GMS450 FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Project Crashing - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Shortening some activities within a project to reduce overall
project completion time.
Normal Time - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The time necessary to complete an activity under normal
conditions.
Normal Cost - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The activity cost associated with the normal time.
Crash Time - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The shortest possible time to complete an activity.
Crash Cost - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The activity cost associated with the crash time.
Cost to Crash/Period - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅=(CC-NC)/(NT-CT)
Which Activities Should Be Crashed? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅One or more of the activities in the critical
path should be chosen to crash. The activity with the lowest cost to the firm should be crashed.
Resource Leveling - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- When the project is large and contains many resource over-
allocations, resource leveling must be accomplished.
- It is a technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints w/ the goal
of balancing demand for resources w/ the available supply.
- Purpose: to create a smoother distribution of resource usage.
- Aims to minimize the period-by-period variations in resource loading by shifting tasks within their slack
allowances.
- Done by delaying or splitting tasks until the resources assigned to them are no longer over-distributed.
Activity Slack - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Formula: S = LF - EF or LS - ES
Pseudoactivities - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Several projects can be linked together w/ pseudoactivities.
,- They have duration, but require no resources.
- They allow a set of projects to be linked and dealt w/ as though it were a single project.
- Individual projects are interrelated by specifying predecessor/successor relationships.
Criteria of Priority Rules - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅1. Schedule slippage: the amount project or set of
projects delayed by the application of a leveling rule. The PM must trade off penalty costs or displeasure
of clients against the cost of adding resources.
2. Resource utilization: the extent to which resources are over or under worked.
3. In-process inventory: amount of unfinished work in the system.
* The min. slack rule is the best overall priority rule according to research, giving the best combo. of
minimum project slippage, minimum resource idle-time and minimum in-process inventory.
Problems w/ Traditional Project Management - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Additional safety time should
be implemented beyond the work content time required to be embedded within the task duration to
increase the probability and high-confidence that the task will be completed on time.
Problems include:
- Not starting task until the last moment
- Delaying completion of task
Goldratt's Critical Chain - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Eli Goldratt created critical chain project mgmt. in
response to many projects being dogged by performance manifested in:
1) Longer than expected duration
2) Frequently missed deadlines
3) Increased costs in excess of budget
4) Substantially less deliverables than originally promised
Multitasking - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Assigning team members to multiple projects and having them
allocate their time across these projects.
- Typically a penalty or cost associated w/ switching from working on one project to another (usually
extends activity times)
, Goldratt's Solution - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Suggests that the key to resolving this is to schedule the
start of new projects based on the availability of bottleneck resources
- Suggests time buffers between bottleneck resource and resources that feed it.
* A bottleneck (or constraint) in a supply chain means the resource that requires the longest time in
operations of the supply chain for certain demand.
Two Potential Sources That Can Delay the Project - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅1) Delay in the tasks that
make up the critical chain.
2) Delay in activity feeding the critical chain that results in delay of the critical chain.
Project Buffer - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- A project buffer is inserted at the end of the project network
between the last task and the completion date
- Any delays on the longest chain of dependent tasks will consume some of the buffer but will leave the
completion date unchanged and protect the project.
Feeding Buffer - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Delays on paths of tasks feeding into the longest chain can
impact the project by delaying a subsequent task on the critical chain.
- The feeding buffer is typically recommended to be half the size of the safety time taken out of the
feeding path.
Project Risk - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Definition: an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a
positive or negative effect on at least one project objective.
- Projects are all about uncertainty. Uncertainty cannot be eliminated, however, it can be minimized
with effective PM
Risk Management - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Process of identifying, analyzing and responding to project
risk in order to maximize positive outcomes.
Risk Mgmt. Breakdown Into Sub-Processes - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅1. Risk management planning
2. Risk identification
3. Qualitative risk analysis
4. Quantitative risk analysis
Project Crashing - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Shortening some activities within a project to reduce overall
project completion time.
Normal Time - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The time necessary to complete an activity under normal
conditions.
Normal Cost - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The activity cost associated with the normal time.
Crash Time - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The shortest possible time to complete an activity.
Crash Cost - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The activity cost associated with the crash time.
Cost to Crash/Period - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅=(CC-NC)/(NT-CT)
Which Activities Should Be Crashed? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅One or more of the activities in the critical
path should be chosen to crash. The activity with the lowest cost to the firm should be crashed.
Resource Leveling - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- When the project is large and contains many resource over-
allocations, resource leveling must be accomplished.
- It is a technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints w/ the goal
of balancing demand for resources w/ the available supply.
- Purpose: to create a smoother distribution of resource usage.
- Aims to minimize the period-by-period variations in resource loading by shifting tasks within their slack
allowances.
- Done by delaying or splitting tasks until the resources assigned to them are no longer over-distributed.
Activity Slack - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Formula: S = LF - EF or LS - ES
Pseudoactivities - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Several projects can be linked together w/ pseudoactivities.
,- They have duration, but require no resources.
- They allow a set of projects to be linked and dealt w/ as though it were a single project.
- Individual projects are interrelated by specifying predecessor/successor relationships.
Criteria of Priority Rules - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅1. Schedule slippage: the amount project or set of
projects delayed by the application of a leveling rule. The PM must trade off penalty costs or displeasure
of clients against the cost of adding resources.
2. Resource utilization: the extent to which resources are over or under worked.
3. In-process inventory: amount of unfinished work in the system.
* The min. slack rule is the best overall priority rule according to research, giving the best combo. of
minimum project slippage, minimum resource idle-time and minimum in-process inventory.
Problems w/ Traditional Project Management - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Additional safety time should
be implemented beyond the work content time required to be embedded within the task duration to
increase the probability and high-confidence that the task will be completed on time.
Problems include:
- Not starting task until the last moment
- Delaying completion of task
Goldratt's Critical Chain - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Eli Goldratt created critical chain project mgmt. in
response to many projects being dogged by performance manifested in:
1) Longer than expected duration
2) Frequently missed deadlines
3) Increased costs in excess of budget
4) Substantially less deliverables than originally promised
Multitasking - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Assigning team members to multiple projects and having them
allocate their time across these projects.
- Typically a penalty or cost associated w/ switching from working on one project to another (usually
extends activity times)
, Goldratt's Solution - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Suggests that the key to resolving this is to schedule the
start of new projects based on the availability of bottleneck resources
- Suggests time buffers between bottleneck resource and resources that feed it.
* A bottleneck (or constraint) in a supply chain means the resource that requires the longest time in
operations of the supply chain for certain demand.
Two Potential Sources That Can Delay the Project - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅1) Delay in the tasks that
make up the critical chain.
2) Delay in activity feeding the critical chain that results in delay of the critical chain.
Project Buffer - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- A project buffer is inserted at the end of the project network
between the last task and the completion date
- Any delays on the longest chain of dependent tasks will consume some of the buffer but will leave the
completion date unchanged and protect the project.
Feeding Buffer - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Delays on paths of tasks feeding into the longest chain can
impact the project by delaying a subsequent task on the critical chain.
- The feeding buffer is typically recommended to be half the size of the safety time taken out of the
feeding path.
Project Risk - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Definition: an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a
positive or negative effect on at least one project objective.
- Projects are all about uncertainty. Uncertainty cannot be eliminated, however, it can be minimized
with effective PM
Risk Management - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Process of identifying, analyzing and responding to project
risk in order to maximize positive outcomes.
Risk Mgmt. Breakdown Into Sub-Processes - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅1. Risk management planning
2. Risk identification
3. Qualitative risk analysis
4. Quantitative risk analysis
