Case Responses

Problem 1 Answers: a) Draw a network diagram for the project. See diagram on second page (go to view network diagram) b) Mark the critical path and state its length. The critical path is in red color (go to view tracking Gantt). The length of the critical path is 18 days of duration.

c) If the Maser has to be completed 2 days earlier, would it help to: i. Buy preassembled transmissions and drive trains? Yes, however is dependent of supplier inventory ii. Install robots to halve engine-building time?

Yes, however it is dependant of the existing technology from the manufacturer, a cpst analysis would be necessary to take the decision. iii. Speed delivery of special accessories by 3 days? Yes, if the company is willing to pay the expedite charges; the lead time could be reduce considerably. d) How might resources be borrowed from activities on the non-critical path to speed activities on the critical path? With the proper resource leveling additional team members could be allocated to help on the critical path.

The intent is not to over allocate resources. Problem 2 Answers: 1.

Identify the critical path and its activities for Rockfest. How long does the project take? With the information provided, the project will take 34 weeks to complete. The critical path is in red color.

2. Which activities have a slack time of 8 weeks or more? With the information provided and the dependencies that I created based on my assumptions, these are the tasks that have more than 8wk slack time: Task P (finalize sponsors). Since there are a lot of activities that are not linked (successors), it is somewhat difficult to predict additional activities with > 8wk slack time. . Identify five major challenges a project manager faces in events such as this one.

i. Rain delays in the construction. ii. Government agency permits for construction delays. iii. Telecommuting with team members to make sure action items are progressing as planned.

iv. Unknowns which are a common things in project, due to its temporary nature and uniqueness. v. Conflicts within the team, etc. 4.

Why is a work breakdown structure useful in a project such as this? Take the 26 activities and break them into what you think should be level 2, level 3 and level 4 tasks.

WBS is the structured method that defines the scope of the project. It captures all the work to be done in the project. The project can be decomposed in many levels; the recommended level of decomposition is 4, this is where the work packages are defined. Level 2 decomposition (level 1 is the overall project name): [pic] Level 3 Decomposition (partial example from the Gantt chart): [pic] Level 4 Decomposition (partial example from the Gantt chart): Here I had to create on the Marketing tasks the activities because it was not define, and with this I cover the example.