Term
| What are the "triple constraints"? |
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Definition
1) quality (scope, performance, etc)
2) time
3) budget
4) customer satisfaction (hardest but most important)
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Term
| What are the fundimental tools of project management? |
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Definition
- basic thinking (occam's razor)
- process thinking
- models
- teamwork
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Term
| What are the stages of the project life cycle? |
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Definition
1) conception
2) planning (design)
3) implementation (construction)
4) completion (turnover/startup) |
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Term
| In which stage is cost of changes the least and the ability to influence change the highest? |
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Definition
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Term
| In which stage is cost of changes the highest and the ability to influence change the least? |
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Definition
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Term
| What are the foci of the Project Manager during the early phases of the project? |
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Definition
- ensure that the plan meets the needs of the client
- does the project fit the abilities of the project team?
- be consistent with the goals, objectives and values of the company
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Term
| What are the foci of the Project Manager during the heart of the project? |
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Definition
- ensure that the "triple constraints" are being maintained
- deal with snags in the process
- negotiate with the client project trade-offs |
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Term
| What are the foci of the Project Manager during the final phases of the project? |
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Definition
| - ensuring that all deliverables are done and done correctly (punch list mentality) |
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Term
| What is the difference between a goal and an objective? |
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Definition
A goal: a long term result
an objective: some measurable end-point |
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Term
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Definition
| a specific measurable activity required to accomplish an objective. |
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Term
| What is one advantage and one disadvantage of a projectized organization? |
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Definition
-Advantages
- Effective and efficient for large projects
- Resources available as needed
- Broad range of specialists
- short lines of communication
- Drawbacks
- May require high levels of duplication for some specialties
- Expensive for small projects
- Specialists may have limited technological depth
- No “home” for staff at end of project
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Term
| What are the purposes of the project plan? |
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Definition
1) organize the project process
2) helps communicate the process
3) puts all the documents in one location |
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Term
| Functions of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)? |
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Definition
1) break the work into smaller more managable pieces such that each has a measurable objective
2) defines the outer boundaries (scope) of the project
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Term
| What are the branches of the WBS called? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is stakeholder analysis |
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Definition
- Process of techniques/tools used to identify & understand needs & expectations of major interests inside & outside project.
- Then to use the information gained above to structure the project and to take appropriate actions to ensure the stakeholder needs and expectations are met.
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Term
| When do you know the WBS is done? |
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Definition
| Generally, the process of progressively breaking tasks down continues until management has adequate detail to assess time and cost constraints for that piece. |
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Term
| How long should a task take? |
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Definition
| One should continue to break down work packages until each task takes between 0.5% and 2% of the total time of the project. Critical activities falling below the 0.5% threshold should also be noted. |
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Term
| what is the critical path? |
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Definition
- Path that, if delayed, will delay completion of project
- The series of activities that determines project duration
- The longest path through the project
- Change in start or finish time of a critical task will affect project end
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Term
| What is the critical time? |
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Definition
| The time needed to complete all the tasks on the critical path. |
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Term
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Definition
| amount of time a task may be delayed without impacting project finish date |
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Term
| What are the components of the project charter? |
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Definition
1) indication that the project is on: an ok from the project sponsor and client that it is ok to spend money.
2) list of personnel, especially the name of the project manager
3) expected output
4) business need to be filled
5) project constraints, especially total budget and gross schedule
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Term
| What is the difference between a cost accounting system and a project cost control system? |
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Definition
| The first is a across projects and the second refers to the mechanism by which a PM measures the costs incurred by a project with the product produced so far. |
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Term
| In the straight line method how does one calculate the yearly depreciation? |
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Definition
| (cost_basis - salvage_value)/depreciation_life
total_depreciation = (cost_basis - salvage_value) |
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Term
| If the salvage value of a machine increases, how does that affect cash flow? |
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Definition
| If the salvage value increases, the yearly depreciation decreases. Therefore, the amount of money going to taxes increases and the cash flow decreases |
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Term
| What are the components of cost basis? |
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Definition
- purchase price
- installation fee
- delivery costs
- training costs
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Term
| What does MACRS stand for? |
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Definition
| Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System |
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Term
| Name two differences between MACRS and straight line depreciation? |
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Definition
- based upon the type of equipment, MACRS has a set depreciation schedule; in straight line, one can choose
- each year is different for MACRS and all the same for straight line
- MACRS has no salvage value -- if equipment is sold after fully depreciated, the money is put onto the revenue side.
