Predictive Plan-Based Methodologies

A predictive (waterfall) life cycle is MOST appropriate when which condition is true?

• A Requirements are highly uncertain and expected to change frequently
• B Requirements are well understood and stable, and scope can be defined up front ✓
• C The customer wants to inspect a working product every two weeks
• D The team has no documented plan and prefers to improvise

Answer: Predictive life cycles work best when requirements are clear and stable, allowing scope, schedule, and cost to be defined early and changes to be minimised.

What is a work breakdown structure (WBS)?

• A A list of project risks ranked by probability
• B A bar chart showing activity start and finish dates
• C A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team ✓
• D A register of all project stakeholders

Answer: The WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the total project scope into smaller, more manageable components.

The lowest level of a work breakdown structure is known as a what?

• A Milestone
• B Deliverable phase
• C Control account
• D Work package ✓

Answer: A work package is the lowest level of the WBS, for which cost and duration can be estimated and managed.

In schedule network analysis, the critical path is BEST described as which of the following?

• A The longest path through the network, which determines the shortest possible project duration ✓
• B The path with the most activities
• C The path that costs the most money
• D The path with the fewest dependencies

Answer: The critical path is the longest sequence of dependent activities and determines the earliest the project can finish; it has zero total float.

What does total float (slack) measure for an activity?

• A The amount of time the activity can be delayed without delaying the project end date ✓
• B The number of resources assigned to the activity
• C The quality tolerance allowed for the deliverable
• D The amount of money budgeted for the activity

Answer: Total float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying the project completion date.

A Gantt chart is MOST commonly used to display which of the following?

• A The organisational hierarchy of the project team
• B Project costs broken down by category
• C The probability and impact of each risk
• D Project activities plotted against a timeline with bars showing duration ✓

Answer: A Gantt chart is a bar chart that shows project activities against a calendar timeline, making start dates, durations, and overlaps easy to see.