashing
Crashing involves adding resources to critical path activities to shorten duration, typically at increased cost.
Question 2: What is the Estimate at Completion (EAC) formula when future work is expected to be performed at the budgeted rate?
- EAC = BAC / CPI
- EAC = AC + (BAC – EV) (Correct answer)
- EAC = AC + ETC
- EAC = BAC × SPI
Correct answer: EAC = AC + (BAC – EV)
When future work will proceed at the planned rate, EAC = AC + (BAC – EV), which adds actual costs to the remaining budget.
Question 3: Which scheduling output shows the planned start and finish dates for each project activity in a bar chart format?
- Network diagram
- Gantt chart (Correct answer)
- Resource histogram
- Milestone list
Correct answer: Gantt chart
A Gantt chart is a bar chart displaying activities against a time scale with planned start and finish dates visually represented.
Question 4: A mandatory dependency between activities is also known as a:
- Discretionary dependency
- Hard logic (Correct answer)
- Soft logic
- External dependency
Correct answer: Hard logic
Hard logic (mandatory dependency) is inherent in the nature of the work and cannot be changed, such as testing software before deployment.
Question 5: When using three-point estimation for PERT, what is the expected duration if optimistic = 4 days, most likely = 7 days, and pessimistic = 16 days?
- 7 days
- 8 days (Correct answer)
- 9 days
- 10 days
Correct answer: 8 days
PERT expected duration = (O + 4M + P) / 6 = (4 + 28 + 16) / 6 = 48 / 6 = 8 days.
Question 6: What is the primary purpose of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in cost estimation?
- To assign team members to tasks
- To decompose the project into manageable components for cost estimating (Correct answer)
- To track actual costs against the budget
- To define the project schedule network
Correct answer: To decompose the project into manageable components for cost estimating
The WBS decomposes the project scope into work packages, which become the basis for cost estimating and budgeting.
Question 7: Which cost estimation technique uses the actual cost of a similar past project as the basis for estimating?
- Bottom-up estimating
- Analogous estimating (Correct answer)
- Parametric estimating
- Three-point estimating
Correct answer: Analogous estimating
Analogous estimating uses historical data from similar past projects as the basis for estimates and is less accurate but faster.
Project Management Project Scheduling and Costing 3
A project manager is compressing the schedule by adding more team members to critical path tasks.
This technique is called: