Edinburgh Tram System Scenario:

This scenario requires you to undertake some programming activity and present various
completed critical path network analysis, barcharts, costings and a time/ cost optimisation. Please
note that the scenario described below is wholly hypothetical!

As part of an extension to the Edinburgh Tram system, Edinburgh Council have commissioned the
construction of a new Tram Planning Office. This will be a relatively straightforward steel framed
office building, 3 storeys in height. The design of the building has been completed and the land has
been acquired.

As Project Manager, you are responsible for planning the construction phase of the project and for
overseeing it’s completion.

At this stage, one of the planners in your team has already completed a Project Logic Evaluation
for all of the tasks that have been identified for the construction of the building. This Project Logic
Evaluation has now been passed to you for your attention (refer to Appendix 1).

Additionally, another planner in your team has completed estimations of task durations based on
the normal working practices. The planner has adopted a PERT strategy and therefore has
reported an Optimistic, Most Likely and Pessimistic duration for each of the tasks.

These durations, together with the daily costs for the normal methods of operation are included
in Appendix 2.

The planner has also reported ‘crash’ durations which could be achieved for some of the tasks in
the project if additional resources are deployed on those tasks. These ‘crash’ durations, together
with the total additional costs of the resources necessary to achieve them are also reported in
Appendix 2. Materials costs are not included since these are expected to remain the same
regardless of how the project is executed.

You are now required to perform the planning and scheduling tasks that are described below :
Scenario Questions
(i) Complete the network analysis for the tram planning office project using the project logic
diagram that is provided in Appendix 1, based on the ‘Expected Durations’ for each task,
which can be determined from the task data that is forwarded in Appendix 2.

(ii) Produce a Linked Bar-chart that presents a summary of the ‘normal’ project programme.

(iii) To the nearest whole day calculate the target duration for the construction of the tram
planning office building, allowing for a 95% probability of on time completion. This is the
duration that will be agreed with the client for project handover, and will therefore become
the contractual obligation that must be met.

(iv) The tasks ‘Install Drainage’ and ‘Install Piled Foundations’ both require the use of 2
Excavators. Upon completing the initial planning phase it has been determined that the
Subcontractor responsible for delivering these two tasks has only priced for, and only has
access to just 2 excavators for the duration of their involvement with the project. You must
now check the initial plan to determine whether this resource constraint will cause a
problem, and if it does, you are required to re-plan the project logic and complete a revised
network analysis and linked bar chart that accommodates the resource constraint. If
appropriate, be sure to to report the consequence that this resource constraint has upon
the overall duration of the project and upon the target duration previously determined.

(v) The project is now underway. However, some technical problems have been encountered
with the installation of the Drainage and the Piled Foundations. As a consequence, the
installation of the drainage took 2 days longer than was planned and the installation of the
Piled Foundations took an extra 3 days. The direct costs associated with these tasks did not
increase. The construction of the steel frame has now been completed. This went very
smoothly and actually took the subcontractor 1 day less than what was originally planned.
Again, the direct costs for this task were unchanged.

The client has been assured of a specific entry date and this was based on the target
duration determined in part (iii). The issues that have been encountered so far threaten the
accomplishment of this entry date.

For each day the project is late the contract stipulates that there will be £20,000 of penalty
costs.

As Project Manager, you have the responsibility to make sure the remainder of the project
is completed optimally.

Using the crash data that is presented in Appendix 2, re-plan the remaining tasks in the
project, so that the most optimum solution for the remainder of the project is achieved.

When ‘crashing’ tasks to determine the optimum solution, you are to assume that it is an ‘all
or nothing’ scenario; in other words, incremental ‘crashing’ is not a possibility.
Appendix 1
 Activity Normal Normal Normal Normal Cost Expected Crash Total Additional

Appendix 2
Duration Duration Duration £ per day Duration Cost for
(Optimistic) (Most Likely) (Pessimistic) (Days) crashing to
(Days) (Days) (Days) minimum duration
(£)

Clear Site 8 10 12 5000 7 5730

Install Drainage 7 10 19 1500 8 16500

Install Piled Foundations 8 15 22 7000 10 19000

Construct Steel Frame 8 12 22 5000 7 25500

Place Precast Concrete Floor Slabs 8 9 16 6000 - -

Install Roof Finishes 6 10 20 3500 8 9000

Attach External Cladding Panels 6 8 10 3500 5 19500

Install Internal Partitions 8 10 12 3500 7 6750

Install Electricity Services 12 15 24 5000 11 12000

Install Drainage and Water Services 8 12 22 3500 10 9000

Install Raised Floors 8 20 26 3500 - -

Install Suspended Ceilings 10 14 24 2500 - -

Commission, Clean & Handover 8 10 12 2000 7 3750

Indirect Costs accumulate at a rate of £4,500 per day.