CAPM Cost & Quality

The plan for the first iteration was to complete 80 story points. However, the team was only able to complete 60. Each story point earns $1,000 for the project. The actual cost of the iteration was $70,000. As the iteration retrospective approaches, the scrum master requests that the team prepares all the data required to calculate the various earned value metrics.

At the retrospective, the team determines that the project is..............budget.

• on

• under

• over

• can not be determined

Answer explanation

To answer whether the project is on, under, or over budget, the CPI should be calculated and its value interpreted. Based on the information provided in the scenario, the CPI/ =

$60,000 / $70,000 = 0.857, which is less than 1.0, meaning that the project is over budget, making this choice the best answer to the question asked.

You are managing a project to relocate a historic building to a new property that is a safe distance from the rising river basin. You have just finished developing your cost estimate, and are preparing the supporting documentation to accompany it.

What should be included in this documentation?

• Cost register

• Cost forecast

• Range of possible estimates

• Cost baseline

In preparation for an upcoming project status meeting, you have determined the value of the work completed thus far is $100,000 with a budget at completion (BAC) of $1,000,000. At this point in the project, you have spent 12% of the project budget. The value of work planned to be completed at this point is $115,000.

What will you report at the project status meeting?

• The project is performing well in terms of cost but not in terms of schedule

• The project is not performing well both in terms of cost and schedule

• The project is currently behind schedule

• The project is currently over budget

Answer explanation

To determine the status of the project, the schedule variance and cost variance (or, alternatively, the cost performance index (CPI) and schedule performance index (SPI)) must be calculated.

The earned value (EV), which is the actual work completed in the scenario described, is stated as $100,000. The planned value (PV), which is the value of work planned to be completed at this point in the scenario, is stated as $115,000. The actual cost (AC), which is the portion of the project budget you have spent so far in the scenario described, is 12% of the budget of $1,000,000 which is $120,000. The calculations of the cost variance (CV) and the schedule variance (SV) are shown below:

CV = EV - AC = $100,000 - $120,000 = -$20,000

SV = EV - PV = $100,000 - $115,000 = -$15,000

Both the schedule variance and the cost variance are negative at this point in the project. Therefore, at the project status meeting, you should report that the project is not performing well both in terms of cost and schedule.

Alternatively, you can calculate the CPI and the SPI:

CP| = EV / AC = $100,000 / $120,000 = 0.83

SPI = EV / PV = $100,000 / $115,000 = 0.87

A project manager has recently been given a promotion and became the sponsor of a new initiative within her company. Given her past success in managing similar projects, the organization's project steering committee asks her to submit a high-level project estimate that will be reviewed next week to decide on whether or not to initiate the project.

What is the best course of action for the new sponsor?

• Get a professional estimate from external subject matter experts

• Use her own expert judgment and some historical information

• Use the WBS to create an accurate bottom-up estimate

• Work with the project team to create the requested estimate

You are managing a project to develop a new instrument. During planning, the number of design reviews was reduced. This reduction in design reviews allowed a lower project budget and a shorter timeline. The instrument has been transitioned to operations, and unfortunately, the support costs are significantly higher than expected as several field modifications on the instrument are being performed.

What could you have done differently to help avoid this situation?

• Nothing. Limiting the number of design reviews will always increase the product's operating costs.

• Consider the impact of fewer project design reviews before deciding to reduce them

• Planned a better transition to operations

• Nothing, you are only responsible for the outcome of your project.

During a sprint review, the product owner acknowledges that the deliverable meets the technical requirements and acceptance criteria but is not ready for customer use because not all required approvals have been obtained. The product owner asks why this critical step was missed.

What was the most likely reason for this issue?

• A definition of done (DoD) was not established or was established but not used.

• The acceptance criteria were not defined during requirements gathering.

• The deliverable was not verified as part of the Control Quality process.

• The team used eXtreme Programming (XP) instead of Scrum methods.

A project manager is about to start the process of identifying quality requirements and standards for an infrastructure project. The project manager examines the project charter to gain a high-level understanding of project objectives and reviews relevant information from the available components of the project management plan.

What else should the project manager do to gather inputs to the process?

• Review the requirements documentation to gain an understanding of the project and product quality requirements

• Conduct a brainstorming session with the project team and subject matter experts to develop the quality management plan

• Perform a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the planned quality activities are cost-effective

• Update the lessons learned register with information on challenges encountered in the quality planning process

A project manager informs the agile team members that, due to unexpected personal issues, the product owner will be unable to attend the upcoming sprint review.

What would be the most likely outcome of this situation?

• It will be unclear whether the product increment developed by the team during the sprint is accepted or not

• The team will be unable to determine if the process they used to develop the product needs improvement

• There will be no significant consequences as a result of the product owner missing one sprint review meeting

• It will be impossible to determine how much value has been added by the project team during the latest sprint

A product is being developed in increments. After the requirements for the first product increment are gathered from the customer, the team spends three months completing it. The team meets with the customer to demonstrate the increment, but the customer rejects it, stating that while the increment meets the objective requirements, it is not aesthetically pleasing.

What might the agile team leader have done differently to have avoided this issue?

• Documented the issue with the aesthetics in the issue log

• Utilized shorter feedback loops with the customer

• Scheduled retrospectives at the end of each iteration

• Conducted daily standup meetings during product development

As part of the quality assurance efforts, the project team identifies that several deliverables do not conform with the quality requirements.

What should the team do next?

• Perform the Plan Quality Management process

• Review the quality management plan to determine what to do with the nonconforming products

• Document the findings and repair the deliverables

• Review the risk report to gain guidance on what corrective action should be implemented