ABOUT THE Monitoring and controlling PROCESS GROUP
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The processes in this process group are used to track and manage the progress and performance of project work against the planned baselines.
What are the benefits of using the processes in this group?
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It helps identify deviations of actual work from the baselines so that corrective and/or preventive actions can be undertaken to bring the project back on track.
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It helps in the identification of changes to the plans. The changes requested go through “Integrated Change Control” for approvals and baselines updates.
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It helps gain insights into the health of the project and identifies areas that need attention.
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Questions for the Monitoring and Controlling Process Group
Question 1
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Tom Timmins has taken over a project. When reviewing the WBS and a set of completed deliverables, he finds that four of the completed work packages do not meet the quality metrics that are in the statement of work (SOW). He discusses this with the project sponsor, who is surprised but asks Tim to create a change request for additional funding to fix the issues. The additional funding is part of:
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Prevention cost
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Inspection and quality control cost
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Appraisal cost
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Internal failure cost
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Question 2
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Kimberly Ramirez is moving resources from activities on the non-critical path to the critical path for her new project, which is in the planning stage. This is an example of:
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Resource leveling
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Schedule compression
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Resource smoothing
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Fast Tracking
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Question 3
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Sam Simpson is managing a 2-month project. He has baselines for cost, schedule and scope. But due to application testing resources, being taken away from the project, the project has a delay of 4 weeks. Sam prepares a change request to extend the project duration. Who should he seek approval from?
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Project sponsor
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Client
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Impacted end-users who are waiting for the project deliverables
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Change control board (CCB)
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Question 4
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What is the relationship between specification and control limits in a control chart?
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The range defined by control limits is less than that for specification limits.
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The seller (or manufacturer) needs to make sure that all deliverables, provided to the customer, are within the control limits, even if they happen to exceed the specification limits.
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Specification limits, along with control limits, are used to establish the natural capability for a stable process.
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The range defined by control limits could be greater or less than that for specification limits.
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Question 5
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Which one of the following has approved change requests as an output?
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Perform Integrated Change Control
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Monitor and Control Project Work
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Manage Project Knowledge
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Project Monitoring and Controlling
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Question 6
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You have a project, where the PV (planned value) for the completed work is 200 hours but, the EV (earned value) is only 100 hours. What is the scheduled performance index (SPI)?
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1.50
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0.50
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0.10
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1.00
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Question 7
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Johanna Graves has started a new project that has a schedule of 10 months, a diverse stakeholder group comprising of 10 senior executives and 20 engineers in 6 countries and a budget of $6 million. The project objective is to identify, procure, and roll out a new supply chain management (SCM) application across all 10 manufacturing units within the company and train the end-users. Which of the following could be the most important success criterion for her project?
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The fitness of the identified SCM application to meet the stakeholder requirements.
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The ability of the end-users to use the application for their operational work and their increase in work efficiency.
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Satisfaction of the stakeholders.
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Completing the scope without exceeding the allocated budget and timelines.
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Answers for the Monitoring and Controlling Process Group
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Answer 1
The correct answer is 4.
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The funding is part of internal failure cost (or cost of non-conformance) because the defects have been identified and must be fixed.
There are two costs related to quality:
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Cost of conformance: Prevention, inspections and appraisals are all part of cost of conformance. These aim to correct the processes and thereby reduce defects in the end-products.
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Cost of non-conformance: This is incurred after you have found defective parts (before or after sending to the customer) and must fix the defects.
Answer 2
The correct answer is 1.
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The correct answer is resource leveling, which is a technique to adjust resources in order to optimize their utilization.
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Schedule compression is used to decrease the project duration.
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Resource smoothing uses free and total float to adjust the schedule so that it aligns with resource availability.
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Fast tracking is a schedule compression technique, where activities that were previously scheduled to be in sequence are overlapped.
Answer 3
The correct answer is 4.
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CCB provides approvals for changes in the project baselines.
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Answer 4
The correct answer is 4.
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The control limits are different from specification limits.
Control limits are determined using statistical calculations and reflect the natural capability of a stable process. On the other hand, specification limits are based on requirements and reflect the allowable range.
Answer 5
The correct answer is 1.
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Perform Integrated Change Control is the only process, where change requests are reviewed and approved by the change control board (CCB) or stakeholders.
Answer 6
The correct answer is 2.
SPI is EV/PV. In this case EV=100 and PV=200 hours.
Therefore, SPI = 100/200 = 0.5.
Answer 7
The correct answer is 3.
All the provided choices appear to be correct. But the best answer is achieving stakeholder satisfaction. Satisfaction of stakeholders includes many criteria such as meeting product requirements, sticking to the project baselines, fitness of use, and effective training for the end-users.