Module 2: Building a project plan

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In this post, I provide complete, accurate, and detailed explanations for the answers to Module 2: Building a project plan of Course 3: Project Planning: Putting It All Together – Google Project Management: Professional Certificate.

Whether you’re preparing for quizzes or brushing up on your knowledge, these insights will help you master the concepts effectively. Let’s dive into the correct answers and detailed explanations for each question!

Test your knowledge: Getting started with a project plan

Practice Assignment

1. Which of the following is true of project plans? Select all that apply.

  • They are a compilation of a project’s documents that the project team uses to carry out project activities. ✅
  • They contain an explanation of why a project may not meet its goals.
  • They are a living artifact that serves as a roadmap for your team throughout the project. ✅
  • Their central component is a project schedule. ✅

Explanation:
A project plan compiles all necessary documents that guide the team in executing tasks effectively. It is a “living artifact,” meaning it evolves as the project progresses and serves as a roadmap for the team. The central component is the project schedule, which estimates the time required for tasks and tracks progress.

The statement “They contain an explanation of why a project may not meet its goals” is incorrect, as project plans are primarily forward-looking and positive, focusing on achieving objectives rather than dwelling on potential failures.

2. What are the basic elements that make up a project plan?

  • Tasks, milestones, people, documentation, and time ✅
  • Time estimation, effort estimation, buffer, and sub-tasks
  • Initiation, planning, managing, and execution
  • Stakeholder information, project proposal, tools, and resources

Explanation:
A project plan’s fundamental elements include tasks (work to be completed), milestones (key checkpoints), people (team members involved), documentation (supporting materials), and time (schedule or deadlines). These elements ensure proper planning and execution. The other options mix unrelated concepts or focus on specific methodologies that are not universal to all project plans.

3. As a project manager, you create a project plan. In the plan are tasks with clear descriptions, owners, and due dates. In which section of the project plan do these tasks reside?

  • Work breakdown structure (WBS) ✅
  • Scope and goals
  • Budget
  • Management plans

Explanation:
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the section of the project plan where tasks are broken down into smaller, manageable pieces. It includes detailed task descriptions, assigned owners, and due dates. This structure helps organize the project’s scope and ensures all work is accounted for.

4. As a project manager, you create a project plan. In the plan are documents that help keep a project organized and on track, particularly if a risk arises or a change occurs. In which section of the project plan are these documents linked?

  • Work breakdown structure (WBS)
  • Project scope and goals
  • Budget
  • Management plans ✅

Explanation:
Management plans in a project plan include documents that help address risks, changes, and other uncertainties. Linking these documents ensures that the team stays organized and can adapt effectively when issues arise. The other sections focus on different project components like scope or budget and do not typically house risk or change management documents.

Test your knowledge: Utilizing tools to build a project plan

Practice Quiz

5. Gantt charts give project teams a visual representation of project tasks. What else do Gantt charts include?

  • Roles and responsibilities
  • Due dates, durations, and milestones ✅
  • Stakeholder contact information and budget items
  • Resources, deliverables, and success metrics

6. What tool can a project manager use for organizing all aspects of a complex project?

  • Work management software ✅
  • Email
  • A calendar
  • A digital document

7. Which project management tool uses cards to track and visualize task progress?

  • A Kanban board ✅
  • Smartsheet
  • A spreadsheet
  • A Gantt chart

8. When creating cards for a Kanban board, which items should go on the front of the card? Select all that apply.

  • Description of work ✅
  • Blocked days
  • Who is assigned to the task ✅
  • Title and unique identifier ✅

Module 2 Challenge

Graded Quiz

9. Which of the following are included in the project plan? Select all that apply.

  • Retrospectives
  • Tasks ✅
  • People ✅
  • Documentation ✅
  • Time ✅

10. What tools can a project manager use to account for issues that may cause a project delay? Select all that apply.

  • Task buffer ✅
  • Sub-tasks
  • Gantt chart
  • Project buffer ✅

11. A project manager is leading an initiative that includes changing an organization's logo and slogan. What mandatory tasks should be part of the critical path? Select all that apply.

  • Get employees to respond positively in a survey
  • Set a budget ✅
  • Determine a new slogan ✅
  • Receive sponsor approval ✅

12. Which of the following scenarios exemplify how a project manager can use interpersonal skills? Select all that apply.

