Category Construction Management. for Industrial Projects

1. The construction manager is away from the project and is replaced by a new one. The project manager meets with the replace­ment construction manager and his team. In this meeting, what is the first issue the project manager should start on in the meeting?

• Introduce team members.

• Communicate the objectives of the project.

• Clarify the authority.

• Create a communication plan.

2. After you have been assigned to a project, according to the sched­ule 50% of the project should be completed. You discover that the project is running far behind schedule. The project will probably take double the time originally estimated by the previous project manager. On the other hand, you discover that upper management has been informed that the project is on schedule. What will be the BEST action?

• Try to restructure the schedule to meet the project deadline.

• Turn the project back to the previous project manager.

• Report your assessment to upper management.

• Move forward with the schedule as planned by the previous project manager and report at the first missed milestone.

3. You are a project manager on an international project of great importance to the client. The client is from another country and is so excited by how well the project is going that he presents you with a company automobile for your personal use. The BEST thing for you to do would be to:

• thank him and offer a gift in exchange.

• politely turn down the gift.

• ask that the gift be changed to something that can be shared by the team.

• ask for a gift that can be used before you return home.

4. The client project manager asks you to provide a written cost estimate that is 30% higher than your estimate of the project’s cost. He explains that the budgeting process requires managers to esti­mate pessimistically to ensure enough money is allocated for proj­ects. What is the BEST way to handle this?

• Add the 30% as a lump sum contingency fund to han­dle project risks.

• Add the 30% to your cost estimate by spreading it evenly across all project tasks.

• Create one cost baseline for budget allocation and a second one for the actual project plan.

• Ask for information on risks that would cause your estimate to be too small.

5. You are reviewing bids from various contractors for work on your project. One of the bidding contractors has a history of deliv­ering on time within budget, and you have personally worked with this company successfully on previous engagements. You receive a call from the manager submitting the bid inquiring about how the process is going. He asks to have lunch with you to discuss the bid. What is the BEST response?

• Do not mention the other bidders but simply inform him that based on past experience, he has a good chance of winning the business.

• Inform him that it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter at all, and inform the customer or a team member of the conversation.

• Inform him that it would not be appropriate to dis­cuss the matter over the phone during business hours, but that an informal lunch discussion would be more appropriate.

• Politely avoid continuing the conversation and disre­gard the bid.

6. All of the following are part of the team’s stakeholder manage­ment effort EXCEPT?

• Giving stakeholders extras

• Identifying stakeholders

• Determining stakeholders’ needs

• Managing stakeholders’ expectations

7. There are over 20 stakeholders on your project. The project is running in another country with people from three countries as team members. Which of the following is the MOST important thing to keep in mind?

• The communication channels will be narrow.

• Many competing needs and objectives must be satisfied.

• There must be one sponsor from each country.

• Conflicts of interest must be disclosed.

8. Your management has decided that all orders will be treated as "projects" and that project managers will be used to update orders daily, resolving issues and ensuring that the customer formally accepts the product within 30 days of completion. The revenue from the individual orders can vary from US $100 to US $150,000. The project manager will not be required to perform planning or provide documentation other than daily status. How would you define this situation?

• Because each individual order is a "temporary endeavor," each order is a project – this is truly project management.

• This is program management since there are multiple projects involved.

• This is a recurring process.

• Orders incurring revenue over US $100,000 would be considered projects and would involve project management.

9. Who determines the role of each stakeholder?

• The stakeholder and the sponsor.

• The project manager and the stakeholder.

• The project manager and the sponsor.

• The team and the project manager.

10. A project manager has a problem with a team member’s per­formance. Choose the best way of communication to address this problem:

• Formal written communication

• Formal verbal communication

• Informal written communication

• Informal verbal communication

11. You are the project manager for a large government project. This project has a multi-million dollar budget which will be spent over 2 years and the contract was signed 6 months ago. You were not involved in contract negotiations or setting up procedures for managing changes, but now you are involved with changes from the customer and from people inside your organization. Who is normally responsible for formally reviewing major changes in the project or contract?

• The change control board

• The contracting/legal department

• The project manager

• Senior management

12. You are a new project manager for company (X). You previ­ously worked for company (Y) that had an extensive project man­agement practice. Company (X) has its own procedures, but you are more familiar with and trust those from company (Y). What should you do?

• Use the practices from company (Y) but include any forms from company (X).

• Use the forms from company (X) and begin to instruct them on ways to upgrade their own.

• Talk about changes to the change control board of company (X).

• Interact with others in an ethical way by sharing the good aspects of company (Y)’s procedures.

13. You as the project manager discover a defect in a deliverable that should be sent to the client under contract today. The proj­ect manager knows the client does not have the technical under­standing to notice the defect. The deliverable technically meets the contract requirements, but it does not meet the project manageds fitness of standard use. What should the project manager do in this situation?

• Issue the deliverable and get formal acceptance from the customer.

• Note the problem in the lessons learned so future proj­ects do not encounter the same problem.

• Discuss the issue with the customer.

• Inform the customer that the deliverable will be late.

14. Your customer requires a 3,000 call capacity for the new call center project. However, one of your company’s technical experts believes a 4,000 call capacity can be reached. Another thinks that based on the technical needs of the customer, the capacity needs to be only 2,500 calls. What is the BEST thing to do?

• Meet with the customer to better understand the rea­sons behind the 3000 call capacity.

• Set the goal at 4,000 calls.

• Meet with the technical experts and help them to agree on a goal.

• Set the goal at 3,000 calls.

15. One employee is three days late with a report. Five minutes before the meeting where the topic of the report is to be discussed, he gives you the report. You notice that there are some serious errors in it. What will be your action?

• Cancel the meeting and reschedule when the report is fixed.

• Go to the meeting and tell the other attendees there are errors in the report.

• Force the employee to do the presentation and remain silent as the other attendees find the errors.

• Cancel the meeting and rewrite the report yourself.

16. You are a project manager working on a 700 million dollar proj­ect. As the project has progressed, you have become friends with the general contractor. You are working on a $100,000 change request. He has offered to let you use his villa on the coast for the next week end as he will be away in another country.

• What should you do?

• Accept the offer with thanks

• Decline the offer

• Decline the offer and report it to your supervisor

• Ask your boss to approve your use of the boat

17. You are working on a large construction project that is progress­ing within the schedule. Resource usage has remained steady, and your boss has just awarded you a prize for your performance. One of your team members returns from a meeting with the customer and tells you the customer said he is not happy with the project progress. What is the FIRST action you should take?

• Tell your manager.

• Complete a team building exercise and invite the cus­tomer’s representatives.

• Change the schedule baseline.

• Meet with the customer to uncover details.

18. An employee approaches you and asks if he can tell you some­thing in confidence. He advises you that he has been performing illegal activities within the company for the last year. He is feeling guilty about it and is telling you to receive advice as to what he should do. What should you do?

• Ask for full details.

• Confirm that the activity is really illegal.

• Inform your manager of the illegal activity.

• Tell the employee to inform their boss.

19. Although your company is not the lowest bidder for a project, the client has come to expect good performance from your com­pany and wants to award the contract to you. To win the contract, the client asks you to eliminate your project management costs. The client says that your company has good project processes, and proj­ect controls unnecessarily inflate your costs. What should you do under these circumstances?

• Eliminate your project management costs and rely on experience.

• Remove costs associated with project team communi­cations, meetings and customer reviews.

• Remove meeting costs but not the project manager’s salary.

• Describe the costs incurred on past projects that did not use project management.

20. Near the end of the project, additional requirements were demanded by a group of stakeholders when they knew that would be affected by your project. This became a problem because you had not included the time or cost in the project plan to perform these requirements. What is the learned lesson from this crisis?

• Review the WBS dictionary more thoroughly, looking for incomplete descriptions.

• Review the charter more thoroughly, examining the business case for "holes."

• Pay more attention to stakeholder management.

• Do a more thorough job of solicitation planning.

21. Your organization is having a difficult problem in time man­agement all of its projects. The CEO asks you to help senior man­agement get a better understanding of the problems. What is the FIRST thing you should do?

• Meet with individual project managers to get a bet­ter sense of what is happening.

• Send a formal memo to all project managers request­ing their project plans.

• Meet with senior managers to help them develop a new tracking system for managing projects.

• Review the project charters and Gantt charts for all projects.

22. You are a project manager for a large installation project when you realize that there are over 100 potential stakeholders on the project. Which will be the best action?

• Eliminate some stakeholders.

• Contact your manager and ask which ones are more important.

• Gather the needs of all the most influential stakeholders.

• Find an effective way to gather the needs of all stakeholders.

23. What is the right way to overcome the cultural differences between employees in an international project?

« Training through project management

• Training for the different languages in the project

• Training about different cultures and civilizations

• Training about the differences in nationalities

24. You have just been assigned to take over a project that your management has told you is "out of control." When you asked your management what the problems were, they had no specifics, but said that the project was behind schedule, over budget and the cli­ent was dissatisfied. Which of the following should be of the MOST concern to you?

