Analytics Exercise $4-4($Algo$)$

You work for a company that makes cell phones and have been made project manager for the design of a new cell phone. Your

supervisors have already scoped the project, so you have a list showing the work breakdown structure, and this includes major project

activities. You must plan the project schedule and calculate project duration. Your boss wants the schedule on his desk tomorrow

morning!

You have been given the information in Exhibit $4\mathrm{.}13.$ It includes all the activities required in the project and the duration of each

activity. Also, dependencies between the activities have been identified. Remember that the preceding activity must be fully

completed before work on the following activity can be started.

Your project is divided into five major subprojects. Subproject $"$P$"$ involves developing specifications for the new cell phone. Here,

decisions related to such things as battery life, size of the phone, and features need to be made. These details are based on how a

customer uses the cell phone. These user specifications are redefined in terms that have meaning to the subcontractors that will

actually make the new cell phone in subproject $"S"$ supplier specifications. These involve engineering details for how the product will

perform.

The individual components that make up the product are the focus of subproject $"$D$."$ Subproject "I" brings all the components

together, and a working prototype is built and tested.

Finally, in subproject $"V,"$ suppliers are selected and contracts are negotiated.

Exhibit $4\mathrm{.}13$: Work Breakdown Structure and Activities for the Cell Phone Design Project

a$.$ Determine the minimum number of weeks for completing the project.

Answer is complete but not entirely correct.

Minimum number of

weeks

b$.$ Your boss would like you to study the impact of making two changes to how the project is organized. The first change involves

using dedicated teams that would work strictly in parallel on the activities in each subproject. For example, in subproject $P($product

specifications$)$ the team would work on P$1,$ P$2,$ P$3,$ and P$4$ all in parallel. In other words, there would be no precedence relationships

within a subproject$-$all tasks within a subproject would be worked on at the same time and each would take the same amount of time

as originally specified. With this new design, all the subprojects would be done sequentially with P done first, then S$,$ D$,$ I, and finally V$.$

What would be the expected impact on how long it would take to complete the project if this change were made?

Answer is complete but not entirely correct.