PMP Practice Exam for Time Management

1. Which of the following is not a type of network logic used in establishing activity dependencies?

a)      Critical logic

b)      Hard logic

c)       Preferential logic

d)      External logic

2. Your team has agreed on the preferred activity sequences for your South Entrance Security program. Durations have been estimated and resource availability to support the schedule has been verified. In displaying the resulting schedule, ____________would generally illustrate______________  better than network diagrams.

a)      Milestone charts; activity sequencing

b)      Milestone charts; the critical path

c)       Bar charts; resource trade-offs

d)      Bar charts; Progress or status

3. Fast tracking involves:

a)      Developing workarounds for problems that have occurred in the past

b)      An increase in schedule risk

c)       Meeting schedule objectives by doing the job right the first time

d)      Reducing delays through better allocation of resources

4. A team member just informed you that resource availability was just reduced across the entire organization. Unfortunately, you now have more tasks scheduled for next week than thL resources available can possibly handle. One possible solution for this predicament is to employ ldeally, this technique would be limited to activities:

a)      Resource leveling; with positive float

b)      Resource leveling; on the critical path

c)       Crashing; with negative float

d)      Crashing; with zero float

5. If you expect an activity to take three days and it takes two days, the variance is:

a)      +5 days

b)      +1 day

c)       -1 day

d)      -5 days

6. Tasks A, B, and C have durations of 12 days each and are performed in sequence using finish-to-start dependencies. Task D has duration of 10 days and a finish-to- finish dependency with Task A. What is the late finish for Task A and Task D?

a)      Task A= 36 and Task D = 36

b)      Task A= 12 and Task D = 12

c)       Task A= 36 and Task D = 12

d)      Task A= 12 and Task D = 36

7. You have been a project manager for more than twenty years and have noticed that schedule changes tend to increase project costs. As a result of your experience and recent project management certification, you know that work performance information and the project scfredule are inputs to controlling the schedule. Which of the following is not a tool for Control Schedule?

a)      Change requests

b)      Resource leveling

c)       Variance analysis

d)      Performance reviews

8. Which of the following describes an approach to crashing the project?

a)      Achieving planned duration by doing the job right the first time

b)      Achieving planned duration by getting more cooperation from the stakeholders

c)       Reducing project duration by appropriate use of overtime

d)      Reducing project duration by doing more work in parallel

9. Scheduling heuristics are:

a)      Optimal solutions

b)      Shortest possible durations

c)       Methods for doing more work in parallel

d)      Rules of thumb

10. The major difference between a milestone and an activity is that milestones:

a)      Have zero duration

b)      Have zero float

c)       Can only be delayed with proper approval

d)      Are identified by customers

11. The objective of fast tracking a project is to:

a)      Add resources to critical activities

b)      Reduce the Project duration

c)       Reduce the number of resources needed by the project

d)      Provide faster status reporting

12. You are kicking off a complex project that seems to have numerous loops and conditional branches. A more experienced colleague recommended a technique that is not used as much as traditional network diagrams but is capable of dealing with your situation. Which of the following did she recommend?

a)      PERT

b)      GERT

c)       DERT

d)      QWERT

13. If an activity lies on the critical path, its total float will normally be:

a)      Greater than its free float

b)      Positive

c)       Zero

d)      Negative

14. Precedence diagrams are often preferred over arrow diagrams because they:

a)      Handle a large number of activities better

b)      Simplify scheduling by avoiding overlapping activities

c)       Do not require dummy activities

d)      Allow the project manager to identify the critical path

15. Which of the following items best identifies all the tasks that must be included in the schedule?

a)      The master schedule

b)      The WBS

c)       The technical baseline

d)      The network diagram

16. The schedule baseline:

a)      Is less important than the scope baseline

b)      Does not consider resource availability

c)       Can only be determined accurately with computer analysis

d)      Is used to measure project schedule performance

17. Which of the following is a distinguishing characteristic of projects?

a)      They are ongoing in nature

b)      They put scheduling techniques into active use

c)       They are temporary

d)      Time, cost, and quality are integrated for planning

18. Which of the following statements about float (slack) is true?

a)      The project manager may use float as a guide in making resource assignments

b)      The project manager should generally use available float as early in the project as possible

c)       Negative float is not of concern if enough activities have positive float

d)      Negative float can often be reduced by slowing the project expenditure rate

