Ch 1-2 Flashcards

1
Q

5 characteristics to differentiate projects from daily work?

A
  1. Defined life span
  2. Well-defined objective
  3. Typically involves people from several disciplines
  4. Project life cycle
  5. Specific time, cost, and performance requirements
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2
Q

Environmental forces that changed the way projects are managed? (6)

A
Product life cycle 
Knowledge growth
Global competition
Organization downsizing
Technology changes
Time-to-market
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3
Q

Effects of environmental forces? (8)

A
  1. More projects per organization
  2. Project teams responsible for implementation
  3. Accountability
  4. Changing org structures
  5. Need for rapid completion of projects
  6. Link projects to org strategy and customers
  7. Prioritize projects to conserve resources
  8. Alliances with external organizations
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4
Q

How are strategic plans primarily implemented?

A

Through projects

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5
Q

Who is key person responsible for completing project on time, on budget, and within specifications?

A

Project manager

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6
Q

What is an integrative approach to project management? What benefit does it cause for organizations?

A

All parts are correlated.

Gives organizations competitive advantage.

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7
Q

Two parts included in an integrative approach?

A
  1. Projects have strong link to organization’s strategic plan.
  2. Provides integrated system for actual implementation of the projects.
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8
Q

Is it possible to find stories related to projects in the newspaper?

A

Always

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9
Q

Stages of project life cycle? (4)

A

Defining
Planning
Executing
Closure

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10
Q

Sociocultural dimension attributes (6)

A
  1. Leadership
  2. Problem solving
  3. Teamwork
  4. Negotiation
  5. Politics
  6. Customer expectations
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11
Q

Technical dimension attributes? (6)

A
  1. Scope
  2. WBS
  3. Schedules
  4. Resource allocation
  5. Baseline budgets
  6. Status reports
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12
Q

Benefits of strategic management? (2)

A
  1. Every project linked to strategy.

2. Provides theme and focus of firm’s future direction

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13
Q

Activities of strategic management process? (4)

A
  1. Review and define org mission
  2. Set long-range goals and objectives
  3. Analyze and formulate strategies
  4. Implement strategies through projects
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14
Q

Implementation gap?

A

Lack of understanding and consensus on strategy among top management and middle level managers who individually implement the strategy

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15
Q

Organization politics?

A

Project selection is based on persuasiveness and power of people advocating the projects

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16
Q

Resource conflicts and multitasking?

A

Multi project environment creates interdependency relationships of shared resources which results in the starting, stopping, and restarting projects

17
Q

3 project types?

A

Compliance
Strategic
Operational

18
Q

Selection criteria for projects (2)

A

Financial - payback, net present value, internal rate of return

Non-financial - projects of strategic importance to the firm

19
Q

Multi-weighted scoring models?

A

Uses several weighted selection criteria to evaluate project proposals

20
Q

Payback model, what does it emphasize? and its limitations (3)?

A

Measures time project will take to recover project investment.
Emphasizes cash flows.

  1. Ignores time value of money
  2. Assumes cash inflows for investment period
  3. Doesn’t consider profitability
21
Q

Net present value model? How are projects evaluated with this model (2 options for outcomes)

A

Uses management’s minimum desired rate of return to compute the present value of all net cash inflows.

  • Positive NPV project meets minimum desired rate of return, eligible for further consideration
  • Negative NPV, project rejected
22
Q

Multi-criteria selection models (2)

A
  1. Checklist model - uses list of questions to review potential projects and determine their acceptance or rejection. Fails to answer importance or value of potential project and doesn’t allow for comparison.
  2. Multi-weighted scoring model - uses several weighted qualitative and/or quantitative selection criteria to evaluate project proposals. Allows for comparison of projects with other potential projects
23
Q

Project classification?

A

Deciding how well a strategic or operations project fits the org’s strategy

24
Q

Senior management input? (2)

A

1 Provides guidance in selecting criteria that’s aligned with org’s goals
2 Decide how to balance resources

25
Q

Priority team responsibilities? (4)

A
  1. Publish priority of every project
  2. Ensure project selection process is open and free of power politics
  3. Reassess the org’s goals and priorities
  4. Evaluate progress of current projects
26
Q

Project?

A

Complex, no routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resource, and specifications