IPA IP 2023 Question 45

A question IPA Japan published in 令和5年度 ITパスポート試験公開問題問45, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.

In project management, it is required to balance competing constraints such as schedule, cost, and quality. Which of the following is an appropriate response when it has been decided to shorten the planned development schedule?

a)Consider meeting the schedule even if the cost increases through the addition of resources.b)Consider meeting the schedule by enhancing the functionality of the system to be provided.c)Consider meeting the schedule by expanding the target scope of the project.d)Consider meeting the schedule by reducing the project members.

Explanation

Add resources, accepting a higher cost — schedule, cost and quality (with scope) pull against each other, so a shorter schedule has to be paid for with one of the others.

Shortening the schedule leaves the same work less time. The work can be finished sooner only if more people or other resources do it in parallel (crashing the schedule, which raises the cost), or if there is less work to do (a smaller scope, which the stakeholders must agree to). Weighing the extra cost of added resources against keeping the new schedule is exactly the balancing of competing constraints the stem describes.

Answer (a)

Why not others:

•(b) — higher functionality means more design, coding and testing, which takes more time, not less
•(c) — a wider scope adds work; to save time the scope would have to be narrowed, not expanded
•(d) — fewer members means less capacity for the same work, so the schedule grows longer

Key rule: With competing constraints, gaining on one costs another: a shorter schedule needs more resources (higher cost) or less scope, never more work done by fewer people.

Project Management · AI-written, may contain errors

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This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.