PM - Section 2

Divide the following statement about the use of the S-Curve based on the two phase of the project to which they belong: Phase of the project: A- Planning phase B- Control and redevelopment phase Statement: 1- Run an integrated time/cost analysis 2- Study correlation among project macro-phases 3- Plan resource usage and assess the congruence with the progress rates 4- Estimate EAC 5- Redevelop the resources

• A.

  A{1;2;3} B{4;5}

• B.

  A{2;5} B{1;3;4}

• C.

  A{2;3} B{1;4;5}

• D.

  A{1;3;4} B{2;4;5}

BE AWARE: this exercise is tough. MPIF S.p.A. (Manage Project is fun) a project management company set in Como has been awarded with a contract from LIF Inc. (Logistic is funnier) for the renewal of its warehouse set in Rovellasca Manera. The project plan presetend by MPIF contains an S-Curve approximated with a trapezoidal function with aceleration phase equal to 4 months decelaration phase equal to 2 months and maximum rate of usage of resoruces equal to 0.1 (10%). Unfortunately during the approval meeting with the client LIF asked for a shorter duration of the works in order to minimize the loss due to the inaccessibility of the warehouse. After long discussions that did not leaded to violent actions only thanks to the intervention of the local police forces the managers of LIF made the following proposal: an additional benefit on the price of the work is awarded based on the following equation:  where d is the duration of the work and B the additional benefit in &euro. Knowing that: the cost function of MPIF for an increase in the rate of usage of resoruces for this plan is:  where r is the rate of resources usage (in decimal form) and C the additional costs in &euro due to the physical structure of warehouse the duration fo the aceleration phase cannot be changed due to a precise anti-dragging code followed by MPIF the deceleration phase cannot be changed. Help the project manager of MPIF in proposing the optimal project duration from the MPIF point of view. [Note: please provide the answer in month withouth the unit of measurement with 2 decimal digit with a "." as separator. e.g.: 3.12]

Can the Hermite Polynomials be used to assess the shape of an S-Curve of a project that, in the middle of its forecasted duration, is running over-budget, and that is forecasted to end using the 110% of the resources planned?

• A.

  Yes

• B.

  No

Using the Bulk Park estimate, when the size decreases, the cost per unit of size:

• A.

  Decreases if M

• B.

  Increases if M

• C.

  Decreases if M

• D.

  Is always constant

Mary, a junior manager of the iBuild company, is estimating the cost of a new project for a residential building in Bogotà using the Bulk Park estimate. She estimated the base cost with the great number of historical data related to the building operation of iBuild in North Italy, but she is having some trouble with the Escalation Factor (EF). Her boss told her to do it keeping into consideration that the building is almost entirely in concrete. The data: Price of concrete in most recent project: 1 €/Kg Most recent project: 2010 Price, concrete, in Italy, 2012: 1.5 €/kg Price, concrete, in Bogotà, 2012: 2 €/kg Price, concrete, in Bogotà, 2012: 1.8 €/kg Average inflation rate: 2%/year Help Mary in estimating EF

• A.

  1.50

• B.

  1.11

• C.

  2.00

• D.

  1.20

• E.

  1.56

• F.

  1.16

The usualy analytic cost estimation for the "Bulk Materials" is:

• A.

  One-by-one analytic cost estimation based on the characteristic of the single material

• B.

  Average quantity used in old project times eventual increase in average price

• C.

  Project-specific, based on the estimated quantity requested by engineering documents

• D.

  Done through the "cost curve"

The PERT techniques allows a network diagram to have FS-FF-SF-SS links

• A.

  True

• B.

  False

Given the following information about a network diagram: Activity | Duration | Precedences A              3               None B              2               None C              3               A, B Compute EOT(C)

• A.

  2

• B.

  3

• C.

  4

• D.

  5

• E.

  Not enough data are provided

In a Precedence Diagram, it is always true that: EFT(i) - EST(i) = d(i) + 1 where d(i) is the duration of task i.

• A.

  True

• B.

  False

EMC Italy, a company set in Milan focus on Big Data, is currently dealing with the project for a new platform for one of its client. A young project manager, newly hired, is contacted by the client, that asks for a 2 days reduction in the duration of the project. The netwok diagram is the following [D(i) is the duration of task i]: Activity | Precedence | Duration standard | Cost [in thousand €] A            None               4 weeks                     9*(6-D(A)) B           None               3 weeks                      12*(7-D(B)) C           A                       4 weeks                     unknown D           B                      3 weeks                      4*(8-D(D)) E           C, D                 4 weeks                      3*[4-D(A)] + 10*(6 - D(E)) The activities can be crashed at most to half of their standard duration. Each activity must last a natural number of weeks. Considering that task C cannot be reduced because it is outsourced to a 3rd party, decide what price the young manager should ask the client, considering the EMC standard 20% mark-up on the cost of approved change. If more than a solution is possible, assume the manager choses the less expensive for the client. [Provide the solution as a number in thousand €, approximating at 0 decimal digit, withouth any measurement unit, e.g.: 18]