CTC/ITC 310 Program Management California State University Dominguez Hills Final Exam Answer Key December 13, 2018 Instructor: Howard Rosenthal

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1 CTC/ITC 310 Program Management California State University Dominguez Hills Final Exam Answer Key December 13, 2018 Instructor: Howard Rosenthal There are 36 questions on this exam. Each question is worth 3 points unless otherwise noted. This means that you can earn up to 20 extra credit points for this exam. Some answers can be answered in a few words, while others require a little more extensive writing. If more than one item is asked for, only give the number of answers asked for. Any list will be graded starting from the top. Number all questions. Answer the questions in order if possible. 1. Define what a project is. A project is a temporary and finite group of related tasks undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. Every project is limited and has a beginning and an end. 2. List 3 ways that a project can end. Objectives have been met The project s objectives cannot be met Funding dries up The project is no longer needed Some legal reason (i.e. it is violating a patent) 3. List three reasons that a project may be started? Create a new product Fix or improve a product, process or service Satisfy a stakeholder need or requirement Meet a legal or regulatory requirement Implement a business change 4. Describe three characteristics that may be used to classify projects. Requirements (well-understood, low volatility, high volatility, poorly defined) Risk Establish levels of risk (high, medium, and low) Business value Establish levels (high, med, and low) Length Establish several categories (such as 3 months, 3 to 6 months, 6 to 12 months, and so on) Complexity Establish categories (high, med, and low) Technology used Establish several categories (well-established, used occasionally, used rarely, never used) Number of departments affected Establish some categories (such as one, a few, several, and all) Cost establish ranges (< $1M, $1M to $10M, $10M to $100M, etc.) Application type Contract type 1

2 5. What is Return On Sales? ROS is a firm's operating profit margin. This measure provides insight into how much profit is being produced per dollar of sales. It is a ratio used to evaluate a company's operational efficiency 6. List three areas where project managers have flexibility. Tailoring your project based on its characteristics Selecting the correct life cycle model(s) Tailoring the processes to meet the project s needs Determining the depth and formality of some steps in the process 7. List three areas where the project manager has no flexibility. A project manager cannot Circumvent or ignore the law, even if it doesn t make sense Ignore government regulations, in particular on government contracts Ignore company policies and processes Ignore any element of your contract 8. List two types of creep and briefly describe them. (6 points) Scope Creep Refers to a project that has seen its original goals expand while it's in progress. Scope creep is a subtle process that starts with small adjustments and ends up resulting in projects that take far longer to complete or even fail before they are finished. Even if the project is completed, scope creep can result in final deliverables that look nothing like what was originally envisioned. Scope creep can occur for a number of reasons, including: A poor understanding of the original project Changing market conditions Competing forces within a company Feature Creep An employee or manager agrees to a customer request without going through a change process Feature creep can occur at the requirements, design or development phase of a project, as it may change the scope or the planning Usually done to keep the customer happy Hope Creep Usually occurs when either an employee or contractor falls behind schedule but fails to report the fact Hope is that the problem will be solved and time can be made up Sometimes employees push themselves to very long workdays to try to disguise schedule slips Employees and managers often feel that their careers can be ruined if they admit to slips Projects should be scheduled based on a historical record, rather than the idea that everything will proceed perfectly 2

3 Effort Creep Work progress is not equal to effort put in 9. What is the key improvement in the V-Model model when compared to the classic Waterfall Model? Test Plans for each level are created in concert with the analysis and design, improving the chances for a smooth Acceptance Test. 10. List three factors that may be used in selecting the right life cycle. Total cost Duration Market Stability Technology Business Climate Number of departments affected Organizational environment 11. What is DevOps? DevOps is a culture which promotes collaboration between Development and Operations Team to deploy code to production faster in an automated & repeatable way 12. What are personas? When the project calls for it - for instance when user experience is a major factor in project outcomes - the team crafts detailed, synthetic biographies of fictitious users of the future product: these are called "personas 13. List the four basic principles of the Agile Manifesto. (6 points) Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan 14. How are work assignments allocated in the Agile environment? Assigning work and getting the status of the work completed moves from the project manager to the team members The rationale behind this is that the Agile team is a self-organized group of highly skilled professionals, accountable for the work they commit to in a sprint. The team takes ownership and accountability for meeting the project and team goals. 15. List and describe the three key elements of a useful project charter. Vision 3

4 The vision defines the Why of the project. This is the higher purpose, or the reason for the project s existence Also describes who benefits and how Mission This is the What of the project and it states what will be done in the project to achieve its higher purpose Success Criteria The success criteria are management tests that describe effects outside of the solution itself 16. List three questions asked by the team during an Agile retrospective. What worked well for us? What did not work well for us? What actions can we take to improve our process going forward? 17. Who owns the backlog in the Agile environment? The Product Owner 18. What is refactoring? Refactoring is improving code without adding new functionality. 19. List three communications responsibilities of the Product Owner. Communication tasks of the Product Owner to the stakeholders include: Demonstrating the solution to key stakeholders who were not present at a sprint review Defining and announcing releases Communicating team status Organizing milestone reviews Educating stakeholders in the development process Negotiating priorities, scope, funding, and schedule; Ensuring that the product backlog is visible, transparent, and clear 20. List three responsibilities of the Scrum Master. The Scrum Master is accountable for removing impediments to the ability of the team to deliver the product goals and deliverables and is not a traditional team lead or project manager but acts as a buffer between the team and any distracting influences. Responsibilities include: Ensuring that the Scrum framework is followed Helping the Product Owner maintain the product backlog in a way that ensures the needed work is well understood so the team can continually make forward progress Helping the team to determine the definition of done for the product, with input from key stakeholders Coaching the team, within the Scrum principles, in order to deliver high-quality features for its product Promoting self-organization within the team 4