- In MACRS depreciation begins 6 months into the year; it starts at time 0 in straigt line
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Term
| How do you calculate salvage value in MACRS if the equipment is sold prior to full depreciation? |
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Definition
Add the difference of (actual sale price – undepreciated value) to normal operating income for taxation at the normal rate
E.G. - $100k equipment with 5 year class life sold at end of year 4 for $25k
$25,000 – ($100,000(.11+.06)) = $8000 to add to operating income |
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Term
| Why have an explicit plan for change management (aka: revision control, configuration management)? |
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Definition
- Communication -- keep all people on the same page
- limit scope creep -- especially if you charge for every client initiated change
- provide a means of billing new work when the client wants a change
- provide a means of estimating the work impact of a change
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Term
| What are the stages needed in change requests? |
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Definition
- write a policy
- decide who may request changes
- client
- subcontractor in their field
- inspector
- if change request is accepted what do you do next? -- modify and publish the plan, schedule, budget, etc.
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Term
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Definition
| Anything that can hurt or help a part of a project (i.e. triple constraints) |
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Term
|
Definition
S = Strengths
W = Weaknesses
O = Opportunities
T = Threats |
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Term
| What is the purpose of risk analysis? |
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Definition
| To come up with solutions to potential problems before the crisis. |
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Term
| What are the fields in a risk management analysis? |
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Definition
- risk id
- risk description
- probability
- impact if risk occurs
- rank
- owner
- monitoring plan
- response strategy
- response plan
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Term
| Describe the basic concepts behind theory of constraints. |
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Definition
- Unexpected events will happen (Murphy's Law)
- Work expands to fill the time available (Parkinson's Law)
- Student's syndrome (procrastination if no immediate deadline)
- The second and third lead to trouble when there are interim deadlines
- It is more efficient to manage the final deadline in conjunction with the work associated with each part of the project
- look for bottlenecks and manage them
- add more resources
- remove multitasking
- change policy
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Term
| How do you create a critical chain? |
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Definition
- get realistic estimates of the time needed to perform a function -- i.e. no padding to "ensure" adequate time
- eliminate multitasking for each individual
- manage constraints -- for each task use a buffer to assess if there is a risk of delaying the project
- manage uncertainty -- tell people when their turn is up instead of giving them a particular date
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Term
| What are your choices for response strategies for various risks? |
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Definition
- avoid -- do everthing possible
- mitigate
- accept -- accept if the risk occurs
- transfer -- transfer responsibility to someone else (insurance)
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Term
| Why lease instead of buy? |
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Definition
- cheaper to lease
- tax advantages
- hedge against technical obsolescence
- may allow you to be harder on the equipment
- generally easier to dissolve contracts
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Term
| why buy instead of lease? |
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Definition
- you own the product and can sell it.
- tax advantages
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Term
| describe a firm fixed price scheme. Who benefits? |
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Definition
| Buyer pays seller a set amount regardless of seller costs
The buyer can shop around. |
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Term
| describe a fixed price incentive fee. Who does this benefit? |
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Definition
| buyer pays seller a fixed price with disincentive for delays and incentives if performance criteria are ment
The buyer since they can shop around. |
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Term
| describe a cost plus fixed fee. Who does this benefit? |
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Definition
| buyer reimburses the seller his costs plus an extra amount for profit
It is better for the seller since s/he know their actual costs. |
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Term
| describe a cost plus incentive fee. Who does this benefit? |
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Definition
| Buyer reimburses seller costs & seller earns profit if performance criteria met
The seller since they know their actual costs |
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Term
| Describe Time and Materials fee. Who benefits in this arrangment? |
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Definition
| “Hybrid” of cost reimbursement and fixed fee
It benefits the seller becauase they get their costs but there is usually a cap clause indicating how much they may raise thie prices during the contract. |
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Term
| Describe purchase order. Who benefits? |
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Definition
| a mini contract based upon boilterplate forms and standard laws. It is perhaps the most fair type of payment for adequately large orders. |
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Term
| what is fast tracking? What is the risk? |
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Definition
| reorganizing to put more tasks in parallel. Many tasks can not be done in parallel and such much more rework may need to be done. It tends to increase the confusion of the project. |
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Term
| What is crashing? What is the risk? |
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Definition
| adding resources to a task. Adding inexperienced people can often slow down the process by causing the more experienced people to teach the new people. Furthermore some tasks need to take a certain amount of time -- it takes time for concrete to cure. Finally, the budget may not allow for this. |
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Term
| What is scope modification? What is the risk? |
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Definition
| changing the final acceptable specifications to allow the project to finish on schedule. You don't get what the client ultimately wants and sometimes there are no parts available to be removed. (You can't put on only half a roof.) |
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Term
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Definition
the value of completed project using the cost of the project as its future value and subtracting out the initial investment
NPV = Σ (FVt / (1+i)t) - I |
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Term
| What are the fields of interest in a risk plan table |
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Definition
1) id
2)risk
3)probability
4) impact
5) rank
6)owner
7) monitoring plan
8) risk response
9) risk plan |
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Term
| What does a procurement management plan do? |
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Definition
| Describes how the procurement process, from solicitation planning to contract closeout, will be managed. |
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Term
| What are the two major components to Make vs buy analysis? |
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Definition
- opportunity cost analysis -- revenue side (even if we have the skills to do the task, may our resources be better served in some other capacity?)
