EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE MBA Program Tools and Processes in Project Management

TP Assignment 6

M6-Assignment

This assignment consists of four sections:

1. M6-1 Assignment (See below)

2. M6-2 Assignment (See below)

3. M6-3 Assignment (See below)

4. M6-4 Assignment (See below)

M6-1 Assignment

Create the following schedule using Microsoft Project (Set the start date as January 6, 2020)

Activity	Expected Duration	Predecessors
A	2 days
B	3 days	A
C	4 days	A
D	4 days	B, C
E	5 days	B
F	6 days	D
G	4 days	C, E, F

and then answer the following questions:

1. Show the critical path (Task/Format/Check Critical Path box). Set current data as baseline schedule (Select Project/Set Baseline and accept defaults). Show comparison to baseline (Click Project/Format/Baseline and check Baseline box). What is the critical path, its duration, and expected finish date? Include a copy of the Gannt Chart

2. Assume that activities B and C are linked with a "finish to finish" relationship. Does that change the expected completion date for the project? How did the schedule change?

3. For activity F, add a lag of three days to its predecessor relationship with activity D. By adding the 3-day lag to F, what is the new expected duration for the project? How did the schedule change?

4. Suppose you now added a start to start relationship between activities F and G to the new Gantt chart. How does this additional relationship change the duration, expected completion date schedule?

5. Submit your project file and a copy of the final Gannet Chart.

Use the attached Template document file to present your answers.

M6-2 Assignment

When deciding on whether to crash project activities or not, a project manager was faced with the following information. Activities of the critical path are highlighted with an asterisk:

Normal	Crashed
Activity	Cost	Duration	Extra Cost	Duration
A	5,000	4 weeks	4,000	3 weeks
B*	10,000	5 weeks	3,000	4 weeks
C	3,500	2 weeks	3,500	1 week
D*	4,500	6 weeks	4,000	4 weeks
E*	1,500	3 weeks	2,500	2 weeks
F	7,500	8 weeks	5,000	7 weeks
G*	3,000	7 weeks	2,500	6 weeks
H	2,500	6 weeks	3,000	5 weeks

1. What is the project's normal critical path and duration of project?

2. Calculate the 'Per week cost' for crashing each activity.

3. Identify the sequencing of the activities to be crashed in the first four steps. Which of the critical activities should be crashed first? Why?

4. After four iterations involving crashing project activities, what has the critical path shrunk to? (Assume all noncritical paths are < a fully crashed critical path. - In other words, critical path tasks will not change) - Show calculations.

5. Suppose project overhead costs accrued at a fixed rate of $500 per week. Also assume that a project penalty clause kicks in after 19 weeks. The penalty charged is $5,000 per week. When the penalty charges are added, what does the total project cost curve look like? Develop a table listing the costs accruing on a per-week basis.

6. If there were no penalty payments accruing to the project, would it make sense to crash any project activities? Show your work.

Use the attached Template document file to present your answers.

M6-3 Assignment

Submityour completed Microsoft Project file for Chapter 5 Practice tasks starting on page 94, Microsoft Project 2019 textbook. Name the file as 'SimpleSetUpResources-LastName.mpp' where LastName is your last name. The starting file is 'SimpleSetUpResources.mpp' under Folder Ch05 of the textbook download zip file "2019-Step-by-Step Textbook data files" included under Module 0 of the course.

M6-4 Assignment

Submityour completed Microsoft Project files for Chapter 6 Practice tasks starting on page 117, Microsoft Project 2019 textbook. There are four files to be submitted for this assignment.

Grading rubrics:

Item	Credit
Completeness of M 6-1 contents and presentation	25
Completeness of M 6-2 contents and presentation	25
Completeness of M 6-3 contents and presentation	25
Completeness of M 6-4 contents and presentation	25
Total	100

2022