Important Project Management Question | Critical Path Method | MCQs: Correct Answers

1. The critical path of activities in a project is the sequence of activities that form the shortest chain in a project network of activities.

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2. Slack activity time is the difference between the early start and the late finish of a project activity time.

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3. When reducing the planned duration of a project using the Time-Cost CPM model we select the activity to crash by determining the cost of each alternative and selecting the one whose cost is the greatest.

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4. A project milestone is a specific event to be reached by a particular point in time.

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5. In calculating the probabilities in a CPM analysis the desired time is determined by calculating the expected time for the project as a whole.

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6. A project can be subdivided into which of the following?

1. Work Packages
2. Events & decisions
3. Job orders
4. Subjobs

7. A project starts out as which of the following?

1. A Statement of Work (SOW)
2. A Gantt chart
3. Critical Path Method (CPM)
4. A Series of Milestones (SOM)

8. What is a work breakdown structure?

1. A depiction of the activities making up a project
2. A structure that is incompatible with the Critical Path Method
3. A list of the activities making up the higher levels of the project
4. A definition of the hierarchy of project tasks, subtasks and work packages

9. In a Gantt chart the horizontal axis is usually which of the following?

1. Cost
2. Time
3. Profit
4. Milestones

10. Which of the following is a graphic project report used in project management?

1. Humphrey chart
2. Approved project plan
3. Equipment and supplies chart
4. Cost and performance tracking schedule

11. An advantage of a pure project where self-contained teams work full time on a project is which of the following?

1. Team members can work on several projects
2. Lines of communication are shortened
3. There are duplicated resources
4. Overall organizational policies and goals can be ignored

12. Some of the advantages of a functional project where the project is housed in a functional division include which of the following?

1. The project manager has full authority over the project
2. Team pride, motivation and commitment are high
3. A team member can work on several projects
4. Needs of the client are secondary

13. A series of projects that are organized in such a way that each project utilizes people from different functional areas is using which of the following organizational structures?

1. Cross-functional flexible team
2. Matrix project
3. Integrated Task Force
4. Functional project

14. PERT is an abbreviation for which of the following methodologies?

1. Product Evaluation Result and Treatment
2. Process Evaluation and Review Technology
3. Programming and Evaluation Realization Technology
4. Program Evaluation and Review Technique

15. For an activity in a CPM analysis, the Early Start time is 8 and the Late Start time is 10. Which of the following statements is true?

1. The slack for this activity is 2.
2. The Late Finish is 12.
3. The activity is on the critical path.
4. The duration of this activity is 2.

16. The project duration is

1. 10 days
2. 11 days
3. 12 days
4. 13 days

17. You know when you have arrived at the optimal solution in using the Time-Cost CPM scheduling model analysis when what happens?

1. You have found the critical path
2. You have reached the minimum total cost
3. You no longer have a linear relationship with costs
4. You have run out of crash time

18. If each activity time is known with certainty in a CPM analysis, which of the following methodologies can be used to analyze the project?

1. Single Time Estimate
2. Three Activity Time Estimates
3. Expected Activity Time
4. Probability Analysis

19. If you have an optimistic time of 4 weeks, a most likely time of 6 weeks and a pessimistic time of 8 weeks on an activity in a CPM managed project, what is the expected time for this activity?

1. 4 weeks
2. 5 weeks
3. 6 weeks
4. 7 weeks

20. A company wants to use CPM analysis to manage their project. One of the activities that make up the project has an uncertain duration. Three estimates have been given to determine this activity's duration. The estimates are optimistically 1 hour, most likely 5 hours and pessimistic 6 hours. Using the three activity time estimation procedure for CPM, what is the expected time this activity will take?

1. 2.5 hours
2. 3.5 hours
3. 4.5 hours
4. 5.5 hours

21. You have just computed a Z=2.55 in a CPM analysis of a critical path for a project. Based on this Z value what is the probability of completing this project on time?

1. 0.4946
2. 0.6754
3. 0.7654
4. 0.9946

22. You have determined the critical path in a CPM analysis. You would like to determine the probability of completing the project is a desired period of time. One of the activities on the critical path has an optimistic time of 5 minutes, a most likely time of 6 and a pessimistic time of 17. What is the variance estimate of this activity?

1. 2
2. 1
3. 3
4. 4

23. You are working on a project that has 12 activities and want to perform a CPM analysis on the project. You determine the critical path consists of only five activities. You then compute the variances for the five critical path activities and these variances are 3, 4, 2, 1 and 6 days. If the desired completion date for the project is 50 days & the expected completion date for the project is 40 days, what is the probability that the project will be completed by the desired completion date?

1. 0.6736
2. 0.9977
3. 0.9918
4. 0.9938

24. An assumption of three-activity-time CPM analysis is that the activity time estimates conform to the beta distribution. Which of the following is a valid criticism of this assumption?

1. Project activities cannot always be networked
2. Project control doesn't focus enough on the critical path
3. Obtaining three valid time estimates to put into the formula is difficult
4. Beta distributions do not occur naturally