Question 2: Project crashing (20 marks)

Suppose that you are working on a new software product development project. Table below provides the information about the activities, immediate predecessors, normal times and costs, and crash times and costs.

Activity	Immediate Predecessor(s)	Normal Time (weeks)	Crash Time (weeks)	Normal Cost ($)	Crash Cost ($)
A	None	5	2	25 000	34 000
B	None	4	2	30 000	40 000
C	A,B	10	6	45 000	81 000
D	B	5	3	30 000	38 000
E	C,D	7	6	30 000	37 000
F	C	5	3	20 000	26 000
G	E, F	6	4	35 000	65 000

Draw an Activity-on-Arrow(AOA) network diagram to represent the above project. Using normal durations calculate the minimum project completion time and identify the critical path(s).

(5 marks)

Suppose that management wants to shorten the project to 20 weeks to beat competition. Which activities should be crashed, and for each crashed activity provide the total number of weeks crashed and the total crash cost. Illustrate your solution using a crashing table.

(8 marks)

What is the total project crashing cost?

(2 marks)

Draw a Gantt chart for the crashed project, incorporating all task durations, dependencies, free float and the critical path(s).

(5 marks)