OM5 C18 IM
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OM5 Chapter 18: Project Management
Discussion Questions
1. Identify at least five additional examples of projects that are not cited in this chapter.
Students might identify the following “projects” — waste management, building a
solar field, disaster management planning, building a MRI facility, planning a swim
2. Exhibit 18.2 lists a number of impediments to project success. How might you
minimize or eliminate these impediments?
The objective of this question is to illustrate that project management is much more
than the mechanics of CPM and PERT. In fact, the communication and behavioral
aspects of project management are frequently cited as the most troublesome areas.
3. The local chapter of the Project Management Institute is planning a dinner meeting
with a nationally known speaker, and you are responsible for organizing it. How
could the methodology discussed in this chapter help you?
First you must define the work breakdown structure such as major activities like
contact and invite the speaker, plan speaker travel arrangements and greeting,
reimburse speaker fees, book a conference center room, select dinner menu,
negotiate and sign food and beverage service contract, name tag desk activities,
4. The calculations in PERT allow you to determine the probability that as project will
be completed. Suppose you calculate that the probability a project will be completed
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by a target deadline is only 0.25. What steps might you take if you were the project
manager? Would your decisions be different if the probability was calculated as
0.75? Would you be willing to take a 25% risk of failing to complete the project on
time?
First, check the integrity of your project input data including precedence
relationships. Are they correct? If the probability and methods are correct, then
major management action is required with a 25% chance of completing the project
on time such as renegotiate the project due date, redefine the work break down
5. Crashing in the Critical Path Method assumes that the cost of crashing an activity is
linearly proportional to the amount of time the activity is crashed; that is, the rate of
cost increase is constant (see Exhibit 18.12). Is this a reasonable assumption? Why
or why not? How might the concepts of economies and diseconomies of scale help
to address this issue?
Fixed activity costs and learning curve effects, for example, can alter the assumption
of linear crashing costs. Long and short activity times and project activity times can
Problems and Activities
1. Research and write a short paper (2 pages maximum) on the skills needed to be a
successful project manager.
A great place to begin this research is searching for the topics identified in Exhibit
18.2 – Contributors and Impediments to Project Success. For example, if you do a
Google search on “project definition” you receive over 470,000 hits and the term
2. Mary is planning her wedding and develops the following preliminary information.
Immediate Estimated
Activity Predecessor Normal Time
A (select wedding date) none 1 week
B (select wedding location) none 4 weeks
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F (wedding day) D, E 0 weeks
Note: For this problem, the normal times have been changed from OM3.
a. Draw the network for this project.
b. What is the critical path(s)?
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Time
(weeks)
Earliest
Start
Latest
Start
Latest
Finish
Slack
A
—
1
0
3
4
3
B
—
4
0
0
4
0
C
A, B
3
4
4
7
0
D
A
4
1
6
10
5
E
A, C
3
7
7
10
0
F
D, E
0
10
10
10
0
Critical path is B-C-E-F
c. What is the project completion time?
10 weeks
d. What activity has the most slack?
Activity D with 5 weeks
e. What wedding activities did Mary leave out of her analysis? List them and
now redraw the project network (but do NOT try to assign activity times or
This is about as simple as it gets for a wedding project. Other example
project activities include: photography, flowers, bridesmaids dresses,
A
(
1
(
B
D
E
C
F
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grooms suits, music, transportation, wedding program printing, invitation
3. Perhaps the most well-known software for project management is Microsoft
ProjectTM. Investigate its capabilities and write a short paper (2 pages maximum)
that describes its features.
Students can go to www.microsoft.com/project and click on the product information
link. They can view demos and case studies, and “how to” links that describe its
4. Develop a small example consisting of no more than ten activities and illustrate the
ideas, rules, and mechanics of forward and backward passes through the project
network to compute the critical path.
Students should be encouraged to make the example realistic to a problem they are
familiar with and not simply an abstract example. A few student examples include
5. Find an application of project management in your own life (for example, in your
home, fraternity, or business organization). List the activities and events that
comprise the project, and draw the precedence network. What problems did you
encounter in doing this?
This is designed to get students thinking about applying project management
techniques. Activity times, work breakdown structure, and precedent relationships
6. Rozales Manufacturing Co. is planning to install a new flexible manufacturing
system. The activities that must be performed, their immediate predecessors, and
estimated activity times are shown below. Draw the project network and find the
critical path computing early and late start days, early and late finish days, and
activity slack.
Estimated
Immediate Activity Time
Activity Description Predecessors (days)
A Analyze current performance — 2
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J Prepare report E, G, I 2
K Establish audit procedure H 3
L Dummy ending activity J, K 0
Here, L is the ending (dummy) activity with zero time.
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Time
(days)
Earliest
Start
Earliest
Finish
Latest
Start
Latest
Finish
Slack
A
—
2
0
2
0
2
0
B
A
2
2
4
2
4
0
C
A
6
2
8
9
15
7
D
B
7
4
11
4
11
0
E
B
8
4
12
20
28
16
F
D
7
11
18
11
18
0
G
C,F
10
18
28
18
28
0
H
C
9
8
17
15
24
7
I
H
4
17
21
24
28
7
J
E,G,I
2
28
30
28
30
0
K
H
3
17
20
27
30
10
L
J, K
0
30
30
30
30
30
Critical path is A-B-D-F-G-J with a final project completion time of 30 days. The largest
A
D
E
C
B
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
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7. A computer-system installation project consists of eight activities. The immediate
predecessors and activity times in weeks are shown below.
