Project Management Coursework: Critical Path and Resource Analysis

This project management assignment analyzes various aspects of project execution, including critical path identification, total and free float calculations, resource aggregation and smoothing, and project closure procedures. The assignment presents diagrams illustrating activity dependencies, float calculations, and resource histograms. It addresses questions related to critical path determination, float analysis for specific activities, and the creation of a bar chart. The assignment also focuses on resource aggregation and smoothing, with visual representations. Furthermore, it delves into the project closure process, emphasizing stakeholder acceptance, post-project reviews, documentation, resource release, client closeout, and archiving. The student provides a comprehensive overview of the project lifecycle and its key components.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Answer to question number 1..........................................................................................................2
a) Identification of the critical path.............................................................................................2
b) Listing the total and free float for each activity......................................................................3
Answer to question number 2.........................................................................................................4
Answer to question number 3..........................................................................................................5
Answer to question number 4..........................................................................................................6
Answer to question number 5a........................................................................................................8
Answer to question number 5b........................................................................................................9
Answer to question number 6a......................................................................................................10
Answer to question number 6b......................................................................................................11
Answer to question number 7........................................................................................................11
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................14

2
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to question number 1
a) Identification of the critical path
The above activities can be showcased in the form of diagram that is provided below:
Figure 1: Activities reflecting dependencies
(Source: Created by Author)
For calculating the critical path, the different paths are
1st path- A>B>C>D>I -28 days

3
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
2nd path- A>E>F>H>I- (5+3+8+6+8)- 30 days
3rd path- A>G>H>I (5+6+6+8)-25 days
4th path- A>E>F>D>I (5+3+8+5+8) -29 days
As, the minimum time that is needed for the project is 30 days and therefore the critical path of
the project is A>E>F>H>I
b) Listing the total and free float for each activity
The figure that is provided below showcase the float for each of the activity.
Figure 2: Diagram reflecting float for each activity
(Source: Created by Author)
Total float- LF- EF (Late finish- Early finish)
Free float- ES of next activity- EF
The calculation for total float and free float is done in the below table
Activity Total float (LF- EF) Free float

4
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
(ES of next activity- EF)
A 0 0
B 2 0
C 2 1
D 1 1
E 0 0
F 0 0
G 5 5
H 0 0
I 0 0

5
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to question number 2
Total float- LF- EF (Late finish- Early finish)
Free float- ES of next activity- EF
Therefore, total and free float for activity B, C and E is reflected in the below:
Activity Total float (LF- EF) Free float
(ES of next activity- EF)
B 5 0
C 5 5
E 11 11

6
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to question number 3
The bar chart that is provided below is showcasing the critical path and total path for
each of the project activity.
A
B
C
D
E
F
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Bar chart showing float and critical path
Total float Dur critical path Fi
gure 3: Bar chart showing float and critical path
(Source: Created by Author)
Answer to question number 4
Free float and total float
The float for each activity is reflected in the below diagram

7
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Figure 4: Diagram reflecting float for each activity
(Source: Created by Author)
Total float- LF- EF (Late finish- Early finish)
Free float- ES of next activity- EF
Activity Total float (LF- EF) Free float
(ES of next activity- EF)
A 0 0
B 1 0
C 1 1
D 0 0
E 0 0
F 7 7
Critical path

8
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
For critical path, different paths are listed below,
1st path: A>B>C>G -28 weeks
2nd path: A>D>E>G- 29weeks
3rd path: A>F>G- 22weeks
As the minimum time for completing the project is 29 days therefore A>D>E>G is the
critical path

9
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to question number 5a
The figure that is provided below showcases the resource aggregation and histogram for
resources that is needed in each week of the project
Figure 4: Diagram reflecting resource aggregation and histogram
(Source: Created by Author)

10
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to question number 5b
Figure 5: Diagram reflecting resource smoothing
(Source: Created by Author)

11
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to question number 6a
Figure 6: Diagram reflecting resource aggregation
(Source: Created by Author)

12
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Answer to question number 6b
Shortest time to complete the project will be (A>B>D>F>G) i.e 10 weeks
Answer to question number 7
The main goal of the project is to get proper acceptance from the project stakeholders
after the closure of the project that reflects that the stakeholder generally agrees on the quality
specification of the different project parameters that have met after which the project can be
successfully handed and then the close out procedure will be undertaken. It is found that before
the handover procedure of the project, it is quite important to arrange post project review in order
to ensure that all the activities of the project gets completed and the activities that are not
completed will be managed successfully. The work on the post project review should be done by

13
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
the experienced team members and workers so that they can be able to determine early signs of
risks in the future. After successfully reviewing the project, paperwork is done in order make
documentation of the entire project. The documents which are mainly created needs to be signed
off as well as approved from the project stakeholders. Everything that is done on the project must
require attention and everything should be successfully signed with legal proof (Serra and Kunc
2015). This further includes closure of all the contracts that are mainly made with the different
vendors as well as partners. In addition to this, it is quite significant to address the outstanding
payment for making sure that all the invoices, commissions, fees as well as bonus are paid.
After creation of documentation, resources of the project must be released. It is
considered as one of the formal and significant procedure that generally frees them within the
next project. While releasing both the internal as well as external resources, it is quite necessary
to make sure that all the payments of the human resources are generally done and no dues are left
(Zohrehvandi et al. 2017). After the release of the resources, it is quite important to get sign off
from the project stakeholders which reflects that the entire project gets completed successfully
by achieving all the project objectives and goals. Client closeout is another important step that
helps in providing the chance for making sure that the client is satisfied with the project that is
delivered. It is considered as one of the important opportunities for successfully improving the
satisfaction of the client by swiftly handling the work to the owner. In addition to this, achieving
documents can generally learned from the previous projects and due to which, one needs to meet
with the project team regularly during the project phase (Sanchez 2015). Archiving documents is
important as information can be accessed in the future from these types of documents which
further can be utilized for project handling. Considering the entire close out procedure, it is quite
necessary to review that all the activities have been executed successfully and thus the project

14
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
can be wrapped in a positive way. The project closeout procedure mainly impacts the client as
well as the future possibilities and therefore it should be done successfully.

15
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Bibliography
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-
298.
Kivilä, J., Martinsuo, M. and Vuorinen, L., 2017. Sustainable project management through
project control in infrastructure projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6),
pp.1167-1183.
Sánchez, M.A., 2015. Integrating sustainability issues into project management. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 96, pp.319-330.
Serra, C.E.M. and Kunc, M., 2015. Benefits realisation management and its influence on project
success and on the execution of business strategies. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(1), pp.53-66.
Todorović, M.L., Petrović, D.Č., Mihić, M.M., Obradović, V.L. and Bushuyev, S.D., 2015.
Project success analysis framework: A knowledge-based approach in project
management. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4), pp.772-783.
Zohrehvandi, S., Khalilzadeh, M., Hajizadeh, M. and Cheraghi, E., 2017. Planning project
closure phase in combined cycle power plant projects. Procedia Computer Science, 121, pp.274-
281.