Project Monitoring and Control MCQ with answer and solution

Concept

Line of Balance (LOB) is a planning and control method made for repetitive work such as housing units, floors of high-rise buildings, highways and pipelines.

Formula

Production rate = number of units completed / time taken

Step-by-step solution

1. Repetitive operations mean the same set of activities is repeated in many units. 2. Gantt and bar charts show only start and finish times. They do not show the rate of progress across units. 3. A precedence diagram shows logic between activities, but it becomes very large for repeated units. 4. Line of Balance shows the progress and production rate of each activity across all units, and it checks whether progress is on target. 5. So the answer is (B) Line of balance.

Explanation

LOB is made for projects where the same work repeats many times. It shows the rate of production of each activity and compares actual progress with planned progress. So it gives better information for repetitive operations than bar charts or network diagrams.

Why the other options are wrong

(A) Gantt chart and (D) Bar chart only show activity duration, not the rate of repetition or unit-wise progress. (C) Precedence diagram shows logic, but it becomes too big and complex for many repeated units.

Shortcut

Repetitive work = Line of Balance.

Common mistake

Choosing the Gantt/bar chart because it is simple. It cannot show the production rate across repeated units.