Project Management Quiz

Lecture 1: Overview
1. In todays market, which of the following industries appears to have a need for project management?
A. Aerospace & defense
B. Construction
C. Information systems
D. All industries have a need for project management
2. Which of the following is normally not one of the traditional components of the triple constraint?
A. Within time
B. Within cost
C. Within performance (Scope, technology or quality)
D. Accepted by the customer
3. Which of the following is a potential benefit of using project management?
A. Maximization of continuous reporting
B. No need for identification of functional responsibilities
C. Identification of time limits for scheduling
D. No need for a project management methodology
4. Which of the following functions of classical management is generally not performed by the project
manager?
A. Planning
B. Organizing
C. Staffing
D. Controlling
5. Which of the following is not an organizational stakeholder?
A. Executive officers
B. Unions
C. Employees
D. Customers
6. Which of the following is not a product/market stakeholder?
A. Creditors
B. Customers
C. Suppliers
D. Governments
7. Which of the following is not a capital market stakeholder?
A. Banks
B. Unions
C. Shareholders
D. Creditors

8. Which of the following is directly controlled by the project manager?

A. Money
B. Manpower
C. Information / technology
D. None of the above
9. Successful project management requires a good daily working relationship between project and line
managers.
A. True
B. False
10. Successful project management does not require that people understand how to report to multiple
bosses.
A. True
B. False
11. Which of the following is normally not part of a team members role?
A. Accepting responsibility for a deliverable
B. Sharing information with the sponsor
C. Sharing information with the team
D. Completing the work at the earliest possible time.

Lecture 2: Organizational Structure

1. Which of the following is not one of the three critical terms to consider when looking at organizational
workflow?
A. Span of control
B. Authority
C. Responsibility
D. Accountability
2. Accountability can be defined as:
A. Authority plus responsibility
B. Authority without responsibility
C. Responsibility without authority
D. Pure responsibility
3. In which organizational form is there no customer focal point?
A. Traditional
B. Projectized
C. Strong matrix
D. Weak matrix
4. In which organizational form is it highly unlikely that project management would be a career path?
A. Traditional
B. Projectized
C. Strong matrix
D. Weak matrix
5. In which organizational form does the project manager have the greatest authority over the assigned
resources?
A. Traditional
B. Projectized
C. Strong matrix
D. Weak matrix
6. Other than the traditional structure, which organizational form has strong communication channels?
A. Projectized
B. Strong matrix
C. Balanced matrix
D. Weak Matrix
7. Which of the following organizational forms provides the least career path opportunities for project
personnel?
A. Projectized
B. Strong matrix
C. Balanced matrix
D. Weak Matrix

8. Which organizational structure generally retains team members long after they are needed?
A. Projectized
B. Strong matrix
C. Balanced matrix
D. Weak Matrix
9. In which organizational form do we usually have a sharing of authority and responsibility?
A. Traditional
B. Projectized
C. Line-staff
D. Matrix
10. Before becoming a project manager within a matrix organization, training should be provided in all of
the following except:
A. Matrix operations
B. Wage and salary administration
C. Problem-solving
D. Role definitions

Lecture 3: Role of Project Manager and team

1. Which of the following is not a personal attribute of a project manager?
A. Honesty and integrity
B. Energy and toughness
C. Poor coping skills
D. Decision-making skills
2. Project manager selection is usually made by the:
A. Senior levels of management
B. Customers selection process
C. Line management based upon cooperation on past projects
D. Voting by the team members
3. The wrong people are often selected as project managers because of:
A. A belief that project management maturity comes with age
B. A belief that someone who knows the customer well will make the best project manager
C. A belief that entrepreneurial skills are always necessary
D. all of the above
4. Which of the following is often regarded as the best way to train project managers?
A. On-the-job-training
B. Formal education
C. Seminars
D. Personal readings
5. Probably the greatest risk to a project manager on a long-term project is to receive the best employees
and then:
A. Have them seek perfection rather than just meeting the requirements
B. Find that your costs are escalating
C. Being unable to motivate them.
D. Losing them to other projects at an inopportune time
6. Under which of the following situations should an employee be terminated from the project?
A. Failure to follow rules, policies and procedures
B. Failure to accept formal authority
C. Professionalism more important than company loyalty.
D. all of the above
7. Project team members often feel threatened by the possibility of the cancellation of the project. In which
organizational form is this threat the greatest?
A. Projectized
B. Strong matrix
C. Balanced matrix
D. Weak matrix