- cost/benefit analysis -- cost side (The task will cost us money--Is it worth it for the added feature?)
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Term
| What are the two broad ways of describing quality in a project? |
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Definition
- features and functionality -- Does the outcome conform to the specifiction set out at the begining of the project?
- fitness for use -- Does the outcome fit with the expectations of the client?
- the first is easy to define, the second is harder to define. It may help to know such concepts as the intended use and intended abuse
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Term
| what are the four costs of quality? |
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Definition
- prevention costs -- costs incurred to prevent failure
- appraisal costs -- costs incurred to find failure before or after sale
- internal failure cost -- costs in raw material, work in progress and finished good for not getting the right product the first time?
- external failure cost -- costs from customer loss due to poor product quality (people who are unhappy to with a product are much more likely to speak poorly about your product and much likely to be a repeat customer than those who are happy about the product.) The worst part of this cost is that you can not quantify it.
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Term
| Name three quality systems. |
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Definition
- total quality management (TQM)
- Six Sigma -- having a defect in only 1 in 100,000 products
- ISO standards -- are the right policies and procedures written down and enforced?
- quality circles
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Term
| What four step loop does total quality management use? |
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Definition
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Term
| What are Deming's fourteen principles? |
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Definition
- Create constancy of purpose toward improvement
- Adopt the new philosophy
- Cease dependence on inspection.
- Minimize total costs
- Constant and perpetual improvement
- Institute training
- Institute leadership
- Drive out fear
- Break down internal barriers
- Eliminate slogans, targets etc.
- Eliminate management by objective
- Remove barriers
- Institute program of education and self-improvement.
- Everybody’s job is to accomplish the transition.
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Term
| What are Deming's "Deadly Diseases"? |
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Definition
- Lack of constancy of purpose to improve products & services by providing resources for long-term planning, for research, & for training
- An emphasis on short-term profits & quarterly dividend
- Individual performance evaluations through merit ratings & annual reviews
- Managers who are highly mobile & hop from company to company
- Management use of numbers & figures that are visible & available with no thought of info that may be needed, but unknown or hidden
- Excessive medical costs
- Excessive legal liability costs, which can be swelled by lawyers who work on “contingency” fees
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Term
| What is the basic approach of quality circles? |
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Definition
| Bring employees and, perhaps, customers together to brainstorm a process and come up with solutions. |
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Term
| Can you improve quality by inspection? Why or why not? |
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Definition
| Inspections are one means of improving quality but is retrospective and will not catch all defects. Furthermore it is inefficient in that any problems that are caught need to be fixed that requires back tracking and rework. |
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Term
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Definition
Systematized, planned method of looking at processes other than the one in which you’re interested to compare to and improve your process
- airline may be interested in looking at a NASCAR pit crew to improve their in-port turnover time
- Often you need to be careful in how to apply this technique.
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Term
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Definition
| Using the 80/20 rule, systematically subdivide the problem into its most common solutions and focus on those first.
come up with a chart similar to this:
[image] |
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Term
| What is a Ishikawa diagram? What are some its synonyms? |
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Definition
| It is also called a fishbone or cause/effect diagram. It looks like this:
[image] |
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Term
| What is fault tree analysis? |
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Definition
| A systematic means of assess the causes of failure. It can be multilayered. It focuses thinking on systems and their interactions. Here is an example:
[image] |
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Term
| What are the next steps after a fault tree analysis (FMEA)? |
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Definition
1) Pareto diagram
2) use the resulting information in the risk management plan. |
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Term
| What is earned value management? |
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Definition
| It is a means of taking into account money spent, time spent and tasks completed. It uses a performance measurement system. It is useful as a risk managment tool. Basically, you compare expected time, cost and task variables to that of actual results to assess if the project is going as planned. |
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Term
| What is a Dunning Letter? |
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Definition
| It is a letter of rebuke. |
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Term
| What is groupthink and how do you recognize it? |
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Definition
It is group dynamic when everyone has the same idea. It risks going down blind alleys because people are not able provide constraint to the group think. Features of groupthink:
- overestimation of the wisdom of the members of group
- closed mindedness
- pressures towards uniformity
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Term
| As a manager, how can you help avoid groupthink? |
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Definition
- promote an open environment
- avoid the isolation of teams
- appoint critical evaluators -- including those that evaluate you
- avoid being too directive.
