Free Practice Questions for PMI PMI-SP Exam

Crashing is the addition of project resources to complete effort-driven activities in faster time. By adding more labor the activity can be completed faster. Crashing is a schedule compression technique to obtain the greatest amount of compression for the least incremental cost. Crashing works for activities where additional resources will shorten the duration. Approving overtime, bringing in additional resources, paying to expedite delivery to activities on the critical path are examples of crashing.

Answer option A is incorrect. An activity of fixed duration, such as printing 100,000 brochures in a printing press, won't be completed faster by adding more effort.

Answer option D is incorrect. Activities need not be risk-free to use project crashing.

Answer option C is incorrect. All effort-driven activities are susceptible to the Law of Diminishing Returns. By adding more labor the value of the yield of the work decreases because of the cost of the labor added to the project work.

The path of ABDHJ will take 21 days to complete and cannot exceed 27 days or else the project will be late. If Activity B takes four additional days and Activity D takes two additional days, this adds (4+2= 6) six days to the path, bringing the path's duration to exactly (21+6 = 27) twenty seven days. There is no available float left for Activity E or H. Float or total float (TF) is the total amount of time that a schedule activity may be delayed from its early start date without delaying the project finish date, or violating a schedule constraint. It is calculated by using the critical path method technique and determining the difference between the early finish dates and late finish dates.

Answer options A, C, and B are incorrect. There is no float available because the path's duration has increased to 27 days.

The procurement SOW consists of a description of some collateral services required, such as performance reporting or post- project operational support for the procured item. The procurement SOW is revised and refined as required when it moves through the procurement process until incorporated into a signed contract award.

The schedule performance index is found by dividing the earned value by the planned value. For Holly's project, it would be as follows:

SPI = EV/PV

= (0.85*9,850,400)/(0.95*9,850,400)

=8,372,840/9,357,880

=0.89

Schedule performance index (SPI) is the measure of schedule efficiency on a project. It is used in trend analysis to predict future performance. SPI is the ratio of earned value to planned value. The SPI is calculated based on the following formula:

SPI = Earned Value (EV) / Planned Value (PV)

If the SPI value is greater than 1, it indicates better than expected performance, whereas if the value is less than 1, it shows poor performance. The SPI value of 1 indicates that the project is right on target.

Answer option D is incorrect. Ten percent is not a valid calculation for this question.

Answer option B is incorrect. 0.98 is the cost performance index.

Answer option A is incorrect. 1.07 is the to-complete performance index based on the BAC.

Communication channels are paths of communication with stakeholders in a project. The number of communication channels shows the complexity of a project's communication and can be derived through the formula shown below: Total Number of Communication Channels = n (n-1)/2 where, n is the number of stakeholders. Hence, a project having five stakeholders will have ten communication channels. Putting the number of stakeholders in the formula we can get the required communication channel for the project. It is (80 x 79)/2 for 3,160 communication channels.

Crashing adds more workers to the project team. Crashing allows the project to complete faster because there are more people helping with the project work.

Answer option D is incorrect. Reducing the project scope is called descoping or project scope changes.

Answer option A is incorrect. Crashing does not consider the working hours.

Answer option B is incorrect. Resource leveling actually increases the project duration.

The critical path is the path in the project network diagram with the longest duration. In project management, a critical path is the sequence of project network activities which add up to the longest overall duration. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project. Any delay of an activity on the critical path directly impacts the planned project completion date (i.e. there is no float on the critical path). In this instance path ACGIJ is the longest as it takes 23 days.

Answer options C and D are incorrect. These paths take 13 days.

Answer option A is incorrect. This path only takes 19 days.

An activity is the effort needed to complete a work package. The activities are linked to the work packages in the WBS. An activity is the element of work performed throughout the various stages of a project. It is a group of people, communications, processes, and work items that correspond to a joint effort to achieve a goal. An activity is a way to manage the work collectively with others in any organization. The create WBS process identifies the deliverables at the lowest level in the WBS, called the work package. Project work packages are divided into smaller elements known as activities, which correspond to the work required to complete the work package.

Answer option D is incorrect. This is a definition of all the work that the project team and manager must complete in order to complete the total activity list.

Answer options A and C are incorrect. These are not valid definitions of an activity.

An activity is an individual component of work that is logically linked to other activities to outline the schedule. Its key characteristics include an overall duration based upon the resources applied to it (manpower, material, and equipment), a start and completion date that is tied to a work calendar, and an association with other activities (predecessor and successors). Following are the various types of activities in schedule creation: Tasks: A task is an activity that needs to be accomplished within a defined period of time. Milestones: A milestone is the end of a stage that marks the completion of a work package or phase, typically marked by a high level event such as completion, endorsement or signing of a deliverable, document or a high level review meeting. Flags: Flags shall occur at appropriate intervals of approximately each month. The flags shall be located on the critical path and be incorporated into the baseline, all targets, and the current schedule. Hammocks: Hammocks are a summary pseudo "activity" representing a group of related activities that collectively cover some portion of a project.

Answer option B is incorrect. The Critical Path scheduling, or Critical Path Analysis, is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities.

Rolling wave planning is a technique to plan and do the most imminent project work before moving onto the details that are far off in the project schedule and project plan. Rolling wave planning is a technique for performing progressive elaboration planning where the work to be accomplished in the near future is planned in detail at a low level of the work breakdown structure. The work to be performed within another one or two reporting periods in the near future is planned in detail as work is being completed during the current period.

Answer options B and A are incorrect. These are not valid project management terms.

Answer option D is incorrect. Decomposition is the process of breaking down work packages into the activity list.