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INTEGRATION Knowledge Area

Integration Knowledge Area includes the work that must be done to merge and combine the tasks and outputs of the various processes and workstreams.

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Each project can be divided into various tracks or workstreams that could initially progress, independent of each other, but must later be combined into a cohesive whole.

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The figure below shows the different workstreams or functional areas that contribute towards a project.

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Questions for the Integration Knowledge Area
 
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Question 1

  • Which of the following is an input to the business case?

  1. Project charter

  2. Requirements documentation

  3. Benefits management plan

  4. Needs Assessment

 

Question 2

  • The closure of a project phase provides a hand-off of the deliverable to the next project phase. It also serves as a natural point to assess the project progress and make alterations. This natural point is also referred to as:

    1. Stage gate

    2. Kill point

    3. Milestone phase review

    4. All of the above are valid references

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Question 3

  • A project to develop a water treatment plant is expected to cost $300,000. The initial investment is supposed to generate $5,000 each month for the first year and $10,000 each month after that. What is the payback period?

    1. 40 months

    2. 36 months

    3. 30 months

    4. 42 months

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Question 4

  • Which of the following is not a project document?

    1. Change log

    2.  Risk report

    3. Document containing test results

    4. Benefits management plan

 

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Question 5

  • What is the difference between a project charter and a team charter?

  1. A project charter establishes the project scope and objectives and authorizes the project manager to use organizational resources for the project. A team charter establishes how the developers and members interact with each other to improve team outcomes.

  2. A project charter establishes the project scope and schedule and must be signed for each agile project. However, a team charter is not required for each agile project or team.

  3. A project charter establishes the scope and commits resources for the project. A Team charter establishes ground rules for team meetings and events.

  4. A project charter establishes the project scope, budget and timelines. A Team charter establishes the Definition of Done, and Definition of Ready for the Product Backlog Items. 

 

Question 6

  • You are asked to select one of the following projects based on the internal rate of return (IRR) but without any consideration for the wait period. Note that the initial capital investment is considered as the sunk cost. Which project would you select?

    1. Project A: The initial investment is $200,000 and you will get $20,000 per month after 6 months.

    2. Project B: The initial investment is $300,000 and you will immediately start getting $30,000 per month

    3. Project C: The initial investment is $400,000 and you will get $40,000 per month after 12 months

    4. Project D: The initial investment is $500,000 and you will get $25,000 per month without any wait time.

 

Question 7:

  • You have been asked to select one of the following projects based on payback period including the wait time. Which project would you select?

    1. Project A: The initial investment is $200,000 and you will get $20,000 per month after 6 months.

    2. Project B: The initial investment is $300,000 and you will immediately start getting $30,000 per month

    3. Project C: The initial investment is $400,000 and you will get $40,000 per month after 12 months

    4. Project D: The initial investment is $500,000 and you will get $25,000 per month without any wait time.

 

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Question 8

  • Which of the following is not true about project initiation?

    1. Your project expenses are the highest during initiation.

    2. Your stakeholders have the most input and influence during this phase.

    3. Of all the phases, initiation has the most uncertainty.

    4. You have an unclear idea of the details and how the project will progress.

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Question 9

  • Which of these is part of the project management plan?

    1. Project schedule

    2. Milestone list

    3. Schedule baseline

    4. Project schedule network diagram

 

Question 10

  • Which one of the following processes, does not have the project charter as an input?

    1. Develop Project Management Plan

    2. Direct and Manage Project Work

    3. Collect Requirements

    4. Define Scope

 

Question 11

  • You are managing a project life cycle, which has several phases. What can you expect about the various phases?

    1. Your phases will essentially be sequential.

    2. Since the phases are part of the same bigger goal, you can expect that the work in various phases will be similar.

    3. The closure of each phase has a transfer or handoff and it is a natural point to reassess the activities and change or terminate the entire project.

    4. All the above choices are true about project phases.

 

Question 12

  • Which one of the following is true for a project?

  1. A project can be done by a single person.

  2. A project is usually given to a team that has prior experience delivering similar project objectives, regardless of success or failure of the prior projects.

