CHAPTER 7:PROJECT COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

QUESTIONS:

1.Question: You recently took over a large project from another project manager who had to leave for a personal emergency. You want to understand what kind of information should be provided to different stakeholders, and the what methods should be used to provide this information. You will find this information in the :
1. Communications Management Plan
2. Performance Reports
3. Project Records
4. Communication Plan

2.Question: Information distribution involves making information available to stakeholders in a timely manner. Which of the following is an input to the Information distribution process?
1. Organizational process assets
2. Communications management plan
3. Requested changes
4. Enterprise environmental factors

3.Question: In your project, you are collecting baseline data and distributing to appropriate stakeholders as required. The information provided includes how resources are being used to achieve project objectives. This is being done through
1. Communication Planning
2. Performance Reporting
3. Information Distribution
4. Earned Value Management

4.Question: You had 8 people in your project, one more person will be joining next week. You know that once the new person joins, the number of communication channels will increase by:
1. No change in number of communication channels
2. 8
3. 12
4. 20

5.Question: In the project planning phase, you had estimated that it will take 6 months to complete the project and had also worked out a detailed cost estimate. Now, after 3 months, when you are in the project execution phase, you would like to compare the actual costs incurred with the earlier plans you had prepared. Which tool should you use?
1. Performance report
2. Earned Value Technique
3. Trend Analysis
4. Variance Analysis

6.Question: Communications planning process determines the information and communications needs of stakeholders : for example, who needs what information, when they will need it, how it will be given to them and by whom. While all the projects share the need to communicate project information, the informational needs and methods of distribution vary widely.

Identifying the informational needs of the stakeholders and determining a suitable means of meeting those needs is an important factor for project success.

You are creating a communications management plan for your project through use of communications requirements analysis. All the following statements related to communications requirements analysis are accurate EXCEPT:
1. Requirements are defined by combining the type and format of information needed with an analysis of the cost of that information.
2. Project resources are expended on communicating information that contributes to success
3. Project resources are expended on communicating information where a lack of communication can lead to failure
4. Intent is to prevent overloading stakeholders with minutiae

7.Question: Communications Planning involves determining the information and communications needs of the stakeholders; who needs what information, when they will need it, how it will be given to them and by whom. If you are going to start Communications Planning for your project, which of the following will facilitate this process?
1. Knowledge of Constraints and Assumptions
2. Availability of a Communications Management Plan
3. Availability of Project Records and Project Reports
4. Compilation of all Change Requests for the project

8.Question: Information distribution involves making information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner. It includes implementing the communications management plan, as well as responding to unexpected requests for information.

You are in the execution phase of your project. To inform your stakeholders, you have documents to highlight project status, lessons learned, issue logs and outputs from other knowledge areas. These documents should be included in the :
1. Project reports
2. Project records
3. Lessons learned documentation
4. Performance Reports
9.Question: When your objective is to get a lasting win-win solution to a problem, which conflict resolution technique should you use?
1. Collaborating
2. Smoothing
3. Avoiding
4. Withdrawing

10.Question: In your last project status meeting, you had 15 team members. The meeting was very disorderly - there were too many sidebar conversations and arguments. As a result, you acheived nothing substantial from the meeting. In order to better regulate the meeting next time, you should:
1. Decrease the number of people in one meeting
2. Publish a meeting agenda
3. Ensure that you control the channels of communication
4. Give incentives to team members for conforming to desired norms of the meeting

11.Question: You are managing a critical project with a virtual team that works in 8 countries. Most of the communication is through tele-conferencing and since members are not collocated, at times team members find it difficult to understand and interpret each other. From a communication management perspective, this difficulty in transmitting and understanding messages can also be referred to as:
1. Disturbance
2. Noise
3. Interference
4. Breakdown in Encode-decode model

12.Question: In an appropriate communication model between a sender and receiver, all the following statements are correct EXCEPT:
1. Noise should be minimized
2. Receiver must decode and reply back to the message
3. Receiver should acknowledge and agree with the message sent by the sender
4. All the statements mentioned above are true

13.Question: In your project, you have established proper information distribution tools to ensure that appropriate information is available to project stakeholders in a timely manner.

