W6

Question 1

what is a project

Answer 1

• made up of multiple activities
• objvs outlined before proceeding with project
• specific time period to complete
• provides structure for managers to track progress
• networks are the main technique used these are PERT and CPM

Question 2

project management across the organisation

Answer 2

PSM - once you are able to monitor activities you know when to purchase supplies

Accounting - uses info to provide a time line of expenditure

marketing - uses info to monitor progress to provide updates to the customer

Question 3

project life cycle

Answer 3

conception - identify the need
feasibility/ analysis - costs, benefit and risks
planning - doing the project
termination - ending the project

Question 4

network planning techniques

Answer 4

PERT - projects are uncertain you don’t know how long an activity will take so use probability factors

CPM - deterministic, understand how long activities will take so use deterministic factors

Question 5

PERT - make use of probability values

Answer 5

3 main values will be given
1. optimistic value - if everything goes well the time it should take
2. pessimistic value - if the activity goes badly, how long it will take
3. average value - the avg. time the activity would take

CALCULATION IN PHOTO

Question 6

Characteristics of PERT and CPM

Answer 6

• sequence of activities = one activity follows another
• identify critical and non critical activities = critical activities if delayed will effect the whole project
• estimate projects duration
• estimate slack

Question 7

PERT = Activity in node

Answer 7

• use nodes to represent the activity
• arrows = one activity follows another

(look at diagram)

Question 8

crashing

Answer 8

• crashing = reducing project completion time
• focus on critical path only
• may need to be shortened due to:
• transferring resources to a new project
• different deadlines
• crashing = (crash cost - normal cost) / (normal time - crash time)