FINAL EXAM SEMESTER II 2009-2010

FUNDAMENTALS OF MONITORING AND CONTROL PRM 210

STUDENT NUMBER_______________________ EXAM DATE________________
DURATION: THREE (3) HOURS
SECTION A – 25 MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS – 1m PER QUESTION

1) A time-phased budget that project managers use to measure and monitor cost
performance.
A. Cost Baseline
B. Cost Budgeting
C. Cost Estimating
D. Cost Variance

2) Costs that are not directly related to the products or services of the project, but are
indirectly related to performing the project.
A. Intangible Costs
B. Sunk Cost
C. Tangible Costs
D. Indirect Costs

3) A document that describes how cost variances will be managed on the project.
A. Analogous Estimate
B. Cost Management Plan
C. Earned Value Management
D. Estimate at Completion

4) The processes required to ensure that the project is completed within the approved
budget.
A. Management Reserves
B. Project Cost Management
C. Rate of Performance
D. Planned Value

5) Money that has been spent in the past.

A. Actual Cost
B. Direct Cost
C. Sunk Cost
D. Indirect Cost

6) An estimate of the value of the physical work actually completed.

A. Earned Value
B. Earned Value Management
C. Direct Costs
D. Actual Cost

7) A cost estimating technique based on estimating individual work items and

summing them to get a project total.
A. Analogous Estimates
 FINAL EXAM SEMESTER II 2009-2010
FUNDAMENTALS OF MONITORING AND CONTROL PRM 210
STUDENT NUMBER_______________________ EXAM DATE________________
DURATION: THREE (3) HOURS
B. Bottom-Up Estimates
C. Definitive Estimate
D. Parametric Estimate

8) Costs that can be directly related to producing the products and services of the
project.
A. Cost Budgeting
B. Budget at Completion
C. Direct Costs
D. Earned Value

9) The earned value minus the actual cost.

A. Cost Control
B. Actual Cost
C. Cost Variance
D. Earned Value

10) The original project plan plus approved changes.

A. Cost Management Plan
B. Cost Baseline
C. Project Baseline
D. Cost Control

11) The original total budget for a project.

A. Estimate at Completion
B. Budget at Completion
C. Cost Performance Index
D. Schedule Performance Index

12) The portion of approved total cost estimate planned to be spent on an activity
during a given period.
A. Actual Cost
B. Rough Order of Magnitude
C. Planned Value
D. Life Cycle Costing

13) The additional percentage or dollar amount by which actual costs exceed estimates.
A. Cost overrun
B. Schedule variance
C. Planned Value
D. Cost at completion

14) A theory that states that when many item are produced repetitively, the unit cost of
those items normally decreases in a regular pattern as more units are produced.
A. Rough Order of Magnitude
 FINAL EXAM SEMESTER II 2009-2010
FUNDAMENTALS OF MONITORING AND CONTROL PRM 210
STUDENT NUMBER_______________________ EXAM DATE________________
DURATION: THREE (3) HOURS
B. Learning Curve Theory
C. Life Cycle Costing
D. Planned Value

15) The earned value minus the planned value.

A. Schedule Variance
B. Schedule Performance Index
C. Project Cost Management
D. Management Reserves

16) An estimate of what it will cost to complete the project based on performance to
date.
A. Definitive Estimate
B. Cost Estimating
C. Analogous Estimate
D. Estimate at Completion

17) The total of direct and indirect costs incurred in accomplishing work on an activity
during a given period.
A. Earned value (EV)
B. Actual Cost (AC)
C. Schedule Variance (SV)
D. Budget at Completion (BAC)

18) Controlling changes to the project budget.

A. Cost Baseline
B. Cost Control
C. Cost Estimating
D. Cost Management Plan

19) The ratio of earned value to planned value; can be used to estimate the projected
time to complete a project.
A. Indirect Costs
B. Life Cycle Costing
C. Schedule Variance (SV)
D. Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

20) A cost estimating technique that uses the actual cost of a previous, similar project as
the basis for estimating the cost of the current project, also called top-down
estimates.
A. Estimate at Completion
B. Definitive Estimate
C. Cost Estimating
D. Analogous Estimate
 FINAL EXAM SEMESTER II 2009-2010
FUNDAMENTALS OF MONITORING AND CONTROL PRM 210
STUDENT NUMBER_______________________ EXAM DATE________________
DURATION: THREE (3) HOURS
21) The processes required to ensure that the project is completed within the approved
budget.
A. Project Cost Management
B. Parametric Modeling
C. Rate of Performance
D. Schedule Performance Index

