Sydney Business School – 5836815 Meltem B. Kizildag

OPS 935 – Assessment 2 – Rock N Bands

  1. How would you ensure the project is completed by the due date? Provide a discussion of your alternatives.

The objective of this project is to complete it in due time with a minimum amount of total cost. We have to ensure that the project does not exceed specific limitations such as maximum number of workers per week and per task while trying to make its duration shorter than 10 weeks; which is agreed to be time allowance. If it cannot be completed in the deadline then a penalty applies for each week and more importantly it is likely to create customer dissatisfaction for our company.

Creating a map to follow the task network, visualising the predecessors/successors relationships between tasks and analysing the critical path(s) helped me ensure the project is completed within the time given. After completing the activity network diagram of the project, I could identify the path(s) with the longest duration through the network, which is the critical path. Critical path shows that if an activity on the path is delayed it makes the whole project delayed the same amount of time (Clifford & Larson 2011, p.160). I computed the activities with slack and identified the amount of time that activities can exceed their earliest finishing time without creating a longer completion time for the project. Together with heuristics and intuitive methods like trial-and-error I could complete the project within time and resource limitations.

The cost varies with time throughout the project because the workers assigned to each task differs in each step of the project. A project manager should try to implement crashingto ensure that the project is completed by the due date. Main objective of crashing is to make project duration shorter while acquiring the least project completion cost; in different words it is tobalance the cost and the time to get the optimum result (Clifford & Larson 2011, p.319). To implement crashing strategy first the critical path for the completion should be found. After identifying the critical path(s) the crash cost for each activity at each step should be computed. The activity with the least crash cost within the critical path should be crashed at a maximum level.After doing this iteration one should identify the critical path(s) again till he/she reaches the optimal schedule.

Paths / DUR
AEGK / 10
AEJ / 8
CBJ / 11
CHJ / 9
CHI / 10
DHJ / 10
DHI / 11
DFL / 9
DFI (CP) / 12

I started with assigning one worker per one task. The completion time was 12 weeks and the total cost was $11600.

Since I wanted to complete the project within 10 weeks I wanted to align the finishing times of the individual paths and also shorten the time of either C, B or D that eventually affects activities H, I and J.Project could be completed with $8400 within 9 weeks and with $8200 within 10 weeks.If we apply crashing (expedition) into our system; for example, if we start from crashing D, then in the second iteration we will have another critical path (CBJ). So, we can continue crashing by observing and considering our critical path(s) until we find the best solution.

$8400 $8200

I found out that completing it in less than 10 weeks will result in more cost. So, I could finish the whole project within 10 weeks with total project cost of $8100 (please refer to Gantt Chart provided in question 4).

  1. What knowledge/skills should a project manager possess to successfully manage this project?

Knowledge /
  • General Management Skills
Leadership
Negotiation
Communication
Team Building
  • Project Management Skills
  • Industry Skills
/
  • A good project manager (PM) should effectively direct the project and provide vision and mentorship to the team members rather than simply applying set processes. They should identify key issues and be able to make effective decisions parallel with business objectives.They should be fair in their decisions and open in communication while managing diverse set of team members. They should have the ability to listen and persuade others (Posner 1987). Conflict resolution is crucial since both within the team itself and between the project stakeholders and the team there are always conflicts. PM should manage resistance and avoid them and come up with win-win agreements.
  • PM should possess fundamental knowledge of project management processes, technological skills, organisational structures, methods and tools.Defining the project priorities,planning, problem resolution, risk management, cost analysis, andtime management are some of the skills that a successful PM should possess.
  • They should be aware of the applications used in business’ specific industry (Udo & Koppensteiner 2004).

Proven Experience /
  • Successful Track Record, Subject Matter Expertise
/
  • They must have the ability to bring success to projects and address strategic alignments with real issues. Previous experience of managing trade-offs and deliverables is likely to bring them efficiency and success.

Personality /
  • Characteristics
  • People Management Skills
/
  • Characteristics such as confidence, ability to adapt, proactive attitude, trustworthiness, creativity and commitment help them to be respected by team member and successful in project management.
  • Sensitive interpersonal relationship, fairness, empathy, active listening and effectivemanagementof the distance towards team members are kind of skills that would eventually help building stronger communication (Udo & Koppensteiner 2004).

  1. By what criteria should the success of this project be measured?

Success is traditionally defined around three concepts in Project Management; those are the cost (budget), time (schedule) and performance (scope). A successfulproject must either meet the needs of the customers and stakeholders or go beyond the cost, time, performance and quality expectations (Clifford & Larson 2011, p.106). Yet, the ultimate aim of both the project management and product success is to satisfy stakeholders’ needs (Baccarini 1999).Success is not always defined on one criteria, it may be partial, and objectives may be layered and linked to each other (Baccarini 1999). Project manager should understand what the customers and stakeholders can compromise on, what they exactly prioritize and what their strict requirements are. The project can be considered as an effective one if the stakeholders are satisfied at the end of it.

In Rock’n Bands example project manager needs to crash some activities by assigning additional workers to them to meet the time expectations but that means an increase in the cost of the project. So, managing those trade-off between time and cost is critical in this project. As we try to keep the schedule shorter the cost increases after one point.

Time is constrained to be 10 weeks, but it can exceed it 2 more weeks with additional penalty cost.It is good that the schedule has some flexibility, for instance, if all stakeholders are willing to pay the additional $300 and make the project completed by the 9th week they can negotiate on that. In terms of time we can consider our project successful if it does not over-run. Cost needs to be enhanced in terms of reduction because our goal is to minimise it. We don’t have any budget, but we have to maintain a minimum one, so within all restrictions our project can be successful if it requires the minimum cost available. We don’t know much about the performance, but we know that a project should deliver what it promises to deliver, and it does if all the tasks are completed by due date despite all unpredictable factors and uncertainties. Project management should keep up with scope changes, additional requirements, issues with suppliers and contractors, and delays. It is the ability to act proactive which makes it an efficient project.

  1. Provide a Gantt chart of the project.

References

Baccarini, D 1999, ‘The logical framework method for defining project success’, Project

Management Journal, vol.30, no.4, pp. 25-32

Clifford, FG & Larson, EW 2011, Project Management: The managerial process, 5th edn,

McGraw Hill/Irwin, NY

Posner, BZ 1987,’What it takes to be a good project manager’, Project Management

Journal, vol.18, no.1, pp. 51–54.

Udo, N & Koppensteiner, S 2004, ‘What are the core competencies of a successful project

manager?’, in PMI Global Congress 2004—EMEA, Prague, Czech Republic, viewed 21 March 2018,