Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning - Assignment Example

? Project Management has to involve the necessary planning when handling a project. A project is initiated through an effective planning that ensures effective utilization of resources such as time and funds. The use of effective planning ensures that a project is completed within the set time. This paper established the best ways of achieving the 30 day as the time allocated to complete 15 activities in a project. This is worked out by structuring the project’s critical path and the activities in the critical path, which require the highest priority for the project to be completed in time. Activity Immediate Predecessor Time (Days) Earliest Start time Earliest Finish time Latest Start Time Latest Finish Time Slack 01 None 1 0 1 0 1 0 02 01 11 01 12 1 12 0 03 01 14 12 26 38 52 26 04 03 5 26 31 52 57 26 05 02 23 12 35 29 52 17 06 05 5 35 40 52 57 17 07 02 20 12 32 37 57 25 08 02 30 12 42 12 42 0 09 08 15 42 57 42 57 0 10 08 2 42 44 50 52 8 11 02 33 12 45 14 47 2 12 11 10 45 55 47 57 2 13 10 4 44 48 52 56 8 14 13,10 1 48 49 56 57 8 15 06,07,09,14 1 57 58 57 58 0 Answer A The normal time for completing the project is expected to be 58 days. For the project to be completed on 30th November 2013 having commenced on 1st October 2013, it calls for crashing the time because the period of completion is shorter than the predicted time in the activity plan. Activities to be crashed must have the minimum cost implication for the process and usually they are those in the critical path. It is worth to note that, the Microsoft project considers work only done for five days of the week thus the time span for the project adds up to forty-five days. The Gantt chart that would be realized from the above information is as indicated in the MS Project. (See attached file) Answer B The network diagram of the project information in the above tables as follows Answer C The critical path refers to a sequence of activities in a project that form the longest chain in terms of their completion time. The set of these activities in a project network are determined by calculating the slack. Where by the slack is obtained by subtracting the earliest start time and activity duration from latest finish time. The critical path is realized in those activities whose slack is equal to zero. From the above table, the activities with a zero slack are 01, 02, 08, 09, and 15. Thus, the critical path can be concluded to be 01 – 02 – 08 – 09-15. Answer D The project duration is determined by adding up the time durations of all the activities in the critical path of the project network. In the above project network, the critical path was determined above and realized to be 01 – 02 – 08 – 09 - 15. To determine the least time duration would be (1 + 11 + 30 + 15 + 1) = 58 days. Answer to Task 2 Year Cash inflows Discounting factor (10%) Discounted cash inflow Cash inflows (C) Discounting factor (15%) Discounted cash inflow (Ci) 1 2500 0.9091 2272.73 2500 0.8696 2173.91 2 2750 0.8264 2272.73 2750 0.7561 2079.40 3 3025 0.7513 2272.73 3025 0.6575 1988.99 4 3327.5 0.6830 2272.73 3327.5 0.5718 1902.51 5 3660.25 0.6209 2272.73 3660.25 0.4972 1819.79 Total 11363.63 9964.60 Net Present Value (NPV) is a measure used for evaluating the value of a business by determining the present value of such investment by adding up all the discounted cash inflows received within the given period of the investment. The formula for discounting by the NVP method Where C0= Cash outflow also known as Initial Investment Ci = Cash flows for the given years r = Discount rate T = Time Where r = the discount rate, and T = time NVP the rate is at 10% NVP = 198.43 NVP when the rate is at 15% NVP = 46.19533 This method is used to determine the profitability and suitability of a project before commencing a plan to undertake the investment. A project with a positive NPV is said to be favorable, whereas one with a negative NPV is regarded as unfavorable and thus investor would be discouraged to undertake that project. Report Summery Project management is perfected through maximizing opportunities and utilizing the little resources available for the completion of the project. The project in this case involves a number of processes for perfection. There is need to employ an extra individual given that the project has to be completed in time. This report is about the project requirement in order to complete it within 30 days as the allocated time. It addresses things such as the risks involved, the possibility of finishing on time, the resources used, as well as other required aspects for the completion of the project in time. The management of the project involves effective planning, organizing, aspects of motivation, and controlling. Project management makes it possible to achieve specific goals. The goal in this case is completing the project on time, which would be achieved by utilizing the available resources and if possible adding some resource in order to ensure that the project is completed within the set. The Project The use of Microsoft project makes it possible for an organization or an individual to develop a given plan, assign resources to a project, tack the project progress, manage the budget, and make analysis on the workload. The project described in this report will be a temporary endeavour, which will have a definite beginning, and a specific end. The end of the project has constrained time. Other than time constrains, the project could also be constrained by other aspects such as funding or deliverable (Nokes, 2007). The assumptions in this project are that all the deliverables are available and that the project is fully funded. There will be no constrictions. Project Activities The project involves a number of