  3. A project requires involvement from multiple departments from the same organization or involvement of external organizations or partners.

  4. A project needs to go through planning and execution phases before it can be terminated.

 

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Question 13

  • One of the key outcomes of a project is the ‘lessons learned’ document. It is part of organizational process assets and includes important recommendations for future projects. Lessons learned are assembled and documented during which of the following project stages:

    1. Planning and execution process groups

    2. Closing process group

    3. Throughout the project

    4. In the middle of the project

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Question 14

  • Who owns the business case for a project that needs to be initiated?

    1. The project manager

    2. The customer(s)

    3. The project sponsor(s)

    4. The person(s) who requested the project

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Question 15

  • Sam Simpson is collecting requirements for his new project to develop the architecture for a new power-generating plant in Nevada. Which of the following documents will he need?

    1. Project charter and scope statement

    2. WBS and activity list

    3. Budget and stakeholder management plan

    4. Project charter and stakeholder register

 

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Question 16

  • Stakeholders should ideally be identified during which of the following project stages?

    1. They should be identified throughout the project

    2. During project planning

    3. During project execution

    4. During project initiation

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Question 17

  • Which of the following is a key output of the Manage Project Knowledge process?

    1. Updates to the project management plans

    2. Lessons learned register

    3. New change requests or updates to existing change requests

    4. Update to project baselines for cost, scope or schedule

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Question 18

  • Which of the following precedes the development of the business case for a project?

    1. Benefits management plan

    2. Project charter

    3. Needs assessment

    4. Project management plan

 

 

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ANSWERS

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ANSWER 1

        The correct answer is Choice 4.  

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The best answer is the needs assessment document. The benefits management plan and business case document may be developed in parallel. All these happen in the pre-project work and are used for a go/no-go decision for the project. See Page 30 in the PMBOK®.

 

Note that the other choices such as charter and requirements documentation are developed later, during the Initiating and Planning Process Groups, respectively.    

 

ANSWER 2

      The correct answer is Choice 4. 

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All the choices are correct. This natural point is a transition from one project phase to another. Note that a project life can be split into phases (such as design phase, factory setup phase and go-live phase). The transition from one phase to another is referred as kill point, stage gate, phase gate or milestone phase review.

 

ANSWER 3

       The correct answer is Choice 2. 

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For the first year, the recovered amount is $5,000 x 12 months = $60,000.

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The remaining amount of $300,000 - $60,000 = $240,000 will take 24 months to recover. The total payback period is therefore 12 + 24 = 36 months.

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ANSWER 4

       The correct answer is Choice 4. 

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Business documents (such as business case and benefits management plan) are not part of the project documents. The business documents are used to select a project for initiation and later used as an input for the project charter.

 

The project manager does not have ownership of these but can make recommendations for updates to the business documents.

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ANSWER 5

       The correct answer is Choice 1. 

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The project charter establishes the initial high-level scope, timelines and budget. However, the detailed scope, schedule, and budget are developed during the planning stage. The project charter is required for projects, that follow the predictive methodology.  

 

On the other hand, the team charter is a working agreement between the developers about the team interactions, meeting rules, etc. It establishes how the team members will work with each other

 

ANSWER 6

      The correct answer is Choice 1.  

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      You need to compute the IRR (internal rate of return).

  • For Project A: rate of return is 10% ($20,000/$200,000)

  • For Project B: rate of return is also 10% ($30,000/$300,000)

  • For Project C: rate of return is again 10% ($40,000/$400,000)

  • For Project D: rate of return is 5% ($25,000/$500,000)

 

The higher the IRR, the better. The IRR is the same for Projects A, B and C. The next factor to consider would be the investment, which is considered as a sunk cost. This sunk cost is least for Project A, which is therefore the correct answer.

 

ANSWER 7

    The correct answer is Choice 2.  

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Payback period is time needed to recover the capital costs. You will need to compute the months needed to recover the initial expenses.

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  • For Project A: You will need 10 months to recover the initial investment of $200,000 ($200,000/$20,000)  but that is after a wait of 6  months. Hence the payback period = 6 + 10 = 16 months. 