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Term
| What are the four strategies of conflict resolution? What fifth strategy is used to work towards three of the others? |
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Definition
- withdrawal
- forcing
- smoothing
- compromise
Confronting is the first step towards forcing, smoothing and compromise. |
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Term
| When would it be appropriate to withdraw? |
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Definition
| When the ends of the conflict are not important and when the relationship is also not important. |
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Term
| When would it be appropriate to smooth? |
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Definition
| When the ends of the conflict are not as important as maintaining the relationship. |
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Term
| When would it be appropriate to force? |
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Definition
| When the ends of the conflict are more important than maintaining the relationship. |
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Term
| When would it be appropriate to compromise? |
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Definition
| When the ends of the conflict and when maintaining the relationship are important. It is likely that neither party will receive all they want. |
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Term
| What are the stages of negotiation? |
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Definition
- Informal Negotiation
- Formal Negotiation
- Mediation
- Third-Party Mediation
- Arbitration
- Binding Arbitration
- Litigation
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Term
| What is the similarity and difference between informal and formal negotiation? |
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Definition
| Both refer to a strategy between only two people; the latter being more formal and writen down. |
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Term
| What is the similarity and difference between mediation and third-party mediation? |
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Definition
| Both refer to a strategy of conflict resolution involving a negotiator between the parties. In the latter case, the mediator comes from outside the company. |
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Term
| What is the similarity and difference between arbitration and binding arbitration? |
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Definition
| Both are formalized negotiations to resolve a conflict. The latter indicates that both parties are bound to abide by the results of the negotiations. |
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Term
| By which standards are ethical, moral and legal decisions made? |
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Definition
ethical: based upon accepted professional (group) standards
moral: based up right/wrong
legal: based upon rules of law |
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Term
| What are the levels of estimating the work-level budget? |
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Definition
- ROM = Rough Order of Magnitude (~20% accurate, 10 minutes)
- System Estimate (~10% accurate, 1 day)
- Unit Estimate (~5% accurate, 1-3 weeks)
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Term
| According to Kohlberg, what are the three levels of moral development? |
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Definition
- Preconventional: personal norms -- might makes right; what will keep me out of trouble.
- conventional: family, group or societal norms
- post-conventional: people are treated as individuals and can decide "what is best". Individuals are guided by integrity, self-respect and respect for others.
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Term
| Name three tests you may apply when making an ethical decision. |
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Definition
- Harm Test: Does this option do less harm?
- Publicity Test: Would I want my choice to appear in the newspaper next to my name?
- Mother Test: What if my mom knew about the choice I made?
- Defensibility Test: Could I defend my choice before a committee of my peers (or others)?
- Reversibility Test: Would I think the choice was good if I were the one affected by it?
- Colleague Test: What do my colleagues say when I describe the problem and my solution?
- Professional/Organizational Test: What might ASCE (IIE, IEEE, ASME, etc) say about my choice?
- Is it honorable (would you hide this action from anyone)?
- Is it honest (does it betray a trust)?
- Does it fall within your area of competence?
- Does it avoid a conflict of interest (will your judgment be biased)?
- Is it fair (does it violate the legitimate interests of others)?
- Is it considerate (does it violate privacy or confidentiality)?
- Is it conservative (in terms of time and resources required)?
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Term
| What are the two major theories of how people make moral decisions? |
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Definition
| Decisions are made on the basis of consequences of an act of decision
Decisions are made based on the morality of right and wrong. |
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Term
| one approach to making an ethical decisions. |
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Definition
- Problem Definition
- Identify ethical issues
- Determine relevant facts
- Identify/Gather required missing data
- Determine relevant ethical principles
- Discuss practical constraints
- Identify possible solutions
- Seek ways to avoid the original problem
- List action items
- Make preliminary judgments (apply evaluation tests)
- Review decisions and synthesize discussion into a solution
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Term
| what the elements of the end the project? |
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Definition
- Verify product/service output
- Closeout financial system
- Gather lessons learned
- Update records
- Complete final project performance reporting
- Archive records
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