Assignment: A Gantt Chart Based Crashing
You are considering whether or not to crash project activities to expedite your project. You have calculated the costs per activity for both normal and crashed options. Your assignment is twofold: create a Gantt chart based on the data in the table below and answer the questions that follow. Your Gantt chart should include all project activities, task information, duration, and cost variables as well as a project title and date.
This assignment can be completed using project management software (MS Project, ProjectLibre, Open Project, etc.) or other appropriate application software. While most project management applications do a lot of these tasks automatically, if you are using other application software you may need to develop the components separately. Thus, you will need to input the data from table below; then identify the critical path as well as a graphical depiction of a Gantt chart that highlights the critical paths that you have prioritized as candidates for crashing. Include your Gantt chart in your paper as an appendix, which can be referenced for addressing the assignment questions.
|
Normal
|
Crashed
|
|
Activity
|
Duration
|
Costs
|
Duration
|
Costs
|
|
A
|
4 Days
|
$1,000
|
3 Days
|
$2,000
|
|
B
|
5 Days
|
$ 2,500
|
3 Days
|
$5,000
|
|
C
|
3 Days
|
$ 750
|
2 Days
|
$1,200
|
|
D
|
7 Days
|
$3,500
|
5 Days
|
$5,000
|
|
E
|
2 Days
|
$500
|
1 Days
|
$3,000
|
|
F
|
5 Days
|
$2,000
|
4 Days
|
$3,000
|
|
G
|
9 Days
|
$4,500
|
7 Days
|
$6,300
|
Answer the following questions in your assignment:
1. Which activities are the most likely candidates for crashing (i.e., which are the most cost-effective to crash) and why?
2. Using the critical path from this activity network, consider A - C - D - F as the critical path and assume all other paths are less than fully crashed. Prioritize the candidates for crashing.
3. How does the critical path from activity network change the decision rule?
Submit a two- to three-page paper with the answers to the above questions in addition to your Gantt chart. The paper must include an introduction and conclusion. Inset your Gantt chart depiction as appendices in your paper. Include a titlepage and a reference page that includes at least two outside references (one of which may include your textbook) to support your responses.