Download File: ch01, Chapter 1: Projects in Contemporary

File: ch03, Chapter 3: The Project Manager
Multiple Choice
1. Identify the attribute that is not normally associated with the job of functional manager.
a) The functional manager is usually a generalist in the area being managed
b) The functional manager is responsible for deciding what resources will be devoted to
accomplishing the task
c) The functional manager is administratively responsible for deciding how something will be
done
d) The functional manager is responsible for deciding who will do the work
Ans: a
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: easy
2. According to the authors, the analytic method, when applied to systems, focuses on
________.
a) Assembling the components of a system into an integrated package
b) Building an array of individually designed and manufactured components
c) Calculating the cost and schedule requirements
d) Breaking the components of a system into smaller and smaller elements
Ans: d
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: intermediate
3. The project manager is usually ________.
a) A direct, technical supervisor knowledgeable in the technology of the process being used
b) A facilitator and a generalist having a reasonable level of technical competence in the science
of the project
c) A facilitator and specialist with technical credibility
d) A technical specialist competent in principles of robust design
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: easy
4. According to the authors, three major questions face the project manager with respect to
synthesizing the requirements of a project. Identify the item that is not listed as one of the three
major questions.
a) What needs to be done?
b) Who will actually do the work of the project?
c) When must it be done?
d) How will the required resources be obtained?
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: intermediate
5. When managing a project, the project manager is responsible for ________.
a) Planning and controlling the project
b) Planning, staffing, and executing the project
c) Organizing, staffing, budgeting, directing, planning, and controlling the project
d) Organizing, designing, staffing, executing, auditing, and controlling the project
Ans: c
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: intermediate
6. The project manager's responsibilities are broad and fall primarily into three separate areas.
Identify the item that is not identified by the authors.
a) Responsibilities to the parent organization
b) Responsibilities to the project and the client
c) Responsibilities to the members of the project team
d) Responsibilities to special-interest groups
Ans: d
Response: Refer to section 3.1, project responsibilities
Level: easy
7. Project managers should view politics as ________.
a) A barrier to successful project management
b) The mechanism by which the people in organizations make decisions
c) Win-lose competitions
d) The mechanism used to sustain projects selected using non-financial selection models
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.2, acquiring adequate resources
Level: intermediate
8. The project manager must make trade-offs between project progress and process.
Conceptually, this involves trade-offs between the ________ functions.
a) Technical and management
b) Schedule and cost
c) Performance and schedule
d) Cost and performance
Ans: a
Response: Refer to section 3.2, making project goal trade-offs.
Level: intermediate
9. During the ________ stage of the project lifecycle, there is no significant difference in the
importance that project managers place on the three goals of cost, time, and performance.
a) Initiation stage
b) Design or formation stage
c) Buildup stage
d) Final stage
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.2, making project goal trade-offs
Level: easy
10. According to the authors, a Type 1 project is ________.
a) Well understood but not routine
b) Well understood and routine
c) Not well understood and not routine
d) Not well understood but routine
Ans: b
Response: Refer to section 3.2, failure and the risk and fear of failure
Level: easy
11. Type 1 projects usually fail because ________.
a) They have not been organized to handle unexpected crises and deviations from plan
b) Contingency allowances have not been built into the budget
c) Continues the allowances have not been built into the schedule
d) The client submitted change requests
Ans: a
Response: Refer to section 3.2, failure and the risk and fear of failure
Level: intermediate
12. In a Type II project, the so-called planning problems usually result from ________.
a) An inability to solve the project’s technical problems
b) An inability to plan unknown unknowns
c) A failure to define the mission carefully and get the client's acceptance
d) A failure to handle deviations from plan
Ans: c
Response: Refer to section 3.2, failure and the risk and fear of failure
Level: intermediate
13. According to the authors, of all the characteristics desirable in a project manager, ________
is the most important.
a) Availability
b) A strong technical background
c) A person who can keep the project team happy
d) Drive to complete the task
Ans: d
Response: Refer to section 3.3, selecting the project manager.
Level: easy
14. The project manager needs ________ credibility.
a) Technical and personal
b) Administrative and personal
c) Technical and administrative
d) Technical and financial
Ans: c
Response: Refer to section 3.3, credibility
Level:
15. Projects are conducted in four important environments. They are ________.
a) Economic, political, legal, and sociotechnical
b) Internal, external, transitional, and multicultural
c) Routine, unique, fast-paced, and complex
d) Profit, not for profit, government, and industry
Ans: a
Response: Refer to section 3.4
Level: easy
Short Answer
16. A ________ is a set of interrelated components that accepts inputs and produces outputs in a
purposeful manner.
Ans: system
Response: Refer to section 3.1.
Level: easy
17. In order to maintain credibility within the parent firm, the PM must never allow ________ to
be surprised.
Ans: senior management
Response: Refer to section 3.1, project responsibilities
Level: easy
18. The project manager's responsibility to the project and to the client is met by ensuring that
the ________ of the project is preserved in spite of conflicting demands made by stakeholders.
Ans: integrity
Response: Refer to section 3.1, project responsibilities
Level: intermediate
19. During the build-up stage of a project lifecycle, ________ is the dominant goal of many
project managers.
Ans: schedule
Response: Refer to section 3.2, making project goal trade-offs.
Level: intermediate
20. During the final stage of the project lifecycle, ________ is the dominant goal of many
project managers.
Ans: performance
Response: Refer to section 3.2, making project goal trade-offs.
Level: intermediate
21. ________ results when the demands made on an individual are greater than the person's
ability to cope with them, particularly when the person has a high need for achievement.
