Project Planning & Execution Flashcards

A project kickoff meeting is most valuable for:

Answer: Aligning all stakeholders on objectives, roles, and ground rules

The kickoff meeting establishes shared understanding of project purpose, roles, and expectations — creating the social contract that guides team behavior throughout.

Which document formally authorizes a project and grants the executive director authority to apply organizational resources to project activities?

Answer: Project charter

The project charter officially authorizes the project, names the project manager/executive director, and grants them authority to commit resources.

A nonprofit launches a program expansion with a fixed grant deadline. The project manager compresses the schedule by adding resources to critical-path tasks. This technique is called:

Answer: Crashing

Crashing adds resources (people, equipment, overtime) to critical-path activities to shorten duration, typically increasing cost.

When creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), the 100% rule requires that:

Answer: The WBS captures 100% of the project scope with no gaps or overlaps

The 100% rule ensures the WBS includes all work — and only the work — needed to complete the project, preventing both scope gaps and double-counting.

An executive director notices team members are duplicating efforts on a multi-department initiative. The root cause is most likely a lack of:

Answer: A responsibility assignment matrix (RACI)

A RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) clarifies who does what for each task, eliminating ambiguity that leads to duplication.

In project schedule management, 'float' (or slack) represents:

Answer: The amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the project end date

Float is the scheduling flexibility on non-critical tasks; critical path tasks have zero float because any delay pushes the project end date.

An executive director is closing a major grant-funded program. Which action is MOST important during project closeout?

Answer: Conducting a lessons-learned review and archiving project documentation

Lessons-learned reviews and document archiving capture institutional knowledge that improves future project performance and supports audit requirements.