In this context, if there is a conversation happening using a sender-receiver model, which of the following statement(s) is(are) correct:
1. Sender is responsible for making information clear, unambiguous and complete
2. Sender confirms that information is understood
3. Receiver is responsible for making sure that the information is completely received and understood
4. All the statement above are true

14.Question: All the following statements about comminication are accurate EXCEPT:
1. Informal communication includes briefings
2. Formal communication includes reports
3. External communication could include talking with the customer, media, public etc.
4. Communication with peers is called horizontal communication

15.Question: You recently conducted a variance analysis in your project and were concerned to find out that the project was 25% over-budget. This is a very important issue which you would like to discuss with your project stakeholders. What communication method should you use?
1. War room discussion
2. Face-to-face meeting
3. Formal report
4. Telephone calls and electronic mail

16.Question: In your project, you use action-item logs to document and monitor resolution of issues. You put lot of emphasis on documentation and timely resolution of issues because unresolved issues can :
1. Be escalated to the project sponsor
2. Be a major source of conflict
3. Become undetermined risks in the project
4. All of the above
17.Question: 2 project team members resigned from your company - however, you were able to negotiate with functional managers in your organization to get 2 appropriate resources in a short period of time. From a stakeholder management point of view, this can also be referred to as a/an:
1. Pre-assignment
2. Corrective action
3. Approved change request
4. Resolved Issue
18.Question: Stakeholder management refers to managing communications to satisfy the needs of, and resolve issues with, project stakeholders. The responsibility of stakeholder management usually lies with the:
1. Project Management Team
2. Project Manager
3. Project Team
4. Project Manager, Project Sponsor and Project Management Team

19.Question: All the following statements relating to communication management are correct EXCEPT:
1. Communication Planning involves determining the information and communication needs of the stakeholders
2. Communicating is the most critical skill that a project manager should possess
3. Project Managers spend as more than 85% of their time communicating
4. To be effective, a Project Manager should control all communications

20.Question: As a project manager, you examine project results over time to determine how project is performing over time. This can be done through:
1. Performance Reviews
2. Variance Analysis
3. Trend Analysis
4. Earned Value Analysis


21.Question: You have completed the Information Distribution Process and are now in a position to make needed information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner. All the following could be outputs from Information Distribution EXCEPT:
1. Performance Reports
2. Project reports and presentations
3. Stakeholder notifications
4. Project Records

22.Question: You are not happy with the performance of a team member.

a) What type of communication will you use to relay your concerns to the specific team member?
b)In case the performance of the team member still does not improve, what form of communication will you use to convey to senior management?
1. a) Informal Verbal, b) Informal Written
2. a) Informal Verbal, b) Formal Written
3. a) Formal Written, b) Formal Written
4. a) Informal Written, b) Formal Written

23.Question: In your project, you are using performance reports to organize and summarize the information gathered, and present the results of the analysis as compared to the performance measurement baseline. Some common formats of performance reports which you could use are:
1. S Curves, Histograms, Pareto Diagrams
2. S Curves, Responsibility Assignment Matrices ,Histograms
3. Bar charts, S Curves, Histograms
4. Bar charts, Control Charts, Histograms

24.Question: You are in the closure phase of your project - you are interacting with your team to create a "Lessons learned" documentation which will include recommendations to improve future performance in projects. You will include all the following in the Lessons Learned documentation EXCEPT:
1. Cause of Variances
2. Reasoning behind corrective action
3. Only positive aspects (wins) of the project which can be used by others in the company
4. Reasons for Cost variances if the project became over-budget

ANSWERS:
1. Ans: 1
Justification: The communication management plan provides: - Information to be communicated, including format, content and level of detail
- Methods of technology used to convey the information

