SCM 301 Final Exam Study Guide I Classes 29 30 Project Management Techniques a Project Management Project a temporary activity consisting of a series of tasks that require completion of a specific timeframe i ii Defined start and finish times Scope and agreed upon tasks iii Tasks completed in specific order iv Tasks consume time commit personnel resources and expend budget v Tasks could involve many organizations and take considerable time to complete they may be difficult to vi manage vii What s important How much time does it take Etc viii ix Kind of like Kaizen as far as standardization goes Example going home to Philly Overall goal get home Tasks pack a bag apartment to bus stop load bus ride bus off unload bus get in car ride home arrive home x Example 2 build log home Overall goal build log home Find land design house find general contractor part delivery to building site get electricians plumbers etc xi Making changes is extremely costly Ex building log home Sees kept making changes but it just kept making the project more expensive and take a lot longer 1 2 1 2 1 b How is Project Success Measured Project management essential skill for middle manager i ii Not difficult to measure success iii Look at time quality and cost to gauge success Meet quality cost and delivery performance 1 2 Within budget and time constraint 3 4 5 Meet performance specification requirements Minimal changes inherit cost when change plan Does not negatively impact other organization operations iv Structured approach is critical c Project Phases 5 Phases Concept high level project ID definition scope what are we trying to do Similar to mission statement Project definition how accomplish organize work ID responsible organizations teams people how are we going to organize and manage Planning detailed activities milestones completion dates budget and time constraints best way to do something Performance actually carrying out the project and doing the work Post completion project wrap up confirmation that project met goals evaluation analogous to TQM process sometimes get to this step and project cannot be completed d i Project Management Tools Popular tools 1 2 3 Gantt charts Milestone charts Project networking tools e Gantt Charts Look at simple things a b Critical Path Method CPM Program Evaluation Review Technique PERT i ii iii iv v ii i ii First formal scheduling technique used over past 100 years Bar chart introduced by Henry L Gantt while working at Frankford Arsenal during WWI 1 2 X axis time Y axis task Shows planned start and finish dates for activity Conveys information about how project is working in a simple way iii iv Hard to show constraints and how things work together v vi Easy to evaluate project status management of individual activities Advantages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Easy to prepare update Easy to understand info Inexpensive Organized by date Easily summarized Usual first step for preparation of further complex schedules Repetitive work can be used to estimate vii Disadvantages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hard to show dependencies constraints Hard to use with detailed schedule analysis Does not show the effects of late or early activity starts Doesn t show relationships between tasks clearly Looking at specific periods of time but people tend to underestimate Only as reliable as estimates for the tasks Doesn t really show the consequences of alternative actions Hard to analyze schedules and optimize the allocation of resources viii ix Can backwards plan from date needed to be done do we know how long the project is going to last Fill in data about tasks concentrate on start finish times x Identify the project define project tasks estimate duration of tasks from start to finish determine precedence of tasks chart tasks precedence duration How long will each take Take averages expert opinions guesses Some tasks must occur one after another others can happen simultaneously xi xii Very powerful tool if you can think this way Example page 114 Process will take at least 18 weeks Nothing has to occur before A a You could start A at week two and nothing would be affected following it slack time B is a constraint whole model stripped if fall behind A not part of critical path unless goes past week 3 Won t affect anything if week 1 is late a 5 Way to see what s important as a manager a Multitasking gets difficult once take on 5 things 1 2 1 2 3 4 f Milestone Charts i ii iii iv v vi Manager can track progress color code for when task complete needs to be completed vii Very closely related to Gantt chart Shows planned and actual completion dates Combined with Gantt chart sometimes Can set dates by week and then by day Gives very specific day for tasks to be started and completed Allows managers to make decisions g Network Scheduling Models Commonly known as Arrow Diagram methods Graphical depiction of the activities involved in a project Looking at nodes and links i ii iii iv Which is the slowest way to get through a process v vi vii viii ix x xi xii Shows how activities relate to each other Shows sequence of activities Shows precedence and dependencies of activities Shows impact of early starts early finishes OR late starts late finishes Gives info regarding allocation of resources Allows for what if analysis Critical Path Method CPM spend a lot of time on Program Evaluation and Review Technique PERT 1 2 t a 4m b 6 Mean PERT and CPM developed by Navy All about finding the critical path xiii xiv xv Decide where to place resources to make sure process works on critical path xvi Maybe it s possible to compress the schedule xvii xviii Must have Use nodes and links to connect project all the way through 1 2 3 4 Defined project activities Identifiable start and finish points Logic diagram showing sequence and interrelationships of activities Accurate time estimate to complete each activity i What is the project ii iii iv v Come up with steps and time that each will take Sequence construct diagram Critical path is the series of activities along the longest path from start to finish Come up with longest node critical path from start to finish 1 Which one s critical for managers to keep watch for h Working Critical Path Method CPM vi Complete and annotate cumulative time required to reach each node along the path from project start to project finish 1 vii Network Techniques Final represents total time for that particular path 1 When looking for the longest path walk through each different path and pick out which one