• The project is over budget and behind schedule.

• There is very little documentation related to the project.

• The client is very dissatisfied with the project’s progress.

• Your management is looking for rapid and visible action on this project to rectify the problems.

25. During a meeting with some of the project stakeholders, you as a project manager were asked to add work to the project scope of work. You had access to correspondence about the project before the charter was signed and remember that the project sponsor spe­cifically denied funding for the scope of work mentioned by these stakeholders. What is the best action to take?

• Let the sponsor know of the stakeholders’ request.

• Evaluate the impact of adding the scope of work.

• Tell the stakeholders the scope cannot be added.

• Add the work if there is time available in the project schedule.

26. What are the project management process requirements?

• Initiating, developing, implementing, supporting

• Initiating, planning, executing, controlling, closing

• Feasibility, planning, design, implementation, supporting

• Requirements analysis, design, coding, testing, instal­lation, conversion, operation

27. One of your team members informs you that he does not know which of the many projects he is working on is the most important. Who should determine the priorities among projects in a company?

• Project manager

• Sponsor

• Senior management

• Team

28. You are trying to help project managers in your organiza­tion understand the project management process groups and the project management life cycle. Many of them are confusing the project life cycle with the project management life cycle. Which of the following identifies the DIFFERENCE between these two life cycles?

• The project life cycle is created based on the top level of the work breakdown structure.

• The project management life cycle is longer.

• The project management life cycle only applies to some projects.

• The project life cycle describes what you need to do to complete the work.

29. Which of the following statements BEST describes why stake­holders are necessary on a project?

• They determine the project schedule, deliverables and requirements.

• They help to determine the project constraints and product deliverables.

• They supply the resources and resource constraints on the project.

• They help provide assumptions, the WBS, and the management plan.

30. You are in the middle of a new project when you discover that the previous project manager made a US $2,000,000 payment that was not approved in accordance with your company policies. Therefore, the project CPI is 1.2. What should you do?

• Bury the cost in the largest cost center available.

• Put the payment in an escrow account.

• Contact your manager.

• Ignore the payment.

31. While working on a project in another country, you are asked to pay under table money to facilitate the work to let the country officials issue a work order. What should you do?

• Make the payment.

• Ask the person for proof that the payment is required.

• Seek legal advice on whether such a payment is a bribe.

• Do not pay and see what happens.

32. Which of the following describes the BEST use of historical records?

• Estimating, life cycle costing, and project planning

• Risk management, estimating, and creating lessons learned

• Project planning, estimating, and creating a status report

• Estimating, risk management, and project planning

33. At which step of risk management does a determination of risk mitigation strategies take place?

• Risk identification

• Risk quantification

• Risk response planning

• Risk response control

34. A project manager for an offshore project is unsure how much cost contingency to add to the project. There is a 50% chance of a weather delay causing an impact of US $100,000 and a 20% chance of a delay in the testing center with a US $20,000 impact. How much should the cost reserve be?

• Less than $50,000

• More than $120,000

• Less than $20,000

• More than $54,000

35. You’ve just completed the initiating phase of a small project and are moving into the planning phase when a project stakeholder asks you for the project’s budget and cost baseline. What should you tell her?

• The project budget can be found in the project’s charter, which has just been completed.

• The project budget and baseline will not be finalized and accepted until the planning phase is completed.

• The project plan will not contain the project’s budget and baseline; this is a small project.

• It is impossible to complete an estimate before the project plan is created.

36. Why is quality planned and not inspected?

• It reduces quality and is less expensive.

• It improves quality and is more expensive.

• It reduces quality and is more expensive.

• It improves quality and is less expensive.

37. Which of the following sequences represents straight line depreciation?

• $200, $200, $200

• $140, $120, $100

• $160, $120, $100 • $120, $140, $160

38. An analysis shows that you will have a cost overrun at the end of the project. Which of the following should you do?

• Evaluate options to crash or fast track the project and then evaluate options.

• Meet with management to find out what to do.

• Meet with the customer to look for costs to eliminate.

• Add a reserve to the project.

39. Your best professional structure engineer is a freelancer. Recently, you found out that he is working on a project in the eve­ning for one of your competitors. What is best action to take?

• Replace him.

• Get him to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

• Inform him that you do not allow your contractors to work with your competition, and ask him to choose.

• Limit his access to sensitive data.

40. What is meant by your product or service completely meets a customer’s requirements?

• Quality is achieved.

• The cost of quality is high.

• The cost of quality is low.

• The customer pays the minimum price.

41. A project is seriously delayed. Earned value analysis shows that the project needs to be completed 10% faster than the work has been going. To get the project back on track, management wants to add 10 people to a task currently assigned to one person.

The project manager disagrees, noting that such an increase will not produce an increase in speed. This is an example of:

• law of diminishing returns.

• fast tracking.

• earned value.

• life cycle costing.

42. Which of the following are represented by a bar chart rather than network diagrams?

• Logical relationships

• Critical paths

• Resource trade-off

• Progress or status

43. All of the following are part of quality control EXCEPT?

• Cost of quality

• Inspection

• Control charts

• Flowcharting

44. A project is in progress and the project manager is working with the quality assurance department to improve stakeholders’ confidence that the project will satisfy the quality standards. Which is the gain from this process?

• Quality problems

• Checklists

• Quality improvement

• Quality audits

45. You are finalizing the monthly projects status report due now to your manager when you discover that several project leads disciplines are not reporting actual hours spent on project tasks. Consequently, this results in skewed project plan statistics. What is the MOST appropriate action to be taken?

• Discuss the impacts of these actions with team member(s).

• Report team member actions to functional manager.

• Continue reporting information as presented to you.

• Provide accurate and truthful representations in all project reports.

46. You are in a project startup. As a project manager you are invited to meetings with the project execution team. What should you include in these meetings that would have the biggest impact on the project?

• Review of the action item list

• Review of identified risks

• Assignment of tasks to team members

• Estimating costs

47. After analyzing the status of your project, you determine that the earned value is lower than the planned value. What should you expect as an outcome if this trend continues?

• The actual cost will be lower than planned.

• The estimate at completion will be lower than planned.

• The project will finish behind schedule.

• The project will finish below the original cost estimate.

48. By which of the following techniques can you calculate the risk assessment?

• Arrow diagramming method

• Network diagramming

• Critical path method

• Program evaluation and review technique

49. One of the risks your team has discovered is a high probabil­ity that the separator you are constructing will not perform safely under operation pressure. In order to handle this risk, you have chosen to test the separator materials and review design. This is an example of risk:

• mitigation

• avoidance

• transference

• acceptance

50. Which part of the risk management process uses data precision as an input?

• Risk management

• Qualitative risk analysis

• Quantitative risk analysis

• Risk response planning

51. An example of the contract price in a cost plus fixed fee contract is:

• $20,000 plus fee.

• costs, whatever they are, plus $20,000 as fee.

• $20,000.

• $250 per hour.

52. Which of the following factors can govern the project contract type?

• How your company does business

• How complete the scope of work is

• Type of contract the law requires

• Type of contract you have experience with

53. A company has just contracted with a well-known soft­ware developer to provide services during planning and design phases of your project. Invoicing requirements were specifically defined within the contract, but expense limits were overlooked. As the project manager, which form of corrective action should you take?

• Modify the terms of the contract.

• Define acceptable limits to be adhered to.

• Proceed in good faith.

• Terminate the contract.

54. You have just completed the design phase for a client’s proj­ect and are about to enter the execution phase. All of the following need to be done EXCEPT:

• Lessons learned

• Updating records

• Formal acceptance

• Completion of the product of the project

55. All of the following are generally part of the contract docu­ments EXCEPT:

• Proposal

• Scope of work

• Terms and conditions

• Negotiation process

56. Your company is receiving a shipment of goods from the seller when you get a call from the contracting officer who tells you that the shipment does not meet the requirements of the contract. You look at the shipment yourself and determine that the shipment meets the needs of the project. What should you do?

• Send the shipment back.

• Accept the shipment.

• Issue a change order to change the contract specifications.

• Expect to receive a claim from the seller.

57. During the execution phase of the contract, the project manager should be concerned about conflict with the contract administrator because:

• in many cases, the contract administrator is the only one who can change the contract.

• the contract administrator is not interested in the contract.

• the company favors the contract administrator rather than the project manager.

• the contract is complex.

58. Your contract mentions that the maximum charge for services from the vendor will be US $40K/month. However the actual invoices have been US $90,000 for the past three months. Stopping the vendor’s service will impact the project schedule. Under these circumstances, the BEST thing to do is to review the:

• contract change control system.

• scope change control system.

• performance reporting system.

• cost change control system.

59. An advantage of a fixed price contract for the owner is:

• cost risk is higher.

• cost risk is lower.

• there is little risk.

• risk is shared by all parties.

60. A project manager has just been notified by the vendor that the cost increased. What should you determine first as the project manager?

• There is enough reserve to handle the change.

• Another vendor can provide it at the original cost.

• Another task can save money.

• The task is on the critical path.

61. An engineering office is giving you so much trouble that your time available allocated to the project has gone from 20% to over 80% for this small piece of the overall project. Most of the avail­able engineering office’s deliverables are late and inaccurate and you have little confidence in this company’s ability to complete the project. What should you do?

• Terminate the engineering office for convenience and hire another seller.

• Assign a group within your team to meet with the engineering office and reassign project work so that the engineering office work is easier to accomplish.

• Meet with the engineering office to discover the cause of the problem.

• Provide some of your own staff to augment the engi­neering office’s staff.

62. The vendor on your project abruptly goes out of business. What should you do?

• File for a portion of the company’s assets.

• Hire a new vendor immediately under a time and materials contract.

• Terminate the project.

• Terminate the contract.

63. You are in the process of having work crews dig a trench to lay fiber for a high-speed internet connection. All of the work permits have been obtained and funding has been approved. There have been several weather related delays, but due to perseverance of the entire team, the project is on time. It is the customer’s respon­sibility to provide entrance into facilities so the connection into the building can be made. You discover the customer does not have adequate facilities and will not have them in time. What should you do?

• Slow down the work, allowing the team time off but ensuring that you will be completed before the cus­tomer finishes their portion of the work.

• Continue working according to your contract. Remind the customer both verbally and in writing of the customer’s responsibilities. Provide the customer with an estimate of the impact if they do not meet their responsibilities.

• Continue working with your company’s portion of the work according to the contract. As a project manager, your job is done once this work is completed.

• Stop all work and request that the customer contact you when they have fulfilled their responsibilities.

64. IT manager says to you that he receives 35 new computers from the seller, but they were expecting only 30. In looking at the con­tract, you see that it says "seller to provide thirty (35) computers. What should you do?

• Call the seller and ask for clarification.

• Return the five extra computers.

• Make payment for the 35 computers.

• Issue a change order through the contract manager.

65. From the contractor’s point of view, the contract is considered closed when:

• scope of work is complete.

• lessons learned is complete.

• final payment is made.

• the archives document are completed.

66. Bidders’ conferences can have a negative effect on the project if the project manager does not remember to make sure:

• all questions are put in writing and sent to all contractors.

• all contractors get answers to their questions only.

• to hold separate meetings with each bidder to ensure you receive proprietary data.

• there is room in the meeting for all contractors.

67. Two days ago, you joined a consulting company as project man­ager to lead an existing project for a client. Today a major change is requested. What should be done FIRST?

• Quickly develop a change control board to approve or disapprove changes.

• Approve the change if your sponsor approved it, oth­erwise suggest a review by the project team.

• Hire an outside consultant to develop and manage overall change control.

• Find out if any formal overall change control plans and procedures are in place for this project.

68. While testing the strength of concrete poured on your project, you discover that over 35% of the concrete does not meet your com­pany’s quality standards. You feel certain the concrete will function as it is, and you don’t think the concrete needs to meet the quality level specified. What should you do?

• Change the quality standards to meet the level achieved.

• List in your reports that the concrete simply "meets our quality needs."

• Ensure the remaining concrete meets the standard.

• Report the lesser quality level and try to find a solution.

69. You are working on your research and development project when your customer asks you to include a particular component in the project. You know this represents new work, and you do not have excess funds available. What should you do?

• Delete another lower priority task to make more time and funds available.

• Use funds from the management reserve to cover the cost.

• Follow the contract change control process.

• Ask for more funds from the project sponsor.

70. Your company is very happy to work on this major new project. Noting that the contract is not yet signed, your management wants you to go ahead and begin to staff the project. What should you do as the project manager?

• Wait until the last minute to do so.

• Ask the customer for a letter of intent.

• Only start to collect resumes and not commit any funds.

• Explain to management that this would not be a good idea at this point.

71. You have been working for eight months on a 12 months proj­ect time. The project is ahead of schedule when one of the func­tional managers tells you the resources committed to the project are no longer available. After investigating, you discover the company has just started another project and is using the resources commit­ted to your project. You believe the new project is not critical, but

the project manager is the son of a board member. What is the best action in this situation?

• Determine when resources will become available.

• Ask upper management to formally prioritize the projects.

• Use the reserve to hire contractors to complete the work.

• Negotiate a new schedule with the other project manager.

72. Maintenance and on-going operations are very important to projects and should:

• be included as activities to be performed during the project closure phase.

• have a separate phase in the project life cycle because a large portion of life cycle costs is devoted to mainte­nance and operations.

• not be viewed as part of a project~a project is tempo­rary with a definite beginning and end.

• be viewed as a separate project.

73. The project has a critical deliverable that requires certain spe­cialized and competent engineers to complete. The engineer who is working to complete the task has left the company and there is no one who can complete the work within the company. For this reason, the project manager needs to acquire the services of a con­sultant as soon as possible. What is the best action as the project manager?

• Follow the legal requirements set up by the company for using outside services.

• Bypass the company procedures as they are not rel­evant to the situation.

• Expedite and go directly to his/her preferred consultant.

• Ask his manager what to do.

74. What is one of the KEY objectives during negotiations?

• Obtain a fair and reasonable price.

• Negotiate a price under the contractor’s estimate.

• Ensure that all project risks are thoroughly delineated.

• Ensure that an effective communication plan is established.

75. You have just been assigned to a project that is in the middle of the execution phase. What is the best way to control the project as the project manager?

• Use a combination of communication methods.

• Hold status meetings because they have worked best for you in the past.

• Refer to the Gantt chart weekly.

• Meet with management regularly.

76. Your company is purchasing the services of a consultant. You know one of the consulting companies interested in the work. What should you do?

• Work hard to get the consulting company selected for the project.

• Tell your manager and remove yourself from the selection committee.

• Tell the people from the consulting company that you hope they get the work.

• Keep the information to yourself.

77. What leadership style should you employ during the first two weeks of project planning?

• Coaching

• Directing

• Supporting

• Facilitating

78. You have just been hired as a project manager and you are trying to gain the cooperation of others. What in your opinion is the BEST form of power for gaining cooperation under these circumstances?

• Formal

• Referent

• Penalty

• Expert

79. During project planning in a matrix organization, the project manager determines that additional human resources are needed. From whom would he request these resources?

• Project manager

• Functional manager

• Team

• Project sponsor

80. A team member who doesn’t have the required skills or knowl­edge was assigned to a team. Who is responsible for ensuring that he receives the proper training?

• Sponsor

• Functional manager

• Project manager

• Training coordinator

81. All of the following are correct statements about project manag­ers EXCEPT:

• they are assigned after performance reports are distributed.

• they have the authority to say no when necessary.

• they manage changes and factors that create change.

• they are held accountable for project success or failure.

82. A project manager must publish a project schedule. Activities, start/end times, and resources are identified. What should the proj­ect manager do next?

• Distribute the project schedule according to the com­munications plan.

• Confirm the availability of the resources.

• Refine the project plan to reflect more accurate costing information.

• Publish a Gantt chart illustrating the timeline.

83. You work in a matrix organization when a team member comes to you to admit he is having trouble with his task. Although not yet in serious trouble, the team member admits he is uncertain of how to perform part of the work on the task. He suggests a train­ing class available next week. Where should the cost of the training come from?

• Switch to a trained resource to avoid the cost

• The human resource department budget

• The team member’s functional department budget

• The project budget

84. Which of the following is an output of team development?

• Management plan

• Staffing management plan

• Performance improvements

• Reward system

85. You have been working on a project for six months with the same team, yet the team still shows a lack of support for the project. What should you do as a project manager to obtain the team’s support for the project?

• Reevaluate the effectiveness of the reward system in place.

• Talk to each team member’s boss with the team member present.

• Find someone else to be project manager.

• Tell the team he/she needs its support, and ask them why they do not support the project.

86. You have just been informed that one of your team members has not been adequately trained to complete project tasks as assigned to him. How would you handle this situation?

• Replace this team member with someone more qualified.

• Request proper training be provided through the func­tional manager.

• Revise the schedule to account for the decreased effec­tiveness of this resource.

• Mentor this resource during the remainder of project duration.

87. You are now a project manager for an international project and you use people from different countries. What should you expect as a project manager?

• Added costs due to shoddy or incomplete work

• Language or cultural differences that preclude effec­tive team work

• Increased organizational planning and coordination activities

• Team building activities become impractical, and the cost is prohibitive

88. A senior engineer assigned to your project contacts you, try­ing to get off the team. He knows that an important project in his department is going to be approved and will take place at the same time as yours. He wants to work on the other project. What is the best action?

• Release him from the team.

• Talk to the functional manager about releasing him from the team.

• Release him after he finds a suitable replacement.

• Speak with the project sponsor about releasing him from the team.

89. Two lead processes and piping are having a big disagreement about how to accomplish a project from a technical point of view. The client is upset from that as it impacts time. What should you do as a project manager?

• Make the decision.

• Send the team members to their managers for advice on resolving the dispute.

• Ask for a benchmark analysis.

