Questions:

1.

What is a project?

2.

What is a program?

3.

What is a portfolio?

4.

Who are stakeholders?

5.

Define stakeholder characteristics?

6.

What is contingency reserve?

7.

What is management reserve?

8.

What is last step in project closing?

9.

How will you choose a project given NPV of many projects?

10.

What is value engineering?

11.

Who issues project charter?

12.

What type of contract is purchase order?

13.

Sensitivity analysis is a technique in which process?

14.

Name some techniques in Perform Quality Assurance?

15.

What is Kaizen approach?

16.

Quality is management problem is mentioned by?

17.

Zero defects/Do it first time is mentioned by?

18.

Components of decision tree?

19.

What is critical chain?

20.

What is constructive change?

21.

What is code of accounts?

22.

Difference between precision and accuracy?

23.

Difference between quality and grade?

24.

Difference between agreement and contract?

25.

Difference between product scope and project scope?

26.

What is free float?

27.

What is total float?

28.

What is project scope statement?

29.

How to interpret control chart?

30.

What is staffing management plan?

31.

What is resource histogram?

32.

What is pareto chart?

33.

What is workaround?

34.

What is control account?

35.

What are types of contracts?

36.

List some information gathering techniques used in identifying risk?

37.

Define Time and Material contracts?

38.

What are seven basic tools of quality?

39.

What are different types of conflict management techniques?

40.

What are ways to handle negative risks?

41.

What are ways to handle positive risks?

42.

What are different stages of team development?

43.

What is Maslow's hierarchy of needs (from bottom to top)?

44.

List different types of power?

45.

Which power is very effective?

46.

Mention some sources of conflicts?

47.

What is procurement audit?

48.

What is gold plating?

49.

What is point of total assumption?

50.

What is war room?

51.

What is the sequence of actions that should happen when an issue happens?

52.

What is scope baseline?

53.

What is marginal analysis?

54.

What is zero sum reward system?

55.

What is murder board?

56.

What is oligopoly?

57.

What is Ethnocentrism?

58.

What is force majeure?

59.

What is typical duration range for WBS activity?

60.

What are responsibilities of risk owner?

Answers:
1.
2.

Project is temporary endeavor undertaken to create unique product, service or

result (has defined start and end date)
Program is group of related projects

3.

Portfolio is group of projects or programs (may or may not be dependent). They

are grouped together for effective management.

4.

Stakeholders are persons or organizations whose interests may be positively or

negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project. Stakeholders
include project team as well.

5.

The stakeholders of a project typically have conflicting objectives. They have

maximum influence during initial stages of the project.

6.

Contingency Reserve is to cover known unknowns (known risks)

7.

Management Reserve to cover unknown unknowns (unknown risks)

8.
9.
10.
11.

Last step in project closing is gather lessons learned and archive project info
(Organization Process Assets updates) for future use
Choose project with high NPV (i.e high net present value)
Value engineering is less costly method to deliver same scope without
performance degradation
Project sponsor issues project charter

12.

Purchase order is fixed price type contract

13.

Sensitivity analysis is a technique in Quantitative Risk Analysis

14.

Quality audits, process analysis (includes root cause analysis) are some
techniques in Perform Quality Assurance

15.

Kaizen approach is Continuous improvement

16.

Quality is management problem is mentioned by Deming

17.

Zero defects/Do it first time is mentioned by CrosbySquare - Decision node,

Circle- Chance node, Triangle - end of branch.

18.

Decision tree components are square - decision node, circle- chance node and
triangle - end of branch.

19.

Resource constrained critical path is critical chain.

20.

Undocumented change to contract is constructive change.

21.

Code of accounts is numbering system used to uniquely identify each component

of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

22.

Precision is values of repeated measurements are clustered and have little

cluster. Accuracy is measured value is close to true value.

23.

Quality is degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.

Grade is category assigned to products or services that have the same functional
use but different technical characteristics. Low quality is not acceptable, but low
grade may be acceptable.

24.

Agreement is not legally binding but a contract is legally binding.

25.

Product scope means the features and functions of the product or service being
built. Project scope means the work that's needed to build the product.

26.

Free float is time that an activity can be delayed from it's early start date without
delaying early start of any immediately following schedule activities.

27.

Total float is time that an activity can be delayed from it's early start date without
delaying the project finish date.

28.

Project scope statement contains deliverables and also the work required to
create those deliverables.

29.

Process is considered out of control when a data point in control chart exceeds
control limit or if seven consecutive points in control chart are above or below (i.e on
one side) of the mean.

30.

Staffing management plan adds time (schedule) component to Human Resource

(HR) plan. It also includes rewards and recognitions, training requirements and
release criteria.

31.

Resource histogram is part of staffing management plan. It describes the type

and quantity of resources needed over a period of time.

32.

Pareto chart is type of histogram ordered by frequency of occurrence. It shows

how many defects were generated by type of category of identified cause.

33.

Workaround is response to negative risk event. Differs from contingency plan in

that workaround is not planned in advance.

34.

Control account is management control point where scope, cost and schedule
are integrated and compared to the earned value for performance measurement.

35.

Different types of contracts are Fixed Price, Cost-Reimbursable, Time and

material.

36.

Information gathering techniques used in identifying risk are Brainstorming,

Interviewing, Delphi technique and root cause analysis.

37.

T&M contracts are hybrid type of contractual agreements that could contain
aspects of both cost-reimbursable and fixed-price type arrangements.

38.

Seven basic tools of quality are Cause and Effect (Fishbone or Ishikawa)
Diagrams, Control Chart, Flowcharting, Histogram, Pareto Chart, Run chart and
Scatter Diagram.

