Project Management: Analyzing Network Diagrams and Schedules

This project management assignment involves analyzing a project schedule using network diagrams and MS Project. The student is tasked with creating a network diagram, determining the critical path, and calculating the project duration. The assignment requires the student to baseline the project schedule, track changes, and compare the original and updated schedules using a Gantt chart. Specifically, the student must adjust the duration of a task and account for a task being completed earlier than planned. The assignment concludes with questions about the impact of these changes on the total project effort, project duration, and the critical path. The student should understand the project management principles of scheduling, critical path analysis, and the use of project management software to track and manage project progress. The student should be able to explain the impact of changes to task durations on the overall project schedule and resources.

Inspired by: Fuller, Valacich, and George (2008). Information Systems Project Management. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall. pp.403-4-4.
Suppose you are the projeAssct manager for the following project:
Task (Part 1)
Baseline Duration Predecessor(s) (Part 2)
Actual Duration
1 1 days -- 1 days
2 3 days 1 3 days
3 2 days 1 1 days
4 3 days 2 5 days
5 5 days 3 5 days
6 3 days 4, 5 3 days
7 1 days 6 1 days
1. "Before": First, prepare a network diagram for the project using MS Project. Determine the critical path
and slack times for all of the tasks. This completes the plan for the project schedule.
2. Then figure out the project duration and completion date. Then baseline this (in MS Proj: Tools > Baseline)
then save the .mpp file as "<yourname> F. Baselined Project".
3. "After": During project plan Proj Execution, we become aware of the need to change the duration of Task
4 to five days. Meanwhile, Task 3 has been finished one day early, so it only took one day to do..4. Re-do
the network diagram and figure out the new duration and completion date.
5. Look at the "tracking Gantt chart" to compare the before (baselined) and after (actual)
versions. The baselined version will generally be black/gray, and the actual/current version will generally be in
color (red for critical path tasks, blue for non-critical path tasks).
F.6. Save the .mpp file, making sure it shows both versions, before (baselined) and after (actual) in the file.
F.7. Then, having done all this, answer these questions:
1. a. What effect did this have on and total project effort? Why?
2. b. What effect did this have on project duration? Why?
3. c. What effect did this have on the critical path? Why?