• Have the team members compromise.

90. Saying "Do the work because I have been put in charge!" is an example of what type of power?

• Formal

• Penalty

• Effective

• Expert

91. Which of the following is the BEST method to making a reward systems MOST effective?

• Pay a large salary increase to the best workers.

• Give the team a choice of rewards.

• Make the link between performance and reward clear.

• Present notifications of rewards within the company.

92. A project manager says to a team member, "If you cannot com­plete this task according to the quality standards you set in place, I will remove you from the team that is going to Paris for the mile­stone party with the customer." What form of power is the project manager is using?

• Reward power

• Formal power

• Penalty power

• Referent power

93. You are a project manager and your project schedule is tight and in danger of falling behind when structure and piping leads to disrupting status meetings by arguing with each other. What action should you take?

• Separate the two until the project is back on track.

• Speak with each team member and give each a verbal warning.

• Discuss the problem with the manager of the two team members.

• Meet with both team members and their function manager to determine the source of conflict.

94. What conflict resolution technique is a project manager using when he says, "I cannot deal with this issue now!"

• Problem solving

• Forcing

• Withdrawal

• Compromising

95. A team member complains to the project manager that another team member has once again failed to provide necessary infor­mation. The project manager meets with both team members to uncover the reason for the problem. This is an example of:

• withdrawal.

• confronting.

• compromising.

• smoothing.

96. The forms below present a power derived from the project manager all EXCEPT:

• Formal

• Reward

• Penalty

• Expert

97. In which phase of the project should the project manager provide more direction?

• Initiating

• Planning

• Executing

• Controlling

98. A project manager has just been assigned a team that comes from many countries including Brazil, Japan, the US, and Britain. What is his or her BEST tool for success?

• The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)

• The teleconference

• Team communication with the WBS

• Communication and well developed people skills

99. A project manager needs to determine the resources needed for the project. Select the primary tool from the following:

• Work breakdown structure

• Schedule

• Expert advice from functional managers

• Expert advice from management

100. Your role is a project manager for a large project. One of your key resources has started to do his task behind schedule and work quality is beginning to suffer as well. You are confi­dent that this person is well aware of the work schedule and required quality specifications. What action should you take?

• Report the problem to HR for corrective action.

• Reassign some work to other team members until per­formance starts to improve.

• Meet with the employee in private and try to deter­mine the factors impacting performance.

• Escalate the situation to the employee’s functional manager and ask for assistance.

[1] Identify the work to the level of small tasks

• Identify relations between activities and tasks and clearly define them

[2] The department is in charge not only of the project but also of the daily departmental routine, which may have negative impacts on how much time is reserved for implementing the project.

• Although technical problems may be solved relati­vely easily as personnel are working in their usual job function, but they usually avoid the administrative work as they unfamiliar on it.

[3] The project manager has full authority to manage the project and reports to the Executive Director in the organization.

• Everyone in the team reports directly to the project manager.

• A separate working group is given a sense of inde­pendence, which creates a high level of commitment, including commitment to precision, in work.

• In this organization, understanding of work orders and the implementation are direct and not complex.

• There will be powerful, fast decision-making and vitality throughout the project.

• Communication between individuals in the project and the people who work in the company head office will be reduced to minimum or eliminate.

[4] At any point in time, while more than one project is being executed, functional departments have exper­tise available (technical engineers or other specialists).

• Upon completion of the project, no further responsi­bility for the careers of individuals who work in the project devolves upon the organization.

[5] The foundation with cost: $150,000

• The first floor with cost: $60,000

• The other floors: $400,000

[6] Measured contract

• Lump-sum

• Cost-plus contract

[7] Public (open) tender

• Limited tender

• Negotiated tender

• Direct order

[8] To make sure that the final product is in conformity with the specifications, and the employment is highly qualified and able to achieve a high quality of the product through the administrative system

• To ensure the application of the company’s established characteristics among all sectors in the factory, regard­less of personnel

• The benefits of the application of quality assurance systems can be summed up in that it gives the ability to produce a product identical with the required

[9] Philosophy provides GSA’s definition and expectations for commissioning.

[10] As described in previous sections, the owner’s proj­ect requirements are developed as part of GSA’s project planning processes and established base­line criteria for facility function, performance, and maintainability.

• The Basis of Design (BOD) is developed by the engi­neering office early in the Design Stage based on th owner’s project requirements. It is the primary docu­ment that translates the GSA’s and customer agency’s needs into building components such as HVAC sys­tems, building envelope, security systems, building automation system, etc.

• The BOD describes the technical approach planned for the project as well as the design parameters to be used. The BOD is typically developed by the engineer­ing office and done in technical terms, whereas the owner’s project requirements are developed by GSA

[11] Description of issue

• Cause

• Recommendation

• Cost and schedule implications (on design, construc­tion, and facility operations)

• Priority

Choose the best answer to the questions using the multiple choices. The answers with clarifications are in Section 10.3.

1. The construction manager is away from the project and is replaced by a new one. The project manager meets with the replacement

construction manager and his team. In this meeting, what is the first issue the project manager should start on in the meeting?

• Introduce team members.

• Communicate the objectives of the project.

• Clarify the authority.

• Create a communication plan.

2. After you have been assigned to a project, according to the sched­ule 50% of the project should be completed. You discover that the project is running far behind schedule. The project will probably take double the time originally estimated by the previous project manager. On the other hand, you discover that upper management has been informed that the project is on schedule. What will be the BEST action?

• Try to restructure the schedule to meet the project deadline.

• Turn the project back to the previous project manager.

• Report your assessment to upper management.

• Move forward with the schedule as planned by the previous project manager and report at the first missed milestone.

3. You are a project manager on an international project of great importance to the client. The client is from another country and is so excited by how well the project is going that he presents you with a company automobile for your personal use. The BEST thing for you to do would be to:

• thank him and offer a gift in exchange.

• politely turn down the gift.

• ask that the gift be changed to something that can be shared by the team.

• ask for a gift that can be used before you return home.

4. The client project manager asks you to provide a written cost estimate that is 30% higher than your estimate of the project’s cost. He explains that the budgeting process requires managers to esti­mate pessimistically to ensure enough money is allocated for projects. What is the BEST way to handle this?

• Add the 30% as a lump sum contingency fund to handle project risks.

• Add the 30% to your cost estimate by spreading it evenly across all project tasks.

• Create one cost baseline for budget allocation and a second one for the actual project plan.

• Ask for information on risks that would cause your estimate to be too small.

5. You are reviewing bids from various contractors for work on your project. One of the bidding contractors has a history of deliv­ering on time within budget, and you have personally worked with this company successfully on previous engagements. You receive a call from the manager submitting the bid inquiring about how the process is going. He asks to have lunch with you to discuss the bid. What is the BEST response?

• Do not mention the other bidders but simply inform him that based on past experience, he has a good chance of winning the business.

• Inform him that it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter at all, and inform the customer or a team member of the conversation.

• Inform him that it would not be appropriate to dis­cuss the matter over the phone during business hours, but that an informal lunch discussion would be more appropriate.

• Politely avoid continuing the conversation and disre­gard the bid.

6. All of the following are part of the team’s stakeholder manage­ment effort EXCEPT?

• Giving stakeholders extras

• Identifying stakeholders

• Determining stakeholders’ needs

• Managing stakeholders’ expectations

7. There are over 20 stakeholders on your project. The project is running in another country with people from three countries as team members. Which of the following is the MOST important thing to keep in mind?

• The communication channels will be narrow.

• Many competing needs and objectives must be satisfied.

• There must be one sponsor from each country.

• Conflicts of interest must be disclosed.

8. Your management has decided that all orders will be treated as "projects" and that project managers will be used to update orders daily, resolving issues and ensuring that the customer formally accepts the product within 30 days of completion. The revenue from the individual orders can vary from US $100 to US $150,000. The project manager will not be required to perform planning or provide documentation other than daily status. How would you define this situation?

• Because each individual order is a "temporary endeavor," each order is a project – this is truly project management.

• This is program management since there are multiple projects involved.

• This is a recurring process.

• Orders incurring revenue over US $100,000 would be considered projects and would involve project management.

9. Who determines the role of each stakeholder?

• The stakeholder and the sponsor.

• The project manager and the stakeholder.

• The project manager and the sponsor.

• The team and the project manager.

10. A project manager has a problem with a team member’s per­formance. Choose the best way of communication to address this problem:

• Formal written communication

• Formal verbal communication

• Informal written communication

• Informal verbal communication

11. You are the project manager for a large government project. This project has a multi-million dollar budget which will be spent over 2 years; the contract was signed 6 months ago. You were not involved in contract negotiations or setting up procedures for man­aging changes, but now you are involved with changes from the customer and from people inside your organization. Who is nor­mally responsible for formally reviewing major changes in the project or contract?

• The change control board

• The contracting/legal department

• The project manager

• Senior management

12. You are a new project manager for company (X). You previ­ously worked for company (Y) that had an extensive project man­agement practice. Company (X) has its own procedures, but you are more familiar with and trust those from company (Y). What should you do?

