Week 11: Project Management

Question 1

What is a project?

Answer 1

A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. (Focused, temporary, unique, complex, uncertain)

Question 2

What is a programme?

Answer 2

A programme is a collection of projects

Question 3

What are the benefits of project management(6)?

Answer 3

• Organise complex, coupled processes
• Establish a plan and a schedule
• Retain memory of project and lessons learned from failure
• Operate at higher level and manage integration
• Promote teamwork and collaboration
• Manage budget and control costs

Question 4

On AoA network diagrams, what are the two symbols and their main features?

Answer 4

Activity-on-Arrow Network Diagrams;

Circle - Event: has zero time and represents a single state in the project. Event number on the top earliest time on the left, latest on the right

Arrow - Activity: has a time (on the bottom) and a name (on the top), starts from an event and finishes at an event.

No two activities can have the same start and the same end events, so have to use a dummy activity with a duration of zero.

Question 5

Describe the algorithm for CPA

Answer 5

Critical Path Analysis:

1. Make a forward calculation pass: go from left to right, find out the earliest time for each event
2. Make a backward calculation pass: go from right to left to get the latest possible time for each task
3. Identify the critical path which has events with identical earliest and latest times

Question 6

What is total float?

Answer 6

Total float is the time by which an activity can expand until it becomes critical and further expansion would cause the project to be delayed

Question 7

What is free float?

Answer 7

Free float is the amount of time by which an activity can expand without affecting the start time of any of the following activities:

FF = Earliest start time of next activity - Earliest finish

Earliest finish = Earliest start time + Duration

Question 8

What is the difference between PERT and CPA?

Answer 8

Program Evaluation and Review Technique uses three numbers for the duration of each activity: optimistic scenario (o), most likely scenario (m) and pessimistic scenario (p) time

Question 9

In PERT what is the probability of the project taking T* or less time?

Answer 9

Normal Distribution(T*-Sum(E(t)/sqrt(Var(t))))

Question 10

What is the algorithm for PERT?

Answer 10

1. Add E(t) and Var(t) to the table and calculate these values
2. Draw AoA network diagram
3. Find the critical path
4. Find total E(t) and Var(t) for it
5. Use normal distribution
6. Calculate all other paths as critical path is not certain