Question

By using the WBS for contruscting a house, students will create a Network Diagram and Critical Path Analysis for the project. A network diagram is essentially a flow chart that includes all of the project elements and how they relate to one another. It depicts the sequence of activities in the project and also shows parallel activities and the links between each activity (PMBOK Guide). When outlined on a network diagram, the critical path is the longest path through the network. The network diagram and the critical path analysis assignment must include activity durations, sequencing, a forward pass and a backward pass, early start and early finish, late start and late finish, and slack. It must clearly indicate the critical path. For this assignment please submit a network diagram that illustrates the critical path by using Microsoft Word, Excel or Project, or Post It Notes.

Answer 1

The Network diagram will be as follows below

critical path is one of the techniques which is used frequently in project planning it has many tasks and involving lot's of people for them it's a hard time to keep track of things It is far too easy for certain activities to fall behind and get lost in the sea of endless jobs. These forgotten tasks and errors in planning can severely affect the time scale of the whole project. A late project will cost money and lead to unhappy customers and bosses. Critical path method helps managers figure out two very important things. How long it will take to complete the project and what are the critical tasks that must be completed before starting other dependent tasks.

The best way for project managers to avoid poor planning is to incorporate the critical path method in their diagrams. Having this as a diagram makes it easy to visualize the important tasks of a project. This is really helpful for managers and makes it easier for the project team to visualize and plan their work accordingly. The main aim is to produce a visual of the entire project broken down into smaller activities which are vital to the completion of the entire project.

All of the activities which are added onto the network diagram are ones which have to be completed on time. By adding them on to a diagram it is possible to see how long each section will take. This is essential when it comes to predicting the timescale of the project. The benefits of applying each of the set time critical and essential activities to a diagram include:

Predicating the time each activity will take and offering a timescale to the client

Seeing how each section is important to the progress of the rest of the plan

Assigning the right team and department to their corresponding tasks

It is important to note that at the beginning of the project time taken for each task is the estimated time. During the project the estimated time might vary based on different factors. In such cases it is important to revisit your diagram and again do a critical path analysis. Experienced developers are usually accurate with their estimations so this isn’t something that will happen frequently.