What is the key assumption made by the Critical Path Method (CPM) regarding activity times, which distinguishes it from PERT?
Explanation
The fundamental difference between CPM and PERT lies in their handling of time. CPM is a deterministic model, assuming that the duration for each activity is a known and fixed value. PERT, in contrast, is a probabilistic model that accounts for uncertainty.
Other questions
The management of projects typically involves three distinct phases. Which of the following correctly lists these three phases as described in the chapter?
What is the primary purpose of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in project management?
Which project scheduling tool is described as a low-cost means of planning and documenting activities, recording time estimates, and showing overall project time on a timeline with horizontal bars?
What is the major difference between PERT and CPM project management techniques?
In a project network diagram using the Activity-on-Node (AON) convention, what do the nodes and arrows represent?
What is the computed longest time path through a project network called?
For an activity in a PERT network, the optimistic time (a) is 1 week, the most likely time (m) is 2 weeks, and the pessimistic time (b) is 9 weeks. What is the expected time (t) for this activity?
Using the same activity data where optimistic time (a) is 1 week, most likely time (m) is 2 weeks, and pessimistic time (b) is 9 weeks, what is the variance of this activity's completion time?
How is the total project variance calculated in a PERT analysis?
What does a zero slack time for an activity signify?
An activity in a project has an Earliest Start (ES) of 8, an Earliest Finish (EF) of 13, a Latest Start (LS) of 8, and a Latest Finish (LF) of 13. What is the slack time for this activity?
What is the process of shortening the duration of a project in the cheapest manner possible called?
An activity has a normal time of 3 weeks at a normal cost of 30,000 dollars, and a crash time of 1 week at a crash cost of 34,000 dollars. What is the crash cost per week for this activity?
Which activities should be considered first when crashing a project with a single critical path?
What is the purpose of a dummy activity in an Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) network diagram?
A project is expected to be completed in 15 weeks with a project standard deviation of 1.76 weeks. What is the probability that the project will be finished in 16 weeks or less?
What is the term for a project management style suitable for ill-defined projects, like software development, that relies on collaboration and constant feedback to adjust to unknowns?
What is the Earliest Start Time Rule for an activity with multiple immediate predecessors?
What is the Latest Finish Time Rule for an activity that is an immediate predecessor to more than one activity?
Which of the following is NOT listed as a purpose of project scheduling?
According to the text, in what situation might a project organization be most helpful?
What are the three time estimates employed in a PERT analysis?
Which of the following ethical issues is NOT mentioned as something project managers often deal with?
A project manager wants to find a deadline that gives her a 99 percent chance of completion. The project's expected completion time is 15 weeks with a standard deviation of 1.76 weeks. The corresponding Z-value for 99 percent is 2.33. What is the new due date?
In a critical path analysis, what is the two-pass process used to determine?
An activity in a project has an Earliest Start (ES) of 0, a duration of 3 weeks, and a Latest Start (LS) of 1. What is the slack time for this activity?
When crashing a project with multiple critical paths, what is the correct approach according to the text?
Which of the following is listed as an advantage of PERT and CPM?
Which of the following is identified as a limitation of PERT and CPM?
A project consists of five critical activities with variances of 0.11, 0.11, 1.00, 1.78, and 0.11. What is the project variance?
In the context of the PERT three-time estimate model, which time estimate is described as the time an activity will take if everything goes as planned?
An activity in a network diagram has an ES of 2 and an EF of 4. What is the duration of this activity?
When is it possible for a noncritical path to delay a project, according to the text's discussion on variability?
An activity has a normal time of 2 weeks and can be crashed to 1 week. The normal cost is 22,000 dollars and the crash cost is 22,750 dollars. What is the crash cost per week?
What does a project manager's responsibility for ensuring 'all necessary activities are finished in proper sequence and on time' and 'the project comes in within budget' imply about their role?
What type of slack is shared between two or more successive noncritical activities on a path?
For a particular project, the expected completion time is 62 weeks and the project variance is 81. What is the project's standard deviation?
The critical path for a project is Start-A-C-E-G-H. The activity times are A=2, C=2, E=4, G=5, H=2. What is the total project completion time?
In a project organization, team members are temporarily assigned to a project and report to whom?
An activity on the critical path has a normal time of 5 weeks and a crash cost per week of 1,500 dollars. It can be crashed by a maximum of 3 weeks. If this activity is crashed by 2 weeks, what is the additional cost?
What does the text identify as a major reason for cost overruns and unnecessary delays in projects?
A project has an expected completion date of 15 weeks and a project standard deviation of 1.76 weeks. The company needs to finish in 13 weeks. What is the Z-value for this target date?
In a WBS, what is the term for the detailed tasks at the lowest level of the hierarchy?
Why must a project manager be cautious even if the total project completion time probability is high?
An activity has a Latest Start (LS) of 10 and a duration of 3 weeks. What is its Latest Finish (LF)?
A project is crashed by one week by reducing the duration of activity A at a cost of 750 dollars. This action causes a second path, Start-B-D-G-H, to become critical. To crash the project by a second week, which option is the most cost-effective if Activity C costs 1,000 dollars, Activity D costs 1,000 dollars, and Activity G (common to both paths) costs 1,500 dollars?
An activity in an AOA network starts at event 2 and ends at event 3. Its immediate predecessor is activity X, which starts at event 1 and ends at event 2. What is the relationship between X and this activity?
A project's critical path has a total duration of 13 weeks. What does this imply for the project completion?
According to the PERT assumptions, what type of probability distribution do total project completion times follow?