Week 4- Project Crashing and Gantt Charts

Question 1

how can a project be completed sooner?

Answer 1

By “crashing” the time it takes to complete certain stages by throwing more money at it

Question 2

What impact does project crashing have on indirect and direct costs?

Answer 2

Increases direct costs but may decrease indirect costs because you may avoid the pitfalls of finishing the project late

Question 3

What is the formula to work out the cost to crash per period?

Answer 3

Cost cost- Normal cost/ Normal time- crash time

Question 4

What is the crash cost?

Answer 4

The activity cost associated with the crash time

Question 5

what is the crash time?

Answer 5

The shortest possible tie to complete an activity

Question 6

what is the first tihing you should do when crashing a project?

Answer 6

Work out the cost to crash per period for each activity in the project

Question 7

What are the only activities that you can crash to reduce the length of the project?

Answer 7

Ones on the critical path

Question 8

which activity are you going to crash first?

Answer 8

The one on the critical path with the lowest cost of crashing per period

Question 9

When should you stop the crashing proceedure?

Answer 9

• When the target project completion is met
• The completion date cant be shortened any further
• An increase in direct costs exceeds the savings from indirect costs

Question 10

what are gantt charts used for?

Answer 10

Communicating project plans to stakeholders

Question 11

which activities should you plot on a gantt chart first?

Answer 11

The critical ones

Question 12

what re the two extemes at which you can plot non-critical activities?

Answer 12

They can be plotted for completion as early as possible or as late as possibel

Question 13

what is the reason for plotting a non critical activity as early as possible on a gantt chart?

Answer 13

If there is a high risk of not completing them on time in order to minimise the risk of the project running over schedule

Question 14

what is the reason for plotting a non critical activity as late as possible on a gantt chart?

Answer 14

If you have a loan and dont want to start paying interest on the machinery until the last possible point (pushing costs into the future to maintain cash flow)

Question 15

what are the advantages of a gantt chart?

Answer 15

• Easily understood

- easily linked to a precedence table so can be quickly plotted

Question 16

what are the disadvantages of a gantt chart?

Answer 16

• Can only fit a small project onto a single sheet of paper or screen
• Many projects too complex to communicate with Gantt chart
• Activity is only defined in duration, not resources, costs or work
• Showing dependencies clutter diagrams
• Workload within each period of activity assumed constant
• Gantt chart taken as reality rather than what I would like

Question 17

what is RACI analysis?

Answer 17

The process of assigning people to activities of the gantt chart. Stands for Responsible, accountable, consulted, informed

Question 18

what does Responsible mean in RACI analysis?

Answer 18

WHo is responsible for doing the task on the gantt chart

Question 19

what does accountable mean in RACI analysis?

Answer 19

who is accountable for resources needed for an activity on the gantt chart

Question 20

what does consulted mean in RACI analysis?

Answer 20

Who needs to be consulted before the activity on the Gantt chart can take place

Question 21

what does informed mean in RACI analysis?

Answer 21

Who needs to be informed of the outcome of the activity on the gantt chart

Question 22

what is slack time?

Answer 22

The time between the earliest possble time an activity can start and the latest possible time it can start

Question 23

what is student syndrome?

Answer 23

When given a deadline, many ask for more time. when given more time many then delay starting their project