Exam Questions Managing It Projects Ch.11

File: chapter11TestBank.docx, Chapter 11, Managing IT Projects

Multiple Choice

1. In today’s hypercompetitive business environment, firms that have strong project management skills have a higher likelihood of success because they are able to:
2. Spend money wisely.
3. Adapt processes and systems and therefore innovate faster than their competitors.
4. Optimize business processes.
5. Change and adapt in a slow yet methodical manner, reducing risk.
6. Utilize social and mobile platforms.
7. To help with organization and complexity, a project manager will break a project up into:
8. Variables
9. Business processes
10. Subprojects
11. Infrastructure
12. Work
13. To maintain balance in a project with a fixed budget and a well-defined scope, a project team will require flexibility:
14. with the deadline.
15. in spending.
16. with project quality.
17. with assumed risks.
18. in achieving the goals of the business case.

4. Which of the following is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result?

1. project
2. event
3. scope
4. requirement
5. system

5. Scope may be divided into product scope and __________ scope.

1. project
2. cost
3. time
4. time
5. sequence

6. The project triangle includes 3 sides: time, scope and:

1. cost
2. product
3. event
4. quality
5. requirements

7. What is at the center of the project triangle?

1. Agility
2. Quality
3. Speed
4. Cost
5. Focus

8. Which of the following development approaches is an iterative, incremental approach that allows development teams to respond to the unpredictability of building and implementing software?

1. Prototyping
2. SDLC
3. DSDM
4. Agile software development
5. RAD

9. An organization may convert from an old system to a new system by choosing to run both the old and new systems at the same time until the new system is fully accepted. This is known as:

1. Cutover
2. Parallel conversion
3. Direct cutover
4. Agile development
5. SDLC

10. This project cycle plan chart looks very much like a bar chart and is easy for management to read because of its visual nature.

1. PERT
2. Gantt
3. CPM
4. NPV
5. Flowchart

11. Which one of the following is NOT one of the four essential elements of any project?

1. Common project vocabulary
2. Project team
3. System evaluation
4. Project cycle plan
5. Project management

12. What does PMO stand for?

1. Project Maintenance Office
2. Project Mission and Objectives
3. Product Maintenance Office
4. Project Mission Office
5. Project Management Office

13. What type of software is released under a license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI)?

1. System Architecture Software (SAS)
2. Open System Software (OSS)
3. Shareware Software (SS)
4. Open Source Software (OSS)
5. Source System Software (SSS)

14. Which one of the following software products is NOT an open source software release?

1. PERL
2. Open Office
3. Linux
4. Mozilla
5. Microsoft Office

15. Which development methodology is more traditional and more structured than other approaches?

1. Agile programming
2. Prototyping
3. Open source deployment
4. Software development life cycle (SDLC)
5. Critical path method (CPM)

16. Open source software:

1. is free.
2. requires an organization pay a per user fee.
3. is costly.
4. is not allowed to be modified.
5. is provided by software vendors like Microsoft and SAP.

17. To reduce risk, a project should have which one of the following qualities?

1. High complexity
2. High clarity
3. Big in size
4. Large in budget
5. Lots of programmers.

18. Increasing project success requires gaining commitment from stakeholders. All of the following help to sustain that commitment for the life of the project EXCEPT:

1. Continually reminding stakeholders of the project benefits
2. Placing key stakeholders on the project team
3. Encouraging the project sponsor to provide public support for the project
4. Surprising the stakeholders by keeping the system’s workings a secret
5. Assigning the right leader to be the project sponsor

19. All of the following are indications that the project is successful EXCEPT:

1. Customers receive a significant benefit from the project.
2. The project meets its return on investment goal.
3. The project meets the established time and budget criteria.
4. The project prepares the organization for future success and growth.
5. The project profits are high and last for a very short time period.

20. A successful project begins with a ____________ that articulates the purpose and details of the project, benefits and costs, stakeholders, and required resources.

