Project Schedule & Resource Allocation

This project management assignment focuses on analyzing a project schedule created in MS Project. Students are asked to identify the critical path, evaluate its logic and duration accuracy, and propose improvements. The second part examines resource allocation, specifically addressing over-allocation issues in January 2018 for the Procurement Manager. Students must suggest solutions beyond simply reducing allocated percentages.

Development of Cloud Based Software for Accounting Professionals
Week 3: Project Schedule and Resource Allocation Analysis
[Student Name]
DeVry University / Keller Graduate School of Management
PROJ586 - Project Management Systems
[Date]

Schedule Analysis
Essay Question #1: Now that you have created a WBS and resource loaded schedule in MS Project, what is your
Critical Path? Does this critical path make sense? Do your predecessors make sense? How accurate are your
durations? What could be done to improve the accuracy of your durations?
The Gantt chart of the project is as follows.
ID Task
Mode
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors Resource Names Cost
0 Development of
Cloud Based
Software for
Accounting
Professionals
90 days Thu
09-11-17
Wed
14-03-18
$64,080.00
1 Project Initiation 12 days Thu 09-11-17Fri 24-11-17 $6,440.00
2 Analysis of
Project
Requirement
2 days Thu
09-11-17
Fri
10-11-17
Analysis
Team,Project
Manager,Project
$2,160.00
3 Analysis of
Existing Issues
in the
Organization
2 days Mon
13-11-17
Tue
14-11-17
2 Project
Supervisor
$720.00
4 Analysis of
the Benefit
from the
Proposed
New Cloud
2 days Wed
15-11-17
Thu
16-11-17
3,2 Project
Manager,Project
Supervisor
$1,520.00
5 Analysis of
the Need for
New
3 days Fri
17-11-17
Tue
21-11-17
4,2 Analysis Team $960.00
6 Preparation of
a Draft Project
Plan
3 days Wed
22-11-17
Fri
24-11-17
5,4 Project
Supervisor
$1,080.00
7 Project Planning 20 days Mon 27-11-17Fri 22-12-17 $18,320.00
8 Appointment
of
Stakeholders
for the Project
5 days Mon
27-11-17
Fri
01-12-17
6 HR
Manager,Project
Manager
$3,800.00
9 Analysis of
the Initial
Project Plan
2 days Mon
04-12-17
Tue
05-12-17
6,8 Analysis
Team,Project
Supervisor
$1,360.00
10 Discussion
between
Stakeholders
2 days Wed
06-12-17
Thu
07-12-17
8,9 Analysis
Team,HR
Manager,Procurement
$4,560.00
11 Cost Estimation2 days Fri 08-12-17Mon 11-12-1710 Analysis Team,Project Financial Manager,Procurement Manager$1,760.00
12 Time Estimation2 days Tue 12-12-17Wed 13-12-1710,11 Project Supervisor $720.00
13 Preparation of
Final Project
Plan
5 days Thu
14-12-17
Wed
20-12-17
10,11,12 Analysis
Team,Project
Manager,Project
$5,400.00
14 Selection of
Development
Team
2 days Thu
21-12-17
Fri
22-12-17
13 HR Manager $720.00
15 Project Development38 days Mon 25-12-17Wed 14-02-18 $22,920.00
16 Allocation of Resources5 days Mon 25-12-17Fri 29-12-1713,14 Project Financial Manager$1,400.00
17 Procurement
of Necessary
Hardware
3 days Mon
01-01-18
Wed
03-01-18
13,16 Hardware
Technical
Expert,Procurement
$1,800.00
18 Procurement
of Necessary
Software
3 days Mon
01-01-18
Wed
03-01-18
13,16 Procurement
Manager
$840.00
19 Initiation of
Development
5 days Thu
04-01-18
Wed
10-01-18
13,17,18 Developers,Hardware
Technical
Expert
$3,200.00
20 Subscription
to Cloud
Services
2 days Thu
11-01-18
Fri
12-01-18
19 Developers $640.00
21 Development
of the Online
Accounting
System
15 days Mon
15-01-18
Fri
02-02-18
19,20 Developers,Analysis
Team
$9,600.00
22 Development
of Online
Intelligent
8 days Mon
05-02-18
Wed
14-02-18
21 Developers,Project
Supervisor
$5,440.00
23 Project Testing 5 days Thu 15-02-18Wed 21-02-18 $1,400.00
24 Testing of the
Developed
Accounting
System
3 days Thu
15-02-18
Mon
19-02-18
21,22 System Tester $840.00
25 Testing of the Portal2 days Tue 20-02-18Wed 21-02-1824 System Tester $560.00
26 Project Execution7 days Thu 22-02-18Fri 02-03-18 $3,440.00
27 Execution of
the
Developed
3 days Thu
22-02-18
Mon
26-02-18
21,22,23,24 Developers $960.00
28 Identification
of Bugs and
Glitches
2 days Tue
27-02-18
Wed
28-02-18
27 Developers $640.00
29 Risk Analysis 2 days Tue 27-02-18Wed 28-02-1827 System Tester,Analysis Team$1,200.00
30 Risk Management2 days Thu 01-03-18Fri 02-03-1829,28 Analysis Team $640.00
31 Project Closure 8 days Mon 05-03-18Wed 14-03-18 $11,560.00
32 Project Completion2 days Mon 05-03-18Tue 06-03-1830 Analysis Team,Developers,Hardware Technical Expert,HR Manager,Procurement Manager,Project Financial Manager,Project Supervisor,System$5,040.00
33 Project Documentation3 days Wed 07-03-18Fri 09-03-1832 Project Supervisor $1,080.00
34 Stakeholder Sign Off2 days Mon 12-03-18Tue 13-03-1833 Analysis Team,Developers,Hardware Technical Expert,HR Manager,Procurement Manager,Project Financial Manager,Project Supervisor,System$5,040.00
35 Project
Manager Sign
Off
1 day Wed
14-03-18
Wed
14-03-18
34 Project
Manager
$400.00
Analysis Team,Project Manager,Project Supervisor
Project Supervisor
Project Manager,Project Supervisor
Analysis Team
Project Supervisor
HR Manager,Project Manager
Analysis Team,Project Supervisor
Analysis Team,HR Manager,Procurement Manager,Project Financial Manager,Project Manager,Project Su
Analysis Team,Project Financial Manager,Procurement Manager
Project Supervisor
Analysis Team,Project Manager,Project Supervisor
HR Manager
Project Financial Manager
Hardware Technical Expert,Procurement Manager
Procurement Manager
Developers,Hardware Technical Expert
Developers
Developers,Analysis Team
Developers,Project Supervisor
System Tester
System Tester
Developers
Developers
System Tester,Analysis Team
Analysis Team
Analysis Team,Developers,Hardware Technical Expert,HR
Project Supervisor
Analysis Team,Developers,Hardware Technical Expert
Project Manager
T S W S T M F T S W S T M F
22 Oct '17 19 Nov '17 17 Dec '17 14 Jan '18 11 Feb '18 11 Mar '18

