Project Management Assignment: Scheduling and Critical Path Analysis

This project management assignment is a comprehensive analysis of project scheduling and critical path methodologies. The student tackles exercise questions related to project management principles, including float calculation, and the identification of predecessors and successors in project networks. The core of the assignment involves developing a schedule for a skit project, utilizing an Activity-on-Node (AON) diagram created in MS Excel, and calculating estimated times for each activity using the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). The solution details task durations, predecessors, and critical path determination, followed by an assessment of the impact of delays and uncertainty on the project's timeline. The assignment culminates in the identification of the critical path and the total project duration, providing a practical application of project management principles in a real-world scenario.

Running Head: PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Principles of Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
ES EF
LS LF
FLOAT
Activity Name
Duration
Part 1: Exercise Questions
Answer to 1
Figure 1: Two-Pass Schedule Legend
(Source: Created by Author)
Answer to 3
In the given diagram, both activities A and B precedes activity C. Hence, activities A and
B are predecessors while activity C is the successor.

2PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to 5
12 B 16
4 4
14 4 18
0 A 12 16 C 17
0 0 2 2
0 12 12 18 1 19
19 E 22
0 0
12 D 19 19 3 22
0 0
12 7 19
ES ID EF
TF TF
LS DUR LF
Figure 2: ES, EF, LS, LF, Float of the Activities (Critical Path in Red)
(Source: Created by Author)
Answer to 6
The critical path of the network in Exercise 5 is A  D  E.
The project will take a total of 22 days.
Answer to 9
All the required details are shown in the following diagram.
Figure 3: Schedule, Duration, Critical Path (Red Path) and Float (Total Slack)

3PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
(Source: Created by Author)
Part 2: Scheduling Problem
Answer to 1
The schedule for the skit project is developed as follows.
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Skit Project 19.1 days Tue 6/11/19 Mon 7/8/19
Project Initiation 8 days Tue 6/11/19 Thu 6/20/19
Initial Discussion
Regarding the Skit
2 days Tue 6/11/19 Wed 6/12/19
Form Project Team 2 days Thu 6/13/19 Fri 6/14/19 2
Prepare Project Plan 2 days Mon 6/17/19 Tue 6/18/19 3
Receive Approval 2 days Wed 6/19/19 Thu 6/20/19 4
Project Preparation 9 days Fri 6/21/19 Wed 7/3/19
Procure Resources 3 days Fri 6/21/19 Tue 6/25/19 5
Set Up Skit Stage 4 days Wed 6/26/19 Mon 7/1/19 7
Set Up Audience Area 4 days Wed 6/26/19 Mon 7/1/19 7
Set Up Decorations 2 days Tue 7/2/19 Wed 7/3/19 8,9

4PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Set Up Lights and Music
System
2 days Tue 7/2/19 Wed 7/3/19 8,9
Send Out Invitations 1 day Wed 6/26/19 Wed 6/26/19 7
Project Execution 1 day Thu 7/4/19 Thu 7/4/19
Final Preparations on the
Venue
0.1 days Thu 7/4/19 Thu 7/4/19 11
Procure Food Packages 0.2 days Thu 7/4/19 Thu 7/4/19 14
Test Lights and Sound 0.2 days Thu 7/4/19 Thu 7/4/19 14
Welcome Guests 0.2 days Thu 7/4/19 Thu 7/4/19 14
Execute the Skit 0.9 days Thu 7/4/19 Thu 7/4/19 14
Distribute Food Packets 0 days Thu 7/4/19 Thu 7/4/19 14
Project Closing 2 days Thu 7/4/19 Mon 7/8/19
Clean Up Area 1 day Thu 7/4/19 Fri 7/5/19 19
Hand Over the Venue to
the Decorators
1 day Fri 7/5/19 Mon 7/8/19 21

5PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The AON diagram is developed as follows.
3.2
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
2.2 2.4 3.3
2.1
2.3 2.5 3.1 3.4
3.5
3.6
2.6
4.1
4.2
Figure 4: AON Diagram for the Skit Project
(Source: Created by Author)
Answer to 2
The given data is shown as follows.
Activity Predecessor Time (days)
Optimistic Most Likely Pessimistic
1 None 2 4 6
2 None 5 5 5
3 2 3 5 7
4 1 7 10 13
5 1 11 12 13
6 2,4 5 6 7
7 3 9 10 11
8 3,6 5 7 9
9 4 7 9 11
10 5 3 3 3
11 7 15 17 19
12 8 6 8 10

6PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
13 9,10 7 8 15
14 7 12 14 16
15 12,13 16 17 18
Now, using the PERT technique, it is known that:
Estimated Time (E) = (TOPT + 4 x TLIKELY + TPESS) / 6 [where TOPT is Optimistic
Time, TLIKELY is Likely Time and TPESS is Pessimistic Time.
For example, if TOPT = 2, TLIKELY = 4, TPESS = 6, then E = (2+4x4+6)/6 = 4.
Thus, the actual durations of the given data are calculated and shown in the following
table.
Activity Predecessor Duration
1 None 4
2 None 5
3 2 5
4 1 10
5 1 12
6 2,4 6
7 3 10
8 3,6 7
9 4 9
10 5 3
11 7 17
12 8 8

7PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
13 9,10 9
14 7 14
15 12,13 17
Answer to 3
The actual paths and their lengths are shown in the following table.
Task Name Duration Predecessors
Project 52 days
1 4 days
2 5 days
3 5 days 3
4 10 days 2
5 12 days 2
6 6 days 3,5
7 10 days 4
8 7 days 4,7
9 9 days 5

8PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
10 3 days 6
11 17 days 8
12 8 days 9
13 9 days 10,11
14 14 days 8
15 17 days 14,13
The critical path is determined as:
Activity 1  Activity 4  Activity 6  Activity 8  Activity 12  Activity 15
Hence, the total length of the critical path is (1:4:6:8:12:15) = 52 days
Answer to 4
If one of the activities in the critical path during the execution phase is delayed by one
day, it will be serious as it will have impact on the date of the skit, which is not tolerable as the
date is already fixed at 4th of July. If there is a delay in the non-critical path, then only it may not
be treated as serious as long as it does not have any impact on the final date of the skit.
Answer to 5
The uncertainty of the critical path is shown in the following table.

9PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Activity Uncertainty
1 0.7
4 1
6 0.3
8 0.7
12 0.7
15 0.3

10PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Bibliography
Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2016, December). Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Routledge.
Walker, A. (2015). Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.