Unit 13: Managing Costs - Practice Quiz

1 What does the total cost of a task generally include?

2 How is the total cost of a work resource generally determined?

3 What is a fixed cost in project management software?

4 Which table is commonly used to review task costs in Microsoft Project?

5 What does the total project cost represent?

6 Which feature can provide a summary of the project's total cost?

7 Why should a cost baseline be saved before tracking begins?

8 If the costs of individual tasks increase, what will usually happen to the total project cost?

9 Which formula is commonly used to calculate cost variance in project scheduling software?

10 What does a positive cost variance usually indicate when variance is calculated as current cost minus baseline cost?

11 What does a negative cost variance usually indicate when variance is current cost minus baseline cost?

12 At which levels can cost variance be reviewed?

13 What does timephased cost data show?

14 What is a timephased baseline cost?

15 What does actual cost represent?

16 Which view type is useful for examining costs across specific time periods?

17 A resource performs hours of overtime at an overtime rate of per hour. What is the overtime cost?

18 Which formula calculates overtime cost?

19 What is a likely result of updating a resource's pay rate?

20 When project progress is updated, which cost value records the expense already incurred?

21 A task has 16 hours of work assigned to a resource whose standard rate is $40 per hour. The task also has a fixed cost of $200. What is the task's total cost?

22 A resource charges $30 per hour and has a $50 cost per use. The resource is assigned for 10 hours to one task and 15 hours to another task. What is the resource's total cost?

23 A task uses 25 units of material at $8 per unit and 6 hours of labor at $50 per hour. There is no fixed cost. What is the total task cost?

24 A project contains summary tasks and their subtasks. Which method correctly calculates total cost without double-counting?

25 Three lowest-level tasks have current costs of $1,200, $1,800, and $2,500. A project-level fixed cost of $500 is entered on the project summary task. What is the total project cost?

26 A project baseline was saved at $80,000. New approved work costing $6,000 is added, but the project is not rebaselined. What should happen?

27 Which feature is most suitable for quickly reviewing current, baseline, actual, and remaining cost totals for the whole project?

28 A task has a baseline cost of $2,400 and a current cost of $2,700. Using the standard Cost Variance field, where , what is the result?

29 A resource has a baseline cost of $5,000 and a current cost of $4,600 across all assignments. What is the resource's cost variance?

30 An assignment was baselined for 30 hours at $60 per hour. It now has 20 hours of actual work and 15 hours of remaining work at the same rate. What is its cost variance?

31 A task's total cost variance is high, and the project manager needs to identify which resource assignment caused it. What is the most appropriate approach?

32 A task has baseline costs of $1,000 in week 1, $1,500 in week 2, and $500 in week 3. Actual costs through the end of week 2 are $900 and $1,700. What is the cumulative actual-minus-baseline difference through week 2?

33 Which setup best supports comparing planned and actual costs for each week of a task?

34 A task's $1,000 baseline cost was planned entirely in week 1. The same $1,000 actual cost occurred entirely in week 2. Which interpretation is correct?

35 An assignment has 48 hours of total work, including 8 hours of overtime work. The standard rate is $25 per hour and the overtime rate is $40 per hour. What is the total assignment cost?

36 A resource completes 6 overtime hours at an overtime rate of $45 per hour. What amount is recorded as the overtime cost?

37 A resource performs 20 regular hours at $30 per hour and 5 overtime hours at $50 per hour. A $100 cost per use applies to the assignment. What is the total cost?

38 A task has 20 hours of work at $50 per hour. After updating the task, 12 hours are actual work and 8 hours remain. Assuming automatic cost calculation and no rate changes, which cost values are correct?

39 A resource's standard rate is $40 per hour until June 30 and $50 per hour starting July 1. An assignment schedules 10 hours in June and 10 hours in July. What is the updated labor cost?

40 A project has a baseline cost of $2,200, an actual cost of $1,400, and a remaining cost of $900. The remaining forecast is then increased by $300. What are the updated current cost and cost variance?

41 A task has a fixed cost of $1,200. Resource A performs 30 hours at $80/hour and Resource B performs 24 regular hours at $60/hour plus 6 overtime hours at $90/hour. Resource B also has a $150 per-use cost. What is the task's total cost?