Ans: stress
Response: Refer to section 3.3, ability to handle stress
Level: easy
22. ________ is the entire way of life for a group of people. It contains the four elements of
technology, institutions, language, and arts.
Ans: culture
Response: Refer to section 3.4
Level: easy
23. The structure of the society is defined by its ________.
Ans: institutions
Response: Refer to section 3.4
Level: intermediate
24. The aesthetic values of a culture are communicated through the culture's ________.
Ans: art
Response: Refer to section 3.4
Level: easy
25. According to the textbook, in Latin America, the ________ system leads a manager to give
preference to relatives and friends when hiring.
Ans: compadre
Response: Refer to section 3.4, culture and the project
Level: easy
26. The laws of the nation are often a product of the nation's ________.
Ans: history
Response: Refer to section 3.5, legal environment
Level: intermediate
27. This agreement, ________, affords protection of intellectual property rights of firms of the
three signatory countries in North America.
Ans: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Response: Refer to section 3.5, legal environment
Level: easy
28. ________ is a complex composite of words, science, symbols, movements and positions of
the body, pictures, sounds, equations, and objects.
Ans: language
Response: Refer to section 3.6
Level: easy
29. Participative management may be difficult to practice in societies with highly structured
________.
Ans: social classes
Response: Refer to section 3.6, managerial and personal behavior
Level: intermediate
30. The ________ is a person who spearheads an idea or action and sells it throughout the
organization.
Ans: champion
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy
31. The ________ is an alternative for action if the expected result fails to materialize.
Ans: contingency plan
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy
32. The ________ represents everything outside the system that delivers inputs or receives
outputs from the system.
Ans: environment
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy
33. The ________ is the “corporate culture” within the organization, or even within the project.
Ans: microculture
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy
34. The project manager makes a ________ by allowing one aspect of the project to get worse in
return for allowing another aspect of the project to get better.
Ans: trade-off
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level:
35. A ________ is a person who helps people overcome problems, either with technical issues or
with other people.
Ans: facilitator
Response: Refer to the glossary.
Level: easy
Essay
36. With respect to acquiring resources, there is a high potential for conflict between the
functional manager and the project manager. Describe a major source of that conflict and
suggest how it can be properly managed.
Ans: The project manager often will seek individuals with scarce but necessary skills. Moreover,
the project manager will seek those individuals who are top producers. However, these are the
very people the functional manager would like to retain to perform the work of the function. In
order to manage this conflict, the use of an objective standard to set priorities is recommended.
Instead of seeking to optimize the project or the function, the project manager and the functional
manager should collaborate to solve the problem in a manner that maximizes organizational
success for the business as a whole.
Response: Refer to section 3.2, acquiring and motivating personnel
Level: advanced
37. When asked, “How do you motivate astronauts?” A representative of NASA responded,
“We don't motivate them, but, boy, are we careful about whom we select.” Discuss the
implications of this statement for project managers seeking to motivate project team members.
Ans: The most effective team members have some common characteristics. Moreover, the issue
of motivating people in a project team is closely related to the kind of people who are invited to
join the team. For example, when faced with technical problems, will the team members take the
initiative to resolve the issue or will the team members seek to delay action by referring the
problem back to the functional department? Moreover, because of the potential for conflicting
priorities between the function and the project, team members should have the political skills to
balance such competing demands, especially when the project team is not assigned full-time to
work on a project. If each team member has a problem solving orientation, the team member
will seek interdisciplinary collaboration instead of narrowly viewing the problem within a
specific discipline. And finally, team members should have the moral courage necessary to work
in an open environment where problems are identified and resolved.
Response: Refer to section 3.2, acquiring and motivating personnel.
Level: advanced
38. At the inception of a project, crises tend to be associated with resources. Explain why this
scenario could be common in some organizations.
Ans: Uniqueness is a characteristics shared by projects. Once the technical plans to accomplish
the project have been translated into a budget and schedule, managerial reviews will often seek
to gain cuts in budget and/or schedule. Each time this happens, the cuts will have to be
translated into changes in technical plans.
Response: Refer to section 3.2, dealing with obstacles
Level: intermediate
39. Identify three important characteristics that would be desirable in a project manager.
Explain your reasoning.
Ans: The three characteristics would be an ability to get the job done without destroying the
performing organization and/or its relationships with key stakeholders. There are three aspects
to this statement. First, there needs to be a drive to complete the tasks of the project. Second,
the resources of the performing organization must be used in a manner that ensures survivability
of the organization. Finally, the project manager needs the emotional maturity to balance
competing demands among multiple project stakeholders.
Response: This response assumes that is important for the performing organization to survive
after completion of the project. In some cases, the intent would be to dismantle the performing
organization once the project's results have been completed. However, this answer assumes that
the performing organization intends to sustain operations as an ongoing business.
Level: advanced
40. Four project environments were identified in chapter 3. Assume that there is a clash in
requirements between the legal environments of two countries participating in the project.
Before taking action to resolve the clash in requirements, what would you recommend that the
project manager do?
Ans: Since this is a multinational project, the project manager needs to understand the
jurisdiction of the legal systems governing the project. Once the governing jurisdiction for the
matter at issue has been identified, the project manager should also understand procedural laws
associated with the interpretation and enforcement of substantive rights. In many cases, the
project manager will lack the expertise to correctly understand and translate these issues into a
course of action without guidance provided by competent legal counsel.
Response: When in doubt, the project manager should seek the advice of competent legal
counsel. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it.
Level: advanced