Lecture 3

Question 1

what are work packages?

Answer 1

a subset of a project (mini project) that can be assigned to specific resources and produces a deliverable within the project

Question 2

what should work packages be?

Answer 2

small enought ot require the same resources throughout keeping track of WPs ggives a good view of the projects overall status,
large enough to lead to a verifiable outcome and form independent units of work with distinct start times and resources

Question 3

what are the three types of actrivity project breakdowns

Answer 3

major activity groups
activity subgroups
individual work pacakges

Question 4

what are the three types of breakdown

Answer 4

functional breakdown
physical breakdown
activity breakdown

Question 5

when would a functional break down be used

Answer 5

when the project takes place in a functional org.

when the PM has little authority over team members in functional units

Question 6

when would a physical breakdown be used

Answer 6

when the project decomposes naturally into independent modules (construction, softrware physical products)

Question 7

when would an acitivity breakdown be used

Answer 7

project oucome is a service

Question 8

what do node diagrams take into account

Answer 8

Task dependency on the completion of other tasks

Question 9

what is EST, LST in CPA

Answer 9

critical path analysis
earliest start time: all predecessor tasks started asap
LST: project completion delayed, started latre

Question 10

what is the total float

Answer 10

difference between LST and EST for each task, max time that task can be delayed without affecting project duration,

Question 11

what does it mean if total float is zero?

Answer 11

activity is critical - lies on critical path.

Question 12

what method can be used to calculate EST

Answer 12

forward pass method

add timing of each event + timing of predesseccor, to see earliest start time

Question 13

what can be used to calculate LST

Answer 13

backward pass, same principle as forward but start at end and work back
task finish must not delay the project completion time

Question 14

what can be used to visualise project tasks over time

Answer 14

Gantt chart

task list on the ordinate, timeline of the abscicca

Question 15

how can you translate a gantt chant?

Answer 15

tasks as bars,
milestones as diamonds
precedences as arrows

Question 16

what are the advantages of CPA and Gantt charts

Answer 16

1`. determines most likely project completion date

2. what if analysis possible (e.g. different durations.
3. visualises dependencies and tasks that can be run in parallel
4. helps to determine critical and non critical paths
5. good communication tool to clients, stakeholders etc

Question 17

what are the limitations of CPA and Gantt charts

Answer 17

1. task durations are often difficult to estimate, does not handle resources constraints, may result in excessive multi tasking, can become complex for large projects

Question 18

what are the problems with CPA and Gantt charts

Answer 18

• expensive
• many tasks cancelled before completion
• average time overrun is 222% of initial estimates
• 52.7% of projects cost on av. 189% of initial estimates
• only 16.2% of projects completed on time and on budget

Question 19

what is parkinsons law

Answer 19

tasks expand to fill the time available,
-early finish is disadvantagoues, new work, less margin in future
available extra time can be used to polish the result

Question 20

what is student syndrome?

Answer 20

margins are wasted as task start

• not started before they become critical
• cpa worsens problem through explicit lastest start times

Question 21

what is murphys law

Answer 21

unexpected will happen for sure

anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Question 22

5 reasons there are problems with gantt and cpa`

Answer 22

1. estimates include large safety margin
2. parkinsons law
3. student syndrome
4. murpheys law
5. cpa encourages multitasking

Question 23

how can cpa encouraging multitasking be abad thing

Answer 23

time lost when switching between tasks

task priorities - critical non critical

Question 24

how can we buffer management in critical chain

Answer 24

1. estimate task durations
2. determine the projects critical chains
3. include buffers to protect critical chain
4. project control

Question 25

how can estimating task durations buffer management

Answer 25

• use median task durations to match duration (50%)

no safety added to task duration, remove stigma of late finish

Question 26

how can determining the projects critical chain buffer management

Answer 26

fixed dates
custom and practise (‘task starts monday’)
no other constrains present = critical path
availibity of resources

Question 27

what buffers can be added to protect critical chain

Answer 27

1. project buffer - protects project being delayed at critical chain - inserted at end of project network
2. feeding buffers - inserted at end of task paths feeding critical chain
3. resource buffers - inserted when non critical tasks precedes a critical one and both share commojn resource