File: ch03, Chapter 3: The Project Manager

Multiple Choice

1. Identify the attribute that is not normally associated with the job of functional
manager.
a) The functional manager is usually a generalist in the area being managed
b) The functional manager is responsible for deciding what resources will be devoted to
accomplishing the task
c) The functional manager is administratively responsible for deciding how something
will be done
d) The functional manager is responsible for deciding who will do the work
Ans: a
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: easy

2. According to the authors, the analytic method, when applied to systems, focuses on
________.
a) Assembling the components of a system into an integrated package
b) Building an array of individually designed and manufactured components
c) Calculating the cost and schedule requirements
d) Breaking the components of a system into smaller and smaller elements
Ans: d
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: intermediate

3. The project manager is usually ________.

a) A direct, technical supervisor knowledgeable in the technology of the process being
used
b) A facilitator and a generalist having a reasonable level of technical competence in the
science of the project
c) A facilitator and specialist with technical credibility
d) A technical specialist competent in principles of robust design
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.1.

Level: easy

4. According to the authors, three major questions face the project manager with respect
to synthesizing the requirements of a project. Identify the item that is not listed as one of
the three major questions.
a) What needs to be done?
b) Who will actually do the work of the project?
c) When must it be done?
d) How will the required resources be obtained?
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: intermediate

5. When managing a project, the project manager is responsible for ________.

a) Planning and controlling the project
b) Planning, staffing, and executing the project
c) Organizing, staffing, budgeting, directing, planning, and controlling the project
d) Organizing, designing, staffing, executing, auditing, and controlling the project
Ans: c
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: intermediate

6. The project manager's responsibilities are broad and fall primarily into three separate
areas. Identify the item that is not identified by the authors.
a) Responsibilities to the parent organization
b) Responsibilities to the project and the client
c) Responsibilities to the members of the project team
d) Responsibilities to special-interest groups
Ans: d
Response: Refer to section 3.1, project responsibilities
Level: easy

7. Project managers should view politics as ________.

a) A barrier to successful project management
b) The mechanism by which the people in organizations make decisions

c) Win-lose competitions
d) The mechanism used to sustain projects selected using non-financial selection models
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.2, acquiring adequate resources
Level: intermediate

8. The project manager must make trade-offs between project progress and process.
Conceptually, this involves trade-offs between the ________ functions.
a) Technical and management
b) Schedule and cost
c) Performance and schedule
d) Cost and performance
Ans: a
Response: Refer to section 3.2, making project goal trade-offs.
Level: intermediate

9. During the ________ stage of the project lifecycle, there is no significant difference in
the importance that project managers place on the three goals of cost, time, and
performance.
a) Initiation stage
b) Design or formation stage
c) Buildup stage
d) Final stage
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.2, making project goal trade-offs
Level: easy

10. According to the authors, a Type 1 project is ________.

a) Well understood but not routine
b) Well understood and routine
c) Not well understood and not routine
d) Not well understood but routine
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.2, failure and the risk and fear of failure
Level: easy

11. Type 1 projects usually fail because ________.

a) They have not been organized to handle unexpected crises and deviations from plan
b) Contingency allowances have not been built into the budget
c) Continues the allowances have not been built into the schedule
d) The client submitted change requests
Ans: a
Response: Refer to section 3.2, failure and the risk and fear of failure
Level: intermediate

12. In a Type II project, the so-called planning problems usually result from ________.
a) An inability to solve the projects technical problems
b) An inability to plan unknown unknowns
c) A failure to define the mission carefully and get the client's acceptance
d) A failure to handle deviations from plan
Ans: c
Response: Refer to section 3.2, failure and the risk and fear of failure
Level: intermediate

13. According to the authors, of all the characteristics desirable in a project manager,
________ is the most important.
a) Availability
b) A strong technical background
c) A person who can keep the project team happy
d) Drive to complete the task
Ans: d
Response: Refer to section 3.3, selecting the project manager.
Level: easy

14. The project manager needs ________ credibility.

a) Technical and personal
b) Administrative and personal
c) Technical and administrative
d) Technical and financial
Ans: c

Response: Refer to section 3.3, credibility

Level:

15. Projects are conducted in four important environments. They are ________.
a) Economic, political, legal, and sociotechnical
b) Internal, external, transitional, and multicultural
c) Routine, unique, fast-paced, and complex
d) Profit, not for profit, government, and industry
Ans: a
Response: Refer to section 3.4
Level: easy

Short Answer

16. A ________ is a set of interrelated components that accepts inputs and produces
outputs in a purposeful manner.
Ans: system
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: easy

17. In order to maintain credibility within the parent firm, the PM must never allow
________ to be surprised.
Ans: senior management
Response: Refer to section 3.1, project responsibilities
Level: easy

18. The project manager's responsibility to the project and to the client is met by ensuring
that the ________ of the project is preserved in spite of conflicting demands made by
stakeholders.
Ans: integrity
Response: Refer to section 3.1, project responsibilities
Level: intermediate

19. During the build-up stage of a project lifecycle, ________ is the dominant goal of
many project managers.
Ans: schedule
Response: Refer to section 3.2, making project goal trade-offs.
Level: intermediate

20. During the final stage of the project lifecycle, ________ is the dominant goal of
many project managers.
Ans: performance
Response: Refer to section 3.2, making project goal trade-offs.
Level: intermediate

21. ________ results when the demands made on an individual are greater than the
person's ability to cope with them, particularly when the person has a high need for
achievement.
Ans: stress
Response: Refer to section 3.3, ability to handle stress
Level: easy

