Reference no: EM132202019

1. Wendy, the director of research at Stott Associates, has asked Simon, one of the senior consultants, to manage a project team that will be researching cost-cutting measures for the firm. Wendy gives Simon her view of the goals of the project, explicitly outlines the responsibilities, and identifies the people he should assemble for his team. What is the most important thing for Simon to do next?

A) Assemble his team to define the project.

B) Gauge how employees feel, but leave any probing questions for later.

C) Determine what the underlying issues are.

E) Make sure he understands the symptoms of the problem.

2. In the first phase of her project, Jan used a variety of methods to identify project stakeholders. Next, she gave the stakeholders her project plan with accompanying Gantt charts. Finally, she set up a standardized progress reporting system to communicate with stakeholders during both the planning and execution phases. What could she have done differently to improve stakeholder involvement and communication?

A) Avoid Gantt charts in stakeholder communication. B) Keep reporting schedules loose and provide information to stakeholders on an "as needed" basis. C) Have stakeholders define their objectives for the project at the outset.

D) Ensure the project plan is able to accommodate all of the stakeholders' goals and requests.

3. You are the manager of a project with very tight and critical deadlines. Senior management has reviewed and approved your schedule. Halfway through the project, however, one of your suppliers reports that they cannot meet their deliverable date unless they drop the quality of the materials they are supplying. What should you do next?

A) Negotiate a lower cost, since the three variables — cost, time, quality — must balance.

B) Accept the lower quality materials in order to adhere to the schedule's critical deadlines.

C) Document the change in quality explicitly so team members know about your decision.

D) Consult with your stakeholders to see if a change in quality is acceptable.

4. Is the project leader for his division’s move to a new building. During the execution phase of the project, several of the stakeholders begin to request new features and changes to the original requirements. What should John do?

A) Refuse to make any changes to the plan once the execution phase begins.

B) Be responsive to stakeholder needs and adopt the changes wherever possible.

C) Accept or reject changes based on project goals.

D) Only accept change requests that will not increase the cost of the project.

5. Javier drops in on his friend Luiz to see how his first project management assignment is going. Luiz had just finished the defining and organizing phase and presented his plan to project stakeholders. In his plan, he drew on prior experience to estimate the average expected time to perform a task and presented the figures as estimates only. Likewise, Luiz avoided discussing detailed assumptions and variables and padded his estimates for safety. Javier immediately recognizes that Luiz has made a critical mistake in the process. What should Luiz have done differently?

A) Luiz should not have used experience as a basis for his time estimates; he should have used a more accurate method of estimating task duration.

B) Luiz should have made firm commitments to complete tasks on time, not just estimates

C) Luiz should have made stakeholders aware of the assumptions and variables built into his estimates.

D) Luiz should not have padded his estimates.

6. Mihal, a project manager at Serious Enterprises, is assembling a new team for the second phase of a project. He's a little unsure of how to go about it. He he asks Dave, a senior manager with experience building successful teams, for advice. What would Dave most likely tell Mihal?

A) If you have to provide training for team members, it's a sign you chose the wrong people.

B) If you're doing things right, you should easily be able to anticipate all the skills you'll need on your project team.

C) It's a bad idea to hire from outside for a project because newcomers don't understand the company's culture.

7. Project manager Matilda was assigned a team of people she has never worked with and does not know very well. She prepared a list of the people assigned to the project team and a list of the skills required to successfully complete each task. She then assigned each person to tasks based on her assessment of each person’s skills. Finally, she organized training for people who seemed to need new skills. What could Matilda have done better? Matilda should have ...

A) Assigned team members to tasks based on their availability, rather than their skills.

B) Given the team the responsibility for assigning people to the tasks.

C) Provided training for all team members.

D) Prepared a schedule before addressing task assignments.

8. Kate is developing her project budget. Once she’s got a list of all the costs, she shows it to her colleague Darren for suggestions. Darren sees that the budget thoroughly covers Personnel, Travel, Training, Supplies, Space, Research, Professional Services, and Capital Expenditures. But he recognizes another area that Kate should have covered. What has Kate not included?

A) An estimate of the cost of technical upgrades.

B) An estimate of whether the project's benefits will justify its costs.

C) An estimate for the cost of hiring an outside firm to conduct market research.

D) An estimate of the cost of specialized equipment required only for this project.

9. Midway through execution, Robin Johnson notices a cost overrun in the project he is managing. How should he communicate this news to stakeholders?

A) Provide full information on the overrun at the close of the project.

B) Do not report the overrun unless it has an impact on the project outcomes.

C) Report the problem as part of routine stakeholder communications.

D) Look for ways to recover costs during later stages of the project.

10. During implementation of a major project, Fu, the project manager at SFIL Worldwide, instituted a system of monitoring and control. His system featured regular updates of issues by team members and prioritization of issues according to project goals. However, Fu noticed that the problems that came up during the project tended to linger or even be compounded. What critical element was missing from his monitoring and control system?

A) A mechanism for corrective response.

B) A mechanism for stakeholder communication.

C) mechanism for real-time notification of issues by team members.

D) Quality control benchmarks.

11. Future Bright Electronics is developing a device that combines the functions of several pieces of equipment, including a video camera, MP3 player, and memory stick. It’s a risky venture because competitors are working on similar devices and technologies are constantly changing. Most of the risks cannot be anticipated. What is the most effective approach for managers to take?

A) Develop contingency plans.

B) Rely primarily on decision-making tools such as return on investment, net present value, and internal rate of return.

C) Conduct a risk audit.

D) Use adaptive project management.