Immediate Activity
Activity Predecessor Time
A — 3
B — 6
C A 2
D B, C 5
E D 4
F E 3
G B, C 9
H F, G 3
a. Draw the network for this project.
b. What are the critical-path activities?
c. What is the project completion time?
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Time
(days)
Earliest
Start
Earliest
Finish
Latest
Start
Latest
Finish
Slack
A
—
3
0
3
1
4
1
B
—
6
0
6
0
6
0
C
A
2
3
5
4
6
1
D
B, C
5
6
11
6
11
0
E
D
4
11
15
11
15
0
F
E
3
15
18
15
18
0
G
B,C
9
6
15
9
18
3
H
F.G
3
18
21
18
21
0
Critical path is B-D-E-F-H. Project completion time is 21. We work one or more
CPM problems on the board, first setting up, then doing a forward pass, and next a
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
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8. Environment Recycling, Inc. must clean up a large automobile tire dump under a
state environmental cleanup contract. The tasks, durations (in weeks), costs, and
predecessor relationships are shown as follows:
Activity Immediate Predecessors Time
A — 5
B A 8
C A 7
D — 6
E B, D, C 8
F D 3
G D 3
H E 4
I F, G, H 6
a. Draw the project network.
b. Identify the critical path(s).
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Time
(days)
Earliest
Start
Earliest
Finish
Latest
Start
Latest
Finish
Slack
A
—
5
0
5
0
5
0
B
A
8
5
13
5
13
0
C
A
7
5
12
6
13
1
D
—
6
0
6
16
22
16
E
B,D,C
8
13
21
13
21
0
F
D
3
6
9
22
25
16
G
D
3
6
9
22
25
16
H
E
4
21
25
21
25
0
I
F,G,H
6
25
31
25
31
0
Critical path is A-B-E-H-I
A
B
C
F
D
E
G
H
I
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c. What is the total project completion time and total cost?!!
Completion time = 31. Total normal cost = $7,200.
9. Two international banks are integrating two financial processing software systems as
a result of their merger. Preliminary analysis and interviews with all parties involved
resulted in the following project information. The “systems integration team” for this
project plans to define and manage this project on two levels. The following
activities represent an aggregate view, and within each activity is a more detailed
view with subtasks and project networks defined. All times are in weeks.
Activity Immediate Predecessors Time
A — 3
B A 1
C A 2
D B, C 3
E C 5
F C 3
G E 7
H E, F 5
I D, G, H 8
a. Draw the project network.
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Time
(days)
Earliest
Start
Earliest
Finish
Latest
Start
Latest
Finish
Slack
A
—
3
0
3
0
3
0
B
A
1
3
4
13
14
10
C
A
2
3
5
3
5
0
D
B,C
3
5
8
14
17
9
A
C
B
F
D
E
G
H
I
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9
E
C
5
5
10
5
10
0
F
C
3
5
8
9
12
4
G
E
7
10
17
10
17
0
H
E,F
5
10
15
12
17
2
I
D,G,H
8
17
25
17
25
0
Critical path is A-C-E-G-I. Completion time is 25 weeks. Total normal cost = $31,500
10. A competitor of Kozar International, Inc. has begun marketing a new instant-
developing film project. Kozar has had a similar product under study in its R&D
department but has not yet been able to begin production. Because of the
competitor’s action, top managers have asked for a speedup of R&D activities so that
Kozar can produce and market instant film at the earliest possible date. The
predecessor information and activity time estimates in months are shown in the next
column.
Most
Immediate Optimistic Probable Pessimistic
Activity Predecessors Time Time Time
A — 1 1.5 5
B A 3 4 5
b. Develop an activity schedule for this project using early and late start and finish
times, compute activity slack time, and define the critical activities.
Using the 3-point estimates of times, we obtain:
A
B
C
E
D
F
G
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Activity
Mean
Variance
A
2
0.44
B
4
0.11
C
2
0.11
D
5
0.25
E
6
1.78
F
8
0.69
G
9
1.78
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Time
(days)
Earliest
Start
Earliest
Finish
Latest
Start
Latest
Finish
Slack
A
—
2
0
2
0
2
0
B
A
4
2
6
2
6
0
C
A
2
2
4
5
7
3
D
B,C
5
6
11
7
12
1
E
B
6
6
12
14
20
8
F
C,D.E
8
12
20
12
20
0
G
E
9
20
29
20
29
0
Critical path is A-B- F-G; completion time is 29 months.
11. Construct an early-start-date Gantt chart for the computer-system installation project
described in Problem 7. As a project manager, where would you focus your attention,
given your analysis?
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Time
(days)
Earliest
Start
Earliest
Finish
Latest
Start
Latest
Finish
Slack
A
—
3
0
3
1
4
1
B
—
6
0
6
0
6
0
C
A
2
3
5
4
6
1
D
B, C
5
6
11
6
11
0
E
D
4
11
15
11
15
0
F
E
3
15
18
15
18
0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H