• Use the practices from company (Y) but include any forms from company (X).

• Use the forms from company (X) and begin to instruct them on ways to upgrade their own.

• Talk about changes to the change control board of company (X).

• Interact with others in an ethical way by sharing the good aspects of company (Y)’s procedures.

13. You as the project manager discover a defect in a deliverable that should be sent to the client under contract today. The proj­ect manager knows the client does not have the technical under­standing to notice the defect. The deliverable technically meets the contract requirements, but it does not meet the project manager’s fitness of standard use. What should the project manager do in this situation?

• Issue the deliverable and get formal acceptance from the customer.

• Note the problem in the lessons learned so future proj­ects do not encounter the same problem.

• Discuss the issue with the customer.

• Inform the customer that the deliverable will be late.

14. Your customer requires a 3,000-call capacity for the new call center project. However, one of your company’s technical experts believes a 4,000-call capacity can be reached. Another thinks that based on the technical needs of the customer, the capacity needs to be only 2,500 calls. What is the BEST thing to do?

• Meet with the customer to better understand the rea­sons behind the 3000 call capacity.

• Set the goal at 4,000 calls.

• Meet with the technical experts and help them to agree on a goal.

• Set the goal at 3,000 calls.

15. One employee is three days late with a report. Five minutes before the meeting where the topic of the report is to be discussed, he gives you the report. You notice that there are some serious errors in it. What will be your action?

• Cancel the meeting and reschedule when the report is fixed.

• Go to the meeting and tell the other attendees there are errors in the report.

• Force the employee to do the presentation and remain silent as the other attendees find the errors.

• Cancel the meeting and rewrite the report yourself.

16. You are a project manager working on a multimillion-dollar project. As the project has progressed, you have become friends with the general contractor. You are working on a $100,000 change request. He has offered to let you use his villa on the coast for the next weekend as he will be away in another country. What should you do?

• Accept the offer with thanks.

• Decline the offer.

• Decline the offer and report it to your supervisor.

• Ask your boss to approve your use of the boat.

17. You are working on a large construction project that is progress­ing within the schedule. Resource usage has remained steady, and your boss has just awarded you a prize for your performance. One of your team members returns from a meeting with the customer and tells you the customer said he is not happy with the project progress. What is the FIRST action you should take?

• Tell your manager.

• Complete a team building exercise and invite the customer’s representatives.

• Change the schedule baseline.

• Meet with the customer to uncover details.

18. An employee approaches you and asks if he can tell you some­thing in confidence. He advises you that he has been performing illegal activities within the company for the last year. He is feeling guilty about it and is telling you to receive advice as to what he should do. What should you do?

• Ask for full details.

• Confirm that the activity is really illegal.

• Inform your manager of the illegal activity.

• Tell the employee to inform their boss.

19. Although your company is not the lowest bidder for a proj­ect, the client has come to expect good performance from your company and wants to award the contract to you. To win the contract, the client asks you to eliminate your project manage­ment costs. The client says that your company has good project processes, and project controls unnecessarily inflate your costs. What should you do under these circumstances?

• Eliminate your project management costs and rely on experience.

• Remove costs associated with project team communi­cations, meetings and customer reviews.

• Remove meeting costs but not the project manager’s salary.

• Describe the costs incurred on past projects that did not use project management.

20. Near the end of the project, additional requirements were demanded by a group of stakeholders when they knew that would be affected by your project. This became a problem because you had not included the time or cost in the project plan to perform these requirements. What is the learned lesson from this crisis?

• Review the WBS dictionary more thoroughly, looking for incomplete descriptions.

• Review the charter more thoroughly, examining the business case for "holes."

• Pay more attention to stakeholder management.

• Do a more thorough job of solicitation planning.

21. Your organization is having a difficult problem in time man­agement all of its projects. The CEO asks you to help senior man­agement get a better understanding of the problems. What is the FIRST thing you should do?

• Meet with individual project managers to get a better sense of what is happening.

• Send a formal memo to all project managers request­ing their project plans.

• Meet with senior managers to help them develop a new tracking system for managing projects.

• Review the project charters and Gantt charts for all projects.

22. You are a project manager for a large installation project when you realize that there are over 100 potential stakeholders on the project. Which will be the best action?

• Eliminate some stakeholders.

• Contact your manager and ask which ones are more important.

• Gather the needs of all the most influential stakeholders.

• Find an effective way to gather the needs of all stakeholders.

23. What is the right way to overcome the cultural differences between employees in an international project?

• Training through project management

• Training for the different languages in the project

• Training about different cultures and civilizations

• Training about the differences in nationalities

24. You have just been assigned to take over a project that your management has told you is "out of control." When you asked your management what the problems were, they had no specifics, but said that the project was behind schedule, over budget and the client was dissatisfied. Which of the following should be of the MOST concern to you?

• The project is over budget and behind schedule.

• There is very little documentation related to the project.

• The client is very dissatisfied with the project’s progress.

• Your management is looking for rapid and visible action on this project to rectify the problems.

25. During a meeting with some of the project stakeholders, you as a project manager were asked to add work to the project scope of work. You had access to correspondence about the project before the charter was signed and remember that the project sponsor spe­cifically denied funding for the scope of work mentioned by these stakeholders. What is the best action to take?

• Let the sponsor know of the stakeholders’ request.

• Evaluate the impact of adding the scope of work.

• Tell the stakeholders the scope cannot be added.

• Add the work if there is time available in the project schedule.

26. What are the project management process requirements?

• Initiating, developing, implementing, supporting

• Initiating, planning, executing, controlling, closing

• Feasibility, planning, design, implementation, supporting

• Requirements analysis, design, coding, testing, instal­lation, conversion, operation

27. One of your team members informs you that he does not know which of the many projects he is working on is the most important. Who should determine the priorities among projects in a company?

• Project manager

• Sponsor

• Senior management

• Team

28. You are trying to help project managers in your organiza­tion understand the project management process groups and the project management life cycle. Many of them are confusing the project life cycle with the project management life cycle. Which of the following identifies the DIFFERENCE between these two life cycles?

• The project life cycle is created based on the top level of the work breakdown structure.

• The project management life cycle is longer.

• The project management life cycle only applies to some projects.

• The project life cycle describes what you need to do to complete the work.

29. Which of the following statements BEST describes why stake­holders are necessary on a project?

• They determine the project schedule, deliverables and requirements.

• They help to determine the project constraints and product deliverables.

• They supply the resources and resource constraints on the project.

• They help provide assumptions, the WBS, and the management plan.

30. You are in the middle of a new project when you discover that the previous project manager made a US $2,000,000 payment that was not approved in accordance with your company policies. Therefore, the project CPI is 1.2. What should you do?

• Bury the cost in the largest cost center available.

• Put the payment in an escrow account.

• Contact your manager.

• Ignore the payment.

31. While working on a project in another country, you are asked to pay under table money to facilitate the work to let the country officials issue a work order. What should you do?

• Make the payment.

• Ask the person for proof that the payment is required.

• Seek legal advice on whether such a payment is a bribe.

• Do not pay and see what happens.

32. Which of the following describes the BEST use of historical records?

• Estimating, life cycle costing, and project planning

• Risk management, estimating, and creating lessons learned

• Project planning, estimating, and creating a status report

• Estimating, risk management, and project planning

33. At which step of risk management does a determination of risk mitigation strategies take place?

• Risk identification

• Risk quantification

• Risk response planning

• Risk response control

34. A project manager for an offshore project is unsure how much cost contingency to add to the project. There is a 50% chance of a weather delay causing an impact of US $100,000 and a 20% chance of a delay in the testing center with a US $20,000 impact. How much should the cost reserve be?

• Less than $50,000

• More than $120,000

• Less than $20,000

• More than $54,000

35. You’ve just completed the initiating phase of a small project and are moving into the planning phase when a project stakeholder asks you for the project’s budget and cost baseline. What should you tell her?

• The project budget can be found in the project’s char­ter, which has just been completed.

• The project budget and baseline will not be finalized and accepted until the planning phase is completed.

• The project plan will not contain the project’s budget and baseline; this is a small project.

• It is impossible to complete an estimate before the project plan is created.

36. Why is quality planned and not inspected?

• It reduces quality and is less expensive.

• It improves quality and is more expensive.

• It reduces quality and is more expensive.

• It improves quality and is less expensive.

37. Which of the following sequences represents straight line depreciation?

• $200, $200, $200

• $100, $120, $140

• $100, $120, $160 • $160, $140, $120

38. An analysis shows that you will have a cost overrun at the end of the project. Which of the following should you do?

• Evaluate options to crash or fast track the project and then evaluate options.

• Meet with management to find out what to do.

• Meet with the customer to look for costs to eliminate.

• Add a reserve to the project.

39. Your best professional structure engineer is a freelancer. Recently, you found out that he is working on a project in the evening for one of your competitors. What is best action to take?

• Replace him.

• Get him to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

• Inform him that you do not allow your contractors to work with your competition, and ask him to choose.

