Project Management Written Assignment 5

Written Assignment Five

1. Define each of the following terms: (a) path, (b) activity, (c) early start, (d) early finish, (e) late start, (f) late finish, (g) forward pass (h) backward pass, (i) node, (j) AON, (k) float, (l) critical path, (m) PERT [MO5.1]

2. Distinguish between serial activities and concurrent activities. Why do we seek to use concurrent activities as a way to shorten the project’s length? [MO5.1, 5.2]

3. List three methods of deriving duration estimates for project activities. What are the strengths and weaknesses associated with each method? [MO5.2]

4. What are the advantages in the use of Gantt charts over PERT diagrams?In what ways might PERT diagrams be advantageous? [MO5.3]

5. Under what circumstances might you wish to crash a project? [MO5.4]

Question 1)
Network path refers to any continuous series of work or project schedule activities with a number of logical relationships as shown in the project schedule network diagram
• Critical path refers to the sequence of project network activities which sums up to the longest overall duration
• an activity refers to a stage in the project management plan
• Early Start represents the earliest date an activity can possibly begin, given its predecessors and successors.
• Early Finish represents the earliest date an activity can possibly finish
• Late start refers to the latest that a project activity can be scheduled to be started without having to disrupt the predetermined early project start
• Late finish refers to the latest date an activity can finish, without delaying the finish of the project
• Forward pass refers to a technique to move forward through network diagram to determining project duration and finding the critical path
• Backward pass refers to the calculation of late finish dates and late start dates for the portions of schedule activities that have not been completed.
• Nodes refers a number of miscellaneous defining points that exist as part of the project’s schedule network
• activity on node refers to a precedence diagramming method which uses boxes to denote schedule activities
• Float refers is the amount of time that a task in a project network can be delayed without causing a delay to subsequent tasks and completion date.

Question 2)
Serial activities to the process of attending to and processing one task at a time while concurrent activity refers activities that have the same start and end time. using concurrent activities is preferred to shorten the process of project implementation since it cuts on the project cost.

Question 3)
PERT methods
Advantages: this method helps in the identification of any possible outcomes, helps in the easy project analysis
Disadvantages: this method is heavy on resources by using many people and inputs thus being time consuming.
• Analogous Estimation
advantages: simple and time taken for estimation, can be applied at the initial stages of a project, guarantees organizational success since it is based past project data, can be used to estimate the effort and duration of individual tasks
disadvantages: this method is largely inaccurate.
• Parametric Estimation
Question 4)
Advantages: accurate when calculating costing, the model can be reused for other similar project, Manual adjustments can be done to this method thus increasing its applicability.
Disadvantages: time-consuming and costly, requires availability of historic data, inherent risk of providing a false sense of accuracy, only applicable for some parts of the project.
Grant chart: easy to schedule the tasks, easy to understand, clear and visual representation of time frames as compared to the PERT diagrams.
Question 5)
• When a project manager wishes to get a schedule compression.
• When part of a project jeopardizes the project progress
• During incidences where the project requires teamwork for completion.

(Reference)

Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage, 4th ed., by Jeffrey K. Pinto, (Boston: Pearson, 2016).