8. Some companies assign employees to a project management position as a lateral transfer move without a
salary increase because:
A. The project is short term in nature
B. The project maybe cancelled
C. The employee must demonstrate performance first
D. The employee reports to a functional organization
9. Who determines grade level of the employee needed to accomplish a task?
A. Project sponsor
B. Project manager
C. Functional manager
D. A consensus vote during the projects kickoff meeting.
10. You have just been awarded a contract in which you told the customer that a certain employee would be
assigned full time on the project. Once the project begins, you discover that the employee is splitting
his time between two projects per the instructions of his functional manager. You should:
A. Do nothing
B. Determine the impact on the project and discuss it with the project sponsor
C. Determine the impact on the project and discuss it with the functional manager
D. Determine the impact on the project and discuss it with the customer

Lecture 4: Project Planning

1. Generally speaking, the lowest level in the WBS is referred to as:
A. Level 3
B. Level 4
C. Level 5
D. The work package
2. Which of the following is not a benefit of having a highly detailed work breakdown structure?
A. Lower status reporting costs
B. Less likely that anything will be omitted
C. Better estimating
D. Better activity tracking
3. Which of the following documents is not defined in the text as one of the four critical documents for
preliminary planning?
A. SOW
B. WBS
C. Specifications
D. Network Diagrams
4. Project managers often rewrite the customers SOW into a document that the project team can easily
understand. The document is called:
A. The redefined SOW
B. The scope statement
C. The deliverable statement
D. The finalized SOW statement
5. Which of the following would be the first item to be discussed in the initial kickoff meeting for a project?
A. Understanding of the requirements
B. Understanding of the plan
C. Understanding of the schedule
D. Understanding of the budget
6. A project manager desires a work breakdown structure that goes through 6 levels of detail. Level 3
through level 6 would most likely be prepared by:
A. Project sponsor
B. Project manager
C. Subject matter experts
D. Customer
7. What is the project sponsors responsibility with regard to the WBS preparation?
A. Make sure all work packages are well-defined.
B. Make sure that the management levels of the WBS are correct.
C. Make sure that the technical levels of the WBS are correct.
D. The sponsor should not be involved in WBS development.

8. Consider the WBS shown below:

1.00.00
1.1.0
1.1.1
1.1.2
1.2.0
1.2.1
1.2.2
If the total program costs $100,000 and 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 are each $20 K, then the cost of 1.1.0 is:
A. $20 K
B. $40 K
C. $60 K
D. Cannot be determined
9. Plans such as the cost plan, schedule plan and quality plan are referred to as:
A. Integration plans
B. Specialized plans
C. Functional plans
D. Subsidiary plans
10. Which of the following is usually not validated by using the WBS?
A. The schedule
B. The Risks
C. The quality of the deliverables
D. The budget

Lecture 5: Performing Project Reviews

Lecture 6: Network Scheduling Techniques
1. Which of the following scheduling techniques is most appropriate today for managing a project?
A. BAR charts
B. Milestone charts
C. PERT charts
D. Precedence charts
2. Which of the following scheduling techniques is most appropriate today for reporting project status to a
customer during an interchange meeting?
A. BAR charts
B. Milestone charts
C. PERT charts
D. Precedence charts
3. The major disadvantage of using a bar chart on large projects is that bar charts:
A. Cannot identify critical paths
B. Do not show dependencies between activities
C. Cannot identify milestones
D. Cannot show slack
4. Activities with zero time durations are called:
A. Low-slack activities
B. No-slack activities
C. Dummy activities
D. Special activities
5. Which of the following is false concerning the critical path in a network?
A. It is the longest path in the network
B. It is the shortest amount of time in which the project can be completed
C. It is the path that contains the greatest number of activities
D. It is the path where each activity has zero slack
6. If the optimistic time for an activity is 6 weeks, the pessimistic time is 24 weeks and the most likely time
is 12 weeks, then the expected duration is:
A. 7 weeks
B. 13 weeks
C. 22 weeks
D. 24 weeks
7. Which of the following schedule compression techniques usually requires adding more resources to each
work package that is being compressed?
A. Overtime
B. Crashing
C. Outsourcing
D. Descoping
9