19. In a network logic diagram, the critical path is the:

a)      Path that contains the most important activities

b)      Most expensive path through the network

c)       Shortest path through the network

d)      Longest path through the network

20. __________Is an indication of scheduling flexibility.

a)      Early staff

b)      Late start

c)       Slack

d)      Near-critical Path

21. Activity definition is an essential first step in building an accurate project schedule. lf the activity list is inaccurate, then the schedule will also be inaccurate. Which of the following is an output of defining activities?

a)      Milestone list

b)      Decomposition

c)       Activity list updates

d)      Activity dependencies

22. In the arrow diagramming method, ________ is a constraint that does not require an expenditure of resources.

a)      A logical dependency

b)      A dummy activity

c)       A successor

d)      The critical Path

23. Your project to update the security system for a major bank involves work that is uncertain and difficult to estimate. You have decided to try using PERT to get a better idea of the range of possible durations for this work. Accordingly, you have asked several expert to come up with three estimates (best case, worst case, and most likely. The estimates they provided were 7 days, 19 days, and 10 days respectively-Using PERT, what is the expected average duration for this work?

a)      10 days

b)      11 days

c)       12 days

d)      PERT is not used for this type of estimating

24. There are organizations that have performed studies of how long it "should take" to perform certain activities. The information is often useful in estimating activity durations- This technique is known as - and is a -of estimate activity resources.

a)      Work analysis; tool

b)      Work analysis; output

c)       Published estimating data; tool

d)      Published estimating data; output

25. Which of the following dependency descriptions is incorrect?

a)      Finish-to-start: initiation of the successor depends on completion of the predecessor

b)      Finish-to-finish: Completion of the successor depends on completion of the predecessor

c)       Start-to-start: initiation of the successor depends on initiation of the predecessor

d)      Start-to-finish: initiation of the predecessor depends on completion of the successor

26. Resource leveling will generally:

a)      Require more resources in the long run

b)      Delay the end date of the Project

c)       Reduce total costs for the Project

d)      Have no effect on schedule

27. Your experience and training have taught you that identifying the critical path is crucial for establishing accurate expectations about schedule outcomes. Which is the least correct statement about the critical path?

a)      The critical path is the shortest time in which the project can be completed.

b)      The critical path is the longest path.

c)       The critical path has the least float.

d)      The critical path has zero float.

28. The project activity list should generally:

a)      Be organized by WBS element

b)      Include only those activities on the critical path

c)       Include only those activities with confirmed resource assignments

d)      Include only those activities with confirmed start dates

29. If the end date of an initial plan is later than the desired date, which of the following should generally be tried first?

a)      Start non-critical path activities at their early start dates

b)      Examine the activity sequences to determine whether more work can be done in parallel

c)       Add more resources to critical path activities

d)      Negotiate a reduced scope for any activities with negative float

30. If the expected duration of most project activities is represented by a triangular distribution skewed to the left, the project duration calculated using PERT will irost likely be:

a)      More pessimistic than CPM and more optimistic than Monte Carlo simulation

b)      More optimistic than CPM and more pessimistic than Monte Carlo simulation

c)       More pessimistic than either CPM or Monte Carlo simulation

d)      More optimistic than either CPM or Monte Carlo simulation

31. The roof must be built before the roof can be shingled is an example of a/an:

a)      External dependency

b)      Internal dependency

c)       Mandatory dependency

d)      Discretionary dependency

32. Lag time is:

a)      Derived from a forward and backward pass

b)      Waiting time

c)       The time a task can be delayed without delaying the project completion

d)      The time a task can be delayed without delaying the successor task

33. Which project management tool would show the critical path?

a)      WBS

b)      Project charter

c)       Milestone chart

d)      Network diagram

34. Your most recent project management training class suggested that project managers increase their attention to the use of float. Which of the following statements about free float is correct? Free float ______________.

