Sem 1 Week 8 part 2

Question 1

What is a project?

Answer 1

a planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period, with a specific due date, and within certain cost and other resource limitations.

Question 2

What are the features of a project?

Answer 2

-Temporary
-Unique
-Sponsored

Question 3

What is project management?

Answer 3

The science of preparing for, delivering and controlling a bounded piece of work

Question 4

What does project management involve?

Answer 4

Assessing / controlling the scope, time and resource demands of implementation

Question 5

Where can project management techniques be applied to?

Answer 5

-University Work
-Placements
-Applied innovation
-Discontinuous company improvement work

Question 6

What is project planning and Management typically used for?

Answer 6

Tactical resource planning of one-off production, installation, construction and creation projects.

Question 7

What are key issues in project Planning and management?

Answer 7

-Work breakdown
-Determining the duration of the project
-Delays
-Effect of limited resources
-Uncertainty

Question 8

What is identified to create a project plan

Answer 8

-Scope of project
-Timescales available
-Resources available

Question 9

What is a work breakdown structure?

Answer 9

A deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project into smaller components

Question 10

What structure is used for a WBS?

Answer 10

A hierarchical structure

Question 11

What is included in the Work Breakdown Structure?

Answer 11

1. Create a tasks and Assemblies List
2. Create a list stemming from the Tasks and Assemblies called the Sub-Assemblies and Sub-Tasks
   3.Continue until the lowest level of detail needed to plan and implement the concept is reached

Question 12

What does the level of detail depend on in the Work Breakdown Structure?

Answer 12

-Complexity of the project
-Available resources for the project planning and management
-Type of project

Question 13

What are the guidelines for the Work Breakdown Structure?

Answer 13

-Too much detail may cause problems
-Tasks should not overlap
-Subtasks should not extend in more than one task

Question 14

What is the Theory of Constraints?

Answer 14

-You are only as fast as your slowest element
-You should pay attention to managing the critical path if you have to choose resources
-You should revise and update the critical path as more information becomes available to you

Question 15

What process does the theory of constraints use?

Answer 15

Five focusing steps to identify and eliminate constraints

Question 16

What are the five focusing steps?

Answer 16

-Identify the constraint
-Exploit the constraint
-Subordinate and synchronize to the constraint
-Elevate the performance of the constraint
-Repeat the process

Question 17

What are milestones?

Answer 17

Key events that are occurring and are useful reminders to include on plans.

Question 18

What are deliverables?

Answer 18

Describes the quantifiable goods or services that must be provided upon the completion of a project. They can be tangible in nature

Question 19

What is the Critical Path Method?

Answer 19

A technique for planning complex projects to allow them being completed in the shortest time possible by identifying tasks that can be carried out simultaneously

Question 20

What are the advantages of the critical path method?

Answer 20

-Reduces risks and costs of complex tasks
-Improves efficiency
-Encourages careful assessment of the requirements of each task in a project
-Helps to identify tasks with some time flexibility

Question 21

What are the Disadvantages of Critical Path Method?

Answer 21

-Reliability depending on the accuracy of estimations made
-Limited usefulness on large, complex and highly innovative projects
-Does not guarantee the success of a project
-Too many activities may require to break the project into sub-projects

Question 22

What are the sequence of steps for the Critical Path Method?

Answer 22

1. Break down the Project
2. Estimate Task Duration
3. Establish Dependencies between tasks
4. Add End Points
5. Draw the Network Diagram
6. Identify the critical Path
7. Update the critical Path to show progress

Question 23

What is float?

Answer 23

the amount of time that a task in a project can be delayed without causing a delay to subsequent tasks( free float) and the planned project completion date (Total float)

Question 24

What is the equation to find the total float?

Answer 24

Latest Start Date - Earliest Start Date

Question 25

What are the two equations for calculating free float?

Answer 25

(Earliest start Date - Earliest Finish Date) - 1

Earliest Start Date - ( Earliest start date ( current task) + Duration of current task)

Question 26

How can you tell if you are on the critical path?

Answer 26

The total float will be 0

Question 27

What is a Gnatt Chart?

Answer 27

a graphical representation of the duration of tasks with progression as time goes by.

Question 28

What are advantages of Gnatt Charts?

Answer 28

-helps coordinate activities for multiple parties
-Gives investors/managers confidence in the ability to coordinate the delivery of a product or project
-Helps to state with confidence when a product/ project will be delivered