Project Planning and Management

Project Planning and Management

Consider a recent project that you have worked on. This could be for a company or organization with which you are familiar, or even a personal project such as purchasing a home or planning a party.

After your opening paragraph, which includes your thesis statement, identify your selected company or organization in no more than three paragraphs. Then, complete the following:

*Note: for the charts/diagrams, use MS Word, Excel, Google Docs or Google Sheets. You may also use any other suitable project-based software. A free Project management software called Libre is also available for download here https://sourceforge.net/projects/projectlibre/

  1. Create either a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the project or Gantt Chart for planning and scheduling the project. Discuss why you used the type of chart you did.
  2. Determine and document both probabilistic (t0, tp, and tm) and deterministic time estimates. Discuss how you arrived at these time estimates.
  3. Using MS Word, Google Docs, or similar software, create a PERT network diagram with the Critical Path (CP) identified.
  4. Calculate the slack time for each activity. Discuss the ramifications of slack in the CP for the activities and the project as a whole.
  5. Develop the network diagram from the probability estimates. Discuss which path you would take and why.
  6. For each activity, determine hypothetical costs in a table. Include budgeted costs, percent complete, actual/projected cost, and over/under budget (and total). Discuss the rationale for how you derived these costs.
  7. Crash an activity on the Critical Path. Discuss the ramifications of crashing the activity you crashed.

Formatting requirements:

  • Your essay is required to be 5-6 pages in length, which does not include the title page and reference pages, which are never a part of the content minimum requirements.
  • Charts/diagrams should be labeled and can be added within the body of your paper.
  • Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories from the textbook and at least three scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles.
  • Use academic writing standards and follow APA style guidelines.

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Project Planning and Management

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