activities, which have to be linked in a way that the project completion would be achieved within the minimum time possible. The project has the starting activities and the ending activities. Project activities could be managed through various approaches such as lean, iterative, phase approach, incremental approach, and the traditional approach. The most important thing to consider when handling the project activities is the overall objectives and goals of the project. The objectives are then linked the project timeline, the project cost, and the role and the responsibilities of the project stakeholders and participants. The timeline of the project, its cost, and the responsibilities need to be considered alongside the project objectives (Kerzner, 2003). Questions Addresses The questions addressed will provide guidance on the possibility of achieving the project objectives. The questions help in providing guidance for the project completion. They provide a clear path of working towards the project objective. The questions addressed are: i. What is the Gantt chart for the project? ii. How will the network diagram for the project be structured? iii. What will be the project’s critical path? iv. What is likely to be the project completion time including the earliest time for the project completion? v. Will the project be completed within the states time? vi. Will the Project require one additional person to complete? Objectives The research objectives for the project indicate how the project goals would be achieved. The objectives include: i. To structure the Gantt Chart for the project ii. To form the network diagram that would provide guidance on establishing the critical path for the project completion iii. To find the project critical path iv. To establish the possible time for the project completion v. To find out whether the project could be completed in time vi. To find out whether the project require an additional perform to manage the set completion time The project’s nature of being temporary is in contrast with the operations of the organizational operations. The operations of the organization are permanent and repetitive. Given that the project aims at perfecting the planning and organization aspect of the organization, making it perfect so that it utilizes the available resources would be of great essence (Kerzner, 2003). Project Activities The project goes through a series of 15 activities. Each of the 15 activities has some specific time allocated to it depending on the complexity of the activity among other factors such as resource availability. To handle the project activities in an effective way, which will optimize the project completion time; it would be good to specify what would be done, the way it has to be done, as well as the person to do it. This specification makes it possible to achieve the project outcome. The main content of the project planning is then formed as much as possible. The resources and the budget that is required for each project activity is then advisable (Kerzner, 2003). After identifying the necessary changes that have to be made in order to achieve the project objectives, the activities have to be initialized for the project to be completed within the specified time. The required time for the project completion is a range of time from October 1, 2013, to November 30, 2013. This implies that the available time to complete the project is 61 one days. Every activity will be allocated time in a way that the project will be completed within 61 day. The implication of this is that any time duration from 1 day to 61 days would prioritize the project objectives as far as completion time is concerned (Kerzner, 2003). The activities bring about the designated changes, which the project is likely to deliver to the organization. Every activity is core to the planning process of the project. The project planning begins with structuring an initial meeting with all stakeholders of the project. This activity is allocated a period of one day. The human resources required for the activity to be made effective are the project manager, and architect, John, and Natalie. Each one of them has a role to play. The second activity involves a meeting with the planning department and the team of planning architects in order to arrange for the necessary building quotes. The resource required in this case is an architect and it will cost $8000 to complete the activity. This activity takes 11 days to complete. Activity 3 is completing the building work. This activity requires the use of architects, and it will be applied through the cost of $30,000. This activity is lengthy, as it will take up to 14 days for it completion. Painting and decorating is the fourth activity and, it would only take a cost of $4000 and a period of five days. Activity 5 is designing out a warehouse and ordering racking. This activity takes about 23 days for completion and a cost of $8500; it will require only John to complete it. John would also handle activity 6, which will take 5 days. This activity is handled at a cost of $2000, and it will involve installing racking in the warehouse. Activity 7 will be handled by Natalie in 20 days, and it will incur a cost of $50,000. This activity will involve ordering cosmetics. Natalie would also tackle activities 8 and 9, which involve ordering of communication equipment and furniture, and installing the ordered communication equipment and furniture set up respectively. These activities will take a period of 30 days and 15 day respective. They will cost the project a total of $8,000 and $12,000 respectively. Activity 10 will be handled by John at a cost of $100 for a period of 2 days. In this activity, John will John will take delivery of furniture and install the furniture. John and Natalie