22. ________ is the entire way of life for a group of people. It contains the four elements
of technology, institutions, language, and arts.
Ans: culture
Response: Refer to section 3.4
Level: easy

23. The structure of the society is defined by its ________.

Ans: institutions
Response: Refer to section 3.4
Level: intermediate

24. The aesthetic values of a culture are communicated through the culture's ________.
Ans: art
Response: Refer to section 3.4
Level: easy

25. According to the textbook, in Latin America, the ________ system leads a manager
to give preference to relatives and friends when hiring.
Ans: compadre
Response: Refer to section 3.4, culture and the project
Level: easy

26. The laws of the nation are often a product of the nation's ________.
Ans: history
Response: Refer to section 3.5, legal environment
Level: intermediate

27. This agreement, ________, affords protection of intellectual property rights of firms
of the three signatory countries in North America.
Ans: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Response: Refer to section 3.5, legal environment
Level: easy

28. ________ is a complex composite of words, science, symbols, movements and

positions of the body, pictures, sounds, equations, and objects.
Ans: language
Response: Refer to section 3.6
Level: easy

29. Participative management may be difficult to practice in societies with highly

structured ________.
Ans: social classes
Response: Refer to section 3.6, managerial and personal behavior
Level: intermediate

30. The ________ is a person who spearheads an idea or action and sells it throughout the
organization.
Ans: champion
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy

31. The ________ is an alternative for action if the expected result fails to materialize.
Ans: contingency plan
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy

32. The ________ represents everything outside the system that delivers inputs or
receives outputs from the system.
Ans: environment
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy

33. The ________ is the corporate culture within the organization, or even within the
project.
Ans: microculture
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy

34. The project manager makes a ________ by allowing one aspect of the project to get
worse in return for allowing another aspect of the project to get better.

Ans: trade-off
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level:
35. A ________ is a person who helps people overcome problems, either with technical
issues or with other people.
Ans: facilitator
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy

Essay

36. With respect to acquiring resources, there is a high potential for conflict between the
functional manager and the project manager. Describe a major source of that conflict and
suggest how it can be properly managed.
Ans: The project manager often will seek individuals with scarce but necessary skills.
Moreover, the project manager will seek those individuals who are top producers.
However, these are the very people the functional manager would like to retain to
perform the work of the function. In order to manage this conflict, the use of an objective
standard to set priorities is recommended. Instead of seeking to optimize the project or
the function, the project manager and the functional manager should collaborate to solve
the problem in a manner that maximizes organizational success for the business as a
whole.
Response: Refer to section 3.2, acquiring and motivating personnel
Level: advanced

37. When asked, How do you motivate astronauts? A representative of NASA

responded, We don't motivate them, but, boy, are we careful about whom we select.
Discuss the implications of this statement for project managers seeking to motivate
project team members.
Ans: The most effective team members have some common characteristics. Moreover,
the issue of motivating people in a project team is closely related to the kind of people
who are invited to join the team. For example, when faced with technical problems, will
the team members take the initiative to resolve the issue or will the team members seek to
delay action by referring the problem back to the functional department? Moreover,

because of the potential for conflicting priorities between the function and the project,
team members should have the political skills to balance such competing demands,
especially when the project team is not assigned full-time to work on a project. If each
team member has a problem solving orientation, the team member will seek
interdisciplinary collaboration instead of narrowly viewing the problem within a specific
discipline. And finally, team members should have the moral courage necessary to work
in an open environment where problems are identified and resolved.
Response: Refer to section 3.2, acquiring and motivating personnel.
Level: advanced

38. At the inception of a project, crises tend to be associated with resources. Explain
why this scenario could be common in some organizations.
Ans: Uniqueness is a characteristics shared by projects. Once the technical plans to
accomplish the project have been translated into a budget and schedule, managerial
reviews will often seek to gain cuts in budget and/or schedule. Each time this happens,
the cuts will have to be translated into changes in technical plans.
Response: Refer to section 3.2, dealing with obstacles
Level: intermediate

39. Identify three important characteristics that would be desirable in a project manager.
Explain your reasoning.
Ans: The three characteristics would be an ability to get the job done without destroying
the performing organization and/or its relationships with key stakeholders. There are
three aspects to this statement. First, there needs to be a drive to complete the tasks of the
project. Second, the resources of the performing organization must be used in a manner
that ensures survivability of the organization. Finally, the project manager needs the
emotional maturity to balance competing demands among multiple project stakeholders.
Response: This response assumes that is important for the performing organization to
survive after completion of the project. In some cases, the intent would be to dismantle
the performing organization once the project's results have been completed. However,
this answer assumes that the performing organization intends to sustain operations as an
ongoing business.
Level: advanced

40. Four project environments were identified in chapter 3. Assume that there is a clash
in requirements between the legal environments of two countries participating in the
project. Before taking action to resolve the clash in requirements, what would you
recommend that the project manager do?

Ans: Since this is a multinational project, the project manager needs to understand the
jurisdiction of the legal systems governing the project. Once the governing jurisdiction
for the matter at issue has been identified, the project manager should also understand
procedural laws associated with the interpretation and enforcement of substantive rights.
In many cases, the project manager will lack the expertise to correctly understand and
translate these issues into a course of action without guidance provided by competent
legal counsel.
Response: When in doubt, the project manager should seek the advice of competent legal
counsel. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it.
Level: advanced