1. Identify the term being described for each of the following:

a. A sequence of activities in a project.

b. The longest time sequence of activities in a project.

c. Used when two activities have the same starting and finishing points.

d. The difference in time length of any path and the critical path.

e. The statistical distribution used to describe variability of an activity time.

f. The statistical distribution used to describe path variability.

g. Shortening an activity by allocating additional resources.

2. List the main advantages of PERT. List the main limitations.

3. Why might a probabilistic estimate of a project's completion time based solely on the variance of the critical path be misleading? Under what circumstances would it be acceptable?

4. Define each of these terms, and indicate how each is determined.

a. Expected activity time.

b. Variance of an activity time.

c. Standard deviation of a path's time.

5. Why might a person wish to be involved with a critical path activity? What are some of the reasons one might have for not wanting this association?

6. What are some of the potential benefits of working on a special project in one's firm? What are some of the risks?

7. What are some aspects of the project manager's job that make it more demanding than the job of a manager working in a more routine organizational framework?

8. What is the main benefit of a project organization over more traditional forms of operations management for project work?