Project Management Strategies: Oakdale Public Library Case Study

This case study provides a comprehensive analysis of the Oakdale Public Library project, focusing on the implementation of a new information system. It includes a Gantt chart illustrating the project timeline, a PERT chart detailing the project roadmap, and an analysis of the critical path. The study addresses the impact of project delays, specifically a 12-day increase in task duration, and explores various project management options to mitigate the late end date, such as reducing project scope, increasing costs or human resources, and compromising on quality. The document concludes with a bibliography of relevant project management resources. Desklib provides students with access to past papers and solved assignments like this one, offering valuable study tools and resources.

Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Oakdale Public Library Case Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to Question 1
The Gantt chart is shown as follows.
Figure 1: Gantt Chart of the Project
(Source: Created by Authors)
The earliest finish date for the project is 19/08/10.
Answer to Question 2
The PERT chart is developed as follows.

2PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Figure 2: PERT Chart
(Source: Created by Author)
A gantt chart is basically a work breakdown structure along with the work package
durations projected in a diagram format. On the other hand, a PERT chart is a clear indication of
the entire project roadmap along with all the details like duration, slack, crash durations, critical
path and many others.
The main advantage of Gantt chart is that it is simple to develop and the format supports
very easy application of scheduling technique but on the other hand, a Gantt chart is not suitable
for complex projects that require frequent changes at various points of the project.
The main advantage of PERT chart is that it is very much effective in implementation of
changes and allows the user to determine factors like early start, late finish, crash time and cost
and many others.
I personally prefer the PERT chart as it can be used in any project regardless of its scale
or complexity.

3PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to Question 3
The critical path is not affected by the change although the total duration is increased by
12 days.
The new durations are shown in the following table.
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Information System
Implementation for Oakdale
Public Library
140 days Mon 3/8/10 Fri 9/17/10
Create Design Plan 8 days Mon 3/8/10 Wed 3/17/10
Obtain New Hardware 12 days Thu 3/18/10 Fri 4/2/10 1
Obtain Software Package 4 days Thu 3/18/10 Tue 3/23/10 1
Install New Hardware 15 days Mon 4/5/10 Fri 4/23/10 2
Build Prototype System 5 days Mon 4/5/10 Fri 4/9/10 2,3
Software
Configuration/Customization
15 days Mon 4/12/10 Fri 4/30/10 5
Prototype Testing 30 days Mon 5/3/10 Fri 6/11/10 6
Convert Library Records to
New Format
14 days Mon 6/14/10 Thu 7/1/10 7

4PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Full Install of Software
Package
26 days Fri 7/2/10 Fri 8/6/10 4,7,8
System Testing 10 days Mon 8/9/10 Fri 8/20/10 9
Librarian Training 30 days Mon 8/9/10 Fri 9/17/10 9
Thus, the new end date is 17/9/10.
Answer to Question 4
The four project management options to handle the project’s late end date are as follows.
Reduce the Scope – In order to reduce the time for completion of the delay, the project
scope can be reduced so that lesser number of activities is required. However, this will only
result in partial fulfillment of the project requirements.
Increase Cost – Project time can be reduced by working overtime that will demand extra
costs. However, too much extra cost will result in budget overshoot, which is not desirable for a
project.
Increase Human Resources – Additional work force can be deployed to reduce the total
time period for the project but it will also result in budget overshoot.
Quality – Quality can be comprised with in order to reduce the overall time period for the
project.

5PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Bibliography
Cagliano, A. C., Grimaldi, S., & Rafele, C. (2015). Choosing project risk management
techniques. A theoretical framework. Journal of Risk Research, 18(2), 232-248.
Cleden, D. (2017). Managing project uncertainty. Routledge.
Harris, E. (2017). Strategic project risk appraisal and management. Routledge.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.