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School of Computing, Information and

Mathematical Sciences

IS333: Project Management

FINAL EXAMINATION
Semester II 2012
Time Allowed 3 hours plus 10 minutes reading

100 marks (50% of final grade)

Question and Answer Booklet

INSTRUCTIONS

1. This exam has three sections – A, B and C.

2. All questions are compulsory. There are no choices.
3. Write your answers in this answer booklet.
4. Answer multiple choice questions on the multiple choice grid provided on page 6.
5. You may use calculators. Programmable calculators however are NOT allowed.
6. This exam is worth 50% of your overall mark. Minimum pass mark for this exam is 40/100.

Hand this examination booklet to your supervisor when you complete the examination.

Name: ________________________ID Number: __________

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Section A: Multiple Choice Questions (20 Marks)
1. Which of the following project management tools cannot be use by a project management
professional in comparing earned value performance data?

A. Risk mitigation plans

B. Risk mitigation plans
C. Forecasting final costs and scheduling estimates
D. Technical performance metrics

2. A project manager performs Earned Value Analysis and finds the following values:

EV: 100,000; PV: 125,000; AC: 100,000

A. The project is on schedule but costs exceed budget.

B. The project is on schedule and on budget.
C. The project is behind schedule but on budget.
D. Then project is behind schedule and costs exceed budget.

3. You are performing a project management audit in your company and find that most of the
project plans are neither consistent nor up-to-date.

Which of the following statements is not true?

A. Projects should never be executed without a valid, updated and working project plan.
B. The project plan is secondary because it is only the results that matter.
C. A great deal of effort is required to develop and update a project plan, but the benefits
include less pressure on all stakeholders and a resulting product that will satisfy the
requirements.
D. Poor planning is one of the major reasons for cost and time overruns.

4. The purpose of decomposition process is to construct:

A. Work breakdown structure

B. Critical Path Method Diagram
C. Precedence network
D. Variance analysis

5. Why should assumptions be documented?

A. Assumptions might prove to be wrong. Knowing which assumptions were incorrect

allows baseline adjustments in case of project crisis.
B. Assumption analysis is a valuable tool and technique of Risk Identification.
C. Assumptions limit the project management team's options for decision making.
D. In case of schedule or budget overruns, the documentation of assumptions supports a
clear assignment of responsibility.

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6. What should a project manager do or follow to ensure clear boundaries for project
completion?

A. Scope verification
B. Complete scope statement
C. Scope definition
D. Risk management plan

7. A ______looks at determining if the project idea is a realistic project.

A. Case project study

B. Feasibility study
C. Matrix study
D. Demand study

8. An example of scope verification is:

A. reviewing the performance of an installed software module.

B. managing changes to the project schedule.
C. decomposing the WBS to a work package level.
D. performing a benefit/cost analysis to determine if we should proceed with the project.

9. Risk identification outputs include the following except:

A. decision trees.
B. inputs to other processes.
C. risk symptoms.
D. potential risk events.

10. A project should be terminated for all of the following reasons except:

A. lack of team synergy.

B. the project no longer meets the company's objectives.
C. the resources are not available to complete project activities.
D. project funding has been significantly reduced.

11. The project scope management knowledge area maps to the ____ process group through
the activities of scope verification and scope control.

A. initiating
B. executing
C. planning
D. monitoring and controlling

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12. The ____ process involves gaining stakeholder and customer acceptance of the final
products and services and bringing the project, or project phase, to an orderly end.

A. Ending
B. developing
C. closing
D. completing

13. In an interview with two chief information officers (CIOs), both men agreed that the most
important project management skills seem to depend on ____.

A. the difficulty of the project and the resources involved

B. the difficulty of the task and the people involved
C. the uniqueness of the project and the difficulty of the task
D. the uniqueness of the project and the people involved

14. _____________ is a technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the
greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost.

A. Crushing
B. Fast tracking
C. Crashing
D. Expediting

15. ____ is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying
the planned project finish date.

A. Total slack
B. Total time
C. Free float
D. Free slack

16. ___________is a project performance measurement technique that integrates scope, time,
and cost data.

A. Cost baseline
B. Constructive cost modeling
C. Earned value management
D. Parametric modeling

17. ______________refers to the amount of individual resources an existing schedule requires

during specific time periods.

A. Resource loading
B. Resource allocation
C. Resource leveling
D. Resource requesting

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18. “Will the project meet NPV, ROI, and payback estimates?” applies to which risk category?

A. Financial risk
B. Structure/process risk
C. Technology risk
D. Market risk

19. Good ____ is very important to project success because it helps improve the accuracy of
time, cost, and resource estimates, it defines a baseline for performance measurement and
project control, and it aids in communicating clear work responsibilities.

A. scope planning
B. scope definition
C. scope management
D. scope verification

20. The first step in the framework for defining and assigning work is ____________.

A. defining how the work will be accomplished

B. breaking down the work into manageable elements
C. finalizing the project requirements
D. assigning work responsibilities

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Name: ________________________ID Number: __________
Section A – Multiple Choice Questions (Each question has only one answer)

1. (A) (B) (C) (D)

2. (A) (B) (C) (D)

3. (A) (B) (C) (D)

4. (A) (B) (C) (D)

5. (A) (B) (C) (D)

6. (A) (B) (C) (D)

7. (A) (B) (C) (D)

8. (A) (B) (C) (D)

9. (A) (B) (C) (D)

10. (A) (B) (C) (D)

11. (A) (B) (C) (D)

12. (A) (B) (C) (D)

13. (A) (B) (C) (D)

14. (A) (B) (C) (D)

15. (A) (B) (C) (D)

16. (A) (B) (C) (D)

17. (A) (B) (C) (D)

18. (A) (B) (C) (D)

19. (A) (B) (C) (D)

20. (A) (B) (C) (D)

IS333 Final Exam – Semester II 2012 Page 6 of 19

Section B: Analysis questions (40 Marks)
Question 21: Project network diagram (30 marks)

A project has been defined to contain the following list of activities along with their required times
of completion.

Activity Description Predecessor Duration

1 Accounts Payable System
2 Planning meetings 1
3 Team assignments 2 4
4 Program specification
5 Customer 3 10
requirements
6 Feasibility study 5 5
7 Systems Analysis 5 8
8 Prelim budget & 7 2
schedule
9 Functional 7 5
specification
10 Prelim design 9 12
11 Configuration & 10 4
performance needs
12 Hardware 11 6
requirements
13 Systems specifications 10 7
14 Detailed design 12, 13 14
15 Program specification 14 10
16 Programming – first 15 32
phase
17 Documentation 10 16
18 Prototype
19 Development 16 7
20 User testing & 19 14
feedback
21 Programming – 16 12
second phase
22 Beta testing 21 20
23 Final documentation 17, 20 10
package

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a) Prepare an AOA chart for the above project. Your diagram need NOT be drawn to scale.
Remember to include appropriate dummy arrows and activities if any. (10 marks)

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b) List all distinct paths of the project. (2 marks)

c) Which tasks are on the critical path of the PERT chart above? (2 marks)

d) Identify all activities in the above project that have a slack and the duration of slack? (2 marks)

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e) Convert the above AOA Chart to an AON Chart (also known as Project Network Diagram)
clearly stating the ES, EF, LS, and LF for each of the activities. (12 marks)

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 f) Assume the relationship between Activity 21 and 24 changes from a finish‐start (FS) to
start‐start (SS). What impact will this have on the project duration? (2 marks)

Question 22: Earned Value Analysis (10 marks)

Given the following project information, baseline and status information, develop status reports for
periods 3 and 7 and complete the performance index table. Based on your data, what is your
assessment of the current status of the project at the end of period 7.

Project Baseline(PV)(in $)
Task D ES LF SL Budget
U (PV) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
R
A 4 0 5 1 40 10 10 10 10
B 5 0 5 0 32 8 4 8 4 8
C 4 4 10 2 48 12 12 12 12
D 5 5 10 0 18 6 2 2 2 6
E 3 5 10 2 28 8 8 12
F 2 10 12 0 40 20 20
Period PV total 18 14 18 14 20 26 22 26 2 6 20 20
Cumulative PV Total 18 32 50 64 84 110 132 158 160 166 186 206

Status report: End of Period 3

Task Actual % EV AC PV CV SV CPI SPI
Complete
A 85% 35
B 75% 16
Cumulative Totals 51

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Status report: End of Period 7
Task Actual % EV AC PV CV SV CPI SPI
Complete
A 100% 35
B 100% 24
C 75% 24
D 50% 6
E 50% 10
Cumulative Totals 93

Assessment of the current status of the project at the end of period 7

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Name: ________________________ID Number: __________
Section C: Question 23: Project Management Theory [40 marks]

a) List at least three benefits of using project management techniques. (3 marks)

b) Why must a manager monitor the progress of a project? What can be done if a project is not
proceeding according to plan? (3 marks)

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c) Define scope, schedule, cost, and customer satisfaction. Why are these considered to be
constraints? (5 marks)

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d) Using the following figure, perform resource leveling in terms of workers. Assume that each
task can be performed independently of the other tasks.(5 marks)

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e) What is the difference between leadership and management? How do these two terms
relate to a project manager? (3 marks)

f) Describe problems with traditional project scheduling techniques that encourage some
organizations to use critical chain project management. (3 marks)

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g) List and describe the five project management process groups. (5 marks)

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h) Suppose your team has been given a project and your team has to use the best-fit project
management life cycle model. How will your team decide on the best model? (3 marks)

i) A certain project has three activities on its critical path. Activity A’s normal completion time
is five days. It can be crashed to three days at a cost of $500. Activity B’s normal completion
time is six days, and it can be crashed to four days at a cost of $50. Activity C’s normal
completion time is eight days. It can be crashed to three days at a cost of $1,000. Which
activity should the project manager crash first, by how many days, and how much will it
cost? (4 marks)

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j) Discuss any six of the nine project management knowledge areas. (6 marks)
k)

The End

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