PSP Sample Questions Answers

If a detailed estimate is NOT available to assist in the formulation of activity durations but unit quantities have been identified, what information can be utilized to estimate work package/activity durations?

Using the "crashed" schedule, if you start Activity 2002 on August 12, 2001, what is the finish date for Activity 2002?

Identify the minimum project duration.

Background

Your name is Evan Marshal. You are the corporate scheduler for Happy Insurance Corporation (HIC), a general health insurance company located in Ridgemond, Illinois. HIC is very busy with 49 unique software development projects. The organization structure at HIC gives the project scheduling responsibility to the Project Manager assigned to each project. You are charged with coordination of the project schedules into a Master Schedule and quality control for scheduling on the individual development projects. You report directly to the Director of Information Services (DIS), Desmond Rayburn.

It has come to your attention Project JP-114 has fallen behind schedule and Rita Belateau, the Project Manager, wants to accelerate the project in order to reclaim lost time. Rita is a strong supporter of Total Quality Management and strives for zero failures; therefore she is assessing the need for overtime for resources assigned to an activity that is not projecting a completion prior to the early finish depicted in the current schedule.

You and Rita review the current schedule to identify which activities are on the critical path and which activities have plenty of float. The review reveals several activities have suffered less than planned productivity and have contributed to falling behind. In the process of this review, you and Rita also review the budget for Project JP-114 and notice not only the schedule has fallen behind but the cost to date is more than she had expected. To total budget is $150,000, planned to date is $30,000; expended to date is $37,000.

With nine months remaining until baseline contract completion, Rita needs to bring Project JP-114 back on track; knowing overtime for an extended period of time is not always the right answer, especially with the cost to date already over planned.

In order to truly understand the options available to help remedy the current situation, you and Rita brainstorm on several potential courses of action. All the potential courses of action will require an evaluation of budget impact versus schedule correction.

1. Pull the project team together and ensure everyone understands which activities are on the critical path. Rita would like to use the existing project team and focus them on these critical path activities, laying out a plan for periodic overtime when needed to crunch through a deliverable. This approach could add approximately 20% to the budget.

2. Outsource various modules of activities to qualified and known consultants. This could drive up the costs and must be evaluated before implemented. Having an outside source working in parallel with the project team could also accelerate the schedule to mitigate some of the delays, as well as keep overtime down to a minimum for the project team. Potentially this could add as much as 40% to the budget, but could also be very productive schedule wise.

3. Mandatory overtime for the project team - entire project goes on a 50-hour work week. If the entire project team works overtime for an extended period of time, the budget could see an additional 60% increase.

4. The project continues as is completes the project late and accepts the penalties imposed. Penalties imposed for late delivery could add as much as 50% to the budget.

Assignment

Draft a proper memorandum to Desmond Raybum, IS Director, explaining in your own words:

a. the current problem and potential impact(s);

b. each course of action, stating advantages and disadvantages as appropriate;

c. your recommendations, properly supported.

Please be sure to include the rationale for your recommendations. Be sure to summarize your thoughts and address (To, From, Date, and Subject/Project Name) and close the memo appropriately. If you are uncomfortable with the courses of action noted, provide your own with appropriate substantiation for your position. Limit your answer to one, full typewritten page (roughly three handwritten pages).

While your email can be a detailed as you like, be sure to write sufficiently to address each element of the assignment, yet not so long that you go beyond the scope of the exercise.

Take time to read the problem and consider what you want Evan to say. Good luck!

What is the actual duration as of the status date or data date of Activity B?

Based on the stated costs, what percentage of the total cost comes from the 2000 series of activities?

Why does activity 1001 have two successor activities?

In its simplest form, what is the main drawback of critical path method scheduling?

You are retained by a contractor who asks you to perform a simple as-planned versus as-built analysis (APAB) of a large hydro-electric dam project that took more than five years to complete. Your analysis will form the basis of a change order that requests a time extension. You suggest using a different methodology for quantifying the delay. Which of the following reasons for recommending a different analysis does NOT apply to a simple APAB analysis?

Using the "normal" schedule, given Activity 3001 and the relationship with Activity 4001, what is indicated?

How many work days does it take to move the product from testing to sale?

What was the original planned duration for Activity A through Activity G?

The work breakdown structure is used to organize

Time-scaled logic diagrams are

How much Total Float does drafting the product manual have?

Activity C is a

When reconstructing a CPM schedule electronically from a hardcopy, which of the following is NOT required to determine the critical path?

The linear scheduling velocity diagram has the following two-axis:

For the late finish for Activity 11001, select the most appropriate response for transitioning from the forward pass.

What is a key first step in developing a critical path method schedule?

Scenario:

The entire network consists of the following activities and relationships. Activity A is twenty days long and is tied to Activity B, a ten-day activity, with a finish-to-finish tie with a lag value of five Activity B is tied to Activity C, a twenty-day activity, with a start-to-start relationship with a lag value of five.

PSP Activities Table

Scope Known about Rock-Filled Dam Project:

The dam requires river diversion and work over two or more rainy seasons. The contract is lump sum, competitively bid, and will be self-performed. The owner has attempted to shift all risk to the contractor by employing "no differing sit conditions" and "no damage for delay" clauses. There is a bonus/penalty provision of $2,500 per calendar day for early or late delivery. The early completion bonus is capped at $500,000, with no cap for late delivery penalty.

Liquidated damages end at the finish of demobilization. Indirect costs per calendar day are $2,800 for the "normal" schedule and $3,200 for the "crashed" schedule. The winter/wet weather season is 151 days between October 15 and March 25 of each year, reduces the efficiency of the contractor's operations by 20% and costs the contractor $10,000 per day. Assume a start date of March 5, 2001 and use a 7-day work week.

The following table lists work activities as planned by the contractor.

Theoretically construct a summary activity for only those activities with a finish-to-start relationship for Activities 8001 through 10001. Using the "normal" schedule, what is the cost of this hammock?

In the "normal" schedule, excluding Activity 1000, what activity(s) are concurrent with Activity 3001?

If drafting of the product manual overruns its planned duration by 5 days, how many days may the manufacturing be delayed without affecting release of the product?

If a cost estimate assumes that 240 hours will be expended on a given activity, and the projected crew size expected to perform that activity is 5 personnel working and 8-hour workday, what is the calculated duration for the activity?

The amount of time that an activity can be delayed from its early start date without delaying project completion is called

Which activity is drawn in the incorrect position?

Activity G.

Activity E.

Activity C.

Activity D.

What is the workweek period for this project?

Identify the late finish to develop plans and specs.

Which is NOT an industry-recognized methodology for quantifying critical delay?

Project schedules help control all of the following EXCEPT for_____________________.

The expected remaining cost needed to complete an activity, group of activities or the project is the____________.

Which of the following is NOT a tool or technique used to perform scope planning?

During proofing of the product manual, a problem was discovered requiring 15 days additional time to effect a correction. How can the date of availability be maintained?