Online Exam Operation Management: Project Network Analysis

This article discusses project network analysis for an online exam in operation management. It covers sequential and parallel activities, identification of starting and ending nodes, longest path determination, and conditions for meeting expected project completion time.

ONLINE EXAM
OPERATION
MANAGEMENT

Question: 6
a. No, not all the activities in the project network are sequential or parallel activities. This is
because activities B and C & F and G are parallel activities while activities A, D and E are
sequential activities. Parallel activities are not dependent on other tasks to be completed first
while sequential activities are dependent on other tasks to be completed first before they begin.
Accordingly, B and C & F and G can be performed together and are not dependent on activity A
and G respectively. On the other hand, activity D is dependent on activities B and C to be
completed first along with activity E required the performance of activity D before their
beginning due to being sequential activities.
b. Identification of starting and ending nodes:
A is the starting node of activities B and C and D is the ending nodes of activities B and C. Also,
D is the starting node of activity E while activities F and G are the ending nodes of activity E.
Also, Activity A is the starting node of the entire project while the project is ending at parallel
activities that is, F and G, therefore, there would be a dummy activity “H” to be included in the
project network diagram to indicate the ending node of the entire project.
The difference between starting nodes and ending nodes
The starting node indicates the beginning of the workflow while the ending node shows the
ending of the entire workflow.
c. Identification of longest path and determination of the duration for the same.
A – B – D – E – F = 7 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 9 = 30 days.
(d)
The three conditions on which the manager able to meet the expected project completion time
even if an activity get delay as per the perspective of project network is as follows:
 If the activity is on non-critical path: There will be no delay on the project completion
time by delaying in the activity which is on non-critical path as. It is because the activity
that fall on the critical path cause project delay. For example, in the present case, the

critical path is ABDEF. So, if the C activity got delay than it will not affect the overall
project completion time as it is on non-critical path.
 In case of parallel activity: This is also one of the condition which indicate that if an
activity is parallel activity than this will not affect the expected completion time of
project. For example, in the present scenario, activity C is parallel to activity B, so in
order to reach to activity D from activity A, the project need to move through from
parallel activity. Thus, it means that a parallel activity is a condition where project
expected time would be met even delaying in the parallel activity.
 In case of compensation and budget expansion: This is also one of the condition which
state that if the manager compensate the delay of one activity with the early completion
of other activity. Also, if they expand the budget resources to hire more team or expert to
manage the delay is the situation where delay in activity would not lead to delay in
expected project time.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals