Project Management Essays Example

Expected completion time

Expected completion time is given by: a+4b+c6

Where a is the optimistic time, b is the most likely time and c is the pessimistic time.

Variance
Variance for each activity = :(c- a6)2

Network diagram

Activity 1→Activity 2 → Activity 5 → Activity 6 → Activity 7
Duration of the project = duration of the critical path = 80.5 days

Probability of completion within 40 days

Total variance for the project = 55.278
Standard deviation of the project = 55.278 = 7.435
Average completion time = 80.5 days

Probability of completing the project within 40 days:

X = 40
Z = 40-80.57.435 = -5.447
The Z-value above is less than -3.90 hence the p-value is zero. Therefore, the probability of completing the project within 40 days or less is zero (0).

Project management and requirements

Project management refers to the application of skills, techniques, and knowledge to activities in a project in order to attain the requirements of the project. Project management skills include project planning, scheduling activities, monitoring, and evaluation, among other activities. Projects are usually long-term or medium-term activities of an organization geared towards attaining a particular goal. Each project has a unique objective. Project management ensures that the firm achieves the project’s unique goals.
For a manager to effectively manage a project, he requires a number if skills and capabilities. Firstly, a project manager should have the relevant technical competence. He should be competent in the area of the project because this enhances project scheduling among other aspects. In addition, he should have excellent team-building skills to enable him organize a team to work together to achieve the project’s goals. Communication skills are essential since the project manager is the link between the project’s team and the management of the organization. Excellent communication skills allow the manager to communicate precise instructions to the project’s employees.

Implications of changes in project scheduling

Activities in a project have specific durations and the corresponding costs. The durations of the particular activities as well their costs as a whole, determine the completion date and cost of the entire project. Project scheduling considers the availability of resources, especially labor since the project employees cannot work on all the activities at the same time. Changes in project scheduling, therefore, has an impact on the allocation of the project’s resources. For instance, if a project has a team of five employees who can perform a task in a given week, other tasks may be rescheduled to other weeks when the workers will be available (Lock, 2014). Rescheduling activities can affect the project cost. Crashing an activity in order to complete earlier than the normal completion date carries an extra cost. It may force the project manager to incur additional costs in acquiring more employees and other resources.
In addition, altering project scheduling may change the completion date of the project. This depends on whether the activities affected are critical or not. Critical activities have no slacks hence rescheduling them automatically changes the completion date. However, rescheduling non-critical activities does not affect the duration of the project so long as the delay does not go beyond the slack for the activity. In the above case, only activities 3 and 4 can be delayed without affecting the duration of the entire. However, this delay should not be more than 4.5 and 7 days for activities 3 and 4 respectively.

Application of project management techniques

Project management techniques are mainly applied in medium and long-term plans. Operational goals relate to short-term activities (Lock, 2014). Project management techniques are not so useful in planning and implementing daily activities. Project management techniques such as planning, scheduling activities, among other aspects require a substantial period as well as resources to do. The application of such techniques may delay the implantation and achievement of short-term or operational goals. In implementing operating activities, managers should not use project management techniques since they consume a lot of time and resources.

References

Lock, D. (2014). The essentials of project management (4th ed.). Aldershot, England: Gower.