  • The person on your team in charge of contracts now needs to split their work time with another team. You request a meeting with that team’s project manager to identify if any of their project deliverable dates are competing with your project’s timeline. ✅
  • You’re managing a project with team members who are on multiple projects. You asked the team members to prioritize your project because you know there are many overlapping due dates.
  • The timeline is set for the Office Green project. You tell the web designer on Wednesday that you’ll need a complete mock up for the site by Friday.
  • The web designer on your project tells you that they’re not sure they can meet the deadline for all the mock up pages. You ask the designer some questions about the project, such as what amount of time they need for each page mock so you can help prioritize what is feasible. ✅

13. What are the benefits of a Gantt chart? Select all that apply.

  • It displays comments from stakeholders
  • It allows easy communication between teammates
  • It shows when tasks are due for a project ✅
  • It has a clear breakdown of who’s responsible for what work ✅
  • It’s a highly visual representation of the project’s tasks ✅
  • It features the start and end dates of each task ✅

14. Imagine you’re a project manager helping a car company with a new vehicle launch. Your project goal is to ensure vehicle delivery to dealerships. To achieve this, you speak with stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand the granular details of the project. This information helps you know what steps to take to best achieve the project goal. This example includes which project plan best practice?

  • Recognize and plan for the inevitable.
  • Give yourself time to plan.
  • Carefully understand project deliverables, milestones, and tasks. ✅
  • Achieve buy-in from your team members for your plan.

15. Which of the following is a best practice when estimating the project timeline? Select all that apply.

  • Escalate any timeline concerns to stakeholders. ✅
  • Be thorough during the planning process. ✅
  • Work quickly through the planning process to get the project started.
  • Prove competency by trying to resolve timeline concerns without input.

16. Fill in the blank: The _____ is the tendency to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a task.

  • planning fallacy ✅
  • confirmation bias
  • anchoring bias
  • feedback fallacy

17. Imagine you’re a project manager creating a critical path. Your stakeholders request the earliest and latest start dates for each task. What is a strategy to make this time estimate?

  • Use the forward pass or backward pass method. ✅
  • Review the project goals.
  • Develop a RACI chart.
  • Create a list of dependencies.

18. Fill in the blank: A Kanban board utilizes cards placed in columns to _____.

  • manage tasks ✅
  • organize documents
  • estimate the budget
  • set the timeline

19. You create a new project plan for your company’s staff training program. Which component of the project plan tracks the charter, budget, and RACI chart?

  • Timeline
  • Tasks
  • Documentation ✅
  • Milestones

20. Fill in the blank: Time estimation predicts the total amount of time required to complete a task, while the actual time it takes to complete a task _____.

  • may vary depending on overlooked potential risks ✅
  • depends on stakeholder input
  • is not relevant
  • shouldn’t change

21. You create a list of tasks for a project and determine which tasks the team must complete before another task can begin. What type of tasks have you identified?

  • Milestones
  • Dependencies ✅
  • Subtasks 
  • Critical paths

22. As a project manager, you use interpersonal skills to lead your team effectively. You ask the right questions and negotiate effectively with your team on a daily basis. What is a third important interpersonal skill you can use?

  • Decrease feedback
  • Practice empathy ✅
  • Increase expectations
  • Perform reviews

23. What type of chart can you create to communicate the project schedule to your team effectively?

  • Gantt Chart ✅
  • Risk Chart
  • SOW Chart
  • RACI Chart

24. As a project manager, you schedule regular meetings with your team throughout the project to ask questions about the tasks and learn more about their skill sets. What project plan best practice does this represent?

  • Giving yourself time to plan
  • Championing your plan
  • Staying curious ✅
  • Recognizing and planning for the inevitable

25. As a project manager, you realize that with the current timeline, it’s unlikely you will meet the project deadline. Which of the following strategies could help you to meet the deadline? Select all that apply.

  • Revise the project schedule without stakeholder approval.
  • Identify tasks that can be done in parallel. ✅
  • Eliminate any unnecessary tasks. ✅
  • Request more resources, such as an additional team member. ✅

26. As a project manager, you estimate a task to take two days. Your team actually took five days to complete the task. What describes the tendency that caused you to underestimate the time for the task?

  • Pessimism bias
  • Opinion bias
  • Feedback fallacy
  • Planning fallacy ✅

27. When creating a critical path, what does a network diagram help visualize? Select all that apply.

  • Which non-essential tasks are not on the critical path ✅
  • The path of work from the start to the end of the project ✅
  • The tasks that can be performed in parallel ✅
  • Which skilled teammate can work on each task

28. Which of the following is a visual tool a project manager can use to manage tasks and workflows?

  • Kanban board ✅
  • Stakeholder power grid
  • RACI chart
  • Project charter

29. You create a new project plan for your company’s staff training program. Which component of the project plan tracks the project’s estimated launch date, start date, and end date?

