For the project you described in Problem and Exercise 3-43, assume that the worst has happened. A key team member has dropped out of the project and has been assigned to another project in another part of the country. The remaining team members are having personality clashes. Key deliverables for the project are now due much earlier than expected. In addition, you have just determined that a key phase in the early life of the project will now take much longer than you had originally expected. To make matters worse, your boss absolutely will not accept that this project cannot be completed by this new deadline. What will you do to account for these project changes and problems? Begin by reconstructing your Gantt chart and network diagram and determining a strategy for dealing with the specific changes and problems just described. If new resources are needed to meet the new deadline, outline the rationale that you will use to convince your boss that these additional resources are critical to the success of the project.

Problem and Exercise 3-43

Construct a Gantt chart and network diagram for a project you are or will be involved in. Choose a project of sufficient depth from work, home, or school. Identify the activities to be completed, determine the sequence of the activities, and construct a diagram reflecting the starting times, ending times, durations, and precedence (network diagram only) relationships among all activities. For your network diagram, use the procedure in this chapter to determine time estimates for each activity and calculate the expected time for each activity. Now determine the critical path and the early and late starting and finishing times for each activity. Which activities have slack time?