COURSEHERO - Managing Service Projects
COURSEHERO - Managing Service Projects
CHAPTER 16
MANAGING SERVICE PROJECTS
TEACHING NOTE
With the emphasis on teamwork in organizations, project management skills will be expected of future
leaders. Once a project manager has been selected and a team formed, management activities involve
planning, scheduling, and controlling. Computer software such as Microsoft Project make these activities
easier. Using this software, visual displays such as Gantt charts and PERT charts can be produced and
revised with ease. Performing critical path analysis no longer is a tedious process. Project managers are
freed to focus on completing the project on time and within budget.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
Case: Paymor Shopping Center (Stanford University case)
The owner of a shopping center is preparing for the construction of a tire store on his property. He is
interested in learning how long the project will take and what activities could be expedited to complete the
construction in 58 days at minimum additional cost.
Software: Microsoft Project
This commercial software program automatically constructs Gantt charts and project network diagrams
(both using color to highlight the critical path) based on inputs of project activity times and precedence
requirements. Other features include managing resources, workloads, and calendars. Controlling the project
cost, scheduling task constraints, and tracking project progress are made easy.
LECTURE OUTLINE
1. The Nature of Project Management
Characteristics of Projects
Critical Path Method (Figures 16.3, 16.4, 16.5, 16.6, 16.7, and Table 16.2)
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4. Activity Crashing (Figures 16.12, 16.13 and Tables 16.3, 16.4, 16.5)
Project Termination
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Finance plays at lease three roles in projects: (1) arranges for project financing using debt, partnerships,
and/or government financing, (2) challenges the project plan for possible financial risks, and (3) challenges
host government, joint venture, and supplier contracts for possible schedule and performance risks during
project execution and keeps track of the costs against budget (cost variance) to avoid cost overruns.
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INTERACTIVE EXERCISE
Prepare a work breakdown structure (WBS) for a homecoming dance.
The following is a possible WBS for the homecoming dance project plan. Using WORD, the outline is
numbered automatically.
EXERCISE SOLUTIONS
16.1 (a)
A4 D6 G4
E3 I2
B3
C4 F5 H6
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(b)
Activity ES LS EF LF TS
A 0 1 4 5 1
B 0 6 3 9 6
C 0 0 4 4 0
D 4 5 10 11 1
E 4 12 7 15 8
F 4 4 9 9 0
G 10 11 14 15 1
H 9 9 15 15 0
I 15 15 17 17 0
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16.2 (a)
B2 D2 G4
A1 E4 H8
C2 F1
(b)
Activity ES LS EF LF TS
A 0 1 1 2 1
B 0 0 2 2 0
C 0 2 2 4 2
D 2 2 4 4 0
E 2 4 6 8 2
F 2 7 3 8 5
G 4 4 8 8 0
H 8 8 16 16 0
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(d) Three workers are required for one day only as shown on the schedule below:
16.3 (a)
A3 B5 E5 F 10
D3 I2 J3
C 10 G8 H3
(b)
Activity ES LS EF LF TS
A 0 2 3 5 2
B 3 5 8 10 2
C 0 0 10 10 0
D 10 20 13 23 10
E 10 10 15 15 0
F 15 15 25 25 0
G 10 12 18 20 2
H 18 20 21 23 2
I 21 23 23 25 2
J 25 25 28 28 0
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(c) Begin team selection 28 days 3 days for tournament = 25 days before December 27. Thus, begin team
selection on the morning of December 2, but no later than December 4 (2 days TS). Arranging
accommodations must begin no later than December 2.
16.4 (a)
Step 3 reduce by 5 weeks each, activities B and C, critical paths AC and ABD, T = 25
Step 4 reduce by 5 weeks each, activities D and C, critical paths AC and ABD, T = 20
(b) Using the same methodology as in part (a), we can crash the completion time of the project to 33 weeks.
