K. J.

Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai-77

(Autonomous College Affiliated to University of Mumbai)

Batch: B-1

Roll No.: 1711071, 1711076, 1711081

Experiment / assignment / tutorial No. 3

Grade: AA / AB / BB / BC / CC / CD /DD

Signature of the Staff In-charge with date

Title: Plan various project activities based on duration estimations

Objective: Identify various activities in the project and represent it with Gnatt chart.
Expected Outcome of Experiment:

Course After successful completion of the course students should be able to

Outcom
e
Plan various project activities based on efforts and duration estimations by
CO3
analyzing risks involved in it.
______________________________________________________________________________
Books/ Journals/ Websites referred:

1. Bob Hughes, Mike cotterell, Rajib Mall“Software Project Management”, fifth Edition,
Tata McGraw Hill, Special Indian Edition
2. Royce, “Software Project Management”, Pearson Education, 1999.
3. Project Management Institute: “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK Guide)” 5th Edition Project Management Institute.
4. John Nicholas, Herman Steyn, “Project Management for Business Engineering and
Technology”  4th Edition.

______________________________________________________________________________
Pre Lab/ Prior Concepts: Project planning
______________________________________________________________________
New Concepts to be learned: Breakdown of activities. Representation of project activities with
the Gantt chart.

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(Autonomous College Affiliated to University of Mumbai)

_____________________________________________________________________

Work-out :

SCOPE
We intend to make the Financial Management System and the ATM for Somaiya University.
Firstly we will start with the functional design of the system as well as the ATMs. The
specifications given by the Somaiya University will be considered while designing the ATMs.
Once the design has been finalised, the ATMs will be fabricated and some parts of the ATM will
be procured. The system will have a special account for Administration which will be accessible
to only the stakeholders. A plan will be prepared to deploy the Financial Management System
and install it on their systems. The systems will need Server and Database and the necessary
hardware which will also be installed on the systems. The credit card machines will be procured
and then a plan to set up the machines will be prepared. Once every necessary hardware and
software is installed, a preliminary test will be conducted. The preliminary test will include unit
testing of each module as well as final integration testing of the whole system.

Work Breakdown Structure:

Level 1 - Financial Management System

Level 2 -
● Basic Design
● Hardware - Part A,B,C
● Software Specifications
● Fabrication
● Project Management
● Procurement
● Site Operation

Level 3 -
● Basic Design - Planning and Drawing
● Hardware Part - Design and Drawing
● Software Specifications - Design and Development
● Fabrication - for Hardware part A
● Procurement
● Site Operation - Installation and Integration

Level 4 -
● Software Specification: Testing
● Fabrication - Assembly and Testing
● Procurement - Purchase and Delivery
● Site Operation - Installation Testing

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(Autonomous College Affiliated to University of Mumbai)

● Site Operation - Integration Testing and Delivery

THE DIAGRAM IS ALSO ATTACHED SEPARATELY

Analysis of Diagram - Work Packages from 1 to 22.

● Basic Design (1): Basic Design of the Project
■ Planning (2): Plan the Project
■ Drawing (3): Development of drawing and diagram.
● Hardware Part A: ATM Machine
■ Design (4): Finalizing the Design if the ATM Machine
■ Drawing (5): Drawing of the Design
● Hardware Part B: Credit Card Machine
● Hardware Part C: Servers and Database
● Software specifications (6) :
■ Design (7): Designing the ER Diagram of the database
■ Development (8): Developing the software for the system
■ Testing (9) Testing the system software
● Fabrication Part A: ATM Machine
■ Assembly (10): Manufacture and Assemble the hardware of the ATM

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(Autonomous College Affiliated to University of Mumbai)

■ Testing (11): Unit testing of all the features of the ATM.

● Procurement Part A: ATM Machine
■ Purchase (12): Purchasing the remaining specific parts for the ATM
machine
■ Delivery (13): The specific parts will be delivered
● Procurement Part B: Credit Card Machine
■ Purchase (14): Purchasing the Credit Card machine from the vendor
■ Delivery (15): The Credit Card machine will be delivered
● Procurement Part C: Servers and Database
■ Purchase (16) : Purchasing the Servers and Database from the vendor
■ Delivery (17): The Servers and Database will be delivered.
● Project Management:
● Site Operations:
■ Installation (18): Installation of all the machines on the campus.Installation
of all the Softwares in the Campus Computers.
● Testing (19): Testing the machines for full functionality.
■ Integration (20): Integrating the System with the servers and database
● Testing (21): Final Testing of all the products
● Delivery (22): Deliver the complete product.