  • Time ✅
  • Relevant documentation
  • Milestones
  • Tasks

30. A project manager creates a task to have 100 books delivered to the company’s library. In the planning phase, how can the project manager account for the potential delays from the vendor?

  • Communicate with the vendor daily.
  • Add a project buffer. ✅
  • Split the delivery task into subtasks for the vendor.
  • Limit the number of books delivered.

31. In project planning, float is the amount of time a task can be delayed past its earliest start date without impacting the project. How much float is allowed for tasks on the critical path?

  • One month
  • One day
  • One week
  • Zero days ✅

32. You are meeting with a teammate to get an estimate for a website launch page design. What question can you ask your teammate to get an accurate time estimate for the task?

  • Can you allocate some time to work on the design this week?
  • Can you turn the design of the web page in by tonight?
  • How long does it typically take to mockup a website design like this one? ✅
  • Is this the only project you are currently working on?

33. Which of the following strategies would help a team meet a project deadline? Select all that apply.

  • Eliminate unnecessary tasks. ✅
  • Increase the team size. ✅
  • Rush through task planning.
  • Streamline tasks. ✅

34. What steps can a project manager take to overcome the planning fallacy? Select all that apply.

  • Consider all risks and carefully examine them. ✅
  • Increase the project’s budget.
  • Expand the project’s scope.
  • Meet with teammates to uncover potential risks. ✅

35. As a project manager, you create a critical path. You have identified the tasks and determined the dependencies. What is the next step to successfully complete the charter?

  • Conduct a forward pass of the network diagram.
  • Start the execution of the project.
  • Contact project vendors to start their work.
  • Develop completion estimates and verify with stakeholders. ✅

36. When creating a project plan, you include important points within the schedule that indicate progress. Which project plan component does this represent?

  • Milestones ✅
  • Relevant documentation
  • Tasks
  • Time

37. What is a typical consequence of overly optimistic task time estimates in the project planning phase?

  • The team can clearly communicate potential risks for the project.
  • Stakeholders and project sponsors leave the project.
  • You overlook potential risks that delay your plans. ✅
  • You create accurate estimates that increase team morale.

38. What is capacity in project management?

  • The estimated length of time it will take for the project team to complete project milestones
  • The prediction of the amount of budget to be allocated to complete the project tasks.
  • The total number of people involved in the project
  • The amount of work that people assigned to the project can reasonably complete in a set period of time ✅

39. What are the benefits of a Gantt chart? Select all that apply.

  • It shows when tasks are due for a project. ✅
  • It has a clear breakdown of who is responsible for what work. ✅
  • It displays comments from stakeholders.
  • It is a highly visual representation of the project’s tasks. ✅

40. As a project manager, you are responsible for creating the project plan. You communicate the project schedule with your team members and identify task buffers for specific items on the schedule. What project plan best practice does this represent?

  • Giving yourself time to plan
  • Recognizing and planning for the inevitable ✅
  • Championing your plan
  • Staying curious

41. You are a project manager working to build a new house. You consider the upcoming storm forecast in your construction plan. How can you mitigate the storm disruption in the project planning stage?

  • Keep a positive attitude for the team.
  • Add task buffers for the tasks that occur during the storm. ✅
  • Remind team members that they will need to complete tasks during the storm.
  • Assign more tasks to team members.

42. Tools like Gantt charts and Kanban boards help benefit team members in what ways? Select all that apply.

  • They can translate project contracts like the statement of work (SOW) into number and dollar amounts.
  • They can illustrate when they need to complete their individual tasks. ✅
  • They provide clear context about work project details. ✅
  • They can demonstrate how their individual tasks connect to other tasks in the project. ✅

43. You are a project manager helping a car company with a new vehicle launch. Your project goal is to ensure vehicle delivery to dealerships. To achieve this, you speak with stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand the specific details of the project. This information helps you know what steps to take to best achieve the project goal. This example includes which project plan best practice?

  • Recognize and plan for the inevitable.
  • Carefully understand project deliverables, milestones, and tasks. ✅
  • Give yourself time to plan.
  • Achieve buy-in from your team members for your plan.

44. During the planning phase, you notice the project needs more developers to complete the project tasks within the timeline. Which of the following steps can you take to ensure the project can still be completed on time?

  • Assign as many tasks as you can to the teammates before they burn out.
  • Don’t raise any concerns vocally and maintain the belief you will make the timeline.
  • Communicate your concern to the team and ask for more resources on the project. ✅
  • Document your concern about the project and focus on motivating your team.

