Contrast a project from a nonproject.
> 1. Estimate the final construction budget. 2. What should they do about the work slowdown? 3. Create a Gantt chart with the revisions to the duration of the interiors step. When will the project be completed? 4. What is the importance of the fact that
> If this approach is not accurate, would the probability of completion considering the critical path alone be more accurate? How might you estimate the correct probability without resorting to simulation?
> When would it be accurate to determine the probability of project completion by multiplying the probabilities of all the paths through the network together? When would it not be accurate?
> How might you use the network approach to help prepare cost estimates?
> Why do you think scheduling has been the major focus of effort throughout the history of project management rather than performance or budgeting?
> Should a PM manage critical path tasks differently than noncritical path tasks?
> Contrast simulation to other risk analysis tools discussed in Chapter 3 such as decision tables, FMEA, logic charts, and contingency planning. What are its advantages and disadvantages? If you were to do an important risk analysis, which tool would you p
> So what went wrong with the assistant purchasing manager’s solution to the problem of having an inadequate supply of hard-to-obtain parts?
> As a senior manager, you oversee a project with a total estimated cost of 245 engineer-months of effort. Three months ago, however, the project had fallen behind by about 25 engineer-months so you authorized the hiring of three additional engineers, whic
> If a firm uses program budgeting for its projects, is an activity budget not needed? If it is, then of what value is the program budget?
> The chapter describes the problems of budgeting projects with S-shaped and J-shaped life cycle curves. What might be the budget problems if the life cycle of a project was just a straight diagonal line from 0 at project start to 100 percent at project co
> 1. What do you think the construction project manager should have done when the Director of Security stopped attending the project meetings? 2. Do you think it is an effective communications tool to send the construction project meeting minutes to the AL
> Given the tendency of accountants to allocate a project’s estimated costs evenly over the duration of the task, what danger might this pose for a project manager who faces the following situation? The major task for a $5 million project is budgeted at $3
> Consider the differences between Agile Project Management and the traditional waterfall approach summarized in Table 3-4. Which practices associated with the APM approach do you see as having the greatest potential to compliment the traditional waterfall
> Consider one or more projects (from this course or elsewhere) that you understand reasonably well. Identify situations where information learned from a later task of the project becomes important to an earlier task.
> 1. What do you think Alex should show to his boss, so that the boss would feel more comfortable letting Alex determine and monitor the project’s budget? 2. What should Alex say to persuade his boss?
> What should the CFOP do?
> If you were the President, how would you handle this problem?
> 1. What is the expected value of the project? 2. Simulate this project 1000 times and compute the average profit over the 1000 replications. Plot a histogram of the outcomes of the 100 replications. 3. How does the average of the simulation compare to th
> Construct a WBS for the project in Question 3.5.
> 1. The cost per square foot for the units is given in the text together with its standard deviation. What other areas of cost or revenue are likely to have cost uncertainty? 2. How would you suggest the team handle the issue of Dr. Link’s supposedly inf
> Contrast the traditional waterfall approach to project management with Agile Project Management.
> Why are R&D projects in a company’s Aggregate Project Plan significantly different in type from the firm’s Derivative, Breakthrough, and Platform projects?
> Draw a distinction between a project and a program. Why is the distinction important?
> What is “micromanagement?”
> Explain what is meant by the project manager having credibility.
> What is a virtual project?
> Why is the problem of allocating scarce resources to a set of projects similar to the problem of scheduling a job shop?
> When using AON networks, how does one indicate an event such as a project milestone?
> What is meant by “project slack”?
> You and your family and friends are planning to host a graduation party at the end of the school year. Construct a WBS for this party.
> What limitation associated with traditional project management techniques like Gantt charts and precedence diagrams does the Design Structure Matrix overcome?
> What are the important characteristics of project team members?
> If the calendar should not dictate reporting frequency, what should?
> Aside from the obvious benefits for project control, what other benefits might result from a good project reporting system?
> Explain the difference between a project that has a fixed delivery day and one that has a fixed limit on resource usage.
> In order to manage for overall project success, control must be exercised at the detailed work level for each aspect of project performance or no significant change will occur.” Does this mean that the PM should micromanage the project? If not, what does
> How might the existence of a change control system affect the behavior of a client, or a project team member, who desires to make a change in the project?
> Can you think of any circumstances where deferring conflict might be a wise course of action?
> A matrix organization is difficult to manage all by itself. What do you think the problems would be in managing mixed organizational systems?
> Why is it important for a project to have “flexibility”?
> Assume that your class instructor appointed you project manager to lead a dozen of your classmates in writing up the end-of-chapter pedagogy materials (i.e., Review Questions, Discussion Question, Problems, Incidents for Discussion, and Cases) as an Inst
> What advantages are lost if the sum of the weights in a weighted scoring approach does not add to 1.0?
> How might you use project management in doing a major school work assignment?