39.

Conflict management techniques are Withdrawing/Avoiding, Compromising,

Smoothing, Forcing, Collaborating and Confronting/Problem Solving,

40.

Ways to handle negative risks are Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate and Accept.

41.

Ways to handle positive risks are Exploit, Share, Enhance and Accept.

42.

Different stages of team development are Forming, Storming, Norming,

Performing and Adjourning.

43.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs from bottom to top are Physiological needs, safety
needs, social needs, self esteem needs and self actualization needs.

44.

Different types of power are Reward power, Coercive (penalty) power, Legitimate
power, Referent power and Expert power.

45.
46.

Most effective power is Expert power.

Resources, schedules and priorities cause 50% of project problems and conflicts.
Schedule is the biggest source of conflict.

47.

Once you've closed out a procurement, it's important to conduct a procurement

audit. This is where you go over everything that happened on the project to figure
out the lessons learned, and look for anything that went right or wrong.

48.

Gold plating is when the team adds more work to the project that was not
requested by the sponsor or client. It is not scope creep.

49.

The point of total assumption is the point at which the seller assumes the costs.
In a firm fixed price contract, this is the point where the costs have gotten so large
that the seller basically runs out of money from the contract and has to start paying
the costs.

50.

The room the co-located team meets in is called a war room.

51.

When an issue happens, analyze impact of issue -> submit change request -> if
approved, update schedule and scope baselines -> implement the change.

52.

The scope baseline is made up of Project Scope Statement, WBS and the WBS
Dictionary.

53.

Marginal analysis - The best level of the quality is reached at the point where the
incremental revenue being gained from improvements equals the incremental cost
being spent to secure it.

54.

A Zero Sum reward system is a win-lose recognition program. For example, with
an employee of the month program their will only be one or two team members who
will win the award each month. Reward programs should be more win-win.

55.

Murder board is a process where a committee asks questions from project

representatives as part of the project selection process.

56.

Oligopoly - There are few sellers and action of one seller will have impact on
other sellers prizes.

57.

Ethnocentrism refers to belief that ones culture is superior to other cultures.

58.

Force majeure is a powerful and unexpected event, such as hurricane or other

disaster.

59.
60.

WBS activity should be between 8 and 80 hours.

Every risk should have a risk owner listed in the register. That person is
responsible for keeping the response plan up to date and make sure the right
actions are taken if the risk does occur.

http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/resource/s-curves.htm

A complete determination of the project status and projections to final completion for
management action can perhaps best be tracked by an integrated cost/schedule system
or technique known as "Earned Value and Performance Measurement" (Kerzner 1989).
The earned value, i.e. the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP), is determined at
regular intervals during the course of the project. At the same time, the Actual Cost of
Work Performed (ACWP) is also determined, and both are compared to the baseline plan
which is the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS). By presenting these results
graphically as S-curves, the variances in cost and schedule can readily be seen, and by
analyzing the results relative to the baseline plan S-curve, estimates can be made of
anticipated variations at completion. The key elements of the technique are shown in
Figure 3.

S-Curve: Graphic display of cumulative costs, labor hours, percentage of work,

or other quantities, plotted against time. Used to depict Planned Value, Earned
Value, and Actual Cost of project work.

Question from
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/5143077-5856287978602651652
http://singhvikash.blogspot.sg/2013/11/pmp-questions-on-costmanagement.html
Q
You have received the following estimates for a complex activity that is critical to the success
of your project. The most likely estimate is $40, the optimistic estimate is $36, and the
pessimistic estimate is $54. Find expected activity cost and standard deviation of this
activity?
A. $ 45, 9
B. $ 45, 3
C. $ 42 ,3
D. $ 42 ,9

Dear All,
Thanks for attempting this question, and most of you have answered it correctly.
Choice C is the correct answer. The expected activity cost is calculated this way: (4 * most likely +
optimistic + pessimistic) / 6.
Therefore, the answer is (4 * 40 + 36 + 54) / 6 = 42. (round figure)
SD= (Pessimistic - Optimistic) / 6 = (54 - 36)/6 = 3.
Please visit the below link for more numerical questions
http://www.whizlabs.com/lp/link/pmp-certification-numerical-questions.html

A project manager made 3-point estimates on a critical path and found the following
results:

Assuming 3 sigma precision level for each estimate, what is the standard deviation
of the allover path?

http://pmzilla.com/3-point-estimates
Some points to remember:

1 sigma is equal to 1 standard deviation, so, 3 sigma is equal to 3 standard

deviations. This information will not be applied in the question.

Standard deviation can be negative or positive; so, in order to calculate the

standard deviation of multiple tasks, dont sum up the standard deviation of each
task.

In order to calculate the standard deviation of more than one task (on critical
path), calculate the standard deviation of each task, take a square of standard
deviation of these tasks, sum up the square value, and at the end, calculate the
square root of this summed value.

Standard deviation of each task is (p-o)/6

Variance is a square of Standard deviation.

Easy way to remember the formula between Standard Deviation and Variance
is

o
V=(SD)

Apply above mentioned points for calculating the SD of allover path. Calculate SD of
individual task:

SD of A = (p-o)/6= (24-12)/6= 2

SD of B = 6/6 =1

SD of C = 12/6 = 2

SD of D = 18/6 = 3

SD of E = 18/6 = 3

Calculate V of individual task:

V of A= (SD of A) = 4

V of B = 1

V of C = 4

V of D = 9

V of E = 9

Calculate V of allover path:

4+1+4+9+9 = 27

Calculate SD of allover path:

SD = Square root of V

So, calculate the square root of 27 which is 5.2