1. project plan
2. Gantt chart
3. business case
4. dashboard
5. strategy

21. If someone wants a system cheaply, quickly, and with a large scope, we can conclude:

1. That desire represents the three sides of the Project Triangle
2. This is normally not possible: you can usually only achieve two of those three objectives at a time.
3. Management might be providing an impossible goal.
4. All of the above
5. None of the above

22. A system development life cycle:

1. Assures us that as some systems die others are born in a sort of "circle of life."
2. Is a chain of events that count down to the demise of a system.
3. Illustrates the steps needed to go from one stage to another: for example, analysis to design to construction to implementation to operation to maintenance.
4. Specifies how to build a prototype quickly then improve on it.
5. Is a self-propelled ride at the "Technology Amusement Park" in San Francisco.

23. 19% of software projects fail, if you define success by:

1. Being on or under budget
2. Meeting performance criteria
3. Being completed on time
4. All of the above
5. None of the above

24. All of the following are examples of agile software development methodologies EXCEPT:

1. Scrum
2. Lean
3. Feature-Driven Development
4. Extreme Programming (XP)
5. SDLC

25. All of the following are drawback of prototyping EXCEPT:

1. Additional costs may be needed to make a prototype into an operational version.
2. An operational version needs to be made using desktop tools rather than enterprise-level tools.
3. Frequent changes over time making documentation more difficult.
4. A prototyping development process is difficult to manage because it can be impossible to determine when the prototype is complete.
5. Integration of prototyping methodology is difficult when there is a broad range of requirements.

True/False

26. According to Brooks, adding extra personnel to a system project more often makes it later, not earlier.

27. In calling something a “project,” the issues of uniqueness and temporariness are very important.

28. Strong project leadership can trade off against strong project management processes. That is, if the leader is not strong, then processes can be strengthened to make up for it. And if the processes are weak, a strong leader is needed.

29. Prototyping and RAD can be used to minimize problems of defining a scope that is too broad or narrow at the beginning of a project.

30. Open source software is free but often an organization will have to pay for training and technical support for the software.

31. Adding more people to a project can be helpful, but most projects are not made more efficient by simply adding labor.

32. A research firm found that a majority of software projects are delivered late or over budget or simply fail to meet expectations.

33. To support a common language and improve communication, a project manager should develop a private collection of acronyms and make frequent use of them.

34. The riskiest approach to system implementation is a parallel conversion.

35. The maintenance and review phase is the longest phase of the software development lifecycle.

36. Small projects that are low in complexity and low in clarity are low in risk.

37. A project is a permanent endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.

38. Integrating within the organization is a mechanism to manage project complexity, and includes frequent team meetings as an example.

39. Project cost and schedule estimates should be made only using documented facts.

40. The mantra for prototyping is “code a little, test a little.”

Short Answer

41. To transform resources into profits, organizations combine two types of work—operations and ________.

42. are the individuals and organizations that are involved in or may be affected by a given project.

43. is the term used to describe what happens when a project’s scope increases after it has started.

44. is the department that develops project management skills, boosts efficiency for projects, and improves project delivery.

45. A good project manager defines a realistic project scope and then manages the project so that it can be completed on time and within _________.

46. organizes the discrete project activities and orders them along a timeline, identifying the critical beginning and ending dates as well as necessary time and resources.

47. Agile development tends to be _______-oriented rather than process-oriented.

48. is one example of open source software.

49. Project risk is a function of , , and .

50. , , and are the three outside elements of the project triangle?

51. Two or more teams that work interdependently and interface with each other and with a common superordinate goal is working within a system.

Essay

52. Explain why in a project only two of the three project elements (cost, time, and scoop) can be optimized and the third must be adjusted to maintain balance.

53. Identify an example of project management software and the features/functionality you would expect it to provide.

54. Explain why IT projects are seen as just business projects involving significant amounts of technology.

55. Why does the addition of more people to a project not speed up the project efforts?

56. List some strategies a manager should consider when trying to manage a project’s technical complexity.

57. How do companies manage risk? What are the factors that contribute to a high-risk project?

58. Distinguish between the iterative approaches of prototyping and agile software development.

Matching

59. Identify the following qualities as either being associated with operations or project work.

60. Classify the following organizational activity as either operations or a project.

61. Match the project responsibility as being that of the project manager or the project sponsor.

62. Match the three major project periods to Lewin’s phases of the change model.

63. Match the description to the SDLC project phase it represents.

64. Match the activity to the SDLC project phase to which it belongs.

65. Match the development methodology with its characteristics.