• Limit his access to sensitive data.

40. What is meant by your product or service completely meets a customer’s requirements?

• Quality is achieved.

• The cost of quality is high.

• The cost of quality is low.

• The customer pays the minimum price.

41. A project is seriously delayed. Earned value analysis shows that the project needs to be completed 10% faster than the work has been going. To get the project back on track, management wants to add 10 people to a task currently assigned to one person. The proj­ect manager disagrees, noting that such an increase will not pro­duce an increase in speed. This is an example of:

• law of diminishing returns.

• fast tracking.

• earned value.

• life cycle costing.

42. Which of the following are represented by a bar chart rather than network diagrams?

• Logical relationships

• Critical paths

• Resource trade-off

• Progress or status

43. All of the following are part of quality control EXCEPT?

• Cost of quality

• Inspection

• Control charts

• Flowcharting

44. A project is in progress and the project manager is working with the quality assurance department to improve stakeholders’ confidence that the project will satisfy the quality standards. Which is the gain from this process?

• Quality problems

• Checklists

• Quality improvement

• Quality audits

45. You are finalizing the monthly projects status report due now to your manager when you discover that several project leads disciplines are not reporting actual hours spent on project tasks. Consequently, this results in skewed project plan statistics. What is the MOST appropriate action to be taken?

• Discuss the impacts of these actions with team member (s).

• Report team member actions to functional manager.

• Continue reporting information as presented to you.

• Provide accurate and truthful representations in all project reports.

46. You are in a project startup. As a project manager you are invited to meetings with the project execution team. What should you include in these meetings that would have the biggest impact on the project?

• Review of the action item list

• Review of identified risks

• Assignment of tasks to team members

• Estimating costs

47. After analyzing the status of your project, you determine that the earned value is lower than the planned value. What should you expect as an outcome if this trend continues?

• The actual cost will be lower than planned.

• The estimate at completion will be lower than planned.

• The project will finish behind schedule.

• The project will finish below the original cost estimate.

48. By which of the following techniques can you calculate the risk assessment?

• Arrow diagramming method

• Network diagramming

• Critical path method

• Program evaluation and review technique

49. One of the risks your team has discovered is a high probabil­ity that the separator you are constructing will not perform safely under operation pressure. In order to handle this risk, you have chosen to test the separator materials and review design. This is an example of risk:

• mitigation

• avoidance

• transference

• acceptance

50. Which part of the risk management process uses data precision as an input?

• Risk management

• Qualitative risk analysis

• Quantitative risk analysis

• Risk response planning

51. An example of the contract price in a cost plus fixed fee contract is:

• $20,000 plus fee.

• costs, whatever they are, plus $20,000 as fee.

• $20,000.

• $250 per hour.

52. Which of the following factors can govern the project contract type?

• How your company does business

• How complete the scope of work is

• Type of contract the law requires

• Type of contract you have experience with

53. A company has just contracted with a well-known software developer to provide services during planning and design phases of your project. Invoicing requirements were specifically defined within the contract, but expense limits were overlooked. As the project manager, which form of corrective action should you take?

• Modify the terms of the contract.

• Define acceptable limits to be adhered to.

• Proceed in good faith.

• Terminate the contract.

54. You have just completed the design phase for a client’s proj­ect and are about to enter the execution phase. All of the following need to be done EXCEPT:

• Lessons learned

• Updating records

• Formal acceptance

• Completion of the product of the project

55. All of the following are generally part of the contract docu­ments EXCEPT:

• Proposal

• Scope of work

• Terms and conditions

• Negotiation process

56. Your company is receiving a shipment of goods from the seller when you get a call from the contracting officer who tells you that the shipment does not meet the requirements of the contract. You look at the shipment yourself and determine that the shipment meets the needs of the project. What should you do?

• Send the shipment back.

• Accept the shipment.

• Issue a change order to change the contract specifications.

• Expect to receive a claim from the seller.

57. During the execution phase of the contract, the project manager should be concerned about conflict with the contract administrator because:

• in many cases, the contract administrator is the only one who can change the contract.

• the contract administrator is not interested in the contract.

• the company favors the contract administrator rather than the project manager.

• the contract is complex.

58. Your contract mentions that the maximum charge for services from the vendor will be US $40K/month. However the actual invoices have been US $90,000 for the past three months. Stopping the vendor’s service will impact the project schedule. Under these circumstances, the BEST thing to do is to review the:

• contract change control system.

• scope change control system.

• performance reporting system.

• cost change control system.

59. An advantage of a fixed price contract for the owner is:

• cost risk is higher.

• cost risk is lower.

• there is little risk.

• risk is shared by all parties.

60. A project manager has just been notified by the vendor that the cost increased. What should you determine first as the project manager?

• There is enough reserve to handle the change.

• Another vendor can provide it at the original cost.

• Another task can save money.

• The task is on the critical path.

61. An engineering office is giving you so much trouble that your time available allocated to the project has gone from 20% to over 80% for this small piece of the overall project. Most of the avail­able engineering office’s deliverables are late and inaccurate and you have little confidence in this company’s ability to complete the project. What should you do?

• Terminate the engineering office for convenience and hire another seller.

• Assign a group within your team to meet with the engineering office and reassign project work so that the engineering office work is easier to accomplish.

• Meet with the engineering office to discover the cause of the problem.

• Provide some of your own staff to augment the engi­neering office’s staff.

62. The vendor on your project abruptly goes out of business. What should you do?

• File for a portion of the company’s assets.

• Hire a new vendor immediately under a time and materials contract.

• Terminate the project.

• Terminate the contract.

63. You are in the process of having work crews dig a trench to lay fiber for a high-speed internet connection. All of the work permits have been obtained and funding has been approved. There have been several weather related delays, but due to perseverance of the entire team, the project is on time. It is the customer’s responsibility to provide entrance into facilities so the connection into the build­ing can be made. You discover the customer does not have adequate facilities and will not have them in time. What should you do?

• Slow down the work, allowing the team time off but ensuring that you will be completed before the cus­tomer finishes their portion of the work.

• Continue working according to your contract. Remind the customer both verbally and in writing of the cus­tomers responsibilities. Provide the customer with an estimate of the impact if they do not meet their responsibilities.

• Continue working with your company’s portion of the work according to the contract. As a project manager, your job is done once this work is completed.

• Stop all work and request that the customer contact you when they have fulfilled their responsibilities.

64. IT manager says to you that he receives 35 new computers from the seller, but they were expecting only 30. In looking at the con­tract, you see that it says "seller to provide thirty (35) computers. What should you do?

• Call the seller and ask for clarification.

• Return the five extra computers.

• Make payment for the 35 computers.

• Issue a change order through the contract manager.

65. From the contractor’s point of view, the contract is considered closed when:

• scope of work is complete.

• lessons learned is complete.

• final payment is made.

• the archives document are completed.

66. Bidders’ conferences can have a negative effect on the project if the project manager does not remember to make sure:

• all questions are put in writing and sent to all contractors.

• all contractors get answers to their questions only.

• to hold separate meetings with each bidder to ensure you receive proprietary data.

• there is room in the meeting for all contractors.

67. Two days ago, you joined a consulting company as project man­ager to lead an existing project for a client. Today a major change is requested. What should be done FIRST?

• Quickly develop a change control board to approve or disapprove changes.

• Approve the change if your sponsor approved it, oth­erwise suggest a review by the project team.

• Hire an outside consultant to develop and manage overall change control.

• Find out if any formal overall change control plans and procedures are in place for this project.

68. While testing the strength of concrete poured on your project, you discover that over 35% of the concrete does not meet your com­pany’s quality standards. You feel certain the concrete will function as it is, and you don’t think the concrete needs to meet the quality level specified. What should you do?

• Change the quality standards to meet the level achieved.

• List in your reports that the concrete simply "meets our quality needs."

• Ensure the remaining concrete meets the standard.

• Report the lesser quality level and try to find a solution.

69. You are working on your research and development project when your customer asks you to include a particular component in the project. You know this represents new work, and you do not have excess funds available. What should you do?

• Delete another lower priority task to make more time and funds available.

• Use funds from the management reserve to cover the cost.

• Follow the contract change control process.

• Ask for more funds from the project sponsor.

70. Your company is very happy to work on this major new project. Noting that the contract is not yet signed, your management wants you to go ahead and begin to staff the project. What should you do as the project manager?

• Wait until the last minute to do so.

• Ask the customer for a letter of intent.

• Only start to collect resumes and not commit any funds.

• Explain to management that this would not be a good idea at this point.

71. You have been working for eight months on a 12 months proj­ect time. The project is ahead of schedule when one of the func­tional managers tells you the resources committed to the project are no longer available. After investigating, you discover the company has just started another project and is using the resources commit­ted to your project. You believe the new project is not critical, but the project manager is the son of a board member. What is the best action in this situation?

• Determine when resources will become available.

• Ask upper management to formally prioritize the projects.

• Use the reserve to hire contractors to complete the work.

• Negotiate a new schedule with the other project manager.

