Regina Wayi INS 3A 17541

DON BOSCO TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

PRO321 FOUNDATION IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT 1: SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT

DUE DATE: 12th of July 2019, 3.25pm

TOTAL: 90 marks

Weight: 15%

Assignment information:

1. Assignment 1 should be completed and submitted individually.

2. Request for extension should be made 2 or 3 days before the due date.
3. Submit your assignment 1in MS Word file.
4. Write your student name, technology of study, year and ID in the header of the word document.
5. Refer to the unit outline for written assignment submission format.

Requirements:

Translate your group project Work Break down (WBS) structure to achieve the schedule management
tasks of your project. Your project WBS and activity list should have at least 10 to 12 activities.

Note: This assignment must be completed individually. The group can ONLY discuss task a. Each student then uses
the outcome of your discussion to complete tasks a - f.

1. Schedule Management tasks (64 marks)

a. Activity identification, definition, sequencing and duration.

Use alphabetic listing for identification. Write a comprehensive and clear activity definition. Use
key words or statements to indicate the predecessor and successor activity or activities.

(30 marks)

Task Predecessors Days

Checklist A - 1
Designing of circuit B A 3
Coding and compiling C A 2
(PLC)
Submission of proposal D B 1
of the project
Purchasing materials E C, D 1
Maintenance F E 5
Installing components G F 2

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Wiring H F 2
Measuring the I G 1
continuity
Energizing J H, I 1

b. Activity network sequence

Use Arrow Diagraming Method (ADM) to show the network sequence of your project. Attach your
diagram under task b. The diagram should indicate the designed by detail.

(10 marks)

B=3 H=2
6
3
2 J=1
8 9
A=1 F=5

D=1 G=2

1 C=2 I=1

4 5 7
E=1

c. Critical Pathway
Show your calculations for every possible path

(10 marks)

Path 1: A-B-D-E-F-H-J Length = 1+3+1+1+5+2+1 = 14 Days

Path 2: A-C-E-F-G-I-J Length = 1+2+1+5+2+1+1 = 13 Days

Path 3: A-B-D-E-F-G-I-J Length = 1+3+1+1+5+2+1+1 = 15 Days

Path 4: A-C-E-F-H-J Length = 1+2+1+5+2+1 = 12 Days

d. Calculate the Free slack and Total slack of your project activity.

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Use the free slack and total slack table.

ID PREDESSO DURATION EARLY EARLY LATE LATE FREE Total

R (Days) START FINISH START FINSIH SLACK Slack
A 1 0 1 0 2 - 0
B A 3 1 4 1 2 - 0
C A 2 1 3 3 5 - 2
D B 1 4 5 4 5 - 0
E C, D 1 5 6 5 6 - 0
F E 5 6 11 6 12 - 0
G F 2 11 13 11 13 - 0
H F 2 11 13 12 14 - 1
I G 1 13 14 13 14 - 0
J H, I 1 14 15 14 15 - 0

(14 marks)

2. Short Questions. (26 marks)

a. Explain the significance of your project’s critical pathway.

The significance of the critical pathway of the project allows the company to prioritize
which tasks require a greater focus. This means that tasks or activities falling along the
critical path directly impacts the ability of the institute to complete the project on time.
Any delay in these activities set back the project’s completions date.

b. What is the Early start of tasks A and G of your project?

(2 marks)
The early start of tasks A and G of my project is checklist and installing of components
respectively.

c. What is the Latest start of tasks C and F in your project?

(2 mark)
The latest start of tasks C and F in my project is coding and compiling, and maintenance
respectively.

d. Discuss the meaning of early start and Latest start.

(4 marks)
In project management early start represents the earliest date an activity can possibly
begin based on all its predecessors and successors whilst latest or late start is the latest
possible point in time that an activity can begin without delaying a specified milestone
which is usually the project finish date.

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e. What will be the total duration of your project if a predecessor activity on the Critical
Pathway is delayed by 3 days? Justify your answer.
(2 marks)
If a predecessor activity on the critical pathway is delayed by 3 days the total duration of
the project will be 12 days simply because the critical pathway is equivalent to 15 days
therefore, delay will cause a set back to the project’s completion date.

f. What will be the total duration of your project if a predecessor activity on the Critical
Pathway is completed one day early? Justify your answer.
(2 marks)
If a predecessor activity on the critical pathway is completed one day early then the
total duration of the project will be 14 days because according to the critical pathway it
will take 15 days.

g. Write a 1000 word reflection on the importance of having a well-planned WBS and
schedule management tasks of a project.
Criteria: Your reflection should highlight SMART acronym, Triple constraint and cost and resource
allocation/management in relation to WBS and schedule management.
(12 marks)

My reflection

Project management is a powerful business tool that can deliver many advantages to businesses of all
sizes. Invest Northern Ireland defines project management as it oversees the planning, organizing and
implementing of a project. While every project is unique in its own way, there are certain project
management principles that apply to most projects. These are the project objectives, project constraints
and project life cycle. It is these basic principles that will give the project management process a solid
foundation and increase the chances of a successful project completion. This reflection will discuss the
three basic principles of project management, importance of work breakdown structure and schedule
management in a project.

