W11 Project Management

Question 1

Programme

Answer 1

A collection of projects

Question 2

Project management

Answer 2

• Organize complex, coupled processes
• Establish schedule and plan
• Manage budget and control costs
• Promote teamwork and collaboration
• Manage integration and operate at a higher level with business, marketing, sales,
  customers
• Retain knowledge/Learn from failure

Question 3

Gannt Charts Advantages

Answer 3

• Simple to draw/read * Useful for static projects * Provide overview * Widely recognized * Ubiquitous software

Question 4

Gannt Charts Disadvantages

Answer 4

• Difficult to update
  manually
• False sense of certainty * No optimization

Question 5

Project

Answer 5

A Project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result

Question 6

Project timing

Answer 6

• The activities required to achieve project goal: The list of every action that should be completed
  for the project to succeed.
• The time that is required to finish each activity
• Resources that are required to finish each activity: These include people, tools, machines,
  infrastructure, etc.
• The interdependencies of activities on each other (Logic): Highlighting the temporal order
  of the activities in relationship to other activities (i.e. when an activity can only start when
  certain other activities have been completed)

Question 7

Gannt chart

Answer 7

The Gantt chart is a bar chart that shows the activity breakdown of the project on one axis and the
timings of the tasks on the other axis. Time dependencies and resources for each task can also be
displayed on these charts. They are simple to use and understand and can be used for presenting the
time elements of projects in a simple manner.

Question 8

Network Diagrams

Answer 8

In order to perform CPA and PERT and to show the interdependency logic of a project, network
diagrams are used. There are two types of these diagrams: Activity-on-Arrow and Activity-on-Node

Question 9

Activity on Arrow

Answer 9

By definition an event has a zero time duration and represents
a single state in the project (i.e. denotes the start or end of an activity
or a set of activities).The activity has a time and a name associated with it
An activity starts from an event and ends in an event

Question 10

Logic in AoA principles and constraints

Answer 10

1. An event does not happen until all activities leading to it are complete.
2. No activity can start until its start event is complete.
   * A network is a collection of interrelated events and activities
   * A network should start and end with an event (called start and end)
   * Time moves from left to right (Just to make things simple)
   * The start event is the only event in the network without activities leading into it and the end
   event is the only event in the network without activities leading out.
   * Loops are disallowed and no two activities can have both the same start and the same end
   events.

Question 11

The Dummy Activity

Answer 11

When it becomes necessary to draw two activities with same start and finish events a dummy activity
with a zero duration can be added to preserve the logic of the diagram without breaking constraint

Question 12

Critical Path Analysis

Answer 12

1. Make a forward calculation pass: Determine the earliest time for each event. Commence at the
   start event and traverse the activities in the network to find the earliest time that is possible
   for an event to take place. This pass finishes when the earliest possible time for the end event
   is determined. This number is equal to the minimum duration of the project.
2. Make a backward calculation pass: Commence at the end event and traverse the network
   backwards, this time calculating the latest possible time that each event can take place given
   the end time of the project. This pass finishes when the latest possible time is determined in
   the start event.
3. Identify the critical path in the project: This is the path formed by events for which the earliest
   and latest times are identical.

Question 13

Total Float

Answer 13

When an activity is non-critical (i.e. it is not part of the critical path), its duration can expand
without affecting the rest of the project. The total float (TF) is the time by which an activity can
expand until it becomes critical and further expansion would cause the project to be delayed.

Question 14

Free float

Answer 14

Free float (FF) is the amount of time by which an activity can expand without affecting the start
time of any of the following activities.