Chapter 3 Flashcards
What is a project?
A series of related tasks directed toward a major output
What are the three phases of project management?
Planning (goal setting, defining project, and team organization)
Scheduling (Allocating time, people and money)
Controlling (monitor costs quality and budget)
When is project management most helpful?
- Work tasks can be defined with speficic goal and deadline
- Job is unique/unfamiliar
- Work contains complex interrelated tasks requiring specialized skills
- The project is temporary, but critical
- Project cuts across organizational lines
What are project managers responsible for?
- All necessary activiies are finished in proper sequence and on time
- the project is within budget
- meets quality goals
- motivates/directs team members
What is a work breakdown structure?
A hierarchial description of a project into more and more detailed components
What are the levels of the WBS?
- Project
- Major tasks
- Sbtasks
- Activities
What happens at the project scheduling level?
managers decide how long each activity will take and compute the resources needed.
What is a Gantt chart?
Planning charts used to schedule resources and allocate time.
What are the characteristics of gant charts?
Low cost, doesn’t show task precedence or interrelationship
What two techniques were developed in the 50s to help managers schedule monitor and control large and complex projects?
Program evaulation and review technique (PERT)
critical path method (CPM)
What is the major difference between the PERT and CPM
PERT uses three time estimates
CPM only has one
What is the major step in PERT/CPM?
- Compute the longest time path through the network (Critical Path)
What are two ways to divide the significant activites into a project network?
Activity on Node
Activity on Arrow
What is the differences between AON and AOA?
Under AON nodes=activities
Under AOA arrows=activities (nodes are simply starting and finish times)
