Suppose, after doing the analysis in Example 15.2, the project manager sees a problem with the current setup.

Activity C, selecting the server, requires five systems people, and activity D, selecting the software, requires seven systems people. The problem is that these two activities are scheduled concurrently, even though it turns out that four of the five systems people for activity C and four of the seven systems people for activity D are the same people.

Assuming that a given person can work on only one activity at a time, some changes need to be made.

a. One possible change is to assign two of the four people in common to activity C and the other two to activity D. Now three people will be assigned to activity C and five people will be assigned to activity D. Unfortunately, with fewer people assigned, the durations of these activities will increase from 6 days to 9 days for activity C and from 12 days to 14 days for activity D. How much will these changes delay the project?

b. Another possible change is to make activity D a successor to activity C, so that the four common people can continue to be assigned to both activities. How should the AON diagram for the project be redrawn?

How much will this change delay the project?

c. What other changes might you suggest?