Activity List

1. Requirement gathering and analysis

2. Modifications to scope of existing Financial Management System
3. Architecture design and drawings of the entire system.
4. Analysis and Planning for each sub-project.
5. Setting up timelines for each sub-project
6. Monitoring and evaluation throughout the process
7. Identify refined scope of the FMS software

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8. Designing of the software modules

9. Development of software modules
10. Testing and Integration of newer modules.
11. Testing of the entire HMS software
12. Hardware information gathering and requirement analysis
13. Design and drawings of the ATM Machine.
14. Fabrication of the ATM Machine
15. Hardware procurement from subcontractors (Few parts of ATM, CC Machine, Servers,
Database)
16. Installation of FMS and necessary software on the hardware devices
17. Testing of Hardware after integration.
18. Detailed planning and understanding of installation site(University)
19. Installation of Software Application, ATM Machine, Credit Card Machine, Server and
Database.
20. Deployment Application on the Servers and Migration of old data to database.
21. Testing of the individual applications and hardware.
22. Integration of software applications and hardware into one system
23. Final testing of the Financial Management System
24. Training of Office and Engineering staff for understanding the new system.

CHART IMAGE IS ALSO ATTACHED SEPARATELY

Conclusion : Hence successfully identified various activities in the project along with Work
Breakdown Structure.

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(Autonomous College Affiliated to University of Mumbai)

Post Lab Questions

1. How can the duration of a project be reduced? What will be the impact of that on the cost of
a project?

There are two key ways to reduce a project schedule.These are ‘task splitting’ and ‘crashing’.

a. Task splitting
The aim here is to take a large task and to split it down into two or more smaller tasks each of
which could start ahead of the completion of the previous one. This can happen more often than
you think. In an ideal world the work breakdown structure will already go down to the lowest
available task. If this were the case there would be no tasks to split and every task precedence
would be sorted. When you examine a task and split it you are not adding more resources merely
adjusting the overlap of the individual smaller tasks. In addition, when you modify the start times
of the individual smaller tasks the overall duration of the original task remains the same.

There are a few things to consider when choosing a task to split and how to do it most efficiently.

1. The task you are considering for ‘splitting’ must be on the critical path otherwise you
cannot reduce the overall project duration.
2. Tasks after splitting should not all run in series.
3. The tasks after splitting cannot use the same resource at the same time.

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(Autonomous College Affiliated to University of Mumbai)

If we look at the simple example in the diagram we have a single task shown as ‘A’ ‘B’, and ‘C’
in one block at the top.

This single task is also critical as it goes from beginning to end. We can split these into the
individual tasks ‘A’ ‘B’, and ‘C’. Having considered these activities very carefully we decide
that task ‘B’ can start 1 day after task ‘A’ has begun. Similarly, task ‘C’ can begin 1 day after the
start of task ‘B’. If we adopt this new structure then the critical path still ends at the end of task
‘C’ but it is now shortened by 2 days. Notice that the durations of tasks ‘A’ ‘B’, and ‘C’ have not
changed. Also, within the schedule we have task ‘D’ (in blue). This task originally had a
total float of 3 days. Due to the reduction in the overall project time its float (that is, total float)
has been cut to 1 day.

o The original critical path will be shortened but there is no guarantee that it will remain the
critical path. Indeed, if the float of a task is less than the original critical path reduction
that task will become critical.

For example, if we have:

A task ‘X’ with total float = 16 days
Project reduction = 20 days
The total float of task ‘X’ becomes 16 – 20 = 0 days

Be wary when dealing with critical paths. There may be more than one. If there is more than one
and you carry out task splitting on only one task of one of the critical paths then the overall
project duration will not change as it will be governed by the remaining critical path. In this case
if you want to reduce the overall project you must carry our task splitting on two tasks. One from
each critical path. The path that is shortened the least will remain as the critical path. Once you
have done this once you will need to recalculate the critical path before deciding on the next pair

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of tasks to split. When you have split any tasks, particularly a pair in two critical paths make sure
that the 3 point rule considered above has not been broken before going through the cycle again.

b. Crashing
This is different to task splitting. Here we add extra resource to a task to increase its rate to
completion. The resource that is added will be the ‘rate determining’ resource. This is usually
people but could be equipment or material. The simplistic view is ‘double the workers and half
the duration’. This is clearly too optimistic a view. Some people just don’t get on with others
very well and lower overall working efficiency. Not everyone works to the same performance
level so various combinations can vary the productivity. Another common resource to add is
extra equipment. Again extra equipment can be hampered by room for working or a lack of
suitably qualified staff to work it. It may be that materials are rate determining. If material is
limited to a particular level that may not be enough to maintain high productivity. It could be that
increasing the rate of raw material availability would require excessive costs. This may not be a
problem for a task not on the critical path.

