Chapter 11 Project Management

1) PERT and CPM are quantitative analysis
tools designed to schedule and control large projects.

2) PERT is a deterministic analysis tool
allowing for precise times of activities within a project.

3) PERT had its beginnings in a military
department of the United States.

4) CPM is a probabilistic analysis of
managing a project.

5) The first step in planning and
scheduling a project is to develop the work breakdown structure.
6) A PERT/CPM network is a graphical display
of a project that connects activities.

7) The optimistic time is the greatest
amount of time that could be required to complete an activity.

8) PERT is a network technique similar to
CPM, but PERT allows for project crashing, whereas CPM does not.

9) In PERT, the most likely completion
time of an activity is used to represent that activity’s time within a project.
10) The expected completion time and
variance of an activity is approximated by the normal distribution in a PERT
analysis.
11) PERT was developed for a project for
which activity or task times were uncertain.
12) CPM was developed for use in managing
projects about which we have good information about activity or task completion
times.

13) With PERT, we are able to calculate
the probability of finishing the project within a specified time.

14) With CPM, we are able to calculate the
probability of finishing the project within a specified time.
15) Both PERT and CPM networks show
activities and activity sequences.

16) The identification of the project
activities and their time, cost, resource requirements, predecessors, and person(s)
responsible is called PERT planning.

17) Before drawing a PERT or CPM network,
we must identify all activities and their predecessors.

18) The three time estimates employed in
PERT are optimistic time, average time, and pessimistic time.

19) Given the variability of the activity
completion times, the original critical path we identify in our PERT analysis
may not always be the actual critical path as the project takes place.

20) In PERT, the earliest start time for
an activity is equal to the latest of the earliest finish times of all of its
immediate predecessors.

21) PERT stands for Probabilistic
Evaluation and Review Technique.
22) One of the most significant benefits
of PERT is that it forces the project manager to sit down and plan the project
in great detail–and thus come to an understanding of relationships between the
activities.
23) Slack is the time an activity can be
delayed without impacting the completion time of the project.

24) The variance of the project completion
time is equal to the sum of the variances of all the activities.

25) In PERT, we assume that the project
completion time can be modeled by the normal distribution.

26) One PERT/COST assumption is that money
is spent at a constant rate over the time taken to complete an activity.

27) CPM stands for Comprehensive Project
Method.

28) The longest time path through a
PERT/CPM network is called the critical path.

29) In CPM, crashing an activity that is
not on the critical path increases the cost of the project.

30) Through the use of PERT/CPM, astute
managers can derive flexibility by identifying noncritical activities and
replanning, rescheduling, and reallocating resources such as personnel and
finances.