The actual activity time and corresponding cost is as follows:
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16.5
Maximum crash limit achieved because critical path A - E cannot be reduced further (i.e. all
activities crashed to their limit)
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16.6 (a)
E2 J5 M2
D1
C2 Q1
L6
F 30 O4 R1
A 10 I6
P1
G 45 N1
K1
B 28 H1
(b), (c)
Activity Time
Activity (days) ES EF LS LF TS
*A 10 0 10 0 10 0
B 28 0 28 16 44 16
*C 2 10 12 10 12 0
*D 1 12 13 12 13 0
E 2 13 15 43 45 30
F 30 13 43 16 46 3
*G 45 13 58 13 58 0
H 1 28 29 44 45 16
I 6 29 35 45 51 16
J 5 43 48 46 51 3
*K 1 58 59 58 59 0
L 6 48 54 51 57 3
M 2 54 56 57 59 3
N 1 59 60 62 63 3
*O 4 59 63 59 63 0
P 1 60 61 63 64 3
*Q 1 63 64 63 64 0
*R 1 64 65 64 65 0
*Critical Path Activities Project Duration = 65 days
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(d)
C4
G2
A6
D5
H3.5
E 10.5
I4
B2 F9
(b)
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x 24 16 8
(c) z 4.57
2 110 / 36 3.055
P(Completion Time 24) = 100%
16.8 (a)
C 14 E11
A7 H4
D5
F7
J1
I18
B6 G11
(b)
(c)
A 7 4
C 14 16
E 11 4
H 4 1
J 1 0
= 37 T2 = 25
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x 41 37
z 0.8
2 25
P(Completion Time 41) = .5 + .2881 = .7881
16.9 (a)
Activity ES LS TS
A 0 1 1
B 5 8 3
C 5 6 1
D 0 0 0
E 10 11 1
F 10 10 0
G 12 13 1
H 7 7 0
I 7 8 1
J 18 18 0
K 16 17 1
(b)
x 24 25
z .45
2
5
P(Completion Time 24) = .5 .1736 = .3264
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16.10 (a)
C6 F7
B3
G11
D7 I2
A2
E9 H5
(b)
(c)
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(d)
x 25 22
z 2.06
2
2.11
P(Completion Time 25) = .5 .4803 = .0197
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2. The elapsed time for delivery of the hardware is estimated at 90 days. Would the project completion
time be affected if delivery of the hardware were delayed by 30 days? Would the critical path change?
If the delivery of hardware were delayed by an estimated 30 days, the project completion would be postponed
by 25 days. This delay can be attributed to a change in the revised critical path, as shown below, with
activity 4 now taking 130 days. The critical path changes to 2-4-13-20-24-28-29-30-31, which moves the
finish date forward to October 22, 1997.
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3. Using the original network and critical path, what strategies could management consider to complete
the project on time if activity B were delayed by several weeks?
Two major types of strategies are available to complete the project on time if activity 2, “Develop batch
processing system requirements,” were delayed. The first is to work weekends on the critical path activities.
Returning to Microsoft Project and changing the specifications to allow work on weekends results in
finishing the project in 177 days. This allows activity 2 to be delayed (293-177) or 116 days and still finish
the project on time.
The second option is to crash certain activities on the critical path. We can look at the end of the
critical path (20-24-28-29-30-31) for opportunities. An example is to crash activity 29, “Operate system in
parallel and train,” by using longer and more intense training sessions. Crashing early activities on the
critical path might result in changes in the critical path. As an example of a two-part crashing strategy, we
first crash activities 8 and 9 by 10 and 15 days, respectively. Crashing could be accomplished by having
employees work overtime, outsourcing, or diverting employees from non-critical activities. Once these are
crashed, a new critical path that includes activity 4 develops. We then crash activity 4. This can be done by
paying more money to complete software earlier and by using overnight shipping. Other possibilities could
be considered, but working weekends and crashing selected critical path activities should be the focus for
reducing project duration.
CASE: WHITTIER COUNTY HOSPITAL
[This analysis provided by Jason Cain, Lydia Radnik, and Suzanne Schmidtz]
1. Assume that you are part of the management staff whose task is to develop this sketch plan. Using
Microsoft Project for Windows, develop the PERT network as outlined above, identify the critical path, and
determine the expected time to reach basic operational status at the new facility.
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Expected time to reach basic operational status at the new facility is 62.67 days.
2. The board of directors has said that it would like to try to move on a Sunday to minimize interference
with weekday traffic. If there are Sundays that fall 46, 53, 60, 67, and 74 days from now, determine the
probability (using a normal distribution) of reaching basic operational status at the new location on the
two Sundays that are closest to the expected time you calculated previously.