5 Helping the Scrum team to avoid or remove impediments to its progress, whether internal or external to the team Facilitating team events to ensure regular progress Educating key stakeholders in the product on Scrum principles Coaching the development team in self-organization and cross-functionality 21. What three questions are answered by each team member during the daily Scrum? What did I complete yesterday that contributed to the team meeting our sprint goal? What do I plan to complete today to contribute to the team meeting our sprint goal? Do I see any impediment that could prevent me or the team from meeting our sprint goal? 22. What does the Kanban Board allow us to do? A Kanban board is a tool used to visualize work and optimize the flow of the work among the team. 23. List any three items in the design package in FDD? A covering memo, or paper, that integrates and describes the design package such that it stands on its own for reviewers The referenced requirements (if any) in the form of documents and all related confirmation memos and supporting documentation. The Sequence diagram(s) Design alternatives (if any) The object model with new/updated classes, methods and attributes The generated output for the class and method prologues created or modified by this design Calendar/To-Do task-list entries for action items on affected classes for each team member 24. List three Internal Enterprise Environmental Factors that are inputs to a project. Company s organizational structure Organization s policies, values and work ethic Geographic distribution of facilities and resources Information technology infrastructure Resource availability Employee capability Stakeholder characteristics willingness to accept risk, etc. 25. List three possible organizational process assets. Templates for common documents Organizational policies and procedures for areas including risk, financial reporting, change control, etc. Historical databases on project performance, productivity, etc. 5

6 Infrastructure of hardware and software tools including any proprietary assets Lessons learned Special corporate competencies 26. What are three key elements of any project baseline? Scope baseline Schedule baseline Cost baseline 27. List six Subsidiary plans that are included in the Project Management Plan. Scope Management Plan Requirements Management Plan Schedule Management Plan Cost Management Plan Quality Management Plan Process Improvement Plan Resources Management Plan Communications Management Plan Risk Management Plan Procurement Management Plan Stakeholder Management Plan Change Management Plan that documents how changes will be monitored and controlled Configuration Management Plan that documents how configuration management will be performed 28. What are the five Process Groups according to the PMBOK? For each process group describe its purpose in one or two sentences. (9 points) The Initiating Process Group consists of those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase. The Planning Process Group consists of those processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to achieve. The Executing Process Group consists of those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project specification. The Monitoring and Control Process Group consists of those processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes. The Closing Group consists of those processes performed to finalize all activities across all the Project Management Process Groups to formally close the project or phase. 29. What are the two primary questions asked during project planning? What will you do? and How will you do it? 6

7 30. Describe progressive elaboration. Progressive elaboration is the iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a Project Management Plan as greater amounts of information and more accurate estimates become available. 31. Define Project Quality Management. Project Quality Management includes the processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken 32. Define and contrast quality and grade. Quality The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements Quality as a delivered performance or result is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements (ISO 9000) Grade Grade as a design intent is a category assigned to deliverables having the same functional use but different technical characteristics A category or rank is used to distinguish items that have the same functional use (e.g., hammer ) but do not share the same requirements for quality (e.g., different hammers may need to withstand different amounts of force) It may not be a problem if a suitable low-grade software product (one with a limited number of features) is of high quality (no obvious defects, readable manual). In this example, the product would be appropriate for its general purpose of use. It may be a problem if a high-grade software product (one with numerous features) is of low quality (many defects, poorly organized user documentation). In essence, its high-grade feature set would prove ineffective and/or inefficient due to its low quality. 33. Define and contrast precision and accuracy. Precision Within the quality management system, precision is a measure of exactness For example, the magnitude for each increment on the measurement s number line is the interval that determines the measurement s precision the greater the number of increments, the greater the precision. Accuracy Within the quality management system, accuracy is an assessment of correctness For example, if the measured value of an item is very close to the true value of the characteristic being measured, the measurement is more accurate. Consider archery targets Arrows clustered tightly in one area of the target, even if they are not clustered in the bull s-eye, are considered to have high precision Targets where the arrows are more spread out but equidistant from the bull s-eye are considered to have the same degree of accuracy 7

8 Targets where the arrows are both tightly grouped and within the bull s-eye are considered to be both accurate and precise Precise measurements are not necessarily accurate measurements, and accurate measurements are not necessarily precise measurements. 34. What is meant by Cost of Quality? Cost of quality (coq) refers to the total cost of the conformance work and the nonconformance work that should be done as a compensatory effort because, on the first attempt to perform that work, the potential exists that some portion of the required work effort may be done or has been done incorrectly. The costs for quality work may be incurred throughout the deliverable s life cycle Decisions made by the project team can impact the operational costs associated with using a completed deliverable. Post-project quality costs may be incurred because of product returns, warranty claims, and recall campaigns Because of the temporary nature of projects and the potential benefits that may be derived from reducing the post-project cost of quality, sponsoring organizations may choose to invest in product quality improvement These investments generally are made in the areas of conformance work that act to prevent defects or act to mitigate the costs of defects by inspecting out nonconforming units 35. Define correlation and causation and describe the difference between the two. Correlation A statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two or more variables fluctuate together A positive correlation indicates the extent to which one variable increases as the other increases A negative correlation indicates the extent to which one variable decreases as the other increases Causation The capacity of one variable to actually influence another Can be positive or negative Must be repeatable and have an objective reason that goes beyond correlation 36. Identify the diagram type. Answer: Control Chart 8

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