CHAPTER 13 Project Management

13.41 CPM

(a) assumes we do not know ahead of time what activities must be completed.

(b) assumes that activity time estimates follow the normal probability distribution.

(c) is a deterministic network technique that allows for project crashing.

(d) is a network technique that allows three time estimates for each activity in a project.

(e) none of the above

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13.42 Managers use the network analysis of PERT and CPM to help them _________________

(a) derive flexibility by identifying noncritical activities.

(b) replan, reschedule, and reallocate resources such as manpower and finances.

(c) plan, schedule, monitor, and control large and complex projects.

(d) all of the above

(e) none of the above

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13.43 The expected time in PERT is

(a) a weighted average of the most optimistic time, most pessimistic time, and four times the most likely time.

(b) the modal time of a beta distribution.

(c) a simple average of the most optimistic, most likely, and most pessimistic times.

(d) the square root of the sum of the variances of the activities on the critical path.

(e) none of the above

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13.44 Given an activity’s optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic time estimates of 4, 6, and 14 days respectively, compute the PERT expected activity time for this activity.

(a) 8

(b) 6

(c) 7

(d) 9

(e) none of the above

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13.45 Given an activity’s optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic time estimates of 2, 5, and 14 days respectively, compute the PERT expected activity time for this activity.

(a) 6

(b) 7

(c) 9

(d) 5

(e) none of the above

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13.46 Given an activity’s optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic time estimates of 4, 14, and 18 days respectively, compute the PERT expected activity time for this activity.

(a) 14

(b) 12

(c) 11

(d) 13

(e) none of the above

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13.47 Given an activity’s optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic time estimates of 2, 10, and 20 days respectively, compute the PERT variance for this activity.

(a) 3

(b) 6

(c) 9

(d) 18

(e) none of the above

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13.48 Given an activity’s optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic time estimates of 4, 12, and 18 days respectively, compute the PERT variance for this activity.

(a) 2.33

(b) 5.44

(c) 8.00

(d) 64.00

(e) none of the above

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13.49 Given an activity’s optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic time estimates of 3, 5, and 15 days, respectively, compute the PERT standard deviation for this activity.

(a) 2

(b) 4

(c) 5

(d) 15

(e) none of the above

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13.50 Given the following small project, the critical path is _______ days.

Activity	Immediate Predecessor	Time (days)
A	-	10
B	-	4
C	A, B	6

(a) 10

(b) 14

(c) 16

(d) 20

(e) none of the above

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13.51 Given the following small project, the critical path is _______ days.

Activity	Immediate Predecessor	Time (days)
A	-	8
B	A	4
C	-	10

(a) 4

(b) 10

(c) 12

(d) 22

(e) none of the above

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The following table provides information for questions 13.52 to 13.55.

Table 13-1
The following represents a project with known activity times. All times are in weeks.
Activity	Immediate Predecessor	Time
A	-	4
B	-	3
C	A	2
D	B	7
E	C, D	4
F	B	5

13.52 Using the data in Table 13-1, what is the minimum possible time required for completing the project?

(a) 8

(b) 14

(c) 25

(d) 10

(e) none of the above

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13.53 Using the data in Table 13-1, what is the latest possible time that C may be started without delaying completion of the project?

(a) 0

(b) 4

(c) 8

(d) 10

(e) none of the above

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13.54 According to Table 13-1, compute the slack time for activity D.

(a) 0

(b) 5

(c) 3

(d) 6

(e) none of the above

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13.55 Using the data in Table 13-1, compute the latest finish time for activity E.

(a) 4

(b) 10

(c) 14

(d) 25

(e) none of the above

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The following table provides information for questions 13.56 to 13.61.

Table 13-2
The following represents a project with four activities. All times are in weeks.
Activity	Immediate Predecessor	Optimistic Time	Most Likely Time	Pessimistic Time
A	-	2	8	14
B	-	8	8	8
C	A	6	9	18
D	B	5	11	17

13.56 According to the data in Table 13-2, what is the critical path?

(a) A-B

(b) A-C

(c) B-D

(d) A-B-C-D

(e) none of the above

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13.57 According to the data in Table 13-2, what is the minimum expected completion time for the project?