22) The ratio of actual work completed to the percentage of work planned to have been
completed at any given time during the life of the project or activity.
A. Learning Curve Theory
B. Parametric Modeling
C. Rate of Performance (RP)
D. Schedule Variance (SV)

23) A project performance measurement technique that integrates scope, time, and cost
data.
A. Earned Value
B. Cost Variance
C. Earned Value Management
D. Cost Baseline

24) The ratio of earned value to actual cost; can be used to estimate the projected cost to
complete the project.

A. Budget at Completion
B. Cost Performance Index
C. Cost Variance
D. Cost Estimating

25) The ratio of actual work completed to the percentage of work planned to have been
completed at any given time during the life of the project or activity.
A. Learning Curve Theory
B. Rate of Performance
C. Management Reserves
D. Rough Order of Magnitude
 FINAL EXAM SEMESTER II 2009-2010
FUNDAMENTALS OF MONITORING AND CONTROL PRM 210
STUDENT NUMBER_______________________ EXAM DATE________________
DURATION: THREE (3) HOURS
SECTION B – ALL QUESTIONS ARE COMPULSORY – 40m

1) What is project monitoring and control and what are some of the key objectives
for project control? (5m)

2) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a control chart. (10m)

3) Suppose that you had a project that was targeted to finish in 12 months, at a cost
of $600,000. The project is mandated by an Act of Parliament. After 3 months,
the EV stats look like this:

Time Planned value Actual cost Earned value

(PV) (AC) (EV)
Month 1 $5,000 $5,000 $3,000
Month 2 $15,000 $10,000 $12,000
Month 3 $40,000 $30,000 $25,000

a. Compute the following items:

i. Cost Variance
ii. Schedule variance
iii. Cost performance index
iv. Schedule performance index
v. Estimate at completion
vi. Estimated time to complete (6m)

b. Describe the two (2) advantages and two (2) disadvantages of earned value
management. (4m)

4) Using the cost information in question 3, draw a graph to represent the EV, PV
and AC. Also, explain what control actions are necessary to manage the project’s
performance based on your analysis of the data. (15m)
 FINAL EXAM SEMESTER II 2009-2010
FUNDAMENTALS OF MONITORING AND CONTROL PRM 210
STUDENT NUMBER_______________________ EXAM DATE________________
DURATION: THREE (3) HOURS
SECTION C – ANSWER ONLY ONE (1) QUESTION – 35m PER QUESTION

1) The following Pareto diagram shows the exam results of sixteen (16) students.

Histogram

8 120.00%
Frequency

100.00%
6 80.00%

4 60.00%

40.00%
2 20.00%

0 ABSENT > 8.5 > 6.5 < 8.5 <= 6.5

.00%

Score ranges
a. Prepare an analysis of the above data using Pareto principles. (5m)

b. Using brainstorming, draw an Ishikawa fishbone diagram to analyze the issue of

student absenteeism at exams. (20m)

c. Compare and contrast the use of Pareto Chart and Ishikawa diagrams as
techniques for analyzing project performance data. (10m)

2) Evaluation and control are part of every project manager’s job. Large projects
usually need some form of formal control.

a. What are “project metrics” and give five (5) reasons for using project
metrics. (6m)

b. Explain the steps for measuring and evaluating project performance.

(8m)

c. List each of the nine project management knowledge areas and specify
two (2) key performance metric for each defined criterion using the format
below. (21m)

KNOWLEDGE AREA CRITERIA PERFORMANCE METRIC

ALL Will the project be 1. Number of requested changes.
successful? 2. % On-time progress reports.
 FINAL EXAM SEMESTER II 2009-2010
FUNDAMENTALS OF MONITORING AND CONTROL PRM 210
STUDENT NUMBER_______________________ EXAM DATE________________
DURATION: THREE (3) HOURS

MCQ ANSWERS

1) a
2) d
3) b
4) b
5) c
6) a
7) d
8) c
9) c
10) c
11) b
12) c
13) a
14) b
15) a
16) d
17) b
18) b
19) d
20) d
21) a
22) c
23) c
24) b
25) b