Critical Thinking Essay: Project Management
The topic as below:
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/
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.
Determine and document both probabilistic (t0, tp, and tm) and deterministic time estimates. Discuss how you arrived at these time estimates.
Using MS Word, Google Docs, or similar software, create a PERT network diagram with the Critical Path (CP) identified.
Calculate the slack time for each activity. Discuss the ramifications of slack in the CP for the activities and the project as a whole.
Develop the network diagram from the probability estimates. Discuss which path you would take and why.
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.
Crash an activity on the Critical Path. Discuss the ramifications of crashing the activity you crashed.
Directions:-
-Write an essay that includes an introduction paragraph, the essay’s body, and a conclusion paragraph to address the assignment’s guide questions. Do not address the questions using a question-and-answer format.
- Charts/diagrams should be labeled and can be added within the body of your paper.
-APA style should be used
-Font will be: Times roman 12, and double space should be between lines
-At least 3-4 scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles will be used as references (including the below two).
Recommended Reference:
Alvarenga, J. C., Branco, R. R., do Valle, A. B., Soares, P., Alberto, C., & da Silveira e Silva, W. (2018). A revaluation of the criticality of the project manager to the project’s success. Business Management Dynamics, 8(2), 1-18.
Hernández-Bastida, A., & Fernández-Sánchez, M. P. (2019). How adding new information modifies the estimation of the mean and the variance in PERT: a maximum entropy distribution approach. Annals of Operations Research, 274(1/2), 291–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-018-2857-4
Calp, M., & Akcayol, M. (2019). Optimization of project scheduling activities in dynamic CPM and PERT networks using genetic algorithms. Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences. 22(2), 615-627.