MUSEUM CASE STUDY & FINAL REFLECTION 1

Museum Expansion Case Study & Final Reflection

Dan Kelly

Arizona State University

OGL 322

Professor Corlett

6/24/2022
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Museum Expansion Project

June 24, 2022

Project Sponsor
123 Address St
Anytown, ST 12345

Dear Project Sponsors,

After reviewing the contents of the contents of the Museum Expansion Project I fortunately
believe I have found a solution to deliver to you the museum expansion on time as originally
scheduled. The project as of now is predicted to take 89 days to complete, 8 days longer than the
desired number of 81. When looking at the critical path of this project one can see that tasks #13
and #16 does not provide any wiggle room and will take a set time of 15 and 5 days respectively
in order to complete both tasks. Along with this lack of slack one can observe that the remaining
tasks, #18, #19, and #23/24 all only have 1-3 days of room to speed up the process and reach the
optimal completion time, however, even if the optimal finish is reached the project will still be
behind schedule. The task on the critical path which gives us the most room to operate is #17,
wood treatment, as its optimal finish is 8 days ahead of its expected finish and this is where I
believe the project has the ability to reduce its time. What I propose is using the additional
$3million allocated for task #17 to purchase already treated wood. Removing or even reducing
this task to its optimal finish would place the project on schedule to complete after the desired 81
days. I feel as though this is the best option as the previous project manager had forgotten to list
task #17 all together on the WBS, which when come time to start the task could cause major
confusion and conflict on who is responsible to complete the task, in turn delaying the project
even longer than anticipated. Along with this, it will allow for our laborers and subcontractors to
focus their time and energy on other tasks which could also potentially speed up the project and
save funds if we only have to purchase the wood and not also the labor to treat it. However, in the
case that this does not reduce the schedule as planned and something unforeseen, such as the now
purchased wood taking longer to deliver than anticipated, I do have a contingency plan that I too
believe will still reduce the project to finish at the desired 81 days, however, it will come at a
greater cost than the previous. If the original plan is not successful then the additional $3million
MUSEUM CASE STUDY & FINAL REFLECTION 3

not already spent on the treated wood can be spent on an increase in the number of
laborers/subcontractors working on the project. By doing this it will bring the tasks closer or
even surpass their optimal finish times, and will allow for tasks such as #13 and #16 to reduce
the amount of days they will take as with the current 10 laborers and 25 subcontractors no
changes can be made in those tasks to reduce time as there are simply just not enough people to
accomplish the work. This strategy will cost more as both a greater number of laborers and
subcontractors will need to be hired, however, the intended effect should still remain the same.
The plans can be seen demonstrated in the diagram below.

Best regards,

Dan Kelly
Project Manager, Museum Expansion Project

Original Critical Path:

Task # Length
(Days)

13 15

16 5

17 10

18 25

19 9

23/34 10

Additional 15

Total: 89 days
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Revised Critical Path:

Task # Length
(Days)

13 15

16 5

Removed Removed

18 25

19 9

23/34 10

Additional 15

Total: 79 days

Part II Below…
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Part II: Coming into the course I felt as though schedule management was a trait or

skill of mine in which I took pride in. I found satisfaction in not being late for things, stressed

about deadlines, or overwhelmed as a result of all that I had to accomplish. I discovered this was

a result of my organizational skills, which had allowed me to schedule and plan my time

accordingly which in turn helped me to stay on time and on task. I enjoy even doing small things

to help organize my schedule for the week such as writing down all I need to accomplish for the

week on a note placed above my desk so I always am reminded of it. With that being said when

entering the course I was interested in the material as it aligned with how I already operated,

however, I did not have the more comprehensive view on project management scheduling that I

do now. Prior to the course I had a more black and white view of schedule management and

thought if you are organized and do not encounter unaccounted for circumstances then the

project should remain on schedule. After working through the course material it was surprising

to me how much the project manager needs to use their creativity in schedule management in

order to produce a desired outcome. I assumed the process might be very dry and

straightforward, but rather it was the opposite as I found the course material more challenging

than expected as I learned how to manage and manipulate the schedule to produce the most

desirable outcome. When I first observed material, such as the one in the museum expansion

case study, the tables with seemingly endless information was intimidating and disappointing as I

felt I had strong schedule management skills and seeing those tables felt as though I could never

make sense of all the information presented to me and actually use it to solve problems.

However, after working through the course and doing things like breaking down and organizing

the tables into sections and focusing on what just that part of the table is trying to say made it

much easier and less overwhelming to comprehend. When I began to move through the material
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in this manner large charts and displays of information were much more easy to interpret and I

was pleased to be improving my schedule management skills, more specifically my ability to

process information and use creative problem solving skills to improve whatever kind of

schedule/schedule management we might have been going over or working on at the time. This

was perhaps my greatest takeaway and improvement from the course as it has instilled in me

confidence when working on project scheduling and the ability to go into internship/job

interviews with knowledge and skills which I previously did not possess and either elaborate on

them or even display them. I am pleased with that as the area in which I need to improve in

schedule management is the technical aspect as I can now process the information and come up

with solutions, however, getting down my own information into table, graph, chart, etc takes

much more time and effort than it should, although, I am less concerned with this as technical

proficiency will come with time and practice and can be learned many different places. What I

am much more pleased with is the guidance and direction I received which resulted in a different

way of thinking and approaching scheduling management and conflicts that I now have and can

take into the professional world.