Project Management
Any project must be well planned especially if a number of people and activities will be involved. It is the task of the project management to ensure that various tasks required in the project are completed in time. Operational researchers developed a method of scheduling complex projects shortly after the Second World War. This scheduling is called network analysis and is usually known as Critical Path Analysis (CPA).
While Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) will analyze the involved tasks in completing a given project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and to identify the minimum time needed to complete the total project, CPA involves the careful delineation and sequencing of activities, determining the time necessary to complete them, and computing a critical path of activities around which the project must be managed for success.
A Critical Path Analysis, therefore, can be defined as the logical sequencing of a series of events necessary for a successful project in such a manner that the most efficient route to some culmination point can be calculated.
Consequently, the CPA technique has a multitude of uses: (a) As an aid in time management, (b) as a provider of ongoing data for assessing progress, and (c) to give the planner considerable information for decision-making.
With the background illustrated above, this write-up is, therefore, to address a given a project conditionality as given below:
1.1. “A project has the following activities, dependencies, durations and costs (in millions of Kwacha). There are also overhead costs of K 6 million per day for each day that the project runs which are additional to the indicated activity costs.”
1.1.1. Creating a Network Diagram
1.1.1.1. Step One: List the Major Activities
The procedure begins by listing all the known or expected major activities to be undertaken in planning and managing a project (as listed below).
1.1.1.2. Step Two: Sequence the Major Activities
The
While Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) will analyze the involved tasks in completing a given project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and to identify the minimum time needed to complete the total project, CPA involves the careful delineation and sequencing of activities, determining the time necessary to complete them, and computing a critical path of activities around which the project must be managed for success.
A Critical Path Analysis, therefore, can be defined as the logical sequencing of a series of events necessary for a successful project in such a manner that the most efficient route to some culmination point can be calculated.
Consequently, the CPA technique has a multitude of uses: (a) As an aid in time management, (b) as a provider of ongoing data for assessing progress, and (c) to give the planner considerable information for decision-making.
With the background illustrated above, this write-up is, therefore, to address a given a project conditionality as given below:
1.1. “A project has the following activities, dependencies, durations and costs (in millions of Kwacha). There are also overhead costs of K 6 million per day for each day that the project runs which are additional to the indicated activity costs.”
1.1.1. Creating a Network Diagram
1.1.1.1. Step One: List the Major Activities
The procedure begins by listing all the known or expected major activities to be undertaken in planning and managing a project (as listed below).
1.1.1.2. Step Two: Sequence the Major Activities
The