72. Maintenance and on-going operations are very important to projects and should:

• be included as activities to be performed during the project closure phase.

• have a separate phase in the project life cycle because a large portion of life cycle costs is devoted to mainte­nance and operations.

• not be viewed as part of a project—a project is tempo­rary with a definite beginning and end.

• be viewed as a separate project.

73. The project has a critical deliverable that requires certain spe­cialized and competent engineers to complete. The engineer who is working to complete the task has left the company and there is no one who can complete the work within the company. For this reason, the project manager needs to acquire the services of a consultant as soon as possible. What is the best action as the project manager?

• Follow the legal requirements set up by the company for using outside services.

• Bypass the company procedures as they are not rel­evant to the situation.

• Expedite and go directly to his/her preferred consultant.

• Ask his manager what to do.

74. What is one of the KEY objectives during negotiations?

• Obtain a fair and reasonable price.

• Negotiate a price under the contractor’s estimate.

• Ensure that all project risks are thoroughly delineated.

• Ensure that an effective communication plan is established.

75. You have just been assigned to a project that is in the middle of the execution phase. What is the best way to control the project as the project manager?

• Use a combination of communication methods.

• Hold status meetings because they have worked best for you in the past.

• Refer to the Gantt chart weekly.

• Meet with management regularly.

76. Your company is purchasing the services of a consultant. You know one of the consulting companies interested in the work. What should you do?

• Work hard to get the consulting company selected for the project.

• Tell your manager and remove yourself from the selection committee.

• Tell the people from the consulting company that you hope they get the work.

• Keep the information to yourself.

77. What leadership style should you employ during the first two weeks of project planning?

• Coaching

• Directing

• Supporting

• Facilitating

78. You have just been hired as a project manager and you are trying to gain the cooperation of others. What in your opinion is the BEST form of power for gaining cooperation under these circumstances?

• Formal

• Referent

• Penalty

• Expert

79. During project planning in a matrix organization, the project manager determines that additional human resources are needed. From whom would he request these resources?

• Project manager

• Functional manager

• Team

• Project sponsor

80. A team member who doesn’t have the required skills or knowl­edge was assigned to a team. Who is responsible for ensuring that he receives the proper training?

• Sponsor

• Functional manager

• Project manager

• Training coordinator

81. All of the following are correct statements about project mana­gers EXCEPT:

• they are assigned after performance reports are distributed.

• they have the authority to say no when necessary.

• they manage changes and factors that create change.

• they are held accountable for project success or failure.

82. A project manager must publish a project schedule. Activities, start/end times, and resources are identified. What should the proj­ect manager do next?

• Distribute the project schedule according to the com­munications plan.

• Confirm the availability of the resources.

• Refine the project plan to reflect more accurate costing information.

• Publish a Gantt chart illustrating the timeline.

83. You work in a matrix organization when a team member comes to you to admit he is having trouble with his task. Although not yet in serious trouble, the team member admits he is uncertain of how to perform part of the work on the task. He suggests a train­ing class available next week. Where should the cost of the training come from?

• Switch to a trained resource to avoid the cost

• The human resource department budget

• The team member’s functional department budget

• The project budget

84. Which of the following is an output of team development?

• Management plan

• Staffing management plan

• Performance improvements

• Reward system

85. You have been working on a project for six months with the same team, yet the team still shows a lack of support for the proj­ect. What should you do as a project manager to obtain the team’s support for the project?

• Reevaluate the effectiveness of the reward system in place.

• Talk to each team member’s boss with the team mem­ber present.

• Find someone else to be project manager.

• Tell the team he/she needs its support, and ask them why they do not support the project.

86. You have just been informed that one of your team members has not been adequately trained to complete project tasks as assigned to him. How would you handle this situation?

• Replace this team member with someone more qualified.

• Request proper training be provided through the func­tional manager.

• Revise the schedule to account for the decreased effec­tiveness of this resource.

• Mentor this resource during the remainder of project duration.

87. You are now a project manager for an international project and you use people from different countries. What should you expect as a project manager?

• Added costs due to shoddy or incomplete work

• Language or cultural differences that preclude effec­tive team work

• Increased organizational planning and coordination activities

• Team building activities become impractical, and the cost is prohibitive

88. A senior engineer assigned to your project contacts you, try­ing to get off the team. He knows that an important project in his department is going to be approved and will take place at the same time as yours. He wants to work on the other project. What is the best action?

• Release him from the team.

• Talk to the functional manager about releasing him from the team.

• Release him after he finds a suitable replacement.

• Speak with the project sponsor about releasing him from the team.

89. Two lead processes and piping are having a big disagreement about how to accomplish a project from a technical point of view. The client is upset from that as it impacts time. What should you do as a project manager?

• Make the decision.

• Send the team members to their managers for advice on resolving the dispute.

• Ask for a benchmark analysis.

• Have the team members compromise.

90. Saying "Do the work because I have been put in charge!" is an example of what type of power?

• Formal

• Penalty

• Effective

• Expert

91. Which of the following is the BEST method to making a reward systems MOST effective?

• Pay a large salary increase to the best workers.

• Give the team a choice of rewards.

• Make the link between performance and reward clear.

• Present notifications of rewards within the company.

92. A project manager says to a team member, "If you cannot complete this task according to the quality standards you set in place, I will remove you from the team that is going to Paris for the milestone party with the customer." What form of power is the project manager is using?

• Reward power

• Formal power

• Penalty power

• Referent power

93. You are a project manager and your project schedule is tight and in danger of falling behind when structure and piping leads to disrupting status meetings by arguing with each other. What action should you take?

• Separate the two until the project is back on track.

• Speak with each team member and give each a verbal warning.

• Discuss the problem with the manager of the two team members.

• Meet with both team members and their function manager to determine the source of conflict.

94. What conflict resolution technique is a project manager using when he says, "1 cannot deal with this issue now!"

• Problem solving

• Forcing

• Withdrawal

• Compromising

95. A team member complains to the project manager that another team member has once again failed to provide necessary infor­mation. The project manager meets with both team members to uncover the reason for the problem. This is an example of:

• withdrawal.

• confronting.

• compromising.

• smoothing.

96. The forms below present a power derived from the project manager all EXCEPT:

• Formal

• Reward

• Penalty

• Expert

97. In which phase of the project should the project manager pro­vide more direction?

• Initiating

• Planning

• Executing

• Controlling

98. A project manager has just been assigned a team that comes from many countries including Brazil, Japan, the US, and Britain. What is his or her BEST tool for success?

• The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)

• The teleconference

• Team communication with the WBS

• Communication and well developed people skills

99. A project manager needs to determine the resources needed for the project. Select the primary tool from the following:

• Work breakdown structure

• Schedule

• Expert advice from functional managers

• Expert advice from management

100. Your role is a project manager for a large project. One of your key resources has started to do his task behind schedule and work quality is beginning to suffer as well. You are confident that this person is well aware of the work schedule and required quality specifications. What action should you take?

• Report the problem to HR for corrective action.

• Reassign some work to other team members until per­formance starts to improve.

• Meet with the employee in private and try to deter­mine the factors impacting performance.

• Escalate the situation to the employee’s functional manager and ask for assistance.

10.1 Introduction

The following quiz is designed as a complement to the previous chapters of this book. The objective is to develop a checklist of the most important determinants of correct decisions. The right deci­sion may differ from one project to another, and it is based on ambient conditions. The questions here are for general cases, and the answers are based on the Guide to the Project Manager’s Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). The questions are posed so as to assist deci­sion-making in real-life situations where more of the scenario may be gray rather than black or white.

There are many ways to reduce the risk in general, and these meth­ods depend on eliminating the source of risk or transferring the risk to a third party. If this is done with a firm fixed-price contract, the risk is effectively transferred to the vendor.

Generally, in firm fixed-price contracts the vendor will always raise the price of the service to compensate for the effect of the risk. In addition to that the warrantees, performance bonds, and guarantees are additional methods for transferring risk.

The following techniques can be used to reduce and avoid risks:

• Clarifying requirements and objectives

• Improving communication

• Obtaining information

• Acquiring expertise

• Changing strategy

• Reducing scope

• Adopting familiar approach

• Using proven methods, tools, and techniques

ID	Description	Owner	Probability H> = 50% = 3 M10-50% = 2 L< = 10% = 1	Overall Consequence H = >500K$ =3 M = 50-500K$ = 2 L< = 50K$ = 1	Manageability L = 3 M = 2 H = 1	Score Max 27	$K If Risk Comes True	Weeks Delay If Risk Comes True	Risk Reduction Action	Date Identify	Date Close
1	manufacturer delivery on time	SCM	1	3	2	6			To monitor performance regularly
2	pump not match with specs requirement	ME	1	3	1	3			Review specs with the manufacture/ clarification meeting with the vendor
3	anchor bolt and dimension problems during construction	CE	1	1	1	1			Review drawings with machine
4	permits to work from operation	CM	1	1	1	1			a meeting with operation
5	Shut down plan coordination	CM	3	3	2	18			Meeting with operations

Table 9.4 Risk assessment weight and monitoring sheet

320 Construction Management for Industrial Projects

Where:

CM is the construction manager SCM supply chain manager CONT is the contractor SD security department

HSE health, safety and environment department ME mechanical engineering department CE Civil engineering department

You can transfer risk by transferring liability and ownership through the following:

Financial means:

• Insurance

• Performance bond, warranty Contractual means:

• Renegotiate contract conditions

• Use subcontractor in parts of the project

• Joint ventures/ teaming

• Risk-sharing partnership with client

• Target-cost

• Note limit to which risk can be transferred

• Note that transfer usually involves a price tag

Consider a small project for new gas compressor. When looking at the project, everyone may jump to conclusions and define what he or she is afraid might occur during the project. In fact, when we go through the meeting using brainstorming, we may find the output from the following table (9.4).