(a) 18

(b) 19

(c) 37

(d) 11

(e) none of the above

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13.58 According to Table 13-2, there are four activities in the project. Assume the normal distribution is appropriate to use to determine the probability of finishing by a particular time. If you wished to find the probability of finishing the project in 20 weeks or fewer, it would be necessary to find the variance and then the standard deviation to be used with the normal distribution. What variance would be used?

(a) 2

(b) 4

(c) 8

(d) 12

(e) none of the above

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13.59 According to Table 13-2, there are four activities in the project. Assume the normal distribution is appropriate to use to determine the probability of finishing by a particular time. What is the probability that the project is finished in 16 weeks or fewer? (Round to two decimals.)

(a) 0.07

(b) 0.93

(c) 0.43

(d) 0.77

(e) none of the above

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13.60 Consider a project that has an expected completion time of 60 weeks and a standard deviation of five weeks. What is the probability that the project is finished in 70 weeks or fewer? (Round to two decimals.)

(a) 0.98

(b) 0.48

(c) 0.50

(d) 0.02

(e) none of the above

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13.61 Your company is considering submitting a bid on a major project. You determine that the expected completion time is 100 weeks and the standard deviation is 10 weeks. It is assumed that the normal distribution applies. You wish to set the due date for the project such that there is an 85 percent chance that the project will be finished by this time. What due date should be set?

(a) 108.0

(b) 110.4

(c) 89.6

(d) 85.0

(e) none of the above

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The following Table 13-3 provides information for questions 13.62 to 13.64.

Activity	Immediate Predecessor	Optimistic	Most Likely	Pessimistic	Standard Deviation	Variance
A	-	4	5	6	0.333	0.111
B	-	12	16	18	1.000	1.000
C	A	2	8	14	2.000	4.000
D	A	5	5	5	0.000	0.000
E	B, C	6	7	8	0.333	0.111

13.62 According to Table 13-3, there are five activities in a PERT project. Which activities are on the critical path?

(a) A-B-C-D-E

(b) A-C-E

(c) B-D

(d) A-B-C-D

(e) B-E

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13.63 According to Table 13-3, there are five activities in a PERT project. What is the variance of the critical path?

(a) 5.222

(b) 4.222

(c) 1.222

(d) 0

(e) 1.111

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13.64 According to Table 13-3, there are five activities in a PERT project. If the normal distribution were used to find the probability of finishing this project in 24 weeks or fewer, what mean and variance would be used?

(a) 20 and 4.222

(b) 30 and 5.222

(c) 20 and 5.222

(d) 30 and 4.222

(e) 22.667 and 1.111

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13.65 The critical path of a network is the

(a) path with the least variance.

(b) path with zero slack.

(c) path with the most activities.

(d) path with the largest variance.

(e) none of the above

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13.66 In a PERT network, the latest (activity) start time is the

(a) earliest time that an activity can be finished without delaying the entire project.

(b) latest time that an activity can be started without delaying the entire project.

(c) earliest time that an activity can start without violation of precedence requirements.

(d) latest time that an activity can be finished without delaying the entire project.

(e) none of the above

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13.67 The work breakdown structure involves identifying the _______________ for each activity.

(a) time

(b) cost

(c) resource requirements

(d) predecessors

(e) all of the above

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13.68 PERT stands for __________________________.

(a) probabilistic evaluation and review technique

(b) program evaluation and review technique

(c) probability of expected run times

(d) program of expected run times

(e) project evaluation and review technique

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13.69 CPM stands for __________________________.

(a) critical path management

(b) critical project management

(c) critical project method

(d) critical path method

(e) centralized project management

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13.70 Which of the following questions can be answered by PERT?

(a) When will the entire project be completed?

(b) What is the probability that the project will be completed by a specific date?

(c) What are the critical activities?

(d) What are the noncritical activities?

(e) all of the above

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