Assuming that Whittier County Hospital starts its move planning at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, June 16, 1997,
and work continues during the weekends, then the project will take an expected duration of 60.55 days
finishing at approximately noon on Friday, August 15, 1997. The non-critical equipment move has been
excluded from the critical path because we are interested only in the time to reach basic operational status at
the new facility. If there are Sundays falling on the 60th and 67th days from now, then the probabilities of
reaching basic operational status at the new location on one of these two Sundays is the following:
Scenario A: Probability of finishing before Sunday, the 60th day from now
x 60 62.67
z 0.79
2
11 .504
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Scenario B: Probability of finishing before Sunday, the 67th day from now
x 67 62.67
z 1.28
2
11 .504
P(Project Duration 67) = 0.5000 + 0.4713 = 0.9713 or approximately 97 percent.
3. Briefly assess the potential problems you see in applying critical path analysis to the sketch plan for
moving Whittier County Hospital.
Activity 2, Completion of Construction, accounts for 64 percent (50/78) of the expected project duration.
This activity has a range of 40 to 60 days that accounts for 78 percent (11.11/14.29) of the variance in
project duration. Thus, the project is dominated by one very time-consuming activity that requires close
scrutiny. Activity 19, Move the Patients, could have unforeseen problems, because this final activity is very
delicate and could involve critically ill patients admitted to the hospital during the approximately 2 ½ month
project.
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14. Time variance is calculated by subtracting actual time used for work performed from scheduled time
for work performed. (T)
15. When delays occur owing to technical difficulties, performance becomes the source of unexpected
project management problems. (F)
16. Developing a project network is the only major concern for implementing critical path analysis. (F)
17. Merge node bias occurs where the project network contains non-critical paths with small total slack
times. (T)
18. Estimates of project expected completion time and variance usually are not biased when based on the
single critical path. (F)
19. When crashing activities for construction projects, the contractor’s minimum cost duration might not
coincide with the client’s target completion date. (T)
20. A major assumption in project network analysis is that sufficient resources are available to perform
many activities concurrently. (T)
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is not true about a critical path in a project network with certain activity times?
a. Activities on the critical path have the least slack.
b. The longest activity in the project must lie on the critical path.*
c. There can be several critical paths in a project network.
d. The first activity in the network is always on the critical path.
2. For a project with uncertain activity times, the probability of project completion exceeding the expected
time calculated for the critical path is: the mean
a. 25 percent.
b. 50 percent.*
c. 75 percent.
d. none of the above.
3. A key assumption underlying project networks is:
a. dummy activities take up no time.
b. the critical path is known with certainty.
c. an activity begins only after all predecessors are completed.*
d. a project network is cyclic.
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9. A resource-leveled schedule would have all but one of the following characteristics:
a. the project duration could be longer than normal.
b. slack time is used to begin some activities later than their early start time.
c. the critical path may be changed.*
d. a more balanced use of labor resources would be exhibited.
10. Implementing critical path analysis is faced with all but one of the following problems:
a. availability of project management software.*
b. agreement on the project network.
c. eliciting time estimates for activities.
d. introduction of bias in activity time estimates.
11. Which one of the following attributes is not considered in the selection of a project manager?
a. credibility.
b.originality.*
c. sensitivity.
d.ability to handle stress.
12. The four sequential stages of team development include all but one of the following:
a. forming.
b. storming.
c. coalescing.*
d. performing.
13. Which one of the following is not considered a source of unexpected project management problems?
a. cost.
b. time.
c. economy.*
d. performance.
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14. Projects are terminated for all but one of the following reasons:
a. subtraction.*
b. addition.
c. integration.
d. starvation.
15. A project history report should include all but one of the following items:
a. project performance.
b. organization structure.
c. project success and failures.*
d. project and administrative team.
16. Which one of the following is not considered a source of variance on the earned value chart?
a. time.
b. cost.
c. schedule.
d. none of the above.*
17. Which one of the following makes performance a source of unexpected project management problem?
a. delays owing to technical difficulties.
b. unexpected technical problems.*
c. unforeseen government regulations.
d. increase in the scope of work.
18. Which one of the following is not a critical time estimate for a Beta distribution?
a. optimistic time.
b. pessimistic time.
c. most likely time.
d. expected time.*
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19. Which one of the following allows the manager to make probability statements with regard to meeting
project objectives?
a. Gantt chart.
b. CPM.
c. PERT.*program evaluation and review technique
d. earned-value chart.
20. The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the completion of the project is referred
to as:
a. total slack.*
b. late finish.
c. late start.
d. free slack.
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