42 A material resource has a rate of $12 per unit and a per-use cost of $80. It is assigned 150 units to one task and 50 units to another task. Assuming each assignment triggers the per-use cost once, what total resource cost rolls up to the project?

43 A summary task contains two subtasks costing $8,000 and $11,500. A separate recurring summary task is shown only as a grouping row and has no assignments or fixed cost of its own. What action correctly increases the summary total by $2,500 without double-counting resource costs?

44 A resource has an effective-dated standard rate of $50/hour through June 30 and $65/hour beginning July 1. One assignment contains 16 regular hours on June 30 and 24 regular hours on July 1. Ignoring other charges, what is the assignment cost?

45 A project contains three top-level deliverables with costs of $42,000, $31,500, and $26,500. A project-level contingency of $5,000 is represented by a separate task. The first deliverable is also displayed through a custom grouping, but grouping rows do not add cost. What is the entire project cost?

46 The project summary task shows Cost = $480,000 and Baseline Cost = $450,000. An approved but unbaselined scope addition costs $20,000, while unrelated overhead of $12,000 is tracked outside the project file. What cost variance should the project file report?

47 A project has Actual Cost = $210,000 and Remaining Cost = $145,000. Management approves a $25,000 increase in remaining work, but no new baseline is saved. What are the resulting Cost and Baseline Cost if the original baseline was $330,000?

48 An assignment has Baseline Cost = $9,600, Actual Cost = $7,200, and Remaining Cost = $3,100. Using the standard project Cost Variance definition, what is its cost variance?

49 A task contains two assignments. Assignment X has Cost = $18,000 and Baseline Cost = $20,000. Assignment Y has Cost = $27,500 and Baseline Cost = $24,000. The task also has an unbaselined fixed cost of $1,000. What is the task's total cost variance?

50 A resource's assignment variances are $-1,200, $900, and $650. A fourth assignment has current Cost = $4,000 but no baseline. Assuming an absent baseline contributes zero baseline cost, what variance rolls up for the resource?

51 A task's Cost Variance is $6,000 unfavorable. After correcting a mistakenly high remaining-work estimate, current Cost falls by $4,500. Its baseline is unchanged. What is the revised variance?

52 A task's timephased baseline cost is $8,000 in Week 1, $12,000 in Week 2, and $10,000 in Week 3. At the end of Week 2, timephased actual costs are $9,000 and $10,500, respectively. What is the cumulative actual-versus-baseline difference through the status date?

53 A $6,000 fixed cost is accrued at task completion. The baseline schedules completion in Week 3, but actual completion occurs in Week 4. Which timephased pattern is correct if the same completion-accrual rule applies to baseline and actual cost?

54 A task has a baseline cost of $40,000 spread uniformly across four weeks. It starts one week late, but the baseline is not changed. By the end of calendar Week 2, only one week of work has occurred and Actual Cost is $9,000. What are cumulative baseline cost and actual cost through Week 2?

55 A task has timephased Baseline Cost values of $5,000, $7,000, and $8,000 for Weeks 1-3. Actual Cost values are $4,800, $7,600, and $0. At the end of Week 2, which statement is correct?

56 An assignment records 46 total work hours, of which 8 are explicitly designated as overtime work. The standard rate is $55/hour and the overtime rate is $82/hour. What is the labor cost?

57 A resource works 12 hours on a day with an 8-hour calendar. The assignment records 12 hours of Work but 0 hours of Overtime Work. The standard rate is $40/hour and the overtime rate is $70/hour. Under explicit overtime accounting, what cost is calculated?

58 A resource performs 20 regular hours and 6 overtime hours. The standard rate is $50/hour, the overtime rate is $75/hour, and a $120 per-use cost applies once to the assignment. What is the assignment's total cost?

59 A resource assignment originally has 100 hours of work at $60/hour. After 40 hours are reported complete, the remaining work is revised from 60 to 45 hours, with rates unchanged. What are Actual Cost, Remaining Cost, and total Cost under automatic cost calculation?

60 Actual costs are being calculated automatically from actual work. A manager needs to enter invoice-based actual costs that differ from work-derived values. Which change is required before those actual costs can be entered directly without immediate recalculation?