a)      Identifies resources assignment to the project that are not actively working on project tasks

b)      Identifies how long a task can be delayed causing a delay in the project

c)       Identifies how long a task can be delayed without causing a delay in the start time of the immediate successor

d)      Identifies how much time it will take to complete the remaining work on the project

35. Given the data provided below, which activity should be crashed to reduce the project duration by one day? All times are in days.

Task	Predecessor	Normal time	Crash time	Crash cost per day
Start	-	-	-	-
A	Start	4	4	N/A
B	A	5	3	$20
C	Start	4	2	$50
D	C	6	4	$35
End	B,D	-	-	-

a)      A

b)      B

c)       C

d)      D

36. If you are more constrained by resource availability than by cost or schedule, you might:

a)      Employ the concept of crashing to conserve resource

b)      Employ resource leveling to make the best use of scarce resource

c)       Use Monte Carlo simulation

d)      Use fast tracking to conserve resources

37. A project with multiple critical paths:

a)      Will need more resources than usual

b)      Is more risky

c)       Is not possible (there is only one critical path)

d)      Must be analyzed using computerized tools

38. How does standard deviation relate to risk?

a)      Standard deviation indicates how unsure the estimate is.

b)      Standard deviation indicates the extent of management reserve.

c)       Standard deviation has no bearing on risk.

d)      Standard deviation calculates additional resources needed during crashing.

39. You are a project manager currently assigned to the Upper Fiji Campaign to Save the Whales. You are developing a public relations program and have asked for schedule estimates from your able assistant Dorothy Dash, PMP@. She reports that the uncertainty in the work makes the use of PERT a good idea. Therefore, she gives you the following three estimates: the optimistic estimate for completing the program is 18 weeks, the most likely estimate is 21 weeks, and pessimistic estimate is 42 weeks. Using PERT, what is the probability that the work will be completed within a range from 20 weeks to 28 weeks?

a)      5o%

b)      68.3%

c)       95.5%

d)      99.7%

Use the following information to answer questions 40-42.

You have been hired by the Young Republicans Committee to convince moderate Democrats in your great state of New Yorkshire to vote for their Republican candidate.  You are personally indifferent about politicians, but the Republicans are paying well at the moment and your car needs new tires and a muffler. The first part of the project as you have conceived it consists of four major tasks and you have collected the following information: Task A can finish on day 4 and cannot finish later than day 5 or the project will be delayed (and the evil-doer Democrat candidate may be elected and you will never be hired again). Task B can be completed by day 8 and must also be completed by day 8 or you will be late (and you know what that means)! Task C €can be completed on day 12 and must be completed by day 15 or the Project may be late. Finally, Task D can be completed by day 20 but must be completed by day 15 or the project will be late.

40. Which task has the most float?

a)      Task A

b)      Task B

c)       Task C

d)      Task D

41. Which task has the least float?

a)      Task A

b)      Task B

c)       Task C

d)      Task D

42. Which task most threatens completing the project on time?

a)      Task A

b)      Task B

c)       Task C

d)      Task D

43. Which of the following terms is not associated with a precedence diagram?

a)      Critical Path

b)      Slack

c)       Dummy task

d)      Lag

44. The default display in many project management software programs is the Gantt chart, which is also called a bar chart. A distinctive advantage of the Gantt chart is that it _________.

a)      Clearly shows any schedule variances

b)      Is the best to view the critical path

c)       Identifies dummy tasks

d)      Is the preferred way to high-level schedule status to customers

45. Which of the following is a key characteristic of an arrow diagram?

a)      Lag

b)      Dummy task

c)       Finish-to-finish dependency

d)      Critical chain