Let me take a stab at it, I love these puzzle PMP exam questions. As always, let's see if we can eliminate two answers by carefully reviewing what data we are given. The graph is total effort for all staff members, if I'm reading that correctly. The answers given:
A - The project can probably not be finished as scheduled.
B - You may be able to finish the project early by reassigning work.
C - You should avoid network logic diagramming for scheduling.
D - You may run into problems with dual reporting relationships.
I would eliminate C and D as both of these seem to provide conclusions that we cannot infer from this graph, which only gives us staff utilization by week for the project. [C] sequencing cannot be deduced from a histogram and [D] is more team management and organizational theory, neither of which can be gleaned from the histogram. So now down to A & B and both seem plausible because we are drawing conclusions and inferences based on resource / staff utilization. The question then is do we think it can't be finished or that it could possibly be finished if we were to smooth or reassign activities.
The key to answering these questions is to deal with what you are faced with, not with some potential. What is proactive? What moves the project forward with the tools you have at your disposal? The tool in this case is our histogram and it's telling us (data analysis) that our staff is grossly over-utilized. Some of these weeks reach 150% utilization. Most weeks have the staff at or above 100%. (15 out of 20).
Now what about answer B? This is where most candidates fail the exam when encountering these situational questions. No one likes to admit something has gone wrong with the project because we feel that the PM will take the blame. We want to make it right. However, this is not dealing with the problem proactively. Given these gross staff over-utilization percentages, trying to reassign tasks is simply a backhanded way of not dealing with the problem proactively, it is a delaying-tactic. Avoid answers that have the PM being the (data) hero. The other problem with B is that we have to draw some pretty fuzzy conclusions about how we would reassign activities and since we don’t have a breakout by resource we have no way of knowing if reassignment would work. Let’s not live in a fantasy world. Staff is grossly over-utilized, we need to bring on more staff or add more time or re-estimate activities or find the root cause of our staff over-utilization.
Given this clear data, its is mostly likely that the project cannot be finished as scheduled (A). See how making this decision drives the project forward? We need more staff, more time. It's either look back at activities, get more resources or get more time. So we move forward with making that decision! Go! Go! Go!
Final answer (A).
So much fun!
