Project Management Exercise - Coursework Example

The total cost in completing the project in normal time is £2 million, excluding site overheads which are £8000 per week.

Table of Activities

Activity

Normal time (weeks)

Shortest time (weeks)

Reduction costs (per week)

1-2

6

4

£7000

1-3

8

4

£8000

1-4

5

3

£3000

2-4

6

3

£5000

2-5

5

3

£4000

3-6

10

8

£15,000

4-6

8

5

£6000

5-6

6

6

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The board of directors of the company has asked you to produce a precedence (activity on node) diagram and to determine the following:

1. The critical path using normal times, the project’s total duration, and the total cost of completing the project. (screenshots)

Screenshot 1: The table showing cost per project

Screenshot 2: Gantt chart showing duration per activity

Screenshot 3: network diagram showing the critical path

As shown in the network diagram, is the critical path allowing us to estimate the project’s total duration and the total cost

Total duration = 6 + 8 + 6 +4 + 7 = 31 wks

Total cost = £7000 + £8000 + £5000 + £6000 = £26000

2. The shortest time in which the project can be completed and the associated costs. (screenshots)

Screenshot 4: Gantt chart showing the shortest time

Screenshot 5: Gantt chart showing costs

3. The lowest cost for which the project can be completed and the corresponding time. (screenshots)

Screenshot 6: Network diagram indicating cost per activity

The lowest cost will be along 1-2, 1-3, 2-5, 5-6

Which gives:

7000 + 8000 + 4000 + 0 =19000

1. Critically appraise the use of appropriate project management software in carrying out this exercise.

The use of Microsoft project professionals proved of significance in this case since it acts as one of the major applications for managing a company’s project. As stated in the case, the contracting company wants to build a new manufacturing plant, which in the real sense; they are to be involved in a network of activities before reaching completion. In which case, the Ms. Project was required for resource collaboration to ensure efficiency. The case: S M Construction has been awarded a contract to build a new manufacturing plant just outside Cardiff. The activity on arrow table below gives data on the activities involved in the plant’s construction.

The excellent timeline view, provided by Ms project, is one of the features that contributed to the usefulness of this software (Muir, 2004, 59). The feature allowed for organizing each execution, listed in the case, regardless of whether they were complicated or long projects. This made the coordination between the projects, both long and short, much easier. Further, the compatibility of the project to other office apps also contributed to the successful execution of the task assigned by SM construction. The compatibility allowed for a presentation in Microsoft word, through copy pasting for better understanding. Further the software made it easy to derive relationship between the presented activities, thereby presenting an activity node diagram worth appraising (Taylor & Dow, 2013, 45).

From the above case, the use of MS project proved that the SM construction project manager can minimize cost from £26000 to £19000. This was obtained by extracting a critical path from network diagram, which showed the shortest route possible. The network diagram showed that the lowest cost will be along 1-2, 1-3, 2-5, 5-6.

1. What other software could you use to perform this exercise?

Mind manager is another software, apart form Microsoft project, which can be use to perform the exercise presented by SM constructions (Lowery, 2001, 7).