Question
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
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 4.13. 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 4.13: Work Breakdown Structure and Activities for the Cell Phone Design Project
MAJOR SUBPROJECTS/ACTIVITIESACTIVITY IDENTIFICATIONDEPENDENCYDURATION (WEEKS) Product Specifications (P) Market researchP14 Overall product specificationsP2P13 HardwareP3P25 SoftwareP4P35 Supplier specifications (S) HardwareS1P45 SoftwareS2P46 Product design (D) BatteryD1S11 DisplayD2S12 CameraD3S11 Outer coverD4D1, D2, D34 Product integration (I) HardwareI1D43 User interfaceI2D24 Software codingI3I24 Prototype testingI4I1, I34 Subcontracting (V) Suppliers selectionV1S1 ,S210 Contract negotiationV2I4, V13
a. Calculate the start and finish times for each activity. (Leave no cells blank - be certain to enter "0" wherever required.)
b. Determine the minimum number of weeks for completing the project.
c. Find the activities that are on the critical path for completing the project in the shortest time.
multiple choice
P1-P2-P3-P4-S1-D2-D4-I1-I4-V2
P1-P2-P3-P4-S1-D1-D4-I1-I4-V2
P1-P2-P3-P4-S1-D3-D4-I1-I4-V2
P1-P2-P3-P4-S1-D2-I2-I3-I4-V2
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