  • For Project B: You will need 10 months ($300,000/$30,000) to recover the initial investment and there is no wait time.  Hence the payback period is 10 months.

  • For Project C: You will need 10 months ($400,000/$40,000) to recover the initial investment of $400,000 but that is after a wait of 12 months. Hence the payback period = 12 + 10 = 22 months.

  • For Project D: You will need 20 months ($500,000/$25,000) to recover the initial investment of $500,000 and there is no wait time. Hence the payback period is 20 months.

 

Project B has the least payback period (10 months) and is the correct answer.

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ANSWER 8

      The correct answer is Choice 1. 

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During initiation, you are involved in developing the project charter with stakeholders. The expenses are low. Most of the expenses are incurred during execution.

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ANSWER 9

    The correct answer is Choice 3. 

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Schedule baseline (like cost and scope baselines) is part of the project management plan. The other choices are part of project documents.

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Page 89 in the PMBOK® has a list of project management plans and project documents.

 

ANSWER 10

      The correct answer is Choice 2. 

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The Direct and Manage Project Work process is part of the Executing Process Group and does not have project charter as its input.

 

Project charter is usually an input for processes in the Planning Process Group. In this case, all the processes except for the Direct and Manage Project Work are part of the Planning and have project charter as an input.

 

There are 2 other processes that are not in the Planning Process Group but have project charter as an input:

  • The Identify Stakeholders process (part of the Initiating Process Group) and

  • The Close Project or Phase process (part of the Closing Process Group).

 

ANSWER 11

      The correct answer is Choice 3. 

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Choice C is correct. The end of each phase is a kill point or phase review, where you can assess and decide whether to continue or kill the project lifecycle

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Choice A is wrong since phases need not be sequential and can be overlapping. Choice B is also wrong since the work and objectives in each phase are different.

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ANSWER 12

     The correct answer is Choice 1. 

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A project can be done by a single individual. At first glance, all four choices seem correct, but Choices (B) through (D) are not always true! A project can be given to a team that has never done the work before. Most project deliverables are new for the project team. A project need not involve multiple departments or vendors. Also, a project can be terminated immediately after or in the middle of the initiation phase. 

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ANSWER 13

      The correct answer is Choice 3. 

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The lessons learned document is updated by the project team throughout the project.

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ANSWER 14

      The correct answer is Choice 3. 

 

The project sponsor owns the business case. He or she is also the project requestor. The program manager and/or the business analyst can help with developing the business case.

 

If there are end users and customers, they provide inputs to define the product or project requirements.

 

ANSWER 15

      The correct answer is Choice 4. 

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This question is related to the Collect Requirements process where you identify, document, and manage project requirements. These requirements come from the stakeholders, users and customers. The project objectives are in the project charter. Hence you need the stakeholder register and project charter, which are outputs of the processes in the Initiating Process Group.

 

Collect Requirements is the first process in the Planning Process Group, other than the processes that are related to developing plans. The other choices (such as WBS, activity list, budget and scope statements) need the requirements documents as an input are usually done later in the project planning stage.

 

ANSWER 16

      The correct answer is Choice 4. 

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Again, notice words such as never, almost, always, ideally in the question. Identification of stakeholders and changes to the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix can happen throughout the project.

 

But ideally, identifying the stakeholders should happen during project initiation. Then during planning, the stakeholder needs can be captured in the requirements documents. This helps prevent changes to the project during execution phase when such changes are difficult and expensive to implement.

 

If new stakeholders are identified and added during execution stages, the stakeholders will provide their requirements which will lead to new change requests.

 

ANSWER 17

        The correct answer is Choice 2. 

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It may be intuitive to guess that the lessons learned register is an output of Close Project or Phase. But lessons learned register is an output of Manage Project Knowledge process. Also, remember that updates to this document are an output of many processes. See Page 104 of the PMBOK.

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ANSWER 18

        The correct answer is Choice 3. 

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The ‘needs assessment’ helps establish and precedes the business case. The correct sequence of developing the documents is:

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needs assessment document --> business case-->  benefits management plan -->  project charter (output of Initiating Process Group) -->  project management plans (output of Planning Process Group).

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