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CAPM Practice: Demonstrate an understanding of a project management plan schedule

Question 25 of 85 in Demonstrate an understanding of a project management plan schedule

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A project manager develops a schedule using bottom-up estimating. This approach:

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Correct answer: Estimates the duration of individual activities and rolls them up to create the overall project duration

Explanation

Bottom-up estimating builds the schedule from the activity level — estimating each individual work package or activity, then aggregating these estimates upward through the WBS to arrive at the total project duration. It is more accurate than top-down methods but takes more time and information to perform.

**Why not A:** Using historical data from similar projects describes analogous estimating (top-down), not bottom-up estimating. Analogous estimating works from the project level down, while bottom-up estimating works from individual activities up.

**Why not B:** Using expert judgment to estimate overall duration in one step describes a top-down or rough order of magnitude approach. Bottom-up estimating specifically requires decomposing work into individual activities and estimating each one separately.

**Why not D:** Applying a mathematical formula based on project parameters describes parametric estimating, which uses statistical relationships between variables to calculate estimates. Bottom-up estimating is detail-driven, not formula-driven.

Key Concept

This question covers Demonstrate an understanding of a project management plan schedule under Demonstrate an understanding of a project management plan schedule (Predictive, Plan-Based Methodologies).

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