The main point of any project is to achieve specified business goals and objectives. To be effective, the
objectives should be specific as possible. It can be expressed as outputs, outcomes, benefits and
strategic objectives. Once the project fulfills its objectives it ends. In most cases following project
completion, the work moves into normal operations. Hence it is vital to any project that its goals and
objectives are clearly defined, measurable and achievable. Without the objectives the project may lack
focus, may not be able to measure the results accurately and the project may fail to meet the business’s
goals.

The triple constraint is the combination of the three most significant restrictions on any project scope,
schedule and cost. It is sometimes referred to as the project management triangle or the iron triangle. In
the typical triangular model, scope, schedule and cost are constraints that form the sides of the triangle
with quality as the central theme. The three constraints are interdependent. None of them can be

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altered without affecting one or both of the others. For example, if the scope of a project is increased, it
is likely to take longer and/or cost more. Likewise an earlier deadline is almost certain to require more
money or a less ambitious scope. In addition, other common constraints include quality, resources and
schedule.

Furthermore, projects have a definite start and finish point within which should fulfill the objectives.
This is known as the project life cycle. While this is defined by the start and finish date, the life cycle of a
project can also be defined by a finite resource available to the project such as money and fixed amount
of staff time.

A work breakdown structure or WBS is a key project deliverable that organizes the team’s work into
manageable sections. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines the work
breakdown structure as a “deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed
by the project team.” The work breakdown structure visually defines the scope into manageable chunks
that a project team can understand, as each level of the work breakdown structure provides further
definition and detail. An easy way to think about a work breakdown structure is an outline or map of the
specific project. A work breakdown structure starts with the project as the top level deliverable and is
further decomposed into sub-deliverables using an outline of a hierarchy.

The WBS has a number of benefits in addition to defining and organizing the project work. A project
budget can be allocated to the top levels of the WBS and department budgets can be quickly calculated
based on each project’s WBS. By allocating time and cost estimates to specific sections of the WBS, a
project schedule and budget can be quickly developed. As the project executes, specific sections of the
WBS can be tracked to identify project cost performance and identify issues and problem areas in the
project organization.

Project WBS’s can also be used to identify potential risks in a given project. If a WBS has a branch that is
not well defined then it represents a scope definition risk. These risks should be tracked in a project log
and reviewed as the project executes. By integrating the WBS with an organizational breakdown
structure, the project manager can also identify communication plan across the project organization.

When a project is falling behind, referring to the WBS will quickly identify the major deliverables
impacted by a falling work package or late sub-deliverable. The WBS can also be color coded to
represent sub-deliverable status. Assigning colors of red for late, yellow for at risk, green for on-target,
blue for completed deliverables is an effective way to produce a clear map of project process and draw
management’s attention to keys areas of the work breakdown structure.

Also project management, a schedule is the listing of a project’s milestones, activities and deliverables
usually with intended start and finish dates. These items are often estimated by other information
included in the project schedule of resource allocation, budget, task duration and linkages of
dependencies and scheduled events. A schedule is commonly used in the project planning and project
portfolio management parts of project management. Elements on a schedule may be closely related to
the work breakdown structure (WBS). Scheduling is important because when it is done or carried out
effectively it can help the project team understand what can be realistically achieved in the given time-
frame.

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In many industries such as engineering and construction, the development and maintenance of the
project schedule is the responsibility of a full-time scheduler or team of schedulers, depending on the
size and the scope of the project. The techniques of scheduling are well develop but inconsistently
applied throughout industry.

Before a project schedule can be created, the schedule maker should have a WBS an effort estimate for
each task and a resource list with availability for each resource. To develop a project schedule the
following needs to be completed which is the project scope, sequence of activities, the five project
phases (conception, definition & planning, launch, performance, close), task dependencies map, critical
path analysis and so forth.

The schedule structure may closely follow and include citations to the index of work breakdown
structure using templates to describe the activities needed to produce the deliverables defined in the
WBS. Another schedule may be assessed for the quality of schedule development and the quality of the
schedule management.

In conclusion, the work breakdown structure and the schedule management are two vital documents
that should to be accurately compiled before submitting as a proposal and executing the project. In the
end the outcome of the project will entirely depend on how well the planning and the actions taken of
the project are carried out well.

ALL THE BEST!!

By Mr. Otto Tukavai

otukavai@dbti.ac.pg,

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