8. Smoothing out project resources from period to period is called

A. Resource leveling
B. Resource allocation or resource limited planning
C. Better effort planning
D. Slack utilization planning
9. An activity in a network has the following characteristics: ES = 5, EF = 9 and LF = 12. LS = _____.
A. 5
B. 8
C. 9
D. 12
10. An activity in a network has the following characteristics: ES = 10, EF = 18 and LS = 12. The duration
of the activity is:
A. 6
B. 8
C. 10
D. Cannot be determined
11. PERT network reflect what type of precedence diagram?
A. Start-to-start
B. Start-to-finish
C. Finish-to-start
D. Finish-to-finish
12. What are the maximum number of inputs and outputs that can exist in a node in the precedence
diagramming method?
A. 3 each
B. 5 each
C. 10 each
D. It is unlimited

10

Lecture 7: Calculating Critical Path

Lecture 9: Pricing and Estimating
1. Which of the following standard project estimating techniques is usually accomplished in weeks?
A. Parametric
B. Analogy
C. Engineering
D. Grassroots
2. Pricing out the construction cost of a home by a cost per square foot would be representative of a _____
estimate.
A. Parametric
B. Analogy
C. Engineering
D. Grassroots
3. When a functional manager tells you that your project is 10% more difficult than the standard project, the
functional manager is providing you with a _____ estimate.
A. Parametric
B. Analogy
C. Engineering
D. Grassroots
4. Which of the following projects would most likely have reasonably good estimating techniques?
A. Construction
B. R & D
C. Software development
D. New product development
5. Which of the following is an estimating pitfall?
A. Misinterpretation of the statement of work
B. Inaccurate work breakdown structure
C. Failure to use correct estimating techniques.
D. All of the above

11

Lecture 10: Monitoring & Controlling Project

1. If the schedule variance is positive and the cost variance is negative, the projects status is:
A. Over budget and behind schedule
B. Over budget and ahead of schedule
C. Under budget and behind schedule
D. Under budget and ahead of schedule
2. The EVMS term that represents the value of work actually accomplished is:
A. PV
B. EV
C. AC
D. BAC
3. If PV = $100, EV = $200 and AC = $300, the status is:
A. Over budget and behind schedule
B. Over budget and ahead of schedule
C. Under budget and behind schedule
D. Under budget and ahead of schedule

Lecture 11: Evaluating and Closing Project

12

Appendix: Managing Risk

1. The two primary components of a risk are:
A. The event and the probability
B. The probability and the impact
C. The impact and the event
D. The impact and the amount at stake
2. Risk constitutes a lack of knowledge _____.
A. Of future events
B. About the environment
C. About the estimates
D. About the customers requirements
3. Which of the following is not included in risk management?
A. Risk planning
B. Risk Assessment
C. Risk handling
D. All of above are part of risk management
4. If theres a 40% chance of making $1 million and a 60% chance of losing $600,000, then the expected
monetary outcome is.
A. <$400,000>
B. <$40,000>
C. $360,000
D. <$360,000>
5. The process that identifies, evaluates, selects and implements one or more strategies to set risk at an
acceptable level is:
A. Risk planning
B. Risk assessment
C. Risk handling
D. Risk monitoring and control
6. Brainstorming, assumption analysis and WBS decomposition are techniques used for:
A. Risk identification
B. Risk assessment
C. Risk monitoring and control
D. Risk handling
7. The probability-impact matrix is a technique used as part of:
A. Risk identification
B. Risk assessment
C. Risk monitoring and control
D. Risk handling

13

8. Nominal work groups and the Delphi Techniques are used as part of which risk management process?
A. Risk identification
B. Risk assessment
C. Risk monitoring and control
D. Risk handling
9. Which of the following is not considered to be an insurable risk?
A. Direct property damage
B. Indirect consequential loss
C. Legal liability
D. Inflation
10. In which life cycle phase is the total project risk generally the least?
A. Initiation / Approval
B. Planning
C. Execution
D. Closure
11. Which risk handling mode is a project manager using if he / she throws out one of three designs for a
new product?
A. Acceptance / Assumption
B. Avoidance
C. Control / mitigation
D. Transfer
12. If a project manager believes in a reactive rather than proactive risk management approach, he / she is
using:
A. Acceptance / Assumption
B. Avoidance
C. Control / mitigation
D. Transfer
13. If a project manager believes in a proactive rather than reactive risk management approach, he / she is
using:
A. Acceptance / Assumption
B. Avoidance
C. Control / mitigation
D. Transfer

14