Question from Project time managemnt

Submitted by ROOPESH.SHAR on Thu, 09/19/2013 - 12:49

 Q- A schedule activity may begin 10 days before the predecessor activity finishes. This is an example of -

 

a- Finish - to - Start

b - Start - to - Finish

c- Start - to  - Start

d - Finish - to - Finish

 

Please suggest the answer with clarification.

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manasmorey

Thu, 09/19/2013 - 20:08

Good Question...


Lets Assume, Activity A is Predecessor and and B is Successor


Finish to Start: Activity A has to finish for B to start.


Start To Finish: Activity B cannot finish untill A has started.


From above it is clear these 2 are not the CORRECT options because nowhere the question says that A has to Start or Finish before B Finishes or Starts.


CORRECT Option according to me:


Start to Start: B cannot Start until A has started, which is clear from the question because it mentions B can start 10 days before A finishes which is obvious that A has already started. so for B to start 10 days before, A has to be started.


So assuming A takes 20 days to complete and B can be started after 10 days(that is 10 days before A finishes) I think this is the right option.


With the above logic Finish to Finish also sounds correct but my pick is Start to Start.


A big NOTE: I am not a PMP, still preparing for the exam. I just tried to think from whatever i have understood so far.


Cheers,


Manas


 

ROOPESH.SHAR

Fri, 09/20/2013 - 06:08

 Thanks manas.....

I thought the same way...

That Activity B can start before 10 Days of activity A finishes... so condition for Activity B to start is activity A should be started.... 

As per this way answer will be start - to Start 

-------

 

The other way of thinking is...

 

Suppose activity A is running from a long time.... Activity B may start 10 days before activity A finishes... this means We are definite about activity A finish time.... and activity B is starting with Lead of 10 days...

Activity B can not be started anytime after activity A starts

So activity B can be started only when we are definite abount the finish of activity A.

as per this logic Answer should be Finish - to - start 

 

I am still confused in Finish to start or start to start.

Note: I have just started preparing for PMP, so I might be wrong. 

 

antonyvd

Thu, 09/19/2013 - 20:11

 The answer is C,since the successor activity starts 10 days before the predecessor activity finishes.

DanP

Fri, 09/27/2013 - 17:20

The correct answer according to me is A.

The only things defined in the question are when the successor can start and when the predecessor can start.  Nothing else (other than lead time) is defined.  We don't know if the predecessor is a 1 hour task or a 1 year task.  Since the successor can start at some point in relationship to the finish of the successor it should be Finish-to-Start with a 10 day lead.

Disclaimer:  while I feel confident about this answer, I've also taken some practice tests where I've been equally confident about other answers which the test provider felt otherwise.