Alestra Diagnóstico

The project team is involved in a make-or-buy analysis and they had decided it is best to buy the products needed. They are evaluating the contract format they will use to minimize the risk. What type of contract will provide the seller with the most risk when entering into a contract?

• Cost Plus Incentive Fee
• Fixed Price
• Time and Materials
• Purchase Order

Answer explanation

B is correct. The Fixed Price contract provides the seller with the most risk because the contract limits the amount that the buyer will pay for the project, meaning that the seller needs to have a detailed understanding of the project. 

The e-commerce system failed, preventing the fulfillment of customer orders. Although the new methodology is excellent, the risk response plan did not solve the problem. Which of the following steps would you take first?

• Determine why the Risk Response Plan failed
• Fix the problem
• Determine why the problem happened
• Adjust the Risk Response Plan

Answer explanation

B is correct. This is a chicken and egg question in that you more than likely will do all the answers, but what comes first? Fixing the problem, then determining why the Risk Response Plan failed, and why the problem happened, then adjusting the Risk Response Plan would be the sequence for the other answers.

The Project Manager is creating an estimate for building a warehouse. It is a similar project to what he builds about 3 times a year. He is using the rule of thumb of $100 per square foot to calculate the estimate. What type of estimate is this?

• Parametric
• Analogous
• Gut feel
• Bottom up

Answer explanation

A is correct. The parametric estimate involves using a parameter of an amount per unit. In this case, $100 per square foot is the parameter.  

The INVEST mnemonic, in the context of user stories, describes the following characteristics:

• Independent, Neat, Valuable, Estimatable, Small and Testable
• Interdependent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small and Testable
• Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small and Testable
• Independent, Negotiable, Verifiable, Estimatable, Small and Testable

Answer explanation

C is correct. INVEST acronym for writing effective user stories: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small, and Testable.

Which of the following is NOT a valid way to reduce risk?

• Select a contract type that reduces risk.
• Insure against the risk.
• Create a executive plan for the risk.
• Plan to mitigate the risk.

Answer explanation

C is correct. All except C are risk strategies

Paula, as team leader, wants to design a comfortable, collaborative team space for her agile project. What can she do as a basic guideline?

• Separate of team members by function
• Collocate team members
• Rotate team member roles
• Isolate team members

Answer explanation

B is correct. Co-location means put all team members physically together in the same office in order to improve communication. Not always is possible, but it still being an excellent agile best practice.

The Project Manager and team are involved in planning on a new technology project. They are in the process of breaking the work down into the smaller, more manageable pieces, ultimately leading to activities. What are they creating?

• Work packages
• Define Activities
• To-do list
• Task list

Answer explanation

A is correct. The work package is the smallest level that the WBS is broken into. The next level of Decomposition is to create Activity list  

A project was terminated in the middle of execution when half of the deliverables have already been completed. If you are the project manager of this project, what will you do?

• Discuss with the sponsor of what can be done to keep the project running.
• Perform scope validation of the completed deliverables.
• Stop the work immediately and release project resources.
• Send a detailed project status report to the sponsor on how well the project was doing.

Answer explanation

B is correct. The first thing to do is to provide the completed deliverables to the sponsor/customer and obtain acceptance of those deliverables. 

What determines how long the iteration should be?

• The iteration length is fixed by the agile methodology followed
• Is team-defined, considering the size and complexity of the project
• The iteration length recommended is four weeks long
• It is calculated based on the total story points divided by the velocity

Answer explanation

B is correct.  Typical iterations last 1-2 weeks, however, some may go as long as 4 weeks. The Agile team agrees on the length of their iterations. Hybrids approaches could consider define different duration according scope or context situations.

A product owner specifies in acceptance criteria that a user feature provide extreme excitement to the end user. Whats the problem with this criteria?

• The iteration could end before the programmers could get the desired excitability for the feature.

• Excitement is not easily testable.
• The programmers could fail to read the story card properly.
• The product owner could change her mind.

Answer explanation

B is correct. User stories should be specific and measurable (INVEST and SMART). If the specification is subective, it will be difficult to develop and to taste it.