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 227


2. Ans: 2
Justification: Figure 10-5
Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 228


3. Ans: 2
Justification: The performance reporting process involves the collection of all baseline data, and distribution of performance information to stakeholders. Generally, this performance information includes how resources are being used to achieve project objectives.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 231


4. Ans: 2
Justification: Number of Communication Channels with 8 people = (8*8 - 8)/2 = 28
Number of Communication Channels with 9 people - (9*9 - 9)/2 = 36
So, the communication channel increase by :- 36 - 28 = 8



5. Ans: 4
Justification: Variance analysis involves comparing actual project performance to planned or expected performance. Cost and schedule variances are the most frequently analyzed, but variances from plan in the areas of project scope, resource, quality, and risk are often of equal or greater importance

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 176


6. Ans: 1
Justification: The analysis of the communications requirements results in the sum of the information needs of project stakeholders. These requirements are defined by combining the type and format of information needed with an analysis of the value of that information.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 226


7. Ans: 1


Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 225


8. Ans: 1
Justification: Project Reports: Formal and informal project reports detail project status, and include lessons learned, issue logs, project closure reports, and outputs from other knowledge areas.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 230



9. Ans: 1
Justification:




Reference: Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, Page Number: 406-408


10. Ans: 2
Justification: Meeting Management Techniques - preparing an agenda and dealing with conflict

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 224

comments - Publishing a meeting agenda is the best way to ensure that meetings are conducted in an orderly fashion

Please note that even though controlling the different channels of communication is something a project manager may want to do, it is not be a feasible alternative. This is because for N people, there are Nx(N-1) channels of communication, so the project manager cannot control the communication happening between all members in the team


11. Ans: 2
Justification: Noise: Anything that interferes with the transmission and understanding of the message (e.g. distance)
Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 224


12. Ans: 3
Justification: Inherent in the model shown in Figure 10-3 is an action to acknowledge a message. Acknowledgement means that the receiver signals receipt of the message, but not necessarily agreement with the message.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 224


13. Ans: 4
Justification: The sender is responsible for making the information clear, unambiguous, and complete, so that the receiver can receive it correctly, and for confirming that it is properly understood. The receiver is responsible for making sure that the information is received in its entirety and understood correctly.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 229


14. Ans: 1
Justification: Communicating has many dimensions:
Formal(reports, briefings) and informal(memos, ad hoc conversations)
Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 229


15. Ans: 2
Justification: Face-to-face meetings are the most effective means for communicating and resolving issues with stakeholders. When face-to-face meetings are not warranted or practical (such as on international projects), telephone calls, electronic mail, and other electronic tools are useful for exchanging information and dialoguing.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 235


16. Ans: 2
Justification: An issue is clarified and stated in a way that it can be resolved. An owner is assigned and a target date is usually established for closure. Unresolved issues can be a major source of conflict and project delays.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 236



17. Ans: 4
Justification: Resolved issues: Examples include -
Negotiations with functional managers in the organization competing for scarce human resources end in a mutually satisfactory solution before causing project delays.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 236



18. Ans: 2
Justification: The project manager is usually responsible for stakeholder management

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 235


19. Ans: 4
Justification: Project Manager cannot control all communications




20. Ans: 3
Justification: Trend analysis involves examining project performance over time to determine if performance is improving or deteriorating.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 176


21. Ans: 1
Justification: Performance reports are output from Performance Reporting phase and not from Information Distribution. All the remaining are outputs from Information Distribution

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 230, 231


22. Ans: 2

Reference: Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, Page Number: 273


23. Ans: 3
Justification: Common formats for Performance Reports include bar charts(also called Gantt Charts), S-curves, histograms and tables

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 233


24. Ans: 3
Justification: A lessons learned session focuses on identifying project successes and project failures.

Reference: PMBOK Third Edition, Page Number: 230

comments: Lessons Learned include both positive and negative aspects of the project - it important to document negative aspects so that those could be avoided by other projects in the future.