Lecture 15 - Project Management Planning & the Critical Path Method

Question 1

What are the Roles of a Project Manager?

Answer 1

1. ) Plan - identify deliverables and tasks (quality of solution), estimate labour costs, schedule delivery of solution (schedule)
2. ) Organize - acquire and assign resources against deliverables and tasks, delegate responsibility and negotiate fulfillment criteria, designate lines of communication and reporting, create a control center and infrastructure for the team to do work
3. ) Control - monitor progress and update estimates of quality, cost, schedule, and Identify and resolve issues and problems
4. ) Lead - Initiate, broadcast values, set an example

Question 2

What are the steps in the Critical Path Method (CPM)? (6 Steps)

Answer 2

1. Identify all the tasks for the project and build work breakdown structure (WBS)
2. Determine the duration of each task
3. For each task, identify any immediate predecessor tasks (i.e. dependencies)
4. Create a PERT chart
5. Create a Gantt chart
6. Allocate resources (including resource-levelling)

Question 3

What types of task dependencies are possible?

Answer 3

The dependencies represent logical constraints
‘Task 2’ can start as soon as ‘Task 1’ finishes; F=>S (0)
• E.g. testing starts only code development completes
‘Task 2’ can start as soon as ‘Task 1’ starts; S=>S (0)
‘Task 2’ can finish at least three days after ‘Task 1’ finishes; F=>F (3)
‘Task 2’ can finish at least five days after ‘Task 1’ starts ; S=>F (5)

Question 4

What tasks are on the critical path?

Answer 4

Tasks with Slack = 0 are on the critical path

Question 5

What is a Gantt chart?

Answer 5

o Gantt charts allow us to view project tasks on a calendar
o Need to define the calendar: working days and hours
o Task scheduling is driven from the PERT

Question 6

What is resource allocation? (6 Steps)

Answer 6

o Define the resources to be used in the project
o Plan the availability of resources
o Estimate required resources for each task
o For each resource: sum up the demand over time
o For each resource: compare demand against availability
o Resolve resource conflict

Question 7

WBS

Answer 7

The hierarchy of work units is referred to as a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
o Each task is assigned a WBS code

Question 8

PERT

Answer 8

PERT = Program Evaluation and Review Technique
o PERT is a method for visualizing and analyzing the project plan
• PERT identifies the project’s bottleneck (ie. ‘critical path’)

Question 9

Steps in completing a PERT chart:

Answer 9

1. Model the given tasks, durations, and dependencies:
2. Calculate early start times
3. Calculate late start times
4. Calculate slack
5. Identify the critical path

Question 10

Different classes of resources

Effort:

Answer 10

Effort: determines task duration

 E.g. programming hours of effort

Question 11

Different classes of resources

Cost:

Answer 11

Cost: separate and independent from task duration

 E.g. Purchase raw material

Question 12

Two approaches for resolving resource conflicts:

Answer 12

1.) Add more resources, in an effort to shorten project duration
• “Crashing” the schedule
2.) Resource leveling: assume resources cannot be added
• Spread activities to resolve conflict
• Try to delay the project as little as possible
• Try to avoid delaying tasks on the critical path