Risk monitoring and control is the process of keeping track of all the identified risks and identifying new risks, as their presence becomes known, and residual risks that occur when the risk man­agement plans are implemented on individual risks. The effective­ness of the risk management plan is evaluated on an ongoing basis throughout the project.

Figure (9.5) presents the steps of risk monitoring and control. After obtaining the priority for each risk, you should obtain a solu­tion with the project team and then agree on the emergency plan and, according to every risk, define the monitoring system that you will follow as the project manager.

When a risk is apparently going to eventuate, a contingency plan is put into place.

If there is no contingency plan, then the risk is dealt with on an ad hoc basis using what is termed a "workaround." A workaround is an unplanned response to a negative risk event. A corrective action is the act of performing the workaround or the contingency plan.

The concern of the project manager and the project team is that risk responses have been brought to bear on the risk as planned and that the risk response has been effective.

After they have observed the effectiveness of the risk response, additional risks may develop or additional responses may be necessary.

Risk management is a continuous process that takes place during the entire project from start to end. As the project progresses, the risks that have been identified are monitored and reassessed as the time that they can take place approaches. Early warning indicators are monitored to reassess the probability and impact of the risk. As the risk approaches, the risk strategies are reviewed for appropriateness, and additional responses are planned.

Risk assessments, reviews, and audits may be performed periodically to review the probability and potential impact of risks that have been identified and are nearer to their possible occur­rence. Risks that have already taken place can be reviewed and audited to assess the effectiveness of the risk response.

As each risk occurs and is dealt with or is avoided, these changes must be documented.

Good documentation ensures that risks of this type will be dealt with in a more effective way than before and that the next project manager will benefit from these lessons learned.

Risks having been identified, the next task is what is to be done about them, or in managerial jargon: risk response planning.

Risk response planning is the process of developing the pro­cedures and techniques to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to the project’s objectives. In this process it will be neces­sary to assign individuals who will be responsible for each risk and generate a response that can be used for each risk.

Risk response strategies are techniques that will be used to reduce the effect or probability of the identified, or even the unidentified, risks.

Of course, in the case of opportunities we should want to increase the probability and increase the impact. The opportunity can be exploited by adding resources to encourage and maximize the effect. Opportunities can be shared. In the case where our own organization is not able to maximize an opportunity, a partner­ship or other arrangement with another organization may be made where both organizations benefit in a greater way than one of them can. By enhancing an opportunity we can maximize the drivers that positively impact the risks. Both impact drivers and probability drivers may be enhanced.

In terms of the risk strategy that should be employed, a qualita­tive or quantitative evaluation of the severity of the risk will be a guideline as to how much time, money, and effort should be spent on the strategy to limit the risk.

Another approach to calculating the project risk is to estimate the probability of its occurrence with the knowledge of the possible impact of such an event on the project as a whole. This contingency makes it possible and necessary to put a monetary value on the aforesaid risk, and define the degree of the event’s impact on the project accordingly.

Some modern views are inevitable to take into account the abil­ity to manage the event and to understand that there are some events that can be managed easily where other event that is more complicated to manage. This approach is vital special in calculat­ing the risk in project execution phase, undoubtedly contributing to the rapidity with which it has entrenched itself as one of the most widely-recognized and applied methods for estimating and managing project risks during execution. There is a second addi­tional subtlety that emerges from the fact that, as knowledge and technology both advance, many specific risks come to be managed and handled more pro-actively. Not surprisingly, therefore, one of the columns of this particular tabulation approach indicates the "manageability" of an identified risk. The subtle point here is that the manageability of many kinds of risk may be improved as part of sorting out inter-departmental discrepancies addressed during interdepartmental meetings that take place from time to time in any event, i. e., without necessarily having to prepare any particularly exceptional budgetary or scheduling contingency solely for the purpose of addressing the risk in question. Accordingly, following this risk-tabulation method, such an item, because of this acknowl­edged higher manageability, would and should be given a lower score, decreasing the overall risk score. If the source of the risk is related to contact involving some outside organization, such as licensing or other special permissions from a government depart­ment, the fact that neither the contractor nor the owner has it in their power to manage this eventuality means its degree of risk lies beyond the project’s control and must therefore be assigned a higher, if not the highest, score.

This tabulation method is arranged to be applied in a face-to – face meeting of all those with project responsibilities. The ranking of probability and impact (consequence), is relatively simplified, using the numbers 3, 2, 1 to rank what is high, medium and low, respectively. Manageability is ranked 1, 2,3 for high, medium, and low respectively.

In defining impact, the pessimistically-minded manager will tend to rank everything as highly probable, while the carelessly – minded one can be expected to rank everything as less probable. The project manager or his designate in charge of this meeting, therefore, should proactively define the probability as follows:

• High probability – if the probability of occurrence is higher than 50%

• Medium probability – if the probability of occurrence is 10-50%

• Low probability – if the probability of occurrence is less than or equal to 10%

The same criteria should be defined by the facilitator and team leader before assessing the risks. This criterion is different from one project to another based on size and budget. The assumed criteria for the example in Chapter 4, as will be discussed in Section 9.8, is as follows:

• High consequence – when the risk becomes reality and the impact on the project will cost higher than or equal to $500,000

• Medium consequence – when the risk becomes reality and the impact on the project will cost between $50K and $500K

• Lower consequence – when the risk becomes reality and the impact on the project will cost less than $50K

In a previous meeting, everyone wrote down all expected risks. Now a determination needs to be made concerning the priority of those risks. This involves a two-stage evaluation process.

In the first phase, the likelihood of a risk is determined and rated it from 1 to 9, 1 symbolizing the least likely and 9 the most likely. In the second stage, the team determines the impact / outcome of an event upon the project, or the expected losses due to this event occurring. This is then prioritized as follows:

• High: It has a greater significant impact on the time schedule or the cost of the project.

• Medium: It has a medium impact on the time schedule and cost.

• Low: It has a lower influence on the time schedule and little impact on the cost.

In summary, the following table can be used to determine the risk priorities.

The team must know what is the probability that the event will occur and what its impact to the project. The impact will be obtained through the discussion for each event by answering the two questions: what is the probability of potential risks, and what is their impact on the project The category of the risk can be obtained directly from the matrix just illustrated in Table (9.2).

• Any event posing an unacceptable risk needs to be analyzed thoroughly and with great precision. These are the risks that threaten the project as a whole, so the focus must be on measures that would reduce or remove the risk or its impact before it could happen.

Table 9.2 Risk ranking score Probability of event occurring Impact on the project Low Medium High 7-9 Medium High Not acceptable 4-6 Low High Not acceptable 1-3 Low Medium High

• A high-risk situation is distinguished from an unacceptable-risk situation by the fact that it would be costly but not necessarily fatal for the project as a whole. Management of high-risk situation requires sustained monitoring.

• The potential damage of a medium-risk event, associ­ated with an impact on some but not all key points of the project, may be mitigated by ongoing review at each meeting of the project of actions taken to manage this risk and of any follow-up.

• The low-risk event is one that is not expected to have significant impact on the project but on a watching brief is consciously maintained. Also to be paid care­ful attention are changes in the actual unfolding and implementation of the work plan of the project and their potential to increase or lower the risks identified on the matrix, and or their priority within it.

After all the risks have been identified individually, they are ranked from lowest-risk to unacceptable, Solutions are proposed and responsibility assigned in each case, and the complete pan­orama is registered according to the schema outlined in Table (9.3).

Table 9.3 Risk management Project: Project Mgr.: Risk Number: Risk Title: Risk Description: Risk Degree: Probability: 123456789 Impact: High Medium Low Project areas that will affect by the event: Ordering of the event impact on the project:

Table 9.3 (cont.) Risk management Who is responsible: Solution step: Prepared By: Project Mgr. Sign.: Date:

There are many ways to define the risk ranking for each risk item that was defined before. In this step, the facilitator will ask the team in the meeting to define the degree of the likelihood that the event will occur and also define how much it can impact the project. There are two traditional methods. The matrix method is the most popu­lar and is defined in the PMBOK guide. The other way depends on ranking the risks in a table and defining them in three categories: red, yellow, and green for every identified risk.