45. You create a new project plan for your company’s staff training program. Which component of the project plan tracks team member activities?

  • Milestones
  • Time
  • Relevant documentation
  • Tasks ✅

46. As a project manager, you create timeline estimates for multiple tasks and assign them to team members. How can you decide which tasks to start first?

  • Identify which tasks the team can execute in parallel. ✅
  • Assign the tasks to the team members based on their interests.
  • Complete the largest task first and then the smaller tasks.
  • Randomly assign tasks so that the workload is fairly distributed.

47. As a project manager, how realistic should you be when planning tasks for a project?

  • Creatively
  • Pessimistically
  • Optimistically ✅
  • Overly

48. What type of project methodology typically uses Kanban boards to manage tasks?

  • Waterfall methodology
  • Computing methodology
  • Agile methodology ✅
  • Timeline Methodology

49. Fill in the blank: The main difference between effort estimation and time estimation is that time estimation includes _____.

  • vendor time
  • marketing time
  • inactive time ✅
  • stakeholder time

50. As a project manager, you notice a high number of uncompleted tasks. These open tasks could cause a delay in the project timeline. Which of the following steps will ensure the team still meets the deadlines?

  • Execute proper tasks in parallel. ✅
  • Execute all tasks sequentially.
  • Combine relevant subtasks into one large task.
  • Identify the tasks with a fixed start date.

51. As a project manager, you are midway through the execution phase and notice there are still many tasks to complete for the project. How can you help ensure the project can still be completed on time?

  • Document the concerns about the task list and instruct your team to work faster.
  • Review the task list with team members and stakeholders to eliminate unnecessary work. ✅
  • Keep quiet about your concerns and be more optimistic to help the team.
  • Assign more tasks to team members who appear to have time available.

52. Which of the following are some steps to create a critical path? Select all that apply.

  • Set dependencies. ✅
  • Make time estimates. ✅
  • Create a network diagram. ✅
  • Consult your main customer.

53. In a Kanban board, what type of information is typically stored on the cards?

  • Budget of the project task
  • Status of the tasks such as: to do, in progress, done
  • Retrospective team notes on the project
  • Information required to complete the task ✅

54. Which of the following strategies follow project plan best practices? Select all that apply.

  • Ask yourself if the information in your plan is clear enough for stakeholders to understand. ✅
  • Ask your team members to identify risks that will most likely occur, and create plans to prevent or mitigate those risks. ✅
  • Ask your team members daily if they are able to meet the deadlines they have for their tasks.
  • Ask team members questions about their work to gain deeper insights into their tasks for the project. ✅

55. A project manager notices a teammate provides a time estimate for a task that is higher than expected. The project manager learns the cause is due to personal reasons. The project manager listens and communicates with the team member to plan new options to meet the deadline. What interpersonal communication skill did the project manager use?

  • Negotiating effectively
  • Using patience
  • Asking the right questions
  • Practicing empathy ✅

56. What type of document will you create to highlight tasks, assignments, and the timeline of a project?

  • Team retrospective
  • Risk assessment
  • Project plan ✅
  • Project proposal

57. Which of the following should you include in a project plan that are essential for project success? Select all that apply.

  • Links to tasks in previously successful projects
  • Specifically who are completing what tasks ✅
  • A timeline of when the team will complete the tasks ✅
  • All project tasks ✅

58. What is a strategy to overcome the planning fallacy?

  • Expand the project scope.
  • Add task buffers. ✅
  • Increase the budget.
  • Add additional teammates.

59. Fill in the blank: To determine the _____ of a project, list the milestones you must reach in order to meet the project goal on schedule.

  • capacity planning details
  • critical path ✅
  • float time
  • dependencies

60. As a project manager, you are the main supporter of your project plan. You explain to teammates why it benefits them to stay on top of the project plan. You hope that this persuades the team to support the plan and update it regularly. What project plan best practice does this represent?

  • Recognizing and planning for the inevitable
  • Championing your plan ✅
  • Staying curious
  • Giving yourself time to plan

61. You create a critical path and list all the tasks required to complete the project. What document can you use as a reference to help create this list?

  • RACI chart
  • Subtask planning list (SPL)
  • SOW chart
  • Work breakdown structure (WBS) ✅

Related contents:

Module 1: Beginning the planning phase
Module 3: Managing budgeting and procurement
Module 4: Managing risks effectively
Module 5: Organizing communication and documentation

You might also like:

Course 1: Foundations of Project Management
Course 2: Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project
Course 4: Project Execution: Running the Project
Course 5: Agile Project Management
Course 6: Capstone: Applying Project Management in the Real World

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