Figure 1: Gantt Chart of the Project
(Source: Created by Author)
The critical paths are those shown in red colour in the Gantt chart of the project. The
critical path of the project denotes the longest path sequence and is also used to determine the
shortest time within which, the project can be completed.
In some projects, there is no specific time limit and the overall time is estimated using the
project scheduling tool like Gantt chart. In these projects, the critical path may or may not be
very important (Kerzner, 2013). However, in this particular project, the overall time limit is set at
90 days and hence, the determination of the critical path is necessary to determine the shortest
time so that the project can be completed within 90 days. In the Gantt chart of this project, it can
be seen that the critical path is such that the overall estimated time for the project is 90 days.
Hence, the critical path shown in the chart does make sense.
In a project schedule, each of the tasks should be linked with each other in order to
prepare the sequence in which the project will be executed (Burke, 2013). Hence, each of the
tasks except the first task should have predecessors. In this prepared Gantt chart, the same has
been followed and hence, it does make sense.
The durations in the prepared chart is sufficiently accurate to the extent that the estimated
time for the project is 90 days i.e. the overall time limit provided. However, it can be further
improved by changing the duration of each individual task more accurately and fine tuning the
task link ups accordingly.

Resource Allocation Analysis
Essay Question #2: Are there any resources over-allocated? If yes, during which month(s) and what are some ways
this might be addressed? Do not simply lower the percentage allocated to an over-allocated activity.
In the provided Gantt chart, there are some resources that have been over allocated.
The over-allocations are noticed in the month of January 2018 in which, the Procurement
Manager is found to be over-allocated. There are many ways in which, the over-allocation
problem can be addressed but in order to do that, the reasons behind the over-allocation is to be
identified (Larson & Gray, 2013). In this project, it has been found that the over-allocation is due
to the fact that the procurement manager is allocated to two different tasks on the same day. This
problem can be solved by reducing the involvement (working hours) of the procurement
manager in both or one of the tasks (Walker, 2015). For instance, if the standard working hours
is set at 8 hours, the procurement manager can be allocated for 4 hours in one task and another 4
hours in another. Another method that may be followed is by delaying one of the tasks. In that
case, one of the tasks can be performed on a later date so that the procurement manager is not
over-allocated on the same date (Schwalbe, 2015). Finally, another possible and reasonable
method is to allocate one of the tasks to another stakeholder in order to avoid over-allocation.
However, if the presence of the particular stakeholder is must, this process cannot be followed.

References
Boud, D., Cohen, R., & Sampson, J. (Eds.). (2014). Peer learning in higher education: Learning
from and with each other. Routledge.
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2016, December). Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. (2013). Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS
Project. McGraw-Hill.
Leach, L. P. (2014). Critical chain project management. Artech House.
Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: linking
project management performance and project success. International journal of project
management, 32(2), 202-217.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Taylor & Francis.
Phillips, J. (2013). PMP, Project Management Professional (Certification Study Guides).
McGraw-Hill Osborne Media.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Verzuh, E. (2015). The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Walker, A. (2015). Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.