will handle activities 11 and 12 in unison. Activity 11 involves one month’s notice of recruiting new staff and it will take 33 days. It will cost a total of $600. Activity 12 involves training the new staff, which will take 10 days at a cost of $12,000. Activity 13 and 14 will be done by John and it would involve ordering stationary and taking new stationary respectively. Ordering stationary will take four days at a cost of $100, while taking new stationary will take a period of 4 days at a cost of $12,000. The final activity will be taking delivery of cosmetics and setting them up in the warehouse. This activity will take one day at a cost of $1000. An additional person will handle some of the activities such that the project time would reduce to 30 days. The activities can be summarized in a table in order to indicate clearly the activities attributes including the cost of each activity, the precedent, the material required, and its description at a glance. Table: Project Activity Summary Activity ID Activity Description Duration Precedent(s) Materials required Estimated cost ? 01 Initial meeting with all stakeholders 1 PM, Architect, John and Natalie 02 Meeting with planning department and architect to arrange for building quotes 11 01 Architect 8000 03 Complete building work 14 02 Architect 30000 04 Painting and decorating 5 03 Architect 4000 05 Design layout of warehouse and order racking 23 02 John 8500 06 Installing racking in warehouse 5 05 John 2000 07 Order cosmetics 20 02 Natalie 50000 08 Order communication equipment, furniture 30 02 Natalie 8000 09 Installing communication equipment and set up 15 08 Natalie 12000 10 Take delivery of furniture and install 2 08 John 100 11 Recruit new staff 33 02 John and Natalie 600 12 Train new staff 10 11 John and Natalie 12000 13 Order stationary 4 10 John 100 14 Take delivery of stationary 1 10,13 John 2000 15 Take delivery of cosmetics and set up in warehouse 1 06, 07, 09, 14 Natalie 10000 From the table, and the information provided for every activity would sum up to a number of days that would be more than the 61 days provided as the project completion time. The project activities are structured in a way such that some activities are carried out concurrently while other activities will rely on the completion of other activities before they are initiated. Some of the activities are also found to be irrelevant for the project completion. The elimination of such activities can hardly alter the available time for the project completion. The project time is only depicted by those activities within the project’s critical path (Nokes, 2007). Project Critical Path The main activities that form the project critical path are activity 1, activity 2, activity 8, activity, 9, and activity 15. Activity 1 is the initial meeting with all stakeholders, while activity 2 involves a meeting with the planning department and architects in order to arrange on building quotes. Activity 8 involves ordering communication equipment and furniture while activity nine involves the installation of such equipments and making the necessary set-up. Activity 15 is the final activity, which involves taking cosmetics delivery and setting up the warehouse. These are the core activities, which would take total time duration of 58 days. The other activities will not interfere with the project time. Utilizing resources for the activities in critical path makes it possible to save at least three days of the project completion time. Adding one more individual can reduce the time of the project in such a way that the project will not exceed 30 days. Possible Challenges and Risks A number of challenges would face the completion time and effort the project. These challenges can make it impossible to complete the project within the specified time. Challenges in a project are however avoidable through the application of the right measures. The main constrains for the project could be the project scope, the allocated time, the project quality, and the budget allocated for the project. The secondary challenge involves the challenge of optimizing the allocation or the project resources necessary for completing the project. The resource allocation has to be optimized to make the project process successful (Kerzner, 2003). Conclusion Completing the entire project would be done within 58 days according to the critical path results. Adding an extra person may handle the activity of ordering communication equipment and furniture, which was being tackled by Natalie. This would reduce the 58 days to 28 days. Possible challenges are evident in when tackling the project such as time and financial constraints. Utilizing the resources used in the critical path activities would make it possible to save at least three days of the estimated time for the project completion. Activities such as the initial meeting with all stakeholders, meeting with the planning department and architects in order to arrange on building quotes, ordering communication equipment and furniture, doing the installation of such equipments and making the necessary set up, as well as taking cosmetics delivery and setting up the warehouse should not be delayed. Delaying such activities would increase the project time thereby increasing the project cost as well (Kerzner, 2003). With an effective planning, the project management would be able to understand which project activities need to be prioritized in order to achieve the project goals and objectives. Bibliography Kerzner, H. (2003). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (8th Ed. ed.). NY: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-22577-0. Nokes, S. (2007). The Definitive Guide to Project Management. 2nd Ed.n. . London: Financial Times / Prentice Hall: ISBN 978-0-273-71097-4. Read More