We know that not every person will work to the same level of performance. When you consider
the group for a particular task they can be considered as a core group of workers that you would
consider as your standard. These would be your best people. Let us assume that you have a group
of 5 people considered your best. If you could run every task based using this resource your
productivity would always be at its best. You might base your estimates of duration on the use of
a ‘best group’.
The duration will = quantity of work / daily productivity of the ‘best’ group

For example, if you needed to lay 9,000 bricks and your best people could lay 300 per day then
the duration = 9000 / (300 x 5) = 6 project days.

However, you can never maintain a perfect group of workers. You will have different people on
different tasks. When you add resource to a task in order to ‘crash’ it you may well be diluting
the productivity due to adding a worker whose output may be only 200 bricks per day. Here, by
dilution, we mean reducing the effective output per man. For example, if we have 5 men who can
lay 300 bricks each per day the output = 5 x 300 = 1500 bricks.

If we add one person who can only lay 200 bricks per day the total will be 1500 + 200 = 1700.
These have been laid by 6 men so the new rate of brick laying per man per day = 1700 / 6 =
283 /man/day. When any sort of resource is added to a task there will be a cost involved.
The project manager must assess the benefits of reducing a task’s duration and weigh this against
the extra cost in doing so.

Before you can crash any tasks there must be a certain items in place.
o You must have a schedule of all tasks together with their total floats.
o You must know the durations of each task

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(Autonomous College Affiliated to University of Mumbai)

o There must be financial information available that will allow you to reach a cost for
reducing a task by 1 day.
o You must know the total fixed costs per day.

With this data you can then consider the crashing strategy.
o Examine the critical paths and their tasks. You want to begin with the task that costs the
least to ‘crash’. That is the one that has the lowest penalty per day.
o Cut the task duration by one day and then revise the critical path and subtract 1 day from
each of the task total floats.
o Be careful it may not always be necessary to reduce the floats. Identify the resultant
critical path.
o You will then need to calculate the cost and the fixed costs saved. The cost benefit will
also be the project cost saving.
o If the cycle is then repeated the new cost saving can be added to the first to get the total
project saving and so on.
o Eventually, you will be able to reach the minimum project cost.

Costs:

Fixed Costs:
These are any costs that do not rely on the output. They could be rent, equipment payments,
insurance, salaries of supervisors etc.

Direct Costs:
These are the costs that can be specifically identified with a particular project or program. These
could be salaries, fringe benefit, equipment, supplies, travel, training, consultancy fees, interest
on loans, lease charges etc. They may be specified in the proposal budget.

Variable Costs:
These are over and above any fixed cost for a particular project and will vary depending the
output of the task. Hence, if the out put doubles the variable cost will double. This is not strictly
true for our example as doubling the number of workers will not necessarily double the output.
Let us assume that each man costs £100 per day.
Each man can lay 300 bricks / day and we have 5 men and 9,000 bricks to lay.
The duration is 9000 / (300 x 5) = 6 project days.
Hence the variable direct costs (relevant only to this project) = 6 (days) x 5 (men) x £100 =
£3000. The total effort required = 6 (days) x 5 (men) = 30 man-days.

If we add 2 more men whose performance level is 200 bricks / day we might estimate the
duration as 5 project days. In other words, the duration has reduced from 6 to 5 days, a saving of
1 day. The cost of employing a man is still £100 per day. The duration of the task = 5 days and
we now have 7 men. Hence, the number of man days are = 5 x 7 = 35 man-days.

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(Autonomous College Affiliated to University of Mumbai)

Each man-day costs £100. Thus, the total cost = 35 x £100 = £3,500. So, the extra cost in
reducing the duration to 5 days = £3,500 - £3,000 = £500. As we saved 1 day the daily cost
penalty = £500 / 1 (day) = £500. Hence, in summary it has cost £500 to save 1 day.
This indicates that reducing task durations requires a cost. If we wished to save 2.5 or 3 days the
cost would not be pro rata. This is because as we increase the labour resource we gradually get to
a point where extra labour will make no difference. Hence, we end up with a trade off. As
durations go down the cost penalty per day goes up. This cost penalty per day will vary
according to the task. Clearly, we will save on some costs by reducing the duration and
completing the task that much quicker.

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