> Why is it suggested that factors with less than 2 percent or 3 percent impact not be considered in this approach?
> What is the difference between the Resource column on the WBS (including personnel needed by the project) and the Assigned To column?
> Why do you think most PMs use MSP’s Gantt chart format more commonly than the network format?
> Discuss the drawbacks of implementing a project plan without a RACI matrix.
> How should a PM decide which problems (or potential problems) deserve being reported to management and which are not worth the trouble when attempting to “never surprise the boss.”
> What is a critical path?
> What are the major purposes served by an after-the-fact project evaluation?
> Develop a WBS with at least two levels for a project you are personally familiar with (e.g., moving away to college, registering for class, cleaning out a garage). (Hint: the plan will be more useful as a learning exercise if you have a subordinate or tw
> What issues should be addressed in the project final report?
> What are the main duties of the closure manager?
> What are the types of project closure?
> What information should be included in a project audit?
> What are the typical steps in a project audit?
> Contrast project audits with financial audits.
> What are the measurement challenges associated with using a multivariate model such as a scoring model?
> What are some of the commonly used project evaluation criteria?
> Using earned value analysis, explain how the total cost of a partially completed project can be estimated.
> Why is it probably a good idea to avoid periodic reports, except in specific cases such as reports tied to the organization’s accounting system?
> Why is the hierarchical planning process useful for project planning? How might it influence the plan if the hierarchical planning process was not used?
> The monitoring system is the direct connection between project planning and control. Why is this true?
> What does it mean to say that project monitoring and control are on the opposite sides of project selection and planning?
> Why can’t the PM use the organization’s current information system for project monitoring and reporting?
> List and describe the three most common criteria by which to evaluate different resource allocation priority rules.
> When allocating scarce resources to several different projects at the same time, why is it important to make sure that all resource calendars are on the same time base (i.e., hourly, daily, or weekly …)?
> Explain the difference in the problems faced by a PM who is short of secretarial resources and one who is short of a “Walt.”
> The arrival and departure times of commercial aircraft are carefully scheduled. Why, then, is it so important to have excess capacity in the airport control tower?
> List as many things as you can think of that should be entered into a specific resource’s calendar.
> What does it mean to “fast track” a project?
> Given the fact that a project’s resource requirements are clearly spelled out in the project’s action plan, why are PMs so concerned with resource allocation?
> Give several examples of a type of project that would benefit from a template project plan being developed.
> Describe in your own words what is meant by Goldratt’s critical chain.
> What is meant by the term “student syndrome”?
> Explain why project-oriented firms require excess resource capacity.
> Consider Figure 5-14. Paths a-b-c and a-b-d converge at activity f, but we ignore this potential merge problem in the text. Why?
> What is a “dummy” activity?
> For the following project, (a) List all predecessors of task 5. (b) List all predecessors of task 4. (c) List all predecessors of the network finish (F).
> Will all activities on a noncritical path have the same slack? Why or why not?
> How do you determine the ES for an activity with two predecessors? How do you determine the LF for an activity with two successors?
> How is slack determined?
> When activity times are known with certainty, the critical path is defined as the set of activities on a path from the project’s start event to its finish event that, if delayed, will delay the completion date of the project. Why must this definition be
> In many project-oriented organizations, even routine processes are treated as projects. Why do you think this happened? How is it accomplished?
> 1. To what extent were the problems facing the notebook computer development project avoidable? 2. What could have been done to avoid these problems? 3. Would it make sense to apply a project selection model such as the weighted scoring model to the pr
> Not uncommonly, the Gantt chart is deceptive in its apparent simplicity.” Briefly explain.
> A probabilistic network has a critical path of 21 days and a .95 probability of completing this path in 24 days. Therefore, the project has a .95 chance of being finished by the end of the 24th day. True or False? Briefly explain your answer.
> Are there other kinds of changes in a project in addition to the three basic types described in Section 4.4? Might a change be the result of two types at the same time?
> Would you expect a task in a manufacturing plant that uses lots of complex equipment to have a learning curve closer to 70 percent or 95 percent?
> What is the logic in charging administrative costs based on total time to project completion?
> Contrast the disadvantages of top-down budgeting and bottom-up budgeting.
> Distinguish among highly probable risks, extremely serious risks, and highly vulnerable areas in risk identification.
> Under what circumstances is it sensible to do without a project launch meeting?
> Why is participatory management beneficial to project planning? How does the process of participatory management actually work in planning?
> Discuss the pros and cons of identifying and including the project team at the project launch meeting.
> Usually projects involving high levels of technological uncertainty are quite complex. Yet Shenhar says to use a flexible management style with high-uncertainty projects, but a formal style with complex projects. Explain.
> Discuss the reasons for inviting the functional managers to a project launch meeting rather than their subordinates who may be actually doing the work?
> Contrast the project plan and the work breakdown structure.
> What are some benefits of setting up a project plan for routine, frequent projects?
