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Chapter 6
Project Management
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Contrast alternative approaches to reducing project duration (i.e. compressing the project duration). Fast tracking | concurrent (or parallel) activities rather than sequential activities. |
| Contrast alternative approaches to reducing project duration (i.e. compressing the project duration). Overlapping | starting one activity before the previous activity has ended. |
| Contrast alternative approaches to reducing project duration (i.e. compressing the project duration). Reduce project scope | eliminate product features, eliminate project work, eliminate activities, eliminate market footprint for the project output. |
| Contrast alternative approaches to reducing project duration (i.e. compressing the project duration). Change technical approach to activities | e.g., equipment rather than manual labor, off-the-shelf products rather than custom, “do it twice – first fast, then correctly”; note: may reduce quality. |
| Contrast alternative approaches to reducing project duration (i.e. compressing the project duration). Revise project calendar | e.g., convert non-working days to working days, increase the number of working hours in a working day. |
| Contrast alternative approaches to reducing project duration (i.e. compressing the project duration). Crashing | using additional resources to reduce critical path activity durations. |
| 2. Contrast “fast tracking”, “overlapping” and “crashing” to reduce project duration. Which is likely to result in the greatest cost addition to the project? Fast tracking is undertaking ... | two activities in parallel (i.e., at the same time). The predecessor relationship between the two activities has been changed from sequential to parallel. As such, the network diagram has been changed. |
| 2. Contrast “fast tracking”, “overlapping” and “crashing” to reduce project duration. Which is likely to result in the greatest cost addition to the project? In contrast, overlapping is scheduling ...... | one activity to start before the prior activity will be completed. |
| 2. Contrast “fast tracking”, “overlapping” and “crashing” to reduce project duration. Which is likely to result in the greatest cost addition to the project? Crashing involves the application ..... | of additional resources to an activity in order to shorten the duration of the activity. Although any of these three alternatives could increase costs, crashing will certainly add costs while overlapping and even fast tracking may not. |
| Explain why the 40 day project duration is really “optimal” compared to the 50 day project duration, when in fact the best cost estimates for each activity were used to derive the 50 day project.The optimal project duration based only on direct activity.. | costs is certainly 50 days. |
| The crashing process steps 1-3- | 1.Start with the normal duration project schedule 2.Determine the critical path3.Select an activity to compress on the critical path – if no candidates, STOP |
| The crashing process steps 4-5- | 4.Compress the activity and re-compute the project duration 5.If the duration is satisfactory, STOP; otherwise go back to step 2 |
| When the project indirect costs ( opportunity costs) are also considered, the optimal project duration for the sum... | of the two curves ( the total cost curve) is 40 days. More money is expended for direct activity costs to shorten the project, but that expenditure is offset by the cost benefits (or reductions) associated with a shorter project (e.g., quicker to market). |
| Differentiate between activity based costs and project based costs in CPM analysis. Explain the tradeoffs between the two and the cost curves involved. Activity based (direct) cost: | costs that can be associated with a specific activity (either fixed or variable). |
| 4. Differentiate between activity based costs and project based costs in CPM analysis. Explain the tradeoffs between the two and the cost curves involved. Project based (indirect) costs: | costs not associated with any specific activity that will cease when the project terminates (e.g., general overhead costs, opportunity costs – could be fixed or variable). |
| Tradeoffs: An organization may be motivated to spend more direct costs(activity based cost curves).... | decline but indirect costs (project based cost curves) increase. The effect of this tradeoff results in a total project cost curve (the sum of the indirect and direct cost curves) with a minimum value at the optimal project duration. |
| Identify several qualitative considerations (or “rules of thumb”) in choosing individual activities to "crash." Steps 1-4 | 1. On the critical path – not really a rule of thumb – this is an absolute – will never be violated. 2. Relatively cheaper to crash 3. Less likely to cause quality problems 4. Earlier in the project 5. Relatively longer in terms of duration 6. Under |
| Identify several qualitative considerations (or “rules of thumb”) in choosing individual activities to "crash." Steps 5-6 | 5. Relatively longer in terms of duration 6. Under management control 7. In “bottleneck” positions (on multiple paths, especially multiple critical paths). 8. Labor intensive 9. Managed by individuals with proven capability |
| Contrast the advantages and disadvantages in managing a highly compressed project. Advantages a-c | a. Additional day of revenue for getting to market a day earlier. b. A project completed earlier will often reduce uncertainty. c. Being first to market often has distinct long-term market advantages. |
| Contrast the advantages and disadvantages in managing a highly compressed project. Advantages d. There may be benefits from the learning curve and from... | from capacity flexibility as an organization does project faster. An organization undertaking more projects at a faster rate learns quicker. More projects also increase the chances for a breakthrough discovery or advantage. |
| Contrast the advantages and disadvantages in managing a highly compressed project. Advantages e-f | e. The team may generate increased motivation to create value in project acceleration. f. The ability to do a project faster may attract customers that you simply could not reach otherwise. |
| Contrast the advantages and disadvantages in managing a highly compressed project. Advantages g-h | g. Completing projects faster may mean that project volume and profits may increase. h. Incentive contracts with customers may provide a direct financial motivation to complete a project earlier. |
| Contrast the advantages and disadvantages in managing a highly compressed project. Disadvantages a-c | a. Higher project activity costs b. Increased project risk c. Increased stress on project team members |
| Identify the specific strategies for reducing project duration that were employed in the house building video. Fast-tracking | the foundation was poured while the walls were being framed and the roof was being built. |
| Identify the specific strategies for reducing project duration that were employed in the house building video. Overlapping | wiring was being installed in the walls as they were being built (rather than waiting until walls were complete). |
| Identify the specific strategies for reducing project duration that were employed in the house building video. Change technical approach | fast-drying concrete was used instead of traditional concrete; a crane was used to move the roof onto the walls. |
| Identify the specific strategies for reducing project duration that were employed in the house building video. Crashing: | a crew of 300 was used (i.e., additional resources were acquired and utilized). |
| Explain why the “normal” (least cost) activity duration estimate should still be used for each activity in the initial network calculation process for this project rather than the “fastest” or crash time for each activity. It is not clear which activities | will determine project duration (i.e., what is on the critical path), so it would be irresponsible to add additional cost to activities until a determination can be made as to which activities impact project duration. |
| Explain why the “normal” (least cost) activity duration estimate should still be used for each activity in the initial network calculation process for this project rather than the “fastest” or crash time for each activity. That is, if the “fastest time to | execute the activity” is used for each activity, then resources would be needlessly expended on those tasks that will not be a factor in project duration, i.e., will not be on the critical path. |
| Explain why the “normal” (least cost) activity duration estimate should still be used for each activity in the initial network calculation process for this project rather than the “fastest” or crash time for each activity. It would be distracting.... | and demoralizing to ask a team member to estimate an activity duration based on the “quickest” time only to learn that the activity is not actually a factor in project duration. |
| Explain why the “normal” (least cost) activity duration estimate should still be used for each activity in the initial network calculation process for this project rather than the “fastest” or crash time for each activity. Once the project duration.... | using “normal activity durations” is determined, then the team can focus on how to most effectively reduce project duration to achieve the promised completion date. |
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ls1208