EM 326: Project Management

Dr. Bandar Alkhayyal

Lecture 17
Chapters 5 - 9 (Midterm 2 review)
19/11/2017

1
Project Management

2-2
Exam 1 location

Exam 1 (Tuesday 21 November, 2017) will

be at Men Campus -Building 1 - Exam Hall
between12:00PM - 12:50PM.
Will cover Chapter 5 9
Time: 50 Minutes
Closed Book and Notes
No Cell Phones, No Tablets and No
Computers

4-3
Chapter 5

What is a program manager? How does this

job differ from that of a project manager?
Identify the advantages and disadvantages
of the matrix form of organization.
Name the two of the four basic types of
project organization and list at least one
characteristic, advantage, and disadvantage
of each.
Why is the project management office so
important?
4-4
Chapter 5

What are the major sources of conflict

throughout the life cycle?
What are the major tasks of a Project
Management Office?
Where is the location of a project in the
functional structure?

4-5
Chapter 5

What is a major advantage of the Functional

Organization for a Project?
When a project requires input from several
functional areas and uses a sophisticated
technology, what us the recommended
organizational structure?

4-6
Chapter 6

Any successful project charter must contain

nine key elements. List three items and
briefly describe the composition of each.
What are the general steps for managing
each work package within a specific project?
What should be accomplished at the initial
coordination meeting?

4-7
Chapter 6

What are the basic steps to design and use

the Work Breakdown Structure?
Contrast the Project Plan, the Project
Charter, and the WBS.
Contrast milestones with phase-gates, with
examples.
Why is project planning so important?
What is the process of managing risk in a
project?

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Chapter 6

Project success is judged by what criteria?

What is the RACI Matrix?

4-9
Chapter 7

What are the advantages of top-down

budgeting? Of bottom-up budgeting? What is
the most important task for top management
to do in bottom-up budgeting?
In preparing a budget, what indirect costs
should be considered?
Describe the purpose and use of a tracking
signal.
Describe the top-down budgeting process.

4-10
Chapter 7

Why is learning curve analysis important to

project management?
If a project budget is over funded, what will
often happen?
If a project budget is underfunded, what will
often happen?
why senior managers view the bottom-up
budgeting process as being risky.

4-11
Chapter 7
What is the easy method of evaluating risk in
certain situations by modifying project
parameters and evaluating the
corresponding changes?

4-12
Chapter 8

Define activity, event, and path as used in

network construction. What is a dummy
activity?
What characteristic of the critical path times
makes them critical?
What two factors are compared by Gantt
charting? How does the Gantt chart differ in
purpose from the WBS?
What is the difference between activity-on-
node and activity-on-arrow diagrams?
4-13
Chapter 8

How does simulation determine the

probabilities of various project completion
times?
Define late start time, early start time, and
early finish time.
How is the critical path determined?
What is slack and why is it important?

4-14
Chapter 8

Task F has duration of 10 days and an earliest start

date of 20 days. Based on the given data, determine
the early finish duration for task F.
Task H has duration of 5 days, an early start of 25
days, an early finish of 30 days, a late start of 25 days,
and a late finish of 30 days. How many days of slack
for task H?

4-15
Chapter 8

In AOA networks, what do they called an

activity of zero duration?
What do they called the series of connected
activities (or intermediate events) between
any two events in a network?

4-16
Chapter 9

What is an activity slope and what does it

indicate?
Name four priority rules. What priority rule is
best overall? How would a firm decide which
priority rule to use?
What is resource loading? How does it differ
from resource leveling?
Identify several resources that may need to be
considered when scheduling projects.

4-17
Chapter 9

As Soon As Possible?
As Late As Possible?
Shortest Task First?
Fast-Tracking?
Crashing a Project? with example.
Most Resources First?
Arbitrary?

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Chapter 9

Name three efficiency criteria that might be

considered when choosing a multiproject
scheduling system.
What are two methods for addressing the
constrained resources allocation problem?
When might a firm choose to crash a project? What
factors must be considered in making this
decision?
Why is the impact of scheduling and resource
allocation more significant in multiproject
organizations?
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Chapter 9

What are some of the indirect costs of

crashing?
What is the formula for computing the
cost/time slope for each activity that can be
crashed?
What is the technique overlaps the design
and builds phases of a project to expedite its
completion?